moisture and drouth For if fire bring in heate to the wood it is because they both possesse a body a quantitie wherof they are the subiect the which faileth in spirituall substances and admit as a thing yet impossible that bodily qualities might alter a spirituall substance what eies hath the diuell or the reasonable soule wherwith to see the colours and shapes of things or what smelling to receiue sauours or what hearing for musicke or what feeling to rest offended with much heat seeing that for all these bodily instruments are behooffull And if the reasonable soule being seuered from the bodie remaine agreeued and receiue anguish and sadnesse it is not possible that his nature should rest free from alteration or not come to corruption These difficulties and argumentes perplexed Galen and the other Philosophers of our times but with me they conclude nothing For when Aristotle affirmed that the chiefest propertie which substance had was to be subiect to accidents he restrained the same neither to bodily nor to spirituall for the propertie of the generall is equally partaked by the special and so he said that the accidentes of the bodie passe to the substance of the reasonable soule and those of the soule to the body on which principle he grounded himselfe to write all that which he vttered as touching Phisnomy especially that the accidents by which the powers receiue alteration are all spirituall without body and without quantitie or matter and so they grow to multiplie in a moment through their mean and passe through a glasse window without breaking the same And two contrarie accidents may be extended in one selfe subiect asmuch as possibly they can be In respect of which selfe qualitie Galen tearmeth them vndiuidable and the vulgar Philosophers intentionall and the matter being in this sort they may be verie well proportioned with the spirituall substance I cannot forgoe to thinke that the reasonable soule seuered from the body as also the diuell hath a power sightfull smelling hearing and feeling The which me seemeth is easie to be prooued For if it be true that their powers be known by meanes of their actions it is a thing certain that the diuell had a smelling power when he smelled that roote which Salomon commaunded should be applied to the nosthrils of the possessed And likewise that he had a hearing power seeing he heard the musicke which Dauid made to Saul To say then that the diuell receiued these qualities by his vnderstanding it is a matter not auouchable in the doctrine of the vulgar Philosophers For this power is spiritual and the obiects of the fiue senses are material and so it behooueth to seeke out some other powers in the reasonable soule and in the diuell to which they may carrie proportion And if not put case that the soule of the rich Glutton had obtained at the handes of Abraham that the soule of Lazarus should returne to the world to preach to his brethren and persuade them that they should become honest men to the end they might not passe to that place of torments where himselfe abode I demand now in what maner the soule of Lazarus should haue knowen to go to the citie and to those mens houses and if the same had met them by the way in company with others whether it could haue known them by sight and been able to diuersifie them from those who came with them and if those brethren of the rich glutton had inquired of the same who it was and who had sent it whether the same did partake anie power to heare their words The same may be demāded of the diuel when he folowed after Christ our redeemer hearing him to preach seeing the myracles which he did and in that disputation which they had togither in the wildernesse with what eares the diuell receiued the words and the answeres which Christ gaue vnto him Verily it betokens a want of vnderstanding to think that the diuell or the reasonable soule sundered from the bodie cannot know the obiects of the fiue senses albeit they want the bodily instruments For by the same reason I will prooue vnto them that the reasonable soule seuered from the bodie cannot vnderstand imagine nor performe the actions of memorie For if whilest the same abideth in the body it cannot see being depriued of eies neither can it discourse or remember if the braine be inflamed To say then that the reasonable soule seuered from the body cannot discourse because it hath no braine is a follie verie great the which is proued by the selfe history of Abraham Sonne remember that thou hast enioyed good things in thy life time and Lazarus likewise euill but now he is comforted and thou art tormented And besides all this there is placed betwixt you and vs a great Chaos in sort that those who would passe from hence to you cannot nor from you to vs. And he said I pray thee then O father that thou wilt send to my fathers house for I haue fiue brothers that he may yeeld testimony vnto them so as they come not also to this place of tormentes Whence I conclude that as these two soules discoursed betweene themselues and the rich glutton remembred that he had fiue brothers in his fathers house and Abraham brought to his remembrance the delicious life which he had liued in the world togither with Lazarus penance and this without vse of the braine so also the soules can see without bodily eyes heare without eares taste without a tongue smell without nosthrils and touch without sinewes and without flesh and that much better beyond comparison The like may be vnderstoode of the diuell for he partaketh the same nature with the reasonable soule All these doubts the soule of the rich glutton will very well resolue of whom S. Luke recounteth that being in hell he lifted vp his eies and beheld Lazarus who was in Abrahams bosome and with a loud voice sayd Father Abraham haue mercie on me send Lazarus that he may dip the point of his finger in water and coole my tongue for I am tormented in this flame Out of the passed doctrine and out of that which is there red we gather that the fire of hell burneth the soules and is materiall as this of ours and that the same annoied the rich glutton and the other soules by Gods ordinance with his heat and that if Lazarus had carried to him a pitcher of fresh water he should haue taken great refreshment thereof and the reason is verie plaine for if that soule could not endure to abide in the bodie through excessiue heate of the Feuer and when the same dranke fresh water the soule felt refreshment why may not we conceiue the like when the soule is vnited with the flames of the fire infernall The rich Gluttons lifting vp of his eies his thirstie tongue Lazarus finger are all names of the powers of the soule that so the scriptures might expresse them Those who
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
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
wit sharpe and quicke-sighted Hauing prooued before that the braine and not the heart is the principall seat of the reasonable soule And the reason is because these vitall spirits are engendred in the heart and partake of that substance and that temperature which rested in that which formed them Of this arteriall blood Aristotle meant when he sayd That those men are well compounded who haue their blood hot delicat and pure for they are also of good bodily forces and of a wit well disposed These vitall spirits are by the Phisitions termed Nature for they are the principall instrument with which the reasonable soule performeth his workes and of these also may that sentence be verefied Nature makes able CHAP. IIII. It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation THe temperature of the four first qualities which we heretofore termed Nature hath so great force to cause that of plants brute beasts and man each one set himselfe to performe those workes which are properto his kind that they ariue to that vtmost bound of perfection which may be attained sodainly without any others teaching them the plants know how to forme roots vnder ground and by way of them to draw nourishment to retaine it to digest it and to driue foorth the excrements and the brute beasts likewise so soone as they are borne know that which is agreeable to their nature and flie the things which are naughtie and noisome And that which makes them most to maruell who are not seene in naturall Philosophie is that a man hauing his braine well tempered and of that disposition which is requisit for this or that science sodainly and without hauing euer learned it of any he speaketh and vttereth such exquisit matters as could hardly win credit Vulgar Philosophers seeing the maruellous works which brute beasts performe affirme it holds no cause of maruell because they do it by naturall instinct in as much as nature sheweth and teacheth each in his kind what he is to do And in this they say very well for we haue alreadie alleaged and prooued that nature is nothing else than this temperature of the foure first qualities and that this is the schoolemaister who teacheth the soules in what sort they are to worke but they tearme instinct of nature a certaine masse of things which rise from the noddocke vpward neyther could they euer expound or giue vs to vnderstand what it is The graue Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle attribute all these maruellous workes to heat cold moisture and drouth and this they affirme of the first principle and passe no farther And if you aske who hath taught the brute beasts to doe these works which breed vs such maruell and men to discourse with reason Hippocrates answereth It is the natures of them all without any teacher as if he should say The faculties or the temperature of which they consist are al giuen them without being taught by any other Which is cleerely discerned if they passe on to consider the workes of the soule vegetatiue and of all the rest which gouerne man who if it haue a quantitie of mans seed wel digested and seasoned with good temperature makes a body so seemly and duly instrumentalized that all the caruers in the world cannot shape the like For which cause Galen woondring to see a frame so maruellous the number of his seuerall parts the seating the figure and the vse of each one by it selfe grew to conclude it was not possible that the vegetatiue soule nor the temperature could fashion a workmanship so singular but that the author thereof was God or some other most wise vnderstanding But this maner of speech is alreadie by vs heretofore refuted for it beseemes not naturall Philosophers to reduce the effects immediatly to God and so to slip ouer the assigning of the second reasons and especially in this case where we see by experience that if mans seed consist of an euill substance and enioy not a temperature conuenient the vegetatiue soule runs into a thousand disorders for if the same be cold and moist more than is requisit Hippocrates sayth that the men prooue Eunuches or Hermofrodites and if it be very hote and drie Aristotle sayth that it makes them curle-pated crooke-legged and flat nosed as are the Aethiopians and if it be moist the same Galen sayth that they grow long and lithie and if it be drie low of stature All this is a great defect in mankind and for such works we find little cause to giue nature any commendation or to hold her for aduised and if God were the author hereof none of these qualities could diuert him Only the first men which the world possessed Plato affirms were made by God but the rest were borne answerable to the discourse of the second causes which if they be well ordered the vegetatiue soule dooth well performe his operations and if they concur not in sort conuenient it produceth a thousand dammageable effects What the good order of nature for this effect must be is that the vegetatiue soule haue an endowment of a good temperature or else let Galen and all the Philosophers in the world answer me what the cause is that the vegetatiue soule possesseth such skill and power in the first age of man to shape his body and to increase and nourish the same and when old age groweth on can yeeld the same no longer For if an old man leese but a tooth he is past remedie of recouering another but if a child cast them all we see that natures return to renew them againe Is it then possible that a soule which hath done nought else in all the course of life than to receiue food retaine the same digest it and expell the excrements new begetting the parts which faile should towords the end of life forget this and want abilitie to do the same any longer Galen for certaine will answer that this skill and habilitie of the vegetatiue soule in youth springs from his possessing much naturall heat and moisture and that in age the same wants skill and power to performe it by means of the coldnesse and drinesse to which a bodie of those yeares is subiect The knowledge of the sensitiue soule takes his dependance also from the temperature of the braine for if the same be such as his operations require that it should be it can perform with due perfection otherwise the same must also erre no lesse than the soule vegetatiue The manner which Galen held to behold and discerne by eysight the wisedome of the sensitiue soule was to take a yoong kid but newly kidded which set on the ground begins to go as if it had bene told and taught that his legs were made to that purpose and after that he shakes from his backe the superfluous moisture which he brought
