memorie And if it be true that the good preachers of our time content their audience because they haue these gifts it followeth very well that whosoeuer is a great preacher can small skill of Schoole-diuinitie and a great scholler will hardly away with preaching through the contrarietie which the vnderstanding carieth to the imagination and to the memorie Well knew Aristotle by experience that although the oratour learned Naturall and Morall Philosophy Phisicke Metaphisicke the Lawes the Mathematicals Astrologie and al the arts and sciences notwithstanding he was seen of all these but in the flowers and choice sentences without pearcing to the roote of the reason occasion of any of them But he thought that this not knowing the Diuinitie nor the cause of things which is termed Propter quid grew for that they bent not themselues thereunto and therfore propounded this demand Why do we imagine that a Philosopher is different from an oratour To which probleme he answereth that the Philosopher placeth all his studie in knowing the reason and cause of euerie effect and the oratour in knowing the effect and no farther And verily it proceedeth from nought els than for that naturall Philosophy appertaineth to the vnderstanding which power the oratours do want and therefore in Philosophy they can pearce no farther than into the vpper skin of things This selfe difference there is between the Schoole-diuine and the positiue that the one knoweth the cause of whatsoeuer importeth his faculty and the other the propositions which are verefied no more The case then standing thus it falleth out a dangerous matter that the preacher enioyeth an office and authoritie to instruct Christian people in the trueth and that their auditorie is bound to beleeue them and yet they want that power through which the trueth is digged vp from the roote we may say of them without lying those wordes of Christ our redeemer Let them go they are blinde and do guide the blinde and if the blind guide the blind both fall into the ditch It is a thing in tollerable to behold with how great audacity such set themselues to preach who cannot one iote of Schoole-diuinitie nor haue anie naturall abilitie to learne the same Of such S. Paul greatly cōplaineth saying But the end of the commandement is charitie from a pure heart and good conscience faith vnfained from which verily some straying haue turned aside to vain babling who would be doctors in the Law and yet vnderstand not the things which they speake nor which they auouch Besides this we haue prooued tofore that those who haue much imagination are cholericke subtle malignant and cauillers and alwaies enclined to euill which they can compasse with much readinesse craft Touching the oratours of his time Aristotle propoundeth this demand why we vse to call an oratour craftie and giue not this name to a musitian nor to a comical poet And more would this difficulty haue growen if Aristotle had vnderstood that musicke and the stage appertain to the imaginatiō To which probleme he answereth That Musitions and stage-plaiers shoot at none other Butte than to delight the hearers but the oratour goes about to purchase somewhat for himselfe and therfore it behooueth him to vse rules and readinesse to the end the hearers may not smell out his fetch and bent Such properties as these be had those false preachers of whom S. Paul spake writing to the Corinthians But I feare that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie so their senses are led astraie for these false Apostles are guilefull workmen who transforme themselues into the Apostles of Christ and this is no wonder for Sathan transformed himselfe into an Angel of light and therefore it is no great matter for his ministers to transforme themselues as ministers of iustice whose end shall be their worke as if he should say I haue great feare my brethren that as the serpent beguiled Eue with his subtletie and malice so they also intricate their iudgment and perseuerance for these false Apostles are like pottage made of a foxe Preachers who speake vnderwiles represent verie perfectly a kinde of holinesse seeme the Apostles of Iesus Christ and yet are disciples of the diuell who can skill so well to represent an Angel of light that there needeth not a supernaturall gift to discouer what he is and since the maister can play his part so well it is not strange that they also who haue learned his doctrine practise the semblable whose end shall be none other than their works All these properties are well knowen to appertaine to the imagination and that Aristotle said very wel that oratours are subtle and readie because they are euer in hand to get somewhat for themselues Such as possesse a forcible imagination we said before that they are of complexion verie hote and from this quality spring three principall vices in a man Pride Gluttonie and Lecherie for which cause the Apostle said Such serued not our Lord Iesus Christ but their bellie And that these three euill inclinations spring from heat and the contrarie vertues from cold Aristotle prooueth saying thus and therfore it holdeth the same force to shape conditions for heat and cold more than anie thing els which is in the bodie do season maners and therefore printeth and worketh in vs the qualities of maners as if he should say from heat and cold spring all the conditions of man for these two qualities do more altér our nature than any other For which cause men of great imagination are ordinarily bad and vitious for they abandon themselues to be guided by their natural inclination and haue wit and ability to do lewdly For which cause the same Aristotle asketh Whence it groweth that a man being so much instructed is yet the most vniust of all liuing creatures to which probleme he maketh answere that man hath much wit and a great imagination and for this he findeth manie waies to do ill and as by his nature he coueteth delights and to be superiour to all and of great happinesse it is of force that he offend for these things cannot be atchieued but by doing wrong to many but Aristotle wist not how to frame this probleme nor to yeeld a fitting answere Better might he haue enquired for what cause the worst people are commonly of greatest wit amongst those such as are best furnished with abilitie commit the lewdest prancks whereas of dew a good wit and sufficiencie should rather encline a man to vertue and godlinesse than to vices and misdoing The answere heereto is for that those who partake much heate are men of great imagination and the same qualitie which maketh them wittie traineth them to be naughtie vicious But when the vnderstanding ouerruleth it ordinarily inclineth a man to vertue because this power is founded on cold and drie From which two qualities bud many vertues as are Continencie Humilitie Temperance and from heat the contrarie And if Aristotle had
science which he pretendeth to study is the matter which most makes for the purpose for with this we haue seene that diuers men haue begun to studie after their youth was expired and were instructed by bad teachers with euill order and in their owne birth-places and yet for all that haue prooued great clearks But if the wit faile sayth Hippocrates all other diligences are lost But there is no man who hath better verefied this than the good Marcus Cicero who through greefe of seeing his sonne such a doo-nought with whome none of the means could preuaile that he had procured to breed him wisedome sayd in the end after this sort What else is it after the manner of the Giants to fight with the gods than to resist against nature as if he should haue sayd What thing is there which better resembles the battaile which the giants vndertooke against the gods than that a man who wanteth capacitie should set himselfe to studie for as the giants neuer ouercame the gods but were still vanquished by them so whatsoeuer scholler will labour to ouercome his owne vntoward nature shall rest vanquished by her For which cause the same Cicero counselleth vs that we should not vse force against our nature nor endeuour to become Orators if she assent not for we shall vndergo labour in vaine CHAP. II. That Nature is that which makes a man of habilitie to learne IT is an opinion very common and ordinarie amongst the antient Philosophers to say That Nature is she who makes a man of habilitie to learne and that art with her precepts and rules giues a facilitie therevnto but then vse and experience which he reapes of particular things makes him mightie in working Yet none of them euer shewed in particular what thing this nature was nor in what ranke of causes it ought to be placed only they affirmed that this wanting in him who learned art experience teachers bookes and trauaile are of none auaile The ignoraunt vulgar seeing a man of great wit and readinesse straightwaies assigne God to be the author thereof and looke no further but hold euery other imagination that goes beyond this for vanitie but naturall Philosophers despise this manner of talking for put case that the same be godly and containe therein religion and truth yet it groweth from not knowing the order and disposition which God placed amongst naturall things that day when they were created and so couer their ignorance with a kind of warrantise and in sort that none may reprehend or gainsay the same they affirme that all befals as God will and that nothing succeeds which springs not from his diuine pleasure But though this be neuer so apparant a truth yet are they worthie of reproofe because as not euerie kind of demaund sayth Aristotle is to be made after one fashion so not euerie aunswer though true is to be giuen Whilest a natural Philosopher reasoned with a Grammarian there came to them an inquisitiue Gardener and asked what the cause might be that he cherishing the earth so charilie in deluing turning dunging and watering it yet the same neuer well brought foorth the herbage which he sowed therein whereas the hearbes which she bred of her selfe she caused to increase with great facilitie The Grammarian aunswered This grew from the diuine prouidence and was so ordained thorow the good gouernment of the world at which answer the naturall Philosopher laughed seeing he reduced this to God because he knew not the discourse of naturall causes nor in what sort they proceeded to their effects The Grammarian perceiuing the other laugh asked whether he mocked him or wherat else he laughed The Philosopher answered that he laughed not at him but at the maister who taught him so ill for the knowledge and solution of things which spring from the diuine prouidence as are the workes supernaturall appertaine to the Metaphisicks whom we now tearme Diuines but this question propounded by the Gardener is naturall and appertaineth to the iurisdiction of the naturall Philosophers because there are certaine ordered and manifest causes from which this effect may spring And thus the naturall Philosopher answered saying that the earth is conditioned like a stepmother who very carefully brings vp her owne children which shee breeds her selfe but takes away the sustenance from those which appertaine to her husband and so we see that her owne children are fat and fresh and her step-children weake and ill coloured The hearbs which the earth brings foorth of her selfe are borne of her proper bowels and those which the Gardener makes to grow by force are the daughters of another mother wherethrough she takes from them the vertue and nourishment by which they ought to increase that she may giue it to the hearbs which are borne of her selfe Hippocrates likewise reports that he going to visit the great Philosopher Democritus he told him the follies which the vulgar speake of Phisicke namely that seeing themselues recouered from sicknesse they would say it was God who healed them and that if his wil were not little had the good diligence of the Phisition auailed This is so antient a manner of talke and the naturall Philosophers haue so often refuted it that the seeking to take the same away were superfluous neither is it conuenient for the vulgar who know not the particular causes of any effect answereth better and with more truth as touching the vniuersall cause which is God than to say some other vnfitting thing But I haue often gone about to consider the reason the cause whence it may grow that the vulgar sort is so great a friend to impute all things to God and to reaue them from nature do so abhor the naturall means and I know not whether I haue bene able to find it out The vulgar at least giues hereby to vnderstand that forasmuch as they know not what effects they ought to attribute to God immediatly and what to Nature they speake after this maner Besides that men are for the most part impatient and desirous to accomplish speedily what they couet But because the natural means are of such prolixitie and work with length of time they possesse not the patience to stand marking thereof and knowing that God is omnipotent and in a moment of time performeth whatsoeuer him pleaseth whereof they find many examples they would that he should giue thē health as he did to the sicke of the palsie and wisedome as to Salomon riches as to Iob and that he should deliuer them from their enimie as he did Dauid The second cause is for that men are arrogant and vaine conceited many of whom desire secretly in their hearts that God would bestow vpon them some particular graces which should not befall after the common vse as is that the sunne ariseth vpon the good and bad and that the rainè fals vpon all in generall for benefits are so much the more highly prized as they are the more rare
regard to obserue the same all their children shall prooue wise and none otherwise But the whilest this significatioÌ„ of nature is very vniuersall and confused and the vnderstanding contents not it selfe nor staieth vntill it conceiue the particular discourse and the latest cause and so it behooues to search out another signification of this name Nature which may be more agreeable to our purpose Aristotle and other naturall Philosophers discend into more particularities and call Nature whatsoeuer substantiall forme which giues the being to any thing and is the originall of all the working thereof in which signification our reasonable soule may reasonably be tearmed nature for from her we receiue our formall being which we haue of being men and the selfe same is the beginning of whatsoeuer we doe and worke But all soules being of equall perfection as well that of the wiser as that of the foolish it cannot be affirmed that nature in this signification is that which makes a man able for if this were true all men should haue a like measure of wit and wisedome and therefore the same Aristotle found out another signification of nature which is the cause that a man is able or vnable saying that the temperature of the foure first qualities hot cold moist and drie is to be called nature for from this issue al the habilities of man all his vertues and vices and this great varietie of wits which we behold And this is clearely proued by considering the age of a man when he is wisest who in his childhood is no more than a brute beast and vseth none other powers than those of anger and concupiscence but comming to youth there begins to shoot out in him a maruellous wit and we see that it lasteth till time certaine and no longer for old age growing 〈◊〉 goes euery day loosing his wit vntill it come to be 〈◊〉 decaied The varietie of wits it is a matter certaine that it springs not from the reasonable soule for that is one selfe in all ages without hauing receiued in his forces and subâ—â—â—unce any alteration but man hath in euery age a diuers temperature and a contrarie disposition by means whereof the soule doth other workes in childhood other in youth and other in old age Whence we draw an euident argument that one selfe soule doing contrarie workes in one selfe bodie for that it partakes in euery age a contrarie temperature when of young men the one is able and the other vnapt this growes for that the one of them enioiâ—◠〈◊〉 temperature from the other And this for that it is the beginning of all the workes of the reasonable soule was by the Phisitions and the Philosophers termed Nature of which signification this sentence is properly verefied that Nature makes able For confirmation of this doctrine Galen writ a booke wherein he prooueth That the maners of the soule follow the temperature of the body in which it keepes residence and that by reason of the heat the coldnesse the moisture and the drouth of the territorie where men inhabit of the meats which they feed on of the waters which they drinke and of the aire which they breath some are blockish and some wise some of woorth and some base some cruel and some merciful many straight brested and many large part lyers and part true speakers sundrie traitors and sundrie faythfull somewhere vnquiet and somewhere stayed there double here single one pinching another liberall this man shamefast that shamelesse such hard and such light of beleefe And to prooue this he cites many places of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle who affirme that the difference of nations as well in composition of the body as in conditions of the soule springeth from the varietie of this temperature and experience it selfe euidently sheweth this how far are different Greeks from Tartarians Frenchmen from Spaniards Indians from Dutch and Aethiopians from English And this may be seene not only in countries so far distant but if we consider the prouinces that enuiron all Spaine we may depart the vertues and vices which we haue recounted amongst the inhabitants giuing ech one his peculiar vice and vertue and if we consider the wit and manners of the Catalonians Valentians Mercians Granatines Andaluzians Estremenians Portugals Gallesians Asturians Montagneses Biscanes Nauarrists Arragonois and of the kingdome of Castile who sees not and knowes not how far these are different amongst themselues not only in shape of countenaunce and in feature of body but euen in the vertues and vices of the soule Which all growes for that euery of these prouinces hath his particular and different temperature And this varietie of manners is knowne not onely in countries so farre off but in places also that are not more than a little league in distance it cannot be credited what ods there is found in the wits of the inhabitants Finally all that which Galen writeth in this his booke is the groundplot of this my Treatise albeit he declares not in particular the differences of the habilities which are in men neither as touching the sciences which euerie one requires in particular Notwithstanding he vnderstood that it was necessarie to depart the sciences amongst yoong men and to giue ech one that which to his naturall habilitie was requisit in as much as he sayd That well ordered common wealths ought to haue men of great wisedome and knowledge who might in their tender age discouer ech ones wit and naturall sharpnesse to the end they might be set to learne that art which was agreeable and not leaue it to their owne election CHAP. III. What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a young man may haue habilitie MAns body hath so many varieties of parts and powers applied ech to his end that it shal not stray from our purpose but rather growes a matter of necessitie to know first what member was ordained by nature for the principall instrument to the end man might become wise and aduised For it is a thing apparant that we discourse not with our foot nor walke on our head nor see with our nostrils nor heare with our eies but that euery of these parts hath his vse and particular disposition for the worke which it is to accomplish Before Hippocrates and Plato came into the world it held for a generall conceit amongst the naturall Philosophers that the heart was the principall part where the reasonable facultie made his residence and the instrument wherewith the soule wrought the workes of wisedome of diligence of memorie and of vnderstanding For which cause the diuine scripture applying it selfe to the ordinary speech of those times in many places cals the heart the soueraigne part of a man But these two graue Philosophers comming into the world gaue euidence that this opinion was false and prooued by many reasons and experiments that the braine is the principall seat of the reasonable soule and so they all gaue hands to this opinion saue
walke not in this path and ground not themselues on naturall philosophie vtter a thousand follies but yet hence it cannot be concluded that if the reasonable soule partake griefe and sorrow for that his nature is altered by contrarie qualities therefore the same is corruptible or mortall For ashes though they be compounded of the foure elementes and of action and power yet there is no naturall agent in the world which can corrupt thē or take from them the qualities that are agreeable to their nature The naturall temperature of ashes we all know to be cold and drie but though we cast them neuer so much into the fire they will not leese their radicall coldnesse which they enioy and albeit they remaine 100000. yeeres in the water it is impossible that being taken thence they hold any naturall moisture of their owne and yet for all this we cannot but grant that by fire they receiue heat and by water moisture But these two qualities are superficial in the ashes and endure a small time in the subiect for taken from the fire forthwith they become cold and from the water they abide not moyst an houre But there is offered a doubt in this discourse and reasoning of the rich Glutton with Abraham and that is How the soule of Abraham was indowed with better reason than that of the rich man it being alleaged before that all reasonable soules issued out of the bodie are of equall perfection and knowledge whereto we may answere in one of these two manners The first is that the Science and knowledge which the soule purchaseth whilest it remaineth in the bodie is not lost when a man dieth but rather groweth more perfect for he is freed from some errors The soule of Abraham departed out of this life replenished with wisedome and with many reuelations and secrets which God communicated vnto him as his very friend but that of the rich glutton it behooued that of necessitie it should depart away ignorant first by reason of his sinne which createth ignorance in a man and next for that riches heerein worke a contrarie effect vnto pouertie this giueth a man wit as heereafter we may well prooue and prosperitie reaueth it away There may also another answere be giuen after our doctrine and it is this that the matter of which these two soules disputed was schoole diuinitie For to know whether abiding in hell there were place for mercie and whether Lazarus might passe vnto hell and whether it were conuenient to send a deceased person to the world who should giue notice to the liuing of the torments which the damned there indured are all schoole-points whose decision appertaineth to the vnderstanding as heereafter I will make proofe and amongst the first qualities there is none which so much garboileth this power as excessiue heat with which the rich Glutton was so tormented But the soule of Abraham made his abode in a place most temperate where it inioyed great delight and refreshment and therefore it bred no great woonder that the same was better able to dispute I concluding then that the reasonable soule and the diuell in their operations vse the seruice of materiall qualities and that by some they rest agreeued and by other some they receiue contentment And for this reason they couet to make abode in some places and flie from some other and yet notwithstanding are not corruptible CHAP. VIII How there may be assigned to euerie difference of wit his Science which shalbe correspondent to him in particular and that which is repugnant and contrarie be abandoned ALl artes saith Cicero are placed vnder certaine vniuersall principles which being learned with studie and trauaile finally we so grow to attaine vnto them but the art of poesie is in this so speciall as if God or nature make not a man a Poet little auailes it to deliuer him the precepts and rules of versifieng For which cause he said thus The studying and learning of other matters consisteth in precepts and in artes but a Poet taketh the course of nature it selfe and is stirred vp by the forces of the minde and as it were inflamed by a certaine diuine spirit But heerein Cicero swarued from reason for verily there is no Science or Art deuised in the common-wealth which if a man wanting capacitie for himselfe to apply he shall reape anie profit thereof albeit he toyle all the daies of his life in the precepts and rules of the same But if he applie himselfe to that which is agreeable with his naturall abilitie we see that he will learne in two daies The like we say of Poesie without any difference that if hee who hath anie answerable nature giue himselfe to make verses he performeth the same with great perfection and if otherwise he shall neuer be good Poet. This being so it seemeth now high time to learne by way of Art what difference of Science is answerable in particular to what difference of wit to the end that euerie one may vnderstand with distinction after he is acquainted with his owne nature to what Art he hath a naturall disposition The Arts and Sciences which are gotten by the memorie are these following Latine Grammer or of whatsoeuer other language the Theoricke of the lawes Diuinitie positiue Cosmography and Arithmeticke Those which appertaine to the vnderstanding are Schoole diuinitie the Theoricke of Phisicke logicke natural and morall Philosophy and the practicke of the lawes which we tearme pleading From a good imagination spring all the Arts and Sciences which consist in figure correspondence harmonie and proportion such are Poetrie Eloquence Musicke and the skill of preaching the practise of Phisicke the Mathematicals Astrologie and the gouerning of a Common-wealth the art of Warfare Paynting drawing writing reading to be a man gratious pleasant neat wittie in managing all the engins deuises which artificers make besides a certain speciall gift whereat the vulgar maruelleth and that is to endite diuers matters vnto foure who write togither and yet all to be penned in good sort Of all this we cannot make euident demonstration nor proue euerie point by it selfe For it were an infinite peece of worke notwithstanding by making proofe thereof in three or foure Sciences the same reason will afterwardes preuaile for the rest In the catalogue of Sciences which we said appertained to the memorie we placed the latine tongue and such other as all the nations in the world do speake the which no wise man wil denie for tongues were deuised by men that they might communicate amongst themselues and expresse one to another their conceits without that in them there lie hid any other mistery or naturall principles for that the first deuisers agreed togither and after their best liking as Aristotle saith framed the words and gaue to euerie ech his signification From hence arose so great a number of wordes and so manie maners of speech so farre besides rule and reason that if a man had not a good
