as being not of this Rank that has its proper Temperament of Body either to facilitate or retard him in his Actions this Temperament then the Moralists improperly call Virtue or Vice considering that Men ordinarily speaking betray no other Inclinations than those mark'd out by this Temperament I say ordinarily speaking because in effect many Mens Souls are fill'd with perfect Virtue although the Organs of their Body afford them no Temperament subservient to accomplish the Desires of the Soul and yet nevertheless for all that by virtue of their Free Will they fail not to act like good Men though not without some Struggle and Reluctance According to which St. Paul has said I delight in the Law of God after the Inward Man but I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin In which Words St. Paul gives us to understand that he felt within himself two Laws wholly opposite one in his Soul which made him to love God's Law the other in his Members that led him to Sin Whence we may gather that the Virtues St. Paul had in his Soul did not correspond with the Constitution of his Body it being necessary for them to act with a sweet Consent and without the Resistance of the Flesh his Soul aspir'd to Pray and Meditate but when in order to this the motion presented to his Brain it was found indisposed because of his great Coldness and Moisture which are stupifying Qualities and proper to move to Sleep Of the same Temper were the three Disciples that accompanied Jesus Christ in the Garden when he Pray'd telling them The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak In like manner his Spirit would have Fasted and when to that end the Offer was made to his Stomach he found it weak and without strength as having an unruly Appetite His Soul would have him Chast and Continent but when the motion presented to the Parts of Generation it found them inflamed with Concupiscence and inciting him to Actions of a contrary Nature and Tendency With such like Inclinations as these virtuous Persons find it a hard Task to live well and not without Reason was it said That the Road to Virtue was covered over with Thorns But if the same Soul that is bent upon Meditation meets a Brain Hot and Dry which are the Dispositions peculiar to Watching and if when it attempts to Fast it finds a Stomach Hot and Dry of which Constitution according to Galen the Man is that loaths Meats and if when it aims to Embrace Chastity it meets the Parts of Generation Cold and Moist without doubt it will accomplish the several Proposals without any Struggle or Reluctance whatever because the Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members exact both the same thing and such a Man in such a Case may act Virtuously without any Violence to his Nature Wherefore Galen said That it was the Part of a Physician to make a Man Virtuous that was formerly Vitious and that the Moral Philosophers committed a great over-sight in not making use of Physic for attaining the Perfection of their Art since in Correcting only the ill Constitution of the Body they might make the Virtuous act without any Check and with a sweet Consent What I would desire of Galen and all the Moral Philosophers is that admitting it to be true that to each Virtue and Vice seated in the Soul there corresponds a particular Temperament of Body which Aids or Diverts it in Acting they would have given us a particular Account of all Mens Virtues and Vices and have told us by which Corporal Qualities both one and the other are Supplanted or Maintain'd to the End we might not be to seek for a proper Remedy Aristotle knew well that a good Temperament made a Man Prudent and of a good Disposition which occasion'd him to say That the good Temperament did not only affect the Body but also the Mind of Man But he has not shewn what this good Temperament was on the contrary he asserted That Mens Dispositions were founded upon Hot and Cold. But Hippocrates and Galen exclude those two Qualities as Vitious approving the Equality of Temperament where the Heat exceeds not Cold nor the Moisture Driness Which made Hippocrates say If the great Moisture of the Water and the excessive Driness of the Fire are equally Temper'd in the Body the Man will be very Wise Nevertheless many Physicians because of the great Reputation of the Author upon Enquiring into this Temperament have found that it does not Answer what Hippocrates promised but on the contrary their Opinion was that those who had it were Weak Men and of little Vigor and did not express in their Actions so much Conduct as those of an ill Constitution They are of a very Sweet and Affable Temper and Inoffensive to every Man in Word and Deed which makes them pass for very Virtuous and void of Passion which raises Tempests in the Soul These Physicians disapprove the equal Temperament inasmuch as it disables and flats the force of the Spirits and is the cause they do not act freely as they ought Which appears evidently in two Seasons of the Year the Spring and Autumn when the Air falls out to be Temperate for then happen the Diseases insomuch that the Body is observ'd to be much more healthful when it is either very Hot or very Cold than during the mediocrity of the Spring Time Sacred Writ in speaking of the sensible Qualities seems in a mariner to favour this Opinion I would thou wert either Cold or Hot so then because thou art Lukewarm I will spue thee out of my Mouth Which seems to me to be grounded upon Aristotle's Doctrine who held for an infallible Opinion that all the Natural Actions of Man consisted in Heat and Cold and not in a Lukewarmness and Mediocrity of Constitution But Aristotle would have done well to have told us what Virtue corresponds to each of the Qualities and to what again the contrary Vice that so we might have applied in Practice the Remedies prescribed by Galen As for me I believe Cold is of more Importance to the Rational Soul to preserve its Virtues in due Peace and to prevent all undue Ferments amongst the Humours for Galen says no less there is no Quality so much blunts the Concupiscible and Irascible Faculty as Cold nor that so powerfully excites the Rational Faculty as Aristotle assures us that does especially if it be joined with Driness for this is certain as the Inferior Part is disabled or depressed the Faculties of the Rational Soul in the same proportion are exalted and inlarged But be that as
also affirm'd it was no less an ill Indication to be Born with a great Jolt Head because it was all Flesh and Bones with very little Brains as it fares with very fair Oranges which when they come to be opened have little Juice and Pulp but a very thick Rind Nor is any thing more grievous to the Rational Soul than to be plunged in a Body over-stock'd with Bones with Fat and with Flesh Hippocrates speaking of the Cure of a certain kind of Phrenzy caused by Excess of Heat above all gave in charge that the Sick should eat no Flesh but only Fish and Herbs and drink no Wine at all but only Water and if he were too Corpulent too Gross and Unweildy their Endeavour should be to bring down his Flesh and for this Reason he said It was absolutely necessary for a Man that would be very Wise not to be oppressed with much Flesh nor Fat but rather to be lean and slender For the Fleshy Temperament is Hot and Moist with which 't is impossible or at least very improbable but the Soul should become Blockish and Stupid He brings for Instance the Hog affirming him to be of all Brute Beasts the most Stupid because of the load of Flesh about him his Soul in the Words of Chrysippus being of no other use to him than Salt to preserve his Body from stinking Aristotle confirms this Opinion affirming that Man to be a Sot that had an over-great Head and fleshy comparing him to an Ass because in proportion to the other Parts of his Body there is no Beast's Head so very fleshy as an Ass's But as to Corpulence it ought to be observ'd gross Men are of two sorts some abounding with Flesh and Blood whose Temperament is hot and moist as others again who have not so much Flesh and Blood as they are crammed with Fat these are of a cold and dry Constitution Hippocrates's Opinion is to be understood of the first because of the great Heat and Humidity and the abundance of Fumes and Vapors arising without intermission in those Bodies which cloud and overthrow their Reason which is not the case of the other that are only plump and fat whom the Physicians dare not bleed because they have too little Blood and there is ordinarily abundance of Wit to be found where there is not so much Flesh and Blood That we may throughly understand the great Agreement and Correspondence between the Stomach and Brains especially in what relates to Wit and Cunning Galen has declared A gross Paunch makes a gross Vnderstanding But if he means this of those that are fat he has less reason for they have a very waterish Wit Persius proceeded upon this Reason when he said That the Belly gave Wit Plato affirmed there is nothing darkens the Soul so much nor more overcasts the Brain than the black Fumes and Vapours arising from the Stomach and the Liver at the time of Digestion nor is there on the other hand any thing that elevates it to such high Meditations as Fasting and a spare Body not too overcharged with Blood as the Catholic Church sings Thou that enlivenest and relievest the Spirit by Mortifications and Humbling of the Body and by the same means depressest Vices and bestowest Virtues on us and with them their Reward This great Grace God did to St. Paul when he called to him out of the highest Heaven he remained three days without Eating ravished in Extasy with admiration of the incomparable Favours he had receiv'd at the very instant he was plunged in Vice and Sin Moreover Plato affirms that the Heads of wise Men are ordinarily tender and apt to be anoy'd upon the least occasion and the reason why Nature has made them of so delicate a Head seems to be for fear of loading them with too much Brains to the diminishing of their Wit So true is this Doctrin of Plato that tho' the Stomach be far enough from the Brain nevertheless it annoies it if it be overcharged with Fat and Flesh Nor is there any Mystery in this because the Brain and the Stomach are knit and tyed together by means of certain Nerves which Communicate their Disaffections to each other and on the contrary if the Stomach be dry and empty it much sharpens the Wit as we may see in those who are pinch't with Hunger and Want But what is more observable upon this Occasion is that if the other parts of the Body are Fat and Fleshy and the Man by this means be over-Gross Aristotle affirms he runs a risque of having no Wit at all For which reason I am of Opinion if a Man has a great Head let it be from meer Strength of Nature and from too-great abundance of well-disposed Matter yet such a one will not have so much Capacity as if he had a Head of a more moderate Size Aristotle demanding what may be the Reason of Man's being the Wisest of all Creatures Is of a contrary Opinion when he replies that no living Creature has so small a Head as Man in proportion to the Bulk of his Body for even amongst Men themselves said he they are the Wisest who have the least Heads tho' there be no Reason for this for if he had ever opened a man's Head he might have found so great a Stock of Brains that that of two Horses equals not that of one Man What I have found by Experience is that little Men have large Heads as on the contrary great Men have little Heads for a very moderate quantity of Brains better Ministers to the rational Soul in discharge of her Functions Besides all this it is requisite that there be four Ventricles in the Brain to enable the rational Soul to Reason and Discourse one disposed on the right the other on the left Side the third in the Middle and the fourth in the hinder part of the Brains as appears from Anatomy Hereafter where we shall treat of the Difference of Wits we shall shew what use the rational Faculty makes of these Ventricles be they greater or less That the Brain be well figured of sufficient Quantity and the Number of Ventricles so many little or great as we have shewn is not yet enough It 's parts must also observe a kind of Continuity without being disjoyned for which Cause we have observed some Men wounded in the Head have lost their Memory others their common Sense and others their Imagination nay even tho' the Brain after Cure has been rejoyned by Art because there was not the same Natural Union as before The third of the Four Principal Qualifications is that the Brain should be Temperate of a moderate Heat and without Excess of the other Qualities which disposition of the Brain we have already affirmed to be that called True Temper for 't is that which makes a Man capable and the contrary Incapable The Fourth that the Brain should be Composed of very fine and delicate Parts and is what
Instinct of Nature like those of Ants Serpents and little Bees which act without Reason but those of Youth are performed with Judgment and Discretion so that he who acts at that Age discerns what he does and with what design and knowing the End accordingly he disposes the Means that lead to it Where the Holy Scripture says That the Heart of Man was inclined to Evil from his Youth that is to be understood exclusively that is to say from the time he passes from Infancy to Youth which are the most virtuous Ages of Man's Life The third Age is Manhood which is reckoned from Twenty-five to Thirty-five Years its Temperament is Hot and Dry of which Hippocrates said When the Fire exceeds the Water the Mind becomes Mad and Furious and Experience no less confirms it for there is no Ill which a Man is not acquainted with and tempted to at that very Time Passion Gluttony Lechery Pride Murders Adulteries Thefts and Rapines rash Designs Vanity Tricks Lyes Quarrels Revenge Hatred Indignities and Insolence are the fairest Inheritance of these at which Age David perceiving himself to be cried out Lord cut me not off in the midst of my days For Manhood is the middlemost of the Five Ages of Man's Life which are Infancy Youth Manhood Middle-Age and Old-Age and Man is so Wicked at that Age as Solomon has said There be three things which are too wonderful for me yea four which I know not the way of an Eagle in the Air the way of a Serpent upon a Rock the way of a Ship in the midst of the Sea and the way of a Man with a Maid From all which it is no less than evident that the Soul may in some sense deserve Excuse if she makes any false Steps seeing she is the same through the whole Course of the Ages of Man's Life as perfect as God has Created her at first who then can blame the divers Temperaments which the Body passes through in each Age because in Manhood the Body is more Intemperate which occasions the Soul to encline with more difficulty to what is Virtuous and with more ease to what is Vitious 'T is to the very Letter what the Wiseman Intimates I had for my Lot a good Soul and from my Infancy I appeared of great Wit and still growing wiser and wiser which is to to be understood of his Youth I had nevertheless a Filthy and Intemperate Body such an one is in Manhood and I found at the end of the account that Man could not be Chast or Continent were it not for the special Grace of God Whereupon David knowing he had escaped so dangerous an Age and remembring what had past therein said Remember not the Sins of my Youth nor my Transgressions At the fourth Age which is the Middle Age or Age of Consistence Man returns to be more Temperate because in proceeding from Hot to Cold he must necessarily pass through the intermediate Degrees by which with that Driness that Manhood has left in the Body the Soul is made Wise Whence it comes that Men who have lived fast in their Younger Days are subject to the great Changes we see every Day appear when they recollect their ill-spent Days with Endeavour to amend them This Age begins from Thirty-five Years and reaches to Forty-five more or less in proportion to the Temperament and Complexion of each respectively The last Age of Man is Old-Age in which the Body is Cold and Dry subject to a Thousand Ills and Infirmities all the Faculties are besotted and disabled in performing their ordinary Functions but because the Rational Soul is still the same in Infancy Youth Manhood Middle-Age and Old-Age without receiving any Change to diminish