cannot digest as he
would, he doth gather together much air and spirit, by reason of much
humidity; the spirits then very subtle, ascending into the head, often
force a man to void them, and so provoke sneezing. The noise caused
thereby proceeds from a vehement spirit or breath passing through the
conduit of the nostrils, as belching doth from the stomach or farting by
the fundament, the voice by the throat, and a sound by the ear.

Q. How come the hair and nails of dead people to grow? A. Because the
flesh rotting, withering and falling away, that which was hidden about
the root of the hair doth now appear as growing. Some say that it grows
indeed, because carcasses are dissolved in the beginning to many
excrements and superfluities by putrefaction. These going out at the
uppermost parts of the body by some passages, do increase the growth of
the hair.

Q. Why does not the hair of the feet soon grow grey? A. For this reason,
because that through great motion they disperse and dissolve the
superfluous phlegm that breeds greyness. The hair of the secrets grows
very late, because of the place, and because that in carnal copulation
it dissolves the phlegm also.

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 condity of the sore.

Q. Why doth the 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 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.