Of Observation .

BEing to relate of the Customes , Manners , and Potencies of Nations and great Princes , my scope shall not bee to trouble your Readings with proofes out of such obsolete Authors as are accounted very ancient , for with these Themes ( by reason of Indiscoverie ) those Ages were not so well acquainted : Againe , their Observations , Rules , and Caveats being not so well digested , nothing so certaine as ours of these lightsomer times , were neither so pleasant nor so usefull as these more assured & more moderne Relations . Time and the Warres have altered much since Aristotle and Ptolomies dayes ; whose Rules and Observations have since growne partly out of use , and beene partly bettered . I cannot certainly subscribe to the opinions of such Philosophers , who building all upon Influences and Constellations , will have the faculties of Soules and Bodies to bee governed by the Starres and Climates : But my meaning is to lay downe some few Observations arising from the immutable providence of Nature , which remaineth constant , immortall , and is never changed , unlesse by Accident , Violence , or Times tyrannie ; which notwithstanding in the revolution of an Age or two , returneth againe to its prime operation . From thence I will descend to discourse of such Reasons , as may in all probabilitie give occasion or advantage to one Prince or Nation to excell another either in keeping or inlarging . Thirdly , I will lay downe some Instructions for travell . And comming in the last place to the particular Relations of our Author , wee will premise a more exact and large description of the Countrey , and the chiefe Cities of note in it : Leaving all to your favourable construction .

Of the diuision of Temperature .

FIrst therefore , according to best Authoritie , let us firmely beleeve , That the Creator of all things hath not bestowed upon any particular Region like and semblable blessings to another ; but that ( as experience may warrant ) to some one Countrey he hath given this good favour , to another that ; partly in regard of situation , partly by operation of his ministers , as starres , winds , heat , cold , water , aire , diet , &c. Athenis tenue coelum , Thebis crassum : Athens enjoyes a cleare skie , and Thebes a foggie . And therefore without offence , by the testimonie of good Authors , wee may bee bold to conjecture , that the people & Nations inhabiting divers climates of this vast Vniverse , are endowed with divers , strange , and opposite dispositions : It is naturall to the Inhabitants bounding upon the North , to be biggest boned , strongest set , and aptest for labour : and to the nations of the South , to bee weake , yet more subtill . Acuriores Attici , valentes Thebani ; The Athenians are the sharper witted , but the Thebans are the abler bodied .

Now , how farre these Influences of North and South stretch in operation ; or wh●re the East and West put periods to their owne potencies ; or what , in generall truth , is to be affirmed of their divers manners and qualities , is hard to say ; and the harder , for that no man hitherto hath presumed to undertake the taske amidst so many obscurities . For if all credit should be given to Hippocrates , ( whose authoritie was ever held oraculous ) he will tell you , That the people of the North are slender , dwarfish , lean and swarthie : And Averrois will be bold to affirme , That the mountaine people are most pious and wittie : whereas universall experience doth condemne them of rudenesse and barbarisme . The ignorance of the Ancients ( saith Bodin ) was once so grosse , that not a few of them deemed the Ocean a River , all Iberia but a Citie .

