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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
his operations all which failing it behooueth of force that it erre in them and depart from the bodie The error of Galen consisted in that he would verifie by the principles of naturall Philosophie whether the reasonable soule issuing out of the bodie do forthwith die or not this being a question which appertaineth to another superiour science and of more certaine principles in which we will prooue that it is no good argument nor concludeth well that the soule of man is corruptible because the same dwelleth quietly in a bodie endowed with these qualities and departeth when they do fayle Neither is this difficult to be prooued for other spirituall substances of greater perfection than the reasonable soule do make choice of place altered with materiall qualities in which it seemeth they take abode with their content and if there succeed any contrarie dispositions forthwith they depart because they cannot endure it for it is a thing certaine that there are to be found some dispositions in a mans bodie which the diuell coueteth with so great egernesse as to enioy thē he entereth into the man where they rested wherethrough he becommeth possessed but the same being corrupted and chaunged by contrarie medicines and an alteration being wrought in these blacke filthy and stincking humours he naturally comes to depart This is plainly discerned by experience for if there be in a house great darke foule putrified melancholicke and void of dwellers to make abode therin the diuels soone take it vp for their lodging but if the same be clensed the windowes opened and the sunne-beames admitted to enter by and by they get them packing and specially if it be inhabited by much companie and that there be meetings and pastimes and playing on musicall instrumentes how greatly harmonie and good proportion offendeth the diuell is apparantly seene by the authoritie of the diuine scripture where we finde recounted that Dauid taking a Harpe and playing thereupon straightwaies made the diuels runne away and depart out of Saul his body And albeit this matter haue his spirituall vnderstanding yet I conceiue thereby that musicke naturally molesteth the diuell where-through he cannot in any sort endure it The people of Israel knew before by experience that the diuell was enemie to musicke and because they had notice heereof Saules seruants spake these wordes Behold the euill spirit of the Lord tormenteth thee let my Lord the king therefore command that thy seruants who wait in thy presence search out a man who can play on the citherne to the end that when the euill spirite of the Lord taketh thee he may play with his hand and thou thereby mayst receiue ease In the selfe maner as there are found out wordes and coniurations which make the diuell to tremble and not to heare them he abandoneth the place which he chose for his habitation So Ioseph recounteth that Salomon left in writing certaine maners of coniuration by which he not onely chased away the diuell for the present but he neuer had the hardinesse to returne againe to that body from whence he was once so expelled The same Salomon shewed also a roote of so abhominable sauour in the diuels nose that if it were applied to the nosthrils of the possessed he would forthwith shake his eares and runne away The diuell is so slouinly so malancholike and so much an enemie to things neat cheerefull and cleere that when Christ entered into the region of Genezaret S. Mathew recounteth how certaine diuels met him in dead carcases which they had caught out of their graues crying and saying Iesu thou sonne of Dauid what hast thou to do with vs that thou art come before hand to torment vs we pray thee that if thou be to driue vs out of this place where we are thou wilt yet let vs enter into that Heard of swine which is yonder For which reason the holy Scripture tearmeth them vncleane spirites Whence we plainly discerne that not onely the reasonable soule requireth such dispositions in the body that they may informe it and be the beginning of all his operations but also hath need to soiourne therein as in a place befitting his nature The diuels then being a substance of more perfection abhorre some bodily qualities and in the contrarie take pleasure and contentment In sort that this of Galen is no good argument The reasonable soule through excesse of heate departs from the body ergo it is corruptible inasmuch as the diuel doth the like as we haue said and yet for all this is not mortall But that which to this purpose deserueth most note is that the diuell not onely coueteth places alterable with bodily qualities to soiourne there at his pleasure but also when he will worke any thing which much importeth him he serues himselfe with such bodily qualities as are aidable to that effect For if I should demand now wherein the diuell grounded himselfe when minding to beguile Eue he entered rather into a venemous serpent than into a horse a beare a woolfe or any other beast which were not of so ghastly shape I wot not what might be giuen in answere well I know that