178 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



being bid by his executioner to stretch out his neck, val 

 iantly replied, &quot;I would thou wouldst strike as strongly.&quot; 9 

 John, duke of Saxony, 10 while playing at chess, received 

 the order for his execution the following day ; whereupon, 

 turning round to one that stood by him, he said, with a 

 smile, &quot; Judge whether so far 1 am not the winner of the 

 game. For as soon as I am dead, he,&quot; pointing to his 

 antagonist, &quot;will say that the game was his own.&quot; Sir 

 Thomas More, the day before his execution, being waited 

 upon by his barber, to know if he would have his hair 

 off, refused it; with this answer, that &quot;the king and he had 

 a dispute about his head, and till that were ended he would 

 bestow no cost upon it.&quot; And even when he had laid his 

 head upon the block, he raised himself again a little, and 

 gently putting his long beard aside, said, &quot;This surely has 

 not offended the king.&quot; By these examples it will appear 

 that the miracles of human nature, and the utmost powers 

 and faculties, both of mind and body, are what we would 

 have collected into a volume, that should be a kind of 

 register of human triumphs. And with regard to such a 

 work, we commend the design of Valerius Maximus and 

 Pliny, but not their care and choice. 



The doctrine of union, or of the common tie of soul 



: and body, has two parts: for as, in all alliances, there is 

 mutual intelligence and mutual offices, so the union of the 

 mind and body requires a description of the manner wherein 

 they discover, and act upon each other by notices, or indi 

 cation and impression. The description by indication has 

 produced two arts of prediction: the one honored with the 

 inquiry of Aristotle, and the other with that of Hippocrates. 



1 And though later ages have debased these arts with super 

 stitious and fantastical mixtures, yet, when purged and 

 truly restored, they have a solid foundation in nature, 



and use in life. The first of these is physiognomy, which, 



9 Annals, xv. 67. 



10 Meteren, History of the Civil Wars in the Netherlands. 



