The Anatomy of Melancholy

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Title: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Democritus Junior
Release Date: January 13, 2004 [EBook #10800]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY ***
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Introduction to the Project Gutenberg Edition.
This edition of _The Anatomy of Melancholy_ is based on a
nineteenth-century edition that modernized Burton's spelling and
typographic conventions. In preparing this electronic version, it became
evident that the editor had made a variety of mistakes in this
modernization: some words were left in their original spelling (unusual
words were a particular problem), portions of book titles were mistaken for
proper names, proper names were mistaken for book titles or Latin words,
etc. A certain number of misprints were also introduced into the Latin. As
a result, I have re-edited the text, checking it against images of the 1638
edition, and correcting all errors not present in the earlier edition. I
have continued to follow the general editorial practice of the base text
for quotation marks, italics, etc. Rare words have been normalized
according to their primary spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. When
Burton spells a person's name in several ways, I have normalized the names
to the most common spelling, or to modern practice if well-known. In a few
cases, mistakes present in both the 1638 edition and the base text have
been corrected. These are always minor reference errors (e.g., an incorrect
or missing section number in the synopses, or misnumbered footnotes).
Incorrect citations to other texts (Burton seems to quote by memory and
sometimes gets it wrong) have not been changed if they are wrong in both
editions. To display some symbols (astrological signs, etc.) the HTML
version requires a browser with unicode support. Most recent browsers
should be OK.--KTH
FRONTISPIECE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
[Illustration: 1. Democritus Abderites; 2. Zelotypia 3. Solitudo; 4.
Inamorato; 5. Hypocondriacus; 6. Superstitiosus; 7. Maniacus; 8. Borage; 9.
Hellebor; 10. Democritus Junior
THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several
cures of it.
In three Partitions, with their several Sections, numbers, and subsections.
Philosophically, medicinally, Historically, opened and cut up.
By Democritus Junior
With a Satyrical Preface conducing to the following Discourse.
The Sixth Edition, corrected and augmented by the Author.
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscit utile dulce.
London
Printed & to be sold by Hen. Crips & Lodo Lloyd at their shop in
Popes-head Alley. 1652]
THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY,
WHAT IT IS,
WITH
ALL THE KINDS, CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, PROGNOSTICS, AND SEVERAL CURES OF IT.
IN THREE PARTITIONS.
WITH THEIR SEVERAL
SECTIONS, MEMBERS, AND SUBSECTIONS, PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICALLY,
HISTORICALLY OPENED AND CUT UP.
BY DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
WITH A SATIRICAL PREFACE, CONDUCING TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE.
A NEW EDITION,
CORRECTED, AND ENRICHED BY TRANSLATIONS OF THE NUMEROUS CLASSICAL EXTRACTS.
BY DEMOCRITUS MINOR.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci.
He that joins instruction with delight,
Profit with pleasure, carries all the votes.
HONORATISSIMO DOMINO
NON MINVS VIRTUTE SUA, QUAM GENERIS SPLENDORE,
ILLVSTRISSIMO,
GEORGIO BEKKLEIO,
MILITI DE BALNEO, BARONI DE BERKLEY, MOUBREY, SEGRAVE,
D. DE BRUSE,
DOMINO SUO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO,
HANC SUAM
MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN,
JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D.D.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LAST LONDON EDITION.
The work now restored to public notice has had an extraordinary fate. At
the time of its original publication it obtained a great celebrity, which
continued more than half a century. During that period few books were more
read, or more deservedly applauded. It was the delight of the learned, the
solace of the indolent, and the refuge of the uninformed. It passed through
at least eight editions, by which the bookseller, as WOOD records, got an
estate; and, notwithstanding the objection sometimes opposed against it, of
a quaint style, and too great an accumulation of authorities, the
fascination of its wit, fancy, and sterling sense, have borne down all
censures, and extorted praise from the first Writers in the English
language. The grave JOHNSON has praised it in the warmest terms, and the
ludicrous STERNE has interwoven many parts of it into his own popular
performance. MILTON did not disdain to build two of his finest poems on it;
and a host of inferior writers have embellished their works with beauties
not their own, culled from a performance which they had not the justice
even to mention. Change of times, and the frivolity of fashion, suspended,
in some degree, that fame which had lasted near a century; and the
succeeding generation affected indifference towards an author, who at
length was only looked into by the plunderers of literature, the poachers
in obscure volumes. The plagiarisms of _Tristram Shandy_, so successfully
brought to light by DR. FERRIAR, at length drew the attention of the public
towards a writer, who, though then little known, might, without impeachment
of modesty, lay claim to every mark of respect; and inquiry proved, beyond
a doubt, that the calls of justice had been little attended to by others,
as well as the facetious YORICK. WOOD observed, more than a century ago,
that several authors had unmercifully stolen matter from BURTON without any
acknowledgment. The time, however, at length arrived, when the merits of
the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ were to receive their due praise. The book was
again sought for and read, and again it became an applauded performance.
Its excellencies once more stood confessed, in the increased price which
every copy offered for sale produced; and the increased demand pointed out
the necessity of a new edition. This is now presented to the public in a
manner not disgraceful to the memory of the author; and the publisher
relies with confidence, that so valuable a repository of amusement and
information will continue to hold the rank to which it has been restored,
firmly supported by its own merit, and safe from the influence and blight
of any future caprices of fashion. To open its valuable mysteries to those
who have not had the advantage of a classical education, translations of
the countless quotations from ancient writers which occur in the work, are
now for the first time given, and obsolete orthography is in all instances
modernized.
ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Robert Burton was the son of Ralph Burton, of an ancient and genteel family
at Lindley, in Leicestershire, and was born there on the 8th of February
1576. [1]He received the first rudiments of learning at the free school of
Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire [2]from whence he was, at the age of
seventeen, in the long vacation, 1593, sent to Brazen Nose College, in the
condition of a commoner, where he made considerable progress in logic and
philosophy. In 1599 he was elected student of Christ Church, and, for
form's sake, was put under the tuition of Dr. John Bancroft, afterwards
Bishop of Oxford. In 1614 he was admitted to the reading of the Sentences,
and on the 29th of November, 1616, had the vicarage of St. Thomas, in the
west suburb of Oxford, conferred on him by the dean and canons of Christ
Church, which, with the rectory of Segrave, in Leicestershire, given to him
in the year 1636, by George, Lord Berkeley, he kept, to use the words of
the Oxford antiquary, with much ado to his dying day. He seems to have been
first beneficed at Walsby, in Lincolnshire, through the munificence of his
noble patroness, Frances, Countess Dowager of Exeter, but resigned the
same, as he tells us, for some special reasons. At his vicarage he is
remarked to have always given the sacrament in wafers. Wood's character of
him is, that "he was an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of
nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and one
that understood the surveying of lands well. As he was by many accounted a
severe student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humorous person; so
by others, who knew him well, a person of great honesty, plain dealing and
charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ Church often say, that
his company was very merry, facete, and juvenile; and no man in his time
did surpass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding his common
discourses among them with verses from the poets, or sentences from classic
authors; which being then all the fashion in the University, made his
company the more acceptable." He appears to have been a universal reader of
all kinds of books, and availed himself of his multifarious studies in a
very extraordinary manner. From the information of Hearne, we learn that
John Rouse, the Bodleian librarian, furnished him with choice books for the
prosecution of his work. The subject of his labour and amusement, seems to
have been adopted from the infirmities of his own habit and constitution.
Mr. Granger says, "He composed this book with a view of relieving his own
melancholy, but increased it to such a degree, that nothing could make him
laugh, but going to the bridge-foot and hearing the ribaldry of the
bargemen, which rarely failed to throw him into a violent fit of laughter.
Before he was overcome with this horrid disorder, he, in the intervals of
his vapours, was esteemed one of the most facetious companions in the
University."
His residence was chiefly at Oxford; where, in his chamber in Christ Church
College, he departed this life, at or very near the time which he had some
years before foretold, from the calculation of his own nativity, and which,
says Wood, "being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper
among themselves, that rather than there should be a mistake in the
calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck."