appertaineth to the wit for those who liue in bondage in miserie in affliction and in strange countries engender much choler adust because they want libertie of speech and of reuenging their iniuries and this humour when the same is grown drie becommeth the instrument of subtiltie of craft and of malice whence we see by experience that if a man rake hell for bad maners and conditions he cannot find woorse than in a slaue whose imagination alwaies occupieth itselfe in deuising how to procure dammage to his maister and freedome to himselfe Moreouer the land which the people of Israell walked through was not much estranged nor different from the qualities of Aegypt for in respect of the miserie thereof God promised Abraham to giue him another much more aboundant and fruitfull And this is a matter greatly verefied as well in good naturall Philosophie as in experience that barraine and beggerly regions not fat nor plentifull of fruit engender men of very sharpe wit And contrariwise abundant and fertile soils bring foorth persons big limmed couragious and of great bodily forces but very slow of wit Touching Greece the Historiens neuer make an end to recount how appropriat that region is to breed men of great habilitie and particularly Galen auoucheth that it is held a miracle for a man to find a foole in Athens And we must note that this was a citie the most miserable and most barren of all the rest in Greece Whence we collect that through the qualities of Egipt and of the Prouinces where the Hebrue people liued they grew verie quick of capacitie But it behooueth likewise to vnderstand for what cause the temperature of Aegypt produceth this difference of imagination And this wil fall out a plain matter when you are done to ware that in this region the sunne yeeldeth a feruent heat and therfore the inhabitants haue their brain dried and choler adust the instrument of wilinesse and aptnesse In which sense Aristotle demandeth why the men of Aethiopia Aegypt haue their feet crooked are commonly curlpated and flat nosed to which probleme he answereth that the much heat of the countrey rosteth the substance of these members and wrieth them as it draweth togither a peece of leather set by the fire and for the same cause their haire curleth and themselues also are wily And that such as inhabit hot countries are wiser than those who are born in cold regions we haue alreadie prooued by the opinion of Aristotle who demandeth whence it grows that men are wiser in hot climats than in cold But he wist not to answer this probleme nor make distinction of wisdome for we haue prooued heretofore that in man there rest two sorts of wisdome one whereof Plato said Knowledge which is seuered from Iustice ought rather to be termed craft than wisdome another there is found accompanied with iustice and simplicity without doublenesse and without wiles and this is properly called Wisdome for it goeth alwaies guided by iustice and dutie They who inhabit very hot countries are wise in the first kind of wisedom and such are those of Aegypt Now let vs see when the people of Israel was departed out of Aegypt and come into the desart what meat they did eat what water they dranke and of what temperature the aire was where they trauailed that we may know whether vpon this occasion the wit with which they issued out of bondage took exchange or whether the same were more confirmed in them Fortie yeares saith the text God maintaind this people with Manna a meat so delicat and sauoury as any might be that euer men tasted in the world In sort that Moses seeing the delicacie and goodnesse therof commanded his brother Aaron to fill a vessell and place the same in the Arke of confederacie to the end the descendents of this people when they were setled in the land of promise might see the bread with which God had fed their fathers whiles they liued in the wildernesse and how bad paiment they yeelded him in exchange of such cherishments And to the end that we who haue notseen this meat may know of what maner the same was it will do well that we describe the Manna which nature maketh and so adioining therunto the conceit of a great delicacie we may wholly imagine his goodnesse The materiall cause of which Manna is engendred is a very delicat vapour which the sunne with the force of his heat draweth vp from the earth the which taking stay aloft is concocted and made perfect and then the cold of the night cōming on it congealeth and through his waightinesse turneth to fall vpon the trees and stones where men gather the same and preserue it in vessels to serue for food It is called Deawy and Airy honny through the resemblance which it beareth to the deaw and for that it is made in the aire His colour is white his sauour sweet as honny his figure like that of Coriander which signes the holy Scripture placeth also in the Manna which the people of Israel did eat and therfore I carry an imagination that both were semblable in nature But if that which God created were of more delicat substance so much the better shall we confirme our opinion But I am euer of opinion that God applied himself to naturall means when with them he could performe what he meant and where nature wanted his omnipotencie supplied This I say because to giue them Manna to eat in the desart besides that which heerby he would signifie me seemeth was founded in the selfe disposition of the earth which euen at this day produceth the best Manna in the world through which Galen affirmeth that on Mount Libanus which is not far distant frō this place there is great and very choice abundance in sort that the countrie people are wont to sing in their pastimes That Iupiter raineth honny in that region And though it be true that God miraculously created that Manna in such quantitie at such time and on speciall daies yet it may be that it partaked the same nature with ours as had also the water which Moses drew forth of the rocke and the fire which Elias with his word caused to rain from heauen all of them naturall things though miraculously brought to passe The Manna described by the holy Scripture it saith was as deaw as the seed of Coriander white in tast like honny which conditions are also in the Manna produced by nature The temperature of this meat the Phisitions say is hot and consisting of subtile and verie delicat parts which composition the Manna eaten by the Iews should also seeme to haue whereon complaining of his tendernesse they said in this maner Our soule hath a fulsomnesse at this slight meat as if they should say that they could no longer endure nor brook so light a meat in their stomacke and the Philosophie of this was that their stomacks had been made strong by onions chibals and leeks and
not that temperature which is requisit for his operations From which two extreams a king ought to be farther distant than any other artist For to ioine wrathfulnesse with much power maketh smally for the subiects auaile And as illy fitteth it for a king to haue his wrathfull power remisse for if he slightly slip ouer bad parts and attempts in his kingdome he groweth out of awe and reuerence amongst his subiects whence great dammages and verie difficult to be remedied doe accustomably arise in the common-wealth But the man who is temperat groweth displeased vpon good groūd and can pacifie himselfe as is requisit which propertie is as necessarie to be setled in a king as anie of those which we haue before remembred How much it importeth that the facultie reasonable the imagination the memorie and the vnderstanding be of greater perfection in a king than in any other is easily to be prooued for the other arts and sciences as it seemeth may be obtained and put in practise by the force of mans wit but to gouern a kingdome and to preserue the same in peace and concord not only requireth that the king be endowed with a natural wisedom to execute the same but it is also necessary that God particularly assist him with his vnderstanding and aid him in gouerning whence it was well noted in the scripture The heart of the king is in the hand of God To liue also many yeares and to enioy continuall health is a propertie more conuenient for a good king than for any other artisan For his industry and trauell breedeth an vniuersall good to all and if he faile to hold out in healthfulnesse the common-wealth falleth to ruine All this doctrine here laid downe by vs will be euidently confirmed if we can find in any history that at any time there was any king chosen in whom anie of those tokens and conditions by vs recited were not wanting And truth hath this as peculier to her nature that she neuer lacketh arguments whereby to be confirmed The diuine scripture recounteth that God falling in dislike with Saul for that he had spared Amalecks life commanded Samuel that he should go to Bethleem and annoint for king of Israel one of the eight sons of Iesse Now the holy man presuming that God had a liking to Eliab for that he was tall of stature demanded of him Is this man here in the presence of my Lord his Christ to which question he was answered in this maner Take not regard to his countenance nor to the talnesse of his stature for I haue refused him I iudge not man by his looke for man seeth the things outwardly apparent but the Lord discerneth the heart As if God should say Marke not O Samuel the high stature of Eliab nor that manly countenance which thou beholdest for I haue tried that in Saul You men iudge by the outward signes but I cast mine eye vpon the iudgement and wisedom wherewith a people is to be gouerned Samuel mistrusting his owne skill in chusing passed on farther in the charge which was commanded him asking still of God vpon euery one which of them he should annoint for king and because God held himselfe contented with none of them he said vnto Iesse hast thou yet no more sonnes but those who stand before vs Who answered saying That he had yet one more who kept his beasts but he was of little growth him seeming that therefore he was not sufficient to weeld the royall scepter But Samuel now wisted that a great stature was no sure token caused him to be sent for And it is a point worth the noting that the holy Scripture before it expressed how he was annointed king said in this maner But he was abourne haired and of a faire countenance and a visage well shaped arise and annoint him for this is he In sort that Dauid had the two first tokens of those which we recounted abourne haired handsome shaped and of a meane stature To be vertuous and well conditioned which is the third signe easily we may conceiue that he was therwithall endowed seeing that God said I haue found a man after my heart for albeit he sinned sundry times yet for all that he lost not the name and habite of vertue Euen as one by habite vitious though he performe some good morrall works doth not therefore leese the name of lewd and vitious That he led all the course of his life in health it should seeme may be prooued because in his whole historie mention is made of his sicknes but once this is a naturall disposition of all such as are long lyued Now because his naturall heat was resolued and that he could not take heat in his bed to remedie this they couched a verie faire lady by his side who might foster him with heat And herethrough he liued so manie yeares that the text saith he deceased in a good age full of daies of riches and of glorie as if it should say Dauid died in a good old age full of daies of riches and of glorie hauing endured so many trauails in the wars and vndergone great penance for his transgressions And this grew for that he was temperat of a good complexion for he refused the occasions which accustomably breed infirmitie and shortning of mans life His great wisdome and knowledge was noted by that seruant of Saul when he said My lord I know a cunning musition the son of Iesse born in Bethleem couragious in fight wise in discourse and of seemly countenance By which tokens aboue specified it is manifest that Dauid was a temperat man and to such is the royall scepter belonging for his wit is of the best mould that nature could fashion But there presenteth it selfe a verie great difficultie against this doctrine namely seeing God knew all the wits and abilities of Israel and likewise wist that temperat men are seized of the wisdom and knowledge requisit to the calling of a king for what cause in the first election that he made he sought not out a man of this sort Nay the text auoucheth that Saul was so tall of stature as he passed all the residue of Israel by the head shoulders And this signe is not only an euill token of wit in natural Philosophy but euen God himself as we haue prooued reprooued Samuel because mooued by the high growth of Eliab he thereupon would haue made him king But this doubt declareth that to be true which Galen said that out of Greece we shall not so much as in a dreame find out a temperat man Seeing in a people so large as that of Israel God could not find one to chuse for a king but it behooued him to tarrie till Dauid was grown vp and the whiles made choice of Saul For the text saith that he was the best of Israel but verely it seemed he had more good nature than wisdome and that was not sufficient to rule and gouern Teach me
him in the Paradise of pleasure to the end he might there worke and take it in charge For the power of God being infinit his knowledge beyond measure when he had a will to giue him all the naturall perfection that might be in mankinde we must thinke that neither the peece of earth of which he was framed nor the distemperature of the soile of Damascus where he was created could so gainsay him but that he made him temperat The opinion of Plato of Aristotle and of Galen take place in the works of nature and euen she also can somtimes euen in distemperat regions engender a person that shalbe temperat But that Adam had his haire and his beard abourne which is the first token of a temperat man manifestly appeareth For in respect of this so notorious signe he had that name Adam which is to say as S. Hierom interpreteth it a red man That he was faire wel fashioned which is the second token cannot in him be denied for when God created him the text saith God saw all things which he had made and they were verie good Then it falleth out certaine that he issued not from the hands of God foule and ill shaped for the works of God are perfect And so much the more for that the trees as the text saith were faire to behold Then what may we think of Adam whom God created to this principall end that he might be Lord and president of the world That he was vertuous wise and well conditioned which are the third and sixth signes is gathered out of these words Let vs make a man after our owne image and likenesse for by the antient Philosophers the foundation on which the resemblance that man hath with God is grounded are vertue wisdome Therfore Plato auoucheth that one of the greatest contentments which God receiueth in heauen is to see a vertuous and wise man praised and magnified vpon earth for such a one is his liuely purtraiture And contrariwise he groweth displeased when ignorant and vitious persons are held in estimation and honor which springeth from the vnlikenesse between God and them That he liued healthfull and a long space which are the fourth and fifth tokens is nothing difficult to prooue inasmuch as his daies were 930 yeares Where through I may now cōclude that the man who is abourn haired faire of meane stature vertuous healthfull and long lyued must necessarily be verie wise and endowed with a wit requisit for the scepter royall We haue also as by the way disclosed in what sort great vnderstanding may be vnited with much imagination and much memory albeit this may also come to passe and yet the man not be temperat But nature shapeth so few after this modell that I could neuer find but two amongst all the wits that I haue tried but how it can come to passe that great vnderstanding may vnite with much imagination and much memory in a man not temperat is a thing which easily may be conceiued if you presuppose the opinion of some Phisitions who affirme that the imagination resideth in the forepart of the braine the memorie in the hinder part and the vnderstanding in that of the middle And the like may be said in our imagination but it is a worke of great labour that the braine being when nature createth the same of the bignesse of a graine of pepper it should make one ventricle of seed verie hot another verie moist and the middle most of verie dry but in fine this is no impossible case CHAP. XV. In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning IT falleth out a matter worthie of maruaile that nature being such as we all know her wise wittie and of great art iudgement and force and mankind a worke of so speciall regard yet for one whome she maketh skilfull and wise she produceth infinit depriued of wit Of which effect my selfe searching the reason and naturall causes haue found in my iudgement that parents apply not themselues to the act of generation with that order and concert which is by nature established neither know the conditions which ought to be obserued to the end their children may prooue of wisedome and iudgement For by the same reason for which in any temperat or distemperat region a man should be borne very wittie hauing alwaies regard to the selfe order of causes there will 100000 prooue of slender capacitie now if by art we may procure a remedie for this we shall haue brought to the common-wealth the greatest benefit that she can receiue But the knot of this matter consisteth in that we cannot entreat hereof with tearms so seemly and modest as to the naturall shamefastnesse of man is requisit and if for this reason I should forbeare to note any part or contemplation that is necessarie for certaine the whole matter would be marred in sort that diuers graue Philosophers hold opinion how wise men ordinarily beget foolish children because in the act of copulation for honesties sake they abstaine from certaine diligences which are of importance that the sonne may partake of his fathers wisedome Some antient Philosophers haue laboured to search out the naturall reason of this naturall shame which the eyes conceiue when the instruments of generation are set before them and why the eares take offence to heare them named and they maruell to see that nature hath framed those parts with such diligence and carefulnesse and for an end of such importance as the immortalizing of mankind and yet the wiser a man is the more he groweth in dislike to behold or heare them spoken of Shame and honestie sayth Aristotle is the proper passion of the vnderstanding and who so resteth not offended at those terms and actions of generation giueth a sure token of his wanting that power as if we should say that he is blockish who putting his hand into the fire doth not feele the same to burne By this token Cato the elder discouered that Manilius a noble man was depriued of vnderstanding because it was told him that the other kissed his wife in presence of his daughter for which cause he displaced him out of the Senat and Manilius could neuer obtaine at his hands to be restored Out of this contemplation Aristotle frameth a probleme demaunding whence it grew that men who desire to satisfie their venerous lusts do yet greatly shame to confesse it and yet coueting to liue to eat or to perform any other such action they stagger not to acknowledge it to which probleme he shapeth a very vntoward answer saying Perhaps it commeth because the couetings of diuers things are necessary and some of them kill if they be not accomplished but the lust of venerous acts floweth from excesse and is token of abundance But in effect this probleme is false and the answer none other for a man not only shameth to manifest the desire he carrieth to companie with a woman but
