is to please the Audience was anciently perhaps better answered than now though a Modern Master would then have been dis-satisfied because such Consorts as the Ancient Symphonies properly were in which several Instruments and perhaps Voices played and sung the same Part together cannot discover the Extent and Perfection of the Art which here only is to be considered so much as the Compositions of our Modern Opera's From all this it may perhaps be not unreasonable to conclude that though those Charms of Musick by which Men and Beasts Fishes Fowls and Serpents were so frequently enchanted and their very Natures changed be really and irrecoverably lost yet the Art of Musick that is to say of Singing and Playing upon Harmonious Instruments is in it self much a perfecter Thing though perhaps not much pleasanter to an unskilful Audience than it ever was amongst the Ancient Greeks and Romans CHAP. XXV Of Ancient and Modern Physick AFter these Mathematical Sciences it is convenient to go to those which are more properly Physical and in our Language alone peculiarly so called What these want in Certainty they have made up in Usefulness For if Life and Health be the greatest good Things which we can enjoy here a Conjectural Knowledge that may but sometimes give us Relief when those are in danger is much more valuable than a certain knowledge of other Things which can only employ the Understanding or furnish us with such Conveniencies as may be spared since we see that several Nations which never had them lived very happily and did very great Things in the World Before I begin my Comparison between Ancient and Modern Skill in Physick it may be necessary to state the Difference between an Empirick and a Rational Physician and to enquire how far a Rational Physician may reason right as to what relates to the curing of his Patient's Distemper though his general Hypotheses be wrong and his Theories in themselves considered insufficient An Empirick is properly he who without considering the Constitution of his Patient the Symptoms of his Disease or those Circumstances of his Case which arise from outward Accidents administers such Physick as has formerly done good to some Body else that was tormented with a Disease which was called by the same Name with this that his Patient now labours under A Rational Physician is he who critically enquires into the Constitution and peculiar Accidents of Life of the Person to whom he is to administer who weighs all the known Virtues of the Medicines which may be thought proper to the Case in hand who balances all the Symptoms and from past Observations finds which have been fatal and which safe which arise from outward Accidents and which from the Disease it self And who thence collects which ought soonest to be removed which may be neglected and which should be preserved or augmented and thereupon prescribes accordingly Now it is evident that such a Man's Prescriptions may be very valuable because founded upon repeated Observations of the Phaenomena of all Diseases And he may form Secondary Theories which like Ptolemee's Eccentricks and Epicycles shall be good Guides to Practice not by giving a certain Insight into the first Causes and several Steps by which the Disease first began and was afterwards carried on but by enabling the Physician to make lucky Conjectures at proper Courses and fit Medicines whereby to relieve or cure his Patient And this may be equally successful whether he resolves every Thing into Hot or Cold Moist or Dry into Acids or Alkali's into Salt Sulphur or Mercury or into any Thing else He does not know for Instance that Spittle Bile and the Pancreatick Juice are the main Instruments of Digestion yet he sees that his Patient digests his Meat with great Difficulty He is sure that as long as that lasts the sick Man cannot have a good Habit of Body he finds that the Distemper arises sometimes though not always from a visible Cause and he has tried the Goodness of such and such Medicines in seemingly parallel Cases He may be able therefore to give very excellent Advice though he cannot perhaps dive into the Nature of the Distemper so well as another Man who having greater Anatomical Helps and being accustomed to reason upon more certain Physiological Principles has made a strict Enquiry into that very Case And so by Consequence though he cannot be said to know so much of the Essence of the Disease as that other Man yet perhaps their Method of Practice notwithstanding the great Disparity of each others Knowledge shall be in the main the same Though all this seems very certain yet in the Argument before us it is not an easie Thing to state the Question so equally as to satisfie all contending Sides He that looks into the Writings of the Generality of the Rational Physicians as they called themselves by way of Eminence that is to say of those who about Fifty Years ago set up Hippocrates and Galen as the Parents and Perfecters of Medicinal Knowledge will find throughout all their Writings great Contempt of every Thing that is not plainly deducible from those Texts On the other Hand If he dips into the Books of the Chymical Philosophers he will meet with equal Scorn of those Books and Methods which they in Derision have called Galenical And yet it is evident that practising Physicians of both Parties have often wrought very extraordinary Cures by their own Methods So that there seems to have been equal Injustice of all Hands in excluding