SOLOMON saith, There is no new thing upon
the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination,
That all knowledge was but remembrance; so
Solomon giveth his sentence, That all novelty is
but oblivion. Whereby you may see, that the river
of Lethe runneth as well above ground as below.
There is an abstruse astrologer that saith, If it were
not for two things that are constant (the one is,
that the fixed stars ever stand a like distance one
from another, and never come nearer together, nor
go further asunder; the other, that the diurnal
motion perpetually keepeth time), no individual
would last one moment. Certain it is, that the mat-
ter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay. The
great winding-sheets, that bury all things in ob-
livion, are two; deluges and earthquakes. As for
conflagrations and great droughts, they do not
merely dispeople and destroy. Phaeton's car went
but a day. And the three years' drought in the time
of Elias, was but particular, and left people alive.
As for the great burnings by lightnings, which are
often in the West Indies, they are but narrow. But
in the other two destructions, by deluge and earth-
quake, it is further to be noted, that the remnant
of people which hap to be reserved, are commonly
ignorant and mountainous people, that can give
no account of the time past; so that the oblivion is
all one, as if none had been left. If you consider
well of the people of the West Indies, it is very
probable that they are a newer or a younger peo-
ple, than the people of the Old World. And it is
much more likely, that the destruction that hath
heretofore been there, was not by earthquakes (as
the Egyptian priest told Solon concerning the
island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an
earthquake), but rather that it was desolated by a
particular deluge. For earthquakes are seldom in
those parts. But on the other side, they have such
pouring rivers, as the rivers of Asia and Africk and
Europe, are but brooks to them. Their Andes, like-
wise, or mountains, are far higher than those with
us; whereby it seems, that the remnants of gen-
eration of men, were in such a particular deluge
saved. As for the observation that Machiavel hath,
that the jealousy of sects, doth much extinguish
the memory of things; traducing Gregory the
Great, that he did what in him lay, to extinguish
all heathen antiquities; I do not find that those
zeals do any great effects, nor last long; as it ap-
peared in the succession of Sabinian, who did
revive the former antiquities.
The vicissitude of mutations in the superior
globe, are no fit matter for this present argument.
It may be, Plato's great year, if the world should
last so long, would have some effect; not in renew-
ing the state of like individuals (for that is the fume
of those, that conceive the celestial bodies have
more accurate influences upon these things below,
than indeed they have), but in gross. Comets, out
of question, have likewise power and effect, over
the gross and mass of things; but they are rather
gazed upon, and waited upon in their journey,
than wisely observed in their effects; specially in,
their respective effects; that is, what kind of comet,
for magnitude, color, version of the beams, plac-
ing in the reign of heaven, or lasting, produceth
what kind of effects.
There is a toy which I have heard, and I would
not have it given over, but waited upon a little.
They say it is observed in the Low Countries (I
know not in what part) that every five and thirty
years, the same kind and suit of years and weath-
ers come about again; as great frosts, great wet,
great droughts, warm winters, summers with little
heat, and the like; and they call it the Prime. It is
a thing I do the rather mention, because, comput-
ing backwards, I have found some concurrence.
But to leave these points of nature, and to come
to men. The greatest vicissitude of things amongst
men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions. For
those orbs rule in men's minds most. The true re-
ligion is built upon the rock; the rest are tossed,
upon the waves of time. To speak, therefore, of the
causes of new sects; and to give some counsel con-
cerning them, as far as the weakness of human
judgment can give stay, to so great revolutions.
When the religion formerly received, is rent by
discords; and when the holiness of the professors
of religion, is decayed and full of scandal; and
withal the times be stupid, ignorant, and bar-
barous; you may doubt the springing up of a new
sect; if then also, there should arise any extrava-
gant and strange spirit, to make himself author
thereof. All which points held, when Mahomet
published his law. If a new sect have not two prop-
erties, fear it not; for it will not spread. The one is
the supplanting, or the opposing, of authority es-
tablished; for nothing is more popular than that.
