that if a 100000 men be begotten ech of them comes to the world with a health so peculier and proper to himselfe that if God should on the sodaine miraculously change their proportion of these first qualities they would all become sicke except some two or three that by great disposition had the like consonance and proportion Whence two conclusions are necessarilie inferred The first is that euerie man who falleth sicke ought to be cured conformable to his particular proportiō in sort that if the phisition restore him not to his first consonance of humours he cannot recouer The second that to performe this as it ought is requisite the phisition haue first seen dealt with the patient sundry times in his health by feeling his pulse perusing his state and what maner countenance and complexion he is of to the end that when he shall fall sicke he may iudge how farre he is from his health and in ministring vnto him may know to what point he is to restore him For the first namely to weet and vnderstand the Theorick and composition of the art saith Galen it is necessarie to be endowed with great discourse and much memorie for the one part of phisick consisteth in reason and the other in experience and historie To the first is vnderstanding requisite and to the other memorie and it resting a matter of so great difficultie to vnite these two powers in a large degree it followeth of force that the phisition become vnapt for the Theorick Where-through we behold many Phisitions learned in the Greeke Latine tongue and great Anotomists and Simplicists all workes of the memory who brought to arguing or disputations or to finde out the cause of anie effect that appertaineth to the vnderstanding can small skill thereof The contrarie befalleth in others who shew great wit and sufficiencie in the Logicke and Philosophie of this art but being set to the Latine and Greeke tongue touching simples and anotomies can do little because memorie in them is wanting for this cause Galen said verie wel That it is no maruell if among so great a multitude of men who practise the exercise and studie of the art of Phisicke and Philosophie so few are found to profit therein and yeelding the reason he saith It requires a great toile to find out a wit requisite for this Science or a maister who can teach the same with perfection or can studie it with diligence and attention But with all these reasons Galen goeth groping for he could not hit the cause whence it comes to passe that few persons profit in Phisick Yet in saying it was a great labour to find out a wit requisit for this science he spake truth albeit he did not so far-forth specifie the same as we will namely for that it is so difficult a matter to vnite a great vnderstanding with much memorie no man attaineth to the depth of Theoricall phisick And for that there is found a repugnancie between the vnderstanding and the imagination whereunto we will now prooue that practise and the skill to cure with certaintie appertaineth it is a miracle to find out a Phisition who is both a great Theorist and withall a great practitioner or contrariwise a great practitioner and verie well seen in Theorick And that the imagination and not the vnderstanding is the power wherof the phisition is to serue himself in knowing and curing the diseases of particular persons may easily be prooued First of all presupposing the doctrine of Aristotle who affirmeth That the vnderstanding cānot know particulars neither distinguish the one from the other nor discerne the time and place other particularities which make men different ech from other and that euery one is to be cured after a diuers maner and the reason is as the vulgar Philosophers auouch for that the vnderstanding is a spiritall power and cannot be altered by the particulars which are replenished with matter And for this cause Aristotle said That the sense is of particulars and the vnderstanding of vniuersals If then medicines are to worke in particulars and not in vniuersals which are vnbegotten and vncorruptible the vnderstanding falleth out to be a power impertinent for curing Now the difficultie consisteth in discerning why men of great vnderstanding cānot possesse good outward senses for the particulars they being powers so repugnant And the reason is verie plain and this is it that the outward senses cannot well performe their operations vnlesse they be assisted with a good imagination and this we are to prooue by the opinion of Aristotle who going about to expresse what the imagination was saith it is a motion caused by the outward sense in sort as the colour which multiplieth by the thing coloured doth alter the eie And so it fareth that this selfe colour which is in the christallin humour passeth farther into the imagination and maketh therin the same figure which was in the eie And if you demād of which of these two kindes the notice of the particular is made all philosophers auouch and that verie truely that the second figure is it which altereth the imagination and by them both is the notice caused conformable to that so commō speech From the obiect and from the power the notice springeth But from the first which is in the christallin humour from the sightfull power groweth no notice if the imagination be not attentiue thereunto which the phisitions do plainly prooue saying That if they lance or sear the flesh of a diseased person who for al that feeleth no pain it shews a token that his imagination is distracted into some profound contemplation whence we see also by experience in the sound that if they be raught into some imagination they see not the things before them nor heare though they be called nor tast meat sauorie or vnsauory though they haue it in their mouth Wherefore it is a thing certaine that not the vnderstanding or outward senses but the imagination is that which maketh the iudgement and taketh notice of particular things It followeth then that the phisition who is well seen in Theoricke for that he is indowed with great vnderstanding or great memory must of force prooue a bad practitioner as hauing defect in his imagination And contrariwise he that prooueth a good practitioner must of force be a bad Theorist for much imagination cannot be vnited with much vnderstanding and much memorie And this is the cause for which so few are thoroughly seen in phisicke or commit but small errors in curing for not to halt in the worke it behooueth to know the art and to possesse a good imagination for putting the same in practise and we haue prooued that these two cannot stick togither The Phisition neuer goeth to know and cure a disease but that secretly to himselfe he frameth a Syllogisme in Darij though he be neuer so well experienced and the proofe of his first proportion belongeth to the vnderstanding and of the second
combers and therefore molested by that passion to driue the same from them doe marrie wiues Of such Galen saith that they haue the instruments of generation very hot and dry and for this cause breed seed verie pricking apt for procreation A man then who goeth seeking a woman not his owne is replenished with this fruitfull digested and well seasoned seed Whence it followeth of force that he make the generation for where both are equall the mans seed carrieth the greatest efficacie and if the son be shaped of the seed of such a father it ensueth of necessitie that he resemble him The contrarie betideth in lawfull children who for that married men haue their wiues euer couched by their sides neuer take regard to ripen the seed or to make it apt for procreation but rather vpon euery light enticement yeeld the same from them vsing great violence and stirring whereas women abiding quiet during the carnall act their seed vessels yeeld not their seed saue when it is well concoct and seasoned Therfore married women do alwaies make the engendring and their husbands seed serueth for aliment But somtimes it comes to passe that both the seeds are matched in equall perfection and cumbat in such sort as both the one and the other take effect in the forming and so is a child shaped who resembleth neither father nor mother Another time it seemeth that they agree vpon the matter part the likenesse between them the seed of the father maketh the nosthrils and the eies and that of the mother the mouth and the forehead And which carrieth most maruell it hath so fallen out that the sonne hath taken one eare of his father and another of his mother and so the like in his eies But if the fathers seed do altogither preuaile the childe retaineth his nature and his conditions and when the seed of the mother swaieth most the like reason taketh effect Therefore the father who coueteth that his child may be made of his owne seed ought to withdraw himselfe for some daies from his wife and stay till all his seed be concocted and ripened and then it will fall out certain that the forming shall proceed from him and the wifes seed shall serue for nourishment The second doubt by meanes of that we haue said already beareth little difficultie for bastard children are ordinarily made of seed hote and dry and from this temperature as we haue oftentimes prooued heretofore spring courage brauerie and a good imagination whereto this wisdome of the world appertaineth And because the seed is digested and well seasoned nature effecteth what she likes best and pourtraieth those children as with a pensill To the third doubt may be answered that the conceiuing of lewd women is most commonly wrought by the mans seed and because the same is drie and verie apt for issue it fasteneth it selfe in the woman with verie strong rootes but the childe breeding of married women being wrought by their own seed occasioneth that the creature easily vnlooseth because the same was moist and watry or as Hippocrates saith full of mustinesse What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed §. 5. THe matter wherof man is compounded prooueth a thing so alterable and so subiect to corruption that at the instant when he beginneth to be shaped he like wise beginneth to be vntwined and to alter and therin can find no remedy For it was said so soon as we are born we faile to be Wherthrough nature prouided that in mans body there should be 4 natural faculties attractiue retētiue concoctiue expulsiue The which concocting altering the aliments which we eate returne to repaire the substance that was lost ech succeeding in his place By this we vnderstand that it little auaileth to haue engendred a child of delicat seed if we make no reckoning of the meates which afterwards we feed vpon For the creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance wherof it was first composed True it is that the first seed if the same be well concocted and seasoned possesseth such force that digesting altering the meats it maketh them though they be bad and grosse to turne to his good temperature and substance but we may so far forth vse contrary meats as the creature shall loose those good qualities which it receiued from the seed wherof it was made therefore Plato said that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine was his euill bringing vp in diet For which cause he counselled that we should giue vnto children meats and drinks delicat and of good temperature to the end that when they grow big they may know how to abandon the euil to embrace the good The reason hereof is very cleere For if at the bginning the braine was made of delicat seed and that this member goeth euerie day impairing and consuming and must be repaired with the meats which we eat it is certaine if these being grosse and of euill temperature that vsing them many daies togither the braine will become of the same nature Therefore it sufficeth not that the child be borne of good seed but also it behooueth that the meat which he eateth after he is formed and borne bee endowed with the same qualities What these be it carrieth no great difficultie to manifest if you presuppose that the Greekes were the most discreet men of the world and that enquiring after aliments and food to make their children witty and wise they found the best and most appropriat For if the subtile and delicate wit consist in causing that the braine be compounded of partes subtile and of good temperature that meate which aboue all others partaketh these two qualities shalbe the same which it behooueth vs to vse for obteining our end Galen and all the Greeke Phisitions say that Goats milke boiled with honny is the best meat which any man can eat for besides that it hath a moderate substance therein the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie Therefore we said some few leaues past that the parentes whose will earnestly leadeth them to haue a childe wise prompt and of good conditions must eat much Goats milke boiled with honny 7 or 8 daies before the copulationut-Balbeit this aliment is so good as Galen speaketh of yet it falleth out a matter of importance for the wit that the meate consist of moderate substance and of subtile partes For how much the finer the matter becommeth in the nourishment of the braine so much the more is the wit sharpened For which cause the Greekes drew-out of the milke cheese and whey which are the two grosse aliments of his composition and left the butter which in nature resembleth the aire This they gaue in food to their children mingled with honny with intention to make them witty and wise And that this is the trueth is plainly seen by that which Homer recounteth
vnderstood when the stomacke is good and sound but if it fall into a certain infirmitie which the Phisitions call Pica or Malacia then arise longings after things which mans nature abhorreth so as they eate earth coles and lime with greater appetite than hennes or trouts If we passe on to the facultie generatiue we shall find as many appetites varieties for some men loue a foule womā and abhorre a faire others cast better liking to a foole than her that is wise a fat wench is fulsome and a leane hath their liking silks braue attire offend some mens fancies who leese themselues after one that totters in her ragges This is vnderstood when the genitall partes are in their soundnesse but if they fall into their infirmitie of stomacke which is termed Malacia they couet detestable beastlinesse The same befalleth in the facultie sensitiue for of the palpable qualities hard and soft rough and smooth hot and cold moist and drie there is none of them which can content euery ones feeling for there are men who take better rest on a hard bed than a soft other som better on a soft than a hard All this varietie of strange tasts appetites is found in the compositions framed by the vnderstanding for if we assemble 100 men of learning and propound a particular question each of them deliuereth a seuerall iudgement and discourseth thereof in different maner One selfe argument to one seemeth a sophisticall reason to another probable and some you shall meet with to whose capacitie it concludeth as if it were a demonstration And this is not onely true in diuerse vnderstandings but we see also by experience that one selfe reason concludeth to one selfe vnderstanding at one time thus-wise and at another time otherwise so much that euerie day men varie in opinion some by processe of time purging their vnderstanding know the default of reason which first swaied them and others leesing the good temperature of their braine abhorre the trueth and giue allowance to a leasing But if the braine fall into the infirmitie which is termed Malacia then we shal see strange iudgements and compositions arguments false and weake to prooue more forcibly than such as carrie strength and trueth to good arguments an answere shaped and to bad a condescēding from the premisses whence a right conclusion may be collected they gather a wrong and by strange arguments and fond reasons they prooue their bad imaginations This graue and learned men duely aduising labour to deliuer their opinion concealing the reasons whereon they ground for men persuade themselues