its Powers therefore when it reaches this last Age and to this Cold and Dry Temperament it is Just Prudent Strong and endued with Temperance and though we ought to attribute these Virtues to the whole Man yet is the Soul allow'd to be the first Mover according to this That the Soul is the Principle from which we Vnderstand So long as the Body is vigorous and active in its Vital Natural and Animal Faculties Man is but very slenderly provided with Moral Virtues but as that comes to lose its strength the Soul strait advances in Virtues St. Paul seem'd to insinuate no less in these Words For when I am Weak then am I Strong And assuredly this is very true because the Body in no Age is weaker than in Old-Age nor the Soul more expedite to perform such Actions as are conformable to Reason Notwithstanding all which Aristotle always reckon'd Six Vices incident to Old Men from the coldness of Age. The First That they are Cowards because Courage and Valour have great Fire in them and a large Stock of Blood of which Old-men have but very little and that little too Congeal'd The Second That they are Covetous and that they guard their Treasure more carefully than they need for though they find themselves arrived at the last Stage of their Lives and that Reason should teach them where the Journey is short the Charge of defraying it is small their Avarice nevertheless and their Thrift fail not to haunt them as if they were but yet in their Infancy and they were to run through no less than all the Five Stages of their Lives and that it is good to Store as if they were always to live The third that they are suspicious but I cannot imagin why Aristotle calls this a Vice since it is certain that it proceeds from the Experience they have had of so many Tricks in the World and also from recollecting what part they themselves Acted in their Younger days Insomuch as they are ever upon their Guard as knowing full well how little Men are to be trusted The Fourth That they are Diffident and of small Hopes never promising themselves success in their Affairs and of two or three Designs they may have they always fall upon the Worst and upon that lay out all their Application The Fifth that they are shameless because as Aristotle says Bashfulness and Blushing are full of Blood of which Old Men have so little as by consequence they are without shame The Sixth That they are very Incredulous thinking that the Truth is never told them because their Memories are so fresh of the Jugling and Deceits they have met with in the World during the past Course of their Lives Young Children have as Aristotle has noted all the Virtues quite contrary to their Vices they are Fearless Frank not Distrustful in the least always full of Hopes very Bashful easily perswaded and imposed upon The same things we have evidenced in the several Ages of Man's Life we might also shew in the difference of Sex what Virtues and what Vices Man has and what Woman as well by the reason of the Humours Blood Choler Phlegm and Melancholy as also from the Diversity of Climates and Particular Countries In one Province the Men
if it should incline to either Extream it is better too Short than Tall for Bones and Flesh as we have proved before from the Opinion of Aristotle and Plato much incommode the Wit Agreeable here unto the natural Philosophers are wont to ask Why those of little Stature are Wiser for the most part than those of a tall Stature And for proof hereof they cite Homer whose says Vlysses was very Wise and of a low Stature and on the contrary Ajax a very Blockhead and of a high Stature To this Question they Answer very ill in saying that the Rational Soul being shut up in a little room acts with more force according to the received saying Virtue is more powerful Vnited than Dispersed And that on the contrary being in a large Body and of great Dimensions she wants power sufficient to move and animate the same as it ought But this is not the Reason thereof it is rather because Big-men have much Moisture in their Composition which dilates the Flesh and makes it more plyant to receive the Augmentation which the natural Heat procures It fares quite contrary in little Bodies for through their over-dryness the Flesh cannot take it's Course nor the natural Heat enlarge or stretch it out and therefore they remain of a low Stature But amongst the first qualities we have prov'd before there is none so prejudicial to the Operations of the Rational Soul as much Moisture nor that so quickens the Understanding as Dryness The third Mark by which the temperate Man may be known is as Galen says that he be Virtuous and of good Conditions for if he be lewd and Vitious Plato says it proceeds from some Intemperate Quality that is in him and that incites him to Sin and if such a one would practise what is agreeable to Virtue he must first renounce his own natural Inclinations But whoever is of an exact Temperament so long as he continues in that State stands in no need of any such diligence for the Inferior Powers require nothing from him that is contrary to Reason Therefore Galen says that to one that has this Temperament we need not prescribe a Dyet what he should Eat or drink for he rarely or never exceeds the quantity or measure that Physic would set him And Galen contents not himself with calling them most Temperate but adds further that it is not so much as necessary to moderate the Passions of their Soul for their Anger their Grief their Joy and their Mirth are measured always by Reason Whence it follows that they are always Healthful and never Sickly which is the fourth Mark But in this Galen has no reason for it is impossible to frame a Man that shall be perfect in all his Faculties thereafter as the Body is tempered so as the Irascible and Concupiscible Powers should not be superior to Reason and incite him to Sin And therefore it is not convenient to suffer any Man how Temperate soever always to follow his own natural Inclinations without taking him by the Hand and guiding him by Reason Which is easily understood considering what Temperament the Brain ought to have to be an Instrument fit for the Rational Faculty and what the Heart ought to have to the end the Irascible may aim at Glory Empire Victory and Superiority over all and what the Liver ought to have for digesting the Food and what the Testicles ought to have for conserving and perpetuating the species As to the Brain we have already often said that it ought to have Moisture for the Memory Dryness for the Understanding and Heat for the Imagination But for all this its natural Temperament is Cold and Moist and because of the intense or remiss degrees of these two qualities one time we call it Hot and another Cold sometimes Moist and sometimes Dry but still so as the Cold and Moist are predominant The Liver where the Concupiscible Faculty is seated has for its Natural Temperament a predominant Heat and Moisture which Temperament never leaves the Man so long as he lives And if we say sometimes that it is Cold it is because it has not then all the Degrees of Heat requisite for its Operations Touching the Heart which is the Instrument of the Irascible Faculty Galen says that it is so Hot of its own Nature that while the Creature lives if we put our Finger in its Cavity we cannot suffer it there a moment without burning And tho' we have elsewhere said that the Heart is Cold yet must it never be understood that the Cold predominates there for it is impossible but only that it has not all the Degrees of Heat which its Operations need For what relates to the Testicles where the other part of the concupiscible Faculty resides the same reason has place because their Natural Temperament is hot and dry in predominance And if we sometimes say of a man that he has these Parts cold it is not to be understood absolutely or in predominance but only that the intense degrees of Heat required for the generative Faculty are wanting From which may be clearly gathered that if a Man be well-compounded and organized he must necessarily have the force of an excessive Heat in his Heart or else the Irascible Faculty will remain too weak and if the Liver be not exceeding Hot it cannot digest the Food nor make Blood for Nourishment and if the Testicles are not more Hot than Cold the Man will prove impotent and unfit for Generation So that these Members being of such force as we have said it follows of necessity that the Brain comes to be altered thro' much Heat which is one of the qualities that most offends Reason and which is worse the Will being free is irritated and inclines to condescend to the Inferiour Appetites By this Account it appears that Nature cannot make a Man perfect in all his Faculties nor produce him altogether inclined to Virtue How repugnant it is to the Nature of Man to be produced wholly inclined to Virtue may be plainly discovered in considering the Composition of the First Man for tho' it was the most perfect that was ever found among Mankind except that of Jesus Christ our Saviour and framed by the Hand of so great a Workman nevertheless if God had not infused into him a supernatural Quality to subdue his Inferiour Part it was impossible relying upon the Principles of Nature that he should not be inclined to Evil. And that God had made Adam with perfect Irascible and Concupiscible Powers is evidently seen in this that when he spoke to and commanded him to increase and multiply and replenish the Earth it is certain he gave them an able Power for Procreation and framed them not cold seeing that he enjoyn'd them to People the Earth with Men A Work not to be perform'd without much Heat No less Heat bestowed he on the Nutritive Faculty which was to repair their lost
Conjectures at random Men of Harmonious Constitutions as we shall hereafter prove have in a degree of Mediocrity a Capacity for all Sciences though they will never excell in any but those that are otherwise are fit but for one only which if they happen to hit upon and Study with Care and Application they may be assured to succeed wonderfully in it but if they fail in their Choice and Application they will make but small Advancements in the other Sciences History confirms to us that each Science was discover'd by Men of ill Constitutions If Adam and all his Children had continued in the Terrestrial Paradice they would have had no occasion for Mechanic Arts nor any of the Sciences now taught in the Schools nor would they as yet have been found out or Practised for inasmuch as they went bare-footed and naked they wanted neither Shooe-makers nor Taylors nor Weavers no more than Carpenters or Masons because there was no Rain in this Earthly Garden of Pleasure nor was the Weather too hot or too cold that they needed any Cover or Retreat Nor was there any Scholastic or Positive Divinity much less was it branched out as it is now because Adam not having Sin'd Jesus Christ was not Born of whose Incarnation Life and Death as also of Original Sin and the Remedy thereby obtained this Science consists There had been less of the Knowledge of the Law because the Just have no occasion for Law and Right all things had been in Common there had been no Mine nor Thine which are the cause of Law Suits and Quarrels Physic had likewise been superfluous Man had then been Immortal and free from the Corruptions and Changes attending Diseases all had eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life which had that Property daily to repair our Radical Moisture Adam no sooner Sin'd but he began to fall upon the Exercising of all the Arts and Sciences as necessary to support his Misery The first Science that appeared in the Earthly Paradice was Skill of the Law by means of which was form'd a Process with the same Order of Justice as at this day observ'd citing the Party and declaring the Crime he was accused of the Accused answering and the Judge pronouncing Arrest of Judgment or Condemnation The second was Divinity for when God said to the Serpent And she shall bruise thy Head Adam understood as he was a Man whose Understanding was full of infus'd Sciences that to repair his Fault the Divine Word was to take Flesh in the Virgin 's Womb who by her happy Delivery should trample under her Feet the Devil and all his Powers by which Faith and Belief he was Saved After Theology soon came the Military-Art because in the way Adam went to eat the Fruit of Life God had placed a Garison and Fort into which he had put an Armed Cherubim to dispute the Passage Next the Art-Military came also Physic because Adam by Sin became Mortal and Corruptible subject to an infinite number of Dolours and Infirmities All these Arts and Sciences were first exercised there receiving afterwards their due Improvement and Perfection each in the temperate Region best adapted to it by means of Men of Wit and Ability every way qualified to invent them Whereupon I conclude Curious Reader frankly confessing my self to be of evil Constitution and Distemper'd and that you may well be so being Born as I was in an intemperate Region and that the same Thing may happen to us as to those Four Men who seeing a Piece of Blue Cloath swore one that it was Scarlet the other White the third Yellow and the fourth Black not one of them speaking true because each had a particular Vitiation in the Organ of Sight A Table of the CHAPTERS and ARTICLES CHAP. I. WHat Wit is and what Differences of it are ordinarily observed among Men. Page 1 Chap. II. The Differences amongst Men unqualified for Sciences Page 22 Chap. III. The Child who has neither Wit nor Ability requisite to the intended Science cannot prove a great Proficient though he have the best Masters many Books and should labour at it all the Days of his Life Page 31 Chap. IV. Nature only qualifies a Man for Learning Page 47 Chap. V. What Power the Temperament has to make a Man Wise and good Natur'd Page 62 Chap. VI. What Part of the Body ought to be well Temper'd that the Child may be Witty Page 91 Chap. VII That the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Soul are knowing without being directed by Teachers when they meet with a Temperament agreeable to their Operations Page 101 Chap. VIII From these three Qualities alone Heat Moisture and Driness proceed all the Differences of Wit observ'd among Men. Page 129 Chap. IX Some Doubts and Arguments against the Doctrin of the last Chapter with their Answers Page 155 Chap. X. Each Difference of Wit is appropriated to the Science with which it most particularly agrees removing what is Repugnant or Contrary to it Page 112 Chap. XI That Eloquence and Politeness of Speech are not to be found in Men of great Vnderstanding Page 206 Chap. XII That the Theory of Divinity belongs to the Vnderstanding and Preaching which is the Practic to the Imagination Page 214 Chap. XIII That the Theory of the Laws pertains to the Memory Pleading Causes and Judging them which is the Practic to the Vnderstanding and Governing of a Commonwealth to the Imagination Page 244 Chap. XIV That the Theory of Physic belongs part to the Memory and part to the Vnderstanding and the Practic to the Imagination Page 279 Chap. XV. To what Difference of Wit the Art-Military belongs and by what Marks the Man may be known that has it Page 314 Chap. XVI To what Difference of Ability the Office of a King belongs and what Marks he ought to have that has this kind of Wit Page 367 Chap. XVII In what manner Parents may beget Wise Children and of a Wit fit for Learning Page 397 Article I. By what Marks the Degrees of Heat and Driness are to be discover'd in each Man Page 416 Art II. What Women ought to Marry with what Men to have Children Page 422 Art III. What Considerations to be used to get Boys and not Girls Page 426 Art IV. What is to be observ'd that the Children may prove Witty and Wise Page 443 Art V. Rules to be observ'd to preserve Wit in Chidren after they are Born Page 487 Authors made use of in this WORK ABulensis Alex. Aproh Aquinas Aristotle St. Austin Cajetan Celsus Cicero Democritus Demosthenes Donatus Galen Hippocrates Homer Horace Josephus Juvenal Lyra. Nemesius Persius Pindar Plato Pliny Salust Suetonius Tacitus Vegetius Xenocrates ERRATA PAge 14. line 20. read the being p. 26. l. 10. r. Fetters p. 42. l. 17. r. Master p. 93. l. 19. dele is p. 117. l. 4. r. Delirous p. 152. Margin r. Arts p. 158. l. 5. r. Peripatetics p. 174. l. 5. r. which is p. 179. Margin r. XVth p.
