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
science which he pretendeth to study is the matter which most makes for the purpose for with this we haue seene that diuers men haue begun to studie after their youth was expired and were instructed by bad teachers with euill order and in their owne birth-places and yet for all that haue prooued great clearks But if the wit faile sayth Hippocrates all other diligences are lost But there is no man who hath better verefied this than the good Marcus Cicero who through greefe of seeing his sonne such a doo-nought with whome none of the means could preuaile that he had procured to breed him wisedome sayd in the end after this sort What else is it after the manner of the Giants to fight with the gods than to resist against nature as if he should haue sayd What thing is there which better resembles the battaile which the giants vndertooke against the gods than that a man who wanteth capacitie should set himselfe to studie for as the giants neuer ouercame the gods but were still vanquished by them so whatsoeuer scholler will labour to ouercome his owne vntoward nature shall rest vanquished by her For which cause the same Cicero counselleth vs that we should not vse force against our nature nor endeuour to become Orators if she assent not for we shall vndergo labour in vaine CHAP. II. That Nature is that which makes a man of habilitie to learne IT is an opinion very common and ordinarie amongst the antient Philosophers to say That Nature is she who makes a man of habilitie to learne and that art with her precepts and rules giues a facilitie therevnto but then vse and experience which he reapes of particular things makes him mightie in working Yet none of them euer shewed in particular what thing this nature was nor in what ranke of causes it ought to be placed only they affirmed that this wanting in him who learned art experience teachers bookes and trauaile are of none auaile The ignoraunt vulgar seeing a man of great wit and readinesse straightwaies assigne God to be the author thereof and looke no further but hold euery other imagination that goes beyond this for vanitie but naturall Philosophers despise this manner of talking for put case that the same be godly and containe therein religion and truth yet it groweth from not knowing the order and disposition which God placed amongst naturall things that day when they were created and so couer their ignorance with a kind of warrantise and in sort that none may reprehend or gainsay the same they affirme that all befals as God will and that nothing succeeds which springs not from his diuine pleasure But though this be neuer so apparant a truth yet are they worthie of reproofe because as not euerie kind of demaund sayth Aristotle is to be made after one fashion so not euerie aunswer though true is to be giuen Whilest a natural Philosopher reasoned with a Grammarian there came to them an inquisitiue Gardener and asked what the cause might be that he cherishing the earth so charilie in deluing turning dunging and watering it yet the same neuer well brought foorth the herbage which he sowed therein whereas the hearbes which she bred of her selfe she caused to increase with great facilitie The Grammarian aunswered This grew from the diuine prouidence and was so ordained thorow the good gouernment of the world at which answer the naturall Philosopher laughed seeing he reduced this to God because he knew not the discourse of naturall causes nor in what sort they proceeded to their effects The Grammarian perceiuing the other laugh asked whether he mocked him or wherat else he laughed The Philosopher answered that he laughed not at him but at the maister who taught him so ill for the knowledge and solution of things which spring from the diuine prouidence as are the workes supernaturall appertaine to the Metaphisicks whom we now tearme Diuines but this question propounded by the Gardener is naturall and appertaineth to the iurisdiction of the naturall Philosophers because there are certaine ordered and manifest causes from which this effect may spring And thus the naturall Philosopher answered saying that the earth is conditioned like a stepmother who very carefully brings vp her owne children which shee breeds her selfe but takes away the sustenance from those which appertaine to her husband and so we see that her owne children are fat and fresh and her step-children weake and ill coloured The hearbs which the earth brings foorth of her selfe are borne of her proper bowels and those which the Gardener makes to grow by force are the daughters of another mother wherethrough she takes from them the vertue and nourishment by which they ought to increase that she may giue it to the hearbs which are borne of her selfe Hippocrates likewise reports that he going to visit the great Philosopher Democritus he told him the follies which the vulgar speake of Phisicke namely that seeing themselues recouered from sicknesse they would say it was God who healed them and that if his wil were not little had the good diligence of the Phisition auailed This is so antient a manner of talke and the naturall Philosophers haue so often refuted it that the seeking to take the same away were superfluous neither is it conuenient for the vulgar who know not the particular causes of any effect answereth better and with more truth as touching the vniuersall cause which is God than to say some other vnfitting thing But I haue often gone about to consider the reason the cause whence it may grow that the vulgar sort is so great a friend to impute all things to God and to reaue them from nature do so abhor the naturall means and I know not whether I haue bene able to find it out The vulgar at least giues hereby to vnderstand that forasmuch as they know not what effects they ought to attribute to God immediatly and what to Nature they speake after this maner Besides that men are for the most part impatient and desirous to accomplish speedily what they couet But because the natural means are of such prolixitie and work with length of time they possesse not the patience to stand marking thereof and knowing that God is omnipotent and in a moment of time performeth whatsoeuer him pleaseth whereof they find many examples they would that he should giue thē health as he did to the sicke of the palsie and wisedome as to Salomon riches as to Iob and that he should deliuer them from their enimie as he did Dauid The second cause is for that men are arrogant and vaine conceited many of whom desire secretly in their hearts that God would bestow vpon them some particular graces which should not befall after the common vse as is that the sunne ariseth vpon the good and bad and that the rainè fals vpon all in generall for benefits are so much the more highly prized as they are the more rare
And for this cause we haue seene many men to feigne miracles in houses and places of deuotion for straightwaies the people flockes vnto them and holds them in great reuerence as persons of whome God makes a speciall account and if they be poore they fauour them with large almes and so some sinne vpon interest The third reason is that men haue a liking to be well at their ease whereas naturall causes are disposed with such order and conceit that to obtaine their effects it behooues to bestow labour Wherefore they would haue God demeane himselfe towards them after his omnipotencie and that without sweating they might come to the well-head of their desires I leaue aside the malice of those who require miracles at Gods hand thereby to tempt his almightinesse and to prooue whether he be able to do it and othersome who to be reuenged after their hearts desire cal for fire from heauen and such other cruell chastisements The last cause is for that many of the vulgar are reliligiously giuen and hold deere that God may be honored and magnified which is much sooner brought about by way of miracles than by naturall effects but the common sort of men know not that workes aboue nature and woonderfull are done by God to shew those who know it not that he is omnipotent and that he serues himselfe of them as an argument to prooue his doctrine and that this necessitie once ceasing he neuer doth it more This may well be perceiued considering that God dooth no longer those vnwoonted things of the new testament and the reason is for that on his behalfe he hath performed all necessarie diligence that men might not pretend ignorance And to thinke that he will begin anew to do the like miracles and by them once againe to prooue his doctrine in raising the dead restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame and sicke of the palsie is an errour very great for once God taught men what is behooffull and prooued the same by miracles but returnes not to do it any more God speakes once sayth Iob and turnes not to a second repliall The token whereon I ground my iudgement when I would discouer whether a man haue a wit appropriat to Naturall Philosophie is to see whether he be addicted to reduce all matters to miracle without distinction and contrariwise such as hold not themselues contented vntill they know the particular cause of euerie effect leaue no occasion to mistrust the goodnesse of their wit These doe well know that there are effects which must be reduced to God immediatly as miracles and others to nature and such are those which haue their ordinarie causes frō whence they accustome to spring but speaking both of the one manner and the other we alwaies place God for author for when Aristotle sayd that God and nature did nothing in vaine he meant not that nature was an vniuersall cause endowed with a iurisdiction seuered from God but that she was a name of the order and concent which God hath bestowed in the frame of the world to the end that the necessarie effects might follow for the preseruation thereof For in the same manner it is vsually sayd that the King and Ciuile Reason do no man wrong In which kind of speech no man conceiueth that this name Reason signifieth a Prince which possesseth a seuerall iurisdiction from that of the king but a terme which by his signification embraceth al the roiall lawes and constitutions ordained by the same king for the preseruation of his common wealth in peace And as the king hath his speciall cases reserued to himselfe which cannot be decided by the law for that they are vnusuall and waightie in like manner God left miraculous effects reserued for himself neither gaue allowance vnto naturall causes that they might produce them But here we must note that he who should know them for such and difference them from naturall workes behooues to be a great naturall Philosopher and to vnderstand the ordinary causes that euery effect may hold yet all this sufficeth not vnlesse the Catholike church ratifie them to be such And as the Doctors labour and studie in reading this ciuile Reason preseruing the whole in their memorie that they may know and vnderstand what the kings will was in the determination of such a case so we naturall Philosophers as doctors in this facultie bestow all our studie in knowing the discourse and order which God placed that day when he created the world so to contemplat and vnderstand in what sort and vpon what cause he would that things should succeed And as it were a matter worthy laughter that a doctor should alleage in his writings though approoued that the king commaunds a case should be thus determined without shewing the Law and Reason through which it was so decided so naturall Philosophers laugh at such as say This is Gods doing without assigning the order and discourse of the particular causes whēce they may spring And as the king wil giue them no eare when they require him to breake some iust law or to rule some case besides the order of iustice which he hath commaunded to be obserued so God will not hearken when any man demaunds of him myracles and workes besides naturall order without cause why For albeit the king euery day abrogates and establisheth new lawes and changeth iudiciall order as wel through the variation of times as for that it is the iudgement of a fraile man and cannot at one only time attain to perfect right and iustice notwithstanding the naturall order of the vniuerse which we call nature from that day wherein God created the world vnto this hath had no need of adioining or reauing any one iot because he framed the same with such prouidence and wisedome that to require this order might not be obserued were to say that his workes were vnperfect To returne then to that sentence so often vsed by naturall Philosophers that Nature makes able we must vnderstand that there are Wits and there are Abilities which God bestoweth vpon men besides naturall order as was the wisedome of the Apostles who being simple and of base account were miraculously enlightened and replenished with knowledge and learning Of this sort of abilitie wisdome it cannot be verefied that nature makes able for this is a worke which is to be imputed immediatly vnto God not vnto nature The like is to be vnderstood of the wisedome of the prophets and of all those to whome God graunted some grace infused Another sort of abilitie is found in men which springs of their being begotten with that order and consent of causes which are established by God to this end and of this sort it may be sayd with truth Nature makes able For as we will proue in the last chapter of this worke there is to be found such an order and consent in naturall things that if the fathers in time of procreation haue
