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
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
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
touched by Galens mind hindereth all the powers and faculties of the soule and suffereth not them to worke Hence beginneth the answer of this second doubt and it is that those who play at Chesse conceiue feare to loose because the game standeth vpon termes of reputation and disgrace and for that Fortune hath no stroke therein so the vitall spirits assembling to the heart the imagination is foreslowed by the cold and the fantasms in the darke for which two reasons he who plaieth cannot bring his purpose to effect But the lookers on in as much as this no way importeth them neither stand in feare of loosing through want of skill do behold more draughts for that their imagination retaineth his heat and his figures are enlightened by the light of the vitall spirits True it is that much light reaueth also the light of the imagination and it befalleth what time the player waxeth ashamed and out of countenaunce to see his aduersarie beat him then through this aggreeuednes the naturall heat encreaseth and enlighteneth more than is requisit of all which he that standeth by is deuoid From hence issueth an effect very vsual in the world that what time a man endeuoreth to make the best muster of himselfe and his learning and sufficiencie most knowne it prooueth worst with him with others againe the contrarie betideth who being brought to their triall make a great show and passed out of the lists appeare of little woorth and of all this the reason is very manifest for he whose head is filled with much naturall heat if you appoint him to do an exercise of learning or disputation within foure and twentie hours after a part of that excessiue heat which he hath flieth to the heart and so the brain remaineth temperat and in this disposition as we wil prooue in the chapter ensuing many points woorth the vtterance present themselues to a mans remembrance But he who is very wise and endowed with a great vnderstanding being brought to triall by means of feare cannot retaine the naturall heat in his head whereon through default of light he findeth not in his memorie what to deliuer If this fell into their consideration who take vpon them to controll the Generals of armies blaming their actions and the order which they set down in the field they should discerne how great a difference resteth betweene the giuing a looking on the fight out at a window or the breaking of a launce therein and the feare to leese an armie whose charge their soueraigne hath committed to their hands No lesse dammage doth feare procure the Physition in curing for his practise as we haue prooued heretofore appertaineth to the imagination which resteth more annoied by cold than any other power for that his operation consisteth in heat Whence we see by experience that Physitions can sooner cure the vulgar sort than Princes and great personages A counsellor at law one day asked me knowing that I handled this matter what the cause might be that in the affairs where he was well payd many cases and points of learning came to his memorie but with such as yeelded not to his trauell what was due it seemed that all his knowledge was shrunke out of his braine whome I answered that matters of interest appertained to the wrathfull facultie which maketh his residence in the heart and if the same receiue not contentment it doth not willingly send forth the vitall spirits by whose light the figures which rest in the memorie may be discerned But when that findeth satisfaction it cheerfully affoordeth naturall heat VVherthrough the reasonable soule obtaineth sufficient cleernesse to see whatsoeuer is written in the head This defect do men of great vnderstanding partake who are pinching and relie much on their interest and in such is the propertie of that counsellor best discerned But who so falleth into due consideration hereof shall obserue it to be an action of Iustice that he who laboureth in another mans vineyard be well paied his wages The like reason is currant for the phisitions to whom when they are wel hired many remedies present them selues otherwise the art aswell in them as the lawyer slippeth out of their fingers But here a matter verie important is to be noted namely that the good imaginanation of the phisition discouereth on a sodain what is necessarie to be done And if he take leisure and farther consideration a thousand inconueniences come into his fancie which hold him in suspense and this-while the occasion of the remedie passeth away Therefore it is neuer good to aduise the phisition to consider well what he hath in hand but that he forthwith execute what first he purposed For we haue prooued heretofore that much speculation maketh the naturall heat to auoid out of the head and again the same may encrease so far forth as to turmoile the imagination But the phisition in whom it is slacke shall not doe amisse to vse long contemplation for the heat aduancing it selfe vp to the braine shall come to attaine that point which to this power is behooffull The third doubt in the matters alreadie rehearsed hath his answer verie manifest for the difference of the imagination with which we play at chesse requireth a certaine point of heat to see the draughts and he that plaieth well fasting hath then the degree of heat requisit thereunto But through the heat of the meat the same exceedeth that point which was necessarie and so he plaieth worse The contrarie befalleth to such as play well after meales for the heat rising vp togither with the meat and the wine arriueth to the point which wanted whiles he was fasting It is therefore needfull to amend a place in Plato who saith that nature hath with great wisdome disioyned the liuer from the braine to the end the meat with his vapours should not trouble the contemplation of the reasonable soule But here if he mean those operations which appertain to the vnderstanding he speaketh very well but it can take no place in anie of the differences of the imagination Which is seen by experience in feasts and banquets for when the guests are come to mid meale they begin to tell pleasant tales merriments and similitudes where at the beginning none had a word to say but at the end of the feast their tongue faileth them for the heat is passed beyond the bound requisit for the imagination Such as need to eat and drinke a little to the end the imagination may lift vp it selfe are melancholicke by adustion for such haue their brain like hot lime which taken vp into yourhand is cold and drie in feeling but if you bath the same in any liquor you cannot endure the heat which groweth therof We must also correct that law of the Carthagineans which Plato alleageth whereby they forbad their Captains to drinke wine when they went to their wars and likewise their gouernours during the yeare of their office And albeit Plato held the same
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
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
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
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
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
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
would giue a token of the good disposition of the brain he affirmeth that a subtile wit sheweth that the braine is framed of subtile and very delicat parts and if the vnderstanding be dull it giues euidence of a grosse substance but he makes no mention of the temperature These conditions the braine ought to be endewed withall to the end the reasonable soule may therethrough shape his reasons and syllogismes But here encounters vs a difficultie very great and this is that if we open the head of any beast we shall find his braine composed with the same forme and manner as a mans without that any of the fore-reported conditions will be failing Whence we gather that the brute beasts haue also the vse of Prudence and reason by means of the composition of their braine or else that our reasonable soule serues not it selfe of this member for the vse of his operations which may not be auouched To this doubt Galen answereth in this manner Amongst the kinds of beasts it is doubted whether that which is termed vnreasonable be altogether void of reason or not For albeit the same want that which consists in voice which is named speech yet that which is conceiued in the soule and termed discourse of this it may be that all sorts of beasts are partakers albeit the same is bestowed more sparingly vpon some and more largely on other some But verely how far man in the way of reason outgoeth all the rest there is none who maketh question By these words Galen giues vs to vnderstand albeit with some fearfulnesse that brute beasts do partake reason one more and another lesse and in their mind do frame some syllogisines and discourses though they cannot vtter them by way of speech And then the difference betweene them and man consisteth in being more reasonable and in vsing Prudence with greater perfection The same Galen prooues also by many reasons and experiments that Asses being of all brute beasts the bluntest do ariue with their wit to the most curious and nice points which were deuised by Plato and Aristotle and there on he collects saying I am therefore so far from praysing the antient Philosophers in that they haue found out some ample matter and of rare inuention as when they say We must hold that there is selfe and diuers one and not one not only in number but also in kind as I dare boldly affirme that euen the very Asses who notwithstanding seeme most blockish of all beasts haue this from nature This selfe same meant Aristotle when he enquired the cause Why man amongst all liuing creatures is wisest and in another place he turnes to doubt For what cause man is the most vniust of all liuing creatures in which he giues vs to vnderstand the selfe same which Galen sayd That the difference which is found between man and brute beast is the selfe same which is found betweene a foole and a wise man which is nought else than in respect of the more and the lesse This truly is not to be doubted that brute beasts enioy memorie and imagination and another power which resembles vnderstanding as the Ape is very like a man and that his soule takes vse of the composition of the braine it is a matter apparant which being good and such as is behooffull performes his workes very wel and with much prudence and if the braine be ill instrumentalized it executes the same vntowardly For which cause we see that there be asses which in their knowledge are properly such and others againe are found so quicke conceipted and malicious that they passe the propertie of their kind And amongst horses are found many iadishnesses and good qualities and some there are more trainable than the rest all which growes from hauing their braine well or ill instrumentalized The reason and solution of this doubt shall be placed in the chapter which followeth for there we returne to reason anew of this matter There are in the body some other parts from whose temperature as well the wit as the braine depend of which we will reason in the last chapter of this worke But besides these and the braine there is found in the body another substance whose seruice the reasonable soule vseth in his operations and so requireth the three last qualities which we haue assigned to the braine that is quantitie sufficient delicate substance and good temperature These are the vitall spirits and arteriall blood which go wandring through the whole body and remaine euermore vnited to the imagination following his contemplation The office of this spirituall substance is to stir vp the powers of man and to giue them force and vigour that they may be able to worke This shall euidently be knowne to be their manner