Part 19

LXXVII. But the most common accusation of all, is that which charges the weather as the cause of our disorders. He who commits no excesses, and cannot assign any other cause for his being out of order, lays the blame upon the weather, and even he who does commit them, to avoid criminating himself, lays the blame on the weather also; which be it hot, moist, dry, variable, or settled, people are never at a loss to find out some pretence whereon to ground the accusation. If in July, as is customary at that season, we find it very hot, we say the heat is the cause of our disorders; but if the weather at that time happens to be more benign and temperate than usual, they still lay the blame upon it, alledging that such a temperature of air is not natural to the season. The same sort of charge is brought against the cold in winter, whether it is intense or moderate. If at that time of the year, the weather is variable, there is scarce any one who does not find fault with it; neither is it exempted from blame if it is settled, for then they say that change of weather is indispensably necessary to our constitutions; and that any kind of weather which lasts a long while is hostile to them; that long cold occasions constipations, long heat dissolves and weakens us, long wet suffocates us, and that long drought burns us up and consumes us.

LXXVIII. I have often remarked, that all our misfortunes are imputed to two common enemies: our spiritual ones to the Devil, and our bodily ones to the weather. There is scarce any one, who, in order to extenuate his own guilt, does not say, he was tempted by the Devil to commit the crime he has been guilty of. He is as irrational who thinks, that if there was no Devil to tempt us, we should never sin, as he is who thinks, that if the weather was regulated in a most perfect form and order, we should never be sick. Within ourselves, and in the very essence of our being, lies the origin of all our ills, both spiritual and temporal; and our nature is swayed by its own weight, towards both the one and the other evil; although we can never be led into the first without our own consent; but the other species, may frequently be brought on us against our will.

SECT. XVII.

LXXIX. The third error committed in making experimental observations, although it is not so common as the two first, is pretty often incurred. If he for example, who on account of his having used some violent exercise, drinks small liquors to excess, and afterwards finds himself feverish, imputes his being so, as is very frequently the case, to his having drank such liquids to excess; the generality of men, seldom reflecting upon any excesses, but those of the appetite; but with all this, violent exercise is much more likely to inflame the blood, and disturb the humours, than drinking to excess of small liquids, and therefore it would be much more rational, to impute the fever to the violence of the exercise, than to drinking small liquids to excess.

LXXX. I believe that from the blunder of mistaking two effects of the same cause, the one for the cause, and the other for the effect, arose the opinion, which is so common among medical people; that all fluxions wherever they fall, the gout not excepted, descend from the head; and it being very common, for those who are affected with acrid fluxions that fall on any part of the body, to feel pains and heaviness in their heads; I suppose that from thence sprung the notion, that all fluxions originate in, and are derived from the brain; but there are not a few modern physicians who are of a contrary sentiment, and in my opinion they are right.

LXXXI. In the first place, I do not know why the vicious humours, from whence the matter of fluxions are derived, should make the grand circuit through the head, before they fall on any particular part that is at a distance from it; as they could, by being mixed with the blood in their circulation through the veins and arteries, be derived immediately from them, on any member or part of the body.

LXXXII. Secondly, if such a vast quantity of humour, as is discharged by some fluxions, was to be lodged in the brain, it seems to me that it must render a man quite stupid, and that organ incapable of exercising any of its functions.

LXXXIII. Thirdly, it is not easy to point out the channel, through which the humour passes from the interior part of the head. Many pretend to say it passes through the Ethmoides, or Os Criboso; but Sneider denies this, for that you cannot find any cavities or perforations in this bone, through which those humours could flow, and especially if they are pituitous and clammy, as the antients supposed them to be; and to this we may add, that this bone is entirely covered or lined by the meninges, and the interior tunic of the nose. It is true, as Doctor Matinez observes in his treatise on anatomy, that its upper part is very porous, and that from thence it came to be called the os criboso, or spungy bone; but as these spungy pores do not pervade the whole bone, and are not pierced through it, setting aside the obstacle it would meet with from the membranes or tunics that surround it, the humour could not pass that way. If it is insisted, that it flows through the nervous ducts, I ask how it comes not to be attended with obstructions, that must produce dangerous consequences?

