we see all that have Excelled whether it be in the Study of Philosophy or Government or the Poets or in any other Art whatsoever have been Melancholy Never to see Women but to fly wholly their Company how much that over-cools the Body and what new Changes are incident to Persons becoming Chast Galen makes appear by abundance of Observations he had made He recounts amongst others what happened to a Friend of his a Widdower who immediately lost his Stomach to that degree as he could only digest the Yolk of an Egg and if by constraint he Eat as formerly he strait Vomited and was withal Lumpish and Dull upon which Galen's advice to him was to Marry again if he 'd recover his Health and thereupon said he He was immediately freed from all his Complaints as soon as he returned to his old way of Living The same Physician tells of some Choristers who finding by Experience the near Correspondence between the Testicles and the Throat and that to sport with Women endangers the spoiling of the Voice they were Chast by constraint that they might not lose the good Cheer and the Pay which were the returns of their Musick And Galen says further That their Privy Parts were so small so cold and so lank as they look'd like Old Men. But on the contrary the Wanton had large Genitals because they kept them often in use the Seminal Vessels being large and distended from which issued abundance of Spirits and Natural Heat for as Plato observ'd long since It is Exercise makes the Parts of the Body more able as they are Impaired by not Exerting them as they are directed As it is certain that in each Act of Venery the Parts of Generation are more and more provoked remaining more able and disposed to repeat the Act again but as often as a Man checks his Inclination he becomes colder and less able for Generation Whence I collect that a Man who by this means is become Continent and Chast soon obtains an habitual Frigidity by which he Performs with the same Aversion and Reluctance as an Old Man or one that is born Impotent or an Eunuch Those then that desire to be Chast and not to be provoked by the Flesh being conscious of their Infirmity may serve themselves of cold Medicines and of such things as by Impairing and Consuming the Seed render them frigid and in this Sense this Passage is to be understood Happy are they that are made Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven All that ever we have said and confirmed in relation to Chastity and Incontinence is no less true of other Virtues and Vices respectively for each has his particular Temperament of Heat and Cold and is to be understood more or less of the Constitution of each Part of the Body and of the greater or lesser degrees of these two Qualities I have declared for Heat and Cold because there is neither Virtue nor Vice rooted in Moisture nor in Driness for according to Aristotle's Opinion these two Qualities are purely Passive as Heat and Cold are Active Whereupon he asserted That our Natural Inclinations are more from Heat and Cold than from any thing else in our Bodies and in this he conspires with the Holy Scripture which says I would rather thou wert Cold or Hot c. The reason of which is because there is no Man found of so exact a Constitution as is required to be the Foundation of Virtue Whereupon Sacred Writ and Philosophy chose Heat and Cold because there are no other Qualities wherein to place the Virtues although this be not without something in Counterballance to them for suppose there are abundance of Virtues correspondent to Cold and Heat these Qualities fail no less at all times to be the source of abundance of Vices by which means it is a great Miracle if there be a Man found so Lewd who has not some Virtues natural to him or so Virtuous that has not some Vices But the Quality observed to be best for the Rational Soul is the cold Constitution of Body This is easily prov'd if we run through the several Stages of Man's Life Infancy Youth Manhood Middle-Age and Old-Age for we find that because each Age respectively has its particular Temperament accordingly at one time a Man is Vitious at another Virtuous in one he is Indiscreet or Perverse and in the other Wise and better Advis'd Infancy is nothing else but a hot and moist Temperament in which Plato said the Rational Soul was as it were plunged and stifled not being able freely to employ the Understanding Will or Affections till in length of Time it passes to another Age and has gain'd a new Temperament The Virtues of Infancy are very many and the Vices but very few Children says Plato admire from what Principles the Sciences arise In the next Place they are Docile Tractable Gentle and Easy to receive the Impression of all Kinds of Virtues In the third Place they are Bashful and full of Fear which according to Plato is the Foundation of Temperance In the fourth place they are Credulous and Easy to be led they are Charitable Frank Chast Humble Innocent and Undesigning To which Virtues Jesus Christ had regard when he said to his Disciples Except you become as little Children you shall not Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven We know not of what Age the Child was whom God proposed for our Imitation but you must know Hippocrates divided Infancy into three or four Stations and because Children from the First to the Fourteenth Year always admit abundance of Humours and a variety of Temperament so likewise they are subject to divers Diseases and their Souls at the same time not without a great many different Virtues and Vices In consideration of which Plato began to Instruct a Child from the very First Year although he could not then Speak directing his Nurse how to distinguish by his Laughing his Tears and even his Silence his Virtues and Vices and how she should Correct them Holy Writ declared that Saul had the Virtues of this Age when he was chosen King He was a Child of a Year Old when he began to Reign Whence it appears that God made the same Division as Hippocrates observing the Virtues of Infancy by the Years Youth which is the Second Age of Man is reckon'd from the Fourteenth to the Five and Twentieth Year this Age according to the Opinion of Physicians is neither Hot nor Cold nor Moist nor Dry but Temperate and in a Mediocrity of all the Qualities the Parts of the Body in this Temperament are such as the Soul requires for all sorts of Virtues and especially for Wisdom For after this manner speaks Hippocrates if the great Moisture of the Water and the extream Driness of the Fire happen to be equally Temper'd in the Body the Man will be very Wise and endued with an Excellent Memory The Virtues we have allotted to Infancy seem to be acts proceeding from meer