Whether this suggestion is founded in truth, we have no other evidence than
an obscure hint in the epitaph hereafter inserted, which was written by the
author himself, a short time before his death. His body, with due
solemnity, was buried near that of Dr. Robert Weston, in the north aisle
which joins next to the choir of the cathedral of Christ Church, on the
27th of January 1639-40. Over his grave was soon after erected a comely
monument, on the upper pillar of the said aisle, with his bust, painted to
the life. On the right hand is the following calculation of his nativity:
[Illustration: R. natus B.
1576, 8 Feb.
hor. 3, scrup. 16.
long. 22° 0'
polus 51° 30"]
and under the bust, this inscription of his own composition:--
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus,
Hic jacet _Democritus_ junior
Cui vitam dedit et mortem
Melancholia
Ob. 8 Id. Jan. A. C. MDCXXXIX.
Arms:--Azure on a bend O. between three dogs' heads O. a crescent G.
A few months before his death, he made his will, of which the following is
a copy:
EXTRACTED FROM THE REGISTRY OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY.
_In nomine Dei Amen_. August 15th One thousand six hundred thirty nine
because there be so many casualties to which our life is subject besides
quarrelling and contention which happen to our Successors after our Death
by reason of unsettled Estates I Robert Burton Student of Christ-church
Oxon. though my means be but small have thought good by this my last Will
and Testament to dispose of that little which I have and being at this
present I thank God in perfect health of Bodie and Mind and if this
Testament be not so formal according to the nice and strict terms of Law
and other Circumstances peradventure required of which I am ignorant I
desire howsoever this my Will may be accepted and stand good according to
my true Intent and meaning First I bequeath Animam Deo Corpus Terrae
whensoever it shall please God to call me I give my Land in Higham which my
good Father Ralphe Burton of Lindly in the County of Leicester Esquire gave
me by Deed of Gift and that which I have annexed to that Farm by purchase
since, now leased for thirty eight pounds per Ann. to mine Elder Brother
William Burton of Lindly Esquire during his life and after him to his Heirs
I make my said Brother William likewise mine Executor as well as paying
such Annuities and Legacies out of my Lands and Goods as are hereafter
specified I give to my nephew Cassibilan Burton twenty pounds Annuity per
Ann. out of my Land in Higham during his life to be paid at two equal
payments at our Lady Day in Lent and Michaelmas or if he be not paid within
fourteen Days after the said Feasts to distrain on any part of the Ground
or on any of my Lands of Inheritance Item I give to my Sister Katherine
Jackson during her life eight pounds per Ann. Annuity to be paid at the two
Feasts equally as above said or else to distrain on the Ground if she be
not paid after fourteen days at Lindly as the other _some_ is out of the
said Land Item I give to my Servant John Upton the Annuity of Forty
Shillings out of my said Farme during his life (if till then my Servant) to
be paid on Michaelmas day in Lindley each year or else after fourteen days
to distrain Now for my goods I thus dispose them First I give an C'th
pounds to Christ Church in Oxford where I have so long lived to buy five
pounds Lands per Ann. to be Yearly bestowed on Books for the Library Item I
give an hundredth pound to the University Library of Oxford to be bestowed
to purchase five pound Land per Ann. to be paid out Yearly on Books as Mrs.
Brooks formerly gave an hundred pounds to buy Land to the same purpose and
the Rent to the same use I give to my Brother George Burton twenty pounds
and my watch I give to my Brother Ralph Burton five pounds Item I give to
the Parish of Seagrave in Leicestershire where I am now Rector ten pounds
to be given to a certain Feoffees to the perpetual good of the said _Parish
Oxon_ [3]Item I give to my Niece Eugenia Burton One hundredth pounds Item I
give to my Nephew Richard Burton now Prisoner in London an hundredth pound
to redeem him Item I give to the Poor of Higham Forty Shillings where my
Land is to the poor of Nuneaton where I was once a Grammar Scholar three
pound to my Cousin Purfey of Wadlake [Wadley] my Cousin Purfey of Calcott
my Cousin Hales of Coventry my Nephew Bradshaw of Orton twenty shillings a
piece for a small remembrance to Mr. Whitehall Rector of Cherkby myne own
Chamber Fellow twenty shillings I desire my Brother George and my Cosen
Purfey of Calcott to be the Overseers of this part of my Will I give
moreover five pounds to make a small Monument for my Mother where she is
buried in London to my Brother Jackson forty shillings to my Servant John
Upton forty shillings besides his former Annuity if he be my Servant till I
die if he be till then my Servant [4]--ROBERT BURTON--Charles Russell
Witness--John Pepper Witness.
An Appendix to this my Will if I die in Oxford or whilst I am of Christ
Church and with good Mr. Paynes August the Fifteenth 1639.
I give to Mr. Doctor Fell Dean of Christ Church Forty Shillings to the
Eight Canons twenty Shillings a piece as a small remembrance to the poor of
St. Thomas Parish Twenty Shillings to Brasenose Library five pounds to Mr.
Rowse of Oriell Colledge twenty Shillings to Mr. Heywood _xx_s. to Dr.
Metcalfe _xx_s. to Mr. Sherley _xx_s. If I have any Books the University
Library hath not, let them take them If I have any Books our own Library
hath not, let them take them I give to Mrs. Fell all my English Books of
Husbandry one excepted to her Daughter Mrs. Katherine Fell my Six Pieces of
Silver Plate and six Silver spoons to Mrs. Iles my Gerards Herball To Mrs.
Morris my Country Farme Translated out of French 4. and all my English
Physick Books to Mr. Whistler the Recorder of Oxford I give twenty
shillings to all my fellow Students Mrs of Arts a Book in fol. or two a
piece as Master Morris Treasurer or Mr. Dean shall appoint whom I request
to be the Overseer of this Appendix and give him for his pains Atlas
Geografer and Ortelius Theatrum Mond' I give to John Fell the Dean's Son
Student my Mathematical Instruments except my two Crosse Staves which I
give to my Lord of Donnol if he be then of the House To Thomas Iles Doctor
Iles his Son Student Saluntch on Paurrhelia and Lucian's Works in 4 Tomes
If any books be left let my Executors dispose of them with all such Books
as are written with my own hands and half my Melancholy Copy for Crips hath
the other half To Mr. Jones Chaplin and Chanter my Surveying Books and
Instruments To the Servants of the House Forty Shillings ROB.
BURTON--Charles Russell Witness--John Pepper Witness--This Will was shewed
to me by the Testator and acknowledged by him some few days before his
death to be his last Will Ita Testor John Morris S Th D. Prebendari' Eccl
Chri' Oxon Feb. 3, 1639.
Probatum fuit Testamentum suprascriptum, &c. 11° 1640 Juramento Willmi
Burton Fris' et Executoris cui &c. de bene et fideliter administrand.
&c. coram Mag'ris Nathanaele Stephens Rectore Eccl. de Drayton, et
Edwardo Farmer, Clericis, vigore commissionis, &c.
The only work our author executed was that now reprinted, which probably
was the principal employment of his life. Dr. Ferriar says, it was
originally published in the year 1617; but this is evidently a mistake;
[5]the first edition was that printed in 4to, 1621, a copy of which is at
present in the collection of John Nichols, Esq., the indefatigable
illustrator of the _History of Leicestershire_; to whom, and to Isaac Reed,
Esq., of Staple Inn, this account is greatly indebted for its accuracy. The
other impressions of it were in 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638, 1651-2, 1660, and
1676, which last, in the titlepage, is called the eighth edition.
The copy from which the present is reprinted, is that of 1651-2; at the
conclusion of which is the following address:
"TO THE READER.
"Be pleased to know (Courteous Reader) that since the last Impression
of this Book, the ingenuous Author of it is deceased, leaving a Copy
of it exactly corrected, with several considerable Additions by his
own hand; this Copy he committed to my care and custody, with
directions to have those Additions inserted in the next Edition; which
in order to his command, and the Publicke Good, is faithfully
performed in this last Impression."
