grosenesse And the same may easily be prooued another way for if sadnesse and affliction drie vp and consume the flesh and for that reason man gaineth more vnderstanding it fals out a matter certain that his contrary namely mirth will make the braine moist and diminish the vnderstanding Such as haue purchased this manner of wit are suddenly enclined to pastimes to musicke and to pleasant conuersations and flie the contrarie which at other times gaue them a relish and contentment Now by this the vulgar sort may conceiue whence it growes that a wise and vertuous man attaining to some great dignitie whereas at first he was but poore base sodainly changeth his manners and his fashion of speech and the reason is because he hath gotten a new temperature moist and full of vapours whence it followes that the figures are cancelled which tofore he had in his braine and his vnderstanding dulled From moisture it is hard to know what difference of wit may spring sithens it is so far contrary to the reasonable facultie At least after Galens opinion all the humours of our body which hold ouer-much moisture make a man blockish and foolish for which cause he sayd The readinesse of mind and wisedome growes from the humour of choler the humour of melancholy is author of firmnesse and constancie blood of simplicitie and dulnesse the flegmaticke complexion auaileth nothing to the polishing of mannes In so much that blood with his moistures and the flegme cause an impairing of the reasonable facultie But this is vnderstood of the faculties or reasonable wits which are discoursiue and actiue and not of the passiue as is the memorie which depends as well on the moist as the vnderstanding doth on the drie And we call memorie a reasonable power because without it the vnderstanding and the imaginatiue are of no valure It ministreth matter and figures to them all wherevpon they may syllogise conformably to that which Aristotle sayth It behooues that the vnderstander go beholding the fantasmes and the office of the memorie is to preserue these fantasmes to the end that the vnderstanding may contemplat them and if this be lost it is impossible that the powers can worke and that the office of memorie is none other than to preserue the figures of things without that it appertains therto to deuise them Galen expresseth in these words Memorie verely laies vp and preserueth in it selfe the things knowne by the sence and by the mind is therin as it were their store-house and receiuing place and not their inuenter And if this be the vse thereof it fals out apparant that the same dependeth on moisture for this makes the braine pliant and the figure is imprinted by way of strayning To prooue this we haue an euident argument in boyes age in which any one shall better conne by hart than in any other time of life and then doth the braine partake greatest moisture Whence Aristotle moueth this doubt Why in old age we haue better wit and in yoong age we learne more readily as if he should say What is the cause that when we are old we haue much vnderstanding and when we are yoong we learne with more towardlinesse Whereto he answereth That the memorie of old men is full of so many figures of things which they haue seene and heard in the long course of their life that when they would bestow more therein it is not capable thereof for it hath no void place where to receiue it But the memorie of yoong folke when they are newly borne is full of plaits and for this cause they receiue readily whatsoeuer is told or taught them And he makes this playner by comparing the memorie of the morning with that of the euening saying That in the morning we learne best because at that time our memorie is emptie and at the euening illy because then it is full of those thinges which we encountred during the day To this Probleme Aristotle wist not how to answer and the reason is very plaine for if the spices and figures which are in the memorie had a body and quantitie to occupie the place it would seeme that this were a fitting answer but being vndeuided and spiritual they cannot fill nor emptie any place where they abide yea we see by experience that by how much more the memorie is exercised euery day receiuing new figures so much the more capable it becommeth The answere of this Probleme is very euident after my doctrine and the same importeth that old men partake much vnderstanding because they haue great drinesse and fayle of memorie for that they haue little moisture and by this means the substance of the braine hardneth and so cannot receiue the impression of the figures as hard wax with difficultie admitteth the figure of the seale and the soft with easinesse The contrary befals in children who through the much moisture wherewith the braine is endowed faile in vnderstanding and through the great supplenesse of their braine abound in memorie wherein by reason of the moisture the shapes and figures that come from without make a great easie deepe and well formed impression That the memorie is better the morning than the euening cannot be denied but this springeth not from the occasion alleaged by Aristotle but the sleepe of the night passed hath made the braine moist and fortifyed the same and by the waking of the whole day it is dried and hardened For which cause Hippocrates affirmeth those who haue great thirst at night shall doe well to drinke for sleepe makes the flesh moist and fortifieth all the powers which gouern man And that sleepe so doth Aristotle himselfe confesseth By this doctrine is perfectly seene that the vnderstanding and memorie are powers opposit and contrary in sort that the man who hath a great memorie shall find a defect in his vnderstanding and he who hath a great vnderstanding cannot enjoy a good memorie for it is impossible that the braine should of his owne nature be at one selfe time drie and moist On this maxime Aristotle grounded himselfe to prooue that memorie is a power different from remembrance and he frames his argument in this manner Those who haue much remembrance are men of great vnderstanding and those who possesse a great memorie find want of vnderstanding so then memorie and remembrance are contrary powers The former proposition after my doctrine is false for those who haue much remembrance are of little vnderstanding and haue great imaginations as soone hereafter I will prooue but the second proposition is verie true albet Aristotle knew not the cause wheron was founded the enmitie which the vnderstanding hath with the memorie From heat which is the third qualitie groweth the imaginatiue for there is no other reasonable power in the braine nor any other qualitie to which it may be assigned besides that the sciences which appertaine to the imaginatiue are those which such vtter as dote in their sicknesse and
And for this cause we haue seene many men to feigne miracles in houses and places of deuotion for straightwaies the people flockes vnto them and holds them in great reuerence as persons of whome God makes a speciall account and if they be poore they fauour them with large almes and so some sinne vpon interest The third reason is that men haue a liking to be well at their ease whereas naturall causes are disposed with such order and conceit that to obtaine their effects it behooues to bestow labour Wherefore they would haue God demeane himselfe towards them after his omnipotencie and that without sweating they might come to the well-head of their desires I leaue aside the malice of those who require miracles at Gods hand thereby to tempt his almightinesse and to prooue whether he be able to do it and othersome who to be reuenged after their hearts desire cal for fire from heauen and such other cruell chastisements The last cause is for that many of the vulgar are reliligiously giuen and hold deere that God may be honored and magnified which is much sooner brought about by way of miracles than by naturall effects but the common sort of men know not that workes aboue nature and woonderfull are done by God to shew those who know it not that he is omnipotent and that he serues himselfe of them as an argument to prooue his doctrine and that this necessitie once ceasing he neuer doth it more This may well be perceiued considering that God dooth no longer those vnwoonted things of the new testament and the reason is for that on his behalfe he hath performed all necessarie diligence that men might not pretend ignorance And to thinke that he will begin anew to do the like miracles and by them once againe to prooue his doctrine in raising the dead restoring sight to the blind and healing the lame and sicke of the palsie is an errour very great for once God taught men what is behooffull and prooued the same by miracles but returnes not to do it any more God speakes once sayth Iob and turnes not to a second repliall The token whereon I ground my iudgement when I would discouer whether a man haue a wit appropriat to Naturall Philosophie is to see whether he be addicted to reduce all matters to miracle without distinction and contrariwise such as hold not themselues contented vntill they know the particular cause of euerie effect leaue no occasion to mistrust the goodnesse of their wit These doe well know that there are effects which must be reduced to God immediatly as miracles and others to nature and such are those which haue their ordinarie causes frō whence they accustome to spring but speaking both of the one manner and the other we alwaies place God for author for when Aristotle sayd that God and nature did nothing in vaine he meant not that nature was an vniuersall cause endowed with a iurisdiction seuered from God but that she was a name of the order and concent which God hath bestowed in the frame of the world to the end that the necessarie effects might follow for the preseruation thereof For in the same manner it is vsually sayd that the King and Ciuile Reason do no man wrong In which kind of speech no man conceiueth that this name Reason signifieth a Prince which possesseth a seuerall iurisdiction from that of the king but a terme which by his signification embraceth al the roiall lawes and constitutions ordained by the same king for the preseruation of his common wealth in peace And as the king hath his speciall cases reserued to himselfe which cannot be decided by the law for that they are vnusuall and waightie in like manner God left miraculous effects reserued for himself neither gaue allowance vnto naturall causes that they might produce them But here we must note that he who should know them for such and difference them from naturall workes behooues to be a great naturall Philosopher and to vnderstand the ordinary causes that euery effect may hold yet all this sufficeth not vnlesse the Catholike church ratifie them to be such And as the Doctors labour and studie in reading this ciuile Reason preseruing the whole in their memorie that they may know and vnderstand what the kings will was in the determination of such a case so we naturall Philosophers as doctors in this facultie bestow all our studie in knowing the discourse and order which God placed that day when he created the world so to contemplat and vnderstand in what sort and vpon what cause he would that things should succeed And as it were a matter worthy laughter that a doctor should alleage in his writings though approoued that the king commaunds a case should be thus determined without shewing the Law and Reason through which it was so decided so naturall Philosophers laugh at such as say This is Gods doing without assigning the order and discourse of the particular causes whēce they may spring And as the king wil giue them no eare when they require him to breake some iust law or to rule some case besides the order of iustice which he hath commaunded to be obserued so God will not hearken when any man demaunds of him myracles and workes besides naturall order without cause why For albeit the king euery day abrogates and establisheth new lawes and changeth iudiciall order as wel through the variation of times as for that it is the iudgement of a fraile man and cannot at one only time attain to perfect right and iustice notwithstanding the naturall order of the vniuerse which we call nature from that day wherein God created the world vnto this hath had no need of adioining or reauing any one iot because he framed the same with such prouidence and wisedome that to require this order might not be obserued were to say that his workes were vnperfect To returne then to that sentence so often vsed by naturall Philosophers that Nature makes able we must vnderstand that there are Wits and there are Abilities which God bestoweth vpon men besides naturall order as was the wisedome of the Apostles who being simple and of base account were miraculously enlightened and replenished with knowledge and learning Of this sort of abilitie wisdome it cannot be verefied that nature makes able for this is a worke which is to be imputed immediatly vnto God not vnto nature The like is to be vnderstood of the wisedome of the prophets and of all those to whome God graunted some grace infused Another sort of abilitie is found in men which springs of their being begotten with that order and consent of causes which are established by God to this end and of this sort it may be sayd with truth Nature makes able For as we will proue in the last chapter of this worke there is to be found such an order and consent in naturall things that if the fathers in time of procreation haue
so he cannot attaine to the notice of the trueth For which cause we see many men who vpon the sodaine speake verie well but with aduisement are nothing worth Others haue their vnderstanding so base either through too much coldnes or too much drouth that it is requisite the naturall heate abide along time in the head to the end the temperature may lift it selfe vp to the degrees which are wanting where-through they speake better vpon deliberation then on the sodaine CHAP. VII It is shewed that though the reasonable soule haue need of the temperature of the foure first qualities aswell for his abiding in the bodie as also to discourse and syllogize Yet for all this it followeth not that the same is corruptible and mortall PLato held it for a matter verie certaine that the reasonable soule is a substance bodilesse and spirituall not subiect to corruption or mortalitie as that of brute beasts the which departing from the bodie possesseth another better and more quiet life But this is to be vnderstood saith Plato if a man haue led his life conformable to reason for otherwise it were better that the soule had remained still in the body there to suffer the tormentes with which God chastiseth the wicked This conclusion is so notable and catholicke that if he attained the knowledge thereof by the happinesse of his wit with a iust title he came to be called the diuine Plato But albeit the same is such as we see yet for all this Galen could neuer bring within his conceit that it was true but held it alwaies doubtfull seeing a wise man through the heat of his braine to dote and by applying cold medicines vnto him he commeth to his wits againe In respect whereof he sayd he could wish that Plato were now liuing to the end he might aske him how it was possible that the reasonable soule should be immortall seeing it altered so easily with heat with cold with moisture with drouth principally considering that the same departs from the body through ouermuch heat or when a man giueth ouer himselfe excessiuely to lasciuiousnesse or is forced to drinke poison and such other bodily alterations which accustomably bereaue the life For if it were bodilesse and spirituall as Plato affirmeth heat being a materiall qualitie could not make the same to leese his powers nor set his operations in a garboile These reasons brought Galen into a confusion and made him wish that some Platonist would resolue him these doubts and I beleeue that in his life time he met not with any but after his death experience shewed him that which his vnderstanding could not conceiue For it is a thing certaine that the infallible certayntie of our immortall soule is not gathered from humane reasons or from arguments which prooue that it is corruptible for to the one and the other an answer may easily be shaped it is only our fayth which maketh vs certaine and assured that the same endureth for euer But Galen had small reason to intricate himselfe in arguments of so slight consequence for the workes which seeme to be performed by meanes of some instrument it cannot well be gathered in naturall Philosophie that it proceedeth from a defect in the principal agent if they take not perfection That painter who portraieth well when he hath a pensill requisit for his art falleth not in blame if with a bad