LXXXIV. Fourthly and lastly, that through whatever channels you suppose the humour to pass; how does it happen, that neither in them, nor the parts immediately connected with them, it does not excite any sensations, but that sore feelings, are only perceived at the part where it vents itself? Is it not totally incredible, that a very acrid humour derived from the head, and which flows to the stomach, to the breast, to the intestines, and even to the extremities of the feet, should produce no sensations in the intermediate parts between the head, and the place on which it falls? This difficulty, which occurred to me many years ago, I have often mentioned to medical people, but never could get any solution of it that was satisfactory to me.

LXXXV. If by way of objection to what I have here advanced, the argument we have mentioned before is urged, that defluxions on any part of the body are generally attended with a pain in the head; I answer, that it cannot be inferred from thence, that the humour descends from the head. In the first place, for I have observed it many times with regard to myself, these fluxions are often not attended with any pain in the head at all; and to make the inference just, they should always be attended with one. Secondly, although a pain in the head should constantly accompany a defluxion, the objection made would easily be removed, by saying, that this appearance is fallacious, for that both the pain and the defluxion, are effects of the same cause, and not one the cause of the other. In fact, reason tells us this is the case; for the acrid humour, which when separated from the mass of blood, falls on, and discharges itself at this or that place, while it continues in the circulation, has nothing to hinder it from venting some portion of its poison on the head, and exciting pain there; and especially, as it is generally supposed, the nidus of the humour which flows in defluxions, is in the glands, and the brain holds the first place in that class; for which reason, Hippocrates and Wharton, call it the great and principal gland.

LXXXVI. If it is replied to this, that in every defluxion which is somewhat violent, although we do not feel what may be properly called pain in the head, we at least perceive a heaviness in it; which renders that organ unfit for its operation. I confess that this is so, but to the confession, shall beg leave to add two remarks. The first is, that this is not a symptom peculiar to fluxions, for that the same thing happens in many other disorders; but the generality of physicians do not conclude from hence, that those diseases originate in the head. Secondly, neither is this heaviness or inaptitude, peculiar to the head, for upon observation, you will find that fluxions and many other disorders also, have the same effect upon the other members of the body. Whoever is affected with a violent defluxion, either on the throat, the breast, the stomach, or any other part, will find that his whole body, and every member of it, is more heavy and listless, than when he is in good health; and that all his limbs are less fit for action; and that they all with a very little exercise of them, become soon tired. Thus we have no reason to attribute a heaviness as peculiar to the head, in the attacks of fluxions, when we see it is common in those attacks, to all the other members of the body; and it has been for want of making this reflexion, that the world have conjectured all defluxions were derived from the head.

A DISPLAY of the INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES OF THE VARIOUS PEOPLE, With REMARKS on the TALENTS of the DIFFERENT ONES.

SECT. I.

I. There is no doubt, but the different temperament of air in countries, induces a sensible diversity in men, brutes, and plants. In plants, the difference is so great, that the same which in one country is innocent and salutary, in another is noxious and poisonous, which, as we are assured, is the case with the Persian apple. The diversity between brutes, is not less than that between plants, both with respect to their size, fierceness, strength, and other qualities; but besides what is obvious and clear to the observation of all men in this matter; we are assured there are countries, where many sorts of animals, degenerate totally from the characteristic property of their species. If we are to believe Lucianus, Macedonia produces serpents, so social to the human race, that they will play with children, and gently apply their mouths to the nipples of women’s breasts to suck their milk; and as Louis de Marmol informs us, in Gruregra a mountainous country in the kingdom of Fez, the lions which are very numerous, are so tame and so timid, that the women with sticks in their hands, beat and drive them about like so many domestic dogs.

II. If the difference in our own species, which is produced by a diversity of climate, is not so great, it is sufficiently evident and apparent. It is manifest, that there are countries, where the inhabitants are remarkable for being of larger stature than they are in others, or for being more active, more strong, more healthy, or more beautiful; and that this difference subsists with respect to all other things, that depend upon the two faculties that are common to both men and brutes, that is, the sensitive and the vegetative. Even in nations which border upon each other, this difference is sometimes observable.

