serous Humour which the Veins receive is from the Water we Drink And that the Water causes a greater Alteration in the Body than the Air Aristotle proves where he demands Why the change of Water makes so great a Change in our Health and if we breath a contrary Air we are not sensible of it To which he Answers That Water gives Nourishment to our Bodies but Air not But he had no reason to Answer after this manner for the Air according to the opinion of Hippocrates yields Nourishment and Substance as well as Water And therefore Aristotle devised a better Answer when he said That no Place or Country has its peculiar Air for that which is now in Flanders upon a North Wind rising will travel in two or three days to Africa and that which is there if the South Wind blows will veer about to the North and that which is to day in Jerusalem will be carried by an Easterly Wind even to the West Indies Which fares not so in Waters for they spring not all out of the same Earth and so each People have their particular Water agreeable to the Mineral whence it springs and through which it passes And a Man us'd to one sort of Water drinking another is altered more than by new Meats or Air. So that Fathers who desire to get very wise Children should drink delicate sweet and well temper'd Waters else they will lose their Aim Aristotle advises us at the time of Generation to beware of the South Wind because it is gross and moistens the Seed and causes a Girl to be got and not a Boy And as to the West he can never praise it enough nor give it Names and Epithets sufficiently Honorable He terms it Temperate Fatner of the Earth coming from the Elysian Fields But though truly it imports much to breath very delicate Air and that of good Temperament and to drink such Waters nevertheless it is yet more necessary for our design to eat delicate Meats and of the Temperament requisite for Wit for of these Meats is made the Blood and of the Blood the Seed and of the Seed the Child And if the Meat be delicate and of good Temperament such also is the Blood and of such Blood such Seed and of such Seed such Brains And if they be Temperate and compos'd of a delicate and subtil Substance Galen says that the Wit will be the same because the Rational Soul though it be incorruptible ever sympathizes with the Dispositions of the Brain which not being such as are requisite for Reason and Discourse it says and does a thou-Impertinences The Meats then Fathers are to eat to beget Boys of good Understanding which is the difference of Wit most ordinary in Spain are first white Bread made of Wheat-Flower and seasoned with Salt this is cold and dry and of Parts very subtil and delicate Another sort is made says Galen of red or small Wheat which indeed nourishes much making Men big-limb'd and of great bodily Force but notwithstanding is moist and of very gross Parts and destroys the Understanding I said seasoned with Salt because of all the Meats in use among Men none makes the Understanding so good as this Fossile It is cold and of more Dryness than any thing else and if we remember Heraclitus's saying he says as much A dry Light is the Wise Mind By which he would give us to understand that the Dryness of the Body makes the wisest Soul And since Salt is so dry and so appropriate to Wit it is not without reason Holy Writ gives it the Appellation of Prudence and Wisdom But you must chuse Salt that is extreamly white and that salts not much because that is compos'd of subtil and very delicate Parts and on the contrary the black is very Earthy and Ill-temper'd and salts more in small quantity What important effects Salt causes being cast upon Meats not only those taken by Men and Beasts but also by Plants Plato noted when he said That Salt not only gives relish and pleasure to the Palate but gives a formal Being to Meats to the end they may Nourish There is but one fault and that is a great one it is upon the failing of that there is nothing left in the World to supply it's Place All other things made use of by Man in this Life have their Deputy if we may so call it when they chance to fail Salt alone stands for the end it was ordained For if we want Wheaten-Bread there is Barly-Bread Rye Oaten and other Kinds and if Wine fails us there is Water Beer Milk Cyder and Perry and if we have no Cloth to cover us there are Beasts Skins with which God cloathed our first Parents when he drove them out of the Earthly Paradise nay also Cloth of Linnen Silk Canvas and other Matters And so if they should run through other things we shall find that they all have a supply for their Defect Salt excepted which was made for that use alone to which we put it To which property our Lord alludes in the Gospel when he said to his Disciples Ye are the Salt of the Earth but if the Salt have lost it's Savour wherewith shall it be Salted or as another Gospel says Wherewith shall it be seasoned To give them to understand that if they who are the Salt are corrupted or unsavoury there is no other thing can Season them as if it had said Who can find a Remedy for an Enchanter The Gospel might have said ye are the Wheaten Bread of my Church to dispense and administer the Spiritual Food and Doctrin to the Faithful and if you cast your selves away with what other thing shall I sustain my People They might have answered him with Barly-Bread as you did in the Desart But because nothing can Supply the Place of Salt God took it and chose it to let the Apostles understand what was their Duty Physitians say That Salt ordinarily heats dissolves penetrates dries collects and separates the Substance of Bodies to which it is Applied Which Properties he is to have that is the Salt of the Church and such effects ought he to produce in the Christian Auditory that is a good Preacher If not let him that has a little Wit run through these properties and he will see how much it is to the purpose that God calls Preachers by the name of Salt But neither the natural Philosophers nor others that have searched into the properties of this Fossile have observed one thing which is that if we would Unsalt in a little time that which is very Salt throwing Salt thereon to a certain degree and quantity and for a certain time it abates of its Saltness and if it exceeds it all turns to Brine Of which if any one would try the Experiment he shall find that salt Fish put to freshen in Sea-Water for a certain time shall sooner freshen than in Fresh-Water And if two pieces
