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Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers Humanity and the
Humane in Ancient Philosophy and Literature First
Edition Catherine Osborne Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Catherine Osborne
ISBN(s): 9780199568277, 0199568278
Edition: First Edition
File Details: PDF, 1.64 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers
This page intentionally left blank
Dumb Beasts and
Dead Philosophers
Humanity and the Humane in
Ancient Philosophy and Literature

Catherine Osborne

C L A RE N D O N P RE S S · OX F O RD
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
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Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
 Catherine Osborne 2007
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
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First published 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
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ISBN 978–0–19–928206–7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of
Dick Beardsmore
This page intentionally left blank
 Preface

Dumb beasts and dead philosophers. This much they have in common:
that we find it hard to be sure how effectively we are communicating with
them. They do not speak to us in our language.
But is this our fault or theirs? Is it they who have nothing to say,
or we who have no means to listen? It is easy to suppose that because
other animals ‘lack language’ (as we put it), they must have nothing to
say to us. But the impression that they lack something, a faculty that we
possess, is created entirely by our anthropocentric perspective. Perhaps, if
language were the only way to communicate, then lacking such language
might be equated with having nothing worth communicating, though
even that seems unsafe as a general inference. In practice, language may
be a restriction as well as a facility, since language users, accustomed to
reading or hearing truths expressed in words, may find it hard to recognize
communication conveyed by other mechanisms.
Our dependence upon verbal discourse, preferably couched in a language
that we understand, restricts our capacity to understand what is not
expressed like that. So perhaps it is our disadvantage to be language-
confined, to be unable to hear what others can hear, unable to read
what others can read. If there is communication without words, who
is better placed to comprehend, those who do or those who don’t talk
only in language? Do we close ourselves to forms of communication that
we once had fully in our control—once, before we learned to talk? At
the risk of sounding pathetic, we need to remind ourselves that there
are many things, human things included, that can be conveyed by other
forms of communication besides the systems of vocal sounds or written
signs that make up what we call human language (or the artificial sign
language substitutes, which are derivative from natural spoken forms).
Human communication is much more extensive than what we narrowly
call language. Or, if we extend the term ‘language’ to cover the non-
linguistic methods of imparting information and sharing thoughts within
a social community, then language is a much more widespread form of
viii preface

communication, with a much greater variety of quasi- or non-propositional

structures, than we often suppose when we talk philosophy.
With the dead philosophers we may be more willing to concede that
they have things to say to us, which we are badly placed to understand.
They write in a language—though, if they are long dead, it is not ours.
They speak of things we recognize, but often in terms that clash and jar
with our conceptual map. They seem to utter claims that belong to our
debates, yet what they say may shock or sometimes irritate us. Often we
close our ears and try not to hear, lest we be corrupted.
The bulk of this book consists of a range of studies that attempt to
open our ears to hear what those dumb texts can still say to us. These
detailed studies are preceded by an introduction which embarks, by way of
a discussion of some poems by William Blake, on a rather general outline
of the position I want to defend. I have chosen to begin with poetry,
and have not tried to engage directly with specific texts in meta-ethics,
although my questions are meta-ethical ones, about what it means to get
something right in ethics: some may feel that I have failed to situate the
discussion adequately in the context of recent work in that field. If that is
so, I apologize. However, my main point is to argue that we can learn from
listening to poetry and stories, and that arid argument is not always (or
perhaps ever) the way to grasp moral truths—such as coming to understand
what it is to take a humane attitude, and not a sentimental attitude, towards
the other inhabitants of the world we live in. It is on those questions
that I hope to cast some light, by way of the dumb texts examined in
Chapters 2–9.
 Acknowledgements