if we take consideration of the motions of the imaginations and of that which after succeeds in working For if a man begin to imagine vpon any iniurie that hath bene profered him the blood of the arteries runs sodainly to the heart and stirs vp the wrathfull part and giues the same heat and forces for reuenge If a man stand contemplating any faire woman or stay in giuing receiuing by that imaginatiō touching the venerious act these vitall spirits run foorthwith to the genitall members and raise them to the performance The like befals when we remember any delicat and sauourie meat which once called to mind they straight abandon the rest of the body and flie to the stomacke and replenish the mouth with water And this their motion is so swift that if a woman with child long for any meat whatsoeuer and still retaine the same in her imagination we see by experience that she looseth her burthen if speedily it be not yeelded vnto her The naturall reason of this is because these vitall spirits before the woman conceiued this longing made abode in the bellie helping her there to retaine the creature and through this new imagination of eating they hie to the stomacke to raise the appetite and in this space if the belly haue no strong retentiue it cannot sustaine the same and so by this means she leeseth her burthen Galen vnderstanding this condition of the vitall spirits counsaileth Phisitions that they giue not sicke folke to eat when their humors are raw and vpon digestion for when they first feele the meat in the stomacke they straightwaies abandon the worke about which before they were occupied and come thervnto to helpe it The like benefit and ayd the braine receiues of these vitall spirits when the reasonable soule is about to contemplat vnderstand imagine or performe actions of memorie without which it cannot worke And like as the grosse substance of the braine and his euill temperature brings the wit to confusion so the vitall spirits and the arteriall blood not being delicat and of good temperature hinder in a man his discourse and vse of reason Wherefore Plato sayd That the supplenesse and good temperature of the heart makes the
wit sharpe and quicke-sighted Hauing prooued before that the braine and not the heart is the principall seat of the reasonable soule And the reason is because these vitall spirits are engendred in the heart and partake of that substance and that temperature which rested in that which formed them Of this arteriall blood Aristotle meant when he sayd That those men are well compounded who haue their blood hot delicat and pure for they are also of good bodily forces and of a wit well disposed These vitall spirits are by the Phisitions termed Nature for they are the principall instrument with which the reasonable soule performeth his workes and of these also may that sentence be verefied Nature makes able CHAP. IIII. It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation THe temperature of the four first qualities which we heretofore termed Nature hath so great force to cause that of plants brute beasts and man each one set himselfe to performe those workes which are properto his kind that they ariue to that vtmost bound of perfection which may be attained sodainly without any others teaching them the plants know how to forme roots vnder ground and by way of them to draw nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to driue foorth the excrements and the brute beasts likewise so soone as they are borne know that which is agreeable to their nature and flie the things which are naughtie and noisome And that which makes them most to maruell who are not seene in naturall Philosophie is that a man hauing his braine well tempered and of that disposition which is requisit for this or that science sodainly and without hauing euer learned it of any he speaketh and vttereth such exquisit matters as could hardly win credit Vulgar Philosophers seeing the maruellous works which brute beasts performe affirme it holds no cause of maruell because they do it by naturall instinct in as much as nature sheweth and teacheth each in his kind what he is to do And in this they say very well for we haue alreadie alleaged and prooued that nature is nothing else than this temperature of the foure first qualities and that this is the schoolemaister who teacheth the soules in what sort they are to worke but they tearme instinct of nature a certaine masse of things which rise from the noddocke vpward neyther could they euer expound or giue vs to vnderstand what it is The graue Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle attribute all these maruellous workes to heat cold moisture and drouth and this they affirme of the first principle and passe no farther And if you aske who hath taught the brute beasts to doe these works which breed vs such maruell and men to discourse with reason Hippocrates answereth It is the natures of them all without any teacher as if he should say The faculties or the temperature of which they consist are al giuen them without being taught by any other Which is cleerely discerned if they passe on to consider the workes of the soule vegetatiue and of all the rest which gouerne man who if it haue a quantitie of mans seed wel digested and seasoned with good temperature makes a body so seemly and duly instrumentalized that all the caruers in the world cannot shape the like For which cause Galen woondring to see a frame so maruellous the number of his seuerall parts the seating the figure and the vse of each one by it selfe grew to conclude it was not possible that the vegetatiue soule nor the temperature could fashion a workmanship so singular but that the author thereof was God or some other most wise vnderstanding But this maner of speech is alreadie by vs heretofore refuted for it beseemes not naturall Philosophers to reduce the effects immediatly to God and so to slip ouer the assigning of the second reasons and especially in this case where we see by experience that if mans seed consist of an euill substance and enioy not a temperature conuenient the vegetatiue soule runs into a thousand disorders for if the same be cold and moist more than is requisit Hippocrates sayth that the men prooue Eunuches or Hermofrodites and if it be very hote and drie Aristotle sayth that it makes them curle-pated crooke-legged and flat nosed as are the Aethiopians and if it be moist the same Galen sayth that they grow long and lithie and if it be drie low of stature All this is a great defect in mankind and for such works we find little cause to giue nature any commendation or to hold her for aduised and if God were the author hereof none of these qualities could diuert him Only the first men which the world possessed Plato affirms were made by God but the rest were borne answerable to the discourse of the second causes which if they be well ordered the vegetatiue soule dooth well performe his operations and if they concur not in sort conuenient it produceth a thousand dammageable effects What the good order of nature for this effect must be is that the vegetatiue soule haue an endowment of a good temperature or else let Galen and all the Philosophers in the world answer me what the cause is that the vegetatiue soule possesseth such skill and power in the first age of man to shape his body and to increase and nourish the same and when old age groweth on can yeeld the same no longer For if an old man leese but a tooth he is past remedie of recouering another but if a child cast them all we see that natures return to renew them againe Is it then possible that a soule which hath done nought else in all the course of life than to receiue food retaine the same digest it and expell the excrements new begetting the parts which faile should towords the end of life forget this and want abilitie to do the same any longer Galen for certaine will answer that this skill and habilitie of the vegetatiue soule in youth springs from his possessing much naturall heat and moisture and that in age the same wants skill and power to performe it by means of the coldnesse and drinesse to which a bodie of those yeares is subiect The knowledge of the sensitiue soule takes his dependance also from the temperature of the braine for if the same be such as his operations require that it should be it can perform with due perfection otherwise the same must also erre no lesse than the soule vegetatiue The manner which Galen held to behold and discerne by eysight the wisedome of the sensitiue soule was to take a yoong kid but newly kidded which set on the ground begins to go as if it had bene told and taught that his legs were made to that purpose and after that he shakes from his backe the superfluous moisture which he brought
seeing themselues hedged in with the curious and nice points of naturall Philosophie make them beleeue who know little that God or the diuell are authors of the prodigious and strange effects of whose naturall cause they haue no knowledge and vnderstanding Children which are engendred of seed cold and drie as are those begotten in old age some few dayes and moneths after their birth begin to discourse and philosophise for the temperature cold and drie as we will hereafter prooue is most appropriat to the operations of the reasonable soule and that which processe of time and many dayes and months should bring about is supplied by the present temperature of the brain which for many causes anticipateth what it was to effect Other children there are sayth Aristotle who as soone as they are borne begin to speake and afterwards hold their peace vntill they attaine the ordinarie and conuenient age of speaking which effect floweth from the same originall and cause that we recounted of the page and of those furious and frantike persons and of him who spake Latine on a sudden without hauing learned it in his health And that children whilst they make abode in their mothers bellie and so soone as they are borne may vndergo these infirmities is a matter past deniall But whence that diuining of the franticke woman proceeded I can better make Cicero to conceiue than these naturall Philosophers for he describing the nature of man sayd in this manner The creature foresightfull searchfull apt for many matters sharpe conceited mindfull replenished with reason and counsell whome we call by the name of Man And in particular he affirmeth that there is found a certain nature in some men which in foreknowing things to come exceedeth other mens and his words are these For there is found a certaine force and nature which foretels things to come the force and nature of which is not by reason to be vnfolded The error of the naturall Philosophers consisteth in not considering as Plato did that man was made to the likenesse of God and that he is a partaker of his diuine prouidence and that the power of discerning all the three differences of time memorie for the passed conceiuing for the present and imagination and vnderstanding for those that are to come And as there are men superior to others in remembring things past and others in knowing the present so there are also many who partake a more naturall habilitie for imagining of what shall come to passe One of the greatest arguments which forced Cicero to thinke that the reasonable soule is vncorruptible was to see the certaintie with which the diseased tell things to come and especially when they are neere their end But the difference which rests betweene a propheticall spirit and this naturall wit is that that which God speaks by the mouth of his prophets is infallible for it is the expresse word of God but that which man prognosticateth by the power of his imagination holds no such certaintie Those who say that the discouering of their vertues and vices by the frantike woman to the persons who came to visit her was a tricke of the diuels playing let them know that