than every Effect as it springs from its immediate Cause tho' this is not enough neither if the Catholic Church hath never declared them for such for like as Advocates engaged in the Study of the Civil Law have it imprinted in their Memory the better to know and understand the Kings Pleasure in the Determination of each particular Case Even so the Natural Philosophers being Advocates in their Faculty place their whole Study in this to know the Order God establish'd at the instant he created the World the better to discern what Causes produce what Effects and why And as it would be ridiculous for a Lawyer to alledge in his Breviate as a strong Proof that the King commanded such an Arrest in such a Case without shewing the Law and the Rule of Court by which it ought to be decided So the Natural Philosophers laugh at them who pronounce this or that is God's Work without running through the Order and inseparable Connexion of all the particular Causes concern'd in its immediate Production And for the same reason as a King denies to hearken to those that press him to Abrogate and Null a just Law or finally to decide a Case contrary to the standing Rules and Orders of his Ministerial Courts so neither will God likely hearken to those that importune him for Miracles and Signs out of the ordinary Course and Ministry of Nature when there is no Occasion for them For should a King every day null and make Laws and alter the Course of Justice be it for the diversity of Occasions or through the changes in his Councils because Right and Justice are not arrived at all at once yet the Natural Order of the Universe by us called Nature from the Creation to this Day has suffer'd no Change or Alteration in the least for he made it with so much Wisdom and Prudence that not to continue constant in that Order would be tacitly to lay a blame upon his Works But to return to that common Saying of the Antient Philosophers Nature makes able it is to be understood that there is a Wit and Ability bestow'd by God on Men out of the ordinary Course of Nature such was the Wisdom of the Apostles who being rude and illiterate were wonderfully enlightned and fill'd with Wisdom and Knowledge Which sort of Parts and Qualifications verify not that Nature makes able for that is a Work to be attributed immediately to God and not to Nature The like is to be understood of the Wisdom of the Prophets and of all others upon whom God has poured any of his Gifts There is another sort of Wit among Men produced by the Order and Dependence of Causes appointed by God to lead to such an end and of this kind it may be truly said Nature makes able For as we shall prove in the last Chapter of this Work there is a certain Order and Dependence of Natural Causes so that if Parents in the Act of Generation would duly observe it all their Children would be Wise and none of them Otherwise However in this Discourse such a signification of Nature is too loose and confus'd nor is the Understanding content to rest here without tracing every particular Effect up to its Ultimate Cause and therefore there is need to find out another meaning of this Word Nature which may be more accommodate to our purpose Aristotle and all other Natural Philosophers were more Particular calling Nature every substantial Form that gives Being to a thing and is the Principle of all its Operations In which sense our Rational Soul with good Reason is call'd Nature for from thence we receive the Form and Being we have of Men and the same is the Principle of all our Actions for all Rational Souls are of equal Perfection as well the Wise Man 's as the Fool 's and so we may not pronounce that it is Nature in this sense makes a Man witty for if that were true all Men would be equal in Wit and Capacity and thereupon the same Aristotle found out another Signification of Nature importing the Reason and Cause of a Man's being capable or incapable saying that the Temperament of the four first Qualities Heat Cold Moisture and Driness were to be call'd Nature inasmuch as from them proceed all the Abilities of Men all the Virtues and Vices and all the great variety of Wit we discover in the World And he proves it clearly by considering the several Parts of the Age of the wisest Man who in his Childhood is no more than a Brute Beast employing no other Powers than the Irascible and Concupiscible when Youth comes he betrays an admirable Wit which we see continues to a certain Period and no longer for old Age drawing on his Wit every day declines till in the End it is wholly lost Assuredly the diversity of Wit proceeds not from the Rational Soul for that in all Ages is the same without suffering any Alteration in its Vigor or Substance except a Man in the several Stages of his Life changes his Constitution or has a different Disposition and from hence is it that the Soul acts one part in the Childhood another in Youth and yet another in old Age whence may be drawn an evident Argument that seeing the same Soul performs contrary Acts in one and the same Body by having in each Division of Age a different Temperament whensoever of two Boys the one is Witty the other a Dunce the same happens by each having a diverse Temperament from the other which being the Principle of all the Operations of the reasonable Soul is by Physicians and Philosophers call'd Nature in which sense this Saying Nature makes able is properly Verified In confirmation of which Doctrin Galen writ a Book proving that the Operations of the Soul were influenc'd by the Temperament of the Body in which it dwelt and that by reason either of the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness of the Climate where they lived or the Qualities of the Meat they eat and of the Waters they drank and of the Air they breathed in some were Fools and others Wise some Stout and others Cowards some Cruel and others Gentle some Reserv'd and others Open some Lyars and others Speakers of Truth some Traytors and others Loyal some Turbulent and others Calm some Crafty and others Sincere some Sordid and others Generous some Modest and others Impudent some Incredulous and others Credulous in Proof of which he quotes many Places out of Hippocrates Plato and Aristotle asserting that the Diversity of Nations as to the Frame of their Bodies and the Turn of their Soul was owing to this Difference of Temperament Which is found true by Experience how much the Greeks differ from the Scythians the French from the Spaniards the Indians from the Germans and the Ethiopians from the English Neither is this only to be observ'd in Parts so remote from each other but if we consider even the Provinces that surround all
Spain we may distribute the Virtues and Vices already mentioned amongst the Inhabitants allotting to each his Virtue and his Vice respectively For if we reflect on the Wit and Manners of the Catalans Valentians Murcians Granadins Andalusians Estremadurians Portugueses Gallicians Asturians Miquelets Biscayners Navarrers Arragonians and Castilians who sees and knows not that they differ one from another not only in the Lineaments of their Faces and Make of their Bodies but also in the Virtues and Vices of the Soul and that all this is the Consequence of each Provinces possessing a different Temperament Nor is this Diversity of Manners only to be observ'd in Countries so disjoined but even in Places seated not more than a little League distant the Variety of Wit amongst the Inhabitants is hardly to be believed Finally what Galen writ in his Book is the Foundation of this Work although he did not arrive at the particular discussion of the Difference of Wits amongst Men nor the Sciences which each in particular required yet he knew full well it was necessary to make a Repartition of the Sciences among the Youth and to assign to each that which was most suitable to his Genius when he said that Well-order'd Republics should employ Men of great Wisdom and Knowledge who in their growing Years should sound the Wit and Natural Application of each so to engage them to learn the Art most agreeable to them not leaving it to them to act at their own choice CHAP. V. What Power the Temperament has to make a Man Wise and good Natured HIppocrates in consideration of the good disposition of our Rational Souls and how frail and every way subject to change Human Bodies wherein they dwell are delivered a Sentence worthy so great an Author Our Rational Soul is always the same throughout the whole course of our Life in Youth and in Age when we are Children and grown Men the Body quite contrary never continues in one State nor is there any Means to keep it so And although some Physicians have been in search of an Art to this purpose yet they have never been able to prevent the Changes attending every Age of Man with all their Rules and Precepts For Childhood is and will be hot and moist Youth temperate Manhood hot and dry Middle-Age moderate in heat and cold but offending in too much driness and Old-Age cold and dry We can no more hinder Heaven from changing the Weather almost every moment than we can the Air making such changeable Impressions on our Bodies Whence he concludes to make a Man wise that was not so at first there need not be any Jog in the Rational Soul nor any endeavour to Meliorate its Nature for besides that it is impossible there is no need it wanting in effect nothing of the Harmonious Temper with which it was framed that can hinder Man from performing in Perfection those Actions that are convenient for him Therefore he said When the Four Elements but more especially Fire and Water enter the Composition of Man's Body in the same Proportion and Measure the Soul becomes very Ingenious and endued with an Excellent Memory but if the Water exceed the Fire it proves Stupid and Dull not so much through any defect of her own as from the Instrument wherewith she acts being depraved Which Galen weighing well boldly concluded that all the Inclinations and Dispositions of the Rational Soul follow'd without doubt the Constitution of the Body with which she was clothed and proceeding yet further he blames the Moral Philosophers for not Studying Physic seeing 't is certain that not only Prudence which is the Foundation of all the Virtues but also Fortitude Justice and Temperance with their opposite Vices depend in great measure on our Constitutions therefore he said it was the Employment of Physic to expel Vices from Man and to introduce their contrary Virtues So that he has left us an Art to Extinguish Lust and to raise Chastity to render the Proud more Pliant and Tractable the Covetous Liberal the Coward Valiant the Ignorant Wise and Knowing and all the care he employs to obtain his End is only to correct the Ill Constitution of the Body by the assistance of Physic and a Regimen corresponding to each Virtue and contrary to each Vice without any regard in the least of the Soul pursuant to the Opinion of Hippocrates who openly declar'd the Soul was not subject to any Change and stood in need of no Power to acquit her self of those Ties she was under provided she had good Organs Whereupon he conceiv'd it was little less than an Error to seat the Virtues in the Soul and not in the Organs of the Body by which the Soul acted and without which he thought no Virtue was to be acquired except by introducing a new Temperament But this Opinion of his is false and contrary to that ordinarily receiv'd by the Moral Philosophers that the Virtues are spiritual Habits having their Seat in the Rational Soul for such as the Subject is such must be the Accident which is received Moreover that the Soul being the Agent and Mover and the Body the Patient which is moved by it it is much more to the Purpose to place the Virtues in the Agent rather than in the Patient And were the Virtues and Vices such Habits as depended purely on the Constitution it might thence be concluded that Man acted only as a Natural Agent and not as a Free one for so he would be inevitably sway'd in proportion to the good or bad Disposition attending his Constitution and by consequence his Best Actions would deserve no Reward nor his Worst no Punishment according to the Saying That as to things which are Natural to us we can neither Merit nor Demerit But on the contrary we see a great many Persons who fail not to be Virtuous in spite of a Constitution that is Vitious and Deprav'd and such as rather disposes them to Evil than Good according to that Saying That a wise Man is Superior to the ill Influences of Heaven And for what concerns wise and discreet Actions we see many indiscreet Actions committed by very Wise and well Temper'd Men as on the other side not a few discreet Actions committed by Persons that are not so and who are of no happy Constitution Whence we may collect that Prudence and Wisdom and other Human Virtues are from the Soul and depend not at all upon the Composition or Frame of Body as Hippocrates and Galen have vainly imagin'd Though it may seem strange that these two great Physicians and with them Aristotle and Plato were of the same Opinion and all without Truth We are to take notice therefore that the Perfect Virtues such as the Moral Philosophers treat of are Spiritual Habits which have place in the Rational Soul and whose Being is altogether independent upon the Body From which it is evident there is in Man neither Virtue nor Vice I say nothing of Supernatural Virtues
we see all that have Excelled whether it be in the Study of Philosophy or Government or the Poets or in any other Art whatsoever have been Melancholy Never to see Women but to fly wholly their Company how much that over-cools the Body and what new Changes are incident to Persons becoming Chast Galen makes appear by abundance of Observations he had made He recounts amongst others what happened to a Friend of his a Widdower who immediately lost his Stomach to that degree as he could only digest the Yolk of an Egg and if by constraint he Eat as formerly he strait Vomited and was withal Lumpish and Dull upon which Galen's advice to him was to Marry again if he 'd recover his Health and thereupon said he He was immediately freed from all his Complaints as soon as he returned to his old way of Living The same Physician tells of some Choristers who finding by Experience the near Correspondence between the Testicles and the Throat and that to sport with Women endangers the spoiling of the Voice they were Chast by constraint that they might not lose the good Cheer and the Pay which were the returns of their Musick And Galen says further That their Privy Parts were so small so cold and so lank as they look'd like Old Men. But on the contrary the Wanton had large Genitals because they kept them often in use the Seminal Vessels being large and distended from which issued abundance of Spirits and Natural Heat for as Plato observ'd long since It is Exercise makes the Parts of the Body more able as they are Impaired by not Exerting them as they are directed As it is certain that in each Act of Venery the Parts of Generation are more and more provoked remaining more able and disposed to repeat the Act again but as often as a Man checks his Inclination he becomes colder and less able for Generation Whence I collect that a Man who by this means is become Continent and Chast soon obtains an habitual Frigidity by which he Performs with the same Aversion and Reluctance as an Old Man or one that is born Impotent or an Eunuch Those then that desire to be Chast and not to be provoked by the Flesh being conscious of their Infirmity may serve themselves of cold Medicines and of such things as by Impairing and Consuming the Seed render them frigid and in this Sense this Passage is to be understood Happy are they that are made Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven All that ever we have said and confirmed in relation to Chastity and Incontinence is no less true of other Virtues and Vices respectively for each has his particular Temperament of Heat and Cold and is to be understood more or less of the Constitution of each Part of the Body and of the greater or lesser degrees of these two Qualities I have declared for Heat and Cold because there is neither Virtue nor Vice rooted in Moisture nor in Driness for according to Aristotle's Opinion these two Qualities are purely Passive as Heat and Cold are Active Whereupon he asserted That our Natural Inclinations are more from Heat and Cold than from any thing else in our Bodies and in this he conspires with the Holy Scripture which says I would rather thou wert Cold or Hot c. The reason of which is because there is no Man found of so exact a Constitution as is required to be the Foundation of Virtue Whereupon Sacred Writ and Philosophy chose Heat and Cold because there are no other Qualities wherein to place the Virtues although this be not without something in Counterballance to them for suppose there are abundance of Virtues correspondent to Cold and Heat these Qualities fail no less at all times to be the source of abundance of Vices by which means it is a great Miracle if there be a Man found so Lewd who has not some Virtues natural to him or so Virtuous that has not some Vices But the Quality observed to be best for the Rational Soul is the cold Constitution of Body This is easily prov'd if we run through the several Stages of Man's Life Infancy Youth Manhood Middle-Age and Old-Age for we find that because each Age respectively has its particular Temperament accordingly at one time a Man is Vitious at another Virtuous in one he is Indiscreet or Perverse and in the other Wise and better Advis'd Infancy is nothing else but a hot and moist Temperament in which Plato said the Rational Soul was as it were plunged and stifled not being able freely to employ the Understanding Will or Affections till in length of Time it passes to another Age and has gain'd a new Temperament The Virtues of Infancy are very many and the Vices but very few Children says Plato admire from what Principles the Sciences arise In the next Place they are Docile Tractable Gentle and Easy to receive the Impression of all Kinds of Virtues In the third Place they are Bashful and full of Fear which according to Plato is the Foundation of Temperance In the fourth place they are Credulous and Easy to be led they are Charitable Frank Chast Humble Innocent and Undesigning To which Virtues Jesus Christ had regard when he said to his Disciples Except you become as little Children you shall not Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven We know not of what Age the Child was whom God proposed for our Imitation but you must know Hippocrates divided Infancy into three or four Stations and because Children from the First to the Fourteenth Year always admit abundance of Humours and a variety of Temperament so likewise they are subject to divers Diseases and their Souls at the same time not without a great many different Virtues and Vices In consideration of which Plato began to Instruct a Child from the very First Year although he could not then Speak directing his Nurse how to distinguish by his Laughing his Tears and even his Silence his Virtues and Vices and how she should Correct them Holy Writ declared that Saul had the Virtues of this Age when he was chosen King He was a Child of a Year Old when he began to Reign Whence it appears that God made the same Division as Hippocrates observing the Virtues of Infancy by the Years Youth which is the Second Age of Man is reckon'd from the Fourteenth to the Five and Twentieth Year this Age according to the Opinion of Physicians is neither Hot nor Cold nor Moist nor Dry but Temperate and in a Mediocrity of all the Qualities the Parts of the Body in this Temperament are such as the Soul requires for all sorts of Virtues and especially for Wisdom For after this manner speaks Hippocrates if the great Moisture of the Water and the extream Driness of the Fire happen to be equally Temper'd in the Body the Man will be very Wise and endued with an Excellent Memory The Virtues we have allotted to Infancy seem to be acts proceeding from meer
