No More Learning

I'll resolve you that, if you answer me this Question,
Whether or no, it is given to Men alone, to be the Members of Christ?

_Eu. _ God forbid, that is given to all Men and Women too by Faith.

_Fa. _ How comes it about then, that when there is but one Head, it
should not be common to all the Members? And besides that, since God
made Man in his own Image, whether did he express this Image in the
Shape of his Body, or the Endowments of his Mind?

_Eu. _ In the Endowments of his Mind.

_Fa. _ Well, and I pray what have Men in these more excellent than we
have? In both Sexes, there are many Drunkennesses, Brawls, Fightings,
Murders, Wars, Rapines, and Adulteries.

_Eu. _ But we Men alone fight for our Country.

_Fa. _ And you Men often desert from your Colours, and run away like
Cowards; and it is not always for the Sake of your Country, that you
leave your Wives and Children, but for the Sake of a little nasty Pay;
and, worse than Fencers at the Bear-Garden, you deliver up your Bodies
to a slavish Necessity of being killed, or yourselves killing others.
And now after all your Boasting of your warlike Prowess, there is none
of you all, but if you had once experienced what it is to bring a Child
into the World, would rather be placed ten Times in the Front of a
Battle, than undergo once what we must so often. An Army does not always
fight, and when it does, the whole Army is not always engaged. Such as
you are set in the main Body, others are kept for Bodies of Reserve, and
some are safely posted in the Rear; and lastly, many save themselves by
surrendring, and some by running away. We are obliged to encounter
Death, Hand to Hand.

_Eu. _ I have heard these Stories before now; but the Question is,
Whether they are true or not?

_Fa. _ Too true.

_Eu. _ Well then, _Fabulla_, would you have me persuade your Husband
never to touch you more? For if so, you'll be secure from that Danger.

_Fa. _ In Truth, there is nothing in the World I am more desirious of, if
you were able to effect it.

_Eu. _ If I do persuade him to it, what shall I have for my Pains?

_Fa. _ I'll present you with half a Score dry'd Neats-Tongues.

_Eu. _ I had rather have them than the Tongues of ten Nightingales. Well,
I don't dislike the Condition, but we won't make the Bargain obligatory,
before we have agreed on the Articles.

_Fa. _ And if you please, you may add any other Article.

_Eu. _ That shall be according as you are in the Mind after your Month is
up.

_Fa. _ But why not according as I am in the Mind now?

_Eu. _ Why, I'll tell you, because I am afraid you will not be in the
same Mind then; and so you would have double Wages to pay, and I double
Work to do, of persuading and dissuading him.

_Fa. _ Well, let it be as you will then. But come on, shew me why the Man
is better than the Woman.

_Eu. _ I perceive you have a Mind to engage with me in Discourse, but I
think it more adviseable to yield to you at this Time. At another Time
I'll attack you when I have furnished myself with Arguments; but not
without a Second neither. For where the Tongue is the Weapon that
decides the Quarrel; seven Men are scarce able to Deal with one Woman.

_Fa. _ Indeed the Tongue is a Woman's Weapon; but you Men are not without
it neither.

_Eu. _ Perhaps so, but where is your little Boy?

_Fa. _ In the next Room.

_Eu. _ What is he doing there, cooking the Pot?

_Fa. _ You Trifler, he's with his Nurse.

_Eu. _ What Nurse do you talk of? Has he any Nurse but his Mother?

_Fa. _ Why not? It is the Fashion.

_Eu. _ You quote the worst Author in the World, _Fabulla_, the Fashion;
'tis the Fashion to do amiss, to game, to whore, to cheat, to be drunk,
and to play the Rake.

_Fa. _ My Friends would have it so; they were of Opinion I ought to
favour myself, being young.

_Eu. _ But if Nature gives Strength to conceive, it doubtless gives
Strength to give Suck too.

_Fa. _ That may be.

_Eu. _ Prithee tell me, don't you think Mother is a very pretty Name?

_Fa. _ Yes, I do.

_Eu. _ And if such a Thing were possible, would you endure it, that
another Woman should be call'd the Mother of your Child?

_Fa. _ By no Means.

_Eu. _ Why then do you voluntarily make another Woman more than half the
Mother of what you have brought into the World?

_Fa. _ O fy! _Eutrapelus_, I don't divide my Son in two, I am intirely
his Mother, and no Body in the World else.

