Q. Why doth the hair of the eye-brows grow long in old men? A. Because through their age the bones of the eye-lids are thin for want of heat, and therefore the hair doth grow there, by reason of the rheum of the eyes. Q. Whereof proceedeth gaping? A. Of gross vapours, which occupy the vital spirits of the head, and of the coldness of the senses, causing sleepiness. Q. What is the reason that some flowers do open with the sun rising, and shut with the setting? A. Cold doth close and shut, as hath been said, but the heat of the sun doth open and enlarge. Some compare the sun to the soul of the body; for as the soul giveth life, so the sun doth give life, and vivicate all things; but cold bringeth death, withering and decaying all things. Q. Why doth grief cause men to grow old and gray? A. Age is nothing else but dryness and want of humours of the body; grief then causeth alteration, and heat dryness; age and greyness follow immediately. Q. Why are gelded beasts weaker than such as are not gelded? A. Because they have less heat, and by that means less force and strength. THE PROBLEMS of MARCUS ANTONIUS ZIMARAS SANCTIPERTIAS. Q. Why is it esteemed in the judgement 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 which has neither compass nor 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 natural 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 any thing, 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 is man the proudest of all living creatures? A. By reason of his great knowledge; or as philosophers say, all intelligent beings have 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 side? A. To moderate the cold on that side.