And because all the Ancients in like error ( except Possidonius and Avicen ) limited the possibilitie of habitation , to consist wholly betweene the Tropikes and the polar Circles ; affirming , that beyond there was no health , no place peopled , &c. let this erroneous imagination for evermore be silenced , by the authoritie of all moderne Navigators , who have found the wholsomest and best peopled Countries of all those parts , to lie under the Aequator : and the regions situated under the Tropikes , to bee tormented with more rigorous heat . Alvarez reporteth , that the Abassine Embassador arriving at Lisbon in Portugall , was that day almost choaked with heat ; and yet is Abassia or Prester Iohns country from whence he came , neere upon 30. degrees more Southerly than Lisbon is : yea , and betweene the Tropike of Cancer and the Aequator also , part of it lying even beyond the Line . And Purquer the Germane reported , that he had felt the weather hotter about Dantzike , and the Baltike Sea , than at Tholouza in a fervent Summer ; notwithstanding that Dantzike be farre more Northerly than Tholouza . And this is no paradox : The cause with good iudgement being to bee ascribed to the grossnesse and thicknesse of the aire ; considering that Europe and the North are full of waters ; which bursting out from hidden and unknowne concavities , doe produce infinite bogs , fens , lakes , and marishes , in the Summer seasons causing thicke vapours to ascend . Which ( without doubt ) being incorporated with heat , scorch more fervently , than the purer aire of Affrike , being stored with no such super-abundance of watry elements : Even so fire , being invested in the body of liquors , or metals , scaldeth more furiously than in wood ; and in wood , more fervently than in flame . And if the keepers of stoves and hot houses , doe not sprinkle the ground with water , that the vapour being contracted and the aire thickned , they may thereby the longer and better maintaine heat , and spare fuell ; you must ( for me ) wander into the schooles of more profound Philosophers for further satisfaction .

Of the Situation of Nations .

NOw to the South-wards , wee will limit the hithermost Spaniards , the Siculi , the Peloponnesians , the Cretensians , the Syrians , the Arabians , the Persians , the Susians , the Gedrosii , the Indians , the Aegyptians , the Cirenians , the Africans , the Numidians , the Libians , the Moores , and the people of Florida in America , to be situated : but with this caveat , that those wholly to the West-wards in the same latitude , live in a more cold temperature .

The people of the North , I meane to be those , which live under the fortieth degree to the sixtieth : and those of more temperature , who extend to the seventieth . Vnder the first are situated , Brittaine , Ireland , Denmarke , part of Gotland , Netherland , and those Countries , which from the River of Mase stretch to the outmost borders of Scythia and Tartaria , containing a good portion of Europe , and the greater Asia .

The inhabitants of the Middle Region , as being subject neither to extreme heat , not to extreme cold , I place betweene both Extremes , and yet able to endure both , with indifferent content . I also terme that the Middle Region , which lieth betweene the Tropike and the Pole ; and not that which lieth betweene the Tropike and the Line : because the extremitie of heat is not so forcibly felt under the Line ( as aforesaid ) as under the Tropikes . So that , that cannot be accounted the temperate climate , which extendeth from the thirtieth degree to the fortieth ; but that which beginneth at the fortieth , and endeth at the fiftieth : and the neerer East the more temperate . Vnder which tract , lie the further Spaine , France , Italie , the higher Germanie , ( as farre as the Mase ) both Hungaries , Illyria , both Mysiaes , Dacia , Moldavia , Macedon , Thrace , and the better part of Asia the lesse , Armenia , Parthia , Sogdiana , and a great part of Asia the great . And the neerer the East , the more temperate , although they somewhat incline to the South-ward , as Lydia , Cilicia , Asia , Media , &c.

The ancient Greekes and Romanes both to set forth their owne skill in Geographie and Philosophie , and withall to make shew of the largenesse of their conquests ; with ignorance and idlenesse enough , did like the Chinois at this day represent their owne kingdome in the map , as bigge as all the rest of the world besides . They therefore dividing the heavens into five Zones , made three of them utterly inhabitable : In those two next the Poles their philosophy judged not much amisse ; for though no man of Europe hath beene neere to either of them , yet at that distance were the discoverers , yea the Seas themselves frozen up with most insufferable cold ; and these the Ancients rightly called , The frozen Zones . But in that which is called the Torride Zone , their philosophy was much mistaken . This Zone takes up all that space which is betwixt the two Tropicks , and is equally divided by the Aequinoctiall line ; the whole breadth of the Zone being 47. degrees , that is , 2820. Italian miles of ground . Now in this vast tract to imagine , all heat and no temperature sufficient for a man to live in , was but an errour of the times , bewraying their owne unexperience , and the uncertainty of speculative philosophie .

