Stephens's first collection, p. 54.

8

CIX. To Sir HENRY SAVILLE.

SIR,

COMING back from your invitation at Eton, where I had refreshed myself with company which I loved, I fell into a consideration of that part of policy, whereof philosophy speaketh too much, and laws too little; and that is, of education of youth. Whereupon fixing my mind awhile, I found straightways, and noted even in the discourses of philosophers, which are so large in this argument, a strange silence concerning one principal part of that subject. For as touching the framing and seasoning of youth to moral virtues, as tolerance of labours, continency from pleasures, obedience, honour, and the like, they handle it: but touching the improvement, and helping of the intellectual powers, as of conceit, memory, and judgment, they say nothing: whether it were, that they thought it to be a matter wherein nature only prevailed; or that they intended it as referred to the several and proper arts which teach the use of reason and speech. But for the former of these two reasons, howsoever it pleaseth them to distinguish of habits and powers, the experience is manifest enough, that the motions and faculties of the wit and memory may be not only governed and guided, but also confirmed and enlarged by custom and exercise duly applied: as if a man exercise shooting, he shall not only shoot nearer the mark, but also draw a stronger bow. And as for the latter, of comprehending these precepts within the arts of logic and rhetoric, if it be rightly considered, their office is distinct altogether from this point; for it is no part of the doc

Sir Henry Saville, so justly celebrated for his noble edition of St. Chrysostom, and other learned works, was many years warden of Merton college in Oxford, in which university he founded a geometry and astronomy lecture, 25 May, 1620. See the instrument of foundation, Rymer XVII. p. 217, and likewise provost of Eton. To this gentleman, as of all the most proper, Sir Francis Bacon sends this discourse touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers in Youth; but being an imperfect essay to incite others, he places this useful subject among the deficients reckoned up in his Advancement of Learning. Stephens.

trine of the use or handling of an instrument, to teach how to whet or grind the instrument to give it a sharp edge, or how to quench it, or otherwise whereby to give it a stronger temper. Wherefore finding this part of knowledge not broken, I have, but tanquam aliud agens, entered into it, and salute you with it; dedicating it, after the ancient manner, first as to a dear friend, and then as to an apt person, forasmuch as you have both place to practise it, and judgment and leisure to look deeper into it than I have done. Herein you must call to mind "Apiorov pèr Swg. Though the arΑριστον μὲν ὕδωρ. gument be not of great height and dignity, nevertheless it is of great and universal use: and yet I do not see why, to consider it rightly, that should not be a learning of height, which teacheth to raise the highest and worthiest part of the mind. But howsoever that be, if the world take any light and use by this writing, I will the gratulation be to the good friendship and acquaintance between us two: and so I commend you to God's divine protection.

A Discourse touching the Helps for Intellectual Powers.

I DID ever hold it for an insolent and unlucky saying, Faber quisque fortunæ suæ; except it be uttered only as an hortative or spur to correct sloth. For otherwise, if it be believed as it soundeth, and that a man entereth into an high imagination that he can compass and fathom all accidents; and ascribeth all successes to his drifts and reaches; and the contrary to his errors and sleepings: it is commonly seen that the evening fortune of that man is not so prosperous, as of him that without slackening of his industry attributeth much to felicity and providence above him. But if the sentence were turned to this, Faber quisque ingenii sui,it were somewhat more true, and much more profitable; because it would teach men to bend themselves to reform those imperfections in themselves which now they seek but to cover, and to attain those virtues and good parts which now they seek but to

have only in shew and demonstration. Yet notwithstanding every man attempteth to be of the first trade, of carpenters, and few bind themselves to the second; whereas nevertheless the rising in fortune seldom amendeth the mind; but on the other side, the removing of the stonds and impediments of the mind doth often clear the passage and current to a man's fortune. But certain it is, whether it be believed or no, that as the most excellent of metals, gold, is of all others the most pliant and most induring to be wrought; so of all living and breathing substances, the perfectest man is the most susceptible of help, improvement, impression, and alteration; and not only in his body, but in his mind and spirit; and there again not only in his appetite and affection, but in his powers of wit and reason.