H. C. (_i.e. HEN. CRIPPS._)
The following testimonies of various authors will serve to show the
estimation in which this work has been held:--
"The ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, wherein the author hath piled up variety of
much excellent learning. Scarce any book of philology in our land hath, in
so short a time, passed so many editions."--_Fuller's Worthies_, fol. 16.
"'Tis a book so full of variety of reading, that gentlemen who have lost
their time, and are put to a push for invention, may furnish themselves
with matter for common or scholastical discourse and writing."--_Wood's
Athenae Oxoniensis_, vol. i. p. 628. 2d edit.
"If you never saw BURTON UPON MELANCHOLY, printed 1676, I pray look into
it, and read the ninth page of his Preface, 'Democritus to the Reader.'
There is something there which touches the point we are upon; but I mention
the author to you, as the pleasantest, the most learned, and the most full
of sterling sense. The wits of Queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of
George the First, were not a little beholden to him."--_Archbishop
Herring's Letters_, 12mo. 1777. p. 149.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, he (Dr. Johnson) said, was the only book
that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to
rise."--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, vol. i. p. 580. 8vo. edit.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a valuable book," said Dr. Johnson. "It
is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is great spirit and great
power in what Burton says when he writes from his own mind."--_Ibid_, vol.
ii. p. 325.
"It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and
invention, to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the subject of _L'
Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, together with some particular thoughts,
expressions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contrast between
these two dispositions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition
of BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, entitled, 'The Author's Abstract of
Melancholy; or, A Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain.' Here pain is
melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will
make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem as will be
sufficient to prove, to a discerning reader, how far it had taken
possession of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the same; and
that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be
already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally
noticed in passing through the _L' Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_."--After
extracting the lines, Mr. Warton adds, "as to the very elaborate work to
which these visionary verses are no unsuitable introduction, the writer's
variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his
pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance, miscellaneous
matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illustrations, and, perhaps,
above all, the singularities of his feelings, clothed in an uncommon
quaintness of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers,
a valuable repository of amusement and information."--_Warton's Milton_, 2d
edit. p. 94.
"THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a book which has been universally read and
admired. This work is, for the most part, what the author himself styles
it, 'a cento;' but it is a very ingenious one. His quotations, which abound
in every page, are pertinent; but if he had made more use of his invention
and less of his commonplace-book, his work would perhaps have been more
valuable than it is. He is generally free from the affected language and
ridiculous metaphors which disgrace most of the books of his
time."--_Granger's Biographical History_.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, a book once the favourite of the learned
and the witty, and a source of surreptitious learning, though written on a
regular plan, consists chiefly of quotations: the author has honestly
termed it a cento. He collects, under every division, the opinions of a
multitude of writers, without regard to chronological order, and has too
often the modesty to decline the interposition of his own sentiments.
Indeed the bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him. In the course of
his folio he has contrived to treat a great variety of topics, that seem
very loosely connected with the general subject; and, like Bayle, when he
starts a favourite train of quotations, he does not scruple to let the
digression outrun the principal question. Thus, from the doctrines of
religion to military discipline, from inland navigation to the morality of
dancing-schools, every thing is discussed and determined."--_Ferriar's
Illustrations of Sterne_, p. 58.
"The archness which BURTON displays occasionally, and his indulgence of
playful digressions from the most serious discussions, often give his style
an air of familiar conversation, notwithstanding the laborious collections
which supply his text. He was capable of writing excellent poetry, but he
seems to have cultivated this talent too little. The English verses
prefixed to his book, which possess beautiful imagery, and great sweetness
of versification, have been frequently published. His Latin elegiac verses
addressed to his book, shew a very agreeable turn for raillery."--_Ibid_.
p. 58.
"When the force of the subject opens his own vein of prose, we discover
valuable sense and brilliant expression. Such is his account of the first
feelings of melancholy persons, written, probably, from his own
experience." [See p. 154, of the present edition.]--_Ibid._ p. 60.
"During a pedantic age, like that in which BURTON'S production appeared, it
must have been eminently serviceable to writers of many descriptions. Hence
the unlearned might furnish themselves with appropriate scraps of Greek and
Latin, whilst men of letters would find their enquiries shortened, by
knowing where they might look for what both ancients and moderns had
advanced on the subject of human passions. I confess my inability to point
out any other English author who has so largely dealt in apt and original
quotation."--_Manuscript note of the late George Steevens, Esq., in his
copy of_ THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR AD LIBRUM SUUM.
Vade liber, qualis, non ausum dicere, felix,
Te nisi felicem fecerit Alma dies.
Vade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per oras,
Et Genium Domini fac imitere tui.
I blandas inter Charites, mystamque saluta
Musarum quemvis, si tibi lector erit.
Rura colas, urbem, subeasve palatia regum,
Submisse, placide, te sine dente geras.
Nobilis, aut si quis te forte inspexerit heros,
Da te morigerum, perlegat usque lubet.
Est quod nobilitas, est quod desideret heros,
Gratior haec forsan charta placere potest.
Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator,
Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit,
Sive magistratus, tum te reverenter habeto;
Sed nullus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae.
Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere nugis,
Nec tales cupio; par mihi lector erit.
Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc,
Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legat:
Est quod displiceat, placeat quod forsitan illis,
Ingerere his noli te modo, pande tamen.
At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas
Tangere, sive schedis haereat illa tuis:
Da modo te facilem, et quaedam folia esse memento
Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis.
Si generosa ancilla tuos aut alma puella
Visura est ludos, annue, pande lubens.
Dic utinam nunc ipse meus [6](nam diligit istas)
In praesens esset conspiciendus herus.
Ignotus notusve mihi de gente togata
Sive aget in ludis, pulpita sive colet,
Sive in Lycaeo, et nugas evolverit istas,
Si quasdam mendas viderit inspiciens,
Da veniam Authori, dices; nam plurima vellet
Expungi, quae jam displicuisse sciat.
Sive Melancholicus quisquam, seu blandus Amator,
Aulicus aut Civis, seu bene comptus eques
Huc appellat, age et tuto te crede legenti,
Multa istic forsan non male nata leget.
Quod fugiat, caveat, quodque amplexabitur, ista
Pagina fortassis promere multa potest.
At si quis Medicus coram te sistet, amice
Fac circumspecte, et te sine labe geras:
Inveniet namque ipse meis quoque plurima scriptis,
Non leve subsidium quae sibi forsan erunt.
Si quis Causidicus chartas impingat in istas,
Nil mihi vobiscum, pessima turba vale;
Sit nisi vir bonus, et juris sine fraude peritus,
Tum legat, et forsan doctior inde siet.
Si quis cordatus, facilis, lectorque benignus
Huc oculos vertat, quae velit ipse legat;
Candidus ignoscet, metuas nil, pande libenter,
Offensus mendis non erit ille tuis,
Laudabit nonnulla. Venit si Rhetor ineptus,
Limata et tersa, et qui bene cocta petit,
Claude citus librum; nulla hic nisi ferrea verba,
Offendent stomachum quae minus apta suum.
At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta,
Annue; namque istic plurima ficta leget.
Nos sumus e numero, nullus mihi spirat Apollo,
Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit.
Si Criticus Lector, tumidus Censorque molestus,
Zoilus et Momus, si rabiosa cohors:
Ringe, freme, et noli tum pandere, turba malignis
Si occurrat sannis invidiosa suis:
Fac fugias; si nulla tibi sit copia eundi,
Contemnes, tacite scommata quaeque feres.
Frendeat, allatret, vacuas gannitibus auras
Impleat, haud cures; his placuisse nefas.
Verum age si forsan divertat purior hospes,
Cuique sales, ludi, displiceantque joci,
Objiciatque tibi sordes, lascivaque: dices,
Lasciva est Domino et Musa jocosa tuo,
Nec lasciva tamen, si pensitet omne; sed esto;
Sit lasciva licet pagina, vita proba est.
Barbarus, indoctusque rudis spectator in istam
Si messem intrudat, fuste fugabis eum,
Fungum pelle procul (jubeo) nam quid mihi fungo?