pensill he draw ill fauoured shapes and of bad delineation and it is no good argument to say that the writer had an imperfection in his hand when through default of a well made penne he is forced to write with a sticke Galen considering the maruellous works which are in the vniuerse and the wisedome and prouidence by which they were made and ordained concluded thereof that in the world there was a God though we behold him not with our corporall eyes of whome hee vttered these words God was not made at any time in as much as he is euerlastingly vnbegotten And in another place he sayth That the frame and composition of mans body was not made by the reasonable soule nor by the naturall heat but by God or by some very wise vnderstanding Out of which there may be framed an argument against Galen and his false consequence be ouerthrowne and it is thus Thou hast suspected that the reasonable soule is corruptible because if the braine be well tempered it fitteth well to discourse and philosophise and if the same grow hot or cold beyond due it doteth and vttereth a thousand follies the same may be inferred considering the workes which thou speakest of as touching God for if he make a man in places temperat where the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie he produceth him very wittie and discreet and if the countrie be vntemperat he breedeth thē all fooles and doltish For the same Galen affirmeth that it is a miracle to find a wise man in Scythia and in Athens they are all borne Philosophers To suspect then that God is corruptible because with one qualitie he performeth these workes well and with the contrary they proue ill Galen himselfe would not confesse for as much as he sayd before that God was euerlasting Plato held another way of more certainty saying That albeit God be euerlasting almightie and of infinite wisdome yet he proceedeth in his workes as a naturall agent makes himselfe subiect to the disposition of the foure first qualities in sort that to beget a man verie wise and like to himselfe it behooueth that he prouide a place the most temperate of the whole world where the heate of the aire may not exceed the cold nor the moyst the drie and therefore he said But God as desirous of warre and of wisedome hauing chosen a place which should produce men like vnto himselfe would that the same should be first inhabited And though God would shape a man of great wisedome in Scithia or in any other intemperate countrey and did not herein imploy his omnipotencie he should of necessitie yet prooue a foole through the contrarietie of the first qualities But Plato would not haue inferred as Galen did that God was alterable and corruptible for that the heate and coldnesse would haue brought an impediment to his worke The same may be collected when a reasonable soule for that it is seated in a braine inflamed cannotvse his discretion and wisdome and not to thinke that in respect thereof the same is subiect to mortalitie and corruption The departure out of the bodie and the not being able to support the great heate nor the other alterations which are woont to kil men sheweth plainly that the same is an act and substantiall form of mans bodie and that to abide therein it requireth certain materiall dispositions fitted to the being which it hath of the soule and that the instruments with which it must worke be wel composed and well vnited and of that temperature which is requisite for
sense which is gathered out of the construction thereof and none other This doctrine thus presupposed it falleth out a matter very manifest for what reason the lawyers are termed lettered and other men of learning not so for this name is deriued from the word letter which is to say a man who is not licenced to follow the capacitie of his owne vnderstanding but is enforced to ensue the sense of the very letter And for that the well practised in this profession haue so construed it they dare not denie or affirme any thing which appertaineth to the determination of any case whatsoeuer vnles they haue lying before them some law which in expresse tearms decideth the same And if sometimes they speake of their owne head interterlacing their conceit and reason without grounding vpon some law they do it with feare and bashfulnesse for which cause it is a much worne prouerbe We blush when we speake without law Diuines cannot call themselues lettered in this signification for in the holy scripture the letter killeth and the spirit giueth life it is full of mysteries replenished with figures and cyphers obscure and not vnderstood by all readers the vowels and phrases of speech hold a very different significatiō from that which the vulgar and three-tounged men do know Therefore whosoeuer shall set himselfe to construe the letter and take the sence which riseth of that Grammaticall construction shall fall into many errours The Phisitions also haue no letter whereto to submit themselues for if Hippocrates and Galen and the other graue authors of this facultie say and affirme one thing and that experience and reason approue the contrarie they are not bound to follow them for in Phisicke experience beareth more sway than reason and reason more than authoritie but in the lawes it betideth quite contrary for their authoritie and that which they determine is of more force and vigour than all the reasons that may be alleaged to the contrary Which being so we haue the way layd open before vs to assigne what wit is requisit for the lawes For if a Lawyer haue his vnderstanding and imagination tied to follow that which the law auouched without adding or diminishing it falleth out apparent that this facultie appertaineth to the memorie and that the thing wherein they must labour is to know the number of the lawes and of the rules which are in the text and to call to remembrance ech of them in particular to rehearse at large his sentence and determination to the end that when occasion is ministred we may know there is a law which giueth decision and in what forme and maner Therefore to my seeming it is a better difference of wit for a lawyer to haue much memory and litle vnderstanding than much vnderstanding and litle memorie For if there fall out no occasion of employing his wit and abilitie and that he must haue at his fingers ends so great a number of lawes as are extant and so far different from the other with so manie exceptions limitations enlargements it serues better to know by heart what hath been determined in the lawes for euerie point which shall come in question than to discourse with the vnderstanding in what sort the same might haue been determined for the one of these is necessarie the other impertinent since none other opinion than the verie determination of the law must beare the stroke So it falles out for certaine that the Theorick of the law appertaineth to the memorie and not to the vnderstanding nor to the imagination for which reason and for that the lawes are so positiue and that because the lawyers haue their vnderstanding so tied to the will of the law-maker and cannot entermingle their own resolution saue in case where they rest vncertaine of the determination of the law when any client seeketh their iudgement they haue authoritie and licence to say I wil looke for the case in my booke which if the Phisition should answer when he is asked a remedie for some disease or the Diuine in cases of conscience we would repute them for men but simply seen in the facultie wherof they make profession And the reason heereof is that those sciences haue certain vniuersall principles and definitions vnder which the particuler cases are contained but in the law-facultie euery law containeth a seuerall particular case without hauing anie affinitie with the next though they both be placed vnder one title In respect whereof it is necessarie to haue a notice of al the lawes and to studie ech one in particuler and distinctly to lay them vp in memorie But heere against Plato noteth a thing worthy of great consideration and that is how in his time a learned man was held in suspition that he knew many lawes by heart seeing by experience that such were not so skilfull iudges pleaders as this their vaunt seemed to pretend Of which effect it appeareth he could not find out the cause seeing in a place so conuenient he did not report the same onely he saw by experience that Lawyers endowed with good memorie being set to defend a cause or to giue a sentence applied not their reasons so well as was conuenient The reason of this effect may easily be rendered in my doctrine presupposing that memorie is contrarie to the vnderstanding that the true interpretation of the lawes to amplifie restraine and compound them with their contraries and oppositions is done by distinguishing concluding arguing iudging and chusing which workes we haue often said heeretofore belong to discourse and the learned man possessing much memorie cannot by possibilitie enioy them We haue also noted heeretofore that memorie supplieth none other office in the head than faithfully to preserue the figures and fantasies of things but the vnderstanding and the imagination are those which work therewithall And if a learned man haue the whole art of memory and yet want vnderstanding and imagination he hath no more sufficiencie to iudge or plead than the verie Code or Digest which cōpassing within them all the laws and rules of reason for all that cannot write one letter Moreouer albeit it be true that the law ought to be such as we haue mentioned in his definition yet it falleth out a miracle to finde thinges with all the perfections which the vnderstanding attributeth vnto them that the law be iust and reasonable and that it proceed fullie to all that which may happen that it be written in plain termes void of doubt oppositions and that it receiue not diuerse constructions we see not alwaies accomplished for in conclusion it was established by mans coūsell and that is not of force sufficient to giue order for al that may betide and this is daily seen by experience for after a law hath bin enacted with great aduisement and counsell the same in short space is abrogated againe for when it is once published and put in practise a thousand inconueniences discouer themselues
regard to obserue the same all their children shall prooue wise and none otherwise But the whilest this significatioÌ„ of nature is very vniuersall and confused and the vnderstanding contents not it selfe nor staieth vntill it conceiue the particular discourse and the latest cause and so it behooues to search out another signification of this name Nature which may be more agreeable to our purpose Aristotle and other naturall Philosophers discend into more particularities and call Nature whatsoeuer substantiall forme which giues the being to any thing and is the originall of all the working thereof in which signification our reasonable soule may reasonably be tearmed nature for from her we receiue our formall being which we haue of being men and the selfe same is the beginning of whatsoeuer we doe and worke But all soules being of equall perfection as well that of the wiser as that of the foolish it cannot be affirmed that nature in this signification is that which makes a man able for if this were true all men should haue a like measure of wit and wisedome and therefore the same Aristotle found out another signification of nature which is the cause that a man is able or vnable saying that the temperature of the foure first qualities hot cold moist and drie is to be called nature for from this issue al the habilities of man all his vertues and vices and this great varietie of wits which we behold And this is clearely proued by considering the age of a man when he is wisest who in his childhood is no more than a brute beast and vseth none other powers than those of anger and concupiscence but comming to youth there begins to shoot out in him a maruellous wit and we see that it lasteth till time certaine and no longer for old age growing 〈◊〉 goes euery day loosing his wit vntill it come to be 〈◊〉 decaied The varietie of wits it is a matter certaine that it springs not from the reasonable soule for that is one selfe in all ages without hauing receiued in his forces and subâ—â—â—unce any alteration but man hath in euery age a diuers temperature and a contrarie disposition by means whereof the soule doth other workes in childhood other in youth and other in old age Whence we draw an euident argument that one selfe soule doing contrarie workes in one selfe bodie for that it partakes in euery age a contrarie temperature when of young men the one is able and the other vnapt this growes for that the one of them enioiâ—◠〈◊〉 temperature from the other And this for that it is the beginning of all the workes of the reasonable soule was by the Phisitions and the Philosophers termed Nature of which signification this sentence is properly verefied that Nature makes able For confirmation of this doctrine Galen writ a booke wherein he prooueth That the maners of the soule follow the temperature of the body in which it keepes residence and that by reason of the heat the coldnesse the moisture and the drouth of the territorie where men inhabit of the meats which they feed on of the waters which they drinke and of the aire which they breath some are blockish and some wise some of woorth and some base some cruel and some merciful many straight brested and many large part lyers and part true speakers sundrie traitors and sundrie faythfull somewhere vnquiet and somewhere stayed there double here single one pinching another liberall this man shamefast that shamelesse such hard and such light of beleefe And to prooue this he cites many places of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle who affirme that the difference of nations as well in composition of the body as in conditions of the soule springeth from the varietie of this temperature and experience it selfe euidently sheweth this how far are different Greeks from Tartarians Frenchmen from Spaniards Indians from Dutch and Aethiopians from English And this may be seene not only in countries so far distant but if we consider the prouinces that enuiron all Spaine we may depart the vertues and vices which we haue recounted amongst the inhabitants giuing ech one his peculiar vice and vertue and if we consider the wit and manners of the Catalonians Valentians Mercians Granatines Andaluzians Estremenians Portugals Gallesians Asturians Montagneses Biscanes Nauarrists Arragonois and of the kingdome of Castile who sees not and knowes not how far these are different amongst themselues not only in shape of countenaunce and in feature of body but euen in the vertues and vices of the soule Which all growes for that euery of these prouinces hath his particular and different temperature And this varietie of manners is knowne not onely in countries so farre off but in places also that are not more than a little league in distance it cannot be credited what ods there is found in the wits of the inhabitants Finally all that which Galen writeth in this his booke is the groundplot of this my Treatise albeit he declares not in particular the differences of the habilities which are in men neither as touching the sciences which euerie one requires in particular Notwithstanding he vnderstood that it was necessarie to depart the sciences amongst yoong men and to giue ech one that which to his naturall habilitie was requisit in as much as he sayd That well ordered common wealths ought to haue men of great wisedome and knowledge who might in their tender age discouer ech ones wit and naturall sharpnesse to the end they might be set to learne that art which was agreeable and not leaue it to their owne election CHAP. III. What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a young man may haue habilitie MAns body hath so many varieties of parts and powers applied ech to his end that it shal not stray from our purpose but rather growes a matter of necessitie to know first what member was ordained by nature for the principall instrument to the end man might become wise and aduised For it is a thing apparant that we discourse not with our foot nor walke on our head nor see with our nostrils nor heare with our eies but that euery of these parts hath his vse and particular disposition for the worke which it is to accomplish Before Hippocrates and Plato came into the world it held for a generall conceit amongst the naturall Philosophers that the heart was the principall part where the reasonable facultie made his residence and the instrument wherewith the soule wrought the workes of wisedome of diligence of memorie and of vnderstanding For which cause the diuine scripture applying it selfe to the ordinary speech of those times in many places cals the heart the soueraigne part of a man But these two graue Philosophers comming into the world gaue euidence that this opinion was false and prooued by many reasons and experiments that the braine is the principall seat of the reasonable soule and so they all gaue hands to this opinion saue
