science which he pretendeth to study is the matter which most makes for the purpose for with this we haue seene that diuers men haue begun to studie after their youth was expired and were instructed by bad teachers with euill order and in their owne birth-places and yet for all that haue prooued great clearks But if the wit faile sayth Hippocrates all other diligences are lost But there is no man who hath better verefied this than the good Marcus Cicero who through greefe of seeing his sonne such a doo-nought with whome none of the means could preuaile that he had procured to breed him wisedome sayd in the end after this sort What else is it after the manner of the Giants to fight with the gods than to resist against nature as if he should haue sayd What thing is there which better resembles the battaile which the giants vndertooke against the gods than that a man who wanteth capacitie should set himselfe to studie for as the giants neuer ouercame the gods but were still vanquished by them so whatsoeuer scholler will labour to ouercome his owne vntoward nature shall rest vanquished by her For which cause the same Cicero counselleth vs that we should not vse force against our nature nor endeuour to become Orators if she assent not for we shall vndergo labour in vaine CHAP. II. That Nature is that which makes a man of habilitie to learne IT is an opinion very common and ordinarie amongst the antient Philosophers to say That Nature is she who makes a man of habilitie to learne and that art with her precepts and rules giues a facilitie therevnto but then vse and experience which he reapes of particular things makes him mightie in working Yet none of them euer shewed in particular what thing this nature was nor in what ranke of causes it ought to be placed only they affirmed that this wanting in him who learned art experience teachers bookes and trauaile are of none auaile The ignoraunt vulgar seeing a man of great wit and readinesse straightwaies assigne God to be the author thereof and looke no further but hold euery other imagination that goes beyond this for vanitie but naturall Philosophers despise this manner of talking for put case that the same be godly and containe therein religion and truth yet it groweth from not knowing the order and disposition which God placed amongst naturall things that day when they were created and so couer their ignorance with a kind of warrantise and in sort that none may reprehend or gainsay the same they affirme that all befals as God will and that nothing succeeds which springs not from his diuine pleasure But though this be neuer so apparant a truth yet are they worthie of reproofe because as not euerie kind of demaund sayth Aristotle is to be made after one fashion so not euerie aunswer though true is to be giuen Whilest a natural Philosopher reasoned with a Grammarian there came to them an inquisitiue Gardener and asked what the cause might be that he cherishing the earth so charilie in deluing turning dunging and watering it yet the same neuer well brought foorth the herbage which he sowed therein whereas the hearbes which she bred of her selfe she caused to increase with great facilitie The Grammarian aunswered This grew from the diuine prouidence and was so ordained thorow the good gouernment of the world at which answer the naturall Philosopher laughed seeing he reduced this to God because he knew not the discourse of naturall causes nor in what sort they proceeded to their effects The Grammarian perceiuing the other laugh asked whether he mocked him or wherat else he laughed The Philosopher answered that he laughed not at him but at the maister who taught him so ill for the knowledge and solution of things which spring from the diuine prouidence as are the workes supernaturall appertaine to the Metaphisicks whom we now tearme Diuines but this question propounded by the Gardener is naturall and appertaineth to the iurisdiction of the naturall Philosophers because there are certaine ordered and manifest causes from which this effect may spring And thus the naturall Philosopher answered saying that the earth is conditioned like a stepmother who very carefully brings vp her owne children which shee breeds her selfe but takes away the sustenance from those which appertaine to her husband and so we see that her owne children are fat and fresh and her step-children weake and ill coloured The hearbs which the earth brings foorth of her selfe are borne of her proper bowels and those which the Gardener makes to grow by force are the daughters of another mother wherethrough she takes from them the vertue and nourishment by which they ought to increase that she may giue it to the hearbs which are borne of her selfe Hippocrates likewise reports that he going to visit the great Philosopher Democritus he told him the follies which the vulgar speake of Phisicke namely that seeing themselues recouered from sicknesse they would say it was God who healed them and that if his wil were not little had the good diligence of the Phisition auailed This is so antient a manner of talke and the naturall Philosophers haue so often refuted it that the seeking to take the same away were superfluous neither is it conuenient for the vulgar who know not the particular causes of any effect answereth better and with more truth as touching the vniuersall cause which is God than to say some other vnfitting thing But I haue often gone about to consider the reason the cause whence it may grow that the vulgar sort is so great a friend to impute all things to God and to reaue them from nature do so abhor the naturall means and I know not whether I haue bene able to find it out The vulgar at least giues hereby to vnderstand that forasmuch as they know not what effects they ought to attribute to God immediatly and what to Nature they speake after this maner Besides that men are for the most part impatient and desirous to accomplish speedily what they couet But because the natural means are of such prolixitie and work with length of time they possesse not the patience to stand marking thereof and knowing that God is omnipotent and in a moment of time performeth whatsoeuer him pleaseth whereof they find many examples they would that he should giue thē health as he did to the sicke of the palsie and wisedome as to Salomon riches as to Iob and that he should deliuer them from their enimie as he did Dauid The second cause is for that men are arrogant and vaine conceited many of whom desire secretly in their hearts that God would bestow vpon them some particular graces which should not befall after the common vse as is that the sunne ariseth vpon the good and bad and that the rainè fals vpon all in generall for benefits are so much the more highly prized as they are the more rare
the imagination so it is of force that they faile in vnderstanding and be such as the prouerb paints them forth To the second probleme may be answered that Galen enquiring out the wit of men by way of the temperarature of the region where they inhabit saith that those who make abode vnder the North haue all of thē want of vnderstanding but those who are seated between the North and the burned Zone are of great wisedome Which situation answereth directly to our region And verily so it is for Spaine is not so cold as the places subiected to the Pole nor so hot as the burned Zone The same sentence doth Aristotle produce demanding for what cause such as inhabit verie cold regions partake lesse vnderstanding than those who are born in the hotter and in the answere he verie homely handles the Flemmish Dutch English and French saying that their wits are like those of drunkards for which cause they cannot search out nor vnderstand the nature of things this is occasioned by the much moisture wherwith their brain is replenished and the other parts of the bodie the which is knowen by the whitenesse of the face and the golden colour of the haire and by that it is a miracle to find a Dutchman bald and aboue this they are generally great and of tall stature through the much moisture which breedeth encrease of flesh But in the Spaniards we discerne the quite contrarie they are somwhat browne they haue blacke haire of meane stature and for the most part we see them bald Which disposition saith Galen groweth for that the braine is hot and drie And if this be true it behooueth of force that they be endowed with a bad memorie and a good vnderstanding but the Dutchmen possesse a great memorie small vnderstanding For which cause the one can no skill of Latine and the other easily learne the same The reason which Aristotle alleaged to proue the slender vnderstanding of those who dwell vnder the North is that the much cold of the country calleth backe the naturall heate inward by counterposition and suffereth not the same to spread abroad for which cause it partaketh much moysture and much heate and these vnite a great memorie for the languages and a good imagination with which they make clocks bring the water to Toledo deuise engins and workes of rare skill which the Spaniards through defect of imagination cannot frame themselues vnto But set them to Logicke to Philosophie to Schoole-diuinitie to Phisicke or to the Lawes and beyond comparison a Spanish wit with his barbarous termes will deliuer more rare points than a stranger For if you take from them this finenesse and quaint phrase of writing there is nothing in them of rare inuention or exquisite choice For confirmation of this doctrine Galen said that in Scithia one onely man became a Philosopher but in Athens there were many such as if he should say that in Scithia which is a Prouince vnder the North it grew a myracle to see a Philosopher but in Athens they were all borne wise and skilfull But albeit Philosophie and the other Sciences rehearsed by vs be repugnant to the Northren people yet they profit well in the Mathematicals and in Astrologie because they haue a good imagination The answere of the third probleme dependeth vpon a question much hammered between Plato Aristotle the one saith that there are proper names which by their nature carrie signification of things and that much wit is requisite to deuise them And this opinion is fauoured by the diuine scripture which affirmeth that Adam gaue euerie of those things which God set before him the proper name that best was fitting for them But Aristotle wil not grant that in any toung there can be found any name or maner of speech which can signifie ought of it own nature for that all names are deuised and shaped after the conceit of men Whence we see by experience that wine hath aboue 60. names and bread as manie in euerie language his of none we can auouch that the same is naturall and agreeable thereunto for then all in the world would vse but that But for all this the sentence of Plato is truer for put case that the first deuisers fained the words at their pleasure and will yet was the same by a reasonable instinct communicated with the eare with the nature of the thing with the good grace and well sounding of the pronunciation not making the wordes ouer short or long nor enforcing an vnseemly framing of the mouth in time of vtterance setling the accent in his conuenient place and obseruing the other conditions which a tongue should possesse to be fine and not barbarous Of this selfe opinion with Plato was a Spanish gentleman who made it his pastime to write books of chiualrie because he had a certain kind of imagination which entiseth men to faining and leasings Of him it is reported that being to bring into his works a furious Gyant he went manie daies deuising a name which might in al points be answerable to his fiercenesse neither could he light vpon any vntill playing one day at cardes in his friends house he heard the owner of the house say Ho sirha boy traquitantos the Gentleman so soone as he heard this name Traquitantos sodainly he took the same for a word of ful sound in the eare and without any longer looking arose saying gentlemen I wil play no more for many dayes are past sithence I haue gone seeking out a name which might fit well with a furious Gyant whom I bring into those volumes which I now am making and I could not find the same vntill I came to this house where euer I receiue all courtesie The curiositie of this gentleman in calling the Gyant Traquitantos had also those first men who deuised the Latine tongue in that they found out a language of so good sound to the eare Therefore we need not maruell that the things which are spoken and written in Latine doe sound so well and in other tongues so ill for their first inuenters were barbarous The last doubt I haue been forced to alleage for satisfieng of diuers who haue stūbled theron though the solution be very easie for those who haue great vnderstanding are not vtterly depriued of memorie in asmuch as if they wanted the same it would fall out impossible that the vnderstanding could discourse or frame reasons for this power is that which keepeth in hand the matter and the fantasies whereon it behooueth to vse speculation But for that the same is weake of three degrees of perfection whereto men may attaine in the Latine tongue namely to vnderstand to write and to speake the same perfitly it can hardly passe the first without fault and stumbling CHAP. IX How it may be prooued that the eloquence and finenesse of speech cannot find place in men of great vnderstanding ONe of the graces by which the vulgar is best
that if a 100000 men be begotten ech of them comes to the world with a health so peculier and proper to himselfe that if God should on the sodaine miraculously change their proportion of these first qualities they would all become sicke except some two or three that by great disposition had the like consonance and proportion Whence two conclusions are necessarilie inferred The first is that euerie man who falleth sicke ought to be cured conformable to his particular proportiō in sort that if the phisition restore him not to his first consonance of humours he cannot recouer The second that to performe this as it ought is requisite the phisition haue first seen dealt with the patient sundry times in his health by feeling his pulse perusing his state and what maner countenance and complexion he is of to the end that when he shall fall sicke he may iudge how farre he is from his health and in ministring vnto him may know to what point he is to restore him For the first namely to weet and vnderstand the Theorick and composition of the art saith Galen it is necessarie to be endowed with great discourse and much memorie for the one part of phisick consisteth in reason and the other in experience and historie To the first is vnderstanding requisite and to the other memorie and it resting a matter of so great difficultie to vnite these two powers in a large degree it followeth of force that the phisition become vnapt for the Theorick Where-through we behold many Phisitions learned in the Greeke Latine tongue and great Anotomists and Simplicists all workes of the memory who brought to arguing or disputations or to finde out the cause of anie effect that appertaineth to the vnderstanding can small skill thereof The contrarie befalleth in others who shew great wit and sufficiencie in the Logicke and Philosophie of this art but being set to the Latine and Greeke tongue touching simples and anotomies can do little because memorie in them is wanting for this cause Galen said verie wel That it is no maruell if among so great a multitude of men who practise the exercise and studie of the art of Phisicke and Philosophie so few are found to profit therein and yeelding the reason he saith It requires a great toile to find out a wit requisite for this Science or a maister who can teach the same with perfection or can studie it with diligence and attention But with all these reasons Galen goeth groping for he could not hit the cause whence it comes to passe that few persons profit in Phisick Yet in saying it was a great labour to find out a wit requisit for this science he spake truth albeit he did not so far-forth specifie the same as we will namely for that it is so difficult a matter to vnite a great vnderstanding with much memorie no man attaineth to the depth of Theoricall phisick And for that there is found a repugnancie between the vnderstanding and the imagination whereunto we will now prooue that practise and the skill to cure with certaintie appertaineth it is a miracle to find out a Phisition who is both a great Theorist and withall a great practitioner or contrariwise a great practitioner and verie well seen in Theorick And that the imagination and not the vnderstanding is the power wherof the phisition is to serue himself in knowing and curing the diseases of particular persons may easily be prooued First of all presupposing the doctrine of Aristotle who affirmeth That the vnderstanding cānot know particulars neither distinguish the one from the other nor discerne the time and place other particularities which make men different ech from other and that euery one is to be cured after a diuers maner and the reason is as the vulgar Philosophers auouch for that the vnderstanding is a spiritall power and cannot be altered by the particulars which are replenished with matter And for this cause Aristotle said That the sense is of particulars and the vnderstanding of vniuersals If then medicines are to worke in particulars and not in vniuersals which are vnbegotten and vncorruptible the vnderstanding falleth out to be a power impertinent for curing Now the difficultie consisteth in discerning why men of great vnderstanding cānot possesse good outward senses for the particulars they being powers so repugnant And the reason is verie plain and this is it that the outward senses cannot well performe their operations vnlesse they be assisted with a good imagination and this we are to prooue by the opinion of Aristotle who going about to expresse what the imagination was saith it is a motion caused by the outward sense in sort as the colour which multiplieth by the thing coloured doth alter the eie And so it fareth that this selfe colour which is in the christallin humour passeth farther into the imagination and maketh therin the same figure which was in the eie And if you demād of which of these two kindes the notice of the particular is made all philosophers auouch and that verie truely that the second figure is it which altereth the imagination and by them both is the notice caused conformable to that so commō speech From the obiect and from the power the notice springeth But from the first which is in the christallin humour from the sightfull power groweth no notice if the imagination be not attentiue thereunto which the phisitions do plainly prooue saying That if they lance or sear the flesh of a diseased person who for al that feeleth no pain it shews a token that his imagination is distracted into some profound contemplation whence we see also by experience in the sound that if they be raught into some imagination they see not the things before them nor heare though they be called nor tast meat sauorie or vnsauory though they haue it in their mouth Wherefore it is a thing certaine that not the vnderstanding or outward senses but the imagination is that which maketh the iudgement and taketh notice of particular things It followeth then that the phisition who is well seen in Theoricke for that he is indowed with great vnderstanding or great memory must of force prooue a bad practitioner as hauing defect in his imagination And contrariwise he that prooueth a good practitioner must of force be a bad Theorist for much imagination cannot be vnited with much vnderstanding and much memorie And this is the cause for which so few are thoroughly seen in phisicke or commit but small errors in curing for not to halt in the worke it behooueth to know the art and to possesse a good imagination for putting the same in practise and we haue prooued that these two cannot stick togither The Phisition neuer goeth to know and cure a disease but that secretly to himselfe he frameth a Syllogisme in Darij though he be neuer so well experienced and the proofe of his first proportion belongeth to the vnderstanding and of the second
