CONFERENCE CI. I. Of Sleep , and how long it ought to be . II. Which is the strongest thing in the World .

AS Nature is the Principle of Motion , so she is also of Rest and Sleep ; Of Sleep , and how long it ought to be . which is the cessation of the actions of an Animal , to whom alone it hath been assigned , in regard no other Creature besides becomes weary in its Operations : For all Animals , even the lowest degree of Insects , sleep ; although such who have hard eyes and scales , sleep more obscurely then the rest ; and Birds more lightly then four-footed Beasts which suck , because they have a less and dryer Brain , and consequently less need sleep , whose use is to moisten and refresh that part . Hence Man , having of all Animals the largest Brain , hath also need of the longest sleep , which ought to be about seven hours . Wherefore I cannot but wonder that Plato , in his first Book of Laws , would have his Citizens rise in the night to fall to their ordinary employments ; for this disturbing of their rest were the way to make a Common-wealth of Fools ; the Brain , by watchings acquiring a hot and dry intemperature , which begets igneous spirits , whose mobility not permitting the Mind to consider the species impress'd upon them , is the cause of unsteady and impetuous sallies of the Mind ; as , on the contrary , sleep too excessive fills the ventricles of the Brain ( wherein the Soul exercises her Faculties ) with abundance of vapours and humidities , which offuscating and troubling the species , the Mind thereby becomes slothful and dull .

The second said , That Privations are understood by their Habits ; and therefore Sleep , which is a privation of Sense , cannot be better known than by the functions of the outward Senses , which so long as an Animal exercises it is said to be awake , and to sleep when it ceases to employ the same . And being Sensation is perform'd by means of the animal Spirits , refin'd out of the natural and vital , and sent from the Brain into the Sensories , which Spirits receive the species of the sensible object , and carry it to the Inward Sense , the common Arbiter and Judg of all external objects ; hence , when those Spirits happen to fail , or the Common Sense is bound up , the other external Senses cannot discharge their offices : Upon which account the Philosophers have defin'd Sleep , The ligation of the First Sense ; or , The rest of the Spirits and Blood : And the Physitians , The cessation of all outward Senses for the health and repose of an Animal ; hereby distinguishing it from the cessation of the outward Senses in Swoonings , Falling-sickness , Apoplexie , Lethargy , Carus , Coma , and such sorts of morbifick and praeternatural sleep , produc'd by causes acting rather by an occult and somniferous property , then by excess of cold or moisture ; otherwise Winter , Ice , and the coldest things , should cause sleep ; Wine , Annis , Opium , Henbane , and abundance of hot Medicaments , should not be Narcotick , as experience evinces them to be . But natural sleep is produc'd by vapours elevated from the aliments into the brain ; which moreover performing in us the office of a Ventose or Cupping-glass , draws to it self those humid vapours , condenses them by its coldness , and resolves them into a gentle dew , which falling upon the rise or beginning of the Nerves , obstructs the passage to the animal Spirits , the instruments of Sensation and voluntary Motion , which it hinders ; though not Motion , so much as Sensation ; because the Nerves of the hinder part of the Brain , destinated to Motion , being harder , do not so easily imbibe those vapours , as those of the fore-part , destinated to Sensation : But when the Heat and Spirits , whereof there had been an absumption , are again sufficiently repair'd , they move anew toward the Brain , where they resolve those dews which stopp'd the passage , and hindred the commerce of the vital Spirits with the animal ; whereupon we naturally and without violence awake : So likewise , the violence of an extrinsecal object importunately striking the external Senses , obliges the Soul to send other Spirits to the assistance of the few remaining therein , and which before this supply apprehend objects only confusedly .

The Third said , Sleep is not the Quiescence of the animal Spirits , for these are active , and form Dreams whilst we sleep ; nor of the vital , which have no relaxation or rest so long as the Animal hath life ; much less of the natural , Nutrition being perform'd best during sleep , which is the cause why sleeping fattens . Neither is the Brain 's humidity the cause of sleep , as 't is commonly held ; but the defect of vital heat in the Heart , in a sufficient degree for performing the functions of the outward Senses . Moreover the sudden seizing and abruption of sleep , which we observe , cannot be produc'd but by a very movable cause , such as the gross vapour of aliments is not ; but the vital heat is , being carried into all parts of the body in an instant : Whence it is that we observe the same to be more pale during sleep , ( as having less of the said heat ) than during Evigilation .