_Eu. _ Nay, _Fabulla_, in this Case Nature herself blames you to your
Face. Why is the Earth call'd the Mother of all Things? Is it because
she produces only? Nay, much rather, because she nourishes those Things
she produces: that which is produced by Water, is fed by Water. There is
not a living Creature or a Plant that grows on the Face of the Earth,
that the Earth does not feed with its own Moisture. Nor is there any
living Creature that does not feed its own Offspring. Owls, Lions, and
Vipers, feed their own Young, and does Womankind make her Offspring
Offcasts? Pray, what can be more cruel than they are, that turn their
Offspring out of Doors for Laziness, not to supply them with Food?

_Fa. _ That you talk of is abominable.

_Eu. _ But Womankind don't abominate it. Is it not a Sort of turning out
of Doors, to commit a tender little Infant, yet reaking of the Mother,
breathing the very Air of the Mother, imploring the Mother's Aid and
Help with its Voice, which they say will affect even a brute Creature,
to a Woman perhaps that is neither wholsome in Body, nor honest, who has
more Regard to a little Wages, than to your Child?

_Fa. _ But they have made Choice of a wholsome, sound Woman.

_Eu. _ Of this the Doctors are better Judges than yourself. But put the
Case, she is as healthful as yourself, and more too; do you think there
is no Difference between your little tender Infant's sucking its natural
and familiar Milk, and being cherish'd with Warmth it has been
accustomed to, and its being forc'd to accustom itself to those of a
Stranger? Wheat being sown in a strange Soil, degenerates into Oats or
small Wheat. A Vine being transplanted into another Hill, changes its
Nature. A Plant when it is pluck'd from its Parent Earth, withers, and
as it were dies away, and does in a Manner the same when it is
transplanted from its Native Earth.

_Fa. _ Nay, but they say, Plants that have been transplanted and grafted,
lose their wild Nature, and produce better Fruit.

_Eu. _ But not as soon as ever they peep out of the Ground, good Madam.
There will come a Time, by the Grace of God, when you will send away
your young Son from you out of Doors, to be accomplish'd with Learning
and undergo harsh Discipline, and which indeed is rather the Province of
the Father than of the Mother. But now its tender Age calls for
Indulgence. And besides, whereas the Food, according as it is,
contributes much to the Health and Strength of the Body, so more
especially it is essential to take Care, with what Milk that little,
tender, soft Body be season'd. For _Horace's_ Saying takes Place here.
_Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu. What is bred in
the Bone, will never out of the Flesh. _

_Fa. _ I don't so much concern myself as to his Body, so his Mind be but
as I would have it.

_Eu. _ That indeed is piously spoken, but not philosophically.

_Fa. _ Why not?

_Eu. _ Why do you when you shred Herbs, complain your Knife is blunt, and
order it to be whetted? Why do you reject a blunt pointed Needle, when
that does not deprive you of your Art?

_Fa. _ Art is not wanting, but an unfit Instrument hinders the exerting
it.

_Eu. _ Why do they that have much Occasion to use their Eyes, avoid
Darnel and Onions?

_Fa. _ Because they hurt the Sight.

_Eu. _ Is it not the Mind that sees?

_Fa. _ It is, for those that are dead see nothing. But what can a
Carpenter do with an Ax whose Edge is spoiled?

_Eu. _ Then you do acknowledge the Body is the Organ of the Mind?

_Fa. _ That's plain.

_Eu. _ And you grant that in a vitiated Body the Mind either cannot act
at all, or if it does, it is with Inconvenience?

_Fa. _ Very likely.

_Eu. _ Well, I find I have an intelligent Person to deal with; suppose
the Soul of a Man was to pass into the Body of a Cock, would it make the
same Sound it does now?

_Fa. _ No to be sure.

_Eu. _ What would hinder?

_Fa. _ Because it would want Lips, Teeth, and a Tongue, like to that of a
Man. It has neither the Epiglottis, nor the three Cartilages, that are
moved by three Muscles, to which Nerves are joined that come from the
Brain; nor has it Jaws and Teeth like a Man's.

_Eu. _ What if it should go into the Body of a Swine?

_Fa. _ Then it would grunt like a Swine.

_Eu. _ What if it should pass into the Body of a Camel?

_Fa. _ It would make a Noise like a Camel.

_Eu. _ What if it should pass into the Body of an Ass, as it happened to
_Apuleius_?

_Fa. _ Then I think it would bray as an Ass does.

_Eu. _ Indeed he is a Proof of this, who when he had a Mind to call after
_Caesar_, having contracted his Lips as much as he possibly could,
scarce pronounced O, but could by no Means pronounce _Caesar. _ The same
Person, when having heard a Story, and that he might not forget it,
would have written it, reprehended himself for his foolish Thought, when
he beheld his solid Hoofs.

_Fa. _ And he had Cause enough.

