and moist and contrariwise she that is swart and browne is in the first degree therof of which two extreames is framed the second degree of white and well coloured To haue much haire and a little shew of a beard is an euident signe to know the first degree of cold and moist for all Phisitions affirme that the haire and beard are engendred of heat and drinesse and if they be blacke it greatly purporteth the same A contrary temperature is betokened when a woman is without haire Now she whose complexion consisteth in the second degree of cold and moist hath some haire but the same reddish and golden Foulnesse moreouer and fairenesse help vs to iudge the degrees of cold and moist in women It is a miracle to see a woman of the first degree very faire for the seed whereof she was formed being dry hindereth that she cannot be fairely countenanced It behooueth that clay be seasoned with conuenient moisture to the end vessels may be well framed and serue to vse But when that same is hard dry the vessell is soule and vnhandsom Aristotle farther auoucheth that ouermuch cold and moist maketh women by nature foule for if the seed be cold and very moist it can take no good figure because the same standeth not togither as we see that of ouer soft clay ill shaped vessels are fashioned In the second degree of cold and moist women prooue verie faire for they were formed of a substance well seasoned and pleasant to nature which token of it selfe alone affordeth an euident argument that the woman is fruitfull for it is certain that nature could do it and we may iudge that she gaue her a temperature and composition fit for bearing of children Wherethrough she answers in proportion welneer to al men and all men do desire to haue her In man there is no power which hath tokens or signes to descry the goodnesse or malice of his obiect The stomacke knoweth the meat by way of tast of smelling and of sight wherethrough the diuine scripture saith That Eue fixed her eies on the tree forbidden and her seemed that it was sweet in tast The facultie of generation holdeth for a token of fruitfulnesse a womans beautie and if she be foule it abhorreth her conceiuing by this signe that nature erred and gaue her not a fit temperature for bearing of children By what signes we may know in what degree of hot and dry euery man resteth § 1. A Man hath not his temperature so limited as a woman for he may be hot drie which temperature Aristotle Galen held was that which best agreed with his sex as also hot and moist and temperat but cold moist and cold and drie they would not admit whilst a man was sound and without impairment for as you shall find no woman hot and drie nor hot and moist or temperat so shall you find no man cold and moist nor cold and drie in comparison of women vnlesse in case as I shal now expresse A man hot and drie and hote and moist and temperat holdeth the same degrees in his temperature as doth a woman in cold and moist and so it behooueth to haue certain tokens whereby to discerne what man is in what degree that we may assigne him a wife answerable vnto him in proportion We must therefore weet that from the same principles of which we gathered vnderstanding what woman is hot and drie and in what degree from the selfe we must also make vse to vnderstand what man is hote and drie and in what degree and because we sayd that from the wit and manners of a man we coniecture the temperature of his cods it is requisit that we take notice of a notable point mentioned by Galen namely that to make vs vnderstand the great vertue which a mans cods possesse to giue firmnesse and temperature to all the parts of the body he affirmeth that they are of more importance than the heart and he rendereth a reason saying that this member is the beginning of life nought else but the cods are the beginning of liuing soundly and without infirmities How much it endammageth a man to be depriued of those parts though so small there need not many reasons to prooue seeing we see by experience that forth with the haire and the beard pill away and the big and shrill voice becommeth small and herewithall a man leeseth his forces and naturall heat and resteth in far woorse and more miserable condition than if he had bene a woman But the matter most worth the noting is that if a man before his gelding had much wit and habilitie so soone as his stones be cut away he groweth to leese the same so far foorth as if he had receiued some notable dammage in his very braine And this is a manifest token that the cods giue reaue the temperature from all the other parts of the body and he that will not yeeld credit hereunto let him consider as my selfe haue done oftentimes that of 1000 such capons who addict themselues to their booke none attaineth to any perfection and euen in musicke which is their ordinarie profession we manifestly see how blockish they are which springeth because musick is a worke of the imagination this power requireth much heat whereas they are cold and moist So it falleth out a matter certaine that from the wit and habilitie we may gather the temperature of the cods for which cause the man who showeth himselfe prompt in the works of the imagination should be hot and drie in the third degree And if a man be of no great reach it tokeneth that with his heat much moisture is vnited which alwaies endammageth the reasonable part and this is the more confirmed if he be good of memorie The ordinarie conditions of men hot and dry in the third degree are courage pride liberalitie audacitie and cheerefulnesse with a good grace and pleasantnesse and in matter of women such a one hath no bridle nor ho. The hote and moist are merry giuen to laughter louers of pastime faire conditioned very courteous shamefast and not much addicted to women The voice and speech much discouereth the temperature of the cods That which is big and somwhat sharp giueth token that a man is hot and dry in the third degree and if the same be pleasant amiable and very delicat it purporteth little heat and much moisture as appeareth in the gelded A man who hath moist vnited with heat will haue the same high but pleasant shrill Who so is hot and drie in the third degree is slender hard and rough fleshed the same composed of sinews and arteries and his veines big contrariwise to haue much flesh smooth and tender is shew of much moisture by means wherof it extendeth and enlargeth out the naturall heat The colour of the skin if the same be brown burned blackish greene and like ashes yeeldeth signe that a man is in the third degree of
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
only Aristotle who with a purpose of crossing Plato in all points turned to reuiue the former opinion and with topicall places to make it probable with which of these opinions the truth swaieth time serueth not now to discusse For there is none of these Philosophers that doubteth but that the braine is the instrument ordained by nature to the end that man might become wise and skilfull it sufficeth only to declare with what conditions this part ought to be endewed so as we may affirme that it is duly instrumentalized and that a yong man in this behalfe may possesse a good wit and habilitie Foure conditions the braine ought to enjoy to the end the reasonable soule may therewith commodiously performe the workes which appertaine to vnderstanding and wisdome The first good composition the second that his parts be well vnited the third that the heat exceed not the cold nor the moist the drie the fourth that his substance be made of parts subtile and verie delicate In the good composition are contained other foure things the first is good figure the second quantitie sufficient the third that in the braine the foure ventricles be distinct and seuered each duly bestowed in his seat and place the fourth that the capablenesse of these be neither greater nor lesse than is conuenient for their workings Galen collects the good figure of the braine by an outward consideration namely the forme and disposition of the head which he sayth ought to be such as it should be if taking a perfect round ball of wax and pressing it together somewhat on the sides there will remaine after that manner the forehead and the nape with a little bunchinesse Hence it followes that the man who hath his forehead very plaine and his nodocke flat hath not his braine so figured as is requisit for wit and habilitie The quantitie of the braine which the soule needeth to discourse consider is a matter that breeds feare for amongst all the brute beasts there is none found to haue so much braine as a man in sort as if we ioine those of two the greatest oxen together they will not equall that of one onely man be he neuer so little And that whereto behooues more consideration is that amongst brute beasts those who approch neerest to mans wisedome and discretion as the ape the fox and the dog haue a greater quantitie of braine than the other though bigger bodied than they For which cause Galen said that a little head in any man is euer faultie because that it wanteth braine notwithstanding I auouch that if his hauing a great head proceedeth from abundance of matter and ill tempered at such time as the same was shaped by nature it is an euill token for the same consists all of bones and flesh and containes a smal quantitie of braine as it befals in very big orenges which opened are found scarce of iuice and hard of rinde Nothing offends the reasonable soule so much as to make his abode in a body surcharged with bones fat and flesh For which cause Plato sayd that wise mens heads are ordinarily weake and vpon any occasion are easily annoied and the reason is for that nature made them of an emptie skull with intention not to offend the wit by compassing it with much matter And this doctrine of Plato is so true that albeit the stomacke abides so far distant from the braine yet the same workes it offence when it is replenished with fat and flesh For confirmation hereof Galen alleageth a prouerbe which sayth A grosse bellie makes a grosse vnderstanding and that this proceeds from nothing else than that the brain and the stomacke are vnited and chained together with certaine sinewes by way of which they interchangeably communicat their dammages And contrariwise when the stomacke is drie and shrunke it affoords great aid to the wit as we see in the hungerstarued and such as are driuen to their shifts on which doctrine it may be Persius founded himself when he said That the belly is that which quickens vp the wit But the thing most pertinent to be noted for this purpose is that if the other parts of the body be fat and fleshie and therethrough a man growes ouer grosse Aristotle sayes It makes him to leese his wit For which cause I am of opinion that if a man haue a great head albeit the same proceed for that he is endued with a very able nature and that he is furnished with a quantitie of well tempered matter yet he shall not be owner of so good a wit as if the same held a meaner size Aristotle is of a contrary opinion whilest he enquires for what cause a man is the wisest of all liuing creatures to which doubt he answers That you shall find no creature which hath so little a head as man respecting withall the greatnesse of his bodie but herein he swarued from reason for if he had opened some mans head and viewed the quantitie of his braine he should haue found that two horses together had not so much braine as that one man That which I haue gathered by experience is that in little men it is best that the head incline somewhat to greatnesse and in those who are big bodied it prooues best that they be little and the reason is for that after this sort there is found a measurable quantitie with which the reasonable soule may wel performe his working Besides this there are needfull the foure ventricles in the brain to the end the reasonable soule may discourse and Philosophize one must be placed on the right side of the braine the second on the left the third in the middle of these and the fourth in the part behind the braine Whervnto these ventricles serue and their large or narrow capablenesse for the reasonable soule all shall be told by vs a little hereafter when we shall intreat of the diuersities of mens wits But it sufficeth not that the braine possesse good figure sufficient quantitie and the number of ventricles by vs forementioned with their capablenesse great or little but it behooues also that his parts holds a certaine kind of continuednesse and that they be not diuided For which cause we haue seene in hurts of the head that some men haue lost their memorie some their vnderstanding and others their imagination and put case that after they haue recouered their health the braine re-vnited it selfe againe yet this notwithstanding the naturall vnion was not made which the braine before possessed The third condition of the fourth principall was that the braine should be tempered with measurable heat and without excesse of the other qualities which disposition we sayd heretofore that it is called good nature for it is that which principally makes a man able and the contrarie vnable But the fourth namely that the braine haue his substance or composition of subtle and delicate parts Galen sayth is the most important of all the rest For when he
layd vp therein Besides this we sayd that the vnderstanding and the memorie are contrarie powers and that the one chaceth away the other for the one loueth great drinesse and the other much moisture and a supplenesse of the braine And if this be true wherefore sayd Aristotle and Plato That men who haue their flesh tender enioy great vnderstanding seeing this supplenes is an effect of moisture We sayd also that for effecting that a memorie may be good it was necessary the braine should be endowed with moisture for the figures ought to be printed therein by way of compression and the same being hard they cannot so easily make a signe therein True it is that to receiue figures with readinesse it requireth that the braine be pliant but to preserue the shapes some long time all affirme that it is necessarie the same be hard and drie as it appeareth in outward things where the figure printed in a pliant substance is easily cancelled but in the drie and hard it neuer perisheth Wherethrough we see many men who con by heart with great readinesse but forget againe very speedily Of which Galen rendering a reason sayth that such through much moisture haue the substance of their braine tender and not setled for the figure is soone cancelled as if it were sealed in water And contrariwise other learne by heart with difficultie but what they haue once learned they neuer forget againe Wherethrough it seemeth a matter impossible that there should be that difference of memorie which we speake of which should learne with ease and preserue a long time It is also hard to vnderstand how it is possible that so many figures being sealed together in the braine the one should not cancell the other for if in a peece of softned wax there be printed many seales of diuers figures it fals out certaine that some cancell other some by the intermingling of these figures And that which breedeth no lesse difficultie is to know whence it proceedeth that the memorie by exercising it selfe becommeth the more easie to receiue figures it being certaine that not only bodily exercise but spirituall much more drieth and soketh the flesh It is also hard to conceiue in what sort the imagination is contrary to the vnderstanding if there be none other more vrgent cause than to say That excessiue heat resolueth the subtile parts of the braine leauing an earthly and grosse remnant seeing that Melancholy is one of the grossest and earthliest humours of our body And Aristotle sayth That the vnderstanding vseth the seruice of none so much as of that And this difficultie is encreased considering that melancholie is a grosse humor cold and drie and choler is of a delicat substance and of temperature hot and drie and yet for all this melancholy is more appropriat to the vnderstanding than choler Which seemeth repugnant to reason for this humour aideth the vnderstanding with two qualities and gainsetteth it selfe only with one which is heat But melancholie aydeth it with his drinesse and with none other and opposeth it selfe by his cold and by his grosse substance which is a thing that the vnderstanding most abhorreth For which cause Galen assigneth more wit and prudence to choler than to melācholy saying thus Readinesse and Prudence spring from the humour of choler and the melancholicke humour is author of integritie and constancie Lastly the cause may be demaunded whence it may grow that toiling and continuall contemplation of studie maketh many wise in whome at the beginning the good nature of these qualities which we speake of was wanting and so by giuing and receiuing with the imagination they come to make themselues capable of many verities which tofore they knew not nor had the temperature which thereto was requisit For if they had possessed the same so much labour should not haue ben needfull All these difficulties and many other besides are contrarie to the doctrine of the last chapter For natural Philosophie hath not so certaine principles as the Mathematicall sciences wherein the Phisition and the Philopher if he be also a Mathematician may alwaies make demonstration but comming afterwards to the cure which is conformable to the art of Phisicke he shall commit therein many errours and yet not alwaies thorow his own fault sithens in the Mathematicks he alwaies followed a certaintie but through the little assurance of the art for which cause Aristotle said The Phisition though he alwaies cure not is not therefore a bad one prouided that he foreslow not to performe any of those points which appertaine to the art But if he should commit any errour in the Mathematicks he would be void of excuse For performing in this science all the diligences which it requireth it is impossible that the truth should not appeare In sort that albeit we yeeld not a manifest demonstration of this doctrine yet the whole fault is not to be layd on our want of capacitie neither may it straightwaies be recounted as false that we deliuer To the first principal doubt we answer that if the vnderstanding were seuered frō the body and had nought to do with heat cold moist and drie nor with the other bodily qualities it would follow that al men should partake equall vnderstanding and that all should equally discourse But we see by experience that one man vnderstandeth and discourseth better than another then this groweth for that the vnderstāding is an instrumentall power and better disposed in one than in another and not from any other occasion For all reasonable soules and their vnderstandings sundered from the body are of equall perfection and knowledge Those who follow Aristotles doctrine seeing by experience that some discourse better than othersome haue found an excuse in apparence saying That the discoursing of one better than another is not caused for that the vnderstanding is an instrumentall power that the braine is better disposed in some than in othersome but for that the vnderstanding whilst the reasonable soule remaineth in the body standeth in need of the fantasmes and figures which are in the imagination and in the memorie Through default whereof the vnderstanding fals to discourse illy and not through his own fault nor for that it is ioyned with a matter badly instrumentalized But this answer is contrary to the doctrine of Aristotle himselfe who proueth that by how much the memorie is the woorse by so much the vnderstanding is the better and by how much the memorie is bettered by so much the vnderstanding is impaired and the same we haue heretofore prooued as touching the imagination in confirmation of that which Aristotle demaundeth What the cause is that we waxing old haue so bad a memorie and so good an vnderstanding and when we are yoong it fals out contrarie that we possesse a great memorie and small vnderstanding Hereof in one thing we see the experience and Galen noteth it that when in a disease the temperature and good disposition of the braine is