I have been working on topics in this area intermittently over many years,
during which I published one or two preliminary papers, on related themes
to those covered in the chapters of this book. In particular, some material
that I discuss in Chapters 2 and 6 was also a focus of my attention in a
paper that I published in 1990,¹ but there I was sketching the historical and
cultural implications of the texts I was discussing, and now I am talking
about how we come to draw moral lines between ourselves and other
kinds. Part of Chapter 9 extends ideas I treated at a rather superficial level
in a paper on ‘Ancient vegetarianism’ published in 1995.² Chapter 7 draws
upon conclusions that are more fully defended in my paper ‘Aristotle on
the fantastic abilities of animals’ published in 2000.³
As always, much water has passed under the bridge. Since I first became
interested in this topic, I have spent ten years working in Swansea, three
years in Liverpool, and three years in Norwich; my children have grown
up; and the work is scarcely recognizable as the project it once was. I have
benefited immensely from live discussion of my work both at home and
elsewhere. I am sure that it is the better for the many marks it bears of those
with whom I have had the good fortune to work and to converse in the
intervening years. Various bits of the book have been exposed to fruitful
discussion with seminar and conference audiences, at Swansea, Liverpool,
and Norwich, and also in the wider world, including meetings of the
Southern Association for Ancient Philosophy, the Patristic Conference,
and the B Club. A conference on food in antiquity in London and a
seminar in Nottingham provided useful opportunities to try out ideas at an
early stage of the work.

¹ Catherine Osborne, ‘Boundaries in nature: eating with animals in the fifth century BC.’, Bulletin
of the Institute of Classical Studies, 37 (1990): 15–30.
² Catherine Osborne, ‘Ancient vegetarianism’, in Food in Antiquity, ed. John Wilkins, David Harvey,
and Michael Dobson (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1995), 214–24.
³ Catherine Osborne, ‘Aristotle on the fantastic abilities of animals’, Oxford Studies in Ancient
Philosophy, 19 (2000): 253–85. The copyright for this is my own.
x acknowledgements

A preliminary version of the whole manuscript was read by two anonym-

ous readers for the Press, and I have revised it in the light of their insights
and helpful suggestions, and in response to suggestions from three readers
who assessed the proposal at an earlier stage. I am sorry that I have not
been able to follow up every idea or meet every criticism (for reasons
either of my own incompetence or because they would have made the
book a different book), and I hope that if those kind and helpful readers
are reviewing this finished work, they will be indulgent over my failures.
Richard Sorabji and Angus Ross, between them, read the whole of the
finished manuscript in the final stages of revising it, and passed me a wealth
of useful comments, criticisms, and encouragement, of just the right sort
for that stage of the proceedings. I also owe a particular debt of gratitude
to Richard Sorabji, not only for this but for many enlightening exchanges
in the past.
My current university, UEA Norwich, generously allowed me to take a
full year of research leave, starting only four months into my first year of
employment there. I am also grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research
Board for funding the second half of that time, which allowed me to
complete the manuscript on schedule.
Not all the dead philosophers who figure in this book are so very
long dead. Here I must mention in particular R. W. Beardsmore, whose
profound and humane intelligence was inspirational to students and Faculty
alike, in Swansea in the 1990s (and in Bangor before that). For some years
before Dick’s untimely death in 1997, we were required intermittently
to list the Department’s plans for the upcoming Research Assessment
Exercise. Among the planned works we used to list was a co-authored
book, by Beardsmore and Osborne, on animals. In the proposed book, I
was to explore the ancient philosophers, and Beardsmore was to work on
the contemporary material relating to animal minds and morals. It was to
include his legendary paper called ‘Do fish feel pain?’, long promised, but
never delivered, to the departmental seminar.
RAE plans don’t always materialize. The co-authored book didn’t
happen, and this isn’t quite what it would have been (if it ever could have
been). Perhaps it was never more than a myth. However, I think that there
are still some traces of conversations with Dick, about animals and other
 acknowledgements xi

things, and I’d like to dedicate what I’ve written here to the memory of
Dick Beardsmore’s unforgettable irony, in gratitude for what he taught
me—about moral philosophy and bluegrass music, about guinea pigs and
Saab engines, about literature, art, loyalty, courage, hope, determination,
despair, self-sacrifice, and all the other things that really matter, in life and
in death.
CJO
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents

Part I. Constructing Divisions 1

1. Introduction: On William Blake, Nature, and Mortality 3
2. On Nature and Providence: Readings in Herodotus,
Protagoras, and Democritus 24

Part II. Perceiving Continuities 41

3. On the Transmigration of Souls: Reincarnation into Animal
Bodies in Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato 43
4. On Language, Concepts, and Automata: Rational and
Irrational Animals in Aristotle and Descartes 63
5. On the Disadvantages of Being a Complex Organism:
Aristotle and the scala naturae 98