that so farre mans authoritie auaileth as the reason is of force on which he buildeth and the arguments resting so indifferent for cōcluding through the diuersitie of vnderstandings euerie man giueth a iudgement of the reason conformably to the wit which he possesseth for which cause it is reputed greater grauitie to say This is mine opinion for certaine reasons which moue me so to thinke than to display the arguments whereon he relieth But if they be enforced to render a reason of their opinion they ouerslip not anie argument how slight so euer for that which they least valued with some concludeth and worketh more effect than the most vrgent Wherein the great miserie of our vnderstanding is discouered which compoundeth and diuideth argueth and reasoneth and at last when it is growen to a conclusion is void of proofe or light which may make it discern whether his opinion be true or no. This selfe vncertaintie haue the diuines in matters which appertaine not to the faith for after they haue argued at full they cannot then assure themselues of anie infallible proofe or euident successe that may discouer which reasons carried greatest waight and soeuerie diuine casteth how he may best ground himself and answer with most apparence to the aduerse parties arguments his owne reputation saued and this is all wherabouts he must bestow his endeuour But the charge of a Phisition and a Generall in the field after he hath well discoursed and refuted the grounds of the contrary partie is to marke the successe which if it be good he shal be held for discreet if had allmen will know that he relied vpon guilefull reasons In matters of faith propounded by the Church there can be fall none error for God best weeling how vncertaine mens reasons are and with how great facilltie they runne headlong to be deceiued consenteth not that matters so high and of so waightie importance should rest vpon our onely determination but when two or three are gathered togither 〈◊〉 his name with the solemnitie of the Church he forthwith 〈◊〉 into the midst of them as president of the action and to giueth allowance to that which they say well and reaueth their errours and of himselfe reuealeth that to whose notice by humane forces we cannot attaine The proofe then which the reasons formed in matters of faith must receiue is to aduise well whether they prooue or inferre the same which the Catholicke church saith and declareth for if they collect ought to the contrarie ther without doubt they are faultie but in other questions i where the vnderstanding hath libertie of 〈◊〉 there hath not yet any maner bin deuised to know what reasons conclude nor when the vnderstanding doth well compound a trueth onely we relie vpon the good consonance which they make and that is in argument which may 〈…〉 better apparence and likelier proofe of truth than the 〈◊〉 themselves Phisitions and such as command in martiall affairs haue successe and experience for proofe of their reasons For if 〈◊〉 captains proue by many reasons that it is best to ioine battaile and so many in the other side defend the contrarie that which succcedeth will confirme the one opinion and conuince the other And if two Phisitions dispute whether the patient shall die or liue after he is cured or deceassed it will appeare whose reason was best But for all this the successe is yet no sufficient proofe for whereas an effect hath many causes it may very well betide happily for one cause and yet the reasons perhaps were grounded on a contrary Aristotle moreouer affirmeth that to know what reasons conclude it is good to ensue the common opinion for if many wisemen say and affirme one selfe thing and all conclude with the same reasons it is a signe though topicall that they are conclusiue and that they compound well the truth But who so taketh this into due consideration shall find it a proofe subiect also vnto beguiling for in the forces of the vnderstanding waight is of more preheminence than number for it fareth not in this as in bodily forces that when many loine together to lift vp a waight they preuaile much and when few but little but to attaine to the notice of a truth deepely hidden one high vnderstanding is of more value than 100000 which are not comparable thereunto and the reason is because the vnderstandings helpe
great importaunce that there is no maister in the world who can teach him more and especially when a man sees himselfe sometimes abandoned of the fauour and delights of his countrie Depart out of thy land sayd God to Abraham and seuer thy selfe from amidst thy kindred and thy fathers house and come to the place where I will shew thee in which thou shalt make thy name great I will giue thee my blessing The like sayes God to all men who desire to prooue of value and wisedome for albeit he can blesse them in their natiue countrie yet he will that men dispose themselues by this meane which he hath ordained and that wisdome be not attained by them with idlenesse All this is meant with a foregoing presupposall that a man haue a good wit and be apt for otherwise He that goes a beast to Rome returns a beast againe Little auailes it that a dullard go to learne in the famous places of studie where there is no chaire of vnderstanding nor wisedome nor a man to teach it The third point of diligence is to seeke out a maister who hath a direction and method in teaching whose doctrine is sound and firme not sophisticall nor of vaine considerations for all that the scholler doth whilest he is a learning is to credit all that which his maister propounds vnto him for he hath no sound iudgement or discretion to discerne or separat falshood from truth albeit this is a chauncefull case and not placed in the choise of such as learne that the scholers come in due time to studie and that the Vniuersities haue good or vnfit instructers as it befell certaine Phisitions of whome Galen reports that hauing conuinced them by many reasons and experiments and shewed them that the practise which they vsed was false and preiudiciall to mens health the tears fell from their eyes and in his presence they began to curse their hard hap in lighting on such bad maisters as bare sway during the time that they were learners True it is that there are found some schollers of so ripe wit as they straightwaies looke into the condition of the teachers and the learning which he teacheth and if it be vitious they know how to confute the same and to giue allowance to such as deliuer soundly these at the yeares end teach their maister much more than their maister taught them for doubting demaunding wittily they make him to vnderstand and answer things so exquisit as he himselfe neuer knew nor should haue knowne if the scholler with the felicitie of his wit had not brought them to his mind but those who can do this are one or two at the most and the dullards are infinit through which it would do well seeing this choise and Examination of Wits for euery science is not had that the Vniuersities alwaies made prouision of good teachers endued with sound learning and a cleere discerning wit to the end they may not instruct the ignorant in errours and false propositions The fourth diligence requisit to be vsed is to studie euerie science with order beginning at his principles and passing through the midst to the end without hauing matter that may presuppose another thing before For which cause I haue alwaies held it an errour to heare many lessons of diuers matters and to carrie them all home fardled vp together By this means there is made a masse of things in the vnderstanding which afterwards when they come to practise a man knowes not how to turne to vse the precepts of his art nor to assigne them a place conuenient and it is much better to bestow labour in euery matter by it selfe and with that naturall order which it holds in his composition for in the selfe manner as it is learned so is it also preserued in the memorie And more in particular it is necessarie that they do this who of their owne nature haue a confused wit and this may easily be remedied by hearing one matter by it selfe and that being ended to enter into the next following till the whole art be atchieued Galen well vnderstanding of how great importance it was to studie matters with order and conceit wrot a booke to teach the manner that was to be held in reading his works to the end that the Phisition might not be tangled in confusion Others adde herevnto that the scholler whilest he learneth haue but one booke which may plainly containe the points of his learning and that he attend to studie that only and no more least he grow into a garboile and confusion and herein they are warranted by great reason The last thing which makes a man proue of rare learning is to consume much time at his booke and to expect that knowledge haue his due digestion and take deepe root for as the bodie is not maintained by the much which we eat and drinke in one day but by that which the stomacke digesteth and turneth so our vnderstanding is not filled by the much which we read in little time but by that which by little and little it proceeds to conceiue and chew vpon Our wit day by day disposeth it selfe better and better and comes by processe of time to light on things which before it could neither vnderstand nor conceiue Vnderstanding hath his beginning his increase his standing and his declining as hath a man and other creatures and plants it begins in boies age hath his increase in youth his standing in middle or mans age and in old age it begins to decline Who so therefore would know at what time his vnderstanding enioieth all the forces which it may partake let him weet that it is frō the age of thirtie and three vntill fiftie little more or lesse within which compasse we may best giue credit to graue authors if in the discourse of their life they haue held contrarie opinions and he that will write bookes let him do it about this age and not before nor after if he meane not to vnsay againe or change opinion But mans age hath not in all people a like measure and reason for in some childhood ends in twelue yeares in some at fourteene some haue sixteene and some eighteen such liues very long because their youth arriues to little lesse than fortie yeares and their ripe or firme age to three-score and they haue afterward twentie yeares of old age wherethrough their life amounts to fourescore and this is the terme of those who are verie strong The first sort who finish their childhood at twelue yeares are very short liued and begin speedily to discourse their beard soone sprowteth out and their wit lasteth but a small time these at thirtie fiue yeares begin to decline and at fortie and eight finish their life Of all the conditions aboue specified there is not any one which is not very necessary profitable and helpfull in practise for a yoong man to receiue notice of but to haue a good and answerable nature to the
science which he pretendeth to study is the matter which most makes for the purpose for with this we haue seene that diuers men haue begun to studie after their youth was expired and were instructed by bad teachers with euill order and in their owne birth-places and yet for all that haue prooued great clearks But if the wit faile sayth Hippocrates all other diligences are lost But there is no man who hath better verefied this than the good Marcus Cicero who through greefe of seeing his sonne such a doo-nought with whome none of the means could preuaile that he had procured to breed him wisedome sayd in the end after this sort What else is it after the manner of the Giants to fight with the gods than to resist against nature as if he should haue sayd What thing is there which better resembles the battaile which the giants vndertooke against the gods than that a man who wanteth capacitie should set himselfe to studie for as the giants neuer ouercame the gods but were still vanquished by them so whatsoeuer scholler will labour to ouercome his owne vntoward nature shall rest vanquished by her For which cause the same Cicero counselleth vs that we should not vse force against our nature nor endeuour to become Orators if she assent not for we shall vndergo labour in vaine CHAP. II. That Nature is that which makes a man of habilitie to learne IT is an opinion very common and ordinarie amongst the antient Philosophers to say That Nature is she who makes a man of habilitie to learne and that art with her precepts and rules giues a facilitie therevnto but then vse and experience which he reapes of particular things makes him mightie in working Yet none of them euer shewed in particular what thing this nature was nor in what ranke of causes it ought to be placed only they affirmed that this wanting in him who learned art experience teachers bookes and trauaile are of none auaile The ignoraunt vulgar seeing a man of great wit and readinesse straightwaies assigne God to be the author thereof and looke no further but hold euery other imagination that goes beyond this for vanitie but naturall Philosophers despise this manner of talking for put case that the same be godly and containe therein religion and truth yet it groweth from not knowing the order and disposition which God placed amongst naturall things that day when they were created and so couer their ignorance with a kind of warrantise and in sort that none may reprehend or gainsay the same they affirme that all befals as God will and that nothing succeeds which springs not from his diuine pleasure But though this be neuer so apparant a truth yet are they worthie of reproofe because as not euerie kind of demaund sayth Aristotle is to be made after one fashion so not euerie aunswer though true is to be giuen Whilest a natural Philosopher reasoned with a Grammarian there came to them an inquisitiue Gardener and asked what the cause might be that he cherishing the earth so charilie in deluing turning dunging and watering it yet the same neuer well brought foorth the herbage which he sowed therein whereas the hearbes which she bred of her selfe she caused to increase with great facilitie The Grammarian aunswered This grew from the diuine prouidence and was so ordained thorow the good gouernment of the world at which answer the naturall Philosopher laughed seeing he reduced this to God because he knew not the discourse of naturall causes nor in what sort they proceeded to their effects The Grammarian perceiuing the other laugh asked whether he mocked him or wherat else he laughed The Philosopher answered that he laughed not at him but at the maister who taught him so ill for the knowledge and solution of things which spring from the diuine prouidence as are the workes supernaturall appertaine to the Metaphisicks whom we now tearme Diuines but this question propounded by the Gardener is naturall and appertaineth to the iurisdiction of the naturall Philosophers because there are certaine ordered and manifest causes from which this effect may spring And thus the naturall Philosopher answered saying that the earth is conditioned like a stepmother who very carefully brings vp her owne children which shee breeds her selfe but takes away the sustenance from those which appertaine to her husband and so we see that her owne children are fat and fresh and her step-children weake and ill coloured The hearbs which the earth brings foorth of her selfe are borne of her proper bowels and those which the Gardener makes to grow by force are the daughters of another mother wherethrough she takes from them the vertue and nourishment by which they ought to increase that she may giue it to the hearbs which are borne of her selfe Hippocrates likewise reports that he going to visit the great Philosopher Democritus he told him the follies which the vulgar speake of Phisicke namely that seeing themselues recouered from sicknesse they would say it was God who healed them and that if his wil were not little had the good diligence of the Phisition auailed This is so antient a manner of talke and the naturall Philosophers haue so often refuted it that the seeking to take the same away were superfluous neither is it conuenient for the vulgar who know not the particular causes of any effect answereth better and with more truth as touching the vniuersall cause which is God than to say some other vnfitting thing But I haue often gone about to consider the reason the cause whence it may grow that the vulgar sort is so great a friend to impute all things to God and to reaue them from nature do so abhor the naturall means and I know not whether I haue bene able to find it out The vulgar at least giues hereby to vnderstand that forasmuch as they know not what effects they ought to attribute to God immediatly and what to Nature they speake after this maner Besides that men are for the most part impatient and desirous to accomplish speedily what they couet But because the natural means are of such prolixitie and work with length of time they possesse not the patience to stand marking thereof and knowing that God is omnipotent and in a moment of time performeth whatsoeuer him pleaseth whereof they find many examples they would that he should giue thē health as he did to the sicke of the palsie and wisedome as to Salomon riches as to Iob and that he should deliuer them from their enimie as he did Dauid The second cause is for that men are arrogant and vaine conceited many of whom desire secretly in their hearts that God would bestow vpon them some particular graces which should not befall after the common vse as is that the sunne ariseth vpon the good and bad and that the rainè fals vpon all in generall for benefits are so much the more highly prized as they are the more rare
