WISDOM.
(Allegorical Representation of.)

Charron caused wisdom to be represented in the title-page of his Book on Wisdom, “by a woman stark naked, with a healthful, manly, and smiling face, standing with her feet joined, on a cube; having on her head a crown of laurel and olive, representing victory and peace; and an empty space about her, signifying liberty. On her right side, these words, “I know not,” which is her motto; and on her left side these other words, “peace and little,” which is the author’s motto; beneath, are four little, ill-favoured, vile, and wrinkled women, chained; and their chains are fastened to this cube which is under Wisdom’s feet, who despises, condemns, and tramples upon them, two of which are on the right side of the title of the book, to wit, Passion, and Opinion. Passion is lean, and has a disordered face; Opinion appears with wild looks, fickle, heedless, supported by many persons, which are the mob; the other two are on the other side of the title, Superstition, with a chilled face, joining

both hands, like a servant trembling for fear; and False Science, an artificial, acquired, and pedantic virtue, a slave to laws and customs, with a face puffed up, proud, and arrogant, with lofty eye-brows, reading in a book, wherein are the words, “yes, no.”

Art. Charron.