science which he pretendeth to study is the matter which most makes for the purpose for with this we haue seene that diuers men haue begun to studie after their youth was expired and were instructed by bad teachers with euill order and in their owne birth-places and yet for all that haue prooued great clearks But if the wit faile sayth Hippocrates all other diligences are lost But there is no man who hath better verefied this than the good Marcus Cicero who through greefe of seeing his sonne such a doo-nought with whome none of the means could preuaile that he had procured to breed him wisedome sayd in the end after this sort What else is it after the manner of the Giants to fight with the gods than to resist against nature as if he should haue sayd What thing is there which better resembles the battaile which the giants vndertooke against the gods than that a man who wanteth capacitie should set himselfe to studie for as the giants neuer ouercame the gods but were still vanquished by them so whatsoeuer scholler will labour to ouercome his owne vntoward nature shall rest vanquished by her For which cause the same Cicero counselleth vs that we should not vse force against our nature nor endeuour to become Orators if she assent not for we shall vndergo labour in vaine CHAP. II. That Nature is that which makes a man of habilitie to learne IT is an opinion very common and ordinarie amongst the antient Philosophers to say That Nature is she who makes a man of habilitie to learne and that art with her precepts and rules giues a facilitie therevnto but then vse and experience which he reapes of particular things makes him mightie in working Yet none of them euer shewed in particular what thing this nature was nor in what ranke of causes it ought to be placed only they affirmed that this wanting in him who learned art experience teachers bookes and trauaile are of none auaile The ignoraunt vulgar seeing a man of great wit and readinesse straightwaies assigne God to be the author thereof and looke no further but hold euery other imagination that goes beyond this for vanitie but naturall Philosophers despise this manner of talking for put case that the same be godly and containe therein religion and truth yet it groweth from not knowing the order and disposition which God placed amongst naturall things that day when they were created and so couer their ignorance with a kind of warrantise and in sort that none may reprehend or gainsay the same they affirme that all befals as God will and that nothing succeeds which springs not from his diuine pleasure But though this be neuer so apparant a truth yet are they worthie of reproofe because as not euerie kind of demaund sayth Aristotle is to be made after one fashion so not euerie aunswer though true is to be giuen Whilest a natural Philosopher reasoned with a Grammarian there came to them an inquisitiue Gardener and asked what the cause might be that he cherishing the earth so charilie in deluing turning dunging and watering it yet the same neuer well brought foorth the herbage which he sowed therein whereas the hearbes which she bred of her selfe she caused to increase with great facilitie The Grammarian aunswered This grew from the diuine prouidence and was so ordained thorow the good gouernment of the world at which answer the naturall Philosopher laughed seeing he reduced this to God because he knew not the discourse of naturall causes nor in what sort they proceeded to their effects The Grammarian perceiuing the other laugh asked whether he mocked him or wherat else he laughed The Philosopher answered that he laughed not at him but at the maister who taught him so ill for the knowledge and solution of things which spring from the diuine prouidence as are the workes supernaturall appertaine to the Metaphisicks whom we now tearme Diuines but this question propounded by the Gardener is naturall and appertaineth to the iurisdiction of the naturall Philosophers because there are certaine ordered and manifest causes from which this effect may spring And thus the naturall Philosopher answered saying that the earth is conditioned like a stepmother who very carefully brings vp her owne children which shee breeds her selfe but takes away the sustenance from those which appertaine to her husband and so we see that her owne children are fat and fresh and her step-children weake and ill coloured The hearbs which the earth brings foorth of her selfe are borne of her proper bowels and those which the Gardener makes to grow by force are the daughters of another mother wherethrough she takes from them the vertue and nourishment by which they ought to increase that she may giue it to the hearbs which are borne of her selfe Hippocrates likewise reports that he going to visit the great Philosopher Democritus he told him the follies which the vulgar speake of Phisicke namely that seeing themselues recouered from sicknesse they would say it was God who healed them and that if his wil were not little had the good diligence of the Phisition auailed This is so antient a manner of talke and the naturall Philosophers haue so often refuted it that the seeking to take the same away were superfluous neither is it conuenient for the vulgar who know not the particular causes of any effect answereth better and with more truth as touching the vniuersall cause which is God than to say some other vnfitting thing But I haue often gone about to consider the reason the cause whence it may grow that the vulgar sort is so great a friend to impute all things to God and to reaue them from nature do so abhor the naturall means and I know not whether I haue bene able to find it out The vulgar at least giues hereby to vnderstand that forasmuch as they know not what effects they ought to attribute to God immediatly and what to Nature they speake after this maner Besides that men are for the most part impatient and desirous to accomplish speedily what they couet But because the natural means are of such prolixitie and work with length of time they possesse not the patience to stand marking thereof and knowing that God is omnipotent and in a moment of time performeth whatsoeuer him pleaseth whereof they find many examples they would that he should giue thē health as he did to the sicke of the palsie and wisedome as to Salomon riches as to Iob and that he should deliuer them from their enimie as he did Dauid The second cause is for that men are arrogant and vaine conceited many of whom desire secretly in their hearts that God would bestow vpon them some particular graces which should not befall after the common vse as is that the sunne ariseth vpon the good and bad and that the rainè fals vpon all in generall for benefits are so much the more highly prized as they are the more rare
And for this cause we haue seene many men to feigne miracles in houses and places of deuotion for straightwaies the people flockes vnto them and holds them in great reuerence as persons of whome God makes a speciall account and if they be poore they fauour them with large almes and so some sinne vpon interest The third reason is that men haue a liking to be well at their ease whereas naturall causes are disposed with such order and conceit that to obtaine their effects it behooues to bestow labour Wherefore they would haue God demeane himselfe towards them after his omnipotencie and that without sweating they might come to the well-head of their desires I leaue aside the malice of those who require miracles at Gods hand thereby to tempt his almightinesse and to prooue whether he be able to do it and othersome who to be reuenged after their hearts desire cal for fire from heauen and such other cruell chastisements The last cause is for that many of the vulgar are reliligiously giuen and hold deere that God may be honored and magnified which is much sooner brought about by way of miracles than by naturall effects but the common sort of men know not that workes aboue nature and woonderfull are done by God to shew those who know it not that he is omnipotent and that he serues himselfe of them as an argument to prooue his doctrine and that this necessitie once ceasing he neuer doth it more This may well be perceiued considering that God dooth no longer those vnwoonted things of the new testament and the reason is for that on his behalfe he hath performed all necessarie diligence that men might not pretend ignorance And to thinke that he will begin anew to do the like miracles and by them once againe to prooue his doctrine in raising the dead restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame and sicke of the palsie is an errour very great for once God taught men what is behooffull and prooued the same by miracles but returnes not to do it any more God speakes once sayth Iob and turnes not to a second repliall The token whereon I ground my iudgement when I would discouer whether a man haue a wit appropriat to Naturall Philosophie is to see whether he be addicted to reduce all matters to miracle without distinction and contrariwise such as hold not themselues contented vntill they know the particular cause of euerie effect leaue no occasion to mistrust the goodnesse of their wit These doe well know that there are effects which must be reduced to God immediatly as miracles and others to nature and such are those which haue their ordinarie causes frō whence they accustome to spring but speaking both of the one manner and the other we alwaies place God for author for when Aristotle sayd that God and nature did nothing in vaine he meant not that nature was an vniuersall cause endowed with a iurisdiction seuered from God but that she was a name of the order and concent which God hath bestowed in the frame of the world to the end that the necessarie effects might follow for the preseruation thereof For in the same manner it is vsually sayd that the King and Ciuile Reason do no man wrong In which kind of speech no man conceiueth that this name Reason signifieth a Prince which possesseth a seuerall iurisdiction from that of the king but a terme which by his signification embraceth al the roiall lawes and constitutions ordained by the same king for the preseruation of his common wealth in peace And as the king hath his speciall cases reserued to himselfe which cannot be decided by the law for that they are vnusuall and waightie in like manner God left miraculous effects reserued for himself neither gaue allowance vnto naturall causes that they might produce them But here we must note that he who should know them for such and difference them from naturall workes behooues to be a great naturall Philosopher and to vnderstand the ordinary causes that euery effect may hold yet all this sufficeth not vnlesse the Catholike church ratifie them to be such And as the Doctors labour and studie in reading this ciuile Reason preseruing the whole in their memorie that they may know and vnderstand what the kings will was in the determination of such a case so we naturall Philosophers as doctors in this facultie bestow all our studie in knowing the discourse and order which God placed that day when he created the world so to contemplat and vnderstand in what sort and vpon what cause he would that things should succeed And as it were a matter worthy laughter that a doctor should alleage in his writings though approoued that the king commaunds a case should be thus determined without shewing the Law and Reason through which it was so decided so naturall Philosophers laugh at such as say This is Gods doing without assigning the order and discourse of the particular causes whēce they may spring And as the king wil giue them no eare when they require him to breake some iust law or to rule some case besides the order of iustice which he hath commaunded to be obserued so God will not hearken when any man demaunds of him myracles and workes besides naturall order without cause why For albeit the king euery day abrogates and establisheth new lawes and changeth iudiciall order as wel through the variation of times as for that it is the iudgement of a fraile man and cannot at one only time attain to perfect right and iustice notwithstanding the naturall order of the vniuerse which we call nature from that day wherein God created the world vnto this hath had no need of adioining or reauing any one iot because he framed the same with such prouidence and wisedome that to require this order might not be obserued were to say that his workes were vnperfect To returne then to that sentence so often vsed by naturall Philosophers that Nature makes able we must vnderstand that there are Wits and there are Abilities which God bestoweth vpon men besides naturall order as was the wisedome of the Apostles who being simple and of base account were miraculously enlightened and replenished with knowledge and learning Of this sort of abilitie wisdome it cannot be verefied that nature makes able for this is a worke which is to be imputed immediatly vnto God not vnto nature The like is to be vnderstood of the wisedome of the prophets and of all those to whome God graunted some grace infused Another sort of abilitie is found in men which springs of their being begotten with that order and consent of causes which are established by God to this end and of this sort it may be sayd with truth Nature makes able For as we will proue in the last chapter of this worke there is to be found such an order and consent in naturall things that if the fathers in time of procreation haue