The Fourth said , That indeed the adequate cause of sleep is not a vapour arising from the aliments , since it is procur'd by abundance of other causes , which produce no evaporation ; as Weariness , Musique , Silence , and Darkness : Neither is it the above-mentioned deficience of Vi●●l Heat , which indeed is necessary to the Organs , inasmuch as they are endu'd with life , but not to make them capable of sense ; there being sufficient in them even during sleep , when the parts are found hot enough for Sensation , if heat were the cause thereof , as it is not : But the right cause consists in the Animal Spirits , for which , as being the noblest instruments of the Body , I conceive there is a particular faculty in the Brain , which administers and governs them , sending them to the Organs , when there is need of them ; and causing them to return back , in order to be restor'd and suppli'd : As there is a particular faculty in the Heart , over-ruling and moving the Vital Spirits as it pleases ; sometimes diffusing them outwards in Joy , Anger , and Shame ; sometimes causing them to retreat , in order to succour the Heart in Sadness , Grief , and Fear .

The Fifth said , The Empire of Sleep , whom Orpheus calls King of Gods and Men , is so sweet , that Not to be of its party is to be an enemy to Nature : 'T is the charm of all griefs both of body and mind ; and was given to man , not only for the refreshment of both , but chiefly for the liberty of the Soul ; because it makes both the Master and the Slave , the poor and the rich equal : 'T is a sign of health in young people , and causes a good constitution of Brain , strengthning the same , and rendring all the functions of the mind more vigorous ; whence came the saying , That the Night gives counsels ; because then the Mind is freed from the tyranny of the Senses , it reasons more solidly , and its operations are so much the more perfect as they are more independent on matter ; and 't was during the repose of sleep that most of the Extasies and prophetical Visions happened to the Saints . Moreover frequent sleep is a sign of a very good nature : For being conciliated only by the benignity of a temper moderately hot and moist , the Sanguine and Phlegmatick , whose humour is most agreeable , are more inclined thereunto than the Bilious and Melancholly , in regard of their heat and driness , which resolve and dissipate the animal Spirits , as a vapourous humidity hinders their effusion , by the obstruction which it causeth in the original of the Nerves ; or , which is most probable , because the clouds of those vapours occupying the ventricles of the Brain , by their humidity moisten and relax the animal Spirits , which remain immovable till they be deliver'd from the importunity of those vapours ; which moreover more easily ascending , when the Body is at rest , it happens that Sleep is frequently caus'd , not only by watchings , cares , labour , bathing , heat , and other things which dissipate the Spirits ; but also by sounds , gentle murmurs of water , frictions , and motions , silence , and darkness ; unless we had rather say , That the animal Spirits , being most subtle and luminous bodies , retire inwards during the darkness , which is contrary to them .

The Sixth said , That Sleep being not only a depravation but a total privation of actions , since a thing exists but so far as it acts ; at the same proportion that we love our own Being , we ought to hate Sleep , and love Watching . The great George Castriot , the scourge of the Turks , never slept more then two hours ; and the Poets had reason to term Sleep , The Image of Death , which the Scripture also expresses by Sleeping . As therefore Death is to be avoided as much as possible , so also ought Sleep ; were it not that both of them , being inevitable evils , all we can do is to keep as far off them , and suffer our selves to be led as little to them , as may be . The Poets themselves seem willing to imprint in us a horror of Sleep , when they feign it the Son of Hell or Erebus , and Night , the brother of Death , the father of Morpheus , and that his Palace was amidst the darkness of the Cimmerians . Moreover , the most imperfect Animals sleep more then others , which is the reason Zoophytes , or Plant-animals , as the Sponge , Coral , and Oisters , sleep continually ; Snails , and some Flys , three or four months ; Bears , longer then other Animals ; and amongst these , Birds , as partaking more of the nature of Heaven , sleep less then four-footed Beasts : A Child , so long as it approaches a bestial life in its Mothers belly , and for the first years , sleeps more than when 't is grown to Manhood ; and being again become by Age a Child , sleeps more than formerly , till he comes to the last sleep of death , which reduces him to nothing . Women , phlegmatick persons , drunkards , and block-heads , sleep more then Men , sober , and witty persons . For we are no more to refer to the abuse of these Times in sleeping very much , then to other Vices of the Age ; amongst the rest , Idleness , Eating and Drinking , wherein there is none sober at this day but exceed their just measure .

