Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	motion_n	muscle_n	nerve_n	1,570	5	11.4857	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44824	Examen de ingenios, or, The tryal of wits discovering the great difference of wits among men, and what sort of learning suits best with each genius / published originally in Spanish by Doctor Juan Huartes ; and made English from the most correct edition by Mr. Bellamy.; Examen de ingenios. English	Huarte, Juan, 1529?-1588.; Bellamy, Mr. (Edward)	1698 (1698)	Wing H3205; ESTC R5885	263,860	544

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