all Methods of Cure not built upon their own Principles Here therefore without being positive in a Dispute about which the Parties concerned are not themselves agreed I shall only offer these few Things 1. That if the Greatness of any one particular Genius were all that was to be looked after Hippocrates alone seems to have been the Man whose Assertions in the Practical Part of Physick might be blindly received For he without the Help of any great Assistances that we know of did that which if it were still to do would seem sufficient to employ the united Force of more than one Age. He was scrupulously exact in distinguishing Diseases in observing the proper Symptoms of each and taking notice of their Times and Accidents thereby to make a Judgment how far they might be esteemed dangerous and how far safe Herein his particular Excellency seems to have lain and this in the Order of Knowledge is the first Thing that a Rational Physician ought to make himself Master of Which is a sure Argument that Hippocrates throughly understood what Things were necessary for him to study with the greatest Care in order to make his Writings always useful to Posterity 2. That though we should allow the Methods of Practice used by the Ancients to have been as perfect nay perfecter than those now in use which some great Men have eagerly contended for yet it does not follow that they understood the whole Compass of their Profession
REFLECTIONS UPON Ancient and Modern LEARNING By WILLIAM WOTTON B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honourable the EARL of NOTTINGHAM LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Peter Buck at the Sign of the Temple near the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street MDCXCIV TO THE Right Honourable DANIEL Earl of NOTTINGHAM Baron FINCH of DAVENTRY May it please Your Lordship SInce I am upon many Accounts obliged to lay the Studies and Labours of my Life at Your Lordship's Feet it will not I hope be thought Presumption in me to make this following Address which on my Part is an Act of Duty I could not omit so fair an Opportunity of declaring how sensible I am of the Honour of being under Your Lordship's Patronage The Pleasure of telling the World that one is raised by Men who are truly Great and Good works too powerfully to be smothered in the Breast of him that feels it especially since a Man is rarely censured for shewing it but is rather commended for gratifying such an Inclination when he thankfully publishes to whom he is indebted for all the Comforts and Felicities of his Life But Your Lordship has another Right to these Papers which is equal to that of their being mine The Matter it self directs me to Your Lordship as the proper Patron of the Cause as well as of its Advocate Those that enquire whether there is such a Spirit now in the World as animated the greatest Examples of Antiquity must seek for living Instances as well as abstracted Arguments and those they must take care to produce to the best Advantage if they expect to convince the World that they have found what they sought for This therefore being the Subject of this following Enquiry it seemed necessary to urge the strongest Arguments first and to prepossess the World in favour of my Cause by this Dedication For those that consider that the Vertues which make up a great Character such as Magnanimity Capacity for the highest Employments Depth of Judgment Sagacity Elocution and Fidelity are united in as eminent a Degree in Your Lordship as they are found asunder in the true Characters of the Ancient Worthies that all this is rendred yet more Illustrious by Your Exemplary Piety and Concern for the Church of England and Your Zeal for the Rights and Honour of the English Monarchy and last of all that these Vertues do so constantly descend from Father to Son in Your Lordship's Family that its Collateral Branches are esteemed Publick Blessings to their Age and Country will readily confess that the World does still improve and will go no further than Your Lordship to silence all that shall be so hardy as to dispute it Justice therefore as well as Gratitude oblige me to present these Papers to Your Lordship Though since I have taken the Freedom in several Particulars to dissent from a Gentleman whose Writings have been very kindly received in the World I am bound to declare that the chief Reason of this Address was to let the World see that I have a Right to subscribe my self May it please Your Lordship Your Lordship 's Most Obliged And Most Dutiful Servant and Chaplain WILLIAM WOTTON PREFACE THE Argument of these following Papers seems in a great Measure to be so very remote from that holy Profession and from those Studies to which I am in a more particular Manner obliged to dedicate my self that it may perhaps be expected that I should give some Account of the Reasons which engaged me to set about it In the first Place therefore I imagined that if the several Boundaries of Ancient and Modern Learning were once impartially stated Men would better know what were still unfinished and what were in a manner perfect and consequently what deserved the greatest Application upon the Score of its being imperfect Which might be a good Inducement to set those Men who having a great Genius find also in themselves an Inclination to promote Learning upon Subjects wherein they might probably meet with Success answerable to their Endeavours By which Means Knowledge in all its Parts might