It is true indeed , that neere unto the North pole men thinking to draw in their breaths , are in danger to have their throats pluggd up with an Isicle : and the Dutchmen wintering in Nova Zembla , had their house covered with snow for nine or ten moneths together , nor could they get themselves a heat with all the fire they could make . But there is not the same reason for the insufferablenesse of heat , that there is of cold . Heat is the friend of life and nature , and cold the great enemie and nipper of vegetation : And whereas cold can without doors receiue no temperer ; heat on the contrarie is capable of very many . For so hath the most wise God ordered his Creation , that under the Torride Zone , there is most abundant plentie of waters ; Rain-water , Snow-water , Sea-water , Lake-water , River-water , and Spring-water . As for their raines , even the heats cause them ; for in those moneths , when the Sunne is verticall , and right over their heads , and at that time of the day when he scorches from the height of his Meridian , at high noone dayes , even then most plentifully doth hee dissolve the clouds ; and the raines at that time quench his flames most temperately . At mid-day also have they ( and that constantly ) those coole and gentle winds , which the Spaniards call the Brizes . In those parts have they the most mighty Rivers ; witnesse the Orelian 70. leagues in bredth , and that of Plate , 40. leagues over ; with divers others not much streighter than our narrow Seas . There have they the Lake Ticicaca , 80. leagues compasse ; Nicuragua , 300. miles long ; and the Lake of Mexico 1100. miles about . To come on this side the Line ( yet still under the Torride Zone ) where can you finde such impetuous raines continually falling for some whole moneths together , and such vast Lakes and Rivers as in Aethiopia ? the mouth of the River Zairo is 20. miles wide ; nay , and in these places the rivers content not themselves with their owne channels , but in the hottest moneths they then overflow the whole country , witnesse the Nile and the Niger : Another commoditie of these waters is this , that the winds skimming over the face of them , fannes the coole vapour all over those quarters . Nay , as if this were not enough , wee see that God hath provided water even in living and growing Cesternes ; the hollow truncks of most tree-like canes being full of water , and those coole a little also ; such be plentifull in the Moluccas , even under the Aequinoctiall . Besides all this , hath nature provided those parts of many high mountaines , which cast long shadowes , and mightily keepe off the Sun ; yea , and which you would wonder at , even in that continuall neighbourhood of that great Thawer have you hils perpetually covered with frost & snow : so is it in the I le of Saint Thomas , which is just under the Aequinoctiall ; and so are the silver hills of P●tossi also . The generall causer of these snowes and colds is held to be the length of the nights ( whose long and frequent intermissions be another maine occasion of temper and cooling ) and these are generally , and all the yeare , the neerer the Line , the longer , being there equall with the dayes themselves ; so that there it snowes and freezes as much in the night , as the Sun thawes in the day ; these snow-waters being naturally more cold than other waters also . For these and other reasons have our men of Europe found not people alone , but even white people , and most delicate and temperate dwelling ( perchance the best in the world ) in this Torride Zone , yea , under the very Aequinoctiall ; yea , much cooler Summers , than in Estramedura in Spaine , or Apulia in Italy . To conclude this point , the ancient Romanes who lookt for nothing but rost-meat in that Zone , and that raw men could not possibly live there , were a great deale worse scorched in their owne Italy ; nor have those under the Torride Zone so much need of the Romane Grottaes or - Freskataes for to coole them .

Of the Constitutions , Complexions , and Natures of the Northerne man .

GEnerally , both in the North , in the South , as also in the Middle , you shall observe great difference both of fashion and qualitie , occasioned ( no question ) through the intermingled resort from both Extremes . But in the Extremes you shall see . no such apparant diversitie . For the assured token of a Scythians countenance is , his reddish eye like those of the Owle , which also doe dazle at the sight of the light . Such eyes ( saith Plutarch ) haue the Cimbrians , and such at this day the Danes . The Germanes and the Brittish have them not so fierie , but rather grey , intermixed with a bright blacknesse , most resembling the colour of water . And this bright-shining colour ( saith Aristotle ) argueth heat : but blacke ( the colour of the Southerne people ) betokeneth want thereof . The grey eye ( and such is theirs who inhabite betweene both ) is sharpest of sight , seldome troubled with dimnesse ; and according to Aristotle , denoteth good qualities : the Red , crueltie and austeritie , as Plinie and Plutarch observed of Sylla , Caro , and Augustus .