_Eu. _ Then it follows that the Soul does not see well thro' purblind
Eyes. The Ears hear not clearly when stopped with Filth. The Brain
smells not so well when oppressed with Phlegm. And a Member feels not so
much when it is benumbed. The Tongue tastes less, when vitiated with ill
Humours.

_Fa. _ These Things can't be denied.

_Eu. _ And for no other Cause, but because the Organ is vitiated.

_Fa. _ I believe the same.

_Eu. _ Nor will you deny, I suppose, that sometimes it is vitiated by
Food and Drink.

_Fa. _ I'll grant that too, but what signifies that to the Goodness of
the Mind?

_Eu. _ As much as Darnel does to a clear Eye-Sight.

_Fa. _ Because it vitiates the Organ.

_Eu. _ Well answer'd. But solve me this Difficulty: Why is it that one
understands quicker than another, and has a better Memory; why is one
more prone to Anger than another; or is more moderate in his Resentment?

_Fa. _ It proceeds from the Disposition of the Mind.

_Eu. _ That won't do.
Whence comes it that one who was formerly of a very
ready Wit, and a retentive Memory, becomes afterwards stupid and
forgetful, either by a Blow or a Fall, by Sickness or old Age?

_Fa. _ Now you seem to play the Sophister with me.

_Eu. _ Then do you play the Sophistress with me.

_Fa. _ I suppose you would infer, that as the Mind sees and hears by the
Eyes and Ears, so by some Organs it also understands, remembers, loves,
hates, is provoked and appeas'd?

_Eu. _ Right.

_Fa. _ But pray what are those Organs, and where are they situated?

_Eu. _ As to the Eyes, you see where they are.

_Fa. _ I know well enough where the Ears, and the Nose, and the Palate
are; and that the Body is all over sensible of the Touch, unless when
some Member is seized with a Numbness.

_Eu. _ When a Foot is cut off, yet the Mind understands.

_Fa. _ It does so, and when a Hand is cut off too.

_Eu. _ A Person that receives a violent Blow on the Temples, or
hinder-Part of his Head, falls down like one that is dead, and is
unsensible.

_Fa. _ I have sometimes seen that myself.

_Eu. _ Hence it is to be collected, that the Organs of the Will,
Understanding, and Memory, are placed within the Skull, being not so
crass as the Eyes and Ears, and yet are material, in as much as the most
subtile Spirits that we have in the Body are corporeal.

_Fa. _ And can they be vitiated with Meat and Drink too?

_Eu. _ Yes.

_Fa. _ The Brain is a great Way off from the Stomach.

_Eu. _ And so is the Funnel of a Chimney from the Fire-Hearth, yet if
you sit upon it you'll feel the Smoke.

_Fa. _ I shan't try that Experiment.

_Eu. _ Well, if you won't believe me, ask the Storks. And so it is of
Moment what Spirits, and what Vapours ascend from the Stomach to the
Brain, and the Organs of the Mind. For if these are crude or cold they
stay in the Stomach.

_Fa. _ Pshaw! You're describing to me an Alembick, in which we distil
Simple-Waters.

_Eu. _ You don't guess much amiss. For the Liver, to which the Gall
adheres, is the Fire-Place; the Stomach, the Pan; the Scull, the Top of
the Still; and if you please, you may call the Nose the Pipe of it. And
from this Flux or Reflux of Humours, almost all Manner of Diseases
proceed, according as a different Humour falls down after a different
Manner, sometimes into the Eyes, sometimes into the Stomach, sometimes
into the Shoulders, and sometimes into the Neck, and elsewhere. And that
you may understand me the better, why have those that guzzle a great
Deal of Wine bad Memories? Why are those that feed upon light Food, not
of so heavy a Disposition? Why does Coriander help the Memory? Why does
Hellebore purge the Memory? Why does a great Expletion cause an
Epilepsy, which at once brings a Stupor upon all the Senses, as in a
profound Sleep? In the last Place, as violent Thirst or Want weaken the
Strength of Wit or Memory in Boys, so Food eaten immoderately makes Boys
dull-headed, if we believe _Aristotle_; in that the Fire of the Mind is
extinguish'd by the heaping on too much Matter.

_Fa. _ Why then, is the Mind corporeal, so as to be affected with
corporeal Things?

_Eu. _ Indeed the Nature itself of the rational Soul is not corrupted;
but the Power and Action of it are impeded by the Organs being vitiated,
as the Art of an Artist will stand him in no Stead, if he has not
Instruments.

_Fa. _ Of what Bulk, and in what Form is the Mind?

