that shall be a very able Practitioner undoubtedly will be but a mean Theorist for a great Imagination cannot be united with a good Understanding and Memory And this is the reason why none are so consummate in Physic as never to fail in their Cures for not to fail in their Performances there is need to know the whole Art and to have a good Imagination to reduce the same to Practice but these two things as we have proved are Incompatible The Physician never attempts the Cause and Cure of any Disease but that he secretly frames to himself a Syllogism in Darii unless he be but an Emperic And the Proof of the first Position of his Premises belongs to the Understanding and the second to the Imagination For which reason the approved Theorists ordinarily Err in the Minor and the expert Practitioners in the Major as if we should speak in this manner All Fevers that depend on cold and moist Humours are to be Cured with Medicines hot and dry in taking the Indications from the Cause But the Fever which affects this Man depends on cold and moist Humours therefore it must be Cured with Medicines hot and dry The Truth of the Major is proved by the Understanding because it is an Universal Proposition affirming that Cold and Moisture require Heat and Driness to moderate them for that every Quality is abated by its Contrary But when we come to the Proof of the Minor the Understanding avails not because it is Particular and so is out of its Jurisdiction and its Cognizance pertains to the Imagination which draws from the Five Exterior Senses the proper and particular Symptoms of the Disease But if the Indication be to be taken from the Fever or its Cause it is that which the Understanding cannot reach only it teaches to take the Indication from that we apprehend most danger But which of the Indications is greatest the Imagination only can comprehend in weighing the Evils the Fever does with those that proceed from the Symptoms or Cause the little forces or great strength To learn this Notice the Imagination has certain ineffable Proprieties by means of which it reaches some things which it can neither tell nor comprehend and for which no Arts are of use Insomuch that we see a Physician coming to Visit the Sick who by the Sight Hearing Smell and Touch arrives at the Knowledge of what seemed Impossible so that should we ask him by himself how he was able to arrive at such nice Notions he could not tell because it is a Gift that proceeds from a Fruitfulness of Imagination which may be otherwise called Sagacity and which by some common Signs incertain Conjectures and where there is but slender footing in the twinkling of an Eye learns a Thousand different things wherein the Virtue of Curing and Prognosticating with assurance consists Of this sort of Sagacity the Men of great Understanding are unprovided because it makes a Part of the Imagination Insomuch that having before their Eyes the same Signs that discover to others the Secret of the Disease yet they make no Impression upon their Senses because these very Men are unprovided of Imagination A Physician took me aside to ask me whence it was that having studied with very great Curiosity all the Rules and Observations of the Semejotics of the Art of Physic and being very well versed in them yet he could never hit the Truth so much as from any one Prognostic To which I remember I answered That the Art of Physic was learn'd by one Power and put in Practice by another He had an Excellent Understanding but a very bad Imagination But a great Doubt arises in this Doctrin which is to know how the Physicians furnished with a great Imagination learn the Art of Physic since they are defective in Understanding For if it be true that these cure the Sick better than the most Learned Physicians to what end do these lose time to Study in the Schools To this the Answer is That it is a matter of great Importance first to know the Art of Physic for in two or three Years a Man may learn all that the Ancients were gathering in Two thousand And if a Man should acquire it by Experience he ought to live at least Three thousand Years and in Experimenting Medicines he would kill an infinite number of People before he understood all their Virtues from which he is freed by Reading the Books of Rational and Experimental Physicians who advise us in their Writings of what they have found out in the whole Course of their Lives to the end that the Doctors that come after them may boldly make use of those that are safe and forbear those that are Poisonous Besides which we are to know that the Common and Vulgar things in all Arts are obvious and easy to learn and yet the most Important in the Work and that on the contrary the most Curious and Subtile are the most obscure and least necessary in Curing And so it is that the Men of great Imagination are not wholly destitute of Understanding and Memory so that in the remiss degree in which they possess these two Powers they may be able to learn the most necessary Points of Physic for that they are plainest and with the good Imagination they have they may better know the Disease and its Cause than the most Rational in the Science since it is the Imagination that finds occasion of the Remedy they ought to apply in this Grace consists almost the whole Practice Therefore Galen said That the true Name of a Physician was to be the Inventor of the Occasion but to learn to know Time Place and Occasion without doubt are Works of the Imagination because that carries with it Figure and Correspondence The Difficulty is now to know to which of so many differences of Imagination the Practice of Physic belongs for it is cettain that all these Differences agree not in the same particular Reason which Speculation has more employed my Thoughts than all the rest And nevertheless I have not been able yet to give it the Name it ought to have unless it springs from a degree of less Heat than that difference of Imagination with which Verses and Songs are made But this I determine not positively because all the Reason upon which I build is that all those that I have known to have practised Physic well are little Dablers in Poetry But neither are their Thoughts very elevate nor their Verse very excellent Which may also come to pass because the Heat in a point exceeds that required by Poetry and if it be so it must be because the Heat is so great that it somewhat dries the Substance of the Brain without resolving much of the Natural Heat though if it proceed further it makes no ill Difference of Wit for Physic inasmuch as by Adustion it unites the Understanding with the Imagination But this sort of Imagination is not so good
certain Plato willing to teach us how it came to pass that one man had a great Memory and another but a little one and how one remembred what was past clearly and distinctly and the other confusedly found two Examples very pertinent by supposing a thing that is not Let us feign said he to serve us for an Instance that Nature had put into mens Souls a piece of Wax in one greater in the other less in one purer and finer Wax and in the other more course and drossy in one harder and difficulter to penetrate and the other plianter softer and more ductile and that the Sight Hearing and other Senses were imprinted with a Seal being no other than the Figure of what they had receiv'd and reported After this rate those who had a great deal of Wax would have a large Memory because they had a great Field to sow it in Those who had but a little Wax would have a small Memory for the same Reason Those who had the Wax foul unpurged and drossy would form confused and ill-mark'd Ideas Those who had the hard would have trouble to learn by Heart because that kind of Wax difficultly receives the Figures They who have soft and tender will have a great Memory will easily learn and retain by Heart all they know After all this it is certain that Plato did not in good earnest believe that when Nature formed us she put in our Souls any such pieces of Wax nor that man's Memory was made of any such matter but it was only an Instance of a thing feigned and accommodated to the rudeness of our Capacity And not content with this Example he sought out another affording no less means to understand what he meant which is of the Writer and the Paper for as the Writer sets down in Paper those things he would not forget and revises them after he has put them in Writing in the same manner it must be understood that the Imagination imprints in the Memory the Figures of things which the Senses and the Understanding have been acquainted with as well as those others which she her self invents and when it would recollect them Aristotle has said it returns to review and revolve Plato made use of this Comparison when he declared that in Apprehension of the failing of his Memory in his Old Age he was diligent in substituting another of Paper which was his Books that he might not lose his Labour but upon each Review it might a-new be represented to him the Imagination does no more as often as it imprints in the Memory and reads it over again whenever it is to recollect it self Aristotle was the first that broach'd this Opinion and Galen the next who spoke after this manner For the Part of the Soul that Imagins which ever it is it seems to be the very same that Remembers And this appears plainly in that the things which we Imagin with much intention of mind sink deeper into the Memory and those of which we think but slightly are soon forgot And as the Writer when he has writ a fair Letter reads it easily and without mistake even so it fairs with the Imagination for if it stamp them with force the Figures remain well imprinted and mark'd in the Brain otherwise they are hard to be distinguished The same also befalls old Writings of which part remains sound and fresh and part worn out by Time which cannot well be read unless the Defects are supplied by Guess The Imagination precisely takes the same Course when some Figures are effaced in the Memory and others retain'd Whence sprang Aristotle's Error who for no other reason believ'd that Remembrance was a different Power from Memory Besides which he said that those who have a great Remembrance have a good Understanding which is equally false because the Imagination whence the Remembrance proceeds is contrary to the Understanding For to fix things in the Memory and to remember them after they are known is an Act of the Imagination even as Writing any thing and reading it afterwards is an Act of the Writer and not of the Paper According to which the Memory is a Passive and not an Active Power as the Blank-Paper is no more than a Capacity for one to Write on The fourth Doubt may be thus solv'd That it imports nothing to a Man's Wit whether the Flesh be hard or delicate and soft if the Brain enjoy not also the same quality for that we observe very often possesses a Temperament distinct from that of all other Parts of the Body Nay even when the Flesh and the Brain accord in being both alike tender and soft it is a bad Indication for the Understanding and no less for the Imagination Be it as it will if we consider the Flesh of Women and Children we shall find that it is softer and more tender than Men's yet nevertheless Men are for the most part of a better Wit than Women The Natural Reason of which is That the Humours that make the Flesh soft are Phlegm and Blood because both the one and the other are moist as we have already noted and of these Humours Galen has pronounced that they make Men silly and blockish On the contrary the Humours which harden the Flesh are Choler and Melancholy whence proceed the Wisdom and Knowledge of Men. So that to have soft and delicate Flesh is a worse sign than to have dry and hard And accordingly among Men that are of an equal Temperament throughout the whole Body it is very easie to guess at the Difference of their Wit from the softness or hardness of the Flesh for if it be hard and rough it presages a good Understanding or a good Invention but if soft and delicate it denotes the contrary which is a good Memory with little Understanding and less Invention To discover then if the Brain correspond with the Flesh the Hair ought to be consider'd for if that be thick black harsh and curled it is a sign of a good Invention or a good Understanding but if lank and soft it is an Indication of a good Memory and nothing more But he that would know and distinguish whether it be Understanding or Imagination which is betoken'd when the Hair is such as we mentioned must consider how the Youth behaves himself in Laughing for that Passion strongly discovers if the Imagination be good or bad What the cause of Laughter is many Philosophers have pretended to know but not one has made it Intelligible they only all agree in this that the Blood is the Humour that provokes a Man to Laugh though none of them have told us what are the particular Qualities of this Humour that make a Man subject to Laughter In a Phrensy the Laughing Fits are securer and the crying Fits more desperate for the first is made by means of the Blood which a very benign Humour but the other is no less than an effect of deep Melancholy
to the Understanding being Writ in Latin that even such as want a good Memory can Read and Study those Books the Latin Tongue being so repugnant to them by reason of a defective Memory We may solve the first Problem thus There is no better Test to discover if a Man wants Understanding than to note if he be Haughty in Punctilio's of Honour Presumptuous Elated Ambitious and Ceremonious The reason is that all these are the Effects of a Difference of Imagination which requires no more than one Degree of Heat with which the great Moisture requisite to Memory consists well because this Degree of Heat is not of force sufficient to resolve it On the contrary an infallible sign that a Man is naturally humble is when he is observ'd to undervalue himself and whatever comes from him or relates to him and that not only Vaunts not and commends not himself but is offended at and scarce admits the Praises bestow'd on him by others being uneasie and in pain with Punctilio's and in places of Ceremony that Man I say who has these Marks may justly pass for a Man of great Understanding but of little Imagination and Memory I said naturally Humble because if it be by Art it is no certain sign whence it comes that the Grammarians are provided with so great a Memory and uniting with it this difference of Imagination which we just now mentioned they are necessarily deficient in their Understanding and such as the Proverb described To the second Problem may be answer'd That Galen gathering the Wit of Men from the Temperament of the Region they inhabit says That all those who dwell Northerly are defective in Understanding and those Situated between the North and the Torrid Zone are most Prudent which Position answers exactly to our Country and without doubt it is so for Spain is neither so Cold as the Northern Climes nor so Hot as the Torrid Zone Aristotle seems to be of the same Opinion when he Enquires Why those that live in very cold Countries have not so good an Understanding as those Born in very hot In his Answer he treats but coursly the Flemmings Germans English and French saying That the greater part of the Wits of those Nations resembled that of Drunkards for which reason they could not search into or know the Nature of things And the Cause of this is the overflow of Moisture in their Brains and other Parts of their Body which the fairness of their Complexions and the flaxen Colour of their Hair denotes and that it is a wonder to see a German bald and besides that they are all big and of large Stature through the abundance of Moisture which is a dilater of the Body The contrary is discern'd in the Spaniards who are a little Tawny black Hair'd of mean Stature and for the most part Bald which is a disposition affirm'd by Galen proceeding from a hot and dry Brain And if that be true they must of necessity have an ill Memory but a good Understanding and the German a great Memory and little Understanding Accordingly one of them cannot learn Latin and the other learns it readily The reason given by Aristotle to prove the little Understanding of the Northern People is that the great Ambient Cold of the Country forces the Natural Heat inward by an Antiperistasis and hinders it from being dissipated and so they have abundance of Moisture and Heat it is therefore these People are at the