combers and therefore molested by that passion to driue the same from them doe marrie wiues Of such Galen saith that they haue the instruments of generation very hot and dry and for this cause breed seed verie pricking apt for procreation A man then who goeth seeking a woman not his owne is replenished with this fruitfull digested and well seasoned seed Whence it followeth of force that he make the generation for where both are equall the mans seed carrieth the greatest efficacie and if the son be shaped of the seed of such a father it ensueth of necessitie that he resemble him The contrarie betideth in lawfull children who for that married men haue their wiues euer couched by their sides neuer take regard to ripen the seed or to make it apt for procreation but rather vpon euery light enticement yeeld the same from them vsing great violence and stirring whereas women abiding quiet during the carnall act their seed vessels yeeld not their seed saue when it is well concoct and seasoned Therfore married women do alwaies make the engendring and their husbands seed serueth for aliment But somtimes it comes to passe that both the seeds are matched in equall perfection and cumbat in such sort as both the one and the other take effect in the forming and so is a child shaped who resembleth neither father nor mother Another time it seemeth that they agree vpon the matter part the likenesse between them the seed of the father maketh the nosthrils and the eies and that of the mother the mouth and the forehead And which carrieth most maruell it hath so fallen out that the sonne hath taken one eare of his father and another of his mother and so the like in his eies But if the fathers seed do altogither preuaile the childe retaineth his nature and his conditions and when the seed of the mother swaieth most the like reason taketh effect Therefore the father who coueteth that his child may be made of his owne seed ought to withdraw himselfe for some daies from his wife and stay till all his seed be concocted and ripened and then it will fall out certain that the forming shall proceed from him and the wifes seed shall serue for nourishment The second doubt by meanes of that we haue said already beareth little difficultie for bastard children are ordinarily made of seed hote and dry and from this temperature as we haue oftentimes prooued heretofore spring courage brauerie and a good imagination whereto this wisdome of the world appertaineth And because the seed is digested and well seasoned nature effecteth what she likes best and pourtraieth those children as with a pensill To the third doubt may be answered that the conceiuing of lewd women is most commonly wrought by the mans seed and because the same is drie and verie apt for issue it fasteneth it selfe in the woman with verie strong rootes but the childe breeding of married women being wrought by their own seed occasioneth that the creature easily vnlooseth because the same was moist and watry or as Hippocrates saith full of mustinesse What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed §. 5. THe matter wherof man is compounded prooueth a thing so alterable and so subiect to corruption that at the instant when he beginneth to be shaped he like wise beginneth to be vntwined and to alter and therin can find no remedy For it was said so soon as we are born we faile to be Wherthrough nature prouided that in mans body there should be 4 natural faculties attractiue retētiue concoctiue expulsiue The which concocting altering the aliments which we eate returne to repaire the substance that was lost ech succeeding in his place By this we vnderstand that it little auaileth to haue engendred a child of delicat seed if we make no reckoning of the meates which afterwards we feed vpon For the creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance wherof it was first composed True it is that the first seed if the same be well concocted and seasoned possesseth such force that digesting altering the meats it maketh them though they be bad and grosse to turne to his good temperature and substance but we may so far forth vse contrary meats as the creature shall loose those good qualities which it receiued from the seed wherof it was made therefore Plato said that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine was his euill bringing vp in diet For which cause he counselled that we should giue vnto children meats and drinks delicat and of good temperature to the end that when they grow big they may know how to abandon the euil to embrace the good The reason hereof is very cleere For if at the bginning the braine was made of delicat seed and that this member goeth euerie day impairing and consuming and must be repaired with the meats which we eat it is certaine if these being grosse and of euill temperature that vsing them many daies togither the braine will become of the same nature Therefore it sufficeth not that the child be borne of good seed but also it behooueth that the meat which he eateth after he is formed and borne bee endowed with the same qualities What these be it carrieth no great difficultie to manifest if you presuppose that the Greekes were the most discreet men of the world and that enquiring after aliments and food to make their children witty and wise they found the best and most appropriat For if the subtile and delicate wit consist in causing that the braine be compounded of partes subtile and of good temperature that meate which aboue all others partaketh these two qualities shalbe the same which it behooueth vs to vse for obteining our end Galen and all the Greeke Phisitions say that Goats milke boiled with honny is the best meat which any man can eat for besides that it hath a moderate substance therein the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie Therefore we said some few leaues past that the parentes whose will earnestly leadeth them to haue a childe wise prompt and of good conditions must eat much Goats milke boiled with honny 7 or 8 daies before the copulationut-Balbeit this aliment is so good as Galen speaketh of yet it falleth out a matter of importance for the wit that the meate consist of moderate substance and of subtile partes For how much the finer the matter becommeth in the nourishment of the braine so much the more is the wit sharpened For which cause the Greekes drew-out of the milke cheese and whey which are the two grosse aliments of his composition and left the butter which in nature resembleth the aire This they gaue in food to their children mingled with honny with intention to make them witty and wise And that this is the trueth is plainly seen by that which Homer recounteth
not of those which appertaine to the vnderstanding or to the memorie And frenzie peeuishnesse and melancholy being hot passions of the braine it yeelds a great argument to prooue that imagination consists in heat One thing breeds me a difficultie herein and that is that the imagination carrieth a contrarietie to the vnderstanding as also to the memorie and the reason hereof is not to be gotten by experience for in the braine may very wel be vnited much heat and much drinesse and so likewise much heat and much moisture to a large quantitie and for this cause a man may haue a great vnderstanding and a great imagination much memorie with much imagination and verely it is a miracle to find a man of great imagination who hath a good vnderstanding and a sound memorie And the cause thereof behooues to be for that the vnderstanding requires that the braine be made of parts very subtile and delicat as we haue prooued heretofore out of Galen and much heat frets and consumes what is delicat and leaues behind the parts grosse and earthly For the like reason a good imagination cannot be vnited with much memorie for excessiue heat resolueth the moisture of the braine and leaveth it hard and drie by means whereof it cannot easily receiue the figures In sort that in man there are no more but three generall differences of wits for there are no more but three qualities whence they may grow But vnder these three vniversall differences there are contained many other particulars by means of degrees of accesse which heat moisture and drinesse may haue Notwithstanding there springs a difference in wits from euery degree of these three qualities for the drie the hot and the moist may exceed in so high a degree that it may altogether disturbe the animal power conformable to that sentence of Galen Euery excessiue distemperature resolues the forces and so it is For albeit drinesse giue helpe to the vnderstanding yet it may be that the same shal consume his operations Which Galen and the antient Philosophers would not admit but affirme that if old mens brains grew not cold they should neuer decay though they became drie in the fourth degree But they haue no reason for this as we will prooue in the imaginatiue for albeit his operations be performed with heat yet if it passe the third degree foorthwith the same begins to resolue and the like doth the memorie through ouer-much moisture How many differences of wits grow by means of the superabounding of each of these three qualities cannot for this present be particularly recited except tofore we recount all the operations and actions of the vnderstanding the imagination and the memorie But the whilest we are to know that the principall works of the vnderstanding are three the first to discourse the second to distinguish and the third to chuse Hence comes it that they place also three differences in the vnderstanding into three other is the memorie deuided one receiues with ease and suddenly forgetteth another is slow to receiue but a long time retaineth and the last receiueth with ease and is very slow to forget The imagination containeth many more differences for he hath three no lesse than the vnderstanding and memorie and from each degree ariseth three other Of these we will more distinctly discourse hereafter when we shall assigne to each the science which answereth it in particular But he that will consider three other differences of wit shall find that there are habilities in those who studie some which haue a disposition for the cleare and easie contemplations of the art which they learne but if you set them about matters obscure and very difficult it will prooue a lost labour for the teacher to shape them a figure therof by fit examples or that they frame themselues the like by their owne imagination for they want the capacitie In this degree are all the bad scholers of whatsoeuer facultie who being demaunded touching the easie points of their art answer to the purpose but comming to matters of more curiousnesse they will tell you a hundred follies Other wits aduaunce themselues one degree higher for they are pliant and easie in learning things and they can imprint in themselues all the rules and considerations of art plaine obscure easie and difficult but as for doctrine argument doubting answering and distinguishing they are all matters wherewith they may in no wise be combred These need to learne sciences at the hands of good teachers well skilled in knowledge and to haue plentie of bookes and to studie them hard for so much the lesse shall their knowledge be as they forbeare to reade and take paines Of these may be verefied that so famous sentence of Aristotle Our vnderstanding is like a plaine table wherin nothing is pourtraied For whatsoeuer they are to know and attaine it behooues that first they heare the same of some other and are barren of all inuention themselues In the third degree nature maketh some wits so perfect that they stand not in need of teachers to instruct them nor to direct in what sort they are to philosophise for out of one consideration endicted to them by their schoolmaister they will gather a hundred and without that ought be bestowed vnto them they fill their wit with science and knowledge Those wits beguiled Plato and made him to say That our knowledge is a certaine spice of remembrance when he heard them speake and say that which neuer fell into consideration with other men To such it is allowable that they write bookes and to others not for the order and concert which is to be held to the end that sciences may dayly receiue increase and greater perfection is to ioine the new inuention of our selues who liue now with that which the auntients left written in their bookes For dealing after this manner each in his time shall adde an increase to the arts and men who are yet vnborne shall enioy the inuention and trauaile of such as liued before As for such who want inuention the common wealth should not consent that they make bookes nor suffer them to be printed because they do nought else saue heape vp matters alreadie deliuered and sentences of graue authours returning to repeat the selfe things stealing one from hence and taking another from thence and there is no man but after such a fashion may make a booke Wits full of inuention are by the Tuscanes called goatish for the likenesse which they haue with a goate in their demeanure and proceeding These neuer take pleasure in the plains but euer delight to walke alone thorow dangerous and high places and to appproch neere steepe down-fals for they will not follow any beaten path nor go in companie A propertie like this is found in the reasonable soule when it possesseth a braine well instrumentalized and tempered for it neuer resteth setled in any contemplation but fareth forth with vnquiet seeking to
memorie And if it be true that the good preachers of our time content their audience because they haue these gifts it followeth very well that whosoeuer is a great preacher can small skill of Schoole-diuinitie and a great scholler will hardly away with preaching through the contrarietie which the vnderstanding carieth to the imagination and to the memorie Well knew Aristotle by experience that although the oratour learned Naturall and Morall Philosophy Phisicke Metaphisicke the Lawes the Mathematicals Astrologie and al the arts and sciences notwithstanding he was seen of all these but in the flowers and choice sentences without pearcing to the roote of the reason occasion of any of them But he thought that this not knowing the Diuinitie nor the cause of things which is termed Propter quid grew for that they bent not themselues thereunto and therfore propounded this demand Why do we imagine that a Philosopher is different from an oratour To which probleme he answereth that the Philosopher placeth all his studie in knowing the reason and cause of euerie effect and the oratour in knowing the effect and no farther And verily it proceedeth from nought els than for that naturall Philosophy appertaineth to the vnderstanding which power the oratours do want and therefore in Philosophy they can pearce no farther than into the vpper skin of things This selfe difference there is between the Schoole-diuine and the positiue that the one knoweth the cause of whatsoeuer importeth his faculty and the other the propositions which are verefied no more The case then standing thus it falleth out a dangerous matter that the preacher enioyeth an office and authoritie to instruct Christian people in the trueth and that their auditorie is bound to beleeue them and yet they want that power through which the trueth is digged vp from the roote we may say of them without lying those wordes of Christ our redeemer Let them go they are blinde and do guide the blinde and if the blind guide the blind both fall into the ditch It is a thing in tollerable to behold with how great audacity such set themselues to preach who cannot one iote of Schoole-diuinitie nor haue anie naturall abilitie to learne the same Of such S. Paul greatly cōplaineth saying But the end of the commandement is charitie from a pure heart and good conscience faith vnfained from which verily some straying haue turned aside to vain babling who would be doctors in the Law and yet vnderstand not the things which they speake nor which they auouch Besides this we haue prooued tofore that those who haue much imagination are cholericke subtle malignant and cauillers and alwaies enclined to euill which they can compasse with much readinesse craft Touching the oratours of his time Aristotle propoundeth this demand why we vse to call an oratour craftie and giue not this name to a musitian nor to a comical poet And more would this difficulty haue growen if Aristotle had vnderstood that musicke and the stage appertain to the imaginatiō To which probleme he answereth That Musitions and stage-plaiers shoot at none other Butte than to delight the hearers but the oratour goes about to purchase somewhat for himselfe and therfore it behooueth him to vse rules and readinesse to the end the hearers may not smell out his fetch and bent Such properties as these be had those false preachers of whom S. Paul spake writing to the Corinthians But I feare that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie so their senses are led astraie for these false Apostles are guilefull workmen who transforme themselues into the Apostles of Christ and this is no wonder for Sathan transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and therefore it is no great matter for his ministers to transforme themselues as ministers of iustice whose end shall be their worke as if he should say I haue great feare my brethren that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie and malice so they also intricate their iudgment and perseuerance for these false Apostles are like pottage made of a foxe Preachers who speake vnderwiles represent verie perfectly a kinde of holinesse seeme the Apostles of Iesus Christ and yet are disciples of the diuell who can skill so well to represent an Angel of light that there needeth not a supernaturall gift to discouer what he is and since the maister can play his part so well it is not strange that they also who haue learned his doctrine practise the semblable whose end shall be none other than their works All these properties are well knowen to appertaine to the imagination and that Aristotle said very wel that oratours are subtle and readie because they are euer in hand to get somewhat for themselues Such as possesse a forcible imagination we said before that they are of complexion verie hote and from this quality spring three principall vices in a man Pride Gluttonie and Lecherie for which cause the Apostle said Such serued not our Lord Iesus Christ but their bellie And that these three euill inclinations spring from heat and the contrarie vertues from cold Aristotle prooueth saying thus and therfore it holdeth the same force to shape conditions for heat and cold more than anie thing els which is in the bodie do season maners and therefore printeth and worketh in vs the qualities of maners as if he should say from heat and cold spring all the conditions of man for these two qualities do more altér our nature than any other For which cause men of great imagination are ordinarily bad and vitious for they abandon themselues to be guided by their natural inclination and haue wit and ability to do lewdly For which cause the same Aristotle asketh Whence it groweth that a man being so much instructed is yet the most vniust of all liuing creatures to which probleme he maketh answere that man hath much wit and a great imagination and for this he findeth manie waies to do ill and as by his nature he coueteth delights and to be superiour to all and of great happinesse it is of force that he offend for these things cannot be atchieued but by doing wrong to many but Aristotle wist not how to frame this probleme nor to yeeld a fitting answere Better might he haue enquired for what cause the worst people are commonly of greatest wit amongst those such as are best furnished with abilitie commit the lewdest prancks whereas of dew a good wit and sufficiencie should rather encline a man to vertue and godlinesse than to vices and misdoing The answere heereto is for that those who partake much heate are men of great imagination and the same qualitie which maketh them wittie traineth them to be naughtie vicious But when the vnderstanding ouerruleth it ordinarily inclineth a man to vertue because this power is founded on cold and drie From which two qualities bud many vertues as are Continencie Humilitie Temperance and from heat the contrarie And if Aristotle had
