not only not equally capable of many things at once but what sometimes they can do to admiration they are again within a short time intirely unfit for Thus a mans converse will be often charmingly pleasant and witty whom you shall find at other times dull and heavy Which I may in Second Instance suppose to proceed from a certain necessary or voluntary Wearyness of the Soul For I see no cause why it may not fall weary as well as the Body The difference only is that the latter becomes weary because of the loss of its most lively parts the Spirits the former because of its limited nature and weak faculties or rather through a natural desire of change and variety Thirdly we are not our selves upon all occasions because of our too green and domineering passions whether they be of sorrow envy hatred or anger which turn all our natural sharpness and Vivacity into malicious contrivances and fits of Fury When we have conceived an extream aversion from any person by inveighing against him upon all occasions we show no more Wit than can be expected from a scolding Woman No wonder then if we cease sometimes to be ingenious since we are often over-ruled by our undaunted passions which overthrow yet more the inward temper of our Souls than the outward Texture of our Bodies Nevertheless we must confess that it is not always in our Power either to speak or write wittily at all times or with that accuracy we are really capable of The Great Homer is not always himself but sometimes of a dull and sleepy Humour Quandoque bonus dormità t Homerus but I understand Mankind better than to wonder at such accidental deficiencies in the greatest Men because I am sensible of this common but most true Word Nemo omnibus horis sapit No man has always his Wits about him For as the very change of Weather changeth sometimes the Temper of our Bodies so it does alter that of our Souls We shall then at some Hours of the day both write and speak easily and wittily too good sense At some others we may scratch our heads long enough before we awaken and revive again our almost dead Spirits Which gives me occasion sometimes to think though no just grounds that our Soul is really material and of a very changeable Texture too since it passeth so easily and in such a short time from one extream to another For I would conceive in its suppos'd Spiritual Nature a more constant and durable Temper Yet I apprehend that several things may occasion in us this accidental dulness And first the very Company we converse with either we esteem not enough or too much In the former case we want encouragement to endeavour to show our Wit because we think not those we speak to worth our while or deserving our peculiar application In the latter we are kept in awe by a prudent fear of the Censure and inward slight of such as we have a high Esteem and Veneration for But as I know nothing more prejudicial to Wit than Want and Poverty so I conceive those common Sentences Ingenii largitor venter vexatio dat intellectum c. that Hunger Vexation and Trouble do make men witty to be but meer illusions and vulgar Errors grounded only upon this that the very dullest of Men in great Straits will make odd shifts to rid themselves of the present Necessity We must needs then confess Virtutibus Obstat res augusta domi That a light Purse as the Scots say makes a heavy Heart and very unfit to exert those not ordinary Abilities we are perhaps gifted with Besides such is the Nature of Mankind that without some encouragement or prospect of reward 't is not in our Power to do our utmost endeavours in any enterprize whatsoever 2. I pretend to no extraordinary Skill in Physick yet I know no curable distemper but methinks I could cure provided I want not the necessary encouragements from my Patient which if you look upon as a piece of Covetousness you discover more of a censuring than of a sharp and considering Genius For as it is highly my concern that you recover your Health by my care So I cannot but desire your recovery most earnestly tho' I expected no just salary for my laudable endeavours Whereby I intend only to give this wholsom advice to the Patient as much for his concern as for the Physitians interest that if he fail to do his duty 't is odds if the other how conscientious and skilful soever perform successfully his part not designedly nor through Malice but because such is the natural constitution of Men that they cannot serve God himself but upon the account of some proportionable reward So if you would have your Physitian take notice of every particular circumstance of your distemper to apply usefully his Skill for your recovery it will be a piece of Wit in you not to let him want too long his due For else it will not be in his Power to make use to your advantage of that Wit God has given him because you encourage him not by doing what he justly expects and may lawfully require I doubt not but more Patients have perished through their own narrowness than by either the Ignorance or