enter without the losse of any one souldier So Iudith being brought to Holofernes presence threw her selfe downe to the ground and with closed hands began to worship him and vtter words full of deceit the most craftily that might be in sort that Holofernes and all his counsell verely beleeued she sayd nothing but truth but she not forgetfull what in heart she had purposed found a conuenient occasion and chopped off his head Contrary hereunto are the conditions of a friend and therefore it behooueth euer to yeeld him credit wherethrough Holofernes should haue done better to beleeue Achior seeing he was his friend and on zeale that he should not leaue the siege with dishonour sayd vnto him Sir first informe your selfe whether this people haue sinned against God for if it be so himselfe will deliuer them into your hands without that you shall need to conquer them but if he hold them in grace know for certaine that he will defend them and we shall not be able to vanquish them Holofernes conceiued displeasure at this aduertisement as a man confident lasciuious and a wine bibber which three things turne topsie turuie that counsell which is requisit for the art of war For which cause Plato sayd he liked very well of a law which the Carthagineans had by which they commaunded that the Generall whilst he had charge of the armie should drinke no wine for this licour as Aristotle affirmeth maketh a man of wit be quite burned vp with choler as Holofernes shewed in those so furious words which he spake to Achior Now that wit which is requisit for ambushes and stratagems aswell to prepare them as to perceiue them and to find out such remedie as appertaineth Cicero describeth drawing his discēt from this nown versutia which he saith is deriued from this verb versor for those who are winding craftie double and cauillers vpon a sodain contriue their wiles and employ their conceit with facilitie and so the same Cicero exemplified it saying Chrisippus a man doubtlesse winding and craftie I call those winding whose mind is sodainly winded about This propertie to attain sodainly the means is solertia quicknesse and appertaineth to the imagination for the powers which consist in heat performe speedily their worke And for this cause men of great vnderstanding are little worth for the war for this power is very slow in his operation and a friend of vprightnesse of plainnesse of simplicitie and mercie all which is woont to breed much dammage in war These are good to treat with friends with whom the wisdome of the imagination is not needfull but only the rightfulnesse and singlenesse of the vnderstanding which admitteth no doublenesse nor doth any wrong therfore with the enemy it booteth nothing for he alwaies studieth to offend with wiles and such wit is requisit wherwith to counter-gard our selues And so Christ our redeemer aduised his disciples saying Behold I send you as sheep amongst woolfes be you therfore wise as serpents and simple as dooues With our enimies we must practise wisdome and with our friends plainnesse and simplicitie Now if the captain be not to giue credit to his enimy but is alwaies to misdoubt that he will go beyond him it is necessarie that he hold a difference of imagination forecastfull warie and which can skill to discern the wiles which come vailed with anie couerture for the selfe power which finds them out can only deuise the remedies which are behooffull in that behalfe that seemeth to be another difference of the imagination which deuiseth the engins and war-like instruments wherby vnuincible fortresses are won which pitcheth the camp and marshalleth euerie squadron in his due place and which knoweth the occasions of ioyning and retiring which plotteth treaties consortments and capitulations with the enemie for all which the vnderstanding is impertinent as are the eares to see withall And therefore I nothing doubt but that the art of warre appertaineth to the imagination for all whatsoeuer a good captain is to performe importeth consonance figure and correspondence Now the difficulty resteth to set down with what difference of the imagination in particular war is to be mannaged And in this I cannot resolue with certaintie because the knowing therof is verie nice yet I coniecture that it requireth a degree more of heat than the practise of phisicke and that it allay choler but not vtterlie quench it This is verie manifest for those captains who are ful of promptnesse and subtletie are not verie couragious nor desirous of bickering neither couet to come to handystrokes but by stratagems fetches without aduenturing a broken pate do bring their purposes to passe Which property better pleased Vegetius than any other Good captains saith he not by open war in which the perill is common but by secret practises euer assay with the safetie of their owne souldiers to cut their enemies in peeces or at least to make them afraid The fruit of this maner of wit the Romain Senat verie wisely looked into for though they had manie famous captains who atchieued sundry warres yet returning to Rome to receiue the triumph and glorie due to their enterprise so great were the plaints which the parents made for their children the children for the parents the wiues for their husbands and brothers for brethren that through the sorrow for them who perished in the warres they could take little pleasure in the sports and pastimes Wherefore the Senat took a resolution not to seeke out so couragious captains wholly desirous to come to hand strokes but men somwhat timorous verie ready as Q. Fabius of whom it is written that it was a wonder to see him offer a pitched battaile in the open field and speciallie when he was far from Rome wherby in ill successes he could not readily be releeued and he did nought-els but giue way to the enemie and deuise stratagems and wiles with which he exploited great enterprises and obtained many victories without the losse of any one souldiour He was receiued into Rome with great ioy of all men for if he carried forth 100000 souldiours he returned with as many vnlesse some perhaps miscarried by sicknesse The shout which the people gaue at his returne was as Ennius reporteth of this tenour One man by lingring only vs releeu'd As if they had said This man with giuing way to our enemies hath made vs lords of the world and brought backe our souldiours to their houses in safetie Some captains haue since that time endeuoured to imitate him but because they wanted his wit and readinesse they sundry times let slip many fit occasions of fighting whence greater dammages and inconueniences arose than if they had speedily ioyned battaile We may also take example of that famous Carthaginian captain of whom Plutarch writeth these words Anniball after he had attained this so great a victorie commanded that manie Italian prisoners should freely be set at libertie without ransom to the end the fame of his
saith the Psalme goodnes discipline and knowledge And this the royall Prophet Dauid spake seeing that it auaileth not for a king to be good and vertuous vnlesse he ioyne wisedom and knowldge there withall By this example of king Dauid it seemeth we haue sufficiently approoued our opinion But there was also another king borne in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is borne king of the Iewes And if we can prooue that he was abourne haired towardly of meane bignesse vertuous healthfull and of great wisedom and knowledge it will be no way damageable to this our doctrin The Euangelists busied not themselues to report the disposition of Christ our redeemer for it serued not to the purpose of that which they handled but is a matter which may easily be vnderstood supposing that for a man to be temperat as is requisit compriseth all the perfection wherewith naturally he can be edowed And seeing that the holy spirit-compounded and instrumentalized him it is certaine that as touching the materiall cause of which he formed him the distemperature of Nazareth could not resist him nor make him erre in his worke as do the other naturall agents but he performed what him best pleased for he wanted neither force knowledge nor will to frame a man most perfect and without any defect And that so much the rather for that his comming as himselfe affirmed was to endure trauels for mans sake and to teach him the trueth And this temperature as we haue before prooued is the best naturall instrument that can be found for these two things Wherethrough I hold that relatiō for true which Publius Lcntulus Viceconsul wrote from Hierusalem vnto the Roman Senat after this maner There hath been seen in our time a man who yet liueth of great vertue called Iesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the prophet of truth and his disciples say that he is the sonne of God He raiseth the deceased and healeth the diseased is a man of meane and proportionable stature and of very faire countenance his looke carrieth such a maiesty as those who behold him are enforced both to loue and feare him He hath his haire coloured like a nut full ripe reaching down to his eares and from his eares to his shoulders they are of waxe colour but more bright he hath in the middle of his forehead a locke after the maner of Nazareth His forehead is plain but very pleasing his face void of spot or wrinckle accompanied with a moderat colour his nosthrils and mouth cannot by any with reason be reprooued his beard thicke and resembling his haire not long but forked his countenance verie gratious and graue his eies gracefull and cleere and when he rebuketh he daunteth and when he admonisheth he pleaseth he maketh himselfe to be beloued and is cheerfull with grauitie he hath neuer been seen to laugh but to weep diuers times his hands and arms are verie faire in his conuersation he contenteth verie greatly but is seldom in company but being in company is very modest in his countenance and port he is the seemliest man that may be imagined In this relation are contained three or foure tokens of a temperat person The first that he had his haire and beard of the colour of a nut fully ripe which to him that considereth it well appeareth to be a browne abourne which colour God commanded they heifer should haue which was to be sacrificed as a figure of Christ and when he entred into heauen with that triumph and maiestie which was requisit for such a Prince some Angels who had not been enformed of his incarnation said Who is this that commeth from Edon with his garments died in Bozra as if they had said Who is he that commeth from the red Land with his garment stained in the same die in respect of his haire his red beard and of the bloud with which he was tainted The same letter also reporteth him to be the fairest man that euer was seen and this is the second token of a temperat person and so was it prophesied by the holy scripture as a signe wherby to know him Of faire shape aboue all the children of men And in another place he saith His eies are fairer than the wine and his teeth whiter than milke Which beautie and good disposition of body imported much to effect that all men should beare him affection and that there might be nothing in him worthy to be abhorred For which cause the letter deliuereth that all men were enforced to loue him It reciteth also that he was meane of personage and that not because the holy Ghost wanted matter to make him greater if so it had seemed good but as we tofore haue prooued by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle because when the reasonable soule is burdened with much bones and flesh the same incurreth great dammage in his wit The third signe namely to be vertuous and wel conditioned is likewise expressed in this letter and the Iews themselues with al their false witnesses could not proue the contrarie nor reply when he demanded of them VVhich of you can reprooue me of sinne And Ioseph through the faithfulnes which he owed to his history affirmed of him that he partaked of another nature aboue man in respect of his goodnesse wisedom Only long life could not be verefied of Christ our redeemer because they put him to death being yong where as if they had permitted him to finish his naturall course the same would haue reached to 80 years and vpwards For he who could abide in a wildernesse 40 daies and 40 nights without meat or drinke and not be sicke nor dead therwithall could better haue defended himselfe from other lighter things which had power to breed alteration or offence Howbeit this action was reputed miraculous and a matter which could not light within the compasse of nature These two examples of kings which we haue alleaged sufficeth to make vnderstood that the scepter royal is due to men that are temperate and that such are endowed with the wit and wisdom requisit for that office But there was also another man made by the proper hands of God to the end he should be king and Lord of all things created he made him faire vertuous sound of long life and verie wise And to prooue this shal not beamisse for our purpose Plato holdeth it for a matter impossible that God or nature can make a man temperat in a countrey distemperat wherethrough he affirmeth that God to create a man of great wisdom temperature sought out a place where the heat of the aire should not exceed the cold nor the moist the dry And the diuine scripture whence he borrowed this sentence saith not that God created Adam in the earthly paradise which was that most temperat place whereof he speaketh but that after he had shaped him there he placed him Then our Lord God saith he tooke man and set
The sixth by her haire The seuenth by her fairenesse or foulnesse As touching the first we may know that though it be true as tofore we haue prooued that the wit and abilitie of a woman followeth the temperature of the brain and of none other member yet her womb and cods are of so great force and vigour to alter the whole body that if these be hot and dry or cold and moist or of whatsoeuer other temperature the other partes saith Galen will be of the same tenour but the member which most partaketh the alterations of the belly all Phisitions say is the brain though they haue not set down the reason wheron they ground this correspondencie True it is Galen prooueth by experience that by speying a Sow she becommeth faire and fat and her flesh verie sauory and if she haue her cods she tasteth little better than dogs flesh VVherby we conceiue that the belly and the cods carrie great efficacie to communicat their temperature to all the other parts of the body especially to the brain for that the same is cold moist like themselues Between which through the resemblance the passage is easie Now if we conclude that cold and moist are the qualities which worke an impairement in the reasonable part and that his contraries namely hot and drie giue the same perfection and encreasement we shall find that the woman who sheweth much wit and sufficiencie partaketh of cold and moist in the first degree and if she be verie simple it yeeldeth a signe that she is in the third the partaking between which two extreames argueth the second degree for to thinke that a woman can be hot and drie or endowed with a wit and abilitie conformable to these two qualities is a verie great error because if the seed of which she was formed had been hot and dry in their domination she should haue been born a man and not a woman But in that it was could and moist she was born a woman and not a man The truth of this doctrine may cleerely be discerned if you consider the wit of the first woman who liued in the world for God hauing fashioned her with his own hands and that very accomplished and perfect in her sex it is a conclusion infallibly true that she was possessed of much lesse knowledge than Adam which the diuell well weeting got him to tempt her and durst not fall in disputation with the man fearing his great wit and wisdome Now to say that Eue for her offence was reft that knowledge which she wanted cannot be auouched for as yet she had not offended So then this defect of wit in the first woman grew for that she was by God created cold and moist which temperature is necessarie to make a woman fruitfull and apt for childbirth but enemy to knowledge and if he had made her temperat like Adam she should haue been very wise but nothing fruitful nor subiect to her monthly courses saue by some supernaturall meanes On this nature S. Paul grounded himselfe when he said Let a woman learne in silence with all subiection neither would he allow the woman to teach or gouerne the man but to keep silence But this is true when a woman hath not a spirit or greater grace than her own naturall disposition but if she obtaine any gift from aboue she may wel teach and speake for we know that the people of Israel being oppressed and besieged by the Assirians Iudith a very wise woman sent for the Priests of the Cabeits and Carmits and reprooued them saying How can it be endured that Osias should say if within fiue daies there come no succour he will yeeld the people of Israel to the Assirians see you not that these words rather prouoke God to wrath than to mercie how may it be that men should point out a limited time for the mercy of God and in their mind assigne a day at which he must succour and deliuer them And in the conclusion of this reproofe she told them in what sort they might please God and obtaine their demand And no lesse Elbora a woman of no lesse wisdome taught the people of Israel how they should render thanks vnto God for the great victories which she had attained against their enemies But whilst a woman abideth in her naturall disposition all sorts of learning and wisdome carrieth a kind of repugnancie to her wit And for this cause the Catholicke Church vpon great reason hath forbidden that no woman do preach confesse or instruct for their sex admitteth neither wisdome nor discipline It is discouered also by the maners of a woman and by her condition in what degree of cold and moist her temperature consisteth for if with a sharp wit she be froward curst wayward she is in the first degree of cold and moist it being true as we haue proued tofore that an ill condition euermore accompanieth a good imagination She who partaketh this degree of cold moist suffereth nothing to escape her hands noteth all things findeth fault with all things and so is insupportable Such are accustomably of amiable conuersation and feare not to looke men in the face nor hold him ill mannered who maketh loue vnto them But on the other side to be a woman of good conditions and to be agreeued at nothing to laugh vpon euery small occasiō to let things passe as they come and to sleep soundly descrieth the third degree of cold and moist for much pleasantnesse of conceit is ordinarily accompanied with little wit She who partaketh of these two extreams standeth in the second degree A voice hoarse big and sharp saith Galen is a token of much heat and drouth and we haue also prooued it heretofore by the opinion of Aristotle wherthrough we may gain this notice that if a woman haue a voice like a man she is cold and moist in the first degree and if very delicat in the third And partaking betwixt both the extreames she shall haue the naturall voice of a woman and be in the second degree How much the voice dependeth on the temperature of the cods shall shortly hereafter be prooued where we entreat of the tokens appertaining to a man Much flesh also in women is a signe of much cold and moist for to be fat and big say the Phisitions groweth in liuing creatures from this occasion And contrariwise to be leane and dry is a token of little coldnesse moisture To be meanly fleshed that is neither ouermuch nor verie little giueth euidence that a woman holdeth her selfe in the second degree of cold and moist Their pleasantnesse and curtesies sheweth the degrees of these two qualities much moisture maketh their flesh supple and little rough and hard The meane is the commendablest part The colour also of the face and of the other parts of the body discouereth the extended or remisse degrees of these two qualities When the woman is verie white it boadeth saith Galen much cold