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
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
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
his operations all which failing it behooueth of force that it erre in them and depart from the bodie The error of Galen consisted in that he would verifie by the principles of naturall Philosophie whether the reasonable soule issuing out of the bodie do forthwith die or not this being a question which appertaineth to another superiour science and of more certaine principles in which we will prooue that it is no good argument nor concludeth well that the soule of man is corruptible because the same dwelleth quietly in a bodie endowed with these qualities and departeth when they do fayle Neither is this difficult to be prooued for other spirituall substances of greater perfection than the reasonable soule do make choice of place altered with materiall qualities in which it seemeth they take abode with their content and if there succeed any contrarie dispositions forthwith they depart because they cannot endure it for it is a thing certaine that there are to be found some dispositions in a mans bodie which the diuell coueteth with so great egernesse as to enioy thē he entereth into the man where they rested wherethrough he becommeth possessed but the same being corrupted and chaunged by contrarie medicines and an alteration being wrought in these blacke filthy and stincking humours he naturally comes to depart This is plainly discerned by experience for if there be in a house great darke foule putrified melancholicke and void of dwellers to make abode therin the diuels soone take it vp for their lodging but if the same be clensed the windowes opened and the sunne-beames admitted to enter by and by they get them packing and specially if it be inhabited by much companie and that there be meetings and pastimes and playing on musicall instrumentes how greatly harmonie and good proportion offendeth the diuell is apparantly seene by the authoritie of the diuine scripture where we finde recounted that Dauid taking a Harpe and playing thereupon straightwaies made the diuels runne away and depart out of Saul his body And albeit this matter haue his spirituall vnderstanding yet I conceiue thereby that musicke naturally molesteth the diuell where-through he cannot in any sort endure it The people of Israel knew before by experience that the diuell was enemie to musicke and because they had notice heereof Saules seruants spake these wordes Behold the euill spirit of the Lord tormenteth thee let my Lord the king therefore command that thy seruants who wait in thy presence search out a man who can play on the citherne to the end that when the euill spirite of the Lord taketh thee he may play with his hand and thou thereby mayst receiue ease In the selfe maner as there are found out wordes and coniurations which make the diuell to tremble and not to heare them he abandoneth the place which he chose for his habitation So Ioseph recounteth that Salomon left in writing certaine maners of coniuration by which he not onely chased away the diuell for the present but he neuer had the hardinesse to returne againe to that body from whence he was once so expelled The same Salomon shewed also a roote of so abhominable sauour in the diuels nose that if it were applied to the nosthrils of the possessed he would forthwith shake his eares and runne away The diuell is so slouinly so malancholike and so much an enemie to things neat cheerefull and cleere that when Christ entered into the region of Genezaret S. Mathew recounteth how certaine diuels met him in dead carcases which they had caught out of their graues crying and saying Iesu thou sonne of Dauid what hast thou to do with vs that thou art come before hand to torment vs we pray thee that if thou be to driue vs out of this place where we are thou wilt yet let vs enter into that Heard of swine which is yonder For which reason the holy Scripture tearmeth them vncleane spirites Whence we plainly discerne that not onely the reasonable soule requireth such dispositions in the body that they may informe it and be the beginning of all his operations but also hath need to soiourne therein as in a place befitting his nature The diuels then being a substance of more perfection abhorre some bodily qualities and in the contrarie take pleasure and contentment In sort that this of Galen is no good argument The reasonable soule through excesse of heate departs from the body ergo it is corruptible inasmuch as the diuel doth the like as we haue said and yet for all this is not mortall But that which to this purpose deserueth most note is that the diuell not onely coueteth places alterable with bodily qualities to soiourne there at his pleasure but also when he will worke any thing which much importeth him he serues himselfe with such bodily qualities as are aidable to that effect For if I should demand now wherein the diuell grounded himselfe when minding to beguile Eue he entered rather into a venemous serpent than into a horse a beare a woolfe or any other beast which were not of so ghastly shape I wot not what might be giuen in answere well I know that Galen admitteth not the sentences of Moses nor of Christ our redeemer because saith he they both speake without making demonstration but I haue alwaies desired to learne from some Catholike the solution of this doubt and none hath yet satisfied me This is certaine as alreadie we haue prooued that burnt and inflamed choler is an humour which teacheth the reasonable soule in what sort to practise treasons and trecheries and amongst brute beasts there is none which so much partaketh of this humour as the serpent wherethrough more than all the rest sayth the scripture he is crafty and guilefull The reasonable soule although it be the meanest of all the intelligences partakes yet the same nature with the diuell and the angels And in like manner as there it takes the seruice of venemous choler to make a man wily and suttle so the diuell being entered into the body of this cruell beast made himselfe the more cunning and deceitfull This manner of Philosophising will not sticke much in the naturall Philosophers stomacks because the same carrieth some apparance that it may be so but that which will breed them more astonishment is that when God would draw the world out of errour and easily teach them the truth a worke contrary to that which the diuell went about he came in the shape of a doue and not of an eagle nor a peacocke nor of any other birds of fairer figure and the cause knowne is this that the doue partaketh much of the humour which enclineth to vprightnesse to plainnesse to truth and to simplicitie and wanteth choler the instrument of guile maliciousnes None of these things are admitted by Galen nor by the naturall Philosophers for they cannot conceiue how the reasonable soule and the diuell being spirituall substances can be altered by materiall qualities as are heat coldnesse
walke not in this path and ground not themselues on naturall philosophie vtter a thousand follies but yet hence it cannot be concluded that if the reasonable soule partake griefe and sorrow for that his nature is altered by contrarie qualities therefore the same is corruptible or mortall For ashes though they be compounded of the foure elementes and of action and power yet there is no naturall agent in the world which can corrupt thē or take from them the qualities that are agreeable to their nature The naturall temperature of ashes we all know to be cold and drie but though we cast them neuer so much into the fire they will not leese their radicall coldnesse which they enioy and albeit they remaine 100000. yeeres in the water it is impossible that being taken thence they hold any naturall moisture of their owne and yet for all this we cannot but grant that by fire they receiue heat and by water moisture But these two qualities are superficial in the ashes and endure a small time in the subiect for taken from the fire forthwith they become cold and from the water they abide not moyst an houre But there is offered a doubt in this discourse and reasoning of the rich Glutton with Abraham and that is How the soule of Abraham was indowed with better reason than that of the rich man it being alleaged before that all reasonable soules issued out of the bodie are of equall perfection and knowledge whereto we may answere in one of these two manners The first is that the Science and knowledge which the soule purchaseth whilest it remaineth in the bodie is not lost when a man dieth but rather groweth more perfect for he is freed from some errors The soule of Abraham departed out of this life replenished with wisedome and with many reuelations and secrets which God communicated vnto him as his very friend but that of the rich glutton it behooued that of necessitie it should depart away ignorant first by reason of his sinne which createth ignorance in a man and next for that riches heerein worke a contrarie effect vnto pouertie this giueth a man wit as heereafter we may well prooue and prosperitie reaueth it away There may also another answere be giuen after our doctrine and it is this that the matter of which these two soules disputed was schoole diuinitie For to know whether abiding in hell there were place for mercie and whether Lazarus might passe vnto hell and whether it were conuenient to send a deceased person to the world who should giue notice to the liuing of the torments which the damned there indured are all schoole-points whose decision appertaineth to the vnderstanding as heereafter I will make proofe and amongst the first qualities there is none which so much garboileth this power as excessiue heat with which the rich Glutton was so tormented But the soule of Abraham made his abode in a place most temperate where it inioyed great delight and refreshment and therefore it bred no great woonder that the same was better able to dispute I concluding then that the reasonable soule and the diuell in their operations vse the seruice of materiall qualities and that by some they rest agreeued and by other some they receiue contentment And for this reason they