Part III. Being Realistic 133

6. On the Vice of Sentimentality: Androcles and the Lion and
Some Extraordinary Adventures in the Desert Fathers 135
7. On the Notion of Natural Rights: Defending the Voiceless
and Oppressed in the Tragedies of Sophocles 162
8. On Self-Defence and Utilitarian Calculations: Democritus
of Abdera and Hermarchus of Mytilene 197
9. On Eating Animals: Porphyry’s Dietary Rules
for Philosophers 224
Conclusion 239
Bibliography 243
Index Locorum 249
General Index 253
This page intentionally left blank
PA RT I
Constructing Divisions
This page intentionally left blank
 1
Introduction:
On William Blake, Nature,
and Mortality

The Beautiful Vision

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.¹

This first puzzling quatrain which introduces William Blake’s Auguries of

Innocence is widely known. The other 128 lines of the poem, less often
quoted and very rarely transcribed in full, comprise sixty-four rhyming
couplets, mainly in the form of two-line proverbs. Here Blake imagines a
world in which cruelty and insensitivity are abhorrent, and offences against
wild creatures have terrible consequences.
The consequences that Blake asks us to envisage are not natural disasters
but moral ones:

A Robin Red breast in a Cage

Puts all heaven in a Rage.
A dove-house fill’d with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.
A dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate
Predicts the ruin of the State.

¹ William Blake, Auguries of Innocence, 1–4.

4 constructing divisions

A horse misused upon the Road

Calls to Heaven for Human Blood.
Each outcry of the hunted Hare
A fibre from the Brain doth tear.
A skylark wounded in the wing,
A Cherubim does cease to sing.
The Game Cock clip’d & arm’d for fight
Does the Rising Sun affright.
Every Wolf ’s and Lion’s howl
Raises from Hell a human soul.
The wild Deer wand’ring here and there
Keeps the Human Soul from Care.
The Lamb misused breeds Public strife
And yet forgives the Butcher’s Knife.²

Although the structure of the formulae makes it look as though Blake is

appealing to consequentialist considerations to discourage cruelty (’You’d
better not do this, or that might happen’), the nature of the consequences
shows that, for Blake, morality is not shored up on a foundation of
self-interest or utilitarian benefits. When he suggests, in lines 15–16, that
some cherub ceases to sing whenever a skylark is wounded, he is not
citing something else that is harmful besides the offence to the skylark,
such that if there are no cherubim we need not worry about skylarks.
Rather, he is pointing to the inherent offensiveness of the deed: it is
harmful because to kill a skylark is what it is to silence one of the
cherubim. We have to learn to see it as such, in order to see what
kind of offence is committed in cases of wanton cruelty to wild things.
With his simple-minded ‘penny proverb’ formulae, Blake tries to persuade
us to see things from the point of view of ‘heaven’: to be enraged by
what puts heaven in a rage, to take delight in what is delightful to
heaven itself.
Blake’s poem does not seem to offer the kind of persuasion that
would convince a philosophically minded person to change his or her
views. There is no attempt to show why we should see the death of

² William Blake, Auguries of Innocence, 5–24.

