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

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

XCVI. On the contrary, those birds, who the greatest part of their time, breathe the most subtile pure air, and the most divested of vapours, one while fleeting on the winds, and at other times placing themselves on the tops of mountains, ought to be more sagacious than terrestrial brutes; which is not the case.

XCVII. By the same mode of reasoning, the Egyptians should be the keenest people in the world, because they dwell under the brightest and most serene sky that is to be found in all the globe. There is scarce a cloud passes over Egypt in the course of a year, and the land would be totally barren, if it was not refreshed and fertilized by the waters of the Nile; and although for some ages, antiquity venerated that region as the seat of the sciences, which is manifest from Pythagoras, Homer, Plato, and other Greek philosophers, having traveled thither to improve themselves in philosophy and the mathematics; this does not prove, that they were more subtile and ingenious than other mortals, but rather, that the sciences had gone wandering about the earth, and that sometimes they took their stations in one country, and at others in another. The same thing may be said of the valley of Lima, the inhabitants of which country do not know what rain is, the land being fertilized by a light dew, assisted by a happy temperament of air, which is neither hot nor cold; notwithstanding which, the natives are not people of a delicate ingenuity, but rather the contrary, for the Pizarras found them more easy to be subdued by a few stratagems, than Cortez found the Mexicans, with all the arts he could employ, assisted by the whole power of his arms.

XCVIII. I am not ignorant, that the inhabitants of Bœotia were antiently looked upon, as a most rude, dull people, and that Bœoticum Ingenium and Bœtica Sus, were proverbial terms of contempt, and used to express or denote, a heavy stupid person; and also, that this stupidity was attributed to the gross atmosphere, loaded with vapour, which prevails in that country; hence the expression of Horace in one of his epistles: Bœoticum in crasso jurares aëre natum. But I believe, and with some foundation, that the antients quoted did not do that country justice; imputing the ignorance which proceeded from want of application, to the want of capacity; and Bœotia’s lying on the confines of Attica, where learning flourished, seems to strengthen this opinion; for it is hardly probable, that within sight of a province, which is the theatre of wisdom, you should view another, which is a colony of ignorance and stupidity. On the other hand, it is certain, that Bœotia has produced some geniuses of the first rate; such as Pindar, the prince of Lyric Poets, and the great Plutarch, who, in the opinion of lord Bacon, was full equal to the first men of antiquity; and I suspect, that by looking back to the more early times of antiquity, we shall find a period, in which the Bœotians, in their culture of the arts and sciences, excelled, not only their neighbours, but all the other nations of Europe; because Cadmus, when he came from Phœnicia, was the first who introduced the letters of the alphabet into Greece, and was the first person in Europe, who invented the art of writing; and we learn from history, that he settled in Bœotia, where he founded the city of Thebes. To this may be added, that in Bœotia is found Mount Helicon, dedicated to the Muses, and from which they derive their name of Heliconides; and that from this mountain, descends the famous Aganippe fountain, consecrated to the same fictitious deities, the water of which, they feign to have been the wine of the poets, which enraptured and inspired them, and lighted up the fire of enthusiasm in their brains. It seems as if all these fictions could have no other origin, than poetry having in some former time flourished in that region.

XCIX. But admitting the Bœotians by nature to be rude and stupid, how can it be proved, that this is derived from the humidity of the country, and not from some other hidden cause; especially, when we see moist or damp countries, on which this stigma is not fixed? Let humidity then, be acquitted of the false accusation which has been raised against it, to wit, of being at war with, and an enemy to ingenuity; and let it be settled, that from this principle, no proof can be deduced to ascertain, that the women in point of understanding, are inferior to the men.

SECT. XV.

C. Father Malebranche, reasons in another way, and denies the women have equal understanding with the men, on account of their brains being more soft and tender than those of the other sex. I really don’t know whether what he supposes about this greater degree of softness be true or not, but I have read two treatises on anatomy, and did not find the least mention of it in either of them. Perhaps, from having taken it for granted, that the brains of women were more humid, he concluded they were more soft; but this is not always a certain consequence, for ice is humid and not soft, and melted metal is soft, but not humid; or perhaps, from having observed the women were of a more soft and docile disposition than men, he inferred, that in their material composition they were the same; for there have been people so superficial, as to form ideas upon these sort of analogies, which afterwards, for want of due reflection, have been adopted by persons of great perspicuity.