great a contentment as if it had bene true I rest now in far woorse case finding my selfe in troth to be but a poore page and to morrow I must begin againe to serue one who whilst I was in mine infirmitie I would haue disdayned for my footman It skils not much whether the Philosophers admit all this and beleeue that it may be so or not but what if I should prooue by verie true stories that ignorant men strooken with this infirmitie haue spoken Latine which they neuer learned in their health and that a franticke woman told all persons who came to visit her their vertues and vices and sometimes reported matters with that assurance which they vse to giue who speake by coniectures and tokens and for this cause none almost durst come in to visite her fearing to heare of those true tales which she would deliuer and which is more to be maruelled at when a barber came to let her blood Friend quoth she haue regard what you do for you haue but few daies to liue and your wife shall marrie such a man and this though spoken by chaunce fell out so true as it tooke effect before halfe a yeare came to an end Me thinks I heare them who flie natural Philosophy to say that this is a foule leasing that put case it were true the diuell as he is wise and craftie by Gods sufferance entred into this womans body and into the rest of those frantike persons whom I haue mentioned and caused them to vtter those strange matters and yet euen to confesse this they are very loath for the diuell foreknoweth not what is to come because he hath no propheticall spirit They hold it a very sufficient argument to auouch This is false because I cannot conceiue how it may be so as if difficult quaint matters were subiect to blunt wits and came within the reach of their capacities I pretend not hereby to take those to taske who haue defect of vnderstanding for that were a bootlesse labour but to make Aristotle himselfe confesse that men endowed with the temperature requisit for such operations may conceiue many things without hauing receiued thereof any particular perseuerance or learned the same at the hands of any other Sundry also because this heat is a neighbour to the seat of the mind are wrapped in the infirmitie of sottishnesse or are heated by some furious instinct whence grew the Sibils and Bacchants and all those who men thinke are egged on by some diuine inspiration whereas this takes his originall not from any disease but from a naturall distemperature Marcus a citizen of Siracusa was excellentest poet after he lost his vnderstanding and those in whom this abated heat approcheth least to mediocritie are verely altogether melancholike but thereby much the wiser In these words Aristotle cleerely confesseth that when the braine is excessiuely heated many thereby attaine the knowledge of things to come as were the Sibils which Aristotle sayth growes not by reason of any disease but thorow the inequalitie of the naturall heat and that this is the very reason and cause thereof he proues apparantly by an example alleaging that Mark a citizen of Siracuse was a Poet in most excellencie at such time as through excessiue heat of the braine he fell besides himselfe and when he returned to a more moderat temperature he lost his versifying but yet remayned more wise and aduised In so much that Aristotle not only admits the temperature of the braine for the principall occasion of these extrauagant successes but also reprooues them who hold the same for a diuine reuelation and no naturall cause The first who tearmed these maruellous matters by the name of diuinesse was Hippocrates and that if any such point of diuinesse be found in the disease that it manifesteth also a prouidence Vpon which sentence he chargeth Phisitions that if the diseased vtter any such diuine matters they may thereby know in what case she rests and prognosticate what will become of him But that which in this behalfe driues me to most woonder is that demaunding of Plato how it may come to passe that of two sonnes begotten by one father one hath the skill of versifying without any other teaching and the other toiling in the art of poetrie can neuer beget so much as one verse he answereth That he who was borne a Poet is possessed and the other not In which behalfe Aristotle had good cause to find fault with him for that he might haue reduced this to the temperature as else where he did The frantike persons speaking of Latine without that he euer learned the same in his health time shewes the consonance which the Latin toong holds with the reasonable soule and as we will prooue hereafter there is to be found a particular wit appliable to the inuention of languages and Latine words the phrases of speech in that toong are so fitting with the eare that the reasonable soule possessing the necessarie temperature for the inuention of some delicat language sodainly encounters with this And that two deuisers of languages may shape the like words hauing the like wit and habilitie it is very manifest presupposing that when God created Adam and set all things before him to the end he might bestow on each his seuerall name whereby it should be called he had likewise at that instant molded another man with the same perfection and supernaturall grace now I demaund if God had placed the same things before this other man that he might also set them names whereby they should be called of what manner those names should haue bene for mine owne part I make no doubt but he would haue giuen these things those very names which Adam did and the reason is very apparant for both carried one selfe eye to the nature of each thing which of it selfe was no more but one After this manner might the frantike person light vpon the Latine toong and speake the same without euer hauing learned it in his health for the naturall temperature of his braine conceiuing alteration through the infirmitie it might for a space become like his who first inuented the Latine toong and faine the like words but yet not with that concert and continued finenesse for this would giue tokē that the diuel moued that toong as the church teacheth hir exorcists This selfe sayth Aristotle befel some children who at their birth-time spake some words very plainly and afterward kept silence and he finds fault with the vulgar Philosophers of his time who for that they knew not the naturall cause of this effect imputed it to the diuell The cause why children speake so soone as they are borne and after foorthwith turne to hold their peace Aristotle could neuer find out though he went much about it but yet it could neuer sinke into his braine that it was a deuise of the diuels nor an effect aboue nature as the vulgar Philosophers held opinion who
seeing themselues hedged in with the curious and nice points of naturall Philosophie make them beleeue who know little that God or the diuell are authors of the prodigious and strange effects of whose naturall cause they haue no knowledge and vnderstanding Children which are engendred of seed cold and drie as are those begotten in old age some few dayes and moneths after their birth begin to discourse and philosophise for the temperature cold and drie as we will hereafter prooue is most appropriat to the operations of the reasonable soule and that which processe of time and many dayes and months should bring about is supplied by the present temperature of the brain which for many causes anticipateth what it was to effect Other children there are sayth Aristotle who as soone as they are borne begin to speake and afterwards hold their peace vntill they attaine the ordinarie and conuenient age of speaking which effect floweth from the same originall and cause that we recounted of the page and of those furious and frantike persons and of him who spake Latine on a sudden without hauing learned it in his health And that children whilst they make abode in their mothers bellie and so soone as they are borne may vndergo these infirmities is a matter past deniall But whence that diuining of the franticke woman proceeded I can better make Cicero to conceiue than these naturall Philosophers for he describing the nature of man sayd in this manner The creature foresightfull searchfull apt for many matters sharpe conceited mindfull replenished with reason and counsell whome we call by the name of Man And in particular he affirmeth that there is found a certain nature in some men which in foreknowing things to come exceedeth other mens and his words are these For there is found a certaine force and nature which foretels things to come the force and nature of which is not by reason to be vnfolded The error of the naturall Philosophers consisteth in not considering as Plato did that man was made to the likenesse of God and that he is a partaker of his diuine prouidence and that the power of discerning all the three differences of time memorie for the passed conceiuing for the present and imagination and vnderstanding for those that are to come And as there are men superior to others in remembring things past and others in knowing the present so there are also many who partake a more naturall habilitie for imagining of what shall come to passe One of the greatest arguments which forced Cicero to thinke that the reasonable soule is vncorruptible was to see the certaintie with which the diseased tell things to come and especially when they are neere their end But the difference which rests betweene a propheticall spirit and this naturall wit is that that which God speaks by the mouth of his prophets is infallible for it is the expresse word of God but that which man prognosticateth by the power of his imagination holds no such certaintie Those who say that the discouering of their vertues and vices by the frantike woman to the persons who came to visit her was a tricke of the diuels playing let them know that God bestowes on men a certaine supernaturall grace to attaine and conceiue which are the workes of God and which of the diuell the which saint Paule placeth amongst the diuine gifts and cals it The imparting of spirits Whereby we may discerne whether it be the diuell or some good angell that intermedleth with vs. For many times the diuell sets to beguile vs vnder the cloke of a good angell and we haue need of this grace and supernaturall gift to know him and difference him from the good From this gift they are farthest sundered who haue not a wit capable of naturall Philosophie for this science and that supernaturall infused by God fall vnder one selfe abilitie to weet the vnderstanding atleast if it be true that God in bestowing his graces doe applie himselfe to the naturall good of euery one as I haue afore rehearsed Iacob lying at the point of death at which time the reasonable soule is most at libertie to see what is to come all his twelue children entred to visit him and he to each of them in particular recited their vertues and vices and prophesied what should befall as touching them and their posteritie Certaine it is that he did all this inspired by God but if the diuine scripture and our fayth had not ascertained vs hereof how would these naturall Philosophers haue known this to be the worke of God and that the vertues and vices which the frantike woman told to such as came to visit her were discouered by the power of the diuell whilst this case in part resembles that of Iacob They reckon that the nature of the reasonable soule is far different from that of the diuell and that the powers thereof vnderstanding imagination and memorie are of another very diuers kind and herein they be deceiued For if a reasonable soule informe a well instrumentalized body as was that of Adam his knowledge comes little behind that of the subtillest diuell and without the body he partakes as perfect qualities as the other And if the diuels foresee things to come coniecturing and discoursing by certaine tokens the same also may a reasonable man do when he is about to be freed from his body or when he is endowed with that difference of temperature which makes a man capable of this prouidence For it is a matter as difficult for the vnderstanding to conceiue how the diuell can know these hidden things as to impute the same to the reasonable soule It will not fall in these mens heads that in natural things there may be found out certaine signs by means of which they may attaine to the knowledge of matters to come And I affirme there are certaine tokens to be found which bring vs to the notise of things passed and present and to forecast what is to follow yea to coniecture some secrets of the heauen Therfore we see that his things inuisible are vnderstood by the creatures of the world by means of the things which haue bene created Whosoeuer shall haue power to accomplish this shall attaine therevnto and the other shall be such as Homer spake of The ignorant vnderstandeth the things passed but not the things to come But the wise and discreet is the Ape of God for he immitates him in many matters and albeit he cannot accomplish them with so great perfection yet he carries some resemblance vnto him by following him CHAP. V. It is prooued that from the three qualities hot moist and drie proceed all the differences of mens wits THe reasonable soule making abode in the body it is impossible that the same can performe contrary and different operations if for each of them it vse not a particular instrument This is plainly seen in the power of the soule which performeth diuers operations in the outward
