not before them These two differences of Wit are very ordinary amongst Men of Letters some there are who are elevated and above the common Level judging and treating of things in a very particular manner and are free to give their Opinion without following any Man There are others who are Reserved Humble Peaceable and Distrustful of themselves sticking close to the Opinion of some Grave Authors whom they follow whose Words and Opinions pass with them for certain Demonstrations esteeming whatever agrees not with them to be a Paradox and a Lye These two Differences of Wit are of great advantage when united for the same reason that in a great Flock of Sheep the Shepherds are used to prick a dozen Goats to egg them on in the search of fresh and new Pastures Even so it is no less requisite in Humane Learning there should be some of these Capricious Wits to discover to slow and Sheep-like Understandings new Secrets of Nature and raise them to unheard-of Speculations to Exercise themselves in for after this manner the Arts would improve and Men become more knowing every day CHAP. IX Some Doubts and Arguments against the Doctrin of the last Chapter with their Answers ONE of the Reasons why the Wisdom of Socrates has been so Celebrated even to this day was That after he had been pronounced by the Oracle of Apollo the Wisest Man in the World he spoke thus This only I know that I know nothing All who heard or read this Saying were of Opinion that it was his because Socrates was an humble Man who despised the things of this World and in respect of Divine things counted them nothing But they were deceived in effect for not one of the Antient Philosophers was endued with that Virtue of Humility nor so much as knew what it was till the Coming of our Lord who taught it us All that Socrates intended thereby was the little certainty there is in Human Sciences and how far the Knowledge of Philosophy is in whatever it pretends from any Satisfaction or Assurance since it is found by Experience that all is full of Doubts and Disputes and that they cannot give their Sentiment in any one thing whatever without fear of being Contradicted to which purpose is that Saying The Thoughts of Men are full of fear and all their foresight uncertain But he that has the true Knowledge of things may be settled and at ease without Fear or Doubt of being deceived and the Philosopher that is not so may truly and without the least dissimulation assert that he knows nothing Galen made the same Reflection when he said Science is a sort of Knowledge congruous settled and never wide of Reason Not to be found among the Philosophers especially when they search into the Nature of things and yet much less in the Art of Physic and to say all in a word it is unknown to Men. According to this the true Knowledge of things is placed out of our reach Man only having a kind of Opinion which holds him wavering and in suspence whether what he affirms be true or no. But what Galen observ'd more particularly in this was that Philosophy and Physic are of all Sciences in use among Men the most uncertain And if this be true what shall we say to the Philosophy here handled in which the Understanding makes an Anatomy of things so obscure as are the Powers and Faculties of the Rational Soul In which Matter so many Doubts and Difficulties offer themselves that there is nothing upon which one may safely rely or depend One of which is that we have given to the Understanding for an Instrument wherewith to Act the Brain with Driness having said thereupon that the reason why Men have Brains organiz'd much after the same manner as Brute Beasts was because the Understanding by which Man much excels other Animals was a Faculty which wanted not Corporeal Organs and so Nature wisely provided no particular Instrument for it in the Brain of Man Which Aristotle proved clearly when he said That it belong'd to this Faculty to know and understand Besides the Reasons on which Aristotle insisted to prove that the Understanding was not an Organic Faculty are of such force that it cannot well be otherwise concluded because to this Faculty belongs to know and understand the Nature and Being of all the material things in the World insomuch as if it were united with any Corporeal thing that very thing would hinder the Knowledge of all others as we see in the exterior Senses that if the Taste be bitter whatever the Tongue touches has the same savour and if the Cristalin-Humour be green or yellow the Eye judges whatever it sees to be of the same Colour and the Cause of it is that Inward Tinctures bar the entrance of Objects from without Aristotle said also that if the Understanding were united to any Corporeal Instrument it would be susceptible of a material Quality because that which is united to it be it hot or cold must necessarily have Communication with heat or cold But to say the Understanding is hot cold moist or dry is a Proposition abominable to the Ears of any Natural Philosopher The other principal Difficulty is That Aristotle and all the Peripatitics have established two other Powers besides the Understanding Imagination and Memory which are the Remembrance and the Common Sense in pursuance of this Rule The Faculties are discerned by their Acts. They find besides the Operations of the Understanding Imagination and Memory there are two others very different the Wit of Man then arises from Five Faculties and not from three alone as we have already proved We have also said in the foregoing Chapter following Galen's Opinion that the Memory does nought else in the Brain but barely preserve the Figures and Species of things even as a Coffer keeps Clothes and whatever else is laid up in it And if by this Comparison we may come to understand the Office of this Faculty there will be still need to find a Rational Faculty to draw and fetch out the Figures from the Memory and represent them to the Understanding even as it is no less than necessary for some hand to open the Coffer to take out thence what was laid up therein Moreover we have said that the Understanding and Memory were two contrary Powers and that one destroyed the other because one required much Driness and the other much Moisture and Softness of Brain But if that be true how came Plato and Aristotle to affirm That Men of a soft Flesh had a great deal of Understanding since softness is an effect of moisture We have also granted That to have a good Memory the Brain must be soft inasmuch as the Figures must be stamped thereon to make an Impression and if it were hard they could not be so well imprinted True it is that to receive the Figures easily it is necessary the Brain should be soft but to preserve
