when by the fauourable, and gratious aspect of | haue playde your part so cunningly with the some blessed Planet, and specially our Mercury, Gentlewoomen, (as I warrant you shall be reor your Venus, it is our good Fortune, to lighte on such good friendes, as you, and some other good Gentlewoomen be, that take pleasure, and comfort in such good things. Wherat Mistresse Inquisitiua, laughing right out, and beginning to demaunde I know not what, (me thought, shee made, as if it shoulde haue been some goodly plausible Jest, wherat shee is, and takes her selfe prettily good :) Well, well, Master H. quoth the Gentleman of the house, now you membred of Inquisitiua, when you are gone, and may happely forget her: which I hope, Mistresse Incredula will do sometyme too, by hir leaue :) I pray you in earnest, let vs men learne some thing of you too: and especially I would gladly heare your Iudgement, and resolution, whether you counte of Earthquakes, as Naturall, or Supernaturall motions. But the shorter, all the better. To whom I made answere, in effect, as followeth: Master H3. short, but sharpe, and learned Truely Syr, vnder correction, and in my Causes, which I named Externall: The first fancie: The Earthquakes themselues I would saye are Naturall: as I veryly beleeue the Internall Causes thereof, are: I meane those two Causes, which the Logicians call, the Materiall, and the Formall: Marry, the Externall Causes, which are the Efficient and Finall, I take rather of the two, to be supernaturall. I must craue a little leaue to laye open the matter. immediate Efficient, out of all Question, is God himselfe, the Creatour, and Continuer, and Corrector of Nature, and therefore Supernaturall: whose onely voyce carrieth such a reuerend and terrible Maiestie with it, that the very Earth againe, and highest Mountaines quake and tremble at the sounde and noyse thereof the text is rife in euery mans mouth: Locutus est Dominus et contremuit Terra: howbeit, it is not to be gainesayd, that is holden of all the auncient Naturall Philosophers, and Astronomers, for the principall, or rather sole Efficient, that the Influence, and heate of the Sunne, and Starres, and specially of the three superior Planets, Saturne, Iupiter, and Mars, is a secondarie Instrumentall Efficient of such motions. The Materiall Cause of Earthquakes, (as was superficially touched in the beginning of our speache, and is sufficiently prooued by Aristotle in the seconde Booke of his Meteors) is no doubt great aboundance of wynde, or stoare of grosse and drye vapors, and spirites, fast shut vp, and as a man would saye, emprysoned in the Caues, and Dungeons of the Earth: which winde, or vapors, seeking to be set at libertie, and to get them home to their Naturall lodg- The finall, not onely that the wynde shoulde ings, in a great fume, violently rush out, and recouer his Naturall place, than which a as it were, breake prison, which forcible Erup-naturall reasonable man goeth no farther, no tion,and strong breath, causeth an Earthquake. As is excellently, and very liuely expressed of Ouid, as I remember, thus: Vis fera ventorum cæcis inclusa cauernis, not our excellentest profoundest Philosophers themselues: but sometime also, I graunt, to testifie and denounce the secrete wrathe, and indignation of God, or his sensible punishment vppon notorious malefactours, or, a threatning Caueat, and forewarning for the inhabitantes, or the like, depending vppon a supernaturall Efficient Cause, and tending to a supernaturall Morall End. Which End, (for that I knowe is the very The formall Cause, is nothing but the very poynt, whereon you stande) albeit it be acmanner of this same Motion, and shaking of knowledged Supernaturall and purposed, as I the Earth without: and the violent kinde of sayd, of a supernaturall Cause, to whom striuing, and wrastling of the windes, and nothing at all is impossible, and that can worke Exhalations within: which is, and must needes supernaturally, and myraculously without be done in this, or that sort, after one fashion, ordinarie meanes, and inferiour causes: yet or other. Nowe, syr, touching the other two | neuerthelesse is, we see, commonly performed, : But yet, notwithstanding, dare not I aforehand presume thus farre, or arrogate so much vnto my selfe, as to determine precisely and peremptorily of this, or euery the like singular Earthquake, to be necessarily, and vndoubtedly a supernaturall, and immediate fatall Action of God, for this, or that singular intent, when as I am sure, there may be a sufficient Naturall, eyther necessarie or contingent Cause in the very Earth it selfe: and there is no question, but the selfe same Operation in Genere, or in specie, may at one tyme, proceeding of one Cause, and referred to one End, be preternaturall, or supernaturall: