sowed in a Lake Hippocrates advises such a Woman to lessen her self and take down her Fat and her Flesh before she Marry but then she need not take a Husband hot and dry for such a Temperament would not do nor can she conceive A Woman cold and moist in the second Degree retains a Mean in all the Marks we have mentioned Beauty excepted which she has in excess which is an evident Sign that she will be fruitful and bear Children and prove gay and of a good Grace Such a Woman answers in proportion well near to all Men first to the hot and dry in the second Degree next to the Temperate and then to those that are hot and moist Of all these Combinations and Matches of Men and Women which we have noted wise Children may proceed but more ordinarily from the first for put case that the Man's Seed incline to cold and moist yet the continual Dryness of the Mother and giving her little nourishment corrects and amends the defect of the Father Because this kind of Philosophy has not yet come to light all the natural Philosophers have not been able to answer the Problem that demands Why many Fools have got wise Children To which they Answer That those unthinking Fellows apply themselves passionately to the Venereal Act without engaging in any other consideration but that wise Men on the contrary in the very Embraces are musing upon Matters impertinent to the present Point Whereby they enfeeble their Seed and beget defective Children as well in what respects the rational Powers as in those that are purely Natural But this Answer proceeds from People little skill'd in natural Philosophy In the other Unions care should be taken that the Woman lose her Fat and grow sparer by a ripe Age and Marry not too young for thence arise half Witted and Foolish Children The Seed of young Parents is very moist for it is but a while since they were Born and if a Man be formed of Matter moist in Excess he will of course be a Blockhead Article III. What Considerations to be used to get Boys and not Girls THE Parents that are in quest of the Joy of Wise Children and towardly for Learning should endeavour to have Boys for Girls in respect of the Coldness and Moisture of their Sex can never arrive at a profound Judgment Ony we see they speak with a show of Ability in slight and easy Matters with ordinary Terms though studied But being set to Learning they learn no farther than a little Latin and that because it is a work of the Memory Which Incapacity is not to be charged on them but on the Cold and Moist that made them Women being the Qualities as we have already proved absolutely contrary to Wit and Ability Solomon in Consideration of the great Scarcity of wise Men and that there was not so much as one Woman furnished with Wit and Knowledge speaks thus One Man says he among a Thousand have I found but a Woman among all those have I not found Therefore we are to shun them and apply our Endeavours to get Males since in these alone appears a Wit capable of Learning In which we are first of all to consider what Instruments are ordained by Nature in Man's Body to this End and what Order of Causes is to be observ'd to attain the End we propose You are to know then that amongst many Excrements and Humours that are in a Man's Body Galen says that Nature makes use but of One to prevent the Species of Men being lost Which is a certain Excrement called Serum or Serous Blood generated in the Liver and Veins at the Instant the four Humours Blood Flegm Choler and Melancholy receive what Form and Substance they ought to have Of such a Juice as this Nature makes use for a Vehicle of Food and to transmit it thro' the Veins and narrow Passages to carry Nourishment to all Parts of the Body which Work being done the same Nature has given to us two Reins which have no other Office than to attract to themselves this Serous Humour and make it descend thro' their Passages down into the Bladder and thence out of the Body and this to free Man from the Anoyance that Excrements give him But in Consideration of certain Qualities he has convenient for Generation she has provided us with two Veins to carry part to the Testicles and Spermatic Vessels with a little Blood whence she frames the Seed such as is convenient for our Species accordingly she has planted one Vein on the Right Rein side which terminates in the Rim of the right Testicle and of that same the right Spermatic Vessel is framed The other Vein issues out of the left Rein and terminates in the left Testicle and of that is framed the left Spermatic Vein What Qualities this Excrement has to make convenient Matter for generating of Seed the same Galen has noted that they are certain Acrids and Acids that spring from a Salt which irritates the Spermatic Vessels and strongly moves the Animal without delay to the Work of Generation and therefore lascivious Men are termed in Latin Salaces as much as to say Men that have much Salt in their Seed Besides this Nature has done another thing worthy