has big Veins on the contrary to abound with Flesh very soft and smooth is an Indication of much Moisture by means whereof the Natural Heat is dilated and extended throughout The Colour of the Skin likewise if it be Brown Tawny Olive-coloured and Dark is a Mark that the Man is hot and dry in the third Degree and if the Flesh be clear and well-coloured it is a Sign of little Heat and more Moisture The Hair and Beard are Signs to be regarded for these two approach very near to the Temperament of the Testicles If the Hair be much very black and large especially from the Hanches to the Navel 't is an infallible Token that the Genitals partake much of Hot and Dry. Which is yet more confirmed if there grow Hair upon the Shoulders But when the Hair the Beard and the Down are Chesnut coloured soft delicate and thin 't is a sign the Testicles are not so hot nor dry Men very hot and dry are rarely very Handsom but rather hard-favoured and ill shaped because Heat and Dryness as Aristotle said of the Ethiophians wryth the proportions of the Face and so they become disfigured Quite contrary to be well shaped and comely shews a moderate Heat and Humidity which renders the Matter supple and pliant to what Nature designed whence it is manifest that great Beauty in a Man is no Sign of much Heat Touching the Signs of a Temperate Man we have discoursed at large in the foregoing Chapter so that there is no need of Repetition It suffices only to note that as the Physitians place in each Degree of Heat three Degrees of Intention so also in a Temperate Man are to be allowed the extent and latitude of three others For he that stands in the third Degree next to cold and moist is to be reputed cold and moist For when a Degree has exceeded the Mean it resembles the Degree it approaches And that this is true appears clearly in that the Signs given by Galen to know a Man cold and moist are the same with those of a Temperate Man only a little more remiss so he is Wise good-Conditioned and Virtuous has his Voice clear and sweet is fair and of good Flesh smooth and without Hair and if he have any the same is little and yellow Such are ruddy and of beautiful Faces but their Seed as Galen says is waterish and unfit for Generation These are no great Friends to Women nor Women to them Article II. What Women ought to Marry with what Men to have Children TO a Woman who bears no Children when she is Married Hippocrates orders two Applications to be made use of to discover if the Fault be hers or her Husbands The first is to fume her with Frankinsence or Storax her Garments close wrapt and trailing on the Ground that no Fume or Vapour issue out and if after some time she feels in her Mouth the savour of the Incence it is a sure Sign that the Fault lies not at her Door since the Fume found the Passages of the Womb open from which it pierced even to the Nose and Mouth The other is to take a Head of Garlic clean pill'd and put it into the Womb when the Woman goes to Bed and if the next day she have the scent of the Garlic in her Mouth she is of her self assuredly fruitful without any Defect But though these two Experiments produce the Effects Hippocrates speaks of namely that the Vapour pierces from the lower Parts up to the Mouth yet the same concludes not that the Husband is absolutely impotent nor the Wife entirely fruitful but only an ill Correspondence between both so that in this case she proves as barren for him as he for her Which we see by daily Experience for the same Man taking another Wife begets Children and which encreases the Wonder in such as are ignorant of this point of natural Philosophy is that these two separating upon pretence of Impotence and he taking an other Wife and she another Husband they both come to have Children and the reason of it is there are some Men whose Generative faculty is not fit for nor active on one Woman yet for an other is potent and prolific As we see by Experience in the Stomach that a Man has a better Appetite to one Dish and to another though better it is as dead What Correspondence there should be between Man and Wife to have Issue Hippocrates notes thus Vnless the hot with the cold and the dry with the moist answer in measure and equality nothing will come on it For such a wonderful Work as is the Formation of Man requires a Temperament where the Heat exceeds not the Cold nor the Moist the Dry. Therefore if the Man's Seed be hot and the Woman 's so likewise there will be no Issue This being suppos'd let us consider by way of Example a Woman cold and moist in the first Degree of whom we have asserted the Signs to be that she is witty Ill-humoured strong Voiced spare of Flesh swarthy in Complection Hairy and Ill-favoured She will soon conceive by a Fool that is good-natured of Voice sweet and well-sounding very Fleshy Fair and Plump little Hair well Coloured and fair Faced The same may also be Married to a temperate Man whose Seed we said after the Opinion of Galen is most fruitful and answerable to whatever Woman provided she be sound and of Age convenient But yet withal it is very difficult for her to conceive and if she conceives Hippocrates says that within two Months she will Miscarry not having Blood sufficient to nourish her self and the Foetus in her Womb nine Months Yet this may find an easy Remedy by often repeating the Bath before she keep company with her Husband and the Bath ought to be of sweet and hot Water which the same Hippocrates says gives the true Temperament the Woman ought to have relaxing and moistening her Flesh which is also the disposition the Earth ought to have that the Grain may take root and spread It produces yet a greater effect it encreases the Appetite abates the Resolution and causes a greater quantity of natural Heat by which means abundance of flegmatic Blood is bred wherewith to nourish the Foetus during the nine Months The Marks of a Woman cold and moist in the third Degree are these To be Dull Good-natured to have a very delicate Voice much Flesh and the same White and Soft to want Hair and Down and not to be over-handsom Such a one should Marry with a Man hot and dry in the third Degree because this Man's Seed is of such fury and fervence that it ought of necessity to fall into a place very cold and moist that it may hold and take root like Watercresses that wont grow but in Water But if it were less not and dry it would fall into a Womb so cold and moist with the like effect as Wheat