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
him in the Paradise of pleasure to the end he might there worke and take it in charge For the power of God being infinit his knowledge beyond measure when he had a will to giue him all the naturall perfection that might be in mankinde we must thinke that neither the peece of earth of which he was framed nor the distemperature of the soile of Damascus where he was created could so gainsay him but that he made him temperat The opinion of Plato of Aristotle and of Galen take place in the works of nature and euen she also can somtimes euen in distemperat regions engender a person that shalbe temperat But that Adam had his haire and his beard abourne which is the first token of a temperat man manifestly appeareth For in respect of this so notorious signe he had that name Adam which is to say as S. Hierom interpreteth it a red man That he was faire wel fashioned which is the second token cannot in him be denied for when God created him the text saith God saw all things which he had made and they were verie good Then it falleth out certaine that he issued not from the hands of God foule and ill shaped for the works of God are perfect And so much the more for that the trees as the text saith were faire to behold Then what may we think of Adam whom God created to this principall end that he might be Lord and president of the world That he was vertuous wise and well conditioned which are the third and sixth signes is gathered out of these words Let vs make a man after our owne image and likenesse for by the antient Philosophers the foundation on which the resemblance that man hath with God is grounded are vertue wisdome Therfore Plato auoucheth that one of the greatest contentments which God receiueth in heauen is to see a vertuous and wise man praised and magnified vpon earth for such a one is his liuely purtraiture And contrariwise he groweth displeased when ignorant and vitious persons are held in estimation and honor which springeth from the vnlikenesse between God and them That he liued healthfull and a long space which are the fourth and fifth tokens is nothing difficult to prooue inasmuch as his daies were 930 yeares Where through I may now cōclude that the man who is abourn haired faire of meane stature vertuous healthfull and long lyued must necessarily be verie wise and endowed with a wit requisit for the scepter royall We haue also as by the way disclosed in what sort great vnderstanding may be vnited with much imagination and much memory albeit this may also come to passe and yet the man not be temperat But nature shapeth so few after this modell that I could neuer find but two amongst all the wits that I haue tried but how it can come to passe that great vnderstanding may vnite with much imagination and much memory in a man not temperat is a thing which easily may be conceiued if you presuppose the opinion of some Phisitions who affirme that the imagination resideth in the forepart of the braine the memorie in the hinder part and the vnderstanding in that of the middle And the like may be said in our imagination but it is a worke of great labour that the braine being when nature createth the same of the bignesse of a graine of pepper it should make one ventricle of seed verie hot another verie moist and the middle most of verie dry but in fine this is no impossible case CHAP. XV. In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning IT falleth out a matter worthie of maruaile that nature being such as we all know her wise wittie and of great art iudgement and force and mankind a worke of so speciall regard yet for one whome she maketh skilfull and wise she produceth infinit depriued of wit Of which effect my selfe searching the reason and naturall causes haue found in my iudgement that parents apply not themselues to the act of generation with that order and concert which is by nature established neither know the conditions which ought to be obserued to the end their children may prooue of wisedome and iudgement For by the same reason for which in any temperat or distemperat region a man should be borne very wittie hauing alwaies regard to the selfe order of causes there will 100000 prooue of slender capacitie now if by art we may procure a remedie for this we shall haue brought to the common-wealth the greatest benefit that she can receiue But the knot of this matter consisteth in that we cannot entreat hereof with tearms so seemly and modest as to the naturall shamefastnesse of man is requisit and if for this reason I should forbeare to note any part or contemplation that is necessarie for certaine the whole matter would be marred in sort that diuers graue Philosophers hold opinion how wise men ordinarily beget foolish children because in the act of copulation for honesties sake they abstaine from certaine diligences which are of importance that the sonne may partake of his fathers wisedome Some antient Philosophers haue laboured to search out the naturall reason of this naturall shame which the eyes conceiue when the instruments of generation are set before them and why the eares take offence to heare them named and they maruell to see that nature hath framed those parts with such diligence and carefulnesse and for an end of such importance as the immortalizing of mankind and yet the wiser a man is the more he groweth in dislike to behold or heare them spoken of Shame and honestie sayth Aristotle is the proper passion of the vnderstanding and who so resteth not offended at those terms and actions of generation giueth a sure token of his wanting that power as if we should say that he is blockish who putting his hand into the fire doth not feele the same to burne By this token Cato the elder discouered that Manilius a noble man was depriued of vnderstanding because it was told him that the other kissed his wife in presence of his daughter for which cause he displaced him out of the Senat and Manilius could neuer obtaine at his hands to be restored Out of this contemplation Aristotle frameth a probleme demaunding whence it grew that men who desire to satisfie their venerous lusts do yet greatly shame to confesse it and yet coueting to liue to eat or to perform any other such action they stagger not to acknowledge it to which probleme he shapeth a very vntoward answer saying Perhaps it commeth because the couetings of diuers things are necessary and some of them kill if they be not accomplished but the lust of venerous acts floweth from excesse and is token of abundance But in effect this probleme is false and the answer none other for a man not only shameth to manifest the desire he carrieth to companie with a woman but
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
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
with him from his mothers belly and lifting vp the one foot scrapes behind his eare and setting before him sundrie platters with wine water vinegre oile and milke after he hath smelt them all he fed onely on that of milke Which being beheld by diuers Philosophers there present they all with one voice cried out That Hippocrates had great reason to say that soules were skilfull without the instruction of any teacher But Galen held not himselfe contented with this one proofe for two months after he caused the same kid being very hungrie to be brought into the field where smelling at many hearbs he did eat only those whereon goats accustomably feed But if Galen as he set himselfe to contemplat the demeanure of this kid had done the like with three or foure together he should haue seene some gone better than other some shrug themselues better scratch better and performe better al the other actions which we haue recounted And if Galen had reared two colts bred of one horse and mare he should haue seene the one to pace with more grace than the other and to gallop and stop better and shew more fidelitie And if he had taken an ayrie of Faulcons and manned them he should haue found the first good of wing the second good of prey and the third rauening and ill conditioned The like shall we find in hounds who being whelpes of the same litter the one for perfection of hunting will seeme to want but speech and the other haue no more inclination therevnto than if he had bene engendered by a heardmans bandog All this cannot be reduced to those vaine instincts of nature which the Philosophers faine For if you aske for what cause one dog hath more instinct than another both comming of one kind and whelpes of one sire I cannot coniecture what they may answer saue to flie backe to their old leaning post saying That God hath taught the one better than the other and giuen him a more naturall instinct And if we demaund the reason why this good hound being yet but a whelpe is a perfect hunter and growing in age hath no such sufficiencie and contrariwise another being yoong cannot hunt at all and waxing old is wylie and readie I know not what they can yeeld in replie My selfe atleast would say that the towardly hunting of one dog more than an other growes from the better temperature of his brain and againe that his well hunting whilest he is yoong and his decay in age is occasioned by means that in one age he partakes the temperature which is requisit to the qualities of hunting and in the other not Whence we infer that sithens the temperature of the foure first qualities is the reason and cause for which one brute beast better performs the works of his kind than another that this temperature is the schoolemaister which teacheth the sensitiue soule what it is to do And if Galen had considered the demeanure and voiages of the Ant and noted his prudence his mercie his iustice and his gouernment he would haue taken astonishment to see a beast so little endewed with so great sagenesse without the helpe of any maister or teacher to instruct him But the temperature which the ant hath in his braine being knowne and how aptly it is appropriated to wisedome as hereafter shall be showne this woonderment will cease and we shall conceiue that brute beasts with the temperature of their braine and the fantasmes which enter thereinto by the fiue sences make such discourses and partake those abilities which we do so note in them And amongst beasts of one kind he which is most schooleable and skilfull is such because he hath his braine better tempered and if through any occasion or infirmitie the temperature of his braine incur alteration he will sodainly leese his skill and abilitie as men also do But now we are to treat of a difficultie touching the reasonable soule which is in what sort he hath this naturall instinct for the operations of his kind namely Sapience and Prudence and how on the sodaine by means of his good temperature a man can be skilled in the sciences without the instruction of any other seeing experience telleth vs that if they be not gotten by learning no man is at his birth endewed with them Betweene Plato and Aristotle there is a waightie question as touching the verefieng the reason or cause from whence the wisedome of man may spring One sayth That the reasonable soule is more antient than the bodie for that before such time as Nature endowed the same with these instruments it made abode in heauen in the company of God whence it issued full of science and sapience but when it entered to forme this matter through the euill temperature which it found therein it forewent the whole vntill by processe of time this ill temperature grew to amendment and there succeeded another in steed thereof with which as more appliable to the sciences it had lost it grew by little and little to call that to remembrance which before it had forgotten This opinion is false and I much maruel that Plato being so great a Philosopher could not render the reason of mans wisedome considering that brute beasts haue their prudencies and naturall habilities without that their soule departs from their bodie or sties vp to heauen to learne them In which regard he cannot go blamelesse especially hauing red in Genesis whereto he gaue so great credit that God instrumentalized the body of Adam before he created his soule The selfe-same befals also now saue that it is nature who begets the body and in the last disposing thereof God createth the soule in the same body without that it be sundred therefrom any time or moment Aristotle tooke another course affirming that euerie doctrine and euery discipline comes from a foregoing knowledge as if he would say all that which men know and learne springs from that they haue heard the same seene it smelt it tasted it or felt it For there can grow no notice in the vnderstanding which hath not first taken passage by some of the fiue sences For which cause he sayd that these powers issue out of the hands of nature as a plaine table in which is no maner of painting which opinion is also false as well as that of Plato But that we may the better prooue and make the same apparant it behooues first to agree with the vulgar Philosophers that in mans body there rests but one soule and that the same is reasonable which is the originall of whatsoeuer we do or effect albeit there are opinions and there want not who against this defend that in company of the reasonable soule there are associated some two or three more This then standing thus in the workes which the reasonable soule performes as it is vegetatiue we haue alreadie proued that the same knowes how to shape man and to giue him the figure which he