Thrive than when Old Age approaches when she is disabled For instance if an Old Man have a Tooth drop out there is no means or expedient to get another to grow in the same Place whereas if a Child lose all his we see Nature repairs the Loss by helping him to new ones How then is it possible that a Soul that has no other Business throughout the whole Course of Life but to attract Aliments to retain and digest them and expel the Excrements and duly repair the lost Parts at the end of our Life should either forget or not be able to do the same Certainly Galen would reply that the Vegetative Soul is skilful and able in Infancy because of the great Degrees of Natural Heat and Moisture and that in Old Age she wants either Ability or Skill to do the like because of the extream Cold and Dryness of the Body incident to Age. In like manner the Skill of the Sensitive Soul depends much on the Temperament of the Brain for if it be such as it 's Operations require it fails not to perform them aright otherwise she commits a Thousand Errors as well as the Vegetative Soul Galen's Test to discover in one view the Skill and Efforts of the Sensitive Soul was this he took a Kid newly Kidded which being on his Legs began to go as if he had been informed and taught that his Feet were given for that very end after he had dried up the Superfluous Humor that came with him from his Dam and lift up his Feet and rubbed behind his Ears finding before him several Platters full of Wine Water Vineger Oyl and Milk upon smelling to each of them he lapped only the Milk Which being observed by many Philosophers present they began to cry out that Hippocrates had with good Reason said That Souls were directed what to do without the Teaching of any Master Which is the same with the wise Mans saying Go to the Ant thou Sluggard consider her waies and be wise which having no Guide Overseer or Ruler provideth her Meat in the Summer and gathereth her Food in the Harvest Galen not resting contented with this single Experiment two Months after he brought the Kid into the Fields almost Starved to Death and smelling on several sorts of Herbs he fed only on that which was Goats-meat But if Galen who ruminated on the Efforts of this Kid had seen three or four of them together and observed some run better than their Fellows shift better and scratch their Ears better and quit themselves better in each Point we have mentioned and had Galen brought up two Colts of the same Mare he might have observed the one to be more Graceful in going to have better Heels to be more Manageable and stop better than the other and had he taken an Airy of Hawks to train he might have discovered that one would have delighted much in Seizing his Game another to be Rank-winged and the third a Haggard and Ill-mann'd He would have found the same Difference in Setting-Dogs or Harriers tho' each were littered from the same Sire and Dam the one needs only the noise of the Chase and Rouse the other never so loudly it would affect him no more than a Shepherds Dog All which can never be ascribed to the vain Instincts of Nature imagined by Philosophers for if they were asked why one Dog has a better Instinct than an other both being of the same kind and breed I know not what they could Answer without having recourse to their common Shift namely that God had trained one above the other having given him a better Natural Instinct And if they were further ask'd why this hopeful Hound when Young hunted well but become Old was not so good for the Sport and on the other Hand why the other when Young could not Hunt but being Old was Expert and fit to fly at all Game I know not what they could say For my particular I should say that the Dog that hunted better than the other had more Sagacity and as for him that hunted well when Young and turned Cur when Old that so it fared because sometimes he had the Qualities fit for the Chase which at other times he wanted Whence we may Collect that since the Temperament of the four First Qualities is the Reason why one brute Beast aquits himself better than another of the same Kind the Temperament is no less the Master which directs the Sensitive Soul what it ought to do Had Galen but reflected on the Steps and Motions of the Ant and observed her Providence her Mercy Justice and good Government he would have been at a loss as we are to see so small an Animal endued with so great Sense without the Teaching of any Master whatsoever But when we come to consider more closely the Temperament of the Ant 's Brain and observe how proper it is for Prudence as we shall hereafter make appear then will all our Admiration cease and we shall understand that Brute Beasts from the Temperament of their Brain and the Images that enter there thro' the Senses arrive at the Ability we discover in them And whereas amongst Animals of the same Kind one is more Docile and Ingenious than another It happens from the Brain being better Tempered so that if by any Accident or Distemper it should chance to alter and impair he would forthwith lose his Ability as Man does under the like Circumstances But here arises a Difficulty touching the Rational Soul how she comes to be Endued with this Natural Instinct whereby she performs the Acts proper to her Species of Wisdom and Prudence and yet all on a sudden by means of a good Temperament a Man may understand the Sciences without the help of a Teacher especially since we are told by Experience if they do not learn them no Man brings them into the World with him It has long been a controverted Point betwixt Plato and Aristotle which way Man comes by Knowledge one saies that the Rational Soul is much Older than the Body and it 's Natural Birth enjoying in Heaven the Company of God from whom she came filled with Wisdom and Knowledge but after she dropt down to inform the Body she lost this Wisdom and Knowledg because of the ill Temperament she met with till by tract of Time this ill Temperament was Corrected and so in its place succeeded a better by means of which as being more fit for the Sciences she had lost she came by little and little to recollect what she had once forgot This Opinion is false and I admire so great a Philosopher as Plato should be at a loss to give a Reason for Man's Knowledge seeing that Brute Beasts are endued with Cunning and Natural Ability without their Souls quitting their Bodies and mounting to Heaven to fetch it thence he is therefore without all Excuse especially considering he might have read in Genesis which he had in such Esteem
that God made Adam's Body before he formed his Soul It is much the same thing at this present only with this Difference that Nature now frames the Body and when that is once done God infuses the Soul into it from which it never departs no not the space of a single Moment Aristotle took an other Course affirming that all kind of Doctrin and Discipline was from Knowledge antecedent to them as if he had said all that Men know and all that they learn comes from what they Hear or See or Smell or Tast or Touch for the Understanding can receive no Notices but what must first pass through some one of the five Senses For which Reason he said that the Natural Powers were in the Nature of a Blank-Paper which Opinion is no less false than Plato's and to make Proof and Illustration of this I must first agree with the Philosophers that there is but one Soul in a human-Human-Body which is the Rational that is the Principle of whatever we do or Accomplish altho' there want not contrary Opinions asserting no less than two or three distinct Souls besides the Rational This being so as to the Acts performed by the Rational Soul so far forth as it is Vegetative we have already proved that it knows how to Form a Man and to Figure him as he ought to be that we know how to draw Nourishment to retain and digest the same as well as to expel Excrements and if there be Defects in any parts of the Body it knows how to repair them anew and to give them that Structure which their use requires And as to the Acts of the Sensitive and Motive Faculties a new-born-Babe can apply and lay its Lips close to press the Milk and this with so much Art and Address as the wisest Man in the World knows not how to do it so well Besides this it follows what tends most to the Preservation of it's Nature and flyes what is noxious and offensive he knows how to Laugh and to Cry without staying to be Taught by any And if this be not so who can the Vulgar Philosopher pretend has taught Children to perform these Actions or through which of their Senses have any Notices arrived that made them do it I know well they may reply that God has given them the same Natural Instinct as to Brute Beasts in which they say not ill if by Natural Instinct they mean no other thing than the Temperament Man as soon as he is born cannot exert Acts proper to the Rational Soul such as are to Understand Imagine and Remember because the Temperaments of Children are not well Adapted to such Acts but rather appropriate to the Vegetative and Sensitive as the Temperament in Old Age is more proper for the Rational Soul and less for the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul and if the Brain which by little and little acquires the Temper that Wisdom requires might obtain it at once Man at the same instant would be able to Reason and Discourse better than if he had learnt the same at any time in the Schools but as Nature cannot bestow it but successively and in time so Man by degrees gains Knowledge This is the main Reason as one may clearly see if he will consider that from the time a Man arrives at the pitch of Wisdom by little and little he declines to Ignorance because as he approaches nearer to the last and decrepit Age he daily acquires another Temperament wholly new As for me I am of Opinion that whereas Nature makes a Man of hot and moist Seed which is the Temperament that directs the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul what it ought to do if instead of that she had formed him of cold and dry Seed he would Discourse and Reason soon after he was Born and would not be able to Suck inasmuch as his Temperament would not well agree with such Actions But to the end we may by Experience know if the Brain be Temperate so far as the Natural Sciences require we need no Master to teach us but only to attend to a thing which happens every day that if a Man falls sick of any Distemper that changes the Temperament of his Brain on a sudden 〈◊〉 in Madness Melancholy and Frenzy he would lose in a moment though he were once Wise and Understanding whatever Wisdom Understanding and Knowledge he had and would utter a thousand Extravagances and on the contrary though he had been once an Ignorant Fellow he would be Inspired with more Wit and Ability than ever he had before To prove which I cannot forbear telling you what happened at Corduba in the Year 1570. the Court being then there to a Courtesan in her Sickness named Lovisa Lopez who was turned Fool She had during her Health utterly lost her Understanding but as for her Imagination she conversed Pleasantly and made her Complements with a good Grace a certain contagious Disease then rife threw her into a malignant Fever in the midst of which she shewed so much Wit and Judgment as surprized the whole Court Insomuch that when they had given her the Sacraments she made her last Will the discreetest in the World and died begging the Mercy of God and Pardon for her Sins But what raised the greatest Admiration was that the same Distemper seized on a very sensible and sober Man who had the Cure of this Sick Person in charge who died bereft both of Wit and Judgment and neither did nor spoke the least sensible thing And the Reason of this was that the Temperament of the last to which he owed his Wit when he was well was the self-same that Lovisa Lopez took possession of by her Distemper instead of the Temperament she had in her Health which was the lot of the other in his Sickness Let me give you an Instance of this in a certain Labourer who being Frantic made a Speech in my hearing wherein he recommended his Welfare to those about him desiring them to take care of his Wife and Children if it should please God to call him out of this World with so many strains of Rhetoric and so great Elegance and Purity of Speech that Cicero himself could scarce have made a better Harangue in the open Senate At which the Standers-by not a little surprized asked me whence appeared so great Wit and Eloquence in a Man who in his Health could say never a wise Word I remember I made answer That the fluent Faculty of Haranguing proceeded from a certain point or degree of Heat of which this Labourer was possessed by means of his Distemper I can confirm the Truth of this from another Lunatic who for more than eight days spoke never a word and then immediately fell into a fit of Rhiming very often making no less than a good entire Stanza the By-standers surprized to hear a Man Discourse all in Verse who in his Health never knew how to make one I told them it
one should know how to make Verses without any Master 's teaching and the other after all his Labours in the Art of Poetry should not know how to Compose any He might Answer perhaps That he who is Born a Poet is possest with a Demon that Inspires him and the other not It was therefore with reason Aristotle reprehended him seeing he might have fairly imputed it to the Temperament as he did in another Place As for the Lunatic that spoke Latin without having learn'd it when he was well it shews the Analogy and Correspendence between the Latin Tongue and the Rational Soul Or it may be as we shall hereafter prove because there is a particular and proper Wit to invent Languages Latin Words and the manner of speaking this Tongue are so Rational and so agreeably strike the Ear that the Rational Soul meeting with the Temperament necessary to invent a very eloquent Language immediately stumbles on the Latin For that two Inventers of Languages may forge the same Words having both the same Invention and Ability may be clearly understood if we suppose that as God created Adam he presented all the Creatures to him to give them what Names they ought to have so he might have made another at the same time with the same Perfection and Supernatural Grace Now I demand had God presented to this other the same Creatures for him to give them Proper Names what Names would he have given them It is not to be doubted but they would have been the same that Adam gave them and the reason is clear because both in Naming would have consider'd the Nature of the Creature which was but One. In like manner the Lunatic might stumble on the Latin Tongue and speak Latin without having learn'd it in his Wits because the Natural Temperament of his Brain being altered by that Distemper he might do it in a short time after the same manner as he who first invented the Latin Tongue and so he might pronounce almost the same Words though not such laboured Periods or with such a continued Elegance because this is a sign the Devil moves their Tongue according to what the Church teaches her Exorcists The same thing is affirmed by Aristotle to have befallen some Children who at their Birth pronounced distinctly some Words and afterwards became mute He reproves the Vulgar Philosophers of his time who being ignorant of the natural Cause of that Effect attributed it to the Demons Though he could never discover the Reason and Cause of Childrens speaking at their Birth and being afterwards mute yet notwithstanding it never once entered into his thoughts that it was the Invention of the Devil or any Supernatural Effect as the Vulgar Philosophers vainly imagine who finding themselves entangled with the sublime and subtle things of Natural Philosophy possess them that know nothing that God or the Devil are the Authors of such rare and prodigious Effects because they are Ignorant of their natural Causes Children that are begot of cold and dry Seed as those got in old Age begin to reason and discourse a few Days and Months after they are Born because the cold and dry Temperament as we shall prove hereafter is more appropriate to the Operations of the Rational Soul and what Time and the long succession of Days and Months might effect is supplied by the sudden Temperament of the Brain that after this manner is pushed forward by many Causes leading to that end Aristotle tells of other Children who began to speak as soon as they were Born and afterwards were mute till they arrived at the Age allotted for speaking so that this Effect was occasion'd by the same thing as that we remembred in the Page and the other Lunatics nay and of him who all on a sudden spoke Latin without having learn'd it in his Senses Now that Children while yet in their Mother's Wombs and as soon as they are Born may be afflicted with the like Distempers is a thing not to be denied As for the She-Lunatic who Divined how that might be I will make more intelligible from Cicero than from the Natural Philosophers who describing the Nature of Man speaks after this manner That Creature of Foresight Sagacious sharp-witted capable of all Things of good Memory endued with Reason and Council which we call Man And more particularly he affirm'd That some Men by Nature surpass others in the Knowledge of Futurities For there is a power and kind of Nature which penetrates and predicts things to come the Force and Nature of which has never been yet explained by Reason What led the Natural Philosophers into an Error was their not considering as Plato did that Man was made after the likeness of God and that he participates of the Divine Providence being qualified to distinguish all the three differences of Times with Memory for the Past Sense for the Present Imagination and Understanding for the Future And as there are observed some Men surpassing others in the Remembrance of what is Past and some excelling others in the Knowledge of the Present so are there some who are naturally more capable than others in guessing what is to Come One of the strongest Arguments that enforced Tully to believe the Rational Soul incorruptible was the observing with what certainty sick People predict Futurities especially when they are nearest Death But the difference there is betwixt the Prophetic Spirit and this Natural Wit is this what God has by the Mouth of the Prophets declared is Infallible because it is his express Word But that which a Man Prognosticates by the strength of Fancy has not the same certainty Those who say the She-Lunatic discovered the Virtues and Vices of those who came to see her by the Artifice of the Devil may understand that God gives to Men a Supernatural Grace by which they may know which are the Works of God and which of the Devil This St. Paul ranks among the Divine Gifts calling it The Discerning of Spirits 'T is by this we know whether it is a good or bad Angel comes to move us for the Devil comes often to us under the Appearance of a good Angel the better to deceive us Upon which occasion we shall stand in need of this Supernatural Gift to know and distinguish him from the good Angel Those who have not a Genius proper for Natural Philosophy will be furthest from this Gift because both that Science and the Supernatural which is Inspired by God fall upon the same Faculty which is the Understanding at least it is so for the most part when God in the Communicating of his Gifts accommodates himself to each Man 's Natural Genius as I have said before Jacob being at the point of Death which is a time when the Rational Soul is the freest to foresee Futurities all his Twelve Sons came into his Chamber to see him he told each in particular their Virtues and their Vices and predicted what should