couet to make abode in some places and flie from some other and yet notwithstanding are not corruptible CHAP. VIII How there may be assigned to euerie difference of wit his Science which shalbe correspondent to him in particular and that which is repugnant and contrarie be abandoned ALl artes saith Cicero are placed vnder certaine vniuersall principles which being learned with studie and trauaile finally we so grow to attaine vnto them but the art of poesie is in this so speciall as if God or nature make not a man a Poet little auailes it to deliuer him the precepts and rules of versifieng For which cause he said thus The studying and learning of other matters consisteth in precepts and in artes but a Poet taketh the course of nature it selfe and is stirred vp by the forces of the minde and as it were inflamed by a certaine diuine spirit But heerein Cicero swarued from reason for verily there is no Science or Art deuised in the common-wealth which if a man wanting capacitie for himselfe to apply he shall reape anie profit thereof albeit he toyle all the daies of his life in the precepts and rules of the same But if he applie himselfe to that which is agreeable with his naturall abilitie we see that he will learne in two daies The like we say of Poesie without any difference that if hee who hath anie answerable nature giue himselfe to make verses he performeth the same with great perfection and if otherwise he shall neuer be good Poet. This being so it seemeth now high time to learne by way of Art what difference of Science is answerable in particular to what difference of wit to the end that euerie one may vnderstand with distinction after he is acquainted with his owne nature to what Art he hath a naturall disposition The Arts and Sciences which are gotten by the memorie are these following Latine Grammer or of whatsoeuer other language the Theoricke of the lawes Diuinitie positiue Cosmography and Arithmeticke Those which appertaine to the vnderstanding are Schoole diuinitie the Theoricke of Phisicke logicke natural and morall Philosophy and the practicke of the lawes which we tearme pleading From a good imagination spring all the Arts and Sciences which consist in figure correspondence harmonie and proportion such are Poetrie Eloquence Musicke and the skill of preaching the practise of Phisicke the Mathematicals Astrologie and the gouerning of a Common-wealth the art of Warfare Paynting drawing writing reading to be a man gratious pleasant neat wittie in managing all the engins deuises which artificers make besides a certain speciall gift whereat the vulgar maruelleth and that is to endite diuers matters vnto foure who write togither and yet all to be penned in good sort Of all this we cannot make euident demonstration nor proue euerie point by it selfe For it were an infinite peece of worke notwithstanding by making proofe thereof in three or foure Sciences the same reason will afterwardes preuaile for the rest In the catalogue of Sciences which we said appertained to the memorie we placed the latine tongue and such other as all the nations in the world do speake the which no wise man wil denie for tongues were deuised by men that they might communicate amongst themselues and expresse one to another their conceits without that in them there lie hid any other mistery or naturall principles for that the first deuisers agreed togither and after their best liking as Aristotle saith framed the words and gaue to euerie ech his signification From hence arose so great a number of wordes and so manie maners of speech so farre besides rule and reason that if a man had not a good
Offices Booke of Destinie * Dialoge of knowledge By the only vnderstanding of Socrates may this comparison be verefied for he taught by demaunds and handled the matter so that the scholler himselfe attained to knowledge without his telling him the same Mans Wisedome is not RemeÌ„brance wherefore we haue here aboue spoken against Plato for that he held this opinion In the second age called youth a man makes an vnion of all the differences of wit in such as they may be vnited for that this age is more temperat than all the rest wherfore it is vnfitting to let it passe without learning of knowledge whereby a man may liue The principall of all these is Nature for if she be in them who applie their mind to Art they may pierce thorow all the other things aboue specified So Baldus betooke himselfe to the studie of the Lawes when he was wel-aged wherethrough some sayd vnto him in a scoffe Thou commest too late O Baldus and wilt prooue a good aduocate in the other world but because he had a capacitie conformable for the lawes he proued learned in a short season Nature giues habilitie Art facilitie Vse sufficiencie Aboue all things Nature is necessarie for if she gainsay al other drifts are attempted in vaine In all Knowledges we must vnderstand how far their iurisdiction exteÌ„deth and what questions apperteine vnto them The Lord working therewithall and confirming with his word followed by signs Iob. 33. The ignorance of naturall Philosophie is cause that miracles are imputed where they ought not Hippocrates vsed vnproper terms when he sayd the soule of man is produced vntil his death In euery citie the wisest and eldest persons should looke into and iudge of the naturall quicknesse of children and so giue notice that ech one might learne an art agreeable to his nature And therefore the heart and the things seated therabouts haue great feeling but for all that are not partakers of knowledge but of all these things the braine is causer There are two sorts of fat men the one full of flesh bones and blood the other replenished with fat and these are very wittie Go to the Ant O sluggard and consider his way and learne wisedome who hauing no guide nor maister prouides himselfe the summer of food and in the time of haruest furnisheth himselfe of meat A Faulconer affirmed to me with an oath that he had a redye Faulcon for hawking which grew bussardly for remedy wherof he gaue hir a botton di fuoto in the head and she amended Plato tooke out of the holie Scripture the best sentences which are to be found in his workes in respect whereof he was called Diuine Plato attributes three soules vnto man Hippocrates answered better saying That nature is learned though she haue not learned to do well The seed and menstruall blood which are two materiall principles of which we be formed are hote moist through which temperature children are so vnskilled When the braine is placed hot in the first degree it makes a man eloquent furnisheth him with store of matter to deliuer for which cause the silent are alwaies cold of braine great talkers hot This frenzie was occasioned by abundaÌ„ce of cholar which tooke hold in the substance of the brain which humor hath great congruence with Poetrie for which cause Horace sayd That if summer did not make euacuation of choler no Poet should passe before him This page was not yet perfectly cured He speakes to one asleepe who teacheth wisedome to a foole The Sibils admitted by the catholike church had this naturall disposition that Aristotle speakes of and besides a propheticall spirit which God powred into theÌ„ for naturall wit sufficed not for so high a point werethe same neuer so perfect When the diseased diuine thus it is a token that the reasonable soule is now awearie of the bodie and so none such recouer Those who haue bene crazed and are called melaÌ„cholike haue their mind endewed with a certain spice of prophesying and diuining Aristotle in his third booke of the soule Horace to say that Vlisses became not a fool figured him that he was not turned into a hog The hart of wise men is where there is sadnesse and the hart of fooles where there is mirth Wherethrough Cicero defining the nature of wit placeth memorie in his definition Docilitie Memorie which as it were by one name are tearmed wit Any distemperature whatsoeuer cannot any long time endure alone Of these differences of wits Aristotle said in this manner He verely is best who vnderstandeth euery thing by himselfe and he also is good who obeith him that sayth well The inuention of arts and the making of bookes saith Galen is performed with the vnderstaÌ„ding and with the memorie or with the imaginatiue but he thatwrites for that he hath many things in his mind cannot ad any new inuention This difference of wits is very dangerous for Diuinitie where the vnderstaÌ„ding ought to abide bound to that which the Catholike church doth resolue This difference of wits senteth very well for Diuinitie where it behooueth to ensue the diuine authoritie declared by the holy Councels and sacred Doctors The smooth white and grosse persons haue no melancholicke humour Amongst brute beasts there is none which approcheth neerer to mans wisdome than the OliphaÌ„t and there is none of a flesh so rough and hard Note that men of great vnderstanding take no care for attiring their bodie but are ordinarily ill apparelled slouenly and hereof we yeeld the reason in the 8. cha and 14. Galen dying went to hell and saw by experieÌ„ce that materiall fire burned the soules and could not consume theÌ„ this Physition had knowledge of that Euangelicall doctrine and could not receiue it But the serpent was the wiliest beast of the earth amongst all those whome God hath made Traquitantos signifieth Bring hither tokens or counters Cicero saith that the honour of man is to haue wit and of wit to be applied to eloquence This is recounted by Plato in his dialogue of knowledge and in his banquet Cicero praising the eloquence of Plato sayd That if Iupiter should haue spoken Greeke he would haue spoken as Plato did Paule Lib. 3. de Anima ca. 3. Take heed you receiue no hurt for leauing out the Pope Solertia S. John Baptist was an angell in his office No doubt your owne king A weake reason rather God chose Saule as a carnal man sit for the Iewes obstinat asking and Dauid as a spirituall man the instrument of his mercie And I hold it vntrue because the phrase vtterly differeth from the Latine toung as spectosus valde inter filios bominum Vnwritten Vâ—rities And such a one if you mistake not is your king Philip. Your king and your selfe An high speculation Note here a sign which sheweth the immortalitie of the soule This is no chapter for maids to read in sight of others You are much mistaken
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
