Difficulty against this Doctrin namely seeing God knew all the Wits and Ability in Israel and was well aware that the Temperate Men are possessed of that Prudence and Wisdom of which the Royal Office stands in need for what cause in the first Election that was made God sought not out such a Man as this For even the Text says that Saul was so tall of Stature as he exceeded all the people of Israel by the Head and Shoulders This is an ill sign of Wit not only in Natural Philosophy but God himself as he has pleased to shew us blamed Samuel for having an Eye to the great Stature of Eliab and his forwardness to Anoint him for King But this Doubt sufficiently informs us what Galen has said is true that out of Greece it is a folly to look for a Temperate Man seeing in so great a People as that of Israel God could not find one to choose for King but waited till David was grown up and in the mean while made choice of Saul seeing that as the Text says he was the best of all Israel tho' it seems he had more good nature than Wisdom and that alone was not sufficient to Rule and Govern Teach me goodness discipline and Knowledge says the Royal Prophet David being very sensible that it is to no purpose for a King to be Good and Virtuous if he be not withal at the same time Prudent and Wise It looks as if we had sufficiently confirmed our Opinion in this instance of King David but there arose also another King in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is born King of the Jews And if we can prove that he was red-Haired well fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of great Wisdom and Knowledge it will be no disadvantage to our Cause The Evangelists busy not themselves to relate the Composition of our Lord because it no way conduced to the subject they treated of but the same is a matter very easy to be understood supposing that an exact Temperament is all the Perfection a Man can naturally have and seeing it was the Holy Ghost that formed and Organized him it is certain that as touching the material Cause of which he form'd him it was not the Ill Temperament of Nazareth that could resist him nor cause him to erre in his work as it fares with Natural Agents but that he did what best pleased him because he wanted neither Power Knowledge nor Will to frame a Man most Perfect and without any Defect And the rather for that his Coming as he himself affirms was to endure Travels for Man and to teach him the Truth But this Temperament as we have prov'd before was the best Natural Instrument to effect these two things And therefore I hold for true the Relation that Publius Lentulus the Proconsul writ from Jerusalem to the Senate at Rome after this manner There has been seen in our Time a Man who yet lives of great Virtue call'd Jesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the Prophet of Truth and his Disciples say that he is the Son of God He raises the Dead and heals the Sick He is a Man of a middle proportionable Stature and of a very fair Countenance His Look carries such Majesty as procures at once both Love and Respect from all his Beholders His Hair down to his Ears is of the Colour of a Nut full ripe and from his Ears to his Shoulders of the Colour of Wax but brighter He has in the middle of his Forehead a little Lock after the manner of the Nazarens His Forehead is Plain but very Serene His Face without Spot or Wrinkle and of a moderate Colour His Nose and Mouth are not with any reason to be blamed His Beard thick and resembling his Hair not long but forked His Aspect is Gracious and Grave and his Eyes graceful and clear He is Awful in his Reproofs and Charming in his Admonitions He forces Love He is chearful with Gravity He is never seen to Laugh but Weep often He has elegant Hands and Arms In Conversation he is very pleasing but is seldom in Company and when he is very Modest In his Countenance and Mien the loveliest Man that can be imagined In this Relation are comprised three or four Marks of a Temperate Man The first that he had his Hair and Beard of the Colour of a Nut full ripe which if well considered is a brown Abourn which Colour God commanded the Heifer should have that was to be sacrificed in Figure of Jesus Christ And when he Ascended up into Heaven with the Triumph and Majesty due to such a Prince some of the Angels that knew nothing of his Incarnation ask'd Who is this that comes from Edom with his Garments died Red from Bosra As if they had said Who is this that comes from the Red-Land with his Garments died Red with regard to his Hair and Beard and to the Blood he was stained with The Letter also reports him the fairest Man that ever was seen which is the second Mark of a temperate Man Accordingly by this Mark Holy Scripture has distinguish'd him Goodly of Beauty among the Sons of Men and elsewhere it is said That his Eyes shall be Red with Wine and his Teeth White with Milk Which Beauty and Comely Shape of Body was of no small importance to engage the whole World to Love him because there was nothing Terrible about him And so the Letter says That every one was enclined to Love him It reports also That he was of middle Stature not that the Holy Ghost wanted Matter to make him greater if he had so pleased but because in over-charging the Rational Soul with Bones and Flesh the Wit is oppressed as we have prov'd before from the Opinion of Plato and Aristotle The third Mark namely to be Virtuous and of good Conditions is confirmed also from the same Relation and the Jews with all their false Witnesses could never prove the contrary nor answer him when he ask'd them Which of you can reprove me of Sin And Josephus from the credit of his History assures us that he seemed to be more than Man considering his great Goodness and Wisdom There is only long Life that is not verified of our Saviour Jesus Christ because they put him to Death so Young But if the Course of Nature had not been interruptted he might have lived above fourscore Years For it is very probable that he who could live in a Desart fourty Days and fourty Nights without Eating or Drinking and neither be Sick nor Die with it might better have preserv'd himself free from other slighter Accidents that might alter and impair his Temperament Howbeit this Action was reputed a Miracle and a thing that could not happen in the Compass of Nature These two Examples of Kings which we have alledged are sufficient to give to Understand that the Royal Scepter is due
to the Understanding being Writ in Latin that even such as want a good Memory can Read and Study those Books the Latin Tongue being so repugnant to them by reason of a defective Memory We may solve the first Problem thus There is no better Test to discover if a Man wants Understanding than to note if he be Haughty in Punctilio's of Honour Presumptuous Elated Ambitious and Ceremonious The reason is that all these are the Effects of a Difference of Imagination which requires no more than one Degree of Heat with which the great Moisture requisite to Memory consists well because this Degree of Heat is not of force sufficient to resolve it On the contrary an infallible sign that a Man is naturally humble is when he is observ'd to undervalue himself and whatever comes from him or relates to him and that not only Vaunts not and commends not himself but is offended at and scarce admits the Praises bestow'd on him by others being uneasie and in pain with Punctilio's and in places of Ceremony that Man I say who has these Marks may justly pass for a Man of great Understanding but of little Imagination and Memory I said naturally Humble because if it be by Art it is no certain sign whence it comes that the Grammarians are provided with so great a Memory and uniting with it this difference of Imagination which we just now mentioned they are necessarily deficient in their Understanding and such as the Proverb described To the second Problem may be answer'd That Galen gathering the Wit of Men from the Temperament of the Region they inhabit says That all those who dwell Northerly are defective in Understanding and those Situated between the North and the Torrid Zone are most Prudent which Position answers exactly to our Country and without doubt it is so for Spain is neither so Cold as the Northern Climes nor so Hot as the Torrid Zone Aristotle seems to be of the same Opinion when he Enquires Why those that live in very cold Countries have not so good an Understanding as those Born in very hot In his Answer he treats but coursly the Flemmings Germans English and French saying That the greater part of the Wits of those Nations resembled that of Drunkards for which reason they could not search into or know the Nature of things And the Cause of this is the overflow of Moisture in their Brains and other Parts of their Body which the fairness of their Complexions and the flaxen Colour of their Hair denotes and that it is a wonder to see a German bald and besides that they are all big and of large Stature through the abundance of Moisture which is a dilater of the Body The contrary is discern'd in the Spaniards who are a little Tawny black Hair'd of mean Stature and for the most part Bald which is a disposition affirm'd by Galen proceeding from a hot and dry Brain And if that be true they must of necessity have an ill Memory but a good Understanding and the German a great Memory and little Understanding Accordingly one of them cannot learn Latin and the other learns it readily The reason given by Aristotle to prove the little Understanding of the Northern People is that the great Ambient Cold of the Country forces the Natural Heat inward by an Antiperistasis and hinders it from being dissipated and so they have abundance of Moisture and Heat it is therefore these People are at the same time furnished with a good Memory for the Tongues and with a good Imagination by means of which they make Clocks bring the Water from