Three Books on Life

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...but I wish I had a power as complete as my favorable will. Arise now, eager adolescents, with God as your guide. Arise young men and men: whom the too-ardent study of Minerva Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom; here her "study" represents intense intellectual labor. weakens too much. Approach the physician willingly: who, with God showing and favoring the way, will grant you the counsels and healthful remedies for the perfection of your pursuit.

How diligent a care must be had of the brain, the heart, the stomach, and the spirit.

Chapter 2.

In the beginning, just as runners are accustomed to take care of their legs, athletes of their arms, and musicians of their voice, at the very least scholars of letters ought to take care of the brain, the heart, the liver, and the stomach. Indeed, they should take so much more care as these organs are more excellent than those; and as scholars use these organs more frequently and for more important things than the others use theirs.

Furthermore, any skilled craftsman cares for his instruments most diligently. The painter his brushes; the blacksmith his hammers and anvils; the soldier his horses and weapons; the hunter his dogs and birds; the lute-player his lute; and each similarly his own. Only the priests of the Muses A poetic term for scholars or intellectuals., only the hunters of the highest good and truth, are so negligent—alas, the shame!—and so unfortunate, that they seem to utterly neglect that instrument by which they are able, in a certain way, to measure and grasp the whole universe.

An instrument of this kind is the spirit original: "spiritus". In Renaissance medicine, "spirit" was a subtle vapor that acted as a bridge between the physical body and the non-physical soul. itself: which among physicians is defined as a certain vapor of the blood—pure, subtle, hot, and clear. And being procreated by the heat of the heart from the more subtle blood, it flies to the brain; there the soul uses it constantly to exercise both the internal and external senses. For this reason, the blood serves the spirit; the spirit serves the senses; and finally, the senses serve reason.

Blood, however, is produced by the natural virtue original: "uirtute naturali". This was the physiological power believed to reside in the liver and handle nutrition and growth., which thrives in the liver and stomach. The thinnest part of the blood flows into the fountain of the heart, where the vital virtue The "vital virtue" in the heart was responsible for life-force and heat. thrives. From there, the created spirits ascend to the brain and—if I may put it this way—the citadels of Pallas Another name for Athena or Minerva, goddess of wisdom; Ficino uses "citadels of Pallas" to refer to the brain as the seat of wisdom.. In these, the animal virtue original: "animalis... uis". From the Latin "anima" (soul), this power was responsible for sensation and movement.—that is, the power of sensing and moving—holds dominion. Therefore, contemplation is almost exactly as the service of the sense itself is. Moreover, the sense is such as the spirit is. And the spirit is such as the blood is,