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
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
regard to obserue the same all their children shall prooue wise and none otherwise But the whilest this significatioÌ„ of nature is very vniuersall and confused and the vnderstanding contents not it selfe nor staieth vntill it conceiue the particular discourse and the latest cause and so it behooues to search out another signification of this name Nature which may be more agreeable to our purpose Aristotle and other naturall Philosophers discend into more particularities and call Nature whatsoeuer substantiall forme which giues the being to any thing and is the originall of all the working thereof in which signification our reasonable soule may reasonably be tearmed nature for from her we receiue our formall being which we haue of being men and the selfe same is the beginning of whatsoeuer we doe and worke But all soules being of equall perfection as well that of the wiser as that of the foolish it cannot be affirmed that nature in this signification is that which makes a man able for if this were true all men should haue a like measure of wit and wisedome and therefore the same Aristotle found out another signification of nature which is the cause that a man is able or vnable saying that the temperature of the foure first qualities hot cold moist and drie is to be called nature for from this issue al the habilities of man all his vertues and vices and this great varietie of wits which we behold And this is clearely proued by considering the age of a man when he is wisest who in his childhood is no more than a brute beast and vseth none other powers than those of anger and concupiscence but comming to youth there begins to shoot out in him a maruellous wit and we see that it lasteth till time certaine and no longer for old age growing 〈◊〉 goes euery day loosing his wit vntill it come to be 〈◊〉 decaied The varietie of wits it is a matter certaine that it springs not from the reasonable soule for that is one selfe in all ages without hauing receiued in his forces and subâ—â—â—unce any alteration but man hath in euery age a diuers temperature and a contrarie disposition by means whereof the soule doth other workes in childhood other in youth and other in old age Whence we draw an euident argument that one selfe soule doing contrarie workes in one selfe bodie for that it partakes in euery age a contrarie temperature when of young men the one is able and the other vnapt this growes for that the one of them enioiâ—◠〈◊〉 temperature from the other And this for that it is the beginning of all the workes of the reasonable soule was by the Phisitions and the Philosophers termed Nature of which signification this sentence is properly verefied that Nature makes able For confirmation of this doctrine Galen writ a booke wherein he prooueth That the maners of the soule follow the temperature of the body in which it keepes residence and that by reason of the heat the coldnesse the moisture and the drouth of the territorie where men inhabit of the meats which they feed on of the waters which they drinke and of the aire which they breath some are blockish and some wise some of woorth and some base some cruel and some merciful many straight brested and many large part lyers and part true speakers sundrie traitors and sundrie faythfull somewhere vnquiet and somewhere stayed there double here single one pinching another liberall this man shamefast that shamelesse such hard and such light of beleefe And to prooue this he cites many places of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle who affirme that the difference of nations as well in composition of the body as in conditions of the soule springeth from the varietie of this temperature and experience it selfe euidently sheweth this how far are different Greeks from Tartarians Frenchmen from Spaniards Indians from Dutch and Aethiopians from English And this may be seene not only in countries so far distant but if we consider the prouinces that enuiron all Spaine we may depart the vertues and vices which we haue recounted amongst the inhabitants giuing ech one his peculiar vice and vertue and if we consider the wit and manners of the Catalonians Valentians Mercians Granatines Andaluzians Estremenians Portugals Gallesians Asturians Montagneses Biscanes Nauarrists Arragonois and of the kingdome of Castile who sees not and knowes not how far these are different amongst themselues not only in shape of countenaunce and in feature of body but euen in the vertues and vices of the soule Which all growes for that euery of these prouinces hath his particular and different temperature And this varietie of manners is knowne not onely in countries so farre off but in places also that are not more than a little league in distance it cannot be credited what ods there is found in the wits of the inhabitants Finally all that which Galen writeth in this his booke is the groundplot of this my Treatise albeit he declares not in particular the differences of the habilities which are in men neither as touching the sciences which euerie one requires in particular Notwithstanding he vnderstood that it was necessarie to depart the sciences amongst yoong men and to giue ech one that which to his naturall habilitie was requisit in as much as he sayd That well ordered common wealths ought to haue men of great wisedome and knowledge who might in their tender age discouer ech ones wit and naturall sharpnesse to the end they might be set to learne that art which was agreeable and not leaue it to their owne election CHAP. III. What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a young man may haue habilitie MAns body hath so many varieties of parts and powers applied ech to his end that it shal not stray from our purpose but rather growes a matter of necessitie to know first what member was ordained by nature for the principall instrument to the end man might become wise and aduised For it is a thing apparant that we discourse not with our foot nor walke on our head nor see with our nostrils nor heare with our eies but that euery of these parts hath his vse and particular disposition for the worke which it is to accomplish Before Hippocrates and Plato came into the world it held for a generall conceit amongst the naturall Philosophers that the heart was the principall part where the reasonable facultie made his residence and the instrument wherewith the soule wrought the workes of wisedome of diligence of memorie and of vnderstanding For which cause the diuine scripture applying it selfe to the ordinary speech of those times in many places cals the heart the soueraigne part of a man But these two graue Philosophers comming into the world gaue euidence that this opinion was false and prooued by many reasons and experiments that the braine is the principall seat of the reasonable soule and so they all gaue hands to this opinion saue
reason And yet for all this by wanting that onely ventricle there is a great abatement discerned in his operations as well in those of the vnderstanding as of the imaginatiue and memorie as they shal also find in the losse of one sight who were woont to behold with two whereby we cleerely comprize that in euery ventricle are all the three powers sithens by the annoiance of any one all the three are weakened Seeing then al the three ventricles are of one selfe composition and that there rests not amongst them any varietie of parts we may not leaue to take the first qualities for an instrument and to make so many generall differences of wits as they are in number For to thinke that the reasonable soule being in the body can worke without some bodily instrument to assist her is against all naturall Philosophie But of the foure qualities heat cold moisture and drouth all Phisitions leaue out cold as vnprofitable to any operation of the reasonable soule wherethrough it is seene by experience in the other habilities that if the same mount aboue heat all the powers of man do badly performe their operations neither can the stomacke digest his meat nor the cods yeeld fruitfull seed nor the muscles mooue the body nor the braine discourse For which cause Galen sayd Coldnesse is apparantly noysome to all the offices of the soule as if he should say Cold is the ruine of all the operations of the soule only it serues in the body to temper the naturall heat and to procure that it burne not ouer-much and yet Aristotle is of a contrary opinion where he affirmeth it is a matter certaine that that blood carrieth most forcible efficacie which is thickest and hottest but the coldest thinnest hath a more accomplished force to perceiue and vnderstand as if he would say the thicke and hot blood makes great bodily forces but the pure and cold is cause that man possesseth great vnderstanding Whereby we plainly see that from coldnesse springeth the greatest difference of wit that is in any man namely in the vnderstanding Aristotle moreouer mooues a doubt and that is why men who inhabit very hot countries as Aegypt are more wittie and aduised than those who are borne in cold regions Which doubt he resolues in this manner That the excessiue heat of the countrie fretteth and consumeth the naturall heat of the braine and so leaues it cold whereby man growes to be full of reasonablenesse And that contrariwise the much cold of the aire fortifieth the much naturall heat of the braine and yeelds it not place to resolue For which cause sayth he such as are very hot brained cannot discourse nor philosophise but are giddie headed and not setled in any one opinion To which opinion it seemes that Galen leaneth saying that the cause why a man is vnstable and changeth opinion at euery moment is for that he hath a hote braine and contrariewise his being stable and firme springs from the coldnesse of his braine But the truth is that from this heat there groweth not any difference of wit neither did Aristotle meane that the cold blood by his predominance did better the vnderstanding but that which is lesse hote True it is that mans variablenesse springs from his partaking of much heat which lifts vp the figures that are in the braine and makes them to boile by which operation there are represented to the soule many images of things which inuite him to their contemplation and the soule to possesse them all leaues one and takes another Contrariwise it befals in coldnesse which for that it imprints inwardly these figures and suffers them not to rise makes a man firme in one opinion and it prooues so because none other presents it selfe to call the same away Coldnesse hath this qualitie that it not only hindereth the motions of bodily things but also makes that the figures and shapes which the Philosophers call spirituall be vnmooueable in the braine And this firmnesse seemeth rather a negligence than a difference of habilitie Alike true it is that there is found another diuersity of firmnesse which proceeds from possessing an vnderstanding well compacted together not from the coldnesse of the brain So there remaine drouth moisture and heat for the seruice of the reasonable facultie But no Philosopher as yet wist to giue to euery difference of wit determinatly that which was his Heraclitus sayd A drie brightnesse makes a most wise mind by which sentence he giues vs to vnderstand that drinesse is the cause why a man becoms very wise but he declares not in what kinde of knowledge The selfe same meant Plato when he sayd that the soule descended into the body endowed with great wisdome and through the much moisture which it there found grew to become dull vntoward But this wearing away in the course of age and purchasing drinesse the soule grew to discouer the knowledge which he tofore enioyed Amongst brute beasts sayth Aristotle those are wisest whose temperature is most enclined to cold and drie as are the ants and bees who for wisedome concurre with those men that partake most of reason Moreouer no brute beast is found of more moisture or lesse wit than a hog wherethrough the Poet Pindare to gibe at the people of Beotia and to handle them as fooles sayd thus Th'vntoward folke which now is nam'd Beotia were once cald Hogs Moreouer blood through his much moisture sayth Galen makes men simple And for such the same Galen recounts that the Commicks ieasted at Hippocrates children saying of them That they had much naturall heat which is a substance moist and very vaporous This is ordinarily incident to the children of wise men hereafter I will make report of the cause whence it groweth Amongst the foure humours which we enioy there is none so cold and drie as that of melancholie and whatsoeuer notable men for learning haue liued in the world sayth Aristotle they were all melancholike Finally all agree in this point that drinesse makes a man very wise but they expresse not to which of the reasonable powers it affoordeth greatest helpe only Esay the Prophet cals it by his right name where he sayth That trauaile giues vnderstanding for sadnesse and affliction not only diminisheth cōsumeth the moisture of the brain but also drieth vp the bones with which qualitie the vnderstanding groweth more sharpe sightfull Wherof we may gather an example very manifest by taking into consideration many men who cast into pouertie and affliction haue therethrough vttered and written sentences woorth the maruelling at and afterwards rising to better fortune to eat and drinke well would neuer once open their mouths For a delicious life contentment and good successe and to see that all thinges fall out after our liking looseneth and maketh the braine moist And this is it which Hippocrates sayd Mirth looseneth the heart as if he would haue sayd That the same enlargeth and giueth it heat and
grosenesse And the same may easily be prooued another way for if sadnesse and affliction drie vp and consume the flesh and for that reason man gaineth more vnderstanding it fals out a matter certain that his contrary namely mirth will make the braine moist and diminish the vnderstanding Such as haue purchased this manner of wit are suddenly enclined to pastimes to musicke and to pleasant conuersations and flie the contrarie which at other times gaue them a relish and contentment Now by this the vulgar sort may conceiue whence it growes that a wise and vertuous man attaining to some great dignitie whereas at first he was but poore base sodainly changeth his manners and his fashion of speech and the reason is because he hath gotten a new temperature moist and full of vapours whence it followes that the figures are cancelled which tofore he had in his braine and his vnderstanding dulled From moisture it is hard to know what difference of wit may spring sithens it is so far contrary to the reasonable facultie At least after Galens opinion all the humours of our body which hold ouer-much moisture make a man blockish and foolish for which cause he sayd The readinesse of mind and wisedome growes from the humour of choler the humour of melancholy is author of firmnesse and constancie blood of simplicitie and dulnesse the flegmaticke complexion auaileth nothing to the polishing of mannes In so much that blood with his moistures and the flegme cause an impairing of the reasonable facultie But this is vnderstood of the faculties or reasonable wits which are discoursiue and actiue and not of the passiue as is the memorie which depends as well on the moist as the vnderstanding doth on the drie And we call memorie a reasonable power because without it the vnderstanding and the imaginatiue are of no valure It ministreth matter and figures to them all wherevpon they may syllogise conformably to that which Aristotle sayth It behooues that the vnderstander go beholding the fantasmes and the office of the memorie is to preserue these fantasmes to the end that the vnderstanding may contemplat them and if this be lost it is impossible that the powers can worke and that the office of memorie is none other than to preserue the figures of things without that it appertains therto to deuise them Galen expresseth in these words Memorie verely laies vp and preserueth in it selfe the things knowne by the sence and by the mind is therin as it were their store-house and receiuing place and not their inuenter And if this be the vse thereof it fals out apparant that the same dependeth on moisture for this makes the braine pliant and the figure is imprinted by way of strayning To prooue this we haue an euident argument in boyes age in which any one shall better conne by hart than in any other time of life and then doth the braine partake greatest moisture Whence Aristotle moueth this doubt Why in old age we haue better wit and in yoong age we learne more readily as if he should say What is the cause that when we are old we haue much vnderstanding and when we are yoong we learne with more towardlinesse Whereto he answereth That the memorie of old men is full of so many figures of things which they haue seene and heard in the long course of their life that when they would bestow more therein it is not capable thereof for it hath no void place where to receiue it But the memorie of yoong folke when they are newly borne is full of plaits and for this cause they receiue readily whatsoeuer is told or taught them And he makes this playner by comparing the memorie of the morning with that of the euening saying That in the morning we learne best because at that time our memorie is emptie and at the euening illy because then it is full of those thinges which we encountred during the day To this Probleme Aristotle wist not how to answer and the reason is very plaine for if the spices and figures which are in the memorie had a body and quantitie to occupie the place it would seeme that this were a fitting answer but being vndeuided and spiritual they cannot fill nor emptie any place where they abide yea we see by experience that by how much more the memorie is exercised euery day receiuing new figures so much the more capable it becommeth The answere of this Probleme is very euident after my doctrine and the same importeth that old men partake much vnderstanding because they haue great drinesse and fayle of memorie for that they haue little moisture and by this means the substance of the braine hardneth and so cannot receiue the impression of the figures as hard wax with difficultie admitteth the figure of the seale and the soft with easinesse The contrary befals in children who through the much moisture wherewith the braine is endowed faile in vnderstanding and through the great supplenesse of their braine abound in memorie wherein by reason of the moisture the shapes and figures that come from without make a great easie deepe and well formed impression That the memorie is better the morning than the euening cannot be denied but this springeth not from the occasion alleaged by Aristotle but the sleepe of the night passed hath made the braine moist and fortifyed the same and by the waking of the whole day it is dried and hardened For which cause Hippocrates affirmeth those who haue great thirst at night shall doe well to drinke for sleepe makes the flesh moist and fortifieth all the powers which gouern man And that sleepe so doth Aristotle himselfe confesseth By this doctrine is perfectly seene that the vnderstanding and memorie are powers opposit and contrary in sort that the man who hath a great memorie shall find a defect in his vnderstanding and he who hath a great vnderstanding cannot enjoy a good memorie for it is impossible that the braine should of his owne nature be at one selfe time drie and moist On this maxime Aristotle grounded himselfe to prooue that memorie is a power different from remembrance and he frames his argument in this manner Those who haue much remembrance are men of great vnderstanding and those who possesse a great memorie find want of vnderstanding so then memorie and remembrance are contrary powers The former proposition after my doctrine is false for those who haue much remembrance are of little vnderstanding and haue great imaginations as soone hereafter I will prooue but the second proposition is verie true albet Aristotle knew not the cause wheron was founded the enmitie which the vnderstanding hath with the memorie From heat which is the third qualitie groweth the imaginatiue for there is no other reasonable power in the braine nor any other qualitie to which it may be assigned besides that the sciences which appertaine to the imaginatiue are those which such vtter as dote in their sicknesse and