 introduction 5

a skylark as tragic; nor does Blake tell us what is the source of the
absolute external judgement of value implied in the claim that something
‘Puts all heaven in a Rage’. He does not explain how he knows this
for a fact, nor what kind of fact it is. It is hard to see how these
proverbs could be effective against someone who took a more grudging
view of the value of non-human lives, or who thought that right action
was to be judged by the calculation of overall utility, not by some
postulate of heaven’s anger. If we look for argument in Blake’s vision, it is
lacking.
But that is not to say that there are not other forms of persuasion,
besides academic arguments, that are also philosophical. One might,
in fact, want to say that some apparently non-rational techniques are
more suited to engineering the kind of change of outlook that Blake
is interested in producing. Sometimes it is more effective to resort to
poetry or story-telling in order to offer a way into an alternative view-
point. Yet the reader who clings to argument and rational debate is in
danger of remaining blind to such alternatives—blind largely because of
those very blinkers that refuse to see what can only be shown and not
proved.
Blake asks us to bring our moral sensibilities into line with some absolute
standard, the viewpoint of heaven. Moral sensibility, he suggests, involves
having our emotions in good order, which means being enraged, offended,
and upset by things by which we should be enraged, offended, and upset,
and delighting in what merits delight. Indeed, surely Blake is right that
moral vision consists in seeing things as offensive when they are offensive,
and as wonderful when they are wonderful. But we need to be brought
to see which things are wonderful, and, if there is a truth out there
about which things are wonderful, and it is not up to us, then moral
vision will demand a kind of cognitive awareness of some truth, and an
alignment of our sensibilities with the sensibilities of heaven (to use Blake’s
picturesque language). In other words, correct emotional responses will
include a response to or recognition of real values, something objective
about the events or circumstances that are to be judged. The emotional
response involves an evaluative judgement, a kind of cognitive awareness
of something: namely, the genuine offensiveness, or beauty, of the things
in question. Hence we might want to say that moral judgements involve
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MdgftctiaAs^kt of effufion, Full of pcrills and full of illufion. Not onely
peril! which to the Warkc male fall. But fuch alfoe which the Mafier
hurie (hall 5 Againft which once received is noe boore, Ordaine
therefore to fetch breath from your footCj Provide f jr Mouth, Eyes,
Earcs, and Nofe, , For it is worfe than ten times the Pofe. Men
hereby hath found' paines fore, Becaufe they had not this warning
before^ Jgnis corrodcns fervecli VTi this Artt^ JElcmentA frofinqua
wifely to departc. By one point of exceffe all your Warkc Is fhent, ,
And one point too little is infufticient 5 Who can be fureto findehis
trewc degree, Magifler magnta in igne lliall he be. It is the harder to
know trewly his mighr> . There is no triall for it but our Eye fight:
Therefore all men failc in his prefence. Where Heate is leined with
coft of Experience, . Of
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O.RDINALL.^ IQj Of this Hcate in fpeciall Anaxagcras . faid

thus, chap, 7. Uemo frimo frottte referitttr difcretus, . V ^Another is
Hcate of mighty Coadion, For Mineralls that be of hard Liquefa<5lion
: This Hcate cannot be too ftronge. Be lie continued never fo longe.
Another is Hcate of Calcination . For-fowle Mettalls for their
Preparation ; Wliichmaie not brenn, ne doe them meltej For fo all
thei maic foone be fpilte. The twclfte is Heate for to Sublime All rhe
Spirits of the Mine* The laft Heatc of theis gocth for all, When to
Projedion. our Siotie fliall fall. Ufe maketh. Mafterie, there is noe
more to faynfj... But he that faileth mud needs, begin againe. Now
have Itought youeverie thing by name. As Men teach other the way
to Walpngham^ Of every Village, Water, Bridge, and Hill, VVh<:reby
wife="" men="" their="" journey="" maie="" fulfill="" :="" soe=""
maic="" a="" gierke="" by="" this="" dodrinc="" findc="" ilvas=""
science="" well="" if="" he="" be="" cleere="" of="" minde=""
other="" finde="" himfdfc="" hereby="" foolc="" to="" deaic=""
therewith="" which="" title="" can="" ofschooiej="" for="" is=""
the="" end="" all="" worldly="" cunninge="" where="" attainc=""
neither="" pope="" nc="" king="" honours="" ne="" great=""
councell="" only="" vcrtue="" and="" grace="" as="" aucftors=""
tell="" precious="" stone="" will="" not="" found="" wrought:=""
but="" right="" devotely="" fought.="" auistorsforcnamed=""
with="" boke="" miae="" sheweth="" alkimy="" dodrine="" ye=""
compleate="" sentences="" opinion="" after="" ordinall-="" q=""/>
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I«0(J 3\(m'tdrrs Chap.'T. For In t!iis <>rtiinan I fct you

from all doubt, Is nothing fct wrongc, nor ont point left out. The
daycs were when that this Dodrine and ground Had pleafcd mc more
than a Thoufand pound 5 Three Hundred pounds was not for my
defirc. As would have byne this chapter of the Ficr. And mcrvaile not
Lords, nc ye freinds all. Why foe noble a Scjence, as all Men this Arte
call. Is here fct out in Englijh blunt and rude. For this is foe made to
teach a Multitude Of rude people which dclcn with this Werkes, Ten
Thoufand Logmen againft ten able Clerks i Whereby yearely grcate
Riches in this Londc Is lewdly loft, as Wifemen underftondcj And
manie men of Evcrie degree Yearely be brought to great Povcrtee.
Cease Laymeft, cease, be not in foilic ever 5 Lewdnes to leave is
better late than never. All that hath plcafure in this Boke to readc.
Pray formySoule, and for all both "quick and deadc. In this yearc of
Chrifi One thoufand fourc Hundred (feaventy and feaven, This Warkc
was begun, Hcftwr to cod in Heaven.
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107 THE CO MT OV U\(JD A L C H Y M I E. A moft