that shall be a very able Practitioner undoubtedly will be but a mean Theorist for a great Imagination cannot be united with a good Understanding and Memory And this is the reason why none are so consummate in Physic as never to fail in their Cures for not to fail in their Performances there is need to know the whole Art and to have a good Imagination to reduce the same to Practice but these two things as we have proved are Incompatible The Physician never attempts the Cause and Cure of any Disease but that he secretly frames to himself a Syllogism in Darii unless he be but an Emperic And the Proof of the first Position of his Premises belongs to the Understanding and the second to the Imagination For which reason the approved Theorists ordinarily Err in the Minor and the expert Practitioners in the Major as if we should speak in this manner All Fevers that depend on cold and moist Humours are to be Cured with Medicines hot and dry in taking the Indications from the Cause But the Fever which affects this Man depends on cold and moist Humours therefore it must be Cured with Medicines hot and dry The Truth of the Major is proved by the Understanding because it is an Universal Proposition affirming that Cold and Moisture require Heat and Driness to moderate them for that every Quality is abated by its Contrary But when we come to the Proof of the Minor the Understanding avails not because it is Particular and so is out of its Jurisdiction and its Cognizance pertains to the Imagination which draws from the Five Exterior Senses the proper and particular Symptoms of the Disease But if the Indication be to be taken from the Fever or its Cause it is that which the Understanding cannot reach only it teaches to take the Indication from that we apprehend most danger But which of the Indications is greatest the Imagination only can comprehend in weighing the Evils the Fever does with those that proceed from the Symptoms or Cause the little forces or great strength To learn this Notice the Imagination has certain ineffable Proprieties by means of which it reaches some things which it can neither tell nor comprehend and for which no Arts are of use Insomuch that we see a Physician coming to Visit the Sick who by the Sight Hearing Smell and Touch arrives at the Knowledge of what seemed Impossible so that should we ask him by himself how he was able to arrive at such nice Notions he could not tell because it is a Gift that proceeds from a Fruitfulness of Imagination which may be otherwise called Sagacity and which by some common Signs incertain Conjectures and where there is but slender footing in the twinkling of an Eye learns a Thousand different things wherein the Virtue of Curing and Prognosticating with assurance consists Of this sort of Sagacity the Men of great Understanding are unprovided because it makes a Part of the Imagination Insomuch that having before their Eyes the same Signs that discover to others the Secret of the Disease yet they make no Impression upon their Senses because these very Men are unprovided of Imagination A Physician took me aside to ask me whence it was that having studied with very great Curiosity all the Rules and Observations of the Semejotics of the Art of Physic and being very well versed in them yet he could never hit the Truth so much as from any one Prognostic To which I remember I answered That the Art of Physic was learn'd by one Power and put in Practice by another He had an Excellent Understanding but a very bad Imagination But a great Doubt arises in this Doctrin which is to know how the Physicians furnished with a great Imagination learn the Art of Physic since they are defective in Understanding For if it be true that these cure the Sick better than the most Learned Physicians to what end do these lose time to Study in the Schools To this the Answer is That it is a matter of great Importance first to know the Art of Physic for in two or three Years a Man may learn all that the Ancients were gathering in Two thousand And if a Man should acquire it by Experience he ought to live at least Three thousand Years and in Experimenting Medicines he would kill an infinite number of People before he understood all their Virtues from which he is freed by Reading the Books of Rational and Experimental Physicians who advise us in their Writings of what they have found out in the whole Course of their Lives to the end that the Doctors that come after them may boldly make use of those that are safe and forbear those that are Poisonous Besides which we are to know that the Common and Vulgar things in all Arts are obvious and easy to learn and yet the most Important in the Work and that on the contrary the most Curious and Subtile are the most obscure and least necessary in Curing And so it is that the Men of great Imagination are not wholly destitute of Understanding and Memory so that in the remiss degree in which they possess these two Powers they may be able to learn the most necessary Points of Physic for that they are plainest and with the good Imagination they have they may better know the Disease and its Cause than the most Rational in the Science since it is the Imagination that finds occasion of the Remedy they ought to apply in this Grace consists almost the whole Practice Therefore Galen said That the true Name of a Physician was to be the Inventor of the Occasion but to learn to know Time Place and Occasion without doubt are Works of the Imagination because that carries with it Figure and Correspondence The Difficulty is now to know to which of so many differences of Imagination the Practice of Physic belongs for it is cettain that all these Differences agree not in the same particular Reason which Speculation has more employed my Thoughts than all the rest And nevertheless I have not been able yet to give it the Name it ought to have unless it springs from a degree of less Heat than that difference of Imagination with which Verses and Songs are made But this I determine not positively because all the Reason upon which I build is that all those that I have known to have practised Physic well are little Dablers in Poetry But neither are their Thoughts very elevate nor their Verse very excellent Which may also come to pass because the Heat in a point exceeds that required by Poetry and if it be so it must be because the Heat is so great that it somewhat dries the Substance of the Brain without resolving much of the Natural Heat though if it proceed further it makes no ill Difference of Wit for Physic inasmuch as by Adustion it unites the Understanding with the Imagination But this sort of Imagination is not so good
from Woman as Galen says but only in having the Genitals outward For if a Woman be dissected we shall find that she has within her two Testicles two Spermatic Vessels and one Matrix together with the figure of the Masculine Member without missing the least Representation Which is so true that if Nature making a perfect Man had a mind to turn him into a Woman she has no more to do than to turn the Parts of Generation inward And if after she has made a Woman she had a mind to convert her into Man she need no more than turn out her Genitals This has chanced many times in Nature as well to the Foetus in the Womb as to the Child after the Birth Of which Histories are full though some have held them only for Fables as coming from the Hands of Poets yet the thing carries much of Truth For divers times has Nature made a Female that has continued such in the Mothers Womb a Month or two afterwards and abundance of Heat upon Occasion falling on the Genitals they have struck out and she steps forth a Male. To whom this change of Sex has happened in the Mothers Womb is afterwards made known by certain Motions unbecoming a Man being altogether Womanish and Effeminate their Voice Shrill and Squeaking Such persons are addicted to Woman's works and fall ordinarily into awkard Offences On the contrary Nature has often made a Boy with his Genitals outwards and some Cold supervening she