only Aristotle who with a purpose of crossing Plato in all points turned to reuiue the former opinion and with topicall places to make it probable with which of these opinions the truth swaieth time serueth not now to discusse For there is none of these Philosophers that doubteth but that the braine is the instrument ordained by nature to the end that man might become wise and skilfull it sufficeth only to declare with what conditions this part ought to be endewed so as we may affirme that it is duly instrumentalized and that a yong man in this behalfe may possesse a good wit and habilitie Foure conditions the braine ought to enjoy to the end the reasonable soule may therewith commodiously performe the workes which appertaine to vnderstanding and wisdome The first good composition the second that his parts be well vnited the third that the heat exceed not the cold nor the moist the drie the fourth that his substance be made of parts subtile and verie delicate In the good composition are contained other foure things the first is good figure the second quantitie sufficient the third that in the braine the foure ventricles be distinct and seuered each duly bestowed in his seat and place the fourth that the capablenesse of these be neither greater nor lesse than is conuenient for their workings Galen collects the good figure of the braine by an outward consideration namely the forme and disposition of the head which he sayth ought to be such as it should be if taking a perfect round ball of wax and pressing it together somewhat on the sides there will remaine after that manner the forehead and the nape with a little bunchinesse Hence it followes that the man who hath his forehead very plaine and his nodocke flat hath not his braine so figured as is requisit for wit and habilitie The quantitie of the braine which the soule needeth to discourse consider is a matter that breeds feare for amongst all the brute beasts there is none found to haue so much braine as a man in sort as if we ioine those of two the greatest oxen together they will not equall that of one onely man be he neuer so little And that whereto behooues more consideration is that amongst brute beasts those who approch neerest to mans wisedome and discretion as the ape the fox and the dog haue a greater quantitie of braine than the other though bigger bodied than they For which cause Galen said that a little head in any man is euer faultie because that it wanteth braine notwithstanding I auouch that if his hauing a great head proceedeth from abundance of matter and ill tempered at such time as the same was shaped by nature it is an euill token for the same consists all of bones and flesh and containes a smal quantitie of braine as it befals in very big orenges which opened are found scarce of iuice and hard of rinde Nothing offends the reasonable soule so much as to make his abode in a body surcharged with bones fat and flesh For which cause Plato sayd that wise mens heads are ordinarily weake and vpon any occasion are easily annoied and the reason is for that nature made them of an emptie skull with intention not to offend the wit by compassing it with much matter And this doctrine of Plato is so true that albeit the stomacke abides so far distant from the braine yet the same workes it offence when it is replenished with fat and flesh For confirmation hereof Galen alleageth a prouerbe which sayth A grosse bellie makes a grosse vnderstanding and that this proceeds from nothing else than that the brain and the stomacke are vnited and chained together with certaine sinewes by way of which they interchangeably communicat their dammages And contrariwise when the stomacke is drie and shrunke it affoords great aid to the wit as we see in the hungerstarued and such as are driuen to their shifts on which doctrine it may be Persius founded himself when he said That the belly is that which quickens vp the wit But the thing most pertinent to be noted for this purpose is that if the other parts of the body be fat and fleshie and therethrough a man growes ouer grosse Aristotle sayes It makes him to leese his wit For which cause I am of opinion that if a man haue a great head albeit the same proceed for that he is endued with a very able nature and that he is furnished with a quantitie of well tempered matter yet he shall not be owner of so good a wit as if the same held a meaner size Aristotle is of a contrary opinion whilest he enquires for what cause a man is the wisest of all liuing creatures to which doubt he answers That you shall find no creature which hath so little a head as man respecting withall the greatnesse of his bodie but herein he swarued from reason for if he had opened some mans head and viewed the quantitie of his braine he should haue found that two horses together had not so much braine as that one man That which I haue gathered by experience is that in little men it is best that the head incline somewhat to greatnesse and in those who are big bodied it prooues best that they be little and the reason is for that after this sort there is found a measurable quantitie with which the reasonable soule may wel performe his working Besides this there are needfull the foure ventricles in the brain to the end the reasonable soule may discourse and Philosophize one must be placed on the right side of the braine the second on the left the third in the middle of these and the fourth in the part behind the braine Whervnto these ventricles serue and their large or narrow capablenesse for the reasonable soule all shall be told by vs a little hereafter when we shall intreat of the diuersities of mens wits But it sufficeth not that the braine possesse good figure sufficient quantitie and the number of ventricles by vs forementioned with their capablenesse great or little but it behooues also that his parts holds a certaine kind of continuednesse and that they be not diuided For which cause we haue seene in hurts of the head that some men haue lost their memorie some their vnderstanding and others their imagination and put case that after they haue recouered their health the braine re-vnited it selfe againe yet this notwithstanding the naturall vnion was not made which the braine before possessed The third condition of the fourth principall was that the braine should be tempered with measurable heat and without excesse of the other qualities which disposition we sayd heretofore that it is called good nature for it is that which principally makes a man able and the contrarie vnable But the fourth namely that the braine haue his substance or composition of subtle and delicate parts Galen sayth is the most important of all the rest For when he
would giue a token of the good disposition of the brain he affirmeth that a subtile wit sheweth that the braine is framed of subtile and very delicat parts and if the vnderstanding be dull it giues euidence of a grosse substance but he makes no mention of the temperature These conditions the braine ought to be endewed withall to the end the reasonable soule may therethrough shape his reasons and syllogismes But here encounters vs a difficultie very great and this is that if we open the head of any beast we shall find his braine composed with the same forme and manner as a mans without that any of the fore-reported conditions will be failing Whence we gather that the brute beasts haue also the vse of Prudence and reason by means of the composition of their braine or else that our reasonable soule serues not it selfe of this member for the vse of his operations which may not be auouched To this doubt Galen answereth in this manner Amongst the kinds of beasts it is doubted whether that which is termed vnreasonable be altogether void of reason or not For albeit the same want that which consists in voice which is named speech yet that which is conceiued in the soule and termed discourse of this it may be that all sorts of beasts are partakers albeit the same is bestowed more sparingly vpon some and more largely on other some But verely how far man in the way of reason outgoeth all the rest there is none who maketh question By these words Galen giues vs to vnderstand albeit with some fearfulnesse that brute beasts do partake reason one more and another lesse and in their mind do frame some syllogisines and discourses though they cannot vtter them by way of speech And then the difference betweene them and man consisteth in being more reasonable and in vsing Prudence with greater perfection The same Galen prooues also by many reasons and experiments that Asses being of all brute beasts the bluntest do ariue with their wit to the most curious and nice points which were deuised by Plato and Aristotle and there on he collects saying I am therefore so far from praysing the antient Philosophers in that they haue found out some ample matter and of rare inuention as when they say We must hold that there is selfe and diuers one and not one not only in number but also in kind as I dare boldly affirme that euen the very Asses who notwithstanding seeme most blockish of all beasts haue this from nature This selfe same meant Aristotle when he enquired the cause Why man amongst all liuing creatures is wisest and in another place he turnes to doubt For what cause man is the most vniust of all liuing creatures in which he giues vs to vnderstand the selfe same which Galen sayd That the difference which is found between man and brute beast is the selfe same which is found betweene a foole and a wise man which is nought else than in respect of the more and the lesse This truly is not to be doubted that brute beasts enioy memorie and imagination and another power which resembles vnderstanding as the Ape is very like a man and that his soule takes vse of the composition of the braine it is a matter apparant which being good and such as is behooffull performes his workes very wel and with much prudence and if the braine be ill instrumentalized it executes the same vntowardly For which cause we see that there be asses which in their knowledge are properly such and others againe are found so quicke conceipted and malicious that they passe the propertie of their kind And amongst horses are found many iadishnesses and good qualities and some there are more trainable than the rest all which growes from hauing their braine well or ill instrumentalized The reason and solution of this doubt shall be placed in the chapter which followeth for there we returne to reason anew of this matter There are in the body some other parts from whose temperature as well the wit as the braine depend of which we will reason in the last chapter of this worke But besides these and the braine there is found in the body another substance whose seruice the reasonable soule vseth in his operations and so requireth the three last qualities which we haue assigned to the braine that is quantitie sufficient delicate substance and good temperature These are the vitall spirits and arteriall blood which go wandring through the whole body and remaine euermore vnited to the imagination following his contemplation The office of this spirituall substance is to stir vp the powers of man and to giue them force and vigour that they may be able to worke This shall euidently be knowne to be their manner if we take consideration of the motions of the imaginations and of that which after succeeds in working For if a man begin to imagine vpon any iniurie that hath bene profered him the blood of the arteries runs sodainly to the heart and stirs vp the wrathfull part and giues the same heat and forces for reuenge If a man stand contemplating any faire woman or stay in giuing receiuing by that imaginatiō touching the venerious act these vitall spirits run foorthwith to the genitall members and raise them to the performance The like befals when we remember any delicat and sauourie meat which once called to mind they straight abandon the rest of the body and flie to the stomacke and replenish the mouth with water And this their motion is so swift that if a woman with child long for any meat whatsoeuer and still retaine the same in her imagination we see by experience that she looseth her burthen if speedily it be not yeelded vnto her The naturall reason of this is because these vitall spirits before the woman conceiued this longing made abode in the bellie helping her there to retaine the creature and through this new imagination of eating they hie to the stomacke to raise the appetite and in this space if the belly haue no strong retentiue it cannot sustaine the same and so by this means she leeseth her burthen Galen vnderstanding this condition of the vitall spirits counsaileth Phisitions that they giue not sicke folke to eat when their humors are raw and vpon digestion for when they first feele the meat in the stomacke they straightwaies abandon the worke about which before they were occupied and come thervnto to helpe it The like benefit and ayd the braine receiues of these vitall spirits when the reasonable soule is about to contemplat vnderstand imagine or performe actions of memorie without which it cannot worke And like as the grosse substance of the braine and his euill temperature brings the wit to confusion so the vitall spirits and the arteriall blood not being delicat and of good temperature hinder in a man his discourse and vse of reason Wherefore Plato sayd That the supplenesse and good temperature of the heart makes the
with him from his mothers belly and lifting vp the one foot scrapes behind his eare and setting before him sundrie platters with wine water vinegre oile and milke after he hath smelt them all he fed onely on that of milke Which being beheld by diuers Philosophers there present they all with one voice cried out That Hippocrates had great reason to say that soules were skilfull without the instruction of any teacher But Galen held not himselfe contented with this one proofe for two months after he caused the same kid being very hungrie to be brought into the field where smelling at many hearbs he did eat only those whereon goats accustomably feed But if Galen as he set himselfe to contemplat the demeanure of this kid had done the like with three or foure together he should haue seene some gone better than other some shrug themselues better scratch better and performe better al the other actions which we haue recounted And if Galen had reared two colts bred of one horse and mare he should haue seene the one to pace with more grace than the other and to gallop and stop better and shew more fidelitie And if he had taken an ayrie of Faulcons and manned them he should haue found the first good of wing the second good of prey and the third rauening and ill conditioned The like shall we find in hounds who being whelpes of the same litter the one for perfection of hunting will seeme to want but speech and the other haue no more inclination therevnto than if he had bene engendered by a heardmans bandog All this cannot be reduced to those vaine instincts of nature which the Philosophers faine For if you aske for what cause one dog hath more instinct than another both comming of one kind and whelpes of one sire I cannot coniecture what they may answer saue to flie backe to their old leaning post saying That God hath taught the one better than the other and giuen him a more naturall instinct And if we demaund the reason why this good hound being yet but a whelpe is a perfect hunter and growing in age hath no such sufficiencie and contrariwise another being yoong cannot hunt at all and waxing old is wylie and readie I know not what they can yeeld in replie My selfe atleast would say that the towardly hunting of one dog more than an other growes from the better temperature of his brain and againe that his well hunting whilest he is yoong and his decay in age is occasioned by means that in one age he partakes the temperature which is requisit to the qualities of hunting and in the other not Whence we infer that sithens the temperature of the foure first qualities is the reason and cause for which one brute beast better performs the works of his kind than another that this temperature is the schoolemaister which teacheth the sensitiue soule what it is to do And if Galen had considered the demeanure and voiages of the Ant and noted his prudence his mercie his iustice and his gouernment he would haue taken astonishment to see a beast so little endewed with so great sagenesse without the helpe of any maister or teacher