Crooke, Helkiah (1576-1648)

ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man [Mikrokosmographia, Microcosmographia]

London

Printed by William Iaggard

1615

"The parts that are included within the Chest, do serve the Heart; those that are in the head, do attend the Brain, and so each to others, do afford their mutual services. And if any one of them do at any time fail of their duty, presently the whole Household government goes to ruine and decay."

Two eares, and those wide open, hath Nature ordained for thee; to teach thee that thou must heare, and by hearing, learne twice as much as thou must speake. Nature hath giuen thee but one tongue, tied with ten Muscles, and reyned with a very strong ligament, besides, as it were with a bridle, shut vp and enclosed within the mouth and teeth, as it were within a grate or Lattice, that the minde might first discerne and iudge of a thing before it vtter it, and that our words might first passe by the file, before they passe by the tongue. If you looke into the seats and residence of the faculties of the minde, you shall finde the rational faculty in the highest place, namely in the brain, compassed in on euery side with a scull; the faculty of anger, in the Heart; the faculty of lust or desire in the Liuer: & therefore we may gather these lower and inferiour faculties, must bee seruiceable and obedient to the higher, as to the Queene and Prince of them all. And if both Princes and Peasants would weigh and consider the mutuall offices betweene the principall and the ignoble parts, Princes might vnderstand how to rule, and Peasants how to obey. Princes may learne of the braine how to make Lawes, to gouerne their people; of the heart, how to preserue the life, health, and safety of their Citizens; of the Liuer, they may learn bounty and liberality. For the braine sitting in the highest place, as it were in a Tribunall, distributeth to euery Organ or Instrument of the sences, offices of dignity: the Heart like a King maintaineth and cherrisheth with his liuely and quickning heate, the life of all the partes: the Liuer the fountaine and well-spring of most beneficall humidity or iuice, nourisheth and feedeth the whole family of the bodie, and that at her owne proper costs and charges, like most a bountifull Prince. As for the meaner sort of people, they may easilie vnderstand by the ministering and seruile organs, what bee the limits of seruice and subiection. For the parts that are in the lower bellie do all serue the Liuer; the Stomacke dooth concoct the meate, the Guts distribute and diuide it, the veines of the Mesentarie prepare it; the bladder of Gall, the Milt and the Reines, do purge and clense the princely Pallace, & thrust as it were out of the Kitchin, downe the sinke, all the filth and garbage. The parts that are included within the Chest, do serue the Heart; those that are in the head, do attend the Braine, and so each to others, doe affoord their mutuall seruices. And if any one of them do at any time faile of their duty, presently the whole Houshold gouernment goes to ruine and decay.
(I.v, p. 13)

Population::Servants Government

Reading in EEBO

Helkiah Crooke, ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ: A Description of the Body of Man (London: Printed by William Iaggard, 1615). <Link to EEBO>

09/28/2011