sense which is gathered out of the construction thereof and none other This doctrine thus presupposed it falleth out a matter very manifest for what reason the lawyers are termed lettered and other men of learning not so for this name is deriued from the word letter which is to say a man who is not licenced to follow the capacitie of his owne vnderstanding but is enforced to ensue the sense of the very letter And for that the well practised in this profession haue so construed it they dare not denie or affirme any thing which appertaineth to the determination of any case whatsoeuer vnles they haue lying before them some law which in expresse tearms decideth the same And if sometimes they speake of their owne head interterlacing their conceit and reason without grounding vpon some law they do it with feare and bashfulnesse for which cause it is a much worne prouerbe We blush when we speake without law Diuines cannot call themselues lettered in this signification for in the holy scripture the letter killeth and the spirit giueth life it is full of mysteries replenished with figures and cyphers obscure and not vnderstood by all readers the vowels and phrases of speech hold a very different significatiō from that which the vulgar and three-tounged men do know Therefore whosoeuer shall set himselfe to construe the letter and take the sence which riseth of that Grammaticall construction shall fall into many errours The Phisitions also haue no letter whereto to submit themselues for if Hippocrates and Galen and the other graue authors of this facultie say and affirme one thing and that experience and reason approue the contrarie they are not bound to follow them for in Phisicke experience beareth more sway than reason and reason more than authoritie but in the lawes it betideth quite contrary for their authoritie and that which they determine is of more force and vigour than all the reasons that may be alleaged to the contrary Which being so we haue the way layd open before vs to assigne what wit is requisit for the lawes For if a Lawyer haue his vnderstanding and imagination tied to follow that which the law auouched without adding or diminishing it falleth out apparent that this facultie appertaineth to the memorie and that the thing wherein they must labour is to know the number of the lawes and of the rules which are in the text and to call to remembrance ech of them in particular to rehearse at large his sentence and determination to the end that when occasion is ministred we may know there is a law which giueth decision and in what forme and maner Therefore to my seeming it is a better difference of wit for a lawyer to haue much memory and litle vnderstanding than much vnderstanding and litle memorie For if there fall out no occasion of employing his wit and abilitie and that he must haue at his fingers ends so great a number of lawes as are extant and so far different from the other with so manie exceptions limitations enlargements it serues better to know by heart what hath been determined in the lawes for euerie point which shall come in question than to discourse with the vnderstanding in what sort the same might haue been determined for the one of these is necessarie the other impertinent since none other opinion than the verie determination of the law must beare the stroke So it falles out for certaine that the Theorick of the law appertaineth to the memorie and not to the vnderstanding nor to the imagination for which reason and for that the lawes are so positiue and that because the lawyers haue their vnderstanding so tied to the will of the law-maker and cannot entermingle their own resolution saue in case where they rest vncertaine of the determination of the law when any client seeketh their iudgement they haue authoritie and licence to say I wil looke for the case in my booke which if the Phisition should answer when he is asked a remedie for some disease or the Diuine in cases of conscience we would repute them for men but simply seen in the facultie wherof they make profession And the reason heereof is that those sciences haue certain vniuersall principles and definitions vnder which the particuler cases are contained but in the law-facultie euery law containeth a seuerall particular case without hauing anie affinitie with the next though they both be placed vnder one title In respect whereof it is necessarie to haue a notice of al the lawes and to studie ech one in particuler and distinctly to lay them vp in memorie But heere against Plato noteth a thing worthy of great consideration and that is how in his time a learned man was held in suspition that he knew many lawes by heart seeing by experience that such were not so skilfull iudges pleaders as this their vaunt seemed to pretend Of which effect it appeareth he could not find out the cause seeing in a place so conuenient he did not report the same onely he saw by experience that Lawyers endowed with good memorie being set to defend a cause or to giue a sentence applied not their reasons so well as was conuenient The reason of this effect may easily be rendered in my doctrine presupposing that memorie is contrarie to the vnderstanding that the true interpretation of the lawes to amplifie restraine and compound them with their contraries and oppositions is done by distinguishing concluding arguing iudging and chusing which workes we haue often said heeretofore belong to discourse and the learned man possessing much memorie cannot by possibilitie enioy them We haue also noted heeretofore that memorie supplieth none other office in the head than faithfully to preserue the figures and fantasies of things but the vnderstanding and the imagination are those which work therewithall And if a learned man haue the whole art of memory and yet want vnderstanding and imagination he hath no more sufficiencie to iudge or plead than the verie Code or Digest which cōpassing within them all the laws and rules of reason for all that cannot write one letter Moreouer albeit it be true that the law ought to be such as we haue mentioned in his definition yet it falleth out a miracle to finde thinges with all the perfections which the vnderstanding attributeth vnto them that the law be iust and reasonable and that it proceed fullie to all that which may happen that it be written in plain termes void of doubt oppositions and that it receiue not diuerse constructions we see not alwaies accomplished for in conclusion it was established by mans coūsell and that is not of force sufficient to giue order for al that may betide and this is daily seen by experience for after a law hath bin enacted with great aduisement and counsell the same in short space is abrogated againe for when it is once published and put in practise a thousand inconueniences discouer themselues
vnderstood when the stomacke is good and sound but if it fall into a certain infirmitie which the Phisitions call Pica or Malacia then arise longings after things which mans nature abhorreth so as they eate earth coles and lime with greater appetite than hennes or trouts If we passe on to the facultie generatiue we shall find as many appetites varieties for some men loue a foule womā and abhorre a faire others cast better liking to a foole than her that is wise a fat wench is fulsome and a leane hath their liking silks braue attire offend some mens fancies who leese themselues after one that totters in her ragges This is vnderstood when the genitall partes are in their soundnesse but if they fall into their infirmitie of stomacke which is termed Malacia they couet detestable beastlinesse The same befalleth in the facultie sensitiue for of the palpable qualities hard and soft rough and smooth hot and cold moist and drie there is none of them which can content euery ones feeling for there are men who take better rest on a hard bed than a soft other som better on a soft than a hard All this varietie of strange tasts appetites is found in the compositions framed by the vnderstanding for if we assemble 100 men of learning and propound a particular question each of them deliuereth a seuerall iudgement and discourseth thereof in different maner One selfe argument to one seemeth a sophisticall reason to another probable and some you shall meet with to whose capacitie it concludeth as if it were a demonstration And this is not onely true in diuerse vnderstandings but we see also by experience that one selfe reason concludeth to one selfe vnderstanding at one time thus-wise and at another time otherwise so much that euerie day men varie in opinion some by processe of time purging their vnderstanding know the default of reason which first swaied them and others leesing the good temperature of their braine abhorre the trueth and giue allowance to a leasing But if the braine fall into the infirmitie which is termed Malacia then we shal see strange iudgements and compositions arguments false and weake to prooue more forcibly than such as carrie strength and trueth to good arguments an answere shaped and to bad a condescēding from the premisses whence a right conclusion may be collected they gather a wrong and by strange arguments and fond reasons they prooue their bad imaginations This graue and learned men duely aduising labour to deliuer their opinion concealing the reasons whereon they ground for men persuade themselues that so farre mans authoritie auaileth as the reason is of force on which he buildeth and the arguments resting so indifferent for cōcluding through the diuersitie of vnderstandings euerie man giueth a iudgement of the reason conformably to the wit which he possesseth for which cause it is reputed greater grauitie to say This is mine opinion for certaine reasons which moue me so to thinke than to display the arguments whereon he relieth But if they be enforced to render a reason of their opinion they ouerslip not anie argument how slight so euer for that which they least valued with some concludeth and worketh more effect than the most vrgent Wherein the great miserie of our vnderstanding is discouered which compoundeth and diuideth argueth and reasoneth and at last when it is growen to a conclusion is void of proofe or light which may make it discern whether his opinion be true or no. This selfe vncertaintie haue the diuines in matters which appertaine not to the faith for after they haue argued at full they cannot then assure themselues of anie infallible proofe or euident successe that may discouer which reasons carried greatest waight and soeuerie diuine casteth how he may best ground himself and answer with most apparence to the aduerse parties arguments his owne reputation saued and this is all wherabouts he must bestow his endeuour But the charge of a Phisition and a Generall in the field after he hath well discoursed and refuted the grounds of the contrary partie is to marke the successe which if it be good he shal be held for discreet if had allmen will know that he relied vpon guilefull reasons In matters of faith propounded by the Church there can be fall none error for God best weeling how vncertaine mens reasons are and with how great facilltie they runne headlong to be deceiued consenteth not that matters so high and of so waightie importance should rest vpon our onely determination but when two or three are gathered togither 〈◊〉 his name with the solemnitie of the Church he forthwith 〈◊〉 into the midst of them as president of the action and to giueth allowance to that which they say well and reaueth their errours and of himselfe reuealeth that to whose notice by humane forces we cannot attaine The proofe then which the reasons formed in matters of faith must receiue is to aduise well whether they prooue or inferre the same which the Catholicke church saith and declareth for if they collect ought to the contrarie ther without doubt they are faultie but in other questions i where the vnderstanding hath libertie of 〈◊〉 there hath not yet any maner bin deuised to know what reasons conclude nor when the vnderstanding doth well compound a trueth onely we relie vpon the good consonance which they make and that is in argument which may 〈…〉 better apparence and likelier proofe of truth than the 〈◊〉 themselves Phisitions and such as command in martiall affairs haue successe and experience for proofe of their reasons For if 〈◊〉 captains proue by many reasons that it is best to ioine battaile and so many in the other side defend the contrarie that which succcedeth will confirme the one opinion and conuince the other And if two Phisitions dispute whether the patient shall die or liue after he is cured or deceassed it will appeare whose reason was best But for all this the successe is yet no sufficient proofe for whereas an effect hath many causes it may very well betide happily for one cause and yet the reasons perhaps were grounded on a contrary Aristotle moreouer affirmeth that to know what reasons conclude it is good to ensue the common opinion for if many wisemen say and affirme one selfe thing and all conclude with the same reasons it is a signe though topicall that they are conclusiue and that they compound well the truth But who so taketh this into due consideration shall find it a proofe subiect also vnto beguiling for in the forces of the vnderstanding waight is of more preheminence than number for it fareth not in this as in bodily forces that when many loine together to lift vp a waight they preuaile much and when few but little but to attaine to the notice of a truth deepely hidden one high vnderstanding is of more value than 100000 which are not comparable thereunto and the reason is because the vnderstandings helpe
And for this cause we haue seene many men to feigne miracles in houses and places of deuotion for straightwaies the people flockes vnto them and holds them in great reuerence as persons of whome God makes a speciall account and if they be poore they fauour them with large almes and so some sinne vpon interest The third reason is that men haue a liking to be well at their ease whereas naturall causes are disposed with such order and conceit that to obtaine their effects it behooues to bestow labour Wherefore they would haue God demeane himselfe towards them after his omnipotencie and that without sweating they might come to the well-head of their desires I leaue aside the malice of those who require miracles at Gods hand thereby to tempt his almightinesse and to prooue whether he be able to do it and othersome who to be reuenged after their hearts desire cal for fire from heauen and such other cruell chastisements The last cause is for that many of the vulgar are reliligiously giuen and hold deere that God may be honored and magnified which is much sooner brought about by way of miracles than by naturall effects but the common sort of men know not that workes aboue nature and woonderfull are done by God to shew those who know it not that he is omnipotent and that he serues himselfe of them as an argument to prooue his doctrine and that this necessitie once ceasing he neuer doth it more This may well be perceiued considering that God dooth no longer those vnwoonted things of the new testament and the reason is for that on his behalfe he hath performed all necessarie diligence that men might not pretend ignorance And to thinke that he will begin anew to do the like miracles and by them once againe to prooue his doctrine in raising the dead restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame and sicke of the palsie is an errour very great for once God taught men what is behooffull and prooued the same by miracles but returnes not to do it any more God speakes once sayth Iob and turnes not to a second repliall The token whereon I ground my iudgement when I would discouer whether a man haue a wit appropriat to Naturall Philosophie is to see whether he be addicted to reduce all matters to miracle without distinction and contrariwise such as hold not themselues contented vntill they know the particular cause of euerie effect leaue no occasion to mistrust the goodnesse of their wit These doe well know that there are effects which must be reduced to God immediatly as miracles and others to nature and such are those which haue their ordinarie causes frō whence they accustome to spring but speaking both of the one manner and the other we alwaies place God for author for when Aristotle sayd that God and nature did nothing in vaine he meant not that nature was an vniuersall cause endowed with a iurisdiction seuered from God but that she was a name of the order and concent which God hath bestowed in the frame of the world to the end that the necessarie effects might follow for the preseruation thereof For in the same manner it is vsually sayd that the King and Ciuile Reason do no man wrong In which kind of speech no man conceiueth that this name Reason signifieth a Prince which possesseth a seuerall iurisdiction from that of the king but a terme which by his signification embraceth al the roiall lawes and constitutions ordained by the same king for the preseruation of his common wealth in peace And as the king hath his speciall cases reserued to himselfe which cannot be decided by the law for that they are vnusuall and waightie in like manner God left miraculous effects reserued for himself neither gaue allowance vnto naturall causes that they might produce them But here we must note that he who should know them for such and difference them from naturall workes behooues to be a great naturall Philosopher and to vnderstand the ordinary causes that euery effect may hold yet all this sufficeth not vnlesse the Catholike church ratifie them to be such And as the Doctors labour and studie in reading this ciuile Reason preseruing the whole in their memorie that they may know and vnderstand what the kings will was in the determination of such a case so we naturall Philosophers as doctors in this facultie bestow all our studie in knowing the discourse and order which God placed that day when he created the world so to contemplat and vnderstand in what sort and vpon what cause he would that things should succeed And as it were a matter worthy laughter that a doctor should alleage in his writings though approoued that the king commaunds a case should be thus determined without shewing the Law and Reason through which it was so decided so naturall Philosophers laugh at such as say This is Gods doing without assigning the order and discourse of the particular causes whēce they may spring And as the king wil giue them no eare when they require him to breake some iust law or to rule some case besides the order of iustice which he hath commaunded to be obserued so God will not hearken when any man demaunds of him myracles and workes besides naturall order without cause why For albeit the king euery day abrogates and establisheth new lawes and changeth iudiciall order as wel through the variation of times as for that it is the iudgement of a fraile man and cannot at one only time attain to perfect right and iustice notwithstanding the naturall order of the vniuerse which we call nature from that day wherein God created the world vnto this hath had no need of adioining or reauing any one iot because he framed the same with such prouidence and wisedome that to require this order might not be obserued were to say that his workes were vnperfect To returne then to that sentence so often vsed by naturall Philosophers that Nature makes able we must vnderstand that there are Wits and there are Abilities which God bestoweth vpon men besides naturall order as was the wisedome of the Apostles who being simple and of base account were miraculously enlightened and replenished with knowledge and learning Of this sort of abilitie wisdome it cannot be verefied that nature makes able for this is a worke which is to be imputed immediatly vnto God not vnto nature The like is to be vnderstood of the wisedome of the prophets and of all those to whome God graunted some grace infused Another sort of abilitie is found in men which springs of their being begotten with that order and consent of causes which are established by God to this end and of this sort it may be sayd with truth Nature makes able For as we will proue in the last chapter of this worke there is to be found such an order and consent in naturall things that if the fathers in time of procreation haue
