116 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



lineaments of the body do disclose the disposition and 

 inclination of the mind in general ; but the motions 

 of the countenance and parts do not only so, but do 

 further disclose the present humour and state of the 

 mind and will. For as your majesty saith most aptly 

 and elegantly, As the tongue speaketh to the ear so 

 the gesture speaketh to the eye. And therefore a 

 number of subtile persons, whose eyes do dwell upon 

 the faces and fashions of men, do well know the advan 

 tage of this observation, as being most part of their 

 ability; neither can it be denied, but that it is a great dis 

 covery of dissimulations, and a great direction in business. 

 3. The latter branch, touching impression, hath not 

 been collected into art, but hath been handled dispers- 

 edly ; and it hath the same relation or antistrophe 

 that the former hath. For the consideration is double : 

 either, how and how far the humours and affects of the 

 body do alter or work upon the mind ; or again, how 

 and how far the passions or apprehensions of the mind 

 do alter or work upon the body. The former of these 

 hath been inquired and considered as a part and 

 appendix of medicine, but much more as a part of 

 religion or superstition. For the physician prescribeth 

 cures of the mind in frenzies and melancholy passions ; 

 and pretendeth also to exhibit medicines to exhilarate 

 the mind, to confirm the courage, to clarify the wits, 

 to corroborate the memory, and the like : but the 

 scruples and superstitions of diet and other regiment 

 of the body in the sect of the Pythagoreans, in the 

 heresy of the Manichees, and in the law of Mahomet, 

 do exceed. So likewise the ordinances in the cere 

 monial law, interdicting the eating of the blood and 

 the fat, distinguishing between beasts clean and un 

 clean for meat, are many and strict. Nay the faith 

 itself being clear and serene from all clouds of cere 

 mony, yet retaineth the use of fastings, abstinences, 

 and other macerations and humiliations of the body, 

 as things real, and not figurative. The root and life 

 of all which prescripts is (besides the ceremony) the 

 consideration of that dependency which the affections 