to instruct him But the temperature which the ant hath in his braine being knowne and how aptly it is appropriated to wisedome as hereafter shall be showne this woonderment will cease and we shall conceiue that brute beasts with the temperature of their braine and the fantasmes which enter thereinto by the fiue sences make such discourses and partake those abilities which we do so note in them And amongst beasts of one kind he which is most schooleable and skilfull is such because he hath his braine better tempered and if through any occasion or infirmitie the temperature of his braine incur alteration he will sodainly leese his skill and abilitie as men also do But now we are to treat of a difficultie touching the reasonable soule which is in what sort he hath this naturall instinct for the operations of his kind namely Sapience and Prudence and how on the sodaine by means of his good temperature a man can be skilled in the sciences without the instruction of any other seeing experience telleth vs that if they be not gotten by learning no man is at his birth endewed with them Betweene Plato and Aristotle there is a waightie question as touching the verefieng the reason or cause from whence the wisedome of man may spring One sayth That the reasonable soule is more antient than the bodie for that before such time as Nature endowed the same with these instruments it made abode in heauen in the company of God whence it issued full of science and sapience but when it entered to forme this matter through the euill temperature which it found therein it forewent the whole vntill by processe of time this ill temperature grew to amendment and there succeeded another in steed thereof with which as more appliable to the sciences it had lost it grew by little and little to call that to remembrance which before it had forgotten This opinion is false and I much maruel that Plato being so great a Philosopher could not render the reason of mans wisedome considering that brute beasts haue their prudencies and naturall habilities without that their soule departs from their bodie or sties vp to heauen to learne them In which regard he cannot go blamelesse especially hauing red in Genesis whereto he gaue so great credit that God instrumentalized the body of Adam before he created his soule The selfe-same befals also now saue that it is nature who begets the body and in the last disposing thereof God createth the soule in the same body without that it be sundred therefrom any time or moment Aristotle tooke another course affirming that euerie doctrine and euery discipline comes from a foregoing knowledge as if he would say all that which men know and learne springs from that they haue heard the same seene it smelt it tasted it or felt it For there can grow no notice in the vnderstanding which hath not first taken passage by some of the fiue sences For which cause he sayd that these powers issue out of the hands of nature as a plaine table in which is no maner of painting which opinion is also false as well as that of Plato But that we may the better prooue and make the same apparant it behooues first to agree with the vulgar Philosophers that in mans body there rests but one soule and that the same is reasonable which is the originall of whatsoeuer we do or effect albeit there are opinions and there want not who against this defend that in company of the reasonable soule there are associated some two or three more This then standing thus in the workes which the reasonable soule performes as it is vegetatiue we haue alreadie proued that the same knowes how to shape man and to giue him the figure which he
great a contentment as if it had bene true I rest now in far woorse case finding my selfe in troth to be but a poore page and to morrow I must begin againe to serue one who whilst I was in mine infirmitie I would haue disdayned for my footman It skils not much whether the Philosophers admit all this and beleeue that it may be so or not but what if I should prooue by verie true stories that ignorant men strooken with this infirmitie haue spoken Latine which they neuer learned in their health and that a franticke woman told all persons who came to visit her their vertues and vices and sometimes reported matters with that assurance which they vse to giue who speake by coniectures and tokens and for this cause none almost durst come in to visite her fearing to heare of those true tales which she would deliuer and which is more to be maruelled at when a barber came to let her blood Friend quoth she haue regard what you do for you haue but few daies to liue and your wife shall marrie such a man and this though spoken by chaunce fell out so true as it tooke effect before halfe a yeare came to an end Me thinks I heare them who flie natural Philosophy to say that this is a foule leasing that put case it were true the diuell as he is wise and craftie by Gods sufferance entred into this womans body and into the rest of those frantike persons whom I haue mentioned and caused them to vtter those strange matters and yet euen to confesse this they are very loath for the diuell foreknoweth not what is to come because he hath no propheticall spirit They hold it a very sufficient argument to auouch This is false because I cannot conceiue how it may be so as if difficult quaint matters were subiect to blunt wits and came within the reach of their capacities I pretend not hereby to take those to taske who haue defect of vnderstanding for that were a bootlesse labour but to make Aristotle himselfe confesse that men endowed with the temperature requisit for such operations may conceiue many things without hauing receiued thereof any particular perseuerance or learned the same at the hands of any other Sundry also because this heat is a neighbour to the seat of the mind are wrapped in the infirmitie of sottishnesse or are heated by some furious instinct whence grew the Sibils and Bacchants and all those who men thinke are egged on by some diuine inspiration whereas this takes his originall not from any disease but from a naturall distemperature Marcus a citizen of Siracusa was excellentest poet after he lost his vnderstanding and those in whom this abated heat approcheth least to mediocritie are verely altogether melancholike but thereby much the wiser In these words Aristotle cleerely confesseth that when the braine is excessiuely heated many thereby attaine the knowledge of things to come as were the Sibils which Aristotle sayth growes not by reason of any disease but thorow the inequalitie of the naturall heat and that this is the very reason and cause thereof he proues apparantly by an example alleaging that Mark a citizen of Siracuse was a Poet in most excellencie at such time as through excessiue heat of the braine he fell besides himselfe and when he returned to a more moderat temperature he lost his versifying but yet remayned more wise and aduised In so much that Aristotle not only admits the temperature of the braine for the principall occasion of these extrauagant successes but also reprooues them who hold the same for a diuine reuelation and no naturall cause The first who tearmed these maruellous matters by the name of diuinesse was Hippocrates and that if any such point of diuinesse be found in the disease that it manifesteth also a prouidence Vpon which sentence he chargeth Phisitions that if the diseased vtter any such diuine matters they may thereby know in what case she rests and prognosticate what will become of him But that which in this behalfe driues me to most woonder is that demaunding of Plato how it may come to passe that of two sonnes begotten by one father one hath the skill of versifying without any other teaching and the other toiling in the art of poetrie can neuer beget so much as one verse he answereth That he who was borne a Poet is possessed and the other not In which behalfe Aristotle had good cause to find fault with him for that he might haue reduced this to the temperature as else where he did The frantike persons speaking of Latine without that he euer learned the same in his health time shewes the consonance which the Latin toong holds with the reasonable soule and as we will prooue hereafter there is to be found a particular wit appliable to the inuention of languages and Latine words the phrases of speech in that toong are so fitting with the eare that the reasonable soule possessing the necessarie temperature for the inuention of some delicat language sodainly encounters with this And that two deuisers of languages may shape the like words hauing the like wit and habilitie it is very manifest presupposing that when God created Adam and set all things before him to the end he might bestow on each his seuerall name whereby it should be called he had likewise at that instant molded another man with the same perfection and supernaturall grace now I demaund if God had placed the same things before this other man that he might also set them names whereby they should be called of what manner those names should haue bene for mine owne part I make no doubt but he would haue giuen these things those very names which Adam did and the reason is very apparant for both carried one selfe eye to the nature of each thing which of it selfe was no more but one After this manner might the frantike person light vpon the Latine toong and speake the same without euer hauing learned it in his health for the naturall temperature of his braine conceiuing alteration through the infirmitie it might for a space become like his who first inuented the Latine toong and faine the like words but yet not with that concert and continued finenesse for this would giue tokē that the diuel moued that toong as the church teacheth hir exorcists This selfe sayth Aristotle befel some children who at their birth-time spake some words very plainly and afterward kept silence and he finds fault with the vulgar Philosophers of his time who for that they knew not the naturall cause of this effect imputed it to the diuell The cause why children speake so soone as they are borne and after foorthwith turne to hold their peace Aristotle could neuer find out though he went much about it but yet it could neuer sinke into his braine that it was a deuise of the diuels nor an effect aboue nature as the vulgar Philosophers held opinion who
reason And yet for all this by wanting that onely ventricle there is a great abatement discerned in his operations as well in those of the vnderstanding as of the imaginatiue and memorie as they shal also find in the losse of one sight who were woont to behold with two whereby we cleerely comprize that in euery ventricle are all the three powers sithens by the annoiance of any one all the three are weakened Seeing then al the three ventricles are of one selfe composition and that there rests not amongst them any varietie of parts we may not leaue to take the first qualities for an instrument and to make so many generall differences of wits as they are in number For to thinke that the reasonable soule being in the body can worke without some bodily instrument to assist her is against all naturall Philosophie But of the foure qualities heat cold moisture and drouth all Phisitions leaue out cold as vnprofitable to any operation of the reasonable soule wherethrough it is seene by experience in the other habilities that if the same mount aboue heat all the powers of man do badly performe their operations neither can the stomacke digest his meat nor the cods yeeld fruitfull seed nor the muscles mooue the body nor the braine discourse For which cause Galen sayd Coldnesse is apparantly noysome to all the offices of the soule as if he should say Cold is the ruine of all the operations of the soule only it serues in the body to temper the naturall heat and to procure that it burne not ouer-much and yet Aristotle is of a contrary opinion where he affirmeth it is a matter certaine that that blood carrieth most forcible efficacie which is thickest and hottest but the coldest thinnest hath a more accomplished force to perceiue and vnderstand as if he would say the thicke and hot blood makes great bodily forces but the pure and cold is cause that man possesseth great vnderstanding Whereby we plainly see that from coldnesse springeth the greatest difference of wit that is in any man namely in the vnderstanding Aristotle moreouer mooues a doubt and that is why men who inhabit very hot countries as Aegypt are more wittie and aduised than those who are borne in cold regions Which doubt he resolues in this manner That the excessiue heat of the countrie fretteth and consumeth the naturall heat of the braine and so leaues it cold whereby man growes to be full of reasonablenesse And that contrariwise the much cold of the aire fortifieth the much naturall heat of the braine and yeelds it not place to resolue For which cause sayth he such as are very hot brained cannot discourse nor philosophise but are giddie headed and not setled in any one opinion To which opinion it seemes that Galen leaneth saying that the cause why a man is vnstable and changeth opinion at euery moment is for that he hath a hote braine and contrariewise his being stable and firme springs from the coldnesse of his braine But the truth is that from this heat there groweth not any difference of wit neither did Aristotle meane that the cold blood by his predominance did better the vnderstanding but that which is lesse hote True it is that mans variablenesse springs from his partaking of much heat which lifts vp the figures that are in the braine and makes them to boile by which operation there are represented to the soule many images of things which inuite him to their contemplation and the soule to possesse them all leaues one and takes another Contrariwise it befals in coldnesse which for that it imprints inwardly these figures and suffers them not to rise makes a man firme in one opinion and it prooues so because none other presents it selfe to call the same away Coldnesse hath this qualitie that it not only hindereth the motions of bodily things but also makes that the figures and shapes which the Philosophers call spirituall be vnmooueable in the braine And this firmnesse seemeth rather a negligence than a difference of habilitie Alike true it is that there is found another diuersity of firmnesse which proceeds from possessing an vnderstanding well compacted together not from the coldnesse of the brain So there remaine drouth moisture and heat for the seruice of the reasonable facultie But no Philosopher as yet wist to giue to euery difference of wit determinatly that which was his Heraclitus sayd A drie brightnesse makes a most wise mind by which sentence he giues vs to vnderstand that drinesse is the cause why a man becoms very wise but he declares not in what kinde of knowledge The selfe same meant Plato when he sayd that the soule descended into the body endowed with great wisdome and through the much moisture which it there found grew to become dull vntoward But this wearing away in the course of age and purchasing drinesse the soule grew to discouer the knowledge which he tofore enioyed Amongst brute beasts sayth Aristotle those are wisest whose temperature is most enclined to cold and drie as are the ants and bees who for wisedome concurre with those men that partake most of reason Moreouer no brute beast is found of more moisture or lesse wit than a hog wherethrough the Poet Pindare to gibe at the people of Beotia and to handle them as fooles sayd thus Th'vntoward folke which now is nam'd Beotia were once cald Hogs Moreouer blood through his much moisture sayth Galen makes men simple And for such the same Galen recounts that the Commicks ieasted at Hippocrates children saying of them That they had much naturall heat which is a substance moist and very vaporous This is ordinarily incident to the children of wise men hereafter I will make report of the cause whence it groweth Amongst the foure humours which we enioy there is none so cold and drie as that of melancholie and whatsoeuer notable men for learning haue liued in the world sayth Aristotle they were all melancholike Finally all agree in this point that drinesse makes a man very wise but they expresse not to which of the reasonable powers it affoordeth greatest helpe only Esay the Prophet cals it by his right name where he sayth That trauaile giues vnderstanding for sadnesse and affliction not only diminisheth cōsumeth the moisture of the brain but also drieth vp the bones with which qualitie the vnderstanding groweth more sharpe sightfull Wherof we may gather an example very manifest by taking into consideration many men who cast into pouertie and affliction haue therethrough vttered and written sentences woorth the maruelling at and afterwards rising to better fortune to eat and drinke well would neuer once open their mouths For a delicious life contentment and good successe and to see that all thinges fall out after our liking looseneth and maketh the braine moist And this is it which Hippocrates sayd Mirth looseneth the heart as if he would haue sayd That the same enlargeth and giueth it heat and