not of those which appertaine to the vnderstanding or to the memorie And frenzie peeuishnesse and melancholy being hot passions of the braine it yeelds a great argument to prooue that imagination consists in heat One thing breeds me a difficultie herein and that is that the imagination carrieth a contrarietie to the vnderstanding as also to the memorie and the reason hereof is not to be gotten by experience for in the braine may very wel be vnited much heat and much drinesse and so likewise much heat and much moisture to a large quantitie and for this cause a man may haue a great vnderstanding and a great imagination much memorie with much imagination and verely it is a miracle to find a man of great imagination who hath a good vnderstanding and a sound memorie And the cause thereof behooues to be for that the vnderstanding requires that the braine be made of parts very subtile and delicat as we haue prooued heretofore out of Galen and much heat frets and consumes what is delicat and leaues behind the parts grosse and earthly For the like reason a good imagination cannot be vnited with much memorie for excessiue heat resolueth the moisture of the braine and leaveth it hard and drie by means whereof it cannot easily receiue the figures In sort that in man there are no more but three generall differences of wits for there are no more but three qualities whence they may grow But vnder these three vniversall differences there are contained many other particulars by means of degrees of accesse which heat moisture and drinesse may haue Notwithstanding there springs a difference in wits from euery degree of these three qualities for the drie the hot and the moist may exceed in so high a degree that it may altogether disturbe the animal power conformable to that sentence of Galen Euery excessiue distemperature resolues the forces and so it is For albeit drinesse giue helpe to the vnderstanding yet it may be that the same shal consume his operations Which Galen and the antient Philosophers would not admit but affirme that if old mens brains grew not cold they should neuer decay though they became drie in the fourth degree But they haue no reason for this as we will prooue in the imaginatiue for albeit his operations be performed with heat yet if it passe the third degree foorthwith the same begins to resolue and the like doth the memorie through ouer-much moisture How many differences of wits grow by means of the superabounding of each of these three qualities cannot for this present be particularly recited except tofore we recount all the operations and actions of the vnderstanding the imagination and the memorie But the whilest we are to know that the principall works of the vnderstanding are three the first to discourse the second to distinguish and the third to chuse Hence comes it that they place also three differences in the vnderstanding into three other is the memorie deuided one receiues with ease and suddenly forgetteth another is slow to receiue but a long time retaineth and the last receiueth with ease and is very slow to forget The imagination containeth many more differences for he hath three no lesse than the vnderstanding and memorie and from each degree ariseth three other Of these we will more distinctly discourse hereafter when we shall assigne to each the science which answereth it in particular But he that will consider three other differences of wit shall find that there are habilities in those who studie some which haue a disposition for the cleare and easie contemplations of the art which they learne but if you set them about matters obscure and very difficult it will prooue a lost labour for the teacher to shape them a figure therof by fit examples or that they frame themselues the like by their owne imagination for they want the capacitie In this degree are all the bad scholers of whatsoeuer facultie who being demaunded touching the easie points of their art answer to the purpose but comming to matters of more curiousnesse they will tell you a hundred follies Other wits aduaunce themselues one degree higher for they are pliant and easie in learning things and they can imprint in themselues all the rules and considerations of art plaine obscure easie and difficult but as for doctrine argument doubting answering and distinguishing they are all matters wherewith they may in no wise be combred These need to learne sciences at the hands of good teachers well skilled in knowledge and to haue plentie of bookes and to studie them hard for so much the lesse shall their knowledge be as they forbeare to reade and take paines Of these may be verefied that so famous sentence of Aristotle Our vnderstanding is like a plaine table wherin nothing is pourtraied For whatsoeuer they are to know and attaine it behooues that first they heare the same of some other and are barren of all inuention themselues In the third degree nature maketh some wits so perfect that they stand not in need of teachers to instruct them nor to direct in what sort they are to philosophise for out of one consideration endicted to them by their schoolmaister they will gather a hundred and without that ought be bestowed vnto them they fill their wit with science and knowledge Those wits beguiled Plato and made him to say That our knowledge is a certaine spice of remembrance when he heard them speake and say that which neuer fell into consideration with other men To such it is allowable that they write bookes and to others not for the order and concert which is to be held to the end that sciences may dayly receiue increase and greater perfection is to ioine the new inuention of our selues who liue now with that which the auntients left written in their bookes For dealing after this manner each in his time shall adde an increase to the arts and men who are yet vnborne shall enioy the inuention and trauaile of such as liued before As for such who want inuention the common wealth should not consent that they make bookes nor suffer them to be printed because they do nought else saue heape vp matters alreadie deliuered and sentences of graue authours returning to repeat the selfe things stealing one from hence and taking another from thence and there is no man but after such a fashion may make a booke Wits full of inuention are by the Tuscanes called goatish for the likenesse which they haue with a goate in their demeanure and proceeding These neuer take pleasure in the plains but euer delight to walke alone thorow dangerous and high places and to appproch neere steepe down-fals for they will not follow any beaten path nor go in companie A propertie like this is found in the reasonable soule when it possesseth a braine well instrumentalized and tempered for it neuer resteth setled in any contemplation but fareth forth with vnquiet seeking to
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
impaired many times the operations of the vnderstanding are thereby lost and yet those of the memorie and the imagination remaine sound which could not come to passe if the vnderstanding enioyed not a particular instrument for it selfe besides this which the other powers do partake To this I know not what may be yeelded in answer vnlesse it be by some metaphysicall relation compounded of action and power which neither themselues know what it meaneth nor is there any other man that vnderstands it Nothing more endammageth mans knowledge than to confound the sciences and what belongs to the Metaphysicks to entreat thereof in naturall Philosophie and matters of naturall Philosophie in the Metaphysicks The reasons wherevpon Aristotle grounded himselfe are of small moment for the consequence followeth not to say that the vnderstanding because it must know materiall things should not therefore enioy a bodily instrument for the bodily qualities which serue for the composition of the instrument make no alteration of the power nor from them do the fantasmes arise euen as the sensible placed aboue the sence causeth not the selfe sence This is plainly seene in touching for notwithstanding that the same is compounded of four materiall qualities and that the same hath in it quantitie and hardnesse or softnesse for all this the hand discerneth whether a thing be hot or cold hard or soft great or little And if you aske in what sort the naturall heat which is in the hand hindereth not the touching that it may discerne the heat which is in the stoue we answer that the qualities which serue for the composition of the instrument do not alter the instrument it selfe neither from them do there issue any shapes whereby to know them Euen as it appertaineth to the eye to know all figures and qualities of things and yet we see that the eye it selfe hath his proper figure and quantitie and of the humours and skins which go to his composition some haue colours and some are diaphane and trasparant all which hindereth not but that we with our sight may discerne the figures and quantities of all the things which shall appeare before vs and the reason is for that the humours the skins the figure and the quantitie serue for the composition of the eye and such thinges cannot alter the sightfull power and therefore trouble not nor hinder the knowledge of the outward figures The like we affirme of the vnderstanding that his proper instrument though the same be materiall and ioyned with it cannot enlarge it for from it issue no vnderstandable shapes which haue force to alter it and the reason is For that the vnderstandable placed aboue the vnderstanding causeth not the vnderstanding so it remaineth at libertie to vnderstand all the outward materiall thinges without that it encounter ought to hinder the same The second reason wherein Aristotle grounded himselfe is of lesse importance than the former for neither the vnderstanding nor any other accident can be qualiti-like for of themselues they cannot be the subiect of any qualitie For which cause it litle skilleth that the vnderstanding possesse the braine for an instrument togither with the temperature of the 4. first qualities that therfore it may be called qualitie-like inasmuch as the braine and not the braine and not the vnderstanding is the subiect of the heat the cold the moyst and the drie To the third difficulty which the Peripateticks alleage saying That by making the vnderstanding an instrumētall power we reaue one of those principles which serue to prooue the immortality of the reasonable soule we answere That there are other argumentes of more soundnesse whereby to prooue the same whereof wee will treat in the chapter following To the second argument we answere that not euery difference of operations argueth a diuersitie of powers for as we will prooue heereafter the imaginatiue performeth matter so strange that if this maxime were true in sort as the vulgar Philosophers had it or admitting the interpretation which they giue it there should be in the braine ten or twelue powers more But because all these operations are to be marshalled vnder one generall reason they argue no more than one imaginatiue which is afterwardes diuided into many particular differences by the meanes of the sundry operations which it performeth the composing of the shapes in the presence or the absence of the obiects not onely argueth not a diuersitie of the generall powers as are the common sense and the imaginatiue but euen not of the verie particulars To the third argument we answere that the memory is nothing els but a tendernesse of the braine disposed with a certaine kinde of moisture to receiue and preserue that which the imaginatiue apprehendeth with the like proportion that white or blew paper holdes with him who writeth for as the writer writeth in the paper the things which he would not forget and after he hath written them returnes to read them euen so we ought to conceiue that the imagination writeth in the memorie the figures of the things knowen by the fiue senses and by the vnderstanding as also some others of his own framing and when it will remember ought saith Arist. it returneth to behold contemplat them With this maner of comparison Plato serued himselfe when he said that fearing the weake memorie of old age he hastened to make another of paper namely bookes to the end his trauailes ought not to be lost but that hee might haue that which might represent them vnto him when he list to read them This selfe doth the imaginatiue of writing in the memorie and returning to read it when it would remember the same The first who vttered this point was Aristotle and the second Galen who said thus Forasmuch as that part of the soule which imagineth whatsoeuer the same be seemeth to be the selfe that also remembreth And so verily it seemeth to be for the things which we imagine with long thinking are well fixed in the memorie and that which we handle with light consideration also soone we forget the same againe And as the writer when he writeth faire the better assureth it to be read so it befalles to the imaginatiue that if it seale with force the figure remaineth well imprinted in the braine otherwise it can skarsly be discerned The like also chanceth in old deedes which being sound in part and in part perished by time cannot well be read vnlesse we gather much by reason and coniecture So doth the imaginatiue when in the memorie some figures remaine and some are perished where Aristotles errour had his originall who for this cause conceiued that remembrance was a different power from the memorie Moreouer he affirmed that those who haue great remembrance are likewise of great vnderstanding which is also false for the imaginatiue which is that that makes the remembrance is contrarie to the vnderstanding in sort that to gather memory of things and to remember them after they are
memorie it were impossible to learne them with any other power How little the vnderstanding and the imagination make for the purpose to learne languages and manners of speech is easily prooued by childhood which being the age wherein man most wanteth these two powers yet saith Aristotle children learne any language more readily than elder men though these are endowed with a better discourse of reason And without farther speech experience plainly prooueth this for so much as we see that if a Biscane of 30. or 40. yeeres age come to dwell in Castilia he will neuer learn this language but if he be but a boy within two or three yeares you would thinke him born in Toledo The same befalles in the latine tongue and in those of all the rest of the world for all languages hold one selfe consideration Then if in the age when memorie chiefly raigneth and the vnderstanding and the imagination least languages are better learned than when there growes defect of memorie an encrease of vnderstanding it falles out apparent that they are purchased by the memorie and by none other power Languages saith Aristotle cannot be gathered out by reason nor consist in discourse or disputations for which cause it is necessarie to heare the word from another and the signification which it beareth and to keepe the same in mind and so he prooueth that if a man be borne deaffe it followes of necessitie that he be also dumbe for he cannot heare from another the articulation of the names nor the signification which was giuen them by the first deuiser That languages are at pleasure and a conceit of mens brains and nought else is plainly prooued for in them all may the sciences be taught and in each is to be sayd and expressed that which by the other is inferred Therfore none of the graue authors attended the learning of strange tongues thereby to deliuer their conceits but the Greekes wrot in Greeke the Romans in Latine the Hebrues in the Hebrue language and the Moores in Arabique and so do I in my Spanish because I know this better than any other The Romans as lords of the world finding it was necessarie to haue one common language by which all nations might haue commerce together and themselues be able to heare vnderstand such as came to demaund iustice and things appertayning to their gouernment commanded that in all places of there empire their should schooles be kept where the Latine tongue might be taught and so this vsage hath endured euen to our time Schoole-diuinitie it is a matter certaine that it appertaineth to the vnderstanding presupposing that the operations of this power are to distinguish conclude discourse iudge make choise for nothing is done in this facultie which is not to doubt for inconueniences to answer with distinction and against the answer to conclude that which is gathered in good consequence and to returne to replication vntill the vnderstanding find where to settle But the greatest proofe which in this case may be made is to giue to vnderstand with how great difficultie the latine tongue is ioyned with Schoole diuinitie and how ordinarily it falleth not out that one self man is a good latinist and a profound scholer at which effect some curious heads who haue lighted hereon much maruelling