at another tyme, proceeding of an other, or the same Cause, and referred to an other End, but Ordinarie, and Naturall. To make shorte, I cannot see, and would gladly learne, howe a man on Earth, should be of so great authoritie, and so familiar acquaintance with God in Heauen, (vnlesse haply for the nonce he hath lately intertained some few choice singular ones of his priuie Counsell) as to be able in such specialties, without any iustifyable certificate, or warrant to reueale hys incomprehensible mysteries, and definitiuely to giue sentence of his Maiesties secret and inscrutable purposes. As if they had a key for all the lockes in Heauen, or as if it were as cleare and resolute a case, as the Eclipse of the Sunne, that darkened all the Earth, or at the least all the Earth in those Countries, at Christes Passion, happening altogether prodigiously and Metaphysically in Plenilunio, not according to the perpetuall course of Nature, in Nouilunio: in so much that Dionisius Areopagita, or some other graunde Philosopher, vpon the suddayne contemplation thereof, is reported in a certaine Patheticall Ecstasie to haue cryed out, Aut rerum Natura patitur, aut Mundi machina destruetur: as my minde giueth me, some of the simpler, and vnskilfuller sort, will goe nye to doe vpon the present sight, and agony of this Earthquake. Marry the Errour I graunt, by the qualifying, and conforming of Nature, and Naturall things, to the accomplishment of his Diuine and incomprehensible determination. For being, as the olde Philosophers call him, very Nature selfe, or as it hath pleased our later schoolemen to terme him, by way of distinction, Natura Naturans, he hath all these secondarie inferiour thinges, the foure Elementes, all sensible, and vnsensible, reasonable, and vnreasonable Creatures, the whole worlde, and what soeuer is contayned in the Compas of the worlde, being the workmanship of his owne hands, and, as they call them, Natura naturata, euer pliable and flexible Instrumentes at his Commaundement: to put in execution such Effectes, either ordinarie or extraordinarie, as shall seeme most requisite to his eternall Prouidence and now in these latter dayes, very seldome, or in manner neuer worketh any thing so myraculously, and extraordinarily, but it may sensibly appeare, he vseth the seruice and Ministerie of his Creatures, in the atcheeuing thereof. I denie not, but Earthquakes (as well as many other fearefull Accidentes in the same Number,) are terrible signes, and, as it were certaine manacing forerunners, and forewarners of the great latter day; and therefore out of controuersie the more reuerendly to be considered vppon: and I acknowledge considering the Euentes, and sequeles, according to the collection and discourse of mans Reason, they haue seemed to Prognosticate, and threaten to this, and that Citie, vtter ruyne and destruction: to such a Country, a generall plague and pestilence: to an other place, the death of some mightie Potentate or great Prince: to some other Realme or Kingdome, some cruell imminent warres: and sundry the like dreadfull and particular Incidentes, as is notoriously euident by many olde and newe, very famous and notable Histories to that effect. Which of all other the auncient Romaines, long before the Natiuitie of Christ, did most religiously or rather superstitiously obserue, not without a number of solemne is the more tollerable, though perhappes it be Ceremonies, and Hollydayes for the nonce, euer after any Earthquake, making full account of some such great rufull casualtie or other, as otherwhyles fell out in very deede: and namely, as I remember, the yeare Ante bellum Sociale, which was one of the lamentablest, and myserablest warres, that Italy euer sawe and Plinie, or I knowe not well who, hath such a saying: Roma nunquam tremuit, vt non futurus aliquis portenderetur insignis Euentus. otherwhiles, (and why not euen nowe,) a very presumptuous Errour in deede, standing only vpon these two weake and deceitfull groundes, Credulitie and Ignoraunce: if so be inwardly (not onely in Externall shewe, after an Hypocriticall, and Pharisaicall manner) it certainly doo vs good for our reformation, and amendment, and seeme to preache vnto vs, Pæni tentiam agile, (as in some respect euery suche straunge and rare Accident may seeme :) how Ordinarie, and Naturall so euer the Cause shall appeare otherwise to the best learned: especially, as the Earthquake shall be knowne to endure a longer, or a shorter Tyme, or to be more or lesse generall, in more, or fewer places. Which two differences, touching the quantitie of Tyme, and Place, after I had a little more fully prosecuted, alledging certaine particuler Examples thereof, howe in some places huge Castels, in some Townes, in some great and mightie Cities, in some Shires