And for this cause we haue seene many men to feigne miracles in houses and places of deuotion for straightwaies the people flockes vnto them and holds them in great reuerence as persons of whome God makes a speciall account and if they be poore they fauour them with large almes and so some sinne vpon interest The third reason is that men haue a liking to be well at their ease whereas naturall causes are disposed with such order and conceit that to obtaine their effects it behooues to bestow labour Wherefore they would haue God demeane himselfe towards them after his omnipotencie and that without sweating they might come to the well-head of their desires I leaue aside the malice of those who require miracles at Gods hand thereby to tempt his almightinesse and to prooue whether he be able to do it and othersome who to be reuenged after their hearts desire cal for fire from heauen and such other cruell chastisements The last cause is for that many of the vulgar are reliligiously giuen and hold deere that God may be honored and magnified which is much sooner brought about by way of miracles than by naturall effects but the common sort of men know not that workes aboue nature and woonderfull are done by God to shew those who know it not that he is omnipotent and that he serues himselfe of them as an argument to prooue his doctrine and that this necessitie once ceasing he neuer doth it more This may well be perceiued considering that God dooth no longer those vnwoonted things of the new testament and the reason is for that on his behalfe he hath performed all necessarie diligence that men might not pretend ignorance And to thinke that he will begin anew to do the like miracles and by them once againe to prooue his doctrine in raising the dead restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame and sicke of the palsie is an errour very great for once God taught men what is behooffull and prooued the same by miracles but returnes not to do it any more God speakes once sayth Iob and turnes not to a second repliall The token whereon I ground my iudgement when I would discouer whether a man haue a wit appropriat to Naturall Philosophie is to see whether he be addicted to reduce all matters to miracle without distinction and contrariwise such as hold not themselues contented vntill they know the particular cause of euerie effect leaue no occasion to mistrust the goodnesse of their wit These doe well know that there are effects which must be reduced to God immediatly as miracles and others to nature and such are those which haue their ordinarie causes frō whence they accustome to spring but speaking both of the one manner and the other we alwaies place God for author for when Aristotle sayd that God and nature did nothing in vaine he meant not that nature was an vniuersall cause endowed with a iurisdiction seuered from God but that she was a name of the order and concent which God hath bestowed in the frame of the world to the end that the necessarie effects might follow for the preseruation thereof For in the same manner it is vsually sayd that the King and Ciuile Reason do no man wrong In which kind of speech no man conceiueth that this name Reason signifieth a Prince which possesseth a seuerall iurisdiction from that of the king but a terme which by his signification embraceth al the roiall lawes and constitutions ordained by the same king for the preseruation of his common wealth in peace And as the king hath his speciall cases reserued to himselfe which cannot be decided by the law for that they are vnusuall and waightie in like manner God left miraculous effects reserued for himself neither gaue allowance vnto naturall causes that they might produce them But here we must note that he who should know them for such and difference them from naturall workes behooues to be a great naturall Philosopher and to vnderstand the ordinary causes that euery effect may hold yet all this sufficeth not vnlesse the Catholike church ratifie them to be such And as the Doctors labour and studie in reading this ciuile Reason preseruing the whole in their memorie that they may know and vnderstand what the kings will was in the determination of such a case so we naturall Philosophers as doctors in this facultie bestow all our studie in knowing the discourse and order which God placed that day when he created the world so to contemplat and vnderstand in what sort and vpon what cause he would that things should succeed And as it were a matter worthy laughter that a doctor should alleage in his writings though approoued that the king commaunds a case should be thus determined without shewing the Law and Reason through which it was so decided so naturall Philosophers laugh at such as say This is Gods doing without assigning the order and discourse of the particular causes whēce they may spring And as the king wil giue them no eare when they require him to breake some iust law or to rule some case besides the order of iustice which he hath commaunded to be obserued so God will not hearken when any man demaunds of him myracles and workes besides naturall order without cause why For albeit the king euery day abrogates and establisheth new lawes and changeth iudiciall order as wel through the variation of times as for that it is the iudgement of a fraile man and cannot at one only time attain to perfect right and iustice notwithstanding the naturall order of the vniuerse which we call nature from that day wherein God created the world vnto this hath had no need of adioining or reauing any one iot because he framed the same with such prouidence and wisedome that to require this order might not be obserued were to say that his workes were vnperfect To returne then to that sentence so often vsed by naturall Philosophers that Nature makes able we must vnderstand that there are Wits and there are Abilities which God bestoweth vpon men besides naturall order as was the wisedome of the Apostles who being simple and of base account were miraculously enlightened and replenished with knowledge and learning Of this sort of abilitie wisdome it cannot be verefied that nature makes able for this is a worke which is to be imputed immediatly vnto God not vnto nature The like is to be vnderstood of the wisedome of the prophets and of all those to whome God graunted some grace infused Another sort of abilitie is found in men which springs of their being begotten with that order and consent of causes which are established by God to this end and of this sort it may be sayd with truth Nature makes able For as we will proue in the last chapter of this worke there is to be found such an order and consent in naturall things that if the fathers in time of procreation haue
seeing themselues hedged in with the curious and nice points of naturall Philosophie make them beleeue who know little that God or the diuell are authors of the prodigious and strange effects of whose naturall cause they haue no knowledge and vnderstanding Children which are engendred of seed cold and drie as are those begotten in old age some few dayes and moneths after their birth begin to discourse and philosophise for the temperature cold and drie as we will hereafter prooue is most appropriat to the operations of the reasonable soule and that which processe of time and many dayes and months should bring about is supplied by the present temperature of the brain which for many causes anticipateth what it was to effect Other children there are sayth Aristotle who as soone as they are borne begin to speake and afterwards hold their peace vntill they attaine the ordinarie and conuenient age of speaking which effect floweth from the same originall and cause that we recounted of the page and of those furious and frantike persons and of him who spake Latine on a sudden without hauing learned it in his health And that children whilst they make abode in their mothers bellie and so soone as they are borne may vndergo these infirmities is a matter past deniall But whence that diuining of the franticke woman proceeded I can better make Cicero to conceiue than these naturall Philosophers for he describing the nature of man sayd in this manner The creature foresightfull searchfull apt for many matters sharpe conceited mindfull replenished with reason and counsell whome we call by the name of Man And in particular he affirmeth that there is found a certain nature in some men which in foreknowing things to come exceedeth other mens and his words are these For there is found a certaine force and nature which foretels things to come the force and nature of which is not by reason to be vnfolded The error of the naturall Philosophers consisteth in not considering as Plato did that man was made to the likenesse of God and that he is a partaker of his diuine prouidence and that the power of discerning all the three differences of time memorie for the passed conceiuing for the present and imagination and vnderstanding for those that are to come And as there are men superior to others in remembring things past and others in knowing the present so there are also many who partake a more naturall habilitie for imagining of what shall come to passe One of the greatest arguments which forced Cicero to thinke that the reasonable soule is vncorruptible was to see the certaintie with which the diseased tell things to come and especially when they are neere their end But the difference which rests betweene a propheticall spirit and this naturall wit is that that which God speaks by the mouth of his prophets is infallible for it is the expresse word of God but that which man prognosticateth by the power of his imagination holds no such certaintie Those who say that the discouering of their vertues and vices by the frantike woman to the persons who came to visit her was a tricke of the diuels playing let them know that God bestowes on men a certaine supernaturall grace to attaine and conceiue which are the workes of God and which of the diuell the which saint Paule placeth amongst the diuine gifts and cals it The imparting of spirits Whereby we may discerne whether it be the diuell or some good angell that intermedleth with vs. For many times the diuell sets to beguile vs vnder the cloke of a good angell and we haue need of this grace and supernaturall gift to know him and difference him from the good From this gift they are farthest sundered who haue not a wit capable of naturall Philosophie for this science and that supernaturall infused by God fall vnder one selfe abilitie to weet the vnderstanding atleast if it be true that God in bestowing his graces doe applie himselfe to the naturall good of euery one as I haue afore rehearsed Iacob lying at the point of death at which time the reasonable soule is most at libertie to see what is to come all his twelue children entred to visit him and he to each of them in particular recited their vertues and vices and prophesied what should befall as touching them and their posteritie Certaine it is that he did all this inspired by God but if the diuine scripture and our fayth had not ascertained vs hereof how would these naturall Philosophers haue known this to be the worke of God and that the vertues and vices which the frantike woman told to such as came to visit her were discouered by the power of the diuell whilst this case in part resembles that of Iacob They reckon that the nature of the reasonable soule is far different from that of the diuell and that the powers thereof vnderstanding imagination and memorie are of another very diuers kind and herein they be deceiued For if a reasonable soule informe a well instrumentalized body as was that of Adam his knowledge comes little behind that of the subtillest diuell and without the body he partakes as perfect qualities as the other And if the diuels foresee things to come coniecturing and discoursing by certaine tokens the same also may a reasonable man do when he is about to be freed from his body or when he is endowed with that difference of temperature which makes a man capable of this prouidence For it is a matter as difficult for the vnderstanding to conceiue how the diuell can know these hidden things as to impute the same to the reasonable soule It will not fall in these mens heads that in natural things there may be found out certaine signs by means of which they may attaine to the knowledge of matters to come And I affirme there are certaine tokens to be found which bring vs to the notise of things passed and present and to forecast what is to follow yea to coniecture some secrets of the heauen Therfore we see that his things inuisible are vnderstood by the creatures of the world by means of the things which haue bene created Whosoeuer shall haue power to accomplish this shall attaine therevnto and the other shall be such as Homer spake of The ignorant vnderstandeth the things passed but not the things to come But the wise and discreet is the Ape of God for he immitates him in many matters and albeit he cannot accomplish them with so great perfection yet he carries some resemblance vnto him by following him CHAP. V. It is prooued that from the three qualities hot moist and drie proceed all the differences of mens wits THe reasonable soule making abode in the body it is impossible that the same can performe contrary and different operations if for each of them it vse not a particular instrument This is plainly seen in the power of the soule which performeth diuers operations in the outward
