The common token and symbollsymbol, by which the Philosophers know one another,
is, that nature is guided, taught, governed, subdued and overcome by nature, as
a young SchollarScholar by a MistresseMistress, a waiting maydmaid by her Lady, a subject by a
Queen, yea a daughter by the mother, and kinswoman by kinswoman: how -
true it is, appears by daylydaily experience, in the education of youth amongst -
men, and other actions, as literary discipline or institution, government, and
the like. Pliny writes of the NightingallsNightingales, that one teachethteaches, attends, observes, -
imitates, overcomes another in singing, or being overcome greivesgrieves, and that -
sometimes being outdone and vanquished in the conflict, the throat being broken,
it perishethperishes, and in the midlemiddle of singing falls downedown dead: WeeWe see allsoalso how
all sorts of birds doedo begin to accustomeaccustom and instruct their young being yet
unfeathered and tender for flying, that not onelyonly nature, but allsoalso art or -
use hathhas begotten in them the habit of flying, though nature alone gave -
power and organs to exercise that action, without which neither institution
or art can find foundation or place: soeso colts are taught to runnerun by the -
mare, whelps to barkebark by the bitch, and young foxes to craft by the
dam, nor is there any animated and sensitive nature or species of na=
ture found, which guides, instructs, and governs not another nature, as its
minor, or suffers itselfeitself to be overcome by another, as a Parent: WeeWe doedo -
not perceive such discipline in vegetables, yet notwithstanding the use is
observed in them, and that mens hands are of much efficacy: for whilst -
cornecorn is in the blade, it may be cleansed from incommodious thistles and
tares, whilst a tree is yet a twig it may be bent, and made to grow as -
you please: SoeSo in metallsmetals and PhilosophicallPhilosophical subjects one nature keeps,
præservespreserves, and defends another nature in fire, as is knowneknown to founders and
testers, but especially to the masters of naturallnatural things: Iron is very helpfullhelpful
and as a midwife to Silver and gold being yet very tender and SpirituallSpiritual,
as they call it, mixdmixed in its mynesmines with Cadmia, ArsenickeArsenic, or Antimony
the cheifechief, if it be cast into mynesmines to be burndburned in a fire of furnaces: -
after the same manner iron itselfeitself, if it be intended to be changed into
SteeleSteel, is saved from burning by white stones found at the Sea ShoaresShores;
Some doedo cast the powders of crystallcrystal glasseglass, or the gall of glasseglass upon
metallickemetallic powders which are to be dissolved, that they may not pe=
rish by over much fire: Instead of this gall of glasseglass the Philosophers
doedo use their Eudica,

which Morienus sassays is allsoalso the gall of glasseglass, -
and to be had in glasseglass vessellsvessels: for the heat of fire consumes the body
with hasty burning: but Eudica applyedapplied will free bodyesbodies changed into
earth from any burning: For bodyesbodies, when now they doedo not retaineretain -
their soulessouls, are soon burned: Eudica (the fæxfeces of glasseglass) is indeed very
agreableagreeable to all bodyesbodies, for it vivifyesvivifies and præparesprepares them, and defends
them from all burning: These are the sayings of Morienus the Roman:
This therefore is the nature, which teachethteaches another nature to resist -
fire, and be enuredinured to it, which is the MistresseMistress instructing the -
young SchollarScholar, and if you consider well, which is the Queen governing -
the subject, and which is the daughter nobilitating and dignifying the mother;
This is that red servant, which is joyndjoined in matrimony with his odoriferous
mother, and of her begets a progeny farrefar more noble than the parents -
thereof: This is Pyrrhus the SonneSon of Achilles, and the young man with
red hairehair, golden vestment, blackeblack eyes, white feet: This is the knight -
with a collar or chainechain armed with sword and buckler against the Dra=
gon, to rescue out of his jawesjaws the pure and unviolated virgin Albifica, -
sirnamedsurnamed Beja, or Blanca: This is the monster=-killingmonster-killing Hercules, who -
delivered from the monster Hesione the daughter of Laomedon being -
exposed to a teribleterrible and cruellcruel Whale: This is that Perseus, who de=
fended (released, and marryedmarried) Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiope
and Cepheus King of ÆthiopiaEthiopia, from the Sea monster, ShewingShowing the -
head of Medusa: This is heehe that may be compared with those ancient Ro=
mans the præserverspreservers and refiners of the people, Marcus Curtius, Lucius Scæ=
volaScaevola, Horatius Cocles, Manlius Capitolinus, and the like, to rescue the -
CittyCity, as it were the mother, from dangers: For this is the way and formeform
of nature tending to the perfection of any workework, to bring one thing out
of another, a thing more perfect out of a thing imperfect, and reduce
power into action, but not perfect all things in a moment, but one thing
after another: Nor this alone, but sheeshe constitutes allsoalso her deputy in the
first place, to which SheeShe leaves the power of life and death, that is, of
forming other things, as for example, in the generation of man SheeShe -
usethuses a long processeprocess, as of tenneten monethsmonths, where first according to the
opinion of Aristotle, SheeShe fabricates the heart, as the vicar, deputy, or
principallprincipal bowellbowel, and then the heart delineates, formesforms, and perfects
the other parts necessary to nutrition, the life, senses, and generative
power, and coḿunicatescommunicates to them life and vivifickevivific spirits by Systole -
and diastole, or dilatation and compression of the arteryesarteries, soeso long -
as it is not impeded by diseases and violence: And thus one nature -
teachethteaches another, which you must observe and follow for an example
of the PhilosophicallPhilosophical workework, as a thing most clear and evident . . .