God bestowes on men a certaine supernaturall grace to attaine and conceiue which are the workes of God and which of the diuell the which saint Paule placeth amongst the diuine gifts and cals it The imparting of spirits Whereby we may discerne whether it be the diuell or some good angell that intermedleth with vs. For many times the diuell sets to beguile vs vnder the cloke of a good angell and we haue need of this grace and supernaturall gift to know him and difference him from the good From this gift they are farthest sundered who haue not a wit capable of naturall Philosophie for this science and that supernaturall infused by God fall vnder one selfe abilitie to weet the vnderstanding atleast if it be true that God in bestowing his graces doe applie himselfe to the naturall good of euery one as I haue afore rehearsed Iacob lying at the point of death at which time the reasonable soule is most at libertie to see what is to come all his twelue children entred to visit him and he to each of them in particular recited their vertues and vices and prophesied what should befall as touching them and their posteritie Certaine it is that he did all this inspired by God but if the diuine scripture and our fayth had not ascertained vs hereof how would these naturall Philosophers haue known this to be the worke of God and that the vertues and vices which the frantike woman told to such as came to visit her were discouered by the power of the diuell whilst this case in part resembles that of Iacob They reckon that the nature of the reasonable soule is far different from that of the diuell and that the powers thereof vnderstanding imagination and memorie are of another very diuers kind and herein they be deceiued For if a reasonable soule informe a well instrumentalized body as was that of Adam his knowledge comes little behind that of the subtillest diuell and without the body he partakes as perfect qualities as the other And if the diuels foresee things to come coniecturing and discoursing by certaine tokens the same also may a reasonable man do when he is about to be freed from his body or when he is endowed with that difference of temperature which makes a man capable of this prouidence For it is a matter as difficult for the vnderstanding to conceiue how the diuell can know these hidden things as to impute the same to the reasonable soule It will not fall in these mens heads that in natural things there may be found out certaine signs by means of which they may attaine to the knowledge of matters to come And I affirme there are certaine tokens to be found which bring vs to the notise of things passed and present and to forecast what is to follow yea to coniecture some secrets of the heauen Therfore we see that his things inuisible are vnderstood by the creatures of the world by means of the things which haue bene created Whosoeuer shall haue power to accomplish this shall attaine therevnto and the other shall be such as Homer spake of The ignorant vnderstandeth the things passed but not the things to come But the wise and discreet is the Ape of God for he immitates him in many matters and albeit he cannot accomplish them with so great perfection yet he carries some resemblance vnto him by following him CHAP. V. It is prooued that from the three qualities hot moist and drie proceed all the differences of mens wits THe reasonable soule making abode in the body it is impossible that the same can performe contrary and different operations if for each of them it vse not a particular instrument This is plainly seen in the power of the soule which performeth diuers operations in the outward
knowne is a worke of the imagination as to write and returne to read it is a worke of the Scriuener and not of the paper Whereby it falleth out that the memorie remayneth a power passiue and not actiue euen as the blew and the white of the paper is none other than a commoditie whereby to write To the fourth doubt may be answered That it maketh little to the purpose as touching the wit whether the flesh be hard or tender if the braine partake not also the same qualitie the which we see many times hath a distinct temperature from al the other parts of the body But when they concur in one selfe tendernesse it is an euill token for the vnderstanding and no lesse for the imagination And if we consider the flesh of women and children we shall find that in tendernesse it excee deth that of men and this notwithstanding commonly men haue a better wit than women and the naturall reason heereof is For that the humours which make the flesh tender are fleagme and bloud because they are both moist as we haue aboue specified and of them Galen said That they make men simple dullards and contrariwise the humours which harden the flesh are choler and melancholie and hence grow the prudence and sapience which are found in man In sort that it is rather an ill token to haue the flesh tender than drie and hard And so in men who haue an equall temperature throughout their whole bodie it is an easie matter to gather the qualitie of their wit by the tendernesse or hardnes of their flesh For if it be hard rough it giueth token either of a good vnderstanding or a good imagination and if smooth and supple of the contrary namely of good memory and small vnderstanding and lesse imagination and to vnderstand whether the brain haue correspondence it behooueth to consider the haire which being big blacke rough and thicke yeeldeth token of a good imagination or a good vnderstanding and if soft and smooth they are a signe of much memorie and nothing els But who so will distinguish and know whether the same be vnderstanding or imagination when the haire is of this sort it must be considered of what forme the childe is in the act of laughter for this passion discouereth much of what qualitie he is in the imagination What the reason and cause of laughter should be many Philosophers haue laboured to conceiue and none of them hath deliuered ought that may well be vnderstood but all agree that the bloud is an humour which prouoketh a man to laugh albeit none expresse with what qualitie this humour is indewed more than the rest why it should make a man addicted to laughter The follies which are committed with laughing are lesse dangerous but those which are done with labour are more perillous as if he should say When the diseased become giddie and doting do laugh they rest in more safetie than if they were in toyle and anguish for the former commeth of bloud which is a most mild humour and the second of melancholie but we grounding vpon the doctrine whereof we intreat shall easily vnderstand all that which in this case may be desired to be knowen The cause of laughter in my iudgement is nought els but an approouing which is made by the imagination seeing or hearing somewhat done or said which accordeth very well and this power remaineth in the braine when any of these things giue it contentment sodainly it mooueth the same and after it all the muscles of the body and so manie times we do allow of wittie sayings by bowing downe of the head When then the imagination is verie good it contents not it selfe with euery speech but onely with those which please verie well and if they haue some litle correspondence and nothing els the same receiueth thereby rather paine than gladnesse Hence it groweth that men of great imagination laugh verie seldome and the point most worthie of noting is that ieasters and naturall counterfeiters neuer laugh at their own meriments nor at that which they heare others to vtter for they haue an imagination so delicat that not euen their own pleasanteries can yeeld that correspondence which they require Heereto may be added that merimentes besides that they must haue a good proportion and be vttered to the purpose must be new and not to fore heard or seene And this is the propertie not onely of the imagination but also of all the other powers which gouerne man for which cause we see that the stomacke when it hath twise fed vpon one kinde of meate straightwaies loatheth the same so doth the sight one selfe shape and colour the hearing one concordance how good soeuer and the vnderstanding one selfe contemplation Hence also it proceedeth that the pleasant conceited man laugheth not at the ieastes which himselfe vttereth for before he send them forth from his lips he knew what he would speake Whence I conclude that those who laugh much are all defectiue in their imagination where-through whatsoeuer merriment pleasanterie how cold soeuer with them carrieth a verie good correspondencie And because the bloud pertaketh much moisture wherof we said before that it breedeth dammage to the imagination those who are very sanguine are also great laughers Moisture holdeth this propertie that because the same is tender and gentle it abateth the force of heate and makes that it burne not ouermuch For which cause it partakes better agreement with drinesse because it sharpneth his operations Besides this where there is much moisture it is a signe that the heat is remisse seeing it cannot resolue nor consume the same and the imagination cannot performe his operations with a heate so weake Hence we gather also that men of great vnderstanding are much giuen to laughter for that they haue defect of imagination as we read of that great Philosopher Democritus and many others whom my selfe haue seene and noted Then by meanes of this laughter we shall know if that which men or boyes haue of flesh hard and tough and of haire blacke thicke hard and rough betoken either the imagination or the vnderstanding In sort that Aristotle in this doctrine was somwhat out of the way To the fifth argument we answer that there are two kindes of moisture in the braine one which groweth of the aire when this element predominateth in the mixture and another of the water with which the other elements are amassed If the braine be tender by the first moisture the memory shall be verie good easie to receiue and mightie to reteine the figures for a long time For the moisture of the aire is verie supple and full of fatnesse on which the shapes are tacked with sure hold-fast as we see in pictures which are lymned in oyle who being set against the sunne and the water receiue thereby no dammage at all and if we cast oyle vpon any writing it will neuer be wiped out but marreth the same