procured to search out the cause from whence the same might spring and by their conceit found that Schoole diuinitie being written in an easie and common language and the great latinists hauing accustomed their eare to the well sounding and fine stile of Cicero they cannot apply themselues to this other But well should it fall out for the latinists if this were the cause For forcing their hearing by vse they should meet with a remedie for this infirmitie but to speake trueth it is rather an head-ach than an eare-sore Such as are skilfull in the latine tongue it is necessarie that they haue a great memorie for otherwise they can neuer become so perfect in a tōgue which is not theirs and because a great and happie memorie is as it were cōtrarie to a great and high raised vnderstanding in one subiect where the one is placed the other is chased away Hence remaineth it that he who hath not so deepe and loftie an vnderstanding a power whereto appertaineth to distinguish conclude discourse iudge and choose cannot soone attaine the skil of Schoole diuinitie Let him that will not allow this reason for currant payment read S. Thomas Scot Durand and Caietane who are the principall in this facultie and in them he shall finde manie excellent points endited and written in a stile very easie and common And this proceeded from none other cause than that these graue authours had from their childhood a feeble memorie for profiting in the latine tongue But comming to logicke metaphisicke and Schoole diuinitie they reaped that great fruite which we see because they had great vnderstanding I can speake of a schoole diuine and manie other can verifie the same that knew and conuersed with him who being a principall man in this facultie not onely spake not finely nor with well shaped sentences in imitation of Cicero but whilest he red in a chaire his scholers noted in him that he had lesse than a meane knowledge in the latine tongue Therefore they councelled him as men ignorant of this doctrine that he should secretly steale some houre of the day from Schoole diuinitie and employ the same in reading of Cicero Who knowing this coūsell to proceed from his good friends not onely procured to remedie it priuilie but also publickly after he had red the matter of the trinitie how the diuine word might take flesh he meant to heare a lecture of the latine tongue and it fell out a matter worthy consideration that in the long time while he did so he not onely learned nothing of new but grew welneere to leese that little latine which he had before and so at last was driuen to read in the vulgar Pius the fourth enquiring what diuines were of most speciall note at the councell of Trent he was told of a most singular Spanish diuine whose solutions answeres argumentes and distinctions were worthy of admiration the Pope therefore desirous to see and know so rare a man sent word vnto him that he should come to Rome render him accompt of what was done in the Councell He came and the Pope did him many fauours amongst the rest commaunded him to be couered and taking him by the hand led him walking to Castle S. Angelo speaking verie good latine shewed him his deuise touching certain fortifications which he was then about to make the Castle stronger asking his opinion in some particulars but he answered the Pope so intricatly for that he could not speake latine that the Spanish Embassadour who at that time was Don Lewes de Requesens great Commander of Castilia was faine to step forth to grace him with his latine and to turne the Popes
somewhat of his owne head To play well at Primero and to face and vie and to hold and giue ouer when time serueth and by coniectures to know his aduersaries game and the skill of discarding are all workes of the imagination The like we say of playing at Cent at Triumph though not so far-forth as the Primero of Almaigne and the same not only maketh proofe demonstration of the difference of the wit but also discouereth al the vertues and vices in a man For at euery moment there are offered occasions in this play by which a man shall discouer what hee would do in matters of great importance if oportunitie serued Chesse-play is one of the things which best discouereth the imagination for he that makes ten or twelue faire draughts one after another on the Chesse-boord giues an euill token of profiting in the Sciences which belong to the vnderstanding and to the memorie vnlesse it fall out that he make an vnion of two or three powers as we haue already noted And if a very learned Schoole-diuine of mine acquaintance had been skilled in this doctrine he should haue got notice of a matter which made him verie doubtfull He vsed to play often with a seruant of his and lighting mostly on the losse told him much mooued Sirha how comes it to passe that thou who canst skill neither of Latine nor Logicke nor Diuinitie though thou hast studied it yet beatest me that am full of Scot and S. Thomas Is it possible that thou shouldst haue a better wit than I verily I cannot beleeue it except the diuell reueale vnto thee what draughts thou shouldst make and the misterie was that he had great vnderstanding with which he attained the delicacies of Scot and Thomas but wanted that difference of imagination which serueth for Chesse-play whereas his seruant had an ill vnderstanding and a bad memorie but a good imagination The Schollers who haue their bookes well righted and their chamber well dressed and cleane kept euerie thing in his due place order haue a certaine difference of imagination verie contrarie to the vnderstanding and to the memorie Such a like wit haue men who go neat and handsomly apparelled who looke all about their cape for a mote take dislike at any one wry plait of their garmēt this assuredly springeth from their imagination For if a man that had no skill in versifieng nor towardlinesse thereunto chance to fall in loue sodainly saith Plato he becomes a Poet and verie trim and handsome for loue heateth and drieth his braine and these are qualities which quicken the imagination the like as Iuuenal noteth anger doth effect which passion heateth also the braine Anger makes verse if nature but denie Gracious talkers and imitaters and such as can hold at bay haue a certaine difference of imagination verie contrarie to the vnderstanding and to the memorie For which cause they neuer prooue learned in Grammer Logicke Schoole-diuinitie Phisicke or the lawes If then they be wittie in managing toward for euery matter they take in hand ready in speech and answering to the purpose these are fit to serue in Courts of iustice for sollicitors atturnies merchants and factors to buy and sell bur not for learning Heerein the vulgar is much deceiued seeing them so readie at all handes and them seemeth that if such gaue themselues to learning they would prooue notable fellowes but in substance there is no wit more repugnant to matters of learning than these Children that are slow of speech haue a moistnes in their tongue and also in their braine but that wearing away in processe of time they become verie eloquent and great talkers through the great memorie which they get when that moisture is tempered This we know by the things tofore rehearsed befell that famous Orator Demosthenes of whome we said that Cicero maruelled how being so blunt of speech when he was a boy growing greater he became so eloquēt Children also who haue a good voice and warble in the throat are most vntoward for all Sciences and the reason is for that they are cold and moist The which two qualities being vnited we said before that they breed a dammage in the reasonable part Schollers who learn their lesson in such maner as their maister deliuereth it and so recite the same it shewes a token of a good memorie but the vnderstanding shall abie the bargaine There are offered in this doctrine some problemes and doubts the answere wherunto will perhaps yeeld more light to conceiue that what we haue propounded doth carie trueth The first is whence it groweth that great Latinists are more arrogant and presumptuous on their knowledge than men very well skilled in that kind of learning which appertaineth to the vnderstanding in sort that the prouerbe to let vs know what maner of fellow a Grammarian is sayth That a Grammarian is arrogancie it selfe The second is whence it commeth that the Latine tongue is so repugnant to the Spanish capacities and so naturall to the French Italian Dutch English and other northernly nations as we see in their workes which by their good Latine phrase straightwaies proue the authour to haue been a stranger and by the barbarousnesse and ill composition we know the same for a Spaniards The third is for what reason the things that are spoken and written in the Latine tongue sound better carrie a more loftinesse and haue greater delicacie than anie other language how good soeuer we hauing auouched before that all languages are nought els but a conceit at pleasure of those who first deuised them without holding anie foundation in nature The fourth doubt is seeing all Sciences which appertaine to the vnderstanding are written in Latine how it can frame that such as want memorie may read and studie them in those books whilest the Latine is by this reason so repugnant vnto them To the first probleme we answere that to know whether a man haue defect of vnderstanding there fals out no token more certaine than to see him loftie big looked presumptuous desirous of honour standing on termes and full of ceremonies And the reason is for that all these be workes of a difference of the imagination which requireth no more but one degree of heat wherwith the much moisture which is requisite for the memorie accordeth verie sitly for it wanteth force to resolue the same Contrariwise it is an infallible token that if a man be naturallie lowly despiser of himselfe and his own matters and that not only he vanteth not nor praiseth himself but feels displeasure at the commēdations giuen him by others and takes shame of places and ceremonies pertaining to honour such a one may well be pointed at for a man of great vnderstanding but of small imagination and memorie I said naturally lowly for if he be so by cūning this is no certain signe Hence it commeth that as the Grammarians are men of great memorie and make an vnion with this difference of
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
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
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
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
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
towardly to make clocks pictures poppets other ribaldries which are impertinent for mans seruice Aegypt alone is the region which ingendereth in his inhabitants this differēce of imagination wherthrough the Historiens neuer make an end of telling how great enchaunters the Aegyptians are and how readie for obtaining things and finding remedies to their necessities Ioseph to exaggerat the wisedome of Salomon sayd in this manner So great was the knowledge and wisedome which Salomon receiued of God that he outpassed al the ancients and euen the very Egyptians who were reputed the wisest of all others And Plato also sayd that the Aegyptians exceeded all the men of the world in skill how to get their liuing which abilitie appertaineth to the imagination And that this is true may plainly appeare for that all the sciences belonging to the imagination were first deuised in Aegypt as the Mathematicks Astrologie Arithmeticke Perspectiue Iudiciarie and the rest But the argument which most ouer-ruleth me in this behalfe is that whē Francis of Valois king of France was molested by a long infirmitie and saw that the Phisitions of his houshold and court could yeeld him no remedy he would say euery time when his feuer increased It was not possible that any Christiā Phisition could cure him neither at their hands did he euer hope for recouerie wherethrough one time agreeued to see himselfe thus vexed with this feuer he dispatched a post into Spaine praieng the emperour Charles the fifth that he would send him a Iew Phisition the best of his court touching whom he had vnderstood that he was able to yeeld him remedie for his sicknesse if by art it might be effected At this request the Spaniards made much game and all of them concluded it was an humorous conceit of a man whose brains were turmoiled with the feuer But for all this the Emperour gaue commandement that such a Phisition should be sought out if anie there were though to find him they should be driuen to send out of his dominions and whē none could be met withall he sent a Phisition newly made a Christian supposing that he might serue to satisfie the kings humour But the Phisition being arriued in France and brought to the kings presence there passed between them a gratious discourse in which it appeared that the Phisition was a Christian and therefore the king would receiue no phisicke at his hands The king with opinion which he had conceiued of the phisition that he was an Hebrue by way of passing the time asked him whether he were not as yet weary in looking for the Messias promised in the law The phisition answered Sir I expect not any Messias promised in the Iews law You are verie wise in that replied the king for the tokens which were deliuered in the diuine scripture whereby to know his comming are all fulfilled many daies ago This number of daies reioyned the phisition we Christians do well reckon for there are now finished 1542 yeares that he came and conuersed in the world 33 yeares in the end of which he died on the crosse and the third day rose again and afterwards ascended into heauen where he now remaineth Why then quoth the king you are a Christian yea Sir by the grace of God I am a Christian quoth the phisition then answered the king return you home to your own dwelling in good time for in mine owne house and court I haue Christian phisitions very excellent and I held you for a Iew who in mine opinion are those that haue best naturall abilitie to cure my disease After this maner he licenced him without once suffering him to feele his pulse or see his state or telling him one word of his griefe And forthwith he sent to Constantinople for a Iew who healed him with the onely milke of a she Asse This imagination of king Francis as I think was verie true and I haue so conceiued it to be for that in the great hot distemperatures of the brain I haue prooued tofore how the imagination findeth out that which the partie being sound could neuer haue done And because it shall not seem that I haue spoken in iest and without relying herein vpon a materiall ground you shall vnderstand that the varieties of men aswell in the compositions of the body as of the wit and conditions of the soule spring from their inhabiting countries of different temperature from drinking diuers waters and from not vsing all of them one kind of food Wherein Plato said Some through variable windes and heats are amongst themselues diuers in maners and kinds others through the waters and food which spring of the earth who not only in their bodies but in their minds also can skill to do things better and woorse as if he should say some men are different from others either by reason of the contrarie aire or through drinking seuerall waters or for that they feed not all vpon one kind of meat and this difference is discerned not only in the countenaunce and demeanure of the body but also in the wit of the soule If I then shall now prooue that the people of Israell dwelt many yeares in Aegypt and that departing from thence they did eat drinke waters meats which are appropriat to make this difference of imagination I shal then yeeld a demonstration for the opinion of the king of France and by consequence we shall vnderstand what wits of men are in Spaine to be made choice of for studieng the art of Phisicke As touching the first we must know that Abraham asking tokens whereby to be assured that he or his descendents should possesse the land of promise the text sayth that whilest he slept God made him answer saying Know that thy seed shall bee a stranger in a countrie not his owne and they shall make them vnderlings in bondage and afflict them for 400 yeares notwithstanding I will iudge that nation whom they serue and after this they shall depart from thence with great substance which Prophesie was accomplished albeit God for certaine respects added therevnto 30 yeares more for which cause the scripture sayth But the aboad of the children of Israell in Aegypt was 430 yeares which being finished that very day the whole armie of the Lord departed out of the land of Aegypt But although this text say manifestly that the people of Israell abode in Aegypt 400 yeares a glosse declareth that thefe yeares were the whole time which Israell went on pilgrimage vntill he possessed his own countrie In as much as he remained in Aegypt but 210 yeates which declaration agreeth not well with that which S. Stephen the Prothomartyr made in his discourse to the Iewes namely that the people of Israell was 430 yeares in the bondage of Aegypt And albeit the abode of 210 yeares suffised that the qualities of Aegypt might take hold in the people of Israell yet the time whiles they liued abroad was no lost season in respect of that which