know and vnderstand new matters Of such a soule is verefied the saying of Hippocrates The going of the soule is the thought of men For there are some who neuer passe out of one contemplation and thinke not that the whole world can discouer another such These haue the propertie of a beast who neuer forsakes the beaten path nor careth to walke through desert and vnhaunted places but only in the high market way and with a guide before him Both these diuersities of wits are ordinarie amongst professors of learning Some others there are of high searching capacities and estranged from the common course of opinions they iudge and entreat of matters with a particular fashion they are franke in deliuering their opinion and tie not themselues to that of any other Some sorts are close moist and very quiet distrusting themselues and relying vpon the iudgement of some graue man whom they follow whose sayings and sentences they repute as sciences and demonstrations and al things contrarying the same they reckon vanitie and leasings These two differences of wits are very profitable if they be vnited for as amongst a great droue of cattell the heardsmen accustome to mingle some dozen of goats to lead them and make them trot apace to enioy new pastures that they may not suffer scarcitie so also it behoueth that in humane learning there be some goat-like wits who may discouer to the cattell like vnderstandings thorow secrets of nature and deliuer vnto them contemplations not heard of wherein they may exercise themselues for after this manner arts take increase and men dayly know more and more CHAP. VI. Certaine doubts and arguments are propounded against the doctrine of the last chapter and their answer ONe of the causes for which the wisdome of Socrates hath bene so famous till this day is for that after he was adiudged by the oracle of Apollo to be the wisest man of the world he sayd thus I know this only that I know nothing at all which sentence al those that haue seene and read passed it ouer as spoken by Socrates for that he was a man of great humblenesse a despiser of worldly things and one to whome in respect of diuine matters all else seemed of no valure But they verely are beguiled for none of the antient Philosophers possessed the vertue of humilitie nor knew what thing it was vntill God came into the world and taught the same The meaning of Socrates was to giue to vnderstand how little certaintie is contained in humane sciences and how vnsetled and fearfull the vnderstanding of a Philosopher is in that which he knoweth seeing by experience that all is full of doubts and arguments and that we can yeeld assent to nothing without fearing that it may be contrary For it was said The thoughts of men are doubtfull and our foreseeings vncertaine And he who will attaine the true knowledge of things it behooues that he rest setled and quiet without feare or doubt of being deceiued and the Philosopher who is not thus wise grounded may with much truth affirme that he knoweth nothing This same consideration had Galen when he sayd Science is a conuenient and firme notice which neuer departeth from reason therefore thou shalt not find it amongst the Philosophers especially when they consider the nature of things but verely much lesse in matters of Phisicke nay rather to speake all in one word it neuer makes his full arriuall where men are Hereby it seemeth that the true notice of things fails to come this way and to man arriueth only a certaine opinion which makes him to walke vncertaine and with feare whether the matter which he affirmeth be so or no. But that which Galen noteth more particularly touching this is that Philosophie and Phisicke are the most vncertaine of all those wherewith men are to deale And if this be true what shall we say touching the Philosophie wherof we now intreat where with the vnderstanding we make an anotomie of a matter so obscure and difficult as are the powers and faculties of the reasonable soule In which point are offered so many doubts and arguments that there remains no cleare doctrine vpon which we may relie One of which and the principall is that we haue made the Vnderstanding an instrumentall power as the Imagination and the Memorie and haue giuen drinesse to the braine as an instrument with which it may worke a thing far repugnant to the doctrine of Aristotle and all his followers who placing the vnderstanding seuered from the bodily instrument prooue easily the immortalitie of the reasonable soule and that the same issuing out of the body endureth for euer Now the contrarie opinion being disputable the way hereby is stopped vp so that this cannot be prooued Moreouer the reasons on which Aristotle groundeth himselfe to proue that the vnderstanding is not an instrumentall power carrie such efficacie as other than that cannot be concluded For to this power appertaineth the knowing and vnderstanding the nature and being of whatsoeuer materiall things in the world and if the same should be conioined with any bodily thing that selfe would hinder the knowledge of the residue as we see in the outward sences that if the tast be bitter all the things which the tongue toucheth partake the same sauour and if the christalline humour be greene or yellow all that the eye seeth it iudgeth to be of the same colour The reason of this is for that the thing within breeds an impediment to that without Aristotle sayth moreouer That if the vnderstanding were mingled with any bodily instrument it would retaine some qualitie for whatsoeuer vniteth it selfe with heat or cold it is of force that it partake of the same qualitie But to say that the vnderstanding is hot cold moist or drie is to vtter a matter abhominable to the ears of all naturall Philosophers The second principall doubt is that Aristotle and all the Peripateticks bring in two other powers besides the Vnderstanding the Imaginatiō the Memorie namely Remembrance and Common sence grounding vpon that rule That the powers are knowne by way of the actions They sayd That besides the operations of the Vnderstanding the Imagination the Memorie there are also two other different So then the wit of man taketh his originall from fiue powers and not from three only as we did proue We sayd also in the last chapter after the opinion of Galen that the memorie doth none other worke in the braine saue only to preserue the shapes and figures of things in such sort as a chest preserueth and keepeth apparell and what so else is put thereinto And if by such a comparison we are to vnderstand the office of this power it is requisit also to prooue another reasonable facultie which may fetch out the figures from the memorie and represent them to the vnderstanding euen as it is necessarie that there be one to open the chest and to take out what hath bene
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
the imagination so it is of force that they faile in vnderstanding and be such as the prouerb paints them forth To the second probleme may be answered that Galen enquiring out the wit of men by way of the temperarature of the region where they inhabit saith that those who make abode vnder the North haue all of thē want of vnderstanding but those who are seated between the North and the burned Zone are of great wisedome Which situation answereth directly to our region And verily so it is for Spaine is not so cold as the places subiected to the Pole nor so hot as the burned Zone The same sentence doth Aristotle produce demanding for what cause such as inhabit verie cold regions partake lesse vnderstanding than those who are born in the hotter and in the answere he verie homely handles the Flemmish Dutch English and French saying that their wits are like those of drunkards for which cause they cannot search out nor vnderstand the nature of things this is occasioned by the much moisture wherwith their brain is replenished and the other parts of the bodie the which is knowen by the whitenesse of the face and the golden colour of the haire and by that it is a miracle to find a Dutchman bald and aboue this they are generally great and of tall stature through the much moisture which breedeth encrease of flesh But in the Spaniards we discerne the quite contrarie they are somwhat browne they haue blacke haire of meane stature and for the most part we see them bald Which disposition saith Galen groweth for that the braine is hot and drie And if this be true it behooueth of force that they be endowed with a bad memorie and a good vnderstanding but the Dutchmen possesse a great memorie small vnderstanding For which cause the one can no skill of Latine and the other easily learne the same The reason which Aristotle alleaged to proue the slender vnderstanding of those who dwell vnder the North is that the much cold of the country calleth backe the naturall heate inward by counterposition and suffereth not the same to spread abroad for which cause it partaketh much moysture and much heate and these vnite a great memorie for the languages and a good imagination with which they make clocks bring the water to Toledo deuise engins and workes of rare skill which the Spaniards through defect of imagination cannot frame themselues vnto But set them to Logicke to Philosophie to Schoole-diuinitie to Phisicke or to the Lawes and beyond comparison a Spanish wit with his barbarous termes will deliuer more rare points than a stranger For if you take from them this finenesse and quaint phrase of writing there is nothing in them of rare inuention or exquisite choice For confirmation of this doctrine Galen said that in Scithia one onely man became a Philosopher but in Athens there were many such as if he should say that in Scithia which is a Prouince vnder the North it grew a myracle to see a Philosopher but in Athens they were all borne wise and skilfull But albeit Philosophie and the other Sciences rehearsed by vs be repugnant to the Northren people yet they profit well in the Mathematicals and in Astrologie because they haue a good imagination The answere of the third probleme dependeth vpon a question much hammered between Plato Aristotle the one saith that there are proper names which by their nature carrie signification of things and that much wit is requisite to deuise them And this opinion is fauoured by the diuine scripture which affirmeth that Adam gaue euerie of those things which God set before him the proper name that best was fitting for them But Aristotle wil not grant that in any toung there can be found any name or maner of speech which can signifie ought of it own nature for that all names are deuised and shaped after the conceit of men Whence we see by experience that wine hath aboue 60. names and bread as manie in euerie language his of none we can auouch that the same is naturall and agreeable thereunto for then all in the world would vse but that But for all this the sentence of Plato is truer for put case that the first deuisers fained the words at their pleasure and will yet was the same by a reasonable instinct communicated with the eare with the nature of the thing with the good grace and well sounding of the pronunciation not making the wordes ouer short or long nor enforcing an vnseemly framing of the mouth in time of vtterance setling the accent in his conuenient place and obseruing the other conditions which a tongue should possesse to be fine and not barbarous Of this selfe opinion with Plato was a Spanish gentleman who made it his pastime to write books of chiualrie because he had a certain kind of imagination which entiseth men to faining and leasings Of him it is reported that being to bring into his works a furious Gyant he went manie daies deuising a name which might in al points be answerable to his fiercenesse neither could he light vpon any vntill playing one day at cardes in his friends house he heard the owner of the house say Ho sirha boy traquitantos the Gentleman so soone as he heard this name Traquitantos sodainly he took the same for a word of ful sound in the eare and without any longer looking arose saying gentlemen I wil play no more for many dayes are past sithence I haue gone seeking out a name which might fit well with a furious Gyant whom I bring into those volumes which I now am making and I could not find the same vntill I came to this house where euer I receiue all courtesie The curiositie of this gentleman in calling the Gyant Traquitantos had also those first men who deuised the Latine tongue in that they found out a language of so good sound to the eare Therefore we need not maruell that the things which are spoken and written in Latine doe sound so well and in other tongues so ill for their first inuenters were barbarous The last doubt I haue been forced to alleage for satisfieng of diuers who haue stūbled theron though the solution be very easie for those who haue great vnderstanding are not vtterly depriued of memorie in asmuch as if they wanted the same it would fall out impossible that the vnderstanding could discourse or frame reasons for this power is that which keepeth in hand the matter and the fantasies whereon it behooueth to vse speculation But for that the same is weake of three degrees of perfection whereto men may attaine in the Latine tongue namely to vnderstand to write and to speake the same perfitly it can hardly passe the first without fault and stumbling CHAP. IX How it may be prooued that the eloquence and finenesse of speech cannot find place in men of great vnderstanding ONe of the graces by which the vulgar is best
persuaded and thinketh that a man hath much knowledge and wisdome is to heare him speake with great eloquence to haue a smooth tongue plentie of sweet and pleasant words and to alleage many examples fit for the purpose that is in hand but this verily springeth from an vnion which the memorie maketh with the imagination in a degree and measure of heat that cannot resolue the moisture of the brain and serueth to lift vp the figures and cause them to boile where-through are discouered many conceits and points to be vttered In this vnion it is impossible that discourse may be found for we haue alreadie said and prooued heeretofore that this power greatly abhorreth heat and moisture cannot support it Which doctrine if the Athenians had knowen they would not so much haue maruelled to see so wise a man as Socrates not to haue the gift of vtterance of whom those who vnderstood how great his knowledge was said that his words his sentences were like a wodden chest knobby and nothing trimmed on the outside but that in opening the same within it held liniamentes and portraitures of rare admiration In the same ignorance rest they who attempting to render a reason of Aristotles bad stile and obscurenes sayd That of set purpose because he would that his works should carrie authoritie he wrot vnder riddles with so slender ornament of words and simple manner of deliuerance And if we consider also the so harsh proceeding of Plato and the breefnesse with which he writeth the obscuritie of his reasons and the ill placing of the parts of his tale we shall find that nought else saue this occasioned the same For such also we find the works of Hippocrates the thefts which he committeth of Nowns and Verbs the ill disposition of his sentences and the weake foundation of his reasons to stuffe out the empty places of his doctrine What will you more vnlesse that when he would yeeld a very particular reckoning to his friend Damagetus how Artaxerxses king of Persia had sent for him promising him as much gold and siluer as he list himselfe and to make him one of the great ones of his kingdome hauing plenty of answers to so many demaunds he writ only thus The king of Persia hath sent for me not knowing that with me the respect of wisedome is greater than that of gold Farewell Which matter if it had passed through the hands of any other man of good imagination and memorie a whole leafe of paper would not haue sufficed to set it forth But who would haue bene so hardie to alleage for the purpose of this doctrine the example of S. Paule and to affirme that he was a man of great vnderstanding and little memorie and that with these his forces he could not skill of toungs nor deliuer his mind in them polishedly and with gracefulnesse if himselfe had not so sayd I reckon not my selfe to haue done lesse than the greatest Apostles for though I be ignoraunt of speech yet am I not so in vnderstanding as if he should say I confesse that I haue not the gift of vtterance but for science and knowledge none of the greatest Apostles goeth beyond me Which difference of wit was so appropriat to the preaching of the Gospell that choice could not be made of a better for that a preacher should be eloquent and haue great furniture of queint tearms is not a matter conuenient for the force of the Orators of those daies appeared in making the hearers repute things