so he cannot attaine to the notice of the trueth For which cause we see many men who vpon the sodaine speake verie well but with aduisement are nothing worth Others haue their vnderstanding so base either through too much coldnes or too much drouth that it is requisite the naturall heate abide along time in the head to the end the temperature may lift it selfe vp to the degrees which are wanting where-through they speake better vpon deliberation then on the sodaine CHAP. VII It is shewed that though the reasonable soule haue need of the temperature of the foure first qualities aswell for his abiding in the bodie as also to discourse and syllogize Yet for all this it followeth not that the same is corruptible and mortall PLato held it for a matter verie certaine that the reasonable soule is a substance bodilesse and spirituall not subiect to corruption or mortalitie as that of brute beasts the which departing from the bodie possesseth another better and more quiet life But this is to be vnderstood saith Plato if a man haue led his life conformable to reason for otherwise it were better that the soule had remained still in the body there to suffer the tormentes with which God chastiseth the wicked This conclusion is so notable and catholicke that if he attained the knowledge thereof by the happinesse of his wit with a iust title he came to be called the diuine Plato But albeit the same is such as we see yet for all this Galen could neuer bring within his conceit that it was true but held it alwaies doubtfull seeing a wise man through the heat of his braine to dote and by applying cold medicines vnto him he commeth to his wits againe In respect whereof he sayd he could wish that Plato were now liuing to the end he might aske him how it was possible that the reasonable soule should be immortall seeing it altered so easily with heat with cold with moisture with drouth principally considering that the same departs from the body through ouermuch heat or when a man giueth ouer himselfe excessiuely to lasciuiousnesse or is forced to drinke poison and such other bodily alterations which accustomably bereaue the life For if it were bodilesse and spirituall as Plato affirmeth heat being a materiall qualitie could not make the same to leese his powers nor set his operations in a garboile These reasons brought Galen into a confusion and made him wish that some Platonist would resolue him these doubts and I beleeue that in his life time he met not with any but after his death experience shewed him that which his vnderstanding could not conceiue For it is a thing certaine that the infallible certayntie of our immortall soule is not gathered from humane reasons or from arguments which prooue that it is corruptible for to the one and the other an answer may easily be shaped it is only our fayth which maketh vs certaine and assured that the same endureth for euer But Galen had small reason to intricate himselfe in arguments of so slight consequence for the workes which seeme to be performed by meanes of some instrument it cannot well be gathered in naturall Philosophie that it proceedeth from a defect in the principal agent if they take not perfection That painter who portraieth well when he hath a pensill requisit for his art falleth not in blame if with a bad pensill he draw ill fauoured shapes and of bad delineation and it is no good argument to say that the writer had an imperfection in his hand when through default of a well made penne he is forced to write with a sticke Galen considering the maruellous works which are in the vniuerse and the wisedome and prouidence by which they were made and ordained concluded thereof that in the world there was a God though we behold him not with our corporall eyes of whome hee vttered these words God was not made at any time in as much as he is euerlastingly vnbegotten And in another place he sayth That the frame and composition of mans body was not made by the reasonable soule nor by the naturall heat but by God or by some very wise vnderstanding Out of which there may be framed an argument against Galen and his false consequence be ouerthrowne and it is thus Thou hast suspected that the reasonable soule is corruptible because if the braine be well tempered it fitteth well to discourse and philosophise and if the same grow hot or cold beyond due it doteth and vttereth a thousand follies the same may be inferred considering the workes which thou speakest of as touching God for if he make a man in places temperat where the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie he produceth him very wittie and discreet and if the countrie be vntemperat he breedeth thē all fooles and doltish For the same Galen affirmeth that it is a miracle to find a wise man in Scythia and in Athens they are all borne Philosophers To suspect then that God is corruptible because with one qualitie he performeth these workes well and with the contrary they proue ill Galen himselfe would not confesse for as much as he sayd before that God was euerlasting Plato held another way of more certainty saying That albeit God be euerlasting almightie and of infinite wisdome yet he proceedeth in his workes as a naturall agent makes himselfe subiect to the disposition of the foure first qualities in sort that to beget a man verie wise and like to himselfe it behooueth that he prouide a place the most temperate of the whole world where the heate of the aire may not exceed the cold nor the moyst the drie and therefore he said But God as desirous of warre and of wisedome hauing chosen a place which should produce men like vnto himselfe would that the same should be first inhabited And though God would shape a man of great wisedome in Scithia or in any other intemperate countrey and did not herein imploy his omnipotencie he should of necessitie yet prooue a foole through the contrarietie of the first qualities But Plato would not haue inferred as Galen did that God was alterable and corruptible for that the heate and coldnesse would haue brought an impediment to his worke The same may be collected when a reasonable soule for that it is seated in a braine inflamed cannotvse his discretion and wisdome and not to thinke that in respect thereof the same is subiect to mortalitie and corruption The departure out of the bodie and the not being able to support the great heate nor the other alterations which are woont to kil men sheweth plainly that the same is an act and substantiall form of mans bodie and that to abide therein it requireth certain materiall dispositions fitted to the being which it hath of the soule and that the instruments with which it must worke be wel composed and well vnited and of that temperature which is requisite for
discourse into another matter Finally the Pope said to his Chamberlains it was not possible that this man had so much skill in diuinitie as they made report seeing he had so little knowledge in the latine tongue But if as he proued him in this toung which is a work of memorie and in platforming and building which belong to the imagination so he had tried him in a matter appertaining to the vnderstanding he would haue vttered diuine considerations In the Catalogue of Sciences which appertaine to the imagination we placed poetry amongst the first and that not by chance nor for want of consideration but thereby to giue notice how farre off those who haue a speciall gift in poetry are from vnderstanding For we shall finde that the selfe difficultie which the latine tongue holdeth in vniting with Schoole diuinitie is also found yea and beyond comparison farre greater betweene this facultie and the art of versifiyng and the same is so contrary to the vnderstanding that by the self reason for which man is likely to proue singular therein he may take his leaue of all the other sciences which appertaine to this power and also to the latine tongue through the contrarietie which a good imagination beareth to a great memorie For the first of these two Aristotle found not the reason but yet confirmed mine opinion by experience saying Marke a Citizen of Siracusa was best Poet when he lost his vnderstanding and the cause is for that the difference of the imagination to which Poetrie belōgeth is that which requireth three degrees of heat and this qualitie so extended as wee haue before expressed breedes an vtter losse of the vnderstanding the which was obserued by the same Aristotle For he affirmeth that this Marke the Siracusane growing to more temperature enioyed a better vnderstanding but yet he attained not to versifie so well through default of heat with which this difference of the imagination worketh And this Cicero wanted when going about to describe in verse the heroicall actions of his consulship and the happie birth of Rome in that she was gouerned by him he said thus O fortunatam natam me consule Romam For which cause Iuuenall not conceiuing that to a man endowed with so rare a wit as Cicero poetrie was a matter repugnant did Satirically nip him saying If thou hadst rehearsed the Philippicks against Marck Antony answerable to the tune of so bad a verse it should not haue cost thy life But worse did Plato vnderstand the same when hee said that Poetrie was no humane Science but a diuine reuelation For if the Poets were not rauished besides themselues or full of God they could not make nor vtter any thing worthy regard And he prooueth it by a reason auouching that whilest a man abideth in his sound iudgement he cannot versifie But Aristotle reprooueth him for affirming that the art of Poetrie is not an abilitie of man but a reuelation of God And he admitteth that a wise man and who is free possessed of his iudgement cannot be a poet and the reason is because where there resteth much vnderstanding it behoueth of force that there befall want of the imagination whereto appertaineth the Art of versifieng which may the more apparently be prooued knowing that Socrates after he had learned the art of Poetrie for all his precepts and rules could not make so much as one verse and yet notwithstanding he was by the oracle of Apollo adiudged the wisest man of the world I hold it then for certaine that the boy who will prooue of a notable vaine for versifieng and to whom vpon euerie sleight consideration consonances offer themselues shall ordinarily incurre hazard not to learn well the Latine tongue Logicke Philosophie Phisicke Schoole-diuinitie and the other artes and sciences which appertaine to the vnderstanding and to the memorie For which cause we see by experience that if we charge such a boy to forme a nominatiue without booke he will not learne it in two or three daies but if there be a leafe of paper written in verse to be recited in any comedie in two turnes he fixeth them in his memorie These loose themselues by reading bookes of chiualrie Orlando Boccace Diana of Monte maggior and such other deuises for all these are workes of the imagination What shall we say then of the harmonie of the Organs and of the singing men of the Chappell whose wits are most vnprofitable for the latine tongue and for all other Sciences which appertaine to the vnderstanding and to the memorie the like reason serueth in playing on instruments and all sorts of musicke By these three examples which we haue yeelded of the Latine of Schoole-diuinitie and of Poetrie we shall vnderstand this doctrine to be true and that we haue duely made this partition albeit we make not the like mention in the other arts Writing also discouereth the imagination and so we see that few men of good vnderstanding doe write a faire hand and to this purpose I haue noted many examples and specially I haue knowen a most learned Schoole-diuine who shaming at himselfe to see how bad a hand he wrote durst not write a letter to any man nor to answere those which were sent to him so as he determined with himselfe to get a Scriuener secretly to his house who should teach him to frame a reasonable letter that might passe and hauing for many daies taken paines heerein it prooued lost labour and he reaped no profit thereby Wherefore as tyred out he forsooke the practise the teacher who had taken him in hand grew astonished to see a man so learned in his profession to be so vntoward for writing But my selfe who rest well assured that writing is a worke of the imagination held the same for a naturall effect And if anie man be desirous to see and note it let him consider the Schollers who get their liuings in the Vniuersities by copying out of writings in good forme and hee shall finde that they can little skill of Grammer Logicke and Philosophy and if they studie Phisick or Diuinitie they fish nothing neere the bottome The boy then who with his pen can tricke a horse to the life and a man in good shape and can make a good paire of it serues little to employ him in anie sort of learning but will do best to set him to some painter who by art may bring forward his nature To reade well and with readinesse discouereth also a certaine spice of the imagination and if the same be verie effectuall it booteth little to spend much time at his booke but shall do better to set him to get his liuing by reading of processes Heere a thing note-worthy offereth it selfe and that is that the difference of the imagination which maketh men eloquent and pleasant is contrarie to that which is behoofful for a man to reade with facilitie where-through none who is promptwitted can learne to reade without stumbling and putting too