Conveniunt stomacho non minus ista suo.
Sed nec pelle tamen; laeto omnes accipe vultu,
Quos, quas, vel quales, inde vel unde viros.
Gratus erit quicunque venit, gratissimus hospes
Quisquis erit, facilis difficilisque mihi.
Nam si culparit, quaedam culpasse juvabit,
Culpando faciet me meliora sequi.
Sed si laudarit, neque laudibus efferar ullis,
Sit satis hisce malis opposuisse bonum.
Haec sunt quae nostro placuit mandare libello,
Et quae dimittens dicere jussit Herus.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO HIS BOOK
PARAPHRASTIC METRICAL TRANSLATION.
Go forth my book into the open day;
Happy, if made so by its garish eye.
O'er earth's wide surface take thy vagrant way,
To imitate thy master's genius try.
The Graces three, the Muses nine salute,
Should those who love them try to con thy lore.
The country, city seek, grand thrones to boot,
With gentle courtesy humbly bow before.
Should nobles gallant, soldiers frank and brave
Seek thy acquaintance, hail their first advance:
From twitch of care thy pleasant vein may save,
May laughter cause or wisdom give perchance.
Some surly Cato, Senator austere,
Haply may wish to peep into thy book:
Seem very nothing--tremble and revere:
No forceful eagles, butterflies e'er look.
They love not thee: of them then little seek,
And wish for readers triflers like thyself.
Of ludeful matron watchful catch the beck,
Or gorgeous countess full of pride and pelf.
They may say "pish!" and frown, and yet read on:
Cry odd, and silly, coarse, and yet amusing.
Should dainty damsels seek thy page to con,
Spread thy best stores: to them be ne'er refusing:
Say, fair one, master loves thee dear as life;
Would he were here to gaze on thy sweet look.
Should known or unknown student, freed from strife
Of logic and the schools, explore my book:
Cry mercy critic, and thy book withhold:
Be some few errors pardon'd though observ'd:
An humble author to implore makes bold.
Thy kind indulgence, even undeserv'd,
Should melancholy wight or pensive lover,
Courtier, snug cit, or carpet knight so trim
Our blossoms cull, he'll find himself in clover,
Gain sense from precept, laughter from our whim.
Should learned leech with solemn air unfold
Thy leaves, beware, be civil, and be wise:
Thy volume many precepts sage may hold,
His well fraught head may find no trifling prize.
Should crafty lawyer trespass on our ground,
Caitiffs avaunt! disturbing tribe away!
Unless (white crow) an honest one be found;
He'll better, wiser go for what we say.
Should some ripe scholar, gentle and benign,
With candour, care, and judgment thee peruse:
Thy faults to kind oblivion he'll consign;
Nor to thy merit will his praise refuse.
Thou may'st be searched for polish'd words and verse
By flippant spouter, emptiest of praters:
Tell him to seek them in some mawkish verse:
My periods all are rough as nutmeg graters.
The doggerel poet, wishing thee to read,
Reject not; let him glean thy jests and stories.
His brother I, of lowly sembling breed:
Apollo grants to few Parnassian glories.
Menac'd by critic with sour furrowed brow,
Momus or Troilus or Scotch reviewer:
Ruffle your heckle, grin and growl and vow:
Ill-natured foes you thus will find the fewer,
When foul-mouth'd senseless railers cry thee down,
Reply not: fly, and show the rogues thy stern;
They are not worthy even of a frown:
Good taste or breeding they can never learn;
Or let them clamour, turn a callous ear,
As though in dread of some harsh donkey's bray.
If chid by censor, friendly though severe,
To such explain and turn thee not away.
Thy vein, says he perchance, is all too free;
Thy smutty language suits not learned pen:
Reply, Good Sir, throughout, the context see;
Thought chastens thought; so prithee judge again.
Besides, although my master's pen may wander
Through devious paths, by which it ought not stray,
His life is pure, beyond the breath of slander:
So pardon grant; 'tis merely but his way.
Some rugged ruffian makes a hideous rout--
Brandish thy cudgel, threaten him to baste;
The filthy fungus far from thee cast out;
Such noxious banquets never suit my taste.
Yet, calm and cautious moderate thy ire,
Be ever courteous should the case allow--
Sweet malt is ever made by gentle fire:
Warm to thy friends, give all a civil bow.
Even censure sometimes teaches to improve,
Slight frosts have often cured too rank a crop,
So, candid blame my spleen shall never move,
For skilful gard'ners wayward branches lop.
Go then, my book, and bear my words in mind;
Guides safe at once, and pleasant them you'll find.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE FRONTISPIECE.
Ten distinct Squares here seen apart,
Are joined in one by Cutter's art.
I.
Old Democritus under a tree,
Sits on a stone with book on knee;
About him hang there many features,
Of Cats, Dogs and such like creatures,
Of which he makes anatomy,
The seat of black choler to see.
Over his head appears the sky,
And Saturn Lord of melancholy.
II.
To the left a landscape of Jealousy,
Presents itself unto thine eye.
A Kingfisher, a Swan, an Hern,
Two fighting-cocks you may discern,
Two roaring Bulls each other hie,
To assault concerning venery.
Symbols are these; I say no more,
Conceive the rest by that's afore.
III.
The next of solitariness,
A portraiture doth well express,
By sleeping dog, cat: Buck and Doe,
Hares, Conies in the desert go:
Bats, Owls the shady bowers over,
In melancholy darkness hover.
Mark well: If't be not as't should be,
Blame the bad Cutter, and not me.
IV.
I'th' under column there doth stand
_Inamorato_ with folded hand;
Down hangs his head, terse and polite,
Some ditty sure he doth indite.
His lute and books about him lie,
As symptoms of his vanity.
If this do not enough disclose,
To paint him, take thyself by th' nose.
V.
_Hypocondriacus_ leans on his arm,
Wind in his side doth him much harm,
And troubles him full sore, God knows,
Much pain he hath and many woes.
About him pots and glasses lie,
Newly brought from's Apothecary.
This Saturn's aspects signify,
You see them portray'd in the sky.
VI.
Beneath them kneeling on his knee,
A superstitious man you see:
He fasts, prays, on his Idol fixt,
Tormented hope and fear betwixt:
For Hell perhaps he takes more pain,
Than thou dost Heaven itself to gain.
Alas poor soul, I pity thee,
What stars incline thee so to be?
VII.
But see the madman rage downright
With furious looks, a ghastly sight.
Naked in chains bound doth he lie,
And roars amain he knows not why!
Observe him; for as in a glass,
Thine angry portraiture it was.
His picture keeps still in thy presence;
'Twixt him and thee, there's no difference.
VIII, IX.
_Borage_ and _Hellebor_ fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart,
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
To clear the brain of misty fogs,
Which dull our senses, and Soul clogs.
The best medicine that e'er God made
For this malady, if well assay'd.
X.
Now last of all to fill a place,
Presented is the Author's face;
And in that habit which he wears,
His image to the world appears.
His mind no art can well express,
That by his writings you may guess.
It was not pride, nor yet vainglory,
(Though others do it commonly)
Made him do this: if you must know,
The Printer would needs have it so.
Then do not frown or scoff at it,
Deride not, or detract a whit.
For surely as thou dost by him,
He will do the same again.
Then look upon't, behold and see,
As thou lik'st it, so it likes thee.
And I for it will stand in view,
Thine to command, Reader, adieu.
THE AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT OF MELANCHOLY, [Greek: Dialogos]
When I go musing all alone
Thinking of divers things fore-known.
When I build castles in the air,
Void of sorrow and void of fear,
Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet,
Methinks the time runs very fleet.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
When I lie waking all alone,
Recounting what I have ill done,
My thoughts on me then tyrannise,
Fear and sorrow me surprise,
Whether I tarry still or go,
Methinks the time moves very slow.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so mad as melancholy.
When to myself I act and smile,
With pleasing thoughts the time beguile,
By a brook side or wood so green,
Unheard, unsought for, or unseen,
A thousand pleasures do me bless,
And crown my soul with happiness.