of Consideration namely that to the right Vein and Testicle she has given much Heat and Dryness and to the left Rein and Testicle much Cold and Moisture so that the Seed prepared by the right Testicle is very hot and dry and that by the left cold and moist What Nature pretends to in this Diversity of Temperaments as well in the Reins as Testicles and Spermatic Vessels is very clear since we are informed by very credible Histories that at the beginning of the World and many Years after the Women were brought to Bed of two Children at a Birth one a Boy and the other a Girl to the end that each Man might have a Wife and each Woman a Husband for the speedier Encrease of Mankind For this Reason then has Nature provided that the right Rein should furnish matter hot and dry to the right Testicle and that the same with its great Heat and Dryness might produce hot and dry Seed for the generating a Male. And the contrary she has ordered for the Formation of the Female that the left Rein should send forth cold and moist Seed to the left Testicle that the same with its Coldness and Moisture might make cold and moist Seed from which a Girl would necessarily be got and not a Boy But after the World was once well Peopled it seems as if Nature had broke off this Order of this double Child-bearing and what is worse for one Boy there are no less than six or seven Girls ordinarily Born from which it may be understood either that Nature is tired out or that some Errour hinders her from acting as she would What the same is we may hereafter declare when we
190. l. 12. r. Requesens ib. l. 18. r. understood Latin p. 192. l. 19. r. yet owns p. 199. l. 3. r Problems p. 221. l. 4. r. at a loss p. 222. l. 20. r. Alcala p. 223. l. 30. r. repetition p. 241. Margin r. driness p. 252. l. 24. r. le ts p. 253. l. 18. r. Laws p. 315. l. 16. r. Captains p. 334. l. 1. r. haste to go we should p. 345. l. 6. r. Henares p. 353. l. 13. r. it is p. 363. l. 10. r. Physiâ—ian p. 371. l. 19. r. Turk p. 38.6 l. 1. r. his p. 405. l. 18. r. Women's p. 432. l. 25. r. in The Literal and Paginal Mistakes the Reader may please to Correct THE TRYAL OF WITS c. CHAP. I. What Wit is and what Differences of it are ordinarily observ'd among Men. 'T IS one of Plato's Precepts That all who pretend to Write or Teach ought to begin their Doctrin with the Definition of the thing treated of its Nature Difference and Propriety That gives the Learner a true relish and prevents the Writers launching out into needless Questions or flying from those most proper for compleating the Work The reason of this is that the Definition ought to be so close and comprehensive that there should hardly be found any thing either in the handling that Science or in the due method which should not be pointed to in it Therefore if they do not begin thus 't is impossible to observe Order in any sort of Science Seeing then that Wit and Ability in Men is the entire Subject of this Book it will be convenient first to understand the Definition and what it essentially comprehends for when we rightly apprehend that we shall then also find the true method of teaching this New Doctrin and whereas the Name as the same Philosopher observes is as the Instrument by which the Substances of things are taught and distinguish'd We must know this word Ingenio in Spanish and Ingenium in Latin which signifies Wit is derived from one of these three Latin Words Gigno Genero Ingenero as much as to Ingender and it seems rather to come from the last considering the Sound and Number of Letters and Syllables it borrows thence and what we shall hereafter add of its Signification The Reason upon which the first Inventers of this Word built is not trivial in order to know how to find the Names and good Agreement which things lately discover'd require Plato says this only belongs to Heroes and to Men of deep Thought as may be seen in the Invention of this Word Ingenio to find it out there will be required much subtle Speculation and strong Natural Philosophy by which one may discover two generative Powers in Man one common with the Beasts and Plants and the other Participating of Spiritual Substances God and the Angels It is our Province to discourse of the first which is well known there being more difficulty in the second because their Birth and manner of Procreation are not so manifest to all the World Nevertheless speaking according to Natural Philosophers 't is a clear Case that Wit is a Generative Power and if we may so say becomes pregnant and brings forth that has I say Children and moreover as Plato affirms wants a Midwife to deliver her For like as the Plant or Animal in the Generation of the first sort gives a real and substantial Being to what they produce which they have not before Generation even so Wit has the Power and natural Force to produce and bring forth within it self a Son which the Natural Philosophers call Notion or as it has been accounted the Word of the Spirit And not