vs their opinion inmaterial words we would hold them importunate and vnmannerly brought vp And he that beleeueth not this let him marke that the Angel of whom S Mathew maketh mention seemed such a one to Herod and to the wife of his brother Philp seeing because they would not heare his fault-findings they faire and well chopped off his head Better were it that these men who by the vulgar are fondly termed Angels of heauen were called Asses of the earth for amongst brute beasts saith Galen there is none more blunt or of lesse wit than the Asse although in memory he out reach all the rest He refuseth no burden he goeth whither he is driuen without any gainstriuing he winceth not he biteth not he is not fugitiue not iadish conditioned if he be laboured with a cudgell he setteth not by it he is wholly made to the wel-liking and seruice of him that is to vse him these selfe properties do those men partake whom the vulgar terme Angels of heauen which sport-making springeth in them for that they are blockheads and void of imagination and haue their wrathfull power verie remisse which tokeneth a great defect in a man and argueth that he is ill compounded There was neuer Angel nor man in the world better conditioned than Christ our redeemer and he entring one day into the temple belaboured welfauoredly those whom he found there selling of merchandize and this he did because the irascible is the chastice geuer and sword of reason the man who reprooueth not things ill done either sheweth himselfe but a foole or is depriued of the wrathfull power In sort that it falles out a miracle to see a wise man of that gentlenesse or conditions which are best liking to lewd mens fancies wherethrough such as set down in writing the actions of Iulius Caesar maruelled to see how his souldiers could support a man so rough and seuere and this grew in him because he lighted vpon a wit requisit for the warres The third propertie of those who are endowed with this differēce of witis to be recklesse touching the attiring of their person and in a maner all of them are slouinly homely with their hosen hanging about their heels ful of wrinckles their cap sitting vpō the one side with some threed-bare gabberdine on their backe neuer long to change suits This propertie Lucius Florus recounteth had that famous captain Viriatus by nation a Portuguise of whom exaggerating his great humility he saith and affirmeth that he despised so much all ornament of his person as there was no priuat souldier in his army that wēt worse apparelled than himselfe And verily this was no vertue neither did he the same artificially but it is a natural effect of those who are possessed with that difference of imagination after which we enquire This rechlesnesse in Iulius Caesar greatly deceiued Cicero for being asked after the battell the cause which mooued him to follow the party of Pompey he answered as Macrobius recounteth His girding deceiued me as if he had said It was my beholding of Iulius Caesar to be a man somwhat slouinly and who neuer wore his girdle handsomly whom his souldiers in scoffe called Loose-coat But this should haue mooued and made him to know that he was endowed with a wit requisit to the counsell of warre Rightly did Silla hit the naile on the head who as Suetonius Tranquillus reporteth seeing the rechlesnesse of Iulius Caesar in his apparrelling himselfe when he was a boy aduertised the Romains saying take heed of this ill girded yong fellow The Historians busie themselues much in recounting how carelesly Hanniball bare him touching his apparell and how little he reaked to go neat and handsome To grow in great dislike at motes on the cape to take much care that his stockings sit cleane and his cloke handsome without plaits appertaineth to a difference of the imagination of very base alloy and gainsaith the vnderstanding and that imagination which the warre requireth The fourth signe is to haue a bald head and the reason heerof may soon be learned for this difference of imagination resideth in the forepart of the head as doe all the rest and excessiue heat burneth the skin of the head and closeth the poares through which the haire is to passe Besides that the matter wherof the haire is engendered as the phisitions auouch are those excremēts which the brain expelleth in time of his nourishing and by the great fire that there is they are consumed and burned vp and so the matter faileth wherof they may breed And if Iulius Caesar had been seen in this point of philosophy he would not so much haue shamed at his baldhead as that to couer the same he caused the hinder part of his haire which should hang down on his necke to be featly turned towards his forehead And Suetonius maketh mention that nothing so much contented him as when the Senat enacted that he might weare a laurell garland on his head and that on none other ground than because thereby he might couer his baldnesse Another sort of baldnesse groweth from hauing the haire hard earthly and of a grosse composition but that betokeneth a man void of vnderstanding imagination and memory The fifth signe wherby those are known who haue this difference of imagination is that such are spare in words and full of sentences and the reason importeth because the brain being hard it followeth of necessitie that they suffer a defect in memorie to which copie of words appertaineth To find much what to say springeth from a coniunction which the memorie maketh with the imagination in his first degree of heat Such as haue this conioyning of both powers are ordinarily great liers and neuer want words and tales though you stand harkening vnto them a whole day togither The sixt propertie of those who haue this difference of imagination is to be honest and to take great dislike at filthie and baudie talke and therefore Cicero saith that men very reasonable do imitate the honestie of nature who hath hidden the vnseemly and shamefull parts which she made to prouide for the necessity of mankind and not to adorne it and she consenteth not to fasten the eyes on these nor that the eares should once heare them named This we might well attribut to the imagination and say that the same resteth offended at the euil representation of these parts but in the last chapter we rendered a reason of this effect and reduced the same to the vnderstanding and we adiudged him defectiue in this power who tooke not offense at such dishonestie And because to the difference of imagination appurtenant to the art militarie there is ioyned this discourse therefore are good captains very honest Wherthrough in the historie of Iulius Caesar we find an action of the greatest honestie that might be and that is whilst they murthered him with daggers in the Senat-house he perceiuing it was impossible to escape death gaue
him in the Paradise of pleasure to the end he might there worke and take it in charge For the power of God being infinit his knowledge beyond measure when he had a will to giue him all the naturall perfection that might be in mankinde we must thinke that neither the peece of earth of which he was framed nor the distemperature of the soile of Damascus where he was created could so gainsay him but that he made him temperat The opinion of Plato of Aristotle and of Galen take place in the works of nature and euen she also can somtimes euen in distemperat regions engender a person that shalbe temperat But that Adam had his haire and his beard abourne which is the first token of a temperat man manifestly appeareth For in respect of this so notorious signe he had that name Adam which is to say as S. Hierom interpreteth it a red man That he was faire wel fashioned which is the second token cannot in him be denied for when God created him the text saith God saw all things which he had made and they were verie good Then it falleth out certaine that he issued not from the hands of God foule and ill shaped for the works of God are perfect And so much the more for that the trees as the text saith were faire to behold Then what may we think of Adam whom God created to this principall end that he might be Lord and president of the world That he was vertuous wise and well conditioned which are the third and sixth signes is gathered out of these words Let vs make a man after our owne image and likenesse for by the antient Philosophers the foundation on which the resemblance that man hath with God is grounded are vertue wisdome Therfore Plato auoucheth that one of the greatest contentments which God receiueth in heauen is to see a vertuous and wise man praised and magnified vpon earth for such a one is his liuely purtraiture And contrariwise he groweth displeased when ignorant and vitious persons are held in estimation and honor which springeth from the vnlikenesse between God and them That he liued healthfull and a long space which are the fourth and fifth tokens is nothing difficult to prooue inasmuch as his daies were 930 yeares Where through I may now cōclude that the man who is abourn haired faire of meane stature vertuous healthfull and long lyued must necessarily be verie wise and endowed with a wit requisit for the scepter royall We haue also as by the way disclosed in what sort great vnderstanding may be vnited with much imagination and much memory albeit this may also come to passe and yet the man not be temperat But nature shapeth so few after this modell that I could neuer find but two amongst all the wits that I haue tried but how it can come to passe that great vnderstanding may vnite with much imagination and much memory in a man not temperat is a thing which easily may be conceiued if you presuppose the opinion of some Phisitions who affirme that the imagination resideth in the forepart of the braine the memorie in the hinder part and the vnderstanding in that of the middle And the like may be said in our imagination but it is a worke of great labour that the braine being when nature createth the same of the bignesse of a graine of pepper it should make one ventricle of seed verie hot another verie moist and the middle most of verie dry but in fine this is no impossible case CHAP. XV. In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning IT falleth out a matter worthie of maruaile that nature being such as we all know her wise wittie and of great art iudgement and force and mankind a worke of so speciall regard yet for one whome she maketh skilfull and wise she produceth infinit depriued of wit Of which effect my selfe searching the reason and naturall causes haue found in my iudgement that parents apply not themselues to the act of generation with that order and concert which is by nature established neither know the conditions which ought to be obserued to the end their children may prooue of wisedome and iudgement For by the same reason for which in any temperat or distemperat region a man should be borne very wittie hauing alwaies regard to the selfe order of causes there will 100000 prooue of slender capacitie now if by art we may procure a remedie for this we shall haue brought to the common-wealth the greatest benefit that she can receiue But the knot of this matter consisteth in that we cannot entreat hereof with tearms so seemly and modest as to the naturall shamefastnesse of man is requisit and if for this reason I should forbeare to note any part or contemplation that is necessarie for certaine the whole matter would be marred in sort that diuers graue Philosophers hold opinion how wise men ordinarily beget foolish children because in the act of copulation for honesties sake they abstaine from certaine diligences which are of importance that the sonne may partake of his fathers wisedome Some antient Philosophers haue laboured to search out the naturall reason of this naturall shame which the eyes conceiue when the instruments of generation are set before them and why the eares take offence to heare them named and they maruell to see that nature hath framed those parts with such diligence and carefulnesse and for an end of such importance as the immortalizing of mankind and yet the wiser a man is the more he groweth in dislike to behold or heare them spoken of Shame and honestie sayth Aristotle is the proper passion of the vnderstanding and who so resteth not offended at those terms and actions of generation giueth a sure token of his wanting that power as if we should say that he is blockish who putting his hand into the fire doth not feele the same to burne By this token Cato the elder discouered that Manilius a noble man was depriued of vnderstanding because it was told him that the other kissed his wife in presence of his daughter for which cause he displaced him out of the Senat and Manilius could neuer obtaine at his hands to be restored Out of this contemplation Aristotle frameth a probleme demaunding whence it grew that men who desire to satisfie their venerous lusts do yet greatly shame to confesse it and yet coueting to liue to eat or to perform any other such action they stagger not to acknowledge it to which probleme he shapeth a very vntoward answer saying Perhaps it commeth because the couetings of diuers things are necessary and some of them kill if they be not accomplished but the lust of venerous acts floweth from excesse and is token of abundance But in effect this probleme is false and the answer none other for a man not only shameth to manifest the desire he carrieth to companie with a woman but