has inverted them and the Boy has turned into a Girl This appears after she is Born in that she has a Masculine Air as well in her Speech as in all her Motions and Gestures This seems difficult to prove but easy to believe if we reflect on what we are assured by many Authentic Histories And that Women have been turned into Men after they were Born the Vulgar are not surprised to hear of for besides what many Antient Authors have delivered for truth 't is a thing that happened in Spain but few Years since and what Experience teaches admits no Dispute or Argument What the Cause or Reason may be that the Genitals are engendred within or without and they come forth Male or Female is a plain Case if we recollect that Heat dilates and extends all things and Cold contracts and closes them And therefore it is the Conclusion of all the Philosophers and Physitians that if the Seed be Cold and Moist a Girle is produced and not a Boy and if it be Hot and Dry a Boy is produced and not a Girle Whence may be clearly inferr'd that there is no Man can be call'd cold in respect of a Woman nor any Woman hot in respect of a Man Aristotle said that the Woman should be cold and moist to be fruitful and if she were not so it were impossible she should have her Terms or Milk to preserve the Foetus nine whole Months in her Womb and two Years after the Birth but the same would be dissipated and wasted All the Philosophers and Physitians assert that the Womb bears the same Proportion to humane Seed as the Earth does to Wheat or any other Grain But we see if the Earth be not cold and moist the Husbandman dares not Sow it and though he should it comes to nothing Also among Lands those are most fertile and fructify most that have most Cold and Moisture as appears by experience considering the Northern Regions England Flanders and Germany where the abundance of all Fruits surprises those that know not the reason of it and in such Countries a Married Woman rarely fails of Children neither do they know what 't is to be Barren all the Women there are fruitful and prolific because of the great Cold and Moisture But though it be true that a Woman should be cold and moist for Conception nevertheless that may be in such an Excess that the Seed may be choaked as we see the Grain is opprest with too-much Rain and cannot thrive when it is over-cold Which shews us that these two qualities require a certain Mediocrity which if they exceed or come short of Fertility is in danger to be lost Hippocrates held that Woman fruitful whose Matrix was temperate in such sort as the Heat exceeded not the Cold nor the Moisture the Dryness therefore he said that Women who have a cold Womb could not conceive no more than those that have a very moist or a very hot and dry one so for the same reason that a Woman and her parts of Generation should be Temperate it were impossible for her to conceive or be a Woman For if the Seed of which she first was formed had been Temperate the Genitals had issued forth and she had been a Man So would a Beard grow on her Chin and her Courses have stopt and she become as perfect a Male as Nature could produce Likewise the Womb in a Woman should not have a predominant Heat for if the Seed whereof she was formed had had this Temperament she had been born a Man and not a Woman 'T is a thing then absolutely certain that the two Qualities which render a Woman fruitful are Cold and Moisture inasmuch as the Nature of a Man requires much Nourishment for his Production and Conservation Accordingly we see that of all the Females of Brute-Animals none have their Courses as Women Therefore it was no less than necessary to make her altogether cold and moist and to such a degree that she might breed abundance of Flegmatic Blood and be able neither to dissipate nor consume it I said Flegmatic Blood because the same is proper to breed Milk With which as Hippocrates and Galen are of Opinion the Foetús is nourished all the time it is in the Womb but if the same should be Temperate it would make much Blood which would be very unfit to breed Milk and which would wholly resolve as it does in a Temperate Man and so nothing be left to nourish the Foetus Therefore I hold for certain that it is impossible any Woman be either Temperate or Hot they are all both cold and moist If this be not so let Physitians and Philosophers tell me why all Women are Beardless and yet have their Terms if in Health Or for what cause if the Seed of which she is form'd was Temperate or Hot she was born a Female and not a Male But though it be true that all Women are cold and moist yet they are not so in the same Degree some are in the First others in the Second and the rest in the Third And in each degree they may conceive if the Man answer them in the proportion of Heat which we shall hereafter explain By what Marks these three Degrees of Cold and Moisture in Women may be known and how we may discern which is in the First which in the Second and which in the Third no Philosophy or Physic has yet declar'd But considering the
Flesh shew also the Degrees of these two Qualities Great Moisture makes the Flesh soft and smooth and little renders it harsh and hard and the Mean gives the true Temper The Colour of the Face and of the other parts of the Body betoken also more or less the degrees of these two Qualities When a Woman is very White Galen says it is a Sign of much Cold and Moisture and on the contrary she that is Tawny and Swarthy is cold and moist in the first Degree of which two Extreams arises the second Degree and is known by an Union of White and Red. To have much Hair and little of a Beard is an evident Sign to discover the first DeDegree of Cold and Moisture for to know whence the Hair and Beard proceed all the Physitians affirm them to come from Heat and Dryness and if they are Black that denotes abundance of Heat and Dryness The contrary Temperament is betokened when a Woman is very smooth without Down or Hair She that is cold and moist in the se cond Degree has some Hair but the same is Red or Flaxen Fairness and Foulness serve also to distinguish the Degrees of Cold and Moist in a Woman In the first Degree it is a Marvel if a Woman prove fair for the Seed whereof she was form'd being Dry hindred her from being fair The Clay must be moist for the Potter to frame well Vessels for use for if it be Hard and Dry the Vessels will be foul and ill figured Aristotle affirms further that overmuch Cold and Moist makes Women by Nature foul for if the Seed be Cold and very Waterish it takes no good Figure because it wants consistence as we see of Clay over-soft ugly and ill-shaped Vessels are fashioned In the second Degree of Cold and Moist the Woman is very fair because the matter is well-seasoned and pliant to Nature which Sign alone is a clear proof of a Woman's Fruitfulness it being a certainty that Nature has hit well and done her Part. It is then to be received that she has given her the Temperament and necessary Composition to have Children so that she 'l be fit for any Man and desireable to all There is no Faculty in Man that carries not some signs or tokens to discover the Goodness or Malignity of its Object The Stomach is led to discern the quality of the Food by the Tast the Smell and the Sight Whereupon the Holy Text said that Eve saw that the forbidden Fruit was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eye