12. or 14. of Metaphysicks 8. of Physicks 4. de Coelo 2. de generatione 4. of Meteors and 3. of the Soul which are not mentioned in his Catalogue and therefore who need doubt but these are Supposititious For if they had been extant in the daies of Laertius would he have concealed them or could he have had no suspition of them who was so diligent to know and commit to posterity both the lives and books of the Philosophers And it appears that when Ptolomaus Philadelphus did erect that huge Library at Alexandria using the help and pains of Demetrius Phalereus who was a Peripatetick This man as he did promise great rewards in the Kings name to those that brought books from anywhere so he hath not thought those to be neglected which were said to be Aristotles And therefore Ammonius writeth that many books were brought under the hope of gain bearing the title of Aristotle that notwithstanding were spurious and none of his and therefore who can be certain in such a caliginous Labirynth to know whether these that we have be truly his or but false and adulterate seeing many of them are suspected rather to belong to Architas than to Aristotle 3. Seeing according to Laertius and some others that there were many that bore the name of Aristotle might not easily all their works be ascribed to this one Stagyrite as in other things it often falls out for there were many Iupiters yet all things were ascribed to one son of Saturn and there were many called by the name of Hercules yet all their labours made onely one son of Alâ—mena famous And did not Theophrastus and others who are said to have imitated the stile of Aristotle compose many books under the same title with those of his as many be gathered from Laertius Catalogues so might not they in continuance of time have the inscription creep in one instead of the other And is it not controverted whether the beginning of the Metaphysicks and the books of plants and others belong to Theophrastus or to Aristotle And doth not Cicero in his books de finibus witness that those books Moralium Nichomachiorum which are commonly ascribed to Aristotle are to be attributed to Nichomachus his son And lest any should object as they usually do that they are written in his stile and methode doth he not conclude Non video cur non potuerit patri similis est filius I do not see why the son might not be like the Father And are there not some books amongst those vulgarly accounted the works of Aristotle as the book of plants that of the world to Alexander and others that none dare positively assert to be Aristotles Neither is this any new thing in him for the same suppositition of books hath happened to Plato Cicero Seneca Origen Cyprian Hierom Augustine and other great men 4. Let it be concluded that we have the books which may justly and legitimately be ascribed to Aristotle yet notwithstanding how dubious is it to know in these books what is properly and truly his and what is not For Strabo Plutarch and others do memorate that when Theophrastus had left Neleus Scepsius heir to his own and Aristotles Library their books lay long hidden in the ground and that many years after when they were corroded with worms and moths and almost consumed and wasted they were digged up and sold to Apellicon Teius who took care to export them to Athens and took upon him to amend and correct the defects according to his own mind And 〈◊〉 not long after Lucius Sylla had carried them to Rome forth of Greece he committed them to Tyrannion the Grammarian that he might correct and alter them and so that he added detracted or changed what he judged Appellicon had depraved or might better agree to the mind of Aristotle And that afterwards succeeded Andronicus Rhodius who again turned all upside down and altered as he thought fit Therefore how shall we believe that the pure text of Aristotle passing the hands of so many Correctors that I may not more truly say Corruptors come to our hands without being viciated in innumerable places first suffering by the injury of time and then by the conjectures of so many Censurers Especially if to this we shall add the variety oscitancy and unskilfulness of transcribers we shall find that in this author which is common to almost all that of one and the self-same place there will be various lections that it will be hardly possible to divine which are the primary and proper footsteps of the author 5. But let this also be given that there is nothing contained in his works but what is his own yet the style and manner of Aristotles writing doth render his doctrine so uncertain and obscure that to fish out his meaning there is need of a Delian Urinator For though he might be copious and elegant in easie matters yet in things that are more difficult and which require more perspicuous explication he is so ambiguous brief lame and intricate that he seems from thence to have raised plenty of matter and occasion to make his Sectators wrangle and conjecture Therefore Atticus did worthily and appositely compare him and his writings to that black humour poured forth by the Cuttle fish under which lying hid she escapeth catching for he seems to have spoken so on purpose as though he be taken in some sense yet in another he makes an escape and so eludes the Catchers And some of his followers do acknowledge that he hath used this kind of equivocal speaking of purpose but what need we any further witness behold Aristotle himself openly declaring that he used this affected obscurity in his Physicks for labouring to consolate Alexander complaining that he had divulged them he saith Scripsisti ad me de libris Auscultatoriis existimans in arcano custodiendos fuisse Seito igitur ipsos editos et non editos esse Cognosci enim percipique ab iis tantum poterunt qui nos audierint Thou