The bloud also of the Scythian is full of small strings , such as are discernable in the goare of Bulls and Boares , and betokeneth strength and courage . The people of the South haue their bloud thinne and fluent , like to that of the Hare and Hart , and denoteth feare . Whereupon it may be conjectured , that those Nations which are spread from the fortieth degree to the seventie five Northward , are hot within : but the people of the South , what they borrow from the Sunne , that they want in themselves ; the inward heat being dispersed and drawne into the outward parts by the vehemencie of the outward heat : A reason why in frosty weather our minds and joynts are couragious and strong : in heat , idle , and lazie ; and so our appetites and digestion more vehement in Winter than in Summer , ( especially if the Northerne winds be stirring . ) The Southerne winds effect the contrary in all living creatures ( saith Aristotle ) as may daily be observed amongst the English , the Germans , and the French , travelling into Italy and Spaine : where if they live not sparingly , they fall into surfets ; witnesse Philip Duke of Austria , living in Spaine after his Germane gourmandizing fashion .

Againe , the Spaniards , who in their owne Countries live most niggardly , in our parts of the world prove better trencher-men than the natives . And this experiment falleth not out true in men onely , but also in beasts , which ( as herdsmen affirme ) being driven towards the South , fall away and lose flesh : but if they feed towards the North , they prosper and wax fat . Which I the rather beleeve , for that Leo Afer writeth , that throughout all Afrike you shall almost see no herds of Cattell , nor Horse , few flocks of Sheepe , and scarce any milke at all . On the other side , the goodly droves of the English , the Germans , and the Scythians , are celebrated of all writers : not because their pastures are better , or sweeter than those of the South , ( by the censure of Plinie ) but for the nature and temperature of the Heavens , and the Ayre .

And as the Northerne man by nature is hot and moist , ( the Elements of fecunditie ) so there is no question , but that of all people they are , and have beene , the most populous . For from the Goths , the Scythians , the Germans , and the Scandians , not onely vast desarts , and goodly Cities have beene founded , and inhabited , but from their loynes also have Colonies beene derived thorowout all Europe . Well therefore might Methodius , and P. Diaconus resemble their Armies to swarmes of Bees . And most true it is , that Iornandes and Olaus terme the North , the Store-house of mankinde ; because from thence the Goths , the Gepidae , the Hunnes , the Cimbrians , the Lombards , the Alani , the Burgundians , the Normans , the Picts , the Heruli , the Swevians , the Slavi , the Swizzers , and the Russians have not denied to fetch their pedigrees .

Which maketh me to muse , upon what reasons Hippocrates could build to say , That the Northerne Nations were unapt for generation , causa frigiditatis ; whereas the conjectures of heat and moisture , argued in their hot and fervent breathings , proceeding from the stomacke , and more apparant in Winter than in Summer , are not so effectually verified in any people , as in the inhabitants of the North. The true motives , I say , of promptnesse to generation , and not of sensuall concupiscence , as Aristotle also would have us to imagine : A vice more proper to the Southerne man : performance to the Northerne man .

Which indifferent limitation , was ( without doubt ) allotted to either climate by the handy-worke of God ; that those who were of sufficiencie for generation , should not greatly be addicted to pleasures ; & the residue which wanted of that measure of heat and moisture , should delight in wantonnesse , to raise their appetites ; without the which , they would neither propagate their issue , nor by inter-marriages maintaine humane societie .

And that this inward heat also maketh the people of the North more couragious , taller , and stronger , than the Nations of the South , is apparantly discernable , not in our parts onely ( by the operation of nature ) but also in the people dwelling beyond the Tropike of Capricorne : where the more they decline from the Aequator , the more they spread in stature and tallnesse . For the land of the Pentagones ( of some termed Giants ) is situated under the same latitude that Germanie is .