excellent;, learned, and wordiy \vorke,\vntten by Sir (jeorge
'T^plcy^ Chanon oi Bridlington in %rl^^ Jhire^ Conteining twelve
Gates.
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io8 ffc r% »*>, /*», f'> .«»», »*> A /JK tftl

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lop .gEO%GE XI T LEY UNTO ...A King Edward the fourth.

O Honorable Lord^ and mofi vi6iorjotfs Knight, With GrAce arid Fort
urn abundantly endewed, Thefavegard of England ^ maynte'jmr
ofrigbt'^ That God yfift loveth hdeede he hath rvell jhcwed :
Wherefore I trufi thp Lend fialbe renewed With ^oj and Riches^
xv:th Charyty and Peace^ So that old ranckors nnderjlrerved,
TempejluoM'S troubles and wretchednes Jhall ceaje. 4nd nov& fyth I
fee by tokens right evident^ That. God you guydeth^ and that ye be
'vertuou^, Hating fjnney and fuch as be infolentj How that alio
Manflaughter to you is odious^ Upon the In,dygent alfo that ye be
piteot/s^ Create ruth it were tf ye Jhould not lyve longe : For of
your, great fortune ye be not prefumptuoti-Sj : Nor i^engeable of
mynde to rvreke every rvrong. Jheis. confdered , with others^ in
your mo fl noble Eflate^ Like as God knoweth, and people doe
witnejje beare, So entyrcly me meveth^ that I mufl algate Recorfie
the. fame ^ and therein be no flatterer : Jnd that not onelf, but alfo
to write here. And to yctir Highaes humbly for to prefent Great
Secretts which^I tn farre Count ryes did lere^ . And. which , by
grace to me mcfl ur^worthy arc lent,, . .^5 0>ice
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I it6 The Epiftle. Once t9 your Lordjhif fuch things I did

frfimife. What tyme ye did command to fend unto me j K^nd [tnce
that I wrote in full fecret wife , Unto your Grace from the Umverfitie
of Lovayne, when God fortuned me by Grace to fee ' Greater fecretts
and moch more frofpe. Which onely to you I tpyll difclofed to be :
That is to fay the great Elixirs both Red and White, Tor like h yo» to
truft that trewlie I have found The ferfeB waje of moft fecrete
Akhimy, Which I rvjH never trevpl) for Merke ne for Poundi Mah
common but to you, and that conditionally That to your felfe ye fhall
keepe it full fecretlj^ And onely it ufe as may he to Gods tleafure^
Bis in tyme comming, of God J Jhould abye Formydifcovering of bis
fecret e treafure. Therefore advife you mil wyth good delyberatioti^
Tor of this Secrete Jljall know none other Creature But onelj yoo^ as
J make faithfuH Protefiation , Tor all the tyme that J here in lyfe
endure : Whereto I wy II your Lordfljif me to injure. To my defyre in
thys by othe to ^gree^ Leaji 1 jhould to me the wrath of God
procure^ Tor my revealing his greate gift and previtie. And yet
moreover I wy II your fifghnes to pardon mt^ ^ Tor openly wythpen
I wyll it never wryto. But when that ye lifi by practice ye fhall feo By
Mouth alfothis pretious fecret mofi of delyght^^ How may be made
Elixirs Red and Whyte, Playne unto your Hyghnes it Jhall declared
be, ^^nd if it pleafe you with eafy expence and refpyte To helpy J
wyll them make by helpe of the Trinitit, But
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The Epiftle. ni But mw'jth^inding frr ferUl thM might