is to keepe and knowes likewise how to receiue nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to expell the excrements and if any part of the body do faile she knowes how to supplie the same a new and yeeld it that composition agreeable to the vse which it is to hold And in the works of the sensitiue and motiue the child so soone as it is borne knowes to sucke and fashion his lips to draw foorth the milke and this so redily as not the wisest man can do the like And herewithall it assures the qualities which are incident to the preseruation of his nature shuns that which is noisome and dammageable therevnto knowes to weepe and laugh without being taught by any And if this be not so let the vulgar Philosophers tell me awhile who hath taught the children to do these things or by what sence they haue learned it Well I know they will answer That God hath giuen them this naturall instinct as to the brute beasts wherein they say not ill if the naturall instinct be the selfe same with the temperature The proper operations of the reasonable soule namely to vnderstand to imagine and to performe actions of memorie a man cannot do them forthwith so soone as he is borne for the temperature of infancie serueth very vnfitly therefore and is meerely appropriat to the vegetatiue and sensitiue as that of old age is appropriat to the reasonable soule and contrary to the vegetatiue and sensitiue And if as the temperature which serues for prudence is gotten in the brain by little and little so the same could all be ioined together at one instant man should on the sodaine haue better skill to discourse and play the Philosopher than if he had attained the same in the schooles But because nature cannot performe this saue by processe of time a man growes to gather wisedome by little and little and that this is the reason and cause thereof is manifestly prooued if we consider that a man after he hath bene very wise growes by little and little into folly for that he daily goes till his decrepit age accrewing a contrary temperature I for mine owne part am of opinion that if nature as she hath made man of seed hot and moist and this is the temperature which directs the vegetatiue and the sensitiue what they are to effectuat so she had made him of seed cold and drie euen after his birth he should straight-waies haue bene able to discourse and reason and not haue attended to sucke in as much as this is the temperature agreeable to these operations But for that we find by experience that if the braine haue the temperature requisit for naturall sciences he hath no need of a maister to teach him it fals out necessarie that we marke one thing which is that if a man fall into any disease by which his braine vpon a sodaine changeth his temperature as are madnesse melancholy frenzie it happens that at one instant he leeseth if he were wise all his knowledge and vtters a thousand follies and if he were a foole he accrues more wit and abilitie than he had before I can speake of a rude countrie fellow who becomming frantike made a very eloquent discourse in my presence recommending his well dooing to the by-standers and that they should take care of his wife and children if it pleased God to call him away in that sicknesse with so many flowers of Rhethorike and such apt choise of words as if Cicero had spoken in the presence of the Senate whereat the beholders maruelling asked me whence so great eloquence and wisedome might grow in a man who in his health time could scantly speake and I remember I made answer That the art of Oratorie was a science which springs from a certaine point or degree of heat and that this countrie fellow before sound had by meanes of this infirmitie attayned therevnto I can also speake of another frantike person who for the space of more than eight daies neuer vttered word which I found not to carrie his iust quantitie and mostly he made couplements of verses very well composed whereat the by standers wondring to here a man speake in verse who in his health had neuer so much skill I sayd It sildome fell out that he who was a poet in his health time should be so also in his sicknesse For the temperature of the braine by which when a man is whole he becommeth a Poet in sicknesse altereth and brings foorth contrarie operations I remember that the wife of this frantike fellow and a sister of his named Margaret reprooued him because he spake ill of the saints whereat the patient growing impatient sayd to his wife these words I renounce God for the loue of you and S. Marie for the loue of Margaret and S. Peter for the loue of Iohn of Olmedo and so he ran thorow a beadroll of many saints whose names had consonance with the other by-standers there present But this is nothing and a matter of small importance in respect of the notable speeches vttered by a Page of one of the great ones of this real me whilst he was mad who in his health was reputed a youth of slender capacitie but falling into this infirmitie he deliuered such rare conceits resemblances and answers to such as asked him and deuised so excellent manners of gouerning a kingdome of which he imagined himselfe to be soueraigne that for great wonder people flocked to see him and heare him and his very maister scarcely euer departed from his beds head praying God that he might neuer be cured Which afterwards plainly appeared for being recouered his Phisition who had healed him came to take leaue of his lord with a mind to receiue some good reward if of nothing else yet at least in good words but he encountred this greeting I promise you maister doctor that I was neuer more aggreeued at any ill successe than to see this my page recouered for it was not behooffull that he should change so wise folly for an vnderstanding so simple as is this which in his health he enioieth Me-thinks that of one who to fore was wise and well aduised you haue made him a foole againe which is the greatest miserie that may light vpon any man The poore Phisition seeing how little thankfully his cure was accepted went to take leaue of the page who amongst many other words that passed betweene them told him this Maister doctor I kisse your hands for so great a benefit bestowed on me in restoring mine vnderstanding but I assure you on my faith that in some sort it displeaseth me to haue bene cured For whilest I rested in my folly I led my life in the deepest discourses of the world and imagined my selfe to great a lord as there raigned no king on the earth who was not my vassall and were this a ieast or a lie what imported that whilest I conceiued thereof so
great a contentment as if it had bene true I rest now in far woorse case finding my selfe in troth to be but a poore page and to morrow I must begin againe to serue one who whilst I was in mine infirmitie I would haue disdayned for my footman It skils not much whether the Philosophers admit all this and beleeue that it may be so or not but what if I should prooue by verie true stories that ignorant men strooken with this infirmitie haue spoken Latine which they neuer learned in their health and that a franticke woman told all persons who came to visit her their vertues and vices and sometimes reported matters with that assurance which they vse to giue who speake by coniectures and tokens and for this cause none almost durst come in to visite her fearing to heare of those true tales which she would deliuer and which is more to be maruelled at when a barber came to let her blood Friend quoth she haue regard what you do for you haue but few daies to liue and your wife shall marrie such a man and this though spoken by chaunce fell out so true as it tooke effect before halfe a yeare came to an end Me thinks I heare them who flie natural Philosophy to say that this is a foule leasing that put case it were true the diuell as he is wise and craftie by Gods sufferance entred into this womans body and into the rest of those frantike persons whom I haue mentioned and caused them to vtter those strange matters and yet euen to confesse this they are very loath for the diuell foreknoweth not what is to come because he hath no propheticall spirit They hold it a very sufficient argument to auouch This is false because I cannot conceiue how it may be so as if difficult quaint matters were subiect to blunt wits and came within the reach of their capacities I pretend not hereby to take those to taske who haue defect of vnderstanding for that were a bootlesse labour but to make Aristotle himselfe confesse that men endowed with the temperature requisit for such operations may conceiue many things without hauing receiued thereof any particular perseuerance or learned the same at the hands of any other Sundry also because this heat is a neighbour to the seat of the mind are wrapped in the infirmitie of sottishnesse or are heated by some furious instinct whence grew the Sibils and Bacchants and all those who men thinke are egged on by some diuine inspiration whereas this takes his originall not from any disease but from a naturall distemperature Marcus a citizen of Siracusa was excellentest poet after he lost his vnderstanding and those in whom this abated heat approcheth least to mediocritie are verely altogether melancholike but thereby much the wiser In these words Aristotle cleerely confesseth that when the braine is excessiuely heated many thereby attaine the knowledge of things to come as were the Sibils which Aristotle sayth growes not by reason of any disease but thorow the inequalitie of the naturall heat and that this is the very reason and cause thereof he proues apparantly by an example alleaging that Mark a citizen of Siracuse was a Poet in most excellencie at such time as through excessiue heat of the braine he fell besides himselfe and when he returned to a more moderat temperature he lost his versifying but yet remayned more wise and aduised In so much that Aristotle not only admits the temperature of the braine for the principall occasion of these extrauagant successes but also reprooues them who hold the same for a diuine reuelation and no naturall cause The first who tearmed these maruellous matters by the name of diuinesse was Hippocrates and that if any such point of diuinesse be found in the disease that it manifesteth also a prouidence Vpon which sentence he chargeth Phisitions that if the diseased vtter any such diuine matters they may thereby know in what case she rests and prognosticate what will become of him But that which in this behalfe driues me to most woonder is that demaunding of Plato how it may come to passe that of two sonnes begotten by one father one hath the skill of versifying without any other teaching and the other toiling in the art of poetrie can neuer beget so much as one verse he answereth That he who was borne a Poet is possessed and the other not In which behalfe Aristotle had good cause to find fault with him for that he might haue reduced this to the temperature