Upon the Second point it was said , That Strength , as well as most other things in the World , Which is the strongest thing in the World . hath not an absolute but only a relative Being , a thing being called strong , in comparison of others which are less so . Thus Antaeus was strong in respect of all other men ; but weak , compared to Hercules : And as Achilles was invulnerable in every other part saving the heel ; so Nature seems to have left in us a certain weakness and defect in some parts , wherein some are more tender then others : So that 't is hard to find one thing alike powerful towards all men , since by reason of our several inclinations every one is differently affected : The Ambitious will hold for Honours ; the Amorous , for Women , the Drinker , for Wine ; and Truth , which in the Scripture was judg'd strongest by King Darius , who propos'd the present Problem to his four Courtiers , would possibly be deemed the weakest in the Judgment of the most ; for to them that should take her part , the same question might be put which Pilate ask'd our Lord , What is Truth ? It is so frequently disguis'd by lying , in moral matters ; so invelop'd in darkness , and subject to the deceit of our Senses in natural things , that as it is the least understood , so we may say 't is the least follow'd ; our inclinations never tending towards an unknown object . The strongest thing therefore is that which hath most power to incline our Will towards it self ; which Will following the counsel of the Understanding , as again this acts not but by the species wherewith the Imagination supplies it , 't is to the Imagination that I ascribe the greatest strength in the world ; since all other things borrow all their power from the Imagination , by the opinion of Honour , Profit , and Pleasure , which that Faculty makes us conceive therein ; and , on the contrary , the same Imagination ruines and destroys the force of all things accounted the most powerful , whilst it considers them with a different biass : 'T is by it that one abhors nothing more then Women , whom so many others idolatrize : Pleasures , Honours , Riches , and all the Goods of Fortune , are but so many crosses and punishments to those who have conceiv'd an aversion against them : Death it self , as terrible as it is , oftentimes is despis'd and sought after out of a powerful consideration of Honour ; this too being nothing else but a Fancy , magnifi'd by the opinion rais'd of it in the world : Even Virtue draws all her power from Imagination alone ; for many a one thinks he embraces her quite naked , whilst , like Ixion , he embraces nothing but a cloud and a phantasm , and yet is as well satisfi'd with this as if he had a perfect fruition of her .

The Second said , That the solution of this Problem depends upon the understanding of the term [ Strength ] : If it be taken for a certain quality and power which renders things active , that must be the strongest thing in the world which acts with most efficacy and power upon the most excellent things : But forasmuch as there are as many sorts of agents , as there are degrees of Being in Nature , in Morals , and in Transcendants , and we may compare things together which are of a different genus ; yet there being no congruity and proportion but between those which are of the same species , 't is hard to know absolutely which is the strongest thing , since every one hath a vertue wholly peculiar , because it hath a proper nature , which is the principle and cause of the diversity of motions and actions . According to which distinction I am of opinion , That of agents purely natural Fire is the strongest , since it alters and destroys all natural Bodies ; and its quality , Heat , is the most active of all . Amongst living things Man is the strongest , inasmuch as he renders himself master of all the fiercest Animals , which he knows how either to subdue or tame . Amongst men Kings are the strongest , since they dispose of our Goods , Lives , and Wills . Moral agents are different in force and activity , according to the divers constitution of subjects upon which they act , and make a different impression . Honesty alone acts upon very few spirits ; Pleasures , upon most ; Interest , upon all : Nevertheless since they act only by the opinion which they produce either of an honest , profitable , or delightful Good , this Opinion and Imagination must be the strongest of all moral agents . Amongst the actions of the Imagination , which are the Passions , that of Love is the strongest , because it serves for a foundation to all the rest ; it being true , that we fear , desire , and hate nothing , but so far as we love some other thing ; so that he who can be free from this Passion , would be exempt from all others . Amongst Transcendents Truth is strongest ; not that which is ill defin'd , The conformity of our Vnderstanding with the thing known ; since there are things above us which surpass the reach of our capacity , and yet cease not to be true : But this Truth is a property and affection of Entity , wherewith it is convertible ; and , consequently , cannot be truly defin'd , no more then the other Transcendents ; since a Definition requires a Genus , which being superiour , and more common , cannot be assign'd to Entity , or Truth , which is the same with Entity ; otherwise there should be something more general then Entity ; which is absurd . And although the nature of this Truth is not distinctly known , nevertheless the virtue of its effects is very sensible ; for it acts every where , and in all ; yea , above the strongest things in the world , whose actions depend upon the verity of their Essence , which they suppose . And as this Verity is the Principle of the actions of all Agents , so it is the End and First Mover , which gives rise to all their inclinations , whereby they all tend towards one Good , which is nothing else but Truth , which gives weight and value to Goodness : But the force of Verity appears principally in that it acts upon the most excellent thing in the World , to wit , the Understanding , which it convinces by its light , wherewith it extorts consent ; and this so much the more as the Understanding is perfect ; as we see in the Understandings of the Wise and Learned , who more easily suffer themselves to be overcome by Truth , than the Vulgar ; and in those of Angels and Intelligences , who likewise yield to Truth . And because Verity and Entity are the same thing , therefore God , who possesses Entity Originally , is also the Prime Verity , which our Lord attributes to himself in the Gospel , when he saith , That he is the Truth and the Life . For whereas Truth is oft-times altered and clouded in the world , and frequently produces Hatred , the most infamous of all Passions ; 't is a defect not found but in dissolute Spirits , who cannot support the brightness of it , and hate its light because it discovers their faults : Yea , even when men contradict the Truth , and follow the deprav'd motions of their most disorderly Passions , 't is allways under an appearance of Goodness and Truth . But if the shadow and appearance alone of Truth , hath so great an Empire over our minds , as is seen in the most erroneous Opinions , which never want followers ; with more just reason must it self , when known , be invincible , and the strongest thing in the World .

