Q. Why, if you put hot burnt barley upon a horse’s sore, is the hair which grows upon the sore not white but like the other hair? A. Because it hath the force of expelling, and doth drive away and dissolve the phlegm, as well as all other unprofitable matter that is gathered together through the weakness of the parts, or crudity of the sore. Q. Why doth hair never grow on an ulcer or bile? A. Because man hath a thick skin, as is seen by the thickness of his hair; and if the scar be thicker than the skin itself, it stops the passages from whence the hair should grow. Horses have thinner skins, as is plain by their thick hair; therefore all passages are not stopped in their wounds and sores; and after the excrements which were gathered together have broken a passage through those small pores, the hair doth grow. Q. Why is Fortune painted with a double forehead, the one side bald and the other hairy? A. The baldness signifies adversity; and hairiness prosperity, which we enjoy when it pleaseth her. Q. Why have some commended flattery? A. Because flattery setteth forth before our eyes what we ought to be, though not what we are. Q. Wherefore should virtue be painted girded? A. To show that virtuous men should not be slothful, but diligent, and always in action. Q. Why did the ancients say it was better to fall into the hands of a raven than a flatterer? A. Because ravens do not eat us till we are dead, but flatterers devour us alive. Q. Why have choleric men beards before others? A. Because they are hot, and their pores large. Q. How comes it that such as have the hiccough do ease themselves by holding their breath? A. The breath retained doth heat the interior parts of the body and the hiccough proceeds from cold. Q. How comes it that old men remember well what they have seen and done in their youth, and forget such things as they see and do in their old age? A. Things learned in youth take deep root and habitude in a person, but those learned in age are forgotten, because the senses are weakened. Q. What kind of covetousness is best? A. That of time, when employed as it ought to be. Q. Why is our life compared to a play? A. Because the dishonest do occupy the place of the honest, and the worst sort the room of the good. Q. Why do dolphins, when they appear above the water, denote a storm or tempest approaching? A. Because at the beginning of a tempest there do arise from the bottom of the sea certain hot exhalations and vapours which heat the dolphins, causing them to rise up for cold air. 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.