The Major Works (English Library)

by Sir Thomas Browne

  But if erectnesse be popularly taken, and as it is largely opposed unto pronenesse, or the posture of animals looking downwards, carrying their venters or opposite part to the spine directly towards the earth, it may admit of question. For though in Serpents and Lizards we may truly allow a pronenesse, yet Galen acknowledgeth that perfect Quadrupeds, as Horses, Oxen and Camels, are but partly prone, and have some part of erectnesse. And birds or flying animals, are so farre from this kinde of pronenesse, that they are almost erect; advancing the head and breast in their progression, and only prone in the act of volitation. And if that be true which is delivered of the Penguin or Anser Magellancius, often described in Maps about those Straits, that they go erect like men, and with their breast and belly doe make one line perpendicular unto the axis of the earth; it will make up the exact erectnesse of man. Nor will that insect come very short which we have often beheld, that is, one kinde of Locust which stands not prone, or a little inclining upward, but in a large erectnesse; elevating alwaies the two fore legs, and sustaining it self in the middle of the other four; by Zoographers3 called mantis, and by the common people of Province, Prega Dio,4 the Prophet and praying Locust; as being generally found in the posture of supplication, or such as resembleth ours, when we lift up our hands to heaven.

  As for the end of this erection, to look up toward heaven; though confirmed by severall testimonies, and the Greek Etymology of man,5 it is not so readily to be admitted; and as a popular and vain conceit was anciently rejected by Galen; who in his third, De usu partium, determines, that man is erect because he was made with hands, and was therewith to exercise all Arts, which in any other figure he could not have performed; as he excellently declareth in that place, where he also proves that man could have been made neither Quadruped nor Centaur.

  And for the accomplishment of this intention, that is, to look up and behold the heavens, man hath a notable disadvantage in the eyelid; whereof the upper is farre greater than the lower, which abridgeth the sight upwards; contrary to those of birds, who herein have the advantage of man: Insomuch that the learned Plempius is bold to affirm that if he had had the formation of the eyelids, he would have contrived them quite otherwise.

  The ground and occasion of this conceit was a literall apprehension of a figurative expression in Plato, as Galen thus delivers; To opinion that man is erect to look up and behold the heavens, is a conceit only fit for those that never saw the fish Uranoscopus, that is, the Beholder of heaven; which hath its eyes so placed, that it lookes up directly to heaven; which man doth not, except he recline, or bend his head backward: and thus to look up to heaven, agreeth not only unto Men, but Asses; to omit birds with long necks, which look not only upwards, but round about at pleasure; and therefore men of this opinion understood not Plato when he said that men doth Sursum aspicere;6 for thereby was not meant to gape, or look upward with the eye, but to have his thoughts sublime; and not only to behold, but speculate their nature, with the eye of the understanding.

  Now although Galen in this place makes instance but in one, yet are there other fishes, whose eies regard the heavens, as Plane, and cartilagineous fishes, as pectinals,’ or such as have their bones made laterally like a comb; for when they apply themselves to sleep or rest upon the white side, their eies on the other side look upward toward heaven. For birds, they generally carry their heads erectly like man, and have advantage in their upper eyelid; and many that have long necks, and bear their heads somewhat backward, behold farre more of the heavens, and seem to look above the æquinoxiall circle; and so also in many Quadrupeds, although their progression be partly prone, yet is the sight of their eye direct, not respecting the earth but heaven; and makes an higher arch of altitude then our own. The position of a Frogge with his head above water exceedeth these; for therein he seemes to behold a large part of the heavens, and the acies7 of his eye to ascend as high as the Tropick; but he that hath beheld the posture of a Bittor, will not deny that it beholds almost the very Zenith.8