and Seigniories, and Prouinces, in some whole Countryes, and Regions haue been perillously mooued and shaken therewith: in one place, a long time together: in an other place, not so long, or at seuerall and parted times: in another, very short, as, God be thanked here euen nowe and finally by the way, shewing a thirde and most notable difference of all, (as well for the present or imminent terrour and daunger, as otherwise) by the sundry species, and formes which Aristotle, Plinie, and other Meteorologicians haue set downe of Experience, as they haue heard, or read, or seen the earth to quake, to sturre, and hoyse vp Houses, Walles, Towers, Castelles, Churches, Minsters, whole Townes, whole Cities, whole Prouinces, without farther harme: to ruinate and ouerthrowe, and destroy some: to yawne and gape, and open lyke a graue, and consequently to swallow vp and deuour other: and sometime also to drinke vp whole riuers, and mightie bigge running waters withall, or to chaunge and alter their common woonted course some other way to sinke and fall downewardes: to cast out and vomitte vp either huge vaste heapes, as it were Mountaines of Earth, or large Ilandes in the mayne Sea, neuer remembred, or seen before: or great ouerflowing waters, and fountaynes: or hotte scalding sulphurous lakes: or burning sparkles and flames of fire to make a horrible hissing, gnashing, ratling, or some like wconderfull straunge noyse, (which all Effectes are credibly reported, and constantly auouched, of our most famous and best allowed Philosophers) a fewe such particularities, and distinctions, compendiously and familiarly coursed ouer. The good Gentleman gaue me hartily, as appeared, very great thankes, and tolde me plainly, he neuer either read, or heard halfe so much of Earthquakes before: confessing withall, that he yeelded resolutely to my opinion: that an Earthquake might as well be supposed a Naturall Motion of the Earth, as a preternaturall, or supernaturall ominous worke of God: and that he thought it hard, : and almost impossible, for any man, either by Philosophie, or Diuinitie, euermore to deter mine flatly the very certaintie either way. Which also in conclusion was the verdit, and finall resolution of the greater and sager part of the Gentlemen present: and namely of an auncient learned common Lawyer, that had been Graduate, and fellow of a Colledge in Cambridge, in Queene Maries dayes. Who tooke vpon him, to knit vp the matter, and as he said, determine the controuersie, with the authoritie of all the naturall Philosophers, old or newe, Heathen or Christian, Catholique or Protestant, that euer he read, or heard tell of. There Physickes quoth he, are in euery mans hands: they are olde enough to speake for them selues, and wee are young enough to turne our Bookes. They that haue Eyes and Tongues, let them see, and reade. But what say you nowe, quoth I, to the staying and quieting of the Earthe, beeing once a moouing? May it not seeme a more myraculous woorke, and greater woonderment, that it shoulde so suddainely staye againe, being mooued, than that it shoulde so suddainely mooue, beyng quiet and still? Mooue or turne, or shake me a thing in lyke order, be it neuer so small, and lesse than a pynnes Head, in comparison of the great mightie circuite of the Earth, and see if you shall not haue much more a doo to staye it presently, beeing once sturred, than to sturre it at the very first. Whereat the Gentleman smyling, and looking merrily on the Gentlewoomen, heere is a schoole poynt, quoth he, that by your leaues, I beleeue will poase the better scholler of you both. But is it not more than tyme, thynke ye, wee were at Supper? And if you be a hungered, Maister H. you shall thanke no body but your selfe, that haue holden vs so long with your profounde and clerkly discourses, whereas our manner is to suppe at the least a long howre before this tyme. Beyng set, and newe occasion of speeche ministered, our Supper put the Earthquake in manner out of our myndes, or at the least wise, out of our Tongues: sauing that the Gentlewoomen, nowe and then pleasauntly tyhyhing betweene them selues, especially Mystresse Inquisitiua, (whose minde did still runne of the drinking, and Neesing of the Earth,) repeated here, and there, a broken peece of that, which had been already sayde before Supper. With deepe iudgement no doubt, and to maruellous great purpose, I warrant you after the manner of women Philosophers, and Diuines. tions of the persons, amongst whom such, and such an Ominous token is giuen. Least happily through ouer great credulitie, and rashnesse, we mistake Non causam pro causa, and sophistically be entrapped Elencho Finium. Truely, I suppose, he had neede be an excellent Philosopher, a reasonable good Historian, a learned Diuine, a wise discrete