THE TRUE STATE OF ICELAND a.d. 



1592. 

 you, learned writers) proceedeth this coldnesse ? From 

 whence commeth this heate ? Have we not learned out 

 of your schole that water is an element most colde 

 and somewhat moist: and in such sort most cold, that 

 for the making of secundarie qualities, it must of 

 necessitie be remitted, & being simple, that it cannot 

 be applyed to the uses of mankind ? I do here deliver 

 these Oracles of the naturall Philosophers, not knowing 

 whether they be true or false. M. John Fernelius, lib. 

 2. Phys. cap. 4. may stand for one witnesse amongst all 

 the rest, & in stead of them all. So excessive (saith he) 

 be these foure first qualities in the foure elements, 

 that as nothing is hotter then pure lire, & nothing 

 lighter : so nothing is drier then earth, & nothing [I. 565,] 

 heavier : and as for pure water, there is no qualitie of 

 any medicine whatsoever exceedeth the coldnes thereof, 

 nor the moisture of aire. Moreover, the said qualities 

 be so extreme & surpassing in them, that they cannot 

 be any whit encreased, but remitted they may be. I 

 wil not heare heape up the reasons or arguments of the 

 natural Philosophers. These writers had need be warie 

 of one thing, lest while they too much magnifie the 

 miracles of the fountains, they exempt them out of the 

 number of things created, aswel as they did the ice 

 of the Islanders. We wil prosecute in order the proper- 

 ties of these fountains set downe by the foresaid writers. 

 The first by reason of his continuall heat. There be ^^^y ^°^^ 

 very many Baths or bote fountains in Island, but fewer jfj^ 

 vehemently bote, which we thinke ought not to make 

 any man wonder, when as I have learned out of authors, 

 that Germanic every where aboundeth with such bote 

 Baths, especially neere the foot of the Alpes. The bote 

 Baths of Baden, Gebarsvil, Calben in the duchy of 

 Wittenberg and many other be very famous : all which 

 Fuchsius doeth mention in his booke de Arte medendi. 

 And not onely Germanie, but also France, & beyond all 

 the rest Italy that mother of all commodities, saith 

 Cardan. And Aristotle reporteth, that about Epyrus 

 IV 129 I 