by the Woman else her Seed being ill tempered impedes Generation Therefore it is convenient that they should both wait that both their Seeds may meet and mingle Which is of great importance for the first Effort because the right Testicle and it's Spermatic Vessel in the Opinion of Galen is that which first provokes and emits it's Seed sooner than the Left and if the Generation be not the first Time it is odds the second may give a Girl and not a Boy These two Seeds are known First by the Heat and Cold Secondly by the great or little Quantity Thirdly in this that one issues readier than to'ther The Seed of the right Testicle passes very tickling and is so Hot that it burns the Woman's Matrix is not much in Quantity and passes in hast On the contrary the Seed of the left Testicle is more temperate in greater Quantity and longer in Issuing being Cold and Thick The last Condition was to procure that the Seed of both should fall on the right side of the Matrix because in that place says Hippocrates the Males are form'd as the Females on the left Galen assigns the Reason hereof saying that the right side of the Matrix is very hot because of its neighbourhood to the Liver Reigns and spermatic Vessels that are on the right side which parts we have affirmed and prov'd to be very hot And since all the reason to order that a Boy may be begot consists in this that it have a great deal of heat in the time of its conception it is certain it much imports that the Seed fall in this place Which the Woman can easily do lying upon her right side after her Husbands embraces with her Head low and her Feet raised But she must keep her Bed a day or two because the Matrix embraces not the Seed but after some time The Signs of knowing whether a Woman be with Child or no are clear and manifest to all for if when she stands up the Seed fall presently down Galen says she has not conceived Therefore in this there is one thing to be considered that all the Seed is not fruitful and prolific for part thereof is waterish whose office is to dilute the principal Seed that it may pierce the narrow Passages And this is that which Nature emits and it remains after conception with the prolific part It is known when it is like Water and in little quantity To stand upon her Legs immediately after Coupling is very dangerous And therefore Aristotle advises that she beforehand evacuate her Excrements and Urine that she may have no need to Rise The second Mark to discover if a Woman be with Child is if the day after she feels her Belly empty and especially about the Navel And the Reason of it is that when the Matrix will conceive it stretches and extends extremely because in a manner it is apt to swell and stiffen upon this Occasion after the same fashion as a Mans Yard and stretching out after this manner it takes up more room but at the instant it conceives Hippocrates says that it closes and draws into the form of a little Egg to draw the Seed to it and let nothing out by which means it leaves a great Vacuity Which the Women explain saying that they have no slack Guts left soon after they grow big Besides which they forthwith nauseate their Husbands Caresses the Womb having what it wanted But the most certain Sign as Hippocrates says is when the Menses cease their Brests swell and they loath their Meat Article IV. What is to be observed that the Children may prove Witty and Wise IF the Reason and Cause be not known beforehand whence it proceeds that a Man of great Wit and Capacity is begotten it is impossible to reduce the same to an Art since we attain the End by no other Means but by connecting and ordering the Principles and Causes The Astrologers hold that the Child being born under such an Influence of the Stars will be Wise Witty Well or Ill-condition'd happy or unhappy with a thousand other qualities and properties which we see and observe every day among Men. But if this were true we could not here prescribe any Rules for all would depend upon Chance and not be in our Choice The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen were of Opinon that a Man receives the conditions of his Soul at the time of his Formation and not of his Birth The Stars only causing a superficial Alteration in the Babe communicating to to him Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and not his Substance whereon his Life depends as do the four Elements Fire Earth Air Water which not only add to the Composition heat cold moisture dryness but also a substance that unites and preserves these Qualities during the course of Life So that what is of greatest Importance in begetting Children is to endeavour that the Elements from which they are formed should have the Qualities requisite to Wit because that in the same Weight and Measure the Elements enter into the Composition in the same they remain for ever in the Mixture which is not so in the Mutations and Influences of Heaven What these Elements are and after what manner they enter the Woman's Womb to form the Child Galen tells when he teaches us that they are the same which compound all other natural things but that the Earth is concealed in the solid Meats we Eat such as Bread Flesh Fish and Fruits the Water under the Liquors we Drink and for the Air and Fire he says that they are mingled by order of Nature and enter into the Body by way of the Pulse and Respiration Of these four Elements mingled and digested by our Natural Heat are made the two necessary Principles of the Infants Generation which are the Seed and the Menstruous Blood But that whereof we make the greatest Account for the Mark we aim at are the solid Meats that are Eaten For they include within themselves all the four Elements and from them the Seed draws more Corpulence and Quality than from the Water which we drink or the Fire and Air which we breath Wherefore Galen says that the Parents who would beget wise Children should read the three Books he writ Of the Properties of Aliments for there they should find the Meats by which they should effect the same He makes no mention at all of Water nor of the other Elements as matters of small Consequence But he had no Reason for this for Water alters the Body much more than the Air and no less than the solid Meats we use and as to what regards the Generation of the Seed the Water alone is of as great Importance as all the other Elements together The reason of it is as the same Galen says that the Testicles draw from the Veins for their Nourishment the serous portion of Blood and the greatest part of this
also affirm'd it was no less an ill Indication to be Born with a great Jolt Head because it was all Flesh and Bones with very little Brains as it fares with very fair Oranges which when they come to be opened have little Juice and Pulp but a very thick Rind Nor is any thing more grievous to the Rational Soul than to be plunged in a Body over-stock'd with Bones with Fat and with Flesh Hippocrates speaking of the Cure of a certain kind of Phrenzy caused by Excess of Heat above all gave in charge that the Sick should eat no Flesh but only Fish and Herbs and drink no Wine at all but only Water and if he were too Corpulent too Gross and Unweildy their Endeavour should be to bring down his Flesh and for this Reason he said It was absolutely necessary for a Man that would be very Wise not to be oppressed with much Flesh nor Fat but rather to be lean and slender For the Fleshy Temperament is Hot and Moist with which 't is impossible or at least very improbable but the Soul should become Blockish and Stupid He brings for Instance the Hog affirming him to be of all Brute Beasts the most Stupid because of the load of Flesh about him his Soul in the Words of Chrysippus being of no other use to him than Salt to preserve his Body from stinking Aristotle confirms this Opinion affirming that Man to be a Sot that had an over-great Head and fleshy comparing him to an Ass because in proportion to the other Parts of his Body there is no Beast's Head so very fleshy as an Ass's But as to Corpulence it ought to be observ'd gross Men are of two sorts some abounding with Flesh and Blood whose Temperament is hot and moist as others again who have not so much Flesh and Blood as they are crammed with Fat these are of a cold and dry Constitution Hippocrates's Opinion is to be understood