hast written to me touching my books of Auscultation thinking that they were to have been kept in secret Therefore know that they are published and not published For they can onely be understood and perceived of those who have heard us Which things being thus we may marvail to what end they have called and accounted him as a Daemon for verily he hath imitated the cunning of a Cacodaemon who is said to speak by his Prophets and Sibylls after such a manner that his words may be used in divers and contrary senses is this the honour of Aristotle or the glory of the Schools 6. But further let it be conceded that Aristotle hath spoken and written perspicuously yet nevertheless his doctrine is left very uncertain For he for the most part still useth a Rhapsodie and is a great Compiler of other mens works and that without taking time to digest or censure all things in them so that it is difficult to
of all men no I believe not but that the proverb is true in them and all men besides humanum est errare But shall we not find that the self-same men have given as great or greater commendation to others yes truely for being Oratours they had all the liberty of a profuse and Hyperbolical stile and often bringing in a commendatory catalogue of learned and worthy men there was no cause why they should omit the noble Stagyrite But have they not often celebrated and preferred others before him yes verily there is hardly any thing more vulgarly known than that iterated saying of Cicero when he was commending any of the Philosophers alwaies added semper excipio Platonem which manifested the high esteem that he had of him accounting no other worthy to be compared with him whom he judged superlative to all and for Pliny we shall find him giving the precedence of wit and knowledge to Homer above all others and calling Plato Sapientiae Anâ—istitem than which Elogy I know not what can be given more illustrious and also openly professing his repugnancy to Aristotle and that he had added many things which that great man was ignorant of And for Quintilian you may hear him preferring Plato Philosophorum quis dubitet Platonem esse praecipuum sive acumine disserendi sive loquendi facultate divina quadam et Homerica ut mihi non hominis ingenio sed quodam Delphico videatur oraculo instructus Who doubteth that Plato is the chief of Philosophers whether in the acuteness of disputing or in a certain divine and Homerical faculty of speaking That he seems to me instructed not with the wit of man but with a certain Delphical Oracle And in a word if thou wilt credit Quintilian thou shall find him extolling Cicero beyond Aristotle Plato or any other of the foregoing ages so that the same mouths that commend him do also prefer others before him But if the authority of men the credit of the best esteemed and the number of voices could certainly decide the truth then what store of witnesses might be brought against him and those also men of the greatest esteem and repute of any in the Christian world For is not the whole Peripatetick Philosophy rejected of all the antient Fathers what need is there to memorate Tertullian Irenaeus and the more Antient what need is there to mention Lactanâ—ius who so often carpeth at Aristotle tanquam secum dissidâ—ntem et repugnantia dicentem et sentientem as one disagreeing with himself and speaking and thinking repugnant things Why should I name Iustin Martyr who so often reprehendeth hâ—m or Hierome who with so open and tart a word taxeth versutias ejus his subtilties why should I recite Ambrose Augustine Theodoret and the rest who impugning humane Philosophy in general have not intended to spare Aristotle alone But in the name of them all hear Gregory Nazianzen who saith so elegantly and truly Abjice Aristotelis minutiloquam sagacitatem abjicite mortiferos illos super anima sermones et universe humana illa dogmata Throw away the minutiloquious sagacity of Aristotle throw away those mortiferous Sermons of his upon the soul and universally all those human opinions of his So that if the judgement of the Fathers be of any weight the Philosophy of Aristotle is not much to be regarded As for that which is alleged concerning Philip chusing Aristotle for a Tutor to his Son Alexander it merits but a slight confutation for admit that Philip was a very wise and prudent Prince as no doubt but he was yet did the excellency of his skill principally consist in Political and Military prudence and knowing Arms better than Arts was not adaequately fit to judge of the abilities of Aristotle except by vulgar rumour and common fame And it is not to be denyed that in his time the fame of Aristotle was exceedingly blown abroad but who is ignorant of the inconstancy and levity of the popular croud in propagating and spreading of rumours But let it be granted that Aristotle did excell not only all the learned men in Greece that lived in his time but all the men of the whole world that lived in the time of Philip yet what is this to the number and abilities of those that have lived both before and since or how comes the Judgement of Philip to oblige us who are not under his Empire and who could not compel the minds of men under the tyranny of one mind for it is easier to inslave bodies than to captivate minds And for Alexander though he had Aristotle in singular esteem yet did he much value other learned men as Xenocrates whose aemulator Aristotle was and also Pyrrho so that both these received for gifts many Talents But this is not to be denyed that the splendor of Alexanders name did bring much credit and authority to Aristotle both living and dead but this notwithstanding amongst the vulgar and those of vulgar wits who as they are onely moved with external showes so they think that a great Prince cannot but have a