Wit is natural.
SOme think to get or learn wit, but wit is neither to be learnt nor gotten, for it is a free gift of nature, and disclaimes art; and as there are but two qualities or substances go to the ge∣neration of all other things, which is heat and moisture, yet there are seven that go to the generation of wit, as the temper and form of the brain and the five senses, which beget imagi∣nation, which imaginations we call fancies, which fancies is wit, which is like eternity in being fixed, and yet proveth a perpe∣tual motion, with continual changes and varieties; I mean a true born wit, that is begot with an equal tempered and perfect formed brain, and quick, fresh, and clearing, distinguishing senses, there are adulterate wits that are begotten with distempers, as feavers, madnesse or chance, but they are short, and not lasting, the other hath neither bottom nor circumference, but is as a con∣tinued line, and they that think to ripen their own wit by the heat of anothers imagination, tastes like fruit that is ripened by the chimnie, and not by the natural heat of the Sun, which gives it a rheumatical taste; for there are not onely changelings in wit, but defective births, that is when the parents which are the brain are imperfect and lame, but if the parents be clear, the issue is alwayes beautiful, and neatly shaped, so as it becomes the delight and darling in the society of mankinde.