reason And yet for all this by wanting that onely ventricle there is a great abatement discerned in his operations as well in those of the vnderstanding as of the imaginatiue and memorie as they shal also find in the losse of one sight who were woont to behold with two whereby we cleerely comprize that in euery ventricle are all the three powers sithens by the annoiance of any one all the three are weakened Seeing then al the three ventricles are of one selfe composition and that there rests not amongst them any varietie of parts we may not leaue to take the first qualities for an instrument and to make so many generall differences of wits as they are in number For to thinke that the reasonable soule being in the body can worke without some bodily instrument to assist her is against all naturall Philosophie But of the foure qualities heat cold moisture and drouth all Phisitions leaue out cold as vnprofitable to any operation of the reasonable soule wherethrough it is seene by experience in the other habilities that if the same mount aboue heat all the powers of man do badly performe their operations neither can the stomacke digest his meat nor the cods yeeld fruitfull seed nor the muscles mooue the body nor the braine discourse For which cause Galen sayd Coldnesse is apparantly noysome to all the offices of the soule as if he should say Cold is the ruine of all the operations of the soule only it serues in the body to temper the naturall heat and to procure that it burne not ouer-much and yet Aristotle is of a contrary opinion where he affirmeth it is a matter certaine that that blood carrieth most forcible efficacie which is thickest and hottest but the coldest thinnest hath a more accomplished force to perceiue and vnderstand as if he would say the thicke and hot blood makes great bodily forces but the pure and cold is cause that man possesseth great vnderstanding Whereby we plainly see that from coldnesse springeth the greatest difference of wit that is in any man namely in the vnderstanding Aristotle moreouer mooues a doubt and that is why men who inhabit very hot countries as Aegypt are more wittie and aduised than those who are borne in cold regions Which doubt he resolues in this manner That the excessiue heat of the countrie fretteth and consumeth the naturall heat of the braine and so leaues it cold whereby man growes to be full of reasonablenesse And that contrariwise the much cold of the aire fortifieth the much naturall heat of the braine and yeelds it not place to resolue For which cause sayth he such as are very hot brained cannot discourse nor philosophise but are giddie headed and not setled in any one opinion To which opinion it seemes that Galen leaneth saying that the cause why a man is vnstable and changeth opinion at euery moment is for that he hath a hote braine and contrariewise his being stable and firme springs from the coldnesse of his braine But the truth is that from this heat there groweth not any difference of wit neither did Aristotle meane that the cold blood by his predominance did better the vnderstanding but that which is lesse hote True it is that mans variablenesse springs from his partaking of much heat which lifts vp the figures that are in the braine and makes them to boile by which operation there are represented to the soule many images of things which inuite him to their contemplation and the soule to possesse them all leaues one and takes another Contrariwise it befals in coldnesse which for that it imprints inwardly these figures and suffers them not to rise makes a man firme in one opinion and it prooues so because none other presents it selfe to call the same away Coldnesse hath this qualitie that it not only hindereth the motions of bodily things but also makes that the figures and shapes which the Philosophers call spirituall be vnmooueable in the braine And this firmnesse seemeth rather a negligence than a difference of habilitie Alike true it is that there is found another diuersity of firmnesse which proceeds from possessing an vnderstanding well compacted together not from the coldnesse of the brain So there remaine drouth moisture and heat for the seruice of the reasonable facultie But no Philosopher as yet wist to giue to euery difference of wit determinatly that which was his Heraclitus sayd A drie brightnesse makes a most wise mind by which sentence he giues vs to vnderstand that drinesse is the cause why a man becoms very wise but he declares not in what kinde of knowledge The selfe same meant Plato when he sayd that the soule descended into the body endowed with great wisdome and through the much moisture which it there found grew to become dull vntoward But this wearing away in the course of age and purchasing drinesse the soule grew to discouer the knowledge which he tofore enioyed Amongst brute beasts sayth Aristotle those are wisest whose temperature is most enclined to cold and drie as are the ants and bees who for wisedome concurre with those men that partake most of reason Moreouer no brute beast is found of more moisture or lesse wit than a hog wherethrough the Poet Pindare to gibe at the people of Beotia and to handle them as fooles sayd thus Th'vntoward folke which now is nam'd Beotia were once cald Hogs Moreouer blood through his much moisture sayth Galen makes men simple And for such the same Galen recounts that the Commicks ieasted at Hippocrates children saying of them That they had much naturall heat which is a substance moist and very vaporous This is ordinarily incident to the children of wise men hereafter I will make report of the cause whence it groweth Amongst the foure humours which we enioy there is none so cold and drie as that of melancholie and whatsoeuer notable men for learning haue liued in the world sayth Aristotle they were all melancholike Finally all agree in this point that drinesse makes a man very wise but they expresse not to which of the reasonable powers it affoordeth greatest helpe only Esay the Prophet cals it by his right name where he sayth That trauaile giues vnderstanding for sadnesse and affliction not only diminisheth cōsumeth the moisture of the brain but also drieth vp the bones with which qualitie the vnderstanding groweth more sharpe sightfull Wherof we may gather an example very manifest by taking into consideration many men who cast into pouertie and affliction haue therethrough vttered and written sentences woorth the maruelling at and afterwards rising to better fortune to eat and drinke well would neuer once open their mouths For a delicious life contentment and good successe and to see that all thinges fall out after our liking looseneth and maketh the braine moist And this is it which Hippocrates sayd Mirth looseneth the heart as if he would haue sayd That the same enlargeth and giueth it heat and
Besides this meat children did eat cracknels of white bread of very delicat water with honny and a little salt but in steed of vinegar for that the same is very noisome and dammageable to the vnderstanding they shall adde thereunto butter of Goats-milke whose temperature substance is appropriat for the wit But in this regiment grows an inconuenience verie great namely that children vsing so delicat meats shall not possesse sufficient strength to resist the iniuries of the aire neither can defend themselues from other occasions which are woont to breed maladies So by making thē become wise they will fall out to be vnhealthful and liue a small time This difficulty demandeth in what sort children may be brought vp witty and wise and yet the matter so handled as it may no way gainsay their healthfulnes VVhich shall easily be effected if the parentes dare to put in practise some rules and precepts which I wil prescribe And because deinty people are deceiued in bringing vp their childrē and they treat stil of this matter I wil first assigne them the cause why their children though they haue Schoolemaisters and tutors and themselues take such pains at their booke yet they come away so meanly with the sciences as also in what sort they may remedy this without that they abridge their life or hazard their health Eight things saith Hippocrates make mans flesh moist fat The 1 to be merry and to liue at hearts ease the 2 to sleepe much the 3 to lie in a soft bed the 4 to fare well the fifth to be well apparelled and furnished the sixth to ride alwaies on horsebacke the seuenth to haue our will the eighth to be occupied in plaies and pastimes and in things which yeeld contentment and pleasure All which is a veritie so manifest as if Hippocrates had not affirmed it none durst denie the same Only we may doubt whether delicious people doe alwaies obserue this maner of life but if it be true that they do so we may well conclude that their seed is very moist and that the children which they beget will of necessitie ouer-abound in superfluous moisture which it behooueth first to be consumed for this qualitie sendeth to ruine the operations of the reasonable soule And moreouer the Phisitions say that it maketh them to liue a short space and vnhealthfull By this it should seeme that a good wit and a sound bodily health require one selfe qualitie Namely drouth wherethrough the precepts and rules which we are to lay downe for making children wise will serue likewise to yeeld them much health and long life It behooueth them so soone as a childe is borne of delicious parents inasmuch as their constitution consisteth of more cold and moist than is conuenient for childhood to wash him with salt hote water which by the opinion of all phisitions soketh vp and drieth the flesh giueth soundnesse to the sinews and maketh the child strong and manly and by consuming the ouermuch moisture of his braine enableth him with wit and freeth-him from many deadly infirmities Contrariwise the bath being of water fresh and hot in that the same moisteneth the flesh saith Hippocrates it breedeth fiue annoiances Namely effeminating of the flesh weaknesse of sinews dulnesse of spirits fluxes of bloud and basenesse of stomacke But if the child issue out of his mothers belly with excessiue drinesse it is requisit to washe the same with hote fresh water Therfore Hippocrates said children are to be washed a long time with hote water to the end they may receiue the lesse annoiance by the crampe and that they may grow and be well coloured but for certaine this must be vnderstood of those who come forth drie out of their mothers belly in whom it behooueth to amend their euill temperature by applying vnto them contrarie qualities The Almains saith Galen haue a custome to wash their children in a riuer so soon as they are born them seeming that as the iron which commeth burning hot out of the forge is made the stronger if it be dipped in cold water so when the hot child is taken out of the mothers wombe it yeeldeth him of greater force and vigour if he be washed in fresh water This thing is condemned by Galen for a beastly practise and that with great reason for put case that by this way the skinne is hardened and closed and not easie to be altered by the iniuries of the aire yet will it rest offended by the excrements which are engendred in the body for that the same is not of force nor open so as they may be exhaled and passe forth But the best and safest remedie is to wash the children who haue superfluous moisture with hot salt water for their excessiue moisture consuming they are the neerer to health and the way through the skinne being stopped in them they cannot receiue annoiance by any occasion Neither are the inward excrements therefore so shut vp that there are not waies left open for them where they may come out And nature is so forcible that if they haue taken from her a common way she will seeke out another to serue her turne And when all others faile she can skill to make new waies wherethrough to send out what doth her dammage VVherefore of two extreames it is more auaileable for health to haue a skinne hard and somewhat close than thinne and open The second thing requisit to be performed when the child shalbe born is that we make him acquainted with the winds and with change of aire not keep him still locked vp in a chamber for else it will become weake womanish peeuish of feeble strength and within three or foure daies giue vp the ghost Nothing saith Hippocrates so much weakeneth the flesh as to abide still in warme places and to keepe our selues from heate and cold Neither is there a better remedie for healthfull liuing than to accustome our body to al winds hot cold moist and dry Wherethrough Aristotle enquireth what the cause is that such as liue in the Gallies are more healthy better colored than those who inhabit a plashy soil And this difficulty groweth greater considering the hard life which they lead sleeping in their clothes in the open aire against the sun in the cold the water faring withall so coursly The like may be demanded as touching shepheards who of all other men enioy the soundest health it springeth because they haue made a league with al the seueral qualities of the aire and their nature dismaieth at nothing Cōtrariwise we plainly see that if a man giue himselfe to liue deliciously and to beware that the sun the cold the euening nor the wind offend him within 3 daies he shalbe dispatched with a post letter to another world Therfore it may well be said he that loueth his life in this world shal leese it for there is no man that can preserue himself from the alteration of the aire therfore it is