degree for his seed is of such furie and feruency as it behooueth the same to fall into a place very cold and moist that it may take hold and root This man is of the qualitie of Cresses which will not grow saue in the water and if he partaked lesse hot and dry his sowing in so cold a belly were nought els than to cast graine into a poole Hippocrates giueth counsell that a woman of this sort should first lessen her selfe and lay aside her flesh and her fat before she marrie but then she need not to take to husband a man so hot and dry for such a temperature would not serue nor she conceiue A woman cold and moist in the second degree retaineth a meane in all the tokens which I haue specified saue onely in beauty which she enioyeth in an high degree Which yeeldeth an euident signe that she will be fruitfull and beare children and prooue gratious and cheerfull She answereth in proportion wel-neer to all men First to the hot and dry in the second degree and next to the temperat and lastly to the hot moist From all these vnions and conioynings of men and women which we haue here laid down may issue wise children but from the first are the most ordinary For put case that the seed of a man encline to cold and moist yet the continuall drinesse of the mother and the giuing her so little meat correcteth amendeth the defect of the father For that this maner of philosophizing neuer heretofore came to light it was not possible that all the naturall Philosophers could shape an answere to this probleme which asketh Whence proceedeth it that manie fools haue begotten wise children Whereto they answer that sottish persons apply themselues affectionatly to the carnall act and are not carried away to any other contemplation But contrarily men verie wise euen in the copulation go imagining vpō matters nothing pertinent to that they haue in hand and therethrough weaken the seed and make their children defectiue aswell in the powers reasonall as in the naturall In the other conioynings it is requisit to take heed that the woman be clensed and dried by a ripe age and marry not ouer yong for hence it commeth that children prooue simple and of little wit The seed of yong parents is verie moist for it is but a whiles since they were borne and if a man be formed of a matter endowed with excessiue moisture it followeth of force that he prooue dull of capacitie What diligence ought to be vsed that children male and not female may be borne §. 3. THose parents who seeke the comfort of hauing wise children and such as are towards for learning must endeuour that they may be borne male for the female through the cold and moist of their sex cānot be endowed with any profound iudgment Only we see that they talke with some apparence of knowledge in slight and easie matters with termes ordinary and long studied but being set to learning they reach no farther than to some smacke of the Latine tongue and this only through the help of memorie For which dulnesse themselues are not in blame but that cold and moist which made them women and these selfe qualities we haue prooued heretofore gainsay the wit and abilitie Salomon considering how great scarcitie there was of wise men and that no woman came to the world with a wit apt for knowledge said in this maner I found one man amongst 1000 but I haue not found one woman amongst the whole rout As if he should say that of 1000 men he had found one wise but throughout the race of women he could neuer light vpon one that had iudgment Therfore we are to shun this sex and to procure that the child be borne male for in such only resteth a wit capable of learning It behooueth therfore first to take into consideration what instruments were ordained by nature in mans body to this effect and what order of causes is to be obserued that we may obtaine the end which we seeke for We must then vnderstand that amongst many excrements and humours which reside in a mans bodie nature saith Galen vseth only the seruice of one to worke that mankind may be preserued This is a certain excremēt which is termed whey or wheyish bloud whose engendring is wrought in the liuer and in the veins at such time as the foure humours bloud fleagme choler and melancholy do take the forme and substance which they ought to haue Of such a licour as this doth nature serue her selfe to resolue the meat and to worke that the same may passe through the veins and through the strait passages carrying nourishment to all the parts of the body This work being finished the same nature prouideth the veins whose office is nought els but to draw vnto them this whey and to send it through their passages to the bladder and from thence out of the body and this to free man from the offence which an excremēt might breed him But she aduising that he had certain qualities cōuenient for generation prouided two veins which should carry part therof to the cods and vessels of seed togither with some small quantitie of bloud whereby such seed might be formed as was requisit for mankind Wherethrough she planted one veine in the reins on the right side which endeth in the right cod and of the same is the right seed vessell framed and another on the left side which likewise taketh his issue at the left cod and of that is shaped the left seed vessell The requisit qualities of this excrement that the same may be a conuenient matter for engendring of seed are saith Galen a certaine tartnesse and biting which groweth for that the same is salt wherethrough it stirreth vp the seed vessels moueth the creature to procure generation and not to abandon this thought And therfore persons very lecherous are by the Latinists termed Salaces that is to say men who haue much saltnesse in their seed Next to this nature did another thing worthy of great consideration namely that to the right side of the reines and to the right cod she gaue much heat and drinesse and to the left side of the reines to the left cod much cold and moisture wherthrough the seed which laboureth in the right cod issueth out hot and drie and that of the left cod cold and moist What nature pretended by this variety of temperature aswell in the reins as in the cods seed vessels is verie manifest we knowing by histories very true that at the beginning of the world and many yeares after a woman brought forth two children at a birth wherof the one was born male the other female the end wherof tended that for euery man there should be a wife that mankind might take the speedier increase She prouided then that the right side of the reines should yeeld matter hot and drie to the right cod and that
how powerfull the same is in the age of childhood and how weake and remisse in old age Againe in boyes estate the reasonable soule cannot vse his operations whereas in old age which is vtterly void of heat and moisture it performeth them with great effect In sort that by how much the more a man is enabled for procreation and for digestion of food so much he leeseth of his reasonable facultie To this alludeth that which Plato affirmeth that there is no humour in a man which so much disturbeth the reasonable faculty as abundance of seed only saith he the same yeeldeth help to the art of versifieng Which we behold to be confirmed by daily experience for when a man beginneth to entreat of amorous matters sodainly he becommeth a Poet And if before he were greasie and loutish forthwith he takes it at heart to haue a wrinckle in his pumpe or a mote on his cape And the reason is because these workes appertaine to the imagination which encreaseth and lifteth it selfe vp from this point through the much heat accasioned in him by this amorous passion And that loue is an hot alteration sheweth apparently through the courage and hardinesse which it planteth in the louer from whom the same also reaueth all desire of meat and will not suffer him to sleep If the common-wealth bare an eie to these tokens she would bannish from publicke studies lusty schollers and great fighters inamoured persons Poets and those who are verie neat and curious in their apparrell for they are not furnished with wit or abilitie for any sort of study Out of this rule Aristotle excepteth the melancholicke by adustion whose seede though fruitfull reaueth not the capacitie Finally all the faculties which gouern man if they be very powerfull set the reasonable soule in a garboile Hence it proceeds that if a man be very wise he proueth a coward of small strength of bodie a spare feeder and not verie able for procreation And this is occasioned by the qualities which make him wise namely coldnesse and drinesse And these selfe weaken the other powers as appeareth in old men who besides their counsell and wisdom are good for nothing els This doctrine thus presupposed Galen holdeth opinion that to the end the engendring of whatsoeuer creature may take his perfect effect two seeds are necessary one which must be the agent and former and another which must serue for nourishment for a matter so delicat as generation cannot straightwais ouercome a meat so grosse as is the bloud vntill the effect be greater And that the seed is the right aliment of the seed members Hippocrates Plato and Galen doe all accord for by their opinion if the bloud be not conuerted into seed it is impossible that the sinews the veins the arteries can be maintained Wherthrough Galen affirmed the difference betweene the veines and the cods to be that the cods doe speedily make much seed and the veins a little and in long space of time In sort that nature prouided for the same an alimēt so like which with light alteration without making any excremēts might maintain the other seed And this could not be effected if the nourishment therof had bin made of the bloud The selfe prouision saith Galen was made by nature in the engendring of mankind as in the forming of a chick and such other birds as come of egs In which we see there are two substances one of the white and another of the yolke of one of which the chicke is made and by the other maintained all the time whiles the forming endureth For the same reason are two seeds necessarie in the generation of the man one of which the creature may be made and the other by which it may be maintained whilst the forming endureth But Hippocrates mentioneth one thing worthie of great consideration namely that it is not resolued by nature which of the two seeds shalbe the agent and formour which shall serue for aliment For many times the seed of the woman is of greater efficacy than that of the man and when this betideth she maketh the generation and that of the husband serueth for aliment Otherwhiles that of the husband is more mighty and that of the wife doth nought els than nourish This doctrin was not cōsidered by Aristotle who could not vnderstand wherto the womans seed serued and therefore vttered a thousand follies and that the same was but a little water without vertue or force for generation VVhich being granted it would follow impossible that a woman should euer couet the conuersation of man or consent thereunto but would shun the carnall act as being herselfe so honest and the worke so vncleane and filthy wherethrough in short space mankind would decay and the world rest depriued of the fairest creature that euer nature formed To this purpose Aristotle demandeth what the cause is that fleshly copulation should be an action of the greatest pleasure that nature euer ordained for the solace of liuing things To which probleme he answereth that nature hauing so desirously procured the perpetuitie of mankind did therefore place so great a delight in this worke to the end that they being mooued by such interest might gladly apply themselues to the act of generation and if these incitements were wanting no woman or man would condiscend to the bands of marriage inasmuch as the woman should reape none other benefite than to beare a burden in her belly the space of nine months with so great trauaile and sorrowes and at the time of her child-birth to vndergo the hazard of forgoing her life So would it be necessarie that the common-wealth should through feare enforce women to marrie to the end mankind might not come to nothing But because nature doth her things with pleasing she gaue to a woman all the instruments necessarie for making a seed inciting and apt for issue whereby she might desire a man and take pleasure in his conuersation But if it were of that qualitie which Aristotle expresseth she would rather flie and abhorre him than euer loue him This selfe Galen prooueth alleaging an example of the brute beastes wherethrough he saith that if a Sowe be speyed she neuer desireth the Boare nor will consent that he approch vnto her The like we do euidently see in a woman whose temperature partaketh more of coldnesse than is requisite for if we tell her that she must be married there is no word which soundeth worse in her eare And the like befalleth to a cold man for he wanteth the fruitful seed Moreouer if a womans seed were of that maner which Aristotle mentioneth it could be no proper aliment for to attain the last qualities of actual nutriment a totall seed is necessarie whereby it may be nourished Wherthrough if the same come not to be concocted semblable it cannot performe this point for womans seed wanteth the instruments and places as are the stomacke the liuer and the cods where it may be
Examen de ingenios THE EXAMINATION of mens Wits In whicch by discouering the varietie of natures is shewed for what profession each one is apt and how far he shall profit therein By John Huarte Translated out of the Spanish tongue by M. Camillo Camiili Englished out of his Italian by R. C. Esquire LONDON Printed by Adam Jslip for Richard Watkins 1594. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVL SIR FRANCIS GODOLPHIN KNIGHT ONE OF THE DEPVTIE LIEVTENANTS OF CORNWAILE GOod Sir your Bookereturneth vnto you clad in a Cornish gabardine which if it become him not wel the fault is not in the stuffe but in the botching Tailor who neuer bound Prentice to the occupation and working only for his passe-time could hardly obserue the precise rules of measure but such as it is yours it is and yours is the workeman entirely addicted to reuerence you for your vertues to loue you for your kindnesse and so more readie in desire than able in power to testifie the same doe with my dewest remembrance take leaue resting At your disposition R. C. TO THE MAIESTIE of Don Philip our Soueraigne TO the end that Artificers may attaine the perfection requisit for the vse of the common-wealth me-thinketh Cathotholike roiall Maiestie a law should be enacted that no carpenter should exercercise himselfe in any work which appertained to the occupation of an husbandman nor a tailor to that of an architect and that the Aduocat should not minister Phisicke nor the Phisition play the Aduocat but ecah one excercise only that art to which he beareth a naturall inclination and let passe the residue For considering how base and narrowly bounded a mans wit is for one thing and no more I haue alwaies held it for a matter certaine That no man can be perfectly seene in two arts without failing in one of them now to the end he may not erre in chusing that which fitteth best with his owne nature there should be deputed in the common-wealth men of great wisedome and knowledge who might discouer each ones wit in his tender age and cause him perforce to studie that science which is agreeable for him not permitting him to make his owne choice whence this good would ensue to your states and signiories that in them should reside the rarest artificers of the world and their workes should be of the greatest perfection for nought else than because they vnited art with nature The like would I that the vniuersities of our kingdomes did put in practise for seeing they allow not that a scholer should passe to another facultie vnlesse he perfectly vnderstand the Latine tongue they should haue also examiners to trie whether he who purposeth to studie Logick Philosophie Diuinitie or the Laws haue such a wit as is requisit for euery of these sciences for otherwise besides the dammage that such a one shall worke afterwards to the Common-wealth by vsing an art wherein he is not skilled it is a greefe to see that a man should take paines and beat his brains about a matter wherein he cannot reape any aduantage For that at this day such a diligence is not vsed those vvho had not a wit fit for Diuinitie haue destroied the Christian religion So doe those who are vntoward for Phisicke shorten many a mans daies neither possesseth the Legall Science that perfection vvhich it might receiue because it is not made knowne to what reasonable power the vse and interpretation of the laws appertaineth All the antient Philosophers found by experience that where nature doth not dispose a man to knowledge it falleth out a superfluous labour to toile in the rules of art But none hath cleerely and distinctly deliuered vvhat that nature is vvhich maketh a man able for one science and vncapable of another nor how many differences of vvittes there are found in mankind nor vvhat Arts or Sciences doe answer each in particular nor by what tokens this may be knovvn vvhich is the thing that most importeth These foure points though they seeme vnpossible containe the matter vvhereof I am to entreat besides many others appurtenant to the purpose of this doctrine vvith intention that curious parents may haue an art maner to discouer the vvit of their children and may vveet hovv to set ech of them in hand with that science vvherin he shall principally profit And this is an aduise vvhich Galen sayth vvas giuen his father namely that he should set him to studie Phisicke because for that science he had a singular vvit By vvhich your maiestie shall vnderstand hovv much it importeth the common-vvealth that there be established in the same a choice and examination of vvits for the sciences seeing frō the study vvhich Galen bestovved in Phisick there ensued so great good to the diseased of his time and he left so many remedies in vvriting for the postèritie Euen as Baldus a notable man in profession of the lavves vvhen he studied and practised Phisick if he had passed further therein vvould haue prooued but an ordinarie Phisitian as he vvas not better for that he vvanted the difference of vvit requisit for this science but the lavves should haue lost one of the greatest helps that might be found amongst men for expounding them When I therfore purposed to reduce this nevv manner of Philosophie to art and to proue the same in some vvits I remembered my selfe of your Maiestie as the best knovvne and one at vvhom the whole world wondereth beholding a Prince ofso great knowledge and vvisedome of vvhome here we cannot conueniently entreat the last chapter saue one is your conuenient place where your Maiestie shall see the purport of your owne wit and the art and learning vvherewith you vvould haue benefited your common-wealth if you had bene a priuat person as by nature you are our king and souereigne ⧠The second Proeme to the Reader WHen Plato would teach any doctrine graue subtile and diuided from the vulgar opinion he made choise amongst his scholers of such as he reputed best witted and to those only he imparted his mind knowing by experience that to teach delicat matters to persons of base vnderstanding was losse of time losse of pains and losse of learning The second thing which he did after this choise made was to preuent them with certaine presuppositions cleare and true which should not be wide from his conclusion for the speeches and sentences which vnlooked for are deliuered against that which the vulgar beleeueth at the beginning serue for nought else such preuention not being made than to put in a confusion him that listeneth and to breed such a loathing in mens minds as it causeth them to loose their good affection and to abhorre and detest this doctrin This manner of proceeding would I that I might obserue with thee curious Reader if meanes could be vsed that I might first treate with thee and discouer betweene thee and me the disposition of thy wit For if it be such as is requisite for this doctrine and estranged
errors seeing the matter is so delicat and no way fore-opened to entreat thereof But if the same be in a matter where the vnderstanding hath place to thinke in this case I pray thee wittie Reader that before thou giue sentence thou read ouer the whole worke and assure thy selfe what the difference of thine owne wit is and if in the worke thou find ought which in thine opinion is not well sayd consider well of the reasons which sway the most against it and if thou canst not resolue then turne to read the eleuenth chapter for in that shalt thou find the answer which they may receiue The Examination or Triall of mens wits and dispositions CHAP. I. He prooueth by an example that if a Child haue not the disposition and abilitie which is requisit for that science whervnto he will addict himselfe it is a superfluous labour to be instructed therein by good schoolemaisters to haue store of bookes and continually to studie it THe opinion of Cicero was good who that his sonne Marke might proue such a one in that kind of learning which himselfe had made choise of as he desired iudged that it sufficed to send him to a place of studie so renowmed and famous in the world as that of Athens and to giue him Cratippus for his schoolemaister who was the greatest Philosopher of those daies bringing him vp in a citie so populous where through the great concourse of people which thither assembled he should of necessitie haue many examples and profitings of strangers fit to teach him by experience those things which appertained to the knowledge that himselfe was to learne But notwithstanding all this diligence and much more besides which as a good father he vsed prouiding him bookes and writing some vnto him of his own head the Historians report that he prooued but a Cods-head with little eloquence and lesse philosophie a matter vsuall amongst men that the sonne abies the much wisedome of the father Verely Cicero greatly beguiled himselfe imagining that albeit his sonne were not issued out of natures hands with that wit and habilitie which is requisit for eloquence and philosophie yet by means of the good industrie of such a teacher and the many books and examples of Athens togither with the yoong mans continuall endeuour and processe of time the defects of his vnderstanding would be amended but we see that finally he deceiued himselfe neither do I maruell thereat for he had many examples to this purpose which encouraged him to beleeue that the same might also befall in the person of his sonne For the same Cicero reports in his booke of Destinie that Zenocrates had a wit very vntoward for the studie of Naturall and Morall philosophie of whome Plato sayd That he had a scholer who stood in need of a spurre and yet notwithstanding through the good industrie of such a maister and the continuall trauell of Zenocrates himselfe he became a very great Philosophèr And he writes the like also of Cleantes who was so doltish and void of vnderstanding that no teacher would receiue him into his schoole whereat the yoong man agreeued and ashamed endured so great toile in studying that he came afterwards to be called a second Hercules for wisedome No lesse vntoward for matters of eloquēce seemed the wit of Demosthenes of whome it is sayd that when he was now growne big he could not yet speake plaine but labouring and applying the art by hearing of good teachers he proued the best Oratour of the world and specially as Cicero recounts he could not pronounce the letter R for that he did somwhat stāmer and yet by practise he grew to articulat it so well as if he had neuer had that way any defect Hence tooke that prouerbe his originall which saith That mans wit in matters of science is like a plaier at dice for if any one prooue vnluckie in throwing his chaunce by artificiall practise he comes to amend his euill fortune But none of these examples produced by Cicero remains without a conuenient answer in my doctrine for as we will hereafter proue there is in yongmen a certaine dulnes which argues a greater wit in another age than if the same had bene sharpe from their childhood nay it is a iudgement that they will prooue lowtish men when they begin very soone to discourse and be quicke of conceipt Wherefore if Cicero had known the true tokens by which wits are in their first age to be discouered he would haue held it a good signe that Demosthenes was rude and slow of speech and that Zenocrates had need of a spurre whilest he learned I take not from a good instructor art and industrie their vertue and force to manure wits as well rude as pliant but that which I will say is that if a yoong man haue not of himselfe an vnderstanding capable of precepts and rules which properly belong to the art he would learne and to none other that the diligence vsed by Cicero with his sonne was as vaine as that which any other parent shal vse with his sonne will be in the like Those who haue read Plato shall easily know that this doctrine is true who reports that Socrates was the sonne as he also reported himselfe of a midwife that as his mother albeit she were much praised in the art could not make a woman to be deliuered that before her comming to her was not with child so he performing the like office as his mother could not make his scholers bring foorth any science if of themselues they had not their vnderstanding conceiued therwith He was of opinion that sciences were as it were naturall to those men only who had their wits appliable therevnto and that in such it befell as we see by experience in those who haue forgotten somewhat which they first knew who if we put them in mind but of one word gather from that all the residue Maisters for ought that I can gather haue none other office with their schollers than to bring learning to their remembrance for if they haue a fruitfull wit they make them with this only to bring forth woonderful conceipts otherwise they do but afflict themselues and those whom they instruct nor euer obtaine their desires And at least if I were a teacher before I receiued any scholer into my schoole I would grow to many trials and experiments with him vntill I might discouer the qualitie of his wit and if I found it by nature directed to that science whereof I made profession I would willingly receiue him for it breeds a great contentment in the teacher to instruct one of good to wardlinesse and if not I would counsaile him to studie that science which were most agreeable with his wit But if I saw that he had no disposition or capacitie for any sort of learning I would friendly and with gentle words tell him Brother you haue no means to proue a man of that