only the aforesaid Philosophers speak of it after this manner maintaining the Understanding to be a Generative Faculty and calling that a Son which it produces but Sacred Writ it self speaking of the Generation of the Eternal Word makes use of the same Terms of Father and Son or Ingender and bring forth When there were no Depths I was brought forth when there were no Fountains abounding with Water before the Mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth So also is it certain that the Divine Word had its Eternal Generation from the Prolifick Understanding of the Father My Heart that is to say my Thoughts have indicted a good Word And not only the Divine Word but also all things comprehended in the Universe Visible and Invisible have been produc'd by the self-same Power Whence the Natural Philosophers considering the Fecundity of the Divine Understanding have named it Genius which is by an Excellence as much as the Engenderer And though the rational Soul and other Spiritual Substances may be call'd Genii from being Fruitful in the Production of some Thoughts relating to Science and Wisdom yet they have not always an Intellect of sufficient Force and Power in their Generation to give a real being to what they Ingender as subsisting by its self like as it happens in the Generation of those things which God has made all their Generative Virtue serves to produce an accident in the Memory which after it is produced is in the end but an Idea and Image of what we know and understand very far from that which comes to pass in the Ineffable Generation of the Word Divine where that which is Engender'd is of the same Substance with the Father as the other things which God has produc'd represent him from without by a real and substantial Being which we now see in them but for the Ideas in Man's Understanding if they are such things as relate to Art they don't immediately receive the Being they ought to have However thus much must be done to draw a perfect Idea by which we are to form 'em 't is necessary before-hand to make a thousand strokes in the Air to build many Models and in the end to set our hand to the Work to give them the Being they ought to have and notwithstanding all that they happen for the most part to be defective The same thing falls out in other Conceptions Man forms to understand Natural things and what relates to their being there or the Image the Understanding conceives of 'em by an Admirable Resemblance of the first Thought with something living and to draw a Copy that may come up pretty near the Original 't is requisite to assemble an Infinite Number of Spirits to labour a long time that after all spend themselves in producing only a thousand Extravagancies This Doctrin then being suppos'd we must now understand that the Arts and Sciences Men study are only a sort of Images and Figures begotten by their Minds in their Memory which represent to the Life the Posture and natural Composition of the Subject relating to the intended Science As for Instance Physick was nothing else in Hippocrates and Galen's Heads but a Picture nakedly presenting the Structure of the Body of Man together with the Cause and Cure of his Diseases The
it will I would present to a Moral Philosopher a Luxurious Drunkard and a Glutton to manage him according to the Rules of his Art and to instill into his Soul the contrary good Habits of Chastity and Temperance by these means reducing him to act with all Moderation and Sobriety without introducing into his Constitution Cold and Driness and without correcting the over-ruling Heat and Moisture there was before let us see how he will go about it Without doubt the first thing he does will be to shew him the Sordidness of Luxury and to lay before him the Train of Evils it draws after it and in what danger his Soul would be if Death should happen to surprize him on a sudden without giving him respite to repent of his Sins After this he gravely admonishes him to Fast Pray and Meditate to Sleep but little to lie hard and without Delicacy to wear Hair Clothes and Discipline himself to fly the Company of Women and to give himself wholly to Pious Works all which are comprized in this fine Aphorism of St. Paul I keep under my Body and bring it into Subjection By means of these Austerities if he practises them long he 'll appear Meager Pale and much Alter'd from what he was insomuch that he who before hunted after Women and that plac'd all his Happiness in the Pleasures of Eating and Drinking will hardly have Patience to hear them spoke of The Moralist beholding the Lewd Man so changed will say and not without reason this Man has now acquired a Habit of Chastity and Temperance But because his Art reaches no further he vainly imagines these two Virtues are come I know not from whence to make him a Visit and to take up their Lodgings in his Rational Soul without having so much as part through his Body Instead of which the discerning Physician who knows whence