great Master when for the most part Princes chuse not Tutors for Princes either for their abilities in judging of the solidity of literature or for the love they have to vertue truth or sincery but rather for worldly or Politick ends that their sons may be instructed and fitted both to keep and acquire large Dominions and Territories and for the most part true Science scorns the bondage flattery and vanity of Courtly splendor 2. Again there is no reason why the Peripatetick Philosophy should have the palm and preheminence above all other because there is a great uncertainty both of the books and doctrine of Aristotle as we shall evince in some few reasons 1. It is uncertain whether any book of Aristotle or which owns him for author be extant or no for if it were not dubious to what end do his interpreters as Simplicius Themistius and almost all the rest which write in this age prepose this question at the beginning of every book that they expound Sitne hujusmodi liber Aristotelis an non is this book Aristotles or not Certainly if this thing were not dubious there were no cause for propounding this question for we use not to scruple about things that are certain but about things that are doubful For it is inquired concerning his book de interpretatione whether it be his or no the later men do affirm it but long ago Andronicus Rhodius haâ—h denyed it whether therefore shall we give our suffrage to these modern men or to him that is more antient who by the verdict of Boetius and Porphyrius is said to have brought Aristotles writings out of Greece and to have digested them into order who shall loose this knot who shall resolve this doubt 2. Another argument ariseth from hence that Laertius hath drawn the order and Catalogue of Aristotles books and yet many are wanting which he enumerates and we have many as
laborious Harrigon Or are the wonderful and stupendious effects that Polygraphy or Steganography produce to be omitted or neglected which are of such high concernment in the most arduous occurrents of humane affairs of what price and value these are let that monopoly of all learning the Abbot of Spanheim speak let Porta let Cornelius Agrippa let Claramuel let Gustavus Silenus Frier Bacon and many others speak who have written so learnedly and accurately therein even to wonder and amazement Vid. Lib. Polygrap Steganog Trithem Hen. Cor. Agrip. de occult Philos. lib. Io. Claram in lib. Trithem expositio Gustav Silen Crytomanâ—ices lib. Frat. Rog. Bacon de mirabili potestate artis et naturae lib. et alios 5. What a vast advancement had it been to the Re-publick of Learning and hugely profiâ—able to all mankind if the discovery of the universal Character hinted at by some judicious Authors had been wisely and laboriously pursued and bâ—ought to perfection that thereby Nations of divers Languages might have been able to have read it and understood it and so have more easily had commerce and trafick one with another and thereby the sciences and skill of one Nation might with more facility have been communicated to others though not speaking or understanding that language in which they were first written This would have been a potent means in some measure to have repaired the ruines of Babell and have been almost a Catholick Cure for the confusion of tongues for do we not plainly see that those which are deaf and dumb have most pregnant and notable waies by signes and gestures to express their minds which those that do much converse with them can easily understand and unriddle and answer them with the like that doubtlesly compleat waies might be found out to convey out notions and intentions one to another without vocal and articular prolation as some have all ready invented and practised by Dactylogy and doubtlesly might be brought to pass by the eies and motions of the face onely Sir Kenelm Digby hath an apposite though almost incredible story of one in Spain which being deaf and dumb was notwithstanding taught to speak and understand others which cerrainly was performed chiefly by the eye and though it may seem a Romance to some yet whosoever shall seriously consider the vast knowledge cautiousness curiosity sincerity and punctual account of the relator therein will be convinced of the possibility hereof And it is recorded and believed with Authors of repute and credit that in China and some other Oriental Regions they have certain characters which are real not nominal expressing neither letters nor words but things and notions so that many nations differing altogether in languages yet consenting in learning these Catholike characters do communicate in their writings so far that every nation can read and translate a book written in these common characters in and into their own Countrey language Which is more manifest if we do but consider that the numeral notes which we call figures and cyphers the Planetary Characters the marks for minerals and many other things in Chymistry though they be alwaies the same and vary not yet are understood by all nations in Europe and when they are read every one pronounces them in their own Countreys language and Dialect And to make it more evident let a character denoting man be appointed as suppose this and though to persons of divers languages it would receive various denominations according to their several vocal prolations yet would they all but understand one and the self same thing by it For though an Hebrew or Iew would call it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Graecian {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one that speaks the Latine Homo a Frenchman Vn home an High German Der Mann a Spaniard Vn Hombre and the English Man yet would the intellect receive but only the single and numerical species of that which it