great importaunce that there is no maister in the world who can teach him more and especially when a man sees himselfe sometimes abandoned of the fauour and delights of his countrie Depart out of thy land sayd God to Abraham and seuer thy selfe from amidst thy kindred and thy fathers house and come to the place where I will shew thee in which thou shalt make thy name great I will giue thee my blessing The like sayes God to all men who desire to prooue of value and wisedome for albeit he can blesse them in their natiue countrie yet he will that men dispose themselues by this meane which he hath ordained and that wisdome be not attained by them with idlenesse All this is meant with a foregoing presupposall that a man haue a good wit and be apt for otherwise He that goes a beast to Rome returns a beast againe Little auailes it that a dullard go to learne in the famous places of studie where there is no chaire of vnderstanding nor wisedome nor a man to teach it The third point of diligence is to seeke out a maister who hath a direction and method in teaching whose doctrine is sound and firme not sophisticall nor of vaine considerations for all that the scholler doth whilest he is a learning is to credit all that which his maister propounds vnto him for he hath no sound iudgement or discretion to discerne or separat falshood from truth albeit this is a chauncefull case and not placed in the choise of such as learne that the scholers come in due time to studie and that the Vniuersities haue good or vnfit instructers as it befell certaine Phisitions of whome Galen reports that hauing conuinced them by many reasons and experiments and shewed them that the practise which they vsed was false and preiudiciall to mens health the tears fell from their eyes and in his presence they began to curse their hard hap in lighting on such bad maisters as bare sway during the time that they were learners True it is that there are found some schollers of so ripe wit as they straightwaies looke into the condition of the teachers and the learning which he teacheth and if it be vitious they know how to confute the same and to giue allowance to such as deliuer soundly these at the yeares end teach their maister much more than their maister taught them for doubting demaunding wittily they make him to vnderstand and answer things so exquisit as he himselfe neuer knew nor should haue knowne if the scholler with the felicitie of his wit had not brought them to his mind but those who can do this are one or two at the most and the dullards are infinit through which it would do well seeing this choise and Examination of Wits for euery science is not had that the Vniuersities alwaies made prouision of good teachers endued with sound learning and a cleere discerning wit to the end they may not instruct the ignorant in errours and false propositions The fourth diligence requisit to be vsed is to studie euerie science with order beginning at his principles and passing through the midst to the end without hauing matter that may presuppose another thing before For which cause I haue alwaies held it an errour to heare many lessons of diuers matters and to carrie them all home fardled vp together By this means there is made a masse of things in the vnderstanding which afterwards when they come to practise a man knowes not how to turne to vse the precepts of his art nor to assigne them a place conuenient and it is much better to bestow labour in euery matter by it selfe and with that naturall order which it holds in his composition for in the selfe manner as it is learned so is it also preserued in the memorie And more in particular it is necessarie that they do this who of their owne nature haue a confused wit and this may easily be remedied by hearing one matter by it selfe and that being ended to enter into the next following till the whole art be atchieued Galen well vnderstanding of how great importance it was to studie matters with order and conceit wrot a booke to teach the manner that was to be held in reading his works to the end that the Phisition might not be tangled in confusion Others adde herevnto that the scholler whilest he learneth haue but one booke which may plainly containe the points of his learning and that he attend to studie that only and no more least he grow into a garboile and confusion and herein they are warranted by great reason The last thing which makes a man proue of rare learning is to consume much time at his booke and to expect that knowledge haue his due digestion and take deepe root for as the bodie is not maintained by the much which we eat and drinke in one day but by that which the stomacke digesteth and turneth so our vnderstanding is not filled by the much which we read in little time but by that which by little and little it proceeds to conceiue and chew vpon Our wit day by day disposeth it selfe better and better and comes by processe of time to light on things which before it could neither vnderstand nor conceiue Vnderstanding hath his beginning his increase his standing and his declining as hath a man and other creatures and plants it begins in boies age hath his increase in youth his standing in middle or mans age and in old age it begins to decline Who so therefore would know at what time his vnderstanding enioieth all the forces which it may partake let him weet that it is frō the age of thirtie and three vntill fiftie little more or lesse within which compasse we may best giue credit to graue authors if in the discourse of their life they haue held contrarie opinions and he that will write bookes let him do it about this age and not before nor after if he meane not to vnsay againe or change opinion But mans age hath not in all people a like measure and reason for in some childhood ends in twelue yeares in some at fourteene some haue sixteene and some eighteen such liues very long because their youth arriues to little lesse than fortie yeares and their ripe or firme age to three-score and they haue afterward twentie yeares of old age wherethrough their life amounts to fourescore and this is the terme of those who are verie strong The first sort who finish their childhood at twelue yeares are very short liued and begin speedily to discourse their beard soone sprowteth out and their wit lasteth but a small time these at thirtie fiue yeares begin to decline and at fortie and eight finish their life Of all the conditions aboue specified there is not any one which is not very necessary profitable and helpfull in practise for a yoong man to receiue notice of but to haue a good and answerable nature to the
wit sharpe and quicke-sighted Hauing prooued before that the braine and not the heart is the principall seat of the reasonable soule And the reason is because these vitall spirits are engendred in the heart and partake of that substance and that temperature which rested in that which formed them Of this arteriall blood Aristotle meant when he sayd That those men are well compounded who haue their blood hot delicat and pure for they are also of good bodily forces and of a wit well disposed These vitall spirits are by the Phisitions termed Nature for they are the principall instrument with which the reasonable soule performeth his workes and of these also may that sentence be verefied Nature makes able CHAP. IIII. It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation THe temperature of the four first qualities which we heretofore termed Nature hath so great force to cause that of plants brute beasts and man each one set himselfe to performe those workes which are properto his kind that they ariue to that vtmost bound of perfection which may be attained sodainly without any others teaching them the plants know how to forme roots vnder ground and by way of them to draw nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to driue foorth the excrements and the brute beasts likewise so soone as they are borne know that which is agreeable to their nature and flie the things which are naughtie and noisome And that which makes them most to maruell who are not seene in naturall Philosophie is that a man hauing his braine well tempered and of that disposition which is requisit for this or that science sodainly and without hauing euer learned it of any he speaketh and vttereth such exquisit matters as could hardly win credit Vulgar Philosophers seeing the maruellous works which brute beasts performe affirme it holds no cause of maruell because they do it by naturall instinct in as much as nature sheweth and teacheth each in his kind what he is to do And in this they say very well for we haue alreadie alleaged and prooued that nature is nothing else than this temperature of the foure first qualities and that this is the schoolemaister who teacheth the soules in what sort they are to worke but they tearme instinct of nature a certaine masse of things which rise from the noddocke vpward neyther could they euer expound or giue vs to vnderstand what it is The graue Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle attribute all these maruellous workes to heat cold moisture and drouth and this they affirme of the first principle and passe no farther And if you aske who hath taught the brute beasts to doe these works which breed vs such maruell and men to discourse with reason Hippocrates answereth It is the natures of them all without any teacher as if he should say The faculties or the temperature of which they consist are al giuen them without being taught by any other Which is cleerely discerned if they passe on to consider the workes of the soule vegetatiue and of all the rest which gouerne man who if it haue a quantitie of mans seed wel digested and seasoned with good temperature makes a body so seemly and duly instrumentalized that all the caruers in the world cannot shape the like For which cause Galen woondring to see a frame so maruellous the number of his seuerall parts the seating the figure and the vse of each one by it selfe grew to conclude it was not possible that the vegetatiue soule nor the temperature could fashion a workmanship so singular but that the author thereof was God or some other most wise vnderstanding But this maner of speech is alreadie by vs heretofore refuted for it beseemes not naturall Philosophers to reduce the effects immediatly to God and so to slip ouer the assigning of the second reasons and especially in this case where we see by experience that if mans seed consist of an euill substance and enioy not a temperature conuenient the vegetatiue soule runs into a thousand disorders for if the same be cold and moist more than is requisit Hippocrates sayth that the men prooue Eunuches or Hermofrodites and if it be very hote and drie Aristotle sayth that it makes them curle-pated crooke-legged and flat nosed as are the Aethiopians and if it be moist the same Galen sayth that they grow long and lithie and if it be drie low of stature All this is a great defect in mankind and for such works we find little cause to giue nature any commendation or to hold her for aduised and if God were the author hereof none of these qualities could diuert him Only the first men which the world possessed Plato affirms were made by God but the rest were borne answerable to the discourse of the second causes which if they be well ordered the vegetatiue soule dooth well performe his operations and if they concur not in sort conuenient it produceth a thousand dammageable effects What the good order of nature for this effect must be is that the vegetatiue soule haue an endowment of a good temperature or else let Galen and all the Philosophers in the world answer me what the cause is that the vegetatiue soule possesseth such skill and power in the first age of man to shape his body and to increase and nourish the same and when old age groweth on can yeeld the same no longer For if an old man leese but a tooth he is past remedie of recouering another but if a child cast them all we see that natures return to renew them againe Is it then possible that a soule which hath done nought else in all the course of life than to receiue food retaine the same digest it and expell the excrements new begetting the parts which faile should towords the end of life forget this and want abilitie to do the same any longer Galen for certaine will answer that this skill and habilitie of the vegetatiue soule in youth springs from his possessing much naturall heat and moisture and that in age the same wants skill and power to performe it by means of the coldnesse and drinesse to which a bodie of those yeares is subiect The knowledge of the sensitiue soule takes his dependance also from the temperature of the braine for if the same be such as his operations require that it should be it can perform with due perfection otherwise the same must also erre no lesse than the soule vegetatiue The manner which Galen held to behold and discerne by eysight the wisedome of the sensitiue soule was to take a yoong kid but newly kidded which set on the ground begins to go as if it had bene told and taught that his legs were made to that purpose and after that he shakes from his backe the superfluous moisture which he brought
sences for euery one hath his particular composition the eyes haue one the eares another the smelling another and the feeling another and if it were not so there should be no more but one sort of operations and that should all be seeing tasting or feeling for the instrument determines rules the power for one action and for no more By this so plaine and manifest a matter which passeth through the outward sences we may gather what that is in the inward With this selfe power of the soule we vnderstand imagine and remember But if it be true that euery worke requires a particular instrument it behooueth of necessitie that within the braine there be one instrument for the vnderstanding one for the imagination and another different from them for the memorie for if all the braine were instrumentalized after one selfe manner either the whole should be memorie or the whole vnderstanding or the whole imagination But we see that these are very different operations and therfore it is of force that there be also a varietie in the instruments But if we open by skill and make an anotomie of the braine we shall find the whole compounded after one maner of one kind of substance and alike without parts of other kinds or a different sort onely there appeare foure little hollownesses who if we well marke them haue all one selfe composition and figure without any thing comming betweene which may breed a difference What the vse and profit of these may be and whereto they serue in the head is not easily decideable for Galen and the Anotomists as well new as ancient haue laboured to find out the truth but none of them hath precisely nor in particular expressed whereto the right ventricle serueth nor the left nor that which is placed in the middest of these two nor the fourth whose seat in the braine keepes the hinder part of the head They affirme only though with some doubt that these foure concauities are the shops where the vitall spirits are digested and conuerted into animals so to giue sence and motion to all the parts of the body In which operation Galen sayd once that the middle ventricle was the principall and in another place he vnsayes it againe affirming that the hindermost is of greatest efficacie and valure But this doctrine is not true nor founded on good naturall Philosophie for in all mans body there are not two so contrary operations nor that so much hinder one another as are discoursing and digestion of nourishment and the reason is because contemplation requireth quiet rest and a cleerenesse in the animall spirits and digestion is performed with great stirring and trauaile from this action rise vp many vapours which trouble and darken the animall spirits so as by means of them the reasonable soule cannot discerne the figures And nature was not so vnaduised as in one selfe place to conioine two actions which are performed with so great repugnancie But Plato highly commends the wisdome and knowledge of him who shaped vs for that he seuered the liuer from the braine by so great a distance to the end that by the rumbling there made whilst the nourishments are mingled and by the obscurenesse and darkenesse occasioned through the vapours in the animall spirits the reasonable soule might not be troubled in his discourses and considerations But though Plato had not touched this point of Philosophie we see hourly by experience that because the liuer and the stomack are so far from the brain presently vpon meat and some space thereafter there is no man that can giue himselfe to studie The truth of this matter is that the fourth ventricle hath the office of digesting and altering the vitall spirits and to conuert them into animal for that end which we haue before remembred And therefore nature hath seuered the same by so great a distance from the other three and made that braine sundred apart and so far off as appeareth to the end that by his operation he hinder not the contemplation of the rest The three ventricles placed in the forepart I doubt not but that nature made them to none other end than to discourse and philosophise Which is apparantly prooued for that in great studyings and contemplations alwaies that part of the head finds it self agreeued which answereth these three concauities The force of this argument is to be knowne by consideration that when the other powers are wearie of performing their workes the instruments are alwaies agreeued whose seruice they vsed as in our much looking the eyes are pained and with much going the soules of the feet wax sore Now the difficultie consists to know in which of these ventricles the vnderstanding is placed in which the memorie and in which the imagination for they are so vnited and nere neighboured that neither by the last argument nor by any other notice they can be distinguished or discerned Then considering that the vnderstanding cannot worke without the memorie be present representing vnto the same the figures and fantasies agreeable therevnto it behooueth that the vnderstanding part busie it selfe in beholding the fantasmes and that the memorie cannot do it if the imagination do not accompany the same as we haue already heretofore declared we shall easily vnderstand that all the powers are vnited in euery seuerall ventricle and that the vnderstanding is not solely in the one nor the memory solely in the other nor the imagination in the third as the vulgar Philosophers haue imagined but that this vnion of powers is accustomably made in mans body in as much as the one cannot worke without the aid of the other as appeareth in the foure naturall abilities digestiue retentiue attractiue and expulsiue where because each one stands in need of all the residue nature disposed to vnite them in one selfe place and made them not diuided or sundered But if this be true then to what end made nature those three ventricles and ioyned together the three reasonable powers in euery of them seeing that one alone sufficed to vnderstand and to performe the actions of memorie To this may be answered that there riseth a like difficultie in skanning whence it commeth that nature made two eyes and two eares sithens in each of them is placed the whole power of sight and hearing and we can see hauing but one eye Whereto may be sayd that the powers ordayned for the perfection of a creature how much the greater number they carrie so much the better assured is that their perfection for vpon some occasion one or two may faile and therefore it serues well to the purpose that there remaine some others of the same kind which may be applied to vse In an infirmitie which the Phisitions tearme Resolution or Palsie of the middle side the operation is ordinarily lost of that ventricle which is strooken on that side if the other two remained not sound without endammageance a man should thereby become witles and void of
grosenesse And the same may easily be prooued another way for if sadnesse and affliction drie vp and consume the flesh and for that reason man gaineth more vnderstanding it fals out a matter certain that his contrary namely mirth will make the braine moist and diminish the vnderstanding Such as haue purchased this manner of wit are suddenly enclined to pastimes to musicke and to pleasant conuersations and flie the contrarie which at other times gaue them a relish and contentment Now by this the vulgar sort may conceiue whence it growes that a wise and vertuous man attaining to some great dignitie whereas at first he was but poore base sodainly changeth his manners and his fashion of speech and the reason is because he hath gotten a new temperature moist and full of vapours whence it followes that the figures are cancelled which tofore he had in his braine and his vnderstanding dulled From moisture it is hard to know what difference of wit may spring sithens it is so far contrary to the reasonable facultie At least after Galens opinion all the humours of our body which hold ouer-much moisture make a man blockish and foolish for which cause he sayd The readinesse of mind and wisedome growes from the humour of choler the humour of melancholy is author of firmnesse and constancie blood of simplicitie and dulnesse the flegmaticke complexion auaileth nothing to the polishing of mannes In so much that blood with his moistures and the flegme cause an impairing of the reasonable facultie But this is vnderstood of the faculties or reasonable wits which are discoursiue and actiue and not of the passiue as is the memorie which depends as well on the moist as the vnderstanding doth on the drie And we call memorie a reasonable power because without it the vnderstanding and the imaginatiue are of no valure It ministreth matter and figures to them all wherevpon they may syllogise conformably to that which Aristotle sayth It behooues that the vnderstander go beholding the fantasmes and the office of the memorie is to preserue these fantasmes to the end that the vnderstanding may contemplat them and if this be lost it is impossible that the powers can worke and that the office of memorie is none other than to preserue the figures of things without that it appertains therto to deuise them Galen expresseth in these words Memorie verely laies vp and preserueth in it selfe the things knowne by the sence and by the mind is therin as it were their store-house and receiuing place and not their inuenter And if this be the vse thereof it fals out apparant that the same dependeth on moisture for this makes the braine pliant and the figure is imprinted by way of strayning To prooue this we haue an euident argument in boyes age in which any one shall better conne by hart than in any other time of life and then doth the braine partake greatest moisture Whence Aristotle moueth this doubt Why in old age we haue better wit and in yoong age we learne more readily as if he should say What is the cause that when we are old we haue much vnderstanding and when we are yoong we learne with more towardlinesse Whereto he answereth That the memorie of old men is full of so many figures of things which they haue seene and heard in the long course of their life that when they would bestow more therein it is not capable thereof for it hath no void place where to receiue it But the memorie of yoong folke when they are newly borne is full of plaits and for this cause they receiue readily whatsoeuer is told or taught them And he makes this playner by comparing the memorie of the morning with that of the euening saying That in the morning we learne best because at that time our memorie is emptie and at the euening illy because then it is full of those thinges which we encountred during the day To this Probleme Aristotle wist not how to answer and the reason is very plaine for if the spices and figures which are in the memorie had a body and quantitie to occupie the place it would seeme that this were a fitting answer but being vndeuided and spiritual they cannot fill nor emptie any place where they abide yea we see by experience that by how much more the memorie is exercised euery day receiuing new figures so much the more capable it becommeth The answere of this Probleme is very euident after my doctrine and the same importeth that old men partake much vnderstanding because they haue great drinesse and fayle of memorie for that they haue little moisture and by this means the substance of the braine hardneth and so cannot receiue the impression of the figures as hard wax with difficultie admitteth the figure of the seale and the soft with easinesse The contrary befals in children who through the much moisture wherewith the braine is endowed faile in vnderstanding and through the great supplenesse of their braine abound in memorie wherein by reason of the moisture the shapes and figures that come from without make a great easie deepe and well formed impression That the memorie is better the morning than the euening cannot be denied but this springeth not from the occasion alleaged by Aristotle but the sleepe of the night passed hath made the braine moist and fortifyed the same and by the waking of the whole day it is dried and hardened For which cause Hippocrates affirmeth those who haue great thirst at night shall doe well to drinke for sleepe makes the flesh moist and fortifieth all the powers which gouern man And that sleepe so doth Aristotle himselfe confesseth By this doctrine is perfectly seene that the vnderstanding and memorie are powers opposit and contrary in sort that the man who hath a great memorie shall find a defect in his vnderstanding and he who hath a great vnderstanding cannot enjoy a good memorie for it is impossible that the braine should of his owne nature be at one selfe time drie and moist On this maxime Aristotle grounded himselfe to prooue that memorie is a power different from remembrance and he frames his argument in this manner Those who haue much remembrance are men of great vnderstanding and those who possesse a great memorie find want of vnderstanding so then memorie and remembrance are contrary powers The former proposition after my doctrine is false for those who haue much remembrance are of little vnderstanding and haue great imaginations as soone hereafter I will prooue but the second proposition is verie true albet Aristotle knew not the cause wheron was founded the enmitie which the vnderstanding hath with the memorie From heat which is the third qualitie groweth the imaginatiue for there is no other reasonable power in the braine nor any other qualitie to which it may be assigned besides that the sciences which appertaine to the imaginatiue are those which such vtter as dote in their sicknesse and