_Eu. _ You ask a ridiculous Question, what Bulk and Form the Mind is of,
when you have allow'd it to be incorporeal.

_Fa. _ I mean the Body that is felt.

_Eu. _ Nay, those Bodies that are not to be felt are the most perfect
Bodies, as God and the Angels.

_Fa. _ I have heard that God and Angels are Spirits, but we feel the
Spirit.

_Eu. _ The Holy Scriptures condescend to those low Expressions, because
of the Dullness of Men, to signify a Mind pure from all Commerce of
sensible Things.

_Fa. _ Then what is the Difference between an Angel and a Mind?

_Eu. _ The same that is between a Snail and a Cockle, or, if you like the
Comparison better, a Tortoise.

_Fa. _ Then the Body is rather the Habitation of the Mind than the
Instrument of it.

_Eu. _ There is no Absurdity in calling an adjunct Instrument an
Habitation. Philosophers are divided in their Opinions about this. Some
call the Body the Garment of the Soul, some the House, some the
Instrument, and some the Harmony; call it by which of these you will, it
will follow that the Actions of the Mind are impeded by the Affections
of the Body. In the first Place, if the Body is to the Mind that which a
Garment is to the Body, the Garment of _Hercules_ informs us how much a
Garment contributes to the Health of the Body, not to take any Notice of
Colours of Hairs or of Skins. But as to that Question, whether one and
the same Soul is capable of wearing out many Bodies, it shall be left to
_Pythagoras_.

_Fa. _ If, according to _Pythagoras_, we could make Use of Change of
Bodies, as we do of Apparel, it would be convenient to take a fat Body,
and of a thick Texture, in Winter Time, and a thinner and lighter Body
in Summer Time.

_Eu. _ But I am of the Opinion, that if we wore out our Body at last as
we do our Cloaths; it would not be convenient; for so having worn out
many Bodies, the Soul itself would grow old and die.

_Fa. _ It would not truly.

_Eu. _ As the Sort of Garment that is worn hath an Influence on the
Health and Agility of the Body, so it is of great Moment what Body the
Soul wears.

_Fa. _ If indeed the Body is the Garment of the Soul, I see a great many
that are dress'd after a very different Manner.

_Eu. _ Right, and yet some Part of this Matter is in our own Power, how
conveniently our Souls shall be cloathed.

_Fa. _ Come, have done with the Garment, and say something concerning the
Habitation.

_Eu. _ But, _Fabulla_, that what I say to you mayn't be thought a
Fiction, the _Lord Jesus_ calls his Body a _Temple_, and the Apostle
_Peter_ calls his a _Tabernacle_. And there have been some that have
call'd the Body the Sepulchre of the Soul, supposing it was call'd
[Greek: sôma], as tho' it were [Greek: sêma]. Some call it the Prison of
the Mind, and some the Fortress or fortify'd Castle. The Minds of
Persons that are pure in every Part, dwell in the Temple. They whose
Minds are not taken up with the Love of corporeal Things, dwell in a
Tent, and are ready to come forth as soon as the Commander calls. The
Soul of those that are wholly blinded with Vice and Filthiness, so that
they never breathe after the Air of Gospel Liberty, lies in a Sepulchre.
But they that wrestle hard with their Vices, and can't yet be able to do
what they would do, their Soul dwells in a Prison, whence they
frequently cry out to the Deliverer of all, _Bring my Soul out of
Prison, that I may praise thy Name, O Lord. _ They who fight strenuously
with Satan, watching and guarding against his Snares, who goes about as
_a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour;_ their Soul is as it were
in a Garison, out of which they must not go without the General's Leave.

_Fa. _ If the Body be the Habitation or House of the Soul, I see a great
many whose Mind is very illy seated.

_Eu. _ It is so, that is to say, in Houses where it rains in, that are
dark, exposed to all Winds, that are smoaky, damp, decay'd, and ruinous,
and such as are filthy and infected: and yet _Cato_ accounts it the
principal Happiness of a Man, to dwell handsomly.

_Fa. _ It were tolerable, if there was any passing out of one House into
another.

_Eu. _ There's no going out before the Landlord calls out. But tho' we
can't go out, yet we may by our Art and Care make the Habitation of our
Mind commodious; as in a House the Windows are changed, the Floor taken
up, the Walls are either plaistered or wainscotted, and the Situation
may be purified with Fire or Perfume. But this is a very hard Matter, in
an old Body that is near its Ruin. But it is of great Advantage to the
Body of a Child, to take the Care of it that ought to be taken presently
after its Birth.

_Fa. _ You would have Mothers and Nurses to be Doctors.