  CHAP.II. Of the Heart

  CHAP.III. Of Pleurisies

  CHAP.IV. Of the Ring-finger

  CHAP.V. Of the right and left Hand

  CHAP.VI. Of Swimming

  CHAP.VII. Concerning Weightv

  CHAP.VIII. Of the passage of Meat and Drink

  CHAP.IX. Of Sneezing

  CHAP.X. Of the Jews

  That Jews stinck naturally, that is, that in their race and nation there is an evil savour, is a received opinion we know not how to admit; although concede many questionable points, and dispute not the verity of sundry opinions which are of affinity hereto. We will acknowledge that certain odours attend on animals, no lesse then certain colours; that pleasant smels are not confined unto vegetables, but found in divers animals, and some more richly then in plants. And though the Probleme of Aristotle enquire why none smels sweet beside the Parde?9 yet later discoveries adde divers sorts of Monkeys, the Civet Cat and Gazela, from which our Musk proceedeth. We confesse that beside the smell of the species, there may be Individuall odours, and every man may have a proper and peculiar savour; which although not perceptible unto man, who hath this sense, but weak, yet sensible unto Dogs, who hereby can single out their Masters in the dark. We will not deny that particular men have sent forth a pleasant savour, as Theophrastus and Plutarch report of Alexander the great, and Tzetzes and Cardan doe testifie of themselves. That some may also emit an unsavoury odour, we have no reason to deny; for this may happen from the quality of what they have taken; the Fætor10 whereof may discover it self by sweat and urine, as being unmasterable by the naturall heat of man, not to be dulcified11 by concoction beyond an unsavoury condition: the like may come to passe from putrid humors, as is often discoverable in putrid and malignant fevers. And sometime also in grosse and humid bodies even in the latitude of sanity; the naturall heat of the parts being insufficient for a perfect and through-digestion, and the errors of one concoction not rectifiable by another: but that an unsavoury odour is gentilitious or nationall unto the Jews, if rightly understood, we cannot well concede; nor will the information of reason or sense induce it.

  For first, Upon consult of reason, there will be found no easie assurance for to fasten a materiall or temperamentall propriety upon any nation; there being scarce any condition (but what depends upon clime) which is not exhausted or obscured from the commixture of introvenient12 nations either by commerce or conquest; much more will it be difficult to make out this affection in the Jews, whose race however pretended to be pure, must needs have suffered inseparable commixtures with nations of all sorts, not only in regard of their proselytes, but their universall dispersion; some being posted from severall parts of the earth, others quite lost, and swallowed up in those nations where they planted. For the tribes of Reuben, Gad, part of Manasses and Naphthali, which were taken by Assur, and the rest at the sacking of Samaria which were led away by Salmanasser into Assyria, and after a year and half arrived at Arsereth, as is delivered in Esdras,13 these I say never returned, and are by the Jews as vainly expected as their Messias. Of those of the tribe of Juda and Benjamin, which were led captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, many returned unto Zorobabel; the rest remained, and from thence long after upon invasion of the Saracens, fled as far as India; where yet they are said to remain, but with little difference from the Gentiles.

  The Tribes that returned to Judea, were afterward widely dispersed; for beside sixteen thousand which Titus sent to Rome unto the triumph of his father Vespasian, he sold no lesse then an hundred thousand for slaves; not many years after Adrian the Emperour, who ruined the whole Countrey, transplanted many thousands into Spain, from whence they dispersed into divers Countreys, as into France and England, but were banished after from both: from Spain they dispersed into Africa, Italy, Constantinople, and the dominions of the Turke, where they remain as yet in very great numbers. And if (according to good relations) where they may freely speak it, they forbear not to boast that there are at present many thousand Jews in Spain, Fr
ance and England, and some dispensed withall, even to the degree of Priesthood; it is a matter very considerable, and could they be smelled out, would much advantage, not only the Church of Christ, but also the coffers of Princes.