same time furnished with a good Memory for the Tongues and with a good Imagination by means of which they make Clocks bring the Water from the River to Toledo invent Machines and very curious Works which the Spaniards cannot make because they want Imagination but if they apply themselves to any point of Logic Philosophy School-Divinty Physic and the Laws a Spaniard without Comparison will speak more sublime and quainter things in his own Tongue and in barbarous Terms than a Stranger can do with all his fine Latin for take these People out of their Elegant and Polite Road of Writing and they perform nothing Extraordinary nor have they any Invention In Proof of this Doctrin Galen says In Scythia which is a Northern Country as a Wonder there arose one Philosopher whereas at Athens they are all such But though Philosophy and the other Sciences by us named are repugnant to these Northern People yet the Mathematics and Astronomy are proper to them because they have an Excellent Imagination The Answer to the third Problem depends on a much agitated Dispute between Plato and Aristotle One affirms that there are Words which naturally signify Things and that much Wit is requir'd to invent them which Opinion is favour'd by Holy Writ telling us that Adam gave to each Creature God set before him the proper Name most suitable to it But Aristotle would not yield that there was in any Tongue any Term or Figure of Speech that naturally signified the thing but that all Words were by Institution according to the Caprice and Fancy of Men. Accordingly it is known by Experience that Wine has more than Threescore Names and Bread as many and each its own in each Tongue nor can it be affirm'd of one that it is more proper and natural than all the rest for if it were all the Men in the World would use that However after all Plato's Opinion is truer For say the first Inventers of Tongues imposed Names according to their Fancy that Fancy was still with Reason as well in consulting the Ear as having regard to the Nature of the thing and observing the Graces of Pronounciation so as that the Words be not too long or too short and that there be no need of distorting the Mouth in Speaking giving the Accent in the proper place and the like Conditions to be observ'd that the Tongue be Eloquent and not Barbarous Of the Opinion of Plato was a Spanish Cavalier who diverted himself with Writing Books of Chivalry because he was furnished with that difference of Imagination which inclines a Man to such Stories and Lyes It is reported of him that being to bring into his Romance a certain fierce Giant he was for several days studying what Name would be most answerable to his Exploits but he could never chop upon it till playing one day at Tables with a Friend of his he heard the Master of the House say Ola Mochacho traquitantos a esta mesa That is to say Holla Boy bring hither some Dice for the Tables The Gentleman no sooner heard the Word Traquitantos but weighing the well sounding Name in his Ears without any longer stay for good Fortune rose up and said Gentlemen I play no longer for I have been a long while Inventing a Name that should agree well with a fierce Giant whom I make use of in certain Fictions I have composed and could not for my Life light upon it till I came to this House where I always received
in clear Words not Equivocal Obscure or of divers Senses without Cyphers or Abbreviations but so Obvious and Manifest that whoever reads them may readily understand and bear them in mind And because none may plead Ignorance of them they are appointed to be openly Proclaim'd that whoever breaks them may be Punished In respect therefore of the Care and Diligence observ'd by good Legislators that their Laws should be just and clear Judges and Advocates had given them in Charge That in Actions or Judgments none of them should abound in their own Sense but be directed by the Authority of the Laws That is to say not to dispute if the Law be Just or Unjust nor to give it any other Sense than it naturally bears according to the Letter From which it follows that the Lawyers are to keep close to the Text of the Law and take the meaning which is drawn from thence and no other This Doctrin being supposed it is easie to understand whence the Lawyer is called Letrado and other Lettered Men not so which is to say he is a letra dado tied to the Letter a Man that is not left at liberty to judge according to his own Understanding but is obliged to follow the very Letter Which having been so construed by those who are the best Practised in this Profession they dare neither Affirm nor Deny any thing concerning the Decision of any Case if they have not before them the Law deciding it in express Terms and if at any time they advance any thing of their own Head interposing their own Authority and Reason without founding it on the Law they do it not without Doubting and Modesty and accordingly we have a common Proverb Erubescimus dum sine lege loquimur importing that we are asham'd to judge and advise where we have not the Law before us that determines the matter The Divines cannot be call'd in this Sense Letrados Learn'd because in Holy Writ The Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life That being full of Mysteries and abounding with Figures dark and not obvious to every Understanding Its Terms and Manner of Speech of a very remote Signification from that given by those skilled in the three Vulgar Tongues Therefore he that interprets it according to the Letter and takes the Sense that is drawn from the Grammatical Construction will fall into many Errors Nor are the Physicians more obliged to submit to the Letter for if Hippocrates and Galen and other Grave Authors of that Science affirm a thing and Experience and Reason shew the contrary they are not bound to follow them and the reason is because in Physic Experience has more place than Reason and Reason more than Authority But in the Laws it happens quite otherwise for there Authority and the Decretals have more Power and Prevalence than all the Reasons to the contrary Which being so we have a way open to assign the Wit proper for the Laws for if the Lawyer is to have his Understanding and Imagination determined to follow blindly whatever the Law says without adding or diminishing it is certain this Faculty relates to the Memory and all they have to do is to know the number of the Laws and the Rules of Right and to bear in mind each in particular by Heart to reduce to Heads every Case and its Determination to the end that as any Case occurs he may know what Law determines it and in what manner Therefore it seems to me that the best Difference of Wit for a Lawyer is to have a great Memory and a small Understanding rather than much Understanding and little Memory for if he is not to make use of his Wit and Ability but must have regard to the great number of Laws as they are so distinguish'd from each other with so many Exceptions Restrictions and Enlargements it is more to the purpose to have by Heart what is determined by the Law in each Case that occurs than to Discourse or Reason after what manner it ought to be determined for one is necessary and the other impertinent no other Opinion being sufficient to carry the Point but the decision of the Law So that it is certain that the Theory of the Law belongs to the Memory and not to the Understanding or Imagination for which reason the Laws are so entirely positive and the Lawyers have their Understandings so determined by the Will of the Ligislator that they cannot interpose their own Opinion but where they are in doubt what the Law has declared when their Clients consult them they are allow'd to say I will look for the Case in my Books which should the Physician say when they come for Cure of any Disease or a Divine in a Case of Conscience they would pass for Men of small Ability in their Professions And the reason of it is that these two last Sciences have their Definitions and Principles Universal under which particular Cases are contain'd but in the Faculty of the Law each Law contains only one Case the following Law not depending on it though they are placed both under one and the same Title Wherefore it is necessary to have notice of all the Laws to Study each in particular and to lay them up all distinctly in the Memory However against this Doctrin Plato observes a thing very considerable which is that in his time that Lawyer was suspected that knew much Law by Heart finding by Experience they never made such good Judges and Pleaders as their Ostentation promised of which without doubt he reached not the Cause since he said nothing of it in so proper a place only he saw by Experience that the Lawyers of great Memory being to defend a Cause or give their Opinion in it applied not the Law so well as became them The Reason or Cause of this Effect is not hard to assign from this Doctrin supposing that the Memory be contrary to the Understanding and that the true Interpretation of the Laws to Amplify to Restrain and to Analyse them with their Contraries and their Contexts is done by distinguishing concluding arguing judging and chusing which Works as we have often said already are Acts of the Understanding and for the Lawyer of a great Memory it is scarce possible he should possess them We have noted elsewhere that the Memory seems to have no other Office in the Head than the Trust to preserve the Figures and Ideas of things and that the Understanding and Imagination are Powers that work with them So as if the Lawyer have his whole Art in his Memory and yet be wanting in Understanding and Imagination he will no more be able to Judge or Plead a Cause than the Code or Digest it self which though they contain all the Laws and Rules of Right yet know not how to Write ever a Letter in the Book Furthermore though it be true that the Law ought to be such as its Definition imports yet is it no less than a
are very Silly After all these are not the kinds of Gates that discover what Wit a Man has but some other far different which consist in certain Gestures and Motions that are not to be noted with a Pen nor exprest with a Tongue wherefore the same Cicero says that they are easy to comprehend when seen but very difficult to tell or write down To be in pain for the least Mote on the Cape and to be solicitous about drawing up the Stockings very strait and that the Cloak set dexterously upon the Shoulders without the least Rumple all this is a part of a base Difference of the Imagination that is contrary to the Understanding and to that other Difference of Imagination required in War The Fourth Mark and Property is to have a bald Pate and the Reason of it is plain inasmuch as this Difference of Imagination as also all the rest have place in the fore-part of the Head and excessive Heat burns the Skin of the Head and closes the Pores through which the Hair is to pass besides that the Matter whereof the Hair is made is as the Physicians say the Excrecrements which the Brain sends forth in time of its Nourishment and by the great Fire there all these Excrements are wasted and consume and so the Matter fails whereof they are produced Which Philosophy had Julius Caesar understood he would not have been ashamed of his bald Head since to cover this Defect he turned over his Forehead the hinder part of his Hair And Suetonius tells us That nothing was more pleasing to him than what the Senate enacted that he might always wear a Laurel on his Head on no other ground than to cover his Baldness Another sort of Baldness proceeds from a Brain hard earthy and of gross Parts but this is a sign of a Man defective in Understanding Imagination and Memory The Fifth Mark by which they are known who have this Difference of Imagination is that they are Men sparing in Words but full of Sentences and the reason of it is that their Brain being hard and dry they must of necessity fail in Memory to which belongs choice of Words To find many things to say arises from a resemblance between the Memory and Imagination in the first degree of Heat Those in whom these two Powers meet are ordinarily very great Lyars and never want Words and Stories if we listen all our life time to them The Sixth Property observed in those who have this Difference of Imagination is to be shame-faced and to take offence at obscene and filthy Talk And so Cicero says That Men who are very Rational imitate the Modesty of Nature who has hid the unseemly and indecent Parts which she made to provide for the Necessities of Mankind and not for Beauty upon which Parts she would not have us cast our Eyes or lend an Ear to their Names This Effect we might well attribute to the Imagination and say that it is offended by the ill Figure of these Parts But in the last Chapter we assigned the Cause of this Effect and reduced it to the Understanding and judged them defective in this Power who are not offended with Immodesty And because with the Difference of Imagination required for the Art-Military the Understanding is associated therefore the great Captains are very modest And so in the History of Julius Caesar we meet with an Act of the greatest Modesty that was ever practised by any Man in the World that is while he was to be Stab'd with Ponyards in the Senate seeing that there was no possibility of escaping Death he fell down on the Floor wrapping himself up in his Imperial Robes that after his Death he appeared stretched out very decently with his Legs and other Parts covered which might be offensive to the Sight The seventh Property and the most important of all is that the General be Fortunate and Lucky by which Sign we shall know certainly that he has the Wit and Ability requisite to the Art Military for in truth and reality there is nothing more ordinarily makes a Man Unfortunate and hinders things from succeeding according to his desires than to want Prudence and not to use the Means convenient for his Undertakings For as Julius Caesar made use of so great Prudence in all that he designed he was the happiest General of all that ever were in the World and in great Perils he animated his Soldiers in these Words Fear not for Caesar and his Fortune attends you The Stoicks believed that as there was a first Cause Eternal Omnipotent and of infinite Wisdom known by the Order and Consent of it's admirable Works so there was another unwise and unconcerted whose Works moved without Order without Reason and were void of Discretion for with a blind affection it gives to or takes from Men Riches Dignities and Honors They call'd it by the Name of Fortune because that it favoured those who did the feat at hap-hazard that is to say by chance without thinking or forecast or the Guidance of Reason They painted her to represent her Manners in the shape of a Woman in her Hand a Royal Scepter her Eyes veil'd her Feet on a round Ball attended by a Mob of Sots and Fellows of no Trade or Employment By the form of a Woman they set forth her great Levity and little Discretion By her Royal Scepter they acknowledged her the Mistress of Riches and Honours Her Eyes veil'd show'd the ill Choice she made in distributing her Gifts Her Feet fix'd on a round Ball signified the slippery Nature of the Favours she does seeing she takes them away with as little Deliberation as she gives them without holding a steady Hand in any thing But what is worst in her is that she favours the Wicked and persecutes the Good dotes on Fools and abhors the Wise degrades the Nobles and raises Rascals is gracious to the Foul and plagues the Fair Many Men placeing confidence in these Properties presuming on their own good Fortune dare venture on head-strong and rash Enterprises which nevertheless succeed well as others on the contrary very Wise and Discerning dare not put in Practice those things which they directed with great Discretion finding by Experience that for the most part they succeed but ill How great a Friend Fortune is to the Bad Aristotle shews when he asks Why Riches are in the Possession of the Wicked oftener than of the Good To which Problem he Answers Is it not because Fortune is blind and not able to choose or discern which it Best But this is an Answer unworthy so great a Philosopher for it is not Fortune that gives Riches to Men and tho' it were yet he gives no Reason why she always favours the Wicked and abandons the Good The true Solution of this Problem is that Knaves are very Witty and have a strong Imagination to over-reach in Buying and Selling and to make all Advantages of Bargaining and laying out