seeing themselues hedged in with the curious and nice points of naturall Philosophie make them beleeue who know little that God or the diuell are authors of the prodigious and strange effects of whose naturall cause they haue no knowledge and vnderstanding Children which are engendred of seed cold and drie as are those begotten in old age some few dayes and moneths after their birth begin to discourse and philosophise for the temperature cold and drie as we will hereafter prooue is most appropriat to the operations of the reasonable soule and that which processe of time and many dayes and months should bring about is supplied by the present temperature of the brain which for many causes anticipateth what it was to effect Other children there are sayth Aristotle who as soone as they are borne begin to speake and afterwards hold their peace vntill they attaine the ordinarie and conuenient age of speaking which effect floweth from the same originall and cause that we recounted of the page and of those furious and frantike persons and of him who spake Latine on a sudden without hauing learned it in his health And that children whilst they make abode in their mothers bellie and so soone as they are borne may vndergo these infirmities is a matter past deniall But whence that diuining of the franticke woman proceeded I can better make Cicero to conceiue than these naturall Philosophers for he describing the nature of man sayd in this manner The creature foresightfull searchfull apt for many matters sharpe conceited mindfull replenished with reason and counsell whome we call by the name of Man And in particular he affirmeth that there is found a certain nature in some men which in foreknowing things to come exceedeth other mens and his words are these For there is found a certaine force and nature which foretels things to come the force and nature of which is not by reason to be vnfolded The error of the naturall Philosophers consisteth in not considering as Plato did that man was made to the likenesse of God and that he is a partaker of his diuine prouidence and that the power of discerning all the three differences of time memorie for the passed conceiuing for the present and imagination and vnderstanding for those that are to come And as there are men superior to others in remembring things past and others in knowing the present so there are also many who partake a more naturall habilitie for imagining of what shall come to passe One of the greatest arguments which forced Cicero to thinke that the reasonable soule is vncorruptible was to see the certaintie with which the diseased tell things to come and especially when they are neere their end But the difference which rests betweene a propheticall spirit and this naturall wit is that that which God speaks by the mouth of his prophets is infallible for it is the expresse word of God but that which man prognosticateth by the power of his imagination holds no such certaintie Those who say that the discouering of their vertues and vices by the frantike woman to the persons who came to visit her was a tricke of the diuels playing let them know that God bestowes on men a certaine supernaturall grace to attaine and conceiue which are the workes of God and which of the diuell the which saint Paule placeth amongst the diuine gifts and cals it The imparting of spirits Whereby we may discerne whether it be the diuell or some good angell that intermedleth with vs. For many times the diuell sets to beguile vs vnder the cloke of a good angell and we haue need of this grace and supernaturall gift to know him and difference him from the good From this gift they are farthest sundered who haue not a wit capable of naturall Philosophie for this science and that supernaturall infused by God fall vnder one selfe abilitie to weet the vnderstanding atleast if it be true that God in bestowing his graces doe applie himselfe to the naturall good of euery one as I haue afore rehearsed Iacob lying at the point of death at which time the reasonable soule is most at libertie to see what is to come all his twelue children entred to visit him and he to each of them in particular recited their vertues and vices and prophesied what should befall as touching them and their posteritie Certaine it is that he did all this inspired by God but if the diuine scripture and our fayth had not ascertained vs hereof how would these naturall Philosophers haue known this to be the worke of God and that the vertues and vices which the frantike woman told to such as came to visit her were discouered by the power of the diuell whilst this case in part resembles that of Iacob They reckon that the nature of the reasonable soule is far different from that of the diuell and that the powers thereof vnderstanding imagination and memorie are of another very diuers kind and herein they be deceiued For if a reasonable soule informe a well instrumentalized body as was that of Adam his knowledge comes little behind that of the subtillest diuell and without the body he partakes as perfect qualities as the other And if the diuels foresee things to come coniecturing and discoursing by certaine tokens the same also may a reasonable man do when he is about to be freed from his body or when he is endowed with that difference of temperature which makes a man capable of this prouidence For it is a matter as difficult for the vnderstanding to conceiue how the diuell can know these hidden things as to impute the same to the reasonable soule It will not fall in these mens heads that in natural things there may be found out certaine signs by means of which they may attaine to the knowledge of matters to come And I affirme there are certaine tokens to be found which bring vs to the notise of things passed and present and to forecast what is to follow yea to coniecture some secrets of the heauen Therfore we see that his things inuisible are vnderstood by the creatures of the world by means of the things which haue bene created Whosoeuer shall haue power to accomplish this shall attaine therevnto and the other shall be such as Homer spake of The ignorant vnderstandeth the things passed but not the things to come But the wise and discreet is the Ape of God for he immitates him in many matters and albeit he cannot accomplish them with so great perfection yet he carries some resemblance vnto him by following him CHAP. V. It is prooued that from the three qualities hot moist and drie proceed all the differences of mens wits THe reasonable soule making abode in the body it is impossible that the same can performe contrary and different operations if for each of them it vse not a particular instrument This is plainly seen in the power of the soule which performeth diuers operations in the outward
sences for euery one hath his particular composition the eyes haue one the eares another the smelling another and the feeling another and if it were not so there should be no more but one sort of operations and that should all be seeing tasting or feeling for the instrument determines rules the power for one action and for no more By this so plaine and manifest a matter which passeth through the outward sences we may gather what that is in the inward With this selfe power of the soule we vnderstand imagine and remember But if it be true that euery worke requires a particular instrument it behooueth of necessitie that within the braine there be one instrument for the vnderstanding one for the imagination and another different from them for the memorie for if all the braine were instrumentalized after one selfe manner either the whole should be memorie or the whole vnderstanding or the whole imagination But we see that these are very different operations and therfore it is of force that there be also a varietie in the instruments But if we open by skill and make an anotomie of the braine we shall find the whole compounded after one maner of one kind of substance and alike without parts of other kinds or a different sort onely there appeare foure little hollownesses who if we well marke them haue all one selfe composition and figure without any thing comming betweene which may breed a difference What the vse and profit of these may be and whereto they serue in the head is not easily decideable for Galen and the Anotomists as well new as ancient haue laboured to find out the truth but none of them hath precisely nor in particular expressed whereto the right ventricle serueth nor the left nor that which is placed in the middest of these two nor the fourth whose seat in the braine keepes the hinder part of the head They affirme only though with some doubt that these foure concauities are the shops where the vitall spirits are digested and conuerted into animals so to giue sence and motion to all the parts of the body In which operation Galen sayd once that the middle ventricle was the principall and in another place he vnsayes it againe affirming that the hindermost is of greatest efficacie and valure But this doctrine is not true nor founded on good naturall Philosophie for in all mans body there are not two so contrary operations nor that so much hinder one another as are discoursing and digestion of nourishment and the reason is because contemplation requireth quiet rest and a cleerenesse in the animall spirits and digestion is performed with great stirring and trauaile from this action rise vp many vapours which trouble and darken the animall spirits so as by means of them the reasonable soule cannot discerne the figures And nature was not so vnaduised as in one selfe place to conioine two actions which are performed with so great repugnancie But Plato highly commends the wisdome and knowledge of him who shaped vs for that he seuered the liuer from the braine by so great a distance to the end that by the rumbling there made whilst the nourishments are mingled and by the obscurenesse and darkenesse occasioned through the vapours in the animall spirits the reasonable soule might not be troubled in his discourses and considerations But though Plato had not touched this point of Philosophie we see hourly by experience that because the liuer and the stomack are so far from the brain presently vpon meat and some space thereafter there is no man that can giue himselfe to studie The truth of this matter is that the fourth ventricle hath the office of digesting and altering the vitall spirits and to conuert them into animal for that end which we haue before remembred And therefore nature hath seuered the same by so great a distance from the other three and made that braine sundred apart and so far off as appeareth to the end that by his operation he hinder not the contemplation of the rest The three ventricles placed in the forepart I doubt not but that nature made them to none other end than to discourse and philosophise Which is apparantly prooued for that in great studyings and contemplations alwaies that part of the head finds it self agreeued which answereth these three concauities The force of this argument is to be knowne by consideration that when the other powers are wearie of performing their workes the instruments are alwaies agreeued whose seruice they vsed as in our much looking the eyes are pained and with much going the soules of the feet wax sore Now the difficultie consists to know in which of these ventricles the vnderstanding is placed in which the memorie and in which the imagination for they are so vnited and nere neighboured that neither by the last argument nor by any other notice they can be distinguished or discerned Then considering that the vnderstanding cannot worke without the memorie be present representing vnto the same the figures and fantasies agreeable therevnto it behooueth that the vnderstanding part busie it selfe in beholding the fantasmes and that the memorie cannot do it if the imagination do not accompany the same as we haue already heretofore declared we shall easily vnderstand that all the powers are vnited in euery seuerall ventricle and that the vnderstanding is not solely in the one nor the memory solely in the other nor the imagination in the third as the vulgar Philosophers haue imagined but that this vnion of powers is accustomably made in mans body in as much as the one cannot worke without the aid of the other as appeareth in the foure naturall abilities digestiue retentiue attractiue and expulsiue where because each one stands in need of all the residue nature disposed to vnite them in one selfe place and made them not diuided or sundered But if this be true then to what end made nature those three ventricles and ioyned together the three reasonable powers in euery of them seeing that one alone sufficed to vnderstand and to performe the actions of memorie To this may be answered that there riseth a like difficultie in skanning whence it commeth that nature made two eyes and two eares sithens in each of them is placed the whole power of sight and hearing and we can see hauing but one eye Whereto may be sayd that the powers ordayned for the perfection of a creature how much the greater number they carrie so much the better assured is that their perfection for vpon some occasion one or two may faile and therefore it serues well to the purpose that there remaine some others of the same kind which may be applied to vse In an infirmitie which the Phisitions tearme Resolution or Palsie of the middle side the operation is ordinarily lost of that ventricle which is strooken on that side if the other two remained not sound without endammageance a man should thereby become witles and void of