false for true and what the vulgar held for good and behooffull they vsing the precepts of their art persuaded the contrary and maintained that it was better to be poore than rich sicke than whole fond than wise and other points manifestly repugnant to the opinion of the vulgar For which cause the Hebrues tearmed them Geragnin that is to say Deceiuers Of the same opinion was Cato the more and held the abode of these in Rome for very dangerous in as much as the forces of the Romane empire were grounded on arms they began then to persuade that the Romane youth should abandon those and giue themselues to this kind of wisedome therefore in breefe he procured them to be banished out of Rome forbidding them euer to returne againe If God then had sought out an eloquent preacher who should haue vsed ornament of speech that he had entered into Athens or Rome auouching that in Hierusalem the Iewes had crucified a man who was very God and that he died of his owne accord to redeeme sinners and rose againe the third day and ascended into heauen where he now sitteth what would the hearers haue thought saue that these things were some of those follies and vanities which the Orators were woont to persuade by the force of their art For which cause S. Paule said For Christ sent me not to baptise but to preach the gospel and that not in wisdome of words least the crosse of Christ might prooue in vaine The wit of S. Paule was appropriat to this seruice for he had a large discourse to proue in the synagogues and amongst the Gentils That Iesus Christ was the Messias promised in the law and that it was bootlesse to looke for any other and herewithall he was of slender memorie and therefore he could not skil to speake with ornament and sweet and well relished tearms and this was that which was behooffull for preaching of the gospell I will not maintaine for all this that S. Paule had not the gift of toungs but that he could speake all languages as he did his owne neither am I of opinion that to defend the name of Christ the forces of his great vnderstanding sufficed if there had not bene ioined therewithall the meane of grace and a speciall ayd which God to that purpose bestowed vpon him it sufficeth me only to say That supernaturall gifts worke better when they light vpon an apt disposition than if a man were of himselfe vntoward and blockish Hereto alludeth that doctrine of S. Hierome which is found in his proem vpon Esay and Hieremie where asking what the cause is that it being one selfe holy-ghost which spake by the mouth of Hieremie and of Esay one of them propounded the matters which he wrot with so great elegancie and Hieremie scarsely wist how to speake to which doubt he answereth that the holy-ghost applieth it selfe to the naturall manner of proceeding of each Prophet without that his grace varrieth their nature or teacheth thē the language wherein they are to publish their prophesie Therefore we must vnderstand that Esay was a noble gentleman brought vp in court and in the citie of Hierusalem and for this cause had ornament polishednesse of speech But Ieremie was borne and reared in a village of Hierusalem called Anathochites blunt and rude in behauiour as a country person and of such a stile the holy ghost vsed the seruice in the prophecie which he
commanded vnto him The same may be said of S. Pauls Epistles that the holy Ghost dwelled in him when he wrote them to the end he might not erre but the language and maner of speech was S. Pauls natural applied to the doctrin which he wrote for the truth of Shool-diuinitie abhorreth manie words But the practise of languages and the ornament and polishment of speech may verie well be ioyned with positiue diuinitie for this facultie appertayneth to the memorie and is nought els saue a masse of words and catholicke sentences taken out of the holie doctors and the diuine Scripture and preserued in this power as the Grammarian doth with the flowers of the Poets Virgill Horace Terence and other Latine authours whom he readeth who meeting occasion to rehearse them he comes out straightwaies with a shred of Cicero or Quintilian whereby he makes his hearers know what he is able to do Those that are endowed with this vnion of the imagination and of the memorie and trauaile in gathering the fruit of whatsoeuer hath been said or written in their profession and serue themselues therewith at conuenient occasions with great ornament of words gratious fashions of speech for that so many things are alreadie found out in all the Sciences it seemeth to them who know not this doctrin that they are of great profoundnesse whereas in trueth they hold much of the Asse for if you grow to trie them in the foūdations of that which they alleage and affirme they then discouer their wants And the reason is because so great a flowing of speech cannot be vnited with the vnderstanding whereto appertaineth to search out the bottome of the trueth Of these the diuine scripture said Where there is plentie of words there raigneth great scarsitie as if he had said that a man of many words ordinarily wanteth vnderstanding and wisdome Those who are endowed with this vnion of the imagination and memorie enter with great courage to interpret the diuine scripture it seeming to them that because they vnderstand well the Hebrue Greeke and Latine tongues they haue the way made smooth to gather out the verie spirit of the letter but verily they ruinate themselues first because the words of the diuine text and his maners of speech haue manie other significations besides those which Cicero vnderstood in Latine And then because their vnderstāding is defectiue which power verifieth whether a sense be Catholicke or depraued and this is it which may make choice by the grace supernatural of two or three senses that are gathered out of the letter which is most true and catholicke Beguilings saith Plato neuer befall in things vnlike and verie different but when manie things meet which carrie neere resemblance For if we set before a sharpe sight a litle salt sugar meale and lyme all well pounded and beaten to powder and ech one seuerally by it selfe what should he doe who wanted tast if with his eyes he should be set to discern euerie of these powders from other without erring saying this is salt this sugar this meale and this lyme For my part I beleeue he would be deceiued through the great resemblance which these things haue betweene themselues But if there were a heape of salt one of sugar one of corne one of earth and one of stones it is certaine he would not be deceiued in giuing ech of these heapes his name though his sight were dimme for ech is of a diuers figure The same we see befalleth euerie day in the senses and spirits which the diuines giue to the holie scripture of which two or three being looked on at first sight they all carrie a shew to be Catholicke and to agree wel with the letter but yet in trueth are not so neither the holie Ghost so meant To chuse the best of these senses and to refuse the bad it is a thing assured that the diuine emploieth not his memory not his imagination but his vnderstanding Wherefore I auouch that the positiue diuine ought to conferre with the Schoole-man and to enquire at his hands that of these senses he may chuse that which shal appeare to be soundest vnlesse he wil be sent to the holie house For this cause doe heretickes so much abhorre Schoole-diuinitie and learne to banish it out of the world for by distinguishing inferring framing of reasons and iudging we attaine to vnderstand the trueth and to discouer falshood CHAP. X. How it is prooued that the Theoricke of Diuinitie appertaineth to the understanding and preaching which is his practise to the imagination IT is a probleme often demanded not onely by folke learned wise but also the vulgar will put in their oare and euerie day bring in question For what cause a diuine being a great man in the Schooles sharp in disputing readie in answering and in writing and lecturing of rare learning yet getting vp into the pulpit cannot skill of preaching and contrariwise if one prooue a gallant preacher eloquent gratious and that drawes the people after him it seemes a miracle if he be deeply seene in Schoole-diuinitie Wherefore they admit not for a sound consequence such a one is a great Schoole-diuine therfore he will prooue a good preacher and contrariwise they will not grant he is a good preacher therefore he hath skill in Schoole-diuinitie For to reuerse the one and other of these consequences there may be alleaged for ech more instances than are haires on our head No man hitherto hath been able to answer this demand saue after the ordinarie guise vz. to attribute the whole to God and to the distribution of his graces and to my liking they doe very well in asmuch as they know not any more particular occasion thereof The answere of this doubt in some sort is giuen by vs in the foregoing chapter but not so particularly as is requisite and it was that School-diuinitie appertaineth to the vnderstāding but now we affirme and will prooue that preaching and his practise is a worke of the imagination And as it falles out a difficult matter to ioyne in one self brain a good vnderstanding and much imagination so likewise it will hardly fall that one selfe man be a great Schoole-diuine a famous preacher and that School-diuinitie is a worke of the vnderstanding hath tofore been prooued when we proued the repugnancie which it carried to the Latine tongue For which cause it shall not now be necessarie to prooue the same anew onely it shall suffice to giue to vnderstand that the grace and delightfulnesse which good preachers haue whereby they draw their audience vnto them and hold them well pleased is altogither a worke of the imagination and part thereof of a good memorie and to the end I may better expound my selfe and cause it as it were to be felt with the hand it behooueth first to presuppose that man is a liuing creature capable of reason of cōpanie and of ciuilitie and to the end that his nature might be the
more abled by art the ancient Philosophers deuised Logicke to teach him how he might frame his reasons with those precepts and rules how he should define the nature of things distinguish deuide conclude argue iudge and choose without which works it grows impossible that the Artist can go forward and that he might be companiable and ciuill it behooued him to speake to giue other men to weet the conceits which he framed in his mind And for that he should not deliuer them without disposition and without order they deuised another art which they termed Rhethoricke which by his preceptes and rules might beautifie the speech with polished words with fine phrases and with stirring affections and gratious colours But as Logicke teacheth not a man to discourse and to argue in one science alone but without difference in all alike so also Rhethoricke instructeth how to speake in Diuinitie in Phisicke in skill of the Lawes and in all other Sciences and conuersations which men entermedled withall In sort that if we will faine a perfect Logician or an accomplished Oratour he cannot fall into due consideration vnlesse he be seen in all the Sciences for they all appertaine to his iurisdiction and in which soeuer of them he may exercise his rules without distinction not as Phisicke which hath his matter limited whereof it must intreat and so likewise naturall Philosophie and morall Metaphisick Astrologie and the rest and therefore Cicero said The Oratour whersoeuer he abideth dwelleth in his own And in another place he affirmeth in a perfect Oratour is found all the knowledge of the Philosophers and therefore the same Cicero auouched that there is no art more difficult than that of a perfect Oratour and with more reason he might so haue said if he had known with how great hardnesse al the Sciences are vnited in one particular subiect Anciently the doctors of the law were adorned with the name of Oratour for the perfection of pleading required the notice furniture of al the arts in the world for the lawes do iudge them all Now to know the defence reserued for euerie art by it selfe it was necessary to haue a particular knowledge of them all for which cause Cicero said No man ought to be reputed in the number of oratours who is not well seen in all the arts But seeing it was impossible to learne all Sciences first through the shortnesse of life and then because mans wit is so bounded they let them passe and of necessitie held themselues contented to giue credit to the skilfull in that art whereof they made profession and no farther After this maner of defending causes straightwaies succeeded the euangelicall doctrine which might haue been persuaded by the art of oratorie better than all the Sciences of the world besides for that the same is the most certaine and truest but Christ our redeemer charged S. Paul that he should not preach it with wisdom of words to the end the Gentiles should not think it was a well couched leasing as are those which the oratours vse to persuade by the force of their art But when the faith had been receiued many yeares after it was allowed to preach with places of Rhetoricke and to vse the seruice of eloquent speech for that then the inconuenience fell not in consideration which was extant when S. Paul preached Yea we see that the preacher reapeth more fruit who hath the conditions of a perfect orator and is more haunted than he that wanteth them and the reason is verie plaine For if the ancient oratours gaue the people to vnderstand things false for true vsing those their preceptes and rules more easily shall the christian auditorie be drawen when by art they are persuaded to that which alreadie they vnderstand and beleeue Besides that the holy Scripture after a sort is all things and to yeeld the same a true interpretation it behooueth to haue all the Sciences conformable to that so oft said saw He sent his damsels to call to the Castle This fitteth not to be remembred to the preachers of our time nor to aduise them that now they may do it for their particular studie besides the fruit which they pretend to bring with their doctrine is to seeke out a good text to whose purpose they may applie many fine sentences taken out of the diuine Scripture the holy doctors poets historians phisitians and lawyers without forbearing anie Science and speaking copiously with quietnesse and pleasant words and with al these things they goe amplifying and stuffing their matter an houre or two if need be Of this saith Cicero the oratours of his time made profession The force of an oratour saith he and the selfe art of well speaking seemeth that it vndertaketh and promiseth to speake with copiousnesse and ornament of whatsoeuer matter that shall be propounded Then if we shall prooue that the graces and conditions which a perfect oratour ought to haue do all appertaine to the imagination and to the memorie we shall also know that the diuine who is indowed with them will be an excellent preacher but being set to the doctrrin of S. Thomas and Scotus can litle skill therof for that the same is a science belonging to the vnderstanding in which power of necessitie it holdeth litle force What the things be which appertaine to the imagination and by what signs they are to be knowne we haue heretofore made mention now we will return to a replication of them that they may the better be refreshed to the memorie All that which may be tearmed good figure good purpose and prouision comes from the grace of the imagination as are merrie ieasts resemblances quips and comparisons The first thing which a perfect Orator is to go about hauing matter vnder hand is to seeke out arguments and conuenient sentences whereby he may dilate and prooue and that not with all sorts of words but with such as giue a good consonance to the eare and therefore Cicero sayd I take him for an Orator who can vse in his discourses words well tuning with the eare and sentences conuenient for proofe And this for certain appertaineth to the imagination sithens therin is a consonance of well pleasing words and a good direction in the sentences The second grace which may not be wanting in a perfect Orator is to possesse much inuention or much reading for if he rest bound to dilate and confirme any matter whatsoeuer with many speeches and sentences applied to the purpose it behooueth that he haue a very swift imagination and that the same supplie as it were the place of a braach to hunt and bring the game to his hand and when he wants what to say to deuise somewhat as if it were materiall For this cause we sayd before that heat was an instrument with which the imagination worketh for this qualitie lifteth vp the figures and maketh them to boile Here is discouered all that which in them may be seene and if there fel out
