It is one of the secrets of Nature, that in the cold winter FroggsFrogs and -
Horse=-leechesHorse-leeches lyelie as it were dead under water, and in the Spring new -
heat of the SunneSun operating recover sense and motion, or performeperform -
the actions of a sensitiuesensitive life: But if they be found in the waters -
in the winter time, and brought into the aireair or a warmewarm house, they
presently begin to move themselves, as in the Summer: From whence
it appears, that they want nothing but externallexternal heat, to excite the
naturallnatural internallinternal heat, and bring it to action: After the same man=
ner doedo the Philosophers speakespeak of their Hermaphrodite, who, if heehe
appears dead lying in darkenessedarkness, requires the heat of fire: Now heehe -
is saydsaid to lyelie in darkenessedarkness, being left in a darkedark and most cold win=
ters night, that is, remaining in blacknesseblackness, which is a signesign of coldnessecoldness,
from which heehe ought to be brought to whitenessewhiteness by a greater intension
of fire, and by yet a greater, to rednesseredness: For, as Bodillus in Turba saythsays,
nothing is generated without heat, and a bath of vehement heat causethcauses -
a body to perish, if it be cold it drives it away, but if it be temperate, it
becomes agreableagreeable and pleasant to the body. Bonellus in the same saythsays,
All things that live doedo allsoalso (God soeso pleasing) dyedie: that nature there=
fore, which is depriv'ddeprived of moisture, being exposdexposed by night, seems like
a dead man, and then that nature requires fire, till the body and Spi=
rit of it be turned into earth, and then it becomes dust like to a dead
man in his tombetomb: these things being accomplished God restores a Spirit
and SouleSoul to it, and all infirmity being taken away our nature is com=
forted and amended: It is therefore requisite to burneburn that matter without
fear etc. Fire therefore, which destroyesdestroys all other things, repairesrepairs this, that
which yeildsyields death to others gives life to this. One onelyonly PhœnixPhoenix there is,
which is restored by fire, which is renewed by flames, and revives out of
ashes, and this being knowneknown to the Philosophers onelyonly is burnt and
restored to life, whatsoever other men dreamedream of a bird, I know not -
what, that flyethflies, residing noewherenowhere, nor seen, but as a fable. The
Hermaphrodite, of which the Philosophers speakespeak, is of a mixdmixed na=
ture, male and female, whereof one passethpasses into another by the -
operation of heat, for the female is converted into a male, which -
ought not to seem soeso strange in the Philosophers workework, it being -
found, if weewe may beleivebelieve historyeshistories, that many men have allsoalso -
changdchanged their sex: The PoettsPoets make mention of Ceneus, Iphis, and
Tiresias, as Pontanus in the StarrsStars.

SoeSo in the Consulship of Licinius Crassus, and Caius Cassius Longinus
at Cassinum a boy was made of a Virgin: And Licinius Mutianus in Pli=
ny relates, that heehe had seen one Aristontes at Argos, called allsoalso by the -
name of Aristusa, who was marrydmarried, and soonesoon after discovered a beard -
and virility, and marrydmarried a wife: Pliny himselfehimself saythsays that in Africa
heehe saw Lucius Cossicius a Citizen of Tisdritane chang'dchanged into a woman
on the day of mariagemarriage: certainecertain it is that these things are true, and -
might be proved by many other examples, if need were: but the geni=
tallgenital or virile parts are thrust out of the body by the encreaseincrease of heat:
For a woman being much colder than a man, and having inwardly -
those things absconded, which a man hathhas outwardly, as PhysitiansPhysicians -
say, hereupon Nature being dubious, whether SheeShe Should generate a -
man or a woman, hathhas expressdexpressed a woman outwardly, though inwardly -
sheeshe conceivdconceived a man: for which reason heat and motion increasing -
through age the hidden parts broke forth, and shewdshowed themselves visibly
to all men: After the same manner with the Philosophers the woman is
turndturned into a man heat being increased, that is, the Hermaphrodite loo=
sethloses the female sex, and becomes a man stout and grave, having -
nothing in him of effeminacy or levity. SoeSo weewe some time since -
saw a noble youth an Hermaphrodite changed or rather promoted (by
the industry of the ChirurgicallSurgical art performdperformed by that most famous
PhysitianPhysician Caspius Tagliacotius of Bononia) into a perfect man, fit (as
was desired) for the generating of an offspring, a new hole being made
through the yard, which was wanting there, and the lower as appertai=
ning to the woman being stopdstopped up. The Philosophers are not without
all these manuallmanual operations: for when the coldnessecoldness and moistnessemoistness of -
Luna appears, that they call the woman, when the heat and siccity of
Sol, the man; when all those four qualityesqualities together, being their Rebis or Her=
maphrodite; And thus conversion of the woman may easily be made,
that is, the mutation of coldnessecoldness and moistnessemoistness, into the man, which is
done by the sole heat of fire, as hathhas been saydsaid; for heat sequesters, -
and separates the superfluityessuperfluities of moistures, and will establish the -
idea of itselfeitself in the PhilosophicallPhilosophical subject, which is the tincture . .