hefaU^ Th$ugh I dare net here fUinly the knft nohinde , tet in mj
wriiewg I wjU not be fo MjflicAll , But that ye may by fiudie the
knowleige jinde : Hew that eche thing mult if lie able is m h/s kinde,
4nd that likenes of bddies Metallme be tranfmntabU r will deelare,
that if ye feele me iu your minde TeJhaU ^ve my wrydng true and
noe fayned fahk. And if G&d graunt you by me to wynnethys
treafurt, Urve him devoutly with more Laud and thanking^ Praying
his Godhead in lyfe ye may fo endure , ^*^ i^f^^ of grace and
fortune ti> u/e to his pleafmg^ Tdojl jpecially intending over aU
thing. To yeur forver and connyng his frecepts tenne ^0 t9 keep^
that into no daunger your felfeye bring 'y B^/ thsiytmay in gUrie fet
him hereafter^ Amen* As the Phlloropher in the boke of Meteors
doth rvryte. That the lykenejfe of bodyes Metalline be
nottranfmutabUy But' after he added the is words of mere delyte ^
'Without they be redused to theyr begin ning materiable* Wherefore
fuch bod:es which in nature be liquable^ ^Utnerall and Mettaline
may be CMercuri^ate, Conceave ye may that this Scyence is not
opinable. But very true by Raymond and others dctermynate. In the
faid Soke the Philofopher (peaketh alfo^ Therein if it pleafe your
Higbnes for to reade^ of divers S\j\^h\xxSy but e/pecially of two ^
And of trvo Mctcurycs foyned to them indede : '4^hereby he doth
true undcrflanders leade To the knowledge of the prmc.ples which
be true ; Both Red moft pure, and White, ds have I fpede^ Vhtch be
neverthelejfe founden but ef right few. And
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\n The Epiftte. ^, jind thefe WO things be heft he addeth

anone ^ Tor them that rvorketh the Alchimy/f? take, ■ Our Gold and
our Silver therewith to make aloueWherefore J fay^ who tvill our
Fearle and Ruby make^ The fai^ principles looke that he not for
fake : •For at the beginning if his principles be trerve. And that he
can by crafte them Jo bake 5 ' \Tr(wly at the end his Worke j})all
him nH rerpe. But one greate fecret ryght nedefull it is to knojve^
^'ihat though the Philofophers (^eai:e plurally^ All is but one Thing,
ye may me troive \^ Jnkinde^ which is eur Baje principally^
Whereof doth faring both Whyte and Bed naturally 5 And yet the
Whyte mujl. c^me fyrjl of the Red : Which thyng is not wrought
manually ^ 3 nt naturally y Craft helping oneofourLeade^^ Tor a]l
the parts of our mo'fl p red c us- Miotic, As I canpreve^ be C
ocfjenti all and concrete Moreover there is no true principle but one -
j TuU Icnze it was cr I therwith cculd mete : Who can reduce it^ and
kncweth his Heate^ . \^nd only kinde with kind^ can redreffe, Till
filth origifhtll be den fed from his Seat ^ Likely he istofinde our
fecret s both more and Icjfe^ ' Onlie therefore worke Kynde, with his
owne Kynde, And all your Elements loyne that they not Hrtve^ This
poyr.te alfo for any thing beare in m-^nde \ That pafive natures' ye
tcurne into a^ive^ of Water ^T ire ^ andWinde^cfErthemake blive\
And of the Quadrangle make ye a Figure round, 7 hen have ye honie
of our bene hive j One o^mce well wfirth a thoufand pounds The
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The Epiftle. uj 7he friffs'lpali fecrete of fecretes aU Is true

