THE SECOND BOOK 117 



of the mind are submitted unto upon the state and dis 

 position of the body. And if any man of weak judge 

 ment do conceive that this suffering of the mind from 

 the body doth either question the immortality, or 

 derogate from the sovereignty of the soul, he may be 

 taught in easy instances, that the infant in the mother s 

 womb is compatible with the mother and yet separ 

 able ; and the most absolute monarch is sometimes 

 led by his servants and yet without subjection. As 

 for the reciprocal knowledge, which is the operation of 

 the conceits and passions of the mind upon the body, 

 we see all wise physicians, in the prescriptions of their 

 regiments to their patients, do ever consider accidentia 

 animi as of great force to further or hinder remedies 

 or recoveries : and more especially it is an inquiry of 

 great depth and worth concerning imagination, how 

 and how far it altereth the body proper of the imagi- 

 nant. For although it hath a manifest power to hurt, 

 it followeth not it hath the same degree of power to 

 help. No more than a man can conclude, that because 

 there be pestilent airs, able suddenly to kill a man in 

 health, therefore there should be sovereign airs, able 

 suddenly to cure a man in sickness. But the inquisi 

 tion of this part is of great use, though it needeth, as 

 Socrates said, a Delian diver, being difficult and pro 

 found. But unto all this knowledge de communi 

 vinculo, of the concordances between the mind and 

 the body, that part of inquiry is most necessary, which 

 considereth of the seats and domiciles which the several 

 faculties of the mind do take and occupate in the organs 

 of the body ; which knowledge hath been attempted, 

 and is controverted, and deserveth to be much better 

 inquired. For the opinion of Plato, who placed the 

 understanding in the brain, animosity (which he did 

 unfitly call anger, having a greater mixture with pride) 

 in the heart, and concupiscence or sensuality in the 

 liver, deserveth not to be despised ; but much less to be 

 allowed. So then we have constituted (as in our own wish 

 and advice) the inquiry touching human nature entire, 

 as a just portion of knowledge to be handled apart. 