as else where he did The frantike persons speaking of Latine without that he euer learned the same in his health time shewes the consonance which the Latin toong holds with the reasonable soule and as we will prooue hereafter there is to be found a particular wit appliable to the inuention of languages and Latine words the phrases of speech in that toong are so fitting with the eare that the reasonable soule possessing the necessarie temperature for the inuention of some delicat language sodainly encounters with this And that two deuisers of languages may shape the like words hauing the like wit and habilitie it is very manifest presupposing that when God created Adam and set all things before him to the end he might bestow on each his seuerall name whereby it should be called he had likewise at that instant molded another man with the same perfection and supernaturall grace now I demaund if God had placed the same things before this other man that he might also set them names whereby they should be called of what manner those names should haue bene for mine owne part I make no doubt but he would haue giuen these things those very names which Adam did and the reason is very apparant for both carried one selfe eye to the nature of each thing which of it selfe was no more but one After this manner might the frantike person light vpon the Latine toong and speake the same without euer hauing learned it in his health for the naturall temperature of his braine conceiuing alteration through the infirmitie it might for a space become like his who first inuented the Latine toong and faine the like words but yet not with that concert and continued finenesse for this would giue tokē that the diuel moued that toong as the church teacheth hir exorcists This selfe sayth Aristotle befel some children who at their birth-time spake some words very plainly and afterward kept silence and he finds fault with the vulgar Philosophers of his time who for that they knew not the naturall cause of this effect imputed it to the diuell The cause why children speake so soone as they are borne and after foorthwith turne to hold their peace Aristotle could neuer find out though he went much about it but yet it could neuer sinke into his braine that it was a deuise of the diuels nor an effect aboue nature as the vulgar Philosophers held opinion who
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
layd vp therein Besides this we sayd that the vnderstanding and the memorie are contrarie powers and that the one chaceth away the other for the one loueth great drinesse and the other much moisture and a supplenesse of the braine And if this be true wherefore sayd Aristotle and Plato That men who haue their flesh tender enioy great vnderstanding seeing this supplenes is an effect of moisture We sayd also that for effecting that a memorie may be good it was necessary the braine should be endowed with moisture for the figures ought to be printed therein by way of compression and the same being hard they cannot so easily make a signe therein True it is that to receiue figures with readinesse it requireth that the braine be pliant but to preserue the shapes some long time all affirme that it is necessarie the same be hard and drie as it appeareth in outward things where the figure printed in a pliant substance is easily cancelled but in the drie and hard it neuer perisheth Wherethrough we see many men who con by heart with great readinesse but forget againe very speedily Of which Galen rendering a reason sayth that such through much moisture haue the substance of their braine tender and not setled for the figure is soone cancelled as if it were sealed in water And contrariwise other learne by heart with difficultie but what they haue once learned they neuer forget againe Wherethrough it seemeth a matter impossible that there should be that difference of memorie which we speake of which should learne with ease and preserue a long time It is also hard to vnderstand how it is possible that so many figures being sealed together in the braine the one should not cancell the other for if in a peece of softned wax there be printed many seales of diuers figures it fals out certaine that some cancell other some by the intermingling of these figures And that which breedeth no lesse difficultie is to know whence it proceedeth that the memorie by exercising it selfe becommeth the more easie to receiue figures it being certaine that not only bodily exercise but spirituall much more drieth and soketh the flesh It is also hard to conceiue in what sort the imagination is contrary to the vnderstanding if there be none other more vrgent cause than to say That excessiue heat resolueth the subtile parts of the braine leauing an earthly and grosse remnant seeing that Melancholy is one of the grossest and earthliest humours of our body And Aristotle sayth That the vnderstanding vseth the seruice of none so much as of that And this difficultie is encreased considering that melancholie is a grosse humor cold and drie and choler is of a delicat substance and of temperature hot and drie and yet for all this melancholy is more appropriat to the vnderstanding than choler Which seemeth repugnant to reason for this humour aideth the vnderstanding with two qualities and gainsetteth it selfe only with one which is heat But melancholie aydeth it with his drinesse and with none other and opposeth it selfe by his cold and by his grosse substance which is a thing that the vnderstanding most abhorreth For which cause Galen assigneth more wit and prudence to choler than to melācholy saying thus Readinesse and Prudence spring from the humour of choler and the melancholicke humour is author of integritie and constancie Lastly the cause may be demaunded whence it may grow that toiling and continuall contemplation of studie maketh many wise in whome at the beginning the good nature of these qualities which we speake of was wanting and so by giuing and receiuing with the imagination they come to make themselues capable of many verities which tofore they knew not nor had the temperature which thereto was requisit For if they had possessed the same so much labour should not haue ben needfull All these difficulties and many other besides are contrarie to the doctrine of the last chapter For natural Philosophie hath not so certaine principles as the Mathematicall sciences wherein the Phisition and the Philopher if he be also a Mathematician may alwaies make demonstration but comming afterwards to the cure which is conformable to the art of Phisicke he shall commit therein many errours and yet not alwaies thorow his own fault sithens in the Mathematicks he alwaies followed a certaintie but through the little assurance of the art for which cause Aristotle said The Phisition though he alwaies cure not is not therefore a bad one prouided that he foreslow not to performe any of those points which appertaine to the art But if he should commit any errour in the Mathematicks he would be void of excuse For performing in this science all the diligences which it requireth it is impossible that the truth should not appeare In sort that albeit we yeeld not a manifest demonstration of this doctrine yet the whole fault is not to be layd on our want of capacitie neither may it straightwaies be recounted as false that we deliuer To the first principal doubt we answer that if the vnderstanding were seuered frō the body and had nought to do with heat cold moist and drie nor with the other bodily qualities it would follow that al men should partake equall vnderstanding and that all should equally discourse But we see by experience that one man vnderstandeth and discourseth better than another then this groweth for that the vnderstāding is an instrumentall power and better disposed in one than in another and not from any other occasion For all reasonable soules and their vnderstandings sundered from the body are of equall perfection and knowledge Those who follow Aristotles doctrine seeing by experience that some discourse better than othersome haue found an excuse in apparence saying That the discoursing of one better than another is not caused for that the vnderstanding is an instrumentall power that the braine is better disposed in some than in othersome but for that the vnderstanding whilst the reasonable soule remaineth in the body standeth in need of the fantasmes and figures which are in the imagination and in the memorie Through default whereof the vnderstanding fals to discourse illy and not through his own fault nor for that it is ioyned with a matter badly instrumentalized But this answer is contrary to the doctrine of Aristotle himselfe who proueth that by how much the memorie is the woorse by so much the vnderstanding is the better and by how much the memorie is bettered by so much the vnderstanding is impaired and the same we haue heretofore prooued as touching the imagination in confirmation of that which Aristotle demaundeth What the cause is that we waxing old haue so bad a memorie and so good an vnderstanding and when we are yoong it fals out contrarie that we possesse a great memorie and small vnderstanding Hereof in one thing we see the experience and Galen noteth it that when in a disease the temperature and good disposition of the braine is
walke not in this path and ground not themselues on naturall philosophie vtter a thousand follies but yet hence it cannot be concluded that if the reasonable soule partake griefe and sorrow for that his nature is altered by contrarie qualities therefore the same is corruptible or mortall For ashes though they be compounded of the foure elementes and of action and power yet there is no naturall agent in the world which can corrupt thē or take from them the qualities that are agreeable to their nature The naturall temperature of ashes we all know to be cold and drie but though we cast them neuer so much into the fire they will not leese their radicall coldnesse which they enioy and albeit they remaine 100000. yeeres in the water it is impossible that being taken thence they hold any naturall moisture of their owne and yet for all this we cannot but grant that by fire they receiue heat and by water moisture But these two qualities are superficial in the ashes and endure a small time in the subiect for taken from the fire forthwith they become cold and from the water they abide not moyst an houre But there is offered a doubt in this discourse and reasoning of the rich Glutton with Abraham and that is How the soule of Abraham was indowed with better reason than that of the rich man it being alleaged before that all reasonable soules issued out of the bodie are of equall perfection and knowledge whereto we may answere in one of these two manners The first is that the Science and knowledge which the soule purchaseth whilest it remaineth in the bodie is not lost when a man dieth but rather groweth more perfect for he is freed from some errors The soule of Abraham departed out of this life replenished with wisedome and with many reuelations and secrets which God communicated vnto him as his very friend but that of the rich glutton it behooued that of necessitie it should depart away ignorant first by reason of his sinne which createth ignorance in a man and next for that riches heerein worke a contrarie effect vnto pouertie this giueth a man wit as heereafter we may well prooue and prosperitie reaueth it away There may also another answere be giuen after our doctrine and it is this that the matter of which these two soules disputed was schoole diuinitie For to know whether abiding in hell there were place for mercie and whether Lazarus might passe vnto hell and whether it were conuenient to send a deceased person to the world who should giue notice to the liuing of the torments which the damned there indured are all schoole-points whose decision appertaineth to the vnderstanding as heereafter I will make proofe and amongst the first qualities there is none which so much garboileth this power as excessiue heat with which the rich Glutton was so tormented But the soule of Abraham made his abode in a place most temperate where it inioyed great delight and refreshment and therefore it bred no great woonder that the same was better able to dispute I concluding then that the reasonable soule and the diuell in their operations vse the seruice of materiall qualities and that by some they rest agreeued and by other some they receiue contentment And for this reason they couet to make abode in some places and flie from some other and yet notwithstanding are not corruptible CHAP. VIII How there may be assigned to euerie