Part 21

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!

END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The translator thinks, as he has not translated that Discourse, it will not be amiss to insert here the Author’s sentiment on this subject. In the Essay or Discourse referred to, after reciting the arguments that have been used to prove the invention came from China, and the claims that have been made on the behalf of a variety of people, to their being the inventors; he gives it as his opinion, that Bertoldus Schuvart, a German Franciscan friar, and an eminent chemist, was the man who invented it, or at least was the person who, brought the invention to perfection.

[2] This is the same John Locke, of whose writings, as also of those of Rapin, Sidney, and Bishop Hoadly, the late David Hume, in his History of Great Britain, gives the following description: “Compositions of the most despicable kind both for style and matter, which have been extolled, and propagated, and read; as if they had equalled the most celebrated remains of antiquity.”

Vid. vol. viii. pag. 323, of the last edition of Hume’s History of Great Britain, published in 1778.

ERRATA.

Page 68, line 27, _read_ such for example as spiritual entities.

Page 101, line 8, _for_ that, _read_ and that.

Page 104, line 16, _read_ and after turning, &c.

Page 129, line 25, _for_ executed, _read_ executes.

Page 157, line 12, _for_ ascends, _read_ ascend; and line 21, _for_ lerned, _read_ learned.

Page 158, line 20, _for_ but, _read_ yet.

Page 169, line 13, _read_ many of those instruments.

Page 187, line 20, _read_ proper resolution.

Page 212, line 9, _for_ had, _read_ has.

Page 213, line 14, _for_ raise, _read_ arise.

Page 271, line 3, _for_ reasonable, _read_ reasoning.

Page 272, line 6, _for_ qulities, _read_ qualities.

Page 273, line 10, _for_ is, _read_ are.

Page 297, line 14, _read_ as it is called.

Page 352, line 6, _for_ eben, _read_ been.

=Transcriber’s Note:= The errata have been corrected, along with a few other minor printing errors.