XXXI. There is then, scarce any people whatever, if you examine deeply
into things, who can with justice be deemed barbarous. I will not however
deny, that there is not between particular nations, some inequality in
the use or application of their reason. Yes, but this depends in some
measure, on the disposition of their organs, and the climate in which
they are born, and these possibly may have some influence to promote this
disposition. But if I was to be asked which are the most penetrating and
acute nations, I should answer ingenuously that I could give no judgment
in the matter that might safely be relied on. I see that the sciences,
at one time flourished among the Phenicians, at another among the
Chaldeans, at another among the Egyptians, at another among the Greeks,
at another among the Romans, and at another among the Arabs, and that
at last, they extended themselves to almost all the European nations. I
observe also, that the inhabitants of every country into which they were
not introduced, were looked upon as rude and uncivilized; but it was
generally remarked, that after they came to be introduced into one of
these last, the natives of it did not make less advances in them, than
those did, who had the happiness to be the first visited by them. Perhaps
if the world lasts much longer, and there should happen great revolutions
of empire in it, as Minerva goes wandering about the earth, and continues
to shift her station according to the violent agitations she receives
from the impulse of Mars; I say if such revolutions should happen, the
Iroquois, the Laplanders, the Troglodytes, the Garamantes, and other
people, whom we now look upon with disdain, and whom we with repugnance
admit to be members of our species, may one day possess the sciences in
an eminent degree; so that experience will hardly assist us to determine,
the inequality of ingenuity, that prevails in different nations.
XXXII. Much less then can we determine the point by physical reasonings.
Many have endeavoured to establish, that this inequality bears
proportion, to the predominance of the elemental qualities which prevail
in different countries; and it is commonly said, that humid and cloudy
climates, produce heavy dull spirits, and serene and dry ones, sprightly
and penetrating ones. Aristotle gives the preference in this matter, to
those who inhabit the hot countries. Agreeable to the first of these
opinions, the Venetians and the Hollanders, should be very stupid dull
people, for the first live in marshes surrounded by standing waters,
and the last in a muddy low country, that might be said to have been
stolen from the sea, and which is surrounded by standing waters also; and
agreeable to the second, the negroes of Angola, should be more acute than
the English. It does not appear to me, that any reasonable man should
admit of either of these consequences. But it is not necessary for us
to dwell longer on this subject at present; as we have shewn at large in
our defence of the women, that we cannot infer there is any inequality
of understanding, produced by the predominance, the sensible qualities
have on the temperament; and that therefore, we are under a necessity of
acknowledging, that the influence our native country may have over it, is
the effect of some occult cause, which is impenetrable to our reason, or
at least, which has not been penetrated by it as yet.
XXXIII. When I say that by experience, we can hardly distinguish the
inequality of ingenuity of nations, I would be understood to mean,
in point of the essential qualities, of penetration, solidity, and
clearness; and not in point of the accidental ones, of superior quickness
and readiness, or those of being more slow and tardy of comprehension;
for with respect to these, it is evident that some nations exceed others.
Thus it is manifest, that the Italians and French are more quick and
ready than the Spaniards; and even in Spain itself, there is a great
difference between the inhabitants of one province and those of another
in these respects; for it is remarked, that in Asturias, the people are
quicker of apprehension, and are more ready at explaining themselves,
than they are in any of the other provinces; and the experience of this,
should be sufficient to dissuade us from falling-in with that general
notion, that rainy countries produce heavy dull people; as it is well
known, that the heavens may rather be said to inundate, than refresh this
country, so that it may be truly called,
_Nimborum patriam, loca fœta furentibus austris._
XXXIV. But if I was to give my opinion which of the nations of Europe
should be preferred to the rest, with respect to their penetration,
I should incline to the sentiment of Heidegger a German author, who
concedes this advantage to the English. It is certain that Great Britain,
since literature, arts, and sciences, were first cultivated in it, has
produced a copious harvest of authors of the first class. The recital of
those only, which have arisen in that country, out of the Benedictine and
Seraphic orders of religious, would be tedious and tiresome. But I cannot
forbear to mention, that we are indebted to each of these two orders, for
three stars of the first magnitude. To the Benedictine, for the venerable
Bede, the famous Alcuinus, and the celebrated Calculator Suiset. To the
Seraphic, for Alexander de Ales, the subtil Scotus, and his disciple
William Ocman. Cardanus in his Treatise (de Subtilit. lib. 16. de
Scient.) graduates among the twelve most acute geniuses of the world, the
subtil Scotus and the Calculator Suiset, in the fourth and fifth rank, of
whom he says: _Barbaros ingenio nobis haud esse inferiores, quandoquidem
sub Brumæ cœlo, divisa toto orbe Britannia duos tam clari ingeniique
viros emisserit._
XXXV. Neither should we conceal, that at the time when the other nations
of Europe scarce knew what the mathematics meant, the two beforementioned
orders of Religious exhibited two illustrious English mathematicians;
Roger Bacon, and Oliver of Malmsbury; of the first of whom, the vulgar
feigned the same tale, they did of Albertus Magnus, that is, that he had
made a brazen head, which answered all questions that were put to it. The
other was not less famous than he, of whom John Pitseus relates, that he
had invented some machinery, by the help of which he was enabled to fly,
although he never could attain at doing it, for above the distance of
about a hundred and twenty yards at a time; but that was doing more, than
any other man ever did before him.
XXXVI. On physical subjects, England has furnished a greater number of
original authors, than all the other nations of Europe put together; and
the French, who are very tenacious of the reputation of their country
for producing men of ingenuity, are obliged to confess, that the English
are superior to them in philosophical abilities. It may without rashness
or exaggeration be said, that all the advances which have been made in
physical knowledge for a century past, are owing to my Lord Chancellor
Bacon. It was he that broke through the strait limits, within which,
Physics till his time had been imprisoned; and he was the man who threw
down the columns, on which to mark the boundaries of human knowledge in
natural things, _ne plus ultra_ had been inscribed. The most learned
Peter Gassendo, was nothing else but a faithful disciple of Bacon’s, and
what Bacon had said in a summary way, he repeated more at large, in his
extensive philosophical writings. All that Descartes said which was of
any real value, he took from Bacon. After Bacon, we may reckon as great
originals, Mr. Boyle, and the most subtil Sir Isaac Newton; as also John
Locke[2], Sir Kenelm Digby, and many others; but the misfortune is, that
the lustre of their ingenuity, was tarnished with the same religious
blemish my Lord Bacon’s was; and when they had once strayed out of the
right path, they flew with such velocity, that the extent of their
wanderings, was great as the liveliness of their imaginations. But with
all this, there has not been wanting in England, since it was blemished
with heresy, a Sir Thomas More, who was as celebrated for his Catholic
constancy, as he was for his eminence in the sciences.
XXXVII. I must also say, that I have always observed in the English
philosophers, great frankness, and that they gave a simple plain relation
of the result of their experience and labours, free from all artifice and
deceit; which is a thing not very common with those of other nations; and
I have remarked this particularly, in Bacon, Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton,
and Sydenham the physician; and it has afforded me great pleasure, to
see, how without boasting they have declared what they know, and without
blushing, have confessed what they are ignorant of. This is the true
mark and characteristic of sublime geniuses. Oh! how much it is to
be lamented, that such great lights, should be obscured by heretical
prejudices!