Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

LXXXVII. This proof is conclusive, to those who believe every thing Aristotle has said; but I protest for myself, that it has not the least weight with me; for I neither believe that the geniuses are better in hot countries than in cold ones, nor that men of cold temperaments are more ingenious than those of hot ones; and much less do I believe, that those of fiery dispositions are in a manner insensible; and as to the pretended power of the antiperastis, let it for the present remain in the state of doubt, which is annexed to, and inseparable from it.

LXXXVIII. Moisture and dryness, are the other two distinct qualities of the two compositions or temperaments; and by attending to them, it may also be inferred from the doctrine of Aristotle, that the women are more perspicuous than the men. Those who maintain, that the larger the quantity of the brain, the better the faculty of the understanding, found their opinion, upon having been taught, that a man has a larger brain in proportion than any other animal: and they argue thus, Aristotle says, that man is of a more humid temperament than any other animal. Homo omnium animantium maxime humidus natura est. Sect. 5, Quæst. 7. From hence, if it may be inferred, that from a man’s having a larger brain than brutes, is to be imputed his having more understanding; in the same manner it may be inferred, from his being more moist than them, as humidity is productive of knowledge, that he knows more. A woman then is of a more humid composition than a man, and consequently must be more intelligent than him.

LXXXIX. Although this argument proves nothing, and ought only to be used by way of retortion on those who maintain opposite opinions; for the principles on which such conclusions are founded, to speak liberally, are uncertain and doubtful. Who told Pliny, that the brain of a man was larger than that of any other animal? Has any one, think you, undertaken the prolix labour of breaking the skulls of the whole sensitive species, in order afterwards to weigh their brains? Or who told Aristotle, that man is more humid than any of the brute creation? Can it be supposed, that this philosopher had squeezed them all in a press, in order to ascertain the quantity of moisture contained in each? There seems more probability in supposing, that certain domestic brutes, the greatest part of insects, and almost every species of fish, are more humid than men. Nor even admitting it to be true, that the human brain is larger in proportion than that of any other animal, could it be inferred from thence, that a great share of understanding in the human species is the effect of a larger portion of brain. A man in many other parts of the body, differs greatly in the proportion of his make from brutes, but an excess of those parts in some individuals, does not argue a greater degree of excellence. It would be necessary, in order to make this inference, to have observed, that, among the brutes themselves, those which had the largest brains, had the strongest or best instinct; but I believe this is not the case, for if it was, a total want of perception would be the consequence of a total lack of brain, which is not so; for, according to Pliny, there are many sensitive beings, without blood and without brains, notwithstanding which, they preserve their instinct.

SECT. XIV.

XC. But waiving these proofs, which proceed upon Aristotelic doctrines, which are either false or uncertain, and which on this account, can only be serviceable to the cause of the women, by way of retorting upon those rigid partizans of Aristotle, who approve of all their master has said: I say, waiving these proofs, let us proceed to enquire, if, from the cause of the humidity in which a woman exceeds a man, there can be deduced any objection to her intellectual aptitude. On this ground, those commonly take their stand, who are desirous of proving by physical arguments, the inferiority of feminine understanding; and their reasoning seems to have an air of probability, because an excess of humour, either of itself, or by means of the vapour it attracts, is apt to retard the course of the animal spirits, by occupying in part, the narrow passages through which these exceeding fine substances flow.

XCI. But with all this, the argument is evidently fallacious; for if it was not, it would prove, not that the minds of women were less discerning than those of men, but that they were more slow and dull of comprehension than them, which is false; for most men allow, that in point of quickness they have the advantage.

XCII. Further; many men, who are keen, ready, and profound, abound with habitual defluxions and catarrhs, which are caused by a quantity of excrementitious moisture collected in the most remote recesses of the head, and within the very substance of the brain, as may be seen in Riberius, where he treats of catarrhs. The excessive humidity of the brain then, does not obstruct the ready or right use of the understanding; and if an excrementitious moisture does not obstruct it, much less can a natural one have that effect.

XCIII. And as a reason why a natural one does not hinder it, we may add, that, according to the doctrine of Pliny, the brain of a man is more humid than that of every other living creature: Sed homo portione maximum & humidissimum. Lib. 11, Cap. 37. Nor is it credible, that Nature should place in an organ destined for our most perfect knowledge, a temperament, capable of obstructing, or making the operations of our reason slow and defective. If I should be told, that, notwithstanding this native humidity, in which the brain of man exceeds that of a brute, it remains tempered in the exact proportion which is best suited to the operations of reason, and that the humidity of the brain of a woman exceeds that proportion; I answer, even supposing that humidity, by means of its natural quality, does not obstruct, nobody knows in what proportion, or to what degree, the brain, for the best exercising its functions should be moist; and therefore it is vague to say, there is a greater proportion of it in women than in men, or in men than in women.

XCIV. There may be opposed however, to this doctrine of humidity, the opinion of many, who affirm, that the humid and cloudy countries produce heavy dull spirits; and, on the contrary, that in the bright and clear countries, are born ingenious and sprightly ones. But be those few or many who say this, they say it without more foundation, than having imagined, the clouds of the horizon are translated to the sphere of the brain; as if in rainy countries, the opacity of the atmosphere was a dark shade, which obscured the soul, and that in countries which are blessed with a serene sky, the greater splendor of the day, would communicate greater clearness to the understanding. They might, with more aptness and propriety, say, that in the regions which are most bright and clear, the objects being more visible, they, through the windows of the eyes, enter in such numbers, that they distract the soul, and render it less fit for reflection and reasoning; and hence it is, that, in the obscurity of the night, we find the thread of our reason the least interrupted, and that we deduce our conclusions with more firmness than in clear day-light.

XCV. Let those, who maintain humid regions to be ill-suited to the production of subtile men, cast their eyes on the Venetians and the Hollanders, who are some of the most able men in Europe: the first of these, stole part of their territories from the fish; and the last may be said to live in lakes and bogs. Even here in Spain, we have an example of this sort in the Asturians, who, notwithstanding they inhabit a province, the most beset with clouds, and the most subject to rain, of any in the whole peninsula, are generally reputed for subtile, ready, and expert people. But our wonder at this will lessen, if we consider the beavers, who live almost continually in the water, notwithstanding which, Nature has produced no brutes of so noble an instinct, nor who approach so near to men, both in their love for them, and in the imitation of their customs: for you may read in Conradus Gesnero, that they take particular care of their aged parents, and they have been seen to direct men in their navigation, and to assist them in fishing; and there has such an attention been observed in them to the dead, that they withdraw and conceal the carcasses of their defunct species, at the hazard of their being devoured by other aquatic beasts.