comming to eat a meat of so small resistance it wholly with them turned into choler And for this cause Galen gaue the charge that men endowed with much naturall heat should forbeare to eat honny or other light meats for they would turne to corruption and in steed of digestion would partch vp like soot The like heereof befell to the Hebrues as touching Manna which with them wholly turned into choler adust and therefore they were altogither drie and thin for this meat had no corpulencie to fatten them Our soule said they is drie and our eies see nothing but Manna The water which they dranke after this meat was such as they would desire and if they could not find any such God shewed to Moses a wood of so diuine vertue that dipping the same in grosse and salt waters it made them to become delicat and of good sauor and when they had no sort of water at all Moses took the rod with which he had parted the red Sea and striking therewith the rocks there issued springs of waters so delicat and sauourie as their tast could desire In sort that S. Paul saith The rocke followed them as if he should say The water of the rocke seconded their tast issuing delicat sweet and sauourie And they had accustomed their stomacks before to drinke waters thicke and brinish for in Aegypt saith Galen they boiled them ere they could serue for drinke for that they were naughty and corrupt so as afterwards drinking waters so delicat it could not fall out otherwise but that they should turn into choler for that they found small resistance Water requireth the same qualities to digest well in our stomacke saith Galen not to corrupt that the meat hath wheron we accustomably feed If the stomack be strong it behooueth to giue the same strong meat which may answer in proportion if the same be weake and delicat such also the meat ought to be The like regard is to be held as touching the water where-through we see by experience that if a man vse to drinke grosse water he neuer quencheth his thirst with the purer neither feeleth it in his stomacke Rather the same encreaseth his thirst for the excessiue heat of the stomacke burneth and resolueth it so soon as it is receiued because therein is no resistance The aire which they enioyed in the desert we may also say that it was subtile and delicat for iournieng ouer mountains and through vninhabited places they had the same alwaies fresh clensed and without anie corruption for they neuer made long stay in any one place So did it alwaies carrie a temperature for by day a cloud was set before the sunne which suffered him not to scorch ouer vehemently and by night a piller of fire which moderated the same And to enioy an aire of this maner Aristotle affirmeth doth much quicken the wit VVe may consider then that the men of this folke must needs haue a seed verie delicat and adust eating such meat as Manna was and drinking the waters before specified and breathing and enioying an aire so clensed and pleasant as also that the Hebrue women bred flowers very subtile and delicat Againe let vs call to mind that which Aristotle said that the flowres being subtile and delicat the child who is bred of them shalbe a man of great capacitie How much it importeth that for begetting children of great sufficiencie the fathers do feed on delicat meats we wil prooue at large in the last chapter of this worke And because all the Hebrues did eat of one selfe so spirituall and delicat meat and dranke of one selfe water all their children and posteritie prooued sharp and great of wit in matters appertaining to this world Now then when the people of Israel came into the land of promise with so great a wit as we haue expressed there befell vnto them afterwards so many trauails dearths siedges of enimies subiections bondages and ill intreatings that though they had not brought from Aegypt and the wildernesse that temperature hot drie and adust before specified they would yet haue made it so by this dismall life for continuall sadnesse and toil vniteth the vitall spirits and the arteriall bloud in the brain in the liuer and in the heart and there staying one aboue another they grow to drinesse and adustion Where-through oft times they procure the feuer and their ordinarie is to make melancholie by adustiō wherof they in maner do all partake euen to this day in respect of that which Hippocrates saith Feare and sadnesse continuing a long time signifieth melancholie This choler adust we said before to be the instrument of promptnesse craftinesse sharpnesse subtiltie and maliciousnesse And this is applied to the coniectures of Phisicke and by the same a man getteth notice of the diseases their causes and remedies Wherfore king Francis vnderstood this maruellous well and it was no lightnesse of the brain or inuention of the diuell which he vttered But through his great feuer lasting so manie daies and with the sadnesse to find himselfe sicke and without remedy his brain grew dry and his imagination rose to such a point of which we made proofe tofore that if it haue the temperature behooffull a man will on a sodain deliuer that which he neuer learned But there presents it selfe a dufficultie very great against all these things rehearsed by vs and that is that if the children or nephews of those who were in Aegypt and enioyed the Manna the waters and the subtle aire of the wildernesse had been made choice of for phisitions it might seeme that king Francis opinion were in some part probable for the reasons by vs reported But that their posteritie should preserue till our daies those dispositions of the Manna the water the aire the afflictions and the trauails which their ancestors endured in the prison of Babilon it is a matter hard to be conceiued for if in 430 yeares during which the people of Israel liued in Aegypt and 40 in the desart their seed could purchase those dispositions of abilitie better and with more facilitie could they leese it again in 2000 yeares whilest they haue been absent And specially sithence their comming into Spain a region so contrarie to Aegypt and where they haue fed vpon different meats and druncke waters of nothing so good temperature and substance as those other This is agreeable to the nature of man and whatsoother liuing creature and plant which forthwith partaketh the conditions of the earth where they liue and leese those which they brought with thē from elswhere And whatsoeuer instance they can alleage the like will betide it within few daies beyond all gainsaying Hippocrates recounteth of a certain sort of men who to be different from the vulgar chose for a token of their nobilitie to haue their head like a sugar-loafe And to shape this figure by art when the child was born the mid-wiues tooke care to bind their heads with sweaths and bands vntill
behooueth to feed a whole moneth vpon contrarie meats And after this reckoning to deface the qualities that Manna brought into the seed in the space of 40 yeares there need 4000 and vpward And if any man will not herewith rest satisfied let vs say that as God brought out of Aegypt the 12 tribes of Israell so he had taken then 12 male and 12 female Moores of Aethiopia and had placed them in our countrie in how many yeares thinke we would these Moores and their posteritie linger to leaue their natiue colour not mixing themselues the while with white persons to me it seemeth a long space of yeares would be requisit For though 200 yeares haue passed ouer our heads sithens the first Aegyptians came out of Aegypt into Spaine yet their posteritie haue not forlorne that their delicacie of wit and promptnesse nor yet that rosted colour which their auncestors brought with them from Aegypt Such is the force of mans seed when it receiueth thereinto any well rooted qualitie And as in Spaine the Moores communicat the colour of their elders by means of their seed though they be out of Aethiopia so also the people of Israel comming frō thence may communicat to their descendents their sharpenesse of wit without remaining in Aegypt or eating Manna for to be ignorant or wise is as well an accident in man as to be blacke or white True it is that they are not now so quicke and prompt as they were a thousand yeares since for from the time that they left to eat Manna their posterity haue euer lessened hitherto because they vsed contrarie meats and inhabited countries different from Aegypt neither dranke waters of such delicacie as in the wildernesse As also by mingling with those who descended from the Gentils who wanted this difference of wit but that which cannot be denied them is that as yet they haue not lost it altogither CHAP. XIII By what meanes it may be shewed to what difference of abilitie the art of warfare appertaineth and by what signes the man may be knowen who is endowed with this maner of wit WHat is the cause saith Aristotle that seeing Fortitude is not the greatest of all vertues but Iustice and Prudence are greater than it yet the commonwealth and in a maner all men with a common consent do make greater accompt and within themselues do more honour a valiant man than either the iust or wise though placed in neuer so high callings or offices To this probleme Aristotle answereth saying there is no king in the world who doth not either make war or maintain war against some other and for somuch as the valiant procure them glorie and empire take reuenge on their enemies and preserue their estate they yeeld chiefest honour not to the principall vertue which is Iustice but to that by which they reap most profit and aduantage For if they did not in this wise intreat the valiant how were it possible that kings should find captains and souldiours who would willingly ieopard their liues to defend their goods and estates Of the Asiaticans it is recounted that there was a people inhabiting a part therof who bare themselues verie couragiously and being asked why they had neither king nor law they made answer that laws made men cowards and seeing it was necessarie to vndergoe the hazard of the wars for depriuing another of his estate they made choice to fight for their own behoofe and themselues to reap the benefit of the victorie But this was an answer rather of barbarous men than reasonable people who well know that without a king without a common-wealth and without lawes it is impossible to preserue men in peace That which Aristotle said serueth verie well to the purpose though there be a better answer to be framed namely That when Rome honoured her captains with those triumphs and solemnities she did not only reward the courage of the triumpher but also the iustice with which he maintained his armie in peace and concord the wisdome with which he performed his enterprises and their temperancy vsed in abstaining from wine women and meat which trouble the iudgement and turne counsels into error Yea wisdome is more highly to be regarded and rewarded in a generall than courage and manlinesse for as Vegetius well said Few ouer couragious captains bring their enterprises to luckie passe Which groweth for that wisdome is more necessarie in warre than courage in bickering but Vegetius could neuer attain to the notice what maner of wisdom this is neither could plot down with what difference of wit he ought to be endowed who taketh charge in war Neither do I ought maruell thereat for the maner of philosophie wheron this dependeth was not then deuised True it is that to verefie this point answereth not our first intent which purporteth to make choice of apt wits for learning But martiall affaires are so dangerous and of so deep counsell and it falleth out a matter so important for a king to know well vnto whom he credit his power and state that we shall perform no lesse thanks worthie a part of seruice to the common wealth to teach this difference of wit and his signs than in the other which we haue alreadie described For which cause we must note that Malitia and Militia vz. martiall matters and malice haue as it were one selfe name and likewise one selfe definition For changing a into i of malitia you make militia and of militia malitia with great facilitie What the nature and propertie of malice is Cicero teacheth saieng Malice is a way of hurting craftie and full of guile In warre likewise nothing falleth so much into cōsideration as how to offend the enimie and defend ourselues from his entrappings Therefore the best propertie whereof a Generall can be possessed is to be malicious with his enemie and neuer to construe any his demeanures to a good sense but to the worst that may be and to stand on his guard Beleeue not sayth Ecclesiasticus thine enimie with his lips he sweetneth and in his hart he betraieth thee to make thee fall into the dike he weepeth with his cies and if he light vpon a fit occasion he will not be satisfied with thy blood Hereof we find a manifest example in the holy scripture for the people of Israel being besieged in Bethulia and straightned with hunger and thirst that famous lady Iudith issued out with a resolution to kill Holofernes and going towards the armie of the Assirians she was taken by the sentinels and guards and being asked whether she was bound made answere with a two-fold mind I am a daughter of the Hebrues whom you hold besieged and flie onto you for I haue learned that they shall fall into your hands and that you shall euill intreat them because they would not yeeld themselues to your mercy therefore I determined to flie vnto Holofernes and to discouer vnto him the secrets of this obstinat people shewing him how he may
who is possessed of this temperature we need prescribe no diet what he shall eat and drinke for he neuer exceedeth the quantitie and measure which phisicke would assigne him And Galen contenteth not himselfe to terme them most temperat but moreouer auoucheth that it is not necessary to moderat their other passions of the soule for his anger his sadnesse his pleasure and his mirth are alwaies measured by reason Whence it followeth that they are euermore healthful and neuer diseased and this is the fourth figure But herein Galen swarueth from reason for it is impossible to frame a man that shalbe perfect in all his powers as the body is temperat and that his wrathfull and concupiscentiall power get not the soueraigntie ouer reason and incite him to sin For it is not fitting to suffer any man how temperat soeuer to follow alwaies his owne naturall inclination without gainsetting and correcting him by reason This is easily vnderstood considering the temperature which the braine ought to haue to the end the same may be made a conuenient instrument for the reasonable facultie and that which the heart should hold to the end the wrathfull power may couet glorie empire victorie and soueraigntie ouer all and that which the liuer ought to haue for disgesting the meats and that which ought to rest in the colds to be able to preserue mankind and to increase the same Of the brain we haue said sundry times tofore that it should retaine moisture for memory drinesse for discourse and heat for the imagination But for all this his naturall temperature is cold and moist and by reason of the more or lesse of these two qualities somtimes we terme it hot and somtimes cold now moist then drie but the cold and moist grow to predominat The liuer wherein the facultie of concupiscence resideth hath for his naturall temperature heat and moisture to predominate and from this it neuer altereth so long as a man liueth And if somtimes we say it is cold it groweth for that the same hath not all the degrees of heat requisit to his owne operations As touching the heart which is the instrument of the wrathfull facultie Galen affirmeth it of his owne nature to be so hot as if while a creature liueth we put our finger into his hollownesse it will grow impossible to hold the same there one moment without burning And albeit somtime we terme it cold yet we may not conceiue that the same doth predominate for this is a case impossible but that the same consisteth not in such degree of heat as to his operations is behooffull In the cods where the other part of the concupiscible maketh abode the like reason taketh place for the predomination of his naturall temperature is hot and drie And if somtimes we say that a mans cods are cold we must not absolutly so vnderstand the same neither to predomination but that the degree of heat requisit for the generatiue vertue is wanting Hereon we plainly inferre that if a man be well compounded and instrumentalized it behooueth of force that he haue excessiue heat in his heart for otherwise the wrathfull facultie would grow verie remisse and if the liuer be not exceeding hot it cannot disgest the meat nor make bloud for nourishment and if the cods haue not more heat than cold a man will prooue impotent and without power of begetting Wherefore these two members being of such force as we haue said it followeth of necessitie that the braine take alteration through much heat which is one of the qualities that most paineth reason and which is worst the will being free inciteth and inclineth it selfe to condiscend to the appetites of the lower portion By this reckoning it appeareth that nature cannot fashion such a man as may be perfect in al his powers nor produce him inclined to vertue How repugnant it is vnto the nature of man that he become inclined to vertue is easily prooued considering the composition of the first man which though the most perfect that euer mankind enioyed sauing that of Christ our redeemer and shaped by the hands of so great an artificer yet if God had not infused into him a supernaturall qualitie which might keepe down his inferiour part it was impossible abiding in the principles of his owne nature that he should not be enclined to euill And that God made Adam of a perfect power to wrath and concupiscence is well to be vnderstood in that he said and commanded him Encrease and multiply and to replenish the earth It is certaine that he gaue them an able power for procreation made them not of a cold complexion inasmuch as he commanded him that he should people the earth with men which worke cannot be accomplished without abundance of heat And no lesse heat did he bestow vpon the facultie nutritiue with which he was to restore his consumed substance and renew another in lieu thereof Seeing that he said to the man and the woman Behold I haue giuen you euerie hearb that bringeth forth seed vpon the earth whatsoeuer trees haue seed of their kind to the end they may serue you for food for if God had giuen them a stomacke and liuer cold and of little heat for certain they could not haue digested their meat nor preserue themselues 900 yeares aliue in the world He fortified also the heart and gaue the same a wrathfull facultie which might yeeld him apt to be a king and lord and to command the whole world and said vnto them Do you subdue the earth and command ouer the fishes of the sea and the foules of the aire and all the beasts that mooue on the face of the earth But if he had not giuen them much heat they had not partaken so much viuacitie nor authoritie of soueraigntie of commandement of glory of maiestie and of honour How much it endamageth a prince to haue his wrathfull power remisse cannot sufficiently be expressed for through this only cause it befalleth that he is not feared nor obeied nor reuerenced by his subiects After hauing fortified the wrathfull and concupiscible powers giuing vnto the forementioned members so much heat he passed to the facultie reasonable and shaped for the same a braine cold and moist in such degree and of a substance so delicat that the soule might with the same discourse and philosophize and vse his infused knowledge For we haue alreadie auouched and heretofore prooued that God to bestow a supernaturall knowledge vpon men First ordereth their wit and maketh them capable by way of the naturall dispositions deliuered by his hand that they may receiue the same for which cause the text of the holy scripture affirmeth that he gaue them a heart to conceiue and replenished them with the discipline of vnderstanding The wrathful and concupiscentiall powers being then so mighty through great heat and the reasonable so weake and remisse to resist God made prouision of a supernaturall qualitie and this is tearmed by