at last be compleated I believed likewise that this might insensibly lead Men to follow such and only such for their Guides as they could confide in for the ablest and best in those several Kinds of Learning to which they intended to apply their Thoughts He that believes the Ancient Greeks and Romans to have been the greatest Masters of the Art of Writing that have ever yet appeared will read them as his Instructors will copy after them will strive to imitate their Beauties and form his Stile after their Models if he proposes to himself to be excellent in that Art himself All which Things will be neglected and he will content himself to read them in their Translations to furnish his Mind with Topicks of Discourse and to have a general Notion of what these Ancient Authors say if he thinks he may be equally excellent a nearer Way To read Greek and Latin with Ease is a Thing not soon learnt The Languages are too much out of the common Road and the Turn which the Greeks and Latins gave to all their Thoughts cannot be resembled by what we ordinarily meet with in Modern Languages which makes them tedious till mastered by Use. So that constant Reading of the most perfect Modern Books which does not go jointly on with the Ancients in their Turns will by bringing the Ancients into Dis-use cause the Learning of the next Generation to sink by reason that they not drawing from those Springs from whence these excellent Moderns drew whom they only propose to follow nor taking those Measures which these Men took must for want of that Foundation which these their Modern Guides first carefully laid fail in no long Compass of Time Yet on the other Hand if Men who are unacquainted with these Things should find every Thing to be commended because it is oldest not because it is best and afterwards should perceive that in many material and very curious Parts of Learning the Ancients were comparatively speaking grosly ignorant it would make them suspect that in all other Things also they were equally deficient grounding their general Conclusion upon this very common though erroneous Principle that because a Man is in an Errour in those Things whereof we can judge therefore he must be equally mistaken in those Things where we cannot Now this Extream can be no Way more easily avoided than by stating the due Limits of Ancient and Modern Learning and shewing in every Particular to which we ought to give the Pre-eminence But I had another and a more powerful Reason to move me to consider this Subject and that was that I did believe it might be some way subservient to Religion it self Among all the Hypotheses of those who would destroy our most holy Faith none is so plausible as that of the Eternity of the World The fabulous Histories of the Egyptians Chaldeans and Chineses seem to countenance that Assertion The
Reflections relating to the following Chapters With an Account of Sir William Temple 's Hypothesis of the History of Learning p. 77 Chap. 8. Of the Learning of Pythagoras and the most Ancient Philosophers of Greece p. 91 Chap. 9. Of the History and Mathematicks of the Ancient Egyptians p. 103 Chap. 10. Of the Natural Philosophy Medicine and Alchemy of the Ancient Egyptians p. 116 Chap. 11. Of the Learning of the Ancient Chaldeans and Arabians p. 136 Chap. 12. Of the Learning of the Chineses p. 144 Chap. 13. Of the Logick and Metaphysicks of the Ancient Greeks p. 154 Chap. 14. Of Ancient and Modern Geometry and Arithmetick p. 159 Chap. 15. Of several Instruments invented by the Moderns which have helped to advance Learning p. 169 Chap. 16. Of Ancient and Modern Chymistry p. 183 Chap. 17. Of Ancient and Modern Anatomy p. 190 Chap. 18. Of the Circulation of the Blood p. 206 Chap. 19. Further Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Anatomy p. 218 Chap. 20. Of Ancient and Modern Natural Histories of Elementary Bodies and Minerals p. 238 Chap. 21. Of Ancient and Modern Histories of Plants p. 252 Chap. 22. Of Ancient and Modern Histories of Animals p. 263 Chap. 23. Of Ancient and Modern Astronomy and Opticks p. 275 Chap. 24. Of Ancient and Modern Musick p. 282 Chap. 25. Of Ancient and Modern Physick p. 289 Chap. 26. Of Ancient and Modern Natural Philosophy p. 299 Chap. 27. Of the Philological Learning of the Moderns p. 310 Chap. 28. Of the Theological Learning of the Moderns p. 322 Chap. 29. Reflections upon the Reasons of the Decay of Modern Learning assigned by Sir William Temple p. 342 ADVERTISEMENT ☞ THE Reader is desired to take Notice that the Second Edition of Sir William Temple's Essay is quoted every where in this Book but that all the Citations are also to be found in the Third Edition which was Corrected and Enlarged by the Author ERRATA PAg. 90. lin 5. r. Accounts p. 94 95. r. Van Dalen p. 122. l. 5. r. exurere p. 145. l. ult for Mechanicks r. Mathematicks p. 146. l. 3. r. Verbiest p. 164. l. 26. r. Van Heuraet p. 176. l. 24. r. Limb. p. 280. l. 22. r. Ellipse p. 271. l. 3. r. could p. 312. l. 2. r. when we p. 314. l. 26. for Letter r. Discourse p. 315. l. 13. for it is r. they are REFLECTIONS UPON Ancient and Modern LEARNING CHAP. 1. General Reflections upon the State of the Question THE present State of the Designs and Studies of Mankind is so very different from what it was 150 Years ago that it is no Wonder if Men's Notions concerning them vary as much as the Things themselves This great Difference arises from the Desire which every Man has who believes that he can do