All my joys besides are folly,
None so sweet as melancholy.
When I lie, sit, or walk alone,
I sigh, I grieve, making great moan,
In a dark grove, or irksome den,
With discontents and Furies then,
A thousand miseries at once
Mine heavy heart and soul ensconce,
All my griefs to this are jolly,
None so sour as melancholy.
Methinks I hear, methinks I see,
Sweet music, wondrous melody,
Towns, palaces, and cities fine;
Here now, then there; the world is mine,
Rare beauties, gallant ladies shine,
Whate'er is lovely or divine.
All other joys to this are folly,
None so sweet as melancholy.
Methinks I hear, methinks I see
Ghosts, goblins, fiends; my phantasy
Presents a thousand ugly shapes,
Headless bears, black men, and apes,
Doleful outcries, and fearful sights,
My sad and dismal soul affrights.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
None so damn'd as melancholy.
Methinks I court, methinks I kiss,
Methinks I now embrace my mistress.
O blessed days, O sweet content,
In Paradise my time is spent.
Such thoughts may still my fancy move,
So may I ever be in love.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
When I recount love's many frights,
My sighs and tears, my waking nights,
My jealous fits; O mine hard fate
I now repent, but 'tis too late.
No torment is so bad as love,
So bitter to my soul can prove.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so harsh as melancholy.
Friends and companions get you gone,
'Tis my desire to be alone;
Ne'er well but when my thoughts and I
Do domineer in privacy.
No Gem, no treasure like to this,
'Tis my delight, my crown, my bliss.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
'Tis my sole plague to be alone,
I am a beast, a monster grown,
I will no light nor company,
I find it now my misery.
The scene is turn'd, my joys are gone,
Fear, discontent, and sorrows come.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so fierce as melancholy.
I'll not change life with any king,
I ravisht am: can the world bring
More joy, than still to laugh and smile,
In pleasant toys time to beguile?
Do not, O do not trouble me,
So sweet content I feel and see.
All my joys to this are folly,
None so divine as melancholy.
I'll change my state with any wretch,
Thou canst from gaol or dunghill fetch;
My pain's past cure, another hell,
I may not in this torment dwell!
Now desperate I hate my life,
Lend me a halter or a knife;
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so damn'd as melancholy.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO THE READER.
Gentle reader, I presume thou wilt be very inquisitive to know what antic
or personate actor this is, that so insolently intrudes upon this common
theatre, to the world's view, arrogating another man's name; whence he is,
why he doth it, and what he hath to say; although, as [7]he said, _Primum
si noluero, non respondebo, quis coacturus est_? I am a free man born, and
may choose whether I will tell; who can compel me? If I be urged, I will as
readily reply as that Egyptian in [8]Plutarch, when a curious fellow would
needs know what he had in his basket, _Quum vides velatam, quid inquiris in
rem absconditam_? It was therefore covered, because he should not know what
was in it. Seek not after that which is hid; if the contents please thee,
[9]"and be for thy use, suppose the Man in the Moon, or whom thou wilt to
be the author;" I would not willingly be known. Yet in some sort to give
thee satisfaction, which is more than I need, I will show a reason, both of
this usurped name, title, and subject. And first of the name of Democritus;
lest any man, by reason of it, should be deceived, expecting a pasquil, a
satire, some ridiculous treatise (as I myself should have done), some
prodigious tenet, or paradox of the earth's motion, of infinite worlds, _in
infinito vacuo, ex fortuita atomorum collisione_, in an infinite waste, so
caused by an accidental collision of motes in the sun, all which Democritus
held, Epicurus and their master Lucippus of old maintained, and are lately
revived by Copernicus, Brunus, and some others. Besides, it hath been
always an ordinary custom, as [10]Gellius observes, "for later writers and
impostors, to broach many absurd and insolent fictions, under the name of
so noble a philosopher as Democritus, to get themselves credit, and by that
means the more to be respected," as artificers usually do, _Novo qui
marmori ascribunt Praxatilem suo_. 'Tis not so with me.
[11] "Non hic Centaurus, non Gorgonas, Harpyasque
Invenies, hominem pagina nostra sapit."
"No Centaurs here, or Gorgons look to find,
My subject is of man and human kind."
Thou thyself art the subject of my discourse.
[12] "Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli."
"Whate'er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport,
Joys, wand'rings, are the sum of my report."
My intent is no otherwise to use his name, than Mercurius Gallobelgicus,
Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mercury, [13]Democritus Christianus,
&c.; although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked
myself under this vizard, and some peculiar respect which I cannot so well
express, until I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus,
what he was, with an epitome of his life.
Democritus, as he is described by [14]Hippocrates and [15]Laertius, was a
little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in
his latter days, [16]and much given to solitariness, a famous philosopher
in his age, [17]_coaevus_ with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at
the last, and to a private life: wrote many excellent works, a great
divine, according to the divinity of those times, an expert physician, a
politician, an excellent mathematician, as [18]Diacosmus and the rest of
his works do witness. He was much delighted with the studies of husbandry,
saith [19]Columella, and often I find him cited by [20]Constantinus and
others treating of that subject. He knew the natures, differences of all
beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could [21]understand the
tunes and voices of them. In a word, he was _omnifariam doctus_, a general
scholar, a great student; and to the intent he might better contemplate,
[22]I find it related by some, that he put out his eyes, and was in his old
age voluntarily blind, yet saw more than all Greece besides, and [23] writ
of every subject, _Nihil in toto opificio naturae, de quo non scripsit_.
[24]A man of an excellent wit, profound conceit; and to attain knowledge
the better in his younger years, he travelled to Egypt and [25] Athens, to
confer with learned men, [26]"admired of some, despised of others." After a
wandering life, he settled at Abdera, a town in Thrace, and was sent for
thither to be their lawmaker, recorder, or town-clerk, as some will; or as
others, he was there bred and born. Howsoever it was, there he lived at
last in a garden in the suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his studies and
a private life, [27]"saving that sometimes he would walk down to the
haven," [28]"and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects,
which there he saw." Such a one was Democritus.
