Of Vicissitude OF THINGS

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.