by our Lord because they affected the uppermost Seats at Table and the Chief Places in the Synagogues The principal Reason whereon they rely who bestow Degrees after this manner is that when Scholars are sensible that each of them shall be Rewarded according to the Trial they shall give of themselves they will scarce spare time from their Study to Sleep or Eat Which would cease were there no Recompence for him that takes Pains or Chastisement for him that mis-spends his time in Laziness and Loytering But this is a slender reason and a Colour for it presupposes a very great Falshood which is that Science is attained by poring much on Books by being taught by the best Masters and never missing a Lesson But they observe not that if the Scholar has not Wit and a Genius requisite to the Science he applies to it is in vain he beats his Brains Day and Night amongst his Books And the mistake is such that if these two differences of Wit so opposite to each other are in Competition one man because he is very quick without Study or seeing a Book gains Learning in a moment and the other being dull and heavy labours all his Life long without attaining the least Knowledge And the Judges as Men proceed to give the first place to him whom Nature has qualified and who took no pains and the lowest degree to him that was Born without Wit and who studied hard As if one had become Learned by turning over Books and the other continued Ignorant thro' his own Carelesness And it fares as if a Prize were propos'd to two Runners of whom one had sound and nimble Heels and the other limped with one Leg. If the Universities admitted to the Study of the Sciences none but such as have proper Genius's for them and if all the Students were equal it would be very well done to Establish Rewards and Punishments for in this case there would be no doubt at all but he who was most Learned had taken most Pains and he that was least had complied with his Ease To the second Doubt we answer that as the Eyes stand in need of clearness to see Figures and Colours even so the Imagination has need of Light in the Brain to see the Ideas in the Memory It is a Light which neither the Sun nor Tapers give but only the Vital Spirits breed in the Heart and disperse throughout the Body Besides this you must know that Fear contracts the Spirits about the Heart and so leaves the Brain dark and all the other Parts of the Body chill'd And therefore Aristotle asks Why those that are afraid Stammer in their Speech and Tremble with their Hands and Lips To which he Answers that in Fear the Natural Heat flies to the Heart leaving all other Parts of the Body chill'd But we have already prov'd that Cold according to Galen's Opinion benums all the Faculties and Powers of the Soul and hinders them from the free Exercise of their Functions This being so it is easie to answer the second Doubt and it is that those who play at Chess are in fear of losing because it is a Game in which there is a Point of Honour and in which as we have said Fortune has no Part. The Vital Spirits then flying to the Heart the Imagination is nummed with the Cold and the Images are obscured and for these two Reasons the Gamester plays but very Awkwardly But the Lookers-on as they run no Risque are in no fear of losing thro' want of Skill and therefore see many Draughts that escape the Gamesters because their Imagination retains its Heat and the Figures illuminated by the Light of the Vital Spirits True it is that too much Light blinds the Imagination which happens when he that Plays is ashamed and out of Countenance to see his Adversary beat him Then through very Indignation Natural Heat increases and illuminates more than it should of which the Standers-by are free as being unconcerned From this springs an Effect very common in the World which is that when a Man would muster up all his Forces and make his Knowledge and Ability more Conspicuous then it is that he quits himself worst of all There are others on the contrary who being put to it make a great show and with this great Flourish know Nothing Of all which the Reason is very plain for he that has abundance of Natural Heat in his Head if he be set for a Task an Exercise for instance the Disputation he is to get in twenty four hours time as is done in Spain to all those who Dispute for a Vacant Place a part of the Excess of Natural Heat retires to his Heart so that the Brain remains Temperate In this Disposition as we shall prove in the following Chapter many things offer themselves to a Man to say But he that is very knowing and of a good Understanding when he is hard put to it through Fear retains not the Natural Heat in his Head so that for want of Light he has nothing in his Memory left to say If this were duly considered by them that Censure the Actions of Generals of Armies blaming their Steps and the Orders they give in their Camp they would see what difference there is between looking on a Fight out of a Window and breaking a Launce before it and the Apprehension of the Loss of an Army upon the Spot No less inconvenience Fear in the Physitians produces in Curing for his Practice as we have proved elsewhere belongs to the Imagination which is prejudiced by Cold more than any other Power in as much as it's Operation consists altogether in Heat And so we see by experience that the Physitians Cure the Common People better than Princes and great Lords A Lawyer ask't me one day knowing well that I treated of Invention why in the Cause he was well feed Law Cases and Points of Law come readily into his Thoughts but where the Cause was starved it seemed that all his Law was lost To which I Answered that matters of Interest belonged to the irascible Faculty which resides in the Heart and which if it be not satisfied does not so chearfully furnish Vital Spirits by whose Light the Figures that are in the Memory may appear but when the same is contented it liberally affords that Natural Heat by which the Rational Soul has sufficient clearness to read all that is Written in the Head This defect attends Men of great Understanding who are interessed and selfish and in such may be discerned that Property of the Lawyer But when all is well-weighed it seems no less than an Act of Justice that he be well Rewarded who labours in another Man's Vineyard The same reason holds for Physitians who being well gratified want no Store of Medicines otherwise their Art is starved as well as that of the Lawyer But here a matter of great Importance is to be noted namely that the good
Difficulty against this Doctrin namely seeing God knew all the Wits and Ability in Israel and was well aware that the Temperate Men are possessed of that Prudence and Wisdom of which the Royal Office stands in need for what cause in the first Election that was made God sought not out such a Man as this For even the Text says that Saul was so tall of Stature as he exceeded all the people of Israel by the Head and Shoulders This is an ill sign of Wit not only in Natural Philosophy but God himself as he has pleased to shew us blamed Samuel for having an Eye to the great Stature of Eliab and his forwardness to Anoint him for King But this Doubt sufficiently informs us what Galen has said is true that out of Greece it is a folly to look for a Temperate Man seeing in so great a People as that of Israel God could not find one to choose for King but waited till David was grown up and in the mean while made choice of Saul seeing that as the Text says he was the best of all Israel tho' it seems he had more good nature than Wisdom and that alone was not sufficient to Rule and Govern Teach me goodness discipline and Knowledge says the Royal Prophet David being very sensible that it is to no purpose for a King to be Good and Virtuous if he be not withal at the same time Prudent and Wise It looks as if we had sufficiently confirmed our Opinion in this instance of King David but there arose also another King in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is born King of the Jews And if we can prove that he was red-Haired well fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of great Wisdom and Knowledge it will be no disadvantage to our Cause The Evangelists busy not themselves to relate the Composition of our Lord because it no way conduced to the subject they treated of but the same is a matter very easy to be understood supposing that an exact Temperament is all the Perfection a Man can naturally have and seeing it was the Holy Ghost that formed and Organized him it is certain that as touching the material Cause of which he form'd him it was not the Ill Temperament of Nazareth that could resist him nor cause him to erre in his work as it fares with Natural Agents but that he did what best pleased him because he wanted neither Power Knowledge nor Will to frame a Man most Perfect and without any Defect And the rather for that his Coming as he himself affirms was to endure Travels for Man and to teach him the Truth But this Temperament as we have prov'd before was the best Natural Instrument to effect these two things And therefore I hold for true the Relation that Publius Lentulus the Proconsul writ from Jerusalem to the Senate at Rome after this manner There has been seen in our Time a Man who yet lives of great Virtue call'd Jesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the Prophet of Truth and his Disciples say that he is the Son of God He raises the Dead and heals the Sick He is a Man of a middle proportionable Stature and of a very fair Countenance His Look carries such Majesty as procures at once both Love and Respect from all his Beholders His Hair down to his Ears is of the Colour of a Nut full ripe and from his Ears to his Shoulders of the Colour of Wax but brighter He has in the middle of his Forehead a little Lock after the manner of the Nazarens His Forehead is Plain but very Serene His Face without Spot or Wrinkle and of a moderate Colour His Nose and Mouth are not with any reason to be blamed His Beard thick and resembling his Hair not long but forked His Aspect is Gracious and Grave and his Eyes graceful and clear He is Awful in his Reproofs and Charming in his Admonitions He forces Love He is chearful with Gravity He is never seen to Laugh but Weep often He has elegant Hands and Arms In Conversation he is very pleasing but is seldom in Company and when he is very Modest In his Countenance and Mien the loveliest Man that can be imagined In this Relation are comprised three or four Marks of a Temperate Man The first that he had his Hair and Beard of the Colour of a Nut full ripe which if well considered is a brown Abourn which Colour God commanded the Heifer should have that was to be sacrificed in Figure of Jesus Christ And when he Ascended up into Heaven with the Triumph and Majesty due to such a Prince some of the Angels that knew nothing of his Incarnation ask'd Who is this that comes from Edom with his Garments died Red from Bosra As if they had said Who is this that comes from the Red-Land with his Garments died Red with regard to his Hair and Beard and to the Blood he was stained with The Letter also reports him the fairest Man that ever was seen which is the second Mark of a temperate Man Accordingly by this Mark Holy Scripture has distinguish'd him Goodly of Beauty among the Sons of Men and elsewhere it is said That his Eyes shall be Red with Wine and his Teeth White with Milk Which Beauty and Comely Shape of Body was of no small importance to engage the whole World to Love him because there was nothing Terrible about him And so the Letter says That every one was enclined to Love him It reports also That he was of middle Stature not that the Holy Ghost wanted Matter to make him greater if he had so pleased but because in over-charging the Rational Soul with Bones and Flesh the Wit is oppressed as we have prov'd before from the Opinion of Plato and Aristotle The third Mark namely to be Virtuous and of good Conditions is confirmed also from the same Relation and the Jews with all their false Witnesses could never prove the contrary nor answer him when he ask'd them Which of you can reprove me of Sin And Josephus from the credit of his History assures us that he seemed to be more than Man considering his great Goodness and Wisdom There is only long Life that is not verified of our Saviour Jesus Christ because they put him to Death so Young But if the Course of Nature had not been interruptted he might have lived above fourscore Years For it is very probable that he who could live in a Desart fourty Days and fourty Nights without Eating or Drinking and neither be Sick nor Die with it might better have preserv'd himself free from other slighter Accidents that might alter and impair his Temperament Howbeit this Action was reputed a Miracle and a thing that could not happen in the Compass of Nature These two Examples of Kings which we have alledged are sufficient to give to Understand that the Royal Scepter is due