memorie And if it be true that the good preachers of our time content their audience because they haue these gifts it followeth very well that whosoeuer is a great preacher can small skill of Schoole-diuinitie and a great scholler will hardly away with preaching through the contrarietie which the vnderstanding carieth to the imagination and to the memorie Well knew Aristotle by experience that although the oratour learned Naturall and Morall Philosophy Phisicke Metaphisicke the Lawes the Mathematicals Astrologie and al the arts and sciences notwithstanding he was seen of all these but in the flowers and choice sentences without pearcing to the roote of the reason occasion of any of them But he thought that this not knowing the Diuinitie nor the cause of things which is termed Propter quid grew for that they bent not themselues thereunto and therfore propounded this demand Why do we imagine that a Philosopher is different from an oratour To which probleme he answereth that the Philosopher placeth all his studie in knowing the reason and cause of euerie effect and the oratour in knowing the effect and no farther And verily it proceedeth from nought els than for that naturall Philosophy appertaineth to the vnderstanding which power the oratours do want and therefore in Philosophy they can pearce no farther than into the vpper skin of things This selfe difference there is between the Schoole-diuine and the positiue that the one knoweth the cause of whatsoeuer importeth his faculty and the other the propositions which are verefied no more The case then standing thus it falleth out a dangerous matter that the preacher enioyeth an office and authoritie to instruct Christian people in the trueth and that their auditorie is bound to beleeue them and yet they want that power through which the trueth is digged vp from the roote we may say of them without lying those wordes of Christ our redeemer Let them go they are blinde and do guide the blinde and if the blind guide the blind both fall into the ditch It is a thing in tollerable to behold with how great audacity such set themselues to preach who cannot one iote of Schoole-diuinitie nor haue anie naturall abilitie to learne the same Of such S. Paul greatly cōplaineth saying But the end of the commandement is charitie from a pure heart and good conscience faith vnfained from which verily some straying haue turned aside to vain babling who would be doctors in the Law and yet vnderstand not the things which they speake nor which they auouch Besides this we haue prooued tofore that those who haue much imagination are cholericke subtle malignant and cauillers and alwaies enclined to euill which they can compasse with much readinesse craft Touching the oratours of his time Aristotle propoundeth this demand why we vse to call an oratour craftie and giue not this name to a musitian nor to a comical poet And more would this difficulty haue growen if Aristotle had vnderstood that musicke and the stage appertain to the imaginatiō To which probleme he answereth That Musitions and stage-plaiers shoot at none other Butte than to delight the hearers but the oratour goes about to purchase somewhat for himselfe and therfore it behooueth him to vse rules and readinesse to the end the hearers may not smell out his fetch and bent Such properties as these be had those false preachers of whom S. Paul spake writing to the Corinthians But I feare that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie so their senses are led astraie for these false Apostles are guilefull workmen who transforme themselues into the Apostles of Christ and this is no wonder for Sathan transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and therefore it is no great matter for his ministers to transforme themselues as ministers of iustice whose end shall be their worke as if he should say I haue great feare my brethren that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie and malice so they also intricate their iudgment and perseuerance for these false Apostles are like pottage made of a foxe Preachers who speake vnderwiles represent verie perfectly a kinde of holinesse seeme the Apostles of Iesus Christ and yet are disciples of the diuell who can skill so well to represent an Angel of light that there needeth not a supernaturall gift to discouer what he is and since the maister can play his part so well it is not strange that they also who haue learned his doctrine practise the semblable whose end shall be none other than their works All these properties are well knowen to appertaine to the imagination and that Aristotle said very wel that oratours are subtle and readie because they are euer in hand to get somewhat for themselues Such as possesse a forcible imagination we said before that they are of complexion verie hote and from this quality spring three principall vices in a man Pride Gluttonie and Lecherie for which cause the Apostle said Such serued not our Lord Iesus Christ but their bellie And that these three euill inclinations spring from heat and the contrarie vertues from cold Aristotle prooueth saying thus and therfore it holdeth the same force to shape conditions for heat and cold more than anie thing els which is in the bodie do season maners and therefore printeth and worketh in vs the qualities of maners as if he should say from heat and cold spring all the conditions of man for these two qualities do more altér our nature than any other For which cause men of great imagination are ordinarily bad and vitious for they abandon themselues to be guided by their natural inclination and haue wit and ability to do lewdly For which cause the same Aristotle asketh Whence it groweth that a man being so much instructed is yet the most vniust of all liuing creatures to which probleme he maketh answere that man hath much wit and a great imagination and for this he findeth manie waies to do ill and as by his nature he coueteth delights and to be superiour to all and of great happinesse it is of force that he offend for these things cannot be atchieued but by doing wrong to many but Aristotle wist not how to frame this probleme nor to yeeld a fitting answere Better might he haue enquired for what cause the worst people are commonly of greatest wit amongst those such as are best furnished with abilitie commit the lewdest prancks whereas of dew a good wit and sufficiencie should rather encline a man to vertue and godlinesse than to vices and misdoing The answere heereto is for that those who partake much heate are men of great imagination and the same qualitie which maketh them wittie traineth them to be naughtie vicious But when the vnderstanding ouerruleth it ordinarily inclineth a man to vertue because this power is founded on cold and drie From which two qualities bud many vertues as are Continencie Humilitie Temperance and from heat the contrarie And if Aristotle had
and moist and contrariwise she that is swart and browne is in the first degree therof of which two extreames is framed the second degree of white and well coloured To haue much haire and a little shew of a beard is an euident signe to know the first degree of cold and moist for all Phisitions affirme that the haire and beard are engendred of heat and drinesse and if they be blacke it greatly purporteth the same A contrary temperature is betokened when a woman is without haire Now she whose complexion consisteth in the second degree of cold and moist hath some haire but the same reddish and golden Foulnesse moreouer and fairenesse help vs to iudge the degrees of cold and moist in women It is a miracle to see a woman of the first degree very faire for the seed whereof she was formed being dry hindereth that she cannot be fairely countenanced It behooueth that clay be seasoned with conuenient moisture to the end vessels may be well framed and serue to vse But when that same is hard dry the vessell is soule and vnhandsom Aristotle farther auoucheth that ouermuch cold and moist maketh women by nature foule for if the seed be cold and very moist it can take no good figure because the same standeth not togither as we see that of ouer soft clay ill shaped vessels are fashioned In the second degree of cold and moist women prooue verie faire for they were formed of a substance well seasoned and pleasant to nature which token of it selfe alone affordeth an euident argument that the woman is fruitfull for it is certain that nature could do it and we may iudge that she gaue her a temperature and composition fit for bearing of children Wherethrough she answers in proportion welneer to al men and all men do desire to haue her In man there is no power which hath tokens or signes to descry the goodnesse or malice of his obiect The stomacke knoweth the meat by way of tast of smelling and of sight wherethrough the diuine scripture saith That Eue fixed her eies on the tree forbidden and her seemed that it was sweet in tast The facultie of generation holdeth for a token of fruitfulnesse a womans beautie and if she be foule it abhorreth her conceiuing by this signe that nature erred and gaue her not a fit temperature for bearing of children By what signes we may know in what degree of hot and dry euery man resteth § 1. A Man hath not his temperature so limited as a woman for he may be hot drie which temperature Aristotle Galen held was that which best agreed with his sex as also hot and moist and temperat but cold moist and cold and drie they would not admit whilst a man was sound and without impairment for as you shall find no woman hot and drie nor hot and moist or temperat so shall you find no man cold and moist nor cold and drie in comparison of women vnlesse in case as I shal now expresse A man hot and drie and hote and moist and temperat holdeth the same degrees in his temperature as doth a woman in cold and moist and so it behooueth to haue certain tokens whereby to discerne what man is in what degree that we may assigne him a wife answerable vnto him in proportion We must therefore weet that from the same principles of which we gathered vnderstanding what woman is hot and drie and in what degree from the selfe we must also make vse to vnderstand what man is hote and drie and in what degree and because we sayd that from the wit and manners of a man we coniecture the temperature of his cods it is requisit that we take notice of a notable point mentioned by Galen namely that to make vs vnderstand the great vertue which a mans cods possesse to giue firmnesse and temperature to all the parts of the body he affirmeth that they are of more importance than the heart and he rendereth a reason saying that this member is the beginning of life nought else but the cods are the beginning of liuing soundly and without infirmities How much it endammageth a man to be depriued of those parts though so small there need not many reasons to prooue seeing we see by experience that forth with the haire and the beard pill away and the big and shrill voice becommeth small and herewithall a man leeseth his forces and naturall heat and resteth in far woorse and more miserable condition than if he had bene a woman But the matter most worth the noting is that if a man before his gelding had much wit and habilitie so soone as his stones be cut away he groweth to leese the same so far foorth as if he had receiued some notable dammage in his very braine And this is a manifest token that the cods giue reaue the temperature from all the other parts of the body and he that will not yeeld credit hereunto let him consider as my selfe haue done oftentimes that of 1000 such capons who addict themselues to their booke none attaineth to any perfection and euen in musicke which is their ordinarie profession we manifestly see how blockish they are which springeth because musick is a worke of the imagination this power requireth much heat whereas they are cold and moist So it falleth out a matter certaine that from the wit and habilitie we may gather the temperature of the cods for which cause the man who showeth himselfe prompt in the works of the imagination should be hot and drie in the third degree And if a man be of no great reach it tokeneth that with his heat much moisture is vnited which alwaies endammageth the reasonable part and this is the more confirmed if he be good of memorie The ordinarie conditions of men hot and dry in the third degree are courage pride liberalitie audacitie and cheerefulnesse with a good grace and pleasantnesse and in matter of women such a one hath no bridle nor ho. The hote and moist are merry giuen to laughter louers of pastime faire conditioned very courteous shamefast and not much addicted to women The voice and speech much discouereth the temperature of the cods That which is big and somwhat sharp giueth token that a man is hot and dry in the third degree and if the same be pleasant amiable and very delicat it purporteth little heat and much moisture as appeareth in the gelded A man who hath moist vnited with heat will haue the same high but pleasant shrill Who so is hot and drie in the third degree is slender hard and rough fleshed the same composed of sinews and arteries and his veines big contrariwise to haue much flesh smooth and tender is shew of much moisture by means wherof it extendeth and enlargeth out the naturall heat The colour of the skin if the same be brown burned blackish greene and like ashes yeeldeth signe that a man is in the third degree of