lay down the Conditions to be observed that a Boy without failing may begot I say then that Fathers in order to attain this End must carefully observe six Things The first is to eat Meats hot and dry The second to procure good Digestion in the Stomach The third to use much Exercise The fourth not to apply to the Act of Venery till the Seed be well ripened and seasoned The fifth to Company with the Wife four or five Days before her Menses The sixth to procure that the Seed may fall on the right side of the Womb. Which Points being observed as we have directed 't is impossible to get a Girl For the First Condition you are to know that tho' a good Stomach digests and alters the Meat divesting it of the Qualities it had before yet it does not entirely destroy them For if we eat Lettuce whose Nature is cold and moist the Blood it produces will be cold and moist and the Serum cold and moist and the Seed also cold and moist and if we eat Honey which is hot and dry the Blood it breeds will be hot and dry the Serum hot and dry and the Blood likewise hot and dry because 't is impossible as Galen says that the Humours should not partake of the Substance and Qualities which the Food had before it was eaten If it be true then that the producing of Males depends on the Seed's being hot and dry in the time of the Formation it is certain that Fathers ought to eat Meats hot and dry to get a Boy However it must be confess'd that there is a very dangerous thing in this Procedure and it is from the Seed's being very Hot and Dry as we have often already said of Course there will proceed a malicious crafty deceitful Man and inclined to all kind of Vices and Ills. And such Men as these if they are not curbed are very dangerous to the State therefore it were better that they should not be Born But for all this there will not be wanting some that will say with the Proverb Nasca me hijo varon y sea Ladron Let me have a Boy and let him be a Thief because Eccles c. 20. The Iniquity of a Man is more allowable than the well-doing of a Woman Tho' this may be easily remedied by the use of temperate Meats and which partake a little of Hot and Dry or by the Preparation as adding Spice thereto Such Meats says Galen are Pullets Partridge Turtles Woodcocks Pidgeons Threshes Blackbirds and Kid which in the Opinion of Hippocrates should be eat rosted to heat and dry up the Seed The Bread they eat should be White of the finest Flower kneeded with Salt and Aniseeds because the Brown is cold and moist as we shall prove hereafter and very prejudicial to Wit Let their Drink be Whitewine mixt with Water in such quantity as the Stomach can bear and the Water that is mixt should be fresh and pure The second Care we have proposed to be observed is to eat these Meats in a moderate quantity that the Stomach may digest them for tho' by Nature they are hot and dry yet they become cold and moist whenever the natural Heat cannot digest them therefore tho' Fathers do eat Honey and drink White-wine they 'l make their Seed cold by these Meats and so get Girls and not Boys 'T is for this Reason the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry undergo this misfortune and discontent to have more Girls than poor People because they Eat and Drink more than their Stomach can bear or digest and tho' their Meats be hot and dry Sauced with Sugar Spice and Honey through being eaten on too great a quantity they become crude and not to be digested But the Crudity more prejudicial to Generation is that of Wine because this Liquor being so vaporous and fumous causes the other Aliments with it self to pass wholly undigested to the Spermatic Vessels and so the Seed falsely provokes a Man e're yet it be digested and seasoned Which made Plato commend so highly a Law he observed in the Commonwealth of Carthage by which it was provided that the New-Married-Couple should drink no Wine on the Day they designed to lie together importing that this Liquor much incommoded the Child's Health and that it was Cause sufficient to make it Vitious and of ill Inclinatitions but if the same be moderately taken there is no Sustenance affords so good Seed to the end we propos'd as White-wine especially to give Wit and Ability which is that to which we most pretend The third Caution we prescribed was to use more than moderate Exercise for this wasts and consumes the superfluous Moisture of the Seed and heats and dries the same by which a Man is rendered prolific and more able for Generation and on the contrary to give our selves to Ease and not to Exercise of the Body is one of the ways most to cool and moisten the Seed Therefore the Rich and Riotous abound in Girls more than the Poor that work hard To this purpose Hippocrates recounts that the Principal among the Scythians were very soft and effeminate and addicted to Women's Works to Sweep to Scower and to Bake and by this means were impotent in Generation and if they ever begot a Male Child it proved an Eunuch or Hermaphrodite at which being ashamed and disgusted they resolved to offer Sacrifices and Gifts to their God with Prayers not to treat them so or to afford them a Remedy for this Defect since it lay in his Power Hippocrates jeered them saying that no Effect befalls us but what is Wonderful and Divine if it be rightly considered for resolving them all into their Natural Causes the last terminates in God by whose Power all worldly Agents operate but that there are some Effects that refer immediately to God as those out of the Order of Nature and others that mediately refer to him running through all the intermediate Causes leading to the End The Country inhabited by the Scythians is as Hipporcates said Northerly extraordinarily Cold and Moist where through the abundance of Clouds the Sun is rarely seen Rich Men sit there always on Horse-back never exercising eating and drinking more than their Natural Heat is able to digest all which occasions the Seed to be cold and moist For which cause they get abundance of Girls and if they happen to have a Boy 't is such a one as we have described Know said Hippocrates to them that the Remedy for this is not to offer Sacrifices to God and no more but to walk on Foot Eat little and Drink less and not sit always at your Ease and the better to discern this cast your Eyes on the Poor of your Country and on your Slaves who not only make no Sacrifices nor offer Gifts to God not having wherewith but even Blaspheme his Blessed Name and speak injuriously of him for placing them in so mean a