  Now having thus lived in severall Countries, and alwaies in subjection, they must needs have suffered many commixtures, and we are sure they are not exempted from the common contagion of Venery14 contracted first from Christians. Nor are fornications unfrequent between them both; there commonly passing opinions of invitement, that their Women desire copulation with them, rather then their own Nation, and affect Christian carnality above circumcised venery. It being therefore acknowledged, that some are lost, evident that others are mixed, and scarce probable that any are distinct, it will be hard to establish this quality upon the Jews, unlesse we also trans-ferre the same, unto those whose generations are mixed, whose genealogies are Jewish, and naturally derived from them.

  Again, If we concede a Nationall unsavourinesse in any people, yet shall we finde the Jews lesse subject hereto then any, and that in those regards which most powerfully concurre to such effects, that is, their diet and generation. As for their diet, whether in obedience unto the precepts of reason, or the injunctions of parsimony, therein they are very temperate, seldome offending in ebriety or excesse of drink, nor erring in gulosity or superfluity of meats…. So that observing a spare and simple diet, whereby they prevent the generation of crudities; and fasting often whereby they might also digest them; they must be lesse inclinable unto this infirmity then any other Nation, whose proceedings are not so reasonable to avoid it.

  As for their generations and conceptions (which are the purer from good diet,) they become more pure and perfect by the strict observation of their Law; upon the injunctions whereof, they severely observe the times of Purification, and avoid all copulation, either in the uncleannesse of themselves, or impurity of their Women. A rule, I fear, not so well observed by Christians; whereby not only conceptions are prevented, but if they proceed, so vitiated and defiled, that durable inquinations,15 remain upon the birth; which, when the conception meets with these impurities, must needs be very potent; since in the purest and most fair conceptions, learned men derive the cause of Pox and Meazles, from principles of that nature; that is, the menstruous impurities in the mothers bloud, and virulent tinctures contracted by the Infant, in the nutriment of the wombe.

  Lastly, Experience will convict it; for this offensive odor is no way discoverable in their Synagogues where many are, and by reason of their number could not be concealed: nor is the same discernible in commerce or conversation with such as are cleanly in Apparell, and decent in their Houses. Surely the Viziars and Turkish Basha’s16 are not of this opinion; who as Sir Henry Blunt informeth, doe generally keep a Jew of their private Counsell. And were this true, the Jews themselves doe not strictly make out the intention of their Law; for in vain doe they scruple to approach the dead, who livingly are cadaverous, or fear any outward pollution, whose temper pollutes themselves. And lastly, were this true, our opinion is not impartiall; for unto converted Jews who are of the same seed, no man imputeth this unsavoury odor; as though Aromatized by their conversion, they amitted their sent17 with their Religion, and smelt no longer then they savoured of the Jew.

  Now the ground that begat or propagated this assertion, might be the distastfull aversenesse of the Christian from the Jew, from the villany of that fact, which made them abominable and stinck in the nostrils of all men. Which reall practice, and metaphoricall expression, did after proceed into a literall construction; but was a fraudulent illation; for such an evil savour their father Jacob acknowledged in himself, when he said, his sons had made him stinck in the land,18 that is, to be abominable unto the inhabitants thereof. Now how dangerous it is in sensible things to use metaphoricall expressions unto the people, and what absurd conceits they will swallow in their literals; an impatient example we have in our own profession; who having called an eating Ulcer by the name of a Wolfe, common apprehension conceives a reality therein; and against our selves ocular affirmations are pretended to confirm it….

  CHAP.XI. Of Pigmies

  CHAP.XII. Of the great Climactericall year, that is, Sixty three

  Certainly the eies of the understanding, and those of the sense are differently deceived in their greatest objects; the sense apprehending them in lesser magnitudes then their dimensions require; so it beholdeth the Sunne, the Starres, and the Earth it self; but the understanding quite otherwise; for that ascribeth unto many things farre larger horizons then their due circumscriptions require; and receiveth them with amplifications which their reality will not admit: Thus hath it fared with many Heroes and most worthy persons, who being sufficiently commendable from true and unquestionable merits, have received advancement from falsehood and the fruitfull stock of fables. Thus hath it happened unto the Starres and luminaries of heaven; who being sufficiently admirable in themselves, have been set out by effects no way dependant on their efficiencies, and advanced by amplifications to the questioning of their true endowments. Thus is it not improbable it hath also fared with number; which though wonderfull in it self, and sufficiently magnifiable from its demonstrable affections, hath yet received adjections from the multiplying conceits of men, and stands laden with additions which its equity will not admit.