In conclusion , were propos'd amongst the strongest things , Time , which consumes all ; Death , which overthrows all the Powers of the Earth ; Place , which embraces all in it self ; and Necessity , so potent that it is not subject to any Law , but gives the same to all other things , which cannot avoid its Empire ; insomuch that the Ancients esteem'd the Gods themselves not exempted from it , but subject to the necessity of a Destiny .

CONFERENCE CII . I. Of the Gowt . II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom , Riches or Poverty ?

THe Gowt , ( called Arthritis , or Morbus Articularis ) is the general name of all aches of the Joynts caus'd by fluxion , Of the Gowt . which gave it the name of Gowt ; and is different , according to the divers connexions of the Bones , and the Parts which it afflicts , being term'd Podagra in the Feet , Chiragra in the Hand , and the Ischiatick ach ( by the vulgar , Schiatica ) in the Hip. Nevertheless every Articular Pain is not the Gowt , as appears by Contusions , Luxations , Wounds , and the Pains of Women after Child-birth ; in Virgins after their Evacuation ; and in Bodies infected with the French Disease : But 't is a Grief of the Parts indu'd with sense which are about the Joynts , accompanied sometimes with swelling , and caus'd by the fluxion of a sharp and serous humour , transmitted out of the Veins and Arteries , into those Parts whose motion it hinders ; and because the Feet are most remote from the source of heat , therefore Nature commonly drives thither the matter of this Malady , whereunto they are more dispos'd then other Parts , as well by reason of their composition of Nerves , Tendons , Veins , Arteries , Membranes , and Ligaments , spermatick and cold parts ; as of their continual motion , which gives occasion to the fluxion : Hence the Gowt begins usually at the Feet , especially at the great Toe , whose motion is greatest ; which hinders not but that it begins too in the Hand , Knee , and Hip , and sometimes in the Sides ; and if the matter abound , sometimes it seizes upon the Joynts with such violence as would make Nature succumbe , were the fits continual , and not periodical , as they are ; giving to some an interval of a year ; to others , of six months , or less , according as there needs time for collecting the humour in those parts . The cause of this vehement pain is the acrimony of the corrosive and mordicant humour , which makes a solution of the parts , whose coldness renders this evil almost incurable , and makes it last fourty days ; the pain not being appeasable , saving when the cause which produces it is resolv'd , whereunto the coldness of its subject is not proper .