difference of wit his Science which shalbe correspondent to him in particular and that which is repugnant and contrarie be abandoned ALl artes saith Cicero are placed vnder certaine vniuersall principles which being learned with studie and trauaile finally we so grow to attaine vnto them but the art of poesie is in this so speciall as if God or nature make not a man a Poet little auailes it to deliuer him the precepts and rules of versifieng For which cause he said thus The studying and learning of other matters consisteth in precepts and in artes but a Poet taketh the course of nature it selfe and is stirred vp by the forces of the minde and as it were inflamed by a certaine diuine spirit But heerein Cicero swarued from reason for verily there is no Science or Art deuised in the common-wealth which if a man wanting capacitie for himselfe to apply he shall reape anie profit thereof albeit he toyle all the daies of his life in the precepts and rules of the same But if he applie himselfe to that which is agreeable with his naturall abilitie we see that he will learne in two daies The like we say of Poesie without any difference that if hee who hath anie answerable nature giue himselfe to make verses he performeth the same with great perfection and if otherwise he shall neuer be good Poet. This being so it seemeth now high time to learne by way of Art what difference of Science is answerable in particular to what difference of wit to the end that euerie one may vnderstand with distinction after he is acquainted with his owne nature to what Art he hath a naturall disposition The Arts and Sciences which are gotten by the memorie are these following Latine Grammer or of whatsoeuer other language the Theoricke of the lawes Diuinitie positiue Cosmography and Arithmeticke Those which appertaine to the vnderstanding are Schoole diuinitie the Theoricke of Phisicke logicke natural and morall Philosophy and the practicke of the lawes which we tearme pleading From a good imagination spring all the Arts and Sciences which consist in figure correspondence harmonie and proportion such are Poetrie Eloquence Musicke and the skill of preaching the practise of Phisicke the Mathematicals Astrologie and the gouerning of a Common-wealth the art of Warfare Paynting drawing writing reading to be a man gratious pleasant neat wittie in managing all the engins deuises which artificers make besides a certain speciall gift whereat the vulgar maruelleth and that is to endite diuers matters vnto foure who write togither and yet all to be penned in good sort Of all this we cannot make euident demonstration nor proue euerie point by it selfe For it were an infinite peece of worke notwithstanding by making proofe thereof in three or foure Sciences the same reason will afterwardes preuaile for the rest In the catalogue of Sciences which we said appertained to the memorie we placed the latine tongue and such other as all the nations in the world do speake the which no wise man wil denie for tongues were deuised by men that they might communicate amongst themselues and expresse one to another their conceits without that in them there lie hid any other mistery or naturall principles for that the first deuisers agreed togither and after their best liking as Aristotle saith framed the words and gaue to euerie ech his signification From hence arose so great a number of wordes and so manie maners of speech so farre besides rule and reason that if a man had not a good
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
be able to discouer to the world the comming of his sonne and haue the way to prooue and persaude That Christ was the Messias and promised in the law For making him of great vnderstanding of much imagination it fell out of necessitie keeping the naturall order that he should also make him cholericke and adust And that this is true may easily be vnderstood by him who considereth the great fire furie with which he persecuted the church the greefe conceiued by the synagogues when they saw him conuerted as they who had forgone a man of high importance and of whom the contrarie partie had made a gainfull purchace It is also knowen by the tokens of the reasonable choler with which he spake and answered the deputy Consuls and the Iudges who had arrested him defending his owne person and the name of Christ with so great aâ—t and readinesse as he conuinced them all yet he had an imperfection in his tongue and was not very prompt of speech which Aristotle affirmeth to be a property of the melancholicke by adustion The vices wherto he confessed himselfe to be subiect before his conuersion shew him to haue been of this temperature he was a blasphemer a wrong doer and a persecutor all which springeth from abundance of heat But the most euident signe which shewed that he was cholericke adust is gathered from that battaile which himselfe confesseth he had within himselfe betwixt his part superiour inferiour saying I see another law in my members striuing against the law of my minde which leadeth me into the bondage of sinne And this selfe contention haue we prooued by the mind of Aristotle to be in the melancholicke by adustion True it is that some expound very well that this battaile groweth from the disorder which originall sinne made betweene the spirit and the flesh albeit being such and so great I beleue also that it springs from the choler adust which he had in his naturall constitution for the roiall prophet Dauid participated equally of original sin and yet complained not so much as did S. Paul but saith that he found the inferiour portion accorded with his reason when he would reioice with God My heart saith he and my flesh ioyed in the liuing God and as we will touch in the last chapter saue one Dauid possessed the best temperature that nature could frame and heereof we will make proofe by the opinion of all the Philosophers that the same ordinarily enclineth a man to be vertuous without any great gainstriuing of the flesh The wits then which are to be sorted out for preachers are first those who vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie whose signes shalbe expressed in the last chapter saue one Where such want there succeede in their roome the melancholicke by adustion Those vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination but suffer defect of memorie wherthrough they are not stored with copie of words nor can preach with full store in presence of the people In the third rancke succeed men of great vnderstanding but defectiue in their imagination and memorie These shall haue but a bad grace in preaching yet will preach sound doctrine The last whom I would not charge with preaching at all are such as vnite much memorie with much imagination and haue defect of vnderstanding These draw the auditorie after them and hold them in suspense and well pleased but when they least misdoubt it they fetch a turne to the holy house for by way of their sweet discourses and blessings they beguile the innocent CHAP. XI That the Theoricke of the lawes appertaineth to the memorie and pleading and iudging which are their practise to the vnderstanding and the gouerning of a common-wealth to the imagination IN the Spanish toung it is not void of a mysterie that this word Lettered being a common tearme for all men of letters or learning as well Diuines as Lawyers Phisitions Logicians Philosophers Orators Mathematicians and Astrologers yet in saying that such a one is learned we all vnderstand it by common sence that he maketh profession of the lawes as if this were their proper and peculiar title and not of the residue The aunswer of this doubt though it be easie yet to yeeld the same such as is requisit it behooueth first to be acquainted what law is and wherevnto they are bound who set themselues to studie that profession that afterwards they may imploie the same to vse when they are iudges or pleaders The law who so well considereth thereof is nought else but a reasonable will of the law maker by which he declareth in what sort he will that the cases which happen dayly in the common wealth be decided for preseruing the subiects in peace and directing them in what sort they are to liue what things they are to refraine I sayd a reasonable will because it sufficeth not that the king or emperour who are the efficient cause of the lawes declaring his will in what sort soeuer doth thereby make it a law for if the same be not iust and grounded vpon reason it cannot be called a law neither is it euen as he cannot be tearmed a man who wanteth a reasonable soule Therefore it is a matter established by common accord that kings enact their lawes with assent of men very wise and of sound iudgement to the end they may be right iust and good and that the subiects may receiue them with good will and be the more bound to obserue and obey them The materiall cause of the law is that it consist of such cases as accustomably befall in the common wealth according to the order of nature and not of things impossible or such as betide very sildome The finall cause is to order the life of man and to direct him what he is to do and what to forbeare to the end that being conformed to reason the common wealth may be preserued in peace For this cause we see that the lawes are written in plaine words not doubtfull nor obscure nor of double vnderstanding without ciphers and without abbreuiations and so easie and manifest that whosoeuer shall read them may readily vnderstand and retaine them in memorie And because no man should pretend ignorance they are publikely proclaymed that whosoeuer afterward breaketh them may be chastised In respect therefore of the care and diligence which the good law makers vse that their lawes may be iust and plaine they haue giuen in charge to the iudges and pleaders that in actions or iudgements none of them follow his owne sence but suffer himselfe to be guided by the authoritie of the lawes as if they should say We commaund that no iudge or aduocat imploy his conceit nor intermeddle in deciding whether the law be iust or vniust nor yeeld it any other sence than that that is contained in the text of the letter So it followeth that the lawyers are to construe the text of the law and to take that
behooueth to feed a whole moneth vpon contrarie meats And after this reckoning to deface the qualities that Manna brought into the seed in the space of 40 yeares there need 4000 and vpward And if any man will not herewith rest satisfied let vs say that as God brought out of Aegypt the 12 tribes of Israell so he had taken then 12 male and 12 female Moores of Aethiopia and had placed them in our countrie in how many yeares thinke we would these Moores and their posteritie linger to leaue their natiue colour not mixing themselues the while with white persons to me it seemeth a long space of yeares would be requisit For though 200 yeares haue passed ouer our heads sithens the first Aegyptians came out of Aegypt into Spaine yet their posteritie haue not forlorne that their delicacie of wit and promptnesse nor yet that rosted colour which their auncestors brought with them from Aegypt Such is the force of mans seed when it receiueth thereinto any well rooted qualitie And as in Spaine the Moores communicat the colour of their elders by means of their seed though they be out of Aethiopia so also the people of Israel comming frō thence may communicat to their descendents their sharpenesse of wit without remaining in Aegypt or eating Manna for to be ignorant or wise is as well an accident in man as to be blacke or white True it is that they are not now so quicke and prompt as they were a thousand yeares since for from the time that they left to eat Manna their posterity haue euer lessened hitherto because they vsed contrarie meats and inhabited countries different from Aegypt neither dranke waters of such delicacie as in the wildernesse As also by mingling with those who descended from the Gentils who wanted this difference of wit but that which cannot be denied them is that as yet they haue not lost it altogither CHAP. XIII By what meanes it may be shewed to what difference of abilitie the art of warfare appertaineth and by what signes the man may be knowen who is endowed with this maner of wit WHat is the cause saith Aristotle that seeing Fortitude is not the greatest of all vertues but Iustice and Prudence are greater than it yet the commonwealth and in a maner all men with a common consent do make greater accompt and within themselues do more honour a valiant man than either the iust or wise though placed in neuer so high callings or offices To this probleme Aristotle answereth saying there is