it will I would present to a Moral Philosopher a Luxurious Drunkard and a Glutton to manage him according to the Rules of his Art and to instill into his Soul the contrary good Habits of Chastity and Temperance by these means reducing him to act with all Moderation and Sobriety without introducing into his Constitution Cold and Driness and without correcting the over-ruling Heat and Moisture there was before let us see how he will go about it Without doubt the first thing he does will be to shew him the Sordidness of Luxury and to lay before him the Train of Evils it draws after it and in what danger his Soul would be if Death should happen to surprize him on a sudden without giving him respite to repent of his Sins After this he gravely admonishes him to Fast Pray and Meditate to Sleep but little to lie hard and without Delicacy to wear Hair Clothes and Discipline himself to fly the Company of Women and to give himself wholly to Pious Works all which are comprized in this fine Aphorism of St. Paul I keep under my Body and bring it into Subjection By means of these Austerities if he practises them long he 'll appear Meager Pale and much Alter'd from what he was insomuch that he who before hunted after Women and that plac'd all his Happiness in the Pleasures of Eating and Drinking will hardly have Patience to hear them spoke of The Moralist beholding the Lewd Man so changed will say and not without reason this Man has now acquired a Habit of Chastity and Temperance But because his Art reaches no further he vainly imagines these two Virtues are come I know not from whence to make him a Visit and to take up their Lodgings in his Rational Soul without having so much as part through his Body Instead of which the discerning Physician who knows whence his loss of Blood and Spirits proceeds and how the Virtues are Begot and the Vices Extinguished will be apt to pronounce that this same Man has now the Habit of Chastity and Temperance inasmuch as by means of these Austerities he has impair'd his Natural Heat in whose stead the Cold is introduc'd For if we reflect a little further we shall clearly see this new way of living is capable of cooling him more the Horror into which the Reprimand he received threw him and the awful consideration of the Pains of Hell prepared for him if he had died in mortal Sin had without doubt mortified and chil'd his Blood Whereupon Aristotle proposed this Question Why those who are in fear falter in their Speech tremble with their Hands and hang their Lips It is says he because this Passion is a defect of Heat which commences from the Parts above Whence comes the Paleness of the Face Abstinence likewise is one of the things which chiefly mortifies the Natural Heat leaving the Man cold For our Nature is supported says Galen by Eating and Drinking in the same manner as the Flame of the Lamp is fed by the Oil and there is so much natural Heat in the Body that has digested Flesh-meats that they afford him Nourishment in proportion to his Heat and if they should yield him less in quantity his Heat would insensibly diminish Which made Hippocrates forbid the letting of Children fast because their natural Heat Evaporated and Wasted for want of being fed The Discipline given if it be dolorous and reach even to the fetching Blood every man knows it extreamly dissipates the vital and animal Spirits and from the loss of Blood the Man soon comes to lose his Hair and natural Heat As for Sleep Galen says it 's one of the things which most fortifies our Heat for by it's means that insinuates into the hidden recesses of our Bodies and Animates the Natural Virtues and much after the same manner our Food is assimilated and turned to our Substance Whereas Waking generates Corruptions and Crudities and the reason is because Sleep warms the inward Parts and cools the outward as on the contrary Waking cools the Stomach Liver and Heart which are the Vitals and inflames the external Parts the less noble and less necessary Hence he that does not Sleep well must needs be subject to many cold Diseases To Lie hard to Eat but once a day and to go Naked Hippocrates said was the utter Ruin of the Flesh and Blood wherein the natural Heat is plac'd And Galen giving the Reason why a hard Bed weakens and wastes the Flesh said That the Body was in pain and suffered deeply for want of Sleep and that by the uneasie changes of motion from side to side it was Harassed in the vain pursuit of restless Nights and how the Natural Heat decays and is dissipated by bodily Labour the same Hippocrates declares teaching how a Man may become Wise In order to be Wise a Man must not be oppressed with too much Flesh for that belongs to a hot Temperament which is the Quality that destroys Wisdom Prayer and Meditation cause the Heat to mount up to the Brains in the absence of which the other Parts of the Body remain cold and if the Intention of Mind be great they soon lose the sense of Feeling which Aristotle affirmed to be necessary to the Being of Animals and that the other Senses in comparison of that served only for Ornament and Well-Being For in effect we might live without Tasting Smelling Seeing and Hearing but the Mind being busied in some high Contemplation fails to dispatch the Natural Faculties to their Posts without which neither the Ears can hear nor the Eyes see nor the Nostrils breath nor the Taste relish nor the Touch feel insomuch as they who Meditate are neither sensible of Cold Heat Hunger Thirst nor any Weariness whatever And Feeling being the Sentinel that discovers to a Man the Good or Ill done to him he cannot be without it So that being Frozen with Cold or Burnt up with Heat or Dying away with Hunger or Thirst he is not sensible of any of these Inconveniencies because he has nothing to report them to him In such a state Hippocrates says the Soul neglects its Charge and whereas its Duty is to Animate the Body and to impart to it Sense and Motion yet nevertheless it leaves it wholly destitute and unprovided of any Succours They who are hurt in any Part of the Body and feel no Pain assuredly are distempered in Mind But the worst Disposition observed among Men of Learning and those that are devoted to Studies is a Weak Stomach because the Natural Heat required for Digestion is wanting that very Heat being usually carried to the Brain which is the cause the Stomach is filled with Crudities and Phlegm For which reason Cornelius Celsus recommends it to the Physicians care to Fortify that Part in Men of Meditation more than any others because Prayer Meditation and hard Study extreamly cool and dry the Body rendering it Melancholy For which reason Aristotle demanded Whence it is