require one and the same Quality which is Dryness and therefore the Precepts and Rules we are to lay down for making Children Wise will be no less conducing to their Health and long Life It will be convenient then as soon as the Child is born of Parents that are Nice and Delicate supposing it's Flesh colder and moister than is convenient for Child-hood to wash it in salt hot Water which in the Opinion of all Physicians drys and hardens the Flesh confirms the Sinews and makes the Child strong and manly And by wasting the superfluous Moisture of the Brain makes him Witty and frees him from many dangerous Diseases On the contrary the Bath being of fresh hot Water for that the same moistens the Flesh says Hippocrates breeds Five evils Effeminacy of Flesh Weakness of the Sinews Dulness of Wit a Flux of Blood and Failure of Courage But if the Child come into the World with too much Dryness it is convenient to wash him often in fresh hot Water and thus Hippocrates directs to Bath Children long in warm Water to prevent Convulsions to make them grow apace and be of better Complexion It is certain this is to be meant of Children that are born Dry whose evil Temperament is necessary to be corrected by recourse to the contrary Qualities The Germans says Galen have a Custom to Bath their New-born Children in a River conceiting that as the Iron glowing out of the Furnace is made stronger by dipping it in cold Water even so the Child reeking from the Mothers Womb is render'd of greater Force and Vigor by washing him in cold Water This is condemn'd by Galen as a beastly Practice and he has Reason for put the Case that by this way the Skin is hardned and closed and not so easily exposed to the Injuries of the Air yet it is offended by the Excrements of the Body through which for want of its being open and pervious they cannot Sweat and pass out A better and more secure Expedient is to Bath the Children that abound in Moisture in salt hot Water for by wasting in them the superfluous Moisture they are made very Healthy and by closing the Pores they will not suffer by any Accident whatever nor will their Excrements be so shut up that the Passages may not open to let them out And Nature is so forcible that if she can't find a common Way she will find out another to serve the Turn And when all others fail she knows how to make new Ways to expel what offends her And thus of two Extremes it is more convenient for Health to have the Skin hard and somewhat clos'd than too tender and open The second Thing requir'd is that soon after the Child is born he should be made acquainted with the Winds and change of Air and not kept still lockt up in a Chamber because that will render it Tender Effeminate Foolish Feeble and in three Days it will die Nothing says Hippocrates so much debilitates the Body as to be always in warm Places immured from Heat and Cold. Nor do's any thing conduce more to Health than freely to expose the Body to all Winds Hot Cold Moist and Dry Which made Aristotle ask What the Reason is why those that live in Champion Countries are more Healthy and of a better Complexion than those that dwell in Marshes And the Difficulty encreases the more considering the hard Life they lead sleeping on the Ground in their Clothes in open Air against the Sun the Cold or Water faring withal so coarsly The same may be demanded of Shepherds who are the Healthiest of all Men and the Reason is because they have made a League with all the Qualities of the Air and shrink at nothing On the Contrary we plainly see that a Man affecting to be Nice and to be on his Guard against the Sun the Cold the Serene and the Wind in three Days is a dead Man Therefore it may well be said Whosoever shall save his Life shall lose it Because no Man is proof against all the Changes of the Air And therefore it 's better to Accustom ones self to all that a Man may not be in Pain or always in Suspence The Error of the Vulgar lies in thinking that the Child is born so tender and delicate that it cannot bear passing from it's Mothers Belly where there is so much Heat into the Region of the cold Air without great Damage But they are utterly mistaken For tho' Germany be so Cold they throw their Children reeking into the River and tho' 't is so Beastly an Action it neither do's them harm nor kills them The third Thing convenient to be done is to find out a young Nurse of a hot and dry Constitution or according to our Doctrin cold and moist in the first Degree inured to Hardship us'd to lie on the bare Ground a spare Feeder and poorly Clad and seasoned with all sorts of Weather Such a one will have sound Milk as being accustom'd to all Changes of Air and the Child brought up by her many Days together will become well-limbed and lusty And if she be Discreet and Prudent the same will be of much advantage to his Wit because her Milk is very hot and dry Which two Qualities correct the superfluous Coldness and Moisture the Child drew from the Womb. How much it imports for the Child's Strength to suck such a Milk well exercised plainly appears in Colts foaled from Mares trained to the Plow and Harrow which prove the fleetest Coursers and endure longest in Labour But if their Dams run up and down idle in Pastures they flag after the first Carier The Order then to be observ'd with the Nurse is to take her home four or five Months before the Birth and to give her the same Meats to eat that the Lying-in-Mother used that she may have time to spend the Blood and bad Humors made by the Ill-Meats she eat before to the end the Child as soon as it is born may suck the like Milk to that it drew in the Mothers Belly at least made from the same Meats The fourth is not to accustom the Child to sleep on a soft Bed nor to load him with Clothes nor to cram him too much For these three Things says Hippocrates dry and shrink the Flesh and their Contraries fill and stretch it And in so doing the Child will be of great Wit very Healthy and long Liv'd by reason of his Dryness And from the contrary he will prove Fair Fat full of Blood and Blockish Which Constitution Hippocrates calls Athletic esteeming it very dangerous According to this Receipt and Order of Life the wisest Man that ever was in the World was educated that was Christ our Redeemer as far as he was Man saving that being born in Nazareth his Mother may be had no Salt-water at hand to Bath him But this was a Custom of the Jews and of all Asia