man, and generally, such a one as our Doctor Still, and Doctor Byng are in Cambridge, that shoulde shew himselfe accordingly in this argument, and to the iudgement and contentation of the wisest, perfourme it exactly. My selfe remember nothing to the contrarie, either in Philosophie, or in Histories, or in Diuinitie either, why I may not safely and lawfully subscribe to the iudgement of the noble Italian Philosopher, and most famous learned Gentleman, whilest he liued, Lord of Mirandola, and Erle of Concordia, Counte Ioannes Franciscus Picus, in my opinion, very considerately, and partly Philosophically, partly Theologically set downe, And this summarily in Effect was our yester- comparison of Circumstances, the tyme when: nyghtes graue Meteorologicall Conference, the place where?, the qualities, and dispositouching our Earthquake here in the Country: which being in so many neighbour Townes, and Villages about vs, as I heare say of this morning, maketh me presuppose, the like was wyth you also at London, and elsewhere farther of. And then forsoothe, must I desire Maister Immerito, to send me within a weeke or two, some odde fresh paulting threehalfepennie Pamphlet for newes: or some Balductum Tragicall Ballet in Ryme, and without Reason, setting out the right myserable, and most wofull estate of the wicked, and damnable worlde at these perillous dayes, after the deuisers best manner: or whatsoeuer else shall first take some of your braue London Eldertons in the Head. In earnest, I could wishe some learned, and well aduized Uniuersitie man, woulde vndertake the matter, and bestow some paynes in deede vppon so famous and materiall an argument. The generall Nature of Earthquakes by definition, and the speciall diuersitie of them by diuision, beyng perfectly knowen: (a thing soone done) and a complete in the sixt Chapter of his sixt Booke, against Induction of many credible and autenticall, both olde and newe, diuine and prophane, Greeke, Lattine, and other Examples, (with discretion, and judgement, compyled and compared togither) being considerately and exactly made, (a thing not so easily done) much no doubt myght be alledged too or fro, to terrifie or pacifie vs, more or lesse. If it appeare by generall Experience, and the foresayde Historicall Induction of particulars, that Earthquakes, sine omni exceptione, are ominous, and significatiue Effectes, as they saye of Comets, and carrie euer some Tragicall and horrible matter with or after them: as eyther destruction of Townes and Cities, or decay of some mightie Prince, or some particular, or generall plague, warre, or the lyke, (vt supra) whatsoeuer the Materiall, or Formall cause be, Natural, or supernaturall, (howbeit for myne owne part I am resolued, as wel for the one, as for the other, that these two I speake of, both Matter and Fourme, are rather Naturall in both, than otherwise) it concerneth vs, vpon the vewe of so Effectuall and substaunciall euidence, to conceiue seriously, and reuerently of the other two Causes: the first, supreme Efficient, whose Omnipotent Maiesie hath nature self, and all naturall Creatures at commaundement and the last finall, which we are to iudge of as aduisedly, and prouidently, as possibly we can, by the consideration, and : Cogging deceitfull Astrologers, and Southsayers, De rerum Prænotione, pro veritate Relligionis, contra Superstitiosas vanitates. In which Chapter, (if happely you haue not read it already,) you shall finde many, but specially these three notable places, most effectuall and directly pertinent to the very purpose. The first more vniuersall. Naturæ opere fieri non potest, vt Ostentis, vt Monstris magni illi, seu dextri, seu sinistri euentus portendantur, et ab aliqua pendeant proxima causa, quæ et futura etiam proferat. Impostura Dæmonum, vt id fiat, videri potest. Sed et pleraque non monstrosa, non prodigiosa per sese, pro monstris tamen, et portentis, haberi possunt, et solent à quibusdam, quibus Rerum Natura non satis comperta est, causarum enim ignoratio, noua in re Admirationem parit. Propter quam, philosophari homines cæpisse, in exordijs primæ philosophia scribit Aristoteles. Wherein those two seuerall points, Impostura Dæmonum, and Ignoratio causarum, are no doubt maruellous probable, and moste worthy bothe presentlye to bee noted nowe, and more fully to be dis cussed hereafter: appearing vnto me the verie right principall Causes of so manye erroneous opinions, and fantasticall superstitious dreames in this, and the like behalfe. The seconde more speciall, as it were hitting the white in deede, and cleauing the Pinne in sunder. Idem in Terra motibus etiam, quod in fulguribus, fulminibusque interpretandis, obseruauit Antiquitas. Cuius Rei liber, Græco eloquio, nuper ad manus peruenit, in Orpheum relatus Autorem: sed per