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
more abled by art the ancient Philosophers deuised Logicke to teach him how he might frame his reasons with those precepts and rules how he should define the nature of things distinguish deuide conclude argue iudge and choose without which works it grows impossible that the Artist can go forward and that he might be companiable and ciuill it behooued him to speake to giue other men to weet the conceits which he framed in his mind And for that he should not deliuer them without disposition and without order they deuised another art which they termed Rhethoricke which by his preceptes and rules might beautifie the speech with polished words with fine phrases and with stirring affections and gratious colours But as Logicke teacheth not a man to discourse and to argue in one science alone but without difference in all alike so also Rhethoricke instructeth how to speake in Diuinitie in Phisicke in skill of the Lawes and in all other Sciences and conuersations which men entermedled withall In sort that if we will faine a perfect Logician or an accomplished Oratour he cannot fall into due consideration vnlesse he be seen in all the Sciences for they all appertaine to his iurisdiction and in which soeuer of them he may exercise his rules without distinction not as Phisicke which hath his matter limited whereof it must intreat and so likewise naturall Philosophie and morall Metaphisick Astrologie and the rest and therefore Cicero said The Oratour whersoeuer he abideth dwelleth in his own And in another place he affirmeth in a perfect Oratour is found all the knowledge of the Philosophers and therefore the same Cicero auouched that there is no art more difficult than that of a perfect Oratour and with more reason he might so haue said if he had known with how great hardnesse al the Sciences are vnited in one particular subiect Anciently the doctors of the law were adorned with the name of Oratour for the perfection of pleading required the notice furniture of al the arts in the world for the lawes do iudge them all Now to know the defence reserued for euerie art by it selfe it was necessary to haue a particular knowledge of them all for which cause Cicero said No man ought to be reputed in the number of oratours who is not well seen in all the arts But seeing it was impossible to learne all Sciences first through the shortnesse of life and then because mans wit is so bounded they let them passe and of necessitie held themselues contented to giue credit to the skilfull in that art whereof they made profession and no farther After this maner of defending causes straightwaies succeeded the euangelicall doctrine which might haue been persuaded by the art of oratorie better than all the Sciences of the world besides for that the same is the most certaine and truest but Christ our redeemer charged S. Paul that he should not preach it with wisdom of words to the end the Gentiles should not think it was a well couched leasing as are those which the oratours vse to persuade by the force of their art But when the faith had been receiued many yeares after it was allowed to preach with places of Rhetoricke and to vse the seruice of eloquent speech for that then the inconuenience fell not in consideration which was extant when S. Paul preached Yea we see that the preacher reapeth more fruit who hath the conditions of a perfect orator and is more haunted than he that wanteth them and the reason is verie plaine For if the ancient oratours gaue the people to vnderstand things false for true vsing those their preceptes and rules more easily shall the christian auditorie be drawen when by art they are persuaded to that which alreadie they vnderstand and beleeue Besides that the holy Scripture after a sort is all things and to yeeld the same a true interpretation it behooueth to haue all the Sciences conformable to that so oft said saw He sent his damsels to call to the Castle This fitteth not to be remembred to the preachers of our time nor to aduise them that now they may do it for their particular studie besides the fruit which they pretend to bring with their doctrine is to seeke out a good text to whose purpose they may applie many fine sentences taken out of the diuine Scripture the holy doctors poets historians phisitians and lawyers without forbearing anie Science and speaking copiously with quietnesse and pleasant words and with al these things they goe amplifying and stuffing their matter an houre or two if need be Of this saith Cicero the oratours of his time made profession The force of an oratour saith he and the selfe art of well speaking seemeth that it vndertaketh and promiseth to speake with copiousnesse and ornament of whatsoeuer matter that shall be propounded Then if we shall prooue that the graces and conditions which a perfect oratour ought to haue do all appertaine to the imagination and to the memorie we shall also know that the diuine who is indowed with them will be an excellent preacher but being set to the doctrrin of S. Thomas and Scotus can litle skill therof for that the same is a science belonging to the vnderstanding in which power of necessitie it holdeth litle force What the things be which appertaine to the imagination and by what signs they are to be knowne we haue heretofore made mention now we will return to a replication of them that they may the better be refreshed to the memorie All that which may be tearmed good figure good purpose and prouision comes from the grace of the imagination as are merrie ieasts resemblances quips and comparisons The first thing which a perfect Orator is to go about hauing matter vnder hand is to seeke out arguments and conuenient sentences whereby he may dilate and prooue and that not with all sorts of words but with such as giue a good consonance to the eare and therefore Cicero sayd I take him for an Orator who can vse in his discourses words well tuning with the eare and sentences conuenient for proofe And this for certain appertaineth to the imagination sithens therin is a consonance of well pleasing words and a good direction in the sentences The second grace which may not be wanting in a perfect Orator is to possesse much inuention or much reading for if he rest bound to dilate and confirme any matter whatsoeuer with many speeches and sentences applied to the purpose it behooueth that he haue a very swift imagination and that the same supplie as it were the place of a braach to hunt and bring the game to his hand and when he wants what to say to deuise somewhat as if it were materiall For this cause we sayd before that heat was an instrument with which the imagination worketh for this qualitie lifteth vp the figures and maketh them to boile Here is discouered all that which in them may be seene and if there fel out
same it soone slippeth out of their mind whereon Aristotle propounded this question Whence it riseth that men in making speeches are better pleased with examples and fables than with conceits as if he should say For what occasion do such as come to heare oratours make more reckoning of the examples and fables which they alleage to prooue the things that they striue to persuade than of the arguments and reasons which they frame and to those he answereth That by examples fables men learne best because it is a proofe which appertaineth to the sense but arguments and reasons hold not the like reason for that they are a worke whereto is requisite much vnderstanding And for this cause Christ our redeemer in his sermons vsed so many parables and comparisons because by them he gaue to vnderstand many diuine secrets This point of deuising fables and comparisons it is a thing certaine that the same is performed by the imagination for it is figure and denoteth good correspondence and similitude The sixth propertie of a good oratour is to haue a readie tongue of his owne and not affected choice words and many gratious sorts of vtterance of which graces we haue entreated oftentimes heeretofore proouing that the one part of them appertaineth to the imagination and the other to a good memorie The seuenth propertie of a good oratour is that which Cicero speaketh of furnished with voice with action and with comlinesse the voice full and ringing pleasing to the hearers not harsh not hoarse nor sharp and although it be true that this springeth from the temperature of the breast and the throat and not from the imagination yet sure it is that from the same temperature from which a good imagination groweth namely heat a good voice also fetcheth his originall to know this importeth much for our purpose For the Schoole-diuines in that they are of a cold and drie complexion cannot haue their voice a good instrument and this is a great defect in a pulpit This same Aristotle also prooueth alleaging the example of old men by reason of their coldnesse and drynesse To haue a full and cleare voice much heat is requisit to enlarge the passages and measurable moisture which may supple and soften them And also Aristotle demaundeth why al who by nature are hote are also big voiced For which cause we see the contrary in women and Eunuches who through the much coldnes of their complexion sayth Galen haue their throat and voice very delicat in sort that when we heare a good voice we can straightwaies say it comes of much heat and moisture in the brest which two qualities if they passe so far as the braine make the vnderstanding to decay and the memorie and imagination to increase which are the two powers wherof the good preacher serueth himselfe to content his auditorie The eighth propertie of a good orator sayth Cicero is to haue toung at will ready and well exercised which grace cannot befall men of great vnderstanding for that it may be readie it behooueth the same to partake much heat and meane drouth And this cannot light in the melancholicke either naturall or by adustion Aristotle prooueth it by asking this question Whence commeth it that such as haue an impediment in their speech are reputed to be of complexion melancholicke To which probleme he answereth very vntowardly saying That the melancholicke haue a great imagination and that the toung cannot hast to vtter so fast as the imagination conceiueth wherethrough they stammer and stumble which yet proceedeth from nought else saue that the melancholike haue euer their mouth full of froath and spittle through which disposition their toung is moist and slipper which thing may euidently be discerned considering the often spitting of such This selfe reason did Aristotle render when he demaunded Whence it groweth that some are so slow tounged and he answereth That such haue their toung very cold and moist which two qualities breed an impediment therein and make it subiect to the palsie and so you see his conceit of the imagination cannot follow for this he yeeldeth a profitable remedie vz. to drinke a little wine or at first to hallow somwhat lowd before they speake in the presence of their audience for thereby the toung getteth heat and drieth But Aristotle sayth further that not to speake plaine may grow from hauing the toung very hot and very drie and voucheth the example of cholericke persons who growing in choler cannot speake and when they are void of passion and choler they are very eloquent the contrarie betideth to the flegmaticke who being quiet cannot talke and when they are angred vtter speeches of great eloquence The reason of this is very manifest for although it is true that heat aideth the imagination and the toung also yet the same may also breed them dammage first for that they want supplie of replies and wittie sentences as also because the toung cannot pronounce plainly through ouer-much drinesse wherethrough we see that after a man hath drunke a little water he speaketh better The cholericke being quiet deliuer