means of which some have without Art or Study spoke such subtle and surprizing things and yet true that were never before seen heard or writ no nor ever so much as thought of Plato calls this sort of Wit An excellent Wit with a mixture of Madness 'T is the same which Inspires the Poets with what is impossible for them to conceive says the same Divine Philosopher without Divine Revelation Whereupon he adds Well may a Poet be all in Flames and Raptures his Person being wholly Sacred he can sing nothing but what is full of God who agitates him transporting him beyond himself and above his own Reason But as for those of an unelevated Spirit they can never make moving Verses nor prevail in Prophesy It is not then from any humane Art Poets chaunt such fine things that thou O Homer breathest but rather from Transports Divine This third Difference of Wit adjusted by Plato is actually found among Men of which I am an Eye-witness and could also if need were with a Finger point out those that have it But to assert what they say to be by Divine Revelation and not to proceed from their particular Nature would be an apparent and manifest Abuse and ill-becoming so great a Philosopher as Plato and is to have recourse to Universal Causes without having before-hand made an exact Enquiry into Particulars Aristotle did better who being curious to know the Reason of those wonderful things pronounc'd in his time by the Sibyls said That it came not to pass by Distemper nor by Divine Inspiration but only by a natural Ill-Temperament The Cause whereof is evident in natural Philosophy for all the governing Faculties in Man the Natural the Vital the Animal and even the Rational require each their particular Temperament to perform their Functions as they ought without prejudicing or interfering one with another The Natural Virtue as digestive of the Food in the Stomach must have a due Heat that which gives Appetite Cold the Retentive Driness and the Expulsive of what is Nauseous or Superfluous a due Moisture Whichsoever of these Faculties possesses in a greater degree any of the four Qualities by which it operates will thereby become more powerful in that Point but not without impairing the rest because in effect it seems impossible that all the four Virtues and Faculties should be assembled in one and the same place since if that which requires some Heat becomes more Potent the other that operates by Cold cannot but be found more Weak Which made Galen say That a hot Stomach digested much yet had a bad Appetite that a cold Stomach digested ill but had a good one The same thing happens in the Senses and Motions which are Operations of the Animal Faculty Great Strength of Body shews abundance of Earthiness in the Nerves and Muscles for if those Parts are not sinewy hard and dry they cannot act steadily On the contrary to have a quick and lively Sense is a sign the Nerves are compos'd of more airy fine and delicate Parts and that their Temperament is hot and moist How is it then possible that the same Nerves should have the Temperament and natural Composition which is requir'd for Motion and for Sense at one and the same time seeing that for these two things there must be quite contrary Qualities Which is clear'd from Experience for whereas a Man that is very Robust of Body has infallibly the Sense of Touching rude and gross so when that Sense is very exquisite he is faint and if one may say so ravelled out The Rational Powers Memory Imagination and Understanding are under the same Rules The Memory to be good and tenacious requires some Moisture and that the Brain be of a gross Substance as we shall prove hereafter On the contrary the Understanding must have a dry Brain compos'd of very subtile and delicate Parts The Memory then proceeding to a pitch the Understanding must necessarily be lower'd and diminish'd as much But be it as it will I beg the curious Reader to Reflect upon all the Men he has known endued with an Excellent Memory and I am assur'd he 'll find as to the Operations belonging to the Understanding they are in a manner indiscernible The same happens as to the Imagination when it exerts its self For as to the Operations relating to it it produceth prodigious Conceptions and such as astonished Plato And when a Man endued with such an Imagination comes to concern himself in acting with Understanding one may bind him without doing him any Injury as a Lunatic and void of Reason Whence may be concluded that the Wisdom of Man must be moderate well tempered and not so unequal as Galen esteems those the wisest Men that are well tempered because they are not as it were intoxicate with too much Wisdom Democritus was one of the greatest Natural and Moral Philosophers of his Time though Plato said of him That he was a better Divine than Naturalist who arrived at so great a Perfection of Understanding in his Old Age that he entirely lost his Imagination insomuch that he both said and did things so extraordinary that the whole City of Abdera took him for a Natural and accordingly dispatch'd a Courier to the Isle of Coa where Hippocrates lived to entreat him earnestly with offer of abundance of rich Presents to come immediately to Cure Democritus who had lost all his Senses Which Hippocrates readily complied with as being curious to see and confer with the Man of whose admirable Wisdom he had heard so much noise He departed that very instant and being arrived at the Place of his Abode which was a Desart where he lived on a Plain he fell to discourse him and upon