absurdum nimis, vt quod frequentissimè fit, pro vario terræ anhelitu, pro ventorum violentia, vaporumque conductione, (marke you that?) ex eo rerum futurarum significationem petere, quorum nec effectus esse possunt, nec causa, præterquam forte mortis inferendæ illis, qui fulmen exceperit, aut qui terrarum hiatu perierit. Sed nec ab eadem proxima deduci causa possunt, à qua et futuræ pendeant res, vt supra deductum est. And then shortly after, the thirde, moste agreeable to the seconde, as flatlye determining on my side, and as directlye concluding the same position as may be. Nec sanè Orpheus ille, si tamen Orpheus fuit, vllam affert omninò causam, cur quispiam ex terræ motibus, vrbium, hominum, regionum euenta præsagire possit. Solùm vano narrat arbitrio si terræ contigerit motus noctu, si æstate, si hyeme, si aurora, si interdiu, quid portendatur: Quæ certè, et saniore possunt arbitrio refelli, et Experientia testimonio, vt arbitror, non secus irrideri, ac supra Tagis portenta irrisimus, Haruspicine Autoris. A moste excellent sounde Iudgement in my conceit and ful wel beseeming so Honorable and admirable a Witte, as out of Question, Picus Mirandula had: who being yet scarcely thirty yeres of age, for his singularitie_in_al kind of knowleege, as wel diuine as prophane, was in Italy and France, as Paulus Iouius reporteth, surnamed Phoenix, as the odde, and in effecte the onely singular learned man of Europe and to make shorte: suche a one, in moste respectes, as I woulde wishe nowe to be tempering with this newe notorious incident: staying my selfe in the meane while vpon this probable and reasonable Interim of his: and preferring it before at the friuolous coniecturall Allegations, and surmises, that oure counterfaite, and reasonlesse Orphei oppose to the contrarye. But, Iesu, what is all this to Master Immerito? Forsoothe I knowe not by what mischaunce, these miserable balde odious three halfepenny fellowes, alas, a company of silly beetleheaded Asses, came into my minde, that wil needes be sturring, and taking on in euerye suche rare and vnaccustomed euent, as if they sawe farther in a Milstone, than all the worlde besides, whereas euerie man, that hathe but halfe an eye in his head, seeth them to be more blinde, than anye Buzzarde, or Bayarde, Scribimus indocti, doctique Poemata passim, and surely, as the worlde goeth nowe in Eng. lande, rather the firste, for aught I see, than the laste. O interim miseras Musas, et miserabiles: Where the faulte shoulde rest, viderint Oculi, atque capita Reip. Mihi quidem isthic, neque seritur admodum, neque metitur. Non valdè mea nouos Bibliothecæ libros desiderat, seipsa, id est, quos habet, veteribus contenta est. Quid plura? Tu vale, mi Immerito, atque ita tibi persuade, Aliquid esse eum, qui istorum longè est dissimillimus, quos Typographi nostri habent venales maxime. Commende mee to thine owne good selfe, and tell thy dying Pellicane, and thy Dreames from me, wil nowe leaue dreaming any longer of them, til with these eyes I see them forth indeede: And then againe, I imagine your Magnificenza, will holde vs in suspense as long for your nine Englishe Commodies, and your Latine Stemmata Dudleiana: whiche two shal go for my money, when all is done: especiallye if you woulde but bestow one seuennights pollishing and trimming vppon eyther. Whiche I praye thee hartily doe, for my pleasure, if not for their sake, nor thine owne profite. My Schollers Loue, of Reconcilement of contraries, is shrunke in the wetting: I hadde purposed to haue dispatched you a Coppie thereof, long ere this: but, no remedie, hitherto it hath alwayes gone thus with me: Some newe occasion, or other, euer carrieth me from one matter to another, and will neuer suffer me to finishe eyther one or other. And truly, Experto crede, it is as true a Verse as euer was made, since the first Verse, that euer was made: Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus: whiche my Anticosmopolita, thoughe it greeue him, can beste testifye, remayning still as we saye, in statu, quo, and neither an inche more forward, nor backewarde, than he was fully a tweluemonth since in the Courte, at his laste attendaunce vpon my Lorde there. But the Birde that will not sing in Aprill, nor in May, maye peraduenture sing in September: and yet me thinkes, Sat citò, si sat bene, if I coulde steale but one poore fortnight, to peruse him ouer afreshe, and coppy him out anewe. Whiche I hope in God to compasse shortly. But I beseech you, what Newes al this while at Cambridge? That was wont to be euer one great Question. What? Det mihi Mater ipsa bonam veniam, eius_vt aliqua mihi liceat Secreta, vni cuidam de eodem gremio obsequentissimo filio, reuelare: et sic paucis habeto. Nam aliàs fortasse pluribus: nunc non placet, non vacat, molestum esset. |