The southern and western wind with us is the warmest, thereof the one bloweth from the sun, the other from the sea: the northern and eastern the more cold. Qu. Whether in the coast of Florida, or at Brasil, the east wind be not the warmest, and the west the coldest; and so beyond the antarctic tropic, the southern wind the coldest. The air useth to be extreme hot before thunders. The sea and air ambient, appeareth to be hotter than that at land; for in the northern voyages two or three degrees farther at the open sea, they find less ice than two or three degrees more south near land; but Qu. for that may be by reason of the shores and shallows. The snows dissolve fastest upon the sea-coasts, yet the winds are counted the bitterest from the sea, and such as trees will bend from. Qu. The streams or clouds of brightness which appear in the firmament, being such through which the stars may be seen, and shoot not, but rest, are signs of heat. The pillars of light, which are so upright, and do commonly shoot and vary, are signs of cold; but both these are signs of drought. Cold breaketh glasses, if they be close stopped, in frost, when the liquor freezeth within. Cold in extreme maketh metals, that are dry and brittle, cleft and crack, " Æraque dissiliunt;" so of pots of earth and glass. 66 Cold maketh bones of living creatures more fragile. Cold maketh living creatures to swell in the joints, and the blood to clot, and turn more blue. Bitter frosts do make all drinks to taste more dead and flat. Cold maketh the arteries and flesh more asper and rough. Cold causes rheums and distillations by compressing the brain, and laxes by like reason. Cold increases appetite in the stomach, and willingness to stir. Cold maketh the fire to scald and sparkle. Paracelsus reporteth, that if a glass of wine be set upon a terras in a bitter frost, it will leave some liquor unfrozen in the centre of the glass, which excelleth "spiritus vini" drawn by fire. Cold in Muscovy, and the like countries, causes those parts which are voidest of blood, as The air when it is moved is to the sense colder; the nose, the ears, the toes, the fingers, to mortify as in winds, fannings, ventilabra. The air in things fibrous, as fleeces, furs, &c. warm; and those stuffs to the feeling warm. The water to man's body seemeth colder than the air; and so in summer, in swimming it seemeth at the first going in; and yet after one hath been in a while, at the coming forth again, the air seemeth colder than the water. The snow more cold to the sense than water, and the ice than snow; and they have in Italy means to keep snow and ice for the cooling of their drinks. Qu. Whether it be so in froth in respect of the liquor? Baths of hot water feel hottest at the first going in. The frost dew which we see in hoar-frost, and in the rimes upon trees or the like, accounted more mortifying cold than snow; for snow cherisheth the ground, and any thing sowed in it: the other biteth and killeth. Stone and metal exceeding cold to the feeling more than wood: yea more than jet or amber, or horn, which are no less smooth. The snow is ever in the winter season, but the hail, which is more of the nature of ice, is ever in the summer season; whereupon it is conceived, that as the hollows of the earth are warmest in the winter, so that region of the air is coldest in the summer; as if they were a fugue of the nature of either from the contrary, and a collecting itself to an union, and so to a further strength. So in the shades under trees, in the summer, which stand in an open field, the shade noted to be colder than in a wood. Cold effecteth congelation in liquors, so as they do consist and hold together. which hefore did run. and rot; especially if you come suddenly to fire, | after you have been in the air abroad, they are sure to moulder and dissolve. They use for remedy, as is said, washing in snow water. If a man come out of a bitter cold suddenly to the fire, he is ready to swoon, or be overcome. So contrariwise at Nova Zembla, when they opened their door at times to go forth, he that opened the door was in danger to be overcome. The quantity of fish in the cold countries, Norway, &c. very abundant. The quantity of fowl and eggs laid in the cliffs in great abundance. In Nova Zembla they found no beasts but bears and foxes, whereof the bears gave over to be seen about September, and the foxes began. Meat will keep from putrifying longer in frosty weather, than at other times. In Iceland they keep fish, by exposing it to the cold, from putrifying without salt. The nature of man endureth the colds in the countries of Scricfinnia, Biarmia, Lappia, Iceland, Groenland; and that not by perpetual keeping in stoves in the winter time, as they do in Russia: but contrariwise, their chief fairs and intercourse is written to be in the winter, because the ice evens and levelleth the passages of waters, plashes, &c. A thaw after a frost doth greatly rot and mellow the ground. Extreme cold hurteth the eyes and causeth blindness in many beasts, as is reported. The cold maketh any solid substance, as wood. stone, metal, put to the flesh, to cleave to it, and to pull the flesh after it, and so put to any cloth that is moist. Cold maketh the pilage of beasts more thick | other countries, all being within three months or and long, as foxes of Muscovy, sables, &c. thereabouts. Qu. It is said, that compositions of honey, as