regard to obserue the same all their children shall prooue wise and none otherwise But the whilest this significatioÌ„ of nature is very vniuersall and confused and the vnderstanding contents not it selfe nor staieth vntill it conceiue the particular discourse and the latest cause and so it behooues to search out another signification of this name Nature which may be more agreeable to our purpose Aristotle and other naturall Philosophers discend into more particularities and call Nature whatsoeuer substantiall forme which giues the being to any thing and is the originall of all the working thereof in which signification our reasonable soule may reasonably be tearmed nature for from her we receiue our formall being which we haue of being men and the selfe same is the beginning of whatsoeuer we doe and worke But all soules being of equall perfection as well that of the wiser as that of the foolish it cannot be affirmed that nature in this signification is that which makes a man able for if this were true all men should haue a like measure of wit and wisedome and therefore the same Aristotle found out another signification of nature which is the cause that a man is able or vnable saying that the temperature of the foure first qualities hot cold moist and drie is to be called nature for from this issue al the habilities of man all his vertues and vices and this great varietie of wits which we behold And this is clearely proued by considering the age of a man when he is wisest who in his childhood is no more than a brute beast and vseth none other powers than those of anger and concupiscence but comming to youth there begins to shoot out in him a maruellous wit and we see that it lasteth till time certaine and no longer for old age growing 〈◊〉 goes euery day loosing his wit vntill it come to be 〈◊〉 decaied The varietie of wits it is a matter certaine that it springs not from the reasonable soule for that is one selfe in all ages without hauing receiued in his forces and subâ—â—â—unce any alteration but man hath in euery age a diuers temperature and a contrarie disposition by means whereof the soule doth other workes in childhood other in youth and other in old age Whence we draw an euident argument that one selfe soule doing contrarie workes in one selfe bodie for that it partakes in euery age a contrarie temperature when of young men the one is able and the other vnapt this growes for that the one of them enioiâ—◠〈◊〉 temperature from the other And this for that it is the beginning of all the workes of the reasonable soule was by the Phisitions and the Philosophers termed Nature of which signification this sentence is properly verefied that Nature makes able For confirmation of this doctrine Galen writ a booke wherein he prooueth That the maners of the soule follow the temperature of the body in which it keepes residence and that by reason of the heat the coldnesse the moisture and the drouth of the territorie where men inhabit of the meats which they feed on of the waters which they drinke and of the aire which they breath some are blockish and some wise some of woorth and some base some cruel and some merciful many straight brested and many large part lyers and part true speakers sundrie traitors and sundrie faythfull somewhere vnquiet and somewhere stayed there double here single one pinching another liberall this man shamefast that shamelesse such hard and such light of beleefe And to prooue this he cites many places of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle who affirme that the difference of nations as well in composition of the body as in conditions of the soule springeth from the varietie of this temperature and experience it selfe euidently sheweth this how far are different Greeks from Tartarians Frenchmen from Spaniards Indians from Dutch and Aethiopians from English And this may be seene not only in countries so far distant but if we consider the prouinces that enuiron all Spaine we may depart the vertues and vices which we haue recounted amongst the inhabitants giuing ech one his peculiar vice and vertue and if we consider the wit and manners of the Catalonians Valentians Mercians Granatines Andaluzians Estremenians Portugals Gallesians Asturians Montagneses Biscanes Nauarrists Arragonois and of the kingdome of Castile who sees not and knowes not how far these are different amongst themselues not only in shape of countenaunce and in feature of body but euen in the vertues and vices of the soule Which all growes for that euery of these prouinces hath his particular and different temperature And this varietie of manners is knowne not onely in countries so farre off but in places also that are not more than a little league in distance it cannot be credited what ods there is found in the wits of the inhabitants Finally all that which Galen writeth in this his booke is the groundplot of this my Treatise albeit he declares not in particular the differences of the habilities which are in men neither as touching the sciences which euerie one requires in particular Notwithstanding he vnderstood that it was necessarie to depart the sciences amongst yoong men and to giue ech one that which to his naturall habilitie was requisit in as much as he sayd That well ordered common wealths ought to haue men of great wisedome and knowledge who might in their tender age discouer ech ones wit and naturall sharpnesse to the end they might be set to learne that art which was agreeable and not leaue it to their owne election CHAP. III. What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a young man may haue habilitie MAns body hath so many varieties of parts and powers applied ech to his end that it shal not stray from our purpose but rather growes a matter of necessitie to know first what member was ordained by nature for the principall instrument to the end man might become wise and aduised For it is a thing apparant that we discourse not with our foot nor walke on our head nor see with our nostrils nor heare with our eies but that euery of these parts hath his vse and particular disposition for the worke which it is to accomplish Before Hippocrates and Plato came into the world it held for a generall conceit amongst the naturall Philosophers that the heart was the principall part where the reasonable facultie made his residence and the instrument wherewith the soule wrought the workes of wisedome of diligence of memorie and of vnderstanding For which cause the diuine scripture applying it selfe to the ordinary speech of those times in many places cals the heart the soueraigne part of a man But these two graue Philosophers comming into the world gaue euidence that this opinion was false and prooued by many reasons and experiments that the braine is the principall seat of the reasonable soule and so they all gaue hands to this opinion saue
only Aristotle who with a purpose of crossing Plato in all points turned to reuiue the former opinion and with topicall places to make it probable with which of these opinions the truth swaieth time serueth not now to discusse For there is none of these Philosophers that doubteth but that the braine is the instrument ordained by nature to the end that man might become wise and skilfull it sufficeth only to declare with what conditions this part ought to be endewed so as we may affirme that it is duly instrumentalized and that a yong man in this behalfe may possesse a good wit and habilitie Foure conditions the braine ought to enjoy to the end the reasonable soule may therewith commodiously performe the workes which appertaine to vnderstanding and wisdome The first good composition the second that his parts be well vnited the third that the heat exceed not the cold nor the moist the drie the fourth that his substance be made of parts subtile and verie delicate In the good composition are contained other foure things the first is good figure the second quantitie sufficient the third that in the braine the foure ventricles be distinct and seuered each duly bestowed in his seat and place the fourth that the capablenesse of these be neither greater nor lesse than is conuenient for their workings Galen collects the good figure of the braine by an outward consideration namely the forme and disposition of the head which he sayth ought to be such as it should be if taking a perfect round ball of wax and pressing it together somewhat on the sides there will remaine after that manner the forehead and the nape with a little bunchinesse Hence it followes that the man who hath his forehead very plaine and his nodocke flat hath not his braine so figured as is requisit for wit and habilitie The quantitie of the braine which the soule needeth to discourse consider is a matter that breeds feare for amongst all the brute beasts there is none found to haue so much braine as a man in sort as if we ioine those of two the greatest oxen together they will not equall that of one onely man be he neuer so little And that whereto behooues more consideration is that amongst brute beasts those who approch neerest to mans wisedome and discretion as the ape the fox and the dog haue a greater quantitie of braine than the other though bigger bodied than they For which cause Galen said that a little head in any man is euer faultie because that it wanteth braine notwithstanding I auouch that if his hauing a great head proceedeth from abundance of matter and ill tempered at such time as the same was shaped by nature it is an euill token for the same consists all of bones and flesh and containes a smal quantitie of braine as it befals in very big orenges which opened are found scarce of iuice and hard of rinde Nothing offends the reasonable soule so much as to make his abode in a body surcharged with bones fat and flesh For which cause Plato sayd that wise mens heads are ordinarily weake and vpon any occasion are easily annoied and the reason is for that nature made them of an emptie skull with intention not to offend the wit by compassing it with much matter And this doctrine of Plato is so true that albeit the stomacke abides so far distant from the braine yet the same workes it offence when it is replenished with fat and flesh For confirmation hereof Galen alleageth a prouerbe which sayth A grosse bellie makes a grosse vnderstanding and that this proceeds from nothing else than that the brain and the stomacke are vnited and chained together with certaine sinewes by way of which they interchangeably communicat their dammages And contrariwise when the stomacke is drie and shrunke it affoords great aid to the wit as we see in the hungerstarued and such as are driuen to their shifts on which doctrine it may be Persius founded himself when he said That the belly is that which quickens vp the wit But the thing most pertinent to be noted for this purpose is that if the other parts of the body be fat and fleshie and therethrough a man growes ouer grosse Aristotle sayes It makes him to leese his wit For which cause I am of opinion that if a man haue a great head albeit the same proceed for that he is endued with a very able nature and that he is furnished with a quantitie of well tempered matter yet he shall not be owner of so good a wit as if the same held a meaner size Aristotle is of a contrary opinion whilest he enquires for what cause a man is the wisest of all liuing creatures to which doubt he answers That you shall find no creature which hath so little a head as man respecting withall the greatnesse of his bodie but herein he swarued from reason for if he had opened some mans head and viewed the quantitie of his braine he should haue found that two horses together had not so much braine as that one man That which I haue gathered by experience is that in little men it is best that the head incline somewhat to greatnesse and in those who are big bodied it prooues best that they be little and the reason is for that after this sort there is found a measurable quantitie with which the reasonable soule may wel performe his working Besides this there are needfull the foure ventricles in the brain to the end the reasonable soule may discourse and Philosophize one must be placed on the right side of the braine the second on the left the third in the middle of these and the fourth in the part behind the braine Whervnto these ventricles serue and their large or narrow capablenesse for the reasonable soule all shall be told by vs a little hereafter when we shall intreat of the diuersities of mens wits But it sufficeth not that the braine possesse good figure sufficient quantitie and the number of ventricles by vs forementioned with their capablenesse great or little but it behooues also that his parts holds a certaine kind of continuednesse and that they be not diuided For which cause we haue seene in hurts of the head that some men haue lost their memorie some their vnderstanding and others their imagination and put case that after they haue recouered their health the braine re-vnited it selfe againe yet this notwithstanding the naturall vnion was not made which the braine before possessed The third condition of the fourth principall was that the braine should be tempered with measurable heat and without excesse of the other qualities which disposition we sayd heretofore that it is called good nature for it is that which principally makes a man able and the contrarie vnable But the fourth namely that the braine haue his substance or composition of subtle and delicate parts Galen sayth is the most important of all the rest For when he
wit sharpe and quicke-sighted Hauing prooued before that the braine and not the heart is the principall seat of the reasonable soule And the reason is because these vitall spirits are engendred in the heart and partake of that substance and that temperature which rested in that which formed them Of this arteriall blood Aristotle meant when he sayd That those men are well compounded who haue their blood hot delicat and pure for they are also of good bodily forces and of a wit well disposed These vitall spirits are by the Phisitions termed Nature for they are the principall instrument with which the reasonable soule performeth his workes and of these also may that sentence be verefied Nature makes able CHAP. IIII. It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation THe temperature of the four first qualities which we heretofore termed Nature hath so great force to cause that of plants brute beasts and man each one set himselfe to performe those workes which are properto his kind that they ariue to that vtmost bound of perfection which may be attained sodainly without any others teaching them the plants know how to forme roots vnder ground and by way of them to draw nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to driue foorth the excrements and the brute beasts likewise so soone as they are borne know that which is agreeable to their nature and flie the things which are naughtie and noisome And that which makes them most to maruell who are not seene in naturall Philosophie is that a man hauing his braine well tempered and of that disposition which is requisit for this or that science sodainly and without hauing euer learned it of any he speaketh and vttereth such exquisit matters as could hardly win credit Vulgar Philosophers seeing the maruellous works which brute beasts performe affirme it holds no cause of maruell because they do it by naturall instinct in as much as nature sheweth and teacheth each in his kind what he is to do And in this they say very well for we haue alreadie alleaged and prooued that nature is nothing else than this temperature of the foure first qualities and that this is the schoolemaister who teacheth the soules in what sort they are to worke but they tearme instinct of nature a certaine masse of things which rise from the noddocke vpward