lay down the Conditions to be observed that a Boy without failing may begot I say then that Fathers in order to attain this End must carefully observe six Things The first is to eat Meats hot and dry The second to procure good Digestion in the Stomach The third to use much Exercise The fourth not to apply to the Act of Venery till the Seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to Company with the Wife four or five Days before her Menses The sixth to procure that the Seed may fall on the right side of the Womb. Which Points being observed as we have directed 't is impossible to get a Girl For the First Condition you are to know that tho' a good Stomach digests and alters the Meat divesting it of the Qualities it had before yet it does not entirely destroy them For if we eat Lettuce whose Nature is cold and moist the Blood it produces will be cold and moist and the Serum cold and moist and the Seed also cold and moist and if we eat Honey which is hot and dry the Blood it breeds will be hot and dry the Serum hot and dry and the Blood likewise hot and dry because 't is impossible as Galen says that the Humours should not partake of the Substance and Qualities which the Food had before it was eaten If it be true then that the producing of Males depends on the Seed's being hot and dry in the time of the Formation it is certain that Fathers ought to eat Meats hot and dry to get a Boy However it must be confess'd that there is a very dangerous thing in this Procedure and it is from the Seed's being very Hot and Dry as we have often already said of Course there will proceed a malicious crafty deceitful Man and inclined to all kind of Vices and Ills. And such Men as these if they are not curbed are very dangerous to the State therefore it were better that they should not be Born But for all this there will not be wanting some that will say with the Proverb Nasca me hijo varon y sea Ladron Let me have a Boy and let him be a Thief because Eccles c. 20. The Iniquity of a Man is more allowable than the well-doing of a Woman Tho' this may be easily remedied by the use of temperate Meats and which partake a little of Hot and Dry or by the Preparation as adding Spice thereto Such Meats says Galen are Pullets Partridge Turtles Woodcocks Pidgeons Threshes Blackbirds and Kid which in the Opinion of Hippocrates should be eat rosted to heat and dry up the Seed The Bread they eat should be White of the finest Flower kneeded with Salt and Aniseeds because the Brown is cold and moist as we shall prove hereafter and very prejudicial to Wit Let their Drink be Whitewine mixt with Water in such quantity as the Stomach can bear and the Water that is mixt should be fresh and pure The second Care we have proposed to be observed is to eat these Meats in a moderate quantity that the Stomach may digest them for tho' by Nature they are hot and dry yet they become cold and moist whenever the natural Heat cannot digest them therefore tho' Fathers do eat Honey and drink White-wine they 'l make their Seed cold by these Meats and so get Girls and not Boys 'T is for this Reason the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry undergo this misfortune and discontent to have more Girls than poor People because they Eat and Drink more than their Stomach can bear or digest and tho' their Meats be hot and dry Sauced with Sugar Spice and Honey through being eaten on too great a quantity they become crude and not to be digested But the Crudity more prejudicial to Generation is that of Wine because this Liquor being so vaporous and fumous causes the other Aliments with it self to pass wholly undigested to the Spermatic Vessels and so the Seed falsely provokes a Man e're yet it be digested and seasoned Which made Plato commend so highly a Law he observed in the Commonwealth of Carthage by which it was provided that the New-Married-Couple should drink no Wine on the Day they designed to lie together importing that this Liquor much incommoded the Child's Health and that it was Cause sufficient to make it Vitious and of ill Inclinatitions but if the same be moderately taken there is no Sustenance affords so good Seed to the end we propos'd as White-wine especially to give Wit and Ability which is that to which we most pretend The third Caution we prescribed was to use more than moderate Exercise for this wasts and consumes the superfluous Moisture of the Seed and heats and dries the same by which a Man is rendered prolific and more able for Generation and on the contrary to give our selves to Ease and not to Exercise of the Body is one of the ways most to cool and moisten the Seed Therefore the Rich and Riotous abound in Girls more than the Poor that work hard To this purpose Hippocrates recounts that the Principal among the Scythians were very soft and effeminate and addicted to Women's Works to Sweep to Scower and to Bake and by this means were impotent in Generation and if they ever begot a Male Child it proved an Eunuch or Hermaphrodite at which being ashamed and disgusted they resolved to offer Sacrifices and Gifts to their God with Prayers not to treat them so or to afford them a Remedy for this Defect since it lay in his Power Hippocrates jeered them saying that no Effect befalls us but what is Wonderful and Divine if it be rightly considered for resolving them all into their Natural Causes the last terminates in God by whose Power all worldly Agents operate but that there are some Effects that refer immediately to God as those out of the Order of Nature and others that mediately refer to him running through all the intermediate Causes leading to the End The Country inhabited by the Scythians is as Hipporcates said Northerly extraordinarily Cold and Moist where through the abundance of Clouds the Sun is rarely seen Rich Men sit there always on Horse-back never exercising eating and drinking more than their Natural Heat is able to digest all which occasions the Seed to be cold and moist For which cause they get abundance of Girls and if they happen to have a Boy 't is such a one as we have described Know said Hippocrates to them that the Remedy for this is not to offer Sacrifices to God and no more but to walk on Foot Eat little and Drink less and not sit always at your Ease and the better to discern this cast your Eyes on the Poor of your Country and on your Slaves who not only make no Sacrifices nor offer Gifts to God not having wherewith but even Blaspheme his Blessed Name and speak injuriously of him for placing them in so mean a
very just and proper because Sleep and Stupidity proceed alike from the same Principles that is to say the great Coldness and exceeding Moisture of the Brain There is another kind of Incapacity in Wit not quite so Stupid as the former because at least they conceive the first Principles and draw Conclusions thence tho' few and not without much pains but the Impression of them remains in their Memories no longer than their Masters are talking to them and making them understand the same by Examples and Methods of Teaching agreeable to their rude and gross Understandings They resemble some Women who being big with Child are delivered but the Child dies as soon as it is born These Mens Brains are full of a Flegmatic Moisture for which cause the Ideas finding nothing Oily or Viscous neither stick nor are pliant so to teach them would be to draw Water with a Sieve A Fool 's Heart and Mind are like a bottomless Vessel pour what Precepts of Wisdom you please in none will remain there There is a third sort of Disability very common among Men of Letters who have some smattering of Wit for they take the first Notions and draw thence their Conclusions with which they overcharge and load their Memory but when they should range every thing in Order commit a Thousand Blunders These may be compar'd to a Woman deliver'd of a Child with the Head in the place of the Feet and the Eyes seated behind the Head There is found so great a Confusion of the Figures in the Memory of this third sort of Insipids that when they would be understood they have no less than an Hundred ways of speaking to Express themselves because they have conceiv'd an Infinity of things altogether undigested and without Order or Connexion of Parts These in the Schools are call'd Confus'd whose Brains are unequal as well in Substance as Temperament in some places compos'd of delicate Parts and in others of gross and ill temper'd and because it is also Various and Ununiform sometimes they speak Witty and Notable things and immediately after fall into a Thousand Impertinences Of these it is said A Fool 's Wisdom in his Brains is like a House in Ruins his Knowledge wants Words to express its self Nay I have observ'd a fourth Defect amongst Men of Letters which is not altogether Incapacity and yet they have not Wit enough for I find they that possess it take Learning retain it firmly in their Memory fix the Forms with the Correspondence they ought to have speaking and acting very well when there is occasion for it but if one sounds them and should ask the Essential Causes of what they know and understand they are easily found they have no bottom and that all their Sufficience was but a Facility to comprehend the Terms and Axioms of the Doctrin they were taught without penetrating why or how it was so Aristotle said of these That there are some Men who Brute-beast-like speak by Natural Instinct and say more than they know or consider after the manner of inanimate Beings who fail not to act very well although they are as insensible of the Effects they produce as the Fire of what it burns and the Cause of this is Nature leads them so that they cannot fail of attaining their End Aristotle might well have compar'd them to some Animals who seem to perform all their Actions with a show of Reason and Design but he supposing these Animals had at least some kind of knowledge of what they did past to Inanimate Agents because in his Opinion these though not wise and wanting Wit yet operated and very well too without being able to distinguish the Effect from the ultimate Cause This difference of Incapacity or if you please of Wit might be fully made out if without offence to any I were permitted to point to them with my Finger for I have both seen and known many such CHAP. III. The Child who has neither Wit nor Ability requisite to the intended Science cannot prove a great Proficient though he have the best Masters many Books and should labour at it all the Days of his Life 'T WAS a happy thought in Cicero in order to accomplish his Son Marcus in that sort of Learning he had made choice of for him that it would be sufficient to send him to an Academy so famous throughout the World as that of Athens to place him under so great a Master as Cratippus one of the most celebrated Philosophers of the Age and in a City which by the vast Concourse of People of all Nations met together must unavoidably furnish him with a multitude of great Examples and novel Accidents that would experimentally instruct him in his designed Studies Yet notwithstanding all the best Methods an indulgent Father could take buying some and Writing other Books for him History informs us that he prov'd a meer Blockhead equally destitute of Eloquence and Philosophy Nature being often even with the Son for her Prodigality to the Father and indeed the great Orator was mistaken in imagining that the Industry of such a Master the best Books the most refin'd Conversation of that famous Town and an unwearied application of Mind together with time sufficient to build his Hopes upon could supply the Defects of a Soul naturally incapable both of Eloquence and Philosophy At length we find he was disappointed which is the less to be wonder'd at being misled by innumerable Instances of the like Rencounters that flatter'd him with the same change in the disposition of his Son Nay he himself acquaints us That Xenocrates had no Genius for the study of Natural and Moral Philosophy for Plato used to call him his Hopeless Scholar yet the indefatigable Diligence of the Tutor and continued Endeavours of the Pupil produc'd an Excellent Philosopher He says also of Cleanthes that he was so dull and stupid that no Master would admit him to his School which shamed and confounded the Youth to such a degree that by an assiduous Application he acquired the Name of a Second Hercules in knowledge Nor were there the least hopes that Demosthenes should ever succeed in Eloquence who as Authors affirm was almost a Man before he could speak yet through his own unwearied Labours and the assistance of good Masters he became the greatest Orator in the World And Tully amongst other things recounts that he had such an Impediment in his Speech that he could not pronounce the Letter R yet by his Address he so happily overcame it that it was impossible to discern his former Defect which gave Birth to the Saying That Humane Capacity for Studies resembles a Game at Tables where if the Dice run cross the Gamester must supply the want of Fortune with his better Play But according to my Principles the Answer is ready to all Cicero's Examples For as I shall prove hereafter a slow Wit in Children promises a happier Progress in their riper Age more than an early