the same with his heat and drinesse should make the seed hot dry for generation of the male And the contrary she ordained for the forming of a woman that the left side of the reins should send forth seed could and moist to the left cod and that the same with his coldnesse and moisture should make the seed cold and moist whence it ensued of force that a female must be engendred But after that the earth was replenished with people it seemeth that this order and concert of nature was broken off and this double child-bearing surceased which is worst for one man that is begotten 6 or 7 women are born to the world ordinarily Whence we comprizce that either nature is grown weary or some error is thwarted in the mids which beareth her from working as she would What the same is a litle hereafter we wil expresse when we may lay down the conditions which are to be obserued to the end a male child without missing may be borne I say then that if parents will attaine the end of their desire in this behalfe they are to obserue 6 points One of which is to eat meats hot and drie The second to procure that they make good digestion in the stomacke The third to vse much exercise The fourth not to apply themselues vnto the act of generation vntill their seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to companie with the wife foure or fiue daies before her naturall course is to runne The sixth to procure that the seed fall in the right side of the womb which being obserued as we shall prescribe it will grow impossible that a female should be engendred As touching the first condition we must weet that albeit a good stomacke do parboile and alter the meat and spoile the same of his former quality yet it doth neuer vtterly depriue it selfe of them for if we eat lettice whose qualitie is cold and moist the bloud engendred thereof shalbe cold and moist the whey cold and moist and the seed cold and moist And if we eat honny whose quality is hot and dry the bloud which we breed shalbe hot and drie the whey hot and dry and the seed hot and dry for it is impossible as Galen auoucheth that the humours should not retaine the substances and the qualities which the meat had before such time as it was eaten Then it being true that the male sex consisteth in this that the seed be hot and drie at the time of his forming for certaine it behooueth parents to vse meats hot and drie that they may engender a male child I grant well how in this kind of begetting there befalleth a great perill for the seed being hot and drie we haue often heretofore affirmed it followeth of force that there be borne a man malicious wily cauilling and addicted to many vices and euils and such persons as these vnlesse they be straightly curbed bring great danger to the common wealth Therefore it were better that they should not be gotten at all but for all this there will not want parents who will say Let me haue a boy and let him be a theese and spare not for the iniquity of a man is more allowable than the wel-doing of a woman Howbeit this may find an easie remedie by vsing temperat meates which shall partake but meanly of hot and drie or by way of preparation seasoning the same with some spice Such saith Galen are Hennes Partridges Turtles Doues Thrushes Blackbirds and Goates which by Hippocrates must be eaten rosted to heat and drie the seed The bread with which the same is eaten should be white of the finest meale seasoned with Salt and Annis seed for the browne is cold and moist as we will prooue hereafter and verie dammageable to the wit Let the drinke be VVhite wine watered in such proportion as the stomacke may allow thereof and the water with which it is tempered should be verie fresh and pure The second diligence which we spake of is to eat these meates in so moderat quantitie as the stomacke may ouercome them for albeit the meat be hot and drie of his proper nature yet the same becommeth cold and moist if the naturall heat cannot digest it Therefore though the parents eat honny and drinke VVhite-wine these meates by this meanes will turne to cold seed and a female child be brought forth For this occasion the greater part of great and rich personages are afflicted by hauing more daughters than meaner folke for they eat and drinke that which their stomacke cannot digest and albeit their meat be hot and drie sauced with Suger Spices and Honny yet through their great quantitie then waxe raw and cannot be digested But the rawnesse which most endammageth generation is that of Wine for this licour in being so vaporous and subtile occasioneth that the other meates togither therewith passe to the seed vessels raw and that the seed falsly prouoketh a man ere it be digested and seasoned VVhereon Plato commendeth a law enacted in the Carthaginean Common-wealth which forbad the married couple that they should not tast of anie Wine that day when they meant to performe the rightes of the marriage bed as well ware that this liquor alwaies bred much hurt and dammage to the childs bodily health and might yeeld occasion that he should prooue vitious and of ill conditions Notwithstanding if the same be moderatly taken so good seed is not engendred of any meat for the end which we seeke after as of white wine and especially to giue wit and ability which is that wherto we pretend The 3 diligence which we spake of was to vse exercise somwhat more than meanly for this fretteth and consumeth the excessiue moisture of the seed and heateth drieth the same By this means a man becommeth most fruitful and able for generation and cōtrariwise to giue our selues to our ease and not to exercise the bodie is one of the things which breedeth most coldnes moisture in the seed Therfore rich and dainty persons are lesse charged with children than the poore who take pains VVhence Hippocrates recounteth that the principall persons of Scythia were verie effeminat womanish delicious and enclined to do womens seruices as to sweepe to rub to bake and by this means were impotent for generation And if they begot any male child he prooued either an Eunuch or an Hermaphrodite Whereat they shaming greatly agreeued determined to make sacrifices to their God and to offer him many gifts beseeching him not to entreat them after that maner but to yeeld thē some remedy for the defect seeing it lay in his power so to do But Hippocrates laughed them to scorne saying That none effect betideth which seemes not miraculous and diuine if after that sort they fall into consideration thereof for reducing which soeuer of them to his naturall causes at last we come to end in God by whose vertue all the agents of the world doe worke But there
wit sharpe and quicke-sighted Hauing prooued before that the braine and not the heart is the principall seat of the reasonable soule And the reason is because these vitall spirits are engendred in the heart and partake of that substance and that temperature which rested in that which formed them Of this arteriall blood Aristotle meant when he sayd That those men are well compounded who haue their blood hot delicat and pure for they are also of good bodily forces and of a wit well disposed These vitall spirits are by the Phisitions termed Nature for they are the principall instrument with which the reasonable soule performeth his workes and of these also may that sentence be verefied Nature makes able CHAP. IIII. It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation THe temperature of the four first qualities which we heretofore termed Nature hath so great force to cause that of plants brute beasts and man each one set himselfe to performe those workes which are properto his kind that they ariue to that vtmost bound of perfection which may be attained sodainly without any others teaching them the plants know how to forme roots vnder ground and by way of them to draw nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to driue foorth the excrements and the brute beasts likewise so soone as they are borne know that which is agreeable to their nature and flie the things which are naughtie and noisome And that which makes them most to maruell who are not seene in naturall Philosophie is that a man hauing his braine well tempered and of that disposition which is requisit for this or that science sodainly and without hauing euer learned it of any he speaketh and vttereth such exquisit matters as could hardly win credit Vulgar Philosophers seeing the maruellous works which brute beasts performe affirme it holds no cause of maruell because they do it by naturall instinct in as much as nature sheweth and teacheth each in his kind what he is to do And in this they say very well for we haue alreadie alleaged and prooued that nature is nothing else than this temperature of the foure first qualities and that this is the schoolemaister who teacheth the soules in what sort they are to worke but they tearme instinct of nature a certaine masse of things which rise from the noddocke vpward neyther could they euer expound or giue vs to vnderstand what it is The graue Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle attribute all these maruellous workes to heat cold moisture and drouth and this they affirme of the first principle and passe no farther And if you aske who hath taught the brute beasts to doe these works which breed vs such maruell and men to discourse with reason Hippocrates answereth It is the natures of them all without any teacher as if he should say The faculties or the temperature of which they consist are al giuen them without being taught by any other Which is cleerely discerned if they passe on to consider the workes of the soule vegetatiue and of all the rest which gouerne man who if it haue a quantitie of mans seed wel digested and seasoned with good temperature makes a body so seemly and duly instrumentalized that all the caruers in the world cannot shape the like For which cause Galen woondring to see a frame so maruellous the number of his seuerall parts the seating the figure and the vse of each one by it selfe grew to conclude it was not possible that the vegetatiue soule nor the temperature could fashion a workmanship so singular but that the author thereof was God or some other most wise vnderstanding But this maner of speech is alreadie by vs heretofore refuted for it beseemes not naturall Philosophers to reduce the effects immediatly to God and so to slip ouer the assigning of the second reasons and especially in this case where we see by experience that if mans seed consist of an euill substance and enioy not a temperature conuenient the vegetatiue soule runs into a thousand disorders for if the same be cold and moist more than is requisit Hippocrates sayth that the men prooue Eunuches or Hermofrodites and if it be very hote and drie Aristotle sayth that it makes them curle-pated crooke-legged and flat nosed as are the Aethiopians and if it be moist the same Galen sayth that they grow long and lithie and if it be drie low of stature All this is a great defect in mankind and for such works we find little cause to giue nature any commendation or to hold her for aduised and if God were the author hereof none of these qualities could diuert him Only the first men which the world possessed Plato affirms were made by God but the rest were borne answerable to the discourse of the second causes which if they be well ordered the vegetatiue soule dooth well performe his operations and if they concur not in sort conuenient it produceth a thousand dammageable effects What the good order of nature for this effect must be is that the vegetatiue soule haue an endowment of a good temperature or else let Galen and all the Philosophers in the world answer me what the cause is that the vegetatiue soule possesseth such skill and power in the first age of man to shape his body and to increase and nourish the same and when old age groweth on can yeeld the same no longer For if an old man leese but a tooth he is past remedie of recouering another but if a child cast them all we see that natures return to renew them againe Is it then possible that a soule which hath done nought else in all the course of life than to receiue food retaine the same digest it and expell the excrements new begetting the parts which faile should towords the end of life forget this and want abilitie to do the same any longer Galen for certaine will answer that this skill and habilitie of the vegetatiue soule in youth springs from his possessing much naturall heat and moisture and that in age the same wants skill and power to performe it by means of the coldnesse and drinesse to which a bodie of those yeares is subiect The knowledge of the sensitiue soule takes his dependance also from the temperature of the braine for if the same be such as his operations require that it should be it can perform with due perfection otherwise the same must also erre no lesse than the soule vegetatiue The manner which Galen held to behold and discerne by eysight the wisedome of the sensitiue soule was to take a yoong kid but newly kidded which set on the ground begins to go as if it had bene told and taught that his legs were made to that purpose and after that he shakes from his backe the superfluous moisture which he brought