neyther could they euer expound or giue vs to vnderstand what it is The graue Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle attribute all these maruellous workes to heat cold moisture and drouth and this they affirme of the first principle and passe no farther And if you aske who hath taught the brute beasts to doe these works which breed vs such maruell and men to discourse with reason Hippocrates answereth It is the natures of them all without any teacher as if he should say The faculties or the temperature of which they consist are al giuen them without being taught by any other Which is cleerely discerned if they passe on to consider the workes of the soule vegetatiue and of all the rest which gouerne man who if it haue a quantitie of mans seed wel digested and seasoned with good temperature makes a body so seemly and duly instrumentalized that all the caruers in the world cannot shape the like For which cause Galen woondring to see a frame so maruellous the number of his seuerall parts the seating the figure and the vse of each one by it selfe grew to conclude it was not possible that the vegetatiue soule nor the temperature could fashion a workmanship so singular but that the author thereof was God or some other most wise vnderstanding But this maner of speech is alreadie by vs heretofore refuted for it beseemes not naturall Philosophers to reduce the effects immediatly to God and so to slip ouer the assigning of the second reasons and especially in this case where we see by experience that if mans seed consist of an euill substance and enioy not a temperature conuenient the vegetatiue soule runs into a thousand disorders for if the same be cold and moist more than is requisit Hippocrates sayth that the men prooue Eunuches or Hermofrodites and if it be very hote and drie Aristotle sayth that it makes them curle-pated crooke-legged and flat nosed as are the Aethiopians and if it be moist the same Galen sayth that they grow long and lithie and if it be drie low of stature All this is a great defect in mankind and for such works we find little cause to giue nature any commendation or to hold her for aduised and if God were the author hereof none of these qualities could diuert him Only the first men which the world possessed Plato affirms were made by God but the rest were borne answerable to the discourse of the second causes which if they be well ordered the vegetatiue soule dooth well performe his operations and if they concur not in sort conuenient it produceth a thousand dammageable effects What the good order of nature for this effect must be is that the vegetatiue soule haue an endowment of a good temperature or else let Galen and all the Philosophers in the world answer me what the cause is that the vegetatiue soule possesseth such skill and power in the first age of man to shape his body and to increase and nourish the same and when old age groweth on can yeeld the same no longer For if an old man leese but a tooth he is past remedie of recouering another but if a child cast them all we see that natures return to renew them againe Is it then possible that a soule which hath done nought else in all the course of life than to receiue food retaine the same digest it and expell the excrements new begetting the parts which faile should towords the end of life forget this and want abilitie to do the same any longer Galen for certaine will answer that this skill and habilitie of the vegetatiue soule in youth springs from his possessing much naturall heat and moisture and that in age the same wants skill and power to performe it by means of the coldnesse and drinesse to which a bodie of those yeares is subiect The knowledge of the sensitiue soule takes his dependance also from the temperature of the braine for if the same be such as his operations require that it should be it can perform with due perfection otherwise the same must also erre no lesse than the soule vegetatiue The manner which Galen held to behold and discerne by eysight the wisedome of the sensitiue soule was to take a yoong kid but newly kidded which set on the ground begins to go as if it had bene told and taught that his legs were made to that purpose and after that he shakes from his backe the superfluous moisture which he brought
grosenesse And the same may easily be prooued another way for if sadnesse and affliction drie vp and consume the flesh and for that reason man gaineth more vnderstanding it fals out a matter certain that his contrary namely mirth will make the braine moist and diminish the vnderstanding Such as haue purchased this manner of wit are suddenly enclined to pastimes to musicke and to pleasant conuersations and flie the contrarie which at other times gaue them a relish and contentment Now by this the vulgar sort may conceiue whence it growes that a wise and vertuous man attaining to some great dignitie whereas at first he was but poore base sodainly changeth his manners and his fashion of speech and the reason is because he hath gotten a new temperature moist and full of vapours whence it followes that the figures are cancelled which tofore he had in his braine and his vnderstanding dulled From moisture it is hard to know what difference of wit may spring sithens it is so far contrary to the reasonable facultie At least after Galens opinion all the humours of our body which hold ouer-much moisture make a man blockish and foolish for which cause he sayd The readinesse of mind and wisedome growes from the humour of choler the humour of melancholy is author of firmnesse and constancie blood of simplicitie and dulnesse the flegmaticke complexion auaileth nothing to the polishing of mannes In so much that blood with his moistures and the flegme cause an impairing of the reasonable facultie But this is vnderstood of the faculties or reasonable wits which are discoursiue and actiue and not of the passiue as is the memorie which depends as well on the moist as the vnderstanding doth on the drie And we call memorie a reasonable power because without it the vnderstanding and the imaginatiue are of no valure It ministreth matter and figures to them all wherevpon they may syllogise conformably to that which Aristotle sayth It behooues that the vnderstander go beholding the fantasmes and the office of the memorie is to preserue these fantasmes to the end that the vnderstanding may contemplat them and if this be lost it is impossible that the powers can worke and that the office of memorie is none other than to preserue the figures of things without that it appertains therto to deuise them Galen expresseth in these words Memorie verely laies vp and preserueth in it selfe the things knowne by the sence and by the mind is therin as it were their store-house and receiuing place and not their inuenter And if this be the vse thereof it fals out apparant that the same dependeth on moisture for this makes the braine pliant and the figure is imprinted by way of strayning To prooue this we haue an euident argument in boyes age in which any one shall better conne by hart than in any other time of life and then doth the braine partake greatest moisture Whence Aristotle moueth this doubt Why in old age we haue better wit and in yoong age we learne more readily as if he should say What is the cause that when we are old we haue much vnderstanding and when we are yoong we learne with more towardlinesse Whereto he answereth That the memorie of old men is full of so many figures of things which they haue seene and heard in the long course of their life that when they would bestow more therein it is not capable thereof for it hath no void place where to receiue it But the memorie of yoong folke when they are newly borne is full of plaits and for this cause they receiue readily whatsoeuer is told or taught them And he makes this playner by comparing the memorie of the morning with that of the euening saying That in the morning we learne best because at that time our memorie is emptie and at the euening illy because then it is full of those thinges which we encountred during the day To this Probleme Aristotle wist not how to answer and the reason is very plaine for if the spices and figures which are in the memorie had a body and quantitie to occupie the place it would seeme that this were a fitting answer but being vndeuided and spiritual they cannot fill nor emptie any place where they abide yea we see by experience that by how much more the memorie is exercised euery day receiuing new figures so much the more capable it becommeth The answere of this Probleme is very euident after my doctrine and the same importeth that old men partake much vnderstanding because they haue great drinesse and fayle of memorie for that they haue little moisture and by this means the substance of the braine hardneth and so cannot receiue the impression of the figures as hard wax with difficultie admitteth the figure of the seale and the soft with easinesse The contrary befals in children who through the much moisture wherewith the braine is endowed faile in vnderstanding and through the great supplenesse of their braine abound in memorie wherein by reason of the moisture the shapes and figures that come from without make a great easie deepe and well formed impression That the memorie is better the morning than the euening cannot be denied but this springeth not from the occasion alleaged by Aristotle but the sleepe of the night passed hath made the braine moist and fortifyed the same and by the waking of the whole day it is dried and hardened For which cause Hippocrates affirmeth those who haue great thirst at night shall doe well to drinke for sleepe makes the flesh moist and fortifieth all the powers which gouern man And that sleepe so doth Aristotle himselfe confesseth By this doctrine is perfectly seene that the vnderstanding and memorie are powers opposit and contrary in sort that the man who hath a great memorie shall find a defect in his vnderstanding and he who hath a great vnderstanding cannot enjoy a good memorie for it is impossible that the braine should of his owne nature be at one selfe time drie and moist On this maxime Aristotle grounded himselfe to prooue that memorie is a power different from remembrance and he frames his argument in this manner Those who haue much remembrance are men of great vnderstanding and those who possesse a great memorie find want of vnderstanding so then memorie and remembrance are contrary powers The former proposition after my doctrine is false for those who haue much remembrance are of little vnderstanding and haue great imaginations as soone hereafter I will prooue but the second proposition is verie true albet Aristotle knew not the cause wheron was founded the enmitie which the vnderstanding hath with the memorie From heat which is the third qualitie groweth the imaginatiue for there is no other reasonable power in the braine nor any other qualitie to which it may be assigned besides that the sciences which appertaine to the imaginatiue are those which such vtter as dote in their sicknesse and
the imagination so it is of force that they faile in vnderstanding and be such as the prouerb paints them forth To the second probleme may be answered that Galen enquiring out the wit of men by way of the temperarature of the region where they inhabit saith that those who make abode vnder the North haue all of thē want of vnderstanding but those who are seated between the North and the burned Zone are of great wisedome Which situation answereth directly to our region And verily so it is for Spaine is not so cold as the places subiected to the Pole nor so hot as the burned Zone The same sentence doth Aristotle produce demanding for what cause such as inhabit verie cold regions partake lesse vnderstanding than those who are born in the hotter and in the answere he verie homely handles the Flemmish Dutch English and French saying that their wits are like those of drunkards for which cause they cannot search out nor vnderstand the nature of things this is occasioned by the much moisture wherwith their brain is replenished and the other parts of the bodie the which is knowen by the whitenesse of the face and the golden colour of the haire and by that it is a miracle to find a Dutchman bald and aboue this they are generally great and of tall stature through the much moisture which breedeth encrease of flesh But in the Spaniards we discerne the quite contrarie they are somwhat browne they haue blacke haire of meane stature and for the most part we see them bald Which disposition saith Galen groweth for that the braine is hot and drie And if this be true it behooueth of force that they be endowed with a bad memorie and a good vnderstanding but the Dutchmen possesse a great memorie small vnderstanding For which cause the one can no skill of Latine and the other easily learne the same The reason which Aristotle alleaged to proue the slender vnderstanding of those who dwell vnder the North is that the much cold of the country calleth backe the naturall heate inward by counterposition and suffereth not the same to spread abroad for which cause it partaketh much moysture and much heate and these vnite a great memorie for the languages and a good imagination with which they make clocks bring the water to Toledo deuise engins and workes of rare skill which the Spaniards through defect of imagination cannot frame themselues vnto But set them to Logicke to Philosophie to Schoole-diuinitie to Phisicke or to the Lawes and beyond comparison a Spanish wit with his barbarous termes will deliuer more rare points than a stranger For if you take from them this finenesse and quaint phrase of writing there is nothing in them of rare inuention or exquisite choice For confirmation of this doctrine Galen said that in Scithia one onely man became a Philosopher but in Athens there were many such as if he should say that in Scithia which is a Prouince vnder the North it grew a myracle to see a Philosopher but in Athens they were all borne wise and skilfull But albeit Philosophie and the other Sciences rehearsed by vs be repugnant to the Northren people yet they profit well in the Mathematicals and in Astrologie because they haue a good imagination The answere of the third