asking him Questions in order to discover the Defects of his Rational Faculty found him the Wisest Man in the World and told them that had brought him thither That they themselves were Fools and void of Sense for having given so rash a Judgment of so Discreet a Person for as good Fortune would have it for Democritus the Matters treated on with Hippocrates at that time appertain'd to the Understanding and not to the Imagination which was disabled CHAP. II. The Differences amongst Men unqualified for Science ONE of the greatest Indignities that can be offer'd in Words to a Man arrived at the Years of Discretion is said Ariristotle to accuse him of want of Wit because all his Honour and Nobility as Cicero observes consists in his being favour'd with and having an Eloquent Tongue As Wit is the Ornament of a Man so Eloquence is the Light and Beauty of Wit In this alone he distinguishes himself from the Brutes and approaches near to God as being the greatest Glory which is possible to be obtained in Nature On the contrary he that is born a Blockhead is incapable of any sort of Literature and where there is no Wisdom there says Plato can neither be true Honour nor good Fortune insomuch as the
Thrive than when Old Age approaches when she is disabled For instance if an Old Man have a Tooth drop out there is no means or expedient to get another to grow in the same Place whereas if a Child lose all his we see Nature repairs the Loss by helping him to new ones How then is it possible that a Soul that has no other Business throughout the whole Course of Life but to attract Aliments to retain and digest them and expel the Excrements and duly repair the lost Parts at the end of our Life should either forget or not be able to do the same Certainly Galen would reply that the Vegetative Soul is skilful and able in Infancy because of the great Degrees of Natural Heat and Moisture and that in Old Age she wants either Ability or Skill to do the like because of the extream Cold and Dryness of the Body incident to Age. In like manner the Skill of the Sensitive Soul depends much on the Temperament of the Brain for if it be such as it 's Operations require it fails not to perform them aright otherwise she commits a Thousand Errors as well as the Vegetative Soul Galen's Test to discover in one view the Skill and Efforts of the Sensitive Soul was this he took a Kid newly Kidded which being on his Legs began to go as if he had been informed and taught that his Feet were given for that very end after he had dried up the Superfluous Humor that came with him from his Dam and lift up his Feet and rubbed behind his Ears finding before him several Platters full of Wine Water Vineger Oyl and Milk upon smelling to each of them he lapped only the Milk Which being observed by many Philosophers present they began to cry out that Hippocrates had with good Reason said That Souls were directed what to do without the Teaching of any Master Which is the same with the wise Mans saying Go to the Ant thou Sluggard consider her waies and be wise which having no Guide Overseer or Ruler provideth her Meat in the Summer and gathereth her Food in the Harvest Galen not resting contented with this single Experiment two Months after he brought the Kid into the Fields almost Starved to Death and smelling on several sorts of Herbs he fed only on that which was Goats-meat But if Galen who ruminated on the Efforts of this Kid had seen three or four of them together and observed some run better than their Fellows shift better and scratch their Ears better and quit themselves better in each Point we have mentioned and had Galen brought up two Colts of the same Mare he might have observed the one to be more Graceful in going to have better Heels to be more Manageable and stop better than the other and had he taken an Airy of Hawks to train he might have discovered that one would have delighted much in Seizing his Game another to be Rank-winged and the third a Haggard and Ill-mann'd He would have found the same Difference in Setting-Dogs or Harriers tho' each were littered from the same Sire and Dam the one needs only the noise of the Chase and Rouse the other never so loudly it would affect him no more than a Shepherds Dog All which can never be ascribed to the vain Instincts of Nature imagined by Philosophers for if they were asked why one Dog has a better Instinct than an other both being of the same kind and breed I know not what they could Answer without having recourse to their common Shift namely that God had trained one above the other having given him a better Natural Instinct And if they were further ask'd why this hopeful Hound when Young hunted well but become Old was not so good for the Sport and on the other Hand why the other when Young could not Hunt but being Old was Expert and fit to fly at all Game I know not what they could say For my particular I should say that the Dog that hunted better than the other had more Sagacity and as for him that hunted well when Young and turned Cur when Old that so it fared because sometimes he had the Qualities fit for the Chase which at other times he wanted Whence we may Collect that since the Temperament of the four First Qualities is the Reason why one brute Beast aquits himself better than another of the same Kind the Temperament is no less the Master which directs the Sensitive Soul what it ought to do Had Galen but reflected on the Steps and Motions of the Ant and observed her Providence her Mercy Justice and good Government he would have