than every Effect as it springs from its immediate Cause tho' this is not enough neither if the Catholic Church hath never declared them for such for like as Advocates engaged in the Study of the Civil Law have it imprinted in their Memory the better to know and understand the Kings Pleasure in the Determination of each particular Case Even so the Natural Philosophers being Advocates in their Faculty place their whole Study in this to know the Order God establish'd at the instant he created the World the better to discern what Causes produce what Effects and why And as it would be ridiculous for a Lawyer to alledge in his Breviate as a strong Proof that the King commanded such an Arrest in such a Case without shewing the Law and the Rule of Court by which it ought to be decided So the Natural Philosophers laugh at them who pronounce this or that is God's Work without running through the Order and inseparable Connexion of all the particular Causes concern'd in its immediate Production And for the same reason as a King denies to hearken to those that press him to Abrogate and Null a just Law or finally to decide a Case contrary to the standing Rules and Orders of his Ministerial Courts so neither will God likely hearken to those that importune him for Miracles and Signs out of the ordinary Course and Ministry of Nature when there is no Occasion for them For should a King every day null and make Laws and alter the Course of Justice be it for the diversity of Occasions or through the changes in his Councils because Right and Justice are not arrived at all at once yet the Natural Order of the Universe by us called Nature from the Creation to this Day has suffer'd no Change or Alteration in the least for he made it with so much Wisdom and Prudence that not to continue constant in that Order would be tacitly to lay a blame upon his Works But to return to that common Saying of the Antient Philosophers Nature makes able it is to be understood that there is a Wit and Ability bestow'd by God on Men out of the ordinary Course of Nature such was the Wisdom of the Apostles who being rude and illiterate were wonderfully enlightned and fill'd with Wisdom and Knowledge Which sort of Parts and Qualifications verify not that Nature makes able for that is a Work to be attributed immediately to God and not to Nature The like is to be understood of the Wisdom of the Prophets and of all others upon whom God has poured any of his Gifts There is another sort of Wit among Men produced by the Order and Dependence of Causes appointed by God to lead to such an end and of this kind it may be truly said Nature makes able For as we shall prove in the last Chapter of this Work there is a certain Order and Dependence of Natural Causes so that if Parents in the Act of Generation would duly observe it all their Children would be Wise and none of them Otherwise However in this Discourse such a signification of Nature is too loose and confus'd nor is the Understanding content to rest here without tracing every particular Effect up to its Ultimate Cause and therefore there is need to find out another meaning of this Word Nature which may be more accommodate to our purpose Aristotle and all other Natural Philosophers were more Particular calling Nature every substantial Form that gives Being to a thing and is the Principle of all its Operations In which sense our Rational Soul with good Reason is call'd Nature for from thence we receive the Form and Being we have of Men and the same is the Principle of all our Actions for all Rational Souls are of equal Perfection as well the Wise Man 's as the Fool 's and so we may not pronounce that it is Nature in this sense makes a Man witty for if that were true all Men would be equal in Wit and Capacity and thereupon the same Aristotle found out another Signification of Nature importing the Reason and Cause of a Man's being capable or incapable saying that the Temperament of the four first Qualities Heat Cold Moisture and Driness were to be call'd Nature inasmuch as from them proceed all the Abilities of Men all the Virtues and Vices and all the great variety of Wit we discover in the World And he proves it clearly by considering the several Parts of the Age of the wisest Man who in his Childhood is no more than a Brute Beast employing no other Powers than the Irascible and Concupiscible when Youth comes he betrays an admirable Wit which we see continues to a certain Period and no longer for old Age drawing on his Wit every day declines till in the End it is wholly lost Assuredly the diversity of Wit proceeds not from the Rational Soul for that in all Ages is the same without suffering any Alteration in its Vigor or Substance except a Man in the several Stages of his Life changes his Constitution or has a different Disposition and from hence is it that the Soul acts one part in the Childhood another in Youth and yet another in old Age whence may be drawn an evident Argument that seeing the same Soul performs contrary Acts in one and the same Body by having in each Division of Age a different Temperament whensoever of two Boys the one is Witty the other a Dunce the same happens by each having a diverse Temperament from the other which being the Principle of all the Operations of the reasonable Soul is by Physicians and Philosophers call'd Nature in which sense this Saying Nature makes able is properly Verified In confirmation of which Doctrin Galen writ a Book proving that the Operations of the Soul were influenc'd by the Temperament of the Body in which it dwelt and that by reason either of the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness of the Climate where they lived or the Qualities of the Meat they eat and of the Waters they drank and of the Air they breathed in some were Fools and others Wise some Stout and others Cowards some Cruel and others Gentle some Reserv'd and others Open some Lyars and others Speakers of Truth some Traytors and others Loyal some Turbulent and others Calm some Crafty and others Sincere some Sordid and others Generous some Modest and others Impudent some Incredulous and others Credulous in Proof of which he quotes many Places out of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle asserting that the Diversity of Nations as to the Frame of their Bodies and the Turn of their Soul was owing to this Difference of Temperament Which is found true by Experience how much the Greeks differ from the Scythians the French from the Spaniards the Indians from the Germans and the Ethiopians from the English Neither is this only to be observ'd in Parts so remote from each other but if we consider even the Provinces that surround all
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