same it soone slippeth out of their mind whereon Aristotle propounded this question Whence it riseth that men in making speeches are better pleased with examples and fables than with conceits as if he should say For what occasion do such as come to heare oratours make more reckoning of the examples and fables which they alleage to prooue the things that they striue to persuade than of the arguments and reasons which they frame and to those he answereth That by examples fables men learne best because it is a proofe which appertaineth to the sense but arguments and reasons hold not the like reason for that they are a worke whereto is requisite much vnderstanding And for this cause Christ our redeemer in his sermons vsed so many parables and comparisons because by them he gaue to vnderstand many diuine secrets This point of deuising fables and comparisons it is a thing certaine that the same is performed by the imagination for it is figure and denoteth good correspondence and similitude The sixth propertie of a good oratour is to haue a readie tongue of his owne and not affected choice words and many gratious sorts of vtterance of which graces we haue entreated oftentimes heeretofore proouing that the one part of them appertaineth to the imagination and the other to a good memorie The seuenth propertie of a good oratour is that which Cicero speaketh of furnished with voice with action and with comlinesse the voice full and ringing pleasing to the hearers not harsh not hoarse nor sharp and although it be true that this springeth from the temperature of the breast and the throat and not from the imagination yet sure it is that from the same temperature from which a good imagination groweth namely heat a good voice also fetcheth his originall to know this importeth much for our purpose For the Schoole-diuines in that they are of a cold and drie complexion cannot haue their voice a good instrument and this is a great defect in a pulpit This same Aristotle also prooueth alleaging the example of old men by reason of their coldnesse and drynesse To haue a full and cleare voice much heat is requisit to enlarge the passages and measurable moisture which may supple and soften them And also Aristotle demaundeth why al who by nature are hote are also big voiced For which cause we see the contrary in women and Eunuches who through the much coldnes of their complexion sayth Galen haue their throat and voice very delicat in sort that when we heare a good voice we can straightwaies say it comes of much heat and moisture in the brest which two qualities if they passe so far as the braine make the vnderstanding to decay and the memorie and imagination to increase which are the two powers wherof the good preacher serueth himselfe to content his auditorie The eighth propertie of a good orator sayth Cicero is to haue toung at will ready and well exercised which grace cannot befall men of great vnderstanding for that it may be readie it behooueth the same to partake much heat and meane drouth And this cannot light in the melancholicke either naturall or by adustion Aristotle prooueth it by asking this question Whence commeth it that such as haue an impediment in their speech are reputed to be of complexion melancholicke To which probleme he answereth very vntowardly saying That the melancholicke haue a great imagination and that the toung cannot hast to vtter so fast as the imagination conceiueth wherethrough they stammer and stumble which yet proceedeth from nought else saue that the melancholike haue euer their mouth full of froath and spittle through which disposition their toung is moist and slipper which thing may euidently be discerned considering the often spitting of such This selfe reason did Aristotle render when he demaunded Whence it groweth that some are so slow tounged and he answereth That such haue their toung very cold and moist which two qualities breed an impediment therein and make it subiect to the palsie and so you see his conceit of the imagination cannot follow for this he yeeldeth a profitable remedie vz. to drinke a little wine or at first to hallow somwhat lowd before they speake in the presence of their audience for thereby the toung getteth heat and drieth But Aristotle sayth further that not to speake plaine may grow from hauing the toung very hot and very drie and voucheth the example of cholericke persons who growing in choler cannot speake and when they are void of passion and choler they are very eloquent the contrarie betideth to the flegmaticke who being quiet cannot talke and when they are angred vtter speeches of great eloquence The reason of this is very manifest for although it is true that heat aideth the imagination and the toung also yet the same may also breed them dammage first for that they want supplie of replies and wittie sentences as also because the toung cannot pronounce plainly through ouer-much drinesse wherethrough we see that after a man hath drunke a little water he speaketh better The cholericke being quiet deliuer very well for they then retaine that point of heat which is requisit for the toung and the good imagination but in anger the heat groweth beyond due and turneth the imagination topsie turuie The flegmaticke vnincensed haue their braine very cold and moist and therefore are set a ground what to say and their toung is ouer slipper through too much moisture but when they are set on fire and in choler the heat foorthwith getteth vp and so lifteth vp the imagination by which means there comes to their mind much what to deliuer and the toung giueth no hinderance for that it is heated these haue no great vaine in versifieng for that they are cold of braine who yet once angred do then make verses best and with most facilitie against such as haue stirred them and to this purpose Iuuenal sayd Anger makes verse if nature but denie Through the defect of toung men of great vnderstanding cannot be good orators or preachers and specially for that action requireth a speech sometimes high and sometimes low and those who are slow tounged cannot pronounce but with loud voice and in a maner crying out this is one of the things which soonest cloieth the hearers whereon Aristotle mooueth this doubt Whence it springeth that men of slow toung cannot speake soft To which probleme he answereth very well saying that fastened to the toung which is the roofe of the mouth by reason of much moisture is better loosened with a force than if you put therto but little might as if one would lift vp a launce taking the same by the point he shal sooner raise it at one push and with a force then taking it vp by little and little Me seemeth I haue sufficiently proued that the good naturall qualities which a perfect Orator ought to haue spring for the most part from a good imagination and some from the
knowen this point of Philosophy he should haue been able to answer this probleme which saith Whence may it proceed that that sort of men whō we call craftsmen of Bacchus or stage plaiers are for the most part ill conditioned as if he should say for what cause are such as gaine their liuing on the stage In keepers and Butchers and those whose seruice is vsed about feastes and banquets to order the cates ordinarily naught and vitious To which probleme he answereth saying that such by being occupied in these belly cheere offices leaue themselues no leisure to studie and therefore passe ouer their life in incontinencie And heereto is pouerty also aiding which accustomably bringeth with it manie euils but verily this is not the reason but playing on the stage and ordering of feasts springeth from the difference of the imagination which inuiteth a man to this maner of life And because this difference of imagination consisteth in heate all of them haue verie good stomackes and great appetite to eate and drinke These although they gaue themselues to learning should therby reape little fruit and had they been neuer so wealthie yet would they howsoeuer haue cast their affection to these seruices were they euen baser than they are for the wit and abilitie draweth euery one to that art which answereth it in proportion For this cause Aristotle demanded what the reason was why there are men who more willingly addict thēselues to the professiō of which they haue made choice though somwhiles vnworthy than to the more honorable As for example to berather a iugler a stage-plaier or a trumpeter than an Astrologer or an Orator To which probleme he answereth verie well saying that a man soon discerneth to what art he is disposed and inclined of his owne nature because he hath somewhat within that teacheth him and nature can doe so much with her pricks that albeit the art and office be vnseemly for the calling of the learner yet he cleaueth vnto that and not to others of greater estimation But sithence we haue put by this manner of wits from the function of preaching and that we are bound to giue and bestow vpon euerie difference of abilitie that sort of learning which is answerable thereto in particuler we must likewise determin what sort of wit he ought to be endowed withall vnto whose charge the function of preaching is to be committed which is the thing that most importeth the christian commonwealth For we must conceiue that albeit we haue prooued heertofore that it is a matter repugnant in nature to find a great wit accompanied with much imagination and memorie Notwithstanding this rule holdeth not so vniuersally in all arts but that it admitteth his exceptions and somtimes commeth short In the last chapter of this worke saue one we will proue at full that if nature be possessed of her due force and haue no impediment cast athwart to stop her she maketh so perfect a difference of wit as the same vniteth in one selfe subiect a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie as if they were not contrary nor held any naturall opposition This should be a fitting abilitie and conuenient for the function of preaching if there could be found many subiects to be endowed therewith but as we will shew in the place alleaged they are so few that of 100000. whom I haue measured I can meet but with one of the size Therefore it behooueth to seeke out another more familiar difference of wit though not so far stept in perfection as the former We must then weet that between the Phisitians and Philosophers riseth a great diuersity in opinions for resoluing the temperature and the qualitie of vineger of choler adust and of ashes inasmuch as these things sometimes worke the effect of heat and somtimes of cold and thereon they deuided themselues into diuers sects but the trueth is that all these things which suffer adstiuon and are consumed and burned by the fire haue a variable temperature The greater part of the subiect is cold and drie but there are also other parts entermingled so subtle and delicate and of such feruencie and heat that albeit they contain litle in quantitie yet they carie more efficacie in working than al the rest of the subiect So we see that vineger and melancholie through adustion open leauen the earth by meanes of the heat and close it not though the more part of these humours be cold Hence is gathered that the melancholicke by adustion accompanie great vnderstanding with much imagination but they are all weake of memorie for the much adustion much also drieth hardneth the braine These are good preachers or at least the best that may be found sauing those perfect ones of whom we spake for although memorie faile them they enioy of themselues such inuention that the verie imagination serueth them in stead of memorie and remembrance and ministreth vnto them figures and sentences to deliuer without that they stand in need of ought besides Which these cannot bring about who haue conned bosome sermons and swaruing from that bias are straight set a ground without hauing the furniture of any second meanes to bring themselues aflote again And that melancholie by adustion hath this varietie of temperature namely cold and dry for the vnderstanding and heate for the imagination Aristotle declareth in these wordes Melancholike men are variable and vnequall for the force of choler adust is variable and vnequall as if the same might be greatly both hot and cold as if he had said Melancholike men by adustion are variable and vnequall in their complexion for that choler adust is verie vnequall inasmuch as somtimes it is exceeding hot and somtimes cold beyond measure The signs by which men of this temperature may be knowne are very manifest they haue the colour of their countenaunce a darke greene or sallow their eies very fierie of whom it was sayd he is a man that hath blood in his eyes their haire blacke and bald their flesh leane rough and hairie their vains big they are of very good conuersation and affable but letcherous proud stately blasphemers wily double iniurious friends of ill dooing and desirous of reuenge this is to be vnderstood when melancholie is kindled but if it be cooled foorthwith there grow in them the contrary vertues chastitie humilitie feare and reuerence of God charitie mercie and great acknowledgmēt of their sinnes with sighings and tears for which cause they liue in continuall warre and strife without euer enioying ease or rest Somtimes vice preuaileth in them sometimes vertue but with all these defects they are wittiest and most able for the function of preaching for all matters of wisdome which befall in the world for they haue an vnderstanding to know the truth and a great imagination to be able to persuade the same Wherethrough we see that which God did when he would fashion a man in his mothers wombe to the end that he might
be able to discouer to the world the comming of his sonne and haue the way to prooue and persaude That Christ was the Messias and promised in the law For making him of great vnderstanding of much imagination it fell out of necessitie keeping the naturall order that he should also make him cholericke and adust And that this is true may easily be vnderstood by him who considereth the great fire furie with which he persecuted the church the greefe conceiued by the synagogues when they saw him conuerted as they who had forgone a man of high importance and of whom the contrarie partie had made a gainfull purchace It is also knowen by the tokens of the reasonable choler with which he spake and answered the deputy Consuls and the Iudges who had arrested him defending his owne person and the name of Christ with so great aâ—t and readinesse as he conuinced them all yet he had an imperfection in his tongue and was not very prompt of speech which Aristotle affirmeth to be a property of the melancholicke by adustion The vices wherto he confessed himselfe to be subiect before his conuersion shew him to haue been of this temperature he was a blasphemer a wrong doer and a persecutor all which springeth from abundance of heat But the most euident signe which shewed that he was cholericke adust is gathered from that battaile which himselfe confesseth he had within himselfe betwixt his part superiour inferiour saying I see another law in my members striuing against the law of my minde which leadeth me into the bondage of sinne And this selfe contention haue we prooued by the mind of Aristotle to be in the melancholicke by adustion True it is that some expound very well that this battaile groweth from the disorder which originall sinne made betweene the spirit and the flesh albeit being such and so great I beleue also that it springs from the choler adust which he had in his naturall constitution for the roiall prophet Dauid participated equally of original sin and yet complained not so much as did S. Paul but saith that he found the inferiour portion accorded with his reason when he would reioice with God My heart saith he and my flesh ioyed in the liuing God and as we will touch in the last chapter saue one Dauid possessed the best temperature that nature could frame and heereof we will make proofe by the opinion of all the Philosophers that the same ordinarily enclineth a man to be vertuous without any great gainstriuing of the flesh The wits then which are to be sorted out for preachers are first those who vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination and memorie whose signes shalbe expressed in the last chapter saue one Where such want there succeede in their roome the melancholicke by adustion Those vnite a great vnderstanding with much imagination but suffer defect of memorie wherthrough they are not stored with copie of words nor can preach with full store in presence of the people In the third rancke succeed men of great vnderstanding but defectiue in their imagination and memorie These shall haue but a bad grace in preaching yet will preach sound doctrine The last whom I would not charge with preaching at all are such as vnite much memorie with much imagination and haue defect of vnderstanding These draw the auditorie after them and hold them in suspense and well pleased but when they least misdoubt it they fetch a turne to the holy house for by way of their sweet discourses and blessings they beguile the innocent CHAP. XI That the Theoricke of the lawes appertaineth to the memorie and pleading and iudging which are their practise to the vnderstanding and the gouerning of a common-wealth to the imagination IN the Spanish toung it is not void of a mysterie that this word Lettered being a common tearme for all men of letters or learning as well Diuines as Lawyers Phisitions Logicians Philosophers Orators Mathematicians and Astrologers yet in saying that such a one is learned we all vnderstand it by common sence that he maketh profession of the lawes as if this were their proper and peculiar title and not of the residue The aunswer of this doubt though it be easie yet to yeeld the same such as is requisit it behooueth first to be acquainted what law is and wherevnto they are bound who set themselues to studie that profession that afterwards they may imploie the same to vse when they are iudges or pleaders The law who so well considereth thereof is nought else but a reasonable will of the law maker by which he declareth in what sort he will that the cases which happen dayly in the common wealth be decided for preseruing the subiects in peace and directing them in what sort they are to liue what things they are to refraine I sayd a reasonable will because it sufficeth not that the king or emperour who are the efficient cause of the lawes declaring his will in what sort soeuer doth thereby make it a law for if the same be not iust and grounded vpon reason it cannot be called a law neither is it euen as he cannot be tearmed a man who wanteth a reasonable soule Therefore it is a matter established by common accord that kings enact their lawes with assent of men very wise and of sound iudgement to the end they may be right iust and good and that the subiects may receiue them with good will and be the more bound to obserue and obey them The materiall cause of the law is that it consist of such cases as accustomably befall in the common wealth according to the order of nature and not of things impossible or such as betide very sildome The finall cause is to order the life of man and to direct him what he is to do and what to forbeare to the end that being conformed to reason the common wealth may be preserued in peace For this cause we see that the lawes are written in plaine words not doubtfull nor obscure nor of double vnderstanding without ciphers and without abbreuiations and so easie and manifest that whosoeuer shall read them may readily vnderstand and retaine them in memorie And because no man should pretend ignorance they are publikely proclaymed that whosoeuer afterward breaketh them may be chastised In respect therefore of the care and diligence which the good law makers vse that their lawes may be iust and plaine they haue giuen in charge to the iudges and pleaders that in actions or iudgements none of them follow his owne sence but suffer himselfe to be guided by the authoritie of the lawes as if they should say We commaund that no iudge or aduocat imploy his conceit nor intermeddle in deciding whether the law be iust or vniust nor yeeld it any other sence than that that is contained in the text of the letter So it followeth that the lawyers are to construe the text of the law and to take that
vnderstood when the stomacke is good and sound but if it fall into a certain infirmitie which the Phisitions call Pica or Malacia then arise longings after things which mans nature abhorreth so as they eate earth coles and lime with greater appetite than hennes or trouts If we passe on to the facultie generatiue we shall find as many appetites varieties for some men loue a foule womā and abhorre a faire others cast better liking to a foole than her that is wise a fat wench is fulsome and a leane hath their liking silks braue attire offend some mens fancies who leese themselues after one that totters in her ragges This is vnderstood when the genitall partes are in their soundnesse but if they fall into their infirmitie of stomacke which is termed Malacia they couet detestable beastlinesse The same befalleth in the facultie sensitiue for of the palpable qualities hard and soft rough and smooth hot and cold moist and drie there is none of them which can content euery ones feeling for there are men who take better rest on a hard bed than a soft other som better on a soft than a hard All this varietie of strange tasts appetites is found in the compositions framed by the vnderstanding for if we assemble 100 men of learning and propound a particular question each of them deliuereth a seuerall iudgement and discourseth thereof in different maner One selfe argument to one seemeth a sophisticall reason to another probable and some you shall meet with to whose capacitie it concludeth as if it were a demonstration And this is not onely true in diuerse vnderstandings but we see also by experience that one selfe reason concludeth to one selfe vnderstanding at one time thus-wise and at another time otherwise so much that euerie day men varie in opinion some by processe of time purging their vnderstanding know the default of reason which first swaied them and others leesing the good temperature of their braine abhorre the trueth and giue allowance to a leasing But if the braine fall into the infirmitie which is termed Malacia then we shal see strange iudgements and compositions arguments false and weake to prooue more forcibly than such as carrie strength and trueth to good arguments an answere shaped and to bad a condescēding from the premisses whence a right conclusion may be collected they gather a wrong and by strange arguments and fond reasons they prooue their bad imaginations This graue and learned men duely aduising labour to deliuer their opinion concealing the reasons whereon they ground for men persuade themselues that so farre mans authoritie auaileth as the reason is of force on which he buildeth and the arguments resting so indifferent for cōcluding through the diuersitie of vnderstandings euerie man giueth a iudgement of the reason conformably to the wit which he possesseth for which cause it is reputed greater grauitie to say This is mine opinion for certaine reasons which moue me so to thinke than to display the arguments whereon he relieth But if they be enforced to render a reason of their opinion they ouerslip not anie argument how slight so euer for that which they least valued with some concludeth and worketh more effect than the most vrgent Wherein the great miserie of our vnderstanding is discouered which compoundeth and diuideth argueth and reasoneth and at last when it is growen to a conclusion is void of proofe or light which may make it discern whether his opinion be true or no. This selfe vncertaintie haue the diuines in matters which appertaine not to the faith for after they haue argued at full they cannot then assure themselues of anie infallible proofe or euident successe that may discouer which reasons carried greatest waight and soeuerie diuine casteth how he may best ground himself and answer with most apparence to the aduerse parties arguments his owne reputation saued and this is all wherabouts he must bestow his endeuour But the charge of a Phisition and a Generall in the field after he hath well discoursed and refuted the grounds of the contrary partie is to marke the successe which if it be good he shal be held for discreet if had allmen will know that he relied vpon guilefull reasons In matters of faith propounded by the Church there can be fall none error for God best weeling how vncertaine mens reasons are and with how great facilltie they runne headlong to be deceiued consenteth not that matters so high and of so waightie importance should rest vpon our onely determination but when two or three are gathered togither 〈◊〉 his name with the solemnitie of the Church he forthwith 〈◊〉 into the midst of them as president of the action and to giueth allowance to that which they say well and reaueth their errours and of himselfe reuealeth that to whose notice by humane forces we cannot attaine The proofe then which the reasons formed in matters of faith must receiue is to aduise well whether they prooue or inferre the same which the Catholicke church saith and declareth for if they collect ought to the contrarie ther without doubt they are faultie but in other questions i where the vnderstanding hath libertie of 〈◊〉 there hath not yet any maner bin deuised to know what reasons conclude nor when the vnderstanding doth well compound a trueth onely we relie vpon the good consonance which they make and that is in argument which may 〈…〉 better apparence and likelier proofe of truth than the 〈◊〉 themselves Phisitions and such as command in martiall affairs haue successe and experience for proofe of their reasons For if 〈◊〉 captains proue by many reasons that it is best to ioine battaile and so many in the other side defend the contrarie that which succcedeth will confirme the one opinion and conuince the other And if two Phisitions dispute whether the patient shall die or liue after he is cured or deceassed it will appeare whose reason was best But for all this the successe is yet no sufficient proofe for whereas an effect hath many causes it may very well betide happily for one cause and yet the reasons perhaps were grounded on a contrary Aristotle moreouer affirmeth that to know what reasons conclude it is good to ensue the common opinion for if many wisemen say and affirme one selfe thing and all conclude with the same reasons it is a signe though topicall that they are conclusiue and that they compound well the truth But who so taketh this into due consideration shall find it a proofe subiect also vnto beguiling for in the forces of the vnderstanding waight is of more preheminence than number for it fareth not in this as in bodily forces that when many loine together to lift vp a waight they preuaile much and when few but little but to attaine to the notice of a truth deepely hidden one high vnderstanding is of more value than 100000 which are not comparable thereunto and the reason is because the vnderstandings helpe
