Q. Why did the Romans call Fabius Maximus the target of the people, and Marcellus the sword? A. Because the one adapted himself to the service of the commonwealth, and the other was very eager to revenge the injuries of his country; and yet they were in the senate joined together, because the gravity of the one would moderate the courage and boldness of the other.
Q. Why doth the shining of the moon hurt the head? A. Because it moves the humours of the brain, and cannot afterwards dissolve them.
Q. If water do not nourish, why do men drink it? A. Because water causes the nutriment to spread through the body.
Q. Why is sneezing good? A. Because it purgeth the brain, as milk is purged by the cough.
Q. Why is hot water lighter than cold? A. Because boiling water has less ventosity, and is more light and subtle, the earthy and heavy substance being separated from it.
Q. How comes marsh and pond water to be bad? A. By reason they are phlegmatic, and do corrupt in summer; the fineness of the water is turned into vapours, and the earthiness doth remain.
Q. Why are studious and learned men soonest bald? A. It proceeds from a weakness of the spirits, or because warmth of digestion causes phlegm to abound in them.
Q. Why doth much watching make the brain feeble? A. Because it increases choler, which dries and extenuates the body.
Q. Why are boys apt to change their voices about fourteen years of age? A. Because that then nature doth cause a great and sudden change of voice, experience proves this to be true; for at that time we may say that women’s paps do grow great, do hold and gather milk, and also those places that are above the hips, in which the young fruit would remain. Likewise men’s breasts and shoulders, which then can bear great and heavy burdens. The body is bigger and dilated, as the alternation and change of every part doth testify, and the harshness of the voice and hoarseness; for the rough artery, the wind-pipe, being made wide in the beginning, and the exterior and outward part within being unequal to the throat, the air going out the rough uneven pipe doth then become unequal and sharp, and after hoarse, something like unto the voice of a goat, wherefore it has its name called Bronchus. The same doth also happen to them unto whose rough artery distillation doth flow; it happens by reason of the drooping humidity that a light small skin filled unequally causes the uneven going forth of the spirit and air. Understand that the wind-pipe of goats is such by reason of the abundance of humidity. The like doth happen unto all such as nature hath given a rough artery, as unto cranes. After the age of fourteen they leave off that voice, because the artery is made wider and reacheth its natural evenness and quality.
Q. Why do hard dens, hollow and high places, send back the likeness and sound of the voice? A. Because that in such places also by reflection do return back the image of a sound, for the voice doth beat the air, and the air the place, which the more it is beaten the more it doth bear, and therefore doth cause the more vehement sound of the voice; moist places, and as it were soft, yielding to the stroke, and dissolving it, give no sound; for according to the quantity of the stroke, the quality and quantity of the voice is given, which is called an echo. Some do idly fable that she is a goddess; some say that Pan was in love with her, which without doubt is false. He was some wise man, who did first desire to search out the cause of that voice; and as they who love, and cannot enjoy that love, are grieved, so in like manner was he very sorry until he found out the solution of that cause: as Endymion also, who first found out the course of the moon, watching all night, and observing her course, and searching her motion, did sleep in the day-time, and therefore they do fable that he was beloved of her, and that she came to him when he was asleep, because she did give the philosopher the solution of the course of herself. They say also that he was a shepherd, because that in the desert and high places he did mark the course of the moon. And they gave him also the pipe, because that the high places are blown with wind, or else because he sought out the consonancy of figures. Prometheus, also, being a wise man, sought the course of the star, which is called the eagle in the firmament, his nature and place; and when he was as it were wasted with the desire of learning, then at last he rested, when Hercules did resolve unto him all doubts with his wisdom.