befal both them and their Children 'T is certain he did this by the Spirit of God but if Holy Writ and our Faith had not assured us of it how should the Natural Philosophers know that this was the Work of God and that of the She Lunatic's telling those that came to see her their Virtues and Vices was a Work of the Devil since that in part it resembled Jacob's They conceive the Nature of the Rational Soul to be far different from that of the Devil and that its Powers the Understanding Imagination and Memory are of another kind much different In which they are mistaken for let the Rational Soul animate a well-organiz'd Body such as Adam's was it shall know no less than the most clear-sighted Devil and when it is separated from the Body it has as subtle Faculties as he Say now that the Devils discover what is to come by conjecturing and reasoning from certain Signs the Rational Soul can do as much when deliver'd from the Body or when it has that difference of Temperament which gives Man the Knowledge of Futurities so that it is as difficult to the Understanding to conceive how the Devil can know such elevated and hidden things of which the Knowledge is attributed to the Rational Soul It cannot enter into their thoughts that there can be Signs in Natural things whereby to foretel what is to come And I my self hold that there are some Indications subservient to us in the knowledge of the Past of the Present and that help us to conjecture at the Future nay and to guess at certain Secrets of Heaven For the things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made He that shall have the requisite Faculty to attain it may attain it and the other shall be such a one as Homer speaks of The Ignorant understand the Past but not the Future but the Prudent and Discreet is the Ape of God imitating him in many things and though he cannot do it to so great a Perfection yet nevertheless he can counterfeit it in some measure CHAP. VIII From these three Qualities alone Heat Moisture and Driness proceed all the differences of Wit observ'd among Men. AS long as the Rational Soul is in the Body it is impossible it should perform different and contrary Actions if to each it have its proper and peculiar Instruments This is clearly seen in the Animal Faculty which exercises divers Actions in the exterior Senses each having its particular and proper Organ the Sight has it after one manner the Hearing after another the Taste the Smell and the Touch after another and if this were not so there would be but one sort of Actions all would consist either in the Sight or in the Hearing or in the Taste or in the Smell or in the Touch because the Organ determines the Power to one Action only and not to more From what passes plainly through the exterior Senses we may collect what is acted in the Interior We Understand we Imagine and Remember by the same Animal Virtue But if it be true that each Action requires its particular Instrument there must necessarily be one Organ in the Brain to Understand another to Imagin and a third to Remember for if the whole Brain were Organized after one and the same Manner all would be either Memory or Understanding or Imagination But when we see such different Actions of necessity there must also be divers Instruments And yet if one should Dissect a Head to Anatomize the Brain all would seem composed after the same manner of the like substance without difference of Parts or diversity of Kinds I say that it seems so because as Galen has observ'd Nature has placed abundance of things in Man's Body that are compound which the Senses nevertheless judge to be simple because of the Subtilty of the Mixture Which may also happen in the Brain of a Man though to sight it seems no such thing Besides this there are four small Ventricles in the Cavity of the Brain of which Galen taught the use to him that would learn it of him But for my part I hold that the fourth Ventricle which is behind the Head has no other Function than to digest and refine the Vital Spirits and turn them into Animal Spirits enabling them to give Sense and Motion to all the Parts of the Body because we cannot find in Humane Bodies two such contrary Operations that interfere with each other so much as Reasoning and the Digestive Faculty The reason is that Speculation requires the Repose Serenity and Clearness of the Animal Spirits whereas the Digestion is made with noise and ferment and from that Operation arises many Vapours which infest and darken the Animal Spirits in such manner as the Rational Soul cannot well distinguish the Figures of things Nor was Nature so Inconsiderate to join in one place two Actions that are performed with so great a Repugnance and Contrariety Be it how it will Plato mightily commends the Providence and Care of him who made us for having separated the Liver at so great a distance from the Brain lest by the noise made by the Boiling and Concoction of the Food and by the Obscurity and Clouds cast on the Animal Spirits by the Vapours the Rational Soul should be discomposed in Reasoning However if Plato had not remark'd this from Philosophy we see it every hour by Experience notwithstanding the Liver and the Stomach are so very distant from the Brain yet none can set to Study immediately upon Eating or some time after What seems most true in this matter is that the Office of the fourth Ventricle is to digest and alter the Vital and resolve them into Animal Spirits for the end we have spoke of And for this Reason Nature has also separated the three other and has logded it like a little Brain by it self apart as is to be observed lest by its Operation the Speculation of the other should be disturbed For as to the three little Cells before it is not to be doubted but Nature has made them to Reason and Discourse it clearly appears in deep Studies and Musing which never fails to make that part of the Head ake which corresponds to these three Cavities The strength of this Argument appears if we consider that even the other Powers being Fatigued in performing their Office ever cause some Pain to those Organs with which they are Exercised As after gazing too long a time the Eyes water and after Walking too much the Soles of the Feet will ake Now the difficulty is to know in which of these Cells dwells the Understanding in which the Memory and in which the Imagination because they are so close and near Neighbours that one cannot well distinguish or know it by the Experience we even now spoke of nor by any other Token Moreover if we consider that the Understanding can do nothing
without the Memory be present to it to offer and represent to it the Figures and Species according to the Saying of Aristotle He that understands has no more to do but to reflect on the Images Nor the Memory again without being seconded by the Imagination according as we have elsewhere noted we may easily conclude that all the three Faculties are joined and united together in each Ventricle that the Understanding is not by it self in one nor the Memory by it self in the other nor the Imagination by its self in the third as the Vulgar Philosophers have thought This Union of Powers and Virtues uses to be made in Humane Bodies when one cannot act without the Concurrence of the other as appears in the four Natural Virtues The Attractive the Retentive Digestive and Expulsive which to be of use one to the other have by Nature been assembled in one and the same Place and not separated from each other But if all this be true to what end has Nature prepared those three Ventricles and to each of them joined all the three Rational Powers since any one of the three was sufficient for the Understanding and the Memory to play their parts To this may be answered That it is equally difficult to know why Nature has made two Eyes and as many Ears since in each of them the whole power of Seeing and Hearing resides and one may see with one Eye alone To this it may be said That how much greater the Number of Organs of the Powers appointed and established for the Perfection of the Animal is so much more assured is the Perfection and Possession of them because by some Accident one or two may fail and then it is convenient that there should be a Supply from others of the same kind which may be ready to Act. In the Disease call'd by Physicians the Resolution of the Sinews or Palsy of half the Body the Operation of the Ventricle that answers to the Sick-side is usually lost in such manner as if the two others remained not entire and unhurt the Man would be stupid without Reason And nevertheless from the want of this Ventricle alone he is observed to be very weak as well in the Actions of the Understanding as of the Imagination and Memory Even as he who uses to See with two Eyes would be at a loss in his Sight if one of them was quite out By which means it may be clearly understood that in each Ventricle all the three Faculties are found since from the hurt of one alone the other three are all weakned Say now that all the three Ventricles are composed after the same manner and that there is no Diversity of Parts to be found in them we cannot be at a loss if we take the first Qualities for the Instrument and so make as many differences of Wit as there be of the first Qualities For it is against all Natural Philosophy to believe that the Rational Soul being in the Body can exercise her Operations without the Mediation of a Corporeal Instrument to assist her But of the four Qualities that appear the Heat Cold Moisture and Driness all Physicians reject the Cold as of no use at all in the Operations of the Rational Soul And accordingly it is observed by Experience in all the other Powers of Man that where the Cold overballances the Heat they are blunted and retarded in their Offices insomuch as neither the Stomach digests the Meat nor the Parts of Generation produce effective Seed nor the Muscles duly move the Body nor the Brain duly Reasons and Discourses For which reason Galen said The Cold manifestly incommodes and retards all the Operations of the Soul Serving only in the Body to allay the Natural Heat and to hinder it from being inflamed But Aristotle is of a contrary Opinion where he says The thick and hot Blood renders the Man strong and robust and the thinner and more Cold of a more delicate Sense and Vnderstanding Whence it clearly appears that from Cold proceeds the greatest difference of Wit in Man viz. the Understanding Aristotle therefore enquiring why the Men inhabiting hotter Countries as Aegypt is are more Subtile and Ingenious than those who live in colder Climates makes Answer That the Ambient Heat being excessive draws forth and consumes the Natural Heat of the Brain leaving it cold which makes Men more sharp And that on the contrary the great Ambient Cold concentrates the Natural Heat of the Brain not suffering it to disperse And further they who have very hot Brains says he can neither Reason nor Discourse but are Volatile never fixing on one Opinion Galen as it seems alluded to this where he says the reason why a Man changes his Opinion every moment is because he had a very hot Brain and on the contrary he that has a cold Brain will be firm and steady in his Opinion But the Truth is there is no difference of Wit proceeds from this Quality neither could Aristotle mean that the Blood cold in excess made the Understanding better but only when it is less hot When a Man is fickle it is true it proceeds from too great a Heat that raises transient Figures in his Brain making them as it were to boil by which means the Images of many things represent themselves at once to the Rational Soul awakening and inviting it to a Consideration of them and to enjoy all she leaves some and Embraces others The quite contrary happens in Cold which renders a Man fixt and stable in an Opinion because it keeps the Figures fast locked up not permitting them to fly so fast so that it represents no other Image to a Man but what is called for Cold has this Peculiar that it retards the Motions not only of Corporeal things but also renders the Figures and the Species by Philosophers termed Intellectual immovable in the Brain but this firmness seems rather to be a certain Dulness than a Difference of Wit There is another kind of Steadiness which proceeds from the Understanding being closer and more compact and not from any coldness of Brain Driness then Moisture and Heat remain as Instruments of the Rational Faculty But not one Philosopher knew how to assign in particular to each Difference of Wit the Quality that serv'd it for an Instrument Heraclitus said That the sharpness of Wit was from a dry Light By which words he gives us to undestand that Driness is the cause of the great Prudence and Wisdom in Man but he has not shewn in what kind of Knowledge a Man was Excellent by means of this Quality Plato intended no less when he affirm'd That the Soul upon its entring the Body was very Wise but that the great Moisture it met there render'd it lumpish and dull till as that Moisture wears off in Age and the Body becomes drier the Soul discovers that Knowledge and Wisdom it had at first Among Brute Beasts Aristotle said those are more
deliberate whose Constitution is more cold and dry as the Ants and Bees who may dispute for Wisdom with Men that are Reasonable Creatures Besides there is not a Brute Beast more moist than a Hog and which has less Wit For which cause the Poet Pindar being to tax the Boeotians for Blockheads exprest himself in this manner Dicta fuit Sus gens Boeotia Vecors Stupid Boeotians wore the Name Of Hogs their Nature was the same Galen affirm'd also That the Blood by reason of its too great moisture made Men silly And the same Galen recounts that the Comic Poets accused Hippocrates's Children of it alledging they had too much Natural Heat which is a moist Substance and abounding with Vapours The Children of Wise Men are not without this Defect of which I may hereafter assign the Reason Of the four Humors we have there is not one of them found hot and dry but melancholy And Aristotle affirms That all the Men that ever signaliz'd themselves in the Sciences were Melancholic In fine all agree that Driness makes a Man very Wise but no Man shews which of the Rational Faculties it most favours The Prophet Esay only determined it when he said Vexation gives Vnderstanding because Sorrow and Affliction not only lick up that moisture of the Brain but have also Power to dry up the very Bones by which Quality the Understanding is made more sharp and acute which may be apparently evidenced by considering that many Men reduc'd to Poverty and Misery have happen'd to Speak and Write things worthy of Admiration but being afterwards raised by Fortune according to their Wish to make good Cheer have done nothing more of Importance For a delicate Life Content a stream of Fortune and all things succeeding smoothly to our Wish much relax and moisten the Brain which is what Hippocrates said Content and Chearfulness enlarge and dilate the Heart giving it a sweet and gross Heat Which is again easily proved for if Affliction and Grief dry up and consume the Flesh by which means a Man acquires a better Understanding it is certain that the contrary which is Chearfulness fails not to moisten the Brain and impair the Understanding They who attain the last sort of Wit are more immediately disposed to Sports Feasts Music frequenting merry Company and flying the contrary which at other times were wont to give them Relish and Content Hence may the Vulgar learn how it comes that a Wise and Virtuous Man raised to great Honour who before was Poor and Humble sometimes immediately changes his Manners and his way of Reasoning for this proceeds from his acquiring a new Temperament moist and full of Vapors by which means he effaces the Figures he had before in his Memory rendering his Understanding Dull and Sluggish 'T is very difficult to know what Difference of Wit proceeds from moisture because it so strongly contradicts the Rational Faculty At least according to Galen's