_Eu. _ So indeed I would, as to the Choice and moderate Use of Meat,
Drink, Motion, Sleep, Baths, Unctions, Frictions, and Cloathings. How
many are there, think you, who are expos'd to grievous Diseases and
Vices, as Epilepsies, Leanness, Weakness, Deafness, broken Backs,
crooked Limbs, a weak Brain, disturbed Minds, and for no other Reason
than that their Nurses have not taken a due Care of them?

_Fa. _ I wonder you are not rather a _Franciscan_ than a Painter, who
preach so finely.

_Eu. _ When you are a Nun of the Order of St. _Clare_, then I'll be a
_Franciscan_, and preach to you.

_Fa. _ In Truth, I would fain know what the Soul is, about which we hear
so much, and talk of so often, and no Body has seen.

_Eu. _ Nay, every Body sees it that has Eyes.

_Fa. _ I see Souls painted in the Shape of little Infants, but why do
they put Wings to them as they do to Angels?

_Eu. _ Why, because, if we can give any Credit to the Fables of
_Socrates_, their Wings were broken by their falling from Heaven.

_Fa. _ How then are they said to fly up to Heaven?

_Eu. _ Because Faith and Charity make their Wings grow again. He that was
weary of this House of his Body, begg'd for these Wings, when he cry'd
out, _Who will give me the Wings of a Dove, that I may fly away, and be
at rest_. Nor has the Soul any other Wings, being incorporeal, nor any
Form that can be beheld by the Eyes of the Body. But those Things that
are perceiv'd by the Mind, are more certain. Do you believe the Being of
God?

_Fa. _ Yes, I do.

_Eu. _ But nothing is more invisible than God.

_Fa. _ He is seen in the Works of Creation.

_Eu. _ In like Manner the Soul is seen in Action. If you would know how
it acts in a living Body, consider a dead Body. When you see a Man Feel,
See, Hear, Move, Understand, Remember and Reason, you see the Soul to be
in him with more Certainty than you see this Tankard; for one Sense may
be deceiv'd, but so many Proofs of the Senses cannot deceive you.

_Fa. _ Well then, if you can't shew me the Soul, paint it out to me, just
as you would the King, whom I never did see.

_Eu. _ I have _Aristotle_'s Definition ready for you.

_Fa. _ What is it? for they say he was a very good Decypherer of every
Thing.

_Eu. The Soul is the Act of an Organical, Physical Body, having Life_ in
Potentia.

_Fa. _ Why does he rather call it an _Act_ than a _Journey_ or _Way? _

_Eu. _ Here's no Regard either to Coachmen or Horsemen, but a bare
Definition of the Soul. And he calls the Form _Act_, the Nature of which
is to _act_, when it is the Property of Matter to _suffer_. For all
natural Motion of the Body proceeds from the Soul. And the Motion of the
Body is various.

_Fa. _ I take that in; but why does he add _of an Organical_?

_Eu. _ Because the Soul does nothing but by the Help of Organs, that is,
by the Instruments of the Body.

_Fa. _ Why does he say _Physical_?

_Eu. _ Because _Dædalus_ made such a Body to no Purpose; and therefore he
adds, _having Life_ in Potentia. Form does not act upon every Thing; but
upon a Body that is capable.

_Fa. _ What if an Angel should pass into the Body of a Man?

_Eu. _ He would act indeed, but not by the natural Organs, nor would he
give Life to the Body if the Soul was absent from it.

_Fa. _ Have I had all the Account that is to be given of the Soul?

_Eu. _ You have _Aristotle_'s Account of it.

_Fa. _ Indeed I have heard he was a very famous Philosopher, and I am
afraid that the College of Sages would prefer a Bill of Heresy against
me, if I should say any Thing against him; but else all that he has said
concerning the Soul of a Man, is as applicable to the Soul of an Ass or
an Ox.

_Eu. _ Nay, that's true, or to a Beetle or a Snail.

_Fa. _ What Difference then is there between the Soul of an Ox, and that
of a Man?

_Eu. _ They that say the Soul is nothing else but the Harmony of the
Qualities of the Body, would confess that there was no great Difference;
and that this Harmony being interrupted, the Souls of both of them do
perish. The Soul of a Man and an Ox is not distinguished; but that of an
Ox has less Knowledge than the Soul of a Man. And there are some Men to
be seen that have less Understanding than an Ox.

_Fa. _ In Truth, they have the Mind of an Ox.

_Eu. _ This indeed concerns you, that according to the Quality of your
Guittar, your Musick will be the sweeter.

_Fa. _ I own it.

_Eu. _ Nor is it of small Moment of what Wood, and in what Shape your
Guittar is made.