probleme dependeth vpon a question much hammered between Plato Aristotle the one saith that there are proper names which by their nature carrie signification of things and that much wit is requisite to deuise them And this opinion is fauoured by the diuine scripture which affirmeth that Adam gaue euerie of those things which God set before him the proper name that best was fitting for them But Aristotle wil not grant that in any toung there can be found any name or maner of speech which can signifie ought of it own nature for that all names are deuised and shaped after the conceit of men Whence we see by experience that wine hath aboue 60. names and bread as manie in euerie language his of none we can auouch that the same is naturall and agreeable thereunto for then all in the world would vse but that But for all this the sentence of Plato is truer for put case that the first deuisers fained the words at their pleasure and will yet was the same by a reasonable instinct communicated with the eare with the nature of the thing with the good grace and well sounding of the pronunciation not making the wordes ouer short or long nor enforcing an vnseemly framing of the mouth in time of vtterance setling the accent in his conuenient place and obseruing the other conditions which a tongue should possesse to be fine and not barbarous Of this selfe opinion with Plato was a Spanish gentleman who made it his pastime to write books of chiualrie because he had a certain kind of imagination which entiseth men to faining and leasings Of him it is reported that being to bring into his works a furious Gyant he went manie daies deuising a name which might in al points be answerable to his fiercenesse neither could he light vpon any vntill playing one day at cardes in his friends house he heard the owner of the house say Ho sirha boy traquitantos the Gentleman so soone as he heard this name Traquitantos sodainly he took the same for a word of ful sound in the eare and without any longer looking arose saying gentlemen I wil play no more for many dayes are past sithence I haue gone seeking out a name which might fit well with a furious Gyant whom I bring into those volumes which I now am making and I could not find the same vntill I came to this house where euer I receiue all courtesie The curiositie of this gentleman in calling the Gyant Traquitantos had also those first men who deuised the Latine tongue in that they found out a language of so good sound to the eare Therefore we need not maruell that the things which are spoken and written in Latine doe sound so well and in other tongues so ill for their first inuenters were barbarous The last doubt I haue been forced to alleage for satisfieng of diuers who haue stūbled theron though the solution be very easie for those who haue great vnderstanding are not vtterly depriued of memorie in asmuch as if they wanted the same it would fall out impossible that the vnderstanding could discourse or frame reasons for this power is that which keepeth in hand the matter and the fantasies whereon it behooueth to vse speculation But for that the same is weake of three degrees of perfection whereto men may attaine in the Latine tongue namely to vnderstand to write and to speake the same perfitly it can hardly passe the first without fault and stumbling CHAP. IX How it may be prooued that the eloquence and finenesse of speech cannot find place in men of great vnderstanding ONe of the graces by which the vulgar is best
to the imagination for which cause the great Theorists doe ordinarily erre in the minor and the great practitioners in the maior as if we should speake after this maner Euerie feuer which springeth from cold and moist humours ought to be cured with medicins hot and drie Taking the tokening of the cause this feuer which the man endureth dependeth on humors cold and moist therefore the same is to be cured with medicines hot and drie The vnderstanding will sufficiently prooue the truth of the maior because it is an vniuersall saying That cold moist require for their temperature hot and drie for euerie qualitie is abated by his contrarie But comming to prooue the minor there the vnderstanding is of no value for that the same is particular and of another iurisdiction whose notice appertaineth to the imagination borowing the proper and particular tokens of the disease from the fiue outward senses And if the tokening is to be taken from the feuer or from his cause the vnderstanding cannot reach therunto onely it teacheth the tokening is to be taken from that which sheweth greatest perill but which of those tokenings is greatest is only known to the imagination by counting the damages which the feuer produceth with those of the Syntomes of the euill and the cause and the small or much force of the power To attain this notice the imagination possesseth certain vnutterable properties with which the same cleereth matters that cannot be expressed nor conceiued neither is there found any art to teach them Where-through we see a phisition enter to visit a patient and by meanes of his sight his hearing his smelling and his feeling he knoweth things which seem impossible In sort that if we demand of the same phisition how he could come by so readie a knowledge himselfe cannot tell the reason for it is a grace which springeth from the fruitfulnesse of the imagination which by another name is termed a readinesse of capacitie which by common signes and by vncertain coniectures and of small importance in the twinckling of an eie knoweth 1000 differēces of things wherein the force of curing and prognosticating with certaintie consisteth This spice of promptnesse men of great vnderstanding do want for that it is a part of the imagination for which cause hauing the tokens before their eies which giue them notice how the disease fareth it worketh no maner alteration in their senses for that they want imagination A phisition once asked me in great secresie what the cause was that he hauing studied with much curiositie all the rules and considerations of the art prognosticatiue being therin throughly instructed yet could neuer hit the truth in any prognostication which he made To whom I remember I yeelded this answer that the art of Phisick is learned with one power and put in execution with another This man had a verie good vnderstanding but wanted imagination but in this doctrin there ariseth a difficultie verie great and that is how phisitions of great imagination can learn the art of phisicke seeing they want that of vnderstanding and if it be true that such were better than those who were well learned to what end serueth it to spend time in the schooles to this may be answered that first to know the art of phisicke is a matter verie important for in two or three yeares a man may learn al that which the ancients haue bin getting in two or three thousand And if a man should heerin ascertain himselfe by experience it were requisit that he liued some thousands of yeeres and in experimenting of medicines he should kill an infinit number of persons before he could attain to the knowledge of their qualities from whence we are freed by reading the books of reasonable experienced phisitions who giue aduertisment of that in writing which they found out in the whole course of their liues to the end that the phisitions of these daies may minister some receits with assurance and take heed of other-some as venomous Besides this we are to weet that the common vulgar points of al arts are verie plain and easie to learn and yet the most important of the whole worke And contrariwise the most curious and subtile are the most obscure and of least necessitie for curing And men of great imagination are not altogither depriued of vnderstanding nor of memorie Wher-through by hauing these two powers in some measure they are able to learn the most necessarie points of Phisicke for that they are plainest and with the good imagination which they haue can better looke into the disease and the cause thereof than the cunningest doctors Besides that the imagination is it which findeth out the occasion of the remedie that ought to be applied in which grace the greatest part of practise consisteth for which cause Galen said that the proper name of a phisition was The finder out of occasion Now to be able to know the place the time and the occasion for certain is a worke of the imagination since it toucheth figure and correspondence but the difficultie consisteth in knowing amongst so many differences as there are of the imagination to which of them the practise of Phisicke appertaineth for it is certaine that they all agree not in one selfe particular reason which contemplation hath giuen me much more toile and labour of spirit than all the residue and yet for all that I cannot as yet yeeld the same a fitting name vnlesse it spring from a lesse degree of heat which partaketh that difference of imagination wherewith verses and songs are endited Neither do I relie altogether on this for the reason whereon I ground my selfe is that such as I haue marked to be good practitioners do all piddle somwhat in the art of versifieng and raise not vp their contemplation very high and their verses are not of any rare excellencie which may also betide for that their heat exceedeth that tearme which is requisit for poetrie and if it so come to passe for this reason the heat ought to hold such qualitie as it somewhat drie the substance of the braine and yet much resolue not the naturall heat albeit if the same passe further it breedeth no euill difference of the wit for Phisicke for it vniteth the vnderstanding to the imagination by adustion But the imagination is not so good for curing as this which I seeke which inuiteth a man to be a witch superstitious a magician a deceiuer a palmister a fortune teller and a calker for the diseases of men are so hidden and deliuer their motions with so great secrecie that it behooueth alwaies to go calking what the matter is This difference of imagination may hardly be found in Spaine for tofore we haue prooued that the inhabitants of this region want memory and imagination and haue good discourse neither yet the imaginatiō of such as dwell towards the North is of auaile in Phisicke for it is very slow and slacke only the same is
appertaineth to the wit for those who liue in bondage in miserie in affliction and in strange countries engender much choler adust because they want libertie of speech and of reuenging their iniuries and this humour when the same is grown drie becommeth the instrument of subtiltie of craft and of malice whence we see by experience that if a man rake hell for bad maners and conditions he cannot find woorse than in a slaue whose imagination alwaies occupieth itselfe in deuising how to procure dammage to his maister and freedome to himselfe Moreouer the land which the people of Israell walked through was not much estranged nor different from the qualities of Aegypt for in respect of the miserie thereof God promised Abraham to giue him another much more aboundant and fruitfull And this is a matter greatly verefied as well in good naturall Philosophie as in experience that barraine and beggerly regions not fat nor plentifull of fruit engender men of very sharpe wit And contrariwise abundant and fertile soils bring foorth persons big limmed couragious and of great bodily forces but very slow of wit Touching Greece the Historiens neuer make an end to recount how appropriat that region is to breed men of great habilitie and particularly Galen auoucheth that it is held a miracle for a man to find a foole in Athens And we must note that this was a citie the most miserable and most barren of all the rest in Greece Whence we collect that through the qualities of Egipt and of the Prouinces where the Hebrue people liued they grew verie quick of capacitie But it behooueth likewise to vnderstand for what cause the temperature of Aegypt produceth this difference of imagination And this wil fall out a plain matter when you are done to ware that in this region the sunne yeeldeth a feruent heat and therfore the inhabitants haue their brain dried and choler adust the instrument of wilinesse and aptnesse In which sense Aristotle demandeth why the men of Aethiopia Aegypt haue their feet crooked are commonly curlpated and flat nosed to which probleme he answereth that the much heat of the countrey rosteth the substance of these members and wrieth them as it draweth togither a peece of leather set by the fire and for the same cause their haire curleth and themselues also are wily And that such as inhabit hot countries are wiser than those who are born in cold regions we haue alreadie prooued by the opinion of Aristotle who demandeth whence it grows that men are wiser in hot climats than in cold But he wist not to answer this probleme nor make distinction of wisdome for we haue prooued heretofore that in man there rest two sorts of wisdome one whereof Plato said Knowledge which is seuered from Iustice ought rather to be termed craft than wisdome another there is found accompanied with iustice and simplicity without doublenesse and without wiles and this is properly called Wisdome for it goeth alwaies guided by iustice and dutie They who inhabit very hot countries are wise in the first kind of wisedom and such are those of Aegypt Now let vs see when the people of Israel was departed out of Aegypt and come into the desart what meat they did eat what water they dranke and of what temperature the aire was where they trauailed that we may know whether vpon this occasion the wit with which they issued out of bondage took exchange or whether the same were more confirmed in them Fortie yeares saith the text God maintaind this people with Manna a meat so delicat and sauoury as any might be that euer men tasted in the world In sort that Moses seeing the delicacie and goodnesse therof commanded his brother Aaron to fill a vessell and place the same in the Arke of confederacie to the end the descendents of this people when they were setled in the land of promise might see the bread with which God had fed their fathers whiles they liued in the wildernesse and how bad paiment they yeelded him in exchange of such cherishments And to the end that we who haue