NOTES RTIR WWW. 



it were to save a kingdom ; and that this proceeded not from any violence of 

 pain, but from a general languishing and faintness of spirits, which made him 

 in those fits think nothing worth the trouble of one careful or solicitous thought. 

 For the approaches or lurkings of the gout, the spleen, or the scurvy, nay, the 

 very fumes of indigestion, may indispose men to thought and to care, as well as 

 diseases of danger and pain. 



&quot; Thus accidents of health grow to be accidents of state, and public constitu 

 tions come to depend in a great measure, upon those of particular men ; which 

 makes it perhaps seem necessary in the choice of persons for great employments 

 (at least such as require constant application and pains) to consider their bodies 

 as well as their minds, and ages and health as well as their abilities.&quot; 



Whether information upon Latin and Greek or upon the art of preserving 

 health, will, at some future time, be ascertained, with great respect for a know 

 ledge of languages, I should prefer to all these attainments, a knowledge of the 

 mode of preserving health. The air we breathe ; the food we take ; our exercise 

 and rest ; our sleep. 



Each of these subjects is of great importance, and so wholly neglected in our 

 education, that the very name of them is changed, and they are termed by 

 medical men &quot; non-naturals.&quot; 



As the word nervous, which used to express strength, has now changed its 

 meaning, and is used as an expression of aspen-leaf debility, or as the yew tree, 

 planted in churchyards, as a symbol of perpetual life, is called by us in return, 

 &quot; the melancholy yew.&quot; 



NOTE RRR. 



All his juvenile tracts are without imagery, and so are his Novum Organum, 

 and tract upon universal jnstice. That imagery followed in the train of his 

 reason, and was used chiefly if not solely to illustrate his reasoning, see his expla 

 nation of mistaking the motive for acquiring knowledge. See vol. ii. p. 51. 



Arrangement. In the Advancement of Learning, distinguished as it is for its 

 symmetry, in explaining the causes of the evil of method, he says, &quot; for as 

 young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a further 

 stature, so knowledge, whilst it is dispersed into aphorisms and observations, 

 may grow and shoot up : but once entered and comprehended in methods, it may, 

 perchance, be farther polished and fashioned and accommodated for use and 

 practice, but increaseth no more in bulk and substance.&quot; 



NOTE WWW. 



Seneca says, &quot; The grammarian s business lies in a syntax of speech ; or, if 

 he proceed to history, or the measuring of a verse, he is at the end of his line ; 

 but what signifies a congruity of periods, the computing of syllables, or the 

 modifying of numbers, to the taming of our passions, or the repressing of our 

 lusts 1 The philosopher proves the body of the sun to be large, but for the true 

 dimensions of it we must ask the mathematician ; geometry and music, if they 

 do not teach us to master our hopes and fears, all the rest is to little purpose. 

 What does it concern us which was the elder of the two, Homer or Hesiod ; or 

 which was the taller, Helen or Hecuba&quot;? We take a great deal of pains to 

 trace Ulysses in his wanderings ; but were it not time as well spent to look to 

 ourselves, that we may not wander at all. Are not we ourselves tossed with 

 tempestuous passions ; and both assaulted by terrible monsters on the one hand, 

 and tempted by syrens on the other 1&quot; 



&quot; You,&quot; says Lord Shaftsbury, &quot; who are skilled in other fabrics and compo 

 sitions both of art and nature, have you considered of the fabric of the mind, 

 the constitution of the soul, the connexion and frame of all its passions and 

 affections, to know accordingly the order and symmetry of each part ; and how 

 it either improves or suffers ; what its force is, when naturally preserved in its 

 sound state, and what becomes of it when corrupted and abused 1 Till this (my 

 friend) be well examined and understood, how shall we judge either of the force 