But in the mean time, how doth this concern me, or upon what reference do I
usurp his habit? I confess, indeed, that to compare myself unto him for
aught I have yet said, were both impudency and arrogancy. I do not presume
to make any parallel, _Antistat mihi millibus trecentis_, [29]_parvus sum,
nullus sum, altum nec spiro, nec spero_. Yet thus much I will say of
myself, and that I hope without all suspicion of pride, or self-conceit, I
have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, _mihi et musis_ in
the University, as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, _ad senectam fere_
to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study. For I have been
brought up a student in the most flourishing college of Europe,
[30]_augustissimo collegio_, and can brag with [31]Jovius, almost, _in ea
luce domicilii Vacicani, totius orbis celeberrimi, per 37 annos multa
opportunaque didici_; for thirty years I have continued (having the use of
as good [32]libraries as ever he had) a scholar, and would be therefore
loath, either by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy
member of so learned and noble a society, or to write that which should be
any way dishonourable to such a royal and ample foundation. Something I
have done, though by my profession a divine, yet _turbine raptus ingenii_,
as [33]he said, out of a running wit, an unconstant, unsettled mind, I had
a great desire (not able to attain to a superficial skill in any) to have
some smattering in all, to be _aliquis in omnibus, nullus in singulis_,
[34] which [35]Plato commends, out of him [36]Lipsius approves and
furthers, "as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits, not to be a slave of
one science, or dwell altogether in one subject, as most do, but to rove
abroad, _centum puer artium_, to have an oar in every man's boat, to
[37]taste of every dish, and sip of every cup," which, saith [38]Montaigne,
was well performed by Aristotle, and his learned countryman Adrian
Turnebus. This roving humour (though not with like success) I have ever
had, and like a ranging spaniel, that barks at every bird he sees, leaving
his game, I have followed all, saving that which I should, and may justly
complain, and truly, _qui ubique est, nusquam est_,[39] which [40]Gesner
did in modesty, that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for
want of good method; I have confusedly tumbled over divers authors in our
libraries, with small profit, for want of art, order, memory, judgment. I
never travelled but in map or card, in which mine unconfined thoughts have
freely expatiated, as having ever been especially delighted with the study
of Cosmography. [41]Saturn was lord of my geniture, culminating, &c., and
Mars principal significator of manners, in partile conjunction with my
ascendant; both fortunate in their houses, &c. I am not poor, I am not
rich; _nihil est, nihil deest_, I have little, I want nothing: all my
treasure is in Minerva's tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so
am I not in debt for it, I have a competence (_laus Deo_) from my noble and
munificent patrons, though I live still a collegiate student, as Democritus
in his garden, and lead a monastic life, _ipse mihi theatrum_, sequestered
from those tumults and troubles of the world, _Et tanquam in specula
positus_, ([42]as he said) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus
Sapiens, _omnia saecula, praeterita presentiaque videns, uno velut
intuitu_, I hear and see what is done abroad, how others [43]run, ride,
turmoil, and macerate themselves in court and country, far from those
wrangling lawsuits, _aulia vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo_:
I laugh at all, [44]only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish,
corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, I have no wife nor children good or
bad to provide for. A mere spectator of other men's fortunes and
adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversely
presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every
day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations,
thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies,
apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey,
Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like, which
these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain,
monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies and sea-fights; peace, leagues,
stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions,
edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints,
grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets,
corantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new
paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy,
religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries,
entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies,
triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene,
treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds,
funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now
comical, then tragical matters. Today we hear of new lords and officers
created, tomorrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh
honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth,
another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt; now plenty,
then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs,
weeps, &c. This I daily hear, and such like, both private and public news,
amidst the gallantry and misery of the world; jollity, pride, perplexities
and cares, simplicity and villainy; subtlety, knavery, candour and
integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves; I rub on _privus
privatus_; as I have still lived, so I now continue, _statu quo prius_,
left to a solitary life, and mine own domestic discontents: saving that
sometimes, _ne quid mentiar_, as Diogenes went into the city, and
Democritus to the haven to see fashions, I did for my recreation now and
then walk abroad, look into the world, and could not choose but make some
little observation, _non tam sagax observator ac simplex recitator_, [45]
not as they did, to scoff or laugh at all, but with a mixed passion.
[46] "Bilem saepe, jocum vestri movere tumultus."
"Ye wretched mimics, whose fond heats have been,
How oft! the objects of my mirth and spleen."
I did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, and satirically tax with
Menippus, lament with Heraclitus, sometimes again I was [47]_petulanti
splene chachinno_, and then again, [48]_urere bilis jecur_, I was much
moved to see that abuse which I could not mend. In which passion howsoever
I may sympathise with him or them, 'tis for no such respect I shroud myself
under his name; but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more
liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason
and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his Epistle to
Damegetus, wherein he doth express, how coming to visit him one day, he
found Democritus in his garden at Abdera, in the suburbs, [49]under a shady
bower, [50]with a book on his knees, busy at his study, sometimes writing,
sometimes walking. The subject of his book was melancholy and madness;
about him lay the carcases of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and
anatomised; not that he did contemn God's creatures, as he told
Hippocrates, but to find out the seat of this _atra bilis_, or melancholy,
whence it proceeds, and how it was engendered in men's bodies, to the
intent he might better cure it in himself, and by his writings and
observation [51]teach others how to prevent and avoid it. Which good intent
of his, Hippocrates highly commended: Democritus Junior is therefore bold
to imitate, and because he left it imperfect, and it is now lost, _quasi
succenturiator Democriti_, to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this
treatise.
You have had a reason of the name. If the title and inscription offend your
gravity, were it a sufficient justification to accuse others, I could
produce many sober treatises, even sermons themselves, which in their
fronts carry more fantastical names. Howsoever, it is a kind of policy in
these days, to prefix a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold;
for, as larks come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and
stand gazing like silly passengers at an antic picture in a painter's shop,
that will not look at a judicious piece. And, indeed, as [52]Scaliger
observes, "nothing more invites a reader than an argument unlooked for,
unthought of, and sells better than a scurrile pamphlet," _tum maxime cum
novitas excitat [53]palatum_. "Many men," saith Gellius, "are very
conceited in their inscriptions," "and able" (as [54]Pliny quotes out of
Seneca) "to make him loiter by the way that went in haste to fetch a
midwife for his daughter, now ready to lie down." For my part, I have
honourable [55]precedents for this which I have done: I will cite one for
all, Anthony Zara, Pap. Epis., his Anatomy of Wit, in four sections,
members, subsections, &c., to be read in our libraries.
If any man except against the matter or manner of treating of this my
subject, and will demand a reason of it, I can allege more than one; I
write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater
cause of melancholy than idleness, "no better cure than business," as
[56]Rhasis holds: and howbeit, _stultus labor est ineptiarum_, to be busy
in toys is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca, _aliud agere quam
nihil_, better do to no end, than nothing. I wrote therefore, and busied
myself in this playing labour, _oliosaque diligentia ut vitarem torporum
feriandi_ with Vectius in Macrobius, _atque otium in utile verterem
negatium_.
[57] "Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vita,
Lectorem delectando simul atque monendo."
"Poets would profit or delight mankind,
And with the pleasing have th' instructive joined.
Profit and pleasure, then, to mix with art,
T' inform the judgment, nor offend the heart,
Shall gain all votes."
To this end I write, like them, saith Lucian, that "recite to trees, and
declaim to pillars for want of auditors:" as [58]Paulus Aegineta
ingenuously confesseth, "not that anything was unknown or omitted, but to
exercise myself," which course if some took, I think it would be good for
their bodies, and much better for their souls; or peradventure as others
do, for fame, to show myself (_Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc
sciat alter_). I might be of Thucydides' opinion, [59]"to know a thing and
not to express it, is all one as if he knew it not." When I first took this
task in hand, _et quod ait [60]ille, impellents genio negotium suscepi_,
this I aimed at; [61]_vel ut lenirem animum scribendo_, to ease my mind by
writing; for I had _gravidum cor, foetum caput_, a kind of imposthume in my
head, which I was very desirous to be unladen of, and could imagine no
fitter evacuation than this. Besides, I might not well refrain, for _ubi
dolor, ibi digitus_, one must needs scratch where it itches. I was not a
little offended with this malady, shall I say my mistress Melancholy, my
Aegeria, or my _malus genius_? and for that cause, as he that is stung with
a scorpion, I would expel _clavum clavo_, [62]comfort one sorrow with
another, idleness with idleness, _ut ex vipera Theriacum_, make an antidote
out of that which was the prime cause of my disease. Or as he did, of whom
[63]Felix Plater speaks, that thought he had some of Aristophanes' frogs in
his belly, still crying _Breec, okex, coax, coax, oop, oop_, and for that
cause studied physic seven years, and travelled over most part of Europe to
ease himself. To do myself good I turned over such physicians as our
libraries would afford, or my [64]private friends impart, and have taken
this pains. And why not? Cardan professeth he wrote his book, _De
Consolatione_ after his son's death, to comfort himself; so did Tully write
of the same subject with like intent after his daughter's departure, if it
be his at least, or some impostor's put out in his name, which Lipsius
probably suspects. Concerning myself, I can peradventure affirm with Marius
in Sallust, [65]"that which others hear or read of, I felt and practised
myself; they get their knowledge by books, I mine by melancholising."
_Experto crede Roberto_. Something I can speak out of experience,
_aerumnabilis experientia me docuit_; and with her in the poet, [66]_Haud
ignara mali miseris succurrere disco_; I would help others out of a
fellow-feeling; and, as that virtuous lady did of old, [67]"being a leper
herself, bestow all her portion to build an hospital for lepers," I will
spend my time and knowledge, which are my greatest fortunes, for the common
good of all.