read in a short time but by what we understand by little and little and pause upon between whiles Our Wit encreases more and more each day in lighting by length of time upon those things we should not otherwise have known or apprehended Wit like Plant Animal and Man has its several Stages that is to say its Beginning Progression Perfect State and Declension It springs in Childhood grows up in Nonage comes to a Consistence in the Middle-age and declines in Old Age. So that he who would know when his Understanding is at the Pitch of Perfection may be assur'd 't is between Thirty-three and the end of Fifty Years more or less in which compass he may be able to judge of Grave Authors who in the course of their Lives have broached uncommon Opinions And whoever would write Books should do it at that very Age not sooner or later unless he would eat his Words or change his Opinion However the Age of Man holds not in all People the same Measure and Proportion for in some Childhood draws to a Period in the Twelfth in others not till the Fourteenth in some it determines the Sixteenth and in the rest not till the Eighteenth Year These live long because their Youth reaches not to little less than Forty and their Manhood holds on to Sixty Years Besides which they have Twenty Years of Old Age whence their Thread stretches to Eighty which is the limit of the Healthiest The first that finish their Childhood at Twelve Years are very short liv'd begin early to Discourse their Beard comes soon and their Wit lasts but a little time these ordinarily decline at Thirty-five and end their Days at Eight and forty Years There is not one of all the Qualifications already mention'd but what is very necessary useful and convenient to be observed that the young Student may come to something but above all to possess a Genius suitable to the Science he is to Study For with this we have observ'd that many Men who have begun to Study in a far spent Age Nay though they have lighted upon bad Masters an ill Method and studied in their Native Country yet all this notwithstanding have in a short time prov'd very Learned Men. For if Wit be wanting says Hippocrates all other Pains are lost No Man confirms the Truth of this better than honest Tully who full of Grief to see his Son such a Blockhead and that nothing could make him a Scholar express'd himself after this manner To strive against Nature what is it but Giant-like to make War with the Gods As if he would have said What more resembles the Giants War with Heaven than for an Insipid to set up for a Man of Parts For like as the Giants never Conquer'd the Gods but were always baffled by them even so empty Pretenders to Learning that strive against Nature will in the end have the Worst of it Nay Cicero himself advises us not to offer Violence to Nature nor attempt to be Orators in spite of her for it will be but lost Labour CHAP. IV. Nature only qualifies a Man for Learning IT is a common Saying and much used by the Antient Philosophers that Nature qualifies Man for Learning Art with its Rules and Precepts facilitates but Use and Experience of Particulars gains the Mastery But no Man has yet declared what this Nature is nor in what Class of Causes it ought to be rank'd they only affirm Whosoever pretends to Learning and wants that alone Arts Experience Masters Books and Industry prove but all in Vain There is a great Contest between the Natural Philosophers and the Vulgar about assigning the cause of this Effect The Vulgar observing a Man of great Abilities immediately declare God to be the Author of them without giving themselves any further trouble and with good reason because in Effect every good and perfect Gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights There is no Natural Cause say the Philosophers can produce Effects arm'd with such Force and Energy as God So far they are all agreed that the first Cause heats more than Fire refreshes more than Water illuminates more than the Sun himself and in our particular Formation 't is that which presides over Nature and that dispenses or denies Wit to Men. Which Consideration made the Royal Prophet David cry out Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me Vnderstanding that I may learn thy Commandments All the Antient Philosophers in a sort confess the same thing by Instinct of Nature alone conducted by right Reason to attest this Truth in spight of all Opposition 'T was upon that foot Plato knowing no City could be built without the Divine Assistance nor any good Laws made to conserve Men in Peace after an Establishment thereof framed a Law by which it was provided That the Divine Assistance should be invoked at the beginning of every Action because without that no good thing could have a just Accomplishment Which is the same thing that was said by King David before Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain Hippocrates designing to reduce into Method the Art of Curing those Diseases to which Women by reason of their Sex are exposed and esteeming it to be a very difficult matter said He that would treat of these Matters to purpose ought first to invoke the Gods and afterwards to consider and nicely distinguish the Nature Age and Temperament of Women as also the Climate where they live Which the Natural Philosophers could not away with because when they were to search into the Cause of any Effect they stop'd at the First and Universal without looking further of having regard to the Order or Dependence of Second Causes as if they had not been Influenc'd to produce such an Effect Which occasion'd Hippocrates to blame Diana's Priests for moving the Women in their grievous Diseases to offer up at the Temple their stately Garments and most precious Jewels and to leave there the Medicines whereas the proper Remedy for their Malady was as Hippocrates says to Bleed or Purge it may be or advise them to Marry if they were at Age. A Natural Philosopher being in Discourse one day with a Grammarian a curious Gardiner came up to them and asked them what was the reason that having taken such pains with the Earth to dig to sift to cleanse and dung it yet it never brought forth so good Seed as he Sow'd whereas the Plants it produc'd of its own accord grew up with a great deal of ease The Grammarian answer'd It came to pass by the Divine Providence which had so dispos'd it for the good Government of the World But the Natural Philosopher fell a Laughing at that answer seeing he had recourse to God as being Ignorant of the Connexion of Natural Causes and in what manner their Effects are produced The other seeing him laugh ask'd him if he ridicul'd him The Philosopher answer'd it was not
than every Effect as it springs from its immediate Cause tho' this is not enough neither if the Catholic Church hath never declared them for such for like as Advocates engaged in the Study of the Civil Law have it imprinted in their Memory the better to know and understand the Kings Pleasure in the Determination of each particular Case Even so the Natural Philosophers being Advocates in their Faculty place their whole Study in this to know the Order God establish'd at the instant he created the World the better to discern what Causes produce what Effects and why And as it would be ridiculous for a Lawyer to alledge in his Breviate as a strong Proof that the King commanded such an Arrest in such a Case without shewing the Law and the Rule of Court by which it ought to be decided So the Natural Philosophers laugh at them who pronounce this or that is God's Work without running through the Order and inseparable Connexion of all the particular Causes concern'd in its immediate Production And for the same reason as a King denies to hearken to those that press him to Abrogate and Null a just Law or finally to decide a Case contrary to the standing Rules and Orders of his Ministerial Courts so neither will God likely hearken to those that importune him for Miracles and Signs out of the ordinary Course and Ministry of Nature when there is no Occasion for them For should a King every day null and make Laws and alter the Course of Justice be it for the diversity of Occasions or through the changes in his Councils because Right and Justice are not arrived at all at once yet the Natural Order of the Universe by us called Nature from the Creation to this Day has suffer'd no Change or Alteration in the least for he made it with so much Wisdom and Prudence that not to continue constant in that Order would be tacitly to lay a blame upon his Works But to return to that common Saying of the Antient Philosophers Nature makes able it is to be understood that there is a Wit and Ability bestow'd by God on Men out of the ordinary Course of Nature such was the Wisdom of the Apostles who being rude and illiterate were wonderfully enlightned and fill'd with Wisdom and Knowledge Which sort of Parts and Qualifications verify not that Nature makes able for that is a Work to be attributed immediately to God and not to Nature The like is to be understood of the Wisdom of the Prophets and of all others upon whom God has poured any of his Gifts There is another sort of Wit among Men produced by the Order and Dependence of Causes appointed by God to lead to such an end and of this kind it may be truly said Nature makes able For as we shall prove in the last Chapter of this Work there is a certain Order and Dependence of Natural Causes so that if Parents in the Act of Generation would duly observe it all their Children would be Wise and none of them Otherwise However in this Discourse such a signification of Nature is too loose and confus'd nor is the Understanding content to rest here without tracing every particular Effect up to its Ultimate Cause and therefore there is need to find out another meaning of this Word Nature which may be more accommodate to our purpose Aristotle and all other Natural Philosophers were more Particular calling Nature every substantial Form that gives Being to a thing and is the Principle of all its Operations In which sense our Rational Soul with good Reason is call'd Nature for from thence we receive the Form and Being we have of Men and the same is the Principle of all our Actions for all Rational Souls are of equal Perfection as well the Wise Man 's as the Fool 's and so we may not pronounce that it is Nature in this sense makes a Man witty for if that were true all Men would be equal in Wit and Capacity and thereupon the same Aristotle found out another Signification of Nature importing the Reason and Cause of a Man's being capable or incapable saying that the Temperament of the four first Qualities Heat Cold Moisture and Driness were to be call'd Nature inasmuch as from them proceed all the Abilities of Men all the Virtues and Vices and all the great variety of Wit we discover in the World And he proves it clearly by considering the several Parts of the Age of the wisest Man who in his Childhood is no more than a Brute Beast employing no other Powers than the Irascible and Concupiscible when Youth comes he betrays an admirable Wit which we see continues to a certain Period and no longer for old Age drawing on his Wit every day declines till in the End it is wholly lost Assuredly the diversity of Wit proceeds not from the Rational Soul for that in all Ages is the same without suffering any Alteration in its Vigor or Substance except a Man in the several Stages of his Life changes his Constitution or has a different Disposition and from hence is it that the Soul acts one part in the Childhood another in Youth and yet another in old Age whence may be drawn an evident Argument that seeing the same Soul performs contrary Acts in one and the same Body by having in each Division of Age a different Temperament whensoever of two Boys the one is Witty the other a Dunce the same happens by each having a diverse Temperament from the other which being the Principle of all the Operations of the reasonable Soul is by Physicians and Philosophers call'd Nature in which sense this Saying Nature makes able is properly Verified In confirmation of which Doctrin Galen writ a Book proving that the Operations of the Soul were influenc'd by the Temperament of the Body in which it dwelt and that by reason either of the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness of the Climate where they lived or the Qualities of the Meat they eat and of the Waters they drank and of the Air they breathed in some were Fools and others Wise some Stout and others Cowards some Cruel and others Gentle some Reserv'd and others Open some Lyars and others Speakers of Truth some Traytors and others Loyal some Turbulent and others Calm some Crafty and others Sincere some Sordid and others Generous some Modest and others Impudent some Incredulous and others Credulous in Proof of which he quotes many Places out of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle asserting that the Diversity of Nations as to the Frame of their Bodies and the Turn of their Soul was owing to this Difference of Temperament Which is found true by Experience how much the Greeks differ from the Scythians the French from the Spaniards the Indians from the Germans and the Ethiopians from the English Neither is this only to be observ'd in Parts so remote from each other but if we consider even the Provinces that surround all
for the Abundance of things they have taught us but we ought to use some moderation and not absolutely stifle all the Wit we have seeing that the Scholar's Knowledge consists not only in believing the Master that taught him but his Understanding ought rather to be satisfied with and feed on the Truth and Conformity of the Doctrin Accordingly Plato speaking to the Physicians and in their Name to all those who Pin themselves on their Sleeves and swear to the Words of their Master said That Hippocrates was not absolutely to be relied upon but when the Matter in dispute agreed with Reason and with our Sentiments For in doing otherwise we acquire no Science but Humane Faith which is quite contrary to the desire we have of Knowledge Aristotle says of true Science We may believe that we know a thing when we know the Cause of it and how it is the Cause of it and that it cannot be otherwise produced Which we are ignorant of when we have only Faith and a Pious Opinion of him that teaches us But if we will carry this Consideration yet further we shall find that Man has not only leave to Examine and bring to the Proof what Aristotle and Plato and all the other Natural Philosophers affirm but if the Philosophers and even the Angels themselves who know more than all the Philosophers in the World come to teach him any Doctrin whatever he is directed and commanded not to believe without having before-hand tried and known if the Doctrin be true or false and without duly opposing all the Difficulties and Arguments he can make and object upon that matter 'T was therefore the Apostle considering that we are without ceasing encompassed with Devils seeking how they may destroy us and our good Angels who guard and preserve us and that both the one and the other speak to us and shew us the things in their spiritual Language advises us not to give any assent to them till we have Tried and Examined if they are good or evil Angels Accordingly said he My Brethren believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God What more certain and truer Embassy and of more Importance to Mankind was ever made in the World than that of the Arch-Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Yet nevertheless she failed not first to Try and Examine it and to oppose the strongest Reasons she could find upon that occasion and seeing and believing that it was a good Angel and that it was a good Salutation she spoke to it Behold the Handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word Which had she done without this Precaution she had not perform'd her Duty But to return to our Business Plato says That he who will not assent to what is said to him ought to disprove it and he that cannot disprove it ought to assent By which he gives us to understand that there are two different sorts of Wits among Men of Learning some who are not able enough to disprove and those he directs to assent although they be not satisfied with the Author's Doctrin Others who are able enough to disprove whom he obliges to give a Reason for their Dissent Since then the Answer