the imagination so it is of force that they faile in vnderstanding and be such as the prouerb paints them forth To the second probleme may be answered that Galen enquiring out the wit of men by way of the temperarature of the region where they inhabit saith that those who make abode vnder the North haue all of thē want of vnderstanding but those who are seated between the North and the burned Zone are of great wisedome Which situation answereth directly to our region And verily so it is for Spaine is not so cold as the places subiected to the Pole nor so hot as the burned Zone The same sentence doth Aristotle produce demanding for what cause such as inhabit verie cold regions partake lesse vnderstanding than those who are born in the hotter and in the answere he verie homely handles the Flemmish Dutch English and French saying that their wits are like those of drunkards for which cause they cannot search out nor vnderstand the nature of things this is occasioned by the much moisture wherwith their brain is replenished and the other parts of the bodie the which is knowen by the whitenesse of the face and the golden colour of the haire and by that it is a miracle to find a Dutchman bald and aboue this they are generally great and of tall stature through the much moisture which breedeth encrease of flesh But in the Spaniards we discerne the quite contrarie they are somwhat browne they haue blacke haire of meane stature and for the most part we see them bald Which disposition saith Galen groweth for that the braine is hot and drie And if this be true it behooueth of force that they be endowed with a bad memorie and a good vnderstanding but the Dutchmen possesse a great memorie small vnderstanding For which cause the one can no skill of Latine and the other easily learne the same The reason which Aristotle alleaged to proue the slender vnderstanding of those who dwell vnder the North is that the much cold of the country calleth backe the naturall heate inward by counterposition and suffereth not the same to spread abroad for which cause it partaketh much moysture and much heate and these vnite a great memorie for the languages and a good imagination with which they make clocks bring the water to Toledo deuise engins and workes of rare skill which the Spaniards through defect of imagination cannot frame themselues vnto But set them to Logicke to Philosophie to Schoole-diuinitie to Phisicke or to the Lawes and beyond comparison a Spanish wit with his barbarous termes will deliuer more rare points than a stranger For if you take from them this finenesse and quaint phrase of writing there is nothing in them of rare inuention or exquisite choice For confirmation of this doctrine Galen said that in Scithia one onely man became a Philosopher but in Athens there were many such as if he should say that in Scithia which is a Prouince vnder the North it grew a myracle to see a Philosopher but in Athens they were all borne wise and skilfull But albeit Philosophie and the other Sciences rehearsed by vs be repugnant to the Northren people yet they profit well in the Mathematicals and in Astrologie because they haue a good imagination The answere of the third probleme dependeth vpon a question much hammered between Plato Aristotle the one saith that there are proper names which by their nature carrie signification of things and that much wit is requisite to deuise them And this opinion is fauoured by the diuine scripture which affirmeth that Adam gaue euerie of those things which God set before him the proper name that best was fitting for them But Aristotle wil not grant that in any toung there can be found any name or maner of speech which can signifie ought of it own nature for that all names are deuised and shaped after the conceit of men Whence we see by experience that wine hath aboue 60. names and bread as manie in euerie language his of none we can auouch that the same is naturall and agreeable thereunto for then all in the world would vse but that But for all this the sentence of Plato is truer for put case that the first deuisers fained the words at their pleasure and will yet was the same by a reasonable instinct communicated with the eare with the nature of the thing with the good grace and well sounding of the pronunciation not making the wordes ouer short or long nor enforcing an vnseemly framing of the mouth in time of vtterance setling the accent in his conuenient place and obseruing the other conditions which a tongue should possesse to be fine and not barbarous Of this selfe opinion with Plato was a Spanish gentleman who made it his pastime to write books of chiualrie because he had a certain kind of imagination which entiseth men to faining and leasings Of him it is reported that being to bring into his works a furious Gyant he went manie daies deuising a name which might in al points be answerable to his fiercenesse neither could he light vpon any vntill playing one day at cardes in his friends house he heard the owner of the house say Ho sirha boy traquitantos the Gentleman so soone as he heard this name Traquitantos sodainly he took the same for a word of ful sound in the eare and without any longer looking arose saying gentlemen I wil play no more for many dayes are past sithence I haue gone seeking out a name which might fit well with a furious Gyant whom I bring into those volumes which I now am making and I could not find the same vntill I came to this house where euer I receiue all courtesie The curiositie of this gentleman in calling the Gyant Traquitantos had also those first men who deuised the Latine tongue in that they found out a language of so good sound to the eare Therefore we need not maruell that the things which are spoken and written in Latine doe sound so well and in other tongues so ill for their first inuenters were barbarous The last doubt I haue been forced to alleage for satisfieng of diuers who haue stūbled theron though the solution be very easie for those who haue great vnderstanding are not vtterly depriued of memorie in asmuch as if they wanted the same it would fall out impossible that the vnderstanding could discourse or frame reasons for this power is that which keepeth in hand the matter and the fantasies whereon it behooueth to vse speculation But for that the same is weake of three degrees of perfection whereto men may attaine in the Latine tongue namely to vnderstand to write and to speake the same perfitly it can hardly passe the first without fault and stumbling CHAP. IX How it may be prooued that the eloquence and finenesse of speech cannot find place in men of great vnderstanding ONe of the graces by which the vulgar is best
more abled by art the ancient Philosophers deuised Logicke to teach him how he might frame his reasons with those precepts and rules how he should define the nature of things distinguish deuide conclude argue iudge and choose without which works it grows impossible that the Artist can go forward and that he might be companiable and ciuill it behooued him to speake to giue other men to weet the conceits which he framed in his mind And for that he should not deliuer them without disposition and without order they deuised another art which they termed Rhethoricke which by his preceptes and rules might beautifie the speech with polished words with fine phrases and with stirring affections and gratious colours But as Logicke teacheth not a man to discourse and to argue in one science alone but without difference in all alike so also Rhethoricke instructeth how to speake in Diuinitie in Phisicke in skill of the Lawes and in all other Sciences and conuersations which men entermedled withall In sort that if we will faine a perfect Logician or an accomplished Oratour he cannot fall into due consideration vnlesse he be seen in all the Sciences for they all appertaine to his iurisdiction and in which soeuer of them he may exercise his rules without distinction not as Phisicke which hath his matter limited whereof it must intreat and so likewise naturall Philosophie and morall Metaphisick Astrologie and the rest and therefore Cicero said The Oratour whersoeuer he abideth dwelleth in his own And in another place he affirmeth in a perfect Oratour is found all the knowledge of the Philosophers and therefore the same Cicero auouched that there is no art more difficult than that of a perfect Oratour and with more reason he might so haue said if he had known with how great hardnesse al the Sciences are vnited in one particular subiect Anciently the doctors of the law were adorned with the name of Oratour for the perfection of pleading required the notice furniture of al the arts in the world for the lawes do iudge them all Now to know the defence reserued for euerie art by it selfe it was necessary to haue a particular knowledge of them all for which cause Cicero said No man ought to be reputed in the number of oratours who is not well seen in all the arts But seeing it was impossible to learne all Sciences first through the shortnesse of life and then because mans wit is so bounded they let them passe and of necessitie held themselues contented to giue credit to the skilfull in that art whereof they made profession and no farther After this maner of defending causes straightwaies succeeded the euangelicall doctrine which might haue been persuaded by the art of oratorie better than all the Sciences of the world besides for that the same is the most certaine and truest but Christ our redeemer charged S. Paul that he should not preach it with wisdom of words to the end the Gentiles should not think it was a well couched leasing as are those which the oratours vse to persuade by the force of their art But when the faith had been receiued many yeares after it was allowed to preach with places of Rhetoricke and to vse the seruice of eloquent speech for that then the inconuenience fell not in consideration which was extant when S. Paul preached Yea we see that the preacher reapeth more fruit who hath the conditions of a perfect orator and is more haunted than he that wanteth them and the reason is verie plaine For if the ancient oratours gaue the people to vnderstand things false for true vsing those their preceptes and rules more easily shall the christian auditorie be drawen when by art they are persuaded to that which alreadie they vnderstand and beleeue Besides that the holy Scripture after a sort is all things and to yeeld the same a true interpretation it behooueth to haue all the Sciences conformable to that so oft said saw He sent his damsels to call to the Castle This fitteth not to be remembred to the preachers of our time nor to aduise them that now they may do it for their particular studie besides the fruit which they pretend to bring with their doctrine is to seeke out a good text to whose purpose they may applie many fine sentences taken out of the diuine Scripture the holy doctors poets historians phisitians and lawyers without forbearing anie Science and speaking copiously with quietnesse and pleasant words and with al these things they goe amplifying and stuffing their matter an houre or two if need be Of this saith Cicero the oratours of his time made profession The force of an oratour saith he and the selfe art of well speaking seemeth that it vndertaketh and promiseth to speake with copiousnesse and ornament of whatsoeuer matter that shall be propounded Then if we shall prooue that the graces and conditions which a perfect oratour ought to haue do all appertaine to the imagination and to the memorie we shall also know that the diuine who is indowed with them will be an excellent preacher but being set to the doctrrin of S. Thomas and Scotus can litle skill therof for that the same is a science belonging to the vnderstanding in which power of necessitie it holdeth litle force What the things be which appertaine to the imagination and by what signs they are to be knowne we haue heretofore made mention now we will return to a replication of them that they may the better be refreshed to the memorie All that which may be tearmed good figure good purpose and prouision comes from the grace of the imagination as are merrie ieasts resemblances quips and comparisons The first thing which a perfect Orator is to go about hauing matter vnder hand is to seeke out arguments and conuenient sentences whereby he may dilate and prooue and that not with all sorts of words but with such as giue a good consonance to the eare and therefore Cicero sayd I take him for an Orator who can vse in his discourses words well tuning with the eare and sentences conuenient for proofe And this for certain appertaineth to the imagination sithens therin is a consonance of well pleasing words and a good direction in the sentences The second grace which may not be wanting in a perfect Orator is to possesse much inuention or much reading for if he rest bound to dilate and confirme any matter whatsoeuer with many speeches and sentences applied to the purpose it behooueth that he haue a very swift imagination and that the same supplie as it were the place of a braach to hunt and bring the game to his hand and when he wants what to say to deuise somewhat as if it were materiall For this cause we sayd before that heat was an instrument with which the imagination worketh for this qualitie lifteth vp the figures and maketh them to boile Here is discouered all that which in them may be seene and if there fel out
whereof when it was persuaded no man took regard and therfore kings and emperours are aduised by the same laws that they shame not to amend and correct their lawes for in a word men they are and maruell there is none if they commit an error so much the rather for that no law can comprehend in wordes and sentences all the circumstances of the case which it decideth for the craft of bad people is more wily to finde holes than that of good men to foresee how they are to be gouerned and therefore it was said Neither the lawes nor the resolutions of the Senate can be set down in writing in such sort that all the cases which seuerally chance may be comprised therein but it sufficeth to comprehend the things which fall out oftenest and if other cases succeed afterward for which no law is enacted it decideth them in proper termes The law facultie is not so bare of rules and principles but that if the iudge or pleader haue a good discourse to know how to applie them they may find their true determination and defence and whence to gather the same In sort that if the cases be more in number than the lawes it behooueth that in the iudge and in the pleader there be much discourse to make new laws and that not at all aduentures but such as reason by his consonance may receiue them without contradiction This the lawyers of much memorie cannot doe for if the cases which the law thrusteth into their mouth be not squared and chewed to their hands they are to seek what to doe We are woont to resemble a lawyer who can rehearse many lawes by heart to a regrater or hosier that hath many paires of hosen ready made in his shop who to deliuer you one that may fit you must make you to assay them all and if none agree with the buiers measure he must send him away hoselesse But a learned man of good vnderstanding is like a good tailer who hath his sheeres in his hand and his peece a cloth on the table and taking measure cutteth his hosen after his stature that demandeth them The sheeres of a good pleader is his sharp vnderstanding with which he taketh measure of the case and apparelleth the same with that law which may decide it and if he finde not a whole one that may determine it in expresse termes he maketh one of many peeces and therewith vseth the best defence that he may The lawyers who are endowed with such a wit and abilitie are not to be termed lettered for they construe not the letter neither bind themselues to the formall words of the law but it seemeth they are law-makers or counsellors at law of whom the lawes themselues enquire and demand how they shall determine for if they haue power authoritie to interpret them to reaue to adde and to gather out of them exceptions and fallacies and that they may correct and amend them it was not vnfitly said That they seem to be law makers Of this sort of knowledge it was spoken by the knowledge of the lawes it is not meant to con their wordes by rote but to take notice of their force and power as if he should say Let no