the River to Toledo invent Machines and very curious Works which the Spaniards cannot make because they want Imagination but if they apply themselves to any point of Logic Philosophy School-Divinty Physic and the Laws a Spaniard without Comparison will speak more sublime and quainter things in his own Tongue and in barbarous Terms than a Stranger can do with all his fine Latin for take these People out of their Elegant and Polite Road of Writing and they perform nothing Extraordinary nor have they any Invention In Proof of this Doctrin Galen says In Scythia which is a Northern Country as a Wonder there arose one Philosopher whereas at Athens they are all such But though Philosophy and the other Sciences by us named are repugnant to these Northern People yet the Mathematics and Astronomy are proper to them because they have an Excellent Imagination The Answer to the third Problem depends on a much agitated Dispute between Plato and Aristotle One affirms that there are Words which naturally signify Things and that much Wit is requir'd to invent them which Opinion is favour'd by Holy Writ telling us that Adam gave to each Creature God set before him the proper Name most suitable to it But Aristotle would not yield that there was in any Tongue any Term or Figure of Speech that naturally signified the thing but that all Words were by Institution according to the Caprice and Fancy of Men. Accordingly it is known by Experience that Wine has more than Threescore Names and Bread as many and each its own in each Tongue nor can it be affirm'd of one that it is more proper and natural than all the rest for if it were all the Men in the World would use that However after all Plato's Opinion is truer For say the first Inventers of Tongues imposed Names according to their Fancy that Fancy was still with Reason as well in consulting the Ear as having regard to the Nature of the thing and observing the Graces of Pronounciation so as that the Words be not too long or too short and that there be no need of distorting the Mouth in Speaking giving the Accent in the proper place and the like Conditions to be observ'd that the Tongue be Eloquent and not Barbarous Of the Opinion of Plato was a Spanish Cavalier who diverted himself with Writing Books of Chivalry because he was furnished with that difference of Imagination which inclines a Man to such Stories and Lyes It is reported of him that being to bring into his Romance a certain fierce Giant he was for several days studying what Name would be most answerable to his Exploits but he could never chop upon it till playing one day at Tables with a Friend of his he heard the Master of the House say Ola Mochacho traquitantos a esta mesa That is to say Holla Boy bring hither some Dice for the Tables The Gentleman no sooner heard the Word Traquitantos but weighing the well sounding Name in his Ears without any longer stay for good Fortune rose up and said Gentlemen I play no longer for I have been a long while Inventing a Name that should agree well with a fierce Giant whom I make use of in certain Fictions I have composed and could not for my Life light upon it till I came to this House where I always received
to Temperate Men and that they have the Wit and Wisdom which is required for that Station But there was also another Man made by God's own hand with design that he should be King and Lord of all things Created and he made him also red well-fashioned Virtuous Sound of exceeding long Life and very Wise The Proof of which is no Inconvenience to our Cause Plato held it for a thing impossible for God or Nature to form a Man Temperate in an Intemperate Region and therefore he said that to make the first Man very Wise and Temperate God sought out a place where the Heat of the Air excceeded not the Cold nor the Moist the Dry And Holy Writ whence he drew this Opinion says not that God created Adam in the Terrestrial Paradise which is the most Temperate Place mentioned by Plato but that he plac'd him there after he had made him And the Lord God took the Man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it For as the Power of God is infinite and his Knowledge above measure and his Will inclin'd to give all the Natural Perfection to Man he was capable of in his Kind it is probable that neither the Piece of Earth of which he was fram'd nor the Intemperance of the Country of Damascus where he was created could hinder his coming Temperate out of Gods Hands The Opinion of Plato Aristotle and Galen hath place in the Works of Nature and yet even in Intemperate Regions Nature sometimes chances to produce a Temperate Man Now that Adam had Red Hair and Beard which is the first Mark of a Temperate Man is a thing very clear for in respect of this so notorious a Sign the Name of Adam was given him which is as much as to say as St. Jerom interprets it a red Man Nor can it be deny'd but he was Beautiful and well Fashioned which is the second Mark seeing that after God created him the Text says That he saw every thing which he had made and behold it was very good It is certain then that he issued not out of the Hands of God Foul or ill Shap'd Because all his Works are perfect Insomuch as the Text affirms that the very Trees were fair to Behold What then think you of Adam whom God created for the principal end and to be Lord and Master of the whole World That he was Virtuous Wise and well-Conditioned which are the third and sixth Marks may be collected from these words Let us make Man after our Image and Likeness because according to the Antient Philosophers the foundation of the Resemblance of Man to God was no other than Virtue and Wisdom Which made Plato say that the greatest pleasure God took above in Heaven was to hear a Wise and Virtuous Man praised and admir'd on Earth in as much as such a Man is his most lively Portraiture On the contrary he is displeased when the Foolish and Wicked are in Honour and Esteem because of the Disparity between them and himself That he liv'd Sound and a long while which are the fourth and fifth Marks is not hard to prove seeing that he lived nine hundred and thirty Years compleat So that I may now conclude that he that is Red well-Fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of long Life must necessarily be exceeding Wise and have the Wit requisite for the Royal Scepter We have also by the by made out after what manner a great Understanding may be joyn'd with a large Imagination and Memory tho' this may come to pass without the Man's being Temperate But Nature makes so few after this Model that amongst all the Wits I have examined I have not met above two But how a large Understanding a vast Imagination and a good Memory may meet together in a Man not being Temperate is a thing easy to comprehend if we admit the Opinion of some Physitians who affirm that the Imagination lies in the fore-part of the Brain the Memory in the hinder part and the Understanding in the middle which may also be supposed by our Apprehension but it is a work of great labour that the Brain being no bigger than a Pepper-corn at the time Nature begins to form it should have one of the Ventricles of Seed very Hot another of very Moist and that in the middle of very dry tho' after all this is no Impossible Case CHAP. XVII In what manner Parents may beget wise Children and of a Wit fit for Learning 'T IS a thing worthy of great Admiration that Nature being such as we all know Wise Skilful of great Art Knowledge and Power and Man a Work in which she has shew'd so much skill Nevertheless for one person that is Wise and Prudent she produces an infinite Number of half-Witted Of which effect searching into the reason and Natural Causes I have found at length that the fault lay in Parents not applying themselves to the Act of Generation in that Order and with that Concert which Nature has established not knowing the Conditions which are to be observ'd in the begetting Wise and Prudent Children For by the same Reason that in whatever Country it be either Temperate or Intemperate there is born a Man of great Wit with regard to the same Order of Causes there are a thousand begot of a slender Capacity If we can then by Art procure a Remedy for this there will accrue to the Common-Wealth the greatest Benefit it can receive But the Difficulty of this Matter is that we cannot treat of it in Terms so decent and seemly as becomes that Modesty which is so Natural to Men. And if for this reason I should spare the mention of any Part or Action that is necessary it is certain the whole matter will be marred insomuch as it is the Opinion of many grave Philosophers that wise Men ordinarily beget Blockheads because for Modesties sake they abstain in the act of Copulation from some Caresses which are of importance that the Child partake of the Fathers Wit Of the Natural Modesty conceived in the Eyes when the parts of Generation are exposed to view and of the Offence which their Names give to our Ears some antient Philosopers have attempted to find the Reason being surprized to see that Nature had framed these Parts with such Care and Diligence for a Design so important as that of Immortalizing Mankind and yet nevertheless the Wiser and Prudenter a Man is the more he is ashamed to see them or hear them Named Shame and Modesty as Aristotle says is a Passion proper to the Understanding and whosoever is not offended at hearing the Names of the Parts or Actions of Generation it is certain that he is wholly unprovided of this Faculty as we may declare him to be void of the Sense of Feeling that should not feel his Hand burn tho' he held it in the midst of the Fire By this very Token