  And so perhaps hath it happened unto the number 7 and 9, which multiplied into themselves doe make up Sixty three, commonly esteemed the great Climactericall of our lives; for the daies of men are usually cast up by Septenaries, and every seventh year conceived to carry some altering character with it, either in the temper of body, minde, or both. But among all other, three are most remarkable, that is 7 times 7 or fourty nine, 9 times 9 or eighty one, and 7 times 9 or the year of Sixty three; which is conceived to carry with it the most considerable fatality; and consisting of both the other numbers was apprehended to comprise the vertue of either; is therefore expected and entertained with fear, and esteemed a favour of fate to passe it over. Which notwithstanding many suspect to be but a Panick terrour, and men to fear they justly know not what; and to speak indifferently, I finde no satisfaction, nor any sufficiency in the received grounds to establish a rationall feare.

  Now herein to omit Astrologicall considerations (which are but rarely introduced) the popular foundation whereby it hath continued, is first, the extraordinary power and secret vertue conceived to attend these numbers; whereof we must confesse there have not wanted not onely especiall commendations, but very singular conceptions. Among Philosophers, Pythagoras seemes to have plaicd the leading part, which was long after continued by his disciples, and the Italick Schoole. The Philosophy of Plato, and most of the Platonists abounds in numerall considerations; above all Philo the learned Jew, hath acted this part even to superstition; bestowing divers pages in summing up every thing which might advantage this number. Which notwithstanding when a serious Reader shall perpend, he will hardly finde any thing that may convince his judgement, or any further perswade, then the lenity of his belief, or prejudgement of reason inclineth.

  For first, Not only the number of 7 and 9 from considerations abstruse have been extolled by most, but all or most of the other digits have been as mystically applauded; for the number of One and Three have not been only admired by the Heathens, but from adorable grounds, the unity of God, and mystery of the Trinity admired by many Christians. The number of four stands much admired not only in the quaternity of the Elements, which are the principles of bodies, but in the letters of the Name of God, which in the Greek, Arabian, Persian, Hebrew and Ægyptian, consisteth of that number; and was so venerable among the Pythagoreans, that they swore by the number four. That of six hath found many leaves in its favour; not only for the daies of the Creation, but its naturall consideration, as being a perfect number, and the first that is compleated by its parts; that is, the sixt, the half, and the third, 1. 2. 3. which drawn into a summe make six: The number of Ten hath been as highly extolled, as containing eve
n, odde long and plain, quadrate and cubicall numbers; and Aristotle observed with admiration, that Barbarians as well as Greeks, did use a numeration unto Ten; which being so generall was not to be judged casuall, but to have a foundation in nature. So that not only 7 and 9, but all the rest have had their Elogies, as may be observed at large in Rhodiginus, and in severall Writers since: every one extolling number, according to his subject, and as it advantaged the present discourse in hand.19

  Again, They have been commended not only from pretended grounds in nature, but from artificiall, casuall or fabulous foundations: so have some endeavoured to advance their admiration, from the 9 Muses, from the 7 Wonders of the World, and from the 7 Gates of Thebes; in that 7 Cities contended for Homer, in that there are 7 Starres in Ursa minor, and 7 in Charles wayne or Plaustrum of Ursa major. Wherein indeed although the ground be naturall, yet either from constellations or their remarkable parts, there is the like occasion to commend any other number; the number 5 from the Starres in Sagitta, 3 from the girdle of Orion, and 4 from Equiculus, Crusero, or the feet of the Centaure; yet are such as these clapt in by very good Authors, and some not omitted by Philo….