regard to obserue the same all their children shall prooue wise and none otherwise But the whilest this significatioÌ„ of nature is very vniuersall and confused and the vnderstanding contents not it selfe nor staieth vntill it conceiue the particular discourse and the latest cause and so it behooues to search out another signification of this name Nature which may be more agreeable to our purpose Aristotle and other naturall Philosophers discend into more particularities and call Nature whatsoeuer substantiall forme which giues the being to any thing and is the originall of all the working thereof in which signification our reasonable soule may reasonably be tearmed nature for from her we receiue our formall being which we haue of being men and the selfe same is the beginning of whatsoeuer we doe and worke But all soules being of equall perfection as well that of the wiser as that of the foolish it cannot be affirmed that nature in this signification is that which makes a man able for if this were true all men should haue a like measure of wit and wisedome and therefore the same Aristotle found out another signification of nature which is the cause that a man is able or vnable saying that the temperature of the foure first qualities hot cold moist and drie is to be called nature for from this issue al the habilities of man all his vertues and vices and this great varietie of wits which we behold And this is clearely proued by considering the age of a man when he is wisest who in his childhood is no more than a brute beast and vseth none other powers than those of anger and concupiscence but comming to youth there begins to shoot out in him a maruellous wit and we see that it lasteth till time certaine and no longer for old age growing 〈◊〉 goes euery day loosing his wit vntill it come to be 〈◊〉 decaied The varietie of wits it is a matter certaine that it springs not from the reasonable soule for that is one selfe in all ages without hauing receiued in his forces and subâ—â—â—unce any alteration but man hath in euery age a diuers temperature and a contrarie disposition by means whereof the soule doth other workes in childhood other in youth and other in old age Whence we draw an euident argument that one selfe soule doing contrarie workes in one selfe bodie for that it partakes in euery age a contrarie temperature when of young men the one is able and the other vnapt this growes for that the one of them enioiâ—◠〈◊〉 temperature from the other And this for that it is the beginning of all the workes of the reasonable soule was by the Phisitions and the Philosophers termed Nature of which signification this sentence is properly verefied that Nature makes able For confirmation of this doctrine Galen writ a booke wherein he prooueth That the maners of the soule follow the temperature of the body in which it keepes residence and that by reason of the heat the coldnesse the moisture and the drouth of the territorie where men inhabit of the meats which they feed on of the waters which they drinke and of the aire which they breath some are blockish and some wise some of woorth and some base some cruel and some merciful many straight brested and many large part lyers and part true speakers sundrie traitors and sundrie faythfull somewhere vnquiet and somewhere stayed there double here single one pinching another liberall this man shamefast that shamelesse such hard and such light of beleefe And to prooue this he cites many places of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle who affirme that the difference of nations as well in composition of the body as in conditions of the soule springeth from the varietie of this temperature and experience it selfe euidently sheweth this how far are different Greeks from Tartarians Frenchmen from Spaniards Indians from Dutch and Aethiopians from English And this may be seene not only in countries so far distant but if we consider the prouinces that enuiron all Spaine we may depart the vertues and vices which we haue recounted amongst the inhabitants giuing ech one his peculiar vice and vertue and if we consider the wit and manners of the Catalonians Valentians Mercians Granatines Andaluzians Estremenians Portugals Gallesians Asturians Montagneses Biscanes Nauarrists Arragonois and of the kingdome of Castile who sees not and knowes not how far these are different amongst themselues not only in shape of countenaunce and in feature of body but euen in the vertues and vices of the soule Which all growes for that euery of these prouinces hath his particular and different temperature And this varietie of manners is knowne not onely in countries so farre off but in places also that are not more than a little league in distance it cannot be credited what ods there is found in the wits of the inhabitants Finally all that which Galen writeth in this his booke is the groundplot of this my Treatise albeit he declares not in particular the differences of the habilities which are in men neither as touching the sciences which euerie one requires in particular Notwithstanding he vnderstood that it was necessarie to depart the sciences amongst yoong men and to giue ech one that which to his naturall habilitie was requisit in as much as he sayd That well ordered common wealths ought to haue men of great wisedome and knowledge who might in their tender age discouer ech ones wit and naturall sharpnesse to the end they might be set to learne that art which was agreeable and not leaue it to their owne election CHAP. III. What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a young man may haue habilitie MAns body hath so many varieties of parts and powers applied ech to his end that it shal not stray from our purpose but rather growes a matter of necessitie to know first what member was ordained by nature for the principall instrument to the end man might become wise and aduised For it is a thing apparant that we discourse not with our foot nor walke on our head nor see with our nostrils nor heare with our eies but that euery of these parts hath his vse and particular disposition for the worke which it is to accomplish Before Hippocrates and Plato came into the world it held for a generall conceit amongst the naturall Philosophers that the heart was the principall part where the reasonable facultie made his residence and the instrument wherewith the soule wrought the workes of wisedome of diligence of memorie and of vnderstanding For which cause the diuine scripture applying it selfe to the ordinary speech of those times in many places cals the heart the soueraigne part of a man But these two graue Philosophers comming into the world gaue euidence that this opinion was false and prooued by many reasons and experiments that the braine is the principall seat of the reasonable soule and so they all gaue hands to this opinion saue
only Aristotle who with a purpose of crossing Plato in all points turned to reuiue the former opinion and with topicall places to make it probable with which of these opinions the truth swaieth time serueth not now to discusse For there is none of these Philosophers that doubteth but that the braine is the instrument ordained by nature to the end that man might become wise and skilfull it sufficeth only to declare with what conditions this part ought to be endewed so as we may affirme that it is duly instrumentalized and that a yong man in this behalfe may possesse a good wit and habilitie Foure conditions the braine ought to enjoy to the end the reasonable soule may therewith commodiously performe the workes which appertaine to vnderstanding and wisdome The first good composition the second that his parts be well vnited the third that the heat exceed not the cold nor the moist the drie the fourth that his substance be made of parts subtile and verie delicate In the good composition are contained other foure things the first is good figure the second quantitie sufficient the third that in the braine the foure ventricles be distinct and seuered each duly bestowed in his seat and place the fourth that the capablenesse of these be neither greater nor lesse than is conuenient for their workings Galen collects the good figure of the braine by an outward consideration namely the forme and disposition of the head which he sayth ought to be such as it should be if taking a perfect round ball of wax and pressing it together somewhat on the sides there will remaine after that manner the forehead and the nape with a little bunchinesse Hence it followes that the man who hath his forehead very plaine and his nodocke flat hath not his braine so figured as is requisit for wit and habilitie The quantitie of the braine which the soule needeth to discourse consider is a matter that breeds feare for amongst all the brute beasts there is none found to haue so much braine as a man in sort as if we ioine those of two the greatest oxen together they will not equall that of one onely man be he neuer so little And that whereto behooues more consideration is that amongst brute beasts those who approch neerest to mans wisedome and discretion as the ape the fox and the dog haue a greater quantitie of braine than the other though bigger bodied than they For which cause Galen said that a little head in any man is euer faultie because that it wanteth braine notwithstanding I auouch that if his hauing a great head proceedeth from abundance of matter and ill tempered at such time as the same was shaped by nature it is an euill token for the same consists all of bones and flesh and containes a smal quantitie of braine as it befals in very big orenges which opened are found scarce of iuice and hard of rinde Nothing offends the reasonable soule so much as to make his abode in a body surcharged with bones fat and flesh For which cause Plato sayd that wise mens heads are ordinarily weake and vpon any occasion are easily annoied and the reason is for that nature made them of an emptie skull with intention not to offend the wit by compassing it with much matter And this doctrine of Plato is so true that albeit the stomacke abides so far distant from the braine yet the same workes it offence when it is replenished with fat and flesh For confirmation hereof Galen alleageth a prouerbe which sayth A grosse bellie makes a grosse vnderstanding and that this proceeds from nothing else than that the brain and the stomacke are vnited and chained together with certaine sinewes by way of which they interchangeably communicat their dammages And contrariwise when the stomacke is drie and shrunke it affoords great aid to the wit as we see in the hungerstarued and such as are driuen to their shifts on which doctrine it may be Persius founded himself when he said That the belly is that which quickens vp the wit But the thing most pertinent to be noted for this purpose is that if the other parts of the body be fat and fleshie and therethrough a man growes ouer grosse Aristotle sayes It makes him to leese his wit For which cause I am of opinion that if a man haue a great head albeit the same proceed for that he is endued with a very able nature and that he is furnished with a quantitie of well tempered matter yet he shall not be owner of so good a wit as if the same held a meaner size Aristotle is of a contrary opinion whilest he enquires for what cause a man is the wisest of all liuing creatures to which doubt he answers That you shall find no creature which hath so little a head as man respecting withall the greatnesse of his bodie but herein he swarued from reason for if he had opened some mans head and viewed the quantitie of his braine he should haue found that two horses together had not so much braine as that one man That which I haue gathered by experience is that in little men it is best that the head incline somewhat to greatnesse and in those who are big bodied it prooues best that they be little and the reason is for that after this sort there is found a measurable quantitie with which the reasonable soule may wel performe his working Besides this there are needfull the foure ventricles in the brain to the end the reasonable soule may discourse and Philosophize one must be placed on the right side of the braine the second on the left the third in the middle of these and the fourth in the part behind the braine Whervnto these ventricles serue and their large or narrow capablenesse for the reasonable soule all shall be told by vs a little hereafter when we shall intreat of the diuersities of mens wits But it sufficeth not that the braine possesse good figure sufficient quantitie and the number of ventricles by vs forementioned with their capablenesse great or little but it behooues also that his parts holds a certaine kind of continuednesse and that they be not diuided For which cause we haue seene in hurts of the head that some men haue lost their memorie some their vnderstanding and others their imagination and put case that after they haue recouered their health the braine re-vnited it selfe againe yet this notwithstanding the naturall vnion was not made which the braine before possessed The third condition of the fourth principall was that the braine should be tempered with measurable heat and without excesse of the other qualities which disposition we sayd heretofore that it is called good nature for it is that which principally makes a man able and the contrarie vnable But the fourth namely that the braine haue his substance or composition of subtle and delicate parts Galen sayth is the most important of all the rest For when he
and that which cannot be read with oyle is made legible by yeelding thereto a brightnesse and transparence But if the difference of the braine spring from the second kinde of moisture the argument frameth verie well For if it receiue with facilitie with the same readinesse it turneth again to cancell the figure because the moisture of the water hath no fatnesse wherein the figures may fasten themselues These two moistures are knowen by the haire For that which springs from the aire maketh them to prooue vnctious and ful of oyle and fat and the water maketh them moyst and verie supple To the sixth argument may be answered that the figures of things are not printed in the braine as the figure of the seale is in waxe but they pearce thereinto to remaine there affixed in sort as the sparrowes are attached to birdlime or the flies sticke in honnie For these figures are bodilesse and cannot be mingled nor corrupt one the other To the seuenth difficultie we answer that the figures amasse and mollifie the substance of the braine in such sort as waxe groweth soft by plying the same betweene our fingers besides that the vitall spirites haue vertue to make tender and supple the hard and drie members as the outward heate doth the yron And that the vitall spirites ascend to the braine when any thing is learned by heart we haue prooued heeretofore And euery bodily and spirituall exercise doth not drie yea the Phisitions affirme that the moderate fatteneth To the eighth argument we answer that there are two spices of melancholy one naturall which is the drosse of the blood whose temperature is cold and drie accompanied with a substance very grosse this serues not of any value for the wit but maketh men blockish sluggards and grynnars because they want imagination There is another sort which is called choler ad-ust or atra bile of which Aristotle sayd That it made men exceeding wise whose temperature is diuers as that of vinegre Sometimes it performeth the effects of heat lightning the earth and sometimes it cooleth but alwaies it is drie and of a very delicat substance Cicero confesseth that he was slow witted because he was not melancholike adust and he sayd true for if he had bene such he should not haue possessed so rare a gift of eloquence For the melancholicke adust want memorie to which appertaineth the speaking with great preparation It hath another qualitie which much aideth the vnderstanding namely that it is cleere like the Agatstone with which cleerenesse it giueth light within to the braine and maketh the same to discerne well the figures And of this opinion was Heraclitus when he sayd A drie cleerenesse maketh a most wise mind with which cleerenesse naturall melancholy is not endowed but his blacke is deadly and that the reasonable soule there within the braine standeth in need of light to discern the figures the shapes we will prooue hereafter To the ninth argument we answer that the prudence and readinesse of the mind which Galen speaketh of appertaineth to the imagination whereby we know that which is to come whence Cicero sayd Memorie is of things passed and Prudence of those to come The readinesse of the mind is that which commonly they call a sharpenesse in imagining and by other names craftines subtiltie cauelling wilinesse wherefore Cicero sayd Prudence is a subtiltie which with a certaine reason can make choise of good things and of euill This sort of Prudence and readinesse men of great vnderstanding do want because they lack imagination For which reason we see by experience in great scholers in this sort of learning which appertaineth to the vnderstanding that taking them from their bookes they are not woorth a rush to yeeld or receiue in trafficke of worldly affaires This spice of Prudence Galen sayd very well that it came of choler for Hippocrates recounting to Damagetus his friend in what case he found Democritus when he went to visit him for curing him writeth that he lay in the field vnder a plane tree bare legged and without breeches leaning against a stone with a booke in his hand and compassed about with brute beasts dead and dismembred Whereat Hippocrates maruailing asked him whereto those beasts of that fashion serued and he then answered that he was about to search what humour it was which made a man to be headlong craftie readie double and cauillous had found by making an anotomie of those wild beasts that choler was the cause of so discommendable a propertie and that to reuenge himselfe of craftie persons he would handle them as he had done the fox the serpent and the ape This manner of Prudence is not only odious to men but also S. Paule sayth of it The wisedome of the flesh is enemie to God The cause is assigned by Plato who affirmeth that knowledge which is remooued from iustice ought rather to be tearmed subtiltie than prudence as if he should haue sayd It is no reason that a knowledge which is seuered from iustice should be called wisedome but rather craft or maliciousnesse Of this the diuell euermore serueth himselfe to do men dammage and S. Iames said that this wisedome came not from heauen but is earthly beastly and diuelish There is found another spice of wisedome conioyned with reason and simplicitie and by this men know the good and shun the euill the which Galen affirmeth doth appertaine to the vnderstanding for this power is not capable of maliciousnesse doublenesse nor subtilty nor hath the skill how to do naught but is wholly vpright iust gentle and plaine A man endowed with this sort of wit is called vpright and simple wherethrough when Demosthenes went about to creepe into the good liking of the iudges in an oration which he made against Eschines he tearmed them vpright and simple in respect of the simplicitie of their dutie concerning which Cicero sayth Dutie is simple and the only cause of all good things For this sort of wisedome the cold and drie of melancholie is a seruing instrument but it behooueth that the same be composed of parts very subtile and delicat To the last doubt may be answered that when a man setteth himselfe to contemplat some truth which he would faine know and cannot by and by find it out the same groweth for that the braine wanteth his conuenient temperature but when a man standeth rauished in a contemplation the naturall heat that is in the vitall spirits and the arteriall blood run foorthwith to the head and the temperature of the braine enhaunceth it selfe vntill the same arriue to the tearme behooffull True it is that much musing to some dooth good and to some harme for if the brain want but a little to arriue to that point of conuenient heat it is requisit that he make but small stay in the contemplation and if it passe that point straightwaies the vnderstanding is driuen into a garboile by the ouer plentifull presence of the vitall spirits and