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
made the lawes Whence oftentimes it falleth out that a Iudge of good wit giueth a sentence without knowing the decision of the law and afterwards findeth the same so ruled in his books and the like we see somtimes betideth the pleaders when they giue their iudgement in a case without studying The lawes and rules of reason whosoeuer well marketh them are the fountaine and originall whence the pleaders gather their arguments and reasons to prooue what they vndertake And this worke for certaine is performed by the discourse which power if the pleader want he shall neuer skill to shape an argument though he haue the whole ciuill law at his fingers ends This we see plainly to befall in such as studie the art of oratorie when the aptnesse thereunto is failing for though they learne by art the Topicks of Cicero being the spring from which flow the arguments that may be inuented to prooue euerie probleme both on the affirmatiue and the negatiue part yet they cannot thereout shape a reason Againe there come others of great wit and towardnes who without looking in booke or studying the Topicks make 1000 arguments seruing for the purpose as occasion requireth This selfe falleth out in the lawyers of good memorie who will recite you a whole text very perfectly and yet of so great a multitude of lawes as are comprised therein cannot collect so much as one argument to prooue their intention And contrariwise others who haue studied simply without books and without allowance worke miracles in pleading of causes Hence we know how much it importeth the common wealth that there may be such an election and examination of wits for the sciences inasmuch as some without art know and vnderstand what they are to effect and others loden with precepts and rules for that they want a conuenient towardlinesse for practise commit a thousand absurdities which verie ill beseeme them So then if to iudge plead be effected by distinguishing inferring arguing chusing it standeth with reason that whosoeuer setteth himselfe to studie the lawes enioy a good vnderstanding seeing that such actions appertain to this power and not to the memorie or to the imagination How we may finde whether a child be endowed with this difference of wit or no it would do well to vnderstand but first it behooueth to lay downe what are the qualities of discourse how many differences it compriseth in it selfe to the end we may likewise know with distinction to which of these the lawes appertaine for the first we must weet that albeit the vnderstanding be the most noble power and of greatest dignitie in man yet there is none which is more easily led into errour as touching the trueth than the vnderstanding This Aristotle attempted to prooue when he said That the sense is euer true but the vnderstanding for the most part discourseth badly the which is plainly seen by experience for if it were not so amongst the Diuines the Phisitions the Philosophers and the Lawyers there would not fall out so manie waightie dissentions so diuers opinions and so many iudgements and conceits vpon euery point seeing the trueth is neuer more than one Whence it groweth that the senses hold so great acertaintie in their obiects and the vnderstanding is so easily beguiled in his may well be conceiued if we consider that the obiects of the fiue senses and the spices by which they are known haue their being reall firme and stable by nature before they are knowen But that truth which is to be contemplated by the vnderstanding if it selfe do not frame and fashion the same it hath no formall being of his owne but is wholly scattered and lose in his materials as a house conuerred into stones earth timber tiles with which so many errors may be committed in building as there shall men set themselues to build with ill imagination The like befalleth in the building which the vnderstanding raiseth when it frameth a trueth for if the wit be not good all the residue wil worke a thousand follies with the selfe same principles Hence springs it that amongst men there are so sundrie opinions touching one selfe matter for euery one maketh the composition and figure such as is his vnderstanding From these errours and opinions are the fiue senses free for neither the eies make the colour nor the tast the sauours nor the feeling the palpable qualities but the whole is made and compounded by nature before anie of them be acquainted with his obiect Men because they carrie not regard to this bad operation of the vnderstanding take hardinesse to deliuer confidently their owne opinion without knowing in certaintie of what sort their wit is and whither it can a fashion a truth well or ill And if we be not resolued heerein let vs ask some of these learned mē who after they haue set down in writing and confirmed their opinions with many arguments and reasons and haue another time changed their opinions and conceit when or how they can assure themselues that now at last they haue hit the nail on the head themselues will not denie but that they erred the first time seeing they vnsay what they said tofore Secondly I auouch that they ought to haue the lesse confidence in their vnderstanding because the power which once ill compoundeth the trueth whilest his patrone placed so much assurance in his argumentes and reasons should therefore the sooner take suspect that he may once again slide into error whilest he worketh with the selfe same instrument of reason and so much the rather for that it hath been seen by experience that the first opinion hath borne most trueth and afterwards he hath relied vpon a worse and of lesse probabilitie They hold it for a sufficient token that the vnderstanding compoundeth well a trueth when they see it inamored of such a figure and that there are arguments reasons which moue it to conclude in that sort and verily they misse their cushion for the same vnderstanding carrieth the same proportion to his false opinions that the inferiour powers haue ech with the differences of their obiect for if we demand of the Phisitions what meat is best and most sauoury of al that men accustomably feed vpon I beleeue they will answere that for men who are distempered and of weake stomacke there is none absolutely good or euill but such as the stomacke is that shal receiue it for there are stomacks saith Galen which better brooke beefe than hennes or cracknels and othersome abhorre egges and milke and others againe haue a longing after them and in the maner of vsing meates some like rost and some boild and in rost some loue to haue the bloud run in the dish and some to haue it browne and burned And which is more worthie of consideration that meat which this day is fauourly eaten and with good appetite to morrow will be lothed and a farre worse longed for in his roome All this is
not each other neither of many make one as it fals out in bodily powers Therefore well sayd the wise man Haue many peace-makers but take one of a thousand to be thy coūsellor as if he should say Keepe for thy selfe many friends who may defend thee when thou shalt be driuen to come to hand-strokes but to aske counsell chuse only one amongst a thousand Which sentence was also expressed by Heraelilus who sayd One with me is worth a thousand In contentions and causes euery learned man be thinketh how he may best ground himselfe on reason but after he hath well reuolued euery thing there is no art which can make him know with assurance whether his vnderstanding haue made that composition which in iustice is requisit for if one pleader proue with law in hand that reason standeth on the demandants side and another by way also of the law prooueth the like for the defendant what remedie shall we deuise to know which of the two pleaders hath formed his reasons best The sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration of true iustice neither can the same be tearmed a successe for his sentence also is but an opinion he doth none other than cleaue to one of the two pleaders and to increase the number of learned men in one selfe opinion is no argument to persuade that what they resolue vpon is therefore true for we haue alreadie affirmed and prooued that many weake capacities though they ioine in one to discouer some darke conceiued truth shall neuer ariue to the power and force of some one alone if the same be an vnderstāding of high reach And that the sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration is plainly seene in that at another higher seat of iustice they reuerse the same and giue a diuerse iudgement and which is woorst it may so fall that the inferiour iudge was of an abler capacitie than the superior and his opinion more conformable vnto reason And that the sentence of the superiour iudge is not a sufficient proofe of iustice neither it is a matter very manifest for in the same actions and from the same iudges without adding or reauing any one iot we see dayly contrarie sentences to issue And he that once is deceiued by placing confidence in his owne reasons falleth duly into suspect that he may be deceiued of new Wherethrough we should the lesse relie vpon his opinion For he that is once naught sayth the wiseman chace him from thee Pleaders seeing the great varietie of vnderstandings which possesse the iudges and that each of them is affectionat to the reason which best squareth with his wit and that sometime they take satisfaction at one argument sometimes assent to the contrary they thereupon boldly thrust themselues foorth to defend euery cause in controuersie both on the part affirmatiue and the negatiue and this so much the rather because they see by experience that in the one maner and the other they haue a sentence in their fauour and so that coms very rightly to be verefied which wisedome sayd The thoughts of mortall men are timerous and their foresights vncertaine The remedie then which we haue against this seeing the reasons of the lawyer faile in proofe and experience shall be to make choise of men of great vnderstanding who may be iudges and pleaders For the reasons and arguments of such sayth Aristotle are no lesse certaine and firme than experience it selfe And by making this choice it seemeth that the cōmon wealth resteth assured that her officers shall administer iustice But if they giue them all scope to enter without making trial of their wit as the vse is at this day the inconueniences which we haue noted will euermore befall By what signs it may be knowne that he who shall studie the lawes hath the difference of wit requisit to this facultie heretofore after a sort we haue expressed but yet to renew it to the memorie and to prooue the same more at large we must know that the child who being set to read soone learneth to know his letters and can pronounce euery one with facilitie according as they be placed in the A B C giueth token that he shal be endowed with much memorie for such a worke as this for certaine is not performed by the vnderstanding nor by the imagination but it appertaineth vnto the office of the memorie to preserue the figures of things and to report the natures of each when occasion so requireth and where much memorie dwelleth we haue prooued before that default of vnderstanding also raigneth To write also with speed and a faire hand we sayd that it bewraid an imagination wherethrough the child who in few daies wil frame his hand and write his lines right and his letters euen and with good forme and figure yeeldeth signe of meane vnderstanding for this worke is performed by the imagination and these two powers encounter in that contrarietie which we haue alreadie spoken of and noted And if being set to Grammer he learne the same with little labour and in short time make good Latines and write fine epistles with the well ruled closes of Cicero he shall neuer be good iudge nor pleader for it is a signe that he hath much memorie and saue by great miracle he will be of slender discourse But if such a one wax obstinat in plodding at the lawes and spend much time in the schooles he will prooue a famous reader and shall haue a stint of many hearers for the latine tongue is very gratious in chaires and to read with great show there are requisit many allegations and to fardell vp in euery law whatsoeuer hath bene written touching the same and to this purpose memorie is of more necessitie than discourse And albeit it is true that in the chaire he be to distinguish inferre angue iudge and chuse to gather the true sense of the law yet in the end he putteth the case as best liketh himsellfe he mooues doubts maketh obiections and giueth sentence after his own will without that any gainsaie him for which a meane discourse is sufficient But when one pleader speaketh for the plaintife and another for the defendant and a third lawyer supplieth the iudges place this is a true controuersie men cannot speake so adrandom as when they skirmish without an aduersarie And if the childe profit slenderly in Grammer we may thereby gather that he hath a good discourse I say we may so coniecture because it followeth not of necessitie that whosoeuer cannot learne Latine hath therefore straight waies a good discourse seeing we haue prooued tofore that children of good imagination neuer greatly profit in the Latine tongue but that which may best discouer this is Logicke for this science carieth the same proportion with the vnderstanding as the touchstone with gold Where through it falled out certaine that if he who taketh lesson in the area begin not within a month or two to discourse and to cast doubts
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
