this not being to be done our Work appearing in Public to all the World it is impossible but I must needs leave you somewhat Surprized for if your's is a common and Vulgar Wit I doubt not but you are perswaded that the Number and Perfection of the Sciences has been by the Antients long since determined guided by a vain Reason that since they could find out nothing more to say 't is a sign that there is nothing new and if you happen to have such Sentiments go no further nor read any longer for it will but vex you to know what a wretched kind of Wit you are Master of but if you are deliberate and discreet I have three very true Conclusions to propose to you which for their Novelty are not a little to be admired The first is That of all the different Wits of Men there is but one as predominant can fall to thy share unless Nature straining hard as it were to form two or three Excellencies more in thee and being unable to effect what she designed has left thee off unwrought in haste as a rude Essay of an unfinish'd Piece The Second that to each different kind of Wit corresponds one Science only transcendently and no more for which reason if thou art not well assured in the Choice of what suits thy Talent thou wilt find thy self very short in the rest with the most assiduous Application The Third that after thou hast found out what Science corresponds best with thy Wit there remains if thou wouldst not err another greater difficulty which is whether the Practic or Theory suits best with thy Genius for these two Parts in all Sciences whatever are so opposite to each other and require Wits so diverse that they may be set one against the other in the place of Contraries A hard saying this I own and yet hard as it is what is yet the hardest of all is there is no Writ of Error or Appeal for who can say that he has received any Wrong for God is the Author of Nature who dispenses to each Man but one kind of Genius as I said but now notwithstanding the Opposition and Difficulty that lies in the uniting them he accommodates himself to her and of the Sciences he distributes Gratis amongst Men in a Miraculous way he gives no more than one in an Eminent Degree There are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit And there are diversities of Administrations but the same Lord And there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal for to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the Gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another the Working of Miracles to another Prophecy to another the discerning of Spirits to another divers kinds of Tongues to another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh one and the same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will Upon the whole Matter you see that even the Graces Men possess in the Church are very different yet are they all distributed by one and the same Spirit who is the source of all The Ministerial Employments are divers and yet 't is one and the same Lord who calls both the one and the other to his respective Function Neither is the Power of working Miracles equal and alike in all though it is the same God who produceth those Miraculous Acts which are performed by those to whom he has given that Power Nor are you to think that the Distribution of these Gifts which proclaim the Holy Spirit 's dwelling in him who possesses the same is without reason unequal Since in their distribution God has regard to what is of more Use and Advantage either for the farther Confirmation of those who already are Believers or for the Conversion of such as are yet Idolaters Whence it comes that one receives from the Holy Ghost the Gift of Wisdom to uncypher Divine Mysteries and another the Gift of Knowledge from the same Spirit and that also one has Faith by virtue of which he works a vast number of Miracles and heals all incurable Diseases another is armed with a power of Miracles of another kind as of foretelling many things to Come of Penetrating into the Breasts of Men and discerning the several secret Springs of all their outward Motions Hence is it one speaks many Languages unlearned and another is the Interpreter to understand them all because as I told you before it is one and the same Spirit who is Author of all these Gifts and who distributes them according to his good Pleasure I question not in the least but God made that distribution of Sciences with regard to each Man's Wit and Natural Genius seeing the Talents he bestow'd in St. Matthew says the same Evangelist that he distributed them to each according to his own Virtue For 't is a very gross Mistake to fancy that these Supernatural Sciences require not certain previous Dispositions in the Subject before they can be infused For when God Form'd Adam and Eve 't is certain that he first filled them with Wisdom in Organizing their Brain after such a manner as was every way becoming an Instrument appropriated to Reason and Discourse To this purpose speaks Sacred Writ He has filled them with the Spirit of God in Wisdom in Knowledge in Vnderstanding and in all manner of Workmanship And according to the difference of each Man's Wit one Science was rather infused