wilful neglect of their Physitians 3. I know not why some Nations now as the Grecians and others produce scarce a Wit in an Age which formerly were in so great repute throughout the whole World but because they are not awakened out of their Lethargy by that powerful inductive to do great things a proportionable reward which may quicken them into life again those whose Wits seem to be buryed in their Bodies So those Princes that are great promoters of Learning and Learned Men deserve from them an Apotheosis a sort of Divine Honour because they hold of them the very Life of their Souls their Wit by the daily encouragements of their Princely Liberalities I must in this place remember you that the greatest Wits cease sometimes to give light before the years of Dotage either because the Organs without which the perfectest Soul cannot make us sensible of its Abilities are corrupted by our irregularities or perhaps because of the Natural limitation of Humane Capacity which could reach no further 4. As to the wittyest Authors there is not only a difference among them such as is between different Stars But the fame Author is sometimes so unlike unto himself that one would take him to be another I admire the First Six Books of the Aenead and the Sixth above all I meet with nothing in all the rest that deserves my admiration Ovid's Love-Letters are incomparably well done they are penn'd most smoothly and wittily but he neglected himself too much in those he wrote in the place of his banishment There are some excellent pieces in his Metamorphosis such I always fancied his description of the Old Chaos and the Rudiments of the World Pâ—aâ—ton's journey to his Father the
observe no such difference as we may easily take notice of between a Horse and a Lion a Lion an Ape and a Bird c. this Doctrine will raise in our minds a great Respect and Veneration for Men of greater Abilities than we know our selves to be of for we shall conceive their Souls are in a higher order as indeed they are and consequently pay to them a due and proportionable Homage as Angels do Honour and Esteem Archangels and Archangels likewise Powers Thrones c. But I must needs here for your further satisfaction answer some curious inquiries about this matter 1. How comes it to pass that a most perfect Soul is sometimes lodged in a most defectuous Body I answer this happens against the intention of Nature for Nature delights in proportion and reason teacheth us there should be some proportion between the Beauty of the Soul and that of the Body it lodgeth in as the Stateliest Pallaces are ordinarily the dwelling places of the greatest Princes 2. Are not the noblest Souls more ordinarily lodged in beautiful Bodies I answer they are for the reason above mentioned and 't is by accident if perhaps the contrary happeneth But these are the solutions of a meer Naturalist or of one that favours too much Nature I answer then in Second Instance we must search after the true cause of such surprizing contingencies in the first cause of all things I mean in God himself who may do and does sometimes what to our weak Judgements Nature neither seems to desire nor require 3. Doth it never happen that a Soul of the first or second Order that is a most perfect one is so disabled during its stay in a corruptible Body as never to discover its natural abilities I answer 't is not likely that such a case shou'd ever happen or if it does this is as I was saying before against the intention of Nature tho' not of the Author of Nature and a meer chance occasion'd by some considerable defect of our Organs which the Soul how perfect soever is not able to supply because it wants a fit and convenient matter to work upon But hence some that take notice but of few things and consequently are easily mistaken may conclude the contrary of what I intend to assert that the various degrees of Wit depend on the diversity of our Organs which cannot be Lawfully inferred from what I have said for as if we place the most imperfect Soul that is one of the Lowest Order in the most compleat Body can be imagined it shall never for all this transcend its own dull nature and by consequence shall operate but very imperfectly so if we conceive the Noblest Soul that ever God created in a Body most imperfect that is destitute of necessary Organs or having but the Rudiments of true Organs it shall never do what otherwise it had been able to perform because it cannot discover to us its abilities in this Life but by these material instruments nor operate to any perfection they be wanting or notably defective Which argued only Imperfection iâ— the Instruments not in the principaâ— Agent Thus the defects we observâ— in a meer fool are not really in hiâ— Soul but occasioned by the overthrow of those parts of his Body without which he cannot utter himself rationally Whensoever then perceive by all the most visible sign of Health and good Texture twâ— Bodies equally Sound Perfect anâ— Acomplisht and yet a notable