With regard to potable gold, it is now given as a strong cordial in dangerous or desperate maladies with tolerable success. But it appears to me that the spirits of salt by which the solution is made, rather than the gold itself, supplies the virtue that is found therein; but this is carefully suppressed. Now if gold could be opened without corrosive waters, or by corrosive waters (provided they had no poisonous qualities) that were afterwards well washed, I conceive it would be a useful thing.

2. Pearls are taken, either in a fine powder or in a kind of paste or solution made by the juice of very sour and fresh lemons. Sometimes they are given in aromatic confections, sometimes in a fluid form. Pearls no doubt have some affinity with the shells wherein they grow, and perhaps may have nearly the same qualities as the shells of crawfish.

3. Of crystals two are chiefly regarded as cordials, the emerald and the jacinth; which are given in the same forms as pearls, excepting that, as far as I know, their solutions are not used. But I am somewhat suspicious of these glassy jewels, by reason of their roughness.

Admonition I will mention afterwards how far and in what manner these things here mentioned may be used with advantage.

4. Bezoar stone is of approved virtue for refreshing the spirits and raising a gentle perspiration. The unicorn's horn has lost its reputation, yet it still stands as high as hartshorn, the bone of the stag's heart, ivory, and the like.

5. Ambergris is one of the best things for soothing and comforting the spirits. Here follows an enumeration of the simple cordials, by name only: their virtues being sufficiently known.

Hot. Saffron folium Indum: lignum aloes: citron rind: balm : basil : clove gillyflowers: orange flowers: rosemary: mint: betony: carduus benedic

tus.

Cold. Nitre: roses: violets: strawberry plants: strawberries: the juice of sweet lemons: the juice of oranges: the juice of apples: borage: bugloss: burnet: sandal-wood: camphire.

Admonition. As I am now discoursing only of those medicines which may be transferred into diet, all strong waters and chemical oils (which as some trifler says lie under the planet of Mars, and have a violent and destructive power), nay, all acrid and pungent spices, are to be rejected; and it should be observed how waters and fluids may be compounded from the preceding simples; not phlegmatic distilled waters, nor on the other hand burning waters from spirits of wine, but such as are more temperate, yet lively, and emitting a grateful vapour.

6. I am in some doubt whether frequent bleeding tends to longevity; but I rather incline to believe that it does, if it be turned into a habit, and other things are favourable thereto. For it discharges the old juices of the body and lets in new.

7. Some wasting diseases likewise, if well cured, do in my opinion assist longevity. For the old juices being consumed they supply new ones; and as one says, "to

recover health is to renew youth." It would be well therefore to induce some artificial diseases, as is done by strict and emaciating diets, whereof I will speak hereafter.

In connection

with the 12th,

Articles of In

THE INTENTIONS.

an

Having now finished the inquiry accord18th, and 14th ing to the subjects, namely, inanimate bodies, quiry. vegetables, animals, and man, I will draw Transition. nearer to the matter and commence inquiry according to intentions; such as I fully believe to be true and proper, and as it were the pathways of mortal life. In this part nothing of any value has been hitherto inquired; and men's thoughts concerning it have been superficial and unprofitable. For when on the one side I hear men talk of comforting the Natural Heat, and the Radical Moisture, of meats which breed good blood, that is, neither burning nor phlegmatic, and of the reviving and refreshment of the spirits, I suppose them to be well meaning men who talk thus ; but none of these things are effectual for the end. But when on the other side I hear discourses on medicines prepared from gold (because forsooth gold is not subject to corruption); on the use of precious stones to refresh the spirits, by reason of their secret properties and brilliancy; that if balsams and the quintessences of living creatures could be received and detained in vessels, there would be good hope of immortality; that the flesh of serpents and deer by a kind of sympathy have power to renew life, because the one casts its slough, the other its horns (they should have added likewise the flesh of the eagle, for the eagle casts its beak); that a certain man who found

an ointment buried in the earth, and anointed himself therewith from head to foot, excepting only the soles of his feet, lived in consequence 300 years, free from all disease, except swellings on the soles of his feet; that Artefius, when he felt his spirit failing, drew into himself the spirit of a strong young man, thereby killing him, but continuing his own life for many years by means of that other man's spirit; when I hear of fortunate hours, according to the figures of heaven, in which medicines for the prolongation of life are to be collected and prepared; of planetary seals by which virtues may be extracted and brought down from heaven to prolong life, and such like fables and superstitions, I wonder exceedingly that men should be so demented as to be imposed upon by them. Lastly, I pity the hard fortune of mankind in being surrounded on all sides by things frivolous and unprofitable. With regard to my own Intentions, I trust that they both come close to the point, and are far removed from idle and credulous superstitions; being likewise, I conceive, of such a nature that while posterity may add much to the things which satisfy these intentions, they will find little to add to the intentions themselves.

There are however a few things that are yet of great importance, whereof I would have men forewarned.

First, I am of opinion that the duties of life are preferable to life itself. Wherefore, if there be any thing which may exactly answer our intentions, yet interferes at all with the offices and duties of life, I reject it. I may perhaps make some light mention of things of this kind, but I by no means insist upon them. For I do not enter into any serious or accurate discourse either of living in caves, like the cave of

Epimenides, where the sunbeams and changes of temperature never penetrate; or of perpetual bathing in prepared liquors; or of shirts and cerecloths so applied that the body should always be in a kind of case; or of thick covers of paint on the body, after the manner of savages; or of that exact regulation of food and diet which makes the preservation of life its sole object, to the neglect of everything else (such as that of Herodicus among the ancients, and Cornaro of Venice in our days, though with more moderation); or of any such strange, nice, and inconvenient matters. But I prescribe such remedies and precepts as will neither prevent the duties of life, nor hinder and embarrass them too much.

Secondly, on the other hand, I warn men to give up trifling, and not to imagine that so great a work as the stopping and turning back of the powerful course of nature can be performed by a morning draught, or the use of some precious drug; but to consider it certain that a work of this kind must necessarily be very laborious, and consist of many remedies, and those aptly connected with one another. For no man can be so dull as to believe that what has never yet been done can be done, except by means hitherto unattempted.

Thirdly, I candidly admit that some of the propositions here laid down have not been proved by experiment (for my course of life permits not of that), but are only derived, with what appears to me the best reason, from my principles and hypotheses (whereof I insert some and reserve others in my mind), and as it were cut and dug out of the rock and mine of nature herself. Yet I have not been careless, but (seeing that 1 Plato Rep. iii.