The Second said , That in the Gowt , as in all sorts of Fluxions , four things are to be consider'd ; the Matter which flows , the Place whence it comes , the Way by which it passes , and the Parts upon which it falls . As for the first , the Gowt hath some Matter ; not being , as some hold , a simple Intemperies , which could not subsist so long , nor cause such pungent pains , much less a tumour , as it happens sometimes in the part afflicted , which cannot proceed but from the affluence of Matter : This Matter some affirm to be Wind , or Flatuosity , with as little reason ; for then it might easily be resolv'd , and would cause only a pain of distension . Most hold that 't is the four Humours , arguing from the diversity of Symptomes of this Disease , and the various manner of curing ; some being eas'd by hot Aliments and Medicaments , others by cold : And lastly , from the different colour of the tumours , appearing sometimes red , white , or of some other colour , by reason of the blood , phlegm , or other humours which produc'd them : But though a very acute pain may in this malady , as it doth in all others , attract the humours which abound in the body , and so cause a tumour ; yet this humour which makes the inflation , cannot be the cause of the Gowt ; since at the beginning , and before the parts are inflated , the pains are very great ; but cease and diminish upon the appearing of the Tumour . Some have held it to be Blood alone ; others , Melancholy ; some , Bile , in regard of its mobility and activity ; many , following the authority of Fernelius , that 't is a cold , phlegmatick , and serous humour , and that every Gowt is cold . Mercurialis observing that Blood could not cause such great pains , that Melancholy was too heavy and thick to be active , Bile too subtile to descend , and Phlegm too cold to excite such pungent pains and sudden motions , which cannot proceed from a cold cause ; conceiv'd it was Phlegm mingled with Bile , the latter serving as a Vehicle to the former , and that former to precipitate and make this latter descend . Some others , confessing their ignorance , acknowledg , Qu' on n' y void goutte , that they see not a jot in this Matter ; referring this Disease to occult and malignant causes , acting by an unknown property , as contagious and venemous diseases do . I conceive it to be a salt humour , subtile , and picquant , partaking of the nature of Salts , which are all corrosive ; which acrimony and mordacity of this humour is caus'd by the Salt or Tartar contain'd in its substance , or deriv'd to the Aliments ( whereof the humours are produc'd ) from the Earth , which is full of such Salt , Nitrous , or Tartareous Spirits , without which it would be unfruitful and barren , as is seen in Earth whence Saltpeter is extracted , which can never produce any thing . This Nitrous Spirit being all drawn out of the Earth by the Plants which serve us for food , and not being tameable by our heat , much less convertible into our substance ( for an Animal is nourish'd with what is sweet , and hath had life , wherewith these Mineral Spirits were never provided ) if the natural Faculty be strong , it expells them with the other unprofitable Excrements of the first concoction , and Urine and Sweat ; and sometimes forms the Stone in the Kidneys , Bladder , or other Parts : But if it happens , either through the weakness of the expulsive Faculty , or the quality of the Matter , or some other defect , that this Tartareous Spirit is not expell'd , then it is carry'd with the Blood into the Parts , and being unfit for nutrition , transpires by the Pores , if it be subtil enough ; or else , in case it be thick , and cannot be resolv'd , flows back into the great Vessels , and thence into the Joynts , where sometimes it is coagulated into knots and grits , and turn'd into a hard matter , like chalk or plaister , ( which shews , that the four Humours are not the matter thereof , since the same do not suppurate ) rendering then the Gowt incurable , and the Reproach of Physians , because they find no Cure for it ; no more than for that of old Men , those who have a dry Belly , and who live disorderly : But 't is curable , saith Hippocrates , in young people , in such as have no gritts or hardnesses form'd in the Joints , those who are laborious , obedient , and to whom some great Evacuations arrive , many having been cur'd of it by a Dysenterie . As for the Place where it is form'd , and the Way whereby the Matter which causes this Evil , descends ; most , with Fernelius , conceive 't is the Head , not the internal part of the Brain , whose Excrements are easily voided outwardly by the Nostrils ; or inwardly , by the Infundibulum or Tunnel , and other Cavities ; but the outward part between the skull and the skin ; which being too thick and compact to give issue to the phlegmatick and serous humours there collected , being begotten of the Excrements of the Jugular Veins , which are expanded over all these Parts , those serous and thin humours glide down between the Skin , and other Feguments , into the Joints : But the Place of this Nitrous Matter above-mentioned , are the Viscera of the Liver and Spleen , which generate this Matter two ways . 1. By the vitiosity of Aliments impregnated with this Nitrous Spirit , which they plentifully attracted from the Earth ; whence it is that Wine , which hath more of this Spirit and Tartar then any other Aliment , is , by consent of all , very hurtful to the Gowt . 2. By their proper vitiosity ; namely , a hot and dry Intemperies ; whereby , instead of concocting , they adure the Blood , and so fix that salt serosity , which is the Salt or Tartar extracted out of its substance : Unless you had rather say , That as in the Kidneys of Persons subject to the Stone , there is a certain arenaceous or lapidifick constitution , proper for producing the Stone ; so in the Viscera of those who are subject to the Gowt , there is a particular arthritical disposition , apt to beget that tartareous matter which produces it . The Way whereby this Matter is expell'd is the Veins and Arteries ; these Vessels manifestly swelling when the fits of the Gowt begin . Moreover , as this Disease unexpectedly invades , by a sudden afflux of the Matter ; so it suddenly changes place , especially by means of Refrigerants and Repercussives , which drive the Gowt from one Foot to the other , or into the Hand , and other Parts ; which cannot be done but by the Veins and Arteries . Lastly , The Parts upon which this Matter falls , and which are about the articulations , are membranous and sensible , because the Membranes being the first subject of Touch , ought to be also of Pain , a Symptom thereof .