read in a short time but by what we understand by little and little and pause upon between whiles Our Wit encreases more and more each day in lighting by length of time upon those things we should not otherwise have known or apprehended Wit like Plant Animal and Man has its several Stages that is to say its Beginning Progression Perfect State and Declension It springs in Childhood grows up in Nonage comes to a Consistence in the Middle-age and declines in Old Age. So that he who would know when his Understanding is at the Pitch of Perfection may be assur'd 't is between Thirty-three and the end of Fifty Years more or less in which compass he may be able to judge of Grave Authors who in the course of their Lives have broached uncommon Opinions And whoever would write Books should do it at that very Age not sooner or later unless he would eat his Words or change his Opinion However the Age of Man holds not in all People the same Measure and Proportion for in some Childhood draws to a Period in the Twelfth in others not till the Fourteenth in some it determines the Sixteenth and in the rest not till the Eighteenth Year These live long because their Youth reaches not to little less than Forty and their Manhood holds on to Sixty Years Besides which they have Twenty Years of Old Age whence their Thread stretches to Eighty which is the limit of the Healthiest The first that finish their Childhood at Twelve Years are very short liv'd begin early to Discourse their Beard comes soon and their Wit lasts but a little time these ordinarily decline at Thirty-five and end their Days at Eight and forty Years There is not one of all the Qualifications already mention'd but what is very necessary useful and convenient to be observed that the young Student may come to something but above all to possess a Genius suitable to the Science he is to Study For with this we have observ'd that many Men who have begun to Study in a far spent Age Nay though they have lighted upon bad Masters an ill Method and studied in their Native Country yet all this notwithstanding have in a short time prov'd very Learned Men. For if Wit be wanting says Hippocrates all other Pains are lost No Man confirms the Truth of this better than honest Tully who full of Grief to see his Son such a Blockhead and that nothing could make him a Scholar express'd himself after this manner To strive against Nature what is it but Giant-like to make War with the Gods As if he would have said What more resembles the Giants War with Heaven than for an Insipid to set up for a Man of Parts For like as the Giants never Conquer'd the Gods but were always baffled by them even so empty Pretenders to Learning that strive against Nature will in the end have the Worst of it Nay Cicero himself advises us not to offer Violence to Nature nor attempt to be Orators in spite of her for it will be but lost Labour CHAP. IV. Nature only qualifies a Man for Learning IT is a common Saying and much used by the Antient Philosophers that Nature qualifies Man for Learning Art with its Rules and Precepts facilitates but Use and Experience of Particulars gains the Mastery But no Man has yet declared what this Nature is nor in what Class of Causes it ought to be rank'd they only affirm Whosoever pretends to Learning and wants that alone Arts Experience Masters Books and Industry prove but all in Vain There is a great Contest between the Natural Philosophers and the Vulgar about assigning the cause of this Effect The Vulgar observing a Man of great Abilities immediately declare God to be the Author of them without giving themselves any further trouble and with good reason because in Effect every good and perfect Gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights There is no Natural Cause say the Philosophers can produce Effects arm'd with such Force and Energy as God So far they are all agreed that the first Cause heats more than Fire refreshes more than Water illuminates more than the Sun himself and in our particular Formation 't is that which presides over Nature and that dispenses or denies Wit to Men. Which Consideration made the Royal Prophet David cry out Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me Vnderstanding that I may learn thy Commandments All the Antient Philosophers in a sort confess the same thing by Instinct of Nature alone conducted by right Reason to attest this Truth in spight of all Opposition 'T was upon that foot Plato knowing no City could be built without the Divine Assistance nor any good Laws made to conserve Men in Peace after an Establishment thereof framed a Law by which it was provided That the Divine Assistance should be invoked at the beginning of every Action because without that no good thing could have a just Accomplishment Which is the same thing that was said by King David before Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain Hippocrates designing to reduce into Method the Art of Curing those Diseases to which Women by reason of their Sex are exposed and esteeming it to be a very difficult matter said He that would treat of these Matters to purpose ought first to invoke the Gods and afterwards to consider and nicely distinguish the Nature Age and Temperament of Women as also the Climate where they live Which the Natural Philosophers could not away with because when they were to search into the Cause of any Effect they stop'd at the First and Universal without looking further of having regard to the Order or Dependence of Second Causes as if they had not been Influenc'd to produce such an Effect Which occasion'd Hippocrates to blame Diana's Priests for moving the Women in their grievous Diseases to offer up at the Temple their stately Garments and most precious Jewels and to leave there the Medicines whereas the proper Remedy for their Malady was as Hippocrates says to Bleed or Purge it may be or advise them to Marry if they were at Age. A Natural Philosopher being in Discourse one day with a Grammarian a curious Gardiner came up to them and asked them what was the reason that having taken such pains with the Earth to dig to sift to cleanse and dung it yet it never brought forth so good Seed as he Sow'd whereas the Plants it produc'd of its own accord grew up with a great deal of ease The Grammarian answer'd It came to pass by the Divine Providence which had so dispos'd it for the good Government of the World But the Natural Philosopher fell a Laughing at that answer seeing he had recourse to God as being Ignorant of the Connexion of Natural Causes and in what manner their Effects are produced The other seeing him laugh ask'd him if he ridicul'd him The Philosopher answer'd it was not
Galen thought the most Important Qualification of all the rest For giving an Indication of the good Composition of the Brain he saies that the sharp Wit shews the Brain to be formed of very subtile and delicate Parts but if the Understanding be Dull it denotes the Brain to be Composed of a Gross Substance where he takes no Notice of the Temperament To the end the Rational Soul might by this means Reason well the Brain ought to have these Qualities But here arises a great Difficulty which is in opening the Head of any Beast whatever we shall find his Brains composed after the self same manner as Man's without being wanting in any of the Conditions mentioned To which it is Answered that in this Man and Brute Beasts agree in having a Temperament of the four first Qualities without which 't would be impossible for them to Subsist so are they composed of the four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth whence spring and proceed Heat Cold Moysture and Dryness In the Actions of the Vegetative Soul they also agree accordingly Nature has given to both alike Organs and Instruments necessary for Nourishment such are the right Fibres traverse and oblique subservient to the four Natural Faculties They also conspire in the Sensitive Soul for so they have Nerves and Sinews alike for the Instruments of Sense In local Motion they also agree no less thus have they both Muscles as fit Instruments directed by Nature to move from place to place They also accord in Memory and Fancy for so have they both Brains as an Instrument subservient to those two Faculties that are alike composed in both The Understanding is the sole Faculty that distinguishes Man from Beast and because the Understanding acts without any corporeal Organ or depends not on the same for it's being or preservation therefore Nature had no need of a new Turn in the composition of man's Brain However the Understanding hath Occasion for other Faculties to operate which Faculties likewise have the Brain for the Instrument of their Operations We add farther that the Brain of Man requires the Conditions we have laid down to the end the Rational Faculty may by means thereof perform Operations every way agreeable and conformable to its Species As to Brute Beasts it is certain they have Memory and Fancy and some other Power that Apes the Understanding even as a Monkey Apes a Man CHAP. VII That the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Soul are knowing without being directed by Teachers when they meet with a Temperament agreeable to their Operations THE Temperament of the four First Qualities which we have already called Nature hath force sufficient of it self to leave the Plants the Brutes and Man unprovided of nothing wherewith to Act well each according to his Species and to arrive at the highest Perfection each is capable of for without any Teacher the Plants know how to spread and take Root in the Earth to draw Nourishment to keep it to digest it and throw off the Excrementitious Parts and Brute Beasts know as soon as ever they are born into the World what is agreeable to their Nature as well as to avoid what is Evil and Noxious And what most astonishes those that do not understand Natural Philosophy is that Man having a well tempered and disposed Brain suitable to each Science immediately and without being directed by any Teachers speaks concerning that Science of his own accord such elevate and subtle Things as are almost incredible Vulgar Philosophers seeing the admirable Actions performed by Brute Beasts say that there is nothing in them to Surprize us because they act those things by Instinct of Nature which directs each Species what it ought to do They say well for as we have proved already Nature is no other thing but the Temperament of the four First Qualities and that the same is the Master instructing our Souls how to perform their Offices But these Philosophers call Instinct of Nature a certain Heap of things they know not what which they have never been able in the least to Explain or make 〈…〉 ible Those Excellent Philosophers 〈…〉 and Aristotle have referred all these admirable Operations to Heat Cold Moisture and Dryness which they take for the first Principles without going further and being asked who has taught the