lay down the Conditions to be observed that a Boy without failing may begot I say then that Fathers in order to attain this End must carefully observe six Things The first is to eat Meats hot and dry The second to procure good Digestion in the Stomach The third to use much Exercise The fourth not to apply to the Act of Venery till the Seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to Company with the Wife four or five Days before her Menses The sixth to procure that the Seed may fall on the right side of the Womb. Which Points being observed as we have directed 't is impossible to get a Girl For the First Condition you are to know that tho' a good Stomach digests and alters the Meat divesting it of the Qualities it had before yet it does not entirely destroy them For if we eat Lettuce whose Nature is cold and moist the Blood it produces will be cold and moist and the Serum cold and moist and the Seed also cold and moist and if we eat Honey which is hot and dry the Blood it breeds will be hot and dry the Serum hot and dry and the Blood likewise hot and dry because 't is impossible as Galen says that the Humours should not partake of the Substance and Qualities which the Food had before it was eaten If it be true then that the producing of Males depends on the Seed's being hot and dry in the time of the Formation it is certain that Fathers ought to eat Meats hot and dry to get a Boy However it must be confess'd that there is a very dangerous thing in this Procedure and it is from the Seed's being very Hot and Dry as we have often already said of Course there will proceed a malicious crafty deceitful Man and inclined to all kind of Vices and Ills. And such Men as these if they are not curbed are very dangerous to the State therefore it were better that they should not be Born But for all this there will not be wanting some that will say with the Proverb Nasca me hijo varon y sea Ladron Let me have a Boy and let him be a Thief because Eccles c. 20. The Iniquity of a Man is more allowable than the well-doing of a Woman Tho' this may be easily remedied by the use of temperate Meats and which partake a little of Hot and Dry or by the Preparation as adding Spice thereto Such Meats says Galen are Pullets Partridge Turtles Woodcocks Pidgeons Threshes Blackbirds and Kid which in the Opinion of Hippocrates should be eat rosted to heat and dry up the Seed The Bread they eat should be White of the finest Flower kneeded with Salt and Aniseeds because the Brown is cold and moist as we shall prove hereafter and very prejudicial to Wit Let their Drink be Whitewine mixt with Water in such quantity as the Stomach can bear and the Water that is mixt should be fresh and pure The second Care we have proposed to be observed is to eat these Meats in a moderate quantity that the Stomach may digest them for tho' by Nature they are hot and dry yet they become cold and moist whenever the natural Heat cannot digest them therefore tho' Fathers do eat Honey and drink White-wine they 'l make their Seed cold by these Meats and so get Girls and not Boys 'T is for this Reason the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry undergo this misfortune and discontent to have more Girls than poor People because they Eat and Drink more than their Stomach can bear or digest and tho' their Meats be hot and dry Sauced with Sugar Spice and Honey through being eaten on too great a quantity they become crude and not to be digested But the Crudity more prejudicial to Generation is that of Wine because this Liquor being so vaporous and fumous causes the other Aliments with it self to pass wholly undigested to the Spermatic Vessels and so the Seed falsely provokes a Man e're yet it be digested and seasoned Which made Plato commend so highly a Law he observed in the Commonwealth of Carthage by which it was provided that the New-Married-Couple should drink no Wine on the Day they designed to lie together importing that this Liquor much incommoded the Child's Health and that it was Cause sufficient to make it Vitious and of ill Inclinatitions but if the same be moderately taken there is no Sustenance affords so good Seed to the end we propos'd as White-wine especially to give Wit and Ability which is that to which we most pretend The third Caution we prescribed was to use more than moderate Exercise for this wasts and consumes the superfluous Moisture of the Seed and heats and dries the same by which a Man is rendered prolific and more able for Generation and on the contrary to give our selves to Ease and not to Exercise of the Body is one of the ways most to cool and moisten the Seed Therefore the Rich and Riotous abound in Girls more than the Poor that work hard To this purpose Hippocrates recounts that the Principal among the Scythians were very soft and effeminate and addicted to Women's Works to Sweep to Scower and to Bake and by this means were impotent in Generation and if they ever begot a Male Child it proved an Eunuch or Hermaphrodite at which being ashamed and disgusted they resolved to offer Sacrifices and Gifts to their God with Prayers not to treat them so or to afford them a Remedy for this Defect since it lay in his Power Hippocrates jeered them saying that no Effect befalls us but what is Wonderful and Divine if it be rightly considered for resolving them all into their Natural Causes the last terminates in God by whose Power all worldly Agents operate but that there are some Effects that refer immediately to God as those out of the Order of Nature and others that mediately refer to him running through all the intermediate Causes leading to the End The Country inhabited by the Scythians is as Hipporcates said Northerly extraordinarily Cold and Moist where through the abundance of Clouds the Sun is rarely seen Rich Men sit there always on Horse-back never exercising eating and drinking more than their Natural Heat is able to digest all which occasions the Seed to be cold and moist For which cause they get abundance of Girls and if they happen to have a Boy 't is such a one as we have described Know said Hippocrates to them that the Remedy for this is not to offer Sacrifices to God and no more but to walk on Foot Eat little and Drink less and not sit always at your Ease and the better to discern this cast your Eyes on the Poor of your Country and on your Slaves who not only make no Sacrifices nor offer Gifts to God not having wherewith but even Blaspheme his Blessed Name and speak injuriously of him for placing them in so mean a
very just and proper because Sleep and Stupidity proceed alike from the same Principles that is to say the great Coldness and exceeding Moisture of the Brain There is another kind of Incapacity in Wit not quite so Stupid as the former because at least they conceive the first Principles and draw Conclusions thence tho' few and not without much pains but the Impression of them remains in their Memories no longer than their Masters are talking to them and making them understand the same by Examples and Methods of Teaching agreeable to their rude and gross Understandings They resemble some Women who being big with Child are delivered but the Child dies as soon as it is born These Mens Brains are full of a Flegmatic Moisture for which cause the Ideas finding nothing Oily or Viscous neither stick nor are pliant so to teach them would be to draw Water with a Sieve A Fool 's Heart and Mind are like a bottomless Vessel pour what Precepts of Wisdom you please in none will remain there There is a third sort of Disability very common among Men of Letters who have some smattering of Wit for they take the first Notions and draw thence their Conclusions with which they overcharge and load their Memory but when they should range every thing in Order commit a Thousand Blunders These may be compar'd to a Woman deliver'd of a Child with the Head in the place of the Feet and the Eyes seated behind the Head There is found so great a Confusion of the Figures in the Memory of this third sort of Insipids that when they would be understood they have no less than an Hundred ways of speaking to Express themselves because they have conceiv'd an Infinity of things altogether undigested and without Order or Connexion of Parts These in the Schools are call'd Confus'd whose Brains are unequal as well in Substance as Temperament in some places compos'd of delicate Parts and in others of gross and ill temper'd and because it is also Various and Ununiform sometimes they speak Witty and Notable things and immediately after fall into a Thousand Impertinences Of these it is said A Fool 's Wisdom in his Brains is like a House in Ruins his Knowledge wants Words to express its self Nay I have observ'd a fourth Defect amongst Men of Letters which is not altogether Incapacity and yet they have not Wit enough for I find they that possess it take Learning retain it firmly in their Memory fix the Forms with the Correspondence they ought to have speaking and acting very well when there is occasion for it but if one sounds them and should ask the Essential Causes of what they know and understand they are easily found they have no bottom and that all their Sufficience was but a Facility to comprehend the Terms and Axioms of the Doctrin they were taught without penetrating why or how it was so Aristotle said of these That there are some Men who Brute-beast-like speak by Natural Instinct and say more than they know or consider after the manner of inanimate Beings who fail not to act very well although they are as insensible of the Effects they produce as the Fire of what it burns and the Cause of this is Nature leads them so that they cannot fail of attaining their End Aristotle might well have compar'd them to some Animals who seem to perform all their Actions with a show of Reason and Design but he supposing these Animals had at least some kind of knowledge of what they did past to Inanimate Agents because in his Opinion these though not wise and wanting Wit yet operated and very well too without being able to distinguish the Effect from the ultimate Cause This difference of Incapacity or if you please of Wit might be fully