The Third said , That the greatest difficulty was , Why this matter rather falls upon the Joints than other Parts , which are not incommoded therewith , neither the Nerves nor the Veins through which it passes , no more than the Membranes and sensible Parts ; besides those which are about the Joints : The cause whereof may be , That as in health the Parts by a strange property attract such humours as are fit for their nutrition ; the Lungs , bilious Blood ; the Spleen , melancholy Blood ; the Kidneys , serous ; the other carnous Parts , temperate Blood : so in sickness , and ill constitution of the Body , some of these Parts attract from all the rest certain humours wherewith they have most affinity : So in the new Disease call'd Plica Polonica , the viscous and glutinous humour which produceth it , is chiefly carri'd to the hair , which it knotteth and inta●gleth together ; and to the nails of the Hands and Feet , which it makes hard and black : And in the cure of Fracture of Bones , the Stone call'd Osteocolla taken inwardly is carried towards the broken Bones , and causes them to re-unite . In like manner , the Humour producing the Gowt hath some affinity with the Bones of the Joints , especially with their Epiphyses .

The Fourth said , That the Gowty have wherewith to comfort themselves ; not so much for that they foretel the changes of the Air and Seasons , as for that this Disease is a token of health , and an evidence of the strength and vigour of Nature , which from the noble Parts drives the vicious humours upon the Joints . But amongst its antecedent causes , the Air is not to be forgotten ; especially the hot and moist Air of the Spring , thawing the Humours lately congeal'd by the Winter ; to the vitiosity of which Air , is that popular Gowt to be referr'd of which Athenaeus speaks in the second Book of his Deipnosophists ; which lasted twenty years , and afflicted two thirds of Men , Women , and Beasts ; although some attributed it to the want of Mulberries , which fail'd during those twenty years , and which , they say , are good against the Gowt , because they loosen the Belly , and correct the heat of the Stomach . Women , as Hippocrates saith , are exempt from the Gowt , saving in the suppression of their Evacuations ; Children , before the use of Venery ; and Eunuchs , always ; although the intemperance and luxury of all of them hath produc'd contrary experiences , as well in this Age as in that of Seneca ; which made the Poets say , That the Gowt was the Daughter of Bacchus and Venus ; the first , engendring plenty of crude humours ; the second , debilitating the heat , and cooling the Body ; which being render'd laxe , the humours fall more easily upon the Joints . And to shew the oddness of this Disease ; Anger , Fear , and Joy have oftentimes both given and cured it , the Humours being extreamly agitated by those Passions .

Upon the Second Point it was said , That Wisedom being a Habit mix'd of Science and Virtue , Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisedom , Riches or Honour ? Poverty gives much more disposition to either than Riches ; the Mind of a Poor Man being more capable of Knowledg than that of a Rich ; either for that Nature compensates the want of the Goods of Fortune with those of Nature ; or because Necessity and Hunger sharpens and renders them more subtile ; or else because being free from the cares and pains caus'd by the conservation or acquisition of Riches , they have a more calm Spirit , and more capable of the Sciences , which require quiet and tranquillity of Mind . And as for Virtue , whose paths are so thorny , Poverty hath also many more accesses thereunto than Riches , not only in the Law of Grace , in which our Lord saith , That 't is easier for a Cammel , or a Cable , to pass through the eye of a needle , than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; whereof nevertheless the gate is the practice of Virtues : but likewise in the moral sense of this present life , in which Poverty and affliction , according to the Scripture , gives Understanding and Prudence , teaches Temperance , Sobriety , and Chastity ( its inseparable companion ) disciplines us to Patience , and to suffer couragiously the miseries of Life , the frequency whereof renders the Mind invincible . On the contrary , Riches are amost always accompanied with Vices most repugnant to Wisedom ; as , amongst others , with Presumption , Vanity , Voluptuousness , and Delicacy ; the first of which is opposite to Science ; for Pride proceeds only from Ignorance ; the second to Virtue , which the Poet calls masculine and laborious . Moreover , Nature shews us of what quality Riches are ; for the sand that produces Gold is always extreamly barren and naked of all sorts of Fruits ; and so are the Minds of those that possess it ; and 't is observ'd . That rich Nations , and such as live in a good soil , are the most vicious , lazy , and dull ; whereas those who are in an unkind Land , are ordinarily more virtuous addicted to Industry .