of the first because of the great Heat and Humidity and the abundance of Fumes and Vapors arising without intermission in those Bodies which cloud and overthrow their Reason which is not the case of the other that are only plump and fat whom the Physicians dare not bleed because they have too little Blood and there is ordinarily abundance of Wit to be found where there is not so much Flesh and Blood That we may throughly understand the great Agreement and Correspondence between the Stomach and Brains especially in what relates to Wit and Cunning Galen has declared A gross Paunch makes a gross Vnderstanding But if he means this of those that are fat he has less reason for they have a very waterish Wit Persius proceeded upon this Reason when he said That the Belly gave Wit Plato affirmed there is nothing darkens the Soul so much nor more overcasts the Brain than the black Fumes and Vapours arising from the Stomach and the Liver at the time of Digestion nor is there on the other hand any thing that elevates it to such high Meditations as Fasting and a spare Body not too overcharged with Blood as the Catholic Church sings Thou that enlivenest and relievest the Spirit by Mortifications and Humbling of the Body and by the same means depressest Vices and bestowest Virtues on us and with them their Reward This great Grace God did to St. Paul when he called to him out of the highest Heaven he remained three days without Eating ravished in Extasy with admiration of the incomparable Favours he had receiv'd at the very instant he was plunged in Vice and Sin Moreover Plato affirms that the Heads of wise Men are ordinarily tender and apt to be anoy'd upon the least occasion and the reason why Nature has made them of so delicate a Head seems to be for fear of loading them with too much Brains to the diminishing of their Wit So true is this Doctrin of Plato that tho' the Stomach be far enough from the Brain nevertheless it annoies it if it be overcharged with Fat and Flesh Nor is there any Mystery in this because the Brain and the Stomach are knit and tyed together by means of certain Nerves which Communicate their Disaffections to each other and on the contrary if the Stomach be dry and empty it much sharpens the Wit as we may see in those who are pinch't with Hunger and Want But what is more observable upon this Occasion is that if the other parts of the Body are Fat and Fleshy and the Man by this means be over-Gross Aristotle affirms he runs a risque of having no Wit at all For which reason I am of Opinion if a Man has a great Head let it be from meer Strength of Nature and from too-great abundance of well-disposed Matter yet such a one will not have so much Capacity as if he had a Head of a more moderate Size Aristotle demanding what may be the Reason of Man's being the Wisest of all Creatures Is of a contrary Opinion when he replies that no living Creature has so small a Head as Man in proportion to the Bulk of his Body for even amongst Men themselves said he they are the Wisest who have the least Heads tho' there be no Reason for this for if he had ever opened a man's Head he might have found so great a Stock of Brains that that of two Horses equals not that of one Man What I have found by Experience is that little Men have large Heads as on the contrary great Men have little Heads for a very moderate quantity of Brains better Ministers to the rational Soul in discharge of her Functions Besides all this it is requisite that there be four Ventricles in the Brain to enable the rational Soul to Reason and Discourse one disposed on the right the other on the left Side the third in the Middle and the fourth in the hinder part of the Brains as appears from Anatomy Hereafter where we shall treat of the Difference of Wits we shall shew what use the rational Faculty makes of these Ventricles be they greater or less That the Brain be well figured of sufficient Quantity and the Number of Ventricles so many little or great as we have shewn is not yet enough It 's parts must also observe a kind of Continuity without being disjoyned for which Cause we have observed some Men wounded in the Head have lost their Memory others their common Sense and others their Imagination nay even tho' the Brain after Cure has been rejoyned by Art because there was not the same Natural Union as before The third of the Four Principal Qualifications is that the Brain should be Temperate of a moderate Heat and without Excess of the other Qualities which disposition of the Brain we have already affirmed to be that called True Temper for 't is that which makes a Man capable and the contrary Incapable The Fourth that the Brain should be Composed of very fine and delicate Parts and is what
without the Memory be present to it to offer and represent to it the Figures and Species according to the Saying of Aristotle He that understands has no more to do but to reflect on the Images Nor the Memory again without being seconded by the Imagination according as we have elsewhere noted we may easily conclude that all the three Faculties are joined and united together in each Ventricle that the Understanding is not by it self in one nor the Memory by it self in the other nor the Imagination by its self in the third as the Vulgar Philosophers have thought This Union of Powers and Virtues uses to be made in Humane Bodies when one cannot act without the Concurrence of the other as appears in the four Natural Virtues The Attractive the Retentive Digestive and Expulsive which to be of use one to the other have by Nature been assembled in one and the same Place and not separated from each other But if all this be true to what end has Nature prepared those three Ventricles and to each of them joined all the three Rational Powers since any one of the three was sufficient for the Understanding and the Memory to play their parts To this may be answered That it is equally difficult to know why Nature has made two Eyes and as many Ears since in each of them the whole power of Seeing and Hearing resides and one may see with one Eye alone To this it may be said That how much greater the Number of Organs of the Powers appointed and established for the Perfection of the Animal is so much more assured is the Perfection and Possession of them because by some Accident one or two may fail and then it is convenient that there should be a Supply from others of the same kind which may be ready to Act. In the Disease call'd by Physicians the Resolution of the Sinews or Palsy of half the Body the Operation of the Ventricle that answers to the Sick-side is usually lost in such manner as if the two others remained not entire and unhurt the Man would be stupid without Reason And nevertheless from the want of this Ventricle alone he is observed to be very weak as well in the Actions of the Understanding as of the Imagination and Memory Even as he who uses to See with two Eyes would be at a loss in his Sight if one of them was quite out By which means it may be clearly understood that in each Ventricle all the three Faculties are found since from the hurt of one alone the other three are all weakned Say now that all the three Ventricles are composed after the same manner and that there is no Diversity of Parts to be found in them we cannot be at a loss if we take the first Qualities for the Instrument and so make as many differences of Wit as there be