walke not in this path and ground not themselues on naturall philosophie vtter a thousand follies but yet hence it cannot be concluded that if the reasonable soule partake griefe and sorrow for that his nature is altered by contrarie qualities therefore the same is corruptible or mortall For ashes though they be compounded of the foure elementes and of action and power yet there is no naturall agent in the world which can corrupt thē or take from them the qualities that are agreeable to their nature The naturall temperature of ashes we all know to be cold and drie but though we cast them neuer so much into the fire they will not leese their radicall coldnesse which they enioy and albeit they remaine 100000. yeeres in the water it is impossible that being taken thence they hold any naturall moisture of their owne and yet for all this we cannot but grant that by fire they receiue heat and by water moisture But these two qualities are superficial in the ashes and endure a small time in the subiect for taken from the fire forthwith they become cold and from the water they abide not moyst an houre But there is offered a doubt in this discourse and reasoning of the rich Glutton with Abraham and that is How the soule of Abraham was indowed with better reason than that of the rich man it being alleaged before that all reasonable soules issued out of the bodie are of equall perfection and knowledge whereto we may answere in one of these two manners The first is that the Science and knowledge which the soule purchaseth whilest it remaineth in the bodie is not lost when a man dieth but rather groweth more perfect for he is freed from some errors The soule of Abraham departed out of this life replenished with wisedome and with many reuelations and secrets which God communicated vnto him as his very friend but that of the rich glutton it behooued that of necessitie it should depart away ignorant first by reason of his sinne which createth ignorance in a man and next for that riches heerein worke a contrarie effect vnto pouertie this giueth a man wit as heereafter we may well prooue and prosperitie reaueth it away There may also another answere be giuen after our doctrine and it is this that the matter of which these two soules disputed was schoole diuinitie For to know whether abiding in hell there were place for mercie and whether Lazarus might passe vnto hell and whether it were conuenient to send a deceased person to the world who should giue notice to the liuing of the torments which the damned there indured are all schoole-points whose decision appertaineth to the vnderstanding as heereafter I will make proofe and amongst the first qualities there is none which so much garboileth this power as excessiue heat with which the rich Glutton was so tormented But the soule of Abraham made his abode in a place most temperate where it inioyed great delight and refreshment and therefore it bred no great woonder that the same was better able to dispute I concluding then that the reasonable soule and the diuell in their operations vse the seruice of materiall qualities and that by some they rest agreeued and by other some they receiue contentment And for this reason they couet to make abode in some places and flie from some other and yet notwithstanding are not corruptible CHAP. VIII How there may be assigned to euerie difference of wit his Science which shalbe correspondent to him in particular and that which is repugnant and contrarie be abandoned ALl artes saith Cicero are placed vnder certaine vniuersall principles which being learned with studie and trauaile finally we so grow to attaine vnto them but the art of poesie is in this so speciall as if God or nature make not a man a Poet little auailes it to deliuer him the precepts and rules of versifieng For which cause he said thus The studying and learning of other matters consisteth in precepts and in artes but a Poet taketh the course of nature it selfe and is stirred vp by the forces of the minde and as it were inflamed by a certaine diuine spirit But heerein Cicero swarued from reason for verily there is no Science or Art deuised in the common-wealth which if a man wanting capacitie for himselfe to apply he shall reape anie profit thereof albeit he toyle all the daies of his life in the precepts and rules of the same But if he applie himselfe to that which is agreeable with his naturall abilitie we see that he will learne in two daies The like we say of Poesie without any difference that if hee who hath anie answerable nature giue himselfe to make verses he performeth the same with great perfection and if otherwise he shall neuer be good Poet. This being so it seemeth now high time to learne by way of Art what difference of Science is answerable in particular to what difference of wit to the end that euerie one may vnderstand with distinction after he is acquainted with his owne nature to what Art he hath a naturall disposition The Arts and Sciences which are gotten by the memorie are these following Latine Grammer or of whatsoeuer other language the Theoricke of the lawes Diuinitie positiue Cosmography and Arithmeticke Those which appertaine to the vnderstanding are Schoole diuinitie the Theoricke of Phisicke logicke natural and morall Philosophy and the practicke of the lawes which we tearme pleading From a good imagination spring all the Arts and Sciences which consist in figure correspondence harmonie and proportion such are Poetrie Eloquence Musicke and the skill of preaching the practise of Phisicke the Mathematicals Astrologie and the gouerning of a Common-wealth the art of Warfare Paynting drawing writing reading to be a man gratious pleasant neat wittie in managing all the engins deuises which artificers make besides a certain speciall gift whereat the vulgar maruelleth and that is to endite diuers matters vnto foure who write togither and yet all to be penned in good sort Of all this we cannot make euident demonstration nor proue euerie point by it selfe For it were an infinite peece of worke notwithstanding by making proofe thereof in three or foure Sciences the same reason will afterwardes preuaile for the rest In the catalogue of Sciences which we said appertained to the memorie we placed the latine tongue and such other as all the nations in the world do speake the which no wise man wil denie for tongues were deuised by men that they might communicate amongst themselues and expresse one to another their conceits without that in them there lie hid any other mistery or naturall principles for that the first deuisers agreed togither and after their best liking as Aristotle saith framed the words and gaue to euerie ech his signification From hence arose so great a number of wordes and so manie maners of speech so farre besides rule and reason that if a man had not a good
commanded vnto him The same may be said of S. Pauls Epistles that the holy Ghost dwelled in him when he wrote them to the end he might not erre but the language and maner of speech was S. Pauls natural applied to the doctrin which he wrote for the truth of Shool-diuinitie abhorreth manie words But the practise of languages and the ornament and polishment of speech may verie well be ioyned with positiue diuinitie for this facultie appertayneth to the memorie and is nought els saue a masse of words and catholicke sentences taken out of the holie doctors and the diuine Scripture and preserued in this power as the Grammarian doth with the flowers of the Poets Virgill Horace Terence and other Latine authours whom he readeth who meeting occasion to rehearse them he comes out straightwaies with a shred of Cicero or Quintilian whereby he makes his hearers know what he is able to do Those that are endowed with this vnion of the imagination and of the memorie and trauaile in gathering the fruit of whatsoeuer hath been said or written in their profession and serue themselues therewith at conuenient occasions with great ornament of words gratious fashions of speech for that so many things are alreadie found out in all the Sciences it seemeth to them who know not this doctrin that they are of great profoundnesse whereas in trueth they hold much of the Asse for if you grow to trie them in the foūdations of that which they alleage and affirme they then discouer their wants And the reason is because so great a flowing of speech cannot be vnited with the vnderstanding whereto appertaineth to search out the bottome of the trueth Of these the diuine scripture said Where there is plentie of words there raigneth great scarsitie as if he had said that a man of many words ordinarily wanteth vnderstanding and wisdome Those who are endowed with this vnion of the imagination and memorie enter with great courage to interpret the diuine scripture it seeming to them that because they vnderstand well the Hebrue Greeke and Latine tongues they haue the way made smooth to gather out the verie spirit of the letter but verily they ruinate themselues first because the words of the diuine text and his maners of speech haue manie other significations besides those which Cicero vnderstood in Latine And then because their vnderstāding is defectiue which power verifieth whether a sense be Catholicke or depraued and this is it which may make choice by the grace supernatural of two or three senses that are gathered out of the letter which is most true and catholicke Beguilings saith Plato neuer befall in things vnlike and verie different but when manie things meet which carrie neere resemblance For if we set before a sharpe sight a litle salt sugar meale and lyme all well pounded and beaten to powder and ech one seuerally by it selfe what should he doe who wanted tast if with his eyes he should be set to discern euerie of these powders from other without erring saying this is salt this sugar this meale and this lyme For my part I beleeue he would be deceiued through the great resemblance which these things haue betweene themselues But if there were a heape of salt one of sugar one of corne one of earth and one of stones it is certaine he would not be deceiued in giuing ech of these heapes his name though his sight were dimme for ech is of a diuers figure The same we see befalleth euerie day in the senses and spirits which the diuines giue to the holie scripture of which two or three being looked on at first sight they all carrie a shew to be Catholicke and to agree wel with the letter but yet in trueth are not so neither the holie Ghost so meant To chuse the best of these senses and to refuse the bad it is a thing assured that the diuine emploieth not his memory not his imagination but his vnderstanding Wherefore I auouch that the positiue diuine ought to conferre with the Schoole-man and to enquire at his hands that of these senses he may chuse that which shal appeare to be soundest vnlesse he wil be sent to the holie house For this cause doe heretickes so much abhorre Schoole-diuinitie and learne to banish it out of the world for by distinguishing inferring framing of reasons and iudging we attaine to vnderstand the trueth and to discouer falshood CHAP. X. How it is prooued that the Theoricke of Diuinitie appertaineth to the understanding and preaching which is his practise to the imagination IT is a probleme often demanded not onely by folke learned wise but also the vulgar will put in their oare and euerie day bring in question For what cause a diuine being a great man in the Schooles sharp in disputing readie in answering and in writing and lecturing of rare learning yet getting vp into the pulpit cannot skill of preaching and contrariwise if one prooue a gallant preacher eloquent gratious and that drawes the people after him it seemes a miracle if he be deeply seene in Schoole-diuinitie Wherefore they admit not for a sound consequence such a one is a great Schoole-diuine therfore he will prooue a good preacher and contrariwise they will not grant he is a good preacher therefore he hath skill in Schoole-diuinitie For to reuerse the one and other of these consequences there may be alleaged for ech more instances than are haires on our head No man hitherto hath been able to answer this demand saue after the ordinarie guise vz. to attribute the whole to God and to the distribution of his graces and to my liking they doe very well in asmuch as they know not any more particular occasion thereof The answere of this doubt in some sort is giuen by vs in the foregoing chapter but not so particularly as is requisite and it was that School-diuinitie appertaineth to the vnderstāding but now we affirme and will prooue that preaching and his practise is a worke of the imagination And as it falles out a difficult matter to ioyne in one self brain a good vnderstanding and much imagination so likewise it will hardly fall that one selfe man be a great Schoole-diuine a famous preacher and that School-diuinitie is a worke of the vnderstanding hath tofore been prooued when we proued the repugnancie which it carried to the Latine tongue For which cause it shall not now be necessarie to prooue the same anew onely it shall suffice to giue to vnderstand that the grace and delightfulnesse which good preachers haue whereby they draw their audience vnto them and hold them well pleased is altogither a worke of the imagination and part thereof of a good memorie and to the end I may better expound my selfe and cause it as it were to be felt with the hand it behooueth first to presuppose that man is a liuing creature capable of reason of cōpanie and of ciuilitie and to the end that his nature might be the
knowen this point of Philosophy he should haue been able to answer this probleme which saith Whence may it proceed that that sort of men whō we call craftsmen of Bacchus or stage plaiers are for the most part ill conditioned as if he should say for what cause are such as gaine their liuing on the stage In keepers and Butchers and those whose seruice is vsed about feastes and banquets to order the cates ordinarily naught and vitious To which probleme he answereth saying that such by being occupied in these belly cheere offices leaue themselues no leisure to studie and therefore passe ouer their life in incontinencie And heereto is pouerty also aiding which accustomably bringeth with it manie euils but verily this is not the reason but playing on the stage and ordering of feasts springeth from the difference of the imagination which inuiteth a man to this maner of life And because this difference of imagination consisteth in heate all of them haue verie good stomackes and great appetite to eate and drinke These although they gaue themselues to learning should therby reape little fruit and had they been neuer so wealthie yet would they howsoeuer haue cast their affection to these seruices were they euen baser than they are for the wit and abilitie draweth euery one to that art which answereth it in proportion For this cause Aristotle demanded what the reason was why there are men who more willingly addict thēselues to the professiō of which they haue made choice though somwhiles vnworthy than to the more honorable As for example to berather a iugler a stage-plaier or a trumpeter than an Astrologer or an Orator To which probleme he answereth verie well saying that a man soon discerneth to what art he is disposed and inclined of his owne nature because he hath somewhat within that teacheth him and nature can doe so much with her pricks that albeit the art and office be vnseemly for the calling of the learner yet he cleaueth vnto that and not to others of greater estimation But sithence we haue put by this manner of wits from the function of preaching and that we are bound to giue and bestow vpon euerie difference of abilitie that sort of learning which is answerable thereto in particuler we must likewise determin what sort of wit he ought to be endowed withall vnto whose charge the function of preaching is to be committed which is the thing that most importeth the christian commonwealth For we must conceiue that albeit we haue prooued heertofore that it is a matter repugnant in nature to find a great wit accompanied with much imagination and memorie Notwithstanding this rule holdeth not so vniuersally in all arts but that it admitteth his exceptions and somtimes commeth short In the last chapter of this worke saue one we will proue at full that if nature be possessed of her due force and haue no impediment cast athwart to stop her she maketh so perfect a difference of wit as the same vniteth in one selfe subiect a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie as if they were not contrary nor held any naturall opposition This should be a fitting abilitie and conuenient for the function of preaching if there could be found many subiects to be endowed therewith but as we will shew in the place alleaged they are so few that of 100000. whom I haue measured I can meet but with one of the size Therefore it behooueth to seeke out another more familiar difference of wit though not so far stept in perfection as the former We must then weet that between the Phisitians and Philosophers riseth a great diuersity in opinions for resoluing the temperature and the qualitie of vineger of choler adust and of ashes inasmuch as these things sometimes worke the effect of heat and somtimes of cold and thereon they deuided themselues into diuers sects but the trueth is that all these things which suffer adstiuon and are consumed and burned by the fire haue a variable temperature The greater part of the subiect is cold and drie but there are also other parts entermingled so subtle and delicate and of such feruencie and heat that albeit they contain litle in quantitie yet they carie more efficacie in working than al the rest of the subiect So we see that vineger and melancholie through adustion open leauen the earth by meanes of the heat and close it not though the more part of these humours be cold Hence is gathered that the melancholicke by adustion accompanie great vnderstanding with much imagination but they are all weake of memorie for the much adustion much also drieth hardneth the braine These are good preachers or at least the best that may be found sauing those perfect ones of whom we spake for although memorie faile them they enioy of themselues such inuention that the verie imagination serueth them in stead of memorie and remembrance and ministreth vnto them figures and sentences to deliuer without that they stand in need of ought besides Which these cannot bring about who haue conned bosome sermons and swaruing from that bias are straight set a ground without hauing the furniture of any second meanes to bring themselues aflote again And that melancholie by adustion hath this varietie of temperature namely cold and dry for the vnderstanding and heate for the imagination Aristotle declareth in these wordes Melancholike men are variable and vnequall for the force of choler adust is variable and vnequall as if the same might be greatly both hot and cold as if he had said Melancholike men by adustion are variable and vnequall in their complexion for that choler adust is verie vnequall inasmuch as somtimes it is exceeding hot and somtimes cold beyond measure The signs by which men of this temperature may be knowne are very manifest they haue the colour of their countenaunce a darke greene or sallow their eies very fierie of whom it was sayd he is a man that hath blood in his eyes their haire blacke and bald their flesh leane rough and hairie their vains big they are of very good conuersation and affable but letcherous proud stately blasphemers wily double iniurious friends of ill dooing and desirous of reuenge this is to be vnderstood when melancholie is kindled but if it be cooled foorthwith there grow in them the contrary vertues chastitie humilitie feare and reuerence of God charitie mercie and great acknowledgmēt of their sinnes with sighings and tears for which cause they liue in continuall warre and strife without euer enioying ease or rest Somtimes vice preuaileth in them sometimes vertue but with all these defects they are wittiest and most able for the function of preaching for all matters of wisdome which befall in the world for they haue an vnderstanding to know the truth and a great imagination to be able to persuade the same Wherethrough we see that which God did when he would fashion a man in his mothers wombe to the end that he might