to the imagination for which cause the great Theorists doe ordinarily erre in the minor and the great practitioners in the maior as if we should speake after this maner Euerie feuer which springeth from cold and moist humours ought to be cured with medicins hot and drie Taking the tokening of the cause this feuer which the man endureth dependeth on humors cold and moist therefore the same is to be cured with medicines hot and drie The vnderstanding will sufficiently prooue the truth of the maior because it is an vniuersall saying That cold moist require for their temperature hot and drie for euerie qualitie is abated by his contrarie But comming to prooue the minor there the vnderstanding is of no value for that the same is particular and of another iurisdiction whose notice appertaineth to the imagination borowing the proper and particular tokens of the disease from the fiue outward senses And if the tokening is to be taken from the feuer or from his cause the vnderstanding cannot reach therunto onely it teacheth the tokening is to be taken from that which sheweth greatest perill but which of those tokenings is greatest is only known to the imagination by counting the damages which the feuer produceth with those of the Syntomes of the euill and the cause and the small or much force of the power To attain this notice the imagination possesseth certain vnutterable properties with which the same cleereth matters that cannot be expressed nor conceiued neither is there found any art to teach them Where-through we see a phisition enter to visit a patient and by meanes of his sight his hearing his smelling and his feeling he knoweth things which seem impossible In sort that if we demand of the same phisition how he could come by so readie a knowledge himselfe cannot tell the reason for it is a grace which springeth from the fruitfulnesse of the imagination which by another name is termed a readinesse of capacitie which by common signes and by vncertain coniectures and of small importance in the twinckling of an eie knoweth 1000 differēces of things wherein the force of curing and prognosticating with certaintie consisteth This spice of promptnesse men of great vnderstanding do want for that it is a part of the imagination for which cause hauing the tokens before their eies which giue them notice how the disease fareth it worketh no maner alteration in their senses for that they want imagination A phisition once asked me in great secresie what the cause was that he hauing studied with much curiositie all the rules and considerations of the art prognosticatiue being therin throughly instructed yet could neuer hit the truth in any prognostication which he made To whom I remember I yeelded this answer that the art of Phisick is learned with one power and put in execution with another This man had a verie good vnderstanding but wanted imagination but in this doctrin there ariseth a difficultie verie great and that is how phisitions of great imagination can learn the art of phisicke seeing they want that of vnderstanding and if it be true that such were better than those who were well learned to what end serueth it to spend time in the schooles to this may be answered that first to know the art of phisicke is a matter verie important for in two or three yeares a man may learn al that which the ancients haue bin getting in two or three thousand And if a man should heerin ascertain himselfe by experience it were requisit that he liued some thousands of yeeres and in experimenting of medicines he should kill an infinit number of persons before he could attain to the knowledge of their qualities from whence we are freed by reading the books of reasonable experienced phisitions who giue aduertisment of that in writing which they found out in the whole course of their liues to the end that the phisitions of these daies may minister some receits with assurance and take heed of other-some as venomous Besides this we are to weet that the common vulgar points of al arts are verie plain and easie to learn and yet the most important of the whole worke And contrariwise the most curious and subtile are the most obscure and of least necessitie for curing And men of great imagination are not altogither depriued of vnderstanding nor of memorie Wher-through by hauing these two powers in some measure they are able to learn the most necessarie points of Phisicke for that they are plainest and with the good imagination which they haue can better looke into the disease and the cause thereof than the cunningest doctors Besides that the imagination is it which findeth out the occasion of the remedie that ought to be applied in which grace the greatest part of practise consisteth for which cause Galen said that the proper name of a phisition was The finder out of occasion Now to be able to know the place the time and the occasion for certain is a worke of the imagination since it toucheth figure and correspondence but the difficultie consisteth in knowing amongst so many differences as there are of the imagination to which of them the practise of Phisicke appertaineth for it is certaine that they all agree not in one selfe particular reason which contemplation hath giuen me much more toile and labour of spirit than all the residue and yet for all that I cannot as yet yeeld the same a fitting name vnlesse it spring from a lesse degree of heat which partaketh that difference of imagination wherewith verses and songs are endited Neither do I relie altogether on this for the reason whereon I ground my selfe is that such as I haue marked to be good practitioners do all piddle somwhat in the art of versifieng and raise not vp their contemplation very high and their verses are not of any rare excellencie which may also betide for that their heat exceedeth that tearme which is requisit for poetrie and if it so come to passe for this reason the heat ought to hold such qualitie as it somewhat drie the substance of the braine and yet much resolue not the naturall heat albeit if the same passe further it breedeth no euill difference of the wit for Phisicke for it vniteth the vnderstanding to the imagination by adustion But the imagination is not so good for curing as this which I seeke which inuiteth a man to be a witch superstitious a magician a deceiuer a palmister a fortune teller and a calker for the diseases of men are so hidden and deliuer their motions with so great secrecie that it behooueth alwaies to go calking what the matter is This difference of imagination may hardly be found in Spaine for tofore we haue prooued that the inhabitants of this region want memory and imagination and haue good discourse neither yet the imaginatiō of such as dwell towards the North is of auaile in Phisicke for it is very slow and slacke only the same is
himselfe to fall to the ground and so fitted his imperiall robe about him that after his death they found him couched with great honestie with his legs and other parts couered that might any way offend the sight The seuenth propertie and of greatest importance is that the Generall haue good fortune and be luckie by which signe we shall perfectly find that he is seized of the wit and habilitie behooffull for the art martiall for in substance and truth there is nothing which ordinarily maketh men vnfortunat and that their enterprises do not alwaies take successe after their desire saue that they are depriued of wisedome and lay not hold on the conuenient means for achieuing their exploits For that Iulius Caesar shewed such wisedome in the affairs which he managed he bare away the bell in respect of fortunatenesse from all other captains of the world so as in perils of importance he encouraged his souldiors saieng Feare not for you haue Caesars good fortune to fight on your partie The Stoicks held opinion that as there was a first cause euerlasting almightie and of infinit wisedome knowne by the order and concert of his maruellous works so also there was another vnwise and vnconcerted whose workes prooued without order without reason and void of discretion for with an affection no way reasonable it giueth and reaueth from men riches dignitie and honour This they tearmed Fortune seeing hir a friend to men who performe their businesse by hap hasard without forecasting without wisedome and without submitting themselues to the gouernmēt of reason They pourtraied her the better to make her manners and malice knowne in fourme of a woman a roiall scepter in her hand her eyes vailed her feet vpon a round ball accompanied with persons sottish and void of all trade of liuing By painting her like a woman they noted her great lightnesse and little discretion by her roiall scepter they acknowledged her soueraigntie ouer riches and honour her veiled eyes gaue to vnderstand the ill fashion which she held in distributing her gifts her feet standing on the round ball betokened the small firmenesse in the fauours which she imparted for she snatcheth them away with the like facilitie that she reacheth them foorth without keeping stedfastnesse in ought whatsoeuer but the worst part they found in her was that she fauoureth the wicked and persecuteth the vertuous loueth the foolish and abhorreth the wise abaseth the noble aduanceth the base what is foule pleaseth her and what is faire worketh her annoiance Many men placing cōfidence in these properties because they know their owne good fortune take hardinesse to vndertake fond and headlong enterprises which yet prosper with them very luckily and yet other men very wise and aduised dare not aduenture to execute those enterprises which they haue begun with great discretion finding by experience that such find worst successe How great a friend Fortune sheweth her selfe to bad people Aristotle maketh knowne by this probleme Whence groweth it that riches for the most part are possessed rather by the wicked than by men of worth Whereto he shapeth answer Perhaps because Fortune being blind cannot know nor make choice of what is best But this is an answer vnworthy of so great a philosopher for it is not Fortune that bestoweth wealth on men and though it were yet he yeeldeth no reason why she alwaies cherisheth the bad and abandoneth the good The true solution of this demand is that the lewd sort are verie witty and haue a gallant imagination to beguile in buying and selling and can profit in bargaining and employing their stocke where occasion of gaine is offered But honest men want this imagination many of whom haue endeuoured to imitate these bad fellowes and by trafficquing trucking within few daies haue lost their principall This Christ our redeemer pointed at considering the sufficiencie of that steward whom his maister called to accompt who reseruing a good portion of the goods to his owne behoofe salued vp all his reckonings and got his quietus est Which wisdome though it were faultie yet God commended saying The children of this world are more wise in their kinde than the children of light for these ordinarily enioy a good vnderstanding with which power they place their affection on their law and haue want of imagination whereto the knowledge how to liue in this world appertaineth wherethrough many are morally good because they lacke the wit how to be naught This maner of answering is more easie and apparent The naturall philosophers because they could not reach so farre deuised so fond and ill iointed a cause as lady Fortune to whose power they might impute good and bad successes not to the vnskilfulnesse and little knowledge of men Foure sorts of people there are in euerie common-wealth if a man list to marke them For some men are wise and seeme not so others seeme so and are not others neither are nor seem and some both are and seem so Some men there are silent slow in speech staid in answering not curious nor copious of words yet they retain hidden within them a naturall power appertaining to the imagination whereby they know the fit time and occasion to bring their purpose to passe and how they are therein to demeane themselues without communicating or imparting their minde to any other These by the vulgar are called happy and luckie them seeming that with little knowledge and lesse wit euery thing falleth into their lap Others contrariwise are of much eloquence in words and discourse great cōuersers men that take vpon them to gouerne the whole world who go about hunting how with small expense they may reape great gains and therein after the vulgars conceit no man in iudgement can step an acc beyond them and yet comming to the effect all falleth to the ground betweene their hands These crie out vpon fortune and cal her blind buzzard and iade for the matters which they disseigne worke with much wisdome she suffereth not to take good effect but if there were a Fortune who might plead her own defence she would tell them Your selues are the buzzards the sots and the doo-noughts whome you speake of that being vnskilful hold yourselues wise and vsing vnfit means would yet reape good successes This sort of people haue a kind of imagination which decketh vp and setteth foorth their words and reasons and maketh them seeme to be what in deed they are not Wheron I conclude that the Generall who is endowed with a wit requisit for the art militarie and doth duly forecast what he is to exploit shall be fortunate and happie otherwise it is lost labour to looke that he euer preuaile to victorie vnlesse God do fight for him as he did for the armies of Israell and yet withall they chose the wisest and skilfullest amongst them to be commaunders for we must not leaue all vpon Gods hands neither yet may a man wholy affie on his own wit and sufficiencie
him in the Paradise of pleasure to the end he might there worke and take it in charge For the power of God being infinit his knowledge beyond measure when he had a will to giue him all the naturall perfection that might be in mankinde we must thinke that neither the peece of earth of which he was framed nor the distemperature of the soile of Damascus where he was created could so gainsay him but that he made him temperat The opinion of Plato of Aristotle and of Galen take place in the works of nature and euen she also can somtimes euen in distemperat regions engender a person that shalbe temperat But that Adam had his haire and his beard abourne which is the first token of a temperat man manifestly appeareth For in respect of this so notorious signe he had that name Adam which is to say as S. Hierom interpreteth it a red man That he was faire wel fashioned which is the second token cannot in him be denied for when God created him the text saith God saw all things which he had made and they were verie good Then it falleth out certaine that he issued not from the hands of God foule and ill shaped for the works of God are perfect And so much the more for that the trees as the text saith were faire to behold Then what may we think of Adam whom God created to this principall end that he might be Lord and president of the world That he was vertuous wise and well conditioned which are the third and sixth signes is gathered out of these words Let vs make a man after our owne image and likenesse for by the antient Philosophers the foundation on which the resemblance that man hath with God is grounded are vertue wisdome Therfore Plato auoucheth that one of the greatest contentments which God receiueth in heauen is to see a vertuous and wise man praised and magnified vpon earth for such a one is his liuely purtraiture And contrariwise he groweth displeased when ignorant and vitious persons are held in estimation and honor which springeth from the vnlikenesse between God and them That he liued healthfull and a long space which are the fourth and fifth tokens is nothing difficult to prooue inasmuch as his daies were 930 yeares Where through I may now cōclude that the man who is abourn haired faire of meane stature vertuous healthfull and long lyued must necessarily be verie wise and endowed with a wit requisit for the scepter royall We haue also as by the way disclosed in what sort great vnderstanding may be vnited with much imagination and much memory albeit this may also come to passe and yet the man not be temperat But nature shapeth so few after this modell that I could neuer find but two amongst all the wits that I haue tried but how it can come to passe that great vnderstanding may vnite with much imagination and much memory in a man not temperat is a thing which easily may be conceiued if you presuppose the opinion of some Phisitions who affirme that the imagination resideth in the forepart of the braine the memorie in the hinder part and the vnderstanding in that of the middle And the like may be said in our imagination but it is a worke of great labour that the braine being when nature createth the same of the bignesse of a graine of pepper it should make one ventricle of seed verie hot another verie moist and the middle most of verie dry but in fine this is no impossible case CHAP. XV. In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning IT falleth out a matter worthie of maruaile that nature being such as we all know her wise wittie and of great art iudgement and force and mankind a worke of so speciall regard yet for one whome she maketh skilfull and wise she produceth infinit depriued of wit Of which effect my selfe searching the reason and naturall causes haue found in my iudgement that parents apply not themselues to the act of generation with that order and concert which is by nature established neither know the conditions which ought to be obserued to the end their children may prooue of wisedome