of the first Qualities For it is against all Natural Philosophy to believe that the Rational Soul being in the Body can exercise her Operations without the Mediation of a Corporeal Instrument to assist her But of the four Qualities that appear the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness all Physicians reject the Cold as of no use at all in the Operations of the Rational Soul And accordingly it is observed by Experience in all the other Powers of Man that where the Cold overballances the Heat they are blunted and retarded in their Offices insomuch as neither the Stomach digests the Meat nor the Parts of Generation produce effective Seed nor the Muscles duly move the Body nor the Brain duly Reasons and Discourses For which reason Galen said The Cold manifestly incommodes and retards all the Operations of the Soul Serving only in the Body to allay the Natural Heat and to hinder it from being inflamed But Aristotle is of a contrary Opinion where he says The thick and hot Blood renders the Man strong and robust and the thinner and more Cold of a more delicate Sense and Vnderstanding Whence it clearly appears that from Cold proceeds the greatest difference of Wit in Man viz. the Understanding Aristotle therefore enquiring why the Men inhabiting hotter Countries as Aegypt is are more Subtile and Ingenious than those who live in colder Climates makes Answer That the Ambient Heat being excessive draws forth and consumes the Natural Heat of the Brain leaving it cold which makes Men more sharp And that on the contrary the great Ambient Cold concentrates the Natural Heat of the Brain not suffering it to disperse And further they who have very hot Brains says he can neither Reason nor Discourse but are Volatile never fixing on one Opinion Galen as it seems alluded to this where he says the reason why a Man changes his Opinion every moment is because he had a very hot Brain and on the contrary he that has a cold Brain will be firm and steady in his Opinion But the Truth is there is no difference of Wit proceeds from this Quality neither could Aristotle mean that the Blood cold in excess made the Understanding better but only when it is less hot When a Man is fickle it is true it proceeds from too great a Heat that raises transient Figures in his Brain making them as it were to boil by which means the Images of many things represent themselves at once to the Rational Soul awakening and inviting it to a Consideration of them and to enjoy all she leaves some and Embraces others The quite contrary happens in Cold which renders a Man fixt and stable in an Opinion because it keeps the Figures fast locked up not permitting them to fly so fast so that it represents no other Image to a Man but what is called for Cold has this Peculiar that it retards the Motions not only of Corporeal things but also renders the Figures and the Species by Philosophers termed Intellectual immovable in the Brain but this firmness seems rather to be a certain Dulness than a Difference of Wit There is another kind of Steadiness which proceeds from the Understanding being closer and more compact and not from any coldness of Brain Driness then Moisture and Heat remain as Instruments of the Rational Faculty But not one Philosopher knew how to assign in particular to each Difference of Wit the Quality that serv'd it for an Instrument Heraclitus said That the sharpness of Wit was from a dry Light By which words he gives us to undestand that Driness is the cause of the great Prudence and Wisdom in Man but he has not shewn in what kind of Knowledge a Man was Excellent by means of this Quality Plato intended no less when he affirm'd That the Soul upon its entring the Body was very Wise but that the great Moisture it met there render'd it lumpish and dull till as that Moisture wears off in Age and the Body becomes drier the Soul discovers that Knowledge and Wisdom it had at first Among Brute Beasts Aristotle said those are more
deliberate whose Constitution is more cold and dry as the Ants and Bees who may dispute for Wisdom with Men that are Reasonable Creatures Besides there is not a Brute Beast more moist than a Hog and which has less Wit For which cause the Poet Pindar being to tax the Boeotians for Blockheads exprest himself in this manner Dicta fuit Sus gens Boeotia Vecors Stupid Boeotians wore the Name Of Hogs their Nature was the same Galen affirm'd also That the Blood by reason of its too great moisture made Men silly And the same Galen recounts that the Comic Poets accused Hippocrates's Children of it alledging they had too much Natural Heat which is a moist Substance and abounding with Vapours The Children of Wise Men are not without this Defect of which I may hereafter assign the Reason Of the four Humors we have there is not one of them found hot and dry but melancholy And Aristotle affirms That all the Men that ever signaliz'd themselves in the Sciences were Melancholic In fine all agree that Driness makes a Man very Wise but no Man shews which of the Rational Faculties it most favours The Prophet Esay only determined it when he said Vexation gives Vnderstanding because Sorrow and Affliction not only lick up that moisture of the Brain but have also Power to dry up the very Bones by which Quality the Understanding is made more sharp and acute which may be apparently evidenced by considering that many Men reduc'd to Poverty and Misery have happen'd to Speak and Write things worthy of Admiration but being afterwards raised by Fortune according to their Wish to make good Cheer have done nothing more of Importance For a delicate Life Content a stream of Fortune and all things succeeding smoothly to our Wish much relax and moisten the Brain which is what Hippocrates said Content and Chearfulness enlarge and dilate the Heart giving it a sweet and gross Heat Which is again easily proved for if Affliction and Grief dry up and consume the Flesh by which means a Man acquires a better Understanding it is certain that the contrary which is Chearfulness fails not to moisten the Brain and impair the Understanding They who attain the last sort of Wit are more immediately disposed to Sports Feasts Music frequenting merry Company and flying the contrary which at other times were wont to give them Relish and Content Hence may the Vulgar learn how it comes that a Wise and Virtuous Man raised to great Honour who before was Poor and Humble sometimes immediately changes his Manners and his way of Reasoning for this proceeds from his acquiring a new Temperament moist and full of Vapors by which means he effaces the Figures he had before in his Memory rendering his Understanding Dull and Sluggish 'T is very difficult to know what Difference of Wit proceeds from moisture because it so strongly contradicts the Rational Faculty At least according to Galen's Opinion all the Humours of our Body that are moist in Excess render the Man Stupid and Ignorant which occasion'd him to say The Prudence and Nimbleness of the Rational Soul arises from Choler Integrity and Constancy proceed from the Melancholic Humour Simplicity and Stupidity from Blood Phlegm or Water serving for nothing but to feed sleep Insomuch that the Blood so far as it is moist and the Phlegm no less conspire to ruin and destroy the Rational Faculty but this is to be understood of the discursive and active Faculties and not of the passive as the Memory