The generative Faculty holds for a Sign of fruitfulness a Womans Beauty and if she be ugly abhors her conceiving by this Sign that Nature made a false step and gave her not a fit Temperament for bearing Children Article I. By what Marks the Degrees of Heat and Dryness are to be discovered in each Man MAN hath not his Temperament so limited as Woman For he may be hot and dry which Temperament Aristotle and Galen are of Opinion is that which best agrees with his Sex as also hot and moist and temperate but cold and moist and cold and dry will not be admitted so long as the Man is in Health and not some way amiss so that for the same reason as there is no Woman hot and dry nor hot and moist nor temperate even so there is no Man cold and moist nor cold and dry in comparison of Women unless in a Case as I shall presently shew A Man hot and dry or hot and moist or temperate has as many Degrees in his Temperament as a Woman has of Cold and Moist insomuch that we have need of Tokens to discern what Man is in what Degree to assign him a Wife answerable to him in Proportion You are to know then that from the Principles from which we have collected the Woman's Temperament and her Degrees of Cold and Moist the same we shall make use of to know which Man is Hot and Dry and in what Degree And because we said that from the Wit and Manners of a Man the Temperament of the Testicles may be conjectured we must take notice of an observable Point mentioned by Galen namely to make us understand the great Virtue in the Testicles of Man to give Solidity and Temperament to all the Parts of the Body he affirms that they are of more Importance than the Heart for which he renders this Reason that the Heart is the Principle of Life and no more but the Genitals are the Principles of living well and without Infirmities What damage it is to Man to be deprived of those Parts though small there need not many Reasons to prove seeing we see by Experience that forthwith the Hair and the Beard fall off that his gross and strong Voice grows shril and with these he loses his Vigor and Natural Heat and remains in a far worse and more miserable Condition than if he had been a Woman But what is most observable is that if a Man before castrating had much Wit and Ability from the time he loses his Testicles he loses it all even as if he had received in the Brain some considerable Hurt Which evidently shews that the Genitals both give and take away Temperament from all parts of the Body If it be otherwise let us consider as I have often done that of a thousand Eunuchs that apply themselves to Learning not one succeeds in it and even in Music which is their ordinary Profession we see plainly how blockish they are and the reason of it is that Music is a work of the Imagination which power requires much Heat whereas they are cold and moist It is certain then that from the Wit and Ability we may conjecture the Temperament of the Testicles For which cause the Man that appears towardly in the works of the Imagination will be hot and dry in the third Degree And if a Man be not very Deep it is a Sign that Heat is joyned with much Moisture which ever destroys the Rational part and this is the more confirmed if the Man have a great Memory The ordinary Conditions of Men Hot and Dry in the third Degree are Courage Pride Liberality Audacity Chearfulness and Pleasantness and in what relates to Women they observe no rule or moderation The Men who are hot and moist are Pleasant Merry fond of Diversions fair Conditioned Affable Modest and not much given to Women The Voice and Speech discovers much the Temperament of the Testicles That which is strong and somewhat harsh shews the Man hot and dry in the third Degree but that which is soft amorous and very delicate is a Sign of little Heat and much Moisture as appears in Eunuchs The Man in whom Heat is joyned with Moisture will have a strong Voice yet tunable and loud He that is hot and dry in the third Degree has little Flesh and the same is hard and rough full of Sinews and Arteries and
by our Lord because they affected the uppermost Seats at Table and the Chief Places in the Synagogues The principal Reason whereon they rely who bestow Degrees after this manner is that when Scholars are sensible that each of them shall be Rewarded according to the Trial they shall give of themselves they will scarce spare time from their Study to Sleep or Eat Which would cease were there no Recompence for him that takes Pains or Chastisement for him that mis-spends his time in Laziness and Loytering But this is a slender reason and a Colour for it presupposes a very great Falshood which is that Science is attained by poring much on Books by being taught by the best Masters and never missing a Lesson But they observe not that if the Scholar has not Wit and a Genius requisite to the Science he applies to it is in vain he beats his Brains Day and Night amongst his Books And the mistake is such that if these two differences of Wit so opposite to each other are in Competition one man because he is very quick without Study or seeing a Book gains Learning in a moment and the other being dull and heavy labours all his Life long without attaining the least Knowledge And the Judges as Men proceed to give the first place to him whom Nature has qualified and who took no pains and the lowest degree to him that was Born without Wit and who studied hard As if one had become Learned by turning over Books and the other continued Ignorant thro' his own Carelesness And it fares as if a Prize were propos'd to two Runners of whom one had sound and nimble Heels and the other limped with one Leg. If the Universities admitted to the Study of the Sciences none but such as have proper Genius's for them and if all the Students were equal it would be very well done to Establish Rewards and Punishments for in this case there would be no doubt at all but he who was most Learned had taken most Pains and he that was least had complied with his Ease To the second Doubt we answer that as the Eyes stand in need of clearness to see Figures and Colours even so the Imagination has need of Light in the Brain to see the Ideas in the Memory It is a Light which neither the Sun nor Tapers give but only the Vital Spirits breed in the Heart and disperse throughout the Body Besides this you must know that Fear contracts the Spirits about the Heart and so leaves the Brain dark and all the other Parts of the Body chill'd And therefore Aristotle asks Why those that are afraid Stammer in their Speech and Tremble with their Hands and Lips To which he Answers that in Fear the Natural Heat flies to the Heart leaving all other Parts of the Body chill'd But we have already prov'd that Cold according to Galen's Opinion benums all the Faculties and Powers of the Soul and hinders them from the free Exercise of their Functions This being so it is easie to answer the second Doubt and it is that those who play at Chess are in fear of losing because it is a Game in which there is a Point of Honour and in which as we have said Fortune has no Part. The Vital Spirits then flying to the Heart the Imagination is nummed with the Cold and the Images are obscured and for these two Reasons the Gamester plays but very Awkwardly But the Lookers-on as they run no Risque are in no fear of losing thro' want of Skill and therefore