than another and more or less of each of them which may be understood by the same Instance of our first Parents for when God fill'd 'em both with Wisdom 't is agreed on by all hands that he gave less to Eve which was the Cause say the Divines that the Devil undertook to seduce her not daring to tempt Man as being in awe of a Superior Wisdom The reason of this as we shall prove by and by is that the Natural Composition of Woman's Brains is not susceptible either of much Wit or great Wisdom We shall find the same thing in Angelic Substances that God to raise one Angel to greater Degrees of Glory and more elevated Gifts gave him first a more delicate Nature And if one should ask the Divines of what use is that Delicate Nature they answer That an Angel who is of a more Elevated Understanding and refined Nature more readily inclines to the Will of God and more efficaciously employs those Gifts the self same Thing happening even among Men. Whence may manifestly be inferred that seeing there is a difference of Wits for Supernatural Sciences and that all kind of Capacities are not fit Instruments alike for them by far greater reason Humane Learning requires it because what Men learn is purely by force of their Wit The
as being not of this Rank that has its proper Temperament of Body either to facilitate or retard him in his Actions this Temperament then the Moralists improperly call Virtue or Vice considering that Men ordinarily speaking betray no other Inclinations than those mark'd out by this Temperament I say ordinarily speaking because in effect many Mens Souls are fill'd with perfect Virtue although the Organs of their Body afford them no Temperament subservient to accomplish the Desires of the Soul and yet nevertheless for all that by virtue of their Free Will they fail not to act like good Men though not without some Struggle and Reluctance According to which St. Paul has said I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin In which Words St. Paul gives us to understand that he felt within himself two Laws wholly opposite one in his Soul which made him to love God's Law the other in his Members that led him to Sin Whence we may gather that the Virtues St. Paul had in his Soul did not correspond with the Constitution of his Body it being necessary for them to act with a sweet Consent and without the Resistance of the Flesh his Soul aspir'd to Pray and Meditate but when in order to this the motion presented to his Brain it was found indisposed because of his great Coldness and Moisture which are stupifying Qualities and proper to move to Sleep Of the same Temper were the three Disciples that accompanied Jesus Christ in the Garden when he Pray'd telling them The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak In like manner his Spirit would have Fasted and when to that end the Offer was made to his Stomach he found it weak and without strength as having an unruly Appetite His Soul would have him Chast and Continent but when the motion presented to the Parts of Generation it found them inflamed with Concupiscence and inciting him to Actions of a contrary Nature and Tendency With such like Inclinations as these virtuous Persons find it a hard Task to live well and not without Reason was it said That the Road to Virtue was covered over with Thorns But if the same Soul that is bent upon Meditation meets a Brain Hot and Dry which are the Dispositions peculiar to Watching and if when it attempts to Fast it finds a Stomach Hot and Dry of which Constitution according to Galen the Man is that loaths Meats and if when it aims to Embrace Chastity it meets the Parts of Generation Cold and Moist without doubt it will accomplish the several Proposals without any Struggle or Reluctance whatever because the Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members exact both the same thing and such a Man in such a Case may act Virtuously without any Violence to his Nature Wherefore Galen said That it was the Part of a Physician to make a Man Virtuous that was formerly Vitious and that the Moral Philosophers committed a great over-sight in not making use of Physic for attaining the Perfection of their Art since in Correcting only the ill Constitution of the Body they might make the Virtuous act without any Check and with a sweet Consent What I would desire of Galen and all the Moral Philosophers is that admitting it to be true that to each Virtue and Vice seated in the Soul there corresponds a particular Temperament of Body which Aids or Diverts it in Acting they would have given us a particular Account of all Mens Virtues and Vices and have told us by which Corporal Qualities both one and the other are Supplanted or Maintain'd to the End we might not be to seek for a proper Remedy Aristotle knew well that a good Temperament made a Man Prudent and of a good Disposition which occasion'd him to say That the good Temperament did not only affect the Body but also the Mind of Man But he has not shewn what this good Temperament was on the contrary he asserted That Mens Dispositions were founded upon Hot and Cold. But Hippocrates and Galen exclude those two Qualities as Vitious approving the Equality