sophistis prævaricari videatur. Verum hos missos faciamus. Citetur jam et Plato, cavillator urbanus, tumidus poëta, theologus mente captus. Tu certe dum rumores nescio quos philosophicos limares et simul committeres, ac scientiam dissimulando simulares, animosque vagis inductionibus tentares et exsolveres, vel literatorum vel civilium virorum conviviis sermones, vel etiam sermonibus quotidianis gratiam et amorem subministrare potuisti. Verum cum veritatem humanæ mentis incolam veluti indigenam nec aliunde commigrantem mentireris, animosque nostros, ad historiam et res ipsas nunquam satis applicatos et reductos, averteres, ac se subingredi, ac in suis cæcis et confusissimis idolis. volutare contemplationis nomine doceres, tum demum fraudem capitalem admisisti. Deinde etiam tu scelere haud minore stultitiæ apotheosin introduxisti, et vilissimas cogitationes religione munire ausus es. Nam levius malum est, quod philologorum parens extitisti, ac tuo ductu et auspiciis plurimi, ingenii fama et cognitionis rerum populari et molli jucunditate capti et contenti, severiorem veri pervestigationem corruperunt. Inter quos fuere Marcus Cicero et Annæus Seneca et Plutarchus Chæroneus, et complures alii neutiquam his pares. Nunc ad Medicos pergamus. Video Galenum, virum angustissimi animi, desertorem experientiæ, et vanissimum causatorem. Tune, Galene, is es, qui medicorum inscitiam et desidiam etiam infamiæ eximis, et in tuto collocas, artis ac officii eorum finitor ignavissimus? qui tot morbos insanabiles statuendo, tot ægrotorum capita proscribis, horumque spem, illorum industriam præcidis? O canicula! O pestis! Tu mistionis commentum naturæ prærogativam; tu inter calores

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1 Galen contrasts the inwardly formative power of nature with the (so

astri et ignis seditionem avide arripiens et ostentans, ubique humanam potestatem malitiose in ordinem redigis, et ignorantiam desperatione in æternum munire cupis. Do indignitati tuæ ne te amplius morer. Abducas etiam tecum licet socios tuos et foederatos Arabes, dispensatoriorum conditores, qui, pari cum cæteris in theoriis amentia, copiosius quidem e supinissimis conjecturis medicinarum vulgarium pollicita magis quam auxilia composuere. Nec non cape comites perfunctoriam Neotericorum turbam. Heus nomenclator, suggere. Atqui respondet, ne dignos esse quorum nomina teneat. Sane ut inter hujuscemodi nugatores gradus quosdam agnosco, pessimum et absurdissimum genus eorum, qui methodo et acribologia universam artem comprehendunt, quibus vulgo ob elocutionem et ordinem applauditur; qualis est Fernelius. Minus incommodi sunt, qui majorem observationum et experimentorum varietatem et proprietatem ostendunt, licet stultissimis causationibus dilutam et immersam, ut Arnoldus de Villa Nova, et alii id genus.2 Intueor ab

to speak) external operations of art, in his treatise De Natural. Facultatibus. See vol. ii. p. 82. of Kühn's edition of Galen. He elsewhere points out the differences which he conceives to exist between animal heat and that of a fire; but I am not aware that he speaks of the heterogeneity of terrestrial and astral heat. See his treatise De Marasmo, c. 4.

1 Fernelius, who was born near the close of the fifteenth century, and who died in 1558, was physician to Henry II. He was greatly distinguished both as a writer on medicine and as a physician. He was moreover, notwithstanding the contempt with which he is here mentioned, well seen in mathematical and natural science, and was the first person who in modern times attempted to determine the magnitude of the earth. He seems to have been singularly diligent in his calling and in his studies; and it is said that when he was advised to give himself more time for repose, he would make answer in the words of Ovid, "Longa quiescendi tempora fata dabunt."

2 Arnaldus de Villâ Novâ lived towards the end of the thirteenth century. He was an alchemist, and was accused of being a magician. It is

altera parte cohortem Chymistarum, inter quos se ante alios jactat Paracelsus, qui audacia meruit ut separatim coërceatur. Atque superiores illi, quos modo perstrinximus, mendacia; tu monstra. Quæ tu novis Bacchi oracula in meteoricis fundis, æmule Epicuri? Ille tamen in hac parte tamquam indormiscens et aliud agens opiniones veluti sorti committit. Tu omni sorte stultior in absurdissimi cujusque mendacii verba jurare paratus es. Verum alia tua videamus. Quas tu fructuum elementorum tuorum inter se imitationes? quas correspondentias? quæ parallela somnias, idolorum conjugator fanatice? Nam hominem scilicet pantomimum effecisti.2 Quam præclaræ autem sunt interpunctiones illæ quibus naturæ unitatem lacerasti, species nimirum tuæ? Quare facilius Galenum fero elementa sua ponderantem, quam te somnia tua ornantem. Illum enim occultæ rerum proprietates, te communes et promiscuæ qualitates ex

said that he professed medicine at Montpellier; and probably he took his name from Villeneuve, which is not far from it. Brantôme (De la Vue, &c.) makes Raymond Lully his disciple. Villa Nova's best known work is the commentary on the Regimen Sanitatis Schola Salernitana. Sir Alexander Croke has given some specimens of it in his edition of the Regimen. It is in some places sufficiently fanciful. The line

Unica nux prodest, nocet altera, tertia mors est.

of which the real meaning seems plain, is made to imply that the nutmeg or nux moschata is medicinal, the walnut unwholesome, and the nut or catch of the crossbow deadly. In the phrase "alii id genus it is probable that a reference is intended to Roger Bacon.

