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312 in real Truth, and according to all Probability of Reafon, intire and perfect Gods, in receiving a moft happy ⚫ and glorious End.' But whoever defires to fee him, the Man, I fay, who is yet the most Sober and Moderate of the whole Tribe of Philofophers, lay about him with greater Boldness, and relate his Miracles upon this Subject, I refer him to this Treatife of the Moon, and his Dæmon of Socrates, where he may, more evidently than in any other Place whatever, fatisfy himself, that the Mysteries of Philofophy have many strange Things in common with thofe of Poefy; the Human Understanding lofing itself, in attempting to found and fearch all Things to the Bottom: Even as we, tired and worn out with a long Course of Life, relapfe into Infancy. Thus much for the fine and certain Inftructions, which we extract from human

Variety of Ofinions as to the Matter that produces the Human Body.

Science concerning the Soul. Neither is there lefs Temerity in what it teaches us touching our corporeal Parts. Let us fingle out one or two Examples; for otherwife we fhould lofe ourselves in this vaft and troubled Ocean of medicinal Errors. We would first know, whether, at least, they agree about the Matter, whereof Men produce one another. For, as to their firft Production, it is no Wonder, if, in a Thing fo fublime, and fo long fince paft, human Understanding finds itself puzzled and distracted. Archelaus the Naturalift, whofe Disciple and Favourite Socrates was, according to Ariftoxenus, faid, That" both Men and Beafts were 'made of a lacteous Slime, produced by the Heat of the Earth.' Pythagoras fays, That" our Seed is the Froth or Cream of our better Blood.' Plato, That it is the Diftillation of the Marrow of the Back-Bone;' and he raises his Arguments from this, That that Part is first fen• fible of Laffitude in the A&t.' Alcmeon, That it is y Part of the Subftance of the Brain; and that it is fo, Says he, appears from the Weakness of the Eyes, in those who are overmuch addicted to that Exercife.' Democritus, That it is a Subftance extracted from the whole • Mafs

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"Diogenes Laertius in the Life of Archelaus, lib. ii. fect. 17.

w Plutarch. de Placitis Philofophorum, lib. v. c. 3.

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Idem, ibid. y Idem, ibid. z Idem, ibid,

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Mafs of the Body.' Epicurus, That it is extracted from Soul and Body.' Ariftotle, That it is an Excrement drawn from the Aliment of the last Blood, which is diffused in our Members.' Others, That it confifts of the Blood concocted and digefted by the Heat of the Genitals;' which they judge to be fo, by reason that, in exceffive Efforts, a Man voids pure florid Blood; wherein there feems to be the more Likelihood, could any Likelihood be deduced from fo infinite a Confufion.

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Now, to bring this Seed to operate, how many contrary Opinions do they fet on Foot? Aristotle By what and Democritus are of Opinion, that Wo- Means the Seed men have no Sperm, and that 'tis nothing becomes prolibut a Sweat which the Heat of Pleafure fic.

and Motion draws from them, that contributes nothing at all to Generation.' Galen, on the contrary, and his Followers, believe, that, without the Concurrence of Seeds, there can be no Generation.'

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Time of Women's Pregnancy undetermin

ed.

Here are the Phyficians, the Philofophers, the Lawyers, and Divines, together by the Ears, with our Wives, about the Difpute, upon what Terms Women bear their Fruit: And I, for my Part, by what I know myself, fecond those of them that maintain a Woman goes eleven Months with Child. The World is built upon this Experience; there is not fo defpicable a Wife that cannot give her Judgment in all these Controverfies, and yet we cannot agree. This is enough to prove, that Man is no better instructed in the Knowledge of himself, in his corporeal, than in his fpiritual Part. We have propofed himself to himself, and his Reason to his Reafon, to fee what it would fay; and, I think, I have fufficiently demonstrated how little it underftands itfelf in itfelf: And he who understands not himself in himself, in what can he poffibly understand himself? Quafi verò menfuram ullius rei poffit

a Plutarch. de Placitis Philofophorum, lib. v. c. 3. b Idem, ibid. • Plutarch adds Zeno to Ariftotle, and fays exprefsly, that Democritus believed that the Females fhed their Seed. De Placitis Philofophorum, lib. v. c. 5. d Plin. Nat. Hist, lib. ii. c. 1.