of Temperament where the Heat exceeds not Cold nor the Moisture Driness Which made Hippocrates say If the great Moisture of the Water and the excessive Driness of the Fire are equally Temper'd in the Body the Man will be very Wise Nevertheless many Physicians because of the great Reputation of the Author upon Enquiring into this Temperament have found that it does not Answer what Hippocrates promised but on the contrary their Opinion was that those who had it were Weak Men and of little Vigor and did not express in their Actions so much Conduct as those of an ill Constitution They are of a very Sweet and Affable Temper and Inoffensive to every Man in Word and Deed which makes them pass for very Virtuous and void of Passion which raises Tempests in the Soul These Physicians disapprove the equal Temperament inasmuch as it disables and flats the force of the Spirits and is the cause they do not act freely as they ought Which appears evidently in two Seasons of the Year the Spring and Autumn when the Air falls out to be Temperate for then happen the Diseases insomuch that the Body is observ'd to be much more healthful when it is either very Hot or very Cold than during the mediocrity of the Spring Time Sacred Writ in speaking of the sensible Qualities seems in a mariner to favour this Opinion I would thou wert either Cold or Hot so then because thou art Lukewarm I will spue thee out of my Mouth Which seems to me to be grounded upon Aristotle's Doctrine who held for an infallible Opinion that all the Natural Actions of Man consisted in Heat and Cold and not in a Lukewarmness and Mediocrity of Constitution But Aristotle would have done well to have told us what Virtue corresponds to each of the Qualities and to what again the contrary Vice that so we might have applied in Practice the Remedies prescribed by Galen As for me I believe Cold is of more Importance to the Rational Soul to preserve its Virtues in due Peace and to prevent all undue Ferments amongst the Humours for Galen says no less there is no Quality so much blunts the Concupiscible and Irascible Faculty as Cold nor that so powerfully excites the Rational Faculty as Aristotle assures us that does especially if it be joined with Driness for this is certain as the Inferior Part is disabled or depressed the Faculties of the Rational Soul in the same proportion are exalted and inlarged But be that as
190. l. 12. r. Requesens ib. l. 18. r. understood Latin p. 192. l. 19. r. yet owns p. 199. l. 3. r Problems p. 221. l. 4. r. at a loss p. 222. l. 20. r. Alcala p. 223. l. 30. r. repetition p. 241. Margin r. driness p. 252. l. 24. r. le ts p. 253. l. 18. r. Laws p. 315. l. 16. r. Captains p. 334. l. 1. r. haste to go we should p. 345. l. 6. r. Henares p. 353. l. 13. r. it is p. 363. l. 10. r. Physiâ—ian p. 371. l. 19. r. Turk p. 38.6 l. 1. r. his p. 405. l. 18. r. Women's p. 432. l. 25. r. in The Literal and Paginal Mistakes the Reader may please to Correct THE TRYAL OF WITS c. CHAP. I. What Wit is and what Differences of it are ordinarily observ'd among Men. 'T IS one of Plato's Precepts That all who pretend to Write or Teach ought to begin their Doctrin with the Definition of the thing treated of its Nature Difference and Propriety That gives the Learner a true relish and prevents the Writers launching out into needless Questions or flying from those most proper for compleating the Work The reason of this is that the Definition ought to be so close and comprehensive that there should hardly be found any thing either in the handling that Science or in the due method which should not be pointed to in it Therefore if they do not begin thus 't is impossible to observe Order in any sort of Science Seeing then that Wit and Ability in Men is the entire Subject of this Book it will be convenient first to understand the Definition and what it essentially comprehends for when we rightly apprehend that we shall then also find the true method of teaching this New Doctrin and whereas the Name as the same Philosopher observes is as the Instrument by which the Substances of things are taught and distinguish'd We must know this word Ingenio in Spanish and Ingenium in Latin which signifies Wit is derived from one of these three Latin Words Gigno Genero Ingenero as much as to Ingender and it seems rather to come from the last considering the Sound and Number of Letters and Syllables it borrows thence and what we shall hereafter add of its Signification The Reason upon which the first Inventers of this Word built is not trivial in order to know how to find the Names and good Agreement which things lately discover'd require Plato says this only belongs to Heroes and to Men of deep Thought as may be seen in the Invention of this Word Ingenio to find it out there will be required much subtle Speculation and strong Natural Philosophy by which one may discover two generative Powers in Man one common with the Beasts and Plants and the other Participating of Spiritual Substances God and the Angels It is our Province to discourse of the first which is well known there being more difficulty in the second because their Birth and manner of Procreation are not so manifest to