towardly to make clocks pictures poppets other ribaldries which are impertinent for mans seruice Aegypt alone is the region which ingendereth in his inhabitants this differēce of imagination wherthrough the Historiens neuer make an end of telling how great enchaunters the Aegyptians are and how readie for obtaining things and finding remedies to their necessities Ioseph to exaggerat the wisedome of Salomon sayd in this manner So great was the knowledge and wisedome which Salomon receiued of God that he outpassed al the ancients and euen the very Egyptians who were reputed the wisest of all others And Plato also sayd that the Aegyptians exceeded all the men of the world in skill how to get their liuing which abilitie appertaineth to the imagination And that this is true may plainly appeare for that all the sciences belonging to the imagination were first deuised in Aegypt as the Mathematicks Astrologie Arithmeticke Perspectiue Iudiciarie and the rest But the argument which most ouer-ruleth me in this behalfe is that whē Francis of Valois king of France was molested by a long infirmitie and saw that the Phisitions of his houshold and court could yeeld him no remedy he would say euery time when his feuer increased It was not possible that any Christiā Phisition could cure him neither at their hands did he euer hope for recouerie wherethrough one time agreeued to see himselfe thus vexed with this feuer he dispatched a post into Spaine praieng the emperour Charles the fifth that he would send him a Iew Phisition the best of his court touching whom he had vnderstood that he was able to yeeld him remedie for his sicknesse if by art it might be effected At this request the Spaniards made much game and all of them concluded it was an humorous conceit of a man whose brains were turmoiled with the feuer But for all this the Emperour gaue commandement that such a Phisition should be sought out if anie there were though to find him they should be driuen to send out of his dominions and whē none could be met withall he sent a Phisition newly made a Christian supposing that he might serue to satisfie the kings humour But the Phisition being arriued in France and brought to the kings presence there passed between them a gratious discourse in which it appeared that the Phisition was a Christian and therefore the king would receiue no phisicke at his hands The king with opinion which he had conceiued of the phisition that he was an Hebrue by way of passing the time asked him whether he were not as yet weary in looking for the Messias promised in the law The phisition answered Sir I expect not any Messias promised in the Iews law You are verie wise in that replied the king for the tokens which were deliuered in the diuine scripture whereby to know his comming are all fulfilled many daies ago This number of daies reioyned the phisition we Christians do well reckon for there are now finished 1542 yeares that he came and conuersed in the world 33 yeares in the end of which he died on the crosse and the third day rose again and afterwards ascended into heauen where he now remaineth Why then quoth the king you are a Christian yea Sir by the grace of God I am a Christian quoth the phisition then answered the king return you home to your own dwelling in good time for in mine owne house and court I haue Christian phisitions very excellent and I held you for a Iew who in mine opinion are those that haue best naturall abilitie to cure my disease After this maner he licenced him without once suffering him to feele his pulse or see his state or telling him one word of his griefe And forthwith he sent to Constantinople for a Iew who healed him with the onely milke of a she Asse This imagination of king Francis as I think was verie true and I haue so conceiued it to be for that in the great hot distemperatures of the brain I haue prooued tofore how the imagination findeth out that which the partie being sound could neuer haue done And because it shall not seem that I haue spoken in iest and without relying herein vpon a materiall ground you shall vnderstand that the varieties of men aswell in the compositions of the body as of the wit and conditions of the soule spring from their inhabiting countries of different temperature from drinking diuers waters and from not vsing all of them one kind of food Wherein Plato said Some through variable windes and heats are amongst themselues diuers in maners and kinds others through the waters and food which spring of the earth who not only in their bodies but in their minds also can skill to do things better and woorse as if he should say some men are different from others either by reason of the contrarie aire or through drinking seuerall waters or for that they feed not all vpon one kind of meat and this difference is discerned not only in the countenaunce and demeanure of the body but also in the wit of the soule If I then shall now prooue that the people of Israell dwelt many yeares in Aegypt and that departing from thence they did eat drinke waters meats which are appropriat to make this difference of imagination I shal then yeeld a demonstration for the opinion of the king of France and by consequence we shall vnderstand what wits of men are in Spaine to be made choice of for studieng the art of Phisicke As touching the first we must know that Abraham asking tokens whereby to be assured that he or his descendents should possesse the land of promise the text sayth that whilest he slept God made him answer saying Know that thy seed shall bee a stranger in a countrie not his owne and they shall make them vnderlings in bondage and afflict them for 400 yeares notwithstanding I will iudge that nation whom they serue and after this they shall depart from thence with great substance which Prophesie was accomplished albeit God for certaine respects added therevnto 30 yeares more for which cause the scripture sayth But the aboad of the children of Israell in Aegypt was 430 yeares which being finished that very day the whole armie of the Lord departed out of the land of Aegypt But although this text say manifestly that the people of Israell abode in Aegypt 400 yeares a glosse declareth that thefe yeares were the whole time which Israell went on pilgrimage vntill he possessed his own countrie In as much as he remained in Aegypt but 210 yeates which declaration agreeth not well with that which S. Stephen the Prothomartyr made in his discourse to the Iewes namely that the people of Israell was 430 yeares in the bondage of Aegypt And albeit the abode of 210 yeares suffised that the qualities of Aegypt might take hold in the people of Israell yet the time whiles they liued abroad was no lost season in respect of that which
touched by Galens mind hindereth all the powers and faculties of the soule and suffereth not them to worke Hence beginneth the answer of this second doubt and it is that those who play at Chesse conceiue feare to loose because the game standeth vpon termes of reputation and disgrace and for that Fortune hath no stroke therein so the vitall spirits assembling to the heart the imagination is foreslowed by the cold and the fantasms in the darke for which two reasons he who plaieth cannot bring his purpose to effect But the lookers on in as much as this no way importeth them neither stand in feare of loosing through want of skill do behold more draughts for that their imagination retaineth his heat and his figures are enlightened by the light of the vitall spirits True it is that much light reaueth also the light of the imagination and it befalleth what time the player waxeth ashamed and out of countenaunce to see his aduersarie beat him then through this aggreeuednes the naturall heat encreaseth and enlighteneth more than is requisit of all which he that standeth by is deuoid From hence issueth an effect very vsual in the world that what time a man endeuoreth to make the best muster of himselfe and his learning and sufficiencie most knowne it prooueth worst with him with others againe the contrarie betideth who being brought to their triall make a great show and passed out of the lists appeare of little woorth and of all this the reason is very manifest for he whose head is filled with much naturall heat if you appoint him to do an exercise of learning or disputation within foure and twentie hours after a part of that excessiue heat which he hath flieth to the heart and so the brain remaineth temperat and in this disposition as we wil prooue in the chapter ensuing many points woorth the vtterance present themselues to a mans remembrance But he who is very wise and endowed with a great vnderstanding being brought to triall by means of feare cannot retaine the naturall heat in his head whereon through default of light he findeth not in his memorie what to deliuer If this fell into their consideration who take vpon them to controll the Generals of armies blaming their actions and the order which they set down in the field they should discerne how great a difference resteth betweene the giuing a looking on the fight out at a window or the breaking of a launce therein and the feare to leese an armie whose charge their soueraigne hath committed to their hands No lesse dammage doth feare procure the Physition in curing for his practise as we haue prooued heretofore appertaineth to the imagination which resteth more annoied by cold than any other power for that his operation consisteth in heat Whence we see by experience that Physitions can sooner cure the vulgar sort than Princes and great personages A counsellor at law one day asked me knowing that I handled this matter what the cause might be that in the affairs where he was well payd many cases and points of learning came to his memorie but with such as yeelded not to his trauell what was due it seemed that all his knowledge was shrunke out of his braine whome I answered that matters of interest appertained to the wrathfull facultie which maketh his residence in the heart and if the same receiue not contentment it doth not willingly send forth the vitall spirits by whose light the figures which rest in the memorie may be discerned But when that findeth satisfaction it cheerfully affoordeth naturall heat VVherthrough the reasonable soule obtaineth sufficient cleernesse to see whatsoeuer is written in the head This defect do men of great vnderstanding partake who are pinching and relie much on their interest and in such is the propertie of that counsellor best discerned But who so falleth into due consideration hereof shall obserue it to be an action of Iustice that he who laboureth in another mans vineyard be well paied his wages The like reason is currant for the phisitions to whom when they are wel hired many remedies present them selues otherwise the art aswell in them as the lawyer slippeth out of their fingers But here a matter verie important is to be noted namely that the good imaginanation of the phisition discouereth on a sodain what is necessarie to be done And if he take leisure and farther consideration a thousand inconueniences come into his fancie which hold him in suspense and this-while the occasion of the remedie passeth away Therefore it is neuer good to aduise the phisition to consider well what he hath in hand but that he forthwith execute what first he purposed For we haue prooued heretofore that much speculation maketh the naturall heat to auoid