memorie it were impossible to learne them with any other power How little the vnderstanding and the imagination make for the purpose to learne languages and manners of speech is easily prooued by childhood which being the age wherein man most wanteth these two powers yet saith Aristotle children learne any language more readily than elder men though these are endowed with a better discourse of reason And without farther speech experience plainly prooueth this for so much as we see that if a Biscane of 30. or 40. yeeres age come to dwell in Castilia he will neuer learn this language but if he be but a boy within two or three yeares you would thinke him born in Toledo The same befalles in the latine tongue and in those of all the rest of the world for all languages hold one selfe consideration Then if in the age when memorie chiefly raigneth and the vnderstanding and the imagination least languages are better learned than when there growes defect of memorie an encrease of vnderstanding it falles out apparent that they are purchased by the memorie and by none other power Languages saith Aristotle cannot be gathered out by reason nor consist in discourse or disputations for which cause it is necessarie to heare the word from another and the signification which it beareth and to keepe the same in mind and so he prooueth that if a man be borne deaffe it followes of necessitie that he be also dumbe for he cannot heare from another the articulation of the names nor the signification which was giuen them by the first deuiser That languages are at pleasure and a conceit of mens brains and nought else is plainly prooued for in them all may the sciences be taught and in each is to be sayd and expressed that which by the other is inferred Therfore none of the graue authors attended the learning of strange tongues thereby to deliuer their conceits but the Greekes wrot in Greeke the Romans in Latine the Hebrues in the Hebrue language and the Moores in Arabique and so do I in my Spanish because I know this better than any other The Romans as lords of the world finding it was necessarie to haue one common language by which all nations might haue commerce together and themselues be able to heare vnderstand such as came to demaund iustice and things appertayning to their gouernment commanded that in all places of there empire their should schooles be kept where the Latine tongue might be taught and so this vsage hath endured euen to our time Schoole-diuinitie it is a matter certaine that it appertaineth to the vnderstanding presupposing that the operations of this power are to distinguish conclude discourse iudge make choise for nothing is done in this facultie which is not to doubt for inconueniences to answer with distinction and against the answer to conclude that which is gathered in good consequence and to returne to replication vntill the vnderstanding find where to settle But the greatest proofe which in this case may be made is to giue to vnderstand with how great difficultie the latine tongue is ioyned with Schoole diuinitie and how ordinarily it falleth not out that one self man is a good latinist and a profound scholer at which effect some curious heads who haue lighted hereon much maruelling procured to search out the cause from whence the same might spring and by their conceit found that Schoole diuinitie being written in an easie and common language and the great latinists hauing accustomed their eare to the well sounding and fine stile of Cicero they cannot apply themselues to this other But well should it fall out for the latinists if this were the cause For forcing their hearing by vse they should meet with a remedie for this infirmitie but to speake trueth it is rather an head-ach than an eare-sore Such as are skilfull in the latine tongue it is necessarie that they haue a great memorie for otherwise they can neuer become so perfect in a tōgue which is not theirs and because a great and happie memorie is as it were cōtrarie to a great and high raised vnderstanding in one subiect where the one is placed the other is chased away Hence remaineth it that he who hath not so deepe and loftie an vnderstanding a power whereto appertaineth to distinguish conclude discourse iudge and choose cannot soone attaine the skil of Schoole diuinitie Let him that will not allow this reason for currant payment read S. Thomas Scot Durand and Caietane who are the principall in this facultie and in them he shall finde manie excellent points endited and written in a stile very easie and common And this proceeded from none other cause than that these graue authours had from their childhood a feeble memorie for profiting in the latine tongue But comming to logicke metaphisicke and Schoole diuinitie they reaped that great fruite which we see because they had great vnderstanding I can speake of a schoole diuine and manie other can verifie the same that knew and conuersed with him who being a principall man in this facultie not onely spake not finely nor with well shaped sentences in imitation of Cicero but whilest he red in a chaire his scholers noted in him that he had lesse than a meane knowledge in the latine tongue Therefore they councelled him as men ignorant of this doctrine that he should secretly steale some houre of the day from Schoole diuinitie and employ the same in reading of Cicero Who knowing this coūsell to proceed from his good friends not onely procured to remedie it priuilie but also publickly after he had red the matter of the trinitie how the diuine word might take flesh he meant to heare a lecture of the latine tongue and it fell out a matter worthy consideration that in the long time while he did so he not onely learned nothing of new but grew welneere to leese that little latine which he had before and so at last was driuen to read in the vulgar Pius the fourth enquiring what diuines were of most speciall note at the councell of Trent he was told of a most singular Spanish diuine whose solutions answeres argumentes and distinctions were worthy of admiration the Pope therefore desirous to see and know so rare a man sent word vnto him that he should come to Rome render him accompt of what was done in the Councell He came and the Pope did him many fauours amongst the rest commaunded him to be couered and taking him by the hand led him walking to Castle S. Angelo speaking verie good latine shewed him his deuise touching certain fortifications which he was then about to make the Castle stronger asking his opinion in some particulars but he answered the Pope so intricatly for that he could not speake latine that the Spanish Embassadour who at that time was Don Lewes de Requesens great Commander of Castilia was faine to step forth to grace him with his latine and to turne the Popes
somewhat of his owne head To play well at Primero and to face and vie and to hold and giue ouer when time serueth and by coniectures to know his aduersaries game and the skill of discarding are all workes of the imagination The like we say of playing at Cent at Triumph though not so far-forth as the Primero of Almaigne and the same not only maketh proofe demonstration of the difference of the wit but also discouereth al the vertues and vices in a man For at euery moment there are offered occasions in this play by which a man shall discouer what hee would do in matters of great importance if oportunitie serued Chesse-play is one of the things which best discouereth the imagination for he that makes ten or twelue faire draughts one after another on the Chesse-boord giues an euill token of profiting in the Sciences which belong to the vnderstanding and to the memorie vnlesse it fall out that he make an vnion of two or three powers as we haue already noted And if a very learned Schoole-diuine of mine acquaintance had been skilled in this doctrine he should haue got notice of a matter which made him verie doubtfull He vsed to play often with a seruant of his and lighting mostly on the losse told him much mooued Sirha how comes it to passe that thou who canst skill neither of Latine nor Logicke nor Diuinitie though thou hast studied it yet beatest me that am full of Scot and S. Thomas Is it possible that thou shouldst haue a better wit than I verily I cannot beleeue it except the diuell reueale vnto thee what draughts thou shouldst make and the misterie was that he had great vnderstanding with which he attained the delicacies of Scot and Thomas but wanted that difference of imagination which serueth for Chesse-play whereas his seruant had an ill vnderstanding and a bad memorie but a good imagination The Schollers who haue their bookes well righted and their chamber well dressed and cleane kept euerie thing in his due place order haue a certaine difference of imagination verie contrarie to the vnderstanding and to the memorie Such a like wit haue men who go neat and handsomly apparelled who looke all about their cape for a mote take dislike at any one wry plait of their garmēt this assuredly springeth from their imagination For if a man that had no skill in versifieng nor towardlinesse thereunto chance to fall in loue sodainly saith Plato he becomes a Poet and verie trim and handsome for loue heateth and drieth his braine and these are qualities which quicken the imagination the like as Iuuenal noteth anger doth effect which passion heateth also the braine Anger makes verse if nature but denie Gracious talkers and imitaters and such as can hold at bay haue a certaine difference of imagination verie contrarie to the vnderstanding and to the memorie For which cause they neuer prooue learned in Grammer Logicke Schoole-diuinitie Phisicke or the lawes If then they be wittie in managing toward for euery matter they take in hand ready in speech and answering to the purpose these are fit to serue in Courts of iustice for sollicitors atturnies merchants and factors to buy and sell bur not for learning Heerein the vulgar is much deceiued seeing them so readie at all handes and them seemeth that if such gaue themselues to learning they would prooue notable fellowes but in substance there is no wit more repugnant to matters of learning than these Children that are slow of speech haue a moistnes in their tongue and also in their braine but that wearing away in processe of time they become verie eloquent and great talkers through the great memorie which they get when that moisture is tempered This we know by the things tofore rehearsed befell that famous Orator Demosthenes of whome we said that Cicero maruelled how being so blunt of speech when he was a boy growing greater he became so eloquēt Children also who haue a good voice and warble in the throat are most vntoward for all Sciences and the reason is for that they are cold and moist The which two qualities being vnited we said before that they breed a dammage in the reasonable part Schollers who learn their lesson in such maner as their maister deliuereth it and so recite the same it shewes a token of a good memorie but the vnderstanding shall abie the bargaine There are offered in this doctrine some problemes and doubts the answere wherunto will perhaps yeeld more light to conceiue that what we haue propounded doth carie trueth The first is whence it groweth that great Latinists are more arrogant and presumptuous on their knowledge than men very well skilled in that kind of learning which appertaineth to the vnderstanding in sort that the prouerbe to let vs know what maner of fellow a Grammarian is sayth That a Grammarian is arrogancie it selfe The second is whence it commeth that the Latine tongue is so repugnant to the Spanish capacities and so naturall to the French Italian Dutch English and other northernly nations as we see in their workes which by their good Latine phrase straightwaies proue the authour to haue been a stranger and by the barbarousnesse and ill composition we know the same for a Spaniards The third is for what reason the things that are spoken and written in the Latine tongue sound better carrie a more loftinesse and haue greater delicacie than anie other language how good soeuer we hauing auouched before that all languages are nought els but a conceit at pleasure of those who first deuised them without holding anie foundation in nature The fourth doubt is seeing all Sciences which appertaine to the vnderstanding are written in Latine how it can frame that such as want memorie may read and studie them in those books whilest the Latine is by this reason so repugnant vnto them To the first probleme we answere that to know whether a man haue defect of vnderstanding there fals out no token more certaine than to see him loftie big looked presumptuous desirous of honour standing on termes and full of ceremonies And the reason is for that all these be workes of a difference of the imagination which requireth no more but one degree of heat wherwith the much moisture which is requisite for the memorie accordeth verie sitly for it wanteth force to resolue the same Contrariwise it is an infallible token that if a man be naturallie lowly despiser of himselfe and his own matters and that not only he vanteth not nor praiseth himself but feels displeasure at the commēdations giuen him by others and takes shame of places and ceremonies pertaining to honour such a one may well be pointed at for a man of great vnderstanding but of small imagination and memorie I said naturally lowly for if he be so by cūning this is no certain signe Hence it commeth that as the Grammarians are men of great memorie and make an vnion with this difference of