Which assertions holding true , it is no wonder that this strong and couragious people , the Scythians , have from the beginning cruelly invaded the South , erecting therein many goodly Trophies : whereas from the South hath scarce ever beene attempted a journey worth speaking of , to the indammagement of the North.

The Assyrians vanquished the Caldeans : the Medes , the Assyrians : the Greeks , the Persians ; the Parthians , the Greekes : the Romans , the Carthaginians : the Goths , the Romans : the Turks , the Arabians : the Tartars , the Turkes : and beyond Danubius , the Romans were ever unwilling to attempt . Indeed Trajan erected an admirable bridge of stone over that River ; for it had twentie arches , the rumes whereof ( by report ) are to be seene at this day . But after that the same Trajan perceived , that those Nations were neither easily beaten , nor being beaten , would or could away with subjection , he commanded the bridge to be broken . Semblably , the English have given the French , and Spanish , many famous overthrowes , especially to the French in France it selfe , even to the hazard of their State ; and yet never could either of both the Nations , at any time , ( though often attempted ) set sure footing in England .

These inrodes of the aforesaid barbarous Nations , I would not reiterate , but that in them ( to mine understanding ) the grievous threats of Ezechiel , Ieremie , Esay , and the rest of the Prophets , That from the North should arise warres , footmen , horsemen , and the ruine of kingdomes ; have beene , in , and by them accomplished : and most properly ought to bee referred to that fore-divided partition , which stretcheth from the five and fortieth degree , to the fiftieth and five , where Biarmia is situated . For those which dwell beyond ( being either none , or very few ) are dried up ( to use Hippocrates his terme ) with as vehement cold , as the people living under the Tropikes are with heat : Not by reason of their inward heat , ( as Aristotle in his Meteors dreamed ) but by the rigour of the cold , piercing their bodies , and wasting their humours ; unto which humours , the Northerne people are generally subject . A manifest signe whereof , is their immoderate drinking , which in the Saxons , and the inhabitants of the Baltike Sea , could never yet be moderated by time , nor statutes . And that these humours cause the body to spread , let the Monsters of the Sea resolve our doubts , who grow to that immensive vastnesse , above all other living creatures , propter humiditatis copian● .

But ( as I take it ) this overmuch moisture in the Northerne people , turneth them often into many grievous inconveniences . For if you observe any of those Nations to travell towards the South , or to make warres in hot Countries , you shall finde them to faint and perish through immoderate sweating : as Plutarch , in the life of Marius , observed in the Rhewmatike bodies of the Cimbrians : And as experience manifesteth in the Horse , who being by nature hot and moist , liveth barely in Aethiopia , and liketh well in Scythia ; whereas on the contrary , the Asse , being cold and drie , is lustie , and of good service in Afrike ; in Europe , poore and base ; in Scythia , not to be found .

And what now we have spoken of the strength and courage of men , is observed also to be true of horses . The Turkish and Barbary horses , are like their Masters , rather well limbd and well spirited , than for labour or long journeyes . The Spanish Iennet , like the men of his nation , quickly proves good for a souldier , both best , when best caparisond . The Hungarian is a fierce assailant , and his horse must bee lookt too for feare of running away with the Coach . The high and low Dutch are bigge boned , but foggie people , and the Germane horse is not to travell above thirtie miles a day ; that nation admires a poore English Hackney . The Tartar is a stubbed squat fellow , hard bred , and such are their horses . And so for our English .

Of the people of the South .

THe people of the South , as concerning the constitutions of their bodies , are said to be cold , drie , thicke-skin'd , thinne and short hair'd , weake , browne , small timbred , blacke eyed , and shrill voiced : the Northerne men contrarie , and the middle people indifferently participating of both . The Spanish women terme the Germane● , Mallespisces , that is , spongie fishes , for their continuall drinking ; and in Italy and Provence , the inhabitants doe much wonder at the English , the French , and the Flemmings , for their nightly complaints of the bitings of the Gnats and Cimeces ( a kinde of wormes breeding in their beds and bedsteads ) whereas they themselves doe little regard them .

