the Understanding in the Brain, Animosity (which he did unfitly call Anger, having a greater mixture with Pride) in the Heart, and Concupiscence or Senfuality in the Liver, deserveth not to be despised; but much lefs to be allowed. So then we have conftituted, as in our own wifh and advice, the inquiry Touching human nature entire, as a just portion of knowledge to be handled apart.

The knowledge that concerneth man's body is divided as the good of man's body is divided, unto which it referreth. The good of man's body is of four kinds, Health, Beauty, Strength, and Pleafure: fo the knowledges are Medicine, or Art of Cure: Art of Decoration, which is called Cofmetique; Art of Activity, which is called Athletique ; and Art Voluptuary, which Tacitus truly calleth Eruditus Luxus. This Subject of man's body is of all other things in Nature most susceptible of remedy; but then that Remedy is most susceptible of error. For the fame Subtilty of the subject doth cause large poffibility and easy failing; and therefore the inquiry ought to be the more exact.

To speak therefore of Medicine, and to resume that we have faid, ascending a little higher the ancient opinion that Man was Microcofmus, an Abstract or Model of the world, hath been fantaftically strained by Paracelfus and the Alchemists, as if there were to be found in man's body certain correspondences and parallels, which should have respect to all varieties of things, as ftars, planets, minerals, which are extant in the great world.

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But thus much is evidently true, that of all subftances which Nature hath produced, man's body is the most extremely compounded: for we see herbs and plants are nourished by earth and water; Beasts for the most part by herbs and fruits; Man by the flesh of Beafts, Birds, Fishes, Herbs, Grains, Fruits, Water, and the manifold alterations, dreffings, and preparations of the several bodies, before they come to be his food and aliment. Add hereunto, that Beasts have a more fimple order of life, and lefs change of Affections to work upon their bodies whereas man in his Manfion, fleep, exercise, paffions, hath infinite variations: and it cannot be denied but that the body of Man of all other things is of the most compounded Mass. The foul on the other fide is the fimpleft of substances, as is well expreffed :

:

Purumque reliquit

Ethereum fenfum atque Auraï fimplicis ignem. So that it is no marvel though the foul fo placed enjoy no rest, if that principle be true, that Motus rerum eft rapidus extra locum, Placidus in loco. But to the purpose: this variable compofition of man's body hath made it as an Inftrument easy to diftemper; and therefore the Poets did well to conjoin Mufic and Medicine in Apollo: because the Office of Medicine is but to tune this curious Harp of man's body and to reduce it to Harmony. So then the Subject being fo Variable, hath made the Art by confequence more Conjectural; and the Art being Conjectural hath made so much the more

place to be left for impofture. For almost all other Arts and Sciences are judged by Acts, or Mafterpieces, as I may term them, and not by the fucceffes and events. The Lawyer is judged by the virtue of his pleading, and not by the iffue of the cause. The Mafter of the Ship is judged by the directing his course aright, and not by the fortune of the Voyage. But the Physician, and perhaps the Politician, hath no particular Acts demonstrative of his ability, but is judged most by the event; which is ever but as it is taken for who can tell, if a Patient die or recover, or if a State be preserved or ruined, whether it be Art or Accident? And therefore many times the Impoftor is prized, and the man of virtue taxed. Nay, we see the weakness and credulity of men is fuch, as they will often prefer a Mountebank or Witch before a learned Physician. And therefore the Poets were clear-fighted in discerning this extreme folly, when they made Æfculapius and Circe Brother and Sifter, both Children of the Sun, as in the verses, Æn. vii. 772:

Ipfe repertorem medicine talis et artis

Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrufit ad undas :

And again, Æn. vii. 11:

Dives inacceffos ubi Solis filia Lucos, &c.

For in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, Witches and old women and Impoftors have had a Competition with Phyficians. And what followeth? Even this, that Physicians fay to them

felves, as Solomon expreffeth it upon a higher occafion; If it befall to me as befalleth to the fools, why Should I labour to be more wife?" And therefore I cannot much blame Physicians, that they use commonly to intend fome other Art or practice, which they fancy more than their profeffion. For you shall have of them Antiquaries, Poets, Humanists, Statesmen, Merchants, Divines, and in every of these better seen than in their profeffion; and no doubt upon this ground, that they find that mediocrity and excellency in their Art maketh no difference in profit or reputation towards their fortune; for the weakness of Patients, and sweetness of life, and nature of hope, maketh men depend upon Physicians with all their defects. But nevertheless, these things which we have spoken of, are courfes begotten between a little occafion, and a great deal of floth and default; for if we will excite and awake our obfervation, we fhall fee in familiar inftances what a predominant faculty the Subtilty of Spirit hath over the Variety of Matter or Form. Nothing more variable than faces and countenances: yet men can bear in memory the infinite diftinctions of them; nay, a Painter with a few shells of colours, and the benefit of his Eye, and habit of his imagination, can imitate them all that ever have been, are, or may be, if they were brought before him. Nothing more variable than voices; yet men can likewise discern them personally: nay, you shall have a Buffoon or Pantomimus, who will express as many as he pleaseth. Nothing

more variable than the differing founds of words; yet men have found the way to reduce them to a few fimple Letters. So that it is not the infufficiency or incapacity of man's mind, but it is the remote standing or placing thereof, that breedeth these Mazes and incomprehenfions: for as the sense afar off is full of mistaking, but is exact at hand, fo is it of the understanding; the remedy whereof is, not to quicken or ftrengthen the Organ, but to go nearer to the object; and therefore there is no doubt but if the Phyficians will learn and use the true approaches and Avenues of Nature, they may affume as much as the Poet faith:

Et quoniam variant Morbi, variabimus artes;
Mille Mali fpecies, mille Salutis erunt.

Which that they should do, the nobleness of their Art doth deferve; well fhadowed by the Poets, in that they made Æfculapius to be the son of the Sun, the one being the fountain of life, the other as the second stream: but infinitely more honoured by the example of our Saviour, who made the body of man the object of his miracles, as the foul was the object of his Doctrine. For we read not that ever he vouchfafed to do any miracle about honour or money, except that one for giving Tribute to Cæfar; but only about the preserving, sustaining, and healing the body of man.

Medicine is a Science which hath been, as we have faid, more profeffed than laboured, and yet more laboured than advanced; the labour having been, in my judgment, rather in circle than in pro