A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase.

Samuel Purchas

Date:: 1657

Credit: A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase. Source: Wellcome Collection.

48/390 page 10

$c# ' 10 Carvl dc v*~ ric«trcr$c,i8# Ayift. dc ^crk. animal.Ks.c^ Scldens il* luftiat.on Drayt. Poly- albion, t• fong. \ v Oneftcritusa* pudStrabon* L ix* Sands Rclac. Iib.i* A rbutrc cf Political flying Infects, «ntnt)tipus moyfturc, wh:ch as it pafletb through a courfer, or jnorc line , and delicate ftrainer> Co are the colour* brighter or darker. Others, Bees are m* therefore brown or black(becaiife their thin Cub^ance is eafily dried , and that which is burnt and mold as n coal becomes black. Nor are Bees of one colour more than Wafps,hccaufe they feed of fewer ferts of food, than Wafps : For colours are difpofed unto all things by the great Creator, of which no more certain rcafon can bee given, then why fome men arc Negroes,others are nor« . > Now Negroes are not black by reafon of their feed, this is confuted by Arifiotle; nor yet by the heat of the clymate, for 'this is confuted by experience, in that Countries as hot, produce of a different colour, who can certainly fhew why about she MageBatiqne-Straitsthey are fo white?-about the Cape de Buon Speranztb when as in the JEaft- Indian Ifle, Ze/7/w,and the Coal! of Malabar, they are black both in the fame parallel. Norofthefoyl as fome have fuppofed, for neither haply will other races in that foyl prove black, nor that race in other foyles grow to bee better complexioned; but rather upon the curfe of Idoab upon Cham, or the pofterity of Cbuf. But of this can wee bee no more affured of than the former; for Cbuf inhabited a part of LMefofvtamia watred by C)ont a river of Paradife, and one of the branches of Euphrates* i Some leaving the hot impreflions in the airc,attribute it to the drioefsof the earth, as though the Libyan Defarts were not more dry (and yet the people no Negroes) than many parts of Africa, where they are all blacks. Some afeend above the Moon to call fome heavenly conftel- lation and influence into this Confiftory of nature, and there will ] leave them ; yea, I will fend them further,to him that hath re- fcr.ved many fecretsof nature to himfelf, and hath willed us to content our felves with things revealed : As for fccret th'mgs both in heaven and earth, they belong to the Lord our God, whofe holy Name be bleffcd for ever, for that hee hath revealed to us things mod necdTary both for foul and body in the thing* of this life, and that which is to come. j CHAP. >$

Licence and re-use

Contents