Aristotle gave to the Problem satifies me not I am obliged by what I have now said to give a Reason why my Understanding will not admit it and the reason is very clear because that if the Species and Figures which are in the Memory had matter and quantity to possess place it seems that his Answer would have been good but being Indivisible and Immaterial as they are they can neither fill nor vacate the place where they are Nay we see by Experience the more the Memory is exercised in receiving every day new Figures the more capable she is to receive them According to my Doctrin the Answer to the Problem is very easie for I should chuse to say that Old Men have a good Understanding because they are very dry and that they have no Memory because they have no moisture By which means the substance of their Brain is hardened so that they cannot receive the Impression of Figures neither more nor less than hard Wax receives with difficulty the Figure of the Seal but that which is soft receives it easily Among Young People the contrary happens who from abundance of moisture of the Brain want Understanding and have a good Memory because of the sweetness and softness of the same Brain in which by reason of the moisture the Figures and Species from without make a good firm easie and deep Impression That the Memory is better and readier in the morning than evening is not to be denied but not for the Reason Aristotle gave but just now The night sleep is the cause of it that moistens and strengthens the Brain which by the waking of the whole day drys up and hardens Therefore Hippocrates said They that desire to drink in the night being very dry if they sleep upon it it is good and that the drought goes off because sleep moistens the Body and fortifies the Ruling Faculties of Man But that sleep produces some effect it follows clearly from this Doctrin Aristotle himself confesses That the Understanding and the Memory are opposite and contrary Faculties so that he who hath a great Memory may want Understanding and on the other hand he who has a better Understanding may not have a good Memory because it is impossible for the Brain to be moist and dry at the same time in an intense degree Aristotle built upon this Maxim to prove that the Memory is a different Faculty from Remembrance and forms his Argument after this manner Such as have a great Remembrance are Men of great Understanding and those who have a good Memory want Understanding the Memory and Remembrance then are two Contrary Powers According to my Doctrin the first Proposition is false because they who have a great Remembrance want Understanding but are Masters of a large Invention as I shall presently prove But the second Proposition is true though Aristotle did not know the Reason upon which he grounded the Contrariety between the Understanding and the Memory The Imagination arises from the Heat which is the third Quality because as there remains in the Brain no other Rational Faculty so have we no other Quality to ascribe to it For the Sciences appertaining to the Imagination are the Exercise of them that rave in their Sickness and not the same with those which belong to the Understanding and Memory And suppose that Phrensy Madness and Melancholy are the over-heated Passions of the Brain we may thence draw a strong Proof that the Imagination consists in Heat There is but one thing in which I find some difficulty which is that the Imagination is contrary to the Understanding and to the Memory also and the reason is not cleared by Experience because great heat and driness may well enough
the Past and Prudence of the Future The Dexterity of Wit is what we call in Spanish Agudeza in agibilibus and is in other terms Fineness Wiliness or Cunning and Craft in the things and Intrigues of the World And therefore Cicero said That Prudence was a Skill which had a certain way to make choice of Good and Evil. Men of great Understanding are without this sort of Prudence and Skill because they want Imagination Accordingly we see by Experience that great Scholars as to the things appertaining to the Understanding taken from their Books signify nothing to go and engage in the Affairs of the World Galen said excellently well That this sort of Prudence proceeded from Choler for Hippocrates acquainting his Friend Damagetes with the Condition he found Democritus in when he went to Visit him in order to his Cure writ that he was in the open Field under a Plain-tree bare Leg'd set upon a Stone a Book in his hand and surrounded with Dead and Flead Beasts at which Hippocrates being surpriz'd asked him what he did with those Beasts that were in such a case He Answer'd him that he was in search of the Humor that made Men Fickle Crafty False and Deceitful and that in dissecting those brute Beasts he had found that Choler was the cause of this mischievous Quality and that to be revenged on Men of Gall and Guile he would treat them as he had done the Fox the Serpent and the Ape This kind of Prudence is not only odious to Men but also St. Paul says The Carnal Mind is at Enmity against God And Plato gave the Reason of it saying That Knowledge abstracted from Justice rather merits the name of Craft and Cunning than of Wisdom The Devil always makes use of such Weapons when he would do mischief to Men. This Wisdom said St. James descendeth not from above but is earthy sensual and devilish There is another sort of Wisdom attended with Uprightness and Simplicity by which Men follow that which is good and fly that which is evil Galen says this kind belongs to the Understanding because that Faculty is wholly incapable of Craft or Malice only knowing how Evil is not done but is Upright Just Frank and Innocent The Man who is endow'd with this kind of Wit is called Upright and Simple Accordingly Demosthenes being desirous to win the good Will of the Judges in a Speech he made against Eschines called them Just and Upright having an eye to the Simplicity of their Employment Of whom Cicero said Their Duty is simple and one only Cause of all Good The Coldness and the Driness of Melancholy is a very proper Instrument for this kind of Wisdom but then it must be composed of fine and very delicate Parts We may Answer to the last Doubt That when a Man is engaged in the Contemplation of a truth he would know and does not presently attain it it is because his Brain is deprived of the Temperament convenient to what he desir'd but fixing a while in Contemplation as soon as the Natural Heat that is in the Vital Spirits and Arterial Blood flys to the Head the same causes the Temperament of the Brain to rise always till it arrive at the degree it has occasion for 'T is true that much Plodding does good to some and harm to others for if there be no want in the Brain to attain the due degree of Heat there will be no occasion for deep Meditation and if it pass beyond the point the Understanding is strait disordered by an overflow of too many Vital Spirits by means of which it attains not to the Notice of the Truth it is in search of Whence it comes that we observe many Men speak very well extempore but perform very meanly with premeditation On the contrary others have such a slow Capacity because of their great Coldness or Driness that of necessity the Natural Heat must be a long time in the Head to cause the Temperament to rise to the degree it wants and therefore they quit themselves much better when they have had time to recollect what they have to say than when they are to speak extempore CHAP. X. Each Difference of Wit is appropriated to the Science with which it most particularly agrees removing what is Repugnant or contrary to it ALL the Arts said Cicero are setled upon certain Universal Principles which being learned with Study and Labour the Science at length is acquir'd Only the Art of Poetry has this in peculiar That if God and Nature make not the Man a Poet he will never be enabled by Rules and Precepts to make a Verse which occasion'd him to say The Study and Knowledge of other things depend upon the Precepts of Art but the Poet is so by Nature he is only excited by the force of his Wit and is as it were inspired with a Divine Enthusiasm But Cicero was not in the right because in effect there is no Art or Science invented in the Commonwealth which can be attained by a Man who is Incapable although he labour all his Life time in the Precepts and Rules thereof whereas if he falls upon a Science agreeable to his Natural Inclination we may observe he will make some Progress in the space of few days 'T is the same thing in Poetry for if he who has a proper Talent apply himself to make Verses he will soon acquit himself very well and if not he will always remain a dull Poet. This being so it seems to me there is a time to find out by Art to which Difference of Wit each sort of Science in particular Corresponds to the end that every one may distinctly understand after having first discover'd his own Nature and Temperament to which Art he is most inclined The Arts and Sciences acquired by means of the Memory are these following Grammar Latin and all other Languages whatever the Theory of the Law Positive Divinity Cosmography and Arithmetic Those that belong to the Understanding are School Divinity the Theory of Physic Logic Natural and Moral Philosophy the Practice of the Law which is the Advocates Science From a good Invention spring all the Arts and Sciences whatever that depend upon Figure Correspondence Harmony and Proportion such as are Poetry Rhetoric Music and the Art of Preaching the Practice of Physic the Mathematics Astronomy the Military-Art and that of Governing a Commonwealth to Paint to Design to Write and Read to be Agreeable Gentile Pleasant in Words and happy in Expressions to be Dextrous in the Affairs and Intrigues of Life to have a ready Wit for Machines and all that Artificers pretend to as also an Address admired by the Vulgar which is to dictate several Matters to four Persons at the same time all well digested and in good Order Of all which we can't give evident Demonstration nor prove each thing severally for that was never yet done but we will prove
it in three or four Sciences and the same Reasons may serve as well for the rest In the List of Sciences which we have affirm'd belong to the Memory we have mentioned the Latin-Togue and the rest spoke by all Nations in the World which no considering Man can deny because the Tongues were only an Invention of Men to be able to communicate together and make known their Meaning to one another without any other great Mystery in it or other Natural Principles save those I have mentioned when the first Inventers assembling together framed Words according to their Phancy as Aristotle observed and jointly agreed about the Signification of each From thence came so great a number of Words and so many different Modes of Speech with so few Rules and as little Reason that without a good Memory it would not be possible either to comprehend or retain them by any other Faculty How improper the Imagination and the Understanding are to learn the Languages and the different Modes of Speech Infancy plainly proves in which though it be an Age wherein the Child is least provided with these two Faculties nevertheless as Aristotle says he learns any Language what-ever better than Adult Men though these be much more Rational and without being taught by him Experience shews us it For we see if a Biscayner of Thirty or Forty Years of Age comes to live at Castile he will never learn the Language of the Country but if he be very Young in Two or Three Years he passes for a Native of Toledo The same happens in the Latin and all other Tongues because they are all of the same Nature If then it be true that in the Age wherein the Memory flourishes and the Understanding and Imagination are low the Tongues are sooner learned than when the Memory is in the Decline and the Understanding in its full Vigor it is certain they are acquired by means of the Memory and not at all by any other Faculty Aristotle said that the Tongues were not to be learn'd by Reason as not depending upon Discourse and that therefore it was necessary to hear from another the Words and their Meaning and to bear them in mind In pursuance of which he proves That if a Man be born Deaf he would infallibly be Dumb because he can't hear from another the sound of the Words nor the meaning given them by their first Inventers That the Tongues are no other than an effect of the Humor and Caprice of Men may be clearly inferred from this that the Sciences may be equally taught in all Languages and that in each may be spoke and made known what any one of them would say Accordingly there are no grave Authors to be found who have sought for a Foreign Tongue to make their Thoughts understood but the Grecians have Writ in Greek the Romans in Latin the Jews in Hebrew the Moors in Arabic and so do I in Spanish because I understand that Language better than any other The Romans as being Lords of the World finding it was expedient to have a common Language by means of which all Nations might Communicate together and themselves enabled to understand such as came to sue for Justice of them and to treat of Matters relating to the Public Affairs of every Province appointed Schools to be Erected in all Parts of their Empire for teaching the Latin-Tongue which by these means has flourished as the Universal Tongue even to this Day As for School Divinity it is certain that it refers to the Understanding because the Operations of this Faculty are to Distinguish to Infer to Reason to Judge and to Chuse and that nothing is done in this Science but to raise Doubts from Inconveniences to Answer with Distinction to infer against the Answer what may be collected from good Consequences and so to reply again till the Understanding be at ease and rest satisfied But the best Proof that can be made of this Subject is to let you understand how difficultly the Latin Tongue and School Divinity meet in one Person and how it rarely happens that a Man be at the same time a good Latinist and profound School-Divine At which Effect some more Curious being surprized in taking notice of it have searched whence it might proceed and have been of Opinion that School-Divinity being Writ in a harsh and barbarous Language and the Ears of good Latinists being inured to the pure and elegant Stile of Cicero they could not settle to nor take pleasure in that Science It would be well for these Gentlemen that understand Latin so well that this were the true cause for then by constraint and otherwise accustoming their Ears they might at length find out a Remedy for this Inconvenience but to be plain with them the Defect is not so much in their Ears as in their Capacities They that are good Latinists have most assuredly an Excellent Memory for without that they could never prove so expert in a Language which is none of their own and because a great and happy Memory is as it were contrary to a great and elevated Understanding in the same Subject one debases and depresses the other From whence it comes that he who has not so exquisite and lofty an Understanding the Faculty to which belongs to Distinguish to Conclude to Discourse to Judge and to Chuse gains no great ground nor makes any considerable Progress in School Divinity Whoever is not satisfied with this Reason let him read St. Thomas Scotus Durandus and Cajetan who are the Leading Men in that Faculty and Profession and he will find great Subtilties in their Works but writ and deliver'd in very course Church Latin For which there appears no other reason but that these great Authors having in their Youth very mean Memories prov'd not more Excellent in the Latin Tongue but applying themselves to Logic Metaphysics and School-Divinity they mounted up to the highest Degree of the Sciences we admire because they were endued with a great Understanding At least I can testify this of a School-Divine well known to many more that were acquainted and conversed with him who was a Miracle in that Science and yet not only could not reach the Elegances nor the round Periods of Cicero but when he read in the Chair his Scholars took notice that his Latin was but very base and mean insomuch that they advised him as those that were unacquainted with our Doctrin that he should secretly borrow a few hours from the Study of School-Divinity and employ them in reading Cicero And taking this as the Advice of good Friends he not only endeavoured in private but publickly to remedy it for after having treated of the Matter of the Trinity and how the Divine Word was made Flesh he entred the Form amongst the rest to improve his Latin and what was very remarkable that during the long time he did thus he not only learn'd not any thing new but had almost forgot all