Brute Beasts to perform such surprizing Actions And Men to Reason Hippocrates replied Nature without any other Teacher or Master as if he would have said the Faculties or the Temperament of which these Faculties consist are all knowing of themselves without the direction of any Master This we shall easily apprehend if we reflect on the Operations of the Vegetative Soul and of all the others which govern Man for if it receives a drop of Human Seed well-tempered well-digested and well-proportioned it frames a Body so regularly Composed so exact and so beautiful as the best Sculptors in the World can but imitate at a distance Galen amaz'd at the sight of so admirable a Structure the Number of it's Parts the Situation the Figure and use of each Part cried out it was Impossible for a Vegetative Soul and Temperament to know how to make so admirable a Work And that God alone was the Author of it or at least some other very wise Intelligence But we have already utterly disallowed this way of Prating for it is unbecoming Natural Philosophers to impute the Effects immediatly to God and overlook second Causes more especially in this Case where we see by Experience that if the Seed of Man be of an Incongruous Substance not having the proper Temperament the Vegetative Soul produces a thousand Extravagances For if the Seed be Colder and Moister than it ought Hippocrates has told us Men would come Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites into the World and if it were too Hot and Dry Aristotle has noted they would prove Hair-Lipped Splay-Footed and Flat-Nosed as the Ethiopians and if too moist says the same Galen they are like to prove unlick't and unshapen Lubbers and if too dry it makes them dwindle to a Dwarfish Stature all which enormous Defects are great Deformities in Mankind for which there is little reason to magnifie Nature or to Esteem her Wise but had God been the Author of these Works each of these forementioned Qualities could not have failed of Perfection Plato saies only the first Men were made by Gods own Hand and all the rest since have been born by the ordinary Course of second Causes which as they are found in order the Vegetative Soul performs her part very well but if she Concurrs not as she ought a thousand Absurdities are produced The good Order for this Effect is that the Vegetative Soul have a right Temperament Otherwise let Galen and all the Philosophers in the World give a Reason why the Vegetative Soul should have more Skill and Ability in the first Age of Man's Life to shape the Body to Nourish and make it
one should know how to make Verses without any Master 's teaching and the other after all his Labours in the Art of Poetry should not know how to Compose any He might Answer perhaps That he who is Born a Poet is possest with a Demon that Inspires him and the other not It was therefore with reason Aristotle reprehended him seeing he might have fairly imputed it to the Temperament as he did in another Place As for the Lunatic that spoke Latin without having learn'd it when he was well it shews the Analogy and Correspendence between the Latin Tongue and the Rational Soul Or it may be as we shall hereafter prove because there is a particular and proper Wit to invent Languages Latin Words and the manner of speaking this Tongue are so Rational and so agreeably strike the Ear that the Rational Soul meeting with the Temperament necessary to invent a very eloquent Language immediately stumbles on the Latin For that two Inventers of Languages may forge the same Words having both the same Invention and Ability may be clearly understood if we suppose that as God created Adam he presented all the Creatures to him to give them what Names they ought to have so he might have made another at the same time with the same Perfection and Supernatural Grace Now I demand had God presented to this other the same Creatures for him to give them Proper Names what Names would he have given them It is not to be doubted but they would have been the same that Adam gave them and the reason is clear because both in Naming would have consider'd the Nature of the Creature which was but One. In like manner the Lunatic might stumble on the Latin Tongue and speak Latin without having learn'd it in his Wits because the Natural Temperament of his Brain being altered by that Distemper he might do it in a short time after the same manner as he who first invented the Latin Tongue and so he might pronounce almost the same Words though not such laboured Periods or with such a continued Elegance because this is a sign the Devil moves their Tongue according to what the Church teaches her Exorcists The same thing is affirmed by Aristotle to have befallen some Children who at their Birth pronounced distinctly some Words and afterwards became mute He reproves the Vulgar Philosophers of his time who being ignorant of the natural Cause of that Effect attributed it to the Demons Though he could never discover the Reason and Cause of Childrens speaking at their Birth and being afterwards mute yet notwithstanding it never once entered into his thoughts that it was the Invention of the Devil or any Supernatural Effect as the Vulgar Philosophers vainly imagine who finding themselves entangled with the sublime and subtle things of Natural Philosophy possess them that know nothing that God or the Devil are the Authors of such rare and prodigious Effects because they are Ignorant of their natural Causes Children that are begot of cold and dry Seed as those got in old Age begin to reason and discourse a few Days and Months after they are Born because the cold and dry Temperament as we shall prove hereafter is more appropriate to the Operations of the Rational Soul and what Time and the long succession of Days and Months might effect is supplied by the sudden Temperament of the Brain that after this manner is pushed forward by many Causes leading to that end Aristotle tells of other Children who began to speak as soon as they were Born and afterwards were mute till they arrived at the Age allotted for speaking so that this Effect was occasion'd by the same thing as that we remembred in the Page and the other Lunatics nay and of him who all on a sudden spoke Latin without having learn'd it in his Senses Now that Children while yet in their Mother's Wombs and as soon as they are Born may be afflicted with the like Distempers is a thing not to be denied As for the She-Lunatic who Divined how that might be I will make more intelligible from Cicero than from the Natural Philosophers who describing the Nature of Man speaks after this manner That Creature of Foresight Sagacious sharp-witted capable of all Things of good Memory endued with Reason and Council which we call Man And more particularly he affirm'd That some Men by Nature surpass others in the Knowledge of Futurities For there is a power and kind of Nature which penetrates and predicts things to come the Force and Nature of which has never been yet explained by Reason What led the Natural Philosophers into an Error was their not considering as Plato did that Man was made after the likeness of God and that he participates of the Divine Providence being qualified to distinguish all the three differences of Times with Memory for the Past Sense for the Present Imagination and Understanding for the Future And as there are observed some Men surpassing others in the Remembrance of what is Past and some excelling others in the Knowledge of the Present so are there some who are naturally more capable than others in guessing what is to Come One of the strongest Arguments that enforced Tully to believe the Rational Soul incorruptible was the observing with what certainty sick People predict Futurities especially when they are nearest Death But the difference there is betwixt the Prophetic Spirit and this Natural Wit is this what God has by the Mouth of the Prophets declared is Infallible because it is his express Word But that which a Man Prognosticates by the strength of Fancy has not the same certainty Those who say the She-Lunatic discovered the Virtues and Vices of those who came to see her by the Artifice of the Devil may understand that God gives to Men a Supernatural Grace by which they may know which are the Works of God and which of the Devil This St. Paul ranks among the Divine Gifts calling it The Discerning of Spirits 'T is by this we know whether it is a good or bad Angel comes to move us for the Devil comes often to us under the Appearance of a good Angel the better to deceive us Upon which occasion we shall stand in need of this Supernatural Gift to know and distinguish him from the good Angel Those who have not a Genius proper for Natural Philosophy will be furthest from this Gift because both that Science and the Supernatural which is Inspired by God fall upon the same Faculty which is the Understanding at least it is so for the most part when God in the Communicating of his Gifts accommodates himself to each Man 's Natural Genius as I have said before Jacob being at the point of Death which is a time when the Rational Soul is the freest to foresee Futurities all his Twelve Sons came into his Chamber to see him he told each in particular their Virtues and their Vices and predicted what should
But we grounding only on the Doctrin we have handled may easily understand what is to be known in this matter The cause of Laughter is no other in my Opinion than a tacit allowance of the Imagination when it sees or hears some Rencounter or Accident which proves very agreeable And as this Power resides in the Brain when any of those things present it is strait mov'd and with it the Muscles all over the Body so we often approve sharp and witty Sayings by a nod of the Head But when the Imagination is very good it is not gratified with every Passage but with those only which are very pleasing and if they are not such it receives rather a Disgust than Pleasure Whence it comes that we seldom see Men of good Invention laugh and what is yet more considerable is that those who rally the most agreeably and are very Facetious never laugh at their own Jests or those of others because they have so delicate and fine a Fancy that their own witty Expressions and Railleries are not moving nor have all the Agreeableness and Grace they ought to have To which may be added That the Grace and Air of the thing spoke or offer'd ought to be new unheard-of and unseen Which is not the aim only of the Imagination but also of the other ruling Powers in Man Accordingly we find the Stomach strait nauseates the same Food it received twice the Sight the return of the same Figure and Colour the Hearing the repetition of the same Tune though it be good and so even the Understanding is tired with the same Thought Therefore he that rallies well laughs not at all at his own witty Jests because e'er they proceed out of his mouth he knows well enough before-hand what he is to say Whence I conclude the great Laughers want Imagination and let the Jest be what it will as flat as it is it extreamly moves and tickles ' em And therefore those who are very sanguine as they have a great deal of moisture which we have affirm'd to be contrary to and destructive of the Imagination so they also are very great Laughers Moisture has this peculiar that because of its smoothness and softness it blunts the edge and allays the heat causing it not to burn so much Accordingly that agrees best with Driness because it quickens its Actions Add to this that where Moisture is found it is a sign that the Heat is slack and moderate because it cannot resolve and consume it nor can the Imagination with so weak a Heat speed its own Operations From whence also it follows that Men of great Understanding are great Laughers because they want Invention As we may read of that great Philosopher Democritus and many others whom I have seen and observed Thus by means of Laughter we may discern if the Persons that have hard and rough Flesh and besides that black and crisp harsh and hard Hair excel in the Understanding or Imagination So that Aristotle has been mistaken in what regards the smoothness or softness of the Flesh One may Answer the fifth Argument That there are two sorts of Moisture in the Brain one which proceeds from the Air when that Element is prodominant in the Composition and the other from Water by means of which the