deliberate whose Constitution is more cold and dry as the Ants and Bees who may dispute for Wisdom with Men that are Reasonable Creatures Besides there is not a Brute Beast more moist than a Hog and which has less Wit For which cause the Poet Pindar being to tax the Boeotians for Blockheads exprest himself in this manner Dicta fuit Sus gens Boeotia Vecors Stupid Boeotians wore the Name Of Hogs their Nature was the same Galen affirm'd also That the Blood by reason of its too great moisture made Men silly And the same Galen recounts that the Comic Poets accused Hippocrates's Children of it alledging they had too much Natural Heat which is a moist Substance and abounding with Vapours The Children of Wise Men are not without this Defect of which I may hereafter assign the Reason Of the four Humors we have there is not one of them found hot and dry but melancholy And Aristotle affirms That all the Men that ever signaliz'd themselves in the Sciences were Melancholic In fine all agree that Driness makes a Man very Wise but no Man shews which of the Rational Faculties it most favours The Prophet Esay only determined it when he said Vexation gives Vnderstanding because Sorrow and Affliction not only lick up that moisture of the Brain but have also Power to dry up the very Bones by which Quality the Understanding is made more sharp and acute which may be apparently evidenced by considering that many Men reduc'd to Poverty and Misery have happen'd to Speak and Write things worthy of Admiration but being afterwards raised by Fortune according to their Wish to make good Cheer have done nothing more of Importance For a delicate Life Content a stream of Fortune and all things succeeding smoothly to our Wish much relax and moisten the Brain which is what Hippocrates said Content and Chearfulness enlarge and dilate the Heart giving it a sweet and gross Heat Which is again easily proved for if Affliction and Grief dry up and consume the Flesh by which means a Man acquires a better Understanding it is certain that the contrary which is Chearfulness fails not to moisten the Brain and impair the Understanding They who attain the last sort of Wit are more immediately disposed to Sports Feasts Music frequenting merry Company and flying the contrary which at other times were wont to give them Relish and Content Hence may the Vulgar learn how it comes that a Wise and Virtuous Man raised to great Honour who before was Poor and Humble sometimes immediately changes his Manners and his way of Reasoning for this proceeds from his acquiring a new Temperament moist and full of Vapors by which means he effaces the Figures he had before in his Memory rendering his Understanding Dull and Sluggish 'T is very difficult to know what Difference of Wit proceeds from moisture because it so strongly contradicts the Rational Faculty At least according to Galen's Opinion all the Humours of our Body that are moist in Excess render the Man Stupid and Ignorant which occasion'd him to say The Prudence and Nimbleness of the Rational Soul arises from Choler Integrity and Constancy proceed from the Melancholic Humour Simplicity and Stupidity from Blood Phlegm or Water serving for nothing but to feed sleep Insomuch that the Blood so far as it is moist and the Phlegm no less conspire to ruin and destroy the Rational Faculty but this is to be understood of the discursive and active Faculties and not of the passive as the Memory is which depends on moisture even as the Understanding does on driness Now we call the Memory a Rational Faculty because without it the Understanding and Imagination are of no use It affords them matter and furnishes them with Figures to Reason according to that of Aristotle He that understands does no more than reflect on the Images And the proper Office of the Memory is to lay up those Figures for the Understanding when it would reflect on them and therefore if that be lost it is impossible for the other Faculties to perform their Function Galen says the Office of the Memory is no other than to keep the Figures of things without having any Invention of its own The Memory treasures and lays up the things which are transmitted from the Sense and Vnderstanding as in a Coffer or Repository having no Invention of its own This being its Office one may clearly perceive it depends much on moisture which softens and prepares the Brain for the Figures that are imprinted by way of Compression Infancy is an evident Proof of this Doctrin seeing in that Age the Memory is readier than in all the other because the Brain then is moistest Aristotle therefore demands Why the Old have more Wit and a better Vnderstanding and the Young learn readier and with more ease To which he makes Answer That the Memory of Old People is filled with so many Images of things which they have seen and heard during the long course of their Life that there is no room left to receive any thing new but that of Young People as Persons late Born meets with no difficulty therein which makes them receive and retain immediately all that is told and taught them Which may be better understood by compairing the morning and evening Memory and shewing that we learn better in the morning because we then rise with a fresh Memory but in the evening we learn ill because it is stuffed with all the Objects of the Day past And to the end the curious Reader may not be surprized that so great a Philosopher as Aristotle should never light upon a true Answer and which even those of less Wit than himself sometimes find and form better Arguments than his he must know that Plato not at all doubting but the Gravest Philosophers do often as men mistake either through Inadvertence or for want of Weighing and being well enough acquainted with all the Principles contained in the Doctrin they teach advises such as read his Works to consider them with great care and not to rely too much upon him or on the good Opinion they have conceived of them To examin says he and cautiously weigh all his Words and those of the Philosophers and not to receive them before they have made some Proof of them no though they may seem the truest in the World Because in effect it would be a great shame to me that Nature having given me Eyes to See and an Understanding to Distinguish yet I should ask Aristotle and the other Philosophers what are the Figures and Colours of things and what Being and Nature they have Open your Eyes says Plato make use of your own Wit and Ability and fear nothing for the same He that made Aristotle made you also and he who formed so great a Wit may very well also form a greater 'T is nevertheless very Reasonable to have Excellent Authors in great Veneration
