The Hartlib Papers

Title:Letter, John Beale To Hartlib
Dating:21 December 1658
Ref:51/52A-54B
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<Hartlib: No. 75 (1. 2.)>
                    Dec.21. 58.
Dearest Sir
     Mine of dec 14 fayling of the posts houre lay at the post house for next passe. It conteined an unpopular discourse, & gave notice of Caneparius & the rest on the way by carrier.
     Nowe I reioyce to reade in yours of dec. 11 That you have found the true specifique for your malady. The Lord blesse it to you. I could not discerne by yours Whether it was Kretsmars solar liquor or spiritus salis of which I desire to bee informed. I have sent to Mr Pit to knowe what store of Persic: is in his power, but I feare it wilbe far short of the proportion you mention, It being late in the yeare before you gave notice of it.
     Your literary intelligence is most pleasant, the best & most precious kind of Intelligence. I beseech you continue, That favour, with this necessary circumstance, That I may discompt the charges. For otherwise I may loose much of the benefit of it. Upon this premise, I pray you lay hold on Dr Dee for mee. If his conscience had beene guilty of a diabolicall familiar, could hee have published to posterity such a fowle tale against himselfe. It seemes Naudæus had not soe much as heard his name come under suspicion. For Hee gives him this Testimony. Had wee the booke which Iohn Dee citisen of London, a very greate philosopher & Mathematician sayes hee had written in defence of Roger Bacon, where hee shewes that whatever was said of his miraculous operations, is rather to bee attributed to the knowledge of nature & the Mathematiques, than to any comerce or conversation hee had with dæmons. Hist. Mag. c.17. pag.229. But for our Caution, Wee may note in the confession of Mr Edwards of Cambridge, That some Caco-magicians are courted by more splendid dæmons than those which resort to the unclean cotta-
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ges of obscure and beggarly Witches. And though Bodine wanted a due measure of judgement & prudent reservednes yet in his relation recited by Mr More in his Antidote l.3. c.13 Hee very happily observes the Decorum of a Good Angell, who may bee a special guardian, & may insinuate seasonable advertisements, but refuseth familiarity of conference, or to foment over curious Inquisitions.
          I doe not apprehend, That ever God did allowe this honour to evill spirits, That they should discover any Art or Invention That is truely profitable to humane kind. For Hee<the Devill> is Apollyon.
               If Dr Floud bee the same Man the intimate, You must have a prudient care of the nature of your correspondence with him And by all meanes to decline all conference of Arcanis, giveing Dr Worseley the same caution. For allthough I am not of their vulgar pallate, who doe suspect his Innocense, yet his Name is deepely wounded, & hee is (at best) [Greek: spermologos]. And Wee must not only bee innocent , but with greate care decline all grounds of suspicion, especially in such abominations. For some depthes, which are from God, are liable to the Cavills of the wicked & Ignorant; as wee see our Saviour & his disciples for some Ages allwayes charged of Ægyptian Magic. I liked Dr Flouds philosophy in very many things the best of any, That was then exstant in vulgar hands, but Hee was most iustly blameable for publishing soe much of those curious arts, which are dangerous, & prohibited. Yet I conceive, if himselfe had beene guilty of the practise, his owne feare would have restrained him
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from the adventure upon the publique.
               A very devoute Gentlewoman of this neighbourhood, Who sometimes dwelt with him in London <many yeares agoe> affirmes, That in her hearing Hee reported such odious things of the Rosy-crucians transforming themselves into Cats &c That it must signify their guilt or his mis-information. If please you, you may enquire what his iudgement or information is nowe of the same matter.