III. Distinct dispositions of body, are attended with distinct qualities of mind; and from distinct temperaments, result distinct inclinations; and from distinct inclinations, distinct customs and manners. The first of these consequences is a necessary one; but the second is not so certain, because a man’s free will may restrain the impetus of his inclination; but as is most commonly the case, men let their free will be led by the emotions, which are produced by the interior disposition of the machine; so that we may safely pronounce, that men in one country are more addicted to passion and anger, in another to gluttony, in another to be lascivious, and in another to be lazy or slothful.

IV. The inequality between men of different regions in the rational part, is generally supposed not to be less, but rather greater, than it is in the sensitive and vegetative; and it is not only in the conversation of the vulgar that we see this opinion upheld, but we see it supported in the writings of the learned; where we find one nation described as rude and savage, another as stupid, and another as barbarous; so that when according to this description of them, we come to compare one of these nations, with one of those who are esteemed cultivated and polished, we conceive that there is nearly as great a difference between the inhabitants of the one and the other, as there is between men and wild beasts.

V. I differ so widely from the common opinion in this particular, that with respect to the essential part of the use of the understanding, in the inhabitants of one nation and another, the difference is imperceptible. This sentiment cannot be better justified, than by shewing, that those nations which are commonly reputed rude and barbarous, are not inferior in ingenuity to the most cultivated ones, and perhaps in some instances excel them.

SECT. II.

VI. We will begin our comparisons with the nations of Europe. The Germans, who have been so stigmatized for heavy dull people, that Father Domingo Bohursius a French Jesuit, in his Conversations of Aristius and Eugenius, made no scruple of pronouncing, that he doubted whether it was possible to find a man of bright talents in the whole country: however, in answer to this charge, it may be alledged, that Germany has produced so many excellent authors in all kinds of literature, that it is hardly possible to number them. I doubt whether the before-named Frenchman, by rummaging for them through the series of all past ages, can point out two of his countrymen, who were equally eminent with Rabanus Maurus, and Albertus the Great. The epithets which Cardinal Baronius bestows upon Rabanus Maurus, are, that he was the resplendent star of his age, and the supreme Theologian of his time; and Sextus Senense, recognizes him as a man most perfectly accomplished in all kinds of letters; and the Abbot Trithemius, after celebrating him as a most excellent Theologian, Philosopher, Orator, and Poet, adds, that Italy never produced a man equal to this; and Trithemius was not ignorant, that Saint Thomas Aquinas was a native of Italy. Whom can France boast that exceeded Trithemius himself, who was so greatly venerated by Cornelius Agrippa; or who excelled the Abbot Rupertus, or Father Athanasius Kircher, who according to Caramuel was divinely learned; or Father Gaspar Schotti, and many others whom I shall omit? Neither should we forbear to mention that ray or flash of criticism, Gaspar Sciopius, who was the terror of all the learned men of his time, who at the age of sixteen begun to write books, which were the admiration of men of years and experience. I have in this literary map of Germany, only pointed out the mountains of greatest eminence, as I had not room to insert the lesser ones in it.

VII. The Hollanders, who in the days of antiquity were reputed for such stupid people, that it was common among the Romans, when they had a mind to describe a heavy dull man, or one that was slow of apprehension, to make use of the following proverbial expression, _auris Batava_; that he had the ears of a Hollander; however, the Dutch since then, have clearly proved, that imputation was a false one, for the opinion of their being people of ability, is at this day very fully established. Their civil government, and their industry in commerce, are the admiration of all the world; and there is scarce an art, that is not cultivated and brought to great perfection among them. The two Williams of Nassau, Erasmus, and Hugo Grotius, are striking examples of their talents for policy and literature. Thus we see in this as well as other nations, the want of application has been construed into rudeness; but as soon as the neglect of study was remedied, the injustice of the imputation became manifest.