notseen this meat may know of what maner the same was it will do well that we describe the Manna which nature maketh and so adioining therunto the conceit of a great delicacie we may wholly imagine his goodnesse The materiall cause of which Manna is engendred is a very delicat vapour which the sunne with the force of his heat draweth vp from the earth the which taking stay aloft is concocted and made perfect and then the cold of the night cōming on it congealeth and through his waightinesse turneth to fall vpon the trees and stones where men gather the same and preserue it in vessels to serue for food It is called Deawy and Airy honny through the resemblance which it beareth to the deaw and for that it is made in the aire His colour is white his sauour sweet as honny his figure like that of Coriander which signes the holy Scripture placeth also in the Manna which the people of Israel did eat and therfore I carry an imagination that both were semblable in nature But if that which God created were of more delicat substance so much the better shall we confirme our opinion But I am euer of opinion that God applied himself to naturall means when with them he could performe what he meant and where nature wanted his omnipotencie supplied This I say because to giue them Manna to eat in the desart besides that which heerby he would signifie me seemeth was founded in the selfe disposition of the earth which euen at this day produceth the best Manna in the world through which Galen affirmeth that on Mount Libanus which is not far distant frō this place there is great and very choice abundance in sort that the countrie people are wont to sing in their pastimes That Iupiter raineth honny in that region And though it be true that God miraculously created that Manna in such quantitie at such time and on speciall daies yet it may be that it partaked the same nature with ours as had also the water which Moses drew forth of the rocke and the fire which Elias with his word caused to rain from heauen all of them naturall things though miraculously brought to passe The Manna described by the holy Scripture it saith was as deaw as the seed of Coriander white in tast like honny which conditions are also in the Manna produced by nature The temperature of this meat the Phisitions say is hot and consisting of subtile and verie delicat parts which composition the Manna eaten by the Iews should also seeme to haue whereon complaining of his tendernesse they said in this maner Our soule hath a fulsomnesse at this slight meat as if they should say that they could no longer endure nor brook so light a meat in their stomacke and the Philosophie of this was that their stomacks had been made strong by onions chibals and leeks and
for a verie iust law and neuer maketh an end of commending the same yet it behooueth to make a distinction we haue alleaged heretofore that the worke of iudging appertaineth to discourse and that this power abhorreth heat and therfore receiueth much dammage by wine but to gouern a common-wealth which is a distinct matter from taking into your hand a processe giuing sentence thervpon belongeth to the imagination and that requireth heat And the gouernor not arriuing to the point which is requisit may well drinke a little wine so to attaine the same The like may be said touching the generall of an army whose counsell partaketh also with the imagination And if the naturall heat be by any hot thing to be aduanced none performeth it so well as wine but it is requisit that the same be temperatly taken for there is no nourishment which so giueth and reaueth a mans wit as this liquor VVherefore it behooueth the Generall to know the maner of his imagination whether the same be of those which need meat and drinke to supply the heat that wanteth or to abide fasting for in this onely consisteth how to mannage his affaires well or euill CHAP. XIIII How we may know to what difference of abilitie the office of a king appertaineth and what signes he ought to haue who enioyeth this maner of wit WHen Salomon was chosen king and head of so great and numberfull a people as that of Israell the text saith that for gouerning and ruling them he craued wisdom from heauen and nothing besides VVhich demand so much pleased God as in reward of hauing asked so well he made him the wisest king of the world and not so contented he gaue him great riches and glorie euermore holding his request in better price VVhence is manifestly gathered that the greatest wisdome and knowledge which may possibly be in the world is that foundation vpon which the office of a king relieth VVhich conclusion is so certaine and true as it were but lost labour to spend time in the proofe therof Only it behooueth to shew to what difference of wit the art of being a king and such a one as is requisit for the common-wealth appertaineth and to vnfold the tokens whereby the man may be known who is indowed with this wit and abilitie VVherethrough it is certaine that as the office of a king exceedeth all the arts in the world so the same requireth a perfection of wit in the largest measure that nature can deuise What the same is we haue not as yet defined for we haue been occupied in distributing to the other arts their differences maners But since we now haue the same in handling it must be vnderstood that of nine temperatures which are in mankind one onely saith Galen maketh a man so surpassing wise as by nature he can be VVherin the first qualities are in such waight and measure that the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie but are found in such equalitie and conformitie as if really they were not contraries nor had any naturall opposition VVhence resulteth an instrument so appliable to the operations of the reasonasoule that man commeth to possesse a perfect memorie of things passed and a great imagination to see what is to come and a great vnderstanding to distinguish inferre argue iudge and make choice The other differences of wit by vs recounted haue not anie one amongst them of sound perfection for if a man possesse great vnderstanding he cannot by means of much drinesse comprise the sciences which appertain to the imagination and the memorie and if he be of great imagination by reason of much heat he remaineth vnsufficient for the sciences of the vnderstanding and the memorie and if he enioy a great memorie we haue to fore expressed how vnable those of much memory through their excessiue moisture do prooue for all the other sciences Only this difference of wit which we now are a searching is that which answereth all the arts in proportion How much dammage the vnablenesse of adioyning the rest breedeth to any one knowledge Plato noteth saying That the perfection of ech in particular dependeth on the notice and knowledge of them all in generall No sort of knowledge is found so distinctly and seuered from another but that the skill in the one much aideth to the others perfection But how shall we do if hauing sought for this difference of wit with great diligence in all Spaine I can find but one such Whereby I conceiue that Galen said verie well That out of Greece nature not so much as in a dream maketh any man temperat or with a wit requisit for the sciences And the same Galen alleageth the reason hereof saying That Greece is the most temperat region of the world Where the heate of the aire exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the dry VVhich temperature maketh men very wise and able for all the Sciences as appeareth considering the great number of famous mē who thence haue issued as Socrates Plato Aristotle Hippocrates Galen Theophrastus Demosthenes Homer Thales Milesius Diogenes Cynicus Solon and infinit other wise men mentioned in histories whose works we find replenished with all sciences Not as the writers of other prouinces who if they treat of phisicke or any other science it prooues a miracle for them to alleage any other sort of science in their aid or fauour All of them are beggerly and without furniture as wanting a wit capable of all the arts But which we may most maruell at in Greece is that wheras the wit of women is found so repugnant vnto learning as hereafter we will prooue yet there haue been so many she Greekes so specially seen in the sciences as they haue grown into competencie with the sufficientest men as namely Leontia a most wise woman who wrote against Theophrastus the greatest Philosopher of his time reproouing him for many errors in philosophy But if we looke into other Prouinces of the world hardly shall we find sprung vp any one wit that was notable VVhich groweth for that they inhabit places distempered where men become brutish slow of capacitie and ill conditioned For this cause Aristotle moueth a doubt saying VVhat meaneth it that those who inhabit a country either ouer cold or ouer hot are fierce and fell in countenance and conditions To which probleme he answereth verie well saying that a good temperature not only maketh a good grace in the body but also aideth the wit and abilitie And as the excesses of heat cold do hinder nature that she cannot shape a man in good figure So also for the like reason the harmonle of the soule is turned topsie turuie and the wit prooueth slow and dull This the Greeks well wist inasmuch as they termed all the nations of the world Barbarians considering their slender sufficiencie and little knowledge VVhence we see that of so many that are borne and studie out of Greece if they be Philosophers
saith the Psalme goodnes discipline and knowledge And this the royall Prophet Dauid spake seeing that it auaileth not for a king to be good and vertuous vnlesse he ioyne wisedom and knowldge there withall By this example of king Dauid it seemeth we haue sufficiently approoued our opinion But there was also another king borne in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is borne king of the Iewes And if we can prooue that he was abourne haired towardly of meane bignesse vertuous healthfull and of great wisedom and knowledge it will be no way damageable to this our doctrin The Euangelists busied not themselues to report the disposition of Christ our redeemer for it serued not to the purpose of that which they handled but is a matter which may easily be vnderstood supposing that for a man to be temperat as is requisit compriseth all the perfection wherewith naturally he can be edowed And seeing that the holy spirit-compounded and instrumentalized him it is certaine that as touching the materiall cause of which he formed him the distemperature of Nazareth could not resist him nor make him erre in his worke as do the other naturall agents but he performed what him best pleased for he wanted neither force knowledge nor will to frame a man most perfect and without any defect And that so much the rather for that his comming as himselfe affirmed was to endure trauels for mans sake and to teach him the trueth And this temperature as we haue before prooued is the best naturall instrument that can be found for these two things Wherethrough I hold that relatiō for true which Publius Lcntulus Viceconsul wrote from Hierusalem vnto the Roman Senat after this maner There hath been seen in our time a man who yet liueth of great vertue called Iesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the prophet of truth and his disciples say that he is the sonne of God He raiseth the deceased and healeth the diseased is a man of meane and proportionable stature and of very faire countenance his looke carrieth such a maiesty as those who behold him are enforced both to loue and feare him He hath his haire coloured like a nut full ripe reaching down to his eares and from his eares to his shoulders they are of waxe colour but more bright he hath in the middle of his forehead a locke after the maner of Nazareth His forehead is plain but very pleasing his face void of spot or wrinckle accompanied with a moderat colour his nosthrils and mouth cannot by any with reason be reprooued his beard thicke and resembling his haire not long but forked his countenance verie gratious and graue his eies gracefull and cleere and when he rebuketh he daunteth and when he admonisheth he pleaseth he maketh himselfe to be beloued and is cheerfull with grauitie he hath neuer been seen to laugh but to weep diuers times his hands and arms are verie faire in his conuersation he contenteth verie greatly but is seldom in company but being in company is very modest in his countenance and port he is the seemliest man that may be imagined In this relation are contained three or foure tokens of a temperat person The first that he had his haire and beard of the colour of a nut fully ripe which to him that considereth it well appeareth to be a browne abourne which colour God commanded they heifer should haue which was to be sacrificed as a figure of Christ and when he entred into heauen with that triumph and maiestie which was requisit for such a Prince some Angels who had not been enformed of his incarnation said Who is this that commeth from Edon with his garments died in Bozra as if they had said Who is he that commeth from the red Land with his garment stained in the same die in respect of his haire his red beard and of the bloud with which he was tainted The same letter also reporteth him to be the fairest man that euer was seen and this is the second token of a temperat person and so was it prophesied by the holy scripture as a signe wherby to know him Of faire shape aboue all the children of men And in another place he saith His eies are fairer than the wine and his teeth whiter than milke Which beautie and good disposition of body imported much to effect that all men should beare him affection and that there might be nothing in him worthy to be abhorred For which cause the letter deliuereth that all men were enforced to loue him It reciteth also that he was meane of personage and that not because the holy Ghost wanted matter to make him greater if so it had seemed good but as we tofore haue prooued by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle because when the reasonable soule is burdened with much bones and flesh the same incurreth great dammage in his wit The third signe namely to be vertuous and wel conditioned is likewise expressed in this letter and the Iews themselues with al their false witnesses could not proue the contrarie nor reply when he demanded of them VVhich of you can reprooue me of sinne And Ioseph through the faithfulnes which he owed to his history affirmed of him that he partaked of another nature aboue man in respect of his goodnesse wisedom Only long life could not be verefied of Christ our redeemer because they put him to death being yong where as if they had permitted him to finish his naturall course the same would haue reached to 80 years and vpwards For he who could abide in a wildernesse 40 daies and 40 nights without meat or drinke and not be sicke nor dead therwithall could better haue defended himselfe from other lighter things which had power to breed alteration or offence Howbeit this action was reputed miraculous and a matter which could not light within the compasse of nature These two examples of kings which we haue alleaged sufficeth to make vnderstood that the scepter royal is due to men that are temperate and that such are endowed with the wit and wisdom requisit for that office But there was also another man made by the proper hands of God to the end he should be king and Lord of all things created he made him faire vertuous sound of long life and verie wise And to prooue this shal not beamisse for our purpose Plato holdeth it for a matter impossible that God or nature can make a man temperat in a countrey distemperat wherethrough he affirmeth that God to create a man of great wisdom temperature sought out a place where the heat of the aire should not exceed the cold nor the moist the dry And the diuine scripture whence he borrowed this sentence saith not that God created Adam in the earthly paradise which was that most temperat place whereof he speaketh but that after he had shaped him there he placed him Then our Lord God saith he tooke man and set