made out if without offence to any I were permitted to point to them with my Finger for I have both seen and known many such CHAP. III. The Child who has neither Wit nor Ability requisite to the intended Science cannot prove a great Proficient though he have the best Masters many Books and should labour at it all the Days of his Life 'T WAS a happy thought in Cicero in order to accomplish his Son Marcus in that sort of Learning he had made choice of for him that it would be sufficient to send him to an Academy so famous throughout the World as that of Athens to place him under so great a Master as Cratippus one of the most celebrated Philosophers of the Age and in a City which by the vast Concourse of People of all Nations met together must unavoidably furnish him with a multitude of great Examples and novel Accidents that would experimentally instruct him in his designed Studies Yet notwithstanding all the best Methods an indulgent Father could take buying some and Writing other Books for him History informs us that he prov'd a meer Blockhead equally destitute of Eloquence and Philosophy Nature being often even with the Son for her Prodigality to the Father and indeed the great Orator was mistaken in imagining that the Industry of such a Master the best Books the most refin'd Conversation of that famous Town and an unwearied application of Mind together with time sufficient to build his Hopes upon could supply the Defects of a Soul naturally incapable both of Eloquence and Philosophy At length we find he was disappointed which is the less to be wonder'd at being misled by innumerable Instances of the like Rencounters that flatter'd him with the same change in the disposition of his Son Nay he himself acquaints us That Xenocrates had no Genius for the study of Natural and Moral Philosophy for Plato used to call him his Hopeless Scholar yet the indefatigable Diligence of the Tutor and continued Endeavours of the Pupil produc'd an Excellent Philosopher He says also of Cleanthes that he was so dull and stupid that no Master would admit him to his School which shamed and confounded the Youth to such a degree that by an assiduous Application he acquired the Name of a Second Hercules in knowledge Nor were there the least hopes that Demosthenes should ever succeed in Eloquence who as Authors affirm was almost a Man before he could speak yet through his own unwearied Labours and the assistance of good Masters he became the greatest Orator in the World And Tully amongst other things recounts that he had such an Impediment in his Speech that he could not pronounce the Letter R yet by his Address he so happily overcame it that it was impossible to discern his former Defect which gave Birth to the Saying That Humane Capacity for Studies resembles a Game at Tables where if the Dice run cross the Gamester must supply the want of Fortune with his better Play But according to my Principles the Answer is ready to all Cicero's Examples For as I shall prove hereafter a slow Wit in Children promises a happier Progress in their riper Age more than an early
him but the Master that had taught him no better because the Cognizance and Solution of the Motions of Divine Providence as they are Supernatural Acts appertain to the Metaphysicians now a-days called Divines for the Gardener's question was Natural and properly belong'd to the Natural Philosophers those being establish'd and manifest Causes whence such Effects are produc'd For which reason the Philosopher says That the Earth resembled a Mother-in-law that took a particular care of her own Children but starved those of her Husband for we observe hers to be plump and in good liking but the other meager lank and ill coloured The Plants the Earth produces of her self come out of her own Bowels those the Gardener raises are forc'd by Art being the Daughters of another strange Mother void of the Virtue and Nourishment that should make them thrive and what is communicated only to the Plants she her self brings forth Hippocrates confirm'd this in his Visit he made to the great Philosopher Democritus who acquainted him with the false Notions the People had of Physic who as if they were free from all Diseases had nothing in their Mouths but that God had healed them and if it had not pleased him the Physicians Care and Skill had been all employed to no purpose and the like This is the old way of Talking and which has so often been in vain exploded by the Naturalists that it is not worth while to endeavour to silence it Neither is it altogether convenient because the Vulgar who are not acquainted with the particular Causes of any Effect whatever answer better and with more truth from the universal Cause which is God than to run into Impertinences However I have many times consider'd with my self whence it should come that the Vulgar should so readily ascribe all things to God taking no notice at all of Nature and not without some secret Abhorrence of Natural Means I know not well how to divine the true Cause but thus much I find that the Generality of People being ignorant which Effects more immediately to refer to God and which to Nature prate after this manner besides that Men are for the most part impatient and Friends to those that first gratify their Desires And the Process of Nature being slow and requiring length of Time they have not Patience to attend the Event but knowing the Omnipotence of God who in an Instant does what he pleases of which they want not many Instances they either beg at his Hands Health with the Paralitic or Wisdom with Solomon or Riches with Job or Deliverance from their Enemies with David An other Reason is because Men are Opinionative and Conceited most of them wishing in their Hearts that God would distinguish them by some particular Favour not in the common Road and as he makes the Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust and the Rain to descend upon all alike Favours being rather the more esteem'd by how much the Rarer they are and more Appropriate to a few Upon which pretence we have seen many Men feign Miraracles in Times and Places of Devotion for which cause People flock about them and pay just Veneration to them as Persons in Favour and Esteem with Heaven and if they are poor they bestow considerable Alms upon them who play the Religious Counterfeits for Interest The third Cause is Men are lovers of their Ease and Natural Causes being in such an Order and Concatenation as requires a great deal of Time and Application to discover their Effects therefore they had rather God should exert his Omnipotence that so they might without the least Pain or Delay obtain their Desires I shall take no notice of the Malice of those who seek for Miracles from God to tempt his Omnipotence to try if he can work them nor of others who to gratify their Revenge call for Fire from Heaven and the like severe Instances of the Divine Vengeance The last Reason is that the Vulgar generally speaking are very Religious and desirous that God should be greatly Honour'd and much Glorified which comes to pass by Miracles rather than Natural Events for the common People are not aware that God is not the Author of all Supernatural and Extraordinary things so much to proclaim his Almighty Power to the Ignorant as to employ them as nobler Arguments to confirm his Doctrin and that unless upon such an Emergency he never works any This is easily understood if we consider that God works not now such Miracles as once in the Old and New Testament and the Reason is because he has already done all that was necessary on his part that Man might not pretend Ignorance but to imagine that he should be ready to employ the same Arguments again and again and work new Miracles to confirm afresh his old Doctrin as in the Instances of raising the Dead giving Sight to the Blind Feet to the Lame and Paralitic is a great mistake for at the same instant as God teaches Men what is convenient he confirms it by Miracles without repeating them every day a-new God spoke once and did not repeat the same a second time The clearest Indication I have to discover a Man that has no Wit propense to Natural Philosophy is when I see him referring all things to Miracles without any distinction As on the other hand there is no need to call in question their Understanding who cannot rest satisfied without discerning the particular Cause of every Effect These are well aware that some Events are to be referred immediately to God as are Miracles and others again to Nature as those that have their immediate Causes from which they ordinarily flow But let us talk at what rate we please God is always understood to be the Author even of the last for when Aristotle said God and Nature make nothing in Vain he never meant that Nature was an Universal Cause having a Power independent upon God but a Name only of that Order and Subordinate Rule appointed by God himself in the Creation of the World to the end that such Effects might duly succeed as were necessary to its Conservation and Continuance in the same state So we say the King and Civil Right can do no Wrong by which manner of speaking no Man takes the Term Right to signifie another Prince of separate Jurisdiction from the King but rather as a Term by its signification importing all the Laws and Ordinances made by the King himself to preserve the State in Peace Like as a King has some peculiar Prerogatives that cannot be Determined by the Law as being Paramount and Extraordinary even so has God reserv'd to himself the Effects of Miracles for the Production of which he has given no Commission or Power to Natural Causes where by the way we may observe that he who takes them for such and can distinguish them from natural Effects must needs be a very acute Natural Philosopher and understand no less