and if there come not in his head arguments and answers in the matter which is treated of he is void of discourse but if the prooue towardly in his seiâ—neâ— it is an infallible argument that he is endued with a good vnderstanding for the lawes and so he may forth with addict himself to studie them without longer tarying Albeit would hold it better done first to run through the arts because Logicke in respect of the vnderstanding is nought els than those shockles which we 〈◊〉 on the legs of an vntrained Mule which going with them in any daies taketh a steddie seemlie place Such a march doth the vnderstanding make in his disputations when it first bindeth the same with the rules and precepts or Logicke but if this child whom we go thus wise 〈◊〉 reape no profit in the Latine tongue neither can come away with Logicke as were requisite it behooueth to trie whether he possesse a good imagination ere we take him from the laws for herein is lapped vp a verie great secret and it is good that the common-wealth be done to ware thereof and it is that there are some lawyers who getting vp into the chaire work miracles in interpreting the texts others in pleading but if you put the staffe of iustice into their hands they haue no more abilitie to gouerne than as if the lawes had neuer been enacted to any such end And contrariwise some other there are who with three misvnderstood lawes which they haue learned at all aduentures being placed in anie gouernment there cannot more be desired at any mans handes than they will performe At which effect some curious wits take wonder because they sinck not into the depth of the cause from whence it may grow And the reason is that gouernment appertaineth to the imagination and not to the vnderstanding nor the memorie And that this is so the matter may verie manifestly be prooued considering that the common-wealth is to be compounded with order concert with euery thing in his due place which all put togither maketh good figure correspondence And this sundrie times heeretofore we haue prooued to be a worke of the imagination and it shall prooue nought els to place a great lawyer to be a gouernour than to make a deafe man a Iudge in musicke but this is ordinarily to be vnderstood not as an vniuerfall rule for we haue alreadie prooued it is possible that nature can vnite great vnderstanding with much imagination so shall there follow no repugnancie to be a good pleader and a famous gouernour and we heeretofore discouered that nature being endowed with all the forces which she may possesse and with matter well seasoned will make a man of great memorie and of great vnderstanding and of much imagination who studying the lawes will prooue a famous reader a great pleader and no lesse gouernor but nature makes so few such as this cannot passe for a generall rule CHAP. XII How it may be prooued that of Theoricall Phisicke part appertaineth to the memorie and part to the vnderstanding and the practicke to the imagination WHat time the Arabian Phisicke florished there was a Phisition very famous aswell in reading as in writing arguing distinguishing answering and concluding who men would thinke in respect of his profound knowledge were able to reuiue the dead and to heale any disease whatsoeuer and yet the contrarie came to passe for he neuer tooke anie patient in cure who miscarried not vnder his handes Wherat greatly shaming and quite out of countenance he went and made himselfe a frier complaining on his euill fortune and notable to conceiue the cause how he came so to misse And because the freshest examples affoord surest proof and do most sway the vnderstanding it was held by many graue Phisitions that Iohn Argentier a phisition of our time farre surpassed Galen in reducing the art of phisicke to a better method and yet for all this it is reported of him that he was so infortunate in practise as no patient of his countrey durst take phisicke at his hands fearing some dismall successe Hereat it seemeth the vulgar haue good reason to maruell seeing by experience not onely in those rehearsed by vs but also in many others with whom men haue dayly to deale that if the Phisition be a great clearke for the same reason he is vnfit to minister Of this effect Aristotle procured to render a reason but could not find it out He thought that the cause why the reasonable Phisitions of his time failed in curing grew for that such men had only a generall notice and knew not euerie particular complexion contrarie to the Empiricks whose principal study bent it self to know the properties of eueriy seuerall person and let passe the generall but he was void of reason for both the one and the other exercised themselues about particular cures endeuoured so much as in them lay to know ech ones nature singly by it selfe The difficultie then consisteth in nothing els than to know for what cause so well learned phisitions though they exercise themselues all their life long in curing yet neuer grow skilfull in practise and yet other simple soules with three or foure rules learned verie soone and the schollers can more skill of ministring than they The true answere of this doubt holdeth no little difficultie seeing that Aristotle could not finde it out nor render at least in some sort any part therof But grounding on the principles of our doctrine we will deliuer the same for we must know that the perfection of a phisition consisteth in two things no lesse necessarie to attaine the end of his art than two legges are to go without halting The first is to weet by way of method the precepts and rules of curing men in generall without descending to particulars The second to be long time exercised in practise and to haue visited many patients for men are not so different ech from other but that in diuers things they agree neither so conioyned but that there rest in them particularities of such condition as they can neither be deliuered by speech nor written nor taught nor so collected as that they may be reduced into art but to know them is onely granted to him who hath often seen and had them in handling Which may easily be conceiued considering that mans face being composed of so small a number of parts as are two eies a nose two cheeks a mouth a forehead nature shapeth yet therein so manie compositions and combinations as if you assemble togither 100000 men ech one hath a countenance so different from other and proper to himselfe that it falleth out a miracle to find two who do altogither resemble The like betideth in the foure elements in the 4 first qualities hot cold moist and drie by the harmonie of which the life and health of man is compounded and of so slender a number of parts nature maketh so many proportions
liberty wherin nature placed him And contrariwise we see others whose wit fashions were ordained to be slaues and yet for that they were borne in noble houses they come by force of the laws to be great Lords But one thing hath been noted many ages ago which is worthy of consideration that those who are born in villages and thatched houses prooue more sufficient men and of greater towardnesse for the Sciences arms than such as haue great Cities for their birth-place Yet is the vulgar so subiect to ignorance as they gather a consequence to the contrary from birth in meane places hereof the sacred scripture affoordeth as an example where it is read that the people of Israel much wondering at the great works of our sauiour Christ said is it possible that out of Nazareth can come ought that is good But to return to the wit of this captain of whō we haue discoursed he ought to be endowed with much vnderstanding and with the difference of imagination which is requisit for the art of war Wher through in this treatise we deliuer much doctrine whence we may gather wherin the valour of men consisteth that they may reap estimation in the common-wealth Six things me seemeth a man ought to haue to the end he may be termed honourable and which of them soeuer want his being is thereby impaired but yet all of them are not placed in one selfe degree nor partake a like valew or the selfe qualities The first and principall is the valour of a mans owne person as touching his wisdome iustice mind and courage This maketh riches and birth-right from hence grow honourable titles from this beginning all the nobilitie in the world fetcheth his originall And if any be setled in a contrary opinion let him go to the great houses in Spain and he shall find that they all deriue their originall from particular men who by the valour of their persons attained to that which now by their successions is possessed The second thing which honoureth a man next to the valour of his person is substance without which we find not that any man carrieth estimation in the common-wealth The third is the nobilitie and antiquitie of his ancestors to be well born and of honourable bloud is a thing verie precious but yet retaineth in it selfe a great defect for by it selfe alone it yeeldeth a slender auaile aswell in regard of the gentleman himselfe as of others who stand in need therof for a man can neither eat nor drinke the same nor apparrell himselfe therewithall nor giue nor bestow the same but it maketh a man to liue as dying by depriuing him of the remedies which he might otherwise procure to supplie his necessities but let him vnite the same with riches and by no degree of honour it can be counteruailed Some are wont to resemble nobilitie to a cipher in numbring which of it selfe beareth no value but vnited with another number multiplieth the same The fourth point which maketh a man to be of accompt is to haue some dignitie or honourable office and contrariwise nothing so much abaseth a man as to get his liuing by some handy-craft The fifth thing which honoureth a man is to be called by a good surname and a gratious christian name which may deliuer a pleasing consonance to the eare not to be termed pasty or pestell as some that I know We read in the generall historie of Spaine that there came two Embassadours out of France vnto king Alfonse the ninth to demand one of his daughters in marriage for their soueraigne king Philip one of which ladies was verie faire and named Vrraca the other nothing so gratious and called Blanche They both comming in presence of the Embassadours all men held it as a matter resolued that the choice would light vpon Vrraca as the elder and fairer and better adorned but the Embassadours enquiring ech of their names tooke offence at the name of Vrraca and made choice of the lady Blanche saying that her name would be better receiued in France than the other The sixth thing which honoureth a man is the seemly ornament of his person his going well apparelled and attended with manie waiters The good discent of the Spanish nobilitie is of such as through the valour of their person and through their honourable enterprises atchieued grew in the wars to the pay of 500 Soldi The originall wherof our late writers cannot verifie for if they find not their matter laid down in writing and expressed to their hands by others they are vnable to supplie the same with anie inuention of their own The difference which Aristotle placeth betwixt memory and remembrance is that if the memorie haue lost anie of those things which at first it knew it cānot call the same to mind without new learning thereof but remembrance enioieth this special grace that if it forget ought by stopping a while to discourse thereupon it turneth to find out that which was before lost Which may be the Court that speaketh in fauour of good souldiours we find at this day recorded neither in books nor in the memorie of men but there are left as reliques these words hijo dalgo in those that receiue 500 Soldi of pay after the Court of Spain and their known wages By making discourse and arguing wheron it wil fall out an easie matter to find out their associats Antony of Lebrissa giuing the signification of this verbe vendico cas saith the same signifieth to draw vnto it that which is due for pay or by reason as we say now a daies by a new phrase of speech to take pay from the king And it is a thing so vsed in Castilia the old to say such a one hath well impaied his trauaile when he is well paied that amongst the ciuiller sort there is no maner of speech more ordinarie From this signification the word vindicare fetched his originall namely when anie one would stirre at the wrong offered him by another for iniury metaphorically is termed debt After this sort when we now say such a one is hiio dalgo de vengar quincentos sueldos that is a gentleman of the pay of 500 Soldi we meane that he is descended from a souldier so valiant as for his prowesse he deserued to receiue so large a pay as is that of 500 Soldi VVho by the court of Spain was with all his posteritie enfranchised from paying any tallages or seruices to the king This known pay is nought els saue the entrance which such a souldiour made into the number of those whose stipend was 500 Soldi for then were registred in the kings booke the name of the souldiour the countrey where he was born and who were his parents and progenitors for the more certaintie to him who receiued this benefit and stipend Euen as at this day we read in the book of Bezerro which is kept at Salamanca where are foūd written the beginning of welneere all the
touched by Galens mind hindereth all the powers and faculties of the soule and suffereth not them to worke Hence beginneth the answer of this second doubt and it is that those who play at Chesse conceiue feare to loose because the game standeth vpon termes of reputation and disgrace and for that Fortune hath no stroke therein so the vitall spirits assembling to the heart the imagination is foreslowed by the cold and the fantasms in the darke for which two reasons he who plaieth cannot bring his purpose to effect But the lookers on in as much as this no way importeth them neither stand in feare of loosing through want of skill do behold more draughts for that their imagination retaineth his heat and his figures are enlightened by the light of the vitall spirits True it is that much light reaueth also the light of the imagination and it befalleth what time the player waxeth ashamed and out of countenaunce to see his aduersarie beat him then through this aggreeuednes the naturall heat encreaseth and enlighteneth more than is requisit of all which he that standeth by is deuoid From hence issueth an effect very vsual in the world that what time a man endeuoreth to make the best muster of himselfe and his learning and sufficiencie most knowne it prooueth worst with him with others againe the contrarie betideth who being brought to their triall make a great show and passed out of the lists appeare of little woorth and of all this the reason is very manifest for he whose head is filled with much naturall heat if you appoint him to do an exercise of learning or disputation within foure and twentie hours after a part of that excessiue heat which he hath flieth to the heart and so the brain remaineth temperat and in this disposition as we wil prooue in the chapter ensuing many points woorth the vtterance present themselues to a mans remembrance But he who is very wise and endowed with a great vnderstanding being brought to triall by means of feare cannot retaine the naturall heat in his head whereon through default of light he findeth not in his memorie what to deliuer If this fell into their consideration who take vpon them to controll the Generals of armies blaming their actions and the order which they set down in the field they should discerne how great a difference resteth betweene the giuing a looking on the fight out at a window or the breaking of a launce therein and the feare to leese an armie whose charge their soueraigne hath committed to their hands No lesse dammage doth feare procure the Physition in curing for his practise as we haue prooued heretofore appertaineth to the imagination which resteth more annoied by cold than any other power for that his operation consisteth in heat Whence we see by experience that Physitions can sooner cure the vulgar sort than Princes and great personages A counsellor at law one day asked me knowing that I handled this matter what the cause might be that in the affairs where he was well payd many cases and points of learning came to his memorie but with such as yeelded not to his trauell what was due it seemed that all his knowledge was shrunke out of his braine whome I answered that matters of interest appertained to the wrathfull facultie which maketh his residence in the heart and if the same receiue not contentment it doth not willingly send forth the vitall spirits by whose light the figures which rest in the memorie may be discerned But when that findeth satisfaction it cheerfully affoordeth naturall heat VVherthrough the reasonable soule obtaineth sufficient cleernesse to see whatsoeuer is written in the head This defect do men of great vnderstanding partake who are pinching and relie much on their interest and in such is the propertie of that counsellor best discerned But who so falleth into due consideration hereof shall obserue it to be an action of Iustice that he who laboureth in another mans vineyard be well paied his wages The like reason is currant for the phisitions to whom when they are wel hired many remedies present them selues otherwise the art aswell in them as the lawyer slippeth out of their fingers But here a matter verie important is to be noted namely that the good imaginanation of the phisition discouereth on a sodain what is necessarie to be done And if he take leisure and farther consideration a thousand inconueniences come into his fancie which hold him in suspense and this-while the occasion of the remedie passeth away Therefore it is neuer good to aduise the phisition to consider well what he hath in hand but that he forthwith execute what first he purposed For we haue prooued heretofore that much speculation maketh the naturall heat to auoid out of the head and again the same may encrease so far forth as to turmoile the imagination But the phisition in whom it is slacke shall not doe amisse to vse long contemplation for the heat aduancing it selfe vp to the braine shall come to attaine that point which to this power is behooffull The third doubt in the matters alreadie rehearsed hath his answer verie manifest for the difference of the imagination with which we play at chesse requireth a certaine point of heat to see the draughts and he that plaieth well fasting hath then the degree of heat requisit thereunto But through the heat of the meat the same exceedeth that point which was necessarie and so he plaieth worse The contrarie befalleth to such as play well after meales for the heat rising vp togither with the meat and the wine arriueth to the point which wanted whiles he was fasting It is therefore needfull to amend a place in Plato who saith that nature hath with great wisdome disioyned the liuer from the braine to the end the meat with his vapours should not trouble the contemplation of the reasonable soule But here if he mean those operations which appertain to the vnderstanding he speaketh very well but it can take no place in anie of the differences of the imagination Which is seen by experience in feasts and banquets for when the guests are come to mid meale they begin to tell pleasant tales merriments and similitudes where at the beginning none had a word to say but at the end of the feast their tongue faileth them for the heat is passed beyond the bound requisit for the imagination Such as need to eat and drinke a little to the end the imagination may lift vp it selfe are melancholicke by adustion for such haue their brain like hot lime which taken vp into yourhand is cold and drie in feeling but if you bath the same in any liquor you cannot endure the heat which groweth therof We must also correct that law of the Carthagineans which Plato alleageth whereby they forbad their Captains to drinke wine when they went to their wars and likewise their gouernours during the yeare of their office And albeit Plato held the same