serous Humour which the Veins receive is from the Water we Drink And that the Water causes a greater Alteration in the Body than the Air Aristotle proves where he demands Why the change of Water makes so great a Change in our Health and if we breath a contrary Air we are not sensible of it To which he Answers That Water gives Nourishment to our Bodies but Air not But he had no reason to Answer after this manner for the Air according to the opinion of Hippocrates yields Nourishment and Substance as well as Water And therefore Aristotle devised a better Answer when he said That no Place or Country has its peculiar Air for that which is now in Flanders upon a North Wind rising will travel in two or three days to Africa and that which is there if the South Wind blows will veer about to the North and that which is to day in Jerusalem will be carried by an Easterly Wind even to the West Indies Which fares not so in Waters for they spring not all out of the same Earth and so each People have their particular Water agreeable to the Mineral whence it springs and through which it passes And a Man us'd to one sort of Water drinking another is altered more than by new Meats or Air. So that Fathers who desire to get very wise Children should drink delicate sweet and well temper'd Waters else they will lose their Aim Aristotle advises us at the time of Generation to beware of the South Wind because it is gross and moistens the Seed and causes a Girl to be got and not a Boy And as to the West he can never praise it enough nor give it Names and Epithets sufficiently Honorable He terms it Temperate Fatner of the Earth coming from the Elysian Fields But though truly it imports much to breath very delicate Air and that of good Temperament and to drink such Waters nevertheless it is yet more necessary for our design to eat delicate Meats and of the Temperament requisite for Wit for of these Meats is made the Blood and of the Blood the Seed and of the Seed the Child And if the Meat be delicate and of good Temperament such also is the Blood and of such Blood such Seed and of such Seed such Brains And if they be Temperate and compos'd of a delicate and subtil Substance Galen says that the Wit will be the same because the Rational Soul though it be incorruptible ever sympathizes with the Dispositions of the Brain which not being such as are requisite for Reason and Discourse it says and does a thou-Impertinences The Meats then Fathers are to eat to beget Boys of good Understanding which is the difference of Wit most ordinary in Spain are first white Bread made of Wheat-Flower and seasoned with Salt this is cold and dry and of Parts very subtil and delicate Another sort is made says Galen of red or small Wheat which indeed nourishes much making Men big-limb'd and of great bodily Force but notwithstanding is moist and of very gross Parts and destroys the Understanding I said seasoned with Salt because of all the Meats in use among Men none makes the Understanding so good as this Fossile It is cold and of more Dryness than any thing else and if we remember Heraclitus's saying he says as much A dry Light is the Wise Mind By which he would give us to understand that the Dryness of the Body makes the wisest Soul And since Salt is so dry and so appropriate to Wit it is not without reason Holy Writ gives it the Appellation of Prudence and Wisdom But you must chuse Salt that is extreamly white and that salts not much because that is compos'd of subtil and very delicate Parts and on the contrary the black is very Earthy and Ill-temper'd and salts more in small quantity What important effects Salt causes being cast upon Meats not only those taken by Men and Beasts but also by Plants Plato noted when he said That Salt not only gives relish and pleasure to the Palate but gives a formal Being to Meats to the end they may Nourish There is but one fault and that is a great one it is upon the failing of that there is nothing left in the World to supply it's Place All other things made use of by Man in this Life have their Deputy if we may so call it when they chance to fail Salt alone stands for the end it was ordained For if we want Wheaten-Bread there is Barly-Bread Rye Oaten and other Kinds and if Wine fails us there is Water Beer Milk Cyder and Perry and if we have no Cloth to cover us there are Beasts Skins with which God cloathed our first Parents when he drove them out of the Earthly Paradise nay also Cloth of Linnen Silk Canvas and other Matters And so if they should run through other things we shall find that they all have a supply for their Defect Salt excepted which was made for that use alone to which we put it To which property our Lord alludes in the Gospel when he said to his Disciples Ye are the Salt of the Earth but if the Salt have lost it's Savour wherewith shall it be Salted or as another Gospel says Wherewith shall it be seasoned To give them to understand that if they who are the Salt are corrupted or unsavoury there is no other thing can Season them as if it had said Who can find a Remedy for an Enchanter The Gospel might have said ye are the Wheaten Bread of my Church to dispense and administer the Spiritual Food and Doctrin to the Faithful and if you cast your selves away with what other thing shall I sustain my People They might have answered him with Barly-Bread as you did in the Desart But because nothing can Supply the Place of Salt God took it and chose it to let the Apostles understand what was their Duty Physitians say That Salt ordinarily heats dissolves penetrates dries collects and separates the Substance of Bodies to which it is Applied Which Properties he is to have that is the Salt of the Church and such effects ought he to produce in the Christian Auditory that is a good Preacher If not let him that has a little Wit run through these properties and he will see how much it is to the purpose that God calls Preachers by the name of Salt But neither the natural Philosophers nor others that have searched into the properties of this Fossile have observed one thing which is that if we would Unsalt in a little time that which is very Salt throwing Salt thereon to a certain degree and quantity and for a certain time it abates of its Saltness and if it exceeds it all turns to Brine Of which if any one would try the Experiment he shall find that salt Fish put to freshen in Sea-Water for a certain time shall sooner freshen than in Fresh-Water And if two pieces
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