than every Effect as it springs from its immediate Cause tho' this is not enough neither if the Catholic Church hath never declared them for such for like as Advocates engaged in the Study of the Civil Law have it imprinted in their Memory the better to know and understand the Kings Pleasure in the Determination of each particular Case Even so the Natural Philosophers being Advocates in their Faculty place their whole Study in this to know the Order God establish'd at the instant he created the World the better to discern what Causes produce what Effects and why And as it would be ridiculous for a Lawyer to alledge in his Breviate as a strong Proof that the King commanded such an Arrest in such a Case without shewing the Law and the Rule of Court by which it ought to be decided So the Natural Philosophers laugh at them who pronounce this or that is God's Work without running through the Order and inseparable Connexion of all the particular Causes concern'd in its immediate Production And for the same reason as a King denies to hearken to those that press him to Abrogate and Null a just Law or finally to decide a Case contrary to the standing Rules and Orders of his Ministerial Courts so neither will God likely hearken to those that importune him for Miracles and Signs out of the ordinary Course and Ministry of Nature when there is no Occasion for them For should a King every day null and make Laws and alter the Course of Justice be it for the diversity of Occasions or through the changes in his Councils because Right and Justice are not arrived at all at once yet the Natural Order of the Universe by us called Nature from the Creation to this Day has suffer'd no Change or Alteration in the least for he made it with so much Wisdom and Prudence that not to continue constant in that Order would be tacitly to lay a blame upon his Works But to return to that common Saying of the Antient Philosophers Nature makes able it is to be understood that there is a Wit and Ability bestow'd by God on Men out of the ordinary Course of Nature such was the Wisdom of the Apostles who being rude and illiterate were wonderfully enlightned and fill'd with Wisdom and Knowledge Which sort of Parts and Qualifications verify not that Nature makes able for that is a Work to be attributed immediately to God and not to Nature The like is to be understood of the Wisdom of the Prophets and of all others upon whom God has poured any of his Gifts There is another sort of Wit among Men produced by the Order and Dependence of Causes appointed by God to lead to such an end and of this kind it may be truly said Nature makes able For as we shall prove in the last Chapter of this Work there is a certain Order and Dependence of Natural Causes so that if Parents in the Act of Generation would duly observe it all their Children would be Wise and none of them Otherwise However in this Discourse such a signification of Nature is too loose and confus'd nor is the Understanding content to rest here without tracing every particular Effect up to its Ultimate Cause and therefore there is need to find out another meaning of this Word Nature which may be more accommodate to our purpose Aristotle and all other Natural Philosophers were more Particular calling Nature every substantial Form that gives Being to a thing and is the Principle of all its Operations In which sense our Rational Soul with good Reason is call'd Nature for from thence we receive the Form and Being we have of Men and the same is the Principle of all our Actions for all Rational Souls are of equal Perfection as well the Wise Man 's as the Fool 's and so we may not pronounce that it is Nature in this sense makes a Man witty for if that were true all Men would be equal in Wit and Capacity and thereupon the same Aristotle found out another Signification of Nature importing the Reason and Cause of a Man's being capable or incapable saying that the Temperament of the four first Qualities Heat Cold Moisture and Driness were to be call'd Nature inasmuch as from them proceed all the Abilities of Men all the Virtues and Vices and all the great variety of Wit we discover in the World And he proves it clearly by considering the several Parts of the Age of the wisest Man who in his Childhood is no more than a Brute Beast employing no other Powers than the Irascible and Concupiscible when Youth comes he betrays an admirable Wit which we see continues to a certain Period and no longer for old Age drawing on his Wit every day declines till in the End it is wholly lost Assuredly the diversity of Wit proceeds not from the Rational Soul for that in all Ages is the same without suffering any Alteration in its Vigor or Substance except a Man in the several Stages of his Life changes his Constitution or has a different Disposition and from hence is it that the Soul acts one part in the Childhood another in Youth and yet another in old Age whence may be drawn an evident Argument that seeing the same Soul performs contrary Acts in one and the same Body by having in each Division of Age a different Temperament whensoever of two Boys the one is Witty the other a Dunce the same happens by each having a diverse Temperament from the other which being the Principle of all the Operations of the reasonable Soul is by Physicians and Philosophers call'd Nature in which sense this Saying Nature makes able is properly Verified In confirmation of which Doctrin Galen writ a Book proving that the Operations of the Soul were influenc'd by the Temperament of the Body in which it dwelt and that by reason either of the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness of the Climate where they lived or the Qualities of the Meat they eat and of the Waters they drank and of the Air they breathed in some were Fools and others Wise some Stout and others Cowards some Cruel and others Gentle some Reserv'd and others Open some Lyars and others Speakers of Truth some Traytors and others Loyal some Turbulent and others Calm some Crafty and others Sincere some Sordid and others Generous some Modest and others Impudent some Incredulous and others Credulous in Proof of which he quotes many Places out of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle asserting that the Diversity of Nations as to the Frame of their Bodies and the Turn of their Soul was owing to this Difference of Temperament Which is found true by Experience how much the Greeks differ from the Scythians the French from the Spaniards the Indians from the Germans and the Ethiopians from the English Neither is this only to be observ'd in Parts so remote from each other but if we consider even the Provinces that surround all
Galen thought the most Important Qualification of all the rest For giving an Indication of the good Composition of the Brain he saies that the sharp Wit shews the Brain to be formed of very subtile and delicate Parts but if the Understanding be Dull it denotes the Brain to be Composed of a Gross Substance where he takes no Notice of the Temperament To the end the Rational Soul might by this means Reason well the Brain ought to have these Qualities But here arises a great Difficulty which is in opening the Head of any Beast whatever we shall find his Brains composed after the self same manner as Man's without being wanting in any of the Conditions mentioned To which it is Answered that in this Man and Brute Beasts agree in having a Temperament of the four first Qualities without which 't would be impossible for them to Subsist so are they composed of the four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth whence spring and proceed Heat Cold Moysture and Dryness In the Actions of the Vegetative Soul they also agree accordingly Nature has given to both alike Organs and Instruments necessary for Nourishment such are the right Fibres traverse and oblique subservient to the four Natural Faculties They also conspire in the Sensitive Soul for so they have Nerves and Sinews alike for the Instruments of Sense In local Motion they also agree no less thus have they both Muscles as fit Instruments directed by Nature to move from place to place They also accord in Memory and Fancy for so have they both Brains as an Instrument subservient to those two Faculties that are alike composed in both The Understanding is the sole Faculty that distinguishes Man from Beast and because the Understanding acts without any corporeal Organ or depends not on the same for it's being or preservation therefore Nature had no need of a new Turn in the composition of man's Brain However the Understanding hath Occasion for other Faculties to operate which Faculties likewise have the Brain for the Instrument of their Operations We add farther that the Brain of Man requires the Conditions we have laid down to the end the Rational Faculty may by means thereof perform Operations every way agreeable and conformable to its Species As to Brute Beasts it is certain they have Memory and Fancy and some other Power that Apes the Understanding even as a Monkey Apes a Man CHAP. VII That the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Soul are knowing without being directed by Teachers when they meet with a Temperament agreeable to their Operations THE Temperament of the four First Qualities which we have already called Nature hath force sufficient of it self to leave the Plants the Brutes and Man unprovided of nothing wherewith to Act well each according to his Species and to arrive at the highest Perfection each is capable of for without any Teacher the Plants know how to spread and take Root in the Earth to draw Nourishment to keep it to digest it and throw off the Excrementitious Parts and Brute Beasts know as soon as ever they are born into the World what is agreeable to their Nature as well as to avoid what is Evil and Noxious And what most astonishes those that do not understand Natural Philosophy is that Man having a well tempered and disposed Brain suitable to each Science immediately and