sense which is gathered out of the construction thereof and none other This doctrine thus presupposed it falleth out a matter very manifest for what reason the lawyers are termed lettered and other men of learning not so for this name is deriued from the word letter which is to say a man who is not licenced to follow the capacitie of his owne vnderstanding but is enforced to ensue the sense of the very letter And for that the well practised in this profession haue so construed it they dare not denie or affirme any thing which appertaineth to the determination of any case whatsoeuer vnles they haue lying before them some law which in expresse tearms decideth the same And if sometimes they speake of their owne head interterlacing their conceit and reason without grounding vpon some law they do it with feare and bashfulnesse for which cause it is a much worne prouerbe We blush when we speake without law Diuines cannot call themselues lettered in this signification for in the holy scripture the letter killeth and the spirit giueth life it is full of mysteries replenished with figures and cyphers obscure and not vnderstood by all readers the vowels and phrases of speech hold a very different significatiō from that which the vulgar and three-tounged men do know Therefore whosoeuer shall set himselfe to construe the letter and take the sence which riseth of that Grammaticall construction shall fall into many errours The Phisitions also haue no letter whereto to submit themselues for if Hippocrates and Galen and the other graue authors of this facultie say and affirme one thing and that experience and reason approue the contrarie they are not bound to follow them for in Phisicke experience beareth more sway than reason and reason more than authoritie but in the lawes it betideth quite contrary for their authoritie and that which they determine is of more force and vigour than all the reasons that may be alleaged to the contrary Which being so we haue the way layd open before vs to assigne what wit is requisit for the lawes For if a Lawyer haue his vnderstanding and imagination tied to follow that which the law auouched without adding or diminishing it falleth out apparent that this facultie appertaineth to the memorie and that the thing wherein they must labour is to know the number of the lawes and of the rules which are in the text and to call to remembrance ech of them in particular to rehearse at large his sentence and determination to the end that when occasion is ministred we may know there is a law which giueth decision and in what forme and maner Therefore to my seeming it is a better difference of wit for a lawyer to haue much memory and litle vnderstanding than much vnderstanding and litle memorie For if there fall out no occasion of employing his wit and abilitie and that he must haue at his fingers ends so great a number of lawes as are extant and so far different from the other with so manie exceptions limitations enlargements it serues better to know by heart what hath been determined in the lawes for euerie point which shall come in question than to discourse with the vnderstanding in what sort the same might haue been determined for the one of these is necessarie the other impertinent since none other opinion than the verie determination of the law must beare the stroke So it falles out for certaine that the Theorick of the law appertaineth to the memorie and not to the vnderstanding nor to the imagination for which reason and for that the lawes are so positiue and that because the lawyers haue their vnderstanding so tied to the will of the law-maker and cannot entermingle their own resolution saue in case where they rest vncertaine of the determination of the law when any client seeketh their iudgement they haue authoritie and licence to say I wil looke for the case in my booke which if the Phisition should answer when he is asked a remedie for some disease or the Diuine in cases of conscience we would repute them for men but simply seen in the facultie wherof they make profession And the reason heereof is that those sciences haue certain vniuersall principles and definitions vnder which the particuler cases are contained but in the law-facultie euery law containeth a seuerall particular case without hauing anie affinitie with the next though they both be placed vnder one title In respect whereof it is necessarie to haue a notice of al the lawes and to studie ech one in particuler and distinctly to lay them vp in memorie But heere against Plato noteth a thing worthy of great consideration and that is how in his time a learned man was held in suspition that he knew many lawes by heart seeing by experience that such were not so skilfull iudges pleaders as this their vaunt seemed to pretend Of which effect it appeareth he could not find out the cause seeing in a place so conuenient he did not report the same onely he saw by experience that Lawyers endowed with good memorie being set to defend a cause or to giue a sentence applied not their reasons so well as was conuenient The reason of this effect may easily be rendered in my doctrine presupposing that memorie is contrarie to the vnderstanding that the true interpretation of the lawes to amplifie restraine and compound them with their contraries and oppositions is done by distinguishing concluding arguing iudging and chusing which workes we haue often said heeretofore belong to discourse and the learned man possessing much memorie cannot by possibilitie enioy them We haue also noted heeretofore that memorie supplieth none other office in the head than faithfully to preserue the figures and fantasies of things but the vnderstanding and the imagination are those which work therewithall And if a learned man haue the whole art of memory and yet want vnderstanding and imagination he hath no more sufficiencie to iudge or plead than the verie Code or Digest which cōpassing within them all the laws and rules of reason for all that cannot write one letter Moreouer albeit it be true that the law ought to be such as we haue mentioned in his definition yet it falleth out a miracle to finde thinges with all the perfections which the vnderstanding attributeth vnto them that the law be iust and reasonable and that it proceed fullie to all that which may happen that it be written in plain termes void of doubt oppositions and that it receiue not diuerse constructions we see not alwaies accomplished for in conclusion it was established by mans coūsell and that is not of force sufficient to giue order for al that may betide and this is daily seen by experience for after a law hath bin enacted with great aduisement and counsell the same in short space is abrogated againe for when it is once published and put in practise a thousand inconueniences discouer themselues
vnderstood when the stomacke is good and sound but if it fall into a certain infirmitie which the Phisitions call Pica or Malacia then arise longings after things which mans nature abhorreth so as they eate earth coles and lime with greater appetite than hennes or trouts If we passe on to the facultie generatiue we shall find as many appetites varieties for some men loue a foule womā and abhorre a faire others cast better liking to a foole than her that is wise a fat wench is fulsome and a leane hath their liking silks braue attire offend some mens fancies who leese themselues after one that totters in her ragges This is vnderstood when the genitall partes are in their soundnesse but if they fall into their infirmitie of stomacke which is termed Malacia they couet detestable beastlinesse The same befalleth in the facultie sensitiue for of the palpable qualities hard and soft rough and smooth hot and cold moist and drie there is none of them which can content euery ones feeling for there are men who take better rest on a hard bed than a soft other som better on a soft than a hard All this varietie of strange tasts appetites is found in the compositions framed by the vnderstanding for if we assemble 100 men of learning and propound a particular question each of them deliuereth a seuerall iudgement and discourseth thereof in different maner One selfe argument to one seemeth a sophisticall reason to another probable and some you shall meet with to whose capacitie it concludeth as if it were a demonstration And this is not onely true in diuerse vnderstandings but we see also by experience that one selfe reason concludeth to one selfe vnderstanding at one time thus-wise and at another time otherwise so much that euerie day men varie in opinion some by processe of time purging their vnderstanding know the default of reason which first swaied them and others leesing the good temperature of their braine abhorre the trueth and giue allowance to a leasing But if the braine fall into the infirmitie which is termed Malacia then we shal see strange iudgements and compositions arguments false and weake to prooue more forcibly than such as carrie strength and trueth to good arguments an answere shaped and to bad a condescēding from the premisses whence a right conclusion may be collected they gather a wrong and by strange arguments and fond reasons they prooue their bad imaginations This graue and learned men duely aduising labour to deliuer their opinion concealing the reasons whereon they ground for men persuade themselues that so farre mans authoritie auaileth as the reason is of force on which he buildeth and the arguments resting so indifferent for cōcluding through the diuersitie of vnderstandings euerie man giueth a iudgement of the reason conformably to the wit which he possesseth for which cause it is reputed greater grauitie to say This is mine opinion for certaine reasons which moue me so to thinke than to display the arguments whereon he relieth But if they be enforced to render a reason of their opinion they ouerslip not anie argument how slight so euer for that which they least valued with some concludeth and worketh more effect than the most vrgent Wherein the great miserie of our vnderstanding is discouered which compoundeth and diuideth argueth and reasoneth and at last when it is growen to a conclusion is void of proofe or light which may make it discern whether his opinion be true or no. This selfe vncertaintie haue the diuines in matters which appertaine not to the faith for after they haue argued at full they cannot then assure themselues of anie infallible proofe or euident successe that may discouer which reasons carried greatest waight and soeuerie diuine casteth how he may best ground himself and answer with most apparence to the aduerse parties arguments his owne reputation saued and this is all wherabouts he must bestow his endeuour But the charge of a Phisition and a Generall in the field after he hath well discoursed and refuted the grounds of the contrary partie is to marke the successe which if it be good he shal be held for discreet if had allmen will know that he relied vpon guilefull reasons In matters of faith propounded by the Church there can be fall none error for God best weeling how vncertaine mens reasons are and with how great facilltie they runne headlong to be deceiued consenteth not that matters so high and of so waightie importance should rest vpon our onely determination but when two or three are gathered togither 〈◊〉 his name with the solemnitie of the Church he forthwith 〈◊〉 into the midst of them as president of the action and to giueth allowance to that which they say well and reaueth their errours and of himselfe reuealeth that to whose notice by humane forces we cannot attaine The proofe then which the reasons formed in matters of faith must receiue is to aduise well whether they prooue or inferre the same which the Catholicke church saith and declareth for if they collect ought to the contrarie ther without doubt they are faultie but in other questions i where the vnderstanding hath libertie of 〈◊〉 there hath not yet any maner bin deuised to know what reasons conclude nor when the vnderstanding doth well compound a trueth onely we relie vpon the good consonance which they make and that is in argument which may 〈…〉 better apparence and likelier proofe of truth than the 〈◊〉 themselves Phisitions and such as command in martiall affairs haue successe and experience for proofe of their reasons For if 〈◊〉 captains proue by many reasons that it is best to ioine battaile and so many in the other side defend the contrarie that which succcedeth will confirme the one opinion and conuince the other And if two Phisitions dispute whether the patient shall die or liue after he is cured or deceassed it will appeare whose reason was best But for all this the successe is yet no sufficient proofe for whereas an effect hath many causes it may very well betide happily for one cause and yet the reasons perhaps were grounded on a contrary Aristotle moreouer affirmeth that to know what reasons conclude it is good to ensue the common opinion for if many wisemen say and affirme one selfe thing and all conclude with the same reasons it is a signe though topicall that they are conclusiue and that they compound well the truth But who so taketh this into due consideration shall find it a proofe subiect also vnto beguiling for in the forces of the vnderstanding waight is of more preheminence than number for it fareth not in this as in bodily forces that when many loine together to lift vp a waight they preuaile much and when few but little but to attaine to the notice of a truth deepely hidden one high vnderstanding is of more value than 100000 which are not comparable thereunto and the reason is because the vnderstandings helpe