nature aswell whiles the creature hath been in the mothers womb as after the same was borne wherof the histories are full but some haue held them only for fables because this is mentioned in the Poets yet the thing carrieth meere truth for diuers times nature hath made a female child and she hath so remained in her mothers belly for the space of one or two months and afterwards plentie of heat growing in the genitall members vpon some occasion they haue issued forth and she become a male To whom this transformation hath befallen in the mothers womb is afterwards plainly discouered by certain motions which they retaine vnfitting for the masculin sex being altogither womanish their voice shrill sweet And such persons are enclined to perform womens actions and fall ordinarily into vncouth offences Contrariwise nature hath sundrie times made a male with his genetories outward and cold growing on they haue turned in ward and it became female This is knowen after she is borne for she retaineth a mannish fashion aswell in her words as in all her motions and workings This may seem difficult to be prooued but considering that which many authenticall historians affirme it is a matter not hard to be credited And that women haue been turned into men after they were borne the verie vulgar doe not much maruell to heare spoke of for besides that which sundrie our elders haue laid downe for trueth It befell in Spain but few yeares since and that wherof we find experience is not to be called in question or argument What then the cause may be that the genitall members are engendred within or without and the creature becommeth male or female will fall out a plain case if we once know that heat extendeth and enlargeth all things and cold retaineth and closeth them vp Wherthrough it is a conclusion of all Philosophers and Phisitions that if the seed be cold and moist a woman is begotten and not a man and if the same be hot and dry a man is begotten and not a woman Whence we apparently gather that there is no man who in respect of a woman may be termed cold nor woman hot in respect of a man Aristotle saith it is necessarie for a woman to be cold and moist that she may be likewise fruitfull for if she were not so it would fall out impossible that her monthly course should flow or she haue milke to preserue the child nine months in her belly and two yeares after it is borne but that the same would soone wast and consume All Philosophers and Phisitions auouch that the belly holdeth the same proportion with mans seed that the earth doth with corne and with any other graine And we see that if the earth want coldnesse and moisture the husbandman dareth not sow therein neither will the seed prosper But of soils those are most fruitfull and fertile in rendering fruit which partake most of cold and moist As we see by experience in the regions towards the North As England Flanders and Almaine whose abundance of all fruits worketh astonishment in such as know not the reason thereof And in such countries as these no married woman was euer childlesse neither can they there tell what barrennesse meaneth but are all fruitfull and breed children through their abundance of coldnesse and moisture But though it is true that the woman should be cold and moist for conception Yet she may abound so much therin that it may choke the seed euen as we see excesse of raine spoileth the corne which cannot ripen in ouermuch coldnesse Whereon we must conceiue that these two qualities ought to keep a certaine measurablenesse which when they exceed or reach not vnto the fruitfulnesse is spoiled Hippocrates holdeth that woman for fruitfull whose womb is tempered in such sort as the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie VVherethrough he saith that those women who haue their belly cold cannot conceiue no more than such as are very moist or verie cold and dry But so for the same reason that a woman and her genitall parts should be temperat it were impossible that she could conceiue or be a woman For if the seed of which she was first formed had been temperat the genitall members would haue issued forth and she haue been a man So should a beard grow on her chin and her floures surcease and she become as perfect a man as nature could produce Likewise the womb in a woman cannot be predominatly hot For if the seed whereof she was engendred had been of that temperature she should haue been born a man and not a woman This is past all exception that the qualities which yeeld a woman fruitfull are cold and moisture for the nature of man standeth in need of much nourishment that he may be able to vse procreation and continue his kind Wherethrough we see that amongst all the females of brute beasts none haue their monthly courses as a woman Therefore it was requisite to make her altogether cold and moist and that in such a degree as that she might breed much flegmatick bloud and not be able to wast or consume the same I said flegmaticke bloud because this is seruiceable to the breeding of milke by which Hippocrates and Galen auouch the creature is releeued all the time it remaineth in the mothers belly Now if the same should be temperat it would produce much bloud vnfit for the engendring of milke and would wholly resolue as it doth in a temperat man and so nothing be left for nourishing the babe Therefore I hold it for certain and verily it is impossibie that a woman can be temperat or hot but they are all cold and moist And if this be not so let the Philosopher or Phisition tell me for what cause all women are beardlesse and haue their sicknesse whiles they are healthful for what cause the seed of which she was formed being temperat or hot she was borne a woman not a man Howbeit though it be true that they are alcold moist yet it followeth not that they are all in one degree of coldnesse and moisture For some are in the first some in the second and some in the third and in ech of these they may conceiue if a man answere them in proportion of heat as shall hereafter be expressed By what tokens we may know these three degrees of coldnesse and moisture in a woman and likewise weet who is in the first who is in the second and who in the third there is no Philosopher or Phisition that as yet hath vnfolded But considering the effects which these qualities do worke in women we may part them by reason of their being extended and so we shall easily get notice hereof The first by the wit and habilitie of the woman The second by her maners and conditions The third by her voice big or small The fourth by her flesh much or little The fifth by her colour
degree for his seed is of such furie and feruency as it behooueth the same to fall into a place very cold and moist that it may take hold and root This man is of the qualitie of Cresses which will not grow saue in the water and if he partaked lesse hot and dry his sowing in so cold a belly were nought els than to cast graine into a poole Hippocrates giueth counsell that a woman of this sort should first lessen her selfe and lay aside her flesh and her fat before she marrie but then she need not to take to husband a man so hot and dry for such a temperature would not serue nor she conceiue A woman cold and moist in the second degree retaineth a meane in all the tokens which I haue specified saue onely in beauty which she enioyeth in an high degree Which yeeldeth an euident signe that she will be fruitfull and beare children and prooue gratious and cheerfull She answereth in proportion wel-neer to all men First to the hot and dry in the second degree and next to the temperat and lastly to the hot moist From all these vnions and conioynings of men and women which we haue here laid down may issue wise children but from the first are the most ordinary For put case that the seed of a man encline to cold and moist yet the continuall drinesse of the mother and the giuing her so little meat correcteth amendeth the defect of the father For that this maner of philosophizing neuer heretofore came to light it was not possible that all the naturall Philosophers could shape an answere to this probleme which asketh Whence proceedeth it that manie fools haue begotten wise children Whereto they answer that sottish persons apply themselues affectionatly to the carnall act and are not carried away to any other contemplation But contrarily men verie wise euen in the copulation go imagining vpō matters nothing pertinent to that they haue in hand and therethrough weaken the seed and make their children defectiue aswell in the powers reasonall as in the naturall In the other conioynings it is requisit to take heed that the woman be clensed and dried by a ripe age and marry not ouer yong for hence it commeth that children prooue simple and of little wit The seed of yong parents is verie moist for it is but a whiles since they were borne and if a man be formed of a matter endowed with excessiue moisture it followeth of force that he prooue dull of capacitie What diligence ought to be vsed that children male and not female may be borne §. 3. THose parents who seeke the comfort of hauing wise children and such as are towards for learning must endeuour that they may be borne male for the female through the cold and moist of their sex cānot be endowed with any profound iudgment Only we see that they talke with some apparence of knowledge in slight and easie matters with termes ordinary and long studied but being set to learning they reach no farther than to some smacke of the Latine tongue and this only through the help of memorie For which dulnesse themselues are not in blame but that cold and moist which made them women and these selfe qualities we haue prooued heretofore gainsay the wit and abilitie Salomon considering how great scarcitie there was of wise men and that no woman came to the world with a wit apt for knowledge said in this maner I found one man amongst 1000 but I haue not found one woman amongst the whole rout As if he should say that of 1000 men he had found one wise but throughout the race of women he could neuer light vpon one that had iudgment Therfore we are to shun this sex and to procure that the child be borne male for in such only resteth a wit capable of learning It behooueth therfore first to take into consideration what instruments were ordained by nature in mans body to this effect and what order of causes is to be obserued that we may obtaine the end which we seeke for We must then vnderstand that amongst many excrements and humours which reside in a mans bodie nature saith Galen vseth only the seruice of one to worke that mankind may be preserued This is a certain excremēt which is termed whey or wheyish bloud whose engendring is wrought in the liuer and in the veins at such time as the foure humours bloud fleagme choler and melancholy do take the forme and substance which they ought to haue Of such a licour as this doth nature serue her selfe to resolue the meat and to worke that the same may passe through the veins and through the strait passages carrying nourishment to all the parts of the body This work being finished the same nature prouideth the veins whose office is nought els but to draw vnto them this whey and to send it through their passages to the bladder and from thence out of the body and this to free man from the offence which an excremēt might breed him But she aduising that he had certain qualities cōuenient for generation prouided two veins which should carry part therof to the cods and vessels of seed togither with some small quantitie of bloud whereby such seed might be formed as was requisit for mankind Wherethrough she planted one veine in the reins on the right side which endeth in the right cod and of the same is the right seed vessell framed and another on the left side which likewise taketh his issue at the left cod and of that is shaped the left seed vessell The requisit qualities of this excrement that the same may be a conuenient matter for engendring of seed are saith Galen a certaine tartnesse and biting which groweth for that the same is salt wherethrough it stirreth vp the seed vessels moueth the creature to procure generation and not to abandon this thought And therfore persons very lecherous are by the Latinists termed Salaces that is to say men who haue much saltnesse in their seed Next to this nature did another thing worthy of great consideration namely that to the right side of the reines and to the right cod she gaue much heat and drinesse and to the left side of the reines to the left cod much cold and moisture wherthrough the seed which laboureth in the right cod issueth out hot and drie and that of the left cod cold and moist What nature pretended by this variety of temperature aswell in the reins as in the cods seed vessels is verie manifest we knowing by histories very true that at the beginning of the world and many yeares after a woman brought forth two children at a birth wherof the one was born male the other female the end wherof tended that for euery man there should be a wife that mankind might take the speedier increase She prouided then that the right side of the reines should yeeld matter hot and drie to the right cod and that