Opinion all the Humours of our Body that are moist in Excess render the Man Stupid and Ignorant which occasion'd him to say The Prudence and Nimbleness of the Rational Soul arises from Choler Integrity and Constancy proceed from the Melancholic Humour Simplicity and Stupidity from Blood Phlegm or Water serving for nothing but to feed sleep Insomuch that the Blood so far as it is moist and the Phlegm no less conspire to ruin and destroy the Rational Faculty but this is to be understood of the discursive and active Faculties and not of the passive as the Memory is which depends on moisture even as the Understanding does on driness Now we call the Memory a Rational Faculty because without it the Understanding and Imagination are of no use It affords them matter and furnishes them with Figures to Reason according to that of Aristotle He that understands does no more than reflect on the Images And the proper Office of the Memory is to lay up those Figures for the Understanding when it would reflect on them and therefore if that be lost it is impossible for the other Faculties to perform their Function Galen says the Office of the Memory is no other than to keep the Figures of things without having any Invention of its own The Memory treasures and lays up the things which are transmitted from the Sense and Vnderstanding as in a Coffer or Repository having no Invention of its own This being its Office one may clearly perceive it depends much on moisture which softens and prepares the Brain for the Figures that are imprinted by way of Compression Infancy is an evident Proof of this Doctrin seeing in that Age the Memory is readier than in all the other because the Brain then is moistest Aristotle therefore demands Why the Old have more Wit and a better Vnderstanding and the Young learn readier and with more ease To which he makes Answer That the Memory of Old People is filled with so many Images of things which they have seen and heard during the long course of their Life that there is no room left to receive any thing new but that of Young People as Persons late Born meets with no difficulty therein which makes them receive and retain immediately all that is told and taught them Which may be better understood by compairing the morning and evening Memory and shewing that we learn better in the morning because we then rise with a fresh Memory but in the evening we learn ill because it is stuffed with all the Objects of the Day past And to the end the curious Reader may not be surprized that so great a Philosopher as Aristotle should never light upon a true Answer and which even those of less Wit than himself sometimes find and form better Arguments than his he must know that Plato not at all doubting but the Gravest Philosophers do often as men mistake either through Inadvertence or for want of Weighing and being well enough acquainted with all the Principles contained in the Doctrin they teach advises such as read his Works to consider them with great care and not to rely too much upon him or on the good Opinion they have conceived of them To examin says he and cautiously weigh all his Words and those of the Philosophers and not to receive them before they have made some Proof of them no though they may seem the truest in the World Because in effect it would be a great shame to me that Nature having given me Eyes to See and an Understanding to Distinguish yet I should ask Aristotle and the other Philosophers what are the Figures and Colours of things and what Being and Nature they have Open your Eyes says Plato make use of your own Wit and Ability and fear nothing for the same He that made Aristotle made you also and he who formed so great a Wit may very well also form a greater 'T is nevertheless very Reasonable to have Excellent Authors in great Veneration
for Curing as that I look for and which disposes a Man to be a Wizard Superstitious a Magician Enchanter Chiromancer addicted to Judiciary Astrology and to Divine because in effect the Diseases of Men are so occult and have their Motions so secret that there is almost daily Occasion to Divine what is in them This Difference of Imagination is hard to be found in Spain for as we have already proved the Inhabitants of that Country want Memory and Imagination but are provided with a good Understanding Neither is the Imagination of those that live in the Northern Parts more available in Physic because it is very slow and remiss it is good only to make Clocks Paintings Bodkins and other Toys impertinent to the use of Man Egypt alone is the Country that produces in its Inhabitants this Difference of Imagination and of this all the Historians are full how the Egyptians are great Wizards and how ready to supply all Wants and to find out and minister Remedies for all Necessities Josephus therefore to exaggerate the Wisdom of Solomon hath these Words The Skill and Cunning which Solomon received from God was so great that he surpass'd all his Predecessors and even the Egyptians who were esteemed the Wisest of all Plato said also That the Egyptians excelled all Men in the World in the Skill how to get their Living which is a Craft that belongs to the Imagination And that this is true appears plainly in that all the Sciences which pertain to the Imagination were found out in Egypt such as are the Mathematics Judicial-Astrology Arithmetic Perspective and the like But the most powerful Argument in my Opinion to this Purpose is that when Francis de Valois King of France was seized with a very tedious Sickness and that the Physicians of his House and Court could give him no Ease he said every time the Fever returned that it was not possible for any Christian Physician to Cure him and that he expected from them no Relief Insomuch that one time being Impatient to find himself every day worse with his Fever he ordered a Courrier to be dispatch'd to Spain to desire the Emperor Charles the Fifth to send him a Jew Doctor the best of all his Court from whom he hoped to receive a Remedy for his Distemper if there were any in the Art There was no little Laughing in Spain at this Request and all concluded that it was no other than the Conceit of a Man in a Fever But for all this the Emperor was not wanting to give Order that such a Physician as was required should be sought after if he were to be found though he were out of the Kingdom and when none could be met withal they sent him a Physician newly turned Christian hoping thereby to comply with the King's Curiosity But the Physician being arrived in France and brought to the King's Presence there past between them a most agreeable Dialogue wherein was discover'd that the Physician was a Christian and therefore the King would take no Physic at his Hands The King from the Opinion he had conceived of the Physician 's being a Jew asked him by way of passing the time if he was not as yet weary of expecting the Messiah promised in the Law The Physician answered Sir I expect not the Messiah promised in the Judaic-Law You are the wiser for that replied the King for the Signs set down in the Scripture to know his Coming are already accomplished a great while ago The number of days rejoined the Physician we Christians keep well the Account of for there are now a Thousand five hundred fourty and two Years determined since he came he abode in the World Thirty three Years at the end of which he died on the Cross and rose again the third Day after which he ascended into Heaven where he now Reigns Why saith the King you are a Christian Yes Sir by the Grace of God answered the Physician Then said the King be gone to your own Country in good time for I have Christian Physicians enough in my own Court and House I took you to be a Jew who in my Opinion are those that have a Natural Ability for Cures And so he took leave of him without allowing him to feel his Pulse or examine his Urine or mingle the least word concerning his Distemper And forthwith sent to Constantinople for a Jew who recovered him only with Asses-Milk This Conceit of King Francis as I take it was most reasonable and I conceive it so to be because I have already proved that in the great distempered Heats of the Brain the Imagination makes such Discoveries as no Man knows any thing of in Health And because it may not seem that I have spoken in Jest and without any ground in Nature you are to know that the Variety of Men as well in Make of Body as in Wit and other Conditions of the Soul arise from their inhabiting Countries of different Temperaments from drinking divers Waters and not making use of one kind of Diet. And therefore Plato said That Men differ from others in Make and Manners from the Changes of Winds and Heats or the Diversity of Waters or Fruits of the Earth all which tend to produce great difference as well in the Dispositions as Bodies of Men. If I prove then that the People of Israel after living many Years in Egypt at their going from thence eat and drank such Fruits and Waters as are proper to make this difference of Imagination I shall confirm and justify the Conceit of the King of France and by the by discover what Wits we are to chuse in Spain to make Physicians of As to the first point you are to know that Abraham demanding some Signs to know whether he or his Children should possess the Land of Promise the Text says that as he slept God answered him in this manner Of a surety know that thy Seed shall be a Stranger in the Land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them Four hundred Years and also that Nation whom they serve I will Judge and afterwards shall they come out with great Substance Which Prophecy was fulfilled though God for certain respects added Thirty Years more as Sacred Writ declares Now the sojourning of the Children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was Four hundred and thirty Years and it came to pass at the end of the Four hundred and thirty Years even the same day it came to pass that all the Host of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt But though the Text says manifestly that the Children of Israel were in Egypt Four hundred and thirty Years there is a Gloss which makes it appear that this number of Years was the whole time that the Children of Israel were in Pilgrimage till they came to their own Country but in Egypt their stay was but Two hundred and ten Years which Gloss agrees not well with
by our Lord because they affected the uppermost Seats at Table and the Chief Places in the Synagogues The principal Reason whereon they rely who bestow Degrees after this manner is that when Scholars are sensible that each of them shall be Rewarded according to the Trial they shall give of themselves they will scarce spare time from their Study to Sleep or Eat Which would cease were there no Recompence for him that takes Pains or Chastisement for him that mis-spends his time in Laziness and Loytering But this is a slender reason and a Colour for it presupposes a very great Falshood which is that Science is attained by poring much on Books by being taught by the best Masters and never missing a Lesson But they observe not that if the Scholar has not Wit and a Genius requisite to the Science he applies to it is in vain he beats his Brains Day and Night amongst his Books And the mistake is such that if these two differences of Wit so opposite to each other are in Competition one man because he is very quick without Study or seeing a Book gains Learning in a moment and the other being dull and heavy labours all his Life long without attaining the least Knowledge And the Judges as Men proceed to give the first place to him whom Nature has qualified and who took no pains and the lowest degree to him that was Born without Wit and who studied hard As if one had become Learned by turning over Books and the other continued Ignorant thro' his own Carelesness And it fares as if a Prize were propos'd to two Runners of whom one had sound and nimble Heels and the other limped with one Leg. If the Universities admitted to the Study of the Sciences none but such as have proper Genius's for them and if all the Students were equal it would be very well done to Establish Rewards and Punishments for in this case there would be no doubt at all but he who was most Learned had taken most Pains and he that was least had complied with his Ease To the second Doubt we answer that as the Eyes stand in need of clearness to see Figures and Colours even so the Imagination has need of Light in the Brain to see the Ideas in the Memory It is a Light which neither the Sun nor Tapers give but only the Vital Spirits breed in the Heart and disperse throughout the Body Besides this you must know that Fear contracts the Spirits about the Heart and so leaves the Brain dark and all the other Parts of the Body chill'd And therefore Aristotle asks Why those that are afraid Stammer in their Speech and Tremble with their Hands and Lips To which he Answers that in Fear the Natural Heat flies to the Heart leaving all other Parts of the Body chill'd But we have already prov'd that Cold according to Galen's Opinion benums all the Faculties and Powers of the Soul and hinders them from the free Exercise of their Functions This being so it is easie to answer the second Doubt and it is that those who play at Chess are in fear of losing because it is a Game in which there is a Point of Honour and in which as we have said Fortune has no Part. The Vital Spirits then flying to the Heart the Imagination is nummed with the Cold and the Images are obscured and for these two Reasons the Gamester plays but very Awkwardly But the Lookers-on as they run no Risque are in no fear of losing thro' want of Skill and therefore see many Draughts that escape the Gamesters because their Imagination retains its Heat and the Figures illuminated by the Light of the Vital Spirits True it is that too much Light blinds the Imagination which happens when he that Plays is ashamed and out of Countenance to see his Adversary beat him Then through very Indignation Natural Heat increases and illuminates more than it should of which the Standers-by are free as being unconcerned From this springs an Effect very common in the World which is that when a Man would muster up all his Forces and make his Knowledge and Ability more Conspicuous then it is that he quits himself worst of all There are others on the contrary who being put to it make a great show and with this great Flourish know Nothing Of all which the Reason is very plain for he that has abundance of Natural Heat in his Head if he be set for a Task an Exercise for instance the Disputation he is to get in twenty four hours time as is done in Spain to all those who Dispute for a Vacant Place a part of the Excess of Natural Heat retires to his Heart so that the Brain remains Temperate In this Disposition as we shall prove in the following Chapter many things offer themselves to a Man to say But he that is very knowing and of a good Understanding when he is hard put to it through Fear retains not the Natural Heat in his Head so that for want of Light he has nothing in his Memory left to say If this were duly considered by them that Censure the Actions of Generals of Armies blaming their Steps and the Orders they give in their Camp they would see what difference there is between looking on a Fight out of a Window and breaking a Launce before it and the Apprehension of the Loss of an Army upon the Spot No less inconvenience Fear in the Physitians produces in Curing for his Practice as we have proved elsewhere belongs to the Imagination which is prejudiced by Cold more than any other Power in as much as it's Operation consists altogether in Heat And so we see by experience that the Physitians Cure the Common People better than Princes and great Lords A Lawyer ask't me one day knowing well that I treated of Invention why in the Cause he was well feed Law Cases and Points of Law come readily into his Thoughts but where the Cause was starved it seemed that all his Law was lost To which I Answered that matters of Interest belonged to the irascible Faculty which resides in the Heart and which if it be not satisfied does not so chearfully furnish Vital Spirits by whose Light the Figures that are in the Memory may appear but when the same is contented it liberally affords that Natural Heat by which the Rational Soul has sufficient clearness to read all that is Written in the Head This defect attends Men of great Understanding who are interessed and selfish and in such may be discerned that Property of the Lawyer But when all is well-weighed it seems no less than an Act of Justice that he be well Rewarded who labours in another Man's Vineyard The same reason holds for Physitians who being well gratified want no Store of Medicines otherwise their Art is starved as well as that of the Lawyer But here a matter of great Importance is to be noted namely that the good