The other is the giving license to pleasures, and a
voluptuous life. For as for speculative heresies
(such as were in ancient times the Arians, and now
the Armenians), though they work mightily upon
men's wits, yet they do not produce any great al-
terations in states; except it be by the help of civil
occasions. There be three manner of plantations of
new sects. By the power of signs and miracles; by
the eloquence, and wisdom, of speech and persua-
sion; and by the sword. For martyrdoms, I reckon
them amongst miracles; because they seem to ex-
ceed the strength of human nature: and I may do
the like, of superlative and admirable holiness of
life. Surely there is no better way, to stop the rising
of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses; to
compound the smaller differences; to proceed
mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions;
and rather to take off the principal authors by win-
ning and advancing them, than to enrage them
by violence and bitterness.
The changes and vicissitude in wars are many;
but chiefly in three things; in the seats or stages of
the war; in the weapons; and in the manner of the
conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to
move from east to west; for the Persians, Assyrians,
Arabians, Tartars (which were the invaders) were
all eastern people. It is true, the Gauls were west-
ern; but we read but of two incursions of theirs:
the one to Gallo-Grecia, the other to Rome. But east
and west have no certain points of heaven; and no
more have the wars, either from the east or west,
any certainty of observation. But north and south
are fixed; and it hath seldom or never been seen
that the far southern people have invaded the
northern, but contrariwise. Whereby it is manifest
that the northern tract of the world, is in nature
the more martial region: be it in respect of the stars
of that hemisphere; or of the great continents that
are upon the north, whereas the south part, for
aught that is known, is almost all sea; or (which is
most apparent) of the cold of the northern parts,
which is that which, without aid of discipline,
doth make the bodies hardest, and the courages
warmest.
Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state
and empire, you may be sure to have wars. For
great empires, while they stand, do enervate and
destroy the forces of the natives which they have
subdued, resting upon their own protecting forces;
and then when they fail also, all goes to ruin, and
they become a prey. So was it in the decay of the
Roman empire; and likewise in the empire of
Almaigne, after Charles the Great, every bird tak-
ing a feather; and were not unlike to befall to
Spain, if it should break. The great accessions and
unions of kingdoms, do likewise stir up wars; for
when a state grows to an over-power, it is like a
great flood, that will be sure to overflow. As it hath
been seen in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain,
and others. Look when the world hath fewest bar-
barous peoples, but such as commonly will not
marry or generate, except they know means to live
(as it is almost everywhere at this day, except Tar-
tary), there is no danger of inundations of people;
but when there be great shoals of people, which go
on to populate, without foreseeing means of life
and sustentation, it is of necessity that once in an
age or two, they discharge a portion of their people
upon other nations; which the ancient northern
people were wont to do by lot; casting lots what
part should stay at home, and what should seek
their fortunes. When a warlike state grows soft and
effeminate, they may be sure of a war. For com-
monly such states are grownm rich in the time of
their degenerating; and so the prey inviteth, and
their decay in valor, encourageth a war.
As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule
and observation: yet we see even they, have re-
turns and vicissitudes. For certain it is, that ord-
nance was known in the city of the Oxidrakes in
India; and was that, which the Macedonians
called thunder and lightning, and magic. And it
is well known that the use of ordnance, hath been
in China above two thousand years. The conditions
of weapons, and their improvement, are; First, the
fetching afar off; for that outruns the danger; as
it is seen in ordnance and muskets. Secondly, the
strength of the percussion; wherein likewise ord-
nance do exceed all arietations and ancient inven-
tions. The third is, the commodious use of them; as
that they may serve in all weathers; that the car-
riage may be light and manageable; and the like.
For the conduct of the war: at the first, men
rested extremely upon number: they did put the
wars likewise upon main force and valor; pointing
days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon
an even match and they were more ignorant in
ranging and arraying their battles. After, they
grew to rest upon number rather competent, than
vast; they grew to advantages of place, cunning
diversions, and the like: and they grew more skil-
ful in the ordering of their battles.
In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the
middle age of a state, learning; and then both of
them together for a time; in the declining age of a
state, mechanical arts and merchandize. Learning
hath his infancy, when it is but beginning and
almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuri-
ant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when
it is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when
it waxeth dry and exhaust. But it is not good to look
too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude,
lest we become giddy. As for the philology of
them, that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not
fit for this writing.
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