A general collection of discourses of the virtuosi of France, upon questions of all sorts of philosophy, and other natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris, by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent.

I. Of the Seat of Folly.

HE that began upon the first point said, That this Question is not unprofitable, because it concernes the original and place of the greatest evil that can befall the more noble part of Man: The decision of which will teach us to avoid the assaults of this Enemy the more easily, when we know where it is lodg'd. Nor is it new; for the Abderites having sent for Hippocrates to cure Democritus of the Folly which they impertinently conceiv'd him guilty of, sound him busier after this inquiry by the dissection of many Animals. But it is very difficult to comprehend, for a thing ought to be introduc'd into our Phancy that we may reason upon it, and Folly is a perversion of that Ratiocination. Now Folly is taken either relatively or absolutely. In the first accep∣tion, he that doth any thing contrary to the common opinion is call'd a fool. So 'tis proverbially said, Chacun à sa marotte, Every one hath his bable. One is accounted foolish for being too much addicted to meddals, another to Pictures, Flowers, or some such thing, of more curiosity then benefit. Yea one and the same person will sometimes say, I am a great fool for having done this or that. That which seemes Wisedom to one, is often∣times Folly to others. Thus ought that to be understood which S. Paul saith, The Wisedom of Men is Folly before God. Absolute

Folly is Absurdness, consisting in the privation and depravation of the action of reasoning. So that me-thinks it may be answer'd to the present Question touching the seat of Folly, that the laesion or abolition of any action being in the same organ in which it is ex∣ercis'd well, (as blindness in that part wherewith we see) the seat of Folly must be the same with that of Reason; which is there∣fore to be inquired by us. But because Ratiocination cannot injure it self, (for the Intellect useth no Corporeal Organ to un∣derstand, but onely the Memory, the Imagination, and the Com∣mon Sense, without which it cannot apprehend, nor they with∣out the Corporeal Organs which are in the Brain) some have held that the Soul performeth not its reasoning with one single Organ, but with many together. Others have ventur'd to as∣sign some particular place thereunto. The former opinion is founded: I. Upon the Maxime, That the whole Soul is in the whole Body, and the whole Soul is in every part, and conse∣quently she perform es her actions in the whole Body. II. That 'tis the temperature of the Humours which are throughout the whole Body, that serves for an instrument to the Soul. III. That the animal spirits are made of the natural and the vital; and so all the parts together contribute to Ratiocination, and not the Ani∣mal alone. Consequently, also, the whole Body, and not the Brain alone. IV. That the Brain in other Animals is perfectly like in structure to that of Man, having the same membranes and medullous substance, the same sinuosities, ventricles and veins; yet he differs from a Beast in the whole form and figure; and therefore must be consider'd intire, and not in one part alone. Lastly, that as God is most eminently in Heaven, yet acts no less upon Earth; So Reason, which is his image, discovers it self best in the Brain, yet ceaseth not to display it self in the Heart and other parts, which are not moved, and perform not most of their actions but by Reason, and the Will which is subject to it. The Second Opinion is, That the Judgement is made in one of the four ventricles of the Brain, which most account to be the third, as the fourth is attributed to Memory, and the two first or interior to the Imagination: Whence it is that we scratch the hinder part of the head, as if to chafe it, when we would re∣member any thing: that we lift up the head when we are about to imagine, and hold it in a middle situation when we reason. Which is further confirmed, for that they are wounded or hurt in those places, respectively have those faculties impaired or abo∣lish'd. Now to find the causes of such Laesion of the faculties, we must consider what is necessary for the exercising of them. Three things are so, the Agent, the Organ, and the Object. The Soul which is the Agent, admitting (neither magis nor minus) no degrees, being immortal and in no wise susceptible of alteration, cannot be hurt. The Brain, which is the Organ, being well or ill dispos'd, either by distemper, or ill conformation, or solution of continuity, may help or hinder the Memory and the Imagi∣nation.

The Object also may be fallacious, and represent to us that which is not.