represented and so one note serve for one notion to all nations 6. I cannot howsoever fabulous impossible or ridiculous it may be accounted of some passe over with silence or neglect that signal and wonderful secret so often mentiond by the mysterious and divinely-inspired Teutonick and in some manner acknowledged and owned by the highly-illuminated fraternity of the Rosie Crosse of the language of nature but out of profound and deep consideration must adumbrate some of those reasons which perswasively draw my judgement to credit the possibility thereof 1. For when I look upon the Protoplast Adam created in the image or according to the image of the gâ—eat Archetype his father and maker Creavit deus hominem ad imaginem suam God created man in his own image and also find the never-erring oracle of truth declaring evidently what that image is namly the only begotten son of the father {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} who being the effulgence or brightnesse of glory and the Character and image of his subsistence And this image of his subsistence being that out-flown and serviceable word by which he made the worlds and that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God from this is manifest that Adam made in this image of God which is his eternal word was made in the out-spoken word and so lived in understood and spoke the language of the father For the divine eâ—sence living in its own infinit glorious and central being having this eternal word or character of his subsistence in and with himself and was himself did by the motion of its own incomprehensible love expand and breath forth this characteristical word in which man stood and so spoke in from and through this out-flown language of the father which is the procedure of the all-working and eternal fiat in which all things live stand operate and speak out the immense and unsearchable wisdome power and glory of the fountain and Abysse from whence they came the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work and every thing that hath breath prayseth the Lord and so every creature understands and speaks the language of nature but sinfull man who hath now lost defac't and forgotten it And therefore it is not without a deep and abstruse mystery that the Seraphical Apostle speaks that he knew a man caught up into the third heaven into Paradise and heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ineffable words which are not lawfull or possible to be spoken for this was the Paradisical language of the out-flown word which Adam understood while he was unfaln in Eden and lost after and therefore the same illuminated vessel in another place mentions the tongues of men and Angels which would profit nothing if they were not spoken in and from the eternal word which is the love-essence or essence of love
For this Angelical and Paradisical language speaks and breaths forth those central mysteries that lâ—y hid in the heavenly magick which was in that ineffable word that was with God and lay wrapped up in the bosome of the eternal essence wherein were hidden and involved in the way of a wonderful and inscrutable mystery all the treasury of those ideal signatures which were manifest and brought to light by the Peripherial expansion and evolution of the serviceable word or outflowing fiat and so became existent in the matrix or womb of that generative and faetiferous word from whence sprung up the wonderfull numerous and various seminal natures bearing forth the vive and true signatures of the divine and characteristical impressions like so many Harmoniacal and Symphoniacal voices or tones all melodiously singing and sounding forth in an heavenly consort the wisdome power glory and might of the transcendent central Abysse of unity from whence they did arise and all speaking one language in expressing significantly in that mystical Idiome the hidden vertues natures and properties of those various sounds which though one in the center become infinitely numerous in the manifested existence and circumference as saith the oracle of mysteries there are it may be so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} mute or without signification Many do superficially and by way of Analogy as they term it acknowledge the Macrocosm to be the great unsealed book of God and every creature as a Capital letter or character and all put together make up that one word or sentence of his immense wisdome glory and power but alas who spells them a right or conjoyns them so together that they may perfectly read all that is therein contained Alas we all study and read too much upon the dead paper idolls of creaturely-invented letters but do not nor cannot read the legible characters that are onely written and impressed by the finger of the Almighty and yet we can verbally acknowledge praesentemque refert quaelibet herba deum but alas who truely reads it and experiences it to be so And yet indeed they ever remain legible and indelible letters speaking and sounding forth his glory wisdome and power and all the mysteries of their own secret and internal vertues and qualities and are not as mute statues but as living and speaking pictures not as dead letters but as preaching Symbols And the not understanding and right reading of these starry characters therein to behold the light of Abyssal glory and immortality is the condemnation of all the sons of lost Adam For the invisible things of him from the foundation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and divinity so that they are without excuse But if we look more narrowly in to the great fabrick or machine we shall find that it is aâ— a Pamphoniacal and musical instrument and every individual creature is as a several cord or string indued with a distinct and various