see many Draughts that escape the Gamesters because their Imagination retains its Heat and the Figures illuminated by the Light of the Vital Spirits True it is that too much Light blinds the Imagination which happens when he that Plays is ashamed and out of Countenance to see his Adversary beat him Then through very Indignation Natural Heat increases and illuminates more than it should of which the Standers-by are free as being unconcerned From this springs an Effect very common in the World which is that when a Man would muster up all his Forces and make his Knowledge and Ability more Conspicuous then it is that he quits himself worst of all There are others on the contrary who being put to it make a great show and with this great Flourish know Nothing Of all which the Reason is very plain for he that has abundance of Natural Heat in his Head if he be set for a Task an Exercise for instance the Disputation he is to get in twenty four hours time as is done in Spain to all those who Dispute for a Vacant Place a part of the Excess of Natural Heat retires to his Heart so that the Brain remains Temperate In this Disposition as we shall prove in the following Chapter many things offer themselves to a Man to say But he that is very knowing and of a good Understanding when he is hard put to it through Fear retains not the Natural Heat in his Head so that for want of Light he has nothing in his Memory left to say If this were duly considered by them that Censure the Actions of Generals of Armies blaming their Steps and the Orders they give in their Camp they would see what difference there is between looking on a Fight out of a Window and breaking a Launce before it and the Apprehension of the Loss of an Army upon the Spot No less inconvenience Fear in the Physitians produces in Curing for his Practice as we have proved elsewhere belongs to the Imagination which is prejudiced by Cold more than any other Power in as much as it's Operation consists altogether in Heat And so we see by experience that the Physitians Cure the Common People better than Princes and great Lords A Lawyer ask't me one day knowing well that I treated of Invention why in the Cause he was well feed Law Cases and Points of Law come readily into his Thoughts but where the Cause was starved it seemed that all his Law was lost To which I Answered that matters of Interest belonged to the irascible Faculty which resides in the Heart and which if it be not satisfied does not so chearfully furnish Vital Spirits by whose Light the Figures that are in the Memory may appear but when the same is contented it liberally affords that Natural Heat by which the Rational Soul has sufficient clearness to read all that is Written in the Head This defect attends Men of great Understanding who are interessed and selfish and in such may be discerned that Property of the Lawyer But when all is well-weighed it seems no less than an Act of Justice that he be well Rewarded who labours in another Man's Vineyard The same reason holds for Physitians who being well gratified want no Store of Medicines otherwise their Art is starved as well as that of the Lawyer But here a matter of great Importance is to be noted namely that the good
lay down the Conditions to be observed that a Boy without failing may begot I say then that Fathers in order to attain this End must carefully observe six Things The first is to eat Meats hot and dry The second to procure good Digestion in the Stomach The third to use much Exercise The fourth not to apply to the Act of Venery till the Seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to Company with the Wife four or five Days before her Menses The sixth to procure that the Seed may fall on the right side of the Womb. Which Points being observed as we have directed 't is impossible to get a Girl For the First Condition you are to know that tho' a good Stomach digests and alters the Meat divesting it of the Qualities it had before yet it does not entirely destroy them For if we eat Lettuce whose Nature is cold and moist the Blood it produces will be cold and moist and the Serum cold and moist and the Seed also cold and moist and if we eat Honey which is hot and dry the Blood it breeds will be hot and dry the Serum hot and dry and the Blood likewise hot and dry because 't is impossible as Galen says that the Humours should not partake of the Substance and Qualities which the Food had before it was eaten If it be true then that the producing of Males depends on the Seed's being hot and dry in the time of the Formation it is certain that Fathers ought to eat Meats hot and dry to get a Boy However it must be confess'd that there is a very dangerous thing in this Procedure and it is from the Seed's being very Hot and Dry as we have often already said of Course there will proceed a malicious crafty deceitful Man and inclined to all kind of Vices and Ills. And such Men as these if they are not curbed are very dangerous to the State therefore it were better that they should not be Born But for all this there will not be wanting some that will say with the Proverb Nasca me hijo varon y sea Ladron Let me have a Boy and let him be a Thief because Eccles c. 20. The Iniquity of a Man is more allowable than the well-doing of a Woman Tho' this may be easily remedied by the use of temperate Meats and which partake a little of Hot and Dry or by the Preparation as adding Spice thereto Such Meats says Galen are Pullets Partridge Turtles Woodcocks Pidgeons Threshes Blackbirds and Kid which in the Opinion of Hippocrates should be eat rosted to heat and dry up the Seed The Bread they eat should be White of the finest Flower kneeded with Salt and Aniseeds because the Brown is cold and moist as we shall prove hereafter and very prejudicial to Wit Let their Drink be Whitewine mixt with Water in such quantity as the Stomach can bear and the Water that is mixt should be fresh and pure The second Care we have proposed to be observed is to eat these Meats in a moderate quantity that the Stomach may digest them for tho' by Nature they are hot and dry yet they become cold and moist whenever the natural Heat cannot digest them therefore tho' Fathers do eat Honey and drink White-wine they 'l make their Seed cold by these Meats and so get Girls and not Boys 'T is for this Reason the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry undergo this misfortune and discontent to have more Girls than poor People because they Eat and Drink more than their Stomach can bear or digest and tho' their Meats be hot and dry Sauced with Sugar Spice and Honey through being eaten on too great a quantity they become crude and not to be digested But the Crudity more prejudicial to Generation is that of Wine because this Liquor being so vaporous and fumous causes the other Aliments with it self to pass wholly undigested to the Spermatic Vessels and so the Seed falsely provokes a Man e're yet it be digested and seasoned Which made Plato commend so highly a Law he observed in the Commonwealth of Carthage by which it was provided that the New-Married-Couple should drink no Wine on the Day they designed to lie together importing that this Liquor much incommoded the Child's Health and that it was Cause sufficient to make it Vitious and of ill Inclinatitions but if the same be moderately taken there is no Sustenance affords so