Galen admitteth not the sentences of Moses nor of Christ our redeemer because saith he they both speake without making demonstration but I haue alwaies desired to learne from some Catholike the solution of this doubt and none hath yet satisfied me This is certaine as alreadie we haue prooued that burnt and inflamed choler is an humour which teacheth the reasonable soule in what sort to practise treasons and trecheries and amongst brute beasts there is none which so much partaketh of this humour as the serpent wherethrough more than all the rest sayth the scripture he is crafty and guilefull The reasonable soule although it be the meanest of all the intelligences partakes yet the same nature with the diuell and the angels And in like manner as there it takes the seruice of venemous choler to make a man wily and suttle so the diuell being entered into the body of this cruell beast made himselfe the more cunning and deceitfull This manner of Philosophising will not sticke much in the naturall Philosophers stomacks because the same carrieth some apparance that it may be so but that which will breed them more astonishment is that when God would draw the world out of errour and easily teach them the truth a worke contrary to that which the diuell went about he came in the shape of a doue and not of an eagle nor a peacocke nor of any other birds of fairer figure and the cause knowne is this that the doue partaketh much of the humour which enclineth to vprightnesse to plainnesse to truth and to simplicitie and wanteth choler the instrument of guile maliciousnes None of these things are admitted by Galen nor by the naturall Philosophers for they cannot conceiue how the reasonable soule and the diuell being spirituall substances can be altered by materiall qualities as are heat coldnesse
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
and if there come not in his head arguments and answers in the matter which is treated of he is void of discourse but if the prooue towardly in his seiâ—neâ— it is an infallible argument that he is endued with a good vnderstanding for the lawes and so he may forth with addict himself to studie them without longer tarying Albeit would hold it better done first to run through the arts because Logicke in respect of the vnderstanding is nought els than those shockles which we 〈◊〉 on the legs of an vntrained Mule which going with them in any daies taketh a steddie seemlie place Such a march doth the vnderstanding make in his disputations when it first bindeth the same with the rules and precepts or Logicke but if this child whom we go thus wise 〈◊〉 reape no profit in the Latine tongue neither can come away with Logicke as were requisite it behooueth to trie whether he possesse a good imagination ere we take him from the laws for herein is lapped vp a verie great secret and it is good that the common-wealth be done to ware thereof and it is that there are some lawyers who getting vp into the chaire work miracles in interpreting the texts others in pleading but if you put the staffe of iustice into their hands they haue no more abilitie to gouerne than as if the lawes had neuer been enacted to any such end And contrariwise some other there are who with three misvnderstood lawes which they haue learned at all aduentures being placed in anie gouernment there cannot more be desired at any mans handes than they will performe At which effect some curious wits take wonder because they sinck not into the depth of the cause from whence it may grow And the reason is that gouernment appertaineth to the imagination and not to the vnderstanding nor the memorie And that this is so the matter may verie manifestly be prooued considering that the common-wealth is to be compounded with order concert with euery thing in his due place which all put togither maketh good figure correspondence And this sundrie times heeretofore we haue prooued to be a worke of the imagination and it shall prooue nought els to place a great lawyer to be a gouernour than to make a deafe man a Iudge in musicke but this is ordinarily to be vnderstood not as an vniuerfall rule for we haue alreadie prooued it is possible that nature can vnite great vnderstanding with much imagination so shall there follow no repugnancie to be a good pleader and a famous gouernour and we heeretofore discouered that nature being endowed with all the forces which she may possesse and with matter well seasoned will make a man of great memorie and of great vnderstanding and of much imagination who studying the lawes will prooue a famous reader a great pleader and no lesse gouernor but nature makes so few such as this cannot passe for a generall rule CHAP. XII How it may be prooued that of Theoricall Phisicke part appertaineth to the memorie and part to the vnderstanding and the practicke to the imagination WHat time the Arabian Phisicke florished there was a Phisition very famous aswell in reading as in writing arguing distinguishing answering and concluding who men would thinke in respect of his profound knowledge were able to reuiue the dead and to heale any disease whatsoeuer and yet the contrarie came to passe for