be found in Spain Which makes me of opinion that Galen said excellently well that out of Greece Nature not so much as in a Dream makes a Man Temperate or with a Wit requisite for all the Sciences And the same Galen gives the reason of it saying that Greece is the most temperate Country in the World where the Heat of the Air exceeds not the Cold nor the Moist the Dry. Which Temperament makes the Men very Wise and capable of all the Sciences as may be proved considering the great number of illustrious Persons that appeared there Socrates Plato Aristotle Hippocrates Galen Theophrastus Demosthenes Homer Thales the Milesian Diogenes the Cynic Solon and infinite other wise Men of whom the Historians make mention and whose works we find replenished with all Sciences Not as the Writers of other Countries who if they treat of Physic or any Science it is a wonder if they make use of any other sort of Science in their Aid or Favour All of them are beggarly unadorned as wanting a Wit capable of all the Arts. But what is most surprising in Greece is that notwithstanding Women's Wit is so repugnant to Learning as we shall hereafter prove there have been so many Grecian Ladies so illustrious in the Sciences that they have come in competition with the most rational Men even so we read of Leontia a very learned Woman who writ against Theophrastus the greatest Philosopher of his time taking notice of several errors of his in Philosophy And if we reflect on all other Countries in the World we shall hardly find any Wit arise so considerable there The reason whereof is they live in Intemperate places which makes the Men dull of a slow Wit and ill Dispositions And therefore Aristotle asks Whence it comes that the Inhabitants of over-Hot or over-Cold Countries are for the most part fierce in Countenance and Conditions To which Problem he Answers very well saying that the good Temperament not only gives the good Grace of the Body but also Conduces to the Wit and Ability and in like manner as the Excesses of Heat and Cold hinder Nature from producing Men fair and well figured even so they renvers the harmony of the Soul and blunt a Mans Wit Of this the Greeks were well aware who call'd all other Nations in the World Barbarians in regard of their Incapacity and slender Knowledge And so we see of so many as are Born and Study out of Greece if they are Philosophers not one of them Approaches near to Aristotle or Plato if Physitians to Hippocrates or Galen if Orators to Demosthenes if Poets to Homer and so in the other Arts and Sciences the Greeks have ever held the first Rank without any contradiction At least Aristotle's Problem may be very well verified in the Greeks because in reality they are the goodliest Men in the World and of the most excellent Wit were it not for their living in Disgrace and Servitude being oppreses'd by Arms and ill treated by coming under the Turks who hath banished all Learning from among them driving the University of Athens to Paris where it remains to this day And so for want of cultivating these excellent Wits whereof we spoke come to be lost In other Countries out of Greece though Schools and Exercises of Learning are not wanting yet no eminent Man has appeared among them The Physitian thinks he has gone far enough if he knows what Hippocrates and Galen have delivered and the Natural Philosopher thinks there is no more Knowledg but what is had from Understanding Aristotle Notwithstanding this it is no general Rule that all who are born in Greece must of necessity be Wise and well tempered and the rest distempered and Fools For the same Galen reports of Anacharsis who was a Scythian that he appeared of an admirable Wit among the Greeks tho' he was a Barbarian with whom a Philosopher that was a Native of Athens contending said Go thou Barbarian To which Anacharsis answered My Country is a disgrace to me and thou art a disgrace to thy Country From intemperate Scythia the Country of so many Fools I alone am come Wise and thou who wert born at Athens the Nursery of Wit and Knowledge wer 't never other than an Assâ— So that we need not despair of meeting this good Temperament nor reckon it impossible to find it out of Greece particularly in Spain which is not so Intemperate a Country for by the same Reason that I have found one of these there there may be many more that never came to Knowledge and which I have not been able to find out It may be convenient then to shew the Signs by which a well tempered Man is known to the end where such a one is he may not be Hidden Many Signs have the Physitians set down to discover this difference of Wit but the principal and those that best give Notice of it are the following The first in the words of Galen is to have the Hair Nut-brown between fair and red which proceeding from Age to Age comes to show more Golden And the reason of it is clear for the Material Cause of Hair is as Physitians hold a gross vapour rising from the digestion performed by the Brain at the instant of it's Nourishment For such as this Member is such is the colour of the Excrements if there enter much Flegm in the composition of the Brain the Hair will be fair if much Choler yellow as Saffron but when these two Humors are found equally mixt the Brain remains temperate in hot cold moist and dry and the Hair brown and participating or two Extreams It is true that Hippocrates says that that colour in those who live in the North as the English Flemmings and Germans issues from a Whiteness dryed with over much Cold and not from the Reason we have mentioned So that this sign is very deceitful The second Mark that he ought to have who has this difference of Wit Galen says is to be well-shaped airy agreeable and pleasant so as the Sight takes pleasure in beholding him as a Figure of rare Perfection And the Reason of it is clear for if Nature be strong and have a Seed well tempered she duly makes of all things capable the Best and most Accomplished in the Kind but being somewhat disabled she employs most of her Labour in the formation of the Brain because that is the chief residence of the Rational Soul rather than any other part of the Body Accordingly we see many Men vast and deformed but yet of excellent Wits The bulk of Body which a Temperate Man ought to have as Galen says is not a thing precisely determined by Nature because he may be tall short or of a middle Stature in proportion to the quantity of temperate Seed he had in time of his formation But for what regards the Wit the Middle-size is bettet amongst Temperate Men than over-tall or short And
Effects these Qualities produce in Women we may distinguish them more or less and thus it will be easy to understand the same First by the Wit and Ability of the Woman Secondly by her Manners and Conditions Thirdly by the Shrillness or Harshness of her Voice In the fourth place by her being Fat or Lean. In the fifth place by her Colour In the sixth by her Hair And lastly by her Fairness or Foulness As to the first you are to know that though it be true as we have elsewhere prov'd that Woman's Wit and Ability follows the Temperament of the Brain and no other part nevertheless the Matrix and the Testicles are of that force and vigor to alter the Body that if they are hot and dry or cold and moist or any other Temperament whatever Galen affirms all the other Parts will observe the same Temper But the Part that depends most upon the alterations of the Womb according the Opinion of all Physitians is the Brain though they discover not the reason upon which they ground so great a Correspondence True it is that Galen proves by experience that if a Sow be Splay'd she immediately becomes sweet and fat her Flesh tender and savoury But if she be not Splay'd her Flesh is like that of a Dog Whence may be known that the Matrix and Testicles are of great efficacy to communicate their Temperament to all other parts of the Body especially to the Brain which is cold and moist as they are Between which because of the Resemblance the Communication is the easier Now if we agree that Cold and Moist are the Qualities that impair the Rational Soul as their Contraries Hot and Dry render it more perfect and improve it we shall find that a Woman that shews much Wit and Ability will be cold and moist in the first Degree and if she be very silly she is in the third Degree but if she participates equally of the two Extreams it shews she is in the second Degree For to imagin that a Woman may be hot and dry and not have the Wit and Ability attending these two Qualities is a gross Mistake For if the Seed of which she is formed had been hot and dry in predominance she would have been born a Man and not a Woman but because the Seed was cold and moist she was born a Woman and not a Man The Truth of this Doctrin will clearly appear if we consider the Wit of the first Woman that lived in the World for though God made her with his own Hands and the most perfect and accomplished of her Sex yet it is concluded for certain that she was much less knowing than Adam Of which the Devil being sensible set himself to tempt her not daring to attempt the Man being apprehensive of his great Wit and Knowledge for to say that for her Offence that was taken from Eve what she wanted in Knowledge to equal Adam cannot be affirmed because as yet she had not offended The reason then why the first Woman had not so much Wit is because she was created by God cold and moist which is the necessary Temperament to be fruitful and to have Children and that which is opposite to Knowledge For if she had been Temperate as Adam she had been very Wise but could not have had Children nor her Terms but by some preternatural way Upon this Constitution of the Woman St. Paul grounded when he orders Let the Woman learn in silence with all subjection But I suffer not a Woman to teach nor to usurp Authority over the Man but to be in Silence This is to be understood when a Woman has not the Spirit or greater Grace than her Natural Disposition But if it comes to her from Heaven she may boldly Speak and Teach For we know that the Israelites being oppressed and besieged by the Assyrians Judith a very wise Woman sent for the Priests of Chabry and Charmy and blamed them in these words How can it be endured that Ozias should say if Succour comes not within five days he will deliver the People of Israel into the Hands of the Assyrians See you not that such words provoke God to Anger and not to Mercy How dare Men be so bold to set a Term to the Goodness of God and to assign according to their Fancy the Day in which he is to Succour and Deliver them And in the close of her Reproof she shewed them after what manner they should appease God and Obtain from him what they Desired Debora a Woman no less wise taught the Israelites how they should give Thanks to God for the great Victories gained over their Enemies But when a Woman stays within the limits of her Natural Disposition all sort of Sciences and Letters are repugnant to her Wit Therefore the Catholic Church with great reason has forbid any Woman to Preach Confess or Teach inasmuch as their Sex admits not Wisdom or Discipline By the Manners of a Woman and her Conditions we may discover in what degrees of Cold and Moist her Temperament consists for if with a sharp Wit she appears Touchy Pettish and Disagreeable 't is a sign she is Cold and Moist in the first Degree it being true that we have before proved that a bad Humour is always attended with a good Imagination She that obtains this Degree of cold and moist will let nothing pass finds fault with every thing and so becomes insupportable Such are good Company and are not shy to be among Men nor do they account him an ill-lover that talks to them of Gallantries On the contrary when a Woman is of a good Humour and takes nothing to Heart but Laughs at a Feather lets things pass as they come and sleeps soundly it shews she is cold and moist in the third Degree inasmuch as an easy Humour is usually attended with little Wit She who participates of the two Extreams is in the second Degree A Voice strong gross and harsh in the Opinion of Galen is a Mark of great Heat and Dryness which we have also prov'd before from the Opinion of Aristotle From whence we conclude that if a Woman has a Masculine Voice she is cold and moist in the first Degree and if it be very shrill in the third Degree And if she partakes of the two Extreams she will have an Effeminate Voice and be in the second Degree How much the Voice depends on the Temperament of the Testicles shall hereafter be prov'd where we treat of the Marks of a Man Much Flesh also in Women is an indication of much Cold and Moisture inasmuch as the Physitians hold that 't is from thence that other Creatures are Fat and Fleshy On the contrary to be Lean and Meager is a mark of little Cold and Moisture and to be in moderate plight not over-fat nor over-lean is an evident Sign that the Woman is cold and moist in the second Degree The hardness and softness of the
serous Humour which the Veins receive is from the Water we Drink And that the Water causes a greater Alteration in the Body than the Air Aristotle proves where he demands Why the change of Water makes so great a Change in our Health and if we breath a contrary Air we are not sensible of it To which he Answers That Water gives Nourishment to our Bodies but Air not But he had no reason to Answer after this manner for the Air according to the opinion of Hippocrates yields Nourishment and Substance as well as Water And therefore Aristotle devised a better Answer when he said That no Place or Country has its peculiar Air for that which is now in Flanders upon a North Wind rising will travel in two or three days to Africa and that which is there if the South Wind blows will veer about to the North and that which is to day in Jerusalem will be carried by an Easterly Wind even to the West Indies Which fares not so in Waters for they spring not all out of the same Earth and so each People have their particular Water agreeable to the Mineral whence it springs and through which it passes And a Man us'd to one sort of Water drinking another is altered more than by new Meats or Air. So that Fathers who desire to get very wise Children should drink delicate sweet and well temper'd Waters else they will lose their Aim Aristotle advises us at the time of Generation to beware of the South Wind because it is gross and moistens the Seed and causes a Girl to be got and not a Boy And as to the West he can never praise it enough nor give it Names and Epithets sufficiently Honorable He terms it Temperate Fatner of the Earth coming from the Elysian Fields But though truly it imports much to breath very delicate Air and that of good Temperament and to drink such Waters nevertheless it is yet more necessary for our design to eat delicate Meats and of the Temperament requisite for Wit for of these Meats is made the Blood and of the Blood the Seed and of the Seed the Child And if the Meat be delicate and of good Temperament such also is the Blood and of such Blood such Seed and of such Seed such Brains And if they be Temperate and compos'd of a delicate and subtil Substance Galen says that the Wit will be the same because the Rational Soul though it be incorruptible ever sympathizes with the Dispositions of the Brain which not being such as are requisite for Reason and Discourse it says and does a thou-Impertinences The Meats then Fathers are to eat to beget Boys of good Understanding which is the difference of Wit most ordinary in Spain are first white Bread made of Wheat-Flower and seasoned with Salt this is cold and dry and of Parts very subtil and delicate Another sort is made says Galen of red or small Wheat which indeed nourishes much making Men big-limb'd and of great bodily Force but notwithstanding is moist and of very gross Parts and destroys the Understanding I said seasoned with Salt because of all the Meats in use among Men none makes the Understanding so good as this Fossile It is cold and of more Dryness than any thing else and if we remember Heraclitus's saying he says as much A dry Light is the Wise Mind By which he would give us to understand that the Dryness of the Body makes the wisest Soul And since Salt is so dry and so appropriate to Wit it is not without reason Holy Writ gives it the Appellation of Prudence and Wisdom But you must chuse Salt that is extreamly white and that salts not much because that is compos'd of subtil and very delicate Parts and on the contrary the black is very Earthy and Ill-temper'd and salts more in small quantity What important effects Salt causes being cast upon Meats not only those taken by Men and Beasts but also by Plants Plato noted when he said That Salt not only gives relish and pleasure to the Palate but gives a formal Being to Meats to the end they may Nourish There is but one fault and that is a great one it is upon the failing of that there is nothing left in the World to supply it's Place All other things made use of by Man in this Life have their Deputy if we may so call it when they chance to fail Salt alone stands for the end it was ordained For if we want Wheaten-Bread there is Barly-Bread Rye Oaten and other Kinds and if Wine fails us there is Water Beer Milk Cyder and Perry and if we have no Cloth to cover us there are Beasts Skins with which God cloathed our first Parents when he drove them out of the Earthly Paradise nay also Cloth of Linnen Silk Canvas and other Matters And so if they should run through other things we shall find that they all have a supply for their Defect Salt excepted which was made for that use alone to which we put it To which property our Lord alludes in the Gospel when he said to his Disciples Ye are the Salt of the Earth but if the Salt have lost it's Savour wherewith shall it be Salted or as another Gospel says Wherewith shall it be seasoned To give them to understand that if they who are the Salt are corrupted or unsavoury there is no other thing can Season them as if it had said Who can find a Remedy for an Enchanter The Gospel might have said ye are the Wheaten Bread of my Church to dispense and administer the Spiritual Food and Doctrin to the Faithful and if you cast your selves away with what other thing shall I sustain my People They might have answered him with Barly-Bread as you did in the Desart But because nothing can Supply the Place of Salt God took it and chose it to let the Apostles understand what was their Duty Physitians say That Salt ordinarily heats dissolves penetrates dries collects and separates the Substance of Bodies to which it is Applied Which Properties he is to have that is the Salt of the Church and such effects ought he to produce in the Christian Auditory that is a good Preacher If not let him that has a little Wit run through these properties and he will see how much it is to the purpose that God calls Preachers by the name of Salt But neither the natural Philosophers nor others that have searched into the properties of this Fossile have observed one thing which is that if we would Unsalt in a little time that which is very Salt throwing Salt thereon to a certain degree and quantity and for a certain time it abates of its Saltness and if it exceeds it all turns to Brine Of which if any one would try the Experiment he shall find that salt Fish put to freshen in Sea-Water for a certain time shall sooner freshen than in Fresh-Water And if two pieces
