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THE PROBLEMS OF

MARCUS ANTONINUS SANCTIPERTIAS

Q. Why is it esteemed, in the judgment of the most wise, the hardest thing to know a man’s self?  A. Because nothing can be known that is of so great importance to man for the regulation of his conduct in life.  Without this knowledge, man is like the ship without either compass or rudder to conduct her to port, and is tossed by every passion and prejudice to which his natural constitution is subjected.  To know the form and perfection of man’s self, according to the philosophers, is a task too hard; and a man, says Plato, is nothing, or if he be anything, he is nothing, but his soul.

Q. Why is a man, though endowed with reason, the most unjust of all living creatures?  A. Because only man is desirous of honour; and so it happens that every one covets to seem good, and yet naturally shuns labour, though he attain no virtue by it.

Q. Why doth immoderate copulation do more hurt than immoderate letting of blood?  A. The seed is full of nutriment, and better prepared for the nurture of the body, than the blood; for the blood is nourished by the seed.

Q. What is the reason that those that have long yards cannot beget children?  A. The seed, in going a long distance, doth lose the spirit, and therefore becomes cold and unfit.

Q. Why do such as are corpulent cast forth but little seed in the act of copulation, and are often barren?  A. Because the seed of such goeth to nourish the body.  For the same reason corpulent women have but few menses.

Q. How come women to be prone to venery in the summer time and men in the winter?  A. In summer the man’s testicles hang down and are feebler than in winter, or because hot natures become more lively in the cold season; for a man is hot and dry, and a woman cold and moist; and therefore in summer the strength of men decays, and that of women increases, and they grow livelier by the benefit of the contrary quality.

Q. Why is man the proudest of all living creatures?  A. By reason of his great knowledge; or, as philosophers say, all intelligent beings having understanding, nothing remains that escapes man’s knowledge in particular; or it is because he hath rule over all earthly creatures, and all things seem to be brought under his dominion.

Q. Why have beasts their hearts in the middle of their breasts, and man his inclining to the left?  A. To moderate the cold on that side.

Q. Why doth the woman love the man best who has got her maidenhead?  A. By reason of shame-facedness; Plato saith, shame-facedness doth follow love, or, because it is the beginning of great pleasure, which doth bring a great alteration in the whole body, whereby the powers of the mind are much delighted, and stick and rest immoveable in the same.

Q. How come hairy people to be more lustful than any other?  A. Because they are said to have greater store of excrements and seed as philosophers assert.