is which depends on moisture even as the Understanding does on driness Now we call the Memory a Rational Faculty because without it the Understanding and Imagination are of no use It affords them matter and furnishes them with Figures to Reason according to that of Aristotle He that understands does no more than reflect on the Images And the proper Office of the Memory is to lay up those Figures for the Understanding when it would reflect on them and therefore if that be lost it is impossible for the other Faculties to perform their Function Galen says the Office of the Memory is no other than to keep the Figures of things without having any Invention of its own The Memory treasures and lays up the things which are transmitted from the Sense and Vnderstanding as in a Coffer or Repository having no Invention of its own This being its Office one may clearly perceive it depends much on moisture which softens and prepares the Brain for the Figures that are imprinted by way of Compression Infancy is an evident Proof of this Doctrin seeing in that Age the Memory is readier than in all the other because the Brain then is moistest Aristotle therefore demands Why the Old have more Wit and a better Vnderstanding and the Young learn readier and with more ease To which he makes Answer That the Memory of Old People is filled with so many Images of things which they have seen and heard during the long course of their Life that there is no room left to receive any thing new but that of Young People as Persons late Born meets with no difficulty therein which makes them receive and retain immediately all that is told and taught them Which may be better understood by compairing the morning and evening Memory and shewing that we learn better in the morning because we then rise with a fresh Memory but in the evening we learn ill because it is stuffed with all the Objects of the Day past And to the end the curious Reader may not be surprized that so great a Philosopher as Aristotle should never light upon a true Answer and which even those of less Wit than himself sometimes find and form better Arguments than his he must know that Plato not at all doubting but the Gravest Philosophers do often as men mistake either through Inadvertence or for want of Weighing and being well enough acquainted with all the Principles contained in the Doctrin they teach advises such as read his Works to consider them with great care and not to rely too much upon him or on the good Opinion they have conceived of them To examin says he and cautiously weigh all his Words and those of the Philosophers and not to receive them before they have made some Proof of them no though they may seem the truest in the World Because in effect it would be a great shame to me that Nature having given me Eyes to See and an Understanding to Distinguish yet I should ask Aristotle and the other Philosophers what are the Figures and Colours of things and what Being and Nature they have Open your Eyes says Plato make use of your own Wit and Ability and fear nothing for the same He that made Aristotle made you also and he who formed so great a Wit may very well also form a greater 'T is nevertheless very Reasonable to have Excellent Authors in great Veneration
better brook Beef than Hens and Trouts and others that have an Aversion for Eggs and Milk and some who love them to the Excess of hurting themselves And for the manner of dressing Meat some affect Roast others Boil'd and in Roast some like it with the Blood running and others dried and burnt to a Coal But what is most considerable is that the same Meat eat to day with a great Gusto and Relish to morrow will be Nauseated and a worse longed-for All this is to be understood when the Stomach is good and sound for if it be out of order and affected with the Green Sickness which the Physicians call Pica or Malacia then the Appetite hunts for things which Humane Nature abhors as Chalk Earth and Coals which have a better Relish with such than Hens or Trouts If we pass to the Generative Faculty we shall find therein as many Appetites and Varieties for some Men there are who affect a Homely and abhor a Handsom Woman and others are better pleased with a Fool than a Wise Woman some who love a Lean and hate a Fat one even Silks and a gay Dress displease those who run mad for one in Rags This is to be understood when the Parts of Generation are sound for if they are attended with the Disease of the Stomach called Malacia or the Green-Sickness they Lust after Bestial Uncleannesses The same happens in the Sensitive Faculty for of the tangible Qualities Hard and Soft Rough and Smooth Hot and Cold Moist and Dry there is none of them all that equally pleases the Touch of every Man because there are some who sleep better on a hard Bed than a soft and others again better on a soft than a hard The same Varieties of Gusts and strange Appetites are found in the Compositions of the Understanding for if we assemble together a Hundred Men of Letters to whom we propose some Doubt each of them will give a several Judgment and Reason upon it in a particular manner One and the same Argument will appear to one Sophistic and to another highly probable and to a third as concluding as if it were a Demonstration And this not only holds true in several Understandings but we see by Experience that one and the same Reason concludes the same Understanding at one time and not at another Insomuch that Men change their Opinions every day some gaining in process of Time a more delicate Wit come to discern the Defects of their Reason by which they were led before and others losing their good Temperament of Brain abhor the Truth and embrace false Notions But if the Brain happens to be tainted with the Evil called Malacia then we shall see strange Judgments and Compositions false and weak Arguments will prevail more than the strongest and most probable to a good Argument they will find an Answer and submit to a bad from the Premises whence a right Conclusion might be drawn they will collect a wrong and by strange Arguments and extravagant Reasons support their ill-grounded Fancies Though this Doctrin be most certain and true yet we may give it a greater and stronger Demonstration if we draw some Instances out of Holy Writ which will at first sight shew us the good and the bad Arguments of each arising from good or bad Understandings And because the most ordinary Defect is when from good Premises they draw an ill Conclusion which is the greatest Absurdity that can be committed I shall report that Parable of St. Matthew which tells us That a certain Man undertaking a Journey into a far Country called his Servants and delivered to them his Goods to one he gave Five Talents to another Two and to another One. Then he that had received the Five Talents was so industrious as to double them the like did the second but the third went and digged in the Earth and hid his Lord's Money After a long time the Lord of those Servants cometh and reckoneth with them And so he that had received Five Talents came and brought other Five Talents saying Lord thou deliveredst me Five Talents and behold I have gained besides them Five Talents he also that had received the Two Talents said the same but he that received One came and said Lord I knew thee that thou wer 't an hard Man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strowed and