without being directed by any Teachers speaks concerning that Science of his own accord such elevate and subtle Things as are almost incredible Vulgar Philosophers seeing the admirable Actions performed by Brute Beasts say that there is nothing in them to Surprize us because they act those things by Instinct of Nature which directs each Species what it ought to do They say well for as we have proved already Nature is no other thing but the Temperament of the four First Qualities and that the same is the Master instructing our Souls how to perform their Offices But these Philosophers call Instinct of Nature a certain Heap of things they know not what which they have never been able in the least to Explain or make 〈…〉 ible Those Excellent Philosophers 〈…〉 and Aristotle have referred all these admirable Operations to Heat Cold Moisture and Dryness which they take for the first Principles without going further and being asked who has taught the Brute Beasts to perform such surprizing Actions And Men to Reason Hippocrates replied Nature without any other Teacher or Master as if he would have said the Faculties or the Temperament of which these Faculties consist are all knowing of themselves without the direction of any Master This we shall easily apprehend if we reflect on the Operations of the Vegetative Soul and of all the others which govern Man for if it receives a drop of Human Seed well-tempered well-digested and well-proportioned it frames a Body so regularly Composed so exact and so beautiful as the best Sculptors in the World can but imitate at a distance Galen amaz'd at the sight of so admirable a Structure the Number of it's Parts the Situation the Figure and use of each Part cried out it was Impossible for a Vegetative Soul and Temperament to know how to make so admirable a Work And that God alone was the Author of it or at least some other very wise Intelligence But we have already utterly disallowed this way of Prating for it is unbecoming Natural Philosophers to impute the Effects immediatly to God and overlook second Causes more especially in this Case where we see by Experience that if the Seed of Man be of an Incongruous Substance not having the proper Temperament the Vegetative Soul produces a thousand Extravagances For if the Seed be Colder and Moister than it ought Hippocrates has told us Men would come Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites into the World and if it were too Hot and Dry Aristotle has noted they would prove Hair-Lipped Splay-Footed and Flat-Nosed as the Ethiopians and if too moist says the same Galen they are like to prove unlick't and unshapen Lubbers and if too dry it makes them dwindle to a Dwarfish Stature all which enormous Defects are great Deformities in Mankind for which there is little reason to magnifie Nature or to Esteem her Wise but had God been the Author of these Works each of these forementioned Qualities could not have failed of Perfection Plato saies only the first Men were made by Gods own Hand and all the rest since have been born by the ordinary Course of second Causes which as they are found in order the Vegetative Soul performs her part very well but if she Concurrs not as she ought a thousand Absurdities are produced The good Order for this Effect is that the Vegetative Soul have a right Temperament Otherwise let Galen and all the Philosophers in the World give a Reason why the Vegetative Soul should have more Skill and Ability in the first Age of Man's Life to shape the Body to Nourish and make it
That they had strong Stomachs that were inured to Garlic Leaks and Onions and when they fed upon Meat of so slight Resistance it turned all into Choler Therefore Galen forbid those that abound in Natural Heat to eat Honey or any other such slight Food lest it should corrupt and instead of Digesting broil in the Stomach like Fat. Even so it befel the Israelites with the Manna for it converted all into Choler Adust So that they became wholly Dry and Withered because this Meat was not substantial enough to stuff them Our Soul is dried away and there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our Eyes The Water they drank after this Meat was such as they desired and if they had not found it as they wished God shewed Moses a piece of Wood which had so Divine a Virtue that being cast into Gross and Salt Water it made them become delicate and savory and when they had no Water Moses took the Rod with which he opened a dozen Ways in the Red-Sea and striking therewith the Rock there issued Springs of Water as delicate and savory as their Taste could wish Which gave Occasion to St. Paul to say That the Rock followed them That is to say that the Water streamed out of the Rock according to their Wishes delicate sweet and savory And they had their Stomachs suited to the drinking of Gross and Briny Waters for in Egypt says Galen they boiled them to prepare them for Drink being putrid and corrupt so that drinking such delicate Waters they could not avoid their turning to Choler because of their small resistance The same Qualities says Galen Water requires to digest well in our Stomach and not Corrupt as the solid Meats we eat If the Stomach be strong it ought to have strong Aliments to correspond with it in proportion but if the same be weak and delicate such the Meat ought also to be The same is to be observed in Water for we see by Experience if a Man be accustomed to drink Gross Waters he never quenches his Thirst with the Purer nor feels them hardly in his Stomach nay he shall be more Thirsty after them inasmuch as the Extream Heat of the Stomach burns and resolves them as soon as they are down because they can make no Resistance The Air they breathed in the Desart was as we may say subtil and delicate for travelling over Mountains and through vast Solitudes it Fanned them every moment fresh and clear and without the least Corruption because they made no long stay in any Place It was also ever very Temperate for by Day a Cloud was drawn before the Sun that restrained it from scorching and by Night arose a Pillar of Fire that moderated it and qualified it for such an Air as Aristotle affirms much sharpens the Wit Let us now consider how delicate and well digested the Seed of the Males of this Hebrew People might be being nourished by such Food as Manna drinking the Waters we have spoke of and breathing an Air so pure and delicate and withal how delicate and fine the Flowers of their Women might be and let us call to mind what Aristotle said That the Flowers being subtile and delicate the Child bred of them shall be a Man of great Capacity How much it imports that the Father should eat delicate Meats to beget very able Children we shall prove at large in the last Chapter of this Book And whereas all the Jews eat of the same delicate and spirituous Meat and drank of the same Water all their Children and Posterity proved sharp and of great Wit for the Matters of this World From the Time the Children of Israel were arrived at and setled in the Land of Promise with a sharp Wit as we have said they had so many Travels Dearths Sieges of Enemies Subjections and Bondages and other ill Usages that if they had not brought from Egypt and the Wilderness the Hot Dry and Adust Temperament before mentioned they would have Contracted the same from their uncomfortable Course of Life For continual Sadness and Toil unite the Vital Spirits and Arterial Blood in the Brain Liver and Heart where sticking one about the other they come to heat and burn And so very often they raise a Fever but ordinarily produce Choler adust of which most of that Nation partake even to this day as Hippocrates said That Fear and Sorrow which hold long are signs of Melancholy We have already affirmed That this Burnt Choler was the Instrument of Craft Cunning Intriguing and Malice and that Humour is accommodated to the Conjectures in Physic and by the same the Notice of the Cause and Cure of Diseases is attained So King Francis admirably hit upon it and what he said was not a Delirium much less a Suggestion of the Devil but it ought rather to be thought that by the means of a high Fever of so long Continuance and through the Indignation he was in to see himself Sick without Relief his Brain was fired and his Imagination raised to that degree of which we have proved before that if it reaches the Temperament it ought forthwith it makes a Man speak what he never learn'd But against all that we have said a very great Difficulty arises which is that if the Sons or Grandchildren of those that were in Egypt and had tasted Manna the Waters and delicate Air of the Desart had been designed for Physicians it might seem that the Opinion of King Francis was somewhat probable for the Reasons recounted But that their Posterity should retain even to this day the Dispositions of the Manna the Water the Air the Afflictions and the Toils their Ancestors endured in the Egyptian Captivity is a thing not easy to conceive For if in Four Hundred and thirty Years which the Children of Israel spent in Egypt and the Fourty in the Desart their Seed could acquire those Dispositions of Ability they might better and with more probability lose it again in the Two thousand Years since they came out of the Desart more especially for those that setled in Spain a Country so contrary to Egypt and where they have fed on such contrary Meats and drank Waters not of so good a Temperament nor Substance as in that Land For such is the Nature of Man and so of any Plant or Animal whatever that he partakes of the Conditions of the Country he is transplanted into and loses those he brought from other Places And in any Instance to be alledged the like will befal it in a few days without Contradiction A certain Race of Men as Hippocrates notes to distinguish themselves from the Vulgar chose as a Mark of their Nobility to have their Heads like a Sugar-Loaf and to Shape this Figure by Art the Midwives had a Charge to roll up their Heads with certain Bands and Fillets till they took that Shape This Artifice really gained such Power