his loss of Blood and Spirits proceeds and how the Virtues are Begot and the Vices Extinguished will be apt to pronounce that this same Man has now the Habit of Chastity and Temperance inasmuch as by means of these Austerities he has impair'd his Natural Heat in whose stead the Cold is introduc'd For if we reflect a little further we shall clearly see this new way of living is capable of cooling him more the Horror into which the Reprimand he received threw him and the awful consideration of the Pains of Hell prepared for him if he had died in mortal Sin had without doubt mortified and chil'd his Blood Whereupon Aristotle proposed this Question Why those who are in fear falter in their Speech tremble with their Hands and hang their Lips It is says he because this Passion is a defect of Heat which commences from the Parts above Whence comes the Paleness of the Face Abstinence likewise is one of the things which chiefly mortifies the Natural Heat leaving the Man cold For our Nature is supported says Galen by Eating and Drinking in the same manner as the Flame of the Lamp is fed by the Oil and there is so much natural Heat in the Body that has digested Flesh-meats that they afford him Nourishment in proportion to his Heat and if they should yield him less in quantity his Heat would insensibly diminish Which made Hippocrates forbid the letting of Children fast because their natural Heat Evaporated and Wasted for want of being fed The Discipline given if it be dolorous and reach even to the fetching Blood every man knows it extreamly dissipates the vital and animal Spirits and from the loss of Blood the Man soon comes to lose his Hair and natural Heat As for Sleep Galen says it 's one of the things which most fortifies our Heat for by it's means that insinuates into the hidden recesses of our Bodies and Animates the Natural Virtues and much after the same manner our Food is assimilated and turned to our Substance Whereas Waking generates Corruptions and Crudities and the reason is because Sleep warms the inward Parts and cools the outward as on the contrary Waking cools the Stomach Liver and Heart which are the Vitals and inflames the external Parts the less noble and less necessary Hence he that does not Sleep well must needs be subject to many cold Diseases To Lie hard to Eat but once a day and to go Naked Hippocrates said was the utter Ruin of the Flesh and Blood wherein the natural Heat is plac'd And Galen giving the Reason why a hard Bed weakens and wastes the Flesh said That the Body was in pain and suffered deeply for want of Sleep and that by the uneasie changes of motion from side to side it was Harassed in the vain pursuit of restless Nights and how the Natural Heat decays and is dissipated by bodily Labour the same Hippocrates declares teaching how a Man may become Wise In order to be Wise a Man must not be oppressed with too much Flesh for that belongs to a hot Temperament which is the Quality that destroys Wisdom Prayer and Meditation cause the Heat to mount up to the Brains in the absence of which the other Parts of the Body remain cold and if the Intention of Mind be great they soon lose the sense of Feeling which Aristotle affirmed to be necessary to the Being of Animals and that the other Senses in comparison of that served only for Ornament and Well-Being For in effect we might live without Tasting Smelling Seeing and Hearing but the Mind being busied in some high Contemplation fails to dispatch the Natural Faculties to their Posts without which neither the Ears can hear nor the Eyes see nor the Nostrils breath nor the Taste relish nor the Touch feel insomuch as they who Meditate are neither sensible of Cold Heat Hunger Thirst nor any Weariness whatever And Feeling being the Sentinel that discovers to a Man the Good or Ill done to him he cannot be without it So that being Frozen with Cold or Burnt up with Heat or Dying away with Hunger or Thirst he is not sensible of any of these Inconveniencies because he has nothing to report them to him In such a state Hippocrates says the Soul neglects its Charge and whereas its Duty is to Animate the Body and to impart to it Sense and Motion yet nevertheless it leaves it wholly destitute and unprovided of any Succours They who are hurt in any Part of the Body and feel no Pain assuredly are distempered in Mind But the worst Disposition observed among Men of Learning and those that are devoted to Studies is a Weak Stomach because the Natural Heat required for Digestion is wanting that very Heat being usually carried to the Brain which is the cause the Stomach is filled with Crudities and Phlegm For which reason Cornelius Celsus recommends it to the Physicians care to Fortify that Part in Men of Meditation more than any others because Prayer Meditation and hard Study extreamly cool and dry the Body rendering it Melancholy For which reason Aristotle demanded Whence it is
