1. Having shewed in the precedent chapters, that sense proceedeth
from the action of external objects upon the _brain_, or some
internal _substance_ of the _head_; and that the _passions_ proceed
from the alteration there made, and continued to the _heart_: it is
consequent in the next place, seeing the diversity of degrees in
knowledge in divers men, to be greater than may be ascribed to the
divers _tempers_ of their brain, to declare _what other causes_ may
produce such _odds_, and excess of _capacity_, as we daily observe
in one man above another. As for that difference which ariseth from
_sickness_, and such accidental distempers, I omit the same, as
impertinent to this place, and consider it only in such as have
their _health_, and _organs_ well disposed. If the difference were
in the natural temper of the brain, I can imagine no reason why the
same should not appear first and most of all in the senses, which
being equal both in the wise and less wise, infer an equal temper in
the common organ (namely the brain) of all the senses.
2. But we see by experience, that _joy_ and _grief_ proceed _not_ in
_all_ men from the same _causes_, and that men differ very much in
the constitution of the body; whereby, that which helpeth and
furthereth _vital constitution_ in one, and is therefore delightful,
hindereth it and crosseth it in another, and therefore causeth
grief. The _difference_ therefore of _wits_ hath its original _from_
the _different passions_, and from the _ends_ to which the appetite
leadeth them.
3. And first, those men whose ends are _sensual_ delight, and
generally are addicted to _ease_, _food_, _onerations_ and
_exonerations_ of the body, must needs be the _less_ thereby
delighted with those _imaginations_ that _conduce not_ to those
ends, such as are imaginations of _honour_ and _glory_, which, as I
have said before, have respect to the future: for sensuality
consisteth in the pleasure of the senses, which please only for the
present, and take away the inclination to observe such things as
conduce to honour, and consequently maketh men less curious, and
less ambitious, whereby they less consider the way either to
knowledge or other power; in which two consisteth all the excellency
of power cognitive. And this is it which men call _dulness_, and
proceedeth from the appetite of sensual or bodily delight. And it
may well be conjectured, that such passion hath its beginning from a
_grossness_ and _difficulty_ of the _motion_ of the _spirit_ about
the _heart_.
4. The contrary hereunto, is that _quick ranging_ of mind described,
chapter IV. section 3, which is joined with _curiosity_ of comparing
the things that come into the mind, one with another: in which
comparison, a man delighteth himself either with finding unexpected
_similitude_ of things, otherwise much unlike, in which men place
the excellency of _fancy_, and from whence proceed those grateful
similies, metaphors, and other tropes, by which both _poets_ and
_orators_ have it in their power to make things please or displease,
and shew well or ill to others, as they like themselves; or else in
discerning suddenly _dissimilitude_ in things that otherwise appear
the same. And this virtue of the mind is that by which men attain to
exact and perfect _knowledge_; and the pleasure thereof consisteth
in continual instruction, and in distinction of places, persons, and
seasons, and is commonly termed by the name of _judgment_: for, to
judge is nothing else, but to distinguish or discern: and both
_fancy_ and _judgment_ are commonly comprehended under the name of
_wit_, which seemeth to be a tenuity and agility of spirits,
contrary to that restiness of the spirits supposed in those that are
dull.
5. There is another defect of the mind, which men call _levity_,
which betrayeth also _mobility_ in the spirits, but in excess. An
example whereof is in them that in the midst of any serious
discourse, have their minds diverted to every little jest or witty
observation; which maketh them depart from their discourse by a
parenthesis, and from that parenthesis by another, till at length
they either lose themselves, or make their narration like a dream,
or some studied nonsense. The passion from whence this proceedeth,
is _curiosity_, but with _too much equality_ and indifference: for
when all things make equal impression and delight, they equally
throng to be expressed.
6. The virtue opposite to this defect is _gravity_, or steadiness;
in which the end being the great and master-delight, directeth and
keepeth in the way thereto all other thoughts.
7. The _extremity_ of dullness is that _natural folly_ which may be
called _stolidity_: but the extreme of _levity_, though it be
natural folly distinct from the other, and obvious to every man’s
observation, I know _not_ how to call it.
8. There is a fault of the mind called by the Greeks Ἀμαϑια, which
is _indocibility_, or _difficulty_ of being taught; the which must
needs arise from a _false opinion_ that they _know already_ the
truth of that is called in question: for certainly men are not
otherwise so unequal in capacity as the _evidence_ is unequal
between what is taught by the mathematicians, and what is commonly
discoursed of in other books: and therefore if the minds of men were
all of white paper, they would almost equally be disposed to
acknowledge whatsoever should be in right method, and by right
ratiocination delivered to them: but when men have once acquiesced
in untrue opinions, and registered them as authentical records in
their minds, it is no less impossible to speak intelligibly to such
men, than to write legibly upon a paper already scribbled over. The
immediate _cause_ therefore of _indocibility_, is _prejudice_; and
of prejudice, false opinion of our own knowledge.
9. Another, and a principal defect of the mind, is that which men
call _madness_, which appeareth to be nothing else but some
_imagination_ of some such _predominancy_ above the _rest_, that we
have _no passion but from it_; and this conception is nothing else
but excessive _vain glory_, or _vain dejection_; which is most
probable by these examples following, which proceed in appearance
every one of them from _pride_, or some _dejection_ of mind. As
first, we have had the example of one that preached in Cheapside
from a cart there, instead of a pulpit, that he himself was Christ,
which was _spiritual_ pride or madness. We have had also divers
examples of learned madness, in which men have manifestly been
distracted upon any occasion that hath put them in remembrance of
their own ability. Amongst the learned men, may be remembered, I
think also, those that determine of the time of the world’s end, and
other such the points of prophecy. And the gallant madness of Don
Quixote is nothing else but an expression of such height of vain
glory as reading of _romance_ may produce in pusillanimous men. Also
rage and madness of love, are but great indignations of them in
whose brains is predominant contempt from their enemies, or their
mistresses. And the _pride_ taken in _form_ and _behaviour_, hath
made divers men run mad, and to be so accounted, under the name of
fantastic.
10. And as these are the examples of extremities, so also are there
examples too many of the degrees, which may therefore be well
accounted follies; as it is a degree of the _first_, for a man,
without certain evidence, to think himself to be _inspired_, or to
have any other effect of God’s holy spirit than other godly men
have. Of the _second_, for a man continually to speak his mind in a
_cento_ of other men’s Greek or Latin sentences. Of the _third_,
much of the present gallantry in love and duel. Of _rage_, a degree
is _malice_; and of _fantastic_ madness, _affectation_.
11. As the former examples exhibit to us madness, and the degrees
thereof, proceeding from the excess of self-opinion; so also there
be other examples of madness, and the degrees thereof, proceeding
from _too much vain fear_ and _dejection_; as in those melancholy
men that have imagined themselves brittle as glass, or have had some
other like imagination: and degrees hereof are all those exorbitant
and causeless fears, which we commonly observe in melancholy
persons.
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