but very little Grammar as little Logic and no more Philosophy and if they study Physic or Divinity they never sound the depth of any Difficulty And therefore the Boy that can Draw with his Pen a neat limb'd Horse or a well-shaped Man and make fine Florishes and bold strokes should not be set to the study of any Science but rather to a good Painter who by his Art may improve his Natural Ability To Read well and with a good Grace discovers also a certain kind of Imagination and if it be to any great Degree of Excellence he should not lose his time in Learning but only think of getting his Livelihood by Reading of Processes Now here is a thing worthy of Consideration which is that the Difference of Imagination which makes Men agreeable in Conversation and good Railleurs is contrary to that which is necessary to a Man to read gracefully so that none of those who have the Qualifications but now mentioned can read Volubly but with Hesitation and mistaking one Word for another To understand how to Play at Primero to make true or false Vie's and to hold it or not to hold it as time and occasion require and by certain guesses to discover the Adversaries Game and readily to discard is a work belonging to the Imagination 'T is the same thing in playing at Ciento or at Trump tho' not so much Imagination is required at this as at the German Primero which not only demonstrates this Difference of Wit but also discovers the Virtues and Vices of Men because every Moment occasions are offer'd in that Play in which a Man discovers what he would be at in Accidents of greater importance The Game of Chess is one of the things that best discovers the Imagination And therefore he who has the subtle Gambets in that Play for Ten or Twelve moves altogether is like to be Incapable of the Sciences which appertain to the Understanding and Memory if he does not unite two or three Faculties together as we have already observed And if a certain very Learn'd School Divine who I was acquainted with had understood so much he would have been satisfied in a thing that gave him great Trouble This Man playing often with his Domestics at Chess and being beat as often said in heat of Passion what is the meaning of this Thou that skillest neither Latin Logic nor Divinity though thou hast studied them and thou win of me that am full of Scotus and St. Thomas Is it possible thou shouldst have a better Wit than I Truly I can't comprehend it except the Devil tells thee how to make those Draughts thou playest The whole Mystery of this was that the Master was a Man of great Understanding by which means he attained the Subtilties of Scotus and St. Thomas but wanted the Difference of Imagination which is necessary to Chess Play and his Play-fellow had a bad Understanding and Memory but a very subtil Imagination The Scholars that keep their Books in good order on the Shelves their Chamber neat and clean every thing in its proper place and upon its own Pin have a certain Difference of Imagination very contrary to the Understanding and Memory Spruce and Beauish Sparks who won't suffer the least Hair or Wrinkle on their Clothes have that same sort of Wit All this proceeds without doubt from the Imagination and be it as it will if a Man can't make a Verse and be awkward but by chance becomes Amorous said Plato he immediately turns Poet and is very Spruce and Gallant for Love inflames and drys the Brain which are qualities that raise the Imagination And Juvenal observes that even Indignation which is also a Passion that heats the Brain produces the same Effect Si natura Negat facit Indignatio versum If Nature wanting be to make the Poet Mere Spite alone supplies a Muse to do it Those who converse agreeably who are Witty in Expression and know how to Droll well have a certain difference of Imagination very contrary to the Understanding and Memory Therefore they are never good Grammarians Logicians School-Divines Physicians nor Lawyers If they are Practised in Business and in the Intrigues of the World dextrous in accomplishing whatever they undertake ready at every Turn to speak and to answer to the Point they are fit for the Courts and to be Solicitors and Attorneys in Causes for Merchants and Factors to Buy and Sell but not for Learning Herein the Vulgar are deceived who observing them so Practic'd in every thing imagin strait they would have prov'd singular Men had they been brought up to Learning when in truth there are no Genius's more Repugnant and more Contrary to it than theirs Children that arrive late at the use of Speech have in their Tongue and Brain too much Moisture which as it wears off in tract of Time they become very fluent and great Talkers because of the great Memory they acquire as their Moisture is abated Which as we formerly noted once happened to that Celebrated Orator Demosthenes at whom as we have said Cicero was surpriz'd being of so rude a Speech in his Youth and when a grown Man so very Eloquent Young Men also who have a good Voice and have by Exercise dilated the Passages of their Throat are very unfit for all the Sciences because they are Cold and Moist which two Qualities united together as we have already affirm'd destroy the Rational Part. The Scholars who punctually learn and repeat the Lesson Word for Word as they have it from the Master promise a good Memory but at the Expence of their Understanding In this Doctrin arise some Ploblems and Doubts the Solution of which will it may be serve for a Light the better to clear the Truth of what we affirm The first is Whence it comes that the good Latinists are more Arrogant and presumptuous in their Knowledge than Men very learn'd in the kind of Learning appertaining to the Understanding are in such sort as to know the Grammarian there is a Proverb which says The Grammarian is nothing less than Arrogance it self The Second is How it happens that the Latin Tongue is so contrary to the Genius of the Spaniards and so proper and natural to the French Italians Germans English and to all the other Northern People As appears in their Works for no sooner do we see a Book writ in good Latin but know the Author is a Foreigner and when we meet one of Barbarous and Unpolished Latin we conclude it was Composed by a Spaniard The Third Problem is Why the things that are Writ and Spoke in the Latin Tongue sound better have more Force more Grandure and Eloquence than in any other Tongue though never so good Seeing as we have said before all Languages are owing to the Caprice and Humor of those that invented them without having any Foundation in Nature The Fourth Objection is How it can be reconciled that all the Sciences belonging
Tokens by which this Temperament may be discerned are very evident their Complexion is of a dark Green or Olive their Eyes very red for which Reason he is called a Bloody-Eyed-Man the Head Black and Bald Flesh hard and hairy great Veins are very good Company and affable but Lustful Proud Stately Blasphemers Crafty Double Injurious Friends of ill Doing and Revengeful This is to be understood when Melancholy is kindled for if it be cooled forthwith arise in them the contrary Virtues Chastity Humility Fear and Reverence of God Charity Mercy and deep Acknowledgement of their Sins with Sighs and Tears By reason of which they live in perpetual War and Strife without ever enjoying Ease or Rest Now Vice prevails in them and then Virtue but with all these Faults they are the most ingenious and able for the Service of Preaching and for all sorts of things wherein worldly Wisdom is required because they have a great Understanding to find the Truth and a powerful Imagination to perswade In order to this let us see what God did when he would fashion a Child in his Mother's Womb to the end he might be able to discover to the World the coming of his Son and have the Gift to prove and perswade that Jesus Christ was the Messiah promised under the Law and we shall find that making him of a great Understanding and Imagination it fell of course observing the Order of Nature that he form'd him of this adust and burnt Choler This will appear plain if we consider with what Fire and Fury he persecuted the Church and the pain the Synagogues were in when they saw him Converted in having lost a Man of so great Importance to themselves and of such Advantage to the contrary Party This also appears by the Reparties full of rational Choler with which he spoke and answered the Proconsuls and Judges that apprehended him defending his own Person and the Name of Jesus Christ with such Skill and Dexterity as confounded them all Even though he had an Impediment in his Speech and was not ready in Utterance which Property Aristotle says falls to the Melancholic by Adustion The Vices he confessed himself subject to before his Conversion shew him to have possessed this Temperament He was a Blasphemer and Injurious Persecutor which are the effects of a great Heat But the most evident Token importing that he had that adust Choler may be collected from the continual Conflict which he confessed was within him between the Superior and Inferior part saying I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin To which inward Contention we have prov'd according to the Opinion of Aristotle the Melancholic by Adustion are subject True it is as some Gloss and very well this Conflict arises from the disorder Original Sin has raised between the Flesh and Spirit though nevertheless being so fierce and constant I am of Opinion it proceeded also from the inequality of the Black Choler that remained in his Natural Constitution In effect the Royal Prophet David participated equally of Original Sin yet complained not so much of it as St. Paul but on the contrary affirmed he found the Inferior Part in Consent with Reason when he would rejoice in God My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God And as we shall shew in the last Chapter save one David had the best Temperament Nature could give and according to the Opinions of all the Philosophers the same which Ordinarily inclines a Man to be Virtuous without much Contradiction from the Flesh The Wits then that should be made choice of for Preachers in the first place are those that unite a great Understanding with a great Imagination and Memory whose Tokens we shall treat of in the last Chapter save one For want of such there succeed in their room those that are Melancholic by Adustion who unite a great Understanding with a great Imagination but are wanting in Memory and accordingly have no store of Words nor flow with a full stream before the Auditory In the third Rank are Men of a great Understanding without Imagination and Memory these Preach not gracefully but Preach sound Doctrin The last to whom I would not recommend the Preaching Function are those who join a happy Memory to a vast Imagination but want Understanding These draw all the People after them and hold them well pleased and in suspense but when they dream but a little of it are in a fair way to the Inquisition because By good Words and fair Speeches they deceive the Hearts of the Simple CHAP. XIII That the Theory of the Laws pertains to the Memory Pleading Causes and Judging them which is the Practic to the Understanding and Governing of a Commonwealth to the Imagination IT is not without a Mystery that in the Spanish Tongue this Word Letrado Lettered is a common Term denoting all sorts of Lettered Men as well Divines as Lawyers Physicians Logicians Philosophers Orators Mathematicians and Astrologers nevertheless when it is said Fulano es letrado such a one is Letter'd we all understand with one consent the Skill in the Laws is his Profession as if it were his proper and peculiar Style and of no others Altho' to solve this Doubt be easy nevertheless to do it satisfactorily it is requisite to know first what the Law is and what Obligations they are under who apply themselves to the Study of this Profession to be afterwards made use of in the Employment of Judges or Advocates The Law to take it right is nothing but the reasonable Will of the Legislator by which he sets forth and declares in what manner such Cases shall be determined as are ordinarily emergent in the Commonwealth for conserving the Subjects in Peace and directing them how they are to live and what they are to forbear I said a reasonable Will because it is not sufficient that a King or Emperor who are the efficient Cause of the Law declare their Will at any rate that it may be Law for if the same be not Just and Reasonable neither is it nor can it be called a Law no more than he is a Man who wants a Reasonable Soul And therefore it has been agreed that Kings should enact their Laws with the Advice of very Wise and Understanding Men to the end they should be right equal and good and the Subjects should receive them willingly and be the more oblig'd to keep and observe them The material Cause of the Law is what is done in such Cases as ordinarily happen in the Commonwealth after the Order of Nature and not of utter Impossibilities or of rare Contingencies The Final Cause is to order the Life of Man to teach him what to do and what to forbear that so being conformable to Reason the Commonwealth may be preserv'd in Peace For which end the Laws are appointed to be Written
will appear by his Death or Recovery which had the best Reason of the Two Nevertheless for all that the Success is not yet a Proof sufficient for whereas the same Effect hath many Causes the Success may well be by means of one Cause and yet the Reasons be grounded upon a Contrary Aristotle says also That to know what Reasons conclude it is good to follow the received Opinion for when many Wise and Considering Men affirm the same thing and conclude all from the same Reasons it is an Argument though it be but Topical that they are concluding and that they comprehend well the Truth But if it be well considered this Proof is still very Fallacious and Deceitful for in the Force of the Understanding weight avails more than number for it fares not here as in bodily Forces where many Hands joined can do much to lift up a Weight and a few but little But to discover a hidden Truth one piercing Understanding alone shall do more than a Hundred thousand that are not And the reason of it is because the Understandings help not one another neither of many make one as it fares in Bodily Forces Therefore well said the Wise Man Provide thy self with many Peace-makers but with one Counsellor of a thousand According to which Opinion Heraclitus spoke pertinently when he said One to me is as good as a Thousand As for Causes and Pleadings each Advocate gives his Opinion the best grounded upon Law he can but after having well discoursed he cannot know certainly by any Art if his Understanding has composed such a Judgment as true Justice requires for if one Lawyer proves in form of Law that the Plantiff is in the right and the other denies it also by way of Law by what Expedient shall it appear which of the two Advocates Reasons better The Sentence of the Judge makes no Demonstration of true Justice nor can it be called Success because his Sentence amounts to no more than an Opinion and he does no other than fall in with one of the Council And to increase the number of Learned Men in the same Opinion is not an Argument to believe that their Sentiment is the Truth for we have already said and proved that many weak Capacities though they join together to discover some dark and hidden Truth shall never arrive at the point or degree of Strength as a single one that is of a deeper Reach And that the Sentence of the Judge makes not Demonstration of the Truth is clearly seen in that it is reversed in a Higher Court where they very often Judge after another manner and what is yet worse it may happen that the Inferior Judge may have a better Understanding than he before whom the Appeal lies and his Opinion may chance to be more conformable to Reason That the Sentence of the Superior Judge is no more a sufficient Proof of Justice is a thing yet more manifest for we see every day that in the same Cases without adding or diminishing any thing and from the same Judges quite contrary Sentences issue