Proportion tvhich may not be hehinde, wherein I connceli yotv be
not fttferfciall^ 7he true conclufton if ever ye thinke to fynde, iTurne
Erth to Water^ and Water into Wynde^ \7herof make Fire, and
bervare of the Floodc \pf NoCj wherein many one be blinde •, That
by this Science thei get but little good, J councell you to eate and
drinke tentperatly, ^And be rvellrvare that Tpofarcha come not
inplace^ Xiefb not your Wombe by drinking ymmoderatly^ LeB ye
quench your naturall Beatein lyttle jpace^ The colour tvyll tell
appearing in your Face: Drinke no more therefor e^ then ye may
eate^ Walke up and dervne after an eafte pace^ Chafe not your
Body too fore for to frveatc. With eafy Fire after meving when ye
ftveate^ Warme your Body and make it dry againet, By Mi vers and
Fount aines walke after meate : Cdt morrowe tymely vifit the high
Mountaine^ That Phficke fo byddeth I reade certeyne : So hygh the
Mountaine nevertheles ye not afcende. But that ye may
dotvnewardthe way hive flaine^ And with your Mantell from cold ye
yow defende, ■ Such labour is holfome^your fweat ifyewylldru* -
With a napkin, and after it take no cold^ Tor grofe humors be
purged by Sweat kmdly j Ufe Diacamcron, then confeB with perfe^
Gold Hcrmodadlilus for watrie humors good I hold^ Ufe Hipericon
Perforate withmjlke of Tirhimall^ AndS^ixm^ Cetc ana with
reddWyne whenjewax old. And C^es jyylk^ foddc wit he old
nounfi'eth moiflun radical, R But
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iiA TheEpiftle. But a good Phifpiaft whofo imendeth to h^

Our lower Aftronomy him nedeth well to knowe And after that to
UrnCy well, Urine in ^gl'^jje tofee^ And if tt ntde to be chafed^ the
Fyre to hlowe. Then wyttily, it, hy divers wAjes to throwe^ And after
the eattfe to make a Medicine blive^ Truly telling the ynfirmities all
en a rowe : Who thus can AiO by his ?hy[ifke is like to thrive^ We
have an Heauen yncorruptible of the Sluintejfence, Ornate with
Elements, Stgnes, Flanetts^and Starrs bright^ Which moijletbour
Urthe by Sutttle influence: And owt thereof a Secrete Sulphur e hid
from fight, \ It fetteth by vertue of his attra^ive might-^ Like as the
Bee fetcheth Hony out of the Flowre Which thing can doo none other
Erthly wight 5 Therefore to God only be glory and honour. And like
as Tfe to Water doth reUnte^ Whereof congeakd it was by violence
of great e Cold, Whence Phebt^s it fmiteth with his Heate influent :
Right fo to Water mynerall^ reduced is our Gold^ (As writeth flaynly
Albert, Raymond, and Arnold) With heate and moifture by craft
occafionate^ With congelation of the Spynte^ Lo I now have I told
Howe our materialls togeather muft be proportionate* Att the Dyers
craft ye may lerne this Science, Beholding with Water how they
deco^ions make Uppon fheyr Woad and Maddre eafyly and with
patience, 7 ill the Tin^ures appear e which the Cloath doth take
Therein fo fxcd that they wyll never forfake The cloth for wajhing
after they joyned be» Right fo our Tin5iures with Water of our Lake
We draw by boyling with \^fhes of Hermes tree. Which
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I TheEpi'ftle: „5 Which 7Mures when they bj craft dre made