none of them arriueth to the perfection of Plato and Aristotle if Phisitions to Hippocrates and Galen if orators to Demostbenes if Poets to Homer and so in the residue of the sciences parts the Greeks haue euer held the formost ranke beyond al contradiction At least the probleme of Aristotle is verie well verified in the Greeks for verily they are the men of most sufficiencie and loftiest capacity in the world were it not that they liue in disgrace oppressed by force of armes in bondage and all hardly intreated by the comming of the Turks who bannished all learning and caused the Vniuersitie of Athens to passe vnto Paris in France where at this day the same coÌ„tinueth And thus through want of manurance so many gallant wits as we haue before reported are vtterly perished In the other regions out of Greece though schools and exercise of learning are planted yet no man hath proued in them of any rare excellency The Phisition holdeth he hath waded very far if with his wit he can attain to that which Hippocrates and Galen deliuered and the naturall Philosopher reckoneth him selfe so full of knowledge as he can be capable of no more if he once grow to the vnderstanding of Aristotle But this notwithstanding it goeth not for an vniuersall rule that all such as haue Greece for their birth-place must of force be temperate and wise and all the residue distemperat and ignorant for the same Galen recounteth of Anacharsis who was born in Scythia that he carried the reputation of a rare wit amongst the Grecians though himselfe a Barbarian A Philosopher borne in Athens falling in contention with him said vnto him get thee hence thou Barbarian Then Anacharsis answered My countrey is to me a shame and so art thou to thine for Scythia being a region so distemperat and where so many ignorant persons liue my self am grown to knowledge and thou being borne in Athens a place of wit and wisdome wert neuer other than an Asse In sort that we need not vtterly despaire in regard of the temperature neither thinke it a case of impossibilitie to meet herewithall out of Greece and especially in Spain a region not verie distemperat for as I haue found one of these differences in Spaine so it may well be that there are many others not yet come to knowledge and which I haue not been able to find out It shall doe well therefore to intreat of the tokens by which a temperat man may be discerned to the end where such a one is he may not be hidden Many signes haue the Phisitions laid down to discouer this difference of wit but the most principall and which affoord best notice are these following The first saith Galen is to haue his haire abourne a colour between white and red and that passing from age to age they euer become more golden And the reason is verie cleere for the materiall cause whereof they haire consisteth the Phisitions say is a grosse vapour which ariseth from the digestion that the brain maketh at the time of his nourishment and looke what colour is of the member such also is that of his excrements If the braine in his composition partake much of fleagme the haire in growth is white if much choler saffron coloured but if these two humours rest equally mingled the braine becommeth temperat hot cold moist and dry and the haire abourne partaking both the extremes True it is Hippocrates saith that this colour in men who liue vnder the North as are the English Flemmish and Almains springeth for that their whitnesse is parched vp with much cold and not for the reason by vs alleaged Wherfore in this token it behooueth to be wel aduised otherwise we may soon slip into error The second token which a man who shalbe endowed with this difference of wit must haue is saith Galen to be well shaped of good countenance of seemly grace and cheerfull in sort that the sight may take delight to behold him as a figure of rare perfection And the reason is very plain for if nature haue much force and a seed well seasoned she alwaies formeth of things possible the best and most perfect in his kind but being purueied of forces mostly she placeth her studie in fashioning the braine for that amongst all other parts of the bodie the same is the principal seat of the reasonable soul whence we see many men to be great and foule and yet of an excellent wit The quantitie of body which a temperat man ought to haue saith Galen is not resolutely determined by nature for he may be long short and of mean stature conformable to the quantitie of the temperat seed which it had when it was shaped But as touching that which appertaineth to the wit in temperat persons a mean stature is better than either a great or little And if we must lean to either of the extreames it is better to encline to the little than to the great for the bones and superfluous flesh as we haue prooued heeretofore by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle bring great dammage to the wit Agreeable hereunto the natural Philosophers are wont to demand whence it proceedeth that men of small stature are ordinarily more wise than those of long stature And for proofe hereof they cite Homer who saith that Vlisses was very wise and little of bodie and contrariwise Aiax very foolish and in stature tall To this question they make verie simple answer saying that the reasonable soule gathered into a narrow roome hath therby more force to worke conformably to that old saw Vertue is of more force vnited than dispersed and contrariwise making abode in a body long and large it wanteth sufficient vertue to moue and animat the same But this is not the reason thereof for we should rather say that long men haue much moisture in their composition which extendeth out their flesh and ableth the same to that increase which the naturall heat doth euer procure The contrarie betideth in little bodies for through their much drinesse the flesh cannot take his course nor the naturall heat enlarge or stretch it out and therefore they remaine of short stature And we haue eaâ—st proued that amongst the first qualities none bringeth so great dammage to the operations of the reasonable soule as much moisture and that none so farre quickneth the vnderstanding as drinesse The third signe saith Galen by which a temperat man may be known is that he be vertuous and of good conditions for if he be lewd and vitious Plato affirmeth it groweth for that in man there is some distemperat qualitie which vrgeth him to offend and if such a one will practise that which is agreeable to vertue is behooueth that first he renounce his owne naturall inclination But whosoeuer is absolutely temperat standeth not in need of any such diligence for the inferiour powers require nothing at his hands that is contrarie to reason Therefore Galen saith that to a man
who is possessed of this temperature we need prescribe no diet what he shall eat and drinke for he neuer exceedeth the quantitie and measure which phisicke would assigne him And Galen contenteth not himselfe to terme them most temperat but moreouer auoucheth that it is not necessary to moderat their other passions of the soule for his anger his sadnesse his pleasure and his mirth are alwaies measured by reason Whence it followeth that they are euermore healthful and neuer diseased and this is the fourth figure But herein Galen swarueth from reason for it is impossible to frame a man that shalbe perfect in all his powers as the body is temperat and that his wrathfull and concupiscentiall power get not the soueraigntie ouer reason and incite him to sin For it is not fitting to suffer any man how temperat soeuer to follow alwaies his owne naturall inclination without gainsetting and correcting him by reason This is easily vnderstood considering the temperature which the braine ought to haue to the end the same may be made a conuenient instrument for the reasonable facultie and that which the heart should hold to the end the wrathfull power may couet glorie empire victorie and soueraigntie ouer all and that which the liuer ought to haue for disgesting the meats and that which ought to rest in the colds to be able to preserue mankind and to increase the same Of the brain we haue said sundry times tofore that it should retaine moisture for memory drinesse for discourse and heat for the imagination But for all this his naturall temperature is cold and moist and by reason of the more or lesse of these two qualities somtimes we terme it hot and somtimes cold now moist then drie but the cold and moist grow to predominat The liuer wherein the facultie of concupiscence resideth hath for his naturall temperature heat and moisture to predominate and from this it neuer altereth so long as a man liueth And if somtimes we say it is cold it groweth for that the same hath not all the degrees of heat requisit to his owne operations As touching the heart which is the instrument of the wrathfull facultie Galen affirmeth it of his owne nature to be so hot as if while a creature liueth we put our finger into his hollownesse it will grow impossible to hold the same there one moment without burning And albeit somtime we terme it cold yet we may not conceiue that the same doth predominate for this is a case impossible but that the same consisteth not in such degree of heat as to his operations is behooffull In the cods where the other part of the concupiscible maketh abode the like reason taketh place for the predomination of his naturall temperature is hot and drie And if somtimes we say that a mans cods are cold we must not absolutly so vnderstand the same neither to predomination but that the degree of heat requisit for the generatiue vertue is wanting Hereon we plainly inferre that if a man be well compounded and instrumentalized it behooueth of force that he haue excessiue heat in his heart for otherwise the wrathfull facultie would grow verie remisse and if the liuer be not exceeding hot it cannot disgest the meat nor make bloud for nourishment and if the cods haue not more heat than cold a man will prooue impotent and without power of begetting Wherefore these two members being of such force as we haue said it followeth of necessitie that the braine take alteration through much heat which is one of the qualities that most paineth reason and which is worst the will being free inciteth and inclineth it selfe to condiscend to the appetites of the lower portion By this reckoning it appeareth that nature cannot fashion such a man as may be perfect in al his powers nor produce him inclined to vertue How repugnant it is vnto the nature of man that he become inclined to vertue is easily prooued considering the composition of the first man which though the most perfect that euer mankind enioyed sauing that of Christ our redeemer and shaped by the hands of so great an artificer yet if God had not infused into him a supernaturall qualitie which might keepe down his inferiour part it was impossible abiding in the principles of his owne nature that he should not be enclined to euill And that God made Adam of a perfect power to wrath and concupiscence is well to be vnderstood in that he said and commanded him Encrease and multiply and to replenish the earth It is certaine that he gaue them an able power for procreation made them not of a cold complexion inasmuch as he commanded him that he should people the earth with men which worke cannot be accomplished without abundance of heat And no lesse heat did he bestow vpon the facultie nutritiue with which he was to restore his consumed substance and renew another in lieu thereof Seeing that he said to the man and the woman Behold I haue giuen you euerie hearb that bringeth forth seed vpon the earth whatsoeuer trees haue seed of their kind to the end they may serue you for food for if God had giuen them a stomacke and liuer cold and of little heat for certain they could not haue digested their meat nor preserue themselues 900 yeares aliue in the world He fortified also the heart and gaue the same a wrathfull facultie which might yeeld him apt to be a king and lord and to command the whole world and said vnto them Do you subdue the earth and command ouer the fishes of the sea and the foules of the aire and all the beasts that mooue on the face of the earth But if he had not giuen them much heat they had not partaken so much viuacitie nor authoritie of soueraigntie of commandement of glory of maiestie and of honour How much it endamageth a prince to haue his wrathfull power remisse cannot sufficiently be expressed for through this only cause it befalleth that he is not feared nor obeied nor reuerenced by his subiects After hauing fortified the wrathfull and concupiscible powers giuing vnto the forementioned members so much heat he passed to the facultie reasonable and shaped for the same a braine cold and moist in such degree and of a substance so delicat that the soule might with the same discourse and philosophize and vse his infused knowledge For we haue alreadie auouched and heretofore prooued that God to bestow a supernaturall knowledge vpon men First ordereth their wit and maketh them capable by way of the naturall dispositions deliuered by his hand that they may receiue the same for which cause the text of the holy scripture affirmeth that he gaue them a heart to conceiue and replenished them with the discipline of vnderstanding The wrathful and concupiscentiall powers being then so mighty through great heat and the reasonable so weake and remisse to resist God made prouision of a supernaturall qualitie and this is tearmed by
saith the Psalme goodnes discipline and knowledge And this the royall Prophet Dauid spake seeing that it auaileth not for a king to be good and vertuous vnlesse he ioyne wisedom and knowldge there withall By this example of king Dauid it seemeth we haue sufficiently approoued our opinion But there was also another king borne in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is borne king of the Iewes And if we can prooue that he was abourne haired towardly of meane bignesse vertuous healthfull and of great wisedom and knowledge it will be no way damageable to this our doctrin The Euangelists busied not themselues to report the disposition of Christ our redeemer for it serued not to the purpose of that which they handled but is a matter which may easily be vnderstood supposing that for a man to be temperat as is requisit compriseth all the perfection wherewith naturally he can be edowed And seeing that the holy spirit-compounded and instrumentalized him it is certaine that as touching the materiall cause of which he formed him the distemperature of Nazareth could not resist him nor make him erre in his worke as do the other naturall agents but he performed what him best pleased for he wanted neither force knowledge nor will to frame a man most perfect and without any defect And that so much the rather for that his comming as himselfe affirmed was to endure trauels for mans sake and to teach him the trueth And this temperature as we haue before prooued is the best naturall instrument that can be found for these two things Wherethrough I hold that relatiō for true which Publius Lcntulus Viceconsul wrote from Hierusalem vnto the Roman Senat after this maner There hath been seen in our time a man who yet liueth of great vertue called Iesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the prophet of truth and his disciples say that he is the sonne of God He raiseth the deceased and healeth the diseased is a man of meane and proportionable stature and of very faire countenance his looke carrieth such a maiesty as those who behold him are enforced both to loue and feare him He hath his haire coloured like a nut full ripe reaching down to his eares and from his eares to his shoulders they are of waxe colour but more bright he hath in the middle of his forehead a locke after the maner of Nazareth His forehead is plain but very pleasing his face void of spot or wrinckle accompanied with a moderat colour his nosthrils and mouth cannot by any with reason be reprooued his beard thicke and resembling his haire not long but forked his countenance verie gratious and graue his eies gracefull and cleere and when he rebuketh he daunteth and when he admonisheth he pleaseth he maketh himselfe to be beloued and is cheerfull with grauitie he hath neuer been seen to laugh but to weep diuers times his hands and arms are verie faire in his conuersation he contenteth verie greatly but is seldom in company but being in company is very modest in his countenance and port he is the seemliest man that may be imagined In this relation are contained three or foure tokens of a temperat person The first that he had his haire and beard of the colour of a nut fully ripe which to him that considereth it well appeareth to be a browne abourne which colour God commanded they heifer should haue which was to be sacrificed as a figure of Christ and when he entred into heauen with that triumph and maiestie which was requisit for such a Prince some Angels who had not been enformed of his incarnation said Who is this that commeth from Edon with his garments died in Bozra as if they had said Who is he that commeth from the red Land with his garment stained in the same die in respect of his haire his red beard and of the bloud with which he was tainted The same letter also reporteth him to be the fairest man that euer was seen and this is the second token of a temperat person and so was it prophesied by the holy scripture as a signe wherby to know him Of faire shape aboue all the children of men And in another place he saith His eies are fairer than the wine and his teeth whiter than milke Which beautie and good disposition of body imported much to effect that all men should beare him affection and that there might be nothing in him worthy to be abhorred For which cause the letter deliuereth that all men were enforced to loue him It reciteth also that he was meane of personage and that not because the holy Ghost wanted matter to make him greater if so it had seemed good but as we tofore haue prooued by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle because when the reasonable soule is burdened with much bones and flesh the same incurreth great dammage in his wit The third signe namely to be vertuous and wel conditioned is likewise expressed in this letter and the Iews themselues with al their false witnesses could not proue the contrarie nor reply when he demanded of them VVhich of you can reprooue me of sinne And Ioseph through the faithfulnes which he owed to his history affirmed of him that he partaked of another nature aboue man in respect of his goodnesse wisedom Only long life could not be verefied of Christ our redeemer because they put him to death being yong where as if they had permitted him to finish his naturall course the same would haue reached to 80 years and vpwards For he who could abide in a wildernesse 40 daies and 40 nights without meat or drinke and not be sicke nor dead therwithall could better haue defended himselfe from other lighter things which had power to breed alteration or offence Howbeit this action was reputed miraculous and a matter which could not light within the compasse of nature These two examples of kings which we haue alleaged sufficeth to make vnderstood that the scepter royal is due to men that are temperate and that such are endowed with the wit and wisdom requisit for that office But there was also another man made by the proper hands of God to the end he should be king and Lord of all things created he made him faire vertuous sound of long life and verie wise And to prooue this shal not beamisse for our purpose Plato holdeth it for a matter impossible that God or nature can make a man temperat in a countrey distemperat wherethrough he affirmeth that God to create a man of great wisdom temperature sought out a place where the heat of the aire should not exceed the cold nor the moist the dry And the diuine scripture whence he borrowed this sentence saith not that God created Adam in the earthly paradise which was that most temperat place whereof he speaketh but that after he had shaped him there he placed him Then our Lord God saith he tooke man and set
The sixth by her haire The seuenth by her fairenesse or foulnesse As touching the first we may know that though it be true as tofore we haue prooued that the wit and abilitie of a woman followeth the temperature of the brain and of none other member yet her womb and cods are of so great force and vigour to alter the whole body that if these be hot and dry or cold and moist or of whatsoeuer other temperature the other partes saith Galen will be of the same tenour but the member which most partaketh the alterations of the belly all Phisitions say is the brain though they haue not set down the reason wheron they ground this correspondencie True it is Galen prooueth by experience that by speying a Sow she becommeth faire and fat and her flesh verie sauory and if she haue her cods she tasteth little better than dogs flesh VVherby we conceiue that the belly and the cods carrie great efficacie to communicat their temperature to all the other parts of the body especially to the brain for that the same is cold moist like themselues Between which through the resemblance the passage is easie Now if we conclude that cold and moist are the qualities which worke an impairement in the reasonable part and that his contraries namely hot and drie giue the same perfection and encreasement we shall find that the woman who sheweth much wit and sufficiencie partaketh of cold and moist in the first degree and if she be verie simple it yeeldeth a signe that she is in the third the partaking between which two extreames argueth the second degree for to thinke that a woman can be hot and drie or endowed with a wit and abilitie conformable to these two qualities is a verie great error because if the seed of which she was formed had been hot and dry in their domination she should haue been born a man and not a woman But in that it was could and moist she was born a woman and not a man The truth of this doctrine may cleerely be discerned if you consider the wit of the first woman who liued in the world for God hauing fashioned her with his own hands and that very accomplished and perfect in her sex it is a conclusion infallibly true that she was possessed of much lesse knowledge than Adam which the diuell well weeting got him to tempt her and durst not fall in disputation with the man fearing his great wit and wisdome Now to say that Eue for her offence was reft that knowledge which she wanted cannot be auouched for as yet she had not offended So then this defect of wit in the first woman grew for that she was by God created cold and moist which temperature is necessarie to make a woman fruitfull and apt for childbirth but enemy to knowledge and if he had made her temperat like Adam she should haue been very wise but nothing fruitful nor subiect to her monthly courses saue by some supernaturall meanes On this nature S. Paul grounded himselfe when he said Let a woman learne in silence with all subiection neither would he allow the woman to teach or gouerne the man but to keep silence But this is true when a woman hath not a spirit or greater grace than her own naturall disposition but if she obtaine any gift from aboue she may wel teach and speake for we know that the people of Israel being oppressed and besieged by the Assirians Iudith a very wise woman sent for the Priests of the Cabeits and Carmits and reprooued them saying How can it be endured that Osias should say if within fiue daies there come no succour he will yeeld the people of Israel to the Assirians see you not that these words rather prouoke God to wrath than to mercie how may it be that men should point out a limited time for the mercy of God and in their mind assigne a day at which he must succour and deliuer them And in the conclusion of this reproofe she told them in what sort they might please God and obtaine their demand And no lesse Elbora a woman of no lesse wisdome taught the people of Israel how they should render thanks vnto God for the great victories which she had attained against their enemies But whilst a woman abideth in her naturall disposition all sorts of learning and wisdome carrieth a kind of repugnancie to her wit And for this cause the Catholicke Church vpon great reason hath forbidden that no woman do preach confesse or instruct for their sex admitteth neither wisdome nor discipline It is discouered also by the maners of a woman and by her condition in what degree of cold and moist her temperature consisteth for if with a sharp wit she be froward curst wayward she is in the first degree of cold and moist it being true as we haue proued tofore that an ill condition euermore accompanieth a good imagination She who partaketh this degree of cold moist suffereth nothing to escape her hands noteth all things findeth fault with all things and so is insupportable Such are accustomably of amiable conuersation and feare not to looke men in the face nor hold him ill mannered who maketh loue vnto them But on the other side to be a woman of good conditions and to be agreeued at nothing to laugh vpon euery small occasiō to let things passe as they come and to sleep soundly descrieth the third degree of cold and moist for much pleasantnesse of conceit is ordinarily accompanied with little wit She who partaketh of these two extreams standeth in the second degree A voice hoarse big and sharp saith Galen is a token of much heat and drouth and we haue also prooued it heretofore by the opinion of Aristotle wherthrough we may gain this notice that if a woman haue a voice like a man she is cold and moist in the first degree and if very delicat in the third And partaking betwixt both the extreames she shall haue the naturall voice of a woman and be in the second degree How much the voice dependeth on the temperature of the cods shall shortly hereafter be prooued where we entreat of the tokens appertaining to a man Much flesh also in women is a signe of much cold and moist for to be fat and big say the Phisitions groweth in liuing creatures from this occasion And contrariwise to be leane and dry is a token of little coldnesse moisture To be meanly fleshed that is neither ouermuch nor verie little giueth euidence that a woman holdeth her selfe in the second degree of cold and moist Their pleasantnesse and curtesies sheweth the degrees of these two qualities much moisture maketh their flesh supple and little rough and hard The meane is the commendablest part The colour also of the face and of the other parts of the body discouereth the extended or remisse degrees of these two qualities When the woman is verie white it boadeth saith Galen much cold