And he who has already been once mistaken in confidence of his own Reasons may very well be mistaken again so that his Opinion is the less to be depended upon because He that is Once in the Wrong is ever presumed in the Wrong says the Wise Man Pleaders observing the Diversity of Opinions amongst the Judges and how each is sway'd by the Reason that seems most to prevail with him and that sometimes they are concluded by one Argument and sometimes by another quite contrary thereupon they boldly undertake to defend any Cause indifferently in the Negative or Affirmative the rather because they see by Experience that on one side and the other they may obtain Sentence in their Favour And so it comes to be Verified what Wisdom has said That the Thoughts of Men are full of Fear and their Foresight Vncertain The Remedy then for this since the Reasons of the Law remain without Proof and Experience is to make choice of Men of great Abilities to be Judges and Pleaders inasmuch as Aristotle says the Reasons and Arguments of such are as firm and riveted as Experience it self And by such a Choice it seems that the Common-wealth may be better secured that her Officers shall administer Justice Whereas if as it has been used the Door be open for all without distinction to enter and possess those Posts without making Trial of their Wit the Inconveniences we have noted will happen every day By what Signs it may be known that he who would apply himself to the Study of the Laws has the Difference of Wit required for this Science we have heretofore in a manner explained but to refresh the Memory and prove it more at large we must know that when the Child who learns to Read shall know well his Letters and shall readily give the sound to each after the order of the Alphabet it is an Indication of a good Memory for it is certain that such a Work as this is neither performed by the Understanding nor Imagination and that it is alone the Office of the Memory to preserve the Figures of things and to report the Name of each as there is Occasion And if he has a great Memory we have already prov'd that by consequence he wants Understanding To Write a running fair Hand as we have noted discovers the Imagination so much that the Child who in a few Days knows how to hold his Hand upon his Paper to draw his Lines strait and to cut all his Letters even and in good Form and Figure gives Proof of a mean Understanding because this is the Work of the Imagination and these two Powers have a great Contrariety between them as we before noted And if being set to Grammar he learn the same with ease and in a short time he makes good Latin and Writes Epistles Elegantly with the round Cadences of Cicero he will never prove either a good Judge of Pleader because it is an indication he has a good Memory and without a Miracle he will be defective in his Understanding But if he be unwearied in Plodding on the Laws and stay a long time in the Inns of Court he will not fail to be a famous Reader and to be followed by abundance of Hearers for the Latin Tongue is very agreeable in the Chair and to Read publickly with great Applause there will be occasion of many Allegations and to muster up in every Law all that has been Written upon it to which purpose the Memory is of much more use than the Understanding for though it be true that in the Chair he is to Distinguish Infer Argue Judge and Chuse to gather the true Sense of the Law yet in the end he puts the Case as best likes him raises what Objections and solves them how he pleases and gives his Opinion as he will without any gain-saying for which things a mean Understanding
their Stock But the Honest want this Imagination many of whom to follow the fashion of the Lewd in turning and winding of their Penny in a few days have lost their whole Stock To this our Lord referrs in the Manage of the unjust Steward whom his Master call'd to Accompt for tho' he reserved a good part of his Goods to his own Use yet he carried his Cup so even as to get a Discharge and tho' this Wisdom was naughty Yet our Saviour commends it and says The Children of this World are Wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light For these last have for the most part a great Understanding by means of which they affect his Law and want Imagination to which the skill to live in the World belongs Accordingly many are morally Good who have not Wit enough to be Naught This way of Answering is more plain and sensible than the other For the Natural Philosophers because they could not penetrate so far have framed so frivolous and absurd a Cause as Fortune to whom they might attribute good or bad success and not to the Indiscretion or unskilfulness of Men. Four differences of Men are to be found in every Nation if any please to mark them some are Wise but seem not so others seem so and are not others neither are nor seem and others again both are and seem Some Men there are reserved slow of speech stayed in answering not curious nor copious of Words and who nevertheless have hidden within themselves a Natural Power pertaining to the Imagination whereby they know the Time and can embrace the opportunity of Business and how they are to manage themselves in the point without Communicating or Imparting their Mind to any other These the Vulgar call fortunate and happy imagining that with a little Skill and Discretion every thing falls into their Lap. Others on the contrary are Eloquent in Words and Discourse great Talkers Men that take upon them to Govern the World and that contrive how to make a little Money go a great way so that in the Opinion of the Vulgar none pass for more Able than they yet when it comes to the Point every thing lies on their hands undone These complain of Fortune calling her Blind Senseless and Brutish because Matters which they project and Execute with great Discretion she suffers not to ripen to any good Effect But if Fortune were able to plead for her self she would tell them You your selves are Blind Senseless and Brutish who being indiscreet esteem your selves Wise and in the use of undue Means promise your selves good successes This sort of Men have a difference of Imagination that gives a Gloss and Paint to their Words and Reasons making them seem to be what they are not Whence I conclude that the General who has the Wit requisite for the Art-Military and does duly forecast what he is to undertake will be fortunate and happy otherwise it will be in vain to think he shall ever gain a Victory unless God fight for him as he did for the Israelite-Armies And yet for all that they chose the Wisest and Skilfullest Commanders they had for it is not reasonable to leave all to God nor for Man to confide too-much in his own Wit and Ability it is better to joyn both together for there is no other Fortune save God and our own Diligence He that invented the Game of Chess left a Model of the Military-Art representing therein all the Steps and Contingences of War without omitting any And in like manner as in this play Fortune has no share nor ought the Winner to be call'd fortunate nor the Loser unfortunate so the Captain who is the Vanquisher should be call'd Wise and the Vanquish'd Ignorant and not the one Fortunate or the other Unfortunate The first Order in the Game was that in mating the King the Game is won to show us that all the strength of an Army lay in the good Head of the Leader or General And to demonstrate that there are allotted as many Men to one as the other to the end whoever is the Loser may be assured he wanted Skill rather than Fortune Which yet appears more plain if we consider that a good Gamester may give half the Men to a worse Gamester and yet for all that get the Game Which is what Vegetius has noted That it often happens that the Few and the Weaker Vanquish the Many and the Stronger if led on by a General well skilled in Ambushes and Stratagems Another Order is that the Pawns are not to move backwards to advise the General duly to forecast all Chances before he sends forth his Soldiers to the Service for if they miscarry 't is better to be cut off upon the Spot than to turn Tayl because the Soldier is not to know when Time is to Fly or Fight save by Direction of his Captain and therefore as long as he lives he is to keep his Post under pain of Disgrace Another Rule is that the Pawn which has made seven Draughts without being taken is made a Queen and may make any Draught at pleasure and takes place next the King as one set at Liberty and made Noble From which we are to understand that it highly imports in War in order to make the Soldiers Valiant to proclaim Donatives free Camps and Preferments due to them that signalize themselves especially if the Advantages and Honour are to descend to their Posterity for then they will behave themselves with greater Courage and Gallantry And so says Aristotle that a Man values more the Greatness of his Family than of himself This Saul well perceived when he caused it to be Proclaimed in his Army what should be done to the Man that kill'd Goliah That the King should enrich him with great Riches and give him his Daughter and make his Fathers House free in Israel Agreeable to this Proclamation there is a Law in Spain which provides that every Soldier who for his good Services deserved to receive Five Hundred Shillings in Pay which was the greatest Stipend allowed in War should himself and his Posterity be ever Tax-free The Moors as they are great players at Chess have in their Pay seven degrees in imitation of the seven draughts the Pawn makes to be a Queen and so they advance the Pay from one to two from two to three up to seven in proportion to the several Steps made by the Soldier in the Field And if he proves so gallant to merit seven pays they are given him which gives occasion to their being called Septenarios Septenary's or Mata-Siete seven times Maters these enjoy as great Privileges and Immunities as Gentlemen do in Spain The Reason of this is very clear in Natural Philosophy for there is no Faculty of all those that govern Man which will willingly Work unless there be some Advantage to move it Which Aristotle proves in the Generative Power and the same reason holds as
Substance and to renew another in its place seeing he said to them Behold I have given unto you every Herb bearing Seed which is upon the Face of the Earth and every Tree in which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed to you it shall be for Meat For if God had given them a Liver and Stomach Cold and of little Heat it is certain they would not have been able to digest Meats nor to preserve themselves nine hundred and thirty years alive in the World He fortified also his Heart and gave him an Irascible Faculty becoming such a King and a Master as was to govern all the World And said Subdue the Earth and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Foul of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth But if he had not given him abundance of heat he would neither have had Spirit nor Authority to take upon him Empire Command Glory Majesty and Honour What disadvantage it is to a Prince to have the Irascible Power weak cannot enough be express'd seeing through this alone he comes to be neither feared nor obeyed nor respected by his Subjects Having thus fortified the Irascible and Concupiscible Powers in giving to the Members we have mentioned so great a Heat he proceeded to the Rational Faculty and made a Brain Cold and Moist to such a Point and of so delicate a Substance by which means the Soul might Reason and Discourse and make use of its infused Knowledge For we have said and prov'd before when God had a design to give Men any supernatural Knowledge he first prepar'd the Wit and made them Capable with the Natural Dispositions which he planted with his own Hand to receive this Knowledge And therefore Holy Writ says That he gave them a Heart to Conceive and replenished them with the Discipline of Vnderstanding The Irascible and Concupiscible Faculty being so very powerful because of the great Heat and the Rational so weak and of such small resistance God armed them with a supernatural Faculty which the Divines call Original Righteousness to repress the Motions of the Inferiour Part that the rational Part might remain Superiour and the Man inclined to Virtue But when our first Parents sinned they lost this quality and the Irascible and Concupiscible Faculty held their own and were Superiour to Reason through the Prevalence of the three Members we spoke of and the Man Prone to Evil even from his Youth Adam was Created in the Age of Manhood which according to Physitians is the most Temperate of all and from that Age was inclined to Evil except the small time he stay'd in Innocence by means of Original Righteousness From this Doctrin we may gather in good Natural Philosophy that if a Man is to do an Act of Virtue with Reluctance of the Flesh it is impossible for him to practise the same without the Assistance of Grace because the qualities by which the Inferiour Faculty operates are of greater Efficacy I said with Reluctance of the Flesh in as much as there are found many Virtues in Man which proceed from the Irascible and Concupiscible Faculties being low as is Chastity in a Man that is Cold but this is an Impotence in Working rather than a Virtue For which reason had the Catholic Church never taught us that we are not able to overcome our Inclinations but by the special Assistance of God Natural Philosophy would teach us no less this Truth That Grace fortifies our Will What Galen would have said was that the Temperate Man excels in Virtue others who have not this good Temperament because the same is less solicited by the Inferiour Part. The fifth Property of those who enjoy this good Temperament is to be very Long-liv'd as being very powerful to resist the Causes and Occasions of Diseases And this is what the Royal Prophet meant when he said The days of our years are threescore and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow He calls those Strong who are of this Temperament because they resist better than others the Occasions of diminishing Life The last Mark is given by Galen saying That they are very Wise of great Memory for the past of great Imagination to guess at the future and of great Understanding to discover the truth in all things They are neither malicious crafty nor Cavillers for these spring from a Vicious Temperament Such a Wit as this is assuredly was not framed by Nature to learn the Latin Tongue Logic Philosophy Physic Divinity or the Laws for put the case he might easily attain these Sciences yet not one of them can fill all his Capacity Only the Office of a King answers in proportion to it and in Ruling and Governing the same is only to be employed This is easily understood in running thro' all the Marks and Properties we have recounted of Temperate Men and considering how each of them agrees with the Royal Scepter and ill corresponds with other Arts and Sciences That a King be Beautiful and Agreeable is one of the things that best engages Subjects to Love and Honour him because as Plato says the object of Love is Beauty and good Proportion and if the King be hard-favoured and mis-shapen it is impossible to gain the People's Affection in so much that they will highly resent it that an unfinished Man who has not so much as good Natural Endowments should come to Rule and Govern them To be Virtuous and of good Conditions is soon understood how much it imports for he who is to Order the Lives of his Subjects and give them Laws and Rules to live according to Reason it is convenient that he do the same in Person for such as the King is such are the Grandees the Middle and the Lower Sort. Moreover by this means he will make his Commands more Authentic and with a better right proceed to Punish those that fail to observe them To hold a Perfection in all the Ruling Faculties of a Man the Generative Nutritive Irascible and Rational is more becoming a King than any Artist whatever For as Plato says in a well-ordered-State there ought to be Over-seers of Families who may with Skill discover the qualities of Persons that are to Marry in order to give to each Man the Woman best proportion'd to him and to each Woman the Man destin'd for her Were this duly observed they would never be frustrated of the principal end of Marriage For we see by Experience that a Woman who could have no Children by her first Husband as soon as she is married to another has and many Men that could have no Children by their first Wives have had them as soon as ever they married to another More especially says Plato this Art is of use in the Marriages of Kings For as it is a thing of the greatest Importance to the Peace and Security of a