I was afraid and went and hid thy Talent in the Earth Lo here thou hast that is thine The Master displeased with this Account thus seems to Expostulate the Matter with him For the self same Reasons you make use of you ought to have taken care to have doubled your Talent for if I am a hard Man and reap where I sow not and gather where I strow not it will follow rather of course you were to labour with the more diligence to improve your Talent to please and pacify me as the others have done and not to sleep away thy time as if I were an easie Man and minded nothing less than making the best of my Own Accordingly says the Text I will judge thee out of thy own Mouth thou wicked and slothful Servant thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strowed thou oughtest therefore to have put my Money to the Exchangers and then at my coming I should have received mine own with Vsury 'T is a thing so common among Men of little Understanding to draw a false and contrary Conclusion from sound and true Premises that there is nothing more Ordinary There are other Understandings no less awkward than these For when they are to defend their Assertions and prove any thing they offer they alledge Reasons that make against them not knowing what they do Of this sort are those who shall say to God at the Day of Judgment in excuse of themselves when they are to be Condemned Lord Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name Have we not cast out Devils in thy Name Have we not wrought Miracles in thy Name Which is even as if a Gentleman that had committed High Treason against his Prince and his Crown for his Defence should alledge that he had received a Thousand Favours from his Hands and that from a low Degree he had made him one of the Grandees of his Kingdom and Governor of many Cities and strong Places which Reason as there is nothing more absurd serves only the more to exasperate him and to hasten his Execution Which appears plainly from these Words If my Enemy had done this surely I would bear with him but thou that eatest like a Friend at my Table c. Such Persons are accustomed to insist on Reasons and extravagant Excuses that are nothing to the purpose but only because they come first to hand There is another sort of Understanding amongst Men of as ill a Make as that before spoke of for although they have before their Eyes the true Premises they know
not dishonourably leave the Siege said to him Sir first inform your self whether this People have Sinned against God for if it be so he will deliver them into your Hands without any Efforts of yours to Conquer them but if they be in his Favour be assured that he will defend them and we shall not be able to vanquish them Holofernes was not a little displeased with this Advice being a Presumptuous Man as he was given to Women and Wine three things which disturb the Judgment and are directly opposite to the Councils that ought to be taken in the Art-Military Therefore Plato with Reason approved of that Law the Carthagenians had which forbids the General to drink Wine during the Campaign because this Liquor to use the Words of Aristotle makes Men of a Turbulent Wit and raises their Courage too high as was evident in Holofernes from those angry Words which he Vented against Achior The Wit that is necessary as well to project Ambushes and Stratagems as also to evade them Cicero has pointed to us in deriving the Etymology of this word Versutia which comes as he says from the Verb Versor forasmuch as those who are Winding Wily Double and Cavillers in a moment play their Tricks and change their Measures with ease The same Cicero gives us an Instance when he said That Chrysippus was without doubt a Winding and and Crafty Fellow Versutus Calidus so I call those whose Wit readily veers and shifts upon Occasion This Property readily to nick the Occasion is a certain Industry and Sagacity as we have already noted which belongs to the Imagination for the Powers which consist in Heat perform their Works with speed by reason of which Men of great Understanding avail nothing in War because this Faculty is but slow in its proceedings being a Friend of Uprightness Plainness Simplicity and Mercy All which occasion great Inconveniences in War Men of these Qualities are not only unacquainted with the Tricks and Stratagems of War but also easily Cheated because they trust every Body These Men are good to treat with Friends with whom there is no need of the Wisdom of the Imagination but only of the Integrity and Simpleness of the Understanding which endures no Tricks nor to do Wrong to any but they are of no Use to contest with Enemies who are over-reaching with their Wiles and therefore there is always occasion for the same Wit to be on our Guard against them And for this Reason Jesus Christ our Redeemer gave in Charge to his Disciples Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves Wariness must be practised with an Enemy Frankness and Simplicity only with a Friend If then the General is not in the least to trust his Enemy but ever to suspect that he may over-reach him he must necessarily have a Difference of Imagination that forecasts is wary and can skill how to discover the Designs which are covered under fair Pretences For the same Power that finds them out can only apply also a Remedy It seems that this also is another Difference of Imagination that devises Instruments and Machines by means of which Fortresses are gained though impregnable Camps are pitched and each Squadron Marshalled in due place the fit Opportunities are known of Attacks and Retreats as also the several steps in Treaties and Capitulations with an Enemy for all which the Understanding is no less impertinent than the Ears are to see withal Therefore I doubt not in the least but that the Art-Military belongs to the Imagination since all that a good Captain ought to do carries with it Consonance Figure and Correspondence The Difficulty is to know what difference of Imagination in particular is required in War Which I cannot resolve with Certainty because it is a very nice Enquiry Yet I conjecture that the Art-Military requires a degree more of Heat than the Practice of Physic and that the Choler be somewhat allayed but not utterly quenched Which is plainly seen in this that the subtilest and most intriguing Captains are not the most Couragious nor desirous of coming to Blows or giving Battel but rather by Ambushes and secret Stratagems gain their ends without hazarding a broken Pate a Property that Vegetius was more pleased with than any other For good Generals said he are not those that fight in a plain Field with equal Danger but rather such as make use of secret Surprizes and without loss of Men ever cut off the Enemies Force or at least hold them in Awe The advantage of this manner of Wit the Roman Senate knew for though they had many Famous Captains which won abundance of Battels yet at their Returning to Rome to receive the Triumph and Glory due to their Enterprizes the Wailings of the Fathers made for their Dead Children the Children for their Dead Parents the Wives for their Husbands and the Brothers for their Brethren were so great that they could not taste the Solemn Games and Pastimes through the pitiful Cries for those that were killed upon the Spot Insomuch that the Senate resolved no more to chuse so Valiant Captains that took such Pleasure in