been at a loss as we are to see so small an Animal endued with so great Sense without the Teaching of any Master whatsoever But when we come to consider more closely the Temperament of the Ant 's Brain and observe how proper it is for Prudence as we shall hereafter make appear then will all our Admiration cease and we shall understand that Brute Beasts from the Temperament of their Brain and the Images that enter there thro' the Senses arrive at the Ability we discover in them And whereas amongst Animals of the same Kind one is more Docile and Ingenious than another It happens from the Brain being better Tempered so that if by any Accident or Distemper it should chance to alter and impair he would forthwith lose his Ability as Man does under the like Circumstances But here arises a Difficulty touching the Rational Soul how she comes to be Endued with this Natural Instinct whereby she performs the Acts proper to her Species of Wisdom and Prudence and yet all on a sudden by means of a good Temperament a Man may understand the Sciences without the help of a Teacher especially since we are told by Experience if they do not learn them no Man brings them into the World with him It has long been a controverted Point betwixt Plato and Aristotle which way Man comes by Knowledge one saies that the Rational Soul is much Older than the Body and it 's Natural Birth enjoying in Heaven the Company of God from whom she came filled with Wisdom and Knowledge but after she dropt down to inform the Body she lost this Wisdom and Knowledg because of the ill Temperament she met with till by tract of Time this ill Temperament was Corrected and so in its place succeeded a better by means of which as being more fit for the Sciences she had lost she came by little and little to recollect what she had once forgot This Opinion is false and I admire so great a Philosopher as Plato should be at a loss to give a Reason for Man's Knowledge seeing that Brute Beasts are endued with Cunning and Natural Ability without their Souls quitting their Bodies and mounting to Heaven to fetch it thence he is therefore without all Excuse especially considering he might have read in Genesis which he had in such Esteem
it will I would present to a Moral Philosopher a Luxurious Drunkard and a Glutton to manage him according to the Rules of his Art and to instill into his Soul the contrary good Habits of Chastity and Temperance by these means reducing him to act with all Moderation and Sobriety without introducing into his Constitution Cold and Driness and without correcting the over-ruling Heat and Moisture there was before let us see how he will go about it Without doubt the first thing he does will be to shew him the Sordidness of Luxury and to lay before him the Train of Evils it draws after it and in what danger his Soul would be if Death should happen to surprize him on a sudden without giving him respite to repent of his Sins After this he gravely admonishes him to Fast Pray and Meditate to Sleep but little to lie hard and without Delicacy to wear Hair Clothes and Discipline himself to fly the Company of Women and to give himself wholly to Pious Works all which are comprized in this fine Aphorism of St. Paul I keep under my Body and bring it into Subjection By means of these Austerities if he practises them long he 'll appear Meager Pale and much Alter'd from what he was insomuch that he who before hunted after Women and that plac'd all his Happiness in the Pleasures of Eating and Drinking will hardly have Patience to hear them spoke of The Moralist beholding the Lewd Man so changed will say and not without reason this Man has now acquired a Habit of Chastity and Temperance But because his Art reaches no further he vainly imagines these two Virtues are come I know not from whence to make him a Visit and to take up their Lodgings in his Rational Soul without having so much as part through his Body Instead of which the discerning Physician who knows whence his loss of Blood and Spirits proceeds and how the Virtues are Begot and the Vices Extinguished will be apt to pronounce that this same Man has now the Habit of Chastity and Temperance inasmuch as by means of these Austerities he has impair'd his Natural Heat in whose stead the Cold is introduc'd For if we reflect a little further we shall clearly see this new way of living is capable of cooling him more the Horror into which the Reprimand he received threw him and the awful consideration of the Pains of Hell prepared for him if he had died in mortal Sin had without doubt mortified and chil'd his Blood Whereupon Aristotle proposed this Question Why those who are in fear falter in their Speech tremble with their Hands and hang their Lips It is says he because this Passion is a defect of Heat which commences from the Parts above Whence comes the Paleness of the Face Abstinence likewise is one of the things which chiefly mortifies the Natural Heat leaving the Man cold For our Nature is supported says Galen by Eating and Drinking in the same manner as the Flame of the Lamp is fed by the Oil and there is so much natural Heat in the Body that has digested Flesh-meats that they afford him Nourishment in proportion to his Heat and if they should yield him less in quantity his Heat would insensibly diminish Which made Hippocrates forbid the letting of Children fast because their natural Heat Evaporated and Wasted for want of being fed The Discipline given if it be dolorous and reach even to the fetching Blood every man knows it extreamly