be able to discouer to the world the comming of his sonne and haue the way to prooue and persaude That Christ was the Messias and promised in the law For making him of great vnderstanding of much imagination it fell out of necessitie keeping the naturall order that he should also make him cholericke and adust And that this is true may easily be vnderstood by him who considereth the great fire furie with which he persecuted the church the greefe conceiued by the synagogues when they saw him conuerted as they who had forgone a man of high importance and of whom the contrarie partie had made a gainfull purchace It is also knowen by the tokens of the reasonable choler with which he spake and answered the deputy Consuls and the Iudges who had arrested him defending his owne person and the name of Christ with so great aâ—t and readinesse as he conuinced them all yet he had an imperfection in his tongue and was not very prompt of speech which Aristotle affirmeth to be a property of the melancholicke by adustion The vices wherto he confessed himselfe to be subiect before his conuersion shew him to haue been of this temperature he was a blasphemer a wrong doer and a persecutor all which springeth from abundance of heat But the most euident signe which shewed that he was cholericke adust is gathered from that battaile which himselfe confesseth he had within himselfe betwixt his part superiour inferiour saying I see another law in my members striuing against the law of my minde which leadeth me into the bondage of sinne And this selfe contention haue we prooued by the mind of Aristotle to be in the melancholicke by adustion True it is that some expound very well that this battaile groweth from the disorder which originall sinne made betweene the spirit and the flesh albeit being such and so great I beleue also that it springs from the choler adust which he had in his naturall constitution for the roiall prophet Dauid participated equally of original sin and yet complained not so much as did S. Paul but saith that he found the inferiour portion accorded with his reason when he would reioice with God My heart saith he and my flesh ioyed in the liuing God and as we will touch in the last chapter saue one Dauid possessed the best temperature that nature could frame and heereof we will make proofe by the opinion of all the Philosophers that the same ordinarily enclineth a man to be vertuous without any great gainstriuing of the flesh The wits then which are to be sorted out for preachers are first those who vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie whose signes shalbe expressed in the last chapter saue one Where such want there succeede in their roome the melancholicke by adustion Those vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination but suffer defect of memorie wherthrough they are not stored with copie of words nor can preach with full store in presence of the people In the third rancke succeed men of great vnderstanding but defectiue in their imagination and memorie These shall haue but a bad grace in preaching yet will preach sound doctrine The last whom I would not charge with preaching at all are such as vnite much memorie with much imagination and haue defect of vnderstanding These draw the auditorie after them and hold them in suspense and well pleased but when they least misdoubt it they fetch a turne to the holy house for by way of their sweet discourses and blessings they beguile the innocent CHAP. XI That the Theoricke of the lawes appertaineth to the memorie and pleading and iudging which are their practise to the vnderstanding and the gouerning of a common-wealth to the imagination IN the Spanish toung it is not void of a mysterie that this word Lettered being a common tearme for all men of letters or learning as well Diuines as Lawyers Phisitions Logicians Philosophers Orators Mathematicians and Astrologers yet in saying that such a one is learned we all vnderstand it by common sence that he maketh profession of the lawes as if this were their proper and peculiar title and not of the residue The aunswer of this doubt though it be easie yet to yeeld the same such as is requisit it behooueth first to be acquainted what law is and wherevnto they are bound who set themselues to studie that profession that afterwards they may imploie the same to vse when they are iudges or pleaders The law who so well considereth thereof is nought else but a reasonable will of the law maker by which he declareth in what sort he will that the cases which happen dayly in the common wealth be decided for preseruing the subiects in peace and directing them in what sort they are to liue what things they are to refraine I sayd a reasonable will because it sufficeth not that the king or emperour who are the efficient cause of the lawes declaring his will in what sort soeuer doth thereby make it a law for if the same be not iust and grounded vpon reason it cannot be called a law neither is it euen as he cannot be tearmed a man who wanteth a reasonable soule Therefore it is a matter established by common accord that kings enact their lawes with assent of men very wise and of sound iudgement to the end they may be right iust and good and that the subiects may receiue them with good will and be the more bound to obserue and obey them The materiall cause of the law is that it consist of such cases as accustomably befall in the common wealth according to the order of nature and not of things impossible or such as betide very sildome The finall cause is to order the life of man and to direct him what he is to do and what to forbeare to the end that being conformed to reason the common wealth may be preserued in peace For this cause we see that the lawes are written in plaine words not doubtfull nor obscure nor of double vnderstanding without ciphers and without abbreuiations and so easie and manifest that whosoeuer shall read them may readily vnderstand and retaine them in memorie And because no man should pretend ignorance they are publikely proclaymed that whosoeuer afterward breaketh them may be chastised In respect therefore of the care and diligence which the good law makers vse that their lawes may be iust and plaine they haue giuen in charge to the iudges and pleaders that in actions or iudgements none of them follow his owne sence but suffer himselfe to be guided by the authoritie of the lawes as if they should say We commaund that no iudge or aduocat imploy his conceit nor intermeddle in deciding whether the law be iust or vniust nor yeeld it any other sence than that that is contained in the text of the letter So it followeth that the lawyers are to construe the text of the law and to take that
not each other neither of many make one as it fals out in bodily powers Therefore well sayd the wise man Haue many peace-makers but take one of a thousand to be thy coūsellor as if he should say Keepe for thy selfe many friends who may defend thee when thou shalt be driuen to come to hand-strokes but to aske counsell chuse only one amongst a thousand Which sentence was also expressed by Heraelilus who sayd One with me is worth a thousand In contentions and causes euery learned man be thinketh how he may best ground himselfe on reason but after he hath well reuolued euery thing there is no art which can make him know with assurance whether his vnderstanding haue made that composition which in iustice is requisit for if one pleader proue with law in hand that reason standeth on the demandants side and another by way also of the law prooueth the like for the defendant what remedie shall we deuise to know which of the two pleaders hath formed his reasons best The sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration of true iustice neither can the same be tearmed a successe for his sentence also is but an opinion he doth none other than cleaue to one of the two pleaders and to increase the number of learned men in one selfe opinion is no argument to persuade that what they resolue vpon is therefore true for we haue alreadie affirmed and prooued that many weake capacities though they ioine in one to discouer some darke conceiued truth shall neuer ariue to the power and force of some one alone if the same be an vnderstāding of high reach And that the sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration is plainly seene in that at another higher seat of iustice they reuerse the same and giue a diuerse iudgement and which is woorst it may so fall that the inferiour iudge was of an abler capacitie than the superior and his opinion more conformable vnto reason And that the sentence of the superiour iudge is not a sufficient proofe of iustice neither it is a matter very manifest for in the same actions and from the same iudges without adding or reauing any one iot we see dayly contrarie sentences to issue And he that once is deceiued by placing confidence in his owne reasons falleth duly into suspect that he may be deceiued of new Wherethrough we should the lesse relie vpon his opinion For he that is once naught sayth the wiseman chace him from thee Pleaders seeing the great varietie of vnderstandings which possesse the iudges and that each of them is affectionat to the reason which best squareth with his wit and that sometime they take satisfaction at one argument sometimes assent to the contrary they thereupon boldly thrust themselues foorth to defend euery cause in controuersie both on the part affirmatiue and the negatiue and this so much the rather because they see by experience that in the one maner and the other they haue a sentence in their fauour and so that coms very rightly to be verefied which wisedome sayd The thoughts of mortall men are timerous and their foresights vncertaine The remedie then which we haue against this seeing the reasons of the lawyer faile in proofe and experience shall be to make choise of men of great vnderstanding who may be iudges and pleaders For the reasons and arguments of such sayth Aristotle are no lesse certaine and firme than experience it selfe And by making this choice it seemeth that the cōmon wealth resteth assured that her officers shall administer iustice But if they giue them all scope to enter without making trial of their wit as the vse is at this day the inconueniences which we haue noted will euermore befall By what signs it may be knowne that he who shall studie the lawes hath the difference of wit requisit to this facultie heretofore after a sort we haue expressed but yet to renew it to the memorie and to prooue the same more at large we must know that the child who being set to read soone learneth to know his letters and can pronounce euery one with facilitie according as they be placed in the A B C giueth token that he shal be endowed with much memorie for such a worke as this for certaine is not performed by the vnderstanding nor by the imagination but it appertaineth vnto the office of the memorie to preserue the figures of things and to report the natures of each when occasion so requireth and where much memorie dwelleth we haue prooued before that default of vnderstanding also raigneth To write also with speed and a faire hand we sayd that it bewraid an imagination wherethrough the child who in few daies wil frame his hand and write his lines right and his letters euen and with good forme and figure yeeldeth signe of meane vnderstanding for this worke is performed by the imagination and these two powers encounter in that contrarietie which we haue alreadie spoken of and noted And if being set to Grammer he learne the same with little labour and in short time make good Latines and write fine epistles with the well ruled closes of Cicero he shall neuer be good iudge nor pleader for it is a signe that he hath much memorie and saue by great miracle he will be of slender discourse But if such a one wax obstinat in plodding at the lawes and spend much time in the schooles he will prooue a famous reader and shall haue a stint of many hearers for the latine tongue is very gratious in chaires and to read with great show there are requisit many allegations and to fardell vp in euery law whatsoeuer hath bene written touching the same and to this purpose memorie is of more necessitie than discourse And albeit it is true that in the chaire he be to distinguish inferre angue iudge and chuse to gather the true sense of the law yet in the end he putteth the case as best liketh himsellfe he mooues doubts maketh obiections and giueth sentence after his own will without that any gainsaie him for which a meane discourse is sufficient But when one pleader speaketh for the plaintife and another for the defendant and a third lawyer supplieth the iudges place this is a true controuersie men cannot speake so adrandom as when they skirmish without an aduersarie And if the childe profit slenderly in Grammer we may thereby gather that he hath a good discourse I say we may so coniecture because it followeth not of necessitie that whosoeuer cannot learne Latine hath therefore straight waies a good discourse seeing we haue prooued tofore that children of good imagination neuer greatly profit in the Latine tongue but that which may best discouer this is Logicke for this science carieth the same proportion with the vnderstanding as the touchstone with gold Where through it falled out certaine that if he who taketh lesson in the area begin not within a month or two to discourse and to cast doubts
and if there come not in his head arguments and answers in the matter which is treated of he is void of discourse but if the prooue towardly in his seiâ—neâ— it is an infallible argument that he is endued with a good vnderstanding for the lawes and so he may forth with addict himself to studie them without longer tarying Albeit would hold it better done first to run through the arts because Logicke in respect of the vnderstanding is nought els than those shockles which we 〈◊〉 on the legs of an vntrained Mule which going with them in any daies taketh a steddie seemlie place Such a march doth the vnderstanding make in his disputations when it first bindeth the same with the rules and precepts or Logicke but if this child whom we go thus wise 〈◊〉 reape no profit in the Latine tongue neither can come away with Logicke as were requisite it behooueth to trie whether he possesse a good imagination ere we take him from the laws for herein is lapped vp a verie great secret and it is good that the common-wealth be done to ware thereof and it is that there are some lawyers who getting vp into the chaire work miracles in interpreting the texts others in pleading but if you put the staffe of iustice into their hands they haue no more abilitie to gouerne than as if the lawes had neuer been enacted to any such end And contrariwise some other there are who with three misvnderstood lawes which they haue learned at all aduentures being placed in anie gouernment there cannot more be desired at any mans handes than they will performe At which effect some curious wits take wonder because they sinck not into the depth of the cause from whence it may grow And the reason is that gouernment appertaineth to the imagination and not to the vnderstanding nor the memorie And that this is so the matter may verie manifestly be prooued considering that the common-wealth is to be compounded with order concert with euery thing in his due place which all put togither maketh good figure correspondence And this sundrie times heeretofore we haue prooued to be a worke of the imagination and it shall prooue nought els to place a great lawyer to be a gouernour than to make a deafe man a Iudge in musicke but this is ordinarily to be vnderstood not as an vniuerfall rule for we haue alreadie prooued it is possible that nature can vnite great vnderstanding with much imagination so shall there follow no repugnancie to be a good pleader and a famous gouernour and we heeretofore discouered that nature being endowed with all the forces which she may possesse and with matter well seasoned will make a man of great memorie and of great vnderstanding and of much imagination who studying the lawes will prooue a famous reader a great pleader and no lesse gouernor but nature makes so few such as this cannot passe for a generall rule CHAP. XII How it may be prooued that of Theoricall Phisicke part appertaineth to the memorie and part to the vnderstanding and the practicke to the imagination WHat time the Arabian Phisicke florished there was a Phisition very famous aswell in reading as in writing arguing distinguishing answering and concluding who men would thinke in respect of his profound knowledge were able to reuiue the dead and to heale any disease whatsoeuer and yet the contrarie came to passe for he neuer tooke anie patient in cure who miscarried not vnder his handes Wherat greatly shaming and quite out of countenance he went and made himselfe a frier complaining on his euill fortune and notable to conceiue the cause how he came so to misse And because the freshest examples affoord surest proof and do most sway the vnderstanding it was held by many graue Phisitions that Iohn Argentier a phisition of our time farre surpassed Galen in reducing the art of phisicke to a better method and yet for all this it is reported of him that he was so infortunate in practise as no patient of his countrey durst take phisicke at his hands fearing some dismall successe Hereat it seemeth the vulgar haue good reason to maruell seeing by experience not onely in those rehearsed by vs but also in many others with whom men haue dayly to deale that if the Phisition be a great clearke for the same reason he is vnfit to minister Of this effect Aristotle procured to render a reason but could not find it out He thought that the cause why the reasonable Phisitions of his time failed in curing grew for that such men had only a generall notice and knew not euerie particular complexion contrarie to the Empiricks whose principal study bent it self to know the properties of eueriy seuerall person and let passe the generall but he was void of reason for both the one and the other exercised themselues about particular cures endeuoured so much as in them lay to know ech ones nature singly by it selfe The difficultie then consisteth in nothing els than to know for what cause so well learned phisitions though they exercise themselues all their life long in curing yet neuer grow skilfull in practise and yet other simple soules with three or foure rules learned verie soone and the schollers can more skill of ministring than they The true answere of this doubt holdeth no little difficultie seeing that Aristotle could not finde it out nor render at least in some sort any part therof But grounding on the principles of our doctrine we will deliuer the same for we must know that the perfection of a phisition consisteth in two things no lesse necessarie to attaine the end of his art than two legges are to go without halting The first is to weet by way of method the precepts and rules of curing men in generall without descending to particulars The second to be long time exercised in practise and to haue visited many patients for men are not so different ech from other but that in diuers things they agree neither so conioyned but that there rest in them particularities of such condition as they can neither be deliuered by speech nor written nor taught nor so collected as that they may be reduced into art but to know them is onely granted to him who hath often seen and had them in handling Which may easily be conceiued considering that mans face being composed of so small a number of parts as are two eies a nose two cheeks a mouth a forehead nature shapeth yet therein so manie compositions and combinations as if you assemble togither 100000 men ech one hath a countenance so different from other and proper to himselfe that it falleth out a miracle to find two who do altogither resemble The like betideth in the foure elements in the 4 first qualities hot cold moist and drie by the harmonie of which the life and health of man is compounded and of so slender a number of parts nature maketh so many proportions