and particular Assistance that God gave him for that purpose All that I pretend is to affirm that Supernatural Gifts are much more efficacious when they meet with a suitable Disposition than when they fall upon a Sot and a Blockhead To this alludes the Doctrin of St. Jerome in his Proem upon Esay and Jeremy demanding what is the reason that though it was the same Holy Spirit which spoke in both their Mouths Esay delivered what he Writ with so much Elegance and Jeremy hardly knew how to speak He answer'd that the Holy Spirit accommodates it self to the natural manner of Proceeding of each Prophet unless Grace changes their Nature or teaches them a new Language to deliver their Prophecies in You must know then that Esay was a Nobleman bred at Court and in the City of Jerusalem for which reason his Discourse was more Elegant and Polite but Jeremy was Born and brought up in a Village near Jerusalem call'd Anathoth so that in his Stile he was Course and Rude as a Peasant and such a Stile the Holy Ghost made use of in the Prophecy he Inspired him with The same may be said of St. Paul's Epistles that the Truth of the Holy Spirit presided in him when he writ them to the end that he might not Err but that the Language and Manner of Speech was no other than the Language and Manner of Speech natural to St. Paul accommodated to the Doctrin he taught because the Truth of School-Divinity abhors a multiplicity of Words The Knowledge of Tongues and the Ornaments and Politeness of Speech accord admirably with Positive-Divinity because that Faculty belongs to the Memory and is no other than a Mass of Catholic Sayings and Sentences cull'd out of the Holy Fathers and from Sacred Writ and treasured up in that Faculty in like manner as a Grammarian selects the fine Flowers of Virgil Horace Terence and other Latin Poets he reads and as occasion presents sets himself to deliver them or pertinently cites some Passages from Cicero or Quintilian to make show of his Reading to his Auditors They that are furnished with this Union of Imagination and Memory and diligently Collect whatever has been said and Writ that is considerable in the Science they profess and quote them at due time and place with the Ornaments of good Language as having already found in all the Sciences so many things appear very profound in the Opinion of those who are Ignorant of our Doctrin though in effect they are but superficial and will discover their defect as soon as they are sifted to the bottom of what they deliver with so much Assurance And the reason is that the Understanding to which appertains the Knowlege of the Truth of things from their Root is not agreeable with the abundance of fine Speeches 'T is of these the Holy Scripture speaks The talk of the lips tendeth to Penury Such as have these two Faculties the Imagination and Memory joined together boldly attempt the Interpretation of Holy Scriptures conceiting because they understand a great deal of Hebrew Greek and Latin it is easy for them to give the true Sense of the Letter but after all they are out First because the Words of Holy Scripture and its manner of speaking have many other Significations more than Cicero knew in his Tongue Secondly Because such People want Understanding which is the Faculty that discerns whether the Sense be Catholic or not 'T is this Faculty which with the Assistance of Supernatural Grace of two or three several Meanings drawn from one Text can make choice of that which is the Truest and most Catholic It never happens said Plato that Men are deceived in things that are very distinguishable so easily as when many of the like Nature present themselves together for if we set before the most clear-sighted Eyes in the World a little Salt Sugar Meal and Chalk all finely powder'd and sifted and each by it self what should he do who wanted his Taste to be able to distinguish upon sight each of these Powders without any mistake so as to point in particular which is Salt which Sugar which Meal and which Chalk Without doubt no Man but would be mistaken because of the great Affinity between these things But were there a heap of Wheat another of Oats another of Chaff another of Earth and another of Stones it is no less certain because of the great diversity of each Object this Man whose sight was not very good could never fail to name each heap We see the same happen every day in the Sense and Meaning the Divines give of the Holy Scripture for you may observe two or three which at first sight seem to be Catholic and to agree well with the Letter whereas in truth they are not such nor does the Holy Spirit say so To chuse the best of all the Meanings and reject that which is bad it is certain that the Divine makes use of neither Memory nor Imagination but of the Understanding only And accordingly I assert that the Positive-Divine ought to consult the Scholastic and desire him to chuse which of all the meanings he shall find best if he would not be sent some fair Morning to the Inquisition For which reason the Heresies are