and if there come not in his head arguments and answers in the matter which is treated of he is void of discourse but if the prooue towardly in his seiâ—neâ— it is an infallible argument that he is endued with a good vnderstanding for the lawes and so he may forth with addict himself to studie them without longer tarying Albeit would hold it better done first to run through the arts because Logicke in respect of the vnderstanding is nought els than those shockles which we 〈◊〉 on the legs of an vntrained Mule which going with them in any daies taketh a steddie seemlie place Such a march doth the vnderstanding make in his disputations when it first bindeth the same with the rules and precepts or Logicke but if this child whom we go thus wise 〈◊〉 reape no profit in the Latine tongue neither can come away with Logicke as were requisite it behooueth to trie whether he possesse a good imagination ere we take him from the laws for herein is lapped vp a verie great secret and it is good that the common-wealth be done to ware thereof and it is that there are some lawyers who getting vp into the chaire work miracles in interpreting the texts others in pleading but if you put the staffe of iustice into their hands they haue no more abilitie to gouerne than as if the lawes had neuer been enacted to any such end And contrariwise some other there are who with three misvnderstood lawes which they haue learned at all aduentures being placed in anie gouernment there cannot more be desired at any mans handes than they will performe At which effect some curious wits take wonder because they sinck not into the depth of the cause from whence it may grow And the reason is that gouernment appertaineth to the imagination and not to the vnderstanding nor the memorie And that this is so the matter may verie manifestly be prooued considering that the common-wealth is to be compounded with order concert with euery thing in his due place which all put togither maketh good figure correspondence And this sundrie times heeretofore we haue prooued to be a worke of the imagination and it shall prooue nought els to place a great lawyer to be a gouernour than to make a deafe man a Iudge in musicke but this is ordinarily to be vnderstood not as an vniuerfall rule for we haue alreadie prooued it is possible that nature can vnite great vnderstanding with much imagination so shall there follow no repugnancie to be a good pleader and a famous gouernour and we heeretofore discouered that nature being endowed with all the forces which she may possesse and with matter well seasoned will make a man of great memorie and of great vnderstanding and of much imagination who studying the lawes will prooue a famous reader a great pleader and no lesse gouernor but nature makes so few such as this cannot passe for a generall rule CHAP. XII How it may be prooued that of Theoricall Phisicke part appertaineth to the memorie and part to the vnderstanding and the practicke to the imagination WHat time the Arabian Phisicke florished there was a Phisition very famous aswell in reading as in writing arguing distinguishing answering and concluding who men would thinke in respect of his profound knowledge were able to reuiue the dead and to heale any disease whatsoeuer and yet the contrarie came to passe for he neuer tooke anie patient in cure who miscarried not vnder his handes Wherat greatly shaming and quite out of countenance he went and made himselfe a frier complaining on his euill fortune and notable to conceiue the cause how he came so to misse And because the freshest examples affoord surest proof and do most sway the vnderstanding it was held by many graue Phisitions that Iohn Argentier a phisition of our time farre surpassed Galen in reducing the art of phisicke to a better method and yet for all this it is reported of him that he was so infortunate in practise as no patient of his countrey durst take phisicke at his hands fearing some dismall successe Hereat it seemeth the vulgar haue good reason to maruell seeing by experience not onely in those rehearsed by vs but also in many others with whom men haue dayly to deale that if the Phisition be a great clearke for the same reason he is vnfit to minister Of this effect Aristotle procured to render a reason but could not find it out He thought that the cause why the reasonable Phisitions of his time failed in curing grew for that such men had only a generall notice and knew not euerie particular complexion contrarie to the Empiricks whose principal study bent it self to know the properties of eueriy seuerall person and let passe the generall but he was void of reason for both the one and the other exercised themselues about particular cures endeuoured so much as in them lay to know ech ones nature singly by it selfe The difficultie then consisteth in nothing els than to know for what cause so well learned phisitions though they exercise themselues all their life long in curing yet neuer grow skilfull in practise and yet other simple soules with three or foure rules learned verie soone and the schollers can more skill of ministring than they The true answere of this doubt holdeth no little difficultie seeing that Aristotle could not finde it out nor render at least in some sort any part therof But grounding on the principles of our doctrine we will deliuer the same for we must know that the perfection of a phisition consisteth in two things no lesse necessarie to attaine the end of his art than two legges are to go without halting The first is to weet by way of method the precepts and rules of curing men in generall without descending to particulars The second to be long time exercised in practise and to haue visited many patients for men are not so different ech from other but that in diuers things they agree neither so conioyned but that there rest in them particularities of such condition as they can neither be deliuered by speech nor written nor taught nor so collected as that they may be reduced into art but to know them is onely granted to him who hath often seen and had them in handling Which may easily be conceiued considering that mans face being composed of so small a number of parts as are two eies a nose two cheeks a mouth a forehead nature shapeth yet therein so manie compositions and combinations as if you assemble togither 100000 men ech one hath a countenance so different from other and proper to himselfe that it falleth out a miracle to find two who do altogither resemble The like betideth in the foure elements in the 4 first qualities hot cold moist and drie by the harmonie of which the life and health of man is compounded and of so slender a number of parts nature maketh so many proportions
who is possessed of this temperature we need prescribe no diet what he shall eat and drinke for he neuer exceedeth the quantitie and measure which phisicke would assigne him And Galen contenteth not himselfe to terme them most temperat but moreouer auoucheth that it is not necessary to moderat their other passions of the soule for his anger his sadnesse his pleasure and his mirth are alwaies measured by reason Whence it followeth that they are euermore healthful and neuer diseased and this is the fourth figure But herein Galen swarueth from reason for it is impossible to frame a man that shalbe perfect in all his powers as the body is temperat and that his wrathfull and concupiscentiall power get not the soueraigntie ouer reason and incite him to sin For it is not fitting to suffer any man how temperat soeuer to follow alwaies his owne naturall inclination without gainsetting and correcting him by reason This is easily vnderstood considering the temperature which the braine ought to haue to the end the same may be made a conuenient instrument for the reasonable facultie and that which the heart should hold to the end the wrathfull power may couet glorie empire victorie and soueraigntie ouer all and that which the liuer ought to haue for disgesting the meats and that which ought to rest in the colds to be able to preserue mankind and to increase the same Of the brain we haue said sundry times tofore that it should retaine moisture for memory drinesse for discourse and heat for the imagination But for all this his naturall temperature is cold and moist and by reason of the more or lesse of these two qualities somtimes we terme it hot and somtimes cold now moist then drie but the cold and moist grow to predominat The liuer wherein the facultie of concupiscence resideth hath for his naturall temperature heat and moisture to predominate and from this it neuer altereth so long as a man liueth And if somtimes we say it is cold it groweth for that the same hath not all the degrees of heat requisit to his owne operations As touching the heart which is the instrument of the wrathfull facultie Galen affirmeth it of his owne nature to be so hot as if while a creature liueth we put our finger into his hollownesse it will grow impossible to hold the same there one moment without burning And albeit somtime we terme it cold yet we may not conceiue that the same doth predominate for this is a case impossible but that the same consisteth not in such degree of heat as to his operations is behooffull In the cods where the other part of the concupiscible maketh abode the like reason taketh place for the predomination of his naturall temperature is hot and drie And if somtimes we say that a mans cods are cold we must not absolutly so vnderstand the same neither to predomination but that the degree of heat requisit for the generatiue vertue is wanting Hereon we plainly inferre that if a man be well compounded and instrumentalized it behooueth of force that he haue excessiue heat in his heart for otherwise the wrathfull facultie would grow verie remisse and if the liuer be not exceeding hot it cannot disgest the meat nor make bloud for nourishment and if the cods haue not more heat than cold a man will prooue impotent and without power of begetting Wherefore these two members being of such force as we haue said it followeth of necessitie that the braine take alteration through much heat which is one of the qualities that most paineth reason and which is worst the will being free inciteth and inclineth it selfe to condiscend to the appetites of the lower portion By this reckoning it appeareth that nature cannot fashion such a man as may be perfect in al his powers nor produce him inclined to vertue How repugnant it is vnto the nature of man that he become inclined to vertue is easily prooued considering the composition of the first man which though the most perfect that euer mankind enioyed sauing that of Christ our redeemer and shaped by the hands of so great an artificer yet if God had not infused into him a supernaturall qualitie which might keepe down his inferiour part it was impossible abiding in the principles of his owne nature that he should not be enclined to euill And that God made Adam of a perfect power to wrath and concupiscence is well to be vnderstood in that he said and commanded him Encrease and multiply and to replenish the earth It is certaine that he gaue them an able power for procreation made them not of a cold complexion inasmuch as he commanded him that he should people the earth with men which worke cannot be accomplished without abundance of heat And no lesse heat did he bestow vpon the facultie nutritiue with which he was to restore his consumed substance and renew another in lieu thereof Seeing that he said to the man and the woman Behold I haue giuen you euerie hearb that bringeth forth seed vpon the earth whatsoeuer trees haue seed of their kind to the end they may serue you for food for if God had giuen them a stomacke and liuer cold and of little heat for certain they could not haue digested their meat nor preserue themselues 900 yeares aliue in the world He fortified also the heart and gaue the same a wrathfull facultie which might yeeld him apt to be a king and lord and to command the whole world and said vnto them Do you subdue the earth and command ouer the fishes of the sea and the foules of the aire and all the beasts that mooue on the face of the earth But if he had not giuen them much heat they had not partaken so much viuacitie nor authoritie of soueraigntie of commandement of glory of maiestie and of honour How much it endamageth a prince to haue his wrathfull power remisse cannot sufficiently be expressed for through this only cause it befalleth that he is not feared nor obeied nor reuerenced by his subiects After hauing fortified the wrathfull and concupiscible powers giuing vnto the forementioned members so much heat he passed to the facultie reasonable and shaped for the same a braine cold and moist in such degree and of a substance so delicat that the soule might with the same discourse and philosophize and vse his infused knowledge For we haue alreadie auouched and heretofore prooued that God to bestow a supernaturall knowledge vpon men First ordereth their wit and maketh them capable by way of the naturall dispositions deliuered by his hand that they may receiue the same for which cause the text of the holy scripture affirmeth that he gaue them a heart to conceiue and replenished them with the discipline of vnderstanding The wrathful and concupiscentiall powers being then so mighty through great heat and the reasonable so weake and remisse to resist God made prouision of a supernaturall qualitie and this is tearmed by