himselfe to fall to the ground and so fitted his imperiall robe about him that after his death they found him couched with great honestie with his legs and other parts couered that might any way offend the sight The seuenth propertie and of greatest importance is that the Generall haue good fortune and be luckie by which signe we shall perfectly find that he is seized of the wit and habilitie behooffull for the art martiall for in substance and truth there is nothing which ordinarily maketh men vnfortunat and that their enterprises do not alwaies take successe after their desire saue that they are depriued of wisedome and lay not hold on the conuenient means for achieuing their exploits For that Iulius Caesar shewed such wisedome in the affairs which he managed he bare away the bell in respect of fortunatenesse from all other captains of the world so as in perils of importance he encouraged his souldiors saieng Feare not for you haue Caesars good fortune to fight on your partie The Stoicks held opinion that as there was a first cause euerlasting almightie and of infinit wisedome knowne by the order and concert of his maruellous works so also there was another vnwise and vnconcerted whose workes prooued without order without reason and void of discretion for with an affection no way reasonable it giueth and reaueth from men riches dignitie and honour This they tearmed Fortune seeing hir a friend to men who performe their businesse by hap hasard without forecasting without wisedome and without submitting themselues to the gouernmēt of reason They pourtraied her the better to make her manners and malice knowne in fourme of a woman a roiall scepter in her hand her eyes vailed her feet vpon a round ball accompanied with persons sottish and void of all trade of liuing By painting her like a woman they noted her great lightnesse and little discretion by her roiall scepter they acknowledged her soueraigntie ouer riches and honour her veiled eyes gaue to vnderstand the ill fashion which she held in distributing her gifts her feet standing on the round ball betokened the small firmenesse in the fauours which she imparted for she snatcheth them away with the like facilitie that she reacheth them foorth without keeping stedfastnesse in ought whatsoeuer but the worst part they found in her was that she fauoureth the wicked and persecuteth the vertuous loueth the foolish and abhorreth the wise abaseth the noble aduanceth the base what is foule pleaseth her and what is faire worketh her annoiance Many men placing cōfidence in these properties because they know their owne good fortune take hardinesse to vndertake fond and headlong enterprises which yet prosper with them very luckily and yet other men very wise and aduised dare not aduenture to execute those enterprises which they haue begun with great discretion finding by experience that such find worst successe How great a friend Fortune sheweth her selfe to bad people Aristotle maketh knowne by this probleme Whence groweth it that riches for the most part are possessed rather by the wicked than by men of worth Whereto he shapeth answer Perhaps because Fortune being blind cannot know nor make choice of what is best But this is an answer vnworthy of so great a philosopher for it is not Fortune that bestoweth wealth on men and though it were yet he yeeldeth no reason why she alwaies cherisheth the bad and abandoneth the good The true solution of this demand is that the lewd sort are verie witty and haue a gallant imagination to beguile in buying and selling and can profit in bargaining and employing their stocke where occasion of gaine is offered But honest men want this imagination many of whom haue endeuoured to imitate these bad fellowes and by trafficquing trucking within few daies haue lost their principall This Christ our redeemer pointed at considering the sufficiencie of that steward whom his maister called to accompt who reseruing a good portion of the goods to his owne behoofe salued vp all his reckonings and got his quietus est Which wisdome though it were faultie yet God commended saying The children of this world are more wise in their kinde than the children of light for these ordinarily enioy a good vnderstanding with which power they place their affection on their law and haue want of imagination whereto the knowledge how to liue in this world appertaineth wherethrough many are morally good because they lacke the wit how to be naught This maner of answering is more easie and apparent The naturall philosophers because they could not reach so farre deuised so fond and ill iointed a cause as lady Fortune to whose power they might impute good and bad successes not to the vnskilfulnesse and little knowledge of men Foure sorts of people there are in euerie common-wealth if a man list to marke them For some men are wise and seeme not so others seeme so and are not others neither are nor seem and some both are and seem so Some men there are silent slow in speech staid in answering not curious nor copious of words yet they retain hidden within them a naturall power appertaining to the imagination whereby they know the fit time and occasion to bring their purpose to passe and how they are therein to demeane themselues without communicating or imparting their minde to any other These by the vulgar are called happy and luckie them seeming that with little knowledge and lesse wit euery thing falleth into their lap Others contrariwise are of much eloquence in words and discourse great cōuersers men that take vpon them to gouerne the whole world who go about hunting how with small expense they may reape great gains and therein after the vulgars conceit no man in iudgement can step an acc beyond them and yet comming to the effect all falleth to the ground betweene their hands These crie out vpon fortune and cal her blind buzzard and iade for the matters which they disseigne worke with much wisdome she suffereth not to take good effect but if there were a Fortune who might plead her own defence she would tell them Your selues are the buzzards the sots and the doo-noughts whome you speake of that being vnskilful hold yourselues wise and vsing vnfit means would yet reape good successes This sort of people haue a kind of imagination which decketh vp and setteth foorth their words and reasons and maketh them seeme to be what in deed they are not Wheron I conclude that the Generall who is endowed with a wit requisit for the art militarie and doth duly forecast what he is to exploit shall be fortunate and happie otherwise it is lost labour to looke that he euer preuaile to victorie vnlesse God do fight for him as he did for the armies of Israell and yet withall they chose the wisest and skilfullest amongst them to be commaunders for we must not leaue all vpon Gods hands neither yet may a man wholy affie on his own wit and sufficiencie
but it will do best to ioine both together for there is no other Fortune saue God and a mans own good indeuour He who first deuised Chesse-play made a modell of the art militarie representing therein all the occurrents and contemplations of war without leauing any one behind and as in this game Fortune beareth no stroke neither can the plaier who beateth the aduerse party be termed fortunat nor he who is beaten vnfortunat So the captain that ouercōmeth ought to be called wise and the vanquished ignorant and not the one happie or the other vnhappie The first thing which he ordained in this play was that when the king is mated the contrary partie is vanquisher thereby to let vs vnderstand that the cheefe force of an armie consisteth in a good commaunder to gouern and direct the same and for proofe hereof he lotted as many cheefe men to the one side as to the other to the end that whosoeuer lost might be ascertained it so fell out through default of his owne knowledge and not of fortune And this is more apparantly seene if we consider that a skilfull plaier will spare halfe his men to the other partie and yet for all that get the game And this was it which Vegetius noted that often few souldiers and weake vanquish many valiant if they be gouerned by a generall who can skill in ambushes and stratagems He ordained also that the pawnes might not turne backe thereby to aduise the commaunder that he duly forecast all chances ere he send foorth his souldiers to the seruice because if any mischaunce alight it behooues rather that they be cut in peeces wher they were placed than to turne their backs for the souldier is not to know when time serueth to flie or to fight saue by direction of his captaine and therefore so long as his life lasteth he is to keepe his place vnder paine of becomming infamous Hereunto he adioined another law that the pawne which had made seuen draughts without being taken should be made a queene might make any draught at pleasure and be placed next the king as one set at libertie and endowed with nobility whereby he gaue vs to vnderstand how in the warre it importeth greatly for making the souldior valiant to proclaime aduantages free camps and preferments for such as shal haue done any speciall peece of seruice And principally that the honour and profit passe to their posteritie for then they will exploir with greater courage and gallantnesse For which cause Aristotle affirmeth that a man maketh more reake to be chiefe of his linage than of his owne proper life This Saul well perceiued when he caused to be proclaimed in the army Whosoeuer shal strike that man meaning kill the Giant Golias shall be made rich by the king and shall haue his daughter to wife and his house shalbe enfranchised in Israel from all maner tribute Conformable vnto this proclamation there was a court in Spain which ordained that whatsoeuer souldier by his good vsage deserued to receiue for his pay 500 Soldi this was the greatest stipend allowed in the warres should himselfe and his posteritie be discharged for euer from all taxes and seruices The Moores as they are great plaiers at chesse haue in their plaies set seuen degrees in imitation of the 7 draughts which the pawn must make to be a queene and so they enlarge the play from one to the second and from the second to the third vntill they arriue to seuen answerable to the proofe that the souldier shall giue of himselfe if she be so gallant as to enlarge his pay to the seuenth they yeeld him the same and for this cause they are termed Septerniers or Seuenstears These haue large liberties and exemptions as in Spain those gentlemen who are called Hidalgos The reason hereof in naturall philosophy is verie plain for there is no facultie of all those that gouern man which will willingly worke vnlesse there be some interest to moue the same which Aristotle proueth in the generatiue power and the selfe reason swaieth in the residue The obiect of the wrathfull facultie as we haue aboue specified is honour and aduantage and if this cease straightwaies courage and stomacke decay by all this may be conceiued the great signification which it carrieth to make that pawne a queene who hath made seuen draughts without taking for whatsoeuer the greatest nobilitie in the world that hath been or shalbe hath sprung and shall spring from pawns and priuat men who by the valour of their person haue done such exploits as they deserued for themselues and their posteritie the title of gentlemen knights noblemen earls marquesses dukes and kings True it is that some are so ignorant and void of consideration as they will not grant that their nobilitie had a beginning but that the same is euerlasting and grown into their bloud not by the grace of some particular king but by the supernaturall and diuine reason To the bent of this purpose though we shall thereby somwhat lengthen our matter I cannot but recount a verie wittie discourse which passed between our Lord the Prince Don Carlos and the doctor Suares of Toledo who was iudge of the Court in Alcala of Heuates Prince Doctor what thinke you of this people Doctor Verie well my Lord for here is the best aire and the best soile of any place in Spain P. For such the phisitions made choice of to recouer my health haue you seen the Vniuersitie D. No my L. P. See it then for it is very speciall and where they tell me the Sciences are verie learnedly red D. Verily for a colledge and particular studie it carrieth great fame and should be such in effect as your highnesse speaketh of P. Where did you studie D. In Salamanca my lord P. And did you proceed doctor in Salamanca D. My lord no. P. That me seemeth was euill done to studie in one Vniuersitie and take degree in another D. May it please your highnesse that the charges of taking degrees in Salamanca are excessiue and therefore we poore men flie the same and get vs to some other Vniuersitie knowing that we receiue our sufficiencie and learning not from the degree but from our studie and pains albeit my parents were not so poore but if them listed might haue borne the charge of my proceeding in Salamanca but your highnesse well knoweth that the doctors of this Vniuersitie haue the like franchises as the gentlemen of Spain and to vs who are such by nature this exemption doth harm at least to our posteritie P. Which of the kings mine ancestors gaue this nobility to your linage D. None And to this end your highnesse must vnderstand there are two sorts of gentlemen in Spain some of bloud some by priuiledge Those in bloud as my selfe haue not receiued their nobility at the kings hand but those by priuiledge haue P. This matter is very hard for me to conceiue and I would gladly
Spanish nobilitie The semblable diligence vsed Saul when Dauid slew Golias for forthwith he sent Abner his captain to take information of what stock the yong man was descended Antiently they termed Solaro the house of the villaine aswell as of the gentleman But sithens we haue stepped aside into this digression it behooueth to make returne to our purpose from whence we parted and to know whence it groweth that in play at chesse which we tearmed a counterfeit of war a man shameth more to loose than at any other game albeit the same turne him to no dammage neither is the play for monie and whence it may spring that the lookers on see more draughts than the plaiers themselues though they are lesse seene in the play and that which most importeth is that some gamsters play best fasting and some better after meat The first doubt holdeth like difficultie for we haue auouched that in warre and in chesse play fortune hath nought to do neither may we be allowed to say Who would euer haue thought this but all is ignorance and carelesnesse in him that leeseth and wisedome and cunning in him that getteth And when a man is ouer come in matters of wit sufficiencie and is cut off from all allegations of excuse or pretence other than his own ignorance it followeth a matter of necessitie that he wax ashamed for man is reasonable and a friend to his reputation and cannot brooke that in the works of this power any other should step a foot before him For which cause Aristotle demaundeth what the reason may be why the antients consented not that speciall rewards should be assigned to those who surpassed the rest in the Sciences yet ordained some for the best leaper runner thrower of the barre and wrestler To which he frameth answer That in wrestling and bodily contentions it is tollerated that there be Iudges assigned who shall censure how far one man exceedeth another to the end they may iustly yeeld prize to the vanquisher it falling out a matter of no difficultie for the eye to discerne who leapeth most ground or runneth with greatest swiftnesse but in matters of science it prooueth very hard to trie by the vnderstanding which exceedeth other for that it is a thing appertaining to the spirit and of much queintnesse and if the iudge list to giue the prize maliciously all men cannot looke thereunto for it is a iudgement much estranged from the sence of the beholders Besides this answer Aristotle giueth another which is better saying That men make no great recke to be ouercome in throwing wrastling running and leaping for that they are graces wherein the very brute beasts out-passe vs. But that which we cannot endure with patience is to haue another adiudged more wise and aduised than our selues wherethrough they grow in hatred with the iudges and seeke to be reuenged of them thinking that of malice they went about to shame thē Therfore to shun these incōueniences they would not yeeld consent that in works appertaining to the reasonable part men should be allowed either iudges or rewards Whence is gathered that the Vniuersities do ill who assigne iudges and rewards of the first second and third degree in licencing those that prooue best at the examinations For besides that the inconueniences alleaged by Aristotle do betide it is repugnant to the doctrine of the gospell that men grow into contention who should be cheefe And that this is true we see manifestly for that the disciples of our sauiour Christ comming one day from a certain voiage treated amongst themselues who should be the greatest and being now ariued at their lodging their maister asked them whereof they had reasoned vpon the way but they though somwhat blunt well vnderstood how this question was not allowable wherthrough the text saith that they durst not tell him but because from God nothing can be concealed he spake vnto them in this maner If any will be chiefe amongst you he shalbe the last of all and seruant to the rest The Pharisies were abhorred by Christ our redeemer because they loued the highest seats at feasts and the principall chaires in the Sinagogues The chiefe reason wheron they rely who bestow degrees after this maner is that when schollers know ech of them shalbe rewarded according to the triall which they shall giue of themselues they will skantly affoord themselues time frō their studie to sleep or eat Which would cease were there not a reward for him that taketh pains or chastisment for him that addicteth himselfe to loosnesse and loitering But this is a slender reason and so only in apparence and presupposeth a great falshood which is that knowledge may be gotten by continuall plodding at the booke and by hearing of good maisters and neuer leesing a lesson And they marke not that if a scholler want the wit and abilitie requisit for the learning which he applieth it falleth out a lost labour to beat his head day and night at his books And the error is such that if differences of wits so far distant as these do enter into competencie the one through his quicke capacity without studying or poaring in books getteth learning in a trice and the other for that he is block-headed and dull after he hath toiled all his life long can small skill in the matter Now the Iudges come as men to giue the first price to him who was enabled by nature and tooke no trauell and the last to him who was born void of capacitie yet neuer gaue ouer studying as if the one had gotten learning by turning ouer his books and the other lost the same through his owne sluggishnesse And it fareth as if they ordained prices for two horses of which the one had his legs sound and nimble and the other halted down right If the Vniuersities did admit to the studie of the Sciences none but such as had a wit capable therof and were all equall it should seeme a thing well done to ordaine reward and punishment for whosoeuer knew most it would therby appeare that he pained himselfe most and who knew least had giuen himselfe more to his ease To the second doubt we answer that as the eies stand in need of light and cleernesse to see figures and colours so the imagination hath need of light in the brain to see the fantasies which are in the memory This cleernesse the sunne giueth not nor any lamp or candle but the vitalspirits which are bred in the heart and dispersed throughout the body Herewithall it is requisit to know that feare gathereth all the vitallspirits to the heart and leaueth the braine darcke and all the other parts of the body cold Wherevpon Aristotle maketh this demaund Whence commeth it that who so feareth his voice his hands and his nether lip do tremble whereto he answereth that through this feare the naturall heat hieth to the heart and leaueth all the residue of the body acold and the cold as is before