greater Things than his Neighbours of letting them see how much he does excel them This will oblige him to omit no Opportunity that offers it self to do it and afterwards to express his Satisfaction that he has done it This is not only visible in particular Persons but in the several Ages of Mankind which are only Communities of particular Persons living at the same time as often as their Humours or their Interests lead them to pursue the same Methods This Emulation equally shews it self whatsoever the Subject be about which it is employed whether it be about Matters of Trade or War or Learning it is all one One Nation will strive to out-do another and so will one Age too when several Nations agree in the pursuit of the same Design only the Jealousie is not so great in the Contest for Learning as it is in that for Riches and Power because these are Things which every several People strive to ingross all to themselves so that it is impossible for bordering Nations to suffer with any Patience that their Neighbours should grow as great as they in either of them to their own prejudice though they will all agree in raising the Credit of the Age they live in upon that Account that being the only Thing wherein their Interests do perfectly unite If this Way of Reasoning will bold it may be asked how it comes to pass that the Learned Men of the last Age did not pretend that they out-did the Ancients as well as some do now They would without question could they have had any Colour for it It was the Work of one Age to remove the Rubbish and to clear the Way for future Inventors Men seldom strive for Mastery where the Superiority is not in some sort disputable then it is that they begin to strive accordingly as soon as there was a fair Pretence for such a Dispute there were not wanting those who soon made the most of it both by exalting their own Performances and disparaging every Thing that had been done of that kind by their Predecessors 'Till the new Philosophy had gotten Ground in the World this was done very sparingly which is but within the Compass of 40 or 50 Years There were but few before who would be thought to have exceeded the Ancients unless it were some few Physicians who set up Chymical Methods of Practice and Theories of Diseases founded upon Chymical Notions in opposition to the Galenical But these Men for want of conversing much out of their own Laboratories were unable to maintain their Cause to the general Conviction of Mankind The Credit of the Cures which they wrought not supporting them enough against the Reasonings of their Adversaries Soon after the Restauration of King Charles II. upon the Institution of the Royal Society the Comparative Excellency of the Old and New Philosophy was eagerly debated in England But the Disputes then managed between Stubbe and Glanvile were rather Personal relating to the Royal Society than General relating to Knowledge in its utmost extent In France this Controversie has been taken up more at large The French were not satisfied to argue the Point in Philosophy and Mathematicks but even in Poetry and Oratory too where the Ancients had the general Prejudice of the Learned on their Side Monsieur de Fontenelle the celebrated Author of a Book concerning the Plurality of Worlds begun the Dispute about six Years ago in a little Discourse annexed to his Pastorals He is something shy in declaring his Mind at least in arraigning the Ancients whose Reputations were already established though it is plain he would be understood to give the Moderns the Preference in Poetry and Oratory as well as in Philosophy and Mathematicks His Book being received with great Applause it was opposed in England by Sir William Temple who in the Second Part of his Miscellanea has printed an Essay upon this very Subject Had Monsieur de Fontenelle's Discourse passed unquestioned it would have been very strange since there never was a new Notion started in the World but some were found who did as eagerly contradict it The Opinion which Sir William Temple appears for is received by so great a Number of
Learned Men that those who oppose it ought to bring much more than a positive Affirmation otherwise they cannot expect that the World should give Judgment in their Favour The Question now to be asked has formerly been enquired into by few besides those who have chiefly valued Oratory Poesie and all that which the French call the Belles Lettres that is to say all those Arts of Eloquence wherein the Ancients are generally agreed to have been very excellent So that Monsieur de Fontenelle took the wrong Course to have his Paradox be believed for he asserts all and proves little he makes no Induction of Particulars and rarely enters into the Merits of the Cause He declares that he thinks Love of Ease to be the reigning Principle amongst Mankind for which Reason perhaps he was loath to put himself to the trouble of being too minute It was no wonder therefore if those to whom his Pâ—oposition appeared entirely new condemned him of Sufficiency the worst Composition out of the Pride and Ignorance of Mankind However since his Reasonings are generally speaking very just especially where he discourses of the Comparative Force of the Genius's of Men in the several Ages of the World I resolved to make some Enquiry into the Particulars of those Things which are asserted by some to be Modern Discoveries and vindicated to the Ancients by others The General Proposition which Sir William