no king in the world who doth not either make war or maintain war against some other and for somuch as the valiant procure them glorie and empire take reuenge on their enemies and preserue their estate they yeeld chiefest honour not to the principall vertue which is Iustice but to that by which they reap most profit and aduantage For if they did not in this wise intreat the valiant how were it possible that kings should find captains and souldiours who would willingly ieopard their liues to defend their goods and estates Of the Asiaticans it is recounted that there was a people inhabiting a part therof who bare themselues verie couragiously and being asked why they had neither king nor law they made answer that laws made men cowards and seeing it was necessarie to vndergoe the hazard of the wars for depriuing another of his estate they made choice to fight for their own behoofe and themselues to reap the benefit of the victorie But this was an answer rather of barbarous men than reasonable people who well know that without a king without a common-wealth and without lawes it is impossible to preserue men in peace That which Aristotle said serueth verie well to the purpose though there be a better answer to be framed namely That when Rome honoured her captains with those triumphs and solemnities she did not only reward the courage of the triumpher but also the iustice with which he maintained his armie in peace and concord the wisdome with which he performed his enterprises and their temperancy vsed in abstaining from wine women and meat which trouble the iudgement and turne counsels into error Yea wisdome is more highly to be regarded and rewarded in a generall than courage and manlinesse for as Vegetius well said Few ouer couragious captains bring their enterprises to luckie passe Which groweth for that wisdome is more necessarie in warre than courage in bickering but Vegetius could neuer attain to the notice what maner of wisdom this is neither could plot down with what difference of wit he ought to be endowed who taketh charge in war Neither do I ought maruell thereat for the maner of philosophie wheron this dependeth was not then deuised True it is that to verefie this point answereth not our first intent which purporteth to make choice of apt wits for learning But martiall affaires are so dangerous and of so deep counsell and it falleth out a matter so important for a king to know well vnto whom he credit his power and state that we shall perform no lesse thanks worthie a part of seruice to the common wealth to teach this difference of wit and his signs than in the other which we haue alreadie described For which cause we must note that Malitia and Militia vz. martiall matters and malice haue as it were one selfe name and likewise one selfe definition For changing a into i of malitia you make militia and of militia malitia with great facilitie What the nature and propertie of malice is Cicero teacheth saieng Malice is a way of hurting craftie and full of guile In warre likewise nothing falleth so much into cōsideration as how to offend the enimie and defend ourselues from his entrappings Therefore the best propertie whereof a Generall can be possessed is to be malicious with his enemie and neuer to construe any his demeanures to a good sense but to the worst that may be and to stand on his guard Beleeue not sayth Ecclesiasticus thine enimie with his lips he sweetneth and in his hart he betraieth thee to make thee fall into the dike he weepeth with his cies and if he light vpon a fit occasion he will not be satisfied with thy blood Hereof we find a manifest example in the holy scripture for the people of Israel being besieged in Bethulia and straightned with hunger and thirst that famous lady Iudith issued out with a resolution to kill Holofernes and going towards the armie of the Assirians she was taken by the sentinels and guards and being asked whether she was bound made answere with a two-fold mind I am a daughter of the Hebrues whom you hold besieged and flie onto you for I haue learned that they shall fall into your hands and that you shall euill intreat them because they would not yeeld themselues to your mercy therefore I determined to flie vnto Holofernes and to discouer vnto him the secrets of this obstinat people shewing him how he may
the Diuines Originall Iustice by which they come to represse the brunts of the inferiour portion and the part reasonable remaineth superiour and enclined to vertue But when our first parents offended they lost this qualitie and the irascible and concupiscible remained in their nature and superiour to reason in respect of the strength of the three members that we spake of and man rested readie euen from his youth vnto euill Adam was created in the age of youth which after the Physitions is the most temperat of all the residue and from that age foorth he was enclined to euilnes sauing that little time whilst he preserued himselfe in grace by originall iustice From this doctrine we gather in good naturall Philosophie that if a man be to performe any action of vertue to the gainsaieng of the flesh it is impossible that he can put the same in execution without outward ayd of grace for the qualities with which the inferiour power worketh are of greater efficacie I sayd with gainsaying of the flesh because there are many vertues in man which grow for that he hath his powers of wrath and concupiscence feeble as chastitie in a cold person but this is rather an impotencie of operation than a vertue for which cause had not the catholicke church taught vs that without the speciall aid of God we could not haue ouercome our owne nature Philosophie naturall would so haue learned vs namely that grace comforteth our wil. That then which Galen would haue sayd was that a temperat man exceedeth in vertue all others who want this good temperature for the same is lesse prouoked by the inferiour part The fifth propertie which those of this temperature possesse is to be very long liued for they are strong to resist the causes and occasions which engender diseases and this was that which the roiall prophet Dauid meant The daies of our age in themselues are seuentie yeares but if in the potentates there be eightie or more it is their paine and sorrow as if he should say The number of yeares which men ordinarily do liue arriue vnto seuentie and if potentates reach vnto eightie those once passed they are dead on their feet He tearmeth those men potentates who are of this temperature for more than any other they resist the causes which abridge the life Galen layeth downe the last token sayeng that they are very wise of great memorie for things passed of great imagination to foresee those to come and of great vnderstanding to find out the truth of all matters They are not malicious not wily not cauillers for these spring from a temperature that is vitious Such a wit as this assuredly was not framed by nature to addict it selfe vnto the studie of the Latine tongue Logicke Philosophie Phisicke Diuinitie or the Lawes for put case he might easily attaine these sciences yet none of them can fully replenish his capacitie only the office of a king is in proportion answerable therevnto and in ruling and gouerning ought the same solely to be imploied This shal easilie be seene if you run ouer the tokens and properties of a temperat man which we haue laid downe by taking into consideration how fitly ech of them squareth with the roiall scepter and how impertinent they shew for the other arts and sciences That a king be faire and gratious is one of the things which most inuiteth his subiects to loue him and wish him well For the obiect of loue saith Plato is beautie and a seemly proportion and if a king be hardly fauoured and badly shaped it is impossible that his subiects can beare him affection rather they reake it a shame that a man vnperfect and void of the gifts of nature should haue sway and commaundement ouer them To be vertuous and of good conditions easily may we gather how greatly it importeth for he who ought to order the liues of his subiects and deliuer vnto them rules and lawes to liue conformably to reason it is requisit that he performe the same also in his owne person for as the king is such are the great the meane and the inferiour persons Moreouer by this means he shall make his commandements the more authenticall and with the better title may chastise such as do not obserue them To enioy a perfection in all the powers which gouern man namely the generatiue nutritiue wrathfull and reasonable is more necessarie in a king than any artiste whatsoeeuer For as Plato deliuereth in a well ordered common-wealth there should be appointed certain surueiours who might with skill looke into the qualities of such persons as are to be married and giue to him a wife answerable vnto him in proportion and to euerie wife a conuenient husband Through this diligence the principall end of matrimonie should not become vaine for we see by experience that a woman who could not conceiue of her first husbād marrying another straghtwaies beareth children and many men haue no children by their first wife taking another speedily come to be fathers Now this skill saith Plato is principally behooffull in the marriage of kings for it being a matter of such importance for the peace and quiet of the kingdome that the Prince haue lawfull children to succeed in the estate it may so fall that the king marrying at all aduentures shall take a barraine woman to wife with whom he shal be combred all daies of his life without hope of issue And if he decease without heires of his body straightwaies it must be decided by ciuill wars who shall command next after him But Hippocrates saith this art is necessarie for men that are distemperat and not for those who partake this perfect temperature by vs described These need no special choice in their wife nor to search out which may answere them in proportion for whom soeuer they marry withal saith Galen forthwith they beget issue but this is vnderstood when the wife is sound and of the age wherein women by order of nature may conceiue and bring forth in sort that fruitfulnesse is more requisit in a king than in any artist whatsoeuer for the reasons tofore alleaged The nutritiue power saith Galen if the same be gluttonous greedy and bibbing it springeth for that the liuer and stomack want the temperature which is requisit for their operations and for this cause men become riotous and short liued But if these members possesse their due temperature and composition the selfe Galen affirmeth that they couet no greater quantitie of meat and drink than is conuenient for preseruation of life Which propertie is of so great importance for a king that God holdeth that land for blessed to whose lot such a Prince befalleth Blessed is the land saith he in Ecclesiasticus whose king is noble and whose princes feed in due times for their refreshment and not for riotousnesse Of the wrathful facultie if the same be extended or remisse it is a token saith Galen that the heart is ill composed and partaketh
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