Difficulty against this Doctrin namely seeing God knew all the Wits and Ability in Israel and was well aware that the Temperate Men are possessed of that Prudence and Wisdom of which the Royal Office stands in need for what cause in the first Election that was made God sought not out such a Man as this For even the Text says that Saul was so tall of Stature as he exceeded all the people of Israel by the Head and Shoulders This is an ill sign of Wit not only in Natural Philosophy but God himself as he has pleased to shew us blamed Samuel for having an Eye to the great Stature of Eliab and his forwardness to Anoint him for King But this Doubt sufficiently informs us what Galen has said is true that out of Greece it is a folly to look for a Temperate Man seeing in so great a People as that of Israel God could not find one to choose for King but waited till David was grown up and in the mean while made choice of Saul seeing that as the Text says he was the best of all Israel tho' it seems he had more good nature than Wisdom and that alone was not sufficient to Rule and Govern Teach me goodness discipline and Knowledge says the Royal Prophet David being very sensible that it is to no purpose for a King to be Good and Virtuous if he be not withal at the same time Prudent and Wise It looks as if we had sufficiently confirmed our Opinion in this instance of King David but there arose also another King in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is born King of the Jews And if we can prove that he was red-Haired well fashioned of middle Stature Virtuous Sound and of great Wisdom and Knowledge it will be no disadvantage to our Cause The Evangelists busy not themselves to relate the Composition of our Lord because it no way conduced to the subject they treated of but the same is a matter very easy to be understood supposing that an exact Temperament is all the Perfection a Man can naturally have and seeing it was the Holy Ghost that formed and Organized him it is certain that as touching the material Cause of which he form'd him it was not the Ill Temperament of Nazareth that could resist him nor cause him to erre in his work as it fares with Natural Agents but that he did what best pleased him because he wanted neither Power Knowledge nor Will to frame a Man most Perfect and without any Defect And the rather for that his Coming as he himself affirms was to endure Travels for Man and to teach him the Truth But this Temperament as we have prov'd before was the best Natural Instrument to effect these two things And therefore I hold for true the Relation that Publius Lentulus the Proconsul writ from Jerusalem to the Senate at Rome after this manner There has been seen in our Time a Man who yet lives of great Virtue call'd Jesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the Prophet of Truth and his Disciples say that he is the Son of God He raises the Dead and heals the Sick He is a Man of a middle proportionable Stature and of a very fair Countenance His Look carries such Majesty as procures at once both Love and Respect from all his Beholders His Hair down to his Ears is of the Colour of a Nut full ripe and from his Ears to his Shoulders of the Colour of Wax but brighter He has in the middle of his Forehead a little Lock after the manner of the Nazarens His Forehead is Plain but very Serene His Face without Spot or Wrinkle and of a moderate Colour His Nose and Mouth are not with any reason to be blamed His Beard thick and resembling his Hair not long but forked His Aspect is Gracious and Grave and his Eyes graceful and clear He is Awful in his Reproofs and Charming in his Admonitions He forces Love He is chearful with Gravity He is never seen to Laugh but Weep often He has elegant Hands and Arms In Conversation he is very pleasing but is seldom in Company and when he is very Modest In his Countenance and Mien the loveliest Man that can be imagined In this Relation are comprised three or four Marks of a Temperate Man The first that he had his Hair and Beard of the Colour of a Nut full ripe which if well considered is a brown Abourn which Colour God commanded the Heifer should have that was to be sacrificed in Figure of Jesus Christ And when he Ascended up into Heaven with the Triumph and Majesty due to such a Prince some of the Angels that knew nothing of his Incarnation ask'd Who is this that comes from Edom with his Garments died Red from Bosra As if they had said Who is this that comes from the Red-Land with his Garments died Red with regard to his Hair and Beard and to the Blood he was stained with The Letter also reports him the fairest Man that ever was seen which is the second Mark of a temperate Man Accordingly by this Mark Holy Scripture has distinguish'd him Goodly of Beauty among the Sons of Men and elsewhere it is said That his Eyes shall be Red with Wine and his Teeth White with Milk Which Beauty and Comely Shape of Body was of no small importance to engage the whole World to Love him because there was nothing Terrible about him And so the Letter says That every one was enclined to Love him It reports also That he was of middle Stature not that the Holy Ghost wanted Matter to make him greater if he had so pleased but because in over-charging the Rational Soul with Bones and Flesh the Wit is oppressed as we have prov'd before from the Opinion of Plato and Aristotle The third Mark namely to be Virtuous and of good Conditions is confirmed also from the same Relation and the Jews with all their false Witnesses could never prove the contrary nor answer him when he ask'd them Which of you can reprove me of Sin And Josephus from the credit of his History assures us that he seemed to be more than Man considering his great Goodness and Wisdom There is only long Life that is not verified of our Saviour Jesus Christ because they put him to Death so Young But if the Course of Nature had not been interruptted he might have lived above fourscore Years For it is very probable that he who could live in a Desart fourty Days and fourty Nights without Eating or Drinking and neither be Sick nor Die with it might better have preserv'd himself free from other slighter Accidents that might alter and impair his Temperament Howbeit this Action was reputed a Miracle and a thing that could not happen in the Compass of Nature These two Examples of Kings which we have alledged are sufficient to give to Understand that the Royal Scepter is due
Flesh shew also the Degrees of these two Qualities Great Moisture makes the Flesh soft and smooth and little renders it harsh and hard and the Mean gives the true Temper The Colour of the Face and of the other parts of the Body betoken also more or less the degrees of these two Qualities When a Woman is very White Galen says it is a Sign of much Cold and Moisture and on the contrary she that is Tawny and Swarthy is cold and moist in the first Degree of which two Extreams arises the second Degree and is known by an Union of White and Red. To have much Hair and little of a Beard is an evident Sign to discover the first DeDegree of Cold and Moisture for to know whence the Hair and Beard proceed all the Physitians affirm them to come from Heat and Dryness and if they are Black that denotes abundance of Heat and Dryness The contrary Temperament is betokened when a Woman is very smooth without Down or Hair She that is cold and moist in the se cond Degree has some Hair but the same is Red or Flaxen Fairness and Foulness serve also to distinguish the Degrees of Cold and Moist in a Woman In the first Degree it is a Marvel if a Woman prove fair for the Seed whereof she was form'd being Dry hindred her from being fair The Clay must be moist for the Potter to frame well Vessels for use for if it be Hard and Dry the Vessels will be foul and ill figured Aristotle affirms further that overmuch Cold and Moist makes Women by Nature foul for if the Seed be Cold and very Waterish it takes no good Figure because it wants consistence as we see of Clay over-soft ugly and ill-shaped Vessels are fashioned In the second Degree of Cold and Moist the Woman is very fair because the matter is well-seasoned and pliant to Nature which Sign alone is a clear proof of a Woman's Fruitfulness it being a certainty that Nature has hit well and done her Part. It is then to be received that she has given her the Temperament and necessary Composition to have Children so that she 'l be fit for any Man and desireable to all There is no Faculty in Man that carries not some signs or tokens to discover the Goodness or Malignity of its Object The Stomach is led to discern the quality of the Food by the Tast the Smell and the Sight Whereupon the Holy Text said that Eve saw that the forbidden Fruit was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eye The generative Faculty holds for a Sign of fruitfulness a Womans Beauty and if she be ugly abhors her conceiving by this Sign that Nature made a false step and gave her not a fit Temperament for bearing Children Article I. By what Marks the Degrees of Heat and Dryness are to be discovered in each Man MAN hath not his Temperament so limited as Woman For he may be hot and dry which Temperament Aristotle and Galen are of Opinion is that which best agrees with his Sex as also hot and moist and temperate but cold and moist and cold and dry will not be admitted so long as the Man is in Health and not some way amiss so that for the same reason as there is no Woman hot and dry nor hot and moist nor temperate even so there is no Man cold and moist nor cold and dry in comparison of Women unless in a Case as I shall presently shew A Man hot and dry or hot and moist or temperate has as many Degrees in his Temperament as a Woman has of Cold and Moist insomuch that we have need of Tokens to discern what Man is in what Degree to assign him a Wife answerable to him in Proportion You are to know then that from the Principles from which we have collected the Woman's Temperament and her Degrees of Cold and Moist the same we shall make use of to know which Man is Hot and Dry and in what Degree And because we said that from the Wit and Manners of a Man the Temperament of the Testicles may be conjectured we must take notice of an observable Point mentioned by Galen namely to make us understand the great Virtue in the Testicles of Man to give Solidity and Temperament to all the Parts of the Body he affirms that they are of more Importance than the Heart for which he renders this Reason that the Heart is the Principle of Life and no more but the Genitals are the Principles of living well and without Infirmities What damage it is to Man to be deprived of those Parts though small there need not many Reasons to prove seeing we see by Experience that forthwith the Hair and the Beard fall off that his gross and strong Voice grows shril and with these he loses his Vigor and Natural Heat and remains in a far worse and more miserable Condition than if he had been a Woman But what is most observable is that if a Man before castrating had much Wit and Ability from the time he loses his Testicles he loses it all even as if he had received in the Brain some considerable Hurt Which evidently shews that the Genitals both give and take away Temperament from all parts of the Body If it be otherwise let us consider as I have often done that of a thousand Eunuchs that apply themselves to Learning not one succeeds in it and even in Music which is their ordinary Profession we see plainly how blockish they are and the reason of it is that Music is a work of the Imagination which power requires much Heat whereas they are cold and moist It is certain then that from the Wit and Ability we may conjecture the Temperament of the Testicles For which cause the Man that appears towardly in the works of the Imagination will be hot and dry in the third Degree And if a Man be not very Deep it is a Sign that Heat is joyned with much Moisture which ever destroys the Rational part and this is the more confirmed if the Man have a great Memory The ordinary Conditions of Men Hot and Dry in the third Degree are Courage Pride Liberality Audacity Chearfulness and Pleasantness and in what relates to Women they observe no rule or moderation The Men who are hot and moist are Pleasant Merry fond of Diversions fair Conditioned Affable Modest and not much given to Women The Voice and Speech discovers much the Temperament of the Testicles That which is strong and somewhat harsh shews the Man hot and dry in the third Degree but that which is soft amorous and very delicate is a Sign of little Heat and much Moisture as appears in Eunuchs The Man in whom Heat is joyned with Moisture will have a strong Voice yet tunable and loud He that is hot and dry in the third Degree has little Flesh and the same is hard and rough full of Sinews and Arteries and
that the Forbiden-Fruit made his Imagination more lively after the manner we have mention'd and then it represented to him the Nature and Use of the shameful Parts But yet that this Exposition may be veritable enough as we see the common Opinion is that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil received not this Name from it's Nature but only by occasion of the Consequence that attended it Which seems to me most Probable Hens Capons Veal and Spanish Weathers are Meats of a moderate Substance for these are neither Delicate nor Gross I said Spanish Weathers because Galen without making Distinction said That their Flesh is of evil and gross Substance for which there is no Reason For tho' in Italy where he writ this is the worst Flesh of all yet in our Country because of the Goodness of the Pastures it may be reckoned amongst the Meats of moderate Substance The Children engendred from these Aliments shall have a reasonable Understanding Memory and Imagination But they will not penetrate deep into the Sciences or Invent any thing New Of these we have spoke before that they readily receive the Impression of all the Rules and Observations of any Art clear obscure easy and difficult But the Doctrin the Argument the Answer the Doubt the Distinction all these will give them Pains and Trouble Cow-flesh Bacon Bread of Red-wheat Cheese Olives Red-Wine and Water will breed a gross Seed and of an evil Temperament The Boy begot of these will be strong as a Bull but withall fierce and of a Brutish Wit From whence it comes that amongst the Country People it is a marvel to find one of a quick Capacity and towardly for Learning They are all born Dull and Rude being begot of Meats of gross and evil Substance The Contrary befalls amongst Citizens whose Children we find endued with more Wit and Ability But if Parents desired in earnest to beget a Son personable wise and of good Conditions let them for six or seven Days before their Companying eat much Goats Milk that being in the Opinion of all the Physicians the best and most delicate Food that can be used This is to be understood when they are sound and it agrees with us But Galen saith it should be taken with Honey without which it is dangerous and easy to Curdle The Reason of which is that Milk is composed but of three Elements Cheese Whey and Butter Cheese answers to the Earth Whey to Water and Butter to Air. The Fire which tempers the other Elements and preserves them in the Mixture issuing out of the Teats is exhaled because it is very subtile but adding to it a little Honey which is hot and dry in lieu of the Fire the Milk will partake of the four Elements which being mingled and concocted by the Operation of our Natural Heat makes a Seed very delicate and of good Temperament The Boy begot of this will at least be of a great Understanding and want neither Memory or Imagination Aristotle not being of this Opinion came short in answering a Problem he made when he asked For what Cause the young of Brute Beasts draw for the most part the properties and qualities of their Sires and the Children of a Man not And we find this by Experience to be true for of wise Parents are born very foolish Children and of foolish Parents wise Children and of virtuous Parents lewd Children and of lewd Parents virtuous Children of hard favored Parents fair Children and of fair Parents foul Children and of white Fathers