tulates very accommodable unto junior indoctrinations, yet are their authorities but temporary, and not to be embraced beyond the minority of our intellectuals. For our advanced beliefs are not to be built upon dictates, but having received the probable inducements of truth, we become emancipated from testimonial engagements, and are to erect upon the surer base of reason. Secondly, unto reasonable perpensions it hath no place in some sciences, small in others, and suffereth many restrictions even where it is most admitted. It is of no validity in the mathematics, especially the mother part thereof, arithmetic and geometry. For these sciences, concluding from dignities and principles known by themselves, receive not satisfaction from probable reasons, much less from bare and peremptory asseverations. And, therefore, if all Athens should decree, that in every triangle, two sides, whichsoever be taken, are greater than the side remaining, or that, in rectangle triangles, the square which is made of the side that subtendeth the right angle, is equal to the squares which are made of the sides containing the right angle; although there be a certain truth therein, geometricians, notwithstanding, would not receive satisfaction without demonstration thereof. 'Tis true, by the vulgarity of philosophers there are many points believed without probation; nor if a man affirm from Ptolemy, that the sun is bigger than the earth, shall he probably meet with any contradiction; whereunto notwithstanding astronomers will not assent without some convincing argument or demonstrative proof thereof. And therefore certainly of all men a philosopher should be no swearer: for an oath which is the end of controversies in law, cannot determine any here; nor are the deepest sacraments or desperate imprecations of any force to persuade, where reason only, and necessary mediums must induce. In natural philosophy, and which is more generally pur empire of authoritye, to which all humane reason must submitte without dispute or hæsitancye. The last rule concerns none but those who yeeld up themselves to the instructions and information of others, from whom they must perforce take up upon truste the principles of that arte, which they desire to gaine, till they come to attain unto itt.- Wr. 6 perpensions.] Considerations. sued amongst us, it carrieth but slender consideration; for that also proceeding from settled principles, therein is expected a satisfaction from scientifical progressions, and such as beget a sure rational belief. For if authority might have made out the assertions of philosophy, we might have held, that snow was black, that the sea was but the sweat of the earth, and many of the like absurdities. Then was Aristotle injurious to fall upon Melissus, to reject the assertions of Anaxagoras, Anaximander, and Empedocles ; then were we also ungrateful unto himself: from whom our junior endeavours embracing many things on his authority, our mature and secondary enquiries are forced to quit those receptions, and to adhere unto the nearer accounts of reason. And although it be not unusual, even in philosophical tractates, to make enumeration of authors, yet are there reasons usually introduced, and to ingenious readers do carry the stroke in the persuasion. And surely if we account it reasonable among ourselves, and not injurious unto rational authors, no farther to abett their opinions, than as they are supported by solid reasons, certainly with more excusable reservation may we shrink at their bare testimonies, whose argument is but precarious, and subsists upon the charity of our assentments. In morality, rhetorick, law, and history, there is I confess a frequent and allowable use of testimony; and yet herein I perceive it is not unlimitable, but admitteth many restrictions. Thus, in law both civil and divine, that is only esteemed a legal testimony, which receives comprobation from the mouths. of at least two witnesses; and that not only for prevention of calumny, but assurance against mistake. Whereas notwithstanding, the solid reason of one man is as sufficient as the clamour of a whole nation, and with imprejudicate apprehensions, begets as firm a belief as the authority or aggregated testimony of many hundreds. For reason being the very root of our natures, and the principles thereof common unto all, what is against the laws of true reason, or the unerring understanding of any one, if rightly apprehended, that snow was black, &c.] Attributed to Anaxagoras, a Clazomenian philosopher, who flourished above 400 years B. C. Then was Aristotle, &c.] See Aristotle's discussion of the opinions of these philosophers, in his Physicks, lib. i. c. 2, 3, 4. must be disclaimed by all nations, and rejected even by mankind. 1 Again, a testimony is of small validity, if deduced from men out of their own professions. So, if Lactantius affirm the figure of the earth is plain, or Austin deny there are Antipodes, though venerable fathers of the church, and ever to be honoured, yet will not their authorities prove sufficient to ground a belief thereon. Whereas, notwithstanding the solid reason, or confirmed experience of any man, is very approvable, in what profession soever. So Raymund Sebund, a physician of Tholouze, besides his learned dialogues De natura humana, hath written a natural theology; demonstrating therein the attributes of God, and attempting the like in most points of religion. So Hugo Grotius, a civilian, did write an excellent tract in Dutch, of the Verity of the Christian Religion.3 Wherein most rationally delivering themselves, their works will be embraced by most that understand them, and their reasons enforce belief, even from prejudicate readers. Neither, indeed, have the authorities of men been ever so awful, but that by some they have been rejected, even in their own professions. Thus Aristotle, affirming the birth of the infant, or time of its gestation, extendeth some times unto the eleventh month, but 9 if Lactantius affirm, &c.] See Lactantius De Falsa Sapientia, 1. iii. Austin_deny, &c.] “Quod vero et Antipodas esse fabulantur, xvi. c. 9. 2 the solid reason.]__ This is a golden rule, worthye to be written in marble and golde. For as among those that have the persons of men in adoration, and (for something they admire in them) swallow all that they say as gospel, truth is manye times silentlye smothered, and sometimes violently and furiously not only opposed but oppressed; soe among sober men, and such as entertaine and embrace truth, wherever they find her, shee sodenly advances them to such a hight of honor and reputation, that they become the leaders of learninge and knowledge to after ages, and that deservedly.