and Quantity makes a Man reason much better than before They call it the Confection of Wise Men or rather Confectio Anacardina in which as may be learn'd from the Receipt is put fresh Butter of Cows and Honey from which two Ingredients the Greeks have said that they who use it shall have their Understandings much sharpened but if the other Drugs that compose it be considered without doubt they are very hot and dry utterly destroying the Understanding and Memory though it cannot be denyed but that they render them more brisk to speak and answer to the purpose with sharp Repartees and pretty Simile's to Redicule and Banter and that they incline the most part of those that use them to make Verses and to other Talents which elevate the Wit of Man into Raptures Now as the People know not how to distinguish nor to make a Difference between the Works of the Understanding and those of the Imagination when they observe those that have taken this Confection speak more subtilly than they us'd they say they have acquired more Understanding which is not so in Effect but on the contrary they have lost what they had and have only got a kind of Knack that is not good for a Man to have which Cicero called Fineness which is a Skill contrary to Honesty As often as I fell upon this passage in Genesis that says Who told thee that thou wast Naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat It came to my Mind that the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had a natural Property to give more Knowledge and Reflection to him that eat of it but that that Knowledge was not so convenient for Man and God would not that he should possess it because it was of that kind of Knowledge of which St. Paul spoke The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God But considering the sacred Scripture has so deep a Sense and those that know little often deceive themselves much in sticking to the Letter I many times wave that Thought till in the end the same Difficulty returning so often to my Mind I resolved to read what I could meet with in the Commentators upon the Place to see if some One of them was not of my Opinion and soon after reading in the Antiquities of Josephus I found that he said that the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil quicken'd the use of Reason and sharpen'd the Understanding and in regard of this Property it had this Name as the other that of the Tree of Life because it made the Man Immortal that eat of its Fruit. This Exposition and Opinion nevertheless is not at all received by Nicholas de Lyra for he conceited that the Fruit of a Tree that was Material could not affect the Human Understanding which is wholly Spiritual Abulensis do's not absolutely admit the Instance of Nicholas de Lyra but with Distinction Tho' said he the Human Understanding be a Spiritual Power that acts not with Corporeal Instruments yet for all that the Understanding cannot apprehend any thing but by making use of some other Organic Powers which if they have a good Temperament much assist the Understanding if not they only serve to Deceive it But so it is that the Fruit of that Tree was able to introduce such a Temperament in the Brain that the Man might come to be more Knowing But that the good or bad Temperament of the Food could assist or hurt his Wisdom he proves from this place in Holy Writ I framed a design in my Heart to wean my Flesh from Wine to the end my Wit might bend with more disposition to Wisdom He quotes Aristotle also in his Books of Physiognomy where he saies that the alterations the Body suffers by reason of the Meats a Man receives and the Temperament of the Region where he dwells like as other things which are us'd to change and alter the Body pass even to the Rational Soul and therefore he saies that Men inhabiting in an extreme hot Country are wiser than those that live in very cold Regions and Vegetius affirms that those who live under the fith Climate as the Spaniards Italians and Greeks are Men of great Wit and of great Spirit According to which Doctrin it may well be that the Fruit of the Tree had such Efficacy to alter the Organic Powers of the Body which serve to better Reasoning And because Adam was very Wise and had no need of any other Science God establisht a Law and laid a Command touching this Fruit to preserve it for his Successors who in their Infancy eating of the same might quicken the use of their Reason But the Words of the Text bear not all this last Exposition for take them right and consider them as they lie the Fruit of the Tree by it's Virtue and Efficacy had opened their Corporeal Eyes and had taught them what they knew not And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were Naked Which is yet more clearly proved if we weigh well the Words spoke by God to the Man when he found him Ashamed to see his Nakedness Who told thee that thou wer 't Naked hast thou eaten of that Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou should'st not eat Bishop Nemesius in the Book he writ of the Nature of Man fairly confesses that the Fruit of that Tree had a Natural Property to give Wisdom and that it really taught Adam what he knew not at all and that this was not only found out at the Beginning of the World when the Aliments had so much Virtue to alter the Body of Man But even at this Hour tho' they are corrupted by so long a Course of Time there is abundance of Fruit can do it and because it was not to the purpose that our First Parents should entirely know their Nature nor what things they stood in need of God laid his Command of the Tree whose property was to cast Man upon the care of the Body and to draw him from the Contemplation of the Soul This Exposition is agreeable to Natural Philosophy of which we treat for there is no Aliment especially among Fruits that are for Food which have a Medicinal Virtue which affect not the Brain according to the saying of Hippocrates that the Faculty of Food reaches the Brain and introduces in Man the Ability that bears the Temperament which it produces in the Head as it happens in Wine which when it is drank to a certain quantity makes a Man Witty but if in Excess it makes him a Fool and Mad. But it is not to be imagined that the Fruit of the Forbidden-Tree gave immediately Habits of Knowledge as Lyranus thought it gave only a Temperament accomodated to such a kind of Knowledge by means of which Man came so soon to know some things he never dreamt of But that the Fruit of the Tree had the property to
open the Eyes is not to be denied seeing the Text says that eating of the Fruit their Eyes were opened and they knew that they were Naked I said that it had the property to open the Eyes because as we have elsewhere prov'd if the Imagination lend not it's Assistance to the Exterior Senses not one of them can act which is what Hippocrates said that let a grievous Pain be inflicted on any by Cautery or Amputation of a Hand and if he preceives nothing of it it is an infallible sign that his Imagination is distracted in some profound Amusement or Madness for as we have said if the Imagination contribute not it's Assistance to the Touch and other Exterior Senses no Sensation can be perform'd of which we can alledge abundance of Instances in things that happen every Day among us but that which Plutarch reports of Archimedes will render it sufficiently intellegible This Archimedes was a Man endu'd with so strong an Imagination to invent and make War-like Engines that for this Reason he was more formidable alone to the Enemies than a whole Army and his Wit was in so high esteem among the Romans that Marcellus holding the City of Syracuse besieged wherein Archimedes was before he made his Entry publish'd throughout the Camp that no Soldier should presume to kill Archimedes upon pain of Death imagining that he could not show Rome a more noble Spoil than in bringing thither so Great a Man They recount of him that he was so employed about his Engins and had his Eyes so fixt on the Earth where he had drawn some Schemes of his own Invention that he neither saw nor heard as others did what past in the City in the time of Battel For a Roman Soldier being come up to him askt him if he were not Archimedes and after asking him the same several times the other making him no Answer his Thoughts being otherwise deeply engaged this Soldier affronted to see a Man so Stupid in his Opinion slew him According to this it is certain that our First Parents before they Sinn'd were wholly engaged in the Meditation and Contemplation of Divine Things losing all thought of those of the World And tho' they went Naked they were scarce Sensible of it and we may say that their Eyes were closed because tho' it was true that they were open and the Visive Faculty very sound and intire nevertheless because the Imagination was diverted elsewhere and absent they remain'd as it were Blind since they had no use of their Eyes Now this Fruit was of such Virtue that it drew the Imagination out of it's deep Meditation and brought it down and fixt it on the Sight Which these words plainly signify that God spoke to them as soon as they eat of the Fruit Who told thee that thou wast Naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Which I did we may add for thy Good and Satisfaction and because it was more convenient that thou shouldst not know what thou now knowest We have observ'd in the other part if I remember well two kinds of Wisdom one belonging to the Understanding under which are contain'd all the things Man does with Uprightness and Simplicity without Error without Lying or Deceit Which Wisdom Demosthenes prais'd to the Judges in an Oration he made against Eschines conceiving that the best Title he could give them to gain their Good-will was to call them just and simple Thus the holy Writ has term'd a Man wise and vertuous as Job was a just Man and upright because double and deceitful Hearts are not at all Friends of God A double-minded Man is unstable in all his ways There is another kind of Wisdom in Man belonging to the Imagination of which Plato said That what Men compass with Wiles and Tricks and against which Reason and Justice dictate merits not to be called by the Name of Wisdom but rather of Fineness and of Craft Such was the Discourse the unjust Steward made to himself of whom St. Luke speaks when he said There was a certain Rich Man that had a Steward and the same was accused to him that he had wasted his Goods and he call'd him and said unto him how is it that I hear this of thee Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou mayest be no longer Steward Then the Steward said within himself what shall I do for my Lord has taken away from me the Stewardship I cannot dig to beg I am ashamed I am resolved what to do that when I am put out of the Stewardship they may receive me into their Houses c. By which means he so ordered Matters that the sacred Text saies The Lord commended the unjust Steward for he had done wisely for the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light In which words two differences of Wisdom and Prudence are observ'd one saies the Text belongs to the Children of Light which is attended with Justice and Vprightness and the other to the Children of this World which is only Craft and Deceit Now the Children of Light are very little skill'd in Worldly Wisdom and the Children of this World yet less in the Wisdom of Light Whilst Adam was in favour he was a Child of Light and exceeding Wise in this first kind of Wisdom and for his greater Perfection God had made him ignorant as to the second kind of Wisdom in as much as it was less Convenient for him Now the Tree had so much Power to give the Wisdom of this World that there was occasion to forbid him the Use of it's Fruit to the end he might live without care of the Necessities or the Body as said Nemesius and that he might be wholly engaged in the Contemplations of the Rational Soul The Difficulty is to know why this Tree was called the Tree of Knowledge of Good since the Prudence and Wisdom it communicated more regarded Evil than Good To this is answer'd that both the two Sciences are for Good when they are used in due Time and Place and thus Jesus Christ recommended them to his Disciples when he sent them to Preach throughout the World Behold I send you as Sheep amongst Wolves be ye Wise as Serpents and Innocent as Doves We ought to make use of Wisdom as a Defence against Evils that may be done us but not to Offend any Besides this the Moral Philosophers say that the self-same thing may be called Good or Bad in one of these three Respects either as Honest or Profitable or Pleasant For Example the slight of the unjust Steward which we mention'd was good in regard of the Profit seeing he remain'd with his Masters Money and ill in as much as it was against Honesty in taking to himself what belong'd to his Master As for Adam's care of covering himself and being Asham'd to see himself Naked before God after having violated his Command we understand
beside introduced by some skilful Physicians for the good of Infants And no less spoke the Prophet Ezech. And as for thy Nativity in the day thou wast born thy Navel was not cut neither wast thou washt in Water to supple thee thou wast not Salted at all nor Swadled at all But as touching the Rest so soon as he was Born he began to make Friendship with the Cold and other Changes of the Air. His first Bed was on the Earth and he was poorly Clad as if he would observe Hippocrates's Receipt A few Days after they went with him to Egypt a place very hot where he remained all the time that Herod liv'd His Mother going after this manner could not but give him a Milk well excercis'd and made in all Changes of Air. The Meat they gave him was the same the Greeks prescrib'd to give Wit and Wisdom to their Children This as we said before was the Butterish part of the Milk eat with Honey And so said Esaias Butter and Honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good From which Words it appears that the Prophet gives us to understand that tho' he was the true God he was jointly a perfect Man And that to acquire Natural Wit he was to use the same Means as other of the Sons of Men. Tho' this is difficult to conceive and is very strange to think that in as much as Christ our Redeemer eat Butter and Honey being a Child he should thenceforward know how to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good when Adult God being as he is of infinite Wisdom and having given him as he was Man all the infus'd Knowledge he could receive according to his Natural Capacity Therefore it is certain he knew all out as much in his Mothers Womb as when he arriv'd at thirty three Years of Age without eating Butter and Honey or borrowing help from any Natural Means requisite for Human Wisdom All this notwithstanding it is of great Force that the Prophet should assign him the same Food the Greeks and Trojans were accustomed to give their Children to render them Witty and Wise And for that he says That he may know to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good we are to understand that by means of these Aliments Christ our Redeemer as he was Man obtain'd more exquisite Wisdom than he should have possess'd had he used other contrary Meats For so there is need to explain the particle That to know what he meant when he spoke in those Terms We are to presuppose then that in Christ our Redeemer there were two Natures as the Truth is and our Faith teaches the one Divine as he was God and the other Human compounded of a Rational Soul and Elementary Body so dispos'd and organiz'd as other of the Sons of Men. As concerning the first Nature we are not to treat of the Wisdom of our Lord Christ because it was Infinite without Increase or Diminution and without depending on any other thing more than his being God and so he was as Wise in his Mothers Womb as he was at thirty three Years of Age and even as he was from all Eternity But as to what concerns his second Nature you are to know that the Soul of Christ from the instant that God created it was as Happy and Glorious as it is at this Day and since it enjoyed God and his Wisdom sure it is that there was no Ignorance in him but that he had so much Infus'd Knowledge as his Natural Capacity was capable of But withal it is no less certain that according as Glory did not communicate it self to all the Parts of the Body in respect of the Redemption of Mankind no more did Wisdom Infused communicate it self for the Brain was not dispos'd and organiz'd with the Qualities and Substance necessary to the end the Soul might with such an Instrument Discourse and Philosophise For if you call to mind what we delivered in the beginning of this Work that the Graces gratis given which God bestowed upon Men do require ordinarily that the Instrument with which they are to be exercis'd and the Subject into which they are to be received contain the Natural Qualities requisite for every such Grace And the reason is because the Rational Soul is an Act of the Body and works not without the Mediation of Corporal Organs The Brain of our Lord Christ when a Child and New-born had much Moysture for at that Age it is but requisite and a Natural Thing but through exceeding in Quantity his Rational Soul could not naturally Discourse or Philosophise with such an Instrument And so Infus'd Knowledge passed neither to the Corporal Memory nor to the Imagination nor Understanding because those three are Organic Powers as we have already prov'd and enjoy not their due Perfection But the Brain drying with Time and riper Age the Rational Soul daily discover'd more and more the Infus'd Knowledge it had and Communicated the same to the Corporal Faculties Now besides this Supernatural Knowledge it had also another gathered from things Children hear see smell tast and touch and this is certain our Lord Christ attained like other of the Sons of Men. And like as to see things clearly he stood in need of good Eyes and for hearing of Sounds of good Ears so also he stood in need of a good Brain to distinguish between Good and Evil. And so it is sure that by eating such delicate Meats his Head was daily better organiz'd and obtained more Wisdom After such a manner as if God had taken from him Infus'd Knowledge thrice in the Course of his Life to find what he had Acquir'd we shall find that at Ten Years he knew more than at Five at Twenty more than at Ten and at Thirty Three more than at Twenty And that this Doctrin is true and Catholic the very Letter of the Text of the Gospel proves saying And Jesus encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man Of many Catholic Senses which Holy Writ may bear I ever esteem that that follows the Letter better than that which takes away from the Terms and Words their Natural Import What Qualities and Substance the Brain ought to have we have already noted from the Opinion of Heraclitus that Dryness makes the Wisest Soul and from Galen's Opinion we have prov'd that the Brain compos'd of a very delicate Substance makes a very fine Wit This Dryness our Lord acquir'd by Age because from the Day of our Birth to that of our Death we daily grow to more Dryness and waste of Flesh and so to greater Knowledge The subtile and delicate parts of his Brain were improv'd by eating the Meats mention'd by the Prophet Esaias For if every Moment there be need of new Nourishment and Repair of the lost Substance and this is to be effected with Meats and no other way sure it is that if he had always