good Seed to the end we propos'd as White-wine especially to give Wit and Ability which is that to which we most pretend The third Caution we prescribed was to use more than moderate Exercise for this wasts and consumes the superfluous Moisture of the Seed and heats and dries the same by which a Man is rendered prolific and more able for Generation and on the contrary to give our selves to Ease and not to Exercise of the Body is one of the ways most to cool and moisten the Seed Therefore the Rich and Riotous abound in Girls more than the Poor that work hard To this purpose Hippocrates recounts that the Principal among the Scythians were very soft and effeminate and addicted to Women's Works to Sweep to Scower and to Bake and by this means were impotent in Generation and if they ever begot a Male Child it proved an Eunuch or Hermaphrodite at which being ashamed and disgusted they resolved to offer Sacrifices and Gifts to their God with Prayers not to treat them so or to afford them a Remedy for this Defect since it lay in his Power Hippocrates jeered them saying that no Effect befalls us but what is Wonderful and Divine if it be rightly considered for resolving them all into their Natural Causes the last terminates in God by whose Power all worldly Agents operate but that there are some Effects that refer immediately to God as those out of the Order of Nature and others that mediately refer to him running through all the intermediate Causes leading to the End The Country inhabited by the Scythians is as Hipporcates said Northerly extraordinarily Cold and Moist where through the abundance of Clouds the Sun is rarely seen Rich Men sit there always on Horse-back never exercising eating and drinking more than their Natural Heat is able to digest all which occasions the Seed to be cold and moist For which cause they get abundance of Girls and if they happen to have a Boy 't is such a one as we have described Know said Hippocrates to them that the Remedy for this is not to offer Sacrifices to God and no more but to walk on Foot Eat little and Drink less and not sit always at your Ease and the better to discern this cast your Eyes on the Poor of your Country and on your Slaves who not only make no Sacrifices nor offer Gifts to God not having wherewith but even Blaspheme his Blessed Name and speak injuriously of him for placing them in so mean a
as being not of this Rank that has its proper Temperament of Body either to facilitate or retard him in his Actions this Temperament then the Moralists improperly call Virtue or Vice considering that Men ordinarily speaking betray no other Inclinations than those mark'd out by this Temperament I say ordinarily speaking because in effect many Mens Souls are fill'd with perfect Virtue although the Organs of their Body afford them no Temperament subservient to accomplish the Desires of the Soul and yet nevertheless for all that by virtue of their Free Will they fail not to act like good Men though not without some Struggle and Reluctance According to which St. Paul has said I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin In which Words St. Paul gives us to understand that he felt within himself two Laws wholly opposite one in his Soul which made him to love God's Law the other in his Members that led him to Sin Whence we may gather that the Virtues St. Paul had in his Soul did not correspond with the Constitution of his Body it being necessary for them to act with a sweet Consent and without the Resistance of the Flesh his Soul aspir'd to Pray and Meditate but when in order to this the motion presented to his Brain it was found indisposed because of his great Coldness and Moisture which are stupifying Qualities and proper to move to Sleep Of the same Temper were the three Disciples that accompanied Jesus Christ in the Garden when he Pray'd telling them The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak In like manner his Spirit would have Fasted and when to that end the Offer was made to his Stomach he found it weak and without strength as having an unruly Appetite His Soul would have him Chast and Continent but when the motion presented to the Parts of Generation it found them inflamed with Concupiscence and inciting him to Actions of a contrary Nature and Tendency With such like Inclinations as these virtuous Persons find it a hard Task to live well and not without Reason was it said That the Road to Virtue was covered over with Thorns But if the same Soul that is bent upon Meditation meets a Brain Hot and Dry which are the Dispositions peculiar to Watching and if when it attempts to Fast it finds a Stomach Hot and Dry of which Constitution according to Galen the Man is that loaths Meats and if when it aims to Embrace Chastity it meets the Parts of Generation Cold and Moist without doubt it will accomplish the several Proposals without any Struggle or Reluctance whatever because the Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members exact both the same thing and such a Man in such a Case may act Virtuously without any Violence to his Nature Wherefore Galen said That it was the Part of a Physician to make a Man Virtuous that was formerly Vitious and that the Moral Philosophers committed a great over-sight in not making use of Physic for attaining the Perfection of their Art since in Correcting only the ill Constitution of the Body they might make the Virtuous act without any Check and with a sweet Consent What I would desire of Galen and all the Moral Philosophers is that admitting it to be true that to each Virtue and Vice seated in the Soul there corresponds a particular Temperament of Body which Aids or Diverts it in Acting they would have given us a particular Account of all Mens Virtues and Vices and have told us by which Corporal Qualities both one and the other are Supplanted or Maintain'd to the End we might not be to seek for a proper Remedy Aristotle knew well that a good Temperament made a Man Prudent and of a good Disposition which occasion'd him to say That the good Temperament did not only affect the Body but also the Mind of Man But he has not shewn what this good Temperament was on the contrary he asserted That Mens Dispositions were founded upon Hot and Cold. But Hippocrates and Galen exclude those two Qualities as Vitious approving the Equality of Temperament where the Heat exceeds not Cold nor the Moisture Driness Which made Hippocrates say If the great Moisture of the Water and the excessive Driness of the Fire are equally Temper'd in the Body the Man will be very Wise Nevertheless many Physicians because of the great Reputation of the Author upon Enquiring into this Temperament have found that it does not Answer what Hippocrates promised but on the contrary their Opinion was that those who had it were Weak Men and of little Vigor and did not express in their Actions so much Conduct as those of an ill Constitution They are of a very Sweet and Affable Temper and Inoffensive to every Man in Word and Deed which makes them pass for very Virtuous and void of Passion which raises Tempests in the Soul These Physicians disapprove the equal Temperament inasmuch as it disables and flats the force of the Spirits and is the cause they do not act freely as they ought Which appears evidently in two Seasons of the Year the Spring and Autumn when the Air falls out to be Temperate