But as the bodies of the Northerne people are endued with strength and courage ; so the weake constitutions of the Southerne Nations are supplied by the extraordinarie gifts of the minde ; terme them what you please , either wit , or subtiltie .

Of crueltie also they have ever beene taxed : Reade Leo Afer his Historie of Afrike , and the Carthaginian dissentions : or if Antiquitie please you not , then turne your eyes to the late butcheries of Muleasses and his children , and diligently weigh , if ever your eares heard of more hellish furies than those which these Princes have put in execution , either upon their vassals , or against their own linage . Which if you undertake , then you shall see miserable Muleasses deprived of his kingdome , with his eyes burnt out , his face disfigured , and in lamentable distresse ( by the cruelty of his brother ) prostrating his complaints at the feet of Charles the Emperour .

For to speake uprightly , from these Nations ( more than from any other ) have tortures of more exquisite device taken their originals : as exoculations , tearing of memb●●s , flayings , gashings with swords , slow fires , and impalements on stakes : all which the Italians , the French , the Spanish , the Greekes , and the people of Asia , have ever abhorred , and never admitted , but upon occasions of horrible treasons , and that unwillingly too , as borrowed from their neighbours .

And , that no man should conjecture , as doth Polybius , that evill education should produce this disposition of crueltie , I would advise him to looke into the nature of the Southerne Americans , who also bathe their children in the gore of their slaughtered enemies , then drinke their bloud , and lastly banquet with the quartered carkasses of their enemies . But if peradventure any man will object the like crueltie in the Northerne man , I would wish him to put this difference : that the man of the North is transported into fury by the heat of courage , and pursueth his revenge in open field ; where being provoked , and passion asswaged , he is easily pacified : whereas the Southerne man is not easily provoked ; nor once in passion , is easily to be reconciled : and in actions of warre , he wholly setteth his hopes on policies and stratagems , tormenting with great indignitie and crueltie his slaine or vanquished enemies , and that in cold bloud . A disposition base and brutish , arising partly ( I denie not ) from that instinct of fury , which evill education , and their inveterate desire of revenge , doe ingender in nature , but more properly increased by the unequall distribution of humours , and these humours by the inequalitie of the elements . By the influence of celestiall providence , these elements are proportioned , and by these elements humane bodies are transported and bloud infused in the bodie , life in the bloud , the soule in life , and understanding in the soule : which , although it be free from passion , yet by proximitie it cannot but participate of neighbour-imperfection : the reason wherefore the people dwelling on either side our Middest , are more prone to vice and foule behaviour .

For as melancholie can no more be wanting to bloud , thanlees to wine ; no otherwise can these passions , which arise from melancholie , be extracted from the body .

Now , the Southerne people having the greatest portion of their other humours drawne out by the heat of the Sun , the melancholike ( wherewith they most abound ) remaine , and as dregges settle at the base of all their actions , being the more exasperated by their froward and perverse dispositions . That men of these constitutions are utterly implacable , Ajax and M. Coriolanus may serve for presidents ; the former of whom , for that he could not have his will on his enemie , in a madding mood fell upon droves of cattell : the other would in no wise be reconciled to his Countrey , before he saw the Cities thereof on a flaming fire , in danger of irrecoverable destruction .

But that the Northerne people have also their faults , and are subject to choler , I must not gaine-say , but advise you to consider , that when this passion happeneth to over-rule reason , it burneth the bloud , and incenseth the minde to quarrelling and revenge , but in a farre fairer measure ( as I said before ) than melancholie doth in the nature of a Southerne man . According to Cicero : Passion may over-beare a wise man ; madnesse cannot .