tone all concurring to make up a catholick melody and every one of these understanding the sound and cure of each other otherwise the Harmony would be discordant and man himself makes up one string of this great instrument though in his faln condition he neither understands the sound of his fellow-strings neither knows how he concords with his musick neither by his own will or knowledge would concur in this heavenly consort for to him the pipe is not understood neither distinguisheth he the tunes and so knoweth not what is piped or harped 2. Further when I find the great and eternal being speaking and conversing with Adam I cannot but believe that the language which he uttered was the living and the serviceable word and that it was infinitely high deep and glorious like himself and that which was radically and essentially one with him and proceeded from him and was indeed the language of the divine nature and not extrinsecally adventitious unto him and when I find Adam understanding this heavenly Dialect which had been uttered in vain if he had not understood it I cannot but believe that this was the language of nature infused into him in his Creation and so innate and implantate in him and not inventive or acquisitive but meerly dative from the father of light from whom every good and perfect gift doth come and descend 3. Again when I find the Almighty presenting all the Creatures before Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that is the name thereof I cannot but conceive that Adam did understand both their internal and external signatures and that the imposition of their names was adaequately agreeing with their natures otherwise it could not univocally and truely be said to be their names whereby he distinguished them for names are but representations of notions and if they do not exactly agree in all things then there is a difference and disparity between them and in that incongruity lies error and falshood and notions also are but the images or ideas of things themselves reflected in the mind as the outward face in a looking-glasse and therefore if they do not to an hair correspond with and be Identical one to the other as punctually and truly as the impression in the wax agrees with the seal that instamped it and as face answers face in a glass then there is not absolute congruency betwixt the notion and the thing the intellect and the thing understood and so it is no longer verity but a ly and falsity And therefore if Adam did not truly see into and understand their intrinsecall natures then had his intellect false notions of them and so he imposed lying names upon them and then the text would be false too which avers that what he called them was their names Also Adam was in a deep sleep when Eve was framed of his bone and yet when she was brought before him being awaked he could tell that she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and therefore he called her woman because she was taken out of man Now if it be denyed that he understood by his intrinsick and innate light what she was and from whence she was taken which I hold altogether untrue and that God by extrinsick information told Adam from whence she was taken yet did he immediately give unto her an adaequate name suiting her original which most significantly did manifest what was her nature and from whence it came and doubtless the name being exactly conformable and configurate to the Idaea in his mind the very prolation and sound of the word contained in it the vive expression of the thing and so in verity was nothing else but that pure language of nature which he then spake and understood and afterwards so miserably lost and defaced And if it be objected that if Adam did understand
should be inchanted and infatuated to admire and own this ignorant Pagan who being ambitious of erecting his own fame did traduce and darken the writings of those that preceded him and pretending to interpret and open the doctrine of learned Hippocrates he altogether obscured and perverted the same And yet can the Schools be so wilfully mad to adore this Idol and follow this blind guide Thirdly if the ground of Galenical Physick had been sound and firm and that it were the true and certain way both to find out the causes and to cure diseases yet notwithstanding hath it been but loosly prosecuted and smally promoted seeing for the space of so many hundred years there is not by the Schools found out any more certain safe or easie way to cure diseases than was in the daies of Hippocrates and Galen It is very strange that it should grow up and flourish with them and never since come to any more perfection when it is usually observed that nothing is simnl semel invented and perfected For it is plain that in Botanical knowledge nothing of value is found out or discovered since the daies of Dioscorides for though some plants be now found out that were not then known and many species of others also and their cuts and figures more perfected as beside much confusedly heaped up concerning their qualities of heat and cold driness and moisture yet is nothing more added by real experience and diligent observation of their specifick vertues and intrinsick properties so that in regard of the vegetable Kingdom the art of medicine hath got little advance Fourthly though medicinal knowledge have received some melioration especially in the Anatomical part wherein men have laboured with much acuteness diligence and observation so that this part seems to be growing and arising towards the Zenith of perfection especially since our never-sufficiently honoured Countryman Doctor Harvey discovered that wonderful secret of the bloods circulary motion yet for all this there comes small advantage by it in practice and application for the more