156 ADVANCEMEIfT OP LEARNING. [BOOK IV, 



But among these doctrines of union, or consent of soul and 

 body, there is none more necessary than an inquiry into the 

 proper seat and habitation of each faculty of the soul in 

 the body and its organs. Some, indeed, have prosecuted 

 this subject ; but all usually delivered upon it is either con- 

 troverted or slightly examined, so as to require more pains 

 and accuracy. The opinion of Plato, which seats the under- 

 standing in the brain, courage in the heart, and sensuality 

 in the liver, should neither be totally rejected nor fondly 

 received.** 



CHAPTER II. 



Division of the Knowledge of the Human Body into the Medicinal, 

 Cosmetic, Athletic, and the Voluptuary Arts. Division of Medicine 

 into Three Functions : viz., the Preservation ot Health, the Cure of 

 Diseases, and the Prolongation oi Life. The last distinct from the 

 two former. 



The doctrine of the human body divides itself according 

 to the perfections of the body, whereto it is subservient. 

 These perfections are four: viz., 1st, health; 2nd, comeliness; 

 3rd, strength ; and 4th, pleasure : to which correspond as 

 relatives: 1st, the arts of medicine; 2nd, beautifying; 3rd, 

 gymnastics ; and 4th, the art of elegance, which Tacitus calls 

 eruditum luxum.* Medicine is a noble art, and honourably 

 descended, according to the poets, who make Apollo the 

 primary god, and his son ^sculapius, whom they also deify, 

 the first professor thereof : for as, in natural things, the sun 

 is the author and fountain of life, so the physician, who 

 preserves life, seems a second origin thereof. But medicine 

 receives far greater honour from the works of our Saviour, 

 ^v^ho was physician both to soul and body, and made the 

 latter the standing subject of his miracles, as the soul wa,s 

 the constant subject of his doctrine. 



Of all the things that nature has created, the human body 

 is most capable of relief, though this relief be the m^ost liable 

 to error. For as the subtil ty and variety of the subject 

 affords many opportunities of cure, so likewise a great facility 

 of mistake. And, therefore, as this art, especially at present, 



» Plato's Timar>us, and Aristotle (Mi th^ Gea^ratiop of AuimaU 