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Book II. agere, qui fui nefciat. • As if he could understand the • Measure of any other Thing, that knows not his own.' In Earnest, Protagoras told us a pretty Flam, in making Man the Measure of all Things, who never knew so much as his own: If it be not he, his Dignity will not permit, that any other Creature should have this Advantage; Now, he being fo contrary in himself, and one Judgment fo inceffantly fubverting another, this favourable Propofition was but a Mockery, which induced us neceffarily to conclude the Nothingness of the Measure and the Measurer. When Thales reputes the Knowledge of Man very difficult for Man to attain to, he gives him to underftand, that it was impoffible for him to know any Thing else. You, for whom I have taken the Pains, contrary to my Cuftom, to write fo long a Difcourfe, will not refuse to maintain your Sebonde, by the ordinary Forms of arguing, wherewith you are every Day inftructed, and in this will exercise both your Wit and Study: For this last Rule, in Fencing, is never to be made ufe of, but as an extreme Remedy. 'Tis a defperate Thruft, wherein you are to quit your own Arms, to make your Adversary abandon his; and a fecret Sleight, which must be very rarely and cautiously put in Practice. 'Tis great Têmerity to ruin yourself, that you may destroy another; you muft not venture your Life, to be revenged, as Gobrias did For, being in close Combat with a Lord of Perfia, Darius coming in with his Sword in his Hand, and fearing to ftrike left he should wound Gobrias; he called out to him boldly to fall on, though he should run them both through at once. I have known the Arms and defperate Conditions of fingle Combat, wherein he, that offered them, put himself and his Adverfary upon Terms of inevitable Death to them both, cenfured for unjust. The Portuguefe, in the Indian Sea, took certain Turks Prifoners, who, impatient of their Captivity, refolved to blow up the Ship, with themfelves and Company; which they did accordingly, by ftriking the Nails of the Ship one against another, and making a Spark to fall into the Barrels of Powder that were fet in the Place, where they were guarded.

Apud Sext, Empiric, adverf, Mathem, p. 148,

guarded. We have here touched the utmost Limits of the Sciences, wherein the Extremity is vicious, as in Virtue : Keep yourselves in the common Road; it is not good to be fo fubtle and cunning: Remember the Tuscan Proverb.

Chi troppo s'affottiglia, fi fcavezza .

i. e.

He that spins his Thread too fine, will break it.

I advise you, in all your Opinions and Difcourfes, as well as in your Manners, and all other Things, to keep yourself in Moderation and Temperance, and to avoid Novelty. I am an Enemy to all extravagant Ways: You, who by the Authority you derive from your Grandeur, and yet more by the Advantages which those Qualities give you that are moft your own, can, with a Beckon, command whom you please, ought to have given this Caution to fome Profeffor of Letters, who might have proved and illuftrated thefe Things to you in quite another manner: But here is as much as you will stand in Need of.

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The Neceffity of Laws to keep Men in

Order.

Epicurus faid of the Laws, that the worst were so neceffary for us, that, without them, Men 'would devour one another.' And Plato proves, that, without Laws, we fhould live like Beafts. Our Wit is a rambling, dangerous, and rafh Tool; it is hard to affix any Rule or Measure to it: As for the Men of my Time, we see that almost all who are endued with any rare Excellence above others, and any extraordinary Vivacity, lafh out into a Licentiousness of Opinions and Manners; and 'tis a Miracle to find one that is Sober and Sociable. 'Tis right to confine human Wit within the ftricteft Limits poffible, In Study, as in all the reft, its Advances ought to be numbered and fixed, and the Limits of its Inquiry to be artfully marked. It is curbed and fettered by Religions, Laws, and Cuftoms, by Science, Precepts, Punishments and Rewards, mortal and immortal; and yet we fee, that, by its Volubility and Diffolutenefs, it efcapes from all

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Book II. thefe Bounds. 'Tis a thin Body, which has nothing to hold or handle it by; a various and shapeless Body, incapable of being either tied or touched. In Earneft, there are few Souls fo regular, firm, and well-bred, as to be trufted with their own Conduct; and that can, with Moderation, and without Temerity, fail in the Liberty of their own Judgments, beyond the common Opinions. 'Tis more expedient to put them under Guardianship : Wit is a dangerous Weapon, even to the Poffeffor, if he knows not how to use it difcreetly; and there is not a Beaft, for which a Head-board is more neceffary, to keep his Looks down, and before his Feet, and to hinder him from wandering, here and there, out of the Tracks, which Custom and the Laws have made for him. Therefore it will much better become you to keep yourfelf in the beaten Path, let it be what it will, than to take a Flight with fuch unbridled Licenfe. But if any of these new Doctors will pretend to be Ingenious in your Prefence, at the Expence both of your Soul and his own; in order to be fafe from this dangerous Plague, which spreads daily in your Way, this Prefervative, in the extremeft Neceffity, will prevent the Contagion of this Poifon from hurting either you or your Company.

The Sciences

are now efta

blished by the

Civil Autho

rity.

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The Liberty, therefore, and Gaiety of the ancient Wits, produced in Philofophy, and the human Sciences, feveral Sects of different Opinions, every one undertaking to judge and make Choice of his Party. But now that Men go all one Way: Qui certis quibufdam deftinatifque fententiis addilli et confecrati funt, ut etiam, quæ non probant, cogantur defendere: Who are fo devoted to certain • determined Articles of Belief, that they are bound to • defend even thofe they do not approve:' And now that we receive the Arts by Civil Authority and Decree, infomuch that the Schools have but one Pattern, and a like circumfcribed Inftitution and Difcipline, we no more take Notice what the Coin weighs, and is worth, but every one, in his Turn, receives it according to the Eftimate that the common Approbation and Currency puts upon it: The

Cic. Tufc. Quæft, lib. ii. c. 2.

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