for then happen the Diseases insomuch that the Body is observ'd to be much more healthful when it is either very Hot or very Cold than during the mediocrity of the Spring Time Sacred Writ in speaking of the sensible Qualities seems in a mariner to favour this Opinion I would thou wert either Cold or Hot so then because thou art Lukewarm I will spue thee out of my Mouth Which seems to me to be grounded upon Aristotle's Doctrine who held for an infallible Opinion that all the Natural Actions of Man consisted in Heat and Cold and not in a Lukewarmness and Mediocrity of Constitution But Aristotle would have done well to have told us what Virtue corresponds to each of the Qualities and to what again the contrary Vice that so we might have applied in Practice the Remedies prescribed by Galen As for me I believe Cold is of more Importance to the Rational Soul to preserve its Virtues in due Peace and to prevent all undue Ferments amongst the Humours for Galen says no less there is no Quality so much blunts the Concupiscible and Irascible Faculty as Cold nor that so powerfully excites the Rational Faculty as Aristotle assures us that does especially if it be joined with Driness for this is certain as the Inferior Part is disabled or depressed the Faculties of the Rational Soul in the same proportion are exalted and inlarged But be that as
one should know how to make Verses without any Master 's teaching and the other after all his Labours in the Art of Poetry should not know how to Compose any He might Answer perhaps That he who is Born a Poet is possest with a Demon that Inspires him and the other not It was therefore with reason Aristotle reprehended him seeing he might have fairly imputed it to the Temperament as he did in another Place As for the Lunatic that spoke Latin without having learn'd it when he was well it shews the Analogy and Correspendence between the Latin Tongue and the Rational Soul Or it may be as we shall hereafter prove because there is a particular and proper Wit to invent Languages Latin Words and the manner of speaking this Tongue are so Rational and so agreeably strike the Ear that the Rational Soul meeting with the Temperament necessary to invent a very eloquent Language immediately stumbles on the Latin For that two Inventers of Languages may forge the same Words having both the same Invention and Ability may be clearly understood if we suppose that as God created Adam he presented all the Creatures to him to give them what Names they ought to have so he might have made another at the same time with the same Perfection and Supernatural Grace Now I demand had God presented to this other the same Creatures for him to give them Proper Names what Names would he have given them It is not to be doubted but they would have been the same that Adam gave them and the reason is clear because both in Naming would have consider'd the Nature of the Creature which was but One. In like manner the Lunatic might stumble on the Latin Tongue and speak Latin without having learn'd it in his Wits because the Natural Temperament of his Brain being altered by that Distemper he might do it in a short time after the same manner as he who first invented the Latin Tongue and so he might pronounce almost the same Words though not such laboured Periods or with such a continued Elegance because this is a sign the Devil moves their Tongue according to what the Church teaches her Exorcists The same thing is affirmed by Aristotle to have befallen some Children who at their Birth pronounced distinctly some Words and afterwards became mute He reproves the Vulgar Philosophers of his time who being ignorant of the natural Cause of that Effect attributed it to the Demons Though he could never discover the Reason and Cause of Childrens speaking at their Birth and being afterwards mute yet notwithstanding it never once entered into his thoughts that it was the Invention of the Devil or any Supernatural Effect as the Vulgar Philosophers vainly imagine who finding themselves entangled with the sublime and subtle things of Natural Philosophy possess them that know nothing that God or the Devil are the Authors of such rare and prodigious Effects because they are Ignorant of their natural Causes Children that are begot of cold and dry Seed as those got in old Age begin to reason and discourse a few Days and Months after they are Born because the cold and dry Temperament as we shall prove hereafter is more appropriate to the Operations of the Rational Soul and what Time and the long succession of Days and Months might effect is supplied by the sudden Temperament of the Brain that after this manner is pushed forward by many Causes leading to that end Aristotle tells of other Children who began to speak as soon as they were Born and afterwards were mute till they arrived at the Age allotted for speaking so that this Effect was occasion'd by the same thing as that we remembred in the Page and the other Lunatics nay and of him who all on a sudden spoke Latin without having learn'd it in his Senses Now that Children while yet in their Mother's Wombs and as soon as they are Born may be afflicted with the like Distempers is a thing not to be denied As for the She-Lunatic who Divined how that might be I will make more intelligible from Cicero than from the Natural Philosophers who describing the Nature of Man speaks after this manner That Creature of Foresight Sagacious sharp-witted capable of all Things of good Memory endued with Reason and Council which we call Man And more particularly he affirm'd That some Men by Nature surpass others in the Knowledge of Futurities For there is a power and kind of Nature which penetrates and predicts things to come the Force and Nature of which has never been yet explained by Reason What led the Natural Philosophers into an Error was their not considering as Plato did that Man was made after the likeness of God and that he participates of the Divine Providence being qualified to distinguish all the three differences of Times with Memory for the Past Sense for the Present Imagination and Understanding for the Future And as there are observed some Men surpassing others in the Remembrance of what is Past and some excelling others in the Knowledge of the Present so are there some who are naturally more capable than others in guessing what is to Come One of the strongest Arguments that enforced Tully to believe the Rational Soul incorruptible was the observing with what certainty sick People predict Futurities especially when they are nearest Death But the difference there is betwixt the Prophetic Spirit and this Natural Wit is this what God has by the Mouth of the Prophets declared is Infallible because it is his express Word But that which a Man Prognosticates by the strength of Fancy has not the same certainty Those who say the She-Lunatic discovered the Virtues and Vices of those who came to see her by the Artifice of the Devil may understand that God gives to Men a Supernatural Grace by which they may know which are the Works of God and which of the Devil This St. Paul ranks among the Divine Gifts calling it The Discerning of Spirits 'T is by this we know whether it is a good or bad Angel comes to move us for the Devil comes often to us under the Appearance of a good Angel the better to deceive us Upon which occasion we shall stand in need of this Supernatural Gift to know and distinguish him from the good Angel Those who have not a Genius proper for Natural Philosophy will be furthest from this Gift because both that Science and the Supernatural which is Inspired by God fall upon the same Faculty which is the Understanding at least it is so for the most part when God in the Communicating of his Gifts accommodates himself to each Man 's Natural Genius as I have said before Jacob being at the point of Death which is a time when the Rational Soul is the freest to foresee Futurities all his Twelve Sons came into his Chamber to see him he told each in particular their Virtues and their Vices and predicted what should