degree for his seed is of such furie and feruency as it behooueth the same to fall into a place very cold and moist that it may take hold and root This man is of the qualitie of Cresses which will not grow saue in the water and if he partaked lesse hot and dry his sowing in so cold a belly were nought els than to cast graine into a poole Hippocrates giueth counsell that a woman of this sort should first lessen her selfe and lay aside her flesh and her fat before she marrie but then she need not to take to husband a man so hot and dry for such a temperature would not serue nor she conceiue A woman cold and moist in the second degree retaineth a meane in all the tokens which I haue specified saue onely in beauty which she enioyeth in an high degree Which yeeldeth an euident signe that she will be fruitfull and beare children and prooue gratious and cheerfull She answereth in proportion wel-neer to all men First to the hot and dry in the second degree and next to the temperat and lastly to the hot moist From all these vnions and conioynings of men and women which we haue here laid down may issue wise children but from the first are the most ordinary For put case that the seed of a man encline to cold and moist yet the continuall drinesse of the mother and the giuing her so little meat correcteth amendeth the defect of the father For that this maner of philosophizing neuer heretofore came to light it was not possible that all the naturall Philosophers could shape an answere to this probleme which asketh Whence proceedeth it that manie fools haue begotten wise children Whereto they answer that sottish persons apply themselues affectionatly to the carnall act and are not carried away to any other contemplation But contrarily men verie wise euen in the copulation go imagining vpō matters nothing pertinent to that they haue in hand and therethrough weaken the seed and make their children defectiue aswell in the powers reasonall as in the naturall In the other conioynings it is requisit to take heed that the woman be clensed and dried by a ripe age and marry not ouer yong for hence it commeth that children prooue simple and of little wit The seed of yong parents is verie moist for it is but a whiles since they were borne and if a man be formed of a matter endowed with excessiue moisture it followeth of force that he prooue dull of capacitie What diligence ought to be vsed that children male and not female may be borne §. 3. THose parents who seeke the comfort of hauing wise children and such as are towards for learning must endeuour that they may be borne male for the female through the cold and moist of their sex cānot be endowed with any profound iudgment Only we see that they talke with some apparence of knowledge in slight and easie matters with termes ordinary and long studied but being set to learning they reach no farther than to some smacke of the Latine tongue and this only through the help of memorie For which dulnesse themselues are not in blame but that cold and moist which made them women and these selfe qualities we haue prooued heretofore gainsay the wit and abilitie Salomon considering how great scarcitie there was of wise men and that no woman came to the world with a wit apt for knowledge said in this maner I found one man amongst 1000 but I haue not found one woman amongst the whole rout As if he should say that of 1000 men he had found one wise but throughout the race of women he could neuer light vpon one that had iudgment Therfore we are to shun this sex and to procure that the child be borne male for in such only resteth a wit capable of learning It behooueth therfore first to take into consideration what instruments were ordained by nature in mans body to this effect and what order of causes is to be obserued that we may obtaine the end which we seeke for We must then vnderstand that amongst many excrements and humours which reside in a mans bodie nature saith Galen vseth only the seruice of one to worke that mankind may be preserued This is a certain excremēt which is termed whey or wheyish bloud whose engendring is wrought in the liuer and in the veins at such time as the foure humours bloud fleagme choler and melancholy do take the forme and substance which they ought to haue Of such a licour as this doth nature serue her selfe to resolue the meat and to worke that the same may passe through the veins and through the strait passages carrying nourishment to all the parts of the body This work being finished the same nature prouideth the veins whose office is nought els but to draw vnto them this whey and to send it through their passages to the bladder and from thence out of the body and this to free man from the offence which an excremēt might breed him But she aduising that he had certain qualities cōuenient for generation prouided two veins which should carry part therof to the cods and vessels of seed togither with some small quantitie of bloud whereby such seed might be formed as was requisit for mankind Wherethrough she planted one veine in the reins on the right side which endeth in the right cod and of the same is the right seed vessell framed and another on the left side which likewise taketh his issue at the left cod and of that is shaped the left seed vessell The requisit qualities of this excrement that the same may be a conuenient matter for engendring of seed are saith Galen a certaine tartnesse and biting which groweth for that the same is salt wherethrough it stirreth vp the seed vessels moueth the creature to procure generation and not to abandon this thought And therfore persons very lecherous are by the Latinists termed Salaces that is to say men who haue much saltnesse in their seed Next to this nature did another thing worthy of great consideration namely that to the right side of the reines and to the right cod she gaue much heat and drinesse and to the left side of the reines to the left cod much cold and moisture wherthrough the seed which laboureth in the right cod issueth out hot and drie and that of the left cod cold and moist What nature pretended by this variety of temperature aswell in the reins as in the cods seed vessels is verie manifest we knowing by histories very true that at the beginning of the world and many yeares after a woman brought forth two children at a birth wherof the one was born male the other female the end wherof tended that for euery man there should be a wife that mankind might take the speedier increase She prouided then that the right side of the reines should yeeld matter hot and drie to the right cod and that
are some effectes which must be imputed to God immediatly as are those which come besides the order of nature and others by the way of meanes reckoning first as a meane the causes which are ordained to that end The countrey which the Scythians inhabited saith Hippocrates is seated vnder the North a region moist and cold beyond measure where through abundance of clouds it seemes a miracle if you see the sunne The rich men sit euer on horsebacke neuervse any exercise eat and drink more than their naturall heat can consume all which things make the seed cold and moist And for this cause they beget manie females and if anie male were borne they prooued of the condition which we haue specified Know you said Hippocrates to them that the remedie hereof consisteth not in sacrifising to God neither in doing ought like that but it behooueth withall that you walke on foot eat little and drink lesse and not so wholly betake your selues to your pleasures And that you may the more plainly discerne it looke vpon the poore people of this countrie your very slaues who not onely make no sacrifices to your God neither offer him gifts as wanting the means but euen blaspheme his blessed name and speake iniuriously of him because he hath placed them in such estate And yet though so lewd and sacrilegious they are very able for procreation the most part of their children proue males strong not cocknies not Eunuchs not Hermafrodites as do those of yours And the cause is for that they eat litle vse much exercise neither keep thēselues alwais on horsback like their masters By which occasiō they make their seed hot dry and therthrough engender males and not females This point of Philosophy was not vnderstood by Pharao nor by his councell seeing that he said in this manner Come let vs keepe them downe with oppression that they may not multiply nor ioyne with our enemie if warre be raised against vs. And the remedie which he vsed to hinder that the people of Israel should not encrease so fast or at least that so many male children might not be borne which he most feared was to keepe them vnder with much toile of body and to cause them for to eat leeks garlicke and onions which remedie tooke but a bad effect as the holy scripture expresseth for the harder he held them oppressed the more did they encrease and multiply Yet he making reckoning that this was the surest way he could follow doubled this their affliction of body VVhich preuailed so litle as if to quench a great fire he should throw thereinto much oile or grease but if he or any of his counsellors had been seen in this point of naturall Philosophy he should haue giuen them barly bread lettice melons cucūbers citrons to eat and haue kept them well fed and well filled with drinke and not haue suffered them to take anie paine For by this means their seed would haue become cold and moist therof more women than men bin begotten and in short time their life haue been abridged But feeding them with much flesh boiled with garlicke with leeks with onions and tasking them to work so hard he caused their seed to wax hot and drie by which two qualities they were the more incited to procreation and euerbred issue male For confirmation of this veritie Aristotle propoundeth a probleme which saith VVhat is the cause that those who labor much and such as are subiect to the feuer Ecticke suffer many pollutions in their sleepe whereto verely he wist not to shape an answer for he telleth many things but none of them hit the truth The right reason hereof is that the toile of the body and the Ecticke feuer do heat and dry the seed and these two qualities make the same tart pricking and for that in sleep all the naturall powers are fortified this betideth which the probleme speaketh of How fruitfull and pricking the hot and drie seed is Galen noteth in these words The same is most fruitfull and soon inciteth the creature to copulation and is lecherous and prone to lust The fourth condition was not to accompany in the act of generation vntill the seed were setled concocted and dulie seasoned for though the three former diligences haue gone before yet we cannot thereby know whether it haue attained that perfection which it ought to haue Principally it behooueth for 7 or 8 daies before to vse the meats which we haue prescribed to the end the cods may haue time to consume in their nourishment the seed which all that time was engendred of the other meats and that this which we thus go describing may succeed The like diligence is to be vsed touching mans seed that the same may be fruitfull and apt for issue as the gardeners doe with the seeds which they will preserue for they attend till they ripen and clense and wax drie for if they plucke them from the stalke before they are deeply seasoned and arriued to the point which is requisit though they lie in the ground a whole yeare they will not grow at all For this reason I haue noted that in places where much carnall copulation is vsed there is lesse store of children than where people are more enclined to continencie And common harlots neuer conceiue because they stay not till the seed be digested and ripened It behooueth therefore to abide for some daies that the seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned for by this meanes is hot and drie and the good substance which it had lost the better recouered But how shall we know the seed to be such as is requisit it should be seeing the matter is of so great importance This may easily be known if certaine daies haue passed since the man companied with his wife and by his continuall incitement and great desire of copulation all which springeth for that the seed is grown fruitfull and apt for procreation The fifth condition was that a man should meddle with his wife in the carnal act six or seuen daies before she haue her naturall course for that the child straightwaies standeth in need of much food to nourish it And the reason hereof is that the hot and drie of his temperature spendeth and consumeth not onely the good bloud of the mother but also the excrements VVherethrough Hippocrates said that the woman conceiued of a male is well coloured and faire Which groweth because the infant through his much heat consumeth all those excrements which are woont to disfigure the face leauing the same as a washed cloth And for that this is true it is behoofull that the infant be supplied with bloud for his nourishment And this experience manifesteth for it is a miracle that a male child should be engendered saue vpon the last daies of the month The contrarie befalleth when a woman goeth with a female for through the much cold and moist of her sex she