Now , that the people of the South have beene given to the studies of contemplation , ( a profession befitting their melancholike humours ) let their excellent Writers , and Inventors of many noble Sciences , as the Historie of Nature , the Mathematikes , Religion , and the operation of the Planets , plead their properties .

The Northerne people , being lesse given to contemplation , by reason of their plentie of bloud and humours , distempering their minds , and hindering it's faculties , have , without teaching , found out such Arts , as fall within the compasse of understanding and apprehension ; as Mechanicall workmanships , Ordnance , casting of metals , Printing , and Minerals .

Being also the Darlings of Mars , they have alwayes , and that with incredible eagernesse of courage , embraced the Art Militarie , loved Armes , levelled Mountaines , and turned Streames ; giving themselves wholly to Hunting , to Tillage , to Grasing , and to those Arts which are managed by labour : insomuch , that a man may well affirme , That their wits consist in their hands . The reason why the Astrologers ( if you please to beleeve them ) affirme , That those who have Mars Lord in their Nativities , become either Souldiers or Trades-men .

Of the people of the Middle Region .

OF this division are those , who at this day , understanding the reciprocall bounds of Government and Subjection , and inured to civill and sociable conditions , are sufficiently enabled to frustrate the policies of the South , and to oppose against the furies of the North. Out of this mould would Vitruvius have a Commander to be chosen ; and how judiciously , let others say : wee will only maintaine by historicall experience , that the Goths , Hunnes , Heruli , and Vandals , wasted Asia , Afrike , and Europe ; and yet for want of good counsell , could never maintaine their Conquests : whereas farre weaker forces , assisted by wisdome and politike government , have not only brought barbarous Nations to civilitie , but likewise perpetuated most flourishing Empires .

In approbation whereof , the Poets fained Pallas to be armed , and Achilles to be by her protected . It is recorded also of Cato Censorius , that he was a valiant Captaine , a sage Senator , an upright Iudge , and a great Scholer : of Caesar , that he was a Politician , an Historian , an Orator , and a Warrior : of Agamemnon , that he was a good Governour , and a tall Souldier . And therefore no wonder , if the Scythians , hating Learning , and the Southerne Nations , abhorring Armes , could never make good their conquered acquisitions . The Romans embraced both , to their great good fortunes , and according to Platoes rule , intermingled Musicke ( as the saying is ) with Martiall exercises . From the Grecians , they deemed it no discredit to borrow Lawes and Letters : from the Carthaginians and Sicilians , the Art Marine : the Militarie they had in perfection by continuance and assiduitie . Before these times , Scythian-like , they strucke downe-right blowes : afterwards , they learned of the Spaniards ( saith Polybius ) to thrust with the point .

Thus much , by way of Reading and Observation , for Inclination and Industrie : for mine owne part , I cannot but attribute these qualities of Strength in the Scythian , Wit in the Southerne man , and Indifferencie in the Middle man , to the Divine providence ; who in his praescience adjudged it best , upon cruell and barbarous men , as upon Bulls and brute beasts , not to bestow these good gifts of the Minde : neither upon subtle and vafrous people , Courage , and Strength of body ; left both should abuse both , to the destruction of each other . For as Aristotle saith , There is nothing more dangerous than armed furie .

Wherefore , sithence all Nations have their faults , as well as their vertues , let us neither reproach the laudable sobrietie of the Southerne man , nor tax the free drinking of the Northerne man ; faculties ( without controversie ) peculiar to either people : but rather , according to reason , let us weigh with our selves , that the Southerne man , for want of naturall digestion , if he should gourmandize , would fall into Surfets , Apoplexies , &c. and the Northerne man , if hee would , cannot constraine abstinence , by reason of thirst , proceeding of inward heat . And this should have beene the consideration of all Authors , before they had proceeded to rash condemnation .

So againe , if the Greeke , the Aegyptian , the Arabian , or the Chaldean , be to be taxed of Superstition , Sorcerie , Cowardize , Trecherie , or Lasciviousnesse ; yet let them not be so rejected , but that wee vouchsafe in them , to imitate what hath beene commendable , what excellent : For from these Nations , in truth , have Letters , Arts , Learning , Discipline , Philosophie , Religion , and the rules of humane Societie beene derived , over the face of the habitable earth .