the same with his heat and drinesse should make the seed hot dry for generation of the male And the contrary she ordained for the forming of a woman that the left side of the reins should send forth seed could and moist to the left cod and that the same with his coldnesse and moisture should make the seed cold and moist whence it ensued of force that a female must be engendred But after that the earth was replenished with people it seemeth that this order and concert of nature was broken off and this double child-bearing surceased which is worst for one man that is begotten 6 or 7 women are born to the world ordinarily Whence we comprizce that either nature is grown weary or some error is thwarted in the mids which beareth her from working as she would What the same is a litle hereafter we wil expresse when we may lay down the conditions which are to be obserued to the end a male child without missing may be borne I say then that if parents will attaine the end of their desire in this behalfe they are to obserue 6 points One of which is to eat meats hot and drie The second to procure that they make good digestion in the stomacke The third to vse much exercise The fourth not to apply themselues vnto the act of generation vntill their seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to companie with the wife foure or fiue daies before her naturall course is to runne The sixth to procure that the seed fall in the right side of the womb which being obserued as we shall prescribe it will grow impossible that a female should be engendred As touching the first condition we must weet that albeit a good stomacke do parboile and alter the meat and spoile the same of his former quality yet it doth neuer vtterly depriue it selfe of them for if we eat lettice whose qualitie is cold and moist the bloud engendred thereof shalbe cold and moist the whey cold and moist and the seed cold and moist And if we eat honny whose quality is hot and dry the bloud which we breed shalbe hot and drie the whey hot and dry and the seed hot and dry for it is impossible as Galen auoucheth that the humours should not retaine the substances and the qualities which the meat had before such time as it was eaten Then it being true that the male sex consisteth in this that the seed be hot and drie at the time of his forming for certaine it behooueth parents to vse meats hot and drie that they may engender a male child I grant well how in this kind of begetting there befalleth a great perill for the seed being hot and drie we haue often heretofore affirmed it followeth of force that there be borne a man malicious wily cauilling and addicted to many vices and euils and such persons as these vnlesse they be straightly curbed bring great danger to the common wealth Therefore it were better that they should not be gotten at all but for all this there will not want parents who will say Let me haue a boy and let him be a theese and spare not for the iniquity of a man is more allowable than the wel-doing of a woman Howbeit this may find an easie remedie by vsing temperat meates which shall partake but meanly of hot and drie or by way of preparation seasoning the same with some spice Such saith Galen are Hennes Partridges Turtles Doues Thrushes Blackbirds and Goates which by Hippocrates must be eaten rosted to heat and drie the seed The bread with which the same is eaten should be white of the finest meale seasoned with Salt and Annis seed for the browne is cold and moist as we will prooue hereafter and verie dammageable to the wit Let the drinke be VVhite wine watered in such proportion as the stomacke may allow thereof and the water with which it is tempered should be verie fresh and pure The second diligence which we spake of is to eat these meates in so moderat quantitie as the stomacke may ouercome them for albeit the meat be hot and drie of his proper nature yet the same becommeth cold and moist if the naturall heat cannot digest it Therefore though the parents eat honny and drinke VVhite-wine these meates by this meanes will turne to cold seed and a female child be brought forth For this occasion the greater part of great and rich personages are afflicted by hauing more daughters than meaner folke for they eat and drinke that which their stomacke cannot digest and albeit their meat be hot and drie sauced with Suger Spices and Honny yet through their great quantitie then waxe raw and cannot be digested But the rawnesse which most endammageth generation is that of Wine for this licour in being so vaporous and subtile occasioneth that the other meates togither therewith passe to the seed vessels raw and that the seed falsly prouoketh a man ere it be digested and seasoned VVhereon Plato commendeth a law enacted in the Carthaginean Common-wealth which forbad the married couple that they should not tast of anie Wine that day when they meant to performe the rightes of the marriage bed as well ware that this liquor alwaies bred much hurt and dammage to the childs bodily health and might yeeld occasion that he should prooue vitious and of ill conditions Notwithstanding if the same be moderatly taken so good seed is not engendred of any meat for the end which we seeke after as of white wine and especially to giue wit and ability which is that wherto we pretend The 3 diligence which we spake of was to vse exercise somwhat more than meanly for this fretteth and consumeth the excessiue moisture of the seed and heateth drieth the same By this means a man becommeth most fruitful and able for generation and cōtrariwise to giue our selues to our ease and not to exercise the bodie is one of the things which breedeth most coldnes moisture in the seed Therfore rich and dainty persons are lesse charged with children than the poore who take pains VVhence Hippocrates recounteth that the principall persons of Scythia were verie effeminat womanish delicious and enclined to do womens seruices as to sweepe to rub to bake and by this means were impotent for generation And if they begot any male child he prooued either an Eunuch or an Hermaphrodite Whereat they shaming greatly agreeued determined to make sacrifices to their God and to offer him many gifts beseeching him not to entreat them after that maner but to yeeld thē some remedy for the defect seeing it lay in his power so to do But Hippocrates laughed them to scorne saying That none effect betideth which seemes not miraculous and diuine if after that sort they fall into consideration thereof for reducing which soeuer of them to his naturall causes at last we come to end in God by whose vertue all the agents of the world doe worke But there
but not his substance wherin the whole life relieth as do the foure elements fire aire earth and water who not only yeeld to the party composed heat cold moisture and drinesse but also the substance which may maintain and preserue the same qualities during all the course of life Wherethrough that which most importeth in the engendring of children is to procure that the elements wherof they are compounded may partake the qualities which are requisite for the wit For these according to the waight and measure by which they enter into the composition must alwaies so indure in the mixture and not the alterations of heauen What these elements are and in what sort they enter into the womans wombe to forme the creature Galen declareth and affirmeth them to be the same which compound all other natural things but that the earth commeth lurking in the accustomed meates which we eate as are flesh bread fish and fruits the water in the liquors which we drinke The aire and fire he saith are mingled by order of nature and enter into the body by way of the pulse and of respiration Of these foure elements mingled and digested by our naturall heat are made the two necessarie principles of the infants generation to weet the seed and the monthly course But that whereof we must make greatest reckoning for the end which we enquire after are the accustomable meats whereon we feed for these shut vp the foure elements in themselues and from these the seed fetcheth more corpulencie and qualitie than from the water which we drinke or the fire and aire which we breath in VVhence Galen saith that the parents who would beget wise children should read three books which he wrot of the facultie of the alements for there they should find with what kinds of meat they may effect the same And he made no mention of the water nor of the other elements as materials and of like moment But herein he swarued from reason for the water altereth the body much more than the aire much lesse than the sound meats wheron we feed And as touching that which concerneth the engendring of the seed it carrieth as great importance as all the other elemēts togither The reason is as Galen himself affirmeth because the cods draw from the veines for their nourishment the wheyish part of the bloud and the greatest part of this whey which the veins receiue partaketh of the water which we drinke And that the water worketh more alteration in the bodie than the aire Aristotle prooueth where he demandeth what the cause is that by changing of waters we breed so great an alteration in our health wheras if we breath a contrarie aire we perceiue it not And to this he answereth that water yeeldeth nourishment to the body and so doth not the aire But he had little reason to answer after this maner for the aire also by Hippocrates opinion giueth nourishment and substance aswell as the water Wher-through Aristotle deuised a better answer saying that no place nor country hath his peculiar aire for that which is now in Flanders when the North wind bloweth passeth within two or three daies into Affricke and that in Affricke by the South is carried into the North and that which this day is in Hierusalem the East wind driueth into the VVest Indies The which cannot betide in the waters for they do not all issue out of the same soile wher-through euery people hath his particular water cōformable to the Mine of the earth where it springeth and whence it runneth And if a man be vsed to drinke one kind of water in tasting another he altereth more than by meat or aire In sort that the parents who haue a will to beget verie wise children must drinke waters delicat fresh and of good temperature otherwise they shall commit error in their procreation Aristotle saith that at the time of generation we must take heed of the South-west wind for the same is grosse and moistneth the seed so as a female and not a male is begotten But the west wind he highly commendeth and aduanceth it with names and titles very honourable He calleth the same temperat fatter of the earth and saith that it commeth from the Elisian fields But albeit it be true that it greatly importeth to breath an aire verie delicat and of good temperature and to drinke such waters yet it standeth much more vpon to vse fine meats appliable to the temperature of the wit for of these is engēdred the bloud and the seed and of the seed the creature And if the meat be delicat and of good temperature such is the bloud made and of such bloud such seed and of such seed such braine Now this member being temperat and compounded of a substance subtile and delicat Galen saith that the wit will be like therunto for our reasonable soule though the same be incorruptible yet goeth alwaies vnited with the dispositions of the brain which being not such as it is requisit they should be for discoursing and philosophizing a man saith and doth 1000 things which are verie vnfitting The meats then which the parents are to feed on that they may engender children of great vnderstanding which is the ordinarie wit for Spaine are first White bread made of the finest meale and seasoned with salt this is cold and dry and of parts verie subtile and delicat There is another sort made saith Galen of reddish graine which though it nourish much and make men big limmed and of great bodily forces yet for that the same is moist and of grosse parts it breedeth a losse in the vnderstanding I said seasoned with salt because none of all the aliments which a man vseth bettereth so much the vnderstanding as doth this minerall It is cold and of more drinesse than any other thing and if I remember well the sentence of Heraclitus he said after this maner A drie brightnesse a wisest minde Then seeing that salt is so drie and so appropriat to the wit the scripture had good reason to terme it by the name of Prudence and Sapience Partridges and Francolini haue a like substance and the selfe temperature with bread of white meale and Kid and Muskadel wine And if parents vse these meats as we haue aboue specified they shall breed children of great vnderstanding And if they would haue a child of great memorie let them eight or nine daies before they betake themselues to the act of generation eat Trouts Salmons Lampries and Eeles by which meat they shall make their seed verie moist and clammie These two qualities as I haue said before make the memorie easie to receaue and verie fast to preserue the figures a long time By Pigions Goats Garlicke Onions Leekes Rapes Pepper Vinegar White-wine Honny and al other sorts of spices the seed is made hot and drie and of parts verie subtile and delicat The child who is engendred of such meat shalbe of great imagination but not of
combers and therefore molested by that passion to driue the same from them doe marrie wiues Of such Galen saith that they haue the instruments of generation very hot and dry and for this cause breed seed verie pricking apt for procreation A man then who goeth seeking a woman not his owne is replenished with this fruitfull digested and well seasoned seed Whence it followeth of force that he make the generation for where both are equall the mans seed carrieth the greatest efficacie and if the son be shaped of the seed of such a father it ensueth of necessitie that he resemble him The contrarie betideth in lawfull children who for that married men haue their wiues euer couched by their sides neuer take regard to ripen the seed or to make it apt for procreation but rather vpon euery light enticement yeeld the same from them vsing great violence and stirring whereas women abiding quiet during the carnall act their seed vessels yeeld not their seed saue when it is well concoct and seasoned Therfore married women do alwaies make the engendring and their husbands seed serueth for aliment But somtimes it comes to passe that both the seeds are matched in equall perfection and cumbat in such sort as both the one and the other take effect in the forming and so is a child shaped who resembleth neither father nor mother Another time it seemeth that they agree vpon the matter part the likenesse between them the seed of the father maketh the nosthrils and the eies and that of the mother the mouth and the forehead And which carrieth most maruell it hath so fallen out that the sonne hath taken one eare of his father and another of his mother and so the like in his eies But if the fathers seed do altogither preuaile the childe retaineth his nature and his conditions and when the seed of the mother swaieth most the like reason taketh effect Therefore the father who coueteth that his child may be made of his owne seed ought to withdraw himselfe for some daies from his wife and stay till all his seed be concocted and ripened and then it will fall out certain that the forming shall proceed from him and the wifes seed shall serue for nourishment The second doubt by meanes of that we haue said already beareth little difficultie for bastard children are ordinarily made of seed hote and dry and from this temperature as we haue oftentimes prooued heretofore spring courage brauerie and a good imagination whereto this wisdome of the world appertaineth And because the seed is digested and well seasoned nature effecteth what she likes best and pourtraieth those children as with a pensill To the third doubt may be answered that the conceiuing of lewd women is most commonly wrought by the mans seed and because the same is drie and verie apt for issue it fasteneth it selfe in the woman with verie strong rootes but the childe breeding of married women being wrought by their own seed occasioneth that the creature easily vnlooseth because the same was moist and watry or as Hippocrates saith full of mustinesse What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed §. 5. THe matter wherof man is compounded prooueth a thing so alterable and so subiect to corruption that at the instant when he beginneth to be shaped he like wise beginneth to be vntwined and to alter and therin can find no remedy For it was said so soon as we are born we faile to be Wherthrough nature prouided that in mans body there should be 4 natural faculties attractiue retētiue concoctiue expulsiue The which concocting altering the aliments which we eate returne to repaire the substance that was lost ech succeeding in his place By this we vnderstand that it little auaileth to haue engendred a child of delicat seed if we make no reckoning of the meates which afterwards we feed vpon For the creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance wherof it was first composed True it is that the first seed if the same be well concocted and seasoned possesseth such force that digesting altering the meats it maketh them though they be bad and grosse to turne to his good temperature and substance but we may so far forth vse contrary meats as the creature shall loose those good qualities which it receiued from the seed wherof it was made therefore Plato said that one of the things which most brought mans wit and his manners to ruine was his euill bringing vp in diet For which cause he counselled that we should giue vnto children meats and drinks delicat and of good temperature to the end that when they grow big they may know how to abandon the euil to embrace the good The reason hereof is very cleere For if at the bginning the braine was made of delicat seed and that this member goeth euerie day impairing and consuming and must be repaired with the meats which we eat it is certaine if these being grosse and of euill temperature that vsing them many daies togither the braine will become of the same nature Therefore it sufficeth not that the child be borne of good seed but also it behooueth that the meat which he eateth after he is formed and borne bee endowed with the same qualities What these be it carrieth no great difficultie to manifest if you presuppose that the Greekes were the most discreet men of the world and that enquiring after aliments and food to make their children witty and wise they found the best and most appropriat For if the subtile and delicate wit consist in causing that the braine be compounded of partes subtile and of good temperature that meate which aboue all others partaketh these two qualities shalbe the same which it behooueth vs to vse for obteining our end Galen and all the Greeke Phisitions say that Goats milke boiled with honny is the best meat which any man can eat for besides that it hath a moderate substance therein the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie Therefore we said some few leaues past that the parentes whose will earnestly leadeth them to haue a childe wise prompt and of good conditions must eat much Goats milke boiled with honny 7 or 8 daies before the copulationut-Balbeit this aliment is so good as Galen speaketh of yet it falleth out a matter of importance for the wit that the meate consist of moderate substance and of subtile partes For how much the finer the matter becommeth in the nourishment of the braine so much the more is the wit sharpened For which cause the Greekes drew-out of the milke cheese and whey which are the two grosse aliments of his composition and left the butter which in nature resembleth the aire This they gaue in food to their children mingled with honny with intention to make them witty and wise And that this is the trueth is plainly seen by that which Homer recounteth
Offices Booke of Destinie * Dialoge of knowledge By the only vnderstanding of Socrates may this comparison be verefied for he taught by demaunds and handled the matter so that the scholler himselfe attained to knowledge without his telling him the same Mans Wisedome is not RemeÌ„brance wherefore we haue here aboue spoken against Plato for that he held this opinion In the second age called youth a man makes an vnion of all the differences of wit in such as they may be vnited for that this age is more temperat than all the rest wherfore it is vnfitting to let it passe without learning of knowledge whereby a man may liue The principall of all these is Nature for if she be in them who applie their mind to Art they may pierce thorow all the other things aboue specified So Baldus betooke himselfe to the studie of the Lawes when he was wel-aged wherethrough some sayd vnto him in a scoffe Thou commest too late O Baldus and wilt prooue a good aduocate in the other world but because he had a capacitie conformable for the lawes he proued learned in a short season Nature giues habilitie Art facilitie Vse sufficiencie Aboue all things Nature is necessarie for if she gainsay al other drifts are attempted in vaine In all Knowledges we must vnderstand how far their iurisdiction exteÌ„deth and what questions apperteine vnto them The Lord working therewithall and confirming with his word followed by signs Iob. 33. The ignorance of naturall Philosophie is cause that miracles are imputed where they ought not Hippocrates vsed vnproper terms when he sayd the soule of man is produced vntil his death In euery citie the wisest and eldest persons should looke into and iudge of the naturall quicknesse of children and so giue notice that ech one might learne an art agreeable to his nature And therefore the heart and the things seated therabouts haue great feeling but for all that are not partakers of knowledge but of all these things the braine is causer There are two sorts of fat men the one full of flesh bones and blood the other replenished with fat and these are very wittie Go to the Ant O sluggard and consider his way and learne wisedome who hauing no guide nor maister prouides himselfe the summer of food and in the time of haruest furnisheth himselfe of meat A Faulconer affirmed to me with an oath that he had a redye Faulcon for hawking which grew bussardly for remedy wherof he gaue hir a botton di fuoto in the head and she amended Plato tooke out of the holie Scripture the best sentences which are to be found in his workes in respect whereof he was called Diuine Plato attributes three soules vnto man Hippocrates answered better saying That nature is learned though she haue not learned to do well The seed and menstruall blood which are two materiall principles of which we be formed are hote moist through which temperature children are so vnskilled When the braine is placed hot in the first degree it makes a man eloquent furnisheth him with store of matter to deliuer for which cause the silent are alwaies cold of braine great talkers hot This frenzie was occasioned by abundaÌ„ce of cholar which tooke hold in the substance of the brain which humor hath great congruence with Poetrie for which cause Horace sayd That if summer did not make euacuation of choler no Poet should passe before him This page was not yet perfectly cured He speakes to one asleepe who teacheth wisedome to a foole The Sibils admitted by the catholike church had this naturall disposition that Aristotle speakes of and besides a propheticall spirit which God powred into theÌ„ for naturall wit sufficed not for so high a point werethe same neuer so perfect When the diseased diuine thus it is a token that the reasonable soule is now awearie of the bodie and so none such recouer Those who haue bene crazed and are called melaÌ„cholike haue their mind endewed with a certain spice of prophesying and diuining Aristotle in his third booke of the soule Horace to say that Vlisses became not a fool figured him that he was not turned into a hog The hart of wise men is where there is sadnesse and the hart of fooles where there is mirth Wherethrough Cicero defining the nature of wit placeth memorie in his definition Docilitie Memorie which as it were by one name are tearmed wit Any distemperature whatsoeuer cannot any long time endure alone Of these differences of wits Aristotle said in this manner He verely is best who vnderstandeth euery thing by himselfe and he also is good who obeith him that sayth well The inuention of arts and the making of bookes saith Galen is performed with the vnderstaÌ„ding and with the memorie or with the imaginatiue but he thatwrites for that he hath many things in his mind cannot ad any new inuention This difference of wits is very dangerous for Diuinitie where the vnderstaÌ„ding ought to abide bound to that which the Catholike church doth resolue This difference of wits senteth very well for Diuinitie where it behooueth to ensue the diuine authoritie declared by the holy Councels and sacred Doctors The smooth white and grosse persons haue no melancholicke humour Amongst brute beasts there is none which approcheth neerer to mans wisdome than the OliphaÌ„t and there is none of a flesh so rough and hard Note that men of great vnderstanding take no care for attiring their bodie but are ordinarily ill apparelled slouenly and hereof we yeeld the reason in the 8. cha and 14. Galen dying went to hell and saw by experieÌ„ce that materiall fire burned the soules and could not consume theÌ„ this Physition had knowledge of that Euangelicall doctrine and could not receiue it But the serpent was the wiliest beast of the earth amongst all those whome God hath made Traquitantos signifieth Bring hither tokens or counters Cicero saith that the honour of man is to haue wit and of wit to be applied to eloquence This is recounted by Plato in his dialogue of knowledge and in his banquet Cicero praising the eloquence of Plato sayd That if Iupiter should haue spoken Greeke he would haue spoken as Plato did Paule Lib. 3. de Anima ca. 3. Take heed you receiue no hurt for leauing out the Pope Solertia S. John Baptist was an angell in his office No doubt your owne king A weake reason rather God chose Saule as a carnal man sit for the Iewes obstinat asking and Dauid as a spirituall man the instrument of his mercie And I hold it vntrue because the phrase vtterly differeth from the Latine toung as spectosus valde inter filios bominum Vnwritten Vâ—rities And such a one if you mistake not is your king Philip. Your king and your selfe An high speculation Note here a sign which sheweth the immortalitie of the soule This is no chapter for maids to read in sight of others You are much mistaken