out of the head and again the same may encrease so far forth as to turmoile the imagination But the phisition in whom it is slacke shall not doe amisse to vse long contemplation for the heat aduancing it selfe vp to the braine shall come to attaine that point which to this power is behooffull The third doubt in the matters alreadie rehearsed hath his answer verie manifest for the difference of the imagination with which we play at chesse requireth a certaine point of heat to see the draughts and he that plaieth well fasting hath then the degree of heat requisit thereunto But through the heat of the meat the same exceedeth that point which was necessarie and so he plaieth worse The contrarie befalleth to such as play well after meales for the heat rising vp togither with the meat and the wine arriueth to the point which wanted whiles he was fasting It is therefore needfull to amend a place in Plato who saith that nature hath with great wisdome disioyned the liuer from the braine to the end the meat with his vapours should not trouble the contemplation of the reasonable soule But here if he mean those operations which appertain to the vnderstanding he speaketh very well but it can take no place in anie of the differences of the imagination Which is seen by experience in feasts and banquets for when the guests are come to mid meale they begin to tell pleasant tales merriments and similitudes where at the beginning none had a word to say but at the end of the feast their tongue faileth them for the heat is passed beyond the bound requisit for the imagination Such as need to eat and drinke a little to the end the imagination may lift vp it selfe are melancholicke by adustion for such haue their brain like hot lime which taken vp into yourhand is cold and drie in feeling but if you bath the same in any liquor you cannot endure the heat which groweth therof We must also correct that law of the Carthagineans which Plato alleageth whereby they forbad their Captains to drinke wine when they went to their wars and likewise their gouernours during the yeare of their office And albeit Plato held the same
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
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
like vnderstanding by means of the much heat and he shall want memorie through his abundance of drinesse These are woont to be very preiudiciall to the common wealth for the heat enclineth them to many vices and euils and giueth them a wit and mind to put the same in execution howbeit if we do keepe them vnder the common-wealth shall receiue more seruice by these mens imagination than by the vnderstanding and memorie of the others Hens capons veale weathers of Spaine are all meats of moderat substance for they are neither delicat nor grosse I said weathers of Spain for Galen without making any distinctiō saith that their flesh is of a grosse and noisom substance which straieth from reason for put case that in Italie where he wrot it be the worst of all others yet in this our countrey through the goodnesse of the pastures we may reckon the same among the meats of moderat substance The children who are begotten on such food shall haue a reasonable discourse a reasonable memory and a reasonable imagination VVherethrough they wil not be verie profoundly seen in the Sciences nor deuise ought of new Of these we haue said heretofore that they are pleasant conceited and apt in whom may be imprinted all the rules and considerations of art cleere obscure easie and difficult but doctrine argument answering doubting and distinguishing are matters wherewith their braines can in no sort endure to be cloied Cowes flesh Manzo bread of red graine cheese oliues vineger and water alone will breed a grosse seed and of faultie temperature the sonne engendred vpon these shall haue strength like a bull but withall be furious and of a beastly wit Hence it proceedeth that amongst vpland people it is a miracle to find one quicke of capacitie or towardly for learning they are all borne dull and rude for that they are begotten on meats of grosse and euill substance The contrarie hereof befalleth in Citizens whose children we find to be endowed with more wit and sufficiencie But if the parents carrie in verie deed a will to beget a sonne prompt wise and of good conditions let them six or seuen daies before their companying feed on Goats milke for this aliment by the opinion of all phisitions is the best and most delicat that any man can vse prouided that they be sound and that it answer them in proportion But Galen saith it behooueth to eat the same with honny without which it is dangerous and easily corrupteth The reason hereof is for that the milke hath no more but three elements in his composition cheese whey and butter The cheese answereth the earth the whey the water and the butter the aire The fire which mingleth the other elements and preserueth them being mingled issuing out of the teats is exhaled for that it is verie subtile but adioyning thereunto a little honny which is hot and dry in lieu of fire the milke wil so partake of al the 4 elements Which being mingled and concocted by the operation of our naturall heat make a seed verie delicat and of good temperature The sonne thus engendred shall at leastwise possesse a great discourse and not be depriued of memorie and imagination In that Aristotle wanted this doctrine he came short to answer a probleme which himselfe propounded demanding what the cause is that the yong ones of brute beasts carry with them for the most part the properties and conditions of their sires and dammes And the children of men and women not so And we find this by experience to be true for of wise parents are borne foolish children and of foolish parents children very wise of vertuous parents lewd children and of vitious parents vertuous children of hard fauoured parents faire children and of faire parents foule children of white parents browne children and of brown parents white and well coloured children And amongst children of one selfe father and mother one prooueth simple and another wittie one foule and another faire one of good conditions and another of bad one vertuous and another vitious VVhereas if a mare of a good harrage be couered with a horse of the like the colt which is foaled resembleth them aswell in shape and colour as in their properties To this probleme Aristotle shaped a very vntowardly answer saying that a man is caried away with many imaginations during the carnall act and hence it proceedeth that the children prooue so diuers But brute beasts because in time of procreation they are not so distraughted neither possesse so forcible an imagination as man doth make alwaies their yong ones after one selfe sort and like to themselues This answer hath euer hitherto gone for currant amongst the vulgar philosophers and for confirmation hereof they alleage the history of Iacob which recounteth that he hauing placed certaine rods at the watering places of the beasts the lambes were yeaned party coloured But little auailes it them to handfast holy matters for this historie recounteth a miraculous action which God performed therein to hide some sacrament And the answer made by Aristotle sauoreth of great simplicitie And who so wil not yeeld me credit let him at this day cause some shepheards to try this experiment and they shall find it to be no naturall matter It is also reported in these our partes that a ladie was deliuered of a sonne more brown than was due because a blacke visage which was pictured fell into her imagination Which I hold for a iest and if perhaps it be true that she brought such a one to the world I say that the father who begat him had the like colour to that figure And because it may be the better known how fromshapen this philosophy is which Aristotle bringeth in togither with those that follow him it is requisit we hold it for a thing certaine that the worke of generation appertaineth to the vegetatiue soule and not to the sensitiue or reasonable for a horse engendreth without the reasonall and a plant without the sensitiue And if we do but marke a tree loden with fruit we shall find on the same a greater variety than in the children of any man One apple will be green another red one little another great one round another ill shaped one soūd another rotten one sweet and another bitter And if we compare the fruit of this yeare with that of the last the one will be very different and contrary to the other which cannot be attributed to the varietie of the imagination seeing the plantes do want this power The error of Aristotle is very manifest in his own doctrine for he saith that the seed of the man and not of the woman is that which maketh the generation and in the carnal act the man doth nought els but scatter his seed without forme or figure as the husbandman soweth his corne in the earth And as the graine of corne doth not by and by take root nor formeth a stalke and leaues vntill some daies been expired so saith Galen
how powerfull the same is in the age of childhood and how weake and remisse in old age Againe in boyes estate the reasonable soule cannot vse his operations whereas in old age which is vtterly void of heat and moisture it performeth them with great effect In sort that by how much the more a man is enabled for procreation and for digestion of food so much he leeseth of his reasonable facultie To this alludeth that which Plato affirmeth that there is no humour in a man which so much disturbeth the reasonable faculty as abundance of seed only saith he the same yeeldeth help to the art of versifieng Which we behold to be confirmed by daily experience for when a man beginneth to entreat of amorous matters sodainly he becommeth a Poet And if before he were greasie and loutish forthwith he takes it at heart to haue a wrinckle in his pumpe or a mote on his cape And the reason is because these workes appertaine to the imagination which encreaseth and lifteth it selfe vp from this point through the much heat accasioned in him by this amorous passion And that loue is an hot alteration sheweth apparently through the courage and hardinesse which it planteth in the louer from whom the same also reaueth all desire of meat and will not suffer him to sleep If the common-wealth bare an eie to these tokens she would bannish from publicke studies lusty schollers and great fighters inamoured persons Poets and those who are verie neat and curious in their apparrell for they are not furnished with wit or abilitie for any sort of study Out of this rule Aristotle excepteth the melancholicke by adustion whose seede though fruitfull reaueth not the capacitie Finally all the faculties which gouern man if they be very powerfull set the reasonable soule in a garboile Hence it proceeds that if a man be very wise he proueth a coward of small strength of bodie a spare feeder and not verie able for procreation And this is occasioned by the qualities which make him wise namely coldnesse and drinesse And these selfe weaken the other powers as appeareth in old men who besides their counsell and wisdom are good for nothing els This doctrine thus presupposed Galen holdeth opinion that to the end the engendring of whatsoeuer creature may take his perfect effect two seeds are necessary one which must be the agent and former and another which must serue for nourishment for a matter so delicat as generation cannot straightwais ouercome a meat so grosse as is the bloud vntill the effect be greater And that the seed is the right aliment of the seed members Hippocrates Plato and Galen doe all accord for by their opinion if the bloud be not conuerted into seed it is impossible that the sinews the veins the arteries can be maintained Wherthrough Galen affirmed the difference betweene the veines and the cods