very well for they then retaine that point of heat which is requisit for the toung and the good imagination but in anger the heat groweth beyond due and turneth the imagination topsie turuie The flegmaticke vnincensed haue their braine very cold and moist and therefore are set a ground what to say and their toung is ouer slipper through too much moisture but when they are set on fire and in choler the heat foorthwith getteth vp and so lifteth vp the imagination by which means there comes to their mind much what to deliuer and the toung giueth no hinderance for that it is heated these haue no great vaine in versifieng for that they are cold of braine who yet once angred do then make verses best and with most facilitie against such as haue stirred them and to this purpose Iuuenal sayd Anger makes verse if nature but denie Through the defect of toung men of great vnderstanding cannot be good orators or preachers and specially for that action requireth a speech sometimes high and sometimes low and those who are slow tounged cannot pronounce but with loud voice and in a maner crying out this is one of the things which soonest cloieth the hearers whereon Aristotle mooueth this doubt Whence it springeth that men of slow toung cannot speake soft To which probleme he answereth very well saying that fastened to the toung which is the roofe of the mouth by reason of much moisture is better loosened with a force than if you put therto but little might as if one would lift vp a launce taking the same by the point he shal sooner raise it at one push and with a force then taking it vp by little and little Me seemeth I haue sufficiently proued that the good naturall qualities which a perfect Orator ought to haue spring for the most part from a good imagination and some from the
be able to discouer to the world the comming of his sonne and haue the way to prooue and persaude That Christ was the Messias and promised in the law For making him of great vnderstanding of much imagination it fell out of necessitie keeping the naturall order that he should also make him cholericke and adust And that this is true may easily be vnderstood by him who considereth the great fire furie with which he persecuted the church the greefe conceiued by the synagogues when they saw him conuerted as they who had forgone a man of high importance and of whom the contrarie partie had made a gainfull purchace It is also knowen by the tokens of the reasonable choler with which he spake and answered the deputy Consuls and the Iudges who had arrested him defending his owne person and the name of Christ with so great aâ—t and readinesse as he conuinced them all yet he had an imperfection in his tongue and was not very prompt of speech which Aristotle affirmeth to be a property of the melancholicke by adustion The vices wherto he confessed himselfe to be subiect before his conuersion shew him to haue been of this temperature he was a blasphemer a wrong doer and a persecutor all which springeth from abundance of heat But the most euident signe which shewed that he was cholericke adust is gathered from that battaile which himselfe confesseth he had within himselfe betwixt his part superiour inferiour saying I see another law in my members striuing against the law of my minde which leadeth me into the bondage of sinne And this selfe contention haue we prooued by the mind of Aristotle to be in the melancholicke by adustion True it is that some expound very well that this battaile groweth from the disorder which originall sinne made betweene the spirit and the flesh albeit being such and so great I beleue also that it springs from the choler adust which he had in his naturall constitution for the roiall prophet Dauid participated equally of original sin and yet complained not so much as did S. Paul but saith that he found the inferiour portion accorded with his reason when he would reioice with God My heart saith he and my flesh ioyed in the liuing God and as we will touch in the last chapter saue one Dauid possessed the best temperature that nature could frame and heereof we will make proofe by the opinion of all the Philosophers that the same ordinarily enclineth a man to be vertuous without any great gainstriuing of the flesh The wits then which are to be sorted out for preachers are first those who vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie whose signes shalbe expressed in the last chapter saue one Where such want there succeede in their roome the melancholicke by adustion Those vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination but suffer defect of memorie wherthrough they are not stored with copie of words nor can preach with full store in presence of the people In the third rancke succeed men of great vnderstanding but defectiue in their imagination and memorie These shall haue but a bad grace in preaching yet will preach sound doctrine The last whom I would not charge with preaching at all are such as vnite much memorie with much imagination and haue defect of vnderstanding These draw the auditorie after them and hold them in suspense and well pleased but when they least misdoubt it they fetch a turne to the holy house for by way of their sweet discourses and blessings they beguile the innocent CHAP. XI That the Theoricke of the lawes appertaineth to the memorie and pleading and iudging which are their practise to the vnderstanding and the gouerning of a common-wealth to the imagination IN the Spanish toung it is not void of a mysterie that this word Lettered being a common tearme for all men of letters or learning as well Diuines as Lawyers Phisitions Logicians Philosophers Orators Mathematicians and Astrologers yet in saying that such a one is learned we all vnderstand it by common sence that he maketh profession of the lawes as if this were their proper and peculiar title and not of the residue The aunswer of this doubt though it be easie yet to yeeld the same such as is requisit it behooueth first to be acquainted what law is and wherevnto they are bound who set themselues to studie that profession that afterwards they may imploie the same to vse when they are iudges or pleaders The law who so well considereth thereof is nought else but a reasonable will of the law maker by which he declareth in what sort he will that the cases which happen dayly in the common wealth be decided for preseruing the subiects in peace and directing them in what sort they are to liue what things they are to refraine I sayd a reasonable will because it sufficeth not that the king or emperour who are the efficient cause of the lawes declaring his will in what sort soeuer doth thereby make it a law for if the same be not iust and grounded vpon reason it cannot be called a law neither is it euen as he cannot be tearmed a man who wanteth a reasonable soule Therefore it is a matter established by common accord that kings enact their lawes with assent of men very wise and of sound iudgement to the end they may be right iust and good and that the subiects may receiue them with good will and be the more bound to obserue and obey them The materiall cause of the law is that it consist of such cases as accustomably befall in the common wealth according to the order of nature and not of things impossible or such as betide very sildome The finall cause is to order the life of man and to direct him what he is to do and what to forbeare to the end that being conformed to reason the common wealth may be preserued in peace For this cause we see that the lawes are written in plaine words not doubtfull nor obscure nor of double vnderstanding without ciphers and without abbreuiations and so easie and manifest that whosoeuer shall read them may readily vnderstand and retaine them in memorie And because no man should pretend ignorance they are publikely proclaymed that whosoeuer afterward breaketh them may be chastised In respect therefore of the care and diligence which the good law makers vse that their lawes may be iust and plaine they haue giuen in charge to the iudges and pleaders that in actions or iudgements none of them follow his owne sence but suffer himselfe to be guided by the authoritie of the lawes as if they should say We commaund that no iudge or aduocat imploy his conceit nor intermeddle in deciding whether the law be iust or vniust nor yeeld it any other sence than that that is contained in the text of the letter So it followeth that the lawyers are to construe the text of the law and to take that
sense which is gathered out of the construction thereof and none other This doctrine thus presupposed it falleth out a matter very manifest for what reason the lawyers are termed lettered and other men of learning not so for this name is deriued from the word letter which is to say a man who is not licenced to follow the capacitie of his owne vnderstanding but is enforced to ensue the sense of the very letter And for that the well practised in this profession haue so construed it they dare not denie or affirme any thing which appertaineth to the determination of any case whatsoeuer vnles they haue lying before them some law which in expresse tearms decideth the same And if sometimes they speake of their owne head interterlacing their conceit and reason without grounding vpon some law they do it with feare and bashfulnesse for which cause it is a much worne prouerbe We blush when we speake without law Diuines cannot call themselues lettered in this signification for in the holy scripture the letter killeth and the spirit giueth life it is full of mysteries replenished with figures and cyphers obscure and not vnderstood by all readers the vowels and phrases of speech hold a very different significatiō from that which the vulgar and three-tounged men do know Therefore whosoeuer shall set himselfe to construe the letter and take the sence which riseth of that Grammaticall construction shall fall into many errours The Phisitions also haue no letter whereto to submit themselues for if Hippocrates and Galen and the other graue authors of this facultie say and affirme one thing and that experience and reason approue the contrarie they are not bound to follow them for in Phisicke experience beareth more sway than reason and reason more than authoritie but in the lawes it betideth quite contrary for their authoritie and that which they determine is of more force and vigour than all the reasons that may be alleaged to the contrary Which being so we haue the way layd open before vs to assigne what wit is requisit for the lawes For if a Lawyer haue his vnderstanding and imagination tied to follow that which the law auouched without adding or diminishing it falleth out apparent that this facultie appertaineth to the memorie and that the thing wherein they must labour is to know the number of the lawes and of the rules which are in the text and to call to remembrance ech of them in particular to rehearse at large his sentence and determination to the end that when occasion is ministred we may know there is a law which giueth decision and in what forme and maner Therefore to my seeming it is a better difference of wit for a lawyer to haue much memory and litle vnderstanding than much vnderstanding and litle memorie For if there fall out no occasion of employing his wit and abilitie and that he must haue at his fingers ends so great a number of lawes as are extant and so far different from the other with so manie exceptions limitations enlargements it serues better to know by heart what hath been determined in the lawes for euerie point which shall come in question than to discourse with the vnderstanding in what sort the same might haue been determined for the one of these is necessarie the other impertinent since none other opinion than the verie determination of the law must beare the stroke So it falles out for certaine that the Theorick of the law appertaineth