he neuer tooke anie patient in cure who miscarried not vnder his handes Wherat greatly shaming and quite out of countenance he went and made himselfe a frier complaining on his euill fortune and notable to conceiue the cause how he came so to misse And because the freshest examples affoord surest proof and do most sway the vnderstanding it was held by many graue Phisitions that Iohn Argentier a phisition of our time farre surpassed Galen in reducing the art of phisicke to a better method and yet for all this it is reported of him that he was so infortunate in practise as no patient of his countrey durst take phisicke at his hands fearing some dismall successe Hereat it seemeth the vulgar haue good reason to maruell seeing by experience not onely in those rehearsed by vs but also in many others with whom men haue dayly to deale that if the Phisition be a great clearke for the same reason he is vnfit to minister Of this effect Aristotle procured to render a reason but could not find it out He thought that the cause why the reasonable Phisitions of his time failed in curing grew for that such men had only a generall notice and knew not euerie particular complexion contrarie to the Empiricks whose principal study bent it self to know the properties of eueriy seuerall person and let passe the generall but he was void of reason for both the one and the other exercised themselues about particular cures endeuoured so much as in them lay to know ech ones nature singly by it selfe The difficultie then consisteth in nothing els than to know for what cause so well learned phisitions though they exercise themselues all their life long in curing yet neuer grow skilfull in practise and yet other simple soules with three or foure rules learned verie soone and the schollers can more skill of ministring than they The true answere of this doubt holdeth no little difficultie seeing that Aristotle could not finde it out nor render at least in some sort any part therof But grounding on the principles of our doctrine we will deliuer the same for we must know that the perfection of a phisition consisteth in two things no lesse necessarie to attaine the end of his art than two legges are to go without halting The first is to weet by way of method the precepts and rules of curing men in generall without descending to particulars The second to be long time exercised in practise and to haue visited many patients for men are not so different ech from other but that in diuers things they agree neither so conioyned but that there rest in them particularities of such condition as they can neither be deliuered by speech nor written nor taught nor so collected as that they may be reduced into art but to know them is onely granted to him who hath often seen and had them in handling Which may easily be conceiued considering that mans face being composed of so small a number of parts as are two eies a nose two cheeks a mouth a forehead nature shapeth yet therein so manie compositions and combinations as if you assemble togither 100000 men ech one hath a countenance so different from other and proper to himselfe that it falleth out a miracle to find two who do altogither resemble The like betideth in the foure elements in the 4 first qualities hot cold moist and drie by the harmonie of which the life and health of man is compounded and of so slender a number of parts nature maketh so many proportions
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
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
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
Offices Booke of Destinie * Dialoge of knowledge By the only vnderstanding of Socrates may this comparison be verefied for he taught by demaunds and handled the matter so that the scholler himselfe attained to knowledge without his telling him the same Mans Wisedome is not RemeÌ„brance wherefore we haue here aboue spoken against Plato for that he held this opinion In the second age called youth a man makes an vnion of all the differences of wit in such as they may be vnited for that this age is more temperat than all the rest wherfore it is vnfitting to let it passe without learning of knowledge whereby a man may liue The principall of all these is Nature for if she be in them who applie their mind to Art they may pierce thorow all the other things aboue specified So Baldus betooke himselfe to the studie of the Lawes when he was wel-aged wherethrough some sayd vnto him in a scoffe Thou commest too late O Baldus and wilt prooue a good aduocate in the other world but because he had a capacitie conformable for the lawes he proued learned in a short season Nature giues habilitie Art facilitie Vse sufficiencie Aboue all things Nature is necessarie for if she gainsay al other drifts are attempted in vaine In all Knowledges we must vnderstand how far their iurisdiction exteÌ„deth and what questions apperteine vnto them The Lord working therewithall and confirming with his word followed by signs Iob. 33. The ignorance of naturall Philosophie is cause that miracles are imputed where they ought not Hippocrates vsed vnproper terms when he sayd the soule of man is