     Hence you may collect That your caveat was not unnecessary for Dr Worseley. For (as our best learned Roger Bacon sayes, lib de pot artis et nat. c.3.) Multi libri reputantur inter Magicos qui non sunt tales, sed continent Sapientiæ dignitatem. And I am fully assured, That wee can aspire far above the reach of Roger Bacon, & therefore shall have more neede of prudent reservednes. De Crescentijs is worthy of publique light, & to that purpose I would willingly engage my credit in Hereford. You shall doe a noble worke if you can procure a translation of that excellent history, which by the Title should allso containe Iamaica. Tis pitty the cuts should be omitted, Viderit Utilitas. And it should bee increasd with a Supplement relating our English Interest in those & adiacent parts & attested by some English Eyewitnesses. These American Rarityes are the most instructive, & pleasant wonders. And not a fewe have gaind much credite in the worke, I have some variety of those writers, but I knowe not who is the Author Hist. Nat: Bras: comended by Dr Worseley in his demonstration of Astrology, Ubi de Thermometris. I can shewe many pages in Ligons Barbados (which I owe to you) in a loose running smoothnesse beyond all the elaborate compositions, which
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I ever sawe in any language. His very dissolutenesse is replenished with deepe Instructions. Had Hee not beene compleately educated for the use of the pensill, musique, Architecture, Cookery, games of all sorts, as well for seriousnes as for Recreations as for Seriousness, Hee could never have given us such a lustrous accompt of all things civile, naturall, artificiall. For tis not for evry Scribe to give us the description of Padre badagoes antique entertainment pag.10. & the guise of forreigne beauty pag.12. 15. 51. of the sayling Carvell p.6. of amphibious Crabs 65 of the Bird that sung by quarter-notes pag. 60 of the luscious fruites 69. of the Palmetto royal.75. of the flower of the Moone 99. of the painted anatomy of leaves, & rootelesse Negroes heades 101, The amazeing beauty of heavens 106. & of the Queenes-Pine, Whose Taste is soe described, That it answeres to the Warbling of Sweetest Musique with the frequent Renewal of that Sweete figure, Præter expectationem, which was Lord Bacons chiefe delight.
     I shall listen after Tractatus Tractatuum. By the title it seemes to bee some encyclopedy, Which may bee a greate helpe to them that cannot reach to the charges of a Library. I cannot hope to gaine the two Treatises which you mentioned of Caneparius, but O [Si?] For I am weary of old vulgarityes, but for later discoveryes I have fresh attention, & principally for that chymicall Art, which hath beene soe long smothered & overwhelmed with affected darknesse. Caneparius is the only man, whom I can understand with profit. I have broken my [catchword: head]
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<Hartlib: 2. No.75.>
               Dec.21. 58.
head upon Turbam philosophorum: And other moderne men are to mee little better than an eele taken by the tayle, They slip out of my hand when I thinke I have sure hold. Next to thiese enquyryes, I am willing to heare what Hevelius hath added to his incomparable enterprises, or what hath farther beene manifested by better tubes, or exacter inquisition.
     If our Academicall students of Astronomy are soe positive in denying all astrall influences That none will undertake an answere to Dr Worseleys Physico-Astrologicall probleme, I am resolved to descant upon it, God willing, Soe as may possibly umpire the point betweene the guilty stargazers, & the contemners of the stars.
     I am glad to heare from Dr Worthington, & of his wellfare. Some mistakes you may perceive eyther in his apprehension or in Mr Croones representation. Amongst the reste I did not affirme the ancient purple to bee our moderne scarlet but where as Caneparius undertakes it to bee the Venetian scarlet I offer some reasons to give it more of the blewish glosse of the brimstone flame. But I cannot wonder, That it should bee reiected: for it is a very sicke piece, beeing hastily scribled, as the Lord knowes when I was in the smartest agonyes That ever I felt. But I must differ my answere, till the next leysure, In which I will open my secrete & full ayme in those discourses of printing colours. And I will promise you it shall have something præter exspectatione, Deo volente# <left margin: # In the meane time, I pray you recover & retaine in your owne possessio those discourses of purple &c.>
          I except not against Mr Boyles comended experiment to cure the red water. But my old
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shepheard hath constantly & infallibly cured sheepe of the red water by putting warme urine into the mouth of the sheepe, & then rolling them on their backes for some time, as one would rocke a cradle. And himselfe beeing some yeares past so, was this wee last weeke speedily recovered by a draught or two of the decoction of the inward rinde of oake & a little periwinkle, when hee was very far gone, & allmost expiring by a flux of bloud with his urine, which had wasted him (night & day) foure dayes together, Hee soe long concealing from us the nature of his malady. I thinke it was mixed with that disease which our Physicians call The Dropsy of the Vrinall. For he voyded an excessive measure of bloud & Vrine.
               I mervayle our Academyes doe not provide themselves of the best Tubes. What were it for a colledge to lay out 100lb. And what is a library without Mathematicall Instruments. And what instruments more instructive then Tubes and Optic glasses of all sorts# <left margin: # And hence artificers would bee encouraged to excell each other in perfecting thiese Inventions.> With thiese & Thermometors of all dimensions, & a Labouratory, They may learne more truth, & valuable truth in one houre,Then by reading a Cart-loade of Monckish philosophy, & assoone posesse heaven & the stars by a Telescope, as by Schoole-divinity. This advertisement does allso belong to Mr Davenports Illustrious Coll. I am glad your sonne was soe reservd to Coll. B. To both your sonnes, & to all yours I present my most humble service, & recomend you all to the dearest embracements of our most mercifull father beeing
                    your ever obliged & faythfull servant
                                   I.B.
     Dec.21. 1658.