swarthy Children and of swarty Fathers clear and well-complexion'd Children And amongst Children of the same Father and Mother one shall be a Fool and the other Witty one Ugly the other Handsom one Good and the other Ill-humor'd one Virtuous and the other Vitious Whereas if a Mare of a generous Race be cover'd with a Horse of the same kind the Colt which is foaled resembles them in Shape and Colour as well as in their Properties Aristotle answer'd very ill to this Problem saying That a Man is carried away with many Imaginations in the Carnal Act and hence the Children prove so unlike but Brute Beasts in the time of Generation being not so distracted nor having so strong Imaginations as Man produce their Young Ones after the same Sort and like to themselves This Answer has hitherto passed for Currant with the Vulgar Philosophers and for Confirmation hereof they alledge the History of Jacob which delivers that he having laid Streaked Rods at the Watering Places of the Flocks caused all the Lambs that were yeaned to be Spotted But it avails little to have recourse to Holy Writ for this Story is reckoned a Miracle wrought by God to hide some Sacrament And Aristotle's Answer is far fetched If not let the Shepherds now attempt the same and they will see if it be a Natural Thing They tell us also in this Country of a certain Lady that was deliver'd of a Son blacker than ordinary by fixing her Imagination upon a Blackmoor painted in the Hangings which I look upon as a Jest and if by chance it were true that she was brought to Bed of such a Son I say that the Father was of the same Colour with the Face represented in the Hangings And to the end it may be plainly known how false the Philosophy of Aristotle and his Followers in this Particular is it must be suppos'd as a thing certain that the Work of Generation belongs to the Vegetative Soul and not to the Sensitive and if we consider a Tree loaden with Fruit we shall find there a greater Variety than in the Children of any Man one Apple will be Green another Red one Little another Great one Round another Ill-figur'd one Sound another Rotten one Sweet another Sower if we compare this years Fruit with the Last we shall see them very Different and Contrary to one another Which cannot be attributed to the Variety of the Imagination because Plants want that Power Aristotle's Error is most manifest by his own Doctrin for he says that it is the Man's Seed not the Womans which makes the Generation and in the Carnal Act the Man has no more to do than to scatter the Seed without Form or Figure as the Husband-man sows the Grain in the Earth And like as a Grain of Corn takes not Root immediately nor forms the Blade or Ear until some Days are past In the same manner says Galen the Child is not formed as soon as the Man's Seed falls into the Womb it must according to his Account have between thirty and fourty Days to accomplish it And if this be so what matter is it if the Father have never so many Imaginations during the Act if the Formation of the Foetus be not till after some Days Especially when the Formation is not effected either by the Father's Soul or the Mother's but by a third thing found in the Seed which being
and particular Assistance that God gave him for that purpose All that I pretend is to affirm that Supernatural Gifts are much more efficacious when they meet with a suitable Disposition than when they fall upon a Sot and a Blockhead To this alludes the Doctrin of St. Jerome in his Proem upon Esay and Jeremy demanding what is the reason that though it was the same Holy Spirit which spoke in both their Mouths Esay delivered what he Writ with so much Elegance and Jeremy hardly knew how to speak He answer'd that the Holy Spirit accommodates it self to the natural manner of Proceeding of each Prophet unless Grace changes their Nature or teaches them a new Language to deliver their Prophecies in You must know then that Esay was a Nobleman bred at Court and in the City of Jerusalem for which reason his Discourse was more Elegant and Polite but Jeremy was Born and brought up in a Village near Jerusalem call'd Anathoth so that in his Stile he was Course and Rude as a Peasant and such a Stile the Holy Ghost made use of in the Prophecy he Inspired him with The same may be said of St. Paul's Epistles that the Truth of the Holy Spirit presided in him when he writ them to the end that he might not Err but that the Language and Manner of Speech was no other than the Language and Manner of Speech natural to St. Paul accommodated to the Doctrin he taught because the Truth of School-Divinity abhors a multiplicity of Words The Knowledge of Tongues and the Ornaments and Politeness of Speech accord admirably with Positive-Divinity because that Faculty belongs to the Memory and is no other than a Mass of Catholic Sayings and Sentences cull'd out of the Holy Fathers and from Sacred Writ and treasured up in that Faculty in like manner as a Grammarian selects the fine Flowers of Virgil Horace Terence and other Latin Poets he reads and as occasion presents sets himself to deliver them or pertinently cites some Passages from Cicero or Quintilian to make show of his Reading to his Auditors They that are furnished with this Union of Imagination and Memory and diligently Collect whatever has been said and Writ that is considerable in the Science they profess and quote them at due time and place with the Ornaments of good Language as having already found in all the Sciences so many things appear very profound in the Opinion of those who are Ignorant of our Doctrin though in effect they are but superficial and will discover their defect as soon as they are sifted to the bottom of what they deliver with so much Assurance And the reason is that the Understanding to which appertains the Knowlege of the Truth of things from their Root is not agreeable with the abundance of fine Speeches 'T is of these the Holy Scripture speaks The talk of the lips tendeth to Penury Such as have these two Faculties the Imagination and Memory joined together boldly attempt the Interpretation of Holy Scriptures conceiting because they understand a great deal of Hebrew Greek and Latin it is easy for them to give the true Sense of the Letter but after all they are out First because the Words of Holy Scripture and its manner of speaking have many other Significations more than Cicero knew in his Tongue Secondly Because such People want Understanding which is the Faculty that discerns whether the Sense be Catholic or not 'T is this Faculty which with the Assistance of Supernatural Grace of two or three several Meanings drawn from one Text can make choice of that which is the Truest and most Catholic It never happens said Plato that Men are deceived in things that are very distinguishable so easily as when many of the like Nature present themselves together for if we set before the most clear-sighted Eyes in the World a little Salt Sugar Meal and Chalk all finely powder'd and sifted and each by it self what should he do who wanted his Taste to be able to distinguish upon sight each of these Powders without any mistake so as to point in particular which is Salt which Sugar which Meal and which Chalk Without doubt no Man but would be mistaken because of the great Affinity between these things But were there a heap of Wheat another of Oats another of Chaff another of Earth and another of Stones it is no less certain because of the great diversity of each Object this Man whose sight was not very good could never fail to name each heap We see the same happen every day in the Sense and Meaning the Divines give of the Holy Scripture for you may observe two or three which at first sight seem to be Catholic and to agree well with the Letter whereas in truth they are not such nor does the Holy Spirit say so To chuse the best of all the Meanings and reject that which is bad it is certain that the Divine makes use of neither Memory nor Imagination but of the Understanding only And accordingly I assert that the Positive-Divine ought to consult the Scholastic and desire him to chuse which of all the meanings he shall find best if he would not be sent some fair Morning to the Inquisition For which reason the Heresies are in such dread of School-Divinity and would have it absolutely rooted out of the World because by Distinguishing Inferring Reasoning and Judging the Truth at last comes to be distinguished from Falhood CHAP. XII That the Theory of Divinity belongs to the Understanding and Preaching which is the Practic to the Imagination 'T IS a Point much Controverted not only amongst the Wise and Learned but even such as has not escaped the very Vulgar who daily ask the Reason Whence it comes that a Divine who is a great Schoolman sharp in Dispute ready in his Answers Reads and Writes with admirable Learning nevertheless when he gets once into the Pulpit he knows not how to Preach and on the other hand when a Man is an Excellent Preacher Eloquent Acceptable drawing all the People after him it is a great Miracle if he knows much of School-Divinity And for this Reason it is not admitted as a good Consequence such a one is a good School-Divine therefore he is a very good Preacher neither on the other hand must it be concluded that such a one is a great Preacher therefore he is not a great School-man so that to destroy one and the other Consequence there are more Instances offered of each than there are Hairs in our Head No Man till now has been able to give any other Answer than that ordinarily returned which is to attribute all this to God and to the Distribution of his Gifts and I own it is very well done when they know not at least the particular Cause We have in a manner solv'd this doubt in the preceding Chapter though not so exactly as it ought For I have already said that School-Divinity pertained to the
Understanding Now I assert and will prove that Preaching which is the Practic is a Work of the Imagination And accordingly as it is difficult to join in the same Brain a good Understanding with a great Imagination so it cannot well be that a Man should at the same time be a great School-Divine and a famous Preacher And that School-Divinity is a Work of the Understanding we have elsewhere already proved shewing the Inconsistence between that and the Latin Tongue therefore there is no need to prove it again Only I would have it understood that the good Graces by means of which good Preachers draw the People after them and hold them Charm'd and Ravish'd are all but a Work of an Excellent Imagination and in part of a happy Memory And to the end I may better explain my self and touch it as it were with my Finger it must first be supposed that a Man is a Rational Creature sociable and politic and to the end his good Natural Parts might be improved by Art the Antient Philosophers found out Logic to teach him how he was to Reason by what Rules and Precepts how to define the Nature of Things distinguish divide infer judge and chuse without which Acts it is impossible for any Artist to proceed And to the end he should be Sociable and Politic it was but reason he should speak and make known to others what he conceived in his mind But lest he should deliver them without Order or Rule they have invented another Art call'd Rhetoric which with its Rules and Precepts embelishes his Discourse with fine Words and elegant Phrases with Affections and Colours that are moving In like manner as Logic teaches a Man to Discourse and Reason not only in one Science but in All without distinction so Rhetoric instructs how to speak in Divinity Physic Law the Art-Military and all other Sciences and Modes of Conversation among Men. So that if we would feign to our selves a perfect Logician or compleat Orator they cannot pass for such unless they are knowing in all Sciences because they are all within their Province and in each of them without distinction he may Exercise his Art 'T is not so in Physic Natural and Moral Philosophy Metaphisics Astronomy and the rest that are all limited in the Matter they treat of which made Cicero say Wherever the Orator sets Foot it is his own Ground And in another place That in a compleat Orator all the Philosophers knowledge was to be found For which cause the same Cicero affirmed that there was no Artist found with such difficulty as a perfect Orator which he might have said with more Reason had he known the Repugnance there is in Uniting all the Sciences in one particular Art Antiently the Men of Law held the name and office of Orators because to make a compleat Advocate no less is required than the Knowledge and Skill of all the Arts in the World because the Laws Judge all indifferently and to know the Rights and Pleas of each distinct Profession it becomes necessary to have the particular Knowledge of them all and accordingly Cicero said No Man is to be ranked in the Number of the Orators but he that is compleatly furnished with all the Arts. But seeng it was impossible to learn all the Sciences first because of the brevity of Life and next from the Wit of Man being so limited they let them pass contenting themselves in such necessities to give credit to the Masters in every Art whose Cause they pleaded without more ado After this way of Pleading of Causes immediately succeeded the Doctrin of the Gospel which might better have been persuaded by the Art of Rhetoric than all the Sciences in the World as being of greater Truth and Certainty But Christ our Redeemer charged St. Paul to Preach not with Wisdom of Words lest the Gentiles should have thought what he taught was one of those Well-contrived-Fables which the Orators of those Times made use of to persuade by force of their Art But now that the Faith is received and established many Years since it is allowed to Preach with Rhetorical Topics and to make use of Eloquence since we need no longer apprehend the Inconveniencies that attended it in St. Pauls Time Besides we observe the Preacher who has the qualifications of a compleat Orator does more good and has a greater Auditory than he who is none The reason of which is very clear for if the Orators of Old made the people swallow Falsities for Truths applying to that end the Rules and Precepts of their Art the Christian Auditors will be much better convinc'd when they are persuaded by the same Artifice of the things they already Understand and Believe Besides that the Holy Scripture in a sort is all things and to interpret it well there is occasion for all the Sciences according to that famous saying She has sent forth her Maidens she cryeth upon the highest places of the City There is no need to recommend this to the Preachers of our Times nor acquaint them how far it is allowed them for besides the particular benefit they pretend from their Doctrin their principal Study is to seek out a fine Text to which they may pertinently apply many thoughts and fine passages drawn out of Sacred Writ Holy Fathers Poets Historians Physitians and Lawyers not leaving out any one Science launching out copiously with Eloquence and abundance of fine Words By which means they spin out their Sermons for the space of an hour or two if there be occasion Cicero said that this was proper to him that made profession of the perfect Orator in his time The Power and Profession of an Orator in speaking well seems to promise and undertake so much that let the Matter handled be what it will to discourse of it fluently and amply Now if we can prove that the Graces and Qualifications requisite to a compleat Orator belong all to the Imagination and Memory We shall make it out that the Divine who possesses them shall be a very great Preacher But if he applies himself to the Doctrin of Scotus and St. Thomas he will make little of it because this is a Science pertaining to the Understanding in which Faculty he is but very Weak We have already elsewere declared what things belong to the Imagination and by what Marks they are to be known and now to refresh the Memory we are a going to repeat them Whatever is spoke in good figure close to the purpose and on a suddain are Gifts of the Imagination and so are pleasant Jests Allusions Sentences and Comparisons The first thing a Perfect Orator should do when he takes his Theme in hand is to look out some Argument some apposite Sentences and Passages with which he may amplify and prove the same and not to make use of any sort of Words but only of the well-Sounding to the Ears as Cicero said I esteem him truly