Fighting but rather Men a little Timorous but very designing such as was Quintus Fabius of whom it is Writ that it was a Miracle to see him offer a pitch'd Battel in open Field especially when he was far from Rome whence he could not readily draw Succours if he were Worsted All he did was to dally with the Enemy and make use of Stratagems and Tricks of War by which means he performed great things and gained many Victories without the loss of one Soldier Accordingly he was received at Rome with Universal Applause because if he led Abroad a Hundred thousand Soldiers he returned Home with as many except those that were lost by Sickness The Public Acclamations the People gave him was what Ennius has reported Vnus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem One Man alone for us has done the Feat Who without Fighting has preserv'd the State As if he had said A Man that beats the Enemy without Blows or Effusion of Blood and returns Home without Loss of Men. Some Captains since have endeavoured to imitate him But because they wanted his Wit and his Designs they have often slipped fair Opportunities of Fighting whence have proceeded more Inconveniences and greater Losses than if they had given Battel out of hand We may also draw into Example that Famous Carthaginian Captain of whom Plutarch Writes thus Hanibal upon gaining that Signal Victory commanded many Italian Prisoners to be set at Liberty without Ransom that the Fame of his Mercy and Clemency might spread it self among the People though in his own Disposition he was far enough from these Virtues For he was Naturally Fierce and Barbarous and so trained from his tender Years that he had learned no Laws or Civil Conduct whatever
Doctor of the Law he knew not that it was necessary that a Man should be born again to have a better Being and more Honorable Parents than his Natural For which reason all the time a Man performs no Heroic Actions he is called in this sense Hijo de nada that is to say the Son of nothing tho' from his Ancestors he be call'd Hijodalgo that is to say the Son of some thing or a Gentleman To this purpose I will recount here a short Discourse between a Captain of great Honour and a Cavalier who stood much upon his Gentility By which may be seen in what true Honour consists and every Man may perceive what is meant by being Born again The Captain being in Company with a knot of Cavaliers and speaking of the Largesses and Liberties which Soldiers enjoy in Italy in a certain demand which one of them made him he said to him you in respect of the Meanness of his Birth being a Native of that Country descended of Parents of a slender Fortune and Born in a Village of a few Houses The Captain affronted at that term answered saying Senōr your Signory may know that the Soldiers who enjoy so great Liberty in Italy cannot find themselves so well in Spain because of the many Laws in this Country against those that draw their Swords The other Gentlemen observing him to use this Word Signōria could not forbear laughing Upon which the Gentleman blushing bespoke them after this manner Be it known to you Gentlemen that in Italy Signōria is as much as to say in Spain Merced Your Worship and the Captain being used to the Manner and Custom of his Country he uses this Term Signoria where he should do that of Merced To which the Captain replied Surely Senōr you do not take me to be so ignorant but that I know when I am in Italy how to apply my self to the Italian Tongue and to the Spanish when I am in Spain But he that in Spain in Talking gives me the Vos You must at least have a Signōria in Spain tho' it goes against the Grain The Gentleman being almost Non-plust answered him What then Senōr Capitan Are you not Native of such a Place and the Son of such an one and don 't you know also who I am and who my Ancestors were Signor answered the Captain I know right well that your Signiory is a good Cavallero and such have been your Ancestors yet I and my Right Hand which I now acknowledge for my Father are better Gentlemen than you and all your Family This Captain alluded to the second Birth Men have when he said I and my Right Hand which I now acknowledge for my Father And not without Reason For with his Right Hand and with his Sword he had performed such Actions as the worth of his Person might be equal to the Nobility of that Cavallero For the most part says Plato the Law and Nature are contrary for sometimes a Man comes out of Nature's hands with a Mind very Wise Excellent Generous and Frank and with a Wit made to Command the whole World and because his Lot was to be born in the House of Amicla which was a very poor Cottage he remained by Law deprived of the Honour and Liberty wherein Nature had placed him On the contrary we see others whose Wit and Manners shew plainly they were destin'd to be Slaves and Vassals yet because they are born of Illustrious Houses the Law appoints them for our Masters But one thing hath been noted long since and that well merits Consideration which is that many Men more sufficient and of greater Wit for Sciences and Arms are born in Villages and in thatch'd Houses than in Great Cities Nevertheless the Vulgar are so Ignorant as to take it for an Argument of the contrary to be Born in mean Places Of this we have a clear Instance in Holy Writ for the people of Israel in Astonishment at the great things Jesus Christ our Redeemer did cryed out Is it possible any Good should come out of Nazareth But to return to the Wit of the Captain of whom we treat he ought to be furnished with much Understanding and with the difference of Imagination which is required by the Military-Art Accordingly there is observed in that short Conference much Learning from whence we may gather in what consists mens Courage that gives them Reputation in the Common-Wealth I am of Opinion that a Man ought to have six things that he may be said to be Honorable and if he want any one his Being is thereby impaired Yet all of them are not placed in the same degree nor are they of equal value or the same qualities The first and most principal is his Personal Merit in Prudence Justice Spirit and Courage 'T is this that makes Riches and Birthright from hence grow Titles of Honour From this beginning all the Nobility in the World draws its Origine And if not let us go to the great Houses in Spain and we shall find that they almost all sprung from private Men who by their Personal Courage have acquired what their Posterity now enjoys The second thing that honors a Man next his own Merit is Riches without which we see no Man esteemed in a Common-Wealth The third is the Nobility and Antiquity of his Ancestors To be well Born and of honourable Blood is a Jewel of great Value but not without a great Defect for of it self alone is of small Advantage as well to the Noble as to others when reduced to necessity for a Man can neither Eat nor Drink the same nor will it Cloath nor Shoe him nor can he Give or Pawn or make Sale of it but it makes him live as a dying Man in depriving him of the Means he might otherwise procure to supply his Necessities But joyned with Riches no point of Honour is it 's Equal Some resemble Nobility to a Cypher in Arithmetic which is nothing of it self alone but added to any Number encreases it The fourth thing that makes a Man esteemed is to have some Post or honourable Office as on the contrary there is nothing that Debases a Man so much as to get his livelyhood by any Mechanic-Trade The fifth thing that renders a Man Honourable is to have a good Sir name that is acceptable and that sounds well in the Ears and not to be call'd by ridiculous Names as I have known some We read in the General History of Spain that two Ambassadors being arrived from France to demand of King Alfonsus the Ninth one of his Daughters in Marriage for King Philip their Master one was very handsom and call'd Vrraca and the other not so agreeable whose Name was Blanca The two Ladies being both together in the Ambassadors Presence every one looked that they would chuse Vrraca because she was the Elder handsomer and richer drest but the Ambassadors enquiring their Names Stumbled at the Name of Vrraca and close Blanca saying