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she
but not his substance wherin the whole life relieth as do the foure elements fire aire earth and water who not only yeeld to the party composed heat cold moisture and drinesse but also the substance which may maintain and preserue the same qualities during all the course of life Wherethrough that which most importeth in the engendring of children is to procure that the elements wherof they are compounded may partake the qualities which are requisite for the wit For these according to the waight and measure by which they enter into the composition must alwaies so indure in the mixture and not the alterations of heauen What these elements are and in what sort they enter into the womans wombe to forme the creature Galen declareth and affirmeth them to be the same which compound all other natural things but that the earth commeth lurking in the accustomed meates which we eate as are flesh bread fish and fruits the water in the liquors which we drinke The aire and fire he saith are mingled by order of nature and enter into the body by way of the pulse and of respiration Of these foure elements mingled and digested by our naturall heat are made the two necessarie principles of the infants generation to weet the seed and the monthly course But that whereof we must make greatest reckoning for the end which we enquire after are the accustomable meats whereon we feed for these shut vp the foure elements in themselues and from these the seed fetcheth more corpulencie and qualitie than from the water which we drinke or the fire and aire which we breath in VVhence Galen saith that the parents who would beget wise children should read three books which he wrot of the facultie of the alements for there they should find with what kinds of meat they may effect the same And he made no mention of the water nor of the other elements as materials and of like moment But herein he swarued from reason for the water altereth the body much more than the aire much lesse than the sound meats wheron we feed And as touching that which concerneth the engendring of the seed it carrieth as great importance as all the other elemēts togither The reason is as Galen himself affirmeth because the cods draw from the veines for their nourishment the wheyish part of the bloud and the greatest part of this whey which the veins receiue partaketh of the water which we drinke And that the water worketh more alteration in the bodie than the aire Aristotle prooueth where he demandeth what the cause is that by changing of waters we breed so great an alteration in our health wheras if we breath a contrarie aire we perceiue it not And to this he answereth that water yeeldeth nourishment to the body and so doth not the aire But he had little reason to answer after this maner for the aire also by Hippocrates opinion giueth nourishment and substance aswell as the water Wher-through Aristotle deuised a better answer saying that no place nor country hath his peculiar aire for that which is now in Flanders when the North wind bloweth passeth within two or three daies into Affricke and that in Affricke by the South is carried into the North and that which this day is in Hierusalem the East wind driueth into the VVest Indies The which cannot betide in the waters for they do not all issue out of the same soile wher-through euery people hath his particular water cōformable to the Mine of the earth where it springeth and whence it runneth And if a man be vsed to drinke one kind of water in tasting another he altereth more than by meat or aire In sort that the parents who haue a will to beget verie wise children must drinke waters delicat fresh and of good temperature otherwise they shall commit error in their procreation Aristotle saith that at the time of generation we must take heed of the South-west wind for the same is grosse and moistneth the seed so as a female and not a male is begotten But the west wind he highly commendeth and aduanceth it with names and titles very honourable He calleth the same temperat fatter of the earth and saith that it commeth from the Elisian fields But albeit it be true that it greatly importeth to breath an aire verie delicat and of good temperature and to drinke such waters yet it standeth much more vpon to vse fine meats appliable to the temperature of the wit for of these is engēdred the bloud and the seed and of the seed the creature And if the meat be delicat and of good temperature such is the bloud made and of such bloud such seed and of such seed such braine Now this member being temperat and compounded of a substance subtile and delicat Galen saith that the wit will be like therunto for our reasonable soule though the same be incorruptible yet goeth alwaies vnited with the dispositions of the brain which being not such as it is requisit they should be for discoursing and philosophizing a man saith and doth 1000 things which are verie vnfitting The meats then which the parents are to feed on that they may engender children of great vnderstanding which is the ordinarie wit for Spaine are first White bread made of the finest meale and seasoned with salt this is cold and dry and of parts verie subtile and delicat There is another sort made saith Galen of reddish graine which though it nourish much and make men big limmed and of great bodily forces yet for that the same is moist and of grosse parts it breedeth a losse in the vnderstanding I said seasoned with salt because none of all the aliments which a man vseth bettereth so much the vnderstanding as doth this minerall It is cold and of more drinesse than any other thing and if I remember well the sentence of Heraclitus he said after this maner A drie brightnesse a wisest minde Then seeing that salt is so drie and so appropriat to the wit the scripture had good reason to terme it by the name of Prudence and Sapience Partridges and Francolini haue a like substance and the selfe temperature with bread of white meale and Kid and Muskadel wine And if parents vse these meats as we haue aboue specified they shall breed children of great vnderstanding And if they would haue a child of great memorie let them eight or nine daies before they betake themselues to the act of generation eat Trouts Salmons Lampries and Eeles by which meat they shall make their seed verie moist and clammie These two qualities as I haue said before make the memorie easie to receaue and verie fast to preserue the figures a long time By Pigions Goats Garlicke Onions Leekes Rapes Pepper Vinegar White-wine Honny and al other sorts of spices the seed is made hot and drie and of parts verie subtile and delicat The child who is engendred of such meat shalbe of great imagination but not of
Offices Booke of Destinie * Dialoge of knowledge By the only vnderstanding of Socrates may this comparison be verefied for he taught by demaunds and handled the matter so that the scholler himselfe attained to knowledge without his telling him the same Mans Wisedome is not RemeÌ„brance wherefore we haue here aboue spoken against Plato for that he held this opinion In the second age called youth a man makes an vnion of all the differences of wit in such as they may be vnited for that this age is more temperat than all the rest wherfore it is vnfitting to let it passe without learning of knowledge whereby a man may liue The principall of all these is Nature for if she be in them who applie their mind to Art they may pierce thorow all the other things aboue specified So Baldus betooke himselfe to the studie of the Lawes when he was wel-aged wherethrough some sayd vnto him in a scoffe Thou commest too late O Baldus and wilt prooue a good aduocate in the other world but because he had a capacitie conformable for the lawes he proued learned in a short season Nature giues habilitie Art facilitie Vse sufficiencie Aboue all things Nature is necessarie for if she gainsay al other drifts are attempted in vaine In all Knowledges we must vnderstand how far their iurisdiction exteÌ„deth and what questions apperteine vnto them The Lord working therewithall and confirming with his word followed by signs Iob. 33. The ignorance of naturall Philosophie is cause that miracles are imputed where they ought not Hippocrates vsed vnproper terms when he sayd the soule of man is produced vntil his death In euery citie the wisest and eldest persons should looke into and iudge of the naturall quicknesse of children and so giue notice that ech one might learne an art agreeable to his nature And therefore the heart and the things seated therabouts haue great feeling but for all that are not partakers of knowledge but of all these things the braine is causer There are two sorts of fat men the one full of flesh bones and blood the other replenished with fat and these are very wittie Go to the Ant O sluggard and consider his way and learne wisedome who hauing no guide nor maister prouides himselfe the summer of food and in the time of haruest furnisheth himselfe of meat A Faulconer affirmed to me with an oath that he had a redye Faulcon for hawking which grew bussardly for remedy wherof he gaue hir a botton di fuoto in the head and she amended Plato tooke out of the holie Scripture the best sentences which are to be found in his workes in respect whereof he was called Diuine Plato attributes three soules vnto man Hippocrates answered better saying That nature is learned though she haue not learned to do well The seed and menstruall blood which are two materiall principles of which we be formed are hote moist through which temperature children are so vnskilled When the braine is placed hot in the first degree it makes a man eloquent furnisheth him with store of matter to deliuer for which cause the silent are alwaies cold of braine great talkers hot This frenzie was occasioned by abundaÌ„ce of cholar which tooke hold in the substance of the brain which humor hath great congruence with Poetrie for which cause Horace sayd That if summer did not make euacuation of choler no Poet should passe before him This page was not yet perfectly cured He speakes to one asleepe who teacheth wisedome to a foole The Sibils admitted by the catholike church had this naturall disposition that Aristotle speakes of and besides a propheticall spirit which God powred into theÌ„ for naturall wit sufficed not for so high a point werethe same neuer so perfect When the diseased diuine thus it is a token that the reasonable soule is now awearie of the bodie and so none such recouer Those who haue bene crazed and are called melaÌ„cholike haue their mind endewed with a certain spice of prophesying and diuining Aristotle in his third booke of the soule Horace to say that Vlisses became not a fool figured him that he was not turned into a hog The hart of wise men is where there is sadnesse and the hart of fooles where there is mirth Wherethrough Cicero defining the nature of wit placeth memorie in his definition Docilitie Memorie which as it were by one name are tearmed wit Any distemperature whatsoeuer cannot any long time endure alone Of these differences of wits Aristotle said in this manner He verely is best who vnderstandeth euery thing by himselfe and he also is good who obeith him that sayth well The inuention of arts and the making of bookes saith Galen is performed with the vnderstaÌ„ding and with the memorie or with the imaginatiue but he thatwrites for that he hath many things in his mind cannot ad any new inuention This difference of wits is very dangerous for Diuinitie where the vnderstaÌ„ding ought to abide bound to that which the Catholike church doth resolue This difference of wits senteth very well for Diuinitie where it behooueth to ensue the diuine authoritie declared by the holy Councels and sacred Doctors The smooth white and grosse persons haue no melancholicke humour Amongst brute beasts there is none which approcheth neerer to mans wisdome than the OliphaÌ„t and there is none of a flesh so rough and hard Note that men of great vnderstanding take no care for attiring their bodie but are ordinarily ill apparelled slouenly and hereof we yeeld the reason in the 8. cha and 14. Galen dying went to hell and saw by experieÌ„ce that materiall fire burned the soules and could not consume theÌ„ this Physition had knowledge of that Euangelicall doctrine and could not receiue it But the serpent was the wiliest beast of the earth amongst all those whome God hath made Traquitantos signifieth Bring hither tokens or counters Cicero saith that the honour of man is to haue wit and of wit to be applied to eloquence This is recounted by Plato in his dialogue of knowledge and in his banquet Cicero praising the eloquence of Plato sayd That if Iupiter should haue spoken Greeke he would haue spoken as Plato did Paule Lib. 3. de Anima ca. 3. Take heed you receiue no hurt for leauing out the Pope Solertia S. John Baptist was an angell in his office No doubt your owne king A weake reason rather God chose Saule as a carnal man sit for the Iewes obstinat asking and Dauid as a spirituall man the instrument of his mercie And I hold it vntrue because the phrase vtterly differeth from the Latine toung as spectosus valde inter filios bominum Vnwritten Vâ—rities And such a one if you mistake not is your king Philip. Your king and your selfe An high speculation Note here a sign which sheweth the immortalitie of the soule This is no chapter for maids to read in sight of others You are much mistaken