For as to the body of man, we find many and strange experiences, how nature is over-wrought by custom, even in actions that seem of most difficulty and least possible. As first in voluntary motion, which though it be termed voluntary, yet the highest degrees of it are not voluntary; for it is in my power and will to run; but to run faster than according to my lightness or disposition of body, is not in my power nor will. We see the industry and practice of tumblers and funambulos, what effects of great wonder it bringeth the body of man unto. So for suffering of pain and dolour, which is thought so contrary to the nature of man, there is much example of penances in strict orders of superstition what they do endure, such as may well verify the report of the Spartan boys, which were wont to be scourged upon the altar so bitterly as sometimes they died of it, and yet were never heard to complain. And to pass to those faculties which are reckoned more involuntary, as long fasting and abstinence, and the contrary extreme, voracity; the leaving and forbearing the use of drink for altogether; the enduring vehement cold, and the like; there have not wanted, neither do want, divers examples of strange victories over the body in every of these. Nay, in respiration, the proof hath been of some who by continual use of diving and working under the water, have

brought themselves to be able to hold their breath an incredible time; and others that have been able, without suffocation, to endure the stifling breath of an oven or furnace so heated as though it did not scald nor burn, yet it was many degrees too hot for any man not made to it to breathe or take in. And some impostors and counterfeits likewise have been able to wreathe and cast their bodies into strange forms and motions; yea, and others to bring themselves into trances and astonishments. All which examples do demonstrate how variously and to how high points and degrees the body of man may be as it were molded and wrought. And if any man conceive that it is some secret propriety of nature that hath been in those persons which have attained to those points, and that it is not open for every man to do the like, though he had been put to it; for which cause such things come but very rarely to pass it is true no doubt but some persons are apter than others; but so as the more aptness causeth perfection, but the less aptness doth not disable: so that, for example, the more apt child, that is taken to be made a funambulo, will prove more excellent in his feats; but the less apt will be gregarius funambulo also. And there is small question, but that these abilities would have been more common, and others of like sort, not attempted, would likewise have been brought upon the stage, but for two reasons: the one, because of mens diffidence in prejudging them as impossibilities; for it holdeth in those things which the poet saith, possunt, quia posse videntur; for no man shall know how much may be done except he believe much may be done. The other reason is, because they be but practices base and inglorious, and of no great use, and therefore sequestered from reward of value, and on the other side painful; so as the recompence balanceth not with the travel and suffering. And as to the will of man, it is that which is most maniable and obedient; as that which admitteth most medicines to cure and alter it. The most sovereign of all is religion, which is able to change and transform it in the deepest and most inward inclinations and

motions, and next to that is opinion and apprehension, whether it be infused by tradition and institution, or wrought in by disputation and persuasion; and the third is example, which transformeth the will of man into the similitude of that which is most observant and familiar towards it; and the fourth is, when one affection is healed and corrected by another, as when cowardice is remedied by shame and dishonour, or sluggishness and backwardness by indignation and emulation, and so of the like; and lastly, when all these means or any of them have new-framed or formed human will, then doth custom and habit corroborate and confirm all the rest. Therefore it is no marvel, though this faculty of the mind, of will and election, which inclineth affection and appetite, being but the inceptions and rudiments of will, may be so well governed and managed; because it admitteth access to so divers remedies to be applied to it, and to work upon it: the effects whereof are so many and so known, as require no enumeration; but generally they do issue, as medicines do, into two kinds of cures, whereof the one is a just or true cure, and the other is called palliation for either the labour and intention is to reform the affections really and truly, restraining them if they be too violent, and raising them if they be too soft and weak; or else it is to cover them, or, if occasion be, to pretend them and represent them: of the former sort whereof the examples are plentiful in the schools of philosophers, and in all other institutions of moral virtue and of the other sort the examples are more plentiful in the courts of princes, and in all politic traffic; where it is ordinary to find, not only profound dissimulations, and suffocating the affections, that no note or mark appear of them outwardly; but also lively simulations and affectations, carrying the tokens of passions which are not, as risus jussus and lacrymæ coacta, and the like.

Of Helps of the Intellectual Powers.

THE intellectual powers have fewer means to work upon them, than the will or body of man; but the