other Elements are blended together If the Brain partake of the first Moisture the Memory will be very good easie to receive and strong to retain the Figures long because the moisture of the Air is very Oily and unctuous in which the Species of things fasten strongly as may be seen by Painting in Oil which exposed to the Sun or cast into the Water sustains no damage and if we rub a Writing all over with Oil it never wears out Since that which is obliterated to that degree that one cannot read it is made legible by Oil which gives it a kind of clearness and transparence But if the smoothness and softness of the Brain proceed from any other Humour the Argument is strong for if it receive easily the Figure it also as suddenly wears out because the moisture of the Water has no Oil to which the Species could stick and catch These two kinds of Moisture are distinguished in Hair that which proceeds from Air makes them thick oily and greasy and that from Water slimy and limber The sixth Argument may receive this Answer That the Figures of things in the Brain are not imprinted there like the Figure of the Seal in the Wax but only by penetrating remain there fixt or after the manner as Birds are caught with Birdlime and Flies with Honey because these are not Corporeal Figures and cannot be blended nor break in upon one another We may resolve the seventh Difficulty thus That the Figures confound and soften the Substance of the Brain neither more nor less than Wax is softned between the Fingers Besides that the Vital Spirits have the Virtue to soften and moisten the Members that are hard and dry even as we see the heat of the Fire soften Iron And we have already proved that the Vital Spirits ascend up to the Brain as often as any thing is learn'd by heart Whether all Corporeal and Spiritual Exercise drys or not all Physicians hold that moderate Exercise fattens The eighth Argument is capable of this Reply there are two kinds of Melancholy one Natural which is as it were the Cement of the Blood whose Temperament is cold and dry and which is of a very gross substance and the same is of no advantage to the Wit but makes Men Fools Sots and Giglers because of a defect in their Imagination There is another call'd Atra-bilis black or burnt Choler which according to Aristotle's Opinion made the wisest Men whose Temperament is various as is that of Vinegar which sometimes produces some effects of heat making the Earth quake like Dough and at other times too much cools it but is always dry and of a very delicate substance Cicero own'd he had a slow Wit because he had no adust Choler and he spoke truth for if he had been so he would not have proved so Eloquent for the Men of black Choler want Memory to which belongs Volubility of Speech It has another quality which mightily helps the Understanding that is to be as resplendent as an Agat by means of which Splendor the Brain is illuminated to the end the Figures may be clearly reflected And this Heraclitus meant when he said A dry Light makes a most excellent Wit which Splendor the Natural Melancholy has not but its Black is Sleep and Death And we shall hereafter prove that the Rational Soul has occasion to have a Brain of Light to reflect the Figures and the Species The Answer to the ninth Argument is That the Prudence and Dexterity of Wit as Galen said belong'd to the Imagination by means of which Futurities are known and with Allusion to this Cicero affirmed The Memory is of
to the Understanding being Writ in Latin that even such as want a good Memory can Read and Study those Books the Latin Tongue being so repugnant to them by reason of a defective Memory We may solve the first Problem thus There is no better Test to discover if a Man wants Understanding than to note if he be Haughty in Punctilio's of Honour Presumptuous Elated Ambitious and Ceremonious The reason is that all these are the Effects of a Difference of Imagination which requires no more than one Degree of Heat with which the great Moisture requisite to Memory consists well because this Degree of Heat is not of force sufficient to resolve it On the contrary an infallible sign that a Man is naturally humble is when he is observ'd to undervalue himself and whatever comes from him or relates to him and that not only Vaunts not and commends not himself but is offended at and scarce admits the Praises bestow'd on him by others being uneasie and in pain with Punctilio's and in places of Ceremony that Man I say who has these Marks may justly pass for a Man of great Understanding but of little Imagination and Memory I said naturally Humble because if it be by Art it is no certain sign whence it comes that the Grammarians are provided with so great a Memory and uniting with it this difference of Imagination which we just now mentioned they are necessarily deficient in their Understanding and such as the Proverb described To the second Problem may be answer'd That Galen gathering the Wit of Men from the Temperament of the Region they inhabit says That all those who dwell Northerly are defective in Understanding and those Situated between the North and the Torrid Zone are most Prudent which Position answers exactly to our Country and without doubt it is so for Spain is neither so Cold as the Northern Climes nor so Hot as the Torrid Zone Aristotle seems to be of the same Opinion when he Enquires Why those that live in very cold Countries have not so good an Understanding as those Born in very hot In his Answer he treats but coursly the Flemmings Germans English and French saying That the greater part of the Wits of those Nations resembled that of Drunkards for which reason they could not search into or know the Nature of things And the Cause of this is the overflow of Moisture in their Brains and other Parts of their Body which the fairness of their Complexions and the flaxen Colour of their Hair denotes and that it is a wonder to see a German bald and besides that they are all big and of large Stature through the abundance of Moisture which is a dilater of the Body The contrary is discern'd in the Spaniards who are a little Tawny black Hair'd of mean Stature and for the most part Bald which is a disposition affirm'd by Galen proceeding from a hot and dry Brain And if that be true they must of necessity have an ill Memory but a good Understanding and the German a great Memory and little Understanding Accordingly one of them cannot learn Latin and the other learns it readily The reason given by Aristotle to prove the little Understanding of the Northern People is that the great Ambient Cold of the Country forces the Natural Heat inward by an Antiperistasis and hinders it from being dissipated and so they have abundance of Moisture and Heat it is therefore these People are at the same time furnished with a good Memory for the Tongues and with a good Imagination by means of which they make Clocks bring the Water from the River to Toledo invent Machines and very curious Works which the Spaniards cannot make because they want Imagination but if they apply themselves to any point of Logic Philosophy School-Divinty Physic and the Laws a Spaniard without Comparison will speak more sublime and quainter things in his own Tongue and in barbarous Terms than a Stranger can do with all his fine Latin for take these People out of their Elegant and Polite Road of Writing and they perform nothing Extraordinary nor have they any Invention In Proof of this Doctrin Galen says In Scythia which is a Northern Country as a Wonder there arose one Philosopher whereas at Athens they are all such But though Philosophy and the other Sciences by us named are repugnant to these Northern People yet the Mathematics and Astronomy are proper to them because they have an Excellent Imagination The Answer to the third Problem depends on a much agitated Dispute between Plato and Aristotle One affirms that there are Words which naturally signify Things and that much Wit is requir'd to invent them which Opinion is favour'd by Holy Writ telling us that Adam gave to each Creature God set before him the proper Name most suitable to it But Aristotle would not yield that there was in any Tongue any Term or Figure of Speech that naturally signified the thing but that all Words were by Institution according to the Caprice and Fancy of Men. Accordingly it is known by Experience that Wine has more than Threescore Names and Bread as many and each its own in each Tongue nor can it be affirm'd of one that it is more proper and natural than all the rest for if it were all the Men in the World would use that However after all Plato's Opinion is truer For say the first Inventers of Tongues imposed Names according to their Fancy that Fancy was still with Reason as well in consulting the Ear as having regard to the Nature of the thing and observing the Graces of Pronounciation so as that the Words be not too long or too short and that there be no need of distorting the Mouth in Speaking giving the Accent in the proper place and the like Conditions to be observ'd that the Tongue be Eloquent and not Barbarous Of the Opinion of Plato was a Spanish Cavalier who diverted himself with Writing Books of Chivalry because he was furnished with that difference of Imagination which inclines a Man to such Stories and Lyes It is reported of him that being to bring into his Romance a certain fierce Giant he was for several days studying what Name would be most answerable to his Exploits but he could never chop upon it till playing one day at Tables with a Friend of his he heard the Master of the House say Ola Mochacho traquitantos a esta mesa That is to say Holla Boy bring hither some Dice for the Tables The Gentleman no sooner heard the Word Traquitantos but weighing the well sounding Name in his Ears without any longer stay for good Fortune rose up and said Gentlemen I play no longer for I have been a long while Inventing a Name that should agree well with a fierce Giant whom I make use of in certain Fictions I have composed and could not for my Life light upon it till I came to this House where I always received
in clear Words not Equivocal Obscure or of divers Senses without Cyphers or Abbreviations but so Obvious and Manifest that whoever reads them may readily understand and bear them in mind And because none may plead Ignorance of them they are appointed to be openly Proclaim'd that whoever breaks them may be Punished In respect therefore of the Care and Diligence observ'd by good Legislators that their Laws should be just and clear Judges and Advocates had given them in Charge That in Actions or Judgments none of them should abound in their own Sense but be directed by the Authority of the Laws That is to say not to dispute if the Law be Just or Unjust nor to give it any other Sense than it naturally bears according to the Letter From which it follows that the Lawyers are to keep close to the Text of the Law and take the meaning which is drawn from thence and no other This Doctrin being supposed it is easie to understand whence the Lawyer is called Letrado and other Lettered Men not so which is to say he is a letra dado tied to the Letter a Man that is not left at liberty to judge according to his own Understanding but is obliged to follow the very Letter Which having been so construed by those who are the best Practised in this Profession they dare neither Affirm nor Deny any thing concerning the Decision of any Case if they have not before them the Law deciding it in express Terms and if at any time they advance any thing of their own Head interposing their own Authority and Reason without founding it on the Law they do it not without Doubting and Modesty and accordingly we have a common Proverb Erubescimus dum sine lege loquimur importing that we are asham'd to judge and advise where we have not the Law before us that determines the matter The Divines cannot be call'd in this Sense Letrados Learn'd because in Holy Writ The Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life That being full of Mysteries and abounding with Figures dark and not obvious to every Understanding Its Terms and Manner of Speech of a very remote Signification from that given by those skilled in the three Vulgar Tongues Therefore he that interprets it according to the Letter and takes the Sense that is drawn from the Grammatical Construction will fall into many Errors Nor are