from Woman as Galen says but only in having the Genitals outward For if a Woman be dissected we shall find that she has within her two Testicles two Spermatic Vessels and one Matrix together with the figure of the Masculine Member without missing the least Representation Which is so true that if Nature making a perfect Man had a mind to turn him into a Woman she has no more to do than to turn the Parts of Generation inward And if after she has made a Woman she had a mind to convert her into Man she need no more than turn out her Genitals This has chanced many times in Nature as well to the Foetus in the Womb as to the Child after the Birth Of which Histories are full though some have held them only for Fables as coming from the Hands of Poets yet the thing carries much of Truth For divers times has Nature made a Female that has continued such in the Mothers Womb a Month or two afterwards and abundance of Heat upon Occasion falling on the Genitals they have struck out and she steps forth a Male. To whom this change of Sex has happened in the Mothers Womb is afterwards made known by certain Motions unbecoming a Man being altogether Womanish and Effeminate their Voice Shrill and Squeaking Such persons are addicted to Woman's works and fall ordinarily into awkard Offences On the contrary Nature has often made a Boy with his Genitals outwards and some Cold supervening she has inverted them and the Boy has turned into a Girl This appears after she is Born in that she has a Masculine Air as well in her Speech as in all her Motions and Gestures This seems difficult to prove but easy to believe if we reflect on what we are assured by many Authentic Histories And that Women have been turned into Men after they were Born the Vulgar are not surprised to hear of for besides what many Antient Authors have delivered for truth 't is a thing that happened in Spain but few Years since and what Experience teaches admits no Dispute or Argument What the Cause or Reason may be that the Genitals are engendred within or without and they come forth Male or Female is a plain Case if we recollect that Heat dilates and extends all things and Cold contracts and closes them And therefore it is the Conclusion of all the Philosophers and Physitians that if the Seed be Cold and Moist a Girle is produced and not a Boy and if it be Hot and Dry a Boy is produced and not a Girle Whence may be clearly inferr'd that there is no Man can be call'd cold in respect of a Woman nor any Woman hot in respect of a Man Aristotle said that the Woman should be cold and moist to be fruitful and if she were not so it were impossible she should have her Terms or Milk to preserve the Foetus nine whole Months in her Womb and two Years after the Birth but the same would be dissipated and wasted All the Philosophers and Physitians assert that the Womb bears the same Proportion to humane Seed as the Earth does to Wheat or any other Grain But we see if the Earth be not cold and moist the Husbandman dares not Sow it and though he should it comes to nothing Also among Lands those are most fertile and fructify most that have most Cold and Moisture as appears by experience considering the Northern Regions England Flanders and Germany where the abundance of all Fruits surprises those that know not the reason of it and in such Countries a Married Woman rarely fails of Children neither do they know what 't is to be Barren all the Women there are fruitful and prolific because of the great Cold and Moisture But though it be true that a Woman should be cold and moist for Conception nevertheless that may be in such an Excess that the Seed may be choaked as we see the Grain is opprest with too-much Rain and cannot thrive when it is over-cold Which shews us that these two qualities require a certain Mediocrity which if they exceed or come short of Fertility is in danger to be lost Hippocrates held that Woman fruitful whose Matrix was temperate in such sort as the Heat exceeded not the Cold nor the Moisture the Dryness therefore he said that Women who have a cold Womb could not conceive no more than those that have a very moist or a very hot and dry one so for the same reason that a Woman and her parts of Generation should be Temperate it were impossible for her to conceive or be a Woman For if the Seed of which she first was formed had been Temperate the Genitals had issued forth and she had been a Man So would a Beard grow on her Chin and her Courses have stopt and she become as perfect a Male as Nature could produce Likewise the Womb in a Woman should not have a predominant Heat for if the Seed whereof she was formed had had this Temperament she had been born a Man and not a Woman 'T is a thing then absolutely certain that the two Qualities which render a Woman fruitful are Cold and Moisture inasmuch as the Nature of a Man requires much Nourishment for his Production and Conservation Accordingly we see that of all the Females of Brute-Animals none have their Courses as Women Therefore it was no less than necessary to make her altogether cold and moist and to such a degree that she might breed abundance of Flegmatic Blood and be able neither to dissipate nor consume it I said Flegmatic Blood because the same is proper to breed Milk With which as Hippocrates and Galen are of Opinion the Foetús is nourished all the time it is in the Womb but if the same should be Temperate it would make much Blood which would be very unfit to breed Milk and which would wholly resolve as it does in a Temperate Man and so nothing be left to nourish the Foetus Therefore I hold for certain that it is impossible any Woman be either Temperate or Hot they are all both cold and moist If this be not so let Physitians and Philosophers tell me why all Women are Beardless and yet have their Terms if in Health Or for what cause if the Seed of which she is form'd was Temperate or Hot she was born a Female and not a Male But though it be true that all Women are cold and moist yet they are not so in the same Degree some are in the First others in the Second and the rest in the Third And in each degree they may conceive if the Man answer them in the proportion of Heat which we shall hereafter explain By what Marks these three Degrees of Cold and Moisture in Women may be known and how we may discern which is in the First which in the Second and which in the Third no Philosophy or Physic has yet declar'd But considering the
State and yet tho' so Lewd and Blasphemous are nevertheless most potent in Generation and the greatest part of their Children Males and sturdy ones not effeminate Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites like yours The Reason of which is they Eat little Exercise much stroll not always on Horse-back as you do for which Reason they make their Seed hot and dry and so they get Boys and not Girls This Point of Philosophy neither Pharaoh nor his Council understood when they spoke after this Manner Come on let us deal wisely with them lest they Multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any War they join also unto our Enemies For the Method he took to prevent the Israelites Multiplying or at least that they should not have so many Males which was what they feared most was to oppress them with Bodily Labours and give them nothing to eat but Leaks Garlic and Onyons which had the contrary Effect for as the sacred Text declares The more they afflicted them the more they Multiplied and Grew Yet he making account that there was no better way than this to follow doubled their Tasks and their Burdens but to no more purpose than if to quench a great Fire he had cast in store of Oyl and Butter But had he or any of his Council understood Natural Philosophy they would have ordered them Barly-bread Lettuce Melons Pompions and Cucumbers and permitted them to live at Ease giving them their fill of Meat and Drink without forcing them to Work For by these means they would have had moist and cold Seed whence would have proceeded more Girls than Boys and in a little time their Lives have been shortened if they had desired it Instead of which in giving them boyl'd Flesh to eat with abundance of Garlic Leeks and Onyons and obliging them to Labour hard as they did it produced hot and dry Seed by which Qualities they were more incited to Generation and got always Male Children In Confirmation of this Truth Aristotle asks in one of his Problems Whence it comes that those who Labour hard or those that are Hectic commit nocturnal Pollutions To which in earnest he knew not what to say for tho' he alledges many Reasons yet none of them reach the Mark. The right Reason is that Bodily Labour and the Hectic Fever heat and dry the Seed and these two Qualities render it sharp and pricking and because all the Natural Powers are fortified in Sleep this happens which the Problem speaks of How fruitful and pricking hot and dry Seed is Galen notes in these Words It is the most fruitful and briskly excites the Animal from the beginning even to coition it is Lascivious and prone to Lust The fourth Condition is not to engage in the Act of Generation till the Seed be setled digested and well seasoned for tho' the three preceeding Cautions be duly observed we cannot know thereby if it have acquired all the Perfection it ought to have Especially it is convenient to use this Caution for seven or eight Days before the Meats we have prescribed to give time to the Testicles to convert into their Nourishment the Seed which at that time was made from the other Aliments and that this which we are describing may Succeed The same Care is to be taken to render human Seed fruitful and prolific as Gardiners take with the Seed they would preserve they wait till they ripen cleanse