mead, do ripen, and are most pleasant in the great colds. Cold maketh the pilage of most beasts incline to grayness or whiteness, as foxes, bears, and so the plumage of fowls; and maketh also the crests of cocks and their feet white, as is re- The frosts with us are casual, and not tied to ported. any months, so as they are not merely caused by Extreme cold will make nails leap out of the the recess of the sun, but mixed with some inferior walls, and out of locks, and the like. causes. In the inland of the northern countries, Extreme cold maketh leather to be stiff like as in Russia, the weather for the three or four horn. months of November, December, January, FebIn frosty weather the stars appear clearest and ruary, is constant, viz. clear and perpetual frost, most sparkling. without snows or rains. In the change from frost to open weather, or from open weather to frosts, commonly great mists. In extreme colds any thing never so little which arresteth the air maketh it to congeal; as we see in cobwebs in windows, which is one of the least and weakest threads that is, and yet drops gather about it like chains of pearl. There is nothing in our region, which, by approach of a matter hot, will not take heat by transition or excitation. There is nothing hot here with us but is in a kind of consumption, if it carry heat in itself; for all fired things are ready to consume; chafed things are ready to fire; and the heat of men's bodies needeth aliment to restore. The transition of heat is without any imparting of substance, and yet remaineth after the body So in frosts, the inside of glass windows gathereth a dew; Qu. if not more without. Qu. Whether the sweating of marble and stones heated is withdrawn; for it is not like smells, be in frost, or towards rain. Oil in time of frost gathereth to a substance, as of tallow; and it is said to sparkle some time, so as it giveth a light in the dark. The countries which lie covered with snow have a hastier maturation of all grain than in for they leave some airs or parts; not like light, for that abideth not when the first body is removed; not unlike to the motion of the loadstone, which is lent without adhesion of substance, for if the iron be filed where it was rubbed, yet it will draw or turn. A LETTER AND DISCOURSE TO SIR HENRY SAVILL, TOUCHING HELPS FOR THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS. SIR, place to practise it, and judgment and leisure to look deeper into it, than I have done. Herein you must call to mind "Apiorov pìv vówp. Though the argument be not of great height and dignity, nevertheless it is of great and universal use; and yet I do not see why, to consider it rightly, that should not be a learning of height, which teachcth to raise the highest and worthiest part of the mind. But howsoever that be, if the world take any light and use by this writing, I wil the gratulation be to the good friendship and acquaintance between us two. And so I commend you to God's divine protection. THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS. COMING back from your invitation at Eton, where I had refreshed myself with company which I loved, I fell into a consideration of that part of policy whereof philosophy speaketh too much and laws too little; and that is of education of youth. Whereupon fixing my mind a while, I found straightways, and noted even in the discourses of philosophers which are so large in this argument, a strange silence concerning one principal part of that subject. For as touching the framing and seasoning of youth to moral virtue, (as tolerance of labours, continency from pleasures, obedience, honour, and the like,) they handle it; but touching the improvement and helping A DISCOURSE TOUCHING HELPS FOR of the intellectual powers, as of conceit, memory, and judgment, they say nothing. Whether it were that they thought it to be a matter wherein I DID ever hold it for an insolent and unlucky nature only prevailed; or that they intended it as saying, "faber quisque fortunæ suæ," except it be referred to the several and proper arts which teach uttered only as an hortative or spur to correct sloth. the use of reason and speech. But for the former For otherwise if it be believed as it soundeth; of these two reasons, howsoever it pleaseth them and that a man entereth into an high imagination to distinguish of habits and powers, the experi- that he can compass and fathom all accidents; ence is manifest enough that the motions and fa- and ascribeth all successes to his drifts and culties of the wit and memory may be not only reaches, and the contrary to his errors and sleepgoverned and guided but also confirmed and en- ings. It is commonly seen that the evening forlarged by custom and exercise duly applied. As tune of that man is not so prosperous as of him if a man exercise shooting, he shall not only shoot that without slackening of his industry attributeth nearer the mark but also draw a stronger bow. much to felicity and providence above him. But And as for the latter of comprehending these pre- if the sentence were turned to this, "faber quiscepts within the arts of logic and rhetoric, if it que ingenii sui," it were somewhat more true be rightly considered, their office is distinct alto- and much more profitable; because it would teach gether from this point. For it is no part of the men to bend themselves to reform those imperfecdoctrine of the use or handling