Yea, but you will infer that this is [68]_actum agere_, an unnecessary
work, _cramben bis coctam apponnere_, the same again and again in other
words. To what purpose? [69]"Nothing is omitted that may well be said," so
thought Lucian in the like theme. How many excellent physicians have
written just volumes and elaborate tracts of this subject? No news here;
that which I have is stolen, from others, [70]_Dicitque mihi mea pagina fur
es_. If that severe doom of [71]Synesius be true, "it is a greater offence
to steal dead men's labours, than their clothes," what shall become of most
writers? I hold up my hand at the bar among others, and am guilty of felony
in this kind, _habes confitentem reum_, I am content to be pressed with the
rest. 'Tis most true, _tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes_, and
[72]"there is no end of writing of books," as the wiseman found of old, in
this [73]scribbling age, especially wherein [74]"the number of books is
without number," (as a worthy man saith,) "presses be oppressed," and out
of an itching humour that every man hath to show himself, [75]desirous of
fame and honour (_scribimus indocti doctique_----) he will write no matter
what, and scrape together it boots not whence. [76]"Bewitched with this
desire of fame," _etiam mediis in morbis_, to the disparagement of their
health, and scarce able to hold a pen, they must say something, [77]"and
get themselves a name," saith Scaliger, "though it be to the downfall and
ruin of many others." To be counted writers, _scriptores ut salutentur_, to
be thought and held polymaths and polyhistors, _apud imperitum vulgus ob
ventosae nomen artis_, to get a paper-kingdom: _nulla spe quaestus sed
ampla famae_, in this precipitate, ambitious age, _nunc ut est saeculum,
inter immaturam eruditionem, ambitiosum et praeceps_ ('tis [78]Scaliger's
censure); and they that are scarce auditors, _vix auditores_, must be
masters and teachers, before they be capable and fit hearers. They will
rush into all learning, _togatam armatam_, divine, human authors, rake over
all indexes and pamphlets for notes, as our merchants do strange havens for
traffic, write great tomes, _Cum non sint re vera doctiores, sed
loquaciores_, whereas they are not thereby better scholars, but greater
praters. They commonly pretend public good, but as [79]Gesner observes,
'tis pride and vanity that eggs them on; no news or aught worthy of note,
but the same in other terms. _Ne feriarentur fortasse typographi vel ideo
scribendum est aliquid ut se vixisse testentur_. As apothecaries we make
new mixtures everyday, pour out of one vessel into another; and as those
old Romans robbed all the cities of the world, to set out their bad-sited
Rome, we skim off the cream of other men's wits, pick the choice flowers of
their tilled gardens to set out our own sterile plots. _Castrant alios ut
libros suos per se graciles alieno adipe suffarciant_ (so [80]Jovius
inveighs.) They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works.
_Ineruditi fures_, &c. A fault that every writer finds, as I do now, and
yet faulty themselves, [81]_Trium literarum homines_, all thieves; they
pilfer out of old writers to stuff up their new comments, scrape Ennius'
dunghills, and out of [82]Democritus' pit, as I have done. By which means
it comes to pass, [83]"that not only libraries and shops are full of our
putrid papers, but every close-stool and jakes," _Scribunt carmina quae
legunt cacantes_; they serve to put under pies, to [84]lap spice in, and
keep roast meat from burning. "With us in France," saith [85]Scaliger,
"every man hath liberty to write, but few ability." [86]"Heretofore
learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are
vilified by base and illiterate scribblers," that either write for
vainglory, need, to get money, or as Parasites to flatter and collogue with
some great men, they put cut [87]_burras, quisquiliasque ineptiasque_.
[88]Amongst so many thousand authors you shall scarce find one, by reading
of whom you shall be any whit better, but rather much worse, _quibus
inficitur potius, quam perficitur_, by which he is rather infected than any
way perfected.
[89] ------"Qui talia legit,
Quid didicit tandem, quid scit nisi somnia, nugas?"
So that oftentimes it falls out (which Callimachus taxed of old) a great
book is a great mischief. [90]Cardan finds fault with Frenchmen and
Germans, for their scribbling to no purpose, _non inquit ab edendo
deterreo, modo novum aliquid inveniant_, he doth not bar them to write, so
that it be some new invention of their own; but we weave the same web
still, twist the same rope again and again; or if it be a new invention,
'tis but some bauble or toy which idle fellows write, for as idle fellows
to read, and who so cannot invent? [91]"He must have a barren wit, that in
this scribbling age can forge nothing. [92]Princes show their armies, rich
men vaunt their buildings, soldiers their manhood, and scholars vent their
toys;" they must read, they must hear whether they will or no.
[93] "Et quodcunque semel chartis illeverit, omnes
Gestiet a furno redeuntes scire lacuque,
Et pueros et anus"------
"What once is said and writ, all men must know,
Old wives and children as they come and go."
"What a company of poets hath this year brought out," as Pliny complains to
Sossius Sinesius. [94]"This April every day some or other have recited."
What a catalogue of new books all this year, all this age (I say), have our
Frankfort Marts, our domestic Marts brought out? Twice a year, [95]
_Proferunt se nova ingenia et ostentant_, we stretch our wits out, and set
them to sale, _magno conatu nihil agimus_. So that which [96]Gesner much
desires, if a speedy reformation be not had, by some prince's edicts and
grave supervisors, to restrain this liberty, it will run on _in infinitum_.
_Quis tam avidus librorum helluo_, who can read them? As already, we shall
have a vast chaos and confusion of books, we are [97]oppressed with them,
[98]our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part I am
one of the number, _nos numerus sumus_, (we are mere ciphers): I do not
deny it, I have only this of Macrobius to say for myself, _Omne meum, nihil
meum_, 'tis all mine, and none mine. As a good housewife out of divers
fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey out of many
flowers, and makes a new bundle of all, _Floriferis ut apes in saltibus
omnia libant_, I have laboriously [99]collected this cento out of divers
writers, and that _sine injuria_, I have wronged no authors, but given
every man his own; which [100]Hierom so much commends in Nepotian; he stole
not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do nowadays, concealing their
authors' names, but still said this was Cyprian's, that Lactantius, that
Hilarius, so said Minutius Felix, so Victorinus, thus far Arnobius: I cite
and quote mine authors (which, howsoever some illiterate scribblers account
pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine
style, I must and will use) _sumpsi, non suripui_; and what Varro, _lib. 6.
de re rust._ speaks of bees, _minime maleficae nullius opus vellicantes
faciunt delerius_, I can say of myself, Whom have I injured? The matter is
theirs most part, and yet mine, _apparet unde sumptum sit_ (which Seneca
approves), _aliud tamen quam unde sumptum sit apparet_, which nature doth
with the aliment of our bodies incorporate, digest, assimilate, I do
_concoquere quod hausi_, dispose of what I take. I make them pay tribute,
to set out this my Maceronicon, the method only is mine own, I must usurp
that of [101]Wecker _e Ter. nihil dictum quod non dictum prius, methodus
sola artificem ostendit_, we can say nothing but what hath been said, the
composition and method is ours only, and shows a scholar. Oribasius,
Aesius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, _diverso
stilo, non diversa fide_. Our poets steal from Homer; he spews, saith
Aelian, they lick it up. Divines use Austin's words verbatim still, and our
story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best,
------"donec quid grandius aetas
Postera sorsque ferat melior."------[102]
Though there were many giants of old in physic and philosophy, yet I say
with [103]Didacus Stella, "A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may
see farther than a giant himself;" I may likely add, alter, and see farther
than my predecessors; and it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after
others, than for Aelianus Montaltus, that famous physician, to write _de
morbis capitis_ after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius, Hildesheim, &c., many
horses to run in a race, one logician, one rhetorician, after another.
Oppose then what thou wilt,
"Allatres licet usque nos et usque
Et gannitibus improbis lacessas."