and iudgement For by the same reason for which in any temperat or distemperat region a man should be borne very wittie hauing alwaies regard to the selfe order of causes there will 100000 prooue of slender capacitie now if by art we may procure a remedie for this we shall haue brought to the common-wealth the greatest benefit that she can receiue But the knot of this matter consisteth in that we cannot entreat hereof with tearms so seemly and modest as to the naturall shamefastnesse of man is requisit and if for this reason I should forbeare to note any part or contemplation that is necessarie for certaine the whole matter would be marred in sort that diuers graue Philosophers hold opinion how wise men ordinarily beget foolish children because in the act of copulation for honesties sake they abstaine from certaine diligences which are of importance that the sonne may partake of his fathers wisedome Some antient Philosophers haue laboured to search out the naturall reason of this naturall shame which the eyes conceiue when the instruments of generation are set before them and why the eares take offence to heare them named and they maruell to see that nature hath framed those parts with such diligence and carefulnesse and for an end of such importance as the immortalizing of mankind and yet the wiser a man is the more he groweth in dislike to behold or heare them spoken of Shame and honestie sayth Aristotle is the proper passion of the vnderstanding and who so resteth not offended at those terms and actions of generation giueth a sure token of his wanting that power as if we should say that he is blockish who putting his hand into the fire doth not feele the same to burne By this token Cato the elder discouered that Manilius a noble man was depriued of vnderstanding because it was told him that the other kissed his wife in presence of his daughter for which cause he displaced him out of the Senat and Manilius could neuer obtaine at his hands to be restored Out of this contemplation Aristotle frameth a probleme demaunding whence it grew that men who desire to satisfie their venerous lusts do yet greatly shame to confesse it and yet coueting to liue to eat or to perform any other such action they stagger not to acknowledge it to which probleme he shapeth a very vntoward answer saying Perhaps it commeth because the couetings of diuers things are necessary and some of them kill if they be not accomplished but the lust of venerous acts floweth from excesse and is token of abundance But in effect this probleme is false and the answer none other for a man not only shameth to manifest the desire he carrieth to companie with a woman but
nature aswell whiles the creature hath been in the mothers womb as after the same was borne wherof the histories are full but some haue held them only for fables because this is mentioned in the Poets yet the thing carrieth meere truth for diuers times nature hath made a female child and she hath so remained in her mothers belly for the space of one or two months and afterwards plentie of heat growing in the genitall members vpon some occasion they haue issued forth and she become a male To whom this transformation hath befallen in the mothers womb is afterwards plainly discouered by certain motions which they retaine vnfitting for the masculin sex being altogither womanish their voice shrill sweet And such persons are enclined to perform womens actions and fall ordinarily into vncouth offences Contrariwise nature hath sundrie times made a male with his genetories outward and cold growing on they haue turned in ward and it became female This is knowen after she is borne for she retaineth a mannish fashion aswell in her words as in all her motions and workings This may seem difficult to be prooued but considering that which many authenticall historians affirme it is a matter not hard to be credited And that women haue been turned into men after they were borne the verie vulgar doe not much maruell to heare spoke of for besides that which sundrie our elders haue laid downe for trueth It befell in Spain but few yeares since and that wherof we find experience is not to be called in question or argument What then the cause may be that the genitall members are engendred within or without and the creature becommeth male or female will fall out a plain case if we once know that heat extendeth and enlargeth all things and cold retaineth and closeth them vp Wherthrough it is a conclusion of all Philosophers and Phisitions that if the seed be cold and moist a woman is begotten and not a man and if the same be hot and dry a man is begotten and not a woman Whence we apparently gather that there is no man who in respect of a woman may be termed cold nor woman hot in respect of a man Aristotle saith it is necessarie for a woman to be cold and moist that she may be likewise fruitfull for if she were not so it would fall out impossible that her monthly course should flow or she haue milke to preserue the child nine months in her belly and two yeares after it is borne but that the same would soone wast and consume All Philosophers and Phisitions auouch that the belly holdeth the same proportion with mans seed that the earth doth with corne and with any other graine And we see that if the earth want coldnesse and moisture the husbandman dareth not sow therein neither will the seed prosper But of soils those are most fruitfull and fertile in rendering fruit which partake most of cold and moist As we see by experience in the regions towards the North As England Flanders and Almaine whose abundance of all fruits worketh astonishment in such as know not the reason thereof And in such countries as these no married woman was euer childlesse neither can they there tell what barrennesse meaneth but are all fruitfull and breed children through their abundance of coldnesse and moisture But though it is true that the woman should be cold and moist for conception Yet she may abound so much therin that it may choke the seed euen as we see excesse of raine spoileth the corne which cannot ripen in ouermuch coldnesse Whereon we must conceiue that these two qualities ought to keep a certaine measurablenesse which when they exceed or reach not vnto the fruitfulnesse is spoiled Hippocrates holdeth that woman for fruitfull whose womb is tempered in such sort as the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie VVherethrough he saith that those women who haue their belly cold cannot conceiue no more than such as are very moist or verie cold and dry But so for the same reason that a woman and her genitall parts should be temperat it were impossible that she could conceiue or be a woman For if the seed of which she was first formed had been temperat the genitall members would haue issued forth and she haue been a man So should a beard grow on her chin and her floures surcease and she become as perfect a man as nature could produce Likewise the womb in a woman cannot be predominatly hot For if the seed whereof she was engendred had been of that temperature she should haue been born a man and not a woman This is past all exception that the qualities which yeeld a woman fruitfull are cold and moisture for the nature of man standeth in need of much nourishment that he may be able to vse procreation and continue his kind Wherethrough we see that amongst all the females of brute beasts none haue their monthly courses as a woman Therefore it was requisite to make her altogether cold and moist and that in such a degree as that she might breed much flegmatick bloud and not be able to wast or consume the same I said flegmaticke bloud because this is seruiceable to the breeding of milke by which Hippocrates and Galen auouch the creature is releeued all the time it remaineth in the mothers belly Now if the same should be temperat it would produce much bloud vnfit for the engendring of milke and would wholly resolue as it doth in a temperat man and so nothing be left for nourishing the babe Therefore I hold it for certain and verily it is impossibie that a woman can be temperat or hot but they are all cold and moist And if this be not so let the Philosopher or Phisition tell me for what cause all women are beardlesse and haue their sicknesse whiles they are healthful for what cause the seed of which she was formed being temperat or hot she was borne a woman not a man Howbeit though it be true that they are alcold moist yet it followeth not that they are all in one degree of coldnesse and moisture For some are in the first some in the second and some in the third and in ech of these they may conceiue if a man answere them in proportion of heat as shall hereafter be expressed By what tokens we may know these three degrees of coldnesse and moisture in a woman and likewise weet who is in the first who is in the second and who in the third there is no Philosopher or Phisition that as yet hath vnfolded But considering the effects which these qualities do worke in women we may part them by reason of their being extended and so we shall easily get notice hereof The first by the wit and habilitie of the woman The second by her maners and conditions The third by her voice big or small The fourth by her flesh much or little The fifth by her colour
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she
eateth little and yeeldeth store of excrements wherethrough the woman conceiued of a girle is ill fauoured and full of spots and a thousand sluttishnesses sticke vnto her and at the time of her deliuerie she must tarrie so many more daies to purge her selfe than if she had brought a man child to the word On the naturall reason wherof God grounded himselfe when he commanded Moses that the woman who brought forth a male should remain in her bed a weeke and not enter into the temple vntill 33 daies were expired And if she were deliuered of a female she should be vncleane for the space of two weeks and not enter into the temple vntill after 66 daies in sort that when the birth is of a female the time is doubled VVhich so falleth out because in the nine moneths during which the child remained in the mothers wombe through the much cold and moist of her temperature she doubly encreased excrements and the same of verie malignant substance and qualitie which a male infant would not haue done Therfore Hippocrates holdeth it a matter verie perillous to stop the purgation of a woman who is deliuered of a wench All this is spoken to the purpose that we must well aduise our selues of the last day of the moneth to the end the seed may find sufficient nourishment wherwith to relieue itselfe For if the act of procreation be committed so soone as the purgation is finished it will not take hold through defect of bloud VVheron it behooueth the parents be done to vnderstand that if both seeds ioine not togither at one selfe time namely that of the woman and of the man Galen saith there will ensue no conception although the seed of the man be neuer so apt for procreation And hereof we shall render the reason to another purpose This is very certaine that all the diligences by vs prescribed must also be performed on the womans behoofe otherwise her seed euill emploied will mar the conception Therefore it is requisit they attend ech to other so as at one selfe instant both their seedes may ioyne togither This at the first cōming importeth very much for the right cod and his seed vessell as Galen affirmeth is first stirred vp and yeeldeth his seed before the left and if the generation take not effect at the first comming it is a great hap hazard but that at the second a female shalbe begotten These two seeds are knowen first by the heat and coldnesse then by the quantitie of being much or little and finally by the issuing forth speedily or slowly The seed of the right cod commeth forth boiling and so hot as it burneth the womans belly is not much in quantitie and passeth out in hast Contrariwise the seed of the left taketh his way more temperat is much in quantitie and for that the same is cold and grosse spendeth longer space in cōming forth The last consideration was to procure that both the seeds of the husband the wife fall into the right side of the womb for in that place saith Hippocrates are males engēdred females in the left Galen alleageth the reason hereof saying that the right side of the womb is verie hot through the neighbourhood which it holdeth with the liuer with the right side of the raines and with the right seed vessell which members we haue affirmed and approoued to be verie hot And seeing all the reason of working that the issue may become male consisteth in procuring that at the time of conception it partake much heat it falleth out certaine that it greatly importeth to bestow the seed in this place Which the woman shall easily accomplish by resting on her right side when the act of generation is ended with her head down and her heels vp but it behooueth her to keepe her bed a day or two for the womb doth not straightwaies embrace the seeed but after some houres space The signes wherby a woman may know whether she be with child or no are manifest and plain to euery ones vnderstanding for if when she ariseth vpon her feet the seed fall to the ground it is certain saith Galen that she hath not cōceiued albeit herein one point requireth consideration that al the seed is not fruitful or apt for issue for the one part therof is very waterish whose office serueth to make thin the principal seed to the end it may fare through the narrow passages and this is that which nature sendeth forth and it resteth when she hath conceiued with the part apt for issue It is knowen by that it is like water and of like quantitie That a woman rise vp straightwaies on her feet so soon as the act of generation hath passed is a matter verie perillous Therfore Aristotle compelleth that she beforehand make euacuation of the excrements and of her vrine to the end she may haue no cause to rise The second token whereby we may know the same is that the next day following the woman will feele her belly empty especially about the nauell Which groweth for that the womb when it desireth to conceiue becommeth verie large and stretched out for verely it suffereth the like swelling vp and stiffnesse as doth a mans member and when it fareth thus-wise the same occupieth much roome But at the point when it conceiueth saith Hippoorates sodainly the same draweth togither and maketh as it were a purse to draw the seed vnto it and will not suffer it to go out and by this meanes leaueth many emptie places the which women do declare saying that they haue no tripes left in their belly as if they were sodainly become leane Moreouer forthwith they abhorre carnall copulation and their husbands kindnesse for the belly hath now got what it sought but the most certain token saith Hippocrates is when their natural course faileth their breasts grow and when they fall in loathing with mear What diligence is to be vsed that children may prooue wittie and wise §. 4. IF we doe not first know the cause whence it proceedeth that a man of great wit and sufficiencie is begotten it is impossible that the same may be reduced to art for through conioyning and ordering his principles and causes we grow to attaine this end and by none other meanes The Astrologers hold that because the child is borne vnder such an influence of the starres he commeth to be discreet wittie of good or ill maners fortunat and of those other conditions and properties which we see consider euery day in men Which being admitted for true it would follow a matter of impossibilitie to frame the same to any art for it should be wholly a case of fortune and no way placed in mens election The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen hold that a man receiueth the conditions of his soule at the time of his forming and not of his birth for then the starres do superficially alter the child giuing him heat coldnesse moisture and drouth
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