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Of ‘Physical Experiments . rzt

Malice. If a person be ensnared with the desire of a fair and beautiful woman, al-though he be caught at a distance, yet he takcth the poyfon in at his eyes, and theImage of her beauty settleth in the heart of this Lover, kindleth a flame there, which- will never cease to torment him: For the soft blood of the beloved being strayed thi-ther,maketh continual representations of her: she is present there in her own blood;but it cannot settle or rest there, for it continually erdeavoureth to stye homeward,as the blood of a wounded person lpirts out on him that givcth the blow, Lucretiusdescribeth this excellently :

He seeks that body, whence hie grief he found ;

For humors always flow unto a wound,

t/is bruised bloodstill runs unto the fart

That's struck ) *"d gathers where it feels the smart:

So when the murtherefs of his heart's in place,

Blushes arise, and red ore spreads his face.

But if it be a Fascination of Envy or Malice, that hath infected any person, it is verydangerous, and is found most often in old women. Neither can any one deny, butthat the diseases of the minde do distemper the body ; and that the good dispositionof it, doth strengthen and corroborate the same: and it doth not work this alterationonely in its own body, but on others also, by how much it stirreth up in the heatt in-ward desires of love and revenge. Doth not covetousness, grief,or love, change thecolour and disposition ? Doth not envy cause paleness and meacetness in the body ?Doth not the longing of the mother , imprint the mark of what she desired upon thetender Embryo ? So when Envy bends her fierce and flaming eyes, and the desire ofmischief hursts thereout, a vehement heat proceedcch from them, wcsi infecteth thosethat stand nigh , especially the beautiful; they strike them through as with a iword,set their entrails on fire , and make them waft into a leannness, especially if they bebfacholerickor sanguine complexion ; for the disease is easily fed r where the poresare open,and the humors thin. Nor is it the passions of the mind onely, that affecteththe body thus: but the body itself, as Avicenna proveth, may be endued with vent-urous qualities : many are so by Nature; so that it cannot seem a wonder, if some-times some are made so by Art. The Queen of India sent to Alexander a very beau-tiful maid, anointed and fed with the poyfon of Serpents, as Aristotle laith, and Avi-cenna from the Testimony of Ruftu, Galen Writeth of another, who eat Henbanewithout any harm; and another,Wools-bane ; so that a Hen would not come near her.And Mithridates (as old Histories deliver it to us) King of Pontus, had so strengthenedhimself against poyfon, that when he would have poysoned himself, lest he should fallinto the hands of the Romans, nothing would do him any hurt. If you give a Hawka Hen fed with snakes or lizards flesh, crwichbarly boiled in the broth of them,it will make him mew his feathers berimes : and many other such things are done,which are too long to be recounted. So many men are of such a nature, that they willcure some diseases onely with their stroaking. Many eat Spiders and wilde Olives,and C4r£ not for the biting of Serpents, nor suffer any wasting or consumption, if theybe of such a nature, that their looks or breath will not onely blast men , but plantsand herbs, and any other thing,and make them wither away : and oftentimes, wheresuch kind of creatures are,you may find blasted corn, poysoned and withered, meet-ly by the contagion of their eves, the breath that Cometh from them Do not wo-U»en in the time of their courses, insect cucumbers and melons, by touching or look-ing on idem, -so that they wither ? Are not children handled with less prejudice hymen then women ? And you will find more women then mrn witches, by reason oftheir completion; for they are farther distant from a right temper, and eat more un-wholesomeTood; so chat every moneth they are filled with superfluities, and purgeforth melancholy blood: from whence vapors arise, and flie out through their eyes,poyfoning those that stand nigh them, and filling them with the fame kind of blood.Hence sanguine complexioned men, and somewhat cholerick,who have large, shining,gWy eyes,and live chastly (for too often copulation exhausteeb the moisture) who by

frequent

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