hot and dry but if the flesh appeareth white and well coloured it argueth little heat and much moisture The haire beard are a marke also not to be ouerslipped for these two approch very neere to the temperature of the cods And if the haire be very blacke and big and specially from the ribs down to the nauell it deliuereth an infallible token that the cods partake much of hot and dry and if there grow some haire also vpon the shoulders the same is so much the more confirmed But when the haire and beard are of chesse-nut colour soft delicat and thin it inferreth not so great plenty of heat and drinesse in the cods Men very hot and dry are neuer faire saue by miracle but rather hard-fauored and ill shaped for the heat and drinesse as Aristotle affirmeth of the Ethiopians wrieth the proportion of the face and so they become disfigured Contrariwise to be seemly and gratious prooueth a measurable hot and moist for which cause the matter yeelded it selfe obedient whereto nature would employ it Whence it is manifest that much beautie in a man is no token of much heat Touching the signes of a temperat man we haue sufficiently discoursed in the chapter foregoing and therefore it shall not be needfull to reply the same againe It sufficeth only to note that as the Phisitions place in euery degree of heat three degrees of extention so also in a temperat man we are to set down the largenesse and amplenesse of three other And he who standeth in the third next to cold and moist shalbe reputed cold and moyst for when a degree passeth the meane it resembleth the other and that this is true we manifestly find for the signs which Galen deliuereth vs to know a man cold and moist are the selfe same of the temperat man but somewhat more remisse so is he wise of good conditions and vertuous he hath his voice cleare sweet is white skinned of flesh good and supple without haire and if it haue any the same is little and yellow such are very well fauoured and faire of countinaunce but Galen affirmeth that their seed is moist and vnfit for generation these are no great friends to women nor women vnto them What women ought to marrie with what man that they may haue children §. 2. TO a woman who beareth not children when she is married Hippocrates commaundeth that two points of diligence be vsed to know whether it be her defect or that it grow because the seed of her husband is vnable for generation The first is to make her suffumigations with incense or Storax with a garment close wrapped about her which may hang downe on the ground in sort that no vapour or fume may issue out and if within a while after she feele the sauour of the incense in her mouth it yeeldeth a certaine token that the barrennesse commeth not through her defect in as much as the same found the passages of the bellie open wherethrough it pearced vp to the nosthrils and the mouth The second is to take a garlicke head clean pilled and put the same into the bellie what time the woman goeth to sleepe and if the next day she feele in her mouth the sent of the garlicke she is of her selfe fruitful without any default But albeit these two proofs performe the effect which Hippocrates speaketh of namely that the vapour pierce from the inner part vp to the mouth yet the same argueth not an absolute barrennesse in the husband nor an intire fruitfulnesse in the wife but an vnapt corrispondence of both wherethrough she proueth as barren for him as he for her which we see to fall out in dayly experience for the man taking another wife begetteth children and which encreaseth the maruell in such as are not seene in that point of naturall Philosophie is that if these two separat each from other vpon pretence of impotencie and so he take another wife and she another husband it hath bene found that both haue had children And this groweth because there are some men whose generatiue facultie is vnable and not alterable for one woman and yet for another is apt and begetteth issue Euen as we see by experience in the stomacke that to one kind of meat a man hath great appetite and to another though better it is as dead What the correspondence should be which the man wife ought to beare each to other to the end they may bring forth children is expressed by Hippocrates in these words If the hot answer not the cold and the drie the moist with measure and equalitie there can be no generation as if he should say that if there vnite not in the womans wombe two seeds the one hote the other cold and the one moist and the other drie extended in equall degree they cannot beget children For a worke so maruellous as is the shaping of a man standeth in need of a temperature where the hot may not exceed the cold nor the moist the drie For if a mans seed be hot and the womans seed hot likewise there will no engendring succeed This doctrine thus presupposed Let vs now fit by way of example a woman cold and moist in the first degree whose signes we said were to be wily ill conditioned shrill voiced spare fleshed and blacke and greene coloured hairie and euill fauoured she shall easily conceiue by a man that is ignorant of good conditions who hath a well sounding and sweet voice much white and supple flesh little haire and well coloured and faire of countenance She may also be giuē for wife to a temperat man whose seed following the opinion of Galen we said was most fruitfull and answerable to whatsoeuer woman Prouided that she be sound and of age conuenient but yet with all their incidents it is verie difficult for her to conceiue child and being conceiued saith Hippocrates within two months the same miscarieth for she wanteth bloud wherwith to maintain her self and the babe during the 9 months Howbeit this will find an easie remedie if the woman do bath her selfe before she companie with her husband and the baigne must consist of water fresh and warme the which by Hippocrates righteth her temperature to a good sort For it looseneth and moistneth her flesh euen as the earth ought to be alike disposed that the graine may therin fasten it self and gather root Moreouer it worketh a farther effect for it encreaseth the appetite to meat it restraineth resolution causeth a greater quantitie of naturall heat wherthrough plenty of flegmaticke bloud is increased by which the little creature may those nine months haue sustenance The tokens of a woman cold and moist in the third deree are to be dull witted well conditioned to haue a very delicat voice much flesh and the same soft and white to want haire and downe and not to be ouer faire Such a one should be wedded to a man hot and dry in the third
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
how powerfull the same is in the age of childhood and how weake and remisse in old age Againe in boyes estate the reasonable soule cannot vse his operations whereas in old age which is vtterly void of heat and moisture it performeth them with great effect In sort that by how much the more a man is enabled for procreation and for digestion of food so much he leeseth of his reasonable facultie To this alludeth that which Plato affirmeth that there is no humour in a man which so much disturbeth the reasonable faculty as abundance of seed only saith he the same yeeldeth help to the art of versifieng Which we behold to be confirmed by daily experience for when a man beginneth to entreat of amorous matters sodainly he becommeth a Poet And if before he were greasie and loutish forthwith he takes it at heart to haue a wrinckle in his pumpe or a mote on his cape And the reason is because these workes appertaine to the imagination which encreaseth and lifteth it selfe vp from this point through the much heat accasioned in him by this amorous passion And that loue is an hot alteration sheweth apparently through the courage and hardinesse which it planteth in the louer from whom the same also reaueth all desire of meat and will not suffer him to sleep If the common-wealth bare an eie to these tokens she would bannish from publicke studies lusty schollers and great fighters inamoured persons Poets and those who are verie neat and curious in their apparrell for they are not furnished with wit or abilitie for any sort of study Out of this rule Aristotle excepteth the melancholicke by adustion whose seede though fruitfull reaueth not the capacitie Finally all the faculties which gouern man if they be very powerfull set the reasonable soule in a garboile Hence it proceeds that if a man be very wise he proueth a coward of small strength of bodie a spare feeder and not verie able for procreation And this is occasioned by the qualities which make him wise namely coldnesse and drinesse And these selfe weaken the other powers as appeareth in old men who besides their counsell and wisdom are good for nothing els This doctrine thus presupposed Galen holdeth opinion that to the end the engendring of whatsoeuer creature may take his perfect effect two seeds are necessary one which must be the agent and former and another which must serue for nourishment for a matter so delicat as generation cannot straightwais ouercome a meat so grosse as is the bloud vntill the effect be greater And that the seed is the right aliment of the seed members Hippocrates Plato and Galen doe all accord for by their opinion if the bloud be not conuerted into seed it is impossible that the sinews the veins the arteries can be maintained Wherthrough Galen affirmed the difference betweene the veines and the cods to be that the cods doe speedily make much seed and the veins a little and in long space of time In sort that nature prouided for the same an alimēt so like which with light alteration without making any excremēts might maintain the other seed And this could not be effected if the nourishment therof had bin made of the bloud The selfe prouision saith Galen was made by nature in the engendring of mankind as in the forming of a chick and such other birds as come of egs In which we see there are two substances one of the white and another of the yolke of one of which the chicke is made and by the other maintained all the time whiles the forming endureth For the same reason are two seeds necessarie in the generation of the man one of which the creature may be made and the other by which it may be maintained whilst the forming endureth But Hippocrates mentioneth one thing worthie of great consideration namely that it is not resolued by nature which of the two seeds shalbe the agent and formour which shall serue for aliment For many times the seed of the woman is of greater efficacy than that of the man and when this betideth she maketh the generation and that of the husband serueth for aliment Otherwhiles that of the husband is more mighty and that of the wife doth nought els than nourish This doctrin was not cōsidered by Aristotle who could not vnderstand wherto the womans seed serued and therefore vttered a thousand follies and that the same was but a little water without vertue or force for generation VVhich being granted it would follow impossible that a woman should euer couet the conuersation of man or consent thereunto but would shun the carnall act as being herselfe so honest and the worke so vncleane and filthy wherethrough in short space mankind would decay and the world rest depriued of the fairest creature that euer nature formed To this purpose Aristotle demandeth what the cause is that fleshly copulation should be an action of the greatest pleasure that nature euer ordained for the solace of liuing things To which probleme he answereth that nature hauing so desirously procured the perpetuitie of mankind did therefore place so great a delight in this worke to the end that they being mooued by such interest might gladly apply themselues to the act of generation and if these incitements were wanting no woman or man would condiscend to the bands of marriage inasmuch as the woman should reape none other benefite than to beare a burden in her belly the space of nine months with so great trauaile and sorrowes and at the time of her child-birth to vndergo the hazard of forgoing her life So would it be necessarie that the common-wealth should through feare enforce women to marrie to the end mankind might not come to nothing But because nature doth her things with pleasing she gaue to a woman all the instruments necessarie for making a seed inciting and apt for issue whereby she might desire a man and take pleasure in his conuersation But if it were of that qualitie which Aristotle expresseth she would rather flie and abhorre him than euer loue him This selfe Galen prooueth alleaging an example of the brute beastes wherethrough he saith that if a Sowe be speyed she neuer desireth the Boare nor will consent that he approch vnto her The like we do euidently see in a woman whose temperature partaketh more of coldnesse than is requisite for if we tell her that she must be married there is no word which soundeth worse in her eare And the like befalleth to a cold man for he wanteth the fruitful seed Moreouer if a womans seed were of that maner which Aristotle mentioneth it could be no proper aliment for to attain the last qualities of actual nutriment a totall seed is necessarie whereby it may be nourished Wherthrough if the same come not to be concocted semblable it cannot performe this point for womans seed wanteth the instruments and places as are the stomacke the liuer and the cods where it may be