to be that the cods doe speedily make much seed and the veins a little and in long space of time In sort that nature prouided for the same an alimēt so like which with light alteration without making any excremēts might maintain the other seed And this could not be effected if the nourishment therof had bin made of the bloud The selfe prouision saith Galen was made by nature in the engendring of mankind as in the forming of a chick and such other birds as come of egs In which we see there are two substances one of the white and another of the yolke of one of which the chicke is made and by the other maintained all the time whiles the forming endureth For the same reason are two seeds necessarie in the generation of the man one of which the creature may be made and the other by which it may be maintained whilst the forming endureth But Hippocrates mentioneth one thing worthie of great consideration namely that it is not resolued by nature which of the two seeds shalbe the agent and formour which shall serue for aliment For many times the seed of the woman is of greater efficacy than that of the man and when this betideth she maketh the generation and that of the husband serueth for aliment Otherwhiles that of the husband is more mighty and that of the wife doth nought els than nourish This doctrin was not cōsidered by Aristotle who could not vnderstand wherto the womans seed serued and therefore vttered a thousand follies and that the same was but a little water without vertue or force for generation VVhich being granted it would follow impossible that a woman should euer couet the conuersation of man or consent thereunto but would shun the carnall act as being herselfe so honest and the worke so vncleane and filthy wherethrough in short space mankind would decay and the world rest depriued of the fairest creature that euer nature formed To this purpose Aristotle demandeth what the cause is that fleshly copulation should be an action of the greatest pleasure that nature euer ordained for the solace of liuing things To which probleme he answereth that nature hauing so desirously procured the perpetuitie of mankind did therefore place so great a delight in this worke to the end that they being mooued by such interest might gladly apply themselues to the act of generation and if these incitements were wanting no woman or man would condiscend to the bands of marriage inasmuch as the woman should reape none other benefite than to beare a burden in her belly the space of nine months with so great trauaile and sorrowes and at the time of her child-birth to vndergo the hazard of forgoing her life So would it be necessarie that the common-wealth should through feare enforce women to marrie to the end mankind might not come to nothing But because nature doth her things with pleasing she gaue to a woman all the instruments necessarie for making a seed inciting and apt for issue whereby she might desire a man and take pleasure in his conuersation But if it were of that qualitie which Aristotle expresseth she would rather flie and abhorre him than euer loue him This selfe Galen prooueth alleaging an example of the brute beastes wherethrough he saith that if a Sowe be speyed she neuer desireth the Boare nor will consent that he approch vnto her The like we do euidently see in a woman whose temperature partaketh more of coldnesse than is requisite for if we tell her that she must be married there is no word which soundeth worse in her eare And the like befalleth to a cold man for he wanteth the fruitful seed Moreouer if a womans seed were of that maner which Aristotle mentioneth it could be no proper aliment for to attain the last qualities of actual nutriment a totall seed is necessarie whereby it may be nourished Wherthrough if the same come not to be concocted semblable it cannot performe this point for womans seed wanteth the instruments and places as are the stomacke the liuer and the cods where it may be
qualities substance which are necessary to the end the soule may with such an instrument discourse and philosophize for if you call to mind that which in the beginning of this worke we deliuered the graces gratis giuen which God bestoweth vpon men do ordinarily require that the instrument with which they are to be exercised and the subiect whereinto it is to be receiued doe partake the naturall qualities requisite for euerie such gift And the reason is because that the reasonable soule is an act of the body and worketh not without the seruice of his bodily instrumentes The braine of our redeemer Christ whilst he was a babe and lately born had much moisture for in that age it was behooffull so to be and a matter naturall and therefore in that it was of such qualitie his reasonable soule naturally could not discourse nor philosophize with such an instrumēt Wherthrough the science infused passed not to the bodily memorie nor to the imagination nor the vnderstanding because these three are instrumentall powers as tofore we haue proued enioyed not that perfection which they were to haue but whilst the brain went drying by meanes of time and age the reasonable soule went also manifesting euery day more and more the infused wisdome which it had and communicated the same to the bodily powers Now besides this supernaturall knowledge he had also another which is gathered of things that they heard whilest they were children of that which they saw of that which they smelled of that which they tasted and of that which they touched and this for certaine our sauiour Christ attained as other men do And euen as for discerning things perfectly he stood in need of good eies and for hearing of sounds good eares so also he stood in need of a good braine to iudge the good and the euil Whence it is manifest that by eating those delicat meates his head was daily better instrumentalized attained more wisdom In sort that if God had taken frō him his science infused thrise in the course of his life by seeing that which he had purchased we shall find that at ten yeares he knew more than at fiue at twentie more than at ten and at thirtie three more than at twenty And that this doctrin is true and catholicke the letter of the Euangelicke text prooueth saying and Iesus encreased in wisedome and age and grace with God with men Of many catholicke senses which the holy scripture may receiue I hold that euer better which taketh the letter than that which reaueth the termes and wordes of their naturall signification VVhat the qualities are which the brain ought to haue and what the substance we haue already reported by the opinion of Heraclitus That drinesse maketh the wisest soule And by Galens mind we proued That when the braine is compounded of a substance very delicat it maketh the wit to be subtile Christ our redeemer went purchasing more drinesse by his age for from the day that we are borne vntil that of our death we daily grow to a more drinesse and leesing of flesh a greater knowledge The subtile and delicat parts of his braine went correcting themselues whilst he fed vpon meats which the Prophet speaketh of For if euery moment he had need of nourishment and restoring the substance which wasted away and this must be performed with meates and in none other sort it is certaine that if he had alwaies fed on cowes beefe or porcke in few daies he should haue bred himselfe a braine grosse and of euill temperature with which his reasonable soule could not haue shunned euill or chosen good saue by miracle and employing his diuinitie But God leading him by naturall means caused him to vse those so delicat meats by which the braine being maintained the same might be made an instrument so well supplied as euen without vsing the diuine or infused knowledge he might naturally haue eschued euill and chosen good as do the other children of men FINIS A Table of all the chapters contained in this Booke IT is prooued by example that if a child haue not the disposition and abilitie which is requisit for that science wherunto he wil addict himselfe it is a superfluous labour to be instructed therein by good schoolemaisters to haue store of bookes continually to study it fol. 1 2 That Nature is that which makes a man of abilitie to learne 13 3 What part of the body ought to be well tempered that a yoong man may haue abilitie 23 4 It is prooued that the soule vegetatiue sensitiue and reasonable haue knowledge without that any thing be taught them if so be that they possesse that conuenient temperature which is requisit for their operation 33 5 It is prooued that from the three qualities hot moist and drie proceed all the differences of mens wits 51 6 Certaine doubts and arguments are propounded against the doctrine of the last chapter and their answer 69 7 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 88 8 How there may be assigned to euerie difference of wit his Science which shalbe correspondent to him in particular and that which is repugnant and contrarie be abandoned 102 9 How it may be prooued that the eloquence and finenesse of speech cannot finde place in men of great vnderstanding 120 10 How it is prooued that the Theoricke of Diuinitic appertaineth to the vnderstanding and preaching which is his practise to the imagination 126 11 That the Theoricke of the lawes appertaineth to the memorie and pleading and iudging which are their practise to the vnderstanding and the gouerning of a common-wealth to the imagination 150 12 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 173 13 By what meanes it may be shewed to what difference of abilitie the art of warfare appertaineth and by what signes the man may be knowen who is endowed with this maner of wit 200 14 How we may know to what difference of abilitie the office of a king appertaineth and what signs he ought to haue who enioyeth this maner of wit 238 15 In what maner Parents may beget wise children and of a wit fit for learning 263 § 1. By what signs we may know in what degree of hot and drie euerie man resteth 278 § 2. What women ought to marrie with what man that they may haue children 282 § 3. What diligence ought to be vsed that children male and not female may be borne 286 § 4. What diligence is to be vsed that children may prooue wittie and wise 300 § 5. What diligences are to be vsed for preseruing the childrens wit after they are formed 322. FINIS 1. Booke of