in such dread of School-Divinity and would have it absolutely rooted out of the World because by Distinguishing Inferring Reasoning and Judging the Truth at last comes to be distinguished from Falhood CHAP. XII That the Theory of Divinity belongs to the Understanding and Preaching which is the Practic to the Imagination 'T IS a Point much Controverted not only amongst the Wise and Learned but even such as has not escaped the very Vulgar who daily ask the Reason Whence it comes that a Divine who is a great Schoolman sharp in Dispute ready in his Answers Reads and Writes with admirable Learning nevertheless when he gets once into the Pulpit he knows not how to Preach and on the other hand when a Man is an Excellent Preacher Eloquent Acceptable drawing all the People after him it is a great Miracle if he knows much of School-Divinity And for this Reason it is not admitted as a good Consequence such a one is a good School-Divine therefore he is a very good Preacher neither on the other hand must it be concluded that such a one is a great Preacher therefore he is not a great School-man so that to destroy one and the other Consequence there are more Instances offered of each than there are Hairs in our Head No Man till now has been able to give any other Answer than that ordinarily returned which is to attribute all this to God and to the Distribution of his Gifts and I own it is very well done when they know not at least the particular Cause We have in a manner solv'd this doubt in the preceding Chapter though not so exactly as it ought For I have already said that School-Divinity pertained to the
not so many Expedients to represent the whole Body of the Law to the Understanding yet the Laws are so grounded upon right Reason that the Antients as Plato reports called the Law it self by the Name of Prudence and Reason So that the Judge or Pleader that is furnished with a good Understanding when he is Judging or giving his Opinion though he hath not the Law before him shall yet commit fewer Errors because he hath with him the Instrument made use of by the Emperors in forming the Laws themselves Accordingly we see it often happen that a Judge being a Man of ready Wit pronounces a good Sentence without knowing the Decision of the Law and afterwards finds the same so answered in his Books and this we see happens also to Pleaders when they give their Opinion in a Case without Studying The Laws and the Rules of Right well considered are the Spring and Source whence the Pleaders draw their Arguments and Reasons to prove what they pretend which Work for certain is performed by the Understanding of which Power if the Pleader be unprovided or have it in a very low degree he will never have Skill to form an Argument though he knew all the Law by Rote We see plainly that this befals those that Study the Art of Rhetoric wanting the Ability proper for it that though they learn without Book the Topics of Cicero which are the Fountains whence flow the Arguments that are to prove each Problem by the Affirmative and Negative yet they never know how to raise an Argument And others of greater Wit and Ability there are who without seeing a Book or learning the Topics raise a Thousand Arguments accommodated to the Case in question The same comes to pass in Lawyers of good Memory who can recite the whole Text of the Law very faithfully and yet out of the vast Body of Laws know not how to draw one Argument to ground their Opinion upon On the other hand there are others who never Studied hard at Salamanca and yet without poring on Books or taking their Degrees work Wonders when they come to plead a Cause Hence we understand how much it imports the Common-wealth that there should be a Choice and Trial of Wits fit for the Sciences since there are some who without Art understand what ever they are to do and others with a Cart-load of Precepts and Rules commit a Thousand Absurdities because they have not the Disposition which the Practice requires So then if to Judge and Plead is to be performed by Distinguishing Concluding Arguing and Chusing it stands with Reason that he who applies himself to the Study of the Law should be furnished with a good Understanding since these Works are the Effects of that Power and not of the Memory or Imagination How to find whether the Youth have this Difference of Wit or no is worth knowing but it will be fit before-hand to distinguish the Qualities possest by the Understanding and how many Differences it Embraces to the end we may know more distinctly to which of these Differences the Study of the Law belongs As to the first it is to be noted That though the Understanding be the most Noble Faculty in Man and of the greatest Dignity yet is there not any that is so easily led into Errors about Truth as that Aristotle attempted to prove it affirming That the Sense is ever true but that for the most part the Understanding reasoned ill Which is plainly seen by Experience for were it not