the Physicians more obliged to submit to the Letter for if Hippocrates and Galen and other Grave Authors of that Science affirm a thing and Experience and Reason shew the contrary they are not bound to follow them and the reason is because in Physic Experience has more place than Reason and Reason more than Authority But in the Laws it happens quite otherwise for there Authority and the Decretals have more Power and Prevalence than all the Reasons to the contrary Which being so we have a way open to assign the Wit proper for the Laws for if the Lawyer is to have his Understanding and Imagination determined to follow blindly whatever the Law says without adding or diminishing it is certain this Faculty relates to the Memory and all they have to do is to know the number of the Laws and the Rules of Right and to bear in mind each in particular by Heart to reduce to Heads every Case and its Determination to the end that as any Case occurs he may know what Law determines it and in what manner Therefore it seems to me that the best Difference of Wit for a Lawyer is to have a great Memory and a small Understanding rather than much Understanding and little Memory for if he is not to make use of his Wit and Ability but must have regard to the great number of Laws as they are so distinguish'd from each other with so many Exceptions Restrictions and Enlargements it is more to the purpose to have by Heart what is determined by the Law in each Case that occurs than to Discourse or Reason after what manner it ought to be determined for one is necessary and the other impertinent no other Opinion being sufficient to carry the Point but the decision of the Law So that it is certain that the Theory of the Law belongs to the Memory and not to the Understanding or Imagination for which reason the Laws are so entirely positive and the Lawyers have their Understandings so determined by the Will of the Ligislator that they cannot interpose their own Opinion but where they are in doubt what the Law has declared when their Clients consult them they are allow'd to say I will look for the Case in my Books which should the Physician say when they come for Cure of any Disease or a Divine in a Case of Conscience they would pass for Men of small Ability in their Professions And the reason of it is that these two last Sciences have their Definitions and Principles Universal under which particular Cases are contain'd but in the Faculty of the Law each Law contains only one Case the following Law not depending on it though they are placed both under one and the same Title Wherefore it is necessary to have notice of all the Laws to Study each in particular and to lay them up all distinctly in the Memory However against this Doctrin Plato observes a thing very considerable which is that in his time that Lawyer was suspected that knew much Law by Heart finding by Experience they never made such good Judges and Pleaders as their Ostentation promised of which without doubt he reached not the Cause since he said nothing of it in so proper a place only he saw by Experience that the Lawyers of great Memory being to defend a Cause or give their Opinion in it applied not the Law so well as became them The Reason or Cause of this Effect is not hard to assign from this Doctrin supposing that the Memory be contrary to the Understanding and that the true Interpretation of the Laws to Amplify to Restrain and to Analyse them with their Contraries and their Contexts is done by distinguishing concluding arguing judging and chusing which Works as we have often said already are Acts of the Understanding and for the Lawyer of a great Memory it is scarce possible he should possess them We have noted elsewhere that the Memory seems to have no other Office in the Head than the Trust to preserve the Figures and Ideas of things and that the Understanding and Imagination are Powers that work with them So as if the Lawyer have his whole Art in his Memory and yet be wanting in Understanding and Imagination he will no more be able to Judge or Plead a Cause than the Code or Digest it self which though they contain all the Laws and Rules of Right yet know not how to Write ever a Letter in the Book Furthermore though it be true that the Law ought to be such as its Definition imports yet is it no less than a
will appear by his Death or Recovery which had the best Reason of the Two Nevertheless for all that the Success is not yet a Proof sufficient for whereas the same Effect hath many Causes the Success may well be by means of one Cause and yet the Reasons be grounded upon a Contrary Aristotle says also That to know what Reasons conclude it is good to follow the received Opinion for when many Wise and Considering Men affirm the same thing and conclude all from the same Reasons it is an Argument though it be but Topical that they are concluding and that they comprehend well the Truth But if it be well considered this Proof is still very Fallacious and Deceitful for in the Force of the Understanding weight avails more than number for it fares not here as in bodily Forces where many Hands joined can do much to lift up a Weight and a few but little But to discover a hidden Truth one piercing Understanding alone shall do more than a Hundred thousand that are not And the reason of it is because the Understandings help not one another neither of many make one as it fares in Bodily Forces Therefore well said the Wise Man Provide thy self with many Peace-makers but with one Counsellor of a thousand According to which Opinion Heraclitus spoke pertinently when he said One to me is as good as a Thousand As for Causes and Pleadings each Advocate gives his Opinion the best grounded upon Law he can but after having well discoursed he cannot know certainly by any Art if his Understanding has composed such a Judgment as true Justice requires for if one Lawyer proves in form of Law that the Plantiff is in the right and the other denies it also by way of Law by what Expedient shall it appear which of the two Advocates Reasons better The Sentence of the Judge makes no Demonstration of true Justice nor can it be called Success because his Sentence amounts to no more than an Opinion and he does no other than fall in with one of the Council And to increase the number of Learned Men in the same Opinion is not an Argument to believe that their Sentiment is the Truth for we have already said and proved that many weak Capacities though they join together to discover some dark and hidden Truth shall never arrive at the point or degree of Strength as a single one that is of a deeper Reach And that the Sentence of the Judge makes not Demonstration of the Truth is clearly seen in that it is reversed in a Higher Court where they very often Judge after another manner and what is yet worse it may happen that the Inferior Judge may have a better Understanding than he before whom the Appeal lies and his Opinion may chance to be more conformable to Reason That the Sentence of the Superior Judge is no more a sufficient Proof of Justice is a thing yet more manifest for we see every day that in the same Cases without adding or diminishing any thing and from the same Judges quite contrary Sentences issue And he who has already been once mistaken in confidence of his own Reasons may very well be mistaken again so that his Opinion is the less to be depended upon because He that is Once in the Wrong is ever presumed in the Wrong says the Wise Man Pleaders observing the Diversity of Opinions amongst the Judges and how each is sway'd by the Reason that seems most to prevail with him and that sometimes they are concluded by one Argument and sometimes by another quite contrary thereupon they boldly undertake to defend any Cause indifferently in the Negative or Affirmative the rather because they see by Experience that on one side and the other they may obtain Sentence in their Favour And so it comes to be Verified what Wisdom has said That the Thoughts of Men are full of Fear and their Foresight Vncertain The Remedy then for this since the Reasons of the Law remain without Proof and Experience is to make choice of Men of great Abilities to be Judges and Pleaders inasmuch as Aristotle says the Reasons and Arguments of such are as firm and riveted as Experience it self And by such a Choice it seems that the Common-wealth may be better secured that her Officers shall administer Justice Whereas if as it has been used the Door be open for all without distinction to enter and possess those Posts without making Trial of their Wit the Inconveniences we have noted will happen every day By what Signs it may be known that he who would apply himself to the Study of the Laws has the Difference of Wit required for this Science we have heretofore in a manner explained but to refresh the Memory and prove it more at large we must know that when the Child who learns to Read shall know well his Letters and shall readily give the sound to each after the order of the Alphabet it is an Indication of a good Memory for it is certain that such a Work as this is neither performed by the Understanding nor Imagination and that it is alone the Office of the Memory to preserve the Figures of things and to report the Name of each as there is Occasion And if he has a great Memory we have already prov'd that by consequence he wants Understanding To Write a running fair Hand as we have noted discovers the Imagination so much that the Child who in a few Days knows how to hold his Hand upon his Paper to draw his Lines strait and to cut all his Letters even and in good Form and Figure gives Proof of a mean Understanding because this is the Work of the Imagination and these two Powers have a great Contrariety between them as we before noted And if being set to Grammar he learn the same with ease and in a short time he makes good Latin and Writes Epistles Elegantly with the round Cadences of Cicero he will never prove either a good Judge of Pleader because it is an indication he has a good Memory and without a Miracle he will be defective in his Understanding But if he be unwearied in Plodding on the Laws and stay a long time in the Inns of Court he will not fail to be a famous Reader and to be followed by abundance of Hearers for the Latin Tongue is very agreeable in the Chair and to Read publickly with great Applause there will be occasion of many Allegations and to muster up in every Law all that has been Written upon it to which purpose the Memory is of much more use than the Understanding for though it be true that in the Chair he is to Distinguish Infer Argue Judge and Chuse to gather the true Sense of the Law yet in the end he puts the Case as best likes him raises what Objections and solves them how he pleases and gives his Opinion as he will without any gain-saying for which things a mean Understanding
