Which was the cause (as may bee seen in Philostratus by the birth of Minerva) that shee forsooke the Rhodians, for that they sacrificed unto her without fire, to goe to the Athenians. Moreover Vulcan, according to Diadorus, was a man, who from an accident by a clap of Lightning, whereby a Tree was set on fire, first revealed to the Ægyptians the commodity and use of Fire: for being therewithall overcome, all joyfull of his light and heate; he thereunto added other matter to keepe it, whilest hee went to seeke the people, who afterward for this, deified him. Whereto Lucretius agrees,
Do not in these things tacitely and by chance require,
Lightning brought fire on earth to mortalls
First: thence all heate of flame was given.
The Greekes attribute it to Phoroneus, and put it, that it was neare to Argos. That fire being fallen from heaven there-about, it was afterward there kept within the Temple of Apollo; which if by chance it came to extinguish, they lighted it againe anew by the Sunnebeames; as also they did at Rome that of the Vestals. And in Persia their sacred fire which they carried ordinarily where the King marcht in person singularly reverencing it, for their respect to the Sunne, which they adored above all other Deities; for they esteemed it here below, their Image. They caryed it (I say) in great pompe and solemnity on a magnificent Chariot drawne by four great Couriers, and followed by 365 young Ministers, for as much as there are so many dayes in the yeare, which describe the Sunne by its course, clad with yellow guilded, the colour conformable to the Sunne, and fire, singing hymnes to their praise. And there was amongst them, no crime more capitall and irremissible, then to cast any dead carkasse or other uncleannesse therein, or to blow it with your breath, for feare to infect it, but they did it to give it aire, for in all this they hazzarded no lesse then life; as to quench it otherwise in water: So that if any one had perpetrated any grievous forfeit, to obtaine grace and pardon therein; the best expedient then was, as Plutarch puts in his first Treatise of the first cold, to put himselfe in running water with fire in the hand, threatning to quench it in the water if they did not grant his request; but after hee had obtained it hee was not left unpunished for his offence, but for the impiety that hee had forethought to commit. And from thence it became a common proverbe mentioned in Suidas: I am a Persian, borne of Persian parents; what a strange Persian? yea Sir, for us to pollute fire, it is sharper then cruel death. But all this which may bee said of fire, and by the meanes thereof, hath not yet been revealed, nor knowne by men: Is there any thing more admirable then Gunpowder, so easy to make, and consisting of so few ingredients; and so common Sulphur, Saltpeter and coale? which seeme to have been mystically designed by the Ægyptians, by the three Celestial powers, whence they alledge Thunder, Lightning, Tempests, to be conducted and governed, Jupiter, Vesta, and Vulcan. By Vulcan, Sulphur; by Jupiter, Saltpeter, full of aire and winde, as Raymund Lullius puts it, who well knew it, and its nature, and its effects if he would have discovered them; and by Vesta Coale; as well for the Terrestreity that is in it, as for that it is incorruptible, being able to keepe it many thousands of yeares within the ground, without alteration or spoiling, which was the cause that they made a place and stage for it, in the foundation of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus: Saltpeter is appropriated to the Aire; because it is as of a meane disposition of nature, betwixt Sea water, and the Fire, or Sulphur, whereof it participates, for that it is so inflamable, and saltish, on the other side, resolving it selfe into moisture, and water, as the Salts do; from whence it hath bitternesse and acuity; and as the inclosed and retained aire, within the clouds, doth breake and lighten by the impetuosity of Thunder, the same doth Saltpeter: But this will come to better purpose hereafter in Salts. Moreover hee that can make powder composed of certaine proportions of Sulphur and Saltpeter, and in stead of Coale, with the Terrestrial scurf of Antimony, which must be separated by frequent and reiterated ablutions of lukewarme water; may come to an artificiall fire, not to bee disdained; of a powder, that will give a small report; ’tis true that it is not so impetuous and full of force, as the common. In regard of the invention of Gunpowder, the relations of China do cary, that by their ancient Chronicles it is found out, that they have had the use of it more then 1500 years. 