difference between the two Persons tâ— whom those Bodies belong a notablâ— difference I say as to their Intellectuals I mean Judgement Sence Sharpness and Wit I conclude instantly without further deliberation anâ— perhaps without Error too that the one hath a Soul of a Lower Rank and the other of a Higher 3. Yet I acknowledge willingly there may be other Inferiour Causes that contribute not a litle to the increase of Wit For how perfect soever we conceive the Soul to be she requires still the help both of Vital and Animal Spirits And if these be but too few or not lively enough you shall find her slow dull and heavy 'T is not then an unwholsome Advice to all such as are sensible they have received from above Animam bonam a not very imperfect Soul to conserve with all possible care the necessary Instruments of her most Spiritual Operations I mean not to consume by excessive Venery excessive Drink or any other kind of Surfeit those Spirits without which their Souls though never so perfect will act but very imperfectly and far below that degree of perfection God hath allowed them Upon this account a sober Dyet or temperate Life is the best Preserver both of Wit and Health for nothing more true than this common Word Vinum moderate sumptum acuit ingenium Wine doth not only strengthen the Stomack but likewise quickens the Spirits if moderately made use of as on the contrary it weakens the Stomack and darkens the Understanding if taken excessively or beyond a proportionable measure 4. There is as yet another greater Promoter of Wit we must not forget which is to converse often and keep Company with those that are really Ingenious and Witty For though your Soul perhaps be of the highest Hierarchy yet it moves not it self easily unless it be first moved it must then be rouz'd up and awakened by the Company of those who can insensibly improve those real Talents God has vouchsafed to bestow upon it For as we may boldly judge of a Mans Temper or good Humour of his good or bad Morals if once we are informed what Company he most frequents so likewise we may guess at his intellectuals by the Capacity and Abilities of such as he is most conversant with For experience has taught us more than once that ingenious Men become at length dull and heavy by frequenting too much the duller sort whereof I think this account may be given without some shew of probability Ingenious Men have need of some considerable encouragement to display those Talents they have received from above Now neither esteeming nor valuing much the Esteem of mean Capacities they fall in a manner in a certain Lethargy and are not able to rouze up their Spirits for want of sufficient inducements And this often happening begets in them a habit they cannot easily be afterwards rid of 5. On the contrary nothing improves us more than a frequent converse with the wittiest sort as daily Experience sheweth and the custome of the Ancient Phylosophers who travelled all the World over to see and hear the Learnedst Men of their times which example is followed in this very age we live in by most Nations of Europe the Scots especially and the Germans and by the English of late who for the most part become not only smoother and more polite by their travelling into Forreign Countries but sharper too and Wittier as every one may easily observe who will be at the pains to compare a meerly home-bread Gentleman with
Sun the debate between Ajax and Vlisses c. I admire nothing more in Lucan than the unevenness of his Style he flies high and on a suddain low again in the same Page and sometimes in the same Verse you shall read none so elevated upon some occasions and none so flat on other rencounters Claudian and he are near of a Temper Livy by his long and Minute narratives wears out his own Wit and the Readers patience His best pieces in my Judgement are his Harangues or those senseful Speaches he puts in the Mouths of Statesmen and great Captains I have had also a great Veneration for Cicero yet I am very sensible that he is not himself upon all occasions I find few of his Plea's so well penn'd as that he made in defence of Milo He knows not what he would be at in his Book de Natura Deorum and his best Interpreters I fancy as Esâ—alâ—pier c. and others do but guess at his meaning As to the Accuracy and Politeness of Expression he 's every where the same and the best Master of the Latine Tongue Aristotle is beyond envy it self tho not every where beyond reach the new Philosophers speak more distinctly and give more sensible Notions of most things His best Pieces I take to be his artificial Logic or Art of arguing conformably to certain infallible Rules his Politicks his Poetry his Rethorick and his Morals He is a very Obscure Metaphysitian because he handled such matters as are beyond the reach of Humane Understanding and thought it not enough to say that every thing was this or that by a various Texture but would needs further enquire into the Properties of the compounding parts