Neither let us detract from the industries of the Northerne Nations , neither take exceptions against the frailties of those whom God hath allotted to possesse the Middle Regions . For albeit ( as I said at first ) that no over-weening credit be to be given to Starres and Planets , yet so farre let us leane to the learned , as experience may seeme to verifie what they have observed .

The Aphorismes of the Signes in the Zodiake ( saith Bodin ) are intricate , and not understood by us , considering , that by the Astronomers owne observations to these times , all the points of the Zodiake , and the Signes , have wholly changed their stations .

To the Southerne people , they place Saturne as Lord and Governour : To the Middle , Iupiter : To the Northerne , Mars . And these in generall . But because of particulars , they put Venus in conjunction with Saturne , Mercurie with Iupiter , and Luna with Mars . The Sunne , as Moderator , they have confined as indifferent .

The Chaldeans say , That the influence of Saturne operateth in apprehension : the influence of Iupiter , in action : and the influence of Mars , in execution . The Hebrewes terme Saturne , quiet , peaceable , contemplative ; Iupiter , just , wise , &c. and Mars , strong , and full of courage . Saturne ( they say ) is cold , Mars hot , and Iupiter moderate .

But the people of the Middle Region are neither borne so apt to the studying of arcane Sciences , as are the Southerne men ; nor so eagerly given to Mechanicall labours , as are the Northerne men : but in management of civill affaires they prove most eminent . Let any man conferre Time and History , and he shall finde , that by this people the rudiments of civill behaviour , of Lawes , good Customes , Statizing , Merchandizing , Oratorie , and Dialect , have beene bettered , if not invented . And no marvell : for Iupiter and Mercurie are said to bee the Schoole-masters of Sciences , and they that are borne under either , are exceeding apt thereto of their proper inclinations . Witnesse Asia , Graecia , Assyria , Italy , France , and the higher Germanie ( which lieth betweene the Pole and the Aequator , from the 40. degree to the 50. ) From hence the greatest Empires , the best judges , the wisest Lawyers , the eloquentest Orators , the skilfullest Merchants , and finally the most exquisite Historians and Actors of Comedies , that ever were , have proceeded . In Africa have few such beene found : In Scythia , fewer , no , not one , Anacharsis excepted .

Thus hath God and Nature decreed , That the Scythian ( or Northern man ) should carrie the reputation of Strength ; the Southerne man , the praise of Contemplation ; and the people inhabiting betweene both , the Attributes of Wisdome . And yet in all places ( according to their Situations ) shall you finde , some more strong , some more contemplative , and some more wise . Sed à particulari non est syllogizandum .

Of East , and West , what more can be spoken ? To places parallel , the Sunne neither riseth , nor falleth . When it approacheth the South with us , ( being about noone-tide ) then is it said to fall , by the Easterne people ; and contrariwise , then to rise by the Southerne . And therefore , as well to reconcile the doubts of the Ancients , as to satisfie the Curious , in these unrevealed workes of God , and his servant Nature ; the Moderne Cosmographers have beene bold to suppose the finite limitation of the East , to determine in the Islands of the Molucca ; and of the West in the Hesperides . For herein ( say they ) standeth the centre of the Globe , the Meridian of both Islands being 180. de-degrees distant one from another . On the other halfe of the Globe lieth America , divided from either angle by so immensible a tract of Sea , that it deserveth by it selfe , peculiar Bounds of East and West .

As for that great Globe ( commonly termed Australi● ) I had rather say with Bodin , That as yet , it is better set forth for shew than for certainty .

And therefore in excuse of oversight to bee objected to the Ancients , in attributing peculiar influences to diversities of Climates , as the North-east , North-west , South-east , or South-west ; let all be referred to the operation of the Cardinall points of neerest situation , and all ( without doubt ) may passe for tolerable construction .