VIII. The abilities of the Muscovites also, have till of late days, been held in as much contempt as those of the antient Hollanders were; for it was but in the last century, that Urban Chevreau a celebrated wit of France, laid that a Muscovite was _the man of Plato_; by which expression, the French Author alluded to the poor definition that philosopher gave of a man, when he described him to be an animal without feathers, who walked upon two legs, _animal bipes implume_; this gave occasion to the joke of Diogenes, who having plucked the feathers off a cock, threw him into the school of Plato among his disciples, calling out with a loud voice, _see the Man of Plato_. Chevreau attempted to say, that the Muscovites were nothing like men but in their figure. But after the Czar Peter Alexiowitz had introduced arts and sciences among them, it soon became evident, that the Muscovites were as much men in all respects, as any of the other people in Europe. But if this never had been done, how could any one suppose that a people who were stupid and senseless, should have been able to form a most extensive empire; and to preserve it for so long a space of time as the Russians have preserved theirs? It required great ability to conquer such an empire; and to preserve it in the face of two such powerful enemies as the Turks and the Persians, much more. I am not ignorant, that Muscovy is a part of antient Scythia, whose moroders were reputed, and with reason, the most savage and barbarous of men; this barbarism, did not proceed from their want of natural talents, but from the want of those talents being cultivated; of which truth, the famous philosopher Anacharsis is a striking instance, who was the only man of that nation, that went to study in Greece. If numbers of other Scythians had done the same, Scythia might possibly have exhibited many Anacharsises.

SECT. III.

IX. If we attempt going out of Europe, every thing beyond those limits seems barbarous to us. When the imagination of the vulgar contemplates Asia, it represents to them, the Turks, the Persians, the Indians, the Chinese and the Japonese, as little better than so many congregations of satyrs, or demi-brutes. But notwithstanding this, there are none of these nations, who do not make as great advances in all the things they apply themselves to, as we do in whatever we study.

X. Their abhorrence for, nor their ignorance of the sciences in Turkey, is not so great as is generally imagined; for they have professors both in Constantinople and Grand Cairo, who teach astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, poetry, and the Arabic and Persian languages. But they have not so great an esteem for those faculties, as they have for politics; in their knowledge of which, there is scarce any nation who is equal to them, nor are there any subtilties appertaining to political arts, which they are ignorant of. The great English traveller, Mr. Chardin, in the relation of his voyage to India by land, tells us, that when he passed through Constantinople, he had much conversation with Senor Quirini the Venetian ambassador at the Porte; who assured him, that he had never treated with a man of equal penetration to the vizir of that time; and declared, that if he had a son whom he wished to breed a negociator, he would send him to the school of the Ottoman court preferable to any other. The Turks excel in all things that require dexterity of hand, and in all bodily exercises they take a fancy to. They are the best pen men in the world, and this is the reason, why they never would permit the art of printing to be introduced among them; and they are also the most active and dextrous rope-dancers in Europe. Cardanus relates wonders of two of them he saw in Italy, one of whom became a Christian, and lived an exemplary life, but always continued his old exercise; although his becoming a convert to Christianity, removed the suspicion that the vulgar entertained of his dealing with the devil. The dexterity of the Turks as archers, is so eminent, that the force and exactness with which they can shoot arrows is almost incredible. John Barclay, in the fourth book of his Satyricon, testifies to have seen a Turk penetrate with an arrow, a plate of steel, that was above an inch thick; and that he had seen another, who with the shaft of an arrow without any iron to it, split the body of a small tree. In the art of confectioning poisons, they are also very expert; for they will make them not only very active, but contrive them so, as that they may be administered without creating suspicion; a thin vapour with which a piece of fine linen is impregnated, if it is afterwards made up in any form, and sent as a present to the person to be dispatched, is made the instrument to take away his life. This is a most horrid and execrable art; but although it proves the perverse and wicked disposition of those people, is an argument of their great talents, for acquiring a profound knowledge of all they apply themselves to understand.

XI. The Persians, are still more polished than the Turks. They have their colleges and universities, where they study arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, natural and moral philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence, rhetoric, and poetry; which last, they are passionately fond of, and write elegant verses, although they are generally too redundantly abounding in pompous metaphors; and they are so far from being guilty of that ferocious neglect of urbanity which we are apt to impute to all the Mahometans, that there are no people who excel them in expressions of civility, tenderness, and affection. Whenever a Persian invites any one to his house, or is desirous of manifesting his esteem for him, he generally makes use of these, or some such like expressions; _I intreat you that you will honour my habitation with your presence; and I shall be ready to devote myself to making it agreeable to you in every shape, and to indulging all your wishes; and should even be willing that the favourite females of my eyes, should be converted to carpets for you to set your feet on_.