The Second said, Folly comes either from the Nativity, as some are born deaf and dumb, or after the birth. From the Nativity, when the natural heat is deficient; as in small heads, which have too little quantity of Brain, or those that are flat∣headed, or of some other bad figure containing less then the round, and discomposing the Organs; Or on the contrary, in great heads which are said to have little Wit, because the Spirits are too much dispers'd and humid, as we see in Children. After the Birth, as it happens to decripet Old Men, to such as live in a thick Air, or through watchings, fastings, excessive afflictions, diseases, falls or blows, especially if an Impostume follow. For in such cases there are instances of great forgetfulness or Folly, as Gaza forgot even his own Name: It is divided into Deliration, Phrensie, Melancholy, and Madness. Though the word Deliration be taken for all sorts of Folly, yet it more strictly signifies that which is caus'd by rising of the hot humours and vapours to the Brain, and frequently accompanies Fevers and Inflamma∣tions of the internal parts. Phrensie is an Inflammation of the membranes of the Brain, caus'd by the bilious blood or humour, usually with a Fever, and a languid Pulfe, in regard such phrenc∣tick persons are intent upon other things, whereby their respi∣ration is less frequent. Melancholy (both the Ideopathical, which is in the Vessels of the Brain; and the Sympathetical, or Hypo∣chondrical, which ariseth from the Liver, the Spleen, and the Mesentery) ariseth from that humour troubling the Brain; and by its blackness making the patients sad and timerous; or as Averroes will have it, by its coldness, because Heat emboldens, and Cold makes fearful, as we see in Women. As this humour causeth Prudence and Wisedom when it is in its natural quality, so when it is corrupted it produceth Folly; there being as little distance between the one and the other, as between the string of a Lute stretch'd up to the highest pitch, and the same when it is broken: Which made Montaigne say, That there is but one turn of a peg between Wisedom and Folly. If this Melancholy hu∣mour be moveable and bilious, it will cause imaginations of va∣rious absurd things, like to those of Dreams. Wherefore Ari∣stotle compares the fame to waters in motion, which alwayes re∣present objects ill. If it be more fix'd, it causeth insuperable Opiniastry. As is observ'd in those who phancy themselves Pitchers, Cocks, Geese, Hens, Glass, Criminals, Dead, Damned, and so in infinitum, according to the diversity of Phancies, Con∣ditions, and Inclinations. The Folly of Love is of this kind, which hath caus'd desperation and death to many. Lastly, Ma∣nia, or Madness, is an alienation of the Mind, not mingled with fear and sadness, as Melancholy is, but with boldness and fury, caus'd by the igneous and boyling Spirits of the other Choler, which possessing the Brain, and at times the whole Body,

by their immoderate heat render Men foolish, furious, and daring. Such a heat, that they are insensible of cold in mid Winter, though stark naked; sometimes so excessive that it degenerates into Lycanthropy, rage, and many other furious diseases. By the induction of all which species of Folly, it appears, that whence soever the matter which causeth Folly ariseth, it makes its im∣pression in the Brain. For though the Soul be as much in the heel as the head, yet it is improper to place Wisedom in the heel, but it may reasonably be assign'd to the Brain. Yet to circum∣scribe it to a certain place, excluding any other, me-thinks ought no more to be done, then to assign some particular corner of a Chamber to an Intelligence, of the Nature of which the Soul participates.

The Third said, Melancholy is the cause of Prudence onely by accident, hindring by its dryness the too great mobility of the Blood, and by its coldness checking the too impetuous sallies of the Spirits; but it is by it self the cause of Folly, and also of the two other Syncopies, Eclipses, and Alienations of the Judgement which are observ'd in the Apoplexy and the Epilepsie, or Fal∣ling-sickness. If Melancholy abound in the Brain, it either possesses its ventricles, or predominates over its temper. If it be in the ventricles, it either molests them by its malignity and acrimony, and causeth the Epilepsie; or else it fills them, and causeth the Apoplexy. For as we put Oyl upon a piece of Wine that is prone to decay and sowre; which Oyl being aerious, and consequently humid, by its subtile and unctuous humidity keeps its particles so united, that the Spirits of the Wine cannot pene∣trate through it; and so being cover'd by it, they are restrain'd and tarry in the Wine: In like manner Melancholy by its tena∣cious and glutinous viscosity, like black shining pitch, keeps its particles so conjoyn'd, that the Spirit contain'd in the ventricles, cannot issue forth into the Nerves to serve for voluntary motion and the functions of sense; whence followes their cessation. But if the Melancholy Humour presseth the ventricles by its trouble∣some weight, then they retire, and by their retiring cause that universal contraction of the Nerves. If this Humour prevail over its temper, then it causeth deliration or Dotage, and that in two manners. For if it exceed in dryness, which is a quality that admits degrees, then by that dryness (which is symbolical and a kin to heat) it attracts the Spirits to it self, as it were to make them revolt from their Prince, and to debauch them from their duty; employes them to fury and rage, and causes madness, making them follow its own motions, which are wholly opposite to Nature. For being cold, dry, black, gloomy, an enemy to light, society and peace, it aims at nothing but what is destru∣ctive to Man. But if the cold in this humour exceed the dry, then it will cause the disease called Melancholly, which is pure Folly, and makes the timerous, trembling sad fools; for cold not onely compresseth and incloseth the Spirits in the Brain, and

stupifies them so as to become unactive, but hath also a back blow upon the Heart, the reflux of its infection exhaling even to that seat of life, and streightning it into it self, whereby its Spirits be∣come half mortifi'd. Moreover, this Humour sometimes piercing through the Brain comes about with a circumference, and lodges amongst the Humours of the Eye, placing it self before the pupil, and the Crystalline, under the Tunicles which cover it: by which means the Melancholy persons seem to behold dreadful Objects abroad, but it is within his Eye that he sees them. As for the same reason they who have the beginning of a suffusion imagine that flyes, flocks of wool, or little hairs, be∣cause of the Humour contain'd there; which if it be Blood, they seem red; if Choler, yellow; if Melancholy, black. But in all the cases hitherto alledg'd, me-thinks, the Seat of Folly is the same with that of Imagination, which is the Brain, and not any of the ventricles in particular: for since the Intellect acteth upon the phantasmes of the Imagination, this upon the report of the Common Sense, and this upon the information of the External Senses, which are diffus'd throughout all the Brain, and each possesseth a part of it, the whole Brain must necessarily contribute to Ratiocination.