the Diuines Originall Iustice by which they come to represse the brunts of the inferiour portion and the part reasonable remaineth superiour and enclined to vertue But when our first parents offended they lost this qualitie and the irascible and concupiscible remained in their nature and superiour to reason in respect of the strength of the three members that we spake of and man rested readie euen from his youth vnto euill Adam was created in the age of youth which after the Physitions is the most temperat of all the residue and from that age foorth he was enclined to euilnes sauing that little time whilst he preserued himselfe in grace by originall iustice From this doctrine we gather in good naturall Philosophie that if a man be to performe any action of vertue to the gainsaieng of the flesh it is impossible that he can put the same in execution without outward ayd of grace for the qualities with which the inferiour power worketh are of greater efficacie I sayd with gainsaying of the flesh because there are many vertues in man which grow for that he hath his powers of wrath and concupiscence feeble as chastitie in a cold person but this is rather an impotencie of operation than a vertue for which cause had not the catholicke church taught vs that without the speciall aid of God we could not haue ouercome our owne nature Philosophie naturall would so haue learned vs namely that grace comforteth our wil. That then which Galen would haue sayd was that a temperat man exceedeth in vertue all others who want this good temperature for the same is lesse prouoked by the inferiour part The fifth propertie which those of this temperature possesse is to be very long liued for they are strong to resist the causes and occasions which engender diseases and this was that which the roiall prophet Dauid meant The daies of our age in themselues are seuentie yeares but if in the potentates there be eightie or more it is their paine and sorrow as if he should say The number of yeares which men ordinarily do liue arriue vnto seuentie and if potentates reach vnto eightie those once passed they are dead on their feet He tearmeth those men potentates who are of this temperature for more than any other they resist the causes which abridge the life Galen layeth downe the last token sayeng that they are very wise of great memorie for things passed of great imagination to foresee those to come and of great vnderstanding to find out the truth of all matters They are not malicious not wily not cauillers for these spring from a temperature that is vitious Such a wit as this assuredly was not framed by nature to addict it selfe vnto the studie of the Latine tongue Logicke Philosophie Phisicke Diuinitie or the Lawes for put case he might easily attaine these sciences yet none of them can fully replenish his capacitie only the office of a king is in proportion answerable therevnto and in ruling and gouerning ought the same solely to be imploied This shal easilie be seene if you run ouer the tokens and properties of a temperat man which we haue laid downe by taking into consideration how fitly ech of them squareth with the roiall scepter and how impertinent they shew for the other arts and sciences That a king be faire and gratious is one of the things which most inuiteth his subiects to loue him and wish him well For the obiect of loue saith Plato is beautie and a seemly proportion and if a king be hardly fauoured and badly shaped it is impossible that his subiects can beare him affection rather they reake it a shame that a man vnperfect and void of the gifts of nature should haue sway and commaundement ouer them To be vertuous and of good conditions easily may we gather how greatly it importeth for he who ought to order the liues of his subiects and deliuer vnto them rules and lawes to liue conformably to reason it is requisit that he performe the same also in his owne person for as the king is such are the great the meane and the inferiour persons Moreouer by this means he shall make his commandements the more authenticall and with the better title may chastise such as do not obserue them To enioy a perfection in all the powers which gouern man namely the generatiue nutritiue wrathfull and reasonable is more necessarie in a king than any artiste whatsoeeuer For as Plato deliuereth in a well ordered common-wealth there should be appointed certain surueiours who might with skill looke into the qualities of such persons as are to be married and giue to him a wife answerable vnto him in proportion and to euerie wife a conuenient husband Through this diligence the principall end of matrimonie should not become vaine for we see by experience that a woman who could not conceiue of her first husbād marrying another straghtwaies beareth children and many men haue no children by their first wife taking another speedily come to be fathers Now this skill saith Plato is principally behooffull in the marriage of kings for it being a matter of such importance for the peace and quiet of the kingdome that the Prince haue lawfull children to succeed in the estate it may so fall that the king marrying at all aduentures shall take a barraine woman to wife with whom he shal be combred all daies of his life without hope of issue And if he decease without heires of his body straightwaies it must be decided by ciuill wars who shall command next after him But Hippocrates saith this art is necessarie for men that are distemperat and not for those who partake this perfect temperature by vs described These need no special choice in their wife nor to search out which may answere them in proportion for whom soeuer they marry withal saith Galen forthwith they beget issue but this is vnderstood when the wife is sound and of the age wherein women by order of nature may conceiue and bring forth in sort that fruitfulnesse is more requisit in a king than in any artist whatsoeuer for the reasons tofore alleaged The nutritiue power saith Galen if the same be gluttonous greedy and bibbing it springeth for that the liuer and stomack want the temperature which is requisit for their operations and for this cause men become riotous and short liued But if these members possesse their due temperature and composition the selfe Galen affirmeth that they couet no greater quantitie of meat and drink than is conuenient for preseruation of life Which propertie is of so great importance for a king that God holdeth that land for blessed to whose lot such a Prince befalleth Blessed is the land saith he in Ecclesiasticus whose king is noble and whose princes feed in due times for their refreshment and not for riotousnesse Of the wrathful facultie if the same be extended or remisse it is a token saith Galen that the heart is ill composed and partaketh
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
but not his substance wherin the whole life relieth as do the foure elements fire aire earth and water who not only yeeld to the party composed heat cold moisture and drinesse but also the substance which may maintain and preserue the same qualities during all the course of life Wherethrough that which most importeth in the engendring of children is to procure that the elements wherof they are compounded may partake the qualities which are requisite for the wit For these according to the waight and measure by which they enter into the composition must alwaies so indure in the mixture and not the alterations of heauen What these elements are and in what sort they enter into the womans wombe to forme the creature Galen declareth and affirmeth them to be the same which compound all other natural things but that the earth commeth lurking in the accustomed meates which we eate as are flesh bread fish and fruits the water in the liquors which we drinke The aire and fire he saith are mingled by order of nature and enter into the body by way of the pulse and of respiration Of these foure elements mingled and digested by our naturall heat are made the two necessarie principles of the infants generation to weet the seed and the monthly course But that whereof we must make greatest reckoning for the end which we enquire after are the accustomable meats whereon we feed for these shut vp the foure elements in themselues and from these the seed fetcheth more corpulencie and qualitie than from the water which we drinke or the fire and aire which we breath in VVhence Galen saith that the parents who would beget wise children should read three books which he wrot of the facultie of the alements for there they should find with what kinds of meat they may effect the same And he made no mention of the water nor of the other elements as materials and of like moment But herein he swarued from reason for the water altereth the body much more than the aire much lesse than the sound meats wheron we feed And as touching that which concerneth the engendring of the seed it carrieth as great importance as all the other elemēts togither The reason is as Galen himself affirmeth because the cods draw from the veines for their nourishment the wheyish part of the bloud and the greatest part of this whey which the veins receiue partaketh of the water which we drinke And that the water worketh more alteration in the bodie than the aire Aristotle prooueth where he demandeth what the cause is that by changing of waters we breed so great an alteration in our health wheras if we breath a contrarie aire we perceiue it not And to this he answereth that water yeeldeth nourishment to the body and so doth not the aire But he had little reason to answer after this maner for the aire also by Hippocrates opinion giueth nourishment and substance aswell as the water Wher-through Aristotle deuised a better answer saying that no place nor country hath his peculiar aire for that which is now in Flanders when the North wind bloweth passeth within two or three daies into Affricke and that in Affricke by the South is carried into the North and that which this day is in Hierusalem the East wind driueth into the VVest Indies The which cannot betide in the waters for they do not all issue out of the same soile wher-through euery people hath his particular water cōformable to the Mine of the earth where it springeth and whence it runneth And if a man be vsed to drinke one kind of water in tasting another he altereth more than by meat or aire In sort that the parents who haue a will to beget verie wise children must drinke waters delicat fresh and of good temperature otherwise they shall commit error in their procreation Aristotle saith that at the time of generation we must take heed of the South-west wind for the same is grosse and moistneth the seed so as a female and not a male is begotten But the west wind he highly commendeth and aduanceth it with names and titles very honourable He calleth the same temperat fatter of the earth and saith that it commeth from the Elisian fields But albeit it be true that it greatly importeth to breath an aire verie delicat and of good temperature and to drinke such waters yet it standeth much more vpon to vse fine meats appliable to the temperature of the wit for of these is engēdred the bloud and the seed and of the seed the creature And if the meat be delicat and of good temperature such is the bloud made and of such bloud such seed and of such seed such braine Now this member being temperat and compounded of a substance subtile and delicat Galen saith that the wit will be like therunto for our reasonable soule though the same be incorruptible yet goeth alwaies vnited with the dispositions of the brain which being not such as it is requisit they should be for discoursing and philosophizing a man saith and doth 1000 things which are verie vnfitting The meats then which the parents are to feed on that they may engender children of great vnderstanding which is the ordinarie wit for Spaine are first White bread made of the finest meale and seasoned with salt this is cold and dry and of parts verie subtile and delicat There is another sort made saith Galen of reddish graine which though it nourish much and make men big limmed and of great bodily forces yet for that the same is moist and of grosse parts it breedeth a losse in the vnderstanding I said seasoned with salt because none of all the aliments which a man vseth bettereth so much the vnderstanding as doth this minerall It is cold and of more drinesse than any other thing and if I remember well the sentence of Heraclitus he said after this maner A drie brightnesse a wisest minde Then seeing that salt is so drie and so appropriat to the wit the scripture had good reason to terme it by the name of Prudence and Sapience Partridges and Francolini haue a like substance and the selfe temperature with bread of white meale and Kid and Muskadel wine And if parents vse these meats as we haue aboue specified they shall breed children of great vnderstanding And if they would haue a child of great memorie let them eight or nine daies before they betake themselues to the act of generation eat Trouts Salmons Lampries and Eeles by which meat they shall make their seed verie moist and clammie These two qualities as I haue said before make the memorie easie to receaue and verie fast to preserue the figures a long time By Pigions Goats Garlicke Onions Leekes Rapes Pepper Vinegar White-wine Honny and al other sorts of spices the seed is made hot and drie and of parts verie subtile and delicat The child who is engendred of such meat shalbe of great imagination but not of
how powerfull the same is in the age of childhood and how weake and remisse in old age Againe in boyes estate the reasonable soule cannot vse his operations whereas in old age which is vtterly void of heat and moisture it performeth them with great effect In sort that by how much the more a man is enabled for procreation and for digestion of food so much he leeseth of his reasonable facultie To this alludeth that which Plato affirmeth that there is no humour in a man which so much disturbeth the reasonable faculty as abundance of seed only saith he the same yeeldeth help to the art of versifieng Which we behold to be confirmed by daily experience for when a man beginneth to entreat of amorous matters sodainly he becommeth a Poet And if before he were greasie and loutish forthwith he takes it at heart to haue a wrinckle in his pumpe or a mote on his cape And the reason is because these workes appertaine to the imagination which encreaseth and lifteth it selfe vp from this point through the much heat accasioned in him by this amorous passion And that loue is an hot alteration sheweth apparently through the courage and hardinesse which it planteth in the louer from whom the same also reaueth all desire of meat and will not suffer him to sleep If the common-wealth bare an eie to these tokens she would bannish from publicke studies lusty schollers and great fighters inamoured persons Poets and those who are verie neat and curious in their apparrell for they are not furnished with wit or abilitie for any sort of study Out of this rule Aristotle excepteth the melancholicke by adustion whose seede though fruitfull reaueth not the capacitie Finally all the faculties which gouern man if they be very powerfull set the reasonable soule in a garboile Hence it proceeds that if a man be very wise he proueth a coward of small strength of bodie a spare feeder and not verie able for procreation And this is occasioned by the qualities which make him wise namely coldnesse and drinesse And these selfe weaken the other powers as appeareth in old men who besides their counsell and wisdom are good for nothing els This doctrine thus presupposed Galen holdeth opinion that to the end the engendring of whatsoeuer creature may take his perfect effect two seeds are necessary one which must be the agent and former and another which must serue for nourishment for a matter so delicat as generation cannot straightwais ouercome a meat so grosse as is the bloud vntill the effect be greater And that the seed is the right aliment of the seed members Hippocrates Plato and Galen doe all accord for by their opinion if the bloud be not conuerted into seed it is impossible that the sinews the veins the arteries can be maintained Wherthrough Galen affirmed the difference betweene the veines and the cods to be that the cods doe speedily make much seed and the veins a little and in long space of time In sort that nature prouided for the same an alimēt so like which with light alteration without making any excremēts might maintain the other seed And this could not be effected if the nourishment therof had bin made of the bloud The selfe prouision saith Galen was made by nature in the engendring of mankind as in the forming of a chick and such other birds as come of egs In which we see there are two substances one of the white and another of the yolke of one of which the chicke is made and by the other maintained all the time whiles the forming endureth For the same reason are two seeds necessarie in the generation of the man one of which the creature may be made and the other by which it may be maintained whilst the forming endureth But Hippocrates mentioneth one thing worthie of great consideration namely that it is not resolued by nature which of the two seeds shalbe the agent and formour which shall serue for aliment For many times the seed of the woman is of greater efficacy than that of the man and when this betideth she maketh the generation and that of the husband serueth for aliment Otherwhiles that of the husband is more mighty and that of the wife doth nought els than nourish This doctrin was not cōsidered by Aristotle who could not vnderstand wherto the womans seed serued and therefore vttered a thousand follies and that the same was but a little water without vertue or force for generation VVhich being granted it would follow impossible that a woman should euer couet the conuersation of man or consent thereunto but would shun the carnall act as being herselfe so honest and the worke so vncleane and filthy wherethrough in short space mankind would decay and the world rest depriued of the fairest creature that euer nature formed To this purpose Aristotle demandeth what the cause is that fleshly copulation should be an action of the greatest pleasure that nature euer ordained for the solace of liuing things To which probleme he answereth that nature hauing so desirously procured the perpetuitie of mankind did therefore place so great a delight in this worke to the end that they being mooued by such interest might gladly apply themselues to the act of generation and if these incitements were wanting no woman or man would condiscend to the bands of marriage inasmuch as the woman should reape none other benefite than to beare a burden in her belly the space of nine months with so great trauaile and sorrowes and at the time of her child-birth to vndergo the hazard of forgoing her life So would it be necessarie that the common-wealth should through feare enforce women to marrie to the end mankind might not come to nothing But because nature doth her things with pleasing she gaue to a woman all the instruments necessarie for making a seed inciting and apt for issue whereby she might desire a man and take pleasure in his conuersation But if it were of that qualitie which Aristotle expresseth she would rather flie and abhorre him than euer loue him This selfe Galen prooueth alleaging an example of the brute beastes wherethrough he saith that if a Sowe be speyed she neuer desireth the Boare nor will consent that he approch vnto her The like we do euidently see in a woman whose temperature partaketh more of coldnesse than is requisite for if we tell her that she must be married there is no word which soundeth worse in her eare And the like befalleth to a cold man for he wanteth the fruitful seed Moreouer if a womans seed were of that maner which Aristotle mentioneth it could be no proper aliment for to attain the last qualities of actual nutriment a totall seed is necessarie whereby it may be nourished Wherthrough if the same come not to be concocted semblable it cannot performe this point for womans seed wanteth the instruments and places as are the stomacke the liuer and the cods where it may be