dissipates the vital and animal Spirits and from the loss of Blood the Man soon comes to lose his Hair and natural Heat As for Sleep Galen says it 's one of the things which most fortifies our Heat for by it's means that insinuates into the hidden recesses of our Bodies and Animates the Natural Virtues and much after the same manner our Food is assimilated and turned to our Substance Whereas Waking generates Corruptions and Crudities and the reason is because Sleep warms the inward Parts and cools the outward as on the contrary Waking cools the Stomach Liver and Heart which are the Vitals and inflames the external Parts the less noble and less necessary Hence he that does not Sleep well must needs be subject to many cold Diseases To Lie hard to Eat but once a day and to go Naked Hippocrates said was the utter Ruin of the Flesh and Blood wherein the natural Heat is plac'd And Galen giving the Reason why a hard Bed weakens and wastes the Flesh said That the Body was in pain and suffered deeply for want of Sleep and that by the uneasie changes of motion from side to side it was Harassed in the vain pursuit of restless Nights and how the Natural Heat decays and is dissipated by bodily Labour the same Hippocrates declares teaching how a Man may become Wise In order to be Wise a Man must not be oppressed with too much Flesh for that belongs to a hot Temperament which is the Quality that destroys Wisdom Prayer and Meditation cause the Heat to mount up to the Brains in the absence of which the other Parts of the Body remain cold and if the Intention of Mind be great they soon lose the sense of Feeling which Aristotle affirmed to be necessary to the Being of Animals and that the other Senses in comparison of that served only for Ornament and Well-Being For in effect we might live without Tasting Smelling Seeing and Hearing but the Mind being busied in some high Contemplation fails to dispatch the Natural Faculties to their Posts without which neither the Ears can hear nor the Eyes see nor the Nostrils breath nor the Taste relish nor the Touch feel insomuch as they who Meditate are neither sensible of Cold Heat Hunger Thirst nor any Weariness whatever And Feeling being the Sentinel that discovers to a Man the Good or Ill done to him he cannot be without it So that being Frozen with Cold or Burnt up with Heat or Dying away with Hunger or Thirst he is not sensible of any of these Inconveniencies because he has nothing to report them to him In such a state Hippocrates says the Soul neglects its Charge and whereas its Duty is to Animate the Body and to impart to it Sense and Motion yet nevertheless it leaves it wholly destitute and unprovided of any Succours They who are hurt in any Part of the Body and feel no Pain assuredly are distempered in Mind But the worst Disposition observed among Men of Learning and those that are devoted to Studies is a Weak Stomach because the Natural Heat required for Digestion is wanting that very Heat being usually carried to the Brain which is the cause the Stomach is filled with Crudities and Phlegm For which reason Cornelius Celsus recommends it to the Physicians care to Fortify that Part in Men of Meditation more than any others because Prayer Meditation and hard Study extreamly cool and dry the Body rendering it Melancholy For which reason Aristotle demanded Whence it is
befal both them and their Children 'T is certain he did this by the Spirit of God but if Holy Writ and our Faith had not assured us of it how should the Natural Philosophers know that this was the Work of God and that of the She Lunatic's telling those that came to see her their Virtues and Vices was a Work of the Devil since that in part it resembled Jacob's They conceive the Nature of the Rational Soul to be far different from that of the Devil and that its Powers the Understanding Imagination and Memory are of another kind much different In which they are mistaken for let the Rational Soul animate a well-organiz'd Body such as Adam's was it shall know no less than the most clear-sighted Devil and when it is separated from the Body it has as subtle Faculties as he Say now that the Devils discover what is to come by conjecturing and reasoning from certain Signs the Rational Soul can do as much when deliver'd from the Body or when it has that difference of Temperament which gives Man the Knowledge of Futurities so that it is as difficult to the Understanding to conceive how the Devil can know such elevated and hidden things of which the Knowledge is attributed to the Rational Soul It cannot enter into their thoughts that there can be Signs in Natural things whereby to foretel what is to come And I my self hold that there are some Indications subservient to us in the knowledge of the Past of the Present and that help us to conjecture at the Future nay and to guess at certain Secrets of Heaven For the things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made He that shall have the requisite Faculty to attain it may attain it and the other shall be such a one as Homer speaks of The Ignorant understand the Past but not the Future but the Prudent and Discreet is the Ape of God imitating him in many things and though he cannot do it to so great a Perfection yet nevertheless he can counterfeit it in some measure CHAP. VIII From these three Qualities alone Heat Moisture and Driness proceed all the differences of Wit observ'd among Men. AS long as the Rational Soul is in the Body it is impossible it should perform different and contrary Actions