and dry for if they gather them before the proper Season and point of Maturity tho' they lie in the Ground a whole Year they will not grow at all For this reason I have observed that in places where Venus is much used fewer Children are got than where there is more Continence And light Women prove rarely with Child because they stay not till their Seed be digested and ripe It is convenient then to wait some Days that the Seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned For by this means it will duly gain Heat and Dryness and the good Substance it has lost But how shall we know the Seed to be such as it ought to be since the Matter is of so great Importance This may be easily known if there be an Interval of a few Days from the Man's denying to Company with his Wife by the continual irritation and great Desire he will have All which arises from the Seed's being fruitful and prolific The fifth Condition we have directed was that the Man should engage with his Wife six or seven Days before her Courses because a Boy has soon occasion for much Aliment to Nourish him And the Reason of it is that the Heat and Dryness of his Temperament spends and consumes not only the good Blood of his Mother but her very Excrements Wherefore Hippocrates said that the Woman that conceives a Boy is well Coloured and Fair which comes from this that the Child through his great Heat spends for his Nourishment all the Excrements that were wont to make her Thin and Wan And being so greedy it is but fit he should be supplied with Blood for his Nourishment And this Experience clearly proves for seldom is a Boy begot but towards the last Days of the Month It fares quite contrary when she conceives a Girl for through the great coldness and moisture of her Sex she Eats little and makes abundance of Excrements Accordingly a Woman with Child of a Girl looks Yellow and Green and long 's for a Thousand nasty Things and in her lying in must have longer time to cleanse than if she brought forth a Boy On which Natural Reason God grounded when he ordered Moses that the Woman that brought forth a Male being unclean seven Days should not come into the Sanctuary till after thirty three Days but if she bear a Maid-Child she should be Unclean two Weeks and should not come into the Sanctuary till she had accomplish'd threescore and six Days So that the time of her Purification was doubled for the Birth of a Female and the cause of it is that during her Nine Months stay in her Mothers Womb through the much cold and moist of her Temperament she doubled the Excrements of a Boy besides that the same were of a much worse Substance and Quality Whereupon Hippocrates observed that 't is extream Dangerous to stop the Purgation of a Woman delivered of a Girl All this is spoke to the Purpose that it is convenient to stay to the end of the Month to the end the Seed may be supplied with Nourishment sufficient If they couple immediately after the Purgation is over that Seed will not take thro' defect of Blood But I must advise Parents that if their Seed meet not together Galen said it would come to nothing tho' the Man's Seed were never so apt for Procreation The Reason of this we will give hereafter on another Subject It is alike certain that all we have offered must also be observed
the Beasts Seed not being of that Strength served only for Nourishment and no more And that the Seed of these Irrational Creatures might yield Nourishment to Human Seed is a matter easy to be conceived for if each of these Women had eat a piece of the Bears Flesh or Dogs boiled or rosted she would thereby have been Nourished though not so well as if she had eaten Lamb or Partridge The like happens to Human Seed whose real Nutriment in the formation of the Child is a Man's Seed though that failing the Seed of Brute Beasts might well supply its Place But one thing these Histories specify is that the young ones born from such Copulation gave proof by their Manners and Conditions that they were not begot in the ordinary course of Nature From what has been said though we have digress'd a little too far we may now draw an Answer to the principal Problem which is that wise Mens Children are in a manner always form'd of the Mothers Seed because that of the Fathers for reasons already alledged is not fruitful for Generation serving only in Generation for the Aliment And the Child that is formed of the Womans Seed cannot be Witty or Ingenious by reason of the great coldness and moisture of the Sex whence it is certain that a Child proving wise and discreet by an infallible indication was form'd of the Fathers Seed But if he be a Blockhead or Fool it may be concluded that he was made of the Mothers Seed To which the Wiseman alluded saying A wise Son maketh a glad Father but a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother It may also happen by some Accident that the Wise Man's Seed may be the Agent and Form-giver and that of the Mother serve for Aliment But the Child thus begot will prove of slender Capacity for though cold and dry are two Qualities requisite to the Understanding yet they ought to keep a certain Measure and Quantity which once exceeded they do rather harm than good As appears in very old Men who through the abundance of Coldness and Dryness doat and fall into many Follies Put case then that there yet remain ten years for a Wise Man to live with a Coldness and Dryness capable of Reasoning yet that being expired he will doat If of such a ones Seed a Child be got he will be till ten years old of great Ability having drawn a conveninet coldness and dryness from the Father but at eleven years he will presently begin to fail having past the Pitch those two Qualities hold Which we see by daily Experience in Children got in old Age who when Young are very Witty but grown Men are Fools and short liv'd The Reason is they were formed of the cold and dry Seed of a Man that had liv'd about half his Race Likewise if the Father skill in the works of the Imagination through much Heat and Dryness and be married to a Woman cold and moist in the third Degree the Child born from such a Conjunction will be an errant Blockhead if he be form'd of the Father's Seed having layn in so cold and moist a Womb and having been fed with such Distemper'd Blood The contrary happens the Father being a Fool whose Seed ordinarily is hot and exceeding moist The Child then begot will be dull till fifteen years so long as he partakes of the superfluous moisture of the Father but that being spent by the Course of Age it comes to a Consistence when the Fool 's Seed becomes more Temperate and less Moist It also helps the Wit to have been nine Months in a Womb so little cold and moist as is that of a Woman cold and moist in the first Degree whence proceeds such scarcity and want of Nourishment All this ordinarily happens for the Reasons we have specified but there is a certain Race of Men whose Genitals are of such force and vigor as they utterly spoil their Aliments of their good Qualities converting them into their evil and gross Substance Whence all the Children that are begot though they have eat delicate Meats are dull and rude There are others on the contrary feeding on Meats of gross and evil Temperament are so Strong to overcome them that though they eat Brawn or Bacon they get very Witty Children And so it is certain that there is a Race of Fools and another of Wise Men and others that ordinarily are born Blunt and void of Judgment Some Doubts offer themselves to those that endeavour to pierce to the Root of this matter To which an Answer may be given from what has been already said The first is whence it comes that Bastards for the most part resemble their Fathers And of a hundred Legitimate ninety bear the Figure and Conditions of their Mothers The second Why Bastards are generally Personable Couragious and very Discreet The third What is the Cause that if a light Woman prove with Child though she swallow poyson'd Doses to make her Miscarry and often let Blood yet she never slips her Child But if a Married Woman be with Child by her Husband upon every slight Accident she lightly Miscarries To the first doubt Plato answers affirming that no Man of his own Accord is Evil till first he be incited by his vitious Temperament And alledges for instance Leachers who by abounding in fruitful Seed suffer many Illusions and great Pains And being molested with that Passion to drive it away Marry Of such Galen says that they have very hot and dry Instruments of Generation and for this Cause breed Seed very pricking and apt for Procreation A Man then goes to seek a Woman none of his own and replenished with this fruitful digested and well seasoned Seed Whence it follows of force the Generation must be made because where both are equal the Man's Seed is of greater Efficacy and if a Boy be got of the Seed of such a Father he will resemble him of course The contrary happens in Legitimate-Children for Married Men having their Wives always by their Sides never regard to ripen their Seed or make it Prolific but rather upon the least Motion discharge it with great Commotion and Violence Whereas Women lying quiet in the Act of Love their Seminal Vessels never emit any Seed but what is duly concocted and well seasoned and affords much in quantity Therefore Married Women always make the engendring and their Husbands Seed serves for Nourishment But sometimes it comes to pass that both Seeds are matched in equal Perfection and dispute in such a manner as neither one nor the other give the Formation so as a Child is got that Resembes neither Father nor Mother At other times they concur and part the Resemblance between them the Fathers Seed makes the Nose and Eyes and that of the Mother the Mouth and Forehead Though if the Fathers Seed wholly predominate the Child will be like him in Person and Manners and when the Mothers Seed prevails the same