The Second said , That as the Goods of Fortune , no less than those of the Body , are referr'd to those of the Mind , as the Means to their End ; in like sort , the inconveniences both of Fortune and Body are hinderances in acquiring those Goods of the Soul , which are the perfection of its two principal Faculties , the Understanding and the Will ; namely , Knowledg and Virtue : For Knowledg , and the Arts call'd Liberal , require a generous and liberal , not a sordid and low Soul , like that of a Poor Man ( whom Alciat's Embleme very well represents , by a Lad with one hand stretch'd up into the Air , with Wings fastened to it , intimating a desire to fly higher ; but the other hand fastened to a heavy Stone , hinders him : ) For their Spirit being loaden with misery , thinks of nothing but of the means how to live , and to be deliver'd from the heavy yoak of Necessity , which deprives them of the means of having either living or dumb Teachers ; yea , makes them despise all the rigours of Laws , and oft-times abandons them to Rage and Despair , which makes them hate their miserable life , and renders them masters of those of others : Hence not only Mutinies , Seditions and Revolts are commonly made by the Poor and Miserable , lovers of Innovation , wherein they are sure to lose nothing , and may possibly gain ; but also are almost the sole Authors of Thefts , Murders , and Sacriledges . Whereas Rich Persons , having from their birth receiv'd such good Instruction as the poor want , are more stay'd in their Actions , and better inclin'd to Honesty and Virtue , which without Fortunes or Estates can never produce any thing great and considerable ; whence , in our Language , Riches are justly stiled Means ; without assistance whereof , Justice can neither render to every one what belongs to him , nor repel the Enemies of the State by a just War , whereof Money is the Sinew and principal Strength . Upon this account they are sought after by all the World , and are not only the end of the noblest part of Morality and Oeconomy , ( Families , which are the Pillars of a State , not being preserv'd but by the lawful acquisition of Wealth ; in which , for this reason , some Politicians place Nobility ; but all agree , that they serve for an Ornament thereunto and heighten its lustre ) ; but those who have parted with them cannot live without them , but are constrained to beg of others . And in Policy , whether Riches be acquired or come by succession , they are always in esteem ; as on the contrary , Poverty is disparag'd with reproach , and is a sign either of baseness of Extraction , or of Negligence and profusion . Hence a Poor Man is as unfit to be trusted with a Publick Charge , as with a sum of Money ; and 't is not without reason , that he who is distress'd with Poverty is extreamly asham'd of it , this defect hindring and being a remora to all his designs : Whereas Riches raise the Courage , incite to great Attempts , and serve for a spur to Virtue , which thrives by Praise and Glory , but freezes and languishes by the Contempt and Derision inseparable from Poverty ; which indeed hath been commended by the same Sacred Mouth which requires us to turn the other cheek to him that strikes us upon the one ; yet this hinders not , but that ( speaking naturally , as we do here ) 't is better to defend ones self , than to be beaten patiently .

The Third said , That in matter of Wisedom we ought to refer our selves to the wisest of all Men , Solomon ; who prays God to give him neither Riches , for fear of Pride ; nor Poverty , for fear of becoming a Thief ; but a middle Estate : For , as too great Plenitude and an Atrophy are equally contrary to Health , which consists in a moderation and temper of qualities ; so the condition of Persons extreamly Rich , and that of Begger ( the degree here under consideration ) is equally an enemy to Wisedom : And if in any case we ought to desire the Golden Mediocrity , 't is in the acquisition of Wisedom , especially of Virtue , which consists in Mediocrity ; either extreme whereof , is the Territory of Vice .