man thinke that to know the lawes is to beare in minde the formall words with which they are written but to vnderstand how far their forces extend and what the point is which they may decide for their reason is subiect to manie varieties by meanes of the circumstances as well of time as of person of place of maner of matter of cause and of the thing itselfe All which breedeth an alteration in the decision of the law and if the iudge or pleader be not endowed with discourse to gather out of the law or to take away or adioine that which the law selfe doth not expresse in words he shall commit manie errors in following the letter for it hath been said that the words of the law are not to be taken after the Iewish manner that is to consture onely the letter and so take the sense thereof On the things alreadie alleaged we conclude that pleading is a worke of discourse and that if the learned in the lawes possesse much memorie he shalbe vntoward to iudge or plead through the repugnancie of these two powers And this is the cause for which the learned of so ripe memorie whom Plato mentioneth could not defend well their clients causes nor apply the lawes But in this doctrin there presents it selfe a doubt and that in mine opinion not of the lightest for if the discourse be that which putteth the case in the law and which determineth the same by distinguishing limiting amplifieng inferring and answering the arguments of the contrarie party how is it possible that the discourse may compasse all this if the memorie set not downe all the lawes before it for as we haue aboue remembred it is commanded that no man in actions or iudgements shall vse his owne sense but leaue himselfe to be guided by the authoritie of the lawes Conformable heereunto it behooueth first to know all the lawes and rules of the law facultie ere we can take hold of that which maketh to the purpose of our case For albeit we haue said that the pleader of good vnderstāding is lord of the lawes yet it is requisit that all his reasons and arguments be grounded on the principles of this facultie without which they are of none effect or valure And to be able to do this it behooueth to haue much memorie that may preserue and retaine so great a number of laws which are written in the books This argument prooueth it to be necessarie to the end a pleader may be accomplished that there be vnited in him a great discourse and much memorie All which I confesse but that which I would say is that since we cannot finde great discourse vnited with much memorie through the repugnancie which they carrie ech to other it is requisit that the pleader haue much discourse and litle memory rather than much memory litle discourse for to the default of memory are found many remedies as books tables alphabets other things deuised by men but if discourse faile there can nothing be found to remedie the same Besides this Aristotle faith that men of great discourse though they haue a feeble memory yet they haue much remembrance by which they retaine a certaine diffuse notice of things they haue seen heard and read whervpon discoursing they cal them to memorie And albeit they had not so many remedies to present vnto the vnderstanding the whole bodie of the ciuilllaw yet the lawes are grounded on so great reason as Plato reporteth that the ancients termed the law Wisdom Reason Therefore the iudge or pleader of great discourse though iudging or counselling he haue not the law before him yet seldome shall he commit an error for he hath with him the instrument with which the Emperors
and if there come not in his head arguments and answers in the matter which is treated of he is void of discourse but if the prooue towardly in his seiâ—neâ— it is an infallible argument that he is endued with a good vnderstanding for the lawes and so he may forth with addict himself to studie them without longer tarying Albeit would hold it better done first to run through the arts because Logicke in respect of the vnderstanding is nought els than those shockles which we 〈◊〉 on the legs of an vntrained Mule which going with them in any daies taketh a steddie seemlie place Such a march doth the vnderstanding make in his disputations when it first bindeth the same with the rules and precepts or Logicke but if this child whom we go thus wise 〈◊〉 reape no profit in the Latine tongue neither can come away with Logicke as were requisite it behooueth to trie whether he possesse a good imagination ere we take him from the laws for herein is lapped vp a verie great secret and it is good that the common-wealth be done to ware thereof and it is that there are some lawyers who getting vp into the chaire work miracles in interpreting the texts others in pleading but if you put the staffe of iustice into their hands they haue no more abilitie to gouerne than as if the lawes had neuer been enacted to any such end And contrariwise some other there are who with three misvnderstood lawes which they haue learned at all aduentures being placed in anie gouernment there cannot more be desired at any mans handes than they will performe At which effect some curious wits take wonder because they sinck not into the depth of the cause from whence it may grow And the reason is that gouernment appertaineth to the imagination and not to the vnderstanding nor the memorie And that this is so the matter may verie manifestly be prooued considering that the common-wealth is to be compounded with order concert with euery thing in his due place which all put togither maketh good figure correspondence And this sundrie times heeretofore we haue prooued to be a worke of the imagination and it shall prooue nought els to place a great lawyer to be a gouernour than to make a deafe man a Iudge in musicke but this is ordinarily to be vnderstood not as an vniuerfall rule for we haue alreadie prooued it is possible that nature can vnite great vnderstanding with much imagination so shall there follow no repugnancie to be a good pleader and a famous gouernour and we heeretofore discouered that nature being endowed with all the forces which she may possesse and with matter well seasoned will make a man of great memorie and of great vnderstanding and of much imagination who studying the lawes will prooue a famous reader a great pleader and no lesse gouernor but nature makes so few such as this cannot passe for a generall rule CHAP. XII How it may be prooued that of Theoricall Phisicke part appertaineth to the memorie and part to the vnderstanding and the practicke to the imagination WHat time the Arabian Phisicke florished there was a Phisition very famous aswell in reading as in writing arguing distinguishing answering and concluding who men would thinke in respect of his profound knowledge were able to reuiue the dead and to heale any disease whatsoeuer and yet the contrarie came to passe for he neuer tooke anie patient in cure who miscarried not vnder his handes Wherat greatly shaming and quite out of countenance he went and made himselfe a frier complaining on his euill fortune and notable to conceiue the cause how he came so to misse And because the freshest examples affoord surest proof and do most sway the vnderstanding it was held by many graue Phisitions that Iohn Argentier a phisition of our time farre surpassed Galen in reducing the art of phisicke to a better method and yet for all this it is reported of him that he was so infortunate in practise as no patient of his countrey durst take phisicke at his hands fearing some dismall successe Hereat it seemeth the vulgar haue good reason to maruell seeing by experience not onely in those rehearsed by vs but also in many others with whom men haue dayly to deale that if the Phisition be a great clearke for the same reason he is vnfit to minister Of this effect Aristotle procured to render a reason but could not find it out He thought that the cause why the reasonable Phisitions of his time failed in curing grew for that such men had only a generall notice and knew not euerie particular complexion contrarie to the Empiricks whose principal study bent it self to know the properties of eueriy seuerall person and let passe the generall but he was void of reason for both the one and the other exercised themselues about particular cures endeuoured so much as in them lay to know ech ones nature singly by it selfe The difficultie then consisteth in nothing els than to know for what cause so well learned phisitions though they exercise themselues all their life long in curing yet neuer grow skilfull in practise and yet other simple soules with three or foure rules learned verie soone and the schollers can more skill of ministring than they The true answere of this doubt holdeth no little difficultie seeing that Aristotle could not finde it out nor render at least in some sort any part therof But grounding on the principles of our doctrine we will deliuer the same for we must know that the perfection of a phisition consisteth in two things no lesse necessarie to attaine the end of his art than two legges are to go without halting The first is to weet by way of method the precepts and rules of curing men in generall without descending to particulars The second to be long time exercised in practise and to haue visited many patients for men are not so different ech from other but that in diuers things they agree neither so conioyned but that there rest in them particularities of such condition as they can neither be deliuered by speech nor written nor taught nor so collected as that they may be reduced into art but to know them is onely granted to him who hath often seen and had them in handling Which may easily be conceiued considering that mans face being composed of so small a number of parts as are two eies a nose two cheeks a mouth a forehead nature shapeth yet therein so manie compositions and combinations as if you assemble togither 100000 men ech one hath a countenance so different from other and proper to himselfe that it falleth out a miracle to find two who do altogither resemble The like betideth in the foure elements in the 4 first qualities hot cold moist and drie by the harmonie of which the life and health of man is compounded and of so slender a number of parts nature maketh so many proportions
to the imagination for which cause the great Theorists doe ordinarily erre in the minor and the great practitioners in the maior as if we should speake after this maner Euerie feuer which springeth from cold and moist humours ought to be cured with medicins hot and drie Taking the tokening of the cause this feuer which the man endureth dependeth on humors cold and moist therefore the same is to be cured with medicines hot and drie The vnderstanding will sufficiently prooue the truth of the maior because it is an vniuersall saying That cold moist require for their temperature hot and drie for euerie qualitie is abated by his contrarie But comming to prooue the minor there the vnderstanding is of no value for that the same is particular and of another iurisdiction whose notice appertaineth to the imagination borowing the proper and particular tokens of the disease from the fiue outward senses And if the tokening is to be taken from the feuer or from his cause the vnderstanding cannot reach therunto onely it teacheth the tokening is to be taken from that which sheweth greatest perill but which of those tokenings is greatest is only known to the imagination by counting the damages which the feuer produceth with those of the Syntomes of the euill and the cause and the small or much force of the power To attain this notice the imagination possesseth certain vnutterable properties with which the same cleereth matters that cannot be expressed nor conceiued neither is there found any art to teach them Where-through we see a phisition enter to visit a patient and by meanes of his sight his hearing his smelling and his feeling he knoweth things which seem impossible In sort that if we demand of the same phisition how he could come by so readie a knowledge himselfe cannot tell the reason for it is a grace which springeth from the fruitfulnesse of the imagination which by another name is termed a readinesse of capacitie which by common signes and by vncertain coniectures and of small importance in the twinckling of an eie knoweth 1000 differēces of things wherein the force of curing and prognosticating with certaintie consisteth This spice of promptnesse men of great vnderstanding do want for that it is a part of the imagination for which cause hauing the tokens before their eies which giue them notice how the disease fareth it worketh no maner alteration in their senses for that they want imagination A phisition once asked me in great secresie what the cause was that he hauing studied with much curiositie all the rules and considerations of the art prognosticatiue being therin throughly instructed yet could neuer hit the truth in any prognostication which he made To whom I remember I yeelded this answer that the art of Phisick is learned with one power and put in execution with another This man had a verie good vnderstanding but wanted imagination but in this doctrin there ariseth a difficultie verie great and that is how phisitions of great imagination can learn the art of phisicke seeing they want that of vnderstanding and if it be true that such were better than those who were well learned to what end serueth it to spend time in the schooles to this may be answered that first to know the art of phisicke is a matter verie important for in two or three yeares a man may learn al that which the ancients haue bin getting in two or three thousand And if a man should heerin ascertain himselfe by experience it were requisit that he liued some thousands of yeeres and in experimenting of medicines he should kill an infinit number of persons before he could attain to the knowledge of their qualities from whence we are freed by reading the books of reasonable experienced phisitions who giue aduertisment of that in writing which they found out in the whole course of their liues to the end that the phisitions of these daies may minister some receits with assurance and take heed of other-some as venomous Besides this we are to weet that the common vulgar points of al arts are verie plain and easie to learn and yet the most important of the whole worke And contrariwise the most curious and subtile are the most obscure and of least necessitie for curing And men of great imagination are not altogither depriued of vnderstanding nor of memorie Wher-through by hauing these two powers in some measure they are able to learn the most necessarie points of Phisicke for that they are plainest and with the good imagination which they haue can better looke into the disease and the cause thereof than the cunningest doctors Besides that the imagination is it which findeth out the occasion of the remedie that ought to be applied in which grace the greatest part of practise consisteth for which cause Galen said that the proper name of a phisition was The finder out of occasion Now to be able to know the place the time and the occasion for certain is a worke of the imagination since it toucheth figure and correspondence but the difficultie consisteth in knowing amongst so many differences as there are of the imagination to which of them the practise of Phisicke appertaineth for it is certaine that they all agree not in one selfe particular reason which contemplation hath giuen me much more toile and labour of spirit than all the residue and yet for all that I cannot as yet yeeld the same a fitting name vnlesse it spring from a lesse degree of heat which partaketh that difference of imagination wherewith verses and songs are endited Neither do I relie altogether on this for the reason whereon I ground my selfe is that such as I haue marked to be good practitioners do all piddle somwhat in the art of versifieng and raise not vp their contemplation very high and their verses are not of any rare excellencie which may also betide for that their heat exceedeth that tearme which is requisit for poetrie and if it so come to passe for this reason the heat ought to hold such qualitie as it somewhat drie the substance of the braine and yet much resolue not the naturall heat albeit if the same passe further it breedeth no euill difference of the wit for Phisicke for it vniteth the vnderstanding to the imagination by adustion But the imagination is not so good for curing as this which I seeke which inuiteth a man to be a witch superstitious a magician a deceiuer a palmister a fortune teller and a calker for the diseases of men are so hidden and deliuer their motions with so great secrecie that it behooueth alwaies to go calking what the matter is This difference of imagination may hardly be found in Spaine for tofore we haue prooued that the inhabitants of this region want memory and imagination and haue good discourse neither yet the imaginatiō of such as dwell towards the North is of auaile in Phisicke for it is very slow and slacke only the same is
