Of affinity hereto is that conceit of _Ovum Decumanum_, so called, because the tenth egg is bigger than any other, according unto the reason alledged by _Festus, Decumana ova dicuntur, quia ovum decimum majus nascitur_. For the honour we bear unto the Clergy, we cannot but wish this true: but herein will be found no more of verity than in the other: and surely few will assent hereto without an implicite credulity, or Pythagorical submission unto every conception of number. For, surely the conceit is numeral, and though not in the sense apprehended, relateth unto the number of ten, as _Franciscus Sylvius_ hath most probably declared. For, whereas amongst simple numbers or Digits, the number of ten is the greatest: therefore whatsoever was the greatest in every kind, might in some sense be named from this number. Now, because also that which was the greatest, was metaphorically by some at first called _Decumanus_; therefore whatsoever passed under this name, was literally conceived by others to respect and make good this number. The conceit is also Latin; for the Greeks to express the greatest wave, do use the number of three, that is, the word τρικυμία, which is a concurrence of three waves in one, whence arose the proverb, τρικυμία κακῶν, or a trifluctuation of evils, which _Erasmus_ doth render, _Malorum fluctus Decumanus_. And thus, although the terms be very different, yet are they made to signifie the self-same thing; the number of ten to explain the number of three, and the single number of one wave the collective concurrence of more. 3. The poyson of _Parysatis_ reported from _Ctesias_ by _Plutarch_ in the life of _Artaxerxes_, whereby anointing a knife on the one side, and therewith dividing a bird; with the one half she poysoned _Statira_, and safely fed her self on the other, was certainly a very subtile one, and such as our ignorance is well content it knows not. But surely we had discovered a poyson that would not endure _Pandoraes_ box, could we be satisfied in that which for its coldness nothing could contain but an Asses hoof, and wherewith some report that _Alexander_ the great was poysoned. Had men derived so strange an effect from some occult or hidden qualities, they might have silenced contradiction; but ascribing it unto the manifest and open qualities of cold, they must pardon our belief, who perceive the coldest and most Stygian waters may be included in glasses; and by _Aristotle_ who saith, that glass is the perfectest work of Art, we understand they were not then to be invented.