State and yet tho' so Lewd and Blasphemous are nevertheless most potent in Generation and the greatest part of their Children Males and sturdy ones not effeminate Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites like yours The Reason of which is they Eat little Exercise much stroll not always on Horse-back as you do for which Reason they make their Seed hot and dry and so they get Boys and not Girls This Point of Philosophy neither Pharaoh nor his Council understood when they spoke after this Manner Come on let us deal wisely with them lest they Multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any War they join also unto our Enemies For the Method he took to prevent the Israelites Multiplying or at least that they should not have so many Males which was what they feared most was to oppress them with Bodily Labours and give them nothing to eat but Leaks Garlic and Onyons which had the contrary Effect for as the sacred Text declares The more they afflicted them the more they Multiplied and Grew Yet he making account that there was no better way than this to follow doubled their Tasks and their Burdens but to no more purpose than if to quench a great Fire he had cast in store of Oyl and Butter But had he or any of his Council understood Natural Philosophy they would have ordered them Barly-bread Lettuce Melons Pompions and Cucumbers and permitted them to live at Ease giving them their fill of Meat and Drink without forcing them to Work For by these means they would have had moist and cold Seed whence would have proceeded more Girls than Boys and in a little time their Lives have been shortened if they had desired it Instead of which in giving them boyl'd Flesh to eat with abundance of Garlic Leeks and Onyons and obliging them to Labour hard as they did it produced hot and dry Seed by which Qualities they were more incited to Generation and got always Male Children In Confirmation of this Truth Aristotle asks in one of his Problems Whence it comes that those who Labour hard or those that are Hectic commit nocturnal Pollutions To which in earnest he knew not what to say for tho' he alledges many Reasons yet none of them reach the Mark. The right Reason is that Bodily Labour and the Hectic Fever heat and dry the Seed and these two Qualities render it sharp and pricking and because all the Natural Powers are fortified in Sleep this happens which the Problem speaks of How fruitful and pricking hot and dry Seed is Galen notes in these Words It is the most fruitful and briskly excites the Animal from the beginning even to coition it is Lascivious and prone to Lust The fourth Condition is not to engage in the Act of Generation till the Seed be setled digested and well seasoned for tho' the three preceeding Cautions be duly observed we cannot know thereby if it have acquired all the Perfection it ought to have Especially it is convenient to use this Caution for seven or eight Days before the Meats we have prescribed to give time to the Testicles to convert into their Nourishment the Seed which at that time was made from the other Aliments and that this which we are describing may Succeed The same Care is to be taken to render human Seed fruitful and prolific as Gardiners take with the Seed they would preserve they wait till they ripen cleanse and dry for if they gather them before the proper Season and point of Maturity tho' they lie in the Ground a whole Year they will not grow at all For this reason I have observed that in places where Venus is much used fewer Children are got than where there is more Continence And light Women prove rarely with Child because they stay not till their Seed be digested and ripe It is convenient then to wait some Days that the Seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned For by this means it will duly gain Heat and Dryness and the good Substance it has lost But how shall we know the Seed to be such as it ought to be since the Matter is of so great Importance This may be easily known if there be an Interval of a few Days from the Man's denying to Company with his Wife by the continual irritation and great Desire he will have All which arises from the Seed's being fruitful and prolific The fifth Condition we have directed was that the Man should engage with his Wife six or seven Days before her Courses because a Boy has soon occasion for much Aliment to Nourish him And the Reason of it is that the Heat and Dryness of his Temperament spends and consumes not only the good Blood of his Mother but her very Excrements Wherefore Hippocrates said that the Woman that conceives a Boy is well Coloured and Fair which comes from this that the Child through his great Heat spends for his Nourishment all the Excrements that were wont to make her Thin and Wan And being so greedy it is but fit he should be supplied with Blood for his Nourishment And this Experience clearly proves for seldom is a Boy begot but towards the last Days of the Month It fares quite contrary when she conceives a Girl for through the great coldness and moisture of her Sex she Eats little and makes abundance of Excrements Accordingly a Woman with Child of a Girl looks Yellow and Green and long 's for a Thousand nasty Things and in her lying in must have longer time to cleanse than if she brought forth a Boy On which Natural Reason God grounded when he ordered Moses that the Woman that brought forth a Male being unclean seven Days should not come into the Sanctuary till after thirty three Days but if she bear a Maid-Child she should be Unclean two Weeks and should not come into the Sanctuary till she had accomplish'd threescore and six Days So that the time of her Purification was doubled for the Birth of a Female and the cause of it is that during her Nine Months stay in her Mothers Womb through the much cold and moist of her Temperament she doubled the Excrements of a Boy besides that the same were of a much worse Substance and Quality Whereupon Hippocrates observed that 't is extream Dangerous to stop the Purgation of a Woman delivered of a Girl All this is spoke to the Purpose that it is convenient to stay to the end of the Month to the end the Seed may be supplied with Nourishment sufficient If they couple immediately after the Purgation is over that Seed will not take thro' defect of Blood But I must advise Parents that if their Seed meet not together Galen said it would come to nothing tho' the Man's Seed were never so apt for Procreation The Reason of this we will give hereafter on another Subject It is alike certain that all we have offered must also be observed