178 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



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

 iantly replied, l I would thou wouldst strike as strongly. 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 I 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. 

 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. 



