I am now therefore heartily to pray you to consider, first vpon what false and erroneous grounds you haue first built the generall good liking thereof; and next, what sinnes towards God, and foolish vanities before the world you commit, in the detestable vse of it.[1]
As for these deceitfull grounds, that haue specially mooued you to take a good and great conceit thereof, I shall content myselfe to examine here onely foure of the principals of them; two founded vpon the Theoricke of a deceiuable appearance of Reason, and two of them vpon the mistaken Practicke of generall Experience.
First, it is thought by you a sure Aphorisme in the Physickes, That the braines of all men, being naturally colde and wet, all dry and hote things should be good for them; of which nature this stinking suffumigation is, and therefore of good vse to them. Of this Argument, both the Proposition and Assumption are false, and so the Conclusion cannot but be voyd of it selfe. For as to the Proposition, That because the braines are colde and moist, therefore things that are hote and drie are best for them, it is an inept consequence: For man beeing compounded of the foure Complexions (whose fathers are the foure Elements) although there be a mixture of them all in all the parts of his body, yet must the diuers parts of our
- ↑ Had the royal pedant ever heard of locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen?