all the World Nevertheless speaking according to Natural Philosophers 't is a clear Case that Wit is a Generative Power and if we may so say becomes pregnant and brings forth that has I say Children and moreover as Plato affirms wants a Midwife to deliver her For like as the Plant or Animal in the Generation of the first sort gives a real and substantial Being to what they produce which they have not before Generation even so Wit has the Power and natural Force to produce and bring forth within it self a Son which the Natural Philosophers call Notion or as it has been accounted the Word of the Spirit And not only the aforesaid Philosophers speak of it after this manner maintaining the Understanding to be a Generative Faculty and calling that a Son which it produces but Sacred Writ it self speaking of the Generation of the Eternal Word makes use of the same Terms of Father and Son or Ingender and bring forth When there were no Depths I was brought forth when there were no Fountains abounding with Water before the Mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth So also is it certain that the Divine Word had its Eternal Generation from the Prolifick Understanding of the Father My Heart that is to say my Thoughts have indicted a good Word And not only the Divine Word but also all things comprehended in the Universe Visible and Invisible have been produc'd by the self-same Power Whence the Natural Philosophers considering the Fecundity of the Divine Understanding have named it Genius which is by an Excellence as much as the Engenderer And though the rational Soul and other Spiritual Substances may be call'd Genii from being Fruitful in the Production of some Thoughts relating to Science and Wisdom yet they have not always an Intellect of sufficient Force and Power in their Generation to give a real being to what they Ingender as subsisting by its self like as it happens in the Generation of those things which God has made all their Generative Virtue serves to produce an accident in the Memory which after it is produced is in the end but an Idea and Image of what we know and understand very far from that which comes to pass in the Ineffable Generation of the Word Divine where that which is Engender'd is of the same Substance with the Father as the other things which God has produc'd represent him from without by a real and substantial Being which we now see in them but for the Ideas in Man's Understanding if they are such things as relate to Art they don't immediately receive the Being they ought to have However thus much must be done to draw a perfect Idea by which we are to form 'em 't is necessary before-hand to make a thousand strokes in the Air to build many Models and in the end to set our hand to the Work to give them the Being they ought to have and notwithstanding all that they happen for the most part to be defective The same thing falls out in other Conceptions Man forms to understand Natural things and what relates to their being there or the Image the Understanding conceives of 'em by an Admirable Resemblance of the first Thought with something living and to draw a Copy that may come up pretty near the Original 't is requisite to assemble an Infinite Number of Spirits to labour a long time that after all spend themselves in producing only a thousand Extravagancies This Doctrin then being suppos'd we must now understand that the Arts and Sciences Men study are only a sort of Images and Figures begotten by their Minds in their Memory which represent to the Life the Posture and natural Composition of the Subject relating to the intended Science As for Instance Physick was nothing else in Hippocrates and Galen's Heads but a Picture nakedly presenting the Structure of the Body of Man together with the Cause and Cure of his Diseases The
an Orator who makes use of Words agreeable to the Ear and of Sentences convenient for Proof 'T is certain that this appertains to the Imagination seeing there is a Consonance of agreeable Words and a Pertinence in the Sentences The second good quality of a perfect Orator is to have an exuberant Invention and a large stock of Reading for if he be to amplify and prove any subject given him by many Passages and Sentences cited to purpose of course he ought to have a quick Imagination which should be like a Setting-Dog that hunts and brings the Game to hand and when he is at a fault he must feign so well as if the thing were really true For this reason we have said before that Heat is the Instrument with which the Imagination acts in as much as this quality raises the Figures in making them boyl as it were so that we discover by this means all we would see and if there be nothing more to consider the Imagination has power not only to compose Figures of things possible one with another but also to join such as are Impossible after the order of Nature and thence to frame Mountains of Gold and flying Calves In lieu of Invention Orators may help themselves with much Reading where the Imagination fails but after all Book-learning is bounded and limited and the proper Invention runs free like a good Fountain whence daily flows fresh and new Water To retain what