combers and therefore molested by that passion to driue the same from them doe marrie wiues Of such Galen saith that they haue the instruments of generation very hot and dry and for this cause breed seed verie pricking apt for procreation A man then who goeth seeking a woman not his owne is replenished with this fruitfull digested and well seasoned seed Whence it followeth of force that he make the generation for where both are equall the mans seed carrieth the greatest efficacie and if the son be shaped of the seed of such a father it ensueth of necessitie that he resemble him The contrarie betideth in lawfull children who for that married men haue their wiues euer couched by their sides neuer take regard to ripen the seed or to make it apt for procreation but rather vpon euery light enticement yeeld the same from them vsing great violence and stirring whereas women abiding quiet during the carnall act their seed vessels yeeld not their seed saue when it is well concoct and seasoned Therfore married women do alwaies make the engendring and their husbands seed serueth for aliment But somtimes it comes to passe that both the seeds are matched in equall perfection and cumbat in such sort as both the one and the other take effect in the forming and so is a child shaped who resembleth neither father nor mother Another time it seemeth that they agree vpon the matter part the likenesse between them the seed of the father maketh the nosthrils and the eies and that of the mother the mouth and the forehead And which carrieth most maruell it hath so fallen out that the sonne hath taken one eare of his father and another of his mother and so the like in his eies But if the fathers seed do altogither preuaile the childe retaineth his nature and his conditions and when the seed of the mother swaieth most the like reason taketh effect Therefore the father who coueteth that his child may be made of his owne seed ought to withdraw himselfe for some daies from his wife and stay till all his seed be concocted and ripened and then it will fall out certain that the forming shall proceed from him and the wifes seed shall serue for nourishment The second doubt by meanes of that we haue said already beareth little difficultie for bastard children are ordinarily made of seed hote and dry and from this temperature as we haue oftentimes prooued heretofore spring courage brauerie and a good imagination whereto this wisdome of the world appertaineth And because the seed is digested and well seasoned nature effecteth what she likes best and pourtraieth those children as with a pensill To the third doubt may be answered that the conceiuing of lewd women is most commonly wrought by the mans seed and because the same is drie and verie apt for issue it fasteneth it selfe in the woman with verie strong rootes but the childe breeding of married women being wrought by their own seed occasioneth that the creature easily vnlooseth because the same was moist and watry or as Hippocrates saith full of mustinesse What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed §. 5. THe matter wherof man is compounded prooueth a thing so alterable and so subiect to corruption that at the instant when he beginneth to be shaped he like wise beginneth to be vntwined and to alter and therin can find no remedy For it was said so soon as we are born we faile to be Wherthrough nature prouided that in mans body there should be 4 natural faculties attractiue retētiue concoctiue expulsiue The which concocting altering the aliments which we eate returne to repaire the substance that was lost ech succeeding in his place By this we vnderstand that it little auaileth to haue engendred a child of delicat seed if we make no reckoning of the meates which afterwards we feed vpon For the creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance wherof it was first composed True it is that the first seed if the same be well concocted and seasoned possesseth such force that digesting altering the meats it maketh them though they be bad and grosse to turne to his good temperature and substance but we may so far forth vse contrary meats as the creature shall loose those good qualities which it receiued from the seed wherof it was made therefore Plato said that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine was his euill bringing vp in diet For which cause he counselled that we should giue vnto children meats and drinks delicat and of good temperature to the end that when they grow big they may know how to abandon the euil to embrace the good The reason hereof is very cleere For if at the bginning the braine was made of delicat seed and that this member goeth euerie day impairing and consuming and must be repaired with the meats which we eat it is certaine if these being grosse and of euill temperature that vsing them many daies togither the braine will become of the same nature Therefore it sufficeth not that the child be borne of good seed but also it behooueth that the meat which he eateth after he is formed and borne bee endowed with the same qualities What these be it carrieth no great difficultie to manifest if you presuppose that the Greekes were the most discreet men of the world and that enquiring after aliments and food to make their children witty and wise they found the best and most appropriat For if the subtile and delicate wit consist in causing that the braine be compounded of partes subtile and of good temperature that meate which aboue all others partaketh these two qualities shalbe the same which it behooueth vs to vse for obteining our end Galen and all the Greeke Phisitions say that Goats milke boiled with honny is the best meat which any man can eat for besides that it hath a moderate substance therein the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie Therefore we said some few leaues past that the parentes whose will earnestly leadeth them to haue a childe wise prompt and of good conditions must eat much Goats milke boiled with honny 7 or 8 daies before the copulationut-Balbeit this aliment is so good as Galen speaketh of yet it falleth out a matter of importance for the wit that the meate consist of moderate substance and of subtile partes For how much the finer the matter becommeth in the nourishment of the braine so much the more is the wit sharpened For which cause the Greekes drew-out of the milke cheese and whey which are the two grosse aliments of his composition and left the butter which in nature resembleth the aire This they gaue in food to their children mingled with honny with intention to make them witty and wise And that this is the trueth is plainly seen by that which Homer recounteth
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
the same with his heat and drinesse should make the seed hot dry for generation of the male And the contrary she ordained for the forming of a woman that the left side of the reins should send forth seed could and moist to the left cod and that the same with his coldnesse and moisture should make the seed cold and moist whence it ensued of force that a female must be engendred But after that the earth was replenished with people it seemeth that this order and concert of nature was broken off and this double child-bearing surceased which is worst for one man that is begotten 6 or 7 women are born to the world ordinarily Whence we comprizce that either nature is grown weary or some error is thwarted in the mids which beareth her from working as she would What the same is a litle hereafter we wil expresse when we may lay down the conditions which are to be obserued to the end a male child without missing may be borne I say then that if parents will attaine the end of their desire in this behalfe they are to obserue 6 points One of which is to eat meats hot and drie The second to procure that they make good digestion in the stomacke The third to vse much exercise The fourth not to apply themselues vnto the act of generation vntill their seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to companie with the wife foure or fiue daies before her naturall course is to runne The sixth to procure that the seed fall in the right side of the womb which being obserued as we shall prescribe it will grow impossible that a female should be engendred As touching the first condition we must weet that albeit a good stomacke do parboile and alter the meat and spoile the same of his former quality yet it doth neuer vtterly depriue it selfe of them for if we eat lettice whose qualitie is cold and moist the bloud engendred thereof shalbe cold and moist the whey cold and moist and the seed cold and moist And if we eat honny whose quality is hot and dry the bloud which we breed shalbe hot and drie the whey hot and dry and the seed hot and dry for it is impossible as Galen auoucheth that the humours should not retaine the substances and the qualities which the meat had before such time as it was eaten Then it being true that the male sex consisteth in this that the seed be hot and drie at the time of his forming for certaine it behooueth parents to vse meats hot and drie that they may engender a male child I grant well how in this kind of begetting there befalleth a great perill for the seed being hot and drie we haue often heretofore affirmed it followeth of force that there be borne a man malicious wily cauilling and addicted to many vices and euils and such persons as these vnlesse they be straightly curbed bring great danger to the common wealth Therefore it were better that they should not be gotten at all but for all this there will not want parents who will say Let me haue a boy and let him be a theese and spare not for the iniquity of a man is more allowable than the wel-doing of a woman Howbeit this may find an easie remedie by vsing temperat meates which shall partake but meanly of hot and drie or by way of preparation seasoning the same with some spice Such saith Galen are Hennes Partridges Turtles Doues Thrushes Blackbirds and Goates which by Hippocrates must be eaten rosted to heat and drie the seed The bread with which the same is eaten should be white of the finest meale seasoned with Salt and Annis seed for the browne is cold and moist as we will prooue hereafter and verie dammageable to the wit Let the drinke be VVhite wine watered in such proportion as the stomacke may allow thereof and the water with which it is tempered should be verie fresh and pure The second diligence which we spake of is to eat these meates in so moderat quantitie as the stomacke may ouercome them for albeit the meat be hot and drie of his proper nature yet the same becommeth cold and moist if the naturall heat cannot digest it Therefore though the parents eat honny and drinke VVhite-wine these meates by this meanes will turne to cold seed and a female child be brought forth For this occasion the greater part of great and rich personages are afflicted by hauing more daughters than meaner folke for they eat and drinke that which their stomacke cannot digest and albeit their meat be hot and drie sauced with Suger Spices and Honny yet through their great quantitie then waxe raw and cannot be digested But the rawnesse which most endammageth generation is that of Wine for this licour in being so vaporous and subtile occasioneth that the other meates togither therewith passe to the seed vessels raw and that the seed falsly prouoketh a man ere it be digested and seasoned VVhereon Plato commendeth a law enacted in the Carthaginean Common-wealth which forbad the married couple that they should not tast of anie Wine that day when they meant to performe the rightes of the marriage bed as well ware that this liquor alwaies bred much hurt and dammage to the childs bodily health and might yeeld occasion that he should prooue vitious and of ill conditions Notwithstanding if the same be moderatly taken so good seed is not engendred of any meat for the end which we seeke after as of white wine and especially to giue wit and ability which is that wherto we pretend The 3 diligence which we spake of was to vse exercise somwhat more than meanly for this fretteth and consumeth the excessiue moisture of the seed and heateth drieth the same By this means a man becommeth most fruitful and able for generation and cōtrariwise to giue our selues to our ease and not to exercise the bodie is one of the things which breedeth most coldnes moisture in the seed Therfore rich and dainty persons are lesse charged with children than the poore who take pains VVhence Hippocrates recounteth that the principall persons of Scythia were verie effeminat womanish delicious and enclined to do womens seruices as to sweepe to rub to bake and by this means were impotent for generation And if they begot any male child he prooued either an Eunuch or an Hermaphrodite Whereat they shaming greatly agreeued determined to make sacrifices to their God and to offer him many gifts beseeching him not to entreat them after that maner but to yeeld thē some remedy for the defect seeing it lay in his power so to do But Hippocrates laughed them to scorne saying That none effect betideth which seemes not miraculous and diuine if after that sort they fall into consideration thereof for reducing which soeuer of them to his naturall causes at last we come to end in God by whose vertue all the agents of the world doe worke But there
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