that you expressed it in plainer termes for if my bloud royall reckoning from my selfe to my father and from him to my grandfather and so by order from ech to other commeth to finish in Pelagius to whom by the death of the king Don Rodericke the kingdome was giuen before which time he was not king if we reckon vp after this sort your pedigree shall we not come at last to end in one who was no gentleman D. This discourse cannot be denied for all things haue had a beginning P. I aske you then from whence that first man had his nobilitie who gaue beginning to your nobilitie he could not enfranchise himselfe nor plucke out his own necke from the yoke of tributes and seruices which before time he paied to the kings my predecessors for this were a kind of theft and a preferring himselfe by force with the kings patrimony and it soundeth not with reason that gentlemen of bloud should haue so bad an originall as this therefore it falleth out plain that the king gaue him freedom and yeelded him the grace of that nobilitie Now tell me from whom he had it D. Your highnesse concludeth verie well and it is true that there is no true nobilitie saue of the kings grant but we terme those noble of bloud of whose originall there is no memorie neither is it specified by writing when the same began nor what king yeelded them this fauour And this obscurenes is receiued in the common-wealth for more honourable than distinctly to know the contrarie The common-wealth also maketh gentlemen for when a man groweth valorous of great vertue and rich it dareth not to challenge such a one as seeming thereby to doe him wrong and that it is fit a man of that worth do liue in al franchize This reputation passing to the children to the nephews groweth to nobilitie so they get a pretence against the king These are not therefore gentlemen because they receiue 500 Soldi of pay but when the contrarie cannot be prooued they passe for such That Spaniard who deuised this name of a gentleman Hisiodalgos gaue verie well to vnderstand this doctrine which we haue set down for by his opinion men haue two kinds of birth the one naturall in which all are equall the other spirituall When a man performeth any heroicall enterprise or any vertue or extraordinarie worke then is he new borne and procureth for himselfe other new parents and leeseth that being which he had tofore Yesterday he was called the sonne of Peter and nephew of Sanchius and now he is named the sonne of his owne actions Hence had that Castilian prouerb his original which saith Euery man is the son of his own works And because the good and vertuous works are in the holy scripture termed somwhat in the Spanish tongue it signifieth algo and vices sins nothing which in the Spanish is termed nada This Spaniard compoūded this word hijo dalgo therof which importeth nought els but that such a one is descended of him who performed some notorious and vertuous action for which he deserued to be rewarded by the king or common-wealth togither with all his posteritie for euer The law of the Partita saith that hiio dalgo signifieth the sonne of goods But if we vnderstand the same of temporall goods the reason was not good for there are infinit gentlemen poore and infinit rich men who are no gentlemen but if he meane the sonne of goods that is to say of good qualities it carrieth the same sense which we before expressed Of the second birth which men ought to haue besides their naturall there is affoorded vs a natural example in the scripture where Christ our redeemer reprehendeth Nichodemus because he being a doctor of the law wist not yet it was necessarie that a man should be borne of new therby to obtain a better being and more honourable parents than his naturall for which cause all the time that a man performeth no heroicall enterprise in this sense he is called hiio de nada to weet the sonne of nothing although by his ancestors he beare the name of hiio dalgo that is the sonne of somwhat or a gentleman To the purpose of this doctrine I will recite vnto you a discourse which passed between a very honourable Captain and a Caualiero who stood much on the pantophles of his gentilitie Whereby shall be discouered in what the honor of this second birth consisteth This captaine then falling in companie with a knot of Caualieros and discoursing of the largesse liberty which souldiers enioy in Italie in a certaine demand which one of them made him he gaue him the you because he was natiue of that place and the sonne of meane parents born in a village of some few houses but the captain agreeued therat answered saying Signore your signory shall vnderstand that souldiers who haue enioyed the libertie of Italy cannot content themselues to make abode in Spain because of the many laws which are here enacted against such as set hand to their sword The other Caualieros hearing him vse the terme of Signoria could not forbeare laughter The Caualiero blushing hereat vsed these words Your Mercedi may weet that in Italy to say Signoria importeth so much as in Spain to say mercede and this Signor Capitano being accustomed to the vse and maner of that country giueth the terme of Signoria where he should doe that of mercede Hereto the captain answered saying let not your Signory hold me to be a man so simple but that I know when I am in Italy to apply my selfe to the language of Italy and in Spain to that of Spain but he that in Spain talking with me may giue me the you it behooueth at least that he haue a Signory in Spain yet so I can scarse take it wel the Caualiero somwhat affrōted made reply saying why Signor Capitano are you not natiue in such a place and sonne to such a man And know you not again who I am and what mine ancestors haue been Signore answered the captain I know right-well that your Signory is a good Caualiero and such haue been your elders but I and my right arme which now I acknowledge for my father are better than you all your linage This captain meant to allude to the second birth when he said I and my right arme which now I acknowledge to be my father and that not vnduly for with his right arme and with his sword he had performed such actions as the valour of his person was equall to the nobility of that Caualiero For the most part the laws and nature saith Plato are contrary for a man somtimes issueth out of natures hands with a minde verie wise excellent noble franke and with a wit apt to command a whole world yet because his hap was to be borne in the house of Amiclas a base peasant by the laws he remaineth depriued of that honour and
for a verie iust law and neuer maketh an end of commending the same yet it behooueth to make a distinction we haue alleaged heretofore that the worke of iudging appertaineth to discourse and that this power abhorreth heat and therfore receiueth much dammage by wine but to gouern a common-wealth which is a distinct matter from taking into your hand a processe giuing sentence thervpon belongeth to the imagination and that requireth heat And the gouernor not arriuing to the point which is requisit may well drinke a little wine so to attaine the same The like may be said touching the generall of an army whose counsell partaketh also with the imagination And if the naturall heat be by any hot thing to be aduanced none performeth it so well as wine but it is requisit that the same be temperatly taken for there is no nourishment which so giueth and reaueth a mans wit as this liquor VVherefore it behooueth the Generall to know the maner of his imagination whether the same be of those which need meat and drinke to supply the heat that wanteth or to abide fasting for in this onely consisteth how to mannage his affaires well or euill CHAP. XIIII How we may know to what difference of abilitie the office of a king appertaineth and what signes he ought to haue who enioyeth this maner of wit WHen Salomon was chosen king and head of so great and numberfull a people as that of Israell the text saith that for gouerning and ruling them he craued wisdom from heauen and nothing besides VVhich demand so much pleased God as in reward of hauing asked so well he made him the wisest king of the world and not so contented he gaue him great riches and glorie euermore holding his request in better price VVhence is manifestly gathered that the greatest wisdome and knowledge which may possibly be in the world is that foundation vpon which the office of a king relieth VVhich conclusion is so certaine and true as it were but lost labour to spend time in the proofe therof Only it behooueth to shew to what difference of wit the art of being a king and such a one as is requisit for the common-wealth appertaineth and to vnfold the tokens whereby the man may be known who is indowed with this wit and abilitie VVherethrough it is certaine that as the office of a king exceedeth all the arts in the world so the same requireth a perfection of wit in the largest measure that nature can deuise What the same is we haue not as yet defined for we haue been occupied in distributing to the other arts their differences maners But since we now haue the same in handling it must be vnderstood that of nine temperatures which are in mankind one onely saith Galen maketh a man so surpassing wise as by nature he can be VVherin the first qualities are in such waight and measure that the heat exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the drie but are found in such equalitie and conformitie as if really they were not contraries nor had any naturall opposition VVhence resulteth an instrument so appliable to the operations of the reasonasoule that man commeth to possesse a perfect memorie of things passed and a great imagination to see what is to come and a great vnderstanding to distinguish inferre argue iudge and make choice The other differences of wit by vs recounted haue not anie one amongst them of sound perfection for if a man possesse great vnderstanding he cannot by means of much drinesse comprise the sciences which appertain to the imagination and the memorie and if he be of great imagination by reason of much heat he remaineth vnsufficient for the sciences of the vnderstanding and the memorie and if he enioy a great memorie we haue to fore expressed how vnable those of much memory through their excessiue moisture do prooue for all the other sciences Only this difference of wit which we now are a searching is that which answereth all the arts in proportion How much dammage the vnablenesse of adioyning the rest breedeth to any one knowledge Plato noteth saying That the perfection of ech in particular dependeth on the notice and knowledge of them all in generall No sort of knowledge is found so distinctly and seuered from another but that the skill in the one much aideth to the others perfection But how shall we do if hauing sought for this difference of wit with great diligence in all Spaine I can find but one such Whereby I conceiue that Galen said verie well That out of Greece nature not so much as in a dream maketh any man temperat or with a wit requisit for the sciences And the same Galen alleageth the reason hereof saying That Greece is the most temperat region of the world Where the heate of the aire exceedeth not the cold nor the moist the dry VVhich temperature maketh men very wise and able for all the Sciences as appeareth considering the great number of famous mē who thence haue issued as Socrates Plato Aristotle Hippocrates Galen Theophrastus Demosthenes Homer Thales Milesius Diogenes Cynicus Solon and infinit other wise men mentioned in histories whose works we find replenished with all sciences Not as the writers of other prouinces who if they treat of phisicke or any other science it prooues a miracle for them to alleage any other sort of science in their aid or fauour All of them are beggerly and without furniture as wanting a wit capable of all the arts But which we may most maruell at in Greece is that wheras the wit of women is found so repugnant vnto learning as hereafter we will prooue yet there haue been so many she Greekes so specially seen in the sciences as they haue grown into competencie with the sufficientest men as namely Leontia a most wise woman who wrote against Theophrastus the greatest Philosopher of his time reproouing him for many errors in philosophy But if we looke into other Prouinces of the world hardly shall we find sprung vp any one wit that was notable VVhich groweth for that they inhabit places distempered where men become brutish slow of capacitie and ill conditioned For this cause Aristotle moueth a doubt saying VVhat meaneth it that those who inhabit a country either ouer cold or ouer hot are fierce and fell in countenance and conditions To which probleme he answereth verie well saying that a good temperature not only maketh a good grace in the body but also aideth the wit and abilitie And as the excesses of heat cold do hinder nature that she cannot shape a man in good figure So also for the like reason the harmonle of the soule is turned topsie turuie and the wit prooueth slow and dull This the Greeks well wist inasmuch as they termed all the nations of the world Barbarians considering their slender sufficiencie and little knowledge VVhence we see that of so many that are borne and studie out of Greece if they be Philosophers
none of them arriueth to the perfection of Plato and Aristotle if Phisitions to Hippocrates and Galen if orators to Demostbenes if Poets to Homer and so in the residue of the sciences parts the Greeks haue euer held the formost ranke beyond al contradiction At least the probleme of Aristotle is verie well verified in the Greeks for verily they are the men of most sufficiencie and loftiest capacity in the world were it not that they liue in disgrace oppressed by force of armes in bondage and all hardly intreated by the comming of the Turks who bannished all learning and caused the Vniuersitie of Athens to passe vnto Paris in France where at this day the same coÌ„tinueth And thus through want of manurance so many gallant wits as we haue before reported are vtterly perished In the other regions out of Greece though schools and exercise of learning are planted yet no man hath proued in them of any rare excellency The Phisition holdeth he hath waded very far if with his wit he can attain to that which Hippocrates and Galen deliuered and the naturall Philosopher reckoneth him selfe so full of knowledge as he can be capable of no more if he once grow to the vnderstanding of Aristotle But this notwithstanding it goeth not for an vniuersall rule that all such as haue Greece for their birth-place must of force be temperate and wise and all the residue distemperat and ignorant for the same Galen recounteth of Anacharsis who was born in Scythia that he carried the reputation of a rare wit amongst the Grecians though himselfe a Barbarian A Philosopher borne in Athens falling in contention with him said vnto him get thee hence thou Barbarian Then Anacharsis answered My countrey is to me a shame and so art thou to thine for Scythia being a region so distemperat and where so many ignorant persons liue my self am grown to knowledge and thou being borne in Athens a place of wit and wisdome wert neuer other than an Asse In sort that we need not vtterly despaire in regard of the temperature neither thinke it a case of impossibilitie to meet herewithall out of Greece and especially in Spain a region not verie distemperat for as I haue found one of these differences in Spaine so it may well be that there are many others not yet come to knowledge and which I haue not been able to find out It shall doe well therefore to intreat of the tokens by which a temperat man may be discerned to the end where such a one is he may not be hidden Many signes haue the Phisitions laid down to discouer this difference of wit but the most principall and which affoord best notice are these following The first saith Galen is to haue his haire abourne a colour between white and red and that passing from age to age they euer become more golden And the reason is verie cleere for the materiall cause whereof they haire consisteth the Phisitions say is a grosse vapour which ariseth from the digestion that the brain maketh at the time of his nourishment and looke what colour is of the member such also is that of his excrements If the braine in his composition partake much of fleagme the haire in growth is white if much choler saffron coloured but if these two humours rest equally mingled the braine becommeth temperat hot cold moist and dry