that shall be a very able Practitioner undoubtedly will be but a mean Theorist for a great Imagination cannot be united with a good Understanding and Memory And this is the reason why none are so consummate in Physic as never to fail in their Cures for not to fail in their Performances there is need to know the whole Art and to have a good Imagination to reduce the same to Practice but these two things as we have proved are Incompatible The Physician never attempts the Cause and Cure of any Disease but that he secretly frames to himself a Syllogism in Darii unless he be but an Emperic And the Proof of the first Position of his Premises belongs to the Understanding and the second to the Imagination For which reason the approved Theorists ordinarily Err in the Minor and the expert Practitioners in the Major as if we should speak in this manner All Fevers that depend on cold and moist Humours are to be Cured with Medicines hot and dry in taking the Indications from the Cause But the Fever which affects this Man depends on cold and moist Humours therefore it must be Cured with Medicines hot and dry The Truth of the Major is proved by the Understanding because it is an Universal Proposition affirming that Cold and Moisture require Heat and Driness to moderate them for that every Quality is abated by its Contrary But when we come to the Proof of the Minor the Understanding avails not because it is Particular and so is out of its Jurisdiction and its Cognizance pertains to the Imagination which draws from the Five Exterior Senses the proper and particular Symptoms of the Disease But if the Indication be to be taken from the Fever or its Cause it is that which the Understanding cannot reach only it teaches to take the Indication from that we apprehend most danger But which of the Indications is greatest the Imagination only can comprehend in weighing the Evils the Fever does with those that proceed from the Symptoms or Cause the little forces or great strength To learn this Notice the Imagination has certain ineffable Proprieties by means of which it reaches some things which it can neither tell nor comprehend and for which no Arts are of use Insomuch that we see a Physician coming to Visit the Sick who by the Sight Hearing Smell and Touch arrives at the Knowledge of what seemed Impossible so that should we ask him by himself how he was able to arrive at such nice Notions he could not tell because it is a Gift that proceeds from a Fruitfulness of Imagination which may be otherwise called Sagacity and which by some common Signs incertain Conjectures and where there is but slender footing in the twinkling of an Eye learns a Thousand different things wherein the Virtue of Curing and Prognosticating with assurance consists Of this sort of Sagacity the Men of great Understanding are unprovided because it makes a Part of the Imagination Insomuch that having before their Eyes the same Signs that discover to others the Secret of the Disease yet they make no Impression upon their Senses because these very Men are unprovided of Imagination A Physician took me aside to ask me whence it was that having studied with very great Curiosity all the Rules and Observations of the Semejotics of the Art of Physic and being very well versed in them yet he could never hit the Truth so much as from any one Prognostic To which I remember I answered That the Art of Physic was learn'd by one Power and put in Practice by another He had an Excellent Understanding but a very bad Imagination But a great Doubt arises in this Doctrin which is to know how the Physicians furnished with a great Imagination learn the Art of Physic since they are defective in Understanding For if it be true that these cure the Sick better than the most Learned Physicians to what end do these lose time to Study in the Schools To this the Answer is That it is a matter of great Importance first to know the Art of Physic for in two or three Years a Man may learn all that the Ancients were gathering in Two thousand And if a Man should acquire it by Experience he ought to live at least Three thousand Years and in Experimenting Medicines he would kill an infinite number of People before he understood all their Virtues from which he is freed by Reading the Books of Rational and Experimental Physicians who advise us in their Writings of what they have found out in the whole Course of their Lives to the end that the Doctors that come after them may boldly make use of those that are safe and forbear those that are Poisonous Besides which we are to know that the Common and Vulgar things in all Arts are obvious and easy to learn and yet the most Important in the Work and that on the contrary the most Curious and Subtile are the most obscure and least necessary in Curing And so it is that the Men of great Imagination are not wholly destitute of Understanding and Memory so that in the remiss degree in which they possess these two Powers they may be able to learn the most necessary Points of Physic for that they are plainest and with the good Imagination they have they may better know the Disease and its Cause than the most Rational in the Science since it is the Imagination that finds occasion of the Remedy they ought to apply in this Grace consists almost the whole Practice Therefore Galen said That the true Name of a Physician was to be the Inventor of the Occasion but to learn to know Time Place and Occasion without doubt are Works of the Imagination because that carries with it Figure and Correspondence The Difficulty is now to know to which of so many differences of Imagination the Practice of Physic belongs for it is cettain that all these Differences agree not in the same particular Reason which Speculation has more employed my Thoughts than all the rest And nevertheless I have not been able yet to give it the Name it ought to have unless it springs from a degree of less Heat than that difference of Imagination with which Verses and Songs are made But this I determine not positively because all the Reason upon which I build is that all those that I have known to have practised Physic well are little Dablers in Poetry But neither are their Thoughts very elevate nor their Verse very excellent Which may also come to pass because the Heat in a point exceeds that required by Poetry and if it be so it must be because the Heat is so great that it somewhat dries the Substance of the Brain without resolving much of the Natural Heat though if it proceed further it makes no ill Difference of Wit for Physic inasmuch as by Adustion it unites the Understanding with the Imagination But this sort of Imagination is not so good
That they had strong Stomachs that were inured to Garlic Leaks and Onions and when they fed upon Meat of so slight Resistance it turned all into Choler Therefore Galen forbid those that abound in Natural Heat to eat Honey or any other such slight Food lest it should corrupt and instead of Digesting broil in the Stomach like Fat. Even so it befel the Israelites with the Manna for it converted all into Choler Adust So that they became wholly Dry and Withered because this Meat was not substantial enough to stuff them Our Soul is dried away and there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our Eyes The Water they drank after this Meat was such as they desired and if they had not found it as they wished God shewed Moses a piece of Wood which had so Divine a Virtue that being cast into Gross and Salt Water it made them become delicate and savory and when they had no Water Moses took the Rod with which he opened a dozen Ways in the Red-Sea and striking therewith the Rock there issued Springs of Water as delicate and savory as their Taste could wish Which gave Occasion to St. Paul to say That the Rock followed them That is to say that the Water streamed out of the Rock according to their Wishes delicate sweet and savory And they had their Stomachs suited to the drinking of Gross and Briny Waters for in Egypt says Galen they boiled them to prepare them for Drink being putrid and corrupt so that drinking such delicate Waters they could not avoid their turning to Choler because of their small resistance The same Qualities says Galen Water requires to digest well in our Stomach and not Corrupt as the solid Meats we eat If the Stomach be strong it ought to have strong Aliments to correspond with it in proportion but if the same be weak and delicate such the Meat ought also to be The same is to be observed in Water for we see by Experience if a Man be accustomed to drink Gross Waters he never quenches his Thirst with the Purer nor feels them hardly in his Stomach nay he shall be more Thirsty after them inasmuch as the Extream Heat of the Stomach burns and resolves them as soon as they are down because they can make no Resistance The Air they breathed in the Desart was as we may say subtil and delicate for travelling over Mountains and through vast Solitudes it Fanned them every moment fresh and clear and without the least Corruption because they made no long stay in any Place It was also ever very Temperate for by Day a Cloud was drawn before the Sun that restrained it from scorching and by Night arose a Pillar of Fire that moderated it and qualified it for such an Air as Aristotle affirms much sharpens the Wit Let us now consider how delicate and well digested the Seed of the Males of this Hebrew People might be being nourished by such Food as Manna drinking the Waters we have spoke of and breathing an Air so pure and delicate and withal how delicate and fine the Flowers of their Women might be and let us call to mind what Aristotle said That the Flowers being subtile and delicate the Child bred of them shall be a Man of great Capacity How much it imports that the Father should eat delicate Meats to beget very able Children we shall prove at large in the last Chapter of this Book And whereas all the Jews eat of the same delicate and spirituous Meat and drank of the same Water all their Children and Posterity proved sharp and of great Wit for the Matters of this World From the Time the Children of Israel were arrived at and setled in the Land of Promise with a sharp Wit as we have said they had so many Travels Dearths Sieges of Enemies Subjections and Bondages and other ill Usages that if they had not brought from Egypt and the Wilderness the Hot Dry and Adust Temperament before mentioned they would have Contracted the same from their uncomfortable Course of Life For continual Sadness and Toil unite the Vital Spirits and Arterial Blood in the Brain Liver and Heart where sticking one about the other they come to heat and burn And so very often they raise a Fever but ordinarily produce Choler adust of which most of that Nation partake even to this day as Hippocrates said That Fear and Sorrow which hold long are signs of Melancholy We have already affirmed That this Burnt Choler was the Instrument of Craft Cunning Intriguing and Malice and that Humour is accommodated to the Conjectures in Physic and by the same the Notice of the Cause and Cure of Diseases is attained So King Francis admirably hit upon it and what he said was not a Delirium much less a Suggestion of the Devil but it ought rather to be thought that by the means of a high Fever of so long Continuance and through the Indignation he was in to see himself Sick without Relief his Brain was fired and his Imagination raised to that degree of which we have proved before that if it reaches the Temperament it ought forthwith it makes a Man speak what he never learn'd But against all that we have said a very great Difficulty arises which is that if the Sons or Grandchildren of those that were in Egypt and had tasted Manna the Waters and delicate Air of the Desart had been designed for Physicians it might seem that the Opinion of King Francis was somewhat probable for the Reasons recounted But that their Posterity should retain even to this day the Dispositions of the Manna the Water the Air the Afflictions and the Toils their Ancestors endured in the Egyptian Captivity is a thing not easy to conceive For if in Four Hundred and thirty Years which the Children of Israel spent in Egypt and the Fourty in the Desart their Seed could acquire those Dispositions of Ability they might better and with more probability lose it again in the Two thousand Years since they came out of the Desart more especially for those that setled in Spain a Country so contrary to Egypt and where they have fed on such contrary Meats and drank Waters not of so good a Temperament nor Substance as in that Land For such is the Nature of Man and so of any Plant or Animal whatever that he partakes of the Conditions of the Country he is transplanted into and loses those he brought from other Places And in any Instance to be alledged the like will befal it in a few days without Contradiction A certain Race of Men as Hippocrates notes to distinguish themselves from the Vulgar chose as a Mark of their Nobility to have their Heads like a Sugar-Loaf and to Shape this Figure by Art the Midwives had a Charge to roll up their Heads with certain Bands and Fillets till they took that Shape This Artifice really gained such Power