whether they were Finite or Infinite obnoxious to an endless division or not c. Thus he proposeth to us palpable and intelligible difficulties but very obstruse mysterious and unsatisfactory solutions What I have said of the Antients I may likewise say of our Modern Wits For there are but few of 'em eminent in every thing and most of them eminent in nothing But I must not end this Section without giving you some rational account of this unevenness observable in most may Authors First then we have recourse to that common answer to all such difficulties the limitation of humane Capacity but because this is too general I shall say something no less to the purpose and more particular I may be allowed then to say in Second Instance that our own indiscretion is commonly the cause of this disorder For as we never write wittily but when our Imagination is exalted to a certain degree of heat destructive to our cold dulness so when our Spirits are spent by a long and serious application it would then prove a piece of prudence in us to lay aside our Pen and meditate no more on the Subject till we recover our lost Spirits and first vigour I believe Vigil kept this Precept since he spent neer Thirty years in the composure of his Poem but our Folly is such that black paper we must though our Soul be not able to act its part because of the supposed want of Necessary Instruments furnishing us with as lively Idea's as before Which fancyful Humour I apprehend to be the true Cause why we write not always so well as really we could have done if we had broken off our work till the return of our better temper and disposition Whereof I find a not unfit Analogy in a Subject somewhat like to that we now treat of I see no other cause of the great difference as to Wit among Children of the same Parents but because the latter observe not the fittest times for the act of generation coming together when their Seeds are either yet raw or not so elaborated and spirituous as is requisite So if marryed People understood the critical and fittest Minute for this duty of Marriage or would contain themselves so long as they were not fit for it they would undoubtedly be more satisfied with their Children than some of them have reason to be because I fancy the former would not be so unlike one another as to the endowments of the Mind We may proportionably discourse at the same rate of our Spiritual Children our Writings They may all resemble one another in not unlike stains of Wit if we manage our selves aright in conceiving of them SECT XIII The art of writing wittily 1. Why some do speak ill and write well and some do write ill and speak well 2. That we ought first to consider before we undertake to write if the Subject be not beyond our natural Abilities 3. What use we are to make of Authors That we wrong our selves by not perusing our own Wit 4. That some are profest Robbers of other Mens Works as several Germans and other subtile Thieves as not a few French undoubtedly are 5. That we must not be too positive in our assertions 6. Aristotle's obscurity instanc'd in some few examples 1. IT may be thought not out of purpose to enquire in this place why some do speak ill and write well and on the contrary why others speak well and write ill The difficulty I confess is considerable and I am not fully resolved in the case Yet it may be said that this proceeds from some of the different Characters of Wit we have spoken of elsewhere For some are slow in conceiving because perhaps they have a too weak Understanding and fear too much to be mistaken so their utterance upon this account is very uneasie and such speak their Thoughts so imperfectly that one would think they had but a very superficial Understanding Nevertheless they are sometimes excellent Pen-Men and the fittest Men in the World to appear in Print because the uneasiness of their utterance comes rather from a certain wariness and Weakness perhaps too of the Imagination than from any real defect of Judgement But as for those that speak well and write ill if by this expression we mean that some do speak great Sense who cannot write sensefully I think I may be allowed to say that there is no such thing possible For whosoever can speak Sence I know not why he may not likewise couch it upon Paper if he please But if perchance we understand by speaking well and wittily a certain facility easiness of expression the Volubility of the Tongue or a certain show of Eloquence without either great Sence or acuteness there are I confess many half-witted Men and more yet of the Weaker Sex that speak well though they write not wittily because of the shallowness of their Judgement which is rather a help than a hindrance to their talkative humour especially if they have as commonly they want it not any quickness of Fancy For such People 't is no less useless to prescribe Rules of writing wittily than to teach Fools how to speak to the purpose 2. The first Precept then of this art I conceive to be no other but the