to the memorie and not to the vnderstanding nor to the imagination for which reason and for that the lawes are so positiue and that because the lawyers haue their vnderstanding so tied to the will of the law-maker and cannot entermingle their own resolution saue in case where they rest vncertaine of the determination of the law when any client seeketh their iudgement they haue authoritie and licence to say I wil looke for the case in my booke which if the Phisition should answer when he is asked a remedie for some disease or the Diuine in cases of conscience we would repute them for men but simply seen in the facultie wherof they make profession And the reason heereof is that those sciences haue certain vniuersall principles and definitions vnder which the particuler cases are contained but in the law-facultie euery law containeth a seuerall particular case without hauing anie affinitie with the next though they both be placed vnder one title In respect whereof it is necessarie to haue a notice of al the lawes and to studie ech one in particuler and distinctly to lay them vp in memorie But heere against Plato noteth a thing worthy of great consideration and that is how in his time a learned man was held in suspition that he knew many lawes by heart seeing by experience that such were not so skilfull iudges pleaders as this their vaunt seemed to pretend Of which effect it appeareth he could not find out the cause seeing in a place so conuenient he did not report the same onely he saw by experience that Lawyers endowed with good memorie being set to defend a cause or to giue a sentence applied not their reasons so well as was conuenient The reason of this effect may easily be rendered in my doctrine presupposing that memorie is contrarie to the vnderstanding that the true interpretation of the lawes to amplifie restraine and compound them with their contraries and oppositions is done by distinguishing concluding arguing iudging and chusing which workes we haue often said heeretofore belong to discourse and the learned man possessing much memorie cannot by possibilitie enioy them We haue also noted heeretofore that memorie supplieth none other office in the head than faithfully to preserue the figures and fantasies of things but the vnderstanding and the imagination are those which work therewithall And if a learned man haue the whole art of memory and yet want vnderstanding and imagination he hath no more sufficiencie to iudge or plead than the verie Code or Digest which cōpassing within them all the laws and rules of reason for all that cannot write one letter Moreouer albeit it be true that the law ought to be such as we haue mentioned in his definition yet it falleth out a miracle to finde thinges with all the perfections which the vnderstanding attributeth vnto them that the law be iust and reasonable and that it proceed fullie to all that which may happen that it be written in plain termes void of doubt oppositions and that it receiue not diuerse constructions we see not alwaies accomplished for in conclusion it was established by mans coūsell and that is not of force sufficient to giue order for al that may betide and this is daily seen by experience for after a law hath bin enacted with great aduisement and counsell the same in short space is abrogated againe for when it is once published and put in practise a thousand inconueniences discouer themselues
not each other neither of many make one as it fals out in bodily powers Therefore well sayd the wise man Haue many peace-makers but take one of a thousand to be thy coūsellor as if he should say Keepe for thy selfe many friends who may defend thee when thou shalt be driuen to come to hand-strokes but to aske counsell chuse only one amongst a thousand Which sentence was also expressed by Heraelilus who sayd One with me is worth a thousand In contentions and causes euery learned man be thinketh how he may best ground himselfe on reason but after he hath well reuolued euery thing there is no art which can make him know with assurance whether his vnderstanding haue made that composition which in iustice is requisit for if one pleader proue with law in hand that reason standeth on the demandants side and another by way also of the law prooueth the like for the defendant what remedie shall we deuise to know which of the two pleaders hath formed his reasons best The sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration of true iustice neither can the same be tearmed a successe for his sentence also is but an opinion he doth none other than cleaue to one of the two pleaders and to increase the number of learned men in one selfe opinion is no argument to persuade that what they resolue vpon is therefore true for we haue alreadie affirmed and prooued that many weake capacities though they ioine in one to discouer some darke conceiued truth shall neuer ariue to the power and force of some one alone if the same be an vnderstāding of high reach And that the sentence of the Iudge maketh no demonstration is plainly seene in that at another higher seat of iustice they reuerse the same and giue a diuerse iudgement and which is woorst it may so fall that the inferiour iudge was of an abler capacitie than the superior and his opinion more conformable vnto reason And that the sentence of the superiour iudge is not a sufficient proofe of iustice neither it is a matter very manifest for in the same actions and from the same iudges without adding or reauing any one iot we see dayly contrarie sentences to issue And he that once is deceiued by placing confidence in his owne reasons falleth duly into suspect that he may be deceiued of new Wherethrough we should the lesse relie vpon his opinion For he that is once naught sayth the wiseman chace him from thee Pleaders seeing the great varietie of vnderstandings which possesse the iudges and that each of them is affectionat to the reason which best squareth with his wit and that sometime they take satisfaction at one argument sometimes assent to the contrary they thereupon boldly thrust themselues foorth to defend euery cause in controuersie both on the part affirmatiue and the negatiue and this so much the rather because they see by experience that in the one maner and the other they haue a sentence in their fauour and so that coms very rightly to be verefied which wisedome sayd The thoughts of mortall men are timerous and their foresights vncertaine The remedie then which we haue against this seeing the reasons of the lawyer faile in proofe and experience shall be to make choise of men of great vnderstanding who may be iudges and pleaders For the reasons and arguments of such sayth Aristotle are no lesse certaine and firme than experience it selfe And by making this choice it seemeth that the cōmon wealth resteth assured that her officers shall administer iustice But if they giue them all scope to enter without making trial of their wit as the vse is at this day the inconueniences which we haue noted will euermore befall By what signs it may be knowne that he who shall studie the lawes hath the difference of wit requisit to this facultie heretofore after a sort we haue expressed but yet to renew it to the memorie and to prooue the same more at large we must know that the child who being set to read soone learneth to know his letters and can pronounce euery one with facilitie according as they be placed in the A B C giueth token that he shal be endowed with much memorie for such a worke as this for certaine is not performed by the vnderstanding nor by the imagination but it appertaineth vnto the office of the memorie to preserue the figures of things and to report the natures of each when occasion so requireth and where much memorie dwelleth we haue prooued before that default of vnderstanding also raigneth To write also with speed and a faire hand we sayd that it bewraid an imagination wherethrough the child who in few daies wil frame his hand and write his lines right and his letters euen and with good forme and figure yeeldeth signe of meane vnderstanding for this worke is performed by the imagination and these two powers encounter in that contrarietie which we haue alreadie spoken of and noted And if being set to Grammer he learne the same with little labour and in short time make good Latines and write fine epistles with the well ruled closes of Cicero he shall neuer be good iudge nor pleader for it is a signe that he hath much memorie and saue by great miracle he will be of slender discourse But if such a one wax obstinat in plodding at the lawes and spend much time in the schooles he will prooue a famous reader and shall haue a stint of many hearers for the latine tongue is very gratious in chaires and to read with great show there are requisit many allegations and to fardell vp in euery law whatsoeuer hath bene written touching the same and to this purpose memorie is of more necessitie than discourse And albeit it is true that in the chaire he be to distinguish inferre angue iudge and chuse to gather the true sense of the law yet in the end he putteth the case as best liketh himsellfe he mooues doubts maketh obiections and giueth sentence after his own will without that any gainsaie him for which a meane discourse is sufficient But when one pleader speaketh for the plaintife and another for the defendant and a third lawyer supplieth the iudges place this is a true controuersie men cannot speake so adrandom as when they skirmish without an aduersarie And if the childe profit slenderly in Grammer we may thereby gather that he hath a good discourse I say we may so coniecture because it followeth not of necessitie that whosoeuer cannot learne Latine hath therefore straight waies a good discourse seeing we haue prooued tofore that children of good imagination neuer greatly profit in the Latine tongue but that which may best discouer this is Logicke for this science carieth the same proportion with the vnderstanding as the touchstone with gold Where through it falled out certaine that if he who taketh lesson in the area begin not within a month or two to discourse and to cast doubts
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
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she