State and yet tho' so Lewd and Blasphemous are nevertheless most potent in Generation and the greatest part of their Children Males and sturdy ones not effeminate Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites like yours The Reason of which is they Eat little Exercise much stroll not always on Horse-back as you do for which Reason they make their Seed hot and dry and so they get Boys and not Girls This Point of Philosophy neither Pharaoh nor his Council understood when they spoke after this Manner Come on let us deal wisely with them lest they Multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any War they join also unto our Enemies For the Method he took to prevent the Israelites Multiplying or at least that they should not have so many Males which was what they feared most was to oppress them with Bodily Labours and give them nothing to eat but Leaks Garlic and Onyons which had the contrary Effect for as the sacred Text declares The more they afflicted them the more they Multiplied and Grew Yet he making account that there was no better way than this to follow doubled their Tasks and their Burdens but to no more purpose than if to quench a great Fire he had cast in store of Oyl and Butter But had he or any of his Council understood Natural Philosophy they would have ordered them Barly-bread Lettuce Melons Pompions and Cucumbers and permitted them to live at Ease giving them their fill of Meat and Drink without forcing them to Work For by these means they would have had moist and cold Seed whence would have proceeded more Girls than Boys and in a little time their Lives have been shortened if they had desired it Instead of which in giving them boyl'd Flesh to eat with abundance of Garlic Leeks and Onyons and obliging them to Labour hard as they did it produced hot and dry Seed by which Qualities they were more incited to Generation and got always Male Children In Confirmation of this Truth Aristotle asks in one of his Problems Whence it comes that those who Labour hard or those that are Hectic commit nocturnal Pollutions To which in earnest he knew not what to say for tho' he alledges many Reasons yet none of them reach the Mark. The right Reason is that Bodily Labour and the Hectic Fever heat and dry the Seed and these two Qualities render it sharp and pricking and because all the Natural Powers are fortified in Sleep this happens which the Problem speaks of How fruitful and pricking hot and dry Seed is Galen notes in these Words It is the most fruitful and briskly excites the Animal from the beginning even to coition it is Lascivious and prone to Lust The fourth Condition is not to engage in the Act of Generation till the Seed be setled digested and well seasoned for tho' the three preceeding Cautions be duly observed we cannot know thereby if it have acquired all the Perfection it ought to have Especially it is convenient to use this Caution for seven or eight Days before the Meats we have prescribed to give time to the Testicles to convert into their Nourishment the Seed which at that time was made from the other Aliments and that this which we are describing may Succeed The same Care is to be taken to render human Seed fruitful and prolific as Gardiners take with the Seed they would preserve they wait till they ripen cleanse and dry for if they gather them before the proper Season and point of Maturity tho' they lie in the Ground a whole Year they will not grow at all For this reason I have observed that in places where Venus is much used fewer Children are got than where there is more Continence And light Women prove rarely with Child because they stay not till their Seed be digested and ripe It is convenient then to wait some Days that the Seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned For by this means it will duly gain Heat and Dryness and the good Substance it has lost But how shall we know the Seed to be such as it ought to be since the Matter is of so great Importance This may be easily known if there be an Interval of a few Days from the Man's denying to Company with his Wife by the continual irritation and great Desire he will have All which arises from the Seed's being fruitful and prolific The fifth Condition we have directed was that the Man should engage with his Wife six or seven Days before her Courses because a Boy has soon occasion for much Aliment to Nourish him And the Reason of it is that the Heat and Dryness of his Temperament spends and consumes not only the good Blood of his Mother but her very Excrements Wherefore Hippocrates said that the Woman that conceives a Boy is well Coloured and Fair which comes from this that the Child through his great Heat spends for his Nourishment all the Excrements that were wont to make her Thin and Wan And being so greedy it is but fit he should be supplied with Blood for his Nourishment And this Experience clearly proves for seldom is a Boy begot but towards the last Days of the Month It fares quite contrary when she conceives a Girl for through the great coldness and moisture of her Sex she Eats little and makes abundance of Excrements Accordingly a Woman with Child of a Girl looks Yellow and Green and long 's for a Thousand nasty Things and in her lying in must have longer time to cleanse than if she brought forth a Boy On which Natural Reason God grounded when he ordered Moses that the Woman that brought forth a Male being unclean seven Days should not come into the Sanctuary till after thirty three Days but if she bear a Maid-Child she should be Unclean two Weeks and should not come into the Sanctuary till she had accomplish'd threescore and six Days So that the time of her Purification was doubled for the Birth of a Female and the cause of it is that during her Nine Months stay in her Mothers Womb through the much cold and moist of her Temperament she doubled the Excrements of a Boy besides that the same were of a much worse Substance and Quality Whereupon Hippocrates observed that 't is extream Dangerous to stop the Purgation of a Woman delivered of a Girl All this is spoke to the Purpose that it is convenient to stay to the end of the Month to the end the Seed may be supplied with Nourishment sufficient If they couple immediately after the Purgation is over that Seed will not take thro' defect of Blood But I must advise Parents that if their Seed meet not together Galen said it would come to nothing tho' the Man's Seed were never so apt for Procreation The Reason of this we will give hereafter on another Subject It is alike certain that all we have offered must also be observed
by the Woman else her Seed being ill tempered impedes Generation Therefore it is convenient that they should both wait that both their Seeds may meet and mingle Which is of great importance for the first Effort because the right Testicle and it's Spermatic Vessel in the Opinion of Galen is that which first provokes and emits it's Seed sooner than the Left and if the Generation be not the first Time it is odds the second may give a Girl and not a Boy These two Seeds are known First by the Heat and Cold Secondly by the great or little Quantity Thirdly in this that one issues readier than to'ther The Seed of the right Testicle passes very tickling and is so Hot that it burns the Woman's Matrix is not much in Quantity and passes in hast On the contrary the Seed of the left Testicle is more temperate in greater Quantity and longer in Issuing being Cold and Thick The last Condition was to procure that the Seed of both should fall on the right side of the Matrix because in that place says Hippocrates the Males are form'd as the Females on the left Galen assigns the Reason hereof saying that the right side of the Matrix is very hot because of its neighbourhood to the Liver Reigns and spermatic Vessels that are on the right side which parts we have affirmed and prov'd to be very hot And since all the reason to order that a Boy may be begot consists in this that it have a great deal of heat in the time of its conception it is certain it much imports that the Seed fall in this place Which the Woman can easily do lying upon her right side after her Husbands embraces with her Head low and her Feet raised But she must keep her Bed a day or two because the Matrix embraces not the Seed but after some time The Signs of knowing whether a Woman be with Child or no are clear and manifest to all for if when she stands up the Seed fall presently down Galen says she has not conceived Therefore in this there is one thing to be considered that all the Seed is not fruitful and prolific for part thereof is waterish whose office is to dilute the principal Seed that it may pierce the narrow Passages And this is that which Nature emits and it remains after conception with the prolific part It is known when it is like Water and in little quantity To stand upon her Legs immediately after Coupling is very dangerous And therefore Aristotle advises that she beforehand evacuate her Excrements and Urine that she may have no need to Rise The second Mark to discover if a Woman be with Child is if the day after she feels her Belly empty and especially about the Navel And the Reason of it is that when the Matrix will conceive it stretches and extends extremely because in a manner it is apt to swell and stiffen upon this Occasion after the same fashion as a Mans Yard and stretching out after this manner it takes up more room but at the instant it conceives Hippocrates says that it closes and draws into the form of a little Egg to draw the Seed to it and let nothing out by which means it leaves a great Vacuity Which the Women explain saying that they have no slack Guts left soon after they grow big Besides which they forthwith nauseate their Husbands Caresses the Womb having what it wanted But the most certain Sign as Hippocrates says is when the Menses cease their Brests swell and they loath their Meat Article IV. What is to be observed that the Children may prove Witty and Wise IF the Reason and Cause be not known beforehand whence it proceeds that a Man of great Wit and Capacity is begotten it is impossible to reduce the same to an Art since we attain the End by no other Means but by connecting and ordering the Principles and Causes The Astrologers hold that the Child being born under such an Influence of the Stars will be Wise Witty Well or Ill-condition'd happy or unhappy with a thousand other qualities and properties which we see and observe every day among Men. But if this were true we could not here prescribe any Rules for all would depend upon Chance and not be in our Choice The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen were of Opinon that a Man receives the conditions of his Soul at the time of his Formation and not of his Birth The Stars only causing a superficial Alteration in the Babe communicating to to him Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and not his Substance whereon his Life depends as do the four Elements Fire Earth Air Water which not only add to the Composition heat cold moisture dryness but also a substance that unites and preserves these Qualities during the course of Life So that what is of greatest Importance in begetting Children is to endeavour that the Elements from which they are formed should have the Qualities requisite to Wit because that in the same Weight and Measure the Elements enter into the Composition in the same they remain for ever in the Mixture which is not so in the Mutations and Influences of Heaven What these Elements are and after what manner they enter the Woman's Womb to form the Child Galen tells when he teaches us that they are the same which compound all other natural things but that the Earth is concealed in the solid Meats we Eat such as Bread Flesh Fish and Fruits the Water under the Liquors we Drink and for the Air and Fire he says that they are mingled by order of Nature and enter into the Body by way of the Pulse and Respiration Of these four Elements mingled and digested by our Natural Heat are made the two necessary Principles of the Infants Generation which are the Seed and the Menstruous Blood But that whereof we make the greatest Account for the Mark we aim at are the solid Meats that are Eaten For they include within themselves all the four Elements and from them the Seed draws more Corpulence and Quality than from the Water which we drink or the Fire and Air which we breath Wherefore Galen says that the Parents who would beget wise Children should read the three Books he writ Of the Properties of Aliments for there they should find the Meats by which they should effect the same He makes no mention at all of Water nor of the other Elements as matters of small Consequence But he had no Reason for this for Water alters the Body much more than the Air and no less than the solid Meats we use and as to what regards the Generation of the Seed the Water alone is of as great Importance as all the other Elements together The reason of it is as the same Galen says that the Testicles draw from the Veins for their Nourishment the serous portion of Blood and the greatest part of this