him in the Paradise of pleasure to the end he might there worke and take it in charge For the power of God being infinit his knowledge beyond measure when he had a will to giue him all the naturall perfection that might be in mankinde we must thinke that neither the peece of earth of which he was framed nor the distemperature of the soile of Damascus where he was created could so gainsay him but that he made him temperat The opinion of Plato of Aristotle and of Galen take place in the works of nature and euen she also can somtimes euen in distemperat regions engender a person that shalbe temperat But that Adam had his haire and his beard abourne which is the first token of a temperat man manifestly appeareth For in respect of this so notorious signe he had that name Adam which is to say as S. Hierom interpreteth it a red man That he was faire wel fashioned which is the second token cannot in him be denied for when God created him the text saith God saw all things which he had made and they were verie good Then it falleth out certaine that he issued not from the hands of God foule and ill shaped for the works of God are perfect And so much the more for that the trees as the text saith were faire to behold Then what may we think of Adam whom God created to this principall end that he might be Lord and president of the world That he was vertuous wise and well conditioned which are the third and sixth signes is gathered out of these words Let vs make a man after our owne image and likenesse for by the antient Philosophers the foundation on which the resemblance that man hath with God is grounded are vertue wisdome Therfore Plato auoucheth that one of the greatest contentments which God receiueth in heauen is to see a vertuous and wise man praised and magnified vpon earth for such a one is his liuely purtraiture And contrariwise he groweth displeased when ignorant and vitious persons are held in estimation and honor which springeth from the vnlikenesse between God and them That he liued healthfull and a long space which are the fourth and fifth tokens is nothing difficult to prooue inasmuch as his daies were 930 yeares Where through I may now cōclude that the man who is abourn haired faire of meane stature vertuous healthfull and long lyued must necessarily be verie wise and endowed with a wit requisit for the scepter royall We haue also as by the way disclosed in what sort great vnderstanding may be vnited with much imagination and much memory albeit this may also come to passe and yet the man not be temperat But nature shapeth so few after this modell that I could neuer find but two amongst all the wits that I haue tried but how it can come to passe that great vnderstanding may vnite with much imagination and much memory in a man not temperat is a thing which easily may be conceiued if you presuppose the opinion of some Phisitions who affirme that the imagination resideth in the forepart of the braine the memorie in the hinder part and the vnderstanding in that of the middle And the like may be said in our imagination but it is a worke of great labour that the braine being when nature createth the same of the bignesse of a graine of pepper it should make one ventricle of seed verie hot another verie moist and the middle most of verie dry but in fine this is no impossible case CHAP. XV. In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning IT falleth out a matter worthie of maruaile that nature being such as we all know her wise wittie and of great art iudgement and force and mankind a worke of so speciall regard yet for one whome she maketh skilfull and wise she produceth infinit depriued of wit Of which effect my selfe searching the reason and naturall causes haue found in my iudgement that parents apply not themselues to the act of generation with that order and concert which is by nature established neither know the conditions which ought to be obserued to the end their children may prooue of wisedome and iudgement For by the same reason for which in any temperat or distemperat region a man should be borne very wittie hauing alwaies regard to the selfe order of causes there will 100000 prooue of slender capacitie now if by art we may procure a remedie for this we shall haue brought to the common-wealth the greatest benefit that she can receiue But the knot of this matter consisteth in that we cannot entreat hereof with tearms so seemly and modest as to the naturall shamefastnesse of man is requisit and if for this reason I should forbeare to note any part or contemplation that is necessarie for certaine the whole matter would be marred in sort that diuers graue Philosophers hold opinion how wise men ordinarily beget foolish children because in the act of copulation for honesties sake they abstaine from certaine diligences which are of importance that the sonne may partake of his fathers wisedome Some antient Philosophers haue laboured to search out the naturall reason of this naturall shame which the eyes conceiue when the instruments of generation are set before them and why the eares take offence to heare them named and they maruell to see that nature hath framed those parts with such diligence and carefulnesse and for an end of such importance as the immortalizing of mankind and yet the wiser a man is the more he groweth in dislike to behold or heare them spoken of Shame and honestie sayth Aristotle is the proper passion of the vnderstanding and who so resteth not offended at those terms and actions of generation giueth a sure token of his wanting that power as if we should say that he is blockish who putting his hand into the fire doth not feele the same to burne By this token Cato the elder discouered that Manilius a noble man was depriued of vnderstanding because it was told him that the other kissed his wife in presence of his daughter for which cause he displaced him out of the Senat and Manilius could neuer obtaine at his hands to be restored Out of this contemplation Aristotle frameth a probleme demaunding whence it grew that men who desire to satisfie their venerous lusts do yet greatly shame to confesse it and yet coueting to liue to eat or to perform any other such action they stagger not to acknowledge it to which probleme he shapeth a very vntoward answer saying Perhaps it commeth because the couetings of diuers things are necessary and some of them kill if they be not accomplished but the lust of venerous acts floweth from excesse and is token of abundance But in effect this probleme is false and the answer none other for a man not only shameth to manifest the desire he carrieth to companie with a woman but
The sixth by her haire The seuenth by her fairenesse or foulnesse As touching the first we may know that though it be true as tofore we haue prooued that the wit and abilitie of a woman followeth the temperature of the brain and of none other member yet her womb and cods are of so great force and vigour to alter the whole body that if these be hot and dry or cold and moist or of whatsoeuer other temperature the other partes saith Galen will be of the same tenour but the member which most partaketh the alterations of the belly all Phisitions say is the brain though they haue not set down the reason wheron they ground this correspondencie True it is Galen prooueth by experience that by speying a Sow she becommeth faire and fat and her flesh verie sauory and if she haue her cods she tasteth little better than dogs flesh VVherby we conceiue that the belly and the cods carrie great efficacie to communicat their temperature to all the other parts of the body especially to the brain for that the same is cold moist like themselues Between which through the resemblance the passage is easie Now if we conclude that cold and moist are the qualities which worke an impairement in the reasonable part and that his contraries namely hot and drie giue the same perfection and encreasement we shall find that the woman who sheweth much wit and sufficiencie partaketh of cold and moist in the first degree and if she be verie simple it yeeldeth a signe that she is in the third the partaking between which two extreames argueth the second degree for to thinke that a woman can be hot and drie or endowed with a wit and abilitie conformable to these two qualities is a verie great error because if the seed of which she was formed had been hot and dry in their domination she should haue been born a man and not a woman But in that it was could and moist she was born a woman and not a man The truth of this doctrine may cleerely be discerned if you consider the wit of the first woman who liued in the world for God hauing fashioned her with his own hands and that very accomplished and perfect in her sex it is a conclusion infallibly true that she was possessed of much lesse knowledge than Adam which the diuell well weeting got him to tempt her and durst not fall in disputation with the man fearing his great wit and wisdome Now to say that Eue for her offence was reft that knowledge which she wanted cannot be auouched for as yet she had not offended So then this defect of wit in the first woman grew for that she was by God created cold and moist which temperature is necessarie to make a woman fruitfull and apt for childbirth but enemy to knowledge and if he had made her temperat like Adam she should haue been very wise but nothing fruitful nor subiect to her monthly courses saue by some supernaturall meanes On this nature S. Paul grounded himselfe when he said Let a woman learne in silence with all subiection neither would he allow the woman to teach or gouerne the man but to keep silence But this is true when a woman hath not a spirit or greater grace than her own naturall disposition but if she obtaine any gift from aboue she may wel teach and speake for we know that the people of Israel being oppressed and besieged by the Assirians Iudith a very wise woman sent for the Priests of the Cabeits and Carmits and reprooued them saying How can it be endured that Osias should say if within fiue daies there come no succour he will yeeld the people of Israel to the Assirians see you not that these words rather prouoke God to wrath than to mercie how may it be that men should point out a limited time for the mercy of God and in their mind assigne a day at which he must succour and deliuer them And in the conclusion of this reproofe she told them in what sort they might please God and obtaine their demand And no lesse Elbora a woman of no lesse wisdome taught the people of Israel how they should render thanks vnto God for the great victories which she had attained against their enemies But whilst a woman abideth in her naturall disposition all sorts of learning and wisdome carrieth a kind of repugnancie to her wit And for this cause the Catholicke Church vpon great reason hath forbidden that no woman do preach confesse or instruct for their sex admitteth neither wisdome nor discipline It is discouered also by the maners of a woman and by her condition in what degree of cold and moist her temperature consisteth for if with a sharp wit she be froward curst wayward she is in the first degree of cold and moist it being true as we haue proued tofore that an ill condition euermore accompanieth a good imagination She who partaketh this degree of cold moist suffereth nothing to escape her hands noteth all things findeth fault with all things and so is insupportable Such are accustomably of amiable conuersation and feare not to looke men in the face nor hold him ill mannered who maketh loue vnto them But on the other side to be a woman of good conditions and to be agreeued at nothing to laugh vpon euery small occasiō to let things passe as they come and to sleep soundly descrieth the third degree of cold and moist for much pleasantnesse of conceit is ordinarily accompanied with little wit She who partaketh of these two extreams standeth in the second degree A voice hoarse big and sharp saith Galen is a token of much heat and drouth and we haue also prooued it heretofore by the opinion of Aristotle wherthrough we may gain this notice that if a woman haue a voice like a man she is cold and moist in the first degree and if very delicat in the third And partaking betwixt both the extreames she shall haue the naturall voice of a woman and be in the second degree How much the voice dependeth on the temperature of the cods shall shortly hereafter be prooued where we entreat of the tokens appertaining to a man Much flesh also in women is a signe of much cold and moist for to be fat and big say the Phisitions groweth in liuing creatures from this occasion And contrariwise to be leane and dry is a token of little coldnesse moisture To be meanly fleshed that is neither ouermuch nor verie little giueth euidence that a woman holdeth her selfe in the second degree of cold and moist Their pleasantnesse and curtesies sheweth the degrees of these two qualities much moisture maketh their flesh supple and little rough and hard The meane is the commendablest part The colour also of the face and of the other parts of the body discouereth the extended or remisse degrees of these two qualities When the woman is verie white it boadeth saith Galen much cold
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she
but not his substance wherin the whole life relieth as do the foure elements fire aire earth and water who not only yeeld to the party composed heat cold moisture and drinesse but also the substance which may maintain and preserue the same qualities during all the course of life Wherethrough that which most importeth in the engendring of children is to procure that the elements wherof they are compounded may partake the qualities which are requisite for the wit For these according to the waight and measure by which they enter into the composition must alwaies so indure in the mixture and not the alterations of heauen What these elements are and in what sort they enter into the womans wombe to forme the creature Galen declareth and affirmeth them to be the same which compound all other natural things but that the earth commeth lurking in the accustomed meates which we eate as are flesh bread fish and fruits the water in the liquors which we drinke The aire and fire he saith are mingled by order of nature and enter into the body by way of the pulse and of respiration Of these foure elements mingled and digested by our naturall heat are made the two necessarie principles of the infants generation to weet the seed and the monthly course But that whereof we must make greatest reckoning for the end which we enquire after are the accustomable meats whereon we feed for these shut vp the foure elements in themselues and from these the seed fetcheth more corpulencie and qualitie than from the water which we drinke or the fire and aire which we breath in VVhence Galen saith that the parents who would beget wise children should read three books which he wrot of the facultie of the alements for there they should find with what kinds of meat they may effect the same And he made no mention of the water nor of the other elements as materials and of like moment But herein he swarued from reason for the water altereth the body much more than the aire much lesse than the sound meats wheron we feed And as touching that which concerneth the engendring of the seed it carrieth as great importance as all the other elemēts togither The reason is as Galen himself affirmeth because the cods draw from the veines for their nourishment the wheyish part of the bloud and the greatest part of this whey which the veins receiue partaketh of the water which we drinke And that the water worketh more alteration in the bodie than the aire Aristotle prooueth where he demandeth what the cause is that by changing of waters we breed so great an alteration in our health wheras if we breath a contrarie aire we perceiue it not And to this he answereth that water yeeldeth nourishment to the body and so doth not the aire But he had little reason to answer after this maner for the aire also by Hippocrates opinion giueth nourishment and substance aswell as the water Wher-through Aristotle deuised a better answer saying that no place nor country hath his peculiar aire for that which is now in Flanders when the North wind bloweth passeth within two or three daies into Affricke and that in Affricke by the South is carried into the North and that which this day is in Hierusalem the East wind driueth into the VVest Indies The which cannot betide in the waters for they do not all issue out of the same soile wher-through euery people hath his particular water cōformable to the Mine of the earth where it springeth and whence it runneth And if a man be vsed to drinke one kind of water in tasting another he altereth more than by meat or aire In sort that the parents who haue a will to beget verie wise children must drinke waters delicat fresh and of good temperature otherwise they shall commit error in their procreation Aristotle saith that at the time of generation we must take heed of the South-west wind for the same is grosse and moistneth the seed so as a female and not a male is begotten But the west wind he highly commendeth and aduanceth it with names and titles very honourable He calleth the same temperat fatter of the earth and saith that it commeth from the Elisian fields But albeit it be true that it greatly importeth to breath an aire verie delicat and of good temperature and to drinke such waters yet it standeth much more vpon to vse fine meats appliable to the temperature of the wit for of these is engēdred the bloud and the seed and of the seed the creature And if the meat be delicat and of good temperature such is the bloud made and of such bloud such seed and of such seed such braine Now this member being temperat and compounded of a substance subtile and delicat Galen saith that the wit will be like therunto for our reasonable soule though the same be incorruptible yet goeth alwaies vnited with the dispositions of the brain which being not such as it is requisit they should be for discoursing and philosophizing a man saith and doth 1000 things which are verie vnfitting The meats then which the parents are to feed on that they may engender children of great vnderstanding which is the ordinarie wit for Spaine are first White bread made of the finest meale and seasoned with salt this is cold and dry and of parts verie subtile and delicat There is another sort made saith Galen of reddish graine which though it nourish much and make men big limmed and of great bodily forces yet for that the same is moist and of grosse parts it breedeth a losse in the vnderstanding I said seasoned with salt because none of all the aliments which a man vseth bettereth so much the vnderstanding as doth this minerall It is cold and of more drinesse than any other thing and if I remember well the sentence of Heraclitus he said after this maner A drie brightnesse a wisest minde Then seeing that salt is so drie and so appropriat to the wit the scripture had good reason to terme it by the name of Prudence and Sapience Partridges and Francolini haue a like substance and the selfe temperature with bread of white meale and Kid and Muskadel wine And if parents vse these meats as we haue aboue specified they shall breed children of great vnderstanding And if they would haue a child of great memorie let them eight or nine daies before they betake themselues to the act of generation eat Trouts Salmons Lampries and Eeles by which meat they shall make their seed verie moist and clammie These two qualities as I haue said before make the memorie easie to receaue and verie fast to preserue the figures a long time By Pigions Goats Garlicke Onions Leekes Rapes Pepper Vinegar White-wine Honny and al other sorts of spices the seed is made hot and drie and of parts verie subtile and delicat The child who is engendred of such meat shalbe of great imagination but not of