1 This very obscure sentence appears to be corrupt. It is probable that novis ought to be novi or novioris. But it is difficult with any probable alteration to obtain an intelligible meaning. [For novis read nobis? -J. S.]

2 Paracelsus's doctrine of the microcosm is here alluded to. It recurs throughout his writings, but is stated more definitely than usual in the first book of his Philosophia Sagax, ii. p. 532. of his philosophical writings. See the same work, p. 553. for a statement of the fruits educed from each of the four elements by the generating power of the sun.

agitant. Nos interim miseros, qui inter tam odiosas ineptias degimus! Principiorum autem triadem,2 commentum haud ita prorsus inutile et rebus aliqua ex parte finitimum, quam importune inculcat homo imposturæ peritissimus? Audi adhuc crimina graviora. Tu divina naturalibus, sacris profana, fabulis hæreses miscendo, veritatem (sacrilege impostor) tum humanam tum religiosam polluisti. Tu lumen naturæ (cujus sanctissimum nomen toties impuro ore usurpas) non abscondisti, ut Sophistæ, sed exstinxisti. Illi experientiæ desertores, tu proditor. Tu evidentiam rerum crudam et personatam contemplationi ex præscripto subjiciens, et substantiarum Proteos pro motuum calculis quærens, scientiæ fontes corrumpere et humanam mentem exuere conatus es; et ambages et tædia experimentorum, quibus Sophistæ adversi, Empirici impares sunt, novis et adscititiis auxisti; tantum abest ut experientiæ repræsentativam secutus sis, aut noveris. Nec non Magorum hiatus ubique pro viribus amplificasti, importunissimas cogitationes spe, spem promissis premens, imposturæ tum artifex tum opus. Invideo tibi (Paracelse) e sectatoribus tuis unum Petrum Severinum,3 virum non dignum qui istis ineptiis immoriatur.

1 The meaning is that Galen seeking to explain the qualities of bodies by means of the qualities of the elements of which the bodies are composed, lost sight of or neglected all which cannot be thus explained; whereas Paracelsus, by referring them to the specific and peculiar nature of the body, made it impossible to arrive at any general conclusion respecting them, since the qualities of each body were to him ultimate facts. 2 Namely salt, sulphur, and mercury.

3 Peter Severinus was born in 1542 at Ripen in Denmark, and died in 1602. Neither Haller nor Sprengel speak of him as favourably as Bacon; nor does he seem to have had any great share of reputation; at least he is not mentioned in the common biographical dictionaries. His only known work is the Idea Medicina Philosophica, to which Bacon here refers. He is not to be confounded with M. A. Severinus.

Tu certe, Paracelse, ei plurimum debes, quod ea quæ tu (asinorum adoptive) rudere consueveras, cantu quodam et modulatione, et gratissimo vocum discrimine, jucunda et harmonica effecit, et mendaciorum odia in fabellæ oblectamenta traduxit. Tibi vero, Severine, veniam do, si Sophistarum doctrinam, non solum operum effœtam, verum desperationem ex professo captantem pertæsus, alia rebus nostris labentibus firmamenta quæsivisti. Cumque Paracelsica ista se obtulissent et ostentationum præconiis et obscuritatis subterfugiis et religionis affinitatibus et alio fuco commendata, te in hos,1 non rerum fontes sed spei hiatus, jactu quodam indignationis dedisti. Rite et ordine feceris, si ab ingenii placitis ad naturæ scita te transtuleris, tibi non modo artem brevem sed et vitam longam porrectura. Jam cæteros Chymistas sententia in Paracelsum lata defixos cerno obstupescere. Agnoscunt profecto decreta sua, quæ iste magis promulgavit quam posuit, ac arrogantia pro cautelis (haud plane ex antiqua disciplina) communivit ubi sane magna mentiendi reciprocatione inter se conciliati largas ubique spes ostentant, et per experientiæ quidem devia vagi, in quædam utilia, casu non ductu, quandoque impinguntur. In theoriis vero iisdem 2 ab arte sua (utpote fornacis discipuli) non recesserunt. Verum ut delicatus ille adolescentulus,3 cum scalinum in littore reperisset, navem ædificare concupivit; ita carbonarii isti ex pauculis distillationum experimentis philosophiam condere aggressi sunt, ubique istis separationum et liberationum absentissimis idolis obnoxiam. Nec hos tamen uno ordine omnes habeo.

1 hoc in original. — J. S.

2 So in original. qu. iidem? -J. S.

3 Cicero de Clar. Orator. 196. — J. S.

4 So in original.-J. S.

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