-Wr. 3 did write an excellent tract, &c.] In the first edition, "did write an excellent tract, in Dutch, of the Verity of Christian Religion, and hath since contracted the same into six books in Latin." 66 Grotius, while a prisoner in the castle of Louvain, wrote, in the Dutch language, A Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion.' He afterwards enlarged it, and translated it, so enlarged, into Latin.”—Butler's Life of Grotius, p. 148. Hippocrates averring that it exceedeth not the tenth; 4 Adrian, the emperor, in a solemn process, determined for Aristotle, but Justinian many years after took in with Hippocrates, and reversed the decree of the other. Thus have councils not only condemned private men, but the decrees and acts of one another. So Galen, after all his veneration of Hippocrates, in some things hath fallen from him; Avicen in many from Galen; and others succeeding from him. And although the singularity of Paracelsus be intolerable, who sparing only Hippocrates, hath reviled not only the authors, but almost all the learning that went before him ;5 yet it is not much less injurious unto knowledge, obstinately and inconvincibly to side with 4 Thus Aristotle, &c.] Although Aristotle (in his Hist. Animal. vii. cap. 4,) gives instances in which the period of human gestation extends to the eleventh month, he evidently considers them as extreme cases, and agrees with Hippocrates in regarding the tenth as very generally the extreme limit. See his De Generat. Animal. 1. iv. c. 4. In this opinion they are borne out by the general consent of modern authority both physical and judicial. The doubt indeed is whether even that limit is not too wide. From the Medical Jurisprudence of Dr. Paris and Fonblanque, where the subject will be found most elaborately treated-it appears that although there exists a very general opinion among lawyers and medical men, that the period may be protracted to ten calendar months, it is a point scarcely admitting of proof: and many high authorities reject the opinion as untenable. "Each side is supported by a considerable list of partisans, and we perceive that upon this occasion the two celebrated medico-jurisconsults of France are opposed to each other; Mahon having associated his name with those of Bohn, Hebensteit, Astruc, Mauriceau, De La Motte, Roederer, and Baudelocque, who reject the belief in retarded delivery as impossible, and contrary to the immutable law of nature; while the name of Foderé ranges with those who support the contrary opinion, as Teichmeyer, Heister, Albert, Vallentini, Bartholin, Haller, Antoine Petit, Lietaud, Vicq d'Azyr, and Capuran, also Dr. Hamilton, who may boast of the support of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Pliny." (Medical Jurisprudence, vol. i. p. 247.)—By the law of Scotland, as stated by Paris and Fonblanque, a child born ten months after the death of the father is considered as legitimate; and the civil code of France decrees three hundred days, or ten months, to be the most distant period at which the legitimacy of a birth shall be allowed.—Br. although the singularity of Paracelsus be intolerable, &c.] "Paracelsus began his professional career by burning publicly, in his classroom, and in the presence of his pupils, the works of Galen and Avicenna, assuring his hearers that the strings of his shoes possessed more knowledge than those two celebrated physicians. All the universities any one. Which humour unhappily possessing many, they have by prejudice withdrawn themselves into parties, and contemning the sovereignty of truth, seditiously abetted the private divisions of error. 8 Moreover, a testimony in points historical, and where it is of unavoidable use, is of no illation7 in the negative; nor is it of consequence, that Herodotus writing nothing of Rome, there was therefore no such city in his time, or because Dioscorides hath made no mention of unicorn's horn, there is therefore no such thing in nature. Indeed, intending an accurate enumeration of medical materials, the omission united had not, he assured them, as much knowledge as was contained in his own beard, and the hairs upon his head were better informed than all the writers that ever existed put together." This statement is derived from Dr. Thomson's History of Chemistry (forming part of the National Library,) vol. i. p. 145, where also, in the following page, is given an extract from the preface to a tract by Paracelsus, entitled Paragranum, the arrogance of which amply vindicates the justice of the preceding representation. It may be doubted, however, whether this extreme arrogance and contempt was really felt by Paracelsus, or whether it was merely assumed for the sake of singularity and effect. In a letter written by him to Christopher Clauser, a physician of Zurich, he admits the claims, not only of Hippocrates, but also of Avicenna, Galen, and Marsilius, to be considered the greatest physicians of their respective countries, assuming, however, that he was himself, beyond dispute, the greatest physician among the Germans. The contempt and arrogance with which, however, Paracelsus, in public, certainly treated almost every preceding practitioner and teacher of medical science, were probably required in order to overcome the slavish and superstitious deference to ancient authority which had so long prevailed. As Dr. Thomson has observed (Hist. of Chem. vol. i. p. 140,) he "shook the medical throne of Galen and Avicenna to its very foundation; he roused the latent energies of the human mind, which had for so long a period lain torpid; he freed medical men from those trammels, and put an end to that despotism which had existed for five centuries."-Br. Which humour, &c.] This humour is itt which hath engaged the whole world into factions, not only amongst Christians, but even Jews, Turks, and Infidels. And being once planted is hardly ever rooted out. For that they who have once swallowed an error (act of ignorance, inadvertence, or the tye of observance and relation to some on whom they depend) are ever loath to acknowledge, but more to renounce itt, though in pointe of conscience they be often convinced of itt; least, being thought to have faultered in one thing, they may come to question, and bring into suspicion, whatever they shall allow for the future.- Wr. 7 is of no illation.] "Affords no inference." 8 nor is it of consequence.] "Nor does it follow as a consequence." |