combers and therefore molested by that passion to driue the same from them doe marrie wiues Of such Galen saith that they haue the instruments of generation very hot and dry and for this cause breed seed verie pricking apt for procreation A man then who goeth seeking a woman not his owne is replenished with this fruitfull digested and well seasoned seed Whence it followeth of force that he make the generation for where both are equall the mans seed carrieth the greatest efficacie and if the son be shaped of the seed of such a father it ensueth of necessitie that he resemble him The contrarie betideth in lawfull children who for that married men haue their wiues euer couched by their sides neuer take regard to ripen the seed or to make it apt for procreation but rather vpon euery light enticement yeeld the same from them vsing great violence and stirring whereas women abiding quiet during the carnall act their seed vessels yeeld not their seed saue when it is well concoct and seasoned Therfore married women do alwaies make the engendring and their husbands seed serueth for aliment But somtimes it comes to passe that both the seeds are matched in equall perfection and cumbat in such sort as both the one and the other take effect in the forming and so is a child shaped who resembleth neither father nor mother Another time it seemeth that they agree vpon the matter part the likenesse between them the seed of the father maketh the nosthrils and the eies and that of the mother the mouth and the forehead And which carrieth most maruell it hath so fallen out that the sonne hath taken one eare of his father and another of his mother and so the like in his eies But if the fathers seed do altogither preuaile the childe retaineth his nature and his conditions and when the seed of the mother swaieth most the like reason taketh effect Therefore the father who coueteth that his child may be made of his owne seed ought to withdraw himselfe for some daies from his wife and stay till all his seed be concocted and ripened and then it will fall out certain that the forming shall proceed from him and the wifes seed shall serue for nourishment The second doubt by meanes of that we haue said already beareth little difficultie for bastard children are ordinarily made of seed hote and dry and from this temperature as we haue oftentimes prooued heretofore spring courage brauerie and a good imagination whereto this wisdome of the world appertaineth And because the seed is digested and well seasoned nature effecteth what she likes best and pourtraieth those children as with a pensill To the third doubt may be answered that the conceiuing of lewd women is most commonly wrought by the mans seed and because the same is drie and verie apt for issue it fasteneth it selfe in the woman with verie strong rootes but the childe breeding of married women being wrought by their own seed occasioneth that the creature easily vnlooseth because the same was moist and watry or as Hippocrates saith full of mustinesse What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed §. 5. THe matter wherof man is compounded prooueth a thing so alterable and so subiect to corruption that at the instant when he beginneth to be shaped he like wise beginneth to be vntwined and to alter and therin can find no remedy For it was said so soon as we are born we faile to be Wherthrough nature prouided that in mans body there should be 4 natural faculties attractiue retētiue concoctiue expulsiue The which concocting altering the aliments which we eate returne to repaire the substance that was lost ech succeeding in his place By this we vnderstand that it little auaileth to haue engendred a child of delicat seed if we make no reckoning of the meates which afterwards we feed vpon For the creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance wherof it was first composed True it is that the first seed if the same be well concocted and seasoned possesseth such force that digesting altering the meats it maketh them though they be bad and grosse to turne to his good temperature and substance but we may so far forth vse contrary meats as the creature shall loose those good qualities which it receiued from the seed wherof it was made therefore Plato said that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine was his euill bringing vp in diet For which cause he counselled that we should giue vnto children meats and drinks delicat and of good temperature to the end that when they grow big they may know how to abandon the euil to embrace the good The reason hereof is very cleere For if at the bginning the braine was made of delicat seed and that this member goeth euerie day impairing and consuming and must be repaired with the meats which we eat it is certaine if these being grosse and of euill temperature that vsing them many daies togither the braine will become of the same nature Therefore it sufficeth not that the child be borne of good seed but also it behooueth that the meat which he eateth after he is formed and borne bee endowed with the same qualities What these be it carrieth no great difficultie to manifest if you presuppose that the Greekes were the most discreet men of the world and that enquiring after aliments and food to make their children witty and wise they found the best and most appropriat For if the subtile and delicate wit consist in causing that the braine be compounded of partes subtile and of good temperature that meate which aboue all others partaketh these two qualities shalbe the same which it behooueth vs to vse for obteining our end Galen and all the Greeke Phisitions say that Goats milke boiled with honny is the best meat which any man can eat for besides that it hath a moderate substance therein the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie Therefore we said some few leaues past that the parentes whose will earnestly leadeth them to haue a childe wise prompt and of good conditions must eat much Goats milke boiled with honny 7 or 8 daies before the copulationut-Balbeit this aliment is so good as Galen speaketh of yet it falleth out a matter of importance for the wit that the meate consist of moderate substance and of subtile partes For how much the finer the matter becommeth in the nourishment of the braine so much the more is the wit sharpened For which cause the Greekes drew-out of the milke cheese and whey which are the two grosse aliments of his composition and left the butter which in nature resembleth the aire This they gaue in food to their children mingled with honny with intention to make them witty and wise And that this is the trueth is plainly seen by that which Homer recounteth
Besides this meat children did eat cracknels of white bread of very delicat water with honny and a little salt but in steed of vinegar for that the same is very noisome and dammageable to the vnderstanding they shall adde thereunto butter of Goats-milke whose temperature substance is appropriat for the wit But in this regiment grows an inconuenience verie great namely that children vsing so delicat meats shall not possesse sufficient strength to resist the iniuries of the aire neither can defend themselues from other occasions which are woont to breed maladies So by making thē become wise they will fall out to be vnhealthful and liue a small time This difficulty demandeth in what sort children may be brought vp witty and wise and yet the matter so handled as it may no way gainsay their healthfulnes VVhich shall easily be effected if the parentes dare to put in practise some rules and precepts which I wil prescribe And because deinty people are deceiued in bringing vp their childrē and they treat stil of this matter I wil first assigne them the cause why their children though they haue Schoolemaisters and tutors and themselues take such pains at their booke yet they come away so meanly with the sciences as also in what sort they may remedy this without that they abridge their life or hazard their health Eight things saith Hippocrates make mans flesh moist fat The 1 to be merry and to liue at hearts ease the 2 to sleepe much the 3 to lie in a soft bed the 4 to fare well the fifth to be well apparelled and furnished the sixth to ride alwaies on horsebacke the seuenth to haue our will the eighth to be occupied in plaies and pastimes and in things which yeeld contentment and pleasure All which is a veritie so manifest as if Hippocrates had not affirmed it none durst denie the same Only we may doubt whether delicious people doe alwaies obserue this maner of life but if it be true that they do so we may well conclude that their seed is very moist and that the children which they beget will of necessitie ouer-abound in superfluous moisture which it behooueth first to be consumed for this qualitie sendeth to ruine the operations of the reasonable soule And moreouer the Phisitions say that it maketh them to liue a short space and vnhealthfull By this it should seeme that a good wit and a sound bodily health require one selfe qualitie Namely drouth wherethrough the precepts and rules which we are to lay downe for making children wise will serue likewise to yeeld them much health and long life It behooueth them so soone as a childe is borne of delicious parents inasmuch as their constitution consisteth of more cold and moist than is conuenient for childhood to wash him with salt hote water which by the opinion of all phisitions soketh vp and drieth the flesh giueth soundnesse to the sinews and maketh the child strong and manly and by consuming the ouermuch moisture of his braine enableth him with wit and freeth-him from many deadly infirmities Contrariwise the bath being of water fresh and hot in that the same moisteneth the flesh saith Hippocrates it breedeth fiue annoiances Namely effeminating of the flesh weaknesse of sinews dulnesse of spirits fluxes of bloud and basenesse of stomacke But if the child issue out of his mothers belly with excessiue drinesse it is requisit to washe the same with hote fresh water Therfore Hippocrates said children are to be washed a long time with hote water to the end they may receiue the lesse annoiance by the crampe and that they may grow and be well coloured but for certaine this must be vnderstood of those who come forth drie out of their mothers belly in whom it behooueth to amend their euill temperature by applying vnto them contrarie qualities The Almains saith Galen haue a custome to wash their children in a riuer so soon as they are born them seeming that as the iron which commeth burning hot out of the forge is made the stronger if it be dipped in cold water so when the hot child is taken out of the mothers wombe it yeeldeth him of greater force and vigour if he be washed in fresh water This thing is condemned by Galen for a beastly practise and that with great reason for put case that by this way the skinne is hardened and closed and not easie to be altered by the iniuries of the aire yet will it rest offended by the excrements which are engendred in the body for that the same is not of force nor open so as they may be exhaled and passe forth But the best and safest remedie is to wash the children who haue superfluous moisture with hot salt water for their excessiue moisture consuming they are the neerer to health and the way through the skinne being stopped in them they cannot receiue annoiance by any occasion Neither are the inward excrements therefore so shut vp that there are not waies left open for them where they may come out And nature is so forcible that if they haue taken from her a common way she will seeke out another to serue her turne And when all others faile she can skill to make new waies wherethrough to send out what doth her dammage VVherefore of two extreames it is more auaileable for health to haue a skinne hard and somewhat close than thinne and open The second thing requisit to be performed when the child shalbe born is that we make him acquainted with the winds and with change of aire not keep him still locked vp in a chamber for else it will become weake womanish peeuish of feeble strength and within three or foure daies giue vp the ghost Nothing saith Hippocrates so much weakeneth the flesh as to abide still in warme places and to keepe our selues from heate and cold Neither is there a better remedie for healthfull liuing than to accustome our body to al winds hot cold moist and dry Wherethrough Aristotle enquireth what the cause is that such as liue in the Gallies are more healthy better colored than those who inhabit a plashy soil And this difficulty groweth greater considering the hard life which they lead sleeping in their clothes in the open aire against the sun in the cold the water faring withall so coursly The like may be demanded as touching shepheards who of all other men enioy the soundest health it springeth because they haue made a league with al the seueral qualities of the aire and their nature dismaieth at nothing Cōtrariwise we plainly see that if a man giue himselfe to liue deliciously and to beware that the sun the cold the euening nor the wind offend him within 3 daies he shalbe dispatched with a post letter to another world Therfore it may well be said he that loueth his life in this world shal leese it for there is no man that can preserue himself from the alteration of the aire therfore it is
Offices Booke of Destinie * Dialoge of knowledge By the only vnderstanding of Socrates may this comparison be verefied for he taught by demaunds and handled the matter so that the scholler himselfe attained to knowledge without his telling him the same Mans Wisedome is not RemeÌ„brance wherefore we haue here aboue spoken against Plato for that he held this opinion In the second age called youth a man makes an vnion of all the differences of wit in such as they may be vnited for that this age is more temperat than all the rest wherfore it is vnfitting to let it passe without learning of knowledge whereby a man may liue The principall of all these is Nature for if she be in them who applie their mind to Art they may pierce thorow all the other things aboue specified So Baldus betooke himselfe to the studie of the Lawes when he was wel-aged wherethrough some sayd vnto him in a scoffe Thou commest too late O Baldus and wilt prooue a good aduocate in the other world but because he had a capacitie conformable for the lawes he proued learned in a short season Nature giues habilitie Art facilitie Vse sufficiencie Aboue all things Nature is necessarie for if she gainsay al other drifts are attempted in vaine In all Knowledges we must vnderstand how far their iurisdiction exteÌ„deth and what questions apperteine vnto them The Lord working therewithall and confirming with his word followed by signs Iob. 33. The ignorance of naturall Philosophie is cause that miracles are imputed where they ought not Hippocrates vsed vnproper terms when he sayd the soule of man is produced vntil his death In euery citie the wisest and eldest persons should looke into and iudge of the naturall quicknesse of children and so giue notice that ech one might learne an art agreeable to his nature And therefore the heart and the things seated therabouts haue great feeling but for all that are not partakers of knowledge but of all these things the braine is causer There are two sorts of fat men the one full of flesh bones and blood the other replenished with fat and these are very wittie Go to the Ant O sluggard and consider his way and learne wisedome who hauing no guide nor maister prouides himselfe the summer of food and in the time of haruest furnisheth himselfe of meat A Faulconer affirmed to me with an oath that he had a redye Faulcon for hawking which grew bussardly for remedy wherof he gaue hir a botton di fuoto in the head and she amended Plato tooke out of the holie Scripture the best sentences which are to be found in his workes in respect whereof he was called Diuine Plato attributes three soules vnto man Hippocrates answered better saying That nature is learned though she haue not learned to do well The seed and menstruall blood which are two materiall principles of which we be formed are hote moist through which temperature children are so vnskilled When the braine is placed hot in the first degree it makes a man eloquent furnisheth him with store of matter to deliuer for which cause the silent are alwaies cold of braine great talkers hot This frenzie was occasioned by abundaÌ„ce of cholar which tooke hold in the substance of the brain which humor hath great congruence with Poetrie for which cause Horace sayd That if summer did not make euacuation of choler no Poet should passe before him This page was not yet perfectly cured He speakes to one asleepe who teacheth wisedome to a foole The Sibils admitted by the catholike church had this naturall disposition that Aristotle speakes of and besides a propheticall spirit which God powred into theÌ„ for naturall wit sufficed not for so high a point werethe same neuer so perfect When the diseased diuine thus it is a token that the reasonable soule is now awearie of the bodie and so none such recouer Those who haue bene crazed and are called melaÌ„cholike haue their mind endewed with a certain spice of prophesying and diuining Aristotle in his third booke of the soule Horace to say that Vlisses became not a fool figured him that he was not turned into a hog The hart of wise men is where there is sadnesse and the hart of fooles where there is mirth Wherethrough Cicero defining the nature of wit placeth memorie in his definition Docilitie Memorie which as it were by one name are tearmed wit Any distemperature whatsoeuer cannot any long time endure alone Of these differences of wits Aristotle said in this manner He verely is best who vnderstandeth euery thing by himselfe and he also is good who obeith him that sayth well The inuention of arts and the making of bookes saith Galen is performed with the vnderstaÌ„ding and with the memorie or with the imaginatiue but he thatwrites for that he hath many things in his mind cannot ad any new inuention This difference of wits is very dangerous for Diuinitie where the vnderstaÌ„ding ought to abide bound to that which the Catholike church doth resolue This difference of wits senteth very well for Diuinitie where it behooueth to ensue the diuine authoritie declared by the holy Councels and sacred Doctors The smooth white and grosse persons haue no melancholicke humour Amongst brute beasts there is none which approcheth neerer to mans wisdome than the OliphaÌ„t and there is none of a flesh so rough and hard Note that men of great vnderstanding take no care for attiring their bodie but are ordinarily ill apparelled slouenly and hereof we yeeld the reason in the 8. cha and 14. Galen dying went to hell and saw by experieÌ„ce that materiall fire burned the soules and could not consume theÌ„ this Physition had knowledge of that Euangelicall doctrine and could not receiue it But the serpent was the wiliest beast of the earth amongst all those whome God hath made Traquitantos signifieth Bring hither tokens or counters Cicero saith that the honour of man is to haue wit and of wit to be applied to eloquence This is recounted by Plato in his dialogue of knowledge and in his banquet Cicero praising the eloquence of Plato sayd That if Iupiter should haue spoken Greeke he would haue spoken as Plato did Paule Lib. 3. de Anima ca. 3. Take heed you receiue no hurt for leauing out the Pope Solertia S. John Baptist was an angell in his office No doubt your owne king A weake reason rather God chose Saule as a carnal man sit for the Iewes obstinat asking and Dauid as a spirituall man the instrument of his mercie And I hold it vntrue because the phrase vtterly differeth from the Latine toung as spectosus valde inter filios bominum Vnwritten Vâ—rities And such a one if you mistake not is your king Philip. Your king and your selfe An high speculation Note here a sign which sheweth the immortalitie of the soule This is no chapter for maids to read in sight of others You are much mistaken