parfte. So dieth Ul^ettalls with Colours evermore permanent, lifter
the qualitie of the CMedpine Red or White $ *That never awaj hj eny
Pire^ tvill he brente: To thti Example^ ^f 'j^^ fake good tent Un!o
)6ur purpofe the rather JJja/lje rvjnne^ A.vd fee your Fire be eafy
and not fervent 5 Where Nature did leave ojf\ what tjme look ye
hegynn, Firfl Calcine^ and after that Putrefye^ JDyjJolve^ DyfiiH^
Sublyme^ Defcende, and Fyxe, With Aqttavite oft times^ both waft)
and drie. And make a marriage the Body and Spirit betwixt • Which
thtis togeather naturally if ye cart rnyxe. In loftnge the Body the
Water pya/l cortgealed bce^ 7hen JJiall the Body dy utterly of the
Flixe, Bleeding and chaunging Colours as ye pall fee» The third daye
againe to Life he Jhall uprifCy V, iyind devour Byrds, and Beajls of
the Wilderms^ ^ Crowes^ Popingayes^ Pyes, Pekocks^ and ijiiavies
5 The Phenix^ the Egle whyte^ the Griffon of fear f nines ^ The
Greene Lyon and the Red Dragon he jhall deftreS-, The white
Dragon alfo^ the Antlope, Unicorne P4»ther^ With other Byrds ^
and Beajls both more and le^e y The B'aftliske alfo which aUmoB
eche one doth feare. In Bus and Nubi he jhall arife and afcend Up to
the Moone, and fnh up to the Sonne, Through the Ocean Sea^
which round is without end: Only Shipped within a little glafen
Tonne, When he commeth thither, then is the iMaiflrie Wonne:
i^bout which Journey greate good Jhall je not j^end^ And'yet ye
jhall be glad that ever it was begonne j Patiently if ye lijle to your
worke attend* R 2 For
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ii6 The Epfftk. I'or then both Body and Sprit alfe bdthOjle
and Water, Sowle and Tincture one thing both White and Red, After
Colours variable it contejneth what fo men clatter ^ Which alfo
called is tvhen he hath once bene Dedd : And is revived
ourMarc\\2i(itCjOur Magncte^and ottr Lead, Ottr Sulphurc, ^«r
Arfcnickc, and our true Galcevive: Our Sonne, our Moone, our
Ferment of our Bread : Ouy Toadc, our Bafiliske, our unknotvne
Body, our Man,. {our Wife. Our Body thus naturally by crafte when it
is renovate of the firfi ordre is CMedicme caHed in our Fhtlofo^hyy
which oftentimes mujl againe be Spirituali^te : The rounde Whele
turning of our forefaid Agronomy : 4nd fo to the Elixir of Sprites
muft ye come ^ for why Till the fame of the fixed by the fame of the
flter be overElixir of Body es named it is only '^ (^^^^ K^isd this
fecretepoynt truly deceaveth many one. This natur all proceffe
bfhel^e of craft thus confummate Diffolveth the Elixir (pintuall in our
un^uom Humiditie^ , Tnen iH Balnco ^/Mary togeather let them be
Circulate Like new Hon) or Oyle till they perfectly thicked be^ Then
will that Medicine heale all manner Infrmitie^ \ And turne ati.
Mettalls to Sonne (^ Moone moft ferfeilly: Thusfhallye have
bothgreate Elixir^W Aurngiggtabilc, By th^ grace and will of Cody to
whom be lawd eternally. The f I i\ \ Mi
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•t '«« Cakevbc; •itiiili[H(: t'mfitrk mh miifm, i(jm Hmii Iff

bjmM^ ^ CIAL »^ f ) f » } ^ray C iYyfdo
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ii6 The Epiftle.^ for then both Body and Spirit alfe bdth 0)le
undWater, SmU and Tincture one thing both White and Red, After
Colours variable it contejneth what (omen clatter^ Which alfo called
is when he hath once bene Dedd : And is revived ourMavchzCuc, our
Magnctc^andottrLcid, Our Sulphurc, ««r Arfcnickc, and our true
Galcevive: Our Sonne, our Moone, our Ferment of our Bread : Oftr
Toadc, our Bafiliske, our nnknowne Body, our Man, {our Wife. Our
Body thiis naturally by crafte when it is renovate of the firft ordre is
CMedicme called in our Fhilefophy^ Which oftentimes mufi againe
be Spintuali/^te : The rounde Whele turning of our forefaid
Agronomy : And fo to the Elixir of Sprites mttfl ye come ^ for why
Till the fame of the fixed by the fame of the flier be overElixir of
Body es named it is only-, (gone K^nd this fecretefoynt truly
deceaveth many one, Thisnaturallprocejfe by helpeofcraft thus
confummate Dijfolveth the Elixir fpirttuall tn our un^uous
Humiditie^ Then in Balnco ^/Mary togeather let them be Circulate
Like new Hon) or Oyle till they perfefily thicked be^ Then will that
Medicine heale all manner Infrmitie, \ And turne aU Mettalls to
Sonne & Moone mojl ferfeilly: Thus fhallye have bethgreate Elixir^W
AuriupPptabilc, By tin grace and will of God^ to whont be lawd
eternally. Hi f •
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Here folIowetK the 'T'l^uve conteyning- alt the fecrers of

(KelreatiTe t-otk weat cS fmall ^ohti^Oi/Jard/cu^lj/it . I- ur keaven -
thls'Tignre ca-lUi if '/V *1^^' "V" '^*^^ l^ei-J/h-anomv U7in:/i
vtUa-Jhod tkau mav natmip e '^ make. our. He die en- ■parft-tly On
It t/iere-forefittky study And vnio Qcd toth ni^fit and day '^••~ jrace
and for J ^iiithor -pr-ay To > LaIurrvjli,Uoj^inmonwv.
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