certain safe and easie curing of diseases for though it bring great satisfaction to a speculative understanding and help to cleer many intricate doubts yet doth it little to remove dolor danger or death And moreover though it be grown to a mighty height of exactness in vulgar Anatomy and dissection of the dead bodies of men or the living ones of beasts birds and fishes yet is it defective as to that vive and Mystical Anatomy that discovers the true Schematism or signature of that invisible Archeus or spiritus mechanicus that is the true opifex and dispositor of all the salutary and morbifick lineaments both in the seminal guttula the tender Embrio and the formed Creature of which Paracelsus Helmont and our learned Countryman Dr. Pludd have written most excellently Fiftly the most excellent art of Chirurgery though much advanced by the help of Anatomy in all that belongs to manual operation or the use of instruments yet in the curing of great and dangerous sores as the Lupus Cancer Fistula Carcinoma Elephantiasis Strumaes virulent and malign Ulcers and the like it is much defective and can perform little without mineral and Chymical medicaments Not because nature and providence have ordained no remedies for them but because of the sloathfulness and negligence of professors and artists who sit down contented with Galenical medicaments thinking there is nothing of greater virtue and operation than they and so become slaves and captives to some few Authors whom they think it not lawful to relinguish or that natures whole mysteries were comprized in their paper Monuments and no search further to be made Not knowing that their scrutiny should be through the whole Theatre of nature and that their only study and labour ought to be to acquire and find out salves for every sore and medicines for every malady and not to be inchained with the formal prescriptions of Schools Halls Colleges or Masters but to seek continually that these things might be made known unto them and not to imagine it is sufficient to have served an appenticeship to it as to a trade except they arrive at higher attainments Quia medicus ad imaginem dei agere ac laborare jussus est constat ipsum non nugacibus rebus sed secretioribus Magiae ac Cabalae studiis operam suam locare debere non enim ut Iurisconsultorum vel Physicorum scientia sic et Medicina humanis speculationibus comprehendi potest cum ipsa supra omnes artes admirabilis ac occulta existat Because the Physician is commanded to act and labour according to the image of God it is manifest that he ought not to place his pains in trifling things but in the more secret studies of Magick and Cabalistick Science for not as the knowledge of Lawyers and Naturalists so also can Medicinal skill be comprehended by human speculations seeing it is admirable and occult above all arts Therefore what great error and how haynous a crime is it to leave the great book of the Macracosm nay and the writings of others only to adhere to the doctrine of ignorant wicked malicious and blind Pagans I shall onely add this Adeoque cum omne donum bonum nedum virtutum sed cognitionum descendat à patre luminum quis poterit à Scholis Gentilitiis scientiae medicae tesseram ediscere Dominus enim creavit medicum non Scholae Therefore seeing every good gift not onely of vertues but also of Sciences doth descend from the Father of lights who can perfectly learn the sum of Medicinal knowledge from the heathenish Schools For the Lord hath created the Physician not the Schools 4. There remaineth diverse excellent discoveries of many mysterious things in nature that do properly belong to Physicks which yet the Schools take small or no notice of and as little pains in either to know teach or improve them and so are a witness against them of their sluggishness and deficiency of their too-much-magnified Peripatetick Philosophy As first they pass over with a dry foot that laudable excellent and profitable science of Physiognomy which hath been admired and studyed of the gravest and wisest Sages that have been in many generations which is that Science which from and by certain external signs signatures and lineaments doth explicate the internal nature and quality of natural bodies either generally or specifically And this so necessary a knowledge both in the genus and species of it is altogether omitted by the School they understand and teach nothing of Caelestial signatures which are in some measure made known by the quantity light colour motion and other affections of those bodies They teach nothing of Sub-caelestial Physiognomy whether Elementary Meteorological or Mineralogical but are utterly ignorant in all these as also in Botanical and Anthropological Physiognomy contenting themselves with a few frivilous false and formal definitions and notions and so never seek to
excogitate in a most easie method that they may be cleerly and distinctly understood are most apt to perswade although they did use the language of the Goths and had never learned Rhetorick and those that are born to invent most ingenious figments and to express them with the greatest elegance and suavity are to be accounted the best Poets although they are ignorant of all the precepts of the Poetical art for nascitur non fit poeta and therefore Plato most truly concludeth Omnes itaque carminum poetae insignes non arte sed divino afflatu mente capti omnia ista praeclar a poemata canunt Therefore all the famous makers of verses do not sing all these excellent Poems by art but by a divine afflation being carried above themselves 3. Though Aristotle were a great Master in Oratory and a very eloquent man yet in that point might justly give the palm to his Master Plato unto whom all the attributes of honour in that particular are worthily accumulated