if to each it have its proper and peculiar Instruments This is clearly seen in the Animal Faculty which exercises divers Actions in the exterior Senses each having its particular and proper Organ the Sight has it after one manner the Hearing after another the Taste the Smell and the Touch after another and if this were not so there would be but one sort of Actions all would consist either in the Sight or in the Hearing or in the Taste or in the Smell or in the Touch because the Organ determines the Power to one Action only and not to more From what passes plainly through the exterior Senses we may collect what is acted in the Interior We Understand we Imagine and Remember by the same Animal Virtue But if it be true that each Action requires its particular Instrument there must necessarily be one Organ in the Brain to Understand another to Imagin and a third to Remember for if the whole Brain were Organized after one and the same Manner all would be either Memory or Understanding or Imagination But when we see such different Actions of necessity there must also be divers Instruments And yet if one should Dissect a Head to Anatomize the Brain all would seem composed after the same manner of the like substance without difference of Parts or diversity of Kinds I say that it seems so because as Galen has observ'd Nature has placed abundance of things in Man's Body that are compound which the Senses nevertheless judge to be simple because of the Subtilty of the Mixture Which may also happen in the Brain of a Man though to sight it seems no such thing Besides this there are four small Ventricles in the Cavity of the Brain of which Galen taught the use to him that would learn it of him But for my part I hold that the fourth Ventricle which is behind the Head has no other Function than to digest and refine the Vital Spirits and turn them into Animal Spirits enabling them to give Sense and Motion to all the Parts of the Body because we cannot find in Humane Bodies two such contrary Operations that interfere with each other so much as Reasoning and the Digestive Faculty The reason is that Speculation requires the Repose Serenity and Clearness of the Animal Spirits whereas the Digestion is made with noise and ferment and from that Operation arises many Vapours which infest and darken the Animal Spirits in such manner as the Rational Soul cannot well distinguish the Figures of things Nor was Nature so Inconsiderate to join in one place two Actions that are performed with so great a Repugnance and Contrariety Be it how it will Plato mightily commends the Providence and Care of him who made us for having separated the Liver at so great a distance from the Brain lest by the noise made by the Boiling and Concoction of the Food and by the Obscurity and Clouds cast on the Animal Spirits by the Vapours the Rational Soul should be discomposed in Reasoning However if Plato had not remark'd this from Philosophy we see it every hour by Experience notwithstanding the Liver and the Stomach are so very distant from the Brain yet none can set to Study immediately upon Eating or some time after What seems most true in this matter is that the Office of the fourth Ventricle is to digest and alter the Vital and resolve them into Animal Spirits for the end we have spoke of And for this Reason Nature has also separated the three other and has logded it like a little Brain by it self apart as is to be observed lest by its Operation the Speculation of the other should be disturbed For as to the three little Cells before it is not to be doubted but Nature has made them to Reason and Discourse it clearly appears in deep Studies and Musing which never fails to make that part of the Head ake which corresponds to these three Cavities The strength of this Argument appears if we consider that even the other Powers being Fatigued in performing their Office ever cause some Pain to those Organs with which they are Exercised As after gazing too long a time the Eyes water and after Walking too much the Soles of the Feet will ake Now the difficulty is to know in which of these Cells dwells the Understanding in which the Memory and in which the Imagination because they are so close and near Neighbours that one cannot well distinguish or know it by the Experience we even now spoke of nor by any other Token Moreover if we consider that the Understanding can do nothing
of Fish equally Salt are put in two Vessels of Fresh-Water to freshen that on which a handful of Salt is thrown will freshen sooner than the other A Preacher of good Wit and full of Invention drew from this property a gentile Meditation for Flesh Elisha may have grounded on the Consideration of these natural Properties mentioned by us or at least in good part when with a Vessel of Salt he cured the poysonous and deadly Waters of a certain Country making the Earth fruitful which was barren before Which is easy to prove if we first agree upon the three Natural Principles so true that no Man can deny them The first is that of four Unions or Combinations that may be made of the first Qualities hot and moist hot and dry cold and moist cold and dry all the Physitians and Philosophers say of the first Combination that it is the utter Ruin and total Destruction of Natural Things because the Ambient Heat joyned with Moisture relaxes and disables the Elements that enter the Composition of the Mixture and rends them from their Union so far that each as Aristotle says divides a several Way The second Principle is that all Earths have