so amongst the Divines the Physicians the Lawyers and Philosophers there would not be so many Dissentions so Divers Opinions such Variety of Judgments and Conceits upon every Point there being no more than one Truth Whence it arises that the Senses have so great a Certainty in their Objects and that the Understanding is so easie to be imposed upon on its part is not hard to conceive if it be considered that the Objects of the Five Senses and the Species by which the Objects are known have a real firm and stable being by Nature before they are known but what Truth the Understanding has to Speculate if the Understanding does not give it a Frame and Fashion has no formal Being of its own All lies dispersed and loose in the Materials like a House resolved into Stone Earth Timber and Tiles with which so many Errors may be committed in Building as there are Men that undertake to Re-build it with an ill Imagination The same thing happens in the Building raised by the Understanding in framing of a Truth For all except those that have a good Wit will commit a Thousand Absurdities with the self-same Principles Hence comes that great Diversity of Opinions found among Men concerning the same thing for every one gives it a Form and Figure according to his Understanding From these Errors and Opinions are the Five Senses exempt for neither the Eyes make the Colour nor the Taste the Savours nor the Touch the Tangible Qualities but the whole is ordered and compounded by Nature before any one of the Senses knows its Object Because Men are not well acquainted with this wretched Condition of the Understanding they so confidently give their Opinion without knowing certainly what kind of Wit theirs is whether it forms the Truth well or ill And if it be not so let us ask some Men of Letters who after they have Writ down and Confirmed their Opinion with many Arguments and Reasons and have after changed their Sentiments and Opinions at another time when or how they can be assured that they have found out the Truth at last The first time as they themselves confessed they have failed seeing they unsaid all that they said before And for the second I affirm that they are to be yet more distrustful of their Understandings because they are to suspect that that Power which already once so ill framed the Truth in Confidence of its Arguments and Reasons may yet again slide into Error when it is supported by the same Reason More especially because it is often seen by Experience that the first Opinion is more Probable and the latter they take up with is worse and less Probable They think it a sufficient Token that their Understanding lights upon the Truth when they perceive it enamoured of such a Figure and that there wants not Arguments and Motives to move it to conclude in that sort but in effect this is a Fallacy because there is the same Correspondence between their Understandings and its false Notions as there is in each of the other Inferior Powers with regard to their Objects For if we ask the Physicians What Meat is best and most savory of all in use among Men I believe they would answer There is not any that for Distemper'd Men and weak Stomachs that is absolutely good or bad but that it is such as the Stomach that receives it Since there are Stomachs according to Galen's Saying that
Coat And the Reason is because those Works belong to the Imagination which encreases and rises to a pitch through the great heat raised from the passion of Love And that Love is a hot Passion is plainly seen in the Courage and Hardiness Lovers are inspir'd with to bear the loss of Appetite and even of Sleep it self If the State had an Eye to these Marks they would expel from the Universities lusty Scholars and great Fighters the Amorous the Poets and the Beaux because these have neither Wit nor Capacity for any kind of Study Aristotle excepts from this Rule the Melancholick by Adustion whose Seed though fruitful hurts not their Wit Finally all the ruling Faculties in Man if they be very potent disturb the Rational Faculty Hence it proceeds that if a Man be very Wise he proves a Coward of small Strength of Body a spare Eater and not very able for Procreation And the cause is the qualities that render him Wise which are Coldness and Dryness are the same that debilitate the other Powers As appears in Old Men who besides their Council and Wisdom have neither Strength nor Courage This Doctrin being suppos'd Galen's opinion is that to have the Generation of any Animal whatever perfectly take effect both Seeds are necessary one of which is to be the Agent and the Form-giver and another which serves for Nourishment for a matter so delicate as Generation cannot strait overcome what is so gross as Blood till the work be accomplished But that the Seed is the right Aliment of the Spermatic Vessels is a point duly received by Hippocrates Plato and Galen For by their Opinion if the Blood be not converted into Seed it is impossible that the Nerves