of an instrument to tions in themselves, which now they seek but to teach how to whet or grind the instrument to give cover; and to attain those virtues and good parts, it a sharp edge, or how to quench it or otherwise which now they seek but to have only in show and whereby to give it a stronger temper. Wherefore demonstration. Yet notwithstanding every man finding this part of knowledge not broken, I have attempteth to be of the first trade of carpenters, but tanquam aliud agens" entered into it, and and few bind themselves to the second: whereas salute you with it, dedicating it after the ancient nevertheless, the rising in fortune seldom amendmanner, first as to a dear friend: and then as to eth the mind; but on the other side, the removing an apt person; for as much as you have both of the stondes and impediments of the mind, doth made a funambulo, will prove more excellent in his feats; but the less apt will be gregarius funambulo also. And there is small question, but that these abilities would have been more common, and others of like sort not attempted would like often clear the passage and current to a man's fortune. But certain it is, whether it be believed or no, that as the most excellent of metals, gold, is of all other the most pliant, and most enduring to be wrought: so of all living and breathing substances, the perfectest man is the most suscep-wise have been brought upon the stage, but for tible of help, improvement, impression, and alteration; and not only in his body, but in his mind and spirit; and there again not only in his appetite and affection, but in his powers of wit and reason. two reasons; the one because of men's diffidence in prejudging them as impossibilities; for it holdeth in those things which the poet saith, "possunt quia posse videntur;" for no man shall know how much may be done, except he believe much may be done. The other reason is, because they be but practices, base and inglorious, and of no great use, and therefore sequestered from reward of value; and on the other side, painful; so as the recompense balanceth not with the travel and suffering. And as to the will of man, it is that which is most maniable and obedient; as that which admitteth most medicines to cure and alter it. The most sovereign of all is religion, which is able to change and transform it in the deepest and most inward inclinations and motions: and next to that is opinion and apprehension; whether it be infused by tradition and institution, or wrought in by disputation and persuasion; and the third is example, which transformeth the will of man into the similitude of that which is most observant and familiar towards it; and the fourth is, when one affection is healed and corrected by For as to the body of man, we find many and strange experiences, how nature is overwrought by custom, even in actions that seem of most difficulty and least possible. As first in voluntary motion, which though it be termed voluntary, yet the highest degrees of it are not voluntary; for it is in my power and will to run; but to run faster than according to my lightness or disposition of body, is not in my power nor will. We see the industry and practice of tumblers and funambulos what effects of great wonder it bringeth the body of man unto. So for suffering of pain and dolour, which is thought so contrary to the nature of man, there is much example of penances in strict orders of superstition, what they do endure such as may well verify the report of the Spartan boys, which were wont to be scourged upon the altar so bitterly as sometimes they died of it, and yet were never heard to complain. And to pass to those faculties which are reckoned more involuntary, as long fast-another; as when cowardice is remedied by shame ing and abstinence, and the contrary extreme, voracity. The leaving and forbearing the use of drink for altogether, the enduring vehement cold and the like; there have not wanted, neither do want divers examples of strange victories over the body in every of these. Nay, in respiration, the proof hath been of some, who, by continual use of diving and working under the water, have brought themselves to be able to hold their breath an incredible time; and others that have been able, without suffocation, to endure the stifling breath of an oven or furnace, so heated as, though it did not scald nor burn, yet it was many degrees too hot for any man not made to it to breathe or take in. And some impostors and counterfeits, likewise, have been able to wreath and cast their bodies into strange forms and motions: yea, and others to bring themselves into trances and astonish-straining them if they be too violent, and raising ments. All which examples do demonstrate how variously, and how to high points and degrees, the body of man may be (as it were) moulded and wrought. And if any man conceive that it is some secret propriety of nature that hath been in these persons which have attained to those points, and that it is not open for every man to do the like, though he had been put to it; for which cause such things come but very rarely to pass; it is true, no doubt, but some persons are apter than others; but so as the more aptness causeth perfection, but the less aptness doth not disable; so that, for example, the more apt child, that is taken to be VOL. I.