and the haire abourne partaking both the extremes True it is Hippocrates saith that this colour in men who liue vnder the North as are the English Flemmish and Almains springeth for that their whitnesse is parched vp with much cold and not for the reason by vs alleaged Wherfore in this token it behooueth to be wel aduised otherwise we may soon slip into error The second token which a man who shalbe endowed with this difference of wit must haue is saith Galen to be well shaped of good countenance of seemly grace and cheerfull in sort that the sight may take delight to behold him as a figure of rare perfection And the reason is very plain for if nature haue much force and a seed well seasoned she alwaies formeth of things possible the best and most perfect in his kind but being purueied of forces mostly she placeth her studie in fashioning the braine for that amongst all other parts of the bodie the same is the principal seat of the reasonable soul whence we see many men to be great and foule and yet of an excellent wit The quantitie of body which a temperat man ought to haue saith Galen is not resolutely determined by nature for he may be long short and of mean stature conformable to the quantitie of the temperat seed which it had when it was shaped But as touching that which appertaineth to the wit in temperat persons a mean stature is better than either a great or little And if we must lean to either of the extreames it is better to encline to the little than to the great for the bones and superfluous flesh as we haue prooued heeretofore by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle bring great dammage to the wit Agreeable hereunto the natural Philosophers are wont to demand whence it proceedeth that men of small stature are ordinarily more wise than those of long stature And for proofe hereof they cite Homer who saith that Vlisses was very wise and little of bodie and contrariwise Aiax very foolish and in stature tall To this question they make verie simple answer saying that the reasonable soule gathered into a narrow roome hath therby more force to worke conformably to that old saw Vertue is of more force vnited than dispersed and contrariwise making abode in a body long and large it wanteth sufficient vertue to moue and animat the same But this is not the reason thereof for we should rather say that long men haue much moisture in their composition which extendeth out their flesh and ableth the same to that increase which the naturall heat doth euer procure The contrarie betideth in little bodies for through their much drinesse the flesh cannot take his course nor the naturall heat enlarge or stretch it out and therefore they remaine of short stature And we haue eaâ—st proued that amongst the first qualities none bringeth so great dammage to the operations of the reasonable soule as much moisture and that none so farre quickneth the vnderstanding as drinesse The third signe saith Galen by which a temperat man may be known is that he be vertuous and of good conditions for if he be lewd and vitious Plato affirmeth it groweth for that in man there is some distemperat qualitie which vrgeth him to offend and if such a one will practise that which is agreeable to vertue is behooueth that first he renounce his owne naturall inclination But whosoeuer is absolutely temperat standeth not in need of any such diligence for the inferiour powers require nothing at his hands that is contrarie to reason Therefore Galen saith that to a man
saith the Psalme goodnes discipline and knowledge And this the royall Prophet Dauid spake seeing that it auaileth not for a king to be good and vertuous vnlesse he ioyne wisedom and knowldge there withall By this example of king Dauid it seemeth we haue sufficiently approoued our opinion But there was also another king borne in Israel of whom it was said Where is he that is borne king of the Iewes And if we can prooue that he was abourne haired towardly of meane bignesse vertuous healthfull and of great wisedom and knowledge it will be no way damageable to this our doctrin The Euangelists busied not themselues to report the disposition of Christ our redeemer for it serued not to the purpose of that which they handled but is a matter which may easily be vnderstood supposing that for a man to be temperat as is requisit compriseth all the perfection wherewith naturally he can be edowed And seeing that the holy spirit-compounded and instrumentalized him it is certaine that as touching the materiall cause of which he formed him the distemperature of Nazareth could not resist him nor make him erre in his worke as do the other naturall agents but he performed what him best pleased for he wanted neither force knowledge nor will to frame a man most perfect and without any defect And that so much the rather for that his comming as himselfe affirmed was to endure trauels for mans sake and to teach him the trueth And this temperature as we haue before prooued is the best naturall instrument that can be found for these two things Wherethrough I hold that relatiō for true which Publius Lcntulus Viceconsul wrote from Hierusalem vnto the Roman Senat after this maner There hath been seen in our time a man who yet liueth of great vertue called Iesus Christ who by the Gentiles is termed the prophet of truth and his disciples say that he is the sonne of God He raiseth the deceased and healeth the diseased is a man of meane and proportionable stature and of very faire countenance his looke carrieth such a maiesty as those who behold him are enforced both to loue and feare him He hath his haire coloured like a nut full ripe reaching down to his eares and from his eares to his shoulders they are of waxe colour but more bright he hath in the middle of his forehead a locke after the maner of Nazareth His forehead is plain but very pleasing his face void of spot or wrinckle accompanied with a moderat colour his nosthrils and mouth cannot by any with reason be reprooued his beard thicke and resembling his haire not long but forked his countenance verie gratious and graue his eies gracefull and cleere and when he rebuketh he daunteth and when he admonisheth he pleaseth he maketh himselfe to be beloued and is cheerfull with grauitie he hath neuer been seen to laugh but to weep diuers times his hands and arms are verie faire in his conuersation he contenteth verie greatly but is seldom in company but being in company is very modest in his countenance and port he is the seemliest man that may be imagined In this relation are contained three or foure tokens of a temperat person The first that he had his haire and beard of the colour of a nut fully ripe which to him that considereth it well appeareth to be a browne abourne which colour God commanded they heifer should haue which was to be sacrificed as a figure of Christ and when he entred into heauen with that triumph and maiestie which was requisit for such a Prince some Angels who had not been enformed of his incarnation said Who is this that commeth from Edon with his garments died in Bozra as if they had said Who is he that commeth from the red Land with his garment stained in the same die in respect of his haire his red beard and of the bloud with which he was tainted The same letter also reporteth him to be the fairest man that euer was seen and this is the second token of a temperat person and so was it prophesied by the holy scripture as a signe wherby to know him Of faire shape aboue all the children of men And in another place he saith His eies are fairer than the wine and his teeth whiter than milke Which beautie and good disposition of body imported much to effect that all men should beare him affection and that there might be nothing in him worthy to be abhorred For which cause the letter deliuereth that all men were enforced to loue him It reciteth also that he was meane of personage and that not because the holy Ghost wanted matter to make him greater if so it had seemed good but as we tofore haue prooued by the opinion of Plato and Aristotle because when the reasonable soule is burdened with much bones and flesh the same incurreth great dammage in his wit The third signe namely to be vertuous and wel conditioned is likewise expressed in this letter and the Iews themselues with al their false witnesses could not proue the contrarie nor reply when he demanded of them VVhich of you can reprooue me of sinne And Ioseph through the faithfulnes which he owed to his history affirmed of him that he partaked of another nature aboue man in respect of his goodnesse wisedom Only long life could not be verefied of Christ our redeemer because they put him to death being yong where as if they had permitted him to finish his naturall course the same would haue reached to 80 years and vpwards For he who could abide in a wildernesse 40 daies and 40 nights without meat or drinke and not be sicke nor dead therwithall could better haue defended himselfe from other lighter things which had power to breed alteration or offence Howbeit this action was reputed miraculous and a matter which could not light within the compasse of nature These two examples of kings which we haue alleaged sufficeth to make vnderstood that the scepter royal is due to men that are temperate and that such are endowed with the wit and wisdom requisit for that office But there was also another man made by the proper hands of God to the end he should be king and Lord of all things created he made him faire vertuous sound of long life and verie wise And to prooue this shal not beamisse for our purpose Plato holdeth it for a matter impossible that God or nature can make a man temperat in a countrey distemperat wherethrough he affirmeth that God to create a man of great wisdom temperature sought out a place where the heat of the aire should not exceed the cold nor the moist the dry And the diuine scripture whence he borrowed this sentence saith not that God created Adam in the earthly paradise which was that most temperat place whereof he speaketh but that after he had shaped him there he placed him Then our Lord God saith he tooke man and set
Besides this meat children did eat cracknels of white bread of very delicat water with honny and a little salt but in steed of vinegar for that the same is very noisome and dammageable to the vnderstanding they shall adde thereunto butter of Goats-milke whose temperature substance is appropriat for the wit But in this regiment grows an inconuenience verie great namely that children vsing so delicat meats shall not possesse sufficient strength to resist the iniuries of the aire neither can defend themselues from other occasions which are woont to breed maladies So by making thē become wise they will fall out to be vnhealthful and liue a small time This difficulty demandeth in what sort children may be brought vp witty and wise and yet the matter so handled as it may no way gainsay their healthfulnes VVhich shall easily be effected if the parentes dare to put in practise some rules and precepts which I wil prescribe And because deinty people are deceiued in bringing vp their childrē and they treat stil of this matter I wil first assigne them the cause why their children though they haue Schoolemaisters and tutors and themselues take such pains at their booke yet they come away so meanly with the sciences as also in what sort they may remedy this without that they abridge their life or hazard their health Eight things saith Hippocrates make mans flesh moist fat The 1 to be merry and to liue at hearts ease the 2 to sleepe much the 3 to lie in a soft bed the 4 to fare well the fifth to be well apparelled and furnished the sixth to ride alwaies on horsebacke the seuenth to haue our will the eighth to be occupied in plaies and pastimes and in things which yeeld contentment and pleasure All which is a veritie so manifest as if Hippocrates had not affirmed it none durst denie the same Only we may doubt whether delicious people doe alwaies obserue this maner of life but if it be true that they do so we may well conclude that their seed is very moist and that the children which they beget will of necessitie ouer-abound in superfluous moisture which it behooueth first to be consumed for this qualitie sendeth to ruine the operations of the reasonable soule And moreouer the Phisitions say that it maketh them to liue a short space and vnhealthfull By this it should seeme that a good wit and a sound bodily health require one selfe qualitie Namely drouth wherethrough the precepts and rules which we are to lay downe for making children wise will serue likewise to yeeld them much health and long life It behooueth them so soone as a childe is borne of delicious parents inasmuch as their constitution consisteth of more cold and moist than is conuenient for childhood to wash him with salt hote water which by the opinion of all phisitions soketh vp and drieth the flesh giueth soundnesse to the sinews and maketh the child strong and manly and by consuming the ouermuch moisture of his braine enableth him with wit and freeth-him from many deadly infirmities Contrariwise the bath being of water fresh and hot in that the same moisteneth the flesh saith Hippocrates it breedeth fiue annoiances Namely effeminating of the flesh weaknesse of sinews dulnesse of spirits fluxes of bloud and basenesse of stomacke But if the child issue out of his mothers belly with excessiue drinesse it is requisit to washe the same with hote fresh water Therfore Hippocrates said children are to be washed a long time with hote water to the end they may receiue the lesse annoiance by the crampe and that they may grow and be well coloured but for certaine this must be vnderstood of those who come forth drie out of their mothers belly in whom it behooueth to amend their euill temperature by applying vnto them contrarie qualities The Almains saith Galen haue a custome to wash their children in a riuer so soon as they are born them seeming that as the iron which commeth burning hot out of the forge is made the stronger if it be dipped in cold water so when the hot child is taken out of the mothers wombe it yeeldeth him of greater force and vigour if he be washed in fresh water This thing is condemned by Galen for a beastly practise and that with great reason for put case that by this way the skinne is hardened and closed and not easie to be altered by the iniuries of the aire yet will it rest offended by the excrements which are engendred in the body for that the same is not of force nor open so as they may be exhaled and passe forth But the best and safest remedie is to wash the children who haue superfluous moisture with hot salt water for their excessiue moisture consuming they are the neerer to health and the way through the skinne being stopped in them they cannot receiue annoiance by any occasion Neither are the inward excrements therefore so shut vp that there are not waies left open for them where they may come out And nature is so forcible that if they haue taken from her a common way she will seeke out another to serue her turne And when all others faile she can skill to make new waies wherethrough to send out what doth her dammage VVherefore of two extreames it is more auaileable for health to haue a skinne hard and somewhat close than thinne and open The second thing requisit to be performed when the child shalbe born is that we make him acquainted with the winds and with change of aire not keep him still locked vp in a chamber for else it will become weake womanish peeuish of feeble strength and within three or foure daies giue vp the ghost Nothing saith Hippocrates so much weakeneth the flesh as to abide still in warme places and to keepe our selues from heate and cold Neither is there a better remedie for healthfull liuing than to accustome our body to al winds hot cold moist and dry Wherethrough Aristotle enquireth what the cause is that such as liue in the Gallies are more healthy better colored than those who inhabit a plashy soil And this difficulty groweth greater considering the hard life which they lead sleeping in their clothes in the open aire against the sun in the cold the water faring withall so coursly The like may be demanded as touching shepheards who of all other men enioy the soundest health it springeth because they haue made a league with al the seueral qualities of the aire and their nature dismaieth at nothing Cōtrariwise we plainly see that if a man giue himselfe to liue deliciously and to beware that the sun the cold the euening nor the wind offend him within 3 daies he shalbe dispatched with a post letter to another world Therfore it may well be said he that loueth his life in this world shal leese it for there is no man that can preserue himself from the alteration of the aire therfore it is