Temple endeavours to prove in this Essay is this That if we reflect upon the Advantages which the ancient Greeks and Romans had to improve themselves in Arts and Sciences above what the Moderns can pretend to and upon that natural Force of Genius so discernable in the earliest Writers whose Books are still extant which has not been equalled in any Persons that have set up for Promoters of Knowledge in these latter Ages and compare the Actual Performances of them both together we ought in Justice to conclude that the Learning of the present Age is only a faint imperfect Copy from the Knowledge of former Times such as could be taken from those scattered Fragments which were saved out of the general Shipwreck The Question that arises from this Proposition will be fully understood if we enquire 1. Into those Things which the Ancients may have been supposed to bring to Perfection in case they did so not because they excelled those that came after them in Understanding but because they got the Start by being born first 2. Whether there are any Arts or Sciences which were more perfectly practised by the Ancients though all imaginable Care hath been since used to equal them 3. Whether there may not be others wherein they are exceeded by the Moderns though we may reasonably suppose that both Sides did as well as they could When such Enquiries have once been made it will be no hard matter to draw such Inferences afterwards as will enable us to do Justice to both Sides It must be owned that these Enquiries do not immediately resolve the Question which Sir William Temple put for he confounds two very different Things together namely Who were the Greatest Men the Ancients or the Moderns and Who have carried their Enquiries furthest The first is a very proper Question for a Declamation though not so proper for a Discourse wherein Men are supposed to reason severely because for want of Mediums whereon to found an Argument it cannot easily be decided For though there be no surer Way of judging of the Comparative Force of the Genius's of several Men than by examining the respective Beauty or Subtilty of their Performances yet the good Fortune of appearing first added to the Misfortune of wanting a Guide gives the first Comers so great an Advantage that though for instance the Fairy Queen or Paradise Lost may be thought by some to be better Poems than the Ilias yet the same Persons will not say but that Homer was a greater Genius than either Spencer or Milton And besides when Men judge of the Greatness of an Inventor's Genius barely by the Subtilty and Curiosity of his Inventions they may be very liable to Mistakes in their Judgments unless they knew and were able to judge of the Easiness or Difficulty of those Methods or Ratiocinations by which these Men arrived at and perfected these their Inventions which with due Allowances is equally applicable to any Performances in Matters of Learning of any sort It will however be some Satisfaction to those who are concerned for the Glory of the Age in which they live if in the first place it can be proved That as there are some parts of real and useful Knowledge wherein not only great Strictness of Reasoning but Force and Extent of Thought is required thoroughly to comprehend what is already invented much more to make any considerable Improvements so that there can be no Dispute of the Strength of such Men's Understandings who are able to make such Improvements so in those very Things such and so great Discoveries have been made as will oblige impartial Judges to acknowledge that there is no probability that the World decays in Vigour and Strength if according to Sir William Temple's Hypothesis we take our Estimate from the Measure of those Men's Parts who have made these Advancements in these later Years especially if it should be found that the Ancients took a great deal of pains upon these very Subjects and had able Masters to instruct them at their first setting out And Secondly If it should be proved that there are other curious and useful Parts of Knowledge wherein the Ancients had equal Opportunities of advancing and pursuing their Enquiries with as much Facility as the Moderns which were either slightly passed over or wholly neglected if we set the Labours of some few Men aside And Lastly If it should be proved that by some great and happy Inventions wholly unknown to former Ages new and spacious Fields of Knowledge have been discovered and pursuant to those Discoveries have been viewed and searched into with all the Care and Exactness which such noble Theories required If these Three Things should be done both Questions would be at once resolved and Sir William Temple would see that the Moderns have done something more than Copy from their Teachers and that there is no absolute necessity of making all those melancholy Reflections upon the Sufficiency and Ignorance of the present Age which he moved with a just Resentment and Indignation has thought fit to bestow upon them How far these Things can or cannot be proved shall be my Business in these following Papers to enquire But First Of those Things wherein if the Ancients have so far excelled as to bring them to Perfection it may be thought that they did it because they were born before us CHAP. II. Of the Moral and Political Knowledge of the Ancients and Moderns I Have often thought that there could not be a pleasanter Entertainment to an inquisitive Man than to run over the first Thoughts