not the same Quality since as Hippocrates said some are moist others dry some hot others cold some sweet others bitter some insipid and waterish and others salt some crude and others easy of digestion some rude and rough and others soft Which Nature did not without Design nor by Chance but with great Care and Providence having regard to the great Diversity of Plants and Seeds nourished by the Earth for all use not the same sort of Aliment If in two Feet of Earth as Hippocrates says Onyons Lettice Pease and Lupins are Planted Onyons draw of the Earth for their Nourishment that which is Acrid and Biting Lettice that which is Sweet Pease that which is Salt and Lupins that which is Bitter And thus there is neither Herb nor Plant that draws not from the Earth the Aliment which is most friendly and resembling it quitting the rest which it finds neither Relishable nor Familiar but after such a fashion that it fails not to make its use and advantage of other Differences of Earth in as much as Nature has made of all together a certain Preparative and Seasoning which has in it self Sweet Salt Acrid or I know not what that bites like Pepper and Spice after the manner of some Salmigondis for after another manner Experience teaches us that many Herbs blended together tho' they be of different Natures draw away the Virtue from one another What Hippocrates meant is that Lettuce draws from sweet Earth four Ounces and a Drachm of the rest and Pease from that which is Salt two Ounces and very little from other Earth and the like of the other Differences But if the Earth be insipid and without any Salt it can sustain no Plant in as much as the Formal Being of Aliments and what renders them apt to Nourish proceeds as Plato says from Salt and is not like other forc'd Meats or Junkets that awaken the Appetite to recreate it and no more From whence it is certain that the Aliments and Fruits that Nature has made Delicious in Gust are not so for any other Reason but that Nature forming them gave them what they wanted of Salt The third Principle is that the Plants have a Sense and Notice of Nourishment proper to their Nature and though distant they draw it to them as well as fly their Contraries Which Plato fairly confesses when it seems impossible to him that three or four different Aliments lying near their Roots should choose that which is not Familiar and Convenient for them and leave the other as disagreeable and Forreign and of those they digest and alter they want not the Sense to draw that which is most Refined and receive it refusing the rest and repulsing it even to the banishing it at some Distance from their Branches Which Opinion wonderfully pleased Galen so that he said I commend Plato for having call'd the Plants by the name of Animals for we canot say but they attract the Juices fit for them turning them into their Substance which not without a kind of Satisfaction and Complacence they receive In which words Galen frankly owns with Plato that Plants have a Sense and that they entertain themselves with Aliments of a good Savour and agreeable to their Appetite and abhor those of an ill Gust as if they acted the part of real Animals From these Principles we may somewhat solve the Miracle of Elisha for if the Earth corrected and cured by casting Salt thereon was poor and waterish by means of Salt it became savoury and fit to bear and if through the Heat and Moisture of the Air that is in the Caverns of the Earth the Waters were found stinking and corrupt the same was naturally remedied by the Qualities of Salt which we have mentioned and if the Earth was barren through the too great quantity of Salt by means of the same Salt sowed therein it came to be fresher The Miracle was that Elisha with one only Vessel full of Salt cured if I may say so and meliorated so great a quantity of Earth and Water as it fared in the Miracle of the Wilderness where with five Barley Loaves and two Fishes God fed five thousand Men and twelve Basketsful remained to which Act Nature served the Bread and the Fish whose property was to Support and Nourish and God bestowed on it the Quantity necessary for Refreshment Partridges and Woodcocks have the same Substance and Temperament with Wheaten Bread and Kid and Muscatel Wine and if Fathers use these Meats as we have above specified they will beget Children of good Understanding And if they would have a Child of a great Memory let them eat eight or nine days before the Act of Copulation Trouts Salmons Lampreys Barbels and Eels which Meats produce a moist and clammy Seed These two Qualities as we have said before make the Memory easy to receive and very tenacious to keep the Figures long By Pidgeons Kid Onyons Garlic Leeks Radishes Pepper Vinegar White-Wine Honey and all sorts of Spice the Seed is made hot and dry and of very delicate Parts The Boy that is engendred from this Food will be of a great Imagination but not of like Understanding by means of much Heat and of little Memory from great Dryness Such are very dangerous to a State because their Heat inclines them to many Vices and Evils and gives them Wit and Spirit to put them in practice But if they be kept under the Common-Wealth will receive more Service from their Imaginations than from their Understandings or Memories The Physitians finding by Experience the great Power the Temperament of the Brain has to make a Man Wise and Considerate have invented a certain Medicine composed after such a manner and provided with such qualities that being taken in a due Measure