of whom it is said That if Iupiter would speak in mans language he would speak in that of Plato Thus have I briefly run over some of the faults and defects of Academick learning but am far from having touched all for to have done that would have reached beyond both my time and purpose and also mine abilities for Benardus non videt omnia yet if the Lion may be known by his paw and Hercules by his foot then I hope there is enough said to make it cleer that the Aristotelian and Scholastick learning deserves not the preheminence above all other nor those great commendations that the corruption of times and sloathful ignorance of the most have ascribed unto it but that a great part of it doth deserve eradication some of it reformation and all of it melioration and so I proceed CHAP. VIII Of their Customes and Methode HAving hitherto spoken of the subjective learning that the Schools handle it follows in order to examine their customes and methode not that I mean to meddle either with their manners or maintenance but leave that to the judgement of others lest it happen to me as Erasmus said of Luther that it was dangerous to meddle with the Popes Crown and Monks bellies but only to note some things in the way and methode of their teaching which are obvious to my weak observation and so shall lay them down as they present themselves to my low apprehension 1. Though in one Academy there be usually divers Colleges or houses yet must all the Scholars in those several places be tyed to one methode and carried on in one way nay even bound to the same authors and hardly allowed so much liberty and difference as is between Aristotle and Ramus Logick As though they in the way of their teaching had arrived at the highest point of perfection which could no way be improved or no other as profitable could be discovered and found out and so are all forced like carriers horses to follow one another in the accustomed path though it be never so uneven or impassable 2. Their Scholastick exercises are but slenderly negligently and sloathfully performed their publike acts as they call them though but verbal digladiations being but kept four times in the year that is in the terms which if one should tell them in plain terms are but usually idle termes as though time of all other things here below were not to be accounted most pretious and that there can be no such detriment done unto youth as to lose or mispend it 3. Their Custome is injurious and prejudicial to all those that desire to make a speedy progress in learning nay unequal and disproportionable in it self namely to ty men to a set time of years or acts before they can receive their Laureation or take their degrees as though all were of one capacity or industry or all equally able at their matriculation and so the sloathful and painful the most capable and most blockish should both in the same equal time have an equal honour which is both disproportionable and unjust For some will attain to more in one year than some in three and therefore why should they not be respected according to their merits and proficiency and not bound to draw in an unequal yoak and what matter were it whether a man had been there one moneth or seven years so he had the qualification required and did subire examen and perform the duties of the place surely it is known that gradus non confert scientiam nec cucullus facit monachum 4. Their custome is no less ridiculous and vicious in their histrionical personations in the performance of their exercises being full of childishness and scurrility far from the gravity and severity of the Pythagorean School where a five years silence was enjoined using so much lightness as more befits stage-players than diligent searchers of Science by scoffing and jeering humming and hiffing which shewes them like those animals they imitate nay rather hurâ—ful Geese than labourious Bees that seek to gather into their Hives the sweet Honey of Learning and Knowledge 5. What is there in all their exercises but meer notions and quarrelsome disputations accustoming themselves to no better helps for searching into natures abstruse secrets than the Chymaeras of their own brains and converse with a few paper Idols as though these alone were sufficient keyes to open the Cabinet of Natures rich â—â—easurie without labour and pains experiments and operations tryals and observations Surely if he that intends to prove a proficient in the knowledge of Agriculture should onely give himself over to contemplation and reading the books of such as have written in that Subject and never put his hand to the plough nor practise the way of tilling and sowing would he ever be a good husbandman or understand thorowly what pertains thereunto Surely not and no more can they be good Naturalists that do but onely make a mold and Idaea in their heads and never go out by industrious searches and observant experiments to find out the mysteries contained in nature 6. Their custome is no less worthy of reprehension that in all their exercises they make use of the Latine tongue which though it may have custome and long continuance to plead its justification and that it is used to bring youth to the ready exercise of it being of general reception almost through the whole world yet it is as cleerly answered that custome without reason and benefit becomes injurious and though it make them ready in speaking the Latine while they treat of such subjects as are usually handled in the Schools yet are they less apt to speak it with facility in negotiations of far greater importance And in the mean time the way to attain knowledge is made more difficult and the time more tedious and so we almost become strangers to our own mother tongue loving and liking forein languages as we do their fashions