produced vntil his death In euery citie the wisest and eldest persons should looke into and iudge of the naturall quicknesse of children and so giue notice that ech one might learne an art agreeable to his nature And therefore the heart and the things seated therabouts haue great feeling but for all that are not partakers of knowledge but of all these things the braine is causer There are two sorts of fat men the one full of flesh bones and blood the other replenished with fat and these are very wittie Go to the Ant O sluggard and consider his way and learne wisedome who hauing no guide nor maister prouides himselfe the summer of food and in the time of haruest furnisheth himselfe of meat A Faulconer affirmed to me with an oath that he had a redye Faulcon for hawking which grew bussardly for remedy wherof he gaue hir a botton di fuoto in the head and she amended Plato tooke out of the holie Scripture the best sentences which are to be found in his workes in respect whereof he was called Diuine Plato attributes three soules vnto man Hippocrates answered better saying That nature is learned though she haue not learned to do well The seed and menstruall blood which are two materiall principles of which we be formed are hote moist through which temperature children are so vnskilled When the braine is placed hot in the first degree it makes a man eloquent furnisheth him with store of matter to deliuer for which cause the silent are alwaies cold of braine great talkers hot This frenzie was occasioned by abundaÌ„ce of cholar which tooke hold in the substance of the brain which humor hath great congruence with Poetrie for which cause Horace sayd That if summer did not make euacuation of choler no Poet should passe before him This page was not yet perfectly cured He speakes to one asleepe who teacheth wisedome to a foole The Sibils admitted by the catholike church had this naturall disposition that Aristotle speakes of and besides a propheticall spirit which God powred into theÌ„ for naturall wit sufficed not for so high a point werethe same neuer so perfect When the diseased diuine thus it is a token that the reasonable soule is now awearie of the bodie and so none such recouer Those who haue bene crazed and are called melaÌ„cholike haue their mind endewed with a certain spice of prophesying and diuining Aristotle in his third booke of the soule Horace to say that Vlisses became not a fool figured him that he was not turned into a hog The hart of wise men is where there is sadnesse and the hart of fooles where there is mirth Wherethrough Cicero defining the nature of wit placeth memorie in his definition Docilitie Memorie which as it were by one name are tearmed wit Any distemperature whatsoeuer cannot any long time endure alone Of these differences of wits Aristotle said in this manner He verely is best who vnderstandeth euery thing by himselfe and he also is good who obeith him that sayth well The inuention of arts and the making of bookes saith Galen is performed with the vnderstaÌ„ding and with the memorie or with the imaginatiue but he thatwrites for that he hath many things in his mind cannot ad any new inuention This difference of wits is very dangerous for Diuinitie where the vnderstaÌ„ding ought to abide bound to that which the Catholike church doth resolue This difference of wits senteth very well for Diuinitie where it behooueth to ensue the diuine authoritie declared by the holy Councels and sacred Doctors The smooth white and grosse persons haue no melancholicke humour Amongst brute beasts there is none which approcheth neerer to mans wisdome than the OliphaÌ„t and there is none of a flesh so rough and hard Note that men of great vnderstanding take no care for attiring their bodie but are ordinarily ill apparelled slouenly and hereof we yeeld the reason in the 8. cha and 14. Galen dying went to hell and saw by experieÌ„ce that materiall fire burned the soules and could not consume theÌ„ this Physition had knowledge of that Euangelicall doctrine and could not receiue it But the serpent was the wiliest beast of the earth amongst all those whome God hath made Traquitantos signifieth Bring hither tokens or counters Cicero saith that the honour of man is to haue wit and of wit to be applied to eloquence This is recounted by Plato in his dialogue of knowledge and in his banquet Cicero praising the eloquence of Plato sayd That if Iupiter should haue spoken Greeke he would haue spoken as Plato did Paule Lib. 3. de Anima ca. 3. Take heed you receiue no hurt for leauing out the Pope Solertia S. John Baptist was an angell in his office No doubt your owne king A weake reason rather God chose Saule as a carnal man sit for the Iewes obstinat asking and Dauid as a spirituall man the instrument of his mercie And I hold it vntrue because the phrase vtterly differeth from the Latine toung as spectosus valde inter filios bominum Vnwritten Vâ—rities And such a one if you mistake not is your king Philip. Your king and your selfe An high speculation Note here a sign which sheweth the immortalitie of the soule This is no chapter for maids to read in sight of others You are much mistaken