1500 yeares; as also of printing. Roger Bacon, the famous English Philosopher, who writ above 300 yeares agoe, in his booke of the admirable power of Nature and Art, sets downe, that with a certaine composition imitating lightning and thunder, Gideon was wont to feare his Enemies with. And yet that it is not formally as it is written in the 7 of Judges, yet it is said neverthelesse more then sixscore yeares before the divulgation of Gun-powder; see his word: furthermore there may bee made perpetuall lights and bathes, burning without end, for we have knowne many things that are not burned, but purified; but besides these, there are other stupendious things of Nature and Art; for sounds may be made in the aire, like thunders, and of greater horror then such as are made by nature. And a little matter adapted to the quantity of a thumb, makes a horrible sound, and shewes a vehement coruscation; and this may bee done many wayes, by which every City and Army may bee destroyed; after the manner of Gideons Artifice, who with broken pitchers and lamps, fire breaking out with ineffable fragor, destroyed the Midianitish Army, with only 300 men. These may be Granadoes and fire pots. And to be short, nothing could better agree on all points to Gun-powder; but these good men foreseeing the ruine that such things might bring, made too great conscience to reveale it. To the purpose of perpetuall fires, by meanes of most long durance; Hermolaus Barbarus in his notes upon Pliny, relates that in his time there was an old Sepulchre opened in the Territory of Padoua, and therein found a little Coffer, where there was a Lampe yet burning, although that according to the inscription it must have beene more then 500 500 yeares since it was lighted. So that by this reckoning, it should not bee altogether impossible to make fires, that will not be put out; for wee see the same in many sorts of that which men call Grec; whereof Aristotle as it is reported heretofore composed a Treatise, which could not bee quenched with water, chiefly Sea water, by reason of the fatty and unctuous Salt mingled therewith, but they grow worser, and waxe more fiery. But what hurt were there to stay thereon a little, since likewise it is a question of Fire: Of Acornes steeped in wine, afterward dryed and put in a mill so long till the liquor come forth, which afterwards accompanied with other oyles besmeared upon quicke chalc, Pumice stone, spectacle glasse, and Alum calcined together with Soap, and other the like things, that hold their adustible impurities in the bottome of a vessel, whilest that the oile by distillation mounts cleare, neat, and purified, and lesse inflamable; but this requireth a sufficient good fire; for the matches corresponding thereto, make them of cotten yearne besmeared within the Lee: then bath them in the oile, or liquor of Tartar, Saltpetring them over Alum plumed, intermingled with pitch, rozin finely bruised and beaten, or of Colophon. These fires of so long duration would seeme to us a thing fabulous, if wee were not ascertained by authentique Authors of that so famous a Lampe hung in a certaine Temple of Venus, where there burned without ceasing the Stone called Asbestus, which being once set on fire, never goes out. But some will say that that is also a fable; I will leave others to decide it, and I will tell you what befell mee, seeking nothing lesse then that, to meet with a substance, conducted thereunto, by graduall artifices of fire: which being bound fast within a Viall of glasse and sealed with Hermes his Seale, that no aire could any way enter in, might be kept 1000 yeares (after the manner of speech) in the bottome of the Sea: and opening it at the termination of so long a season, or when you shall please, you shall therein finde a suddaine fire, (which when it sents the aire) will light matches. We reade in the second booke of the Maccabees, chap. 1. vers. 20. that at the transmigration of Babylon, the Levites having hid their sacred fire in the bottome of a well or pit, 70 yeares, after they found there a thicke water and whitish, who assoone as ever the Sunbeames gave thereon, tooke fire.
These two Deities aforesaid, Pallas and Vesta, one and the other, chaste Virgins, as is also Fire; represent unto us the two fires of the Sensible world; that is to say, Pallas, the Celestiall; and Vesta, the Elementary here below, the which notwithstanding it bee more grosse and materiall, then that above, tends neverthelesse alwayes upward, as if it endeavoured to unmingle it selfe from a corruptible substance, where it remaineth fixed; to returne free and exempt from all these hinderances to its first Original from whence it came, as an imprisoned soule,
There is in them fiery vigor and celestiall Origin,
In seeds as much as our harmelesse bodies stay them,
And our terrene joints dull them, and our dying members.