Spanish nobilitie The semblable diligence vsed Saul when Dauid slew Golias for forthwith he sent Abner his captain to take information of what stock the yong man was descended Antiently they termed Solaro the house of the villaine aswell as of the gentleman But sithens we haue stepped aside into this digression it behooueth to make returne to our purpose from whence we parted and to know whence it groweth that in play at chesse which we tearmed a counterfeit of war a man shameth more to loose than at any other game albeit the same turne him to no dammage neither is the play for monie and whence it may spring that the lookers on see more draughts than the plaiers themselues though they are lesse seene in the play and that which most importeth is that some gamsters play best fasting and some better after meat The first doubt holdeth like difficultie for we haue auouched that in warre and in chesse play fortune hath nought to do neither may we be allowed to say Who would euer haue thought this but all is ignorance and carelesnesse in him that leeseth and wisedome and cunning in him that getteth And when a man is ouer come in matters of wit sufficiencie and is cut off from all allegations of excuse or pretence other than his own ignorance it followeth a matter of necessitie that he wax ashamed for man is reasonable and a friend to his reputation and cannot brooke that in the works of this power any other should step a foot before him For which cause Aristotle demaundeth what the reason may be why the antients consented not that speciall rewards should be assigned to those who surpassed the rest in the Sciences yet ordained some for the best leaper runner thrower of the barre and wrestler To which he frameth answer That in wrestling and bodily contentions it is tollerated that there be Iudges assigned who shall censure how far one man exceedeth another to the end they may iustly yeeld prize to the vanquisher it falling out a matter of no difficultie for the eye to discerne who leapeth most ground or runneth with greatest swiftnesse but in matters of science it prooueth very hard to trie by the vnderstanding which exceedeth other for that it is a thing appertaining to the spirit and of much queintnesse and if the iudge list to giue the prize maliciously all men cannot looke thereunto for it is a iudgement much estranged from the sence of the beholders Besides this answer Aristotle giueth another which is better saying That men make no great recke to be ouercome in throwing wrastling running and leaping for that they are graces wherein the very brute beasts out-passe vs. But that which we cannot endure with patience is to haue another adiudged more wise and aduised than our selues wherethrough they grow in hatred with the iudges and seeke to be reuenged of them thinking that of malice they went about to shame thē Therfore to shun these incōueniences they would not yeeld consent that in works appertaining to the reasonable part men should be allowed either iudges or rewards Whence is gathered that the Vniuersities do ill who assigne iudges and rewards of the first second and third degree in licencing those that prooue best at the examinations For besides that the inconueniences alleaged by Aristotle do betide it is repugnant to the doctrine of the gospell that men grow into contention who should be cheefe And that this is true we see manifestly for that the disciples of our sauiour Christ comming one day from a certain voiage treated amongst themselues who should be the greatest and being now ariued at their lodging their maister asked them whereof they had reasoned vpon the way but they though somwhat blunt well vnderstood how this question was not allowable wherthrough the text saith that they durst not tell him but because from God nothing can be concealed he spake vnto them in this maner If any will be chiefe amongst you he shalbe the last of all and seruant to the rest The Pharisies were abhorred by Christ our redeemer because they loued the highest seats at feasts and the principall chaires in the Sinagogues The chiefe reason wheron they rely who bestow degrees after this maner is that when schollers know ech of them shalbe rewarded according to the triall which they shall giue of themselues they will skantly affoord themselues time frō their studie to sleep or eat Which would cease were there not a reward for him that taketh pains or chastisment for him that addicteth himselfe to loosnesse and loitering But this is a slender reason and so only in apparence and presupposeth a great falshood which is that knowledge may be gotten by continuall plodding at the booke and by hearing of good maisters and neuer leesing a lesson And they marke not that if a scholler want the wit and abilitie requisit for the learning which he applieth it falleth out a lost labour to beat his head day and night at his books And the error is such that if differences of wits so far distant as these do enter into competencie the one through his quicke capacity without studying or poaring in books getteth learning in a trice and the other for that he is block-headed and dull after he hath toiled all his life long can small skill in the matter Now the Iudges come as men to giue the first price to him who was enabled by nature and tooke no trauell and the last to him who was born void of capacitie yet neuer gaue ouer studying as if the one had gotten learning by turning ouer his books and the other lost the same through his owne sluggishnesse And it fareth as if they ordained prices for two horses of which the one had his legs sound and nimble and the other halted down right If the Vniuersities did admit to the studie of the Sciences none but such as had a wit capable therof and were all equall it should seeme a thing well done to ordaine reward and punishment for whosoeuer knew most it would therby appeare that he pained himselfe most and who knew least had giuen himselfe more to his ease To the second doubt we answer that as the eies stand in need of light and cleernesse to see figures and colours so the imagination hath need of light in the brain to see the fantasies which are in the memory This cleernesse the sunne giueth not nor any lamp or candle but the vitalspirits which are bred in the heart and dispersed throughout the body Herewithall it is requisit to know that feare gathereth all the vitallspirits to the heart and leaueth the braine darcke and all the other parts of the body cold Wherevpon Aristotle maketh this demaund Whence commeth it that who so feareth his voice his hands and his nether lip do tremble whereto he answereth that through this feare the naturall heat hieth to the heart and leaueth all the residue of the body acold and the cold as is before
better to accustom himself to euery thing to the end a mā may liue careles not in suspēce The errour of the vulgar consisteth in thinking that the babe is borne so tender and delicat as he cannot endure to issue forth of the mothers wombe where it was so warme into a region of the aire so cold without receiuing much dammage And verely they are deceiued for those of Almaine a region so cold vsed to dip their children so hote in the riuer and though this were a beastly act yet the same did them no hurt nor deaths harme The third point conuenient to be accomplished is to seeke out a yoong nuise of temperature hot drie or after our doctrine cold and moist in the first degree enured to hardnesse want to lie on the bare ground to eat little and to go poorly clad in wet drouth and heat such a one will yeeld a firme milke as acquainted with the alterations of the aire and the childe being brought vp by her for some good space will grow to possesse a great firmnesse And if she be discreet and aduised the same will also be of much auaile for his wit for the milke of such a one is verie cleane hot and drie with which two qualities the much cold and moist will be corrected which the infant brought from his mothers wombe How greatly it importeth for the strength of the creature that it sucke a milke well exercised is apparently proued in horses who being foaled by mares toiled in plowing and harrowing prooue great coursers and will abide much hardnesse And if the dammes run vp and down idlely in the pastures after the first cariere they are not able to stand on their feet The order then which should be held with the nurse is to take her into house some foure or fiue months before the child-birth and to giue her the same meats to eat wheron the mother feedeth that she may haue time to consume the bloud and bad humours which she had gathered by harmfull meats that she vsed tofore and to the end the child so soon as it is born may sucke the like milke vnto that which relieued it in the mothers bellle or made at least of the same meats The fourth is not to accustome the child to sleepe in a soft bed nor to keepe him ouerwarme apparrelled or giue him too much mear For these three things saith Hippocrates scarsen and dry vp the flesh and their contraries fatten and enlarge the same And in so doing the child shall grow of great wit and of long life by reason of this drinesse and by the contraries he will prooue faire fat ful of bloud bockish which habit Hippocrates called Wrastler-like and holdeth it for verie perillous With this selfe receit and order of life was the wisest man brought vp that euer the world had To weet our sauiour Christ in that he was man sauing for that he was born out of Nazareth perhaps his mother had no salt water at hand where with she might wash him but this was a custome of the Iews and of all Asia besides brought in by some skilfull Phisitions for the good of infants wherethrough the Prophet saith And when thou wert borne at thy birth day thy nauill string was not cut off neither wert thou for thy healths sake washed in water nor seasoned with salt nor wrapped in swathling clothes But as touching the other things so soone as he was borne he began to hold friendship with the cold and the other alterations of the aire His first bed was the earth his apparrell course as if he would obserue Hippocrates receit A few daies after they went with him into Aegypt a place very hot where he remained all the time that Herod liued His mother partaking the like humours it is certaine that she must yeeld him a milke well exercised and acquainted with the alterations of the aire The meat which they gaue him was the same which the Greeks deuised to endow their children with wit and wisdom This I haue said heretofore was the butterish part of the milke eaten with honny Wherfore Esay saith He shall eat butter honny that he may know to eschew euill and chuse the good By which wordes is seen how the Prophet gaue vs to vnderstand that albeit he was verie God yet he ought also to be a perfect man and to attaine naturall wisedome he must apply the semblable diligences as doe the other sons of men Howbeir this seemeth difficult to be conceiued and may be also held a folly to thinke that because Christ our redeemer did eate butter and honny being a childe he should therefore know how to eschue euill and make choice of good when he was elder God being as he is of infinite wisedome and hauing giuen him as he was man all the science infused which he could receiue after his naturall capacitie Therefore it is certaine that he knew full as much in his mothers wombe as when he was thirtie three yeares old without eating either butter or honny or borrowing the helpe of anie other naturall remedies requisite for humaine wisdom But for all this it is of great importance that the prophet assigned him that selfe meat which the Troians and Greeks accustomably gaue their children to make them witty and wise that he said To the end he may know to shun euill and chuse the good For vnderstanding that by means of these aliments Christ our sauiour got as he was man more acquisit knowledge than he should haue possessed if he had vsed other contrarie meats it behooueth vs to expound this particle to the end that we may know what he meant when he spake in those termes We must therfore presuppose that in Christ our redeemer were two natures as the very trueth is and the faith so teacheth vs one diuine as he was God and another humane compounded of a reasonable soule of an elimentall bodie so disposed and instrumentalized as the other children of men As concerning his first nature it behooueth not to intreat of the wisdome of our sauiour Christ for it was infinit without encrease or diminishment and without dependance vpon ought else saue onely in that he was God and so he was as wise in his mothers wombe as when he was 33 yeares of age and so from euerlasting But in that which appertaineth to his second nature we are to weet that the soule of Christ euen from the instant when God created it was blessed and glorious euen as now it is and seeing it enioyed God and his wisdome it is certaine that in him was none ignorance but he had so much science infused as his naturall capacitie would beare but withall it is alike certaine that as the glorie did not communicat it selfe vnto all the partes of the bodie in respect of the redemption of mankinde no more did the wisedome infused communicate it selfe For the braine was not disposed nor instrumentalized with the