Veins and Arteries can be maintain'd And so says Galen that the difference between the Veins and Testicles is that the Testicles make abundance of Seed immediately and the Veins little in longer time So that Nature has provided for the same an Aliment so similar that with a slight Alteration and without making Excrements may maintain another Seed Which could not be effected if the Nourishment thereof had been made of the Blood The same Provision says Galen is made by Nature in the Generation of Man as in the Production of a Chicken and such other Birds as come of Eggs in which we observe two Substances one of the White and another of the Yolk of one of which the Chicken is form'd and by the other nourished all the time of its formation For the same reason are two Seeds no less necessary in the Generation of Man of one of which the Child may be Made and the other for it's Nourishment during the time of it's formation But Hippocrates mentions a thing worthy of great Consideration which is that it is not resolved by Nature which of the two Seeds is to be the Agent and the Form-giver nor which is to serve for Nourishment For many times the Woman's Seed is of more efficacy than the Man's and when it so happens Hers makes the Generation and the Husband 's serves for the Aliment At other times the Man's is more powerful and prolific and the Woman's serves only for Nourishment This was a Doctrin not understood by Aristotle who could not comprehend what the Woman's Seed served for which made him vent a thousand Impertinencies as that the same was but a little Water without any Generative Virtue or Power If this were so the Woman would never covet the Conversation of the Man or consent thereto but would shun the Carnal Act as being her self naturally Honest and the Sport Unclean and Filthy And so in a short time Mankind would be extinguished and the World remain depriv'd of the most beautiful Creature that ever Nature form'd And therefore Aristotle demands what is the reason that Copulation is the most agreeable Pleasure of all those Nature has invented for the Procreation of Animals To which Problem he answers that Nature having so great a desire to procure the Perpetuating of Mankind placed so much Pleasure in this Work to the end that they being moved by such an Interest might gladly apply themselves to the Business of Generation for if these Incentives were wanting no Man or Woman would Marry the Woman reaping little other Advantage than that of bearing a Burden nine Months in her Belly with so much Pain and Trouble and at the time of her Delivery of running the hazard of her Life so that it would oblige the State to force Women to Marry to prevent the Extirpation of Mankind But as Nature makes every thing with Sweetness she gave to the Woman all the necessary Instruments to make her Seed pricking and prolific that she might take Pleasure in Man and covet his Company Though were it of that quality Aristotle pretends she would rather shun and abhor him than ever love him This Galen proves by an instance drawn from Brute Beasts affirming that after a Sow is Splay'd she never desires the Boar nor will she yield to his Approaches It is the same thing in a Woman that is of a colder Constitution than she ought nothing sounds more disagreeable to her Ear than the name of Marriage to her The same thing attends a Man of a cold Constitution and all for want of fruitful Seed Moreover if a Woman's Seed were such as Aristotle affirms it would not serve for Aliment since to obtain the last Qualities of actual Nutriment it ought to be entirely Similar to what it is to Nourish And if the Seed be not well wrought and assimilated it would not afterwards attain it For if the Seed of Man wanted Instruments and Receptacles such as the Stomach the Liver and Testicles how or where should it concoct or assimilate For which reason Nature has ordered it so that there should be two Seeds in the Generation of the Creature which being incorporated the most Potent should make the Formation and the other serve for Nourishment And that this is true appears plain in this that if a Negro get a White Woman with Child and a White-Man a Negro-Woman from both will be born a Mulatta Child From this Doctrin I gather that to be true which many Authentic Histories affirm that a Dog companying with a Woman she conceived and the like did a Bear with another Maid he found alone in the Fields and an Ape likewise had two young ones by another We read of another who walking by a River side was impregnated by a Fish that leaped out of the Water what is most Difficult in this for the Vulgar to conceive is how it may be that these Women should be delivered of perfect Children and with the use of Reason seeing they were engendred by Brute-Beasts To which is Answered that the Seed of every of these Women was the Agent and Form-giver of the Child as being the more Powerful and therefore it figured them with the Lineaments of Human kind And