CI. But taking all this for granted, I would be glad to know, how a greater degree of softness in the brain, produces or occasions, an imperfection in the understanding? I should rather think, that on account of its being more pliable to the impression of the spirits, it would be an instrument or organ, better suited or adapted to mental operations. This argument, is strengthened by the doctrine of the author, because he says in another place, the vestiges or traces, which the impression of the animal spirits leaves on the brain, are the lines, with which the faculty of the imagination, forms on it the effigies of objects; and the larger or more distinct these vestiges or impressions are, the greater will be the force and clearness, with which the understanding must perceive the objects. Cur igitur imaginatio consistat in sola virtute, qua mens sibi imagines objectorum efformare potest, eas imprimendo, ut ita loquar, fibris cerebri, certe quo vestigia, spirituum animalium, quæ sunt veluti imaginum illarum lineamenta erunt distinctiora, & grandiora, eo fortius, & distinctius mens objecta illa imaginabitur. (Lib. 2. de Inquirenda Veritate, part 1, cap. 1.)

CII. Now then, it being admitted, the softer the brain is, with greater ease will the animal spirits make impressions on it, and that, for the same reason, the vestiges or traces will be larger and more distinct; they will make them with greater ease, and bigger, because the matter resists less; more distinct because the fibres being somewhat rigid, they would, by means of their elasticity, make efforts to restore themselves to their former shape and position; and thus, the path on traces made by the course of the animal spirits, would be very faint, if not quite effaced. The fibres of the brain of a woman, being then more flexible than those of the brain of a man, they are capable of having larger and more distinct images impressed on them, and they must consequently, according to this doctrine, perceive objects better than men.

CIII. But I would not be understood to admit, that the women have more understanding than the men; I only mean to retort on father Malebranche, the doctrine, from which he pretends to infer the advantage to be on the side of the men, in contradiction to what in another place, he himself has asserted. My own opinion of the matter is, that, by such sort of philosophical reasoning, you may prove every thing, when in reality you prove nothing. Every one philosophizes in his own mode, and if I was to write with a view of flattering, or from caprice or ostentation, or with a design of making parade of my ingenuity, I could easily, by deducing consequences from admitted principles, elevate the understandings of the women, superior to those of the men, by many degrees; but this is not my nature, or disposition; on the contrary, I had much rather propound my sentiments with sincerity; and therefore I say, that neither father Malebranche, nor any other person, even to this day, has known the punctual actings, or specific manœuvres, by which the organs of the head, administer to the faculties of the soul. We don’t know as yet, how fire burns, or how snow occasions cold, although they are things which are manifest to our sight and our touch; and would father Malebranche, and the other Cartesians, persuade us, that they have registered and examined all that passes in the most hidden and remote corners of the cabinet of the rational soul? Neither do these maxims appear to me well founded, which, by reducing every thing to mechanical principles, figure to us the spirit, stamping materially the images of objects on the brain, in the same manner, that impressions are made on copper with a chissel. I am also aware of the serious difficulties, that are attendant on, and annexed to, the intentional species of Aristotle. But what is the result of all this? Why, that none of us have done more, than just touch the outside covering of Nature. We all walk blindfold, and he is the most blind, who fancies he perceives things with the greatest clearness, and may be compared to a servant of Seneca, named Harpacta, who was so infatuated, after having lost all his visual faculties, and having become stone-blind, as to fancy he could see. It is certain, that those who live in a confidence, that they can penetrate and look into Nature, are the most exposed to dangerous errors; because he who walks on with much boldness, having but a dim light to guide him, runs the most hazard of falling; on the contrary, he is the furthest from this danger, who knowing the way is dark, proceeds with caution.

CIV. But granting to father Malebranche, and the rest of the Cartesians, that the representation of objects to the mind, is made by means of these material traces, which, in their course, the spirits impress on the brain; what follows from it is, that the brains of women being softer than those of men, the marks, on account of the pliability of the matter, will be larger and more distinct in the first, than in the last; and what can be inferred from this? Why, by the doctrine of father Malebranche, you may make whichever of the two following inferences you like best, either that the women comprehend better than the men, or that they do not comprehend so well. The first, may be inferred from the place we a little before cited; and the second, because where he explains himself with regard to what he has said against the women, he maintains, that the excessive lively imaginations, which result from these large images or impressions, are unfavourable to the right comprehension of objects. Cum enim tenuiora objecta ingentes in delicatis cerebri fibris excitent motus, in mente protinus etiam excitant sensationes ita vividas, ut ijs tota occupetur. Lib. 2. part ii. cap. 1.