eateth little and yeeldeth store of excrements wherethrough the woman conceiued of a girle is ill fauoured and full of spots and a thousand sluttishnesses sticke vnto her and at the time of her deliuerie she must tarrie so many more daies to purge her selfe than if she had brought a man child to the word On the naturall reason wherof God grounded himselfe when he commanded Moses that the woman who brought forth a male should remain in her bed a weeke and not enter into the temple vntill 33 daies were expired And if she were deliuered of a female she should be vncleane for the space of two weeks and not enter into the temple vntill after 66 daies in sort that when the birth is of a female the time is doubled VVhich so falleth out because in the nine moneths during which the child remained in the mothers wombe through the much cold and moist of her temperature she doubly encreased excrements and the same of verie malignant substance and qualitie which a male infant would not haue done Therfore Hippocrates holdeth it a matter verie perillous to stop the purgation of a woman who is deliuered of a wench All this is spoken to the purpose that we must well aduise our selues of the last day of the moneth to the end the seed may find sufficient nourishment wherwith to relieue itselfe For if the act of procreation be committed so soone as the purgation is finished it will not take hold through defect of bloud VVheron it behooueth the parents be done to vnderstand that if both seeds ioine not togither at one selfe time namely that of the woman and of the man Galen saith there will ensue no conception although the seed of the man be neuer so apt for procreation And hereof we shall render the reason to another purpose This is very certaine that all the diligences by vs prescribed must also be performed on the womans behoofe otherwise her seed euill emploied will mar the conception Therefore it is requisit they attend ech to other so as at one selfe instant both their seedes may ioyne togither This at the first cōming importeth very much for the right cod and his seed vessell as Galen affirmeth is first stirred vp and yeeldeth his seed before the left and if the generation take not effect at the first comming it is a great hap hazard but that at the second a female shalbe begotten These two seeds are knowen first by the heat and coldnesse then by the quantitie of being much or little and finally by the issuing forth speedily or slowly The seed of the right cod commeth forth boiling and so hot as it burneth the womans belly is not much in quantitie and passeth out in hast Contrariwise the seed of the left taketh his way more temperat is much in quantitie and for that the same is cold and grosse spendeth longer space in cōming forth The last consideration was to procure that both the seeds of the husband the wife fall into the right side of the womb for in that place saith Hippocrates are males engēdred females in the left Galen alleageth the reason hereof saying that the right side of the womb is verie hot through the neighbourhood which it holdeth with the liuer with the right side of the raines and with the right seed vessell which members we haue affirmed and approoued to be verie hot And seeing all the reason of working that the issue may become male consisteth in procuring that at the time of conception it partake much heat it falleth out certaine that it greatly importeth to bestow the seed in this place Which the woman shall easily accomplish by resting on her right side when the act of generation is ended with her head down and her heels vp but it behooueth her to keepe her bed a day or two for the womb doth not straightwaies embrace the seeed but after some houres space The signes wherby a woman may know whether she be with child or no are manifest and plain to euery ones vnderstanding for if when she ariseth vpon her feet the seed fall to the ground it is certain saith Galen that she hath not cōceiued albeit herein one point requireth consideration that al the seed is not fruitful or apt for issue for the one part therof is very waterish whose office serueth to make thin the principal seed to the end it may fare through the narrow passages and this is that which nature sendeth forth and it resteth when she hath conceiued with the part apt for issue It is knowen by that it is like water and of like quantitie That a woman rise vp straightwaies on her feet so soon as the act of generation hath passed is a matter verie perillous Therfore Aristotle compelleth that she beforehand make euacuation of the excrements and of her vrine to the end she may haue no cause to rise The second token whereby we may know the same is that the next day following the woman will feele her belly empty especially about the nauell Which groweth for that the womb when it desireth to conceiue becommeth verie large and stretched out for verely it suffereth the like swelling vp and stiffnesse as doth a mans member and when it fareth thus-wise the same occupieth much roome But at the point when it conceiueth saith Hippoorates sodainly the same draweth togither and maketh as it were a purse to draw the seed vnto it and will not suffer it to go out and by this meanes leaueth many emptie places the which women do declare saying that they haue no tripes left in their belly as if they were sodainly become leane Moreouer forthwith they abhorre carnall copulation and their husbands kindnesse for the belly hath now got what it sought but the most certain token saith Hippocrates is when their natural course faileth their breasts grow and when they fall in loathing with mear What diligence is to be vsed that children may prooue wittie and wise §. 4. IF we doe not first know the cause whence it proceedeth that a man of great wit and sufficiencie is begotten it is impossible that the same may be reduced to art for through conioyning and ordering his principles and causes we grow to attaine this end and by none other meanes The Astrologers hold that because the child is borne vnder such an influence of the starres he commeth to be discreet wittie of good or ill maners fortunat and of those other conditions and properties which we see consider euery day in men Which being admitted for true it would follow a matter of impossibilitie to frame the same to any art for it should be wholly a case of fortune and no way placed in mens election The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen hold that a man receiueth the conditions of his soule at the time of his forming and not of his birth for then the starres do superficially alter the child giuing him heat coldnesse moisture and drouth
the creature is not formed al so soon as the mans seed falleth into the womans wombe but affirmeth that thirtie or fortie daies are requisit ere the same can be accomplished And if this be so what auaileth it that the father go imagining of diuers things in the carnall act when as the forming beginneth not vntill some daies after especially when the forming is not made by the soule of the father or the mother but by a third thing which is found in the seed it selfe And the same being only vegetatiue and no more is not capable of the imagination but followeth only the motions of the temperature and doth nothing els After my mind to say that mens children are borne of so diuers figures through the variable imaginations of the parents is none other than to auouch that of grains some grow big and some little because the husband-man when he sowed them was distraught into sundry imaginations Vpon this so vnsound opinion of Aristotle some curious heads argue that the children of the adulterous wife resemble her husband though they be none of his And the reason which leadeth them is manifest for during the carnall act the adulterers settle their imagination vpon the husband with feare least he come and take them napping And for the same consideration they conclude that the husbands children resemble the adulterer though they be not his because the adulterous wife during the copulation with her husband alwaies busieth her selfe in contemplation of the figure of her louer And those who say that the other woman brought forth a blacke sonne because she held her imagination fixed on the picture of a blacke man must also graunt this which by these queint braines is inferred for the whole carrieth one selfe reason and is in my conceit a starcke leasing and very mockerie though it be groūded on the opinion of Aristotle Hippocrates answered this probleme better when he said that the Scythians are all alike conditioned and shaped in visage and rendereth the reason of this resemblance to be for that they all fed of one selfe meat and dranke of one selfe water went apparrelled after one selfe maner and kept one selfe order in all things For the same cause the brute beastes engender yong ones after their particular resemblance because they alwaies vse the same food and haue there-through an vniforme seede But contrariwise man because he eateth diuers meates euerie day maketh a different seed aswell in substance as in temperature The which the naturall Philosophers doe approoue in answering to a probleme that saith What is the cause that the excrementes of brute beastes haue not so vnpleasant a verdure as those of mankind And they affirme that brute beastes vse alwaies the selfe meates and much exercise there withall but a man eateth so much meate and of so diuers substance as he cannot come away with them and so they grow to corrupt Mans seed and that of beasts hold one selfe reason and consideration for that they are both of them excrements of a third concoction As touching the varietie of meats which man vseth it cannot be denied but must be graunted that of euery aliment there is made a different and particular seed VVhere it falleth out apparent that the day on which a man eateth beefe or bloudings he maketh a grosse seed of bad temperature and therefore the sonne begotten therof shalbe disfigured foolish blacke and ill conditioned And if he eat the carcas of a capon or of a henne his seed shall be white delicat and of good temperature VVherthrough the sonne so engendred shalbe faire wise and verie gentle conditioned From hence I collect that there is no child born who partaketh not of the qualities and temperature of that meat which his parents fed vpon a day before he was begottē And if any would know of what meat he was formed let him but consider with what meat his stomacke hath most familiaritie and without all doubt that it was Moreouer the naturall philosophers demand what the cause is that the children of the wisest men do ordinarily prooue blockish and void of capacitie To which probleme they answer verie fondly saying that wise men are verie honest and shamefast and therefore in companying with their wiues doe abstaine from some diligences necessarie for effecting that the child prooue of that perfection which is requisite And they confirme this by example of such parents as are foolish and ignorant who because they employ all their force and diligence at the time of generation their children doe all prooue wise and wittie but this answer tokeneth they are slenderly seene in naturall Philosophy True it is that for rendering an answere conuenient it behooueth first to presuppose and prooue certaine points one of which purporteth that the reasonable facultie is contrarie to the wrathfull and the concupiscible in sort that if a man be verie wise he cannot beverie couragious of much bodily forces a great feeder nor verie able for procreation for the naturall dispositions which are requisite to the end the reasonable soule may performe his operations carrie a contrarietie to those which are necessarie for the wrathfull and the concupiscible Aristotle saith and it is true that hardinesse and naturall courage consist in heate and Prudence and Sapience in cold and drie VVhence we see by plaine experience that the valientest persons are void of reason spare of speach impatient to be ieasted withall and verie soone ashamed for remedie whereof they straightwaies set hand on their sword as not weeting what other answer to make But men endowed with wit haue many reasons and quicke answeres and quippes with which they entertaine the time that they may not come to blowes Of such a manner of wit Salust noteth that Cicero was telling him that he had much tongue and feet verie light wherein he had reason for so great a wisedome in matters of armes could not end but in cowardise And hence tooke a certaine nipping prouerbe his originall which saith He is as valiant as Cicero and as wise as Hector Namely when we will note a man to be a buzzard and a cow-babie No lesse doth the naturall faculty gainsay the vnderstanding for if a man possesse great bodily forces he cannot enioy a good wit and the reason is for that the force of the arms and the legges springeth from hauing a braine hard and earthly and though it be true that by reason of the cold and drie of the earth he might partake a good vnderstanding yet in that it hath his composition of a grosse substance it ruinateth and endammageth the same For through his coldnesse the courage and hardinesse are quenched wherethrough we haue seene some men of great forces to be verie cowardes The contrarietie which the vegetatiue soule hath with the reasonable is most manifest of all others for his operations namely to nourish and engender are better performed with heat and moisture than with the contrarie qualities Which experience cleerely manifesteth considering