HEW ATLANTIS. 489 



are of several ages, some to the age or last of forty years We have 

 drinks also brewed with several herbs and roots and spices, yea, with 

 sever;*! fleshes and white-meats ; whereof some of the drinks trc 

 such, as they arc in effect meat and drink both, so that divers, especi 

 ally in age, do desire to live with them ; with little or no meat or 

 bread. And above all, we strive to have drinks of extreme thin 

 part, to insinuate into the body, and yet without all biting, sharpness, 

 or fretting ; insomuch as some of them put upon the back ol your 

 hand will, with a little stay, pass through to the palm, and yet taste 

 mild to the mouth. We have also waters which we ripen in that 

 fashion as they become nourishing, so that they arc indeed excellent 

 drink ; and many will use no other. Hrcads we have of several 

 grains, roots, and kernels ; yea, and some of flesh and fish dried, 

 with divers kinds of leavcnings and seasonings ; so that some do 

 extremely move appetites ; some do nourish so, as divers do live on 

 them, without any other meat, who live very long. So for meats, 

 we have some of them so beaten and made tender and mortified, 

 yet without all corrupting, as a weak heat of the stomach will turn 

 them into good chylus, as well as a strong heat would meat other 

 wise prepared. \Vc have some meats also, and breads and drinks, 

 which taken by men enable them to fast long after ; and some other 

 that used make the very flesh of men s bodies sensibly more hard and 

 tough, and their strength far greater than otherwise it would be. 



&quot; We have dispensatories, or shops of medicines, wherein you may 

 easily think, if we have such variety of plants and living creatures more 

 than you have in Europe, for we know what you have, the simples, 

 drugs, and ingredients of medicines must likewise be in so much the 

 greater variety. We have them likewise of divers ages, and long fer 

 mentations. And for their preparations, we have not only all manner 

 of exquisite distillations and separations, and especially by gentle 

 heats, and percolations through divers strainers, yea and substances ; 

 but also exact forms of composition, whereby they incorporate almost 

 as they were natural simples. 



&quot; We have also divers mechanical arts which you ha ;c not, and 

 stuffs made by them ; as papers, linen, silks, tissues, dainty works of 

 feathers of wonderful lustre, excellent dyes, and many o .hcrs ; and 

 shops likewise as well for such as are not brought into vulgar use 

 amongst us, as for those that arc. For you mu?l know, that of the 

 things before recited many are grown into use throughout the king 

 dom ; but yet, if they did flow from our invention, we have of (hem 

 also for patterns and principles. 



\Vc have also furnaces of great diversities, and that keep great 

 diversity of heats, fierce and quick, strong and constant, soft and 

 mild, blown, quiet, dry, moist, ami the like. Hut, above all, we have 

 heats in imitation of the sun s and heavenly bodies heals, that pass 

 divers inequalities, and, as it were, orbs, progresses, and returns, 

 whereby we may produce admirable effects. Hcsidcs, we have heats 

 of dungs, and of bellies and maws of living creatures, and of thc : r 

 bloods and bodies; and of hays and herbs laid up moist; of lime uu- 