deliberate whose Constitution is more cold and dry as the Ants and Bees who may dispute for Wisdom with Men that are Reasonable Creatures Besides there is not a Brute Beast more moist than a Hog and which has less Wit For which cause the Poet Pindar being to tax the Boeotians for Blockheads exprest himself in this manner Dicta fuit Sus gens Boeotia Vecors Stupid Boeotians wore the Name Of Hogs their Nature was the same Galen affirm'd also That the Blood by reason of its too great moisture made Men silly And the same Galen recounts that the Comic Poets accused Hippocrates's Children of it alledging they had too much Natural Heat which is a moist Substance and abounding with Vapours The Children of Wise Men are not without this Defect of which I may hereafter assign the Reason Of the four Humors we have there is not one of them found hot and dry but melancholy And Aristotle affirms That all the Men that ever signaliz'd themselves in the Sciences were Melancholic In fine all agree that Driness makes a Man very Wise but no Man shews which of the Rational Faculties it most favours The Prophet Esay only determined it when he said Vexation gives Vnderstanding because Sorrow and Affliction not only lick up that moisture of the Brain but have also Power to dry up the very Bones by which Quality the Understanding is made more sharp and acute which may be apparently evidenced by considering that many Men reduc'd to Poverty and Misery have happen'd to Speak and Write things worthy of Admiration but being afterwards raised by Fortune according to their Wish to make good Cheer have done nothing more of Importance For a delicate Life Content a stream of Fortune and all things succeeding smoothly to our Wish much relax and moisten the Brain which is what Hippocrates said Content and Chearfulness enlarge and dilate the Heart giving it a sweet and gross Heat Which is again easily proved for if Affliction and Grief dry up and consume the Flesh by which means a Man acquires a better Understanding it is certain that the contrary which is Chearfulness fails not to moisten the Brain and impair the Understanding They who attain the last sort of Wit are more immediately disposed to Sports Feasts Music frequenting merry Company and flying the contrary which at other times were wont to give them Relish and Content Hence may the Vulgar learn how it comes that a Wise and Virtuous Man raised to great Honour who before was Poor and Humble sometimes immediately changes his Manners and his way of Reasoning for this proceeds from his acquiring a new Temperament moist and full of Vapors by which means he effaces the Figures he had before in his Memory rendering his Understanding Dull and Sluggish 'T is very difficult to know what Difference of Wit proceeds from moisture because it so strongly contradicts the Rational Faculty At least according to Galen's Opinion all the Humours of our Body that are moist in Excess render the Man Stupid and Ignorant which occasion'd him to say The Prudence and Nimbleness of the Rational Soul arises from Choler Integrity and Constancy proceed from the Melancholic Humour Simplicity and Stupidity from Blood Phlegm or Water serving for nothing but to feed sleep Insomuch that the Blood so far as it is moist and the Phlegm no less conspire to ruin and destroy the Rational Faculty but this is to be understood of the discursive and active Faculties and not of the passive as the Memory is which depends on moisture even as the Understanding does on driness Now we call the Memory a Rational Faculty because without it the Understanding and Imagination are of no use It affords them matter and furnishes them with Figures to Reason according to that of Aristotle He that understands does no more than reflect on the Images And the proper Office of the Memory is to lay up those Figures for the Understanding when it would reflect on them and therefore if that be lost it is impossible for the other Faculties to perform their Function Galen says the Office of the Memory is no other than to keep the Figures of things without having any Invention of its own The Memory treasures and lays up the things which are transmitted from the Sense and Vnderstanding as in a Coffer or Repository having no Invention of its own This being its Office one may clearly perceive it depends much on moisture which softens and prepares the Brain for the Figures that are imprinted by way of Compression Infancy is an evident Proof of this Doctrin seeing in that Age the Memory is readier than in all the other because the Brain then is moistest Aristotle therefore demands Why the Old have more Wit and a better Vnderstanding and the Young learn readier and with more ease To which he makes Answer That the Memory of Old People is filled with so many Images of things which they have seen and heard during the long course of their Life that there is no room left to receive any thing new but that of Young People as Persons late Born meets with no difficulty therein which makes them receive and retain immediately all that is told and taught them Which may be better understood by compairing the morning and evening Memory and shewing that we learn better in the morning because we then rise with a fresh Memory but in the evening we learn ill because it is stuffed with all the Objects of the Day past And to the end the curious Reader may not be surprized that so great a Philosopher as Aristotle should never light upon a true Answer and which even those of less Wit than himself sometimes find and form better Arguments than his he must know that Plato not at all doubting but the Gravest Philosophers do often as men mistake either through Inadvertence or for want of Weighing and being well enough acquainted with all the Principles contained in the Doctrin they teach advises such as read his Works to consider them with great care and not to rely too much upon him or on the good Opinion they have conceived of them To examin says he and cautiously weigh all his Words and those of the Philosophers and not to receive them before they have made some Proof of them no though they may seem the truest in the World Because in effect it would be a great shame to me that Nature having given me Eyes to See and an Understanding to Distinguish yet I should ask Aristotle and the other Philosophers what are the Figures and Colours of things and what Being and Nature they have Open your Eyes says Plato make use of your own Wit and Ability and fear nothing for the same He that made Aristotle made you also and he who formed so great a Wit may very well also form a greater 'T is nevertheless very Reasonable to have Excellent Authors in great Veneration