-14 and dishonour, or sluggishness and backwardness by indignation and emulation; and so of the like; and lastly, when all these means, or any of them, have new framed or formed human will, then doth custom and habit corroborate and confirm all the rest; therefore it is no marvel, though this faculty of the mind (of will and election) which inclineth affection and appetite, being but the inceptions and rudiments of will, may be so well governed and managed, because it admitteth access to so divers remedies to be applied to it and to work upon it, the effects whereof are so many and so known as require no enumeration; but generally they do issue as medicines do, into two kinds of cures, whereof the one is a just or true cure, and the other is called palliation; for either the labour and inten. tion is to reform the affections really and truly, re them if they be too soft and weak, or else it is to cover them; or if occasion be, to pretend them and represent them: of the former sort whereof the ex amples are plentiful in the schools of philosophers, and in all other institutions of moral virtue; and of the other sort, the examples are more plentiful in the courts of princes, and in all politic traffic, where it is ordinary to find not only profound dissimulations and suffocating the affections, that no note or mark appear of them outwardly, but also lively simulations and affectations, carrying the tokens of passions which are not, as "risus jussus," and "lachrymæ coactæ," and the like. OF HELPS OF THE INTELLECTUAL THE intellectual powers have fewer means to work upon them than the will or body of man; but the one that prevaileth, that is exercise, worketh more forcibly in them than in the rest. The ancient habit of the philosophers; "Si quis quærat, in utramque partem, de omni scibili." The exercise of scholars making verses extempore; Stans pede in uno." The exercise of lawyers in memory narrative. The exercise of sophists, and "Jo. ad oppositum," with manifest effect. Artificial memory greatly holpen by exercise. The exercise of buffoons, to draw all things to conceits ridiculous. The means that help the understanding and faculties thereof are : (Not example, as in the will, by conversation; and here the conceit of imitation already digested, with the confutation, "Obiter, si videbitur," of Tully's opinion, advising a man to take some one to imitate. Similitude of faces analysed.) "per partes" and "per consequentiam," enable these faculties, which perhaps direct exercise at first would but distort: and these have chiefly place where the faculty is weak, not "per se,” but "per accidens;" as if want of memory grow through lightness of wit and want of stayed attention, then the mathematics or the law helpeth; because they are things wherein if the mind once roam it cannot recover. 3. Of the advantages of exercise; as to dance with heavy shoes, to march with heavy armour and carriage; and the contrary advantage (in natures very dull and unapt) of working alacrity by framing an exercise with some delight or affection; "Veluti pueris dant crustula blandi Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima." 4. Of the cautions of exercise; as to beware, lest by evil doing (as all beginners do weakly) a man grow not and be inveterate in an ill habit; and so take not the advantage of custom in perfection, but in confirming ill. Slubbering on the lute. 5. The marshalling, and sequel of sciences and practices logic and rhetoric should be used to be Arts, Logic, Rhetoric: The ancients, Aristotle, read after poesy, history, and philosophy. First, Plato, Theatetus, Gorgias, litigiosus vel sophista, exercise to do things well and clean: after, promptProtagoras, Aristotle, schola sua. Topics, Elen-ly and readily. ches, Rhetorics, Organon, Cicero, Hermogenes. The exercises in the universities and schools The Neoterics, Ramus, Agricola. Nil sacri; Lul- are of memory and invention; either to speak by lius, his Typocosmia, studying Cooper's Diction-heart that which is set down verbatim, or to speak ary; Mattheus' Collection of proper words for Metaphors; Agrippa de vanitate, &c. Qu. If not here of imitation. Collections preparative. Aristotle's similitude of a shoemaker's shop full of shoes of all sorts; Demosthenes Exordia concionum. Tully's precept, of Theses of all sorts, preparative. The relying upon exercise, with the difference of using and tempering the instrument; and the similitude of prescribing against the laws of nature and of estate. FIVE POINTS. 1. THAT exercises are to be framed to the life; that is to say, to work ability in that kind whereof a man in the course of action shall have most use. 2. The indirect and oblique exercises which do, extempore; whereas, there is little use in action of either of both but most things which we utter are neither verbally premeditate, nor merely extemporal; therefore exercise would be framed to take a little breathing and to consider of heads; and then to fit and form the speech extempore: this would be done in two manners, both with writing and tables, and without: for in most actions it is permitted and passable to use the note; whereunto if a man be not accustomed it will put him out. There is no use of a narrative memory in academies, viz. with circumstances of times, persons, and places, and with names; and it is one art to discourse, and another to relate and describe; and herein use and action is most conversant. Also to sum up and contract is a thing in action of very general use. |