by the Woman else her Seed being ill tempered impedes Generation Therefore it is convenient that they should both wait that both their Seeds may meet and mingle Which is of great importance for the first Effort because the right Testicle and it's Spermatic Vessel in the Opinion of Galen is that which first provokes and emits it's Seed sooner than the Left and if the Generation be not the first Time it is odds the second may give a Girl and not a Boy These two Seeds are known First by the Heat and Cold Secondly by the great or little Quantity Thirdly in this that one issues readier than to'ther The Seed of the right Testicle passes very tickling and is so Hot that it burns the Woman's Matrix is not much in Quantity and passes in hast On the contrary the Seed of the left Testicle is more temperate in greater Quantity and longer in Issuing being Cold and Thick The last Condition was to procure that the Seed of both should fall on the right side of the Matrix because in that place says Hippocrates the Males are form'd as the Females on the left Galen assigns the Reason hereof saying that the right side of the Matrix is very hot because of its neighbourhood to the Liver Reigns and spermatic Vessels that are on the right side which parts we have affirmed and prov'd to be very hot And since all the reason to order that a Boy may be begot consists in this that it have a great deal of heat in the time of its conception it is certain it much imports that the Seed fall in this place Which the Woman can easily do lying upon her right side after her Husbands embraces with her Head low and her Feet raised But she must keep her Bed a day or two because the Matrix embraces not the Seed but after some time The Signs of knowing whether a Woman be with Child or no are clear and manifest to all for if when she stands up the Seed fall presently down Galen says she has not conceived Therefore in this there is one thing to be considered that all the Seed is not fruitful and prolific for part thereof is waterish whose office is to dilute the principal Seed that it may pierce the narrow Passages And this is that which Nature emits and it remains after conception with the prolific part It is known when it is like Water and in little quantity To stand upon her Legs immediately after Coupling is very dangerous And therefore Aristotle advises that she beforehand evacuate her Excrements and Urine that she may have no need to Rise The second Mark to discover if a Woman be with Child is if the day after she feels her Belly empty and especially about the Navel And the Reason of it is that when the Matrix will conceive it stretches and extends extremely because in a manner it is apt to swell and stiffen upon this Occasion after the same fashion as a Mans Yard and stretching out after this manner it takes up more room but at the instant it conceives Hippocrates says that it closes and draws into the form of a little Egg to draw the Seed to it and let nothing out by which means it leaves a great Vacuity Which the Women explain saying that they have no slack Guts left soon after they grow big Besides which they forthwith nauseate their Husbands Caresses the Womb having what it wanted But the most certain Sign as Hippocrates says is when the Menses cease their Brests swell and they loath their Meat Article IV. What is to be observed that the Children may prove Witty and Wise IF the Reason and Cause be not known beforehand whence it proceeds that a Man of great Wit and Capacity is begotten it is impossible to reduce the same to an Art since we attain the End by no other Means but by connecting and ordering the Principles and Causes The Astrologers hold that the Child being born under such an Influence of the Stars will be Wise Witty Well or Ill-condition'd happy or unhappy with a thousand other qualities and properties which we see and observe every day among Men. But if this were true we could not here prescribe any Rules for all would depend upon Chance and not be in our Choice The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen were of Opinon that a Man receives the conditions of his Soul at the time of his Formation and not of his Birth The Stars only causing a superficial Alteration in the Babe communicating to to him Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and not his Substance whereon his Life depends as do the four Elements Fire Earth Air Water which not only add to the Composition heat cold moisture dryness but also a substance that unites and preserves these Qualities during the course of Life So that what is of greatest Importance in begetting Children is to endeavour that the Elements from which they are formed should have the Qualities requisite to Wit because that in the same Weight and Measure the Elements enter into the Composition in the same they remain for ever in the Mixture which is not so in the Mutations and Influences of Heaven What these Elements are and after what manner they enter the Woman's Womb to form the Child Galen tells when he teaches us that they are the same which compound all other natural things but that the Earth is concealed in the solid Meats we Eat such as Bread Flesh Fish and Fruits the Water under the Liquors we Drink and for the Air and Fire he says that they are mingled by order of Nature and enter into the Body by way of the Pulse and Respiration Of these four Elements mingled and digested by our Natural Heat are made the two necessary Principles of the Infants Generation which are the Seed and the Menstruous Blood But that whereof we make the greatest Account for the Mark we aim at are the solid Meats that are Eaten For they include within themselves all the four Elements and from them the Seed draws more Corpulence and Quality than from the Water which we drink or the Fire and Air which we breath Wherefore Galen says that the Parents who would beget wise Children should read the three Books he writ Of the Properties of Aliments for there they should find the Meats by which they should effect the same He makes no mention at all of Water nor of the other Elements as matters of small Consequence But he had no Reason for this for Water alters the Body much more than the Air and no less than the solid Meats we use and as to what regards the Generation of the Seed the Water alone is of as great Importance as all the other Elements together The reason of it is as the same Galen says that the Testicles draw from the Veins for their Nourishment the serous portion of Blood and the greatest part of this