one has Read requires a great Memory and glibly to repeat it in an Assembly is not to be done without the same Faculty which occasioned Cicero to say That Orator in my Opinion is worthy of so great a Name who can Discourse upon any Subject that offers Discreetly which is to accommodate himself with respect to his Auditors to Time Place and Occasions Copiously with the Ornaments of Language and without Book We have heretofore said and prov'd that Discretion belongs to the Imagination the Stock of Words and Sentences to the Memory the Beauty and Polish to the Imagination how to recite so many things without any Rub or Hesitancy most certainly is due to the help of a good Memory To the same purpose Cicero said that a good Orator should speak without Book not from his Notes For you must know that Master Anthony Lebrixa came to be so defective in Memory in his Age that he read out of a Paper his Rhetoric-Lectures to his Scholars and because he was so eminent in his profession and confirmed with good Proofs the Points as they lay in order and that they were no less satisfied of his defect of Memory it went off current But that which was not to be endured was that dying suddenly of an Apoplexy the University of Alcula recommended his Funeral Oration to an eminent Preacher who invented and disposed what he had to say the best he could but being so straitned in Time that he had not due space to Con it without Book he went up into the Pulpit with his Notes in his Hand and began after this manner What this excellent Man whose Obsequies we this day celebrate us'd to do whilst he read to his Scholars I am resolved now to do in Imitation of him for his Death was so suddain and the Orders I received to make his Funeral Oration so late that I had neither Time nor Space to Study for what was convenient for me to say much less to get the same without Book What I could draw up this Night is committed to my Notes which I intreat your Worships to hear with patience and to make allowance for my Defect of Memory This way of Preaching or rather Reading of Notes was so ill resented by the Auditory as they could not hold all the while from Smiling and Murmuring Therefore Cicero said well that he must harangue without Book and not from his Notes This Preacher really wanted Invention of his own which he was obliged to supply from his Books and that requires long Study and a great Memory but those who draw it out of their own Head need no Study Time nor Memory because they readily find it in themselves and very often at the very Instant all that they have to say such may Preach to the same Congregation all their Lives without repeating any thing they have said twenty Years before whereas those who want Invention in less than two Lents turn over all their Books and run thro' their Manuscripts and Common-places so that the third Lent they must go and Preach to a new Parish if they would not be upbraided with this is no more than the Reception of what you Preached the last Year The third Property a good Orator ought to have is to know how to dispose what he has invented and to reduce every thing to it's proper place In such sort as one thing may bring in another and the whole correspond in a just Proportion of all the Parts And accordingly Cicero said That Disposition is no other than an Order and good Concert which ought be to observed in the Distribution of Sayings and Sentences to be made use of to the People and that shews us in which Place which Things ought to be placed To the end that there being a Correspondence between the parts there may arise a true Figure Which Grace when it is not Natural is won't to give a great deal of Trouble to the Preachers for having found in Books many things to say all have not the Skill to reduce them to their proper Place It is certain that this property of Ordering and Distributing is a Work of the Imagination because it has the name of Figure and Correspondence The fourth Property good Orators ought to have and most Important of them all is Action by which they give as it were a Life to what they say moving the Auditors and engaging them to believe that to be true which they endeavour to persuade Accordingly Cicero said That the Action is governed by the turn of the Face the gestures of the Body and different Tones of the Voice requisite to what is said as in raising or falling of the Voice irritating and all on a suddain Appeasing Speaking some times with a High-Voyce sometimes with a Low now Chiding and then Flattering moving the Body sometimes to one side sometimes to the other now shutting the Hands and then opening them Laughing and Crying and upon some Occasions clapping the Hands together Of so great Concern is this Gift to Preachers that with it alone without either Invention or Disposition they will make a Sermon of common Matters and of small Moment that shall fill the People with Admiration being animated with Action which may be called in another Word the Spirit and Life of Elocution There is in this one thing highly remarkable which shews how much this Gift can do which is that the Sermons which appear extreamly well as they are set off with all the Advantages of Action and