memory; If he Conferre[1] little, he had need have a Present[2] Wit; And if he Reade litle, he had need have much Cunning[3], to seeme to know that[4] he doth not. Histories make Men Wise; Poets Witty[5]; The Mathematicks Subtill; Naturall Philosophy deepe; Morall Grave[6]; Logick and Rhetorick Able to Contend. Abeunt studia in Mores[7]. Nay, there is no Stond[8] or Impediment in the Wit[9] but may be wrought out[10] by Fit Studies; Like as Diseases of the Body may have Appropriate Exercises. Bowling[11] is good for the Stone and Reines; Shooting[12] for the Lungs and Breast; Gentle Walking for the Stomacke; Riding for the Head; And the like. So if a Man's Wit be Wandring, let him Study the Mathematicks; For in Demonstrations, if his Wit be called away never so little, he must begin again: If his Wit be not Apt to distinguish or find differences, let him Study the Schoole-men; For they are Cymini sectores[13]. If he be not Apt to beat over Matters[14], and to call up one Thing to Prove and Illustrate another, let him Study the Lawyers' Cases: So every Defect of the Minde may have a Speciall Receit[15].
LI
OF FACTION
Many have an Opinion not wise, That for a Prince to Governe his Estate[16], Or for a Great Person to governe his Proceedings, according to the Respect of Factions[17], is a Principall Part of Policy: whereas contrariwise, the Chiefest Wisdome is, either in Ordering[18] those Things, which are
- ↑ converse
- ↑ ready
- ↑ ingenuity
- ↑ that which
- ↑ imaginative
- ↑ moral philosophy serious
- ↑ One's studies pass into one's character.
- ↑ obstacle
- ↑ mind
- ↑ worked out, removed
- ↑ playing bowls
- ↑ archery
- ↑ hair-splitters (lit. carvers of cummin seeds)
- ↑ ready in passing from one subject to another
- ↑ prescription for its remedy
- ↑ state
- ↑ with a view to the interests of particular parties
- ↑ in regulating