sowed in a Lake Hippocrates advises such a Woman to lessen her self and take down her Fat and her Flesh before she Marry but then she need not take a Husband hot and dry for such a Temperament would not do nor can she conceive A Woman cold and moist in the second Degree retains a Mean in all the Marks we have mentioned Beauty excepted which she has in excess which is an evident Sign that she will be fruitful and bear Children and prove gay and of a good Grace Such a Woman answers in proportion well near to all Men first to the hot and dry in the second Degree next to the Temperate and then to those that are hot and moist Of all these Combinations and Matches of Men and Women which we have noted wise Children may proceed but more ordinarily from the first for put case that the Man's Seed incline to cold and moist yet the continual Dryness of the Mother and giving her little nourishment corrects and amends the defect of the Father Because this kind of Philosophy has not yet come to light all the natural Philosophers have not been able to answer the Problem that demands Why many Fools have got wise Children To which they Answer That those unthinking Fellows apply themselves passionately to the Venereal Act without engaging in any other consideration but that wise Men on the contrary in the very Embraces are musing upon Matters impertinent to the present Point Whereby they enfeeble their Seed and beget defective Children as well in what respects the rational Powers as in those that are purely Natural But this Answer proceeds from People little skill'd in natural Philosophy In the other Unions care should be taken that the Woman lose her Fat and grow sparer by a ripe Age and Marry not too young for thence arise half Witted and Foolish Children The Seed of young Parents is very moist for it is but a while since they were Born and if a Man be formed of Matter moist in Excess he will of course be a Blockhead Article III. What Considerations to be used to get Boys and not Girls THE Parents that are in quest of the Joy of Wise Children and towardly for Learning should endeavour to have Boys for Girls in respect of the Coldness and Moisture of their Sex can never arrive at a profound Judgment Ony we see they speak with a show of Ability in slight and easy Matters with ordinary Terms though studied But being set to Learning they learn no farther than a little Latin and that because it is a work of the Memory Which Incapacity is not to be charged on them but on the Cold and Moist that made them Women being the Qualities as we have already proved absolutely contrary to Wit and Ability Solomon in Consideration of the great Scarcity of wise Men and that there was not so much as one Woman furnished with Wit and Knowledge speaks thus One Man says he among a Thousand have I found but a Woman among all those have I not found Therefore we are to shun them and apply our Endeavours to get Males since in these alone appears a Wit capable of Learning In which we are first of all to consider what Instruments are ordained by Nature in Man's Body to this End and what Order of Causes is to be observ'd to attain the End we propose You are to know then that amongst many Excrements and Humours that are in a Man's Body Galen says that Nature makes use but of One to prevent the Species of Men being lost Which is a certain Excrement called Serum or Serous Blood generated in the Liver and Veins at the Instant the four Humours Blood Flegm Choler and Melancholy receive what Form and Substance they ought to have Of such a Juice as this Nature makes use for a Vehicle of Food and to transmit it thro' the Veins and narrow Passages to carry Nourishment to all Parts of the Body which Work being done the same Nature has given to us two Reins which have no other Office than to attract to themselves this Serous Humour and make it descend thro' their Passages down into the Bladder and thence out of the Body and this to free Man from the Anoyance that Excrements give him But in Consideration of certain Qualities he has convenient for Generation she has provided us with two Veins to carry part to the Testicles and Spermatic Vessels with a little Blood whence she frames the Seed such as is convenient for our Species accordingly she has planted one Vein on the Right Rein side which terminates in the Rim of the right Testicle and of that same the right Spermatic Vessel is framed The other Vein issues out of the left Rein and terminates in the left Testicle and of that is framed the left Spermatic Vein What Qualities this Excrement has to make convenient Matter for generating of Seed the same Galen has noted that they are certain Acrids and Acids that spring from a Salt which irritates the Spermatic Vessels and strongly moves the Animal without delay to the Work of Generation and therefore lascivious Men are termed in Latin Salaces as much as to say Men that have much Salt in their Seed Besides this Nature has done another thing worthy of Consideration namely that to the right Vein and Testicle she has given much Heat and Dryness and to the left Rein and Testicle much Cold and Moisture so that the Seed prepared by the right Testicle is very hot and dry and that by the left cold and moist What Nature pretends to in this Diversity of Temperaments as well in the Reins as Testicles and Spermatic Vessels is very clear since we are informed by very credible Histories that at the beginning of the World and many Years after the Women were brought to Bed of two Children at a Birth one a Boy and the other a Girl to the end that each Man might have a Wife and each Woman a Husband for the speedier Encrease of Mankind For this Reason then has Nature provided that the right Rein should furnish matter hot and dry to the right Testicle and that the same with its great Heat and Dryness might produce hot and dry Seed for the generating a Male. And the contrary she has ordered for the Formation of the Female that the left Rein should send forth cold and moist Seed to the left Testicle that the same with its Coldness and Moisture might make cold and moist Seed from which a Girl would necessarily be got and not a Boy But after the World was once well Peopled it seems as if Nature had broke off this Order of this double Child-bearing and what is worse for one Boy there are no less than six or seven Girls ordinarily Born from which it may be understood either that Nature is tired out or that some Errour hinders her from acting as she would What the same is we may hereafter declare when we