I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism, [104]Doric
dialect, extemporanean style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of
rags gathered together from several dunghills, excrements of authors, toys
and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgment,
wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, fantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet,
ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess
all ('tis partly affected), thou canst not think worse of me than I do of
myself. 'Tis not worth the reading, I yield it, I desire thee not to lose
time in perusing so vain a subject, I should be peradventure loath myself
to read him or thee so writing; 'tis not _operae, pretium_. All I say is
this, that I have [105]precedents for it, which Isocrates calls _perfugium
iis qui peccant_, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate, &c. _Nonnulli
alii idem fecerunt_; others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps
thou thyself, _Novimus et qui te_, &c. We have all our faults; _scimus, et
hanc, veniaim_, &c.; [106]thou censurest me, so have I done others, and may
do thee, _Cedimus inque vicem_, &c., 'tis _lex talionis, quid pro quo_. Go
now, censure, criticise, scoff, and rail.
[107] "Nasutus cis usque licet, sis denique nasus:
Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas,
Ipse ego quam dixi, &c."
"Wert thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus,
Than we ourselves, thou canst not say worse of us."
Thus, as when women scold, have I cried whore first, and in some men's
censures I am afraid I have overshot myself, _Laudare se vani, vituperare
stulti_, as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. _Primus vestrum non
sum, nec imus_, I am none of the best, I am none of the meanest of you. As
I am an inch, or so many feet, so many parasangs, after him or him, I may
be peradventure an ace before thee. Be it therefore as it is, well or ill,
I have essayed, put myself upon the stage; I must abide the censure, I may
not escape it. It is most true, _stylus virum arguit_, our style bewrays
us, and as [108]hunters find their game by the trace, so is a man's genius
descried by his works, _Multo melius ex sermone quam lineamentis, de
moribus hominum judicamus_; it was old Cato's rule. I have laid myself open
(I know it) in this treatise, turned mine inside outward: I shall be
censured, I doubt not; for, to say truth with Erasmus, _nihil morosius
hominum judiciis_, there is nought so peevish as men's judgments; yet this
is some comfort, _ut palata, sic judicia_, our censures are as various as
our palates.
[109] "Tres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur,
Poscentes vario multum diversa palato," &c.
"Three guests I have, dissenting at my feast,
Requiring each to gratify his taste
With different food."
Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests, our books like
beauty, that which one admires another rejects; so are we approved as men's
fancies are inclined. _Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli._. That
which is most pleasing to one is _amaracum sui_, most harsh to another.
_Quot homines, tot sententiae_, so many men, so many minds: that which thou
condemnest he commends. [110]_Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque
duobus_. He respects matter, thou art wholly for words; he loves a loose
and free style, thou art all for neat composition, strong lines,
hyperboles, allegories; he desires a fine frontispiece, enticing pictures,
such as [111]Hieron. Natali the Jesuit hath cut to the Dominicals, to draw
on the reader's attention, which thou rejectest; that which one admires,
another explodes as most absurd and ridiculous. If it be not point blank to
his humour, his method, his conceit, [112]_si quid, forsan omissum, quod is
animo conceperit, si quae dictio_, &c. If aught be omitted, or added, which
he likes, or dislikes, thou art _mancipium paucae lectionis_, an idiot, an
ass, _nullus es_, or _plagiarius_, a trifler, a trivant, thou art an idle
fellow; or else it is a thing of mere industry, a collection without wit or
invention, a very toy. [113]_Facilia sic putant omnes quae jam facta, nec
de salebris cogitant, ubi via strata_; so men are valued, their labours
vilified by fellows of no worth themselves, as things of nought, who could
not have done as much. _Unusquisque abundat sensu suo_, every man abounds
in his own sense; and whilst each particular party is so affected, how
should one please all?
[114] "Quid dem? quid non dem? Renuis tu quod jubet ille."
------"What courses must I choose?
What not? What both would order you refuse."
How shall I hope to express myself to each man's humour and [115]conceit,
or to give satisfaction to all? Some understand too little, some too much,
_qui similiter in legendos libros, atque in salutandos homines irruunt, non
cogitantes quales, sed quibus vestibus induti sint_, as [116]Austin
observes, not regarding what, but who write, [117]_orexin habet auctores
celebritas_, not valuing the metal, but stamp that is upon it, _Cantharum
aspiciunt, non quid in eo_. If he be not rich, in great place, polite and
brave, a great doctor, or full fraught with grand titles, though never so
well qualified, he is a dunce; but, as [118]Baronius hath it of Cardinal
Caraffa's works, he is a mere hog that rejects any man for his poverty.
Some are too partial, as friends to overween, others come with a prejudice
to carp, vilify, detract, and scoff; (_qui de me forsan, quicquid est, omni
contemptu contemptius judicant_) some as bees for honey, some as spiders to
gather poison. What shall I do in this case? As a Dutch host, if you come
to an inn in. Germany, and dislike your fare, diet, lodging, &c., replies
in a surly tone, [119]_aliud tibi quaeras diversorium_, if you like not
this, get you to another inn: I resolve, if you like not my writing, go
read something else. I do not much esteem thy censure, take thy course, it
is not as thou wilt, nor as I will, but when we have both done, that of
[120]Plinius Secundus to Trajan will prove true, "Every man's witty labour
takes not, except the matter, subject, occasion, and some commending
favourite happen to it." If I be taxed, exploded by thee and some such, I
shall haply be approved and commended by others, and so have been
(_Expertus loquor_), and may truly say with [121]Jovius in like case,
_(absit verbo jactantia) heroum quorundam, pontificum, et virorum nobilium
familiaritatem et amicitiam, gratasque gratias, et multorum [122] bene
laudatorum laudes sum inde promeritus_, as I have been honoured by some
worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first
publishing of this book, (which [123]Probus of Persius satires), _editum
librum continuo mirari homines, atque avide deripere caeperunt_, I may in
some sort apply to this my work. The first, second, and third edition were
suddenly gone, eagerly read, and, as I have said, not so much approved by
some, as scornfully rejected by others. But it was Democritus his fortune,
_Idem admirationi et [124]irrisioni habitus_. 'Twas Seneca's fate, that
superintendent of wit, learning, judgment, [125]_ad stuporem doctus_, the
best of Greek and Latin writers, in Plutarch's opinion; that "renowned
corrector of vice," as, [126]Fabius terms him, "and painful omniscious
philosopher, that writ so excellently and admirably well," could not please
all parties, or escape censure. How is he vilified by [127] Caligula,
Agellius, Fabius, and Lipsius himself, his chief propugner? _In eo pleraque
pernitiosa_, saith the same Fabius, many childish tracts and sentences he
hath, _sermo illaboratus_, too negligent often and remiss, as Agellius
observes, _oratio vulgaris et protrita, dicaces et ineptae, sententiae,
eruditio plebeia_, an homely shallow writer as he is. _In partibus spinas
et fastidia habet_, saith [128]Lipsius; and, as in all his other works, so
especially in his epistles, _aliae in argutiis et ineptiis occupantur,
intricatus alicubi, et parum compositus, sine copia rerum hoc fecit_, he
jumbles up many things together immethodically, after the Stoics' fashion,
_parum ordinavit, multa accumulavit_, &c. If Seneca be thus lashed, and
many famous men that I could name, what shall I expect? How shall I that am
_vix umbra tanti philosophi_ hope to please? "No man so absolute"
([129]Erasmus holds) "to satisfy all, except antiquity, prescription, &c.,
set a bar." But as I have proved in Seneca, this will not always take
place, how shall I evade? 'Tis the common doom of all writers, I must (I
say) abide it; I seek not applause; [130]_Non ego ventosa venor suffragia
plebis_; again, _non sum adeo informis_, I would not be [131]vilified:
[132] ------"laudatus abunde,
Non fastiditus si tibi, lector, ero."
I fear good men's censures, and to their favourable acceptance I submit my
labours,
[133] ------"et linguas mancipiorum
Contemno."------
As the barking of a dog, I securely contemn those malicious and scurrile
obloquies, flouts, calumnies of railers and detractors; I scorn the rest.
What therefore I have said, _pro tenuitate mea_, I have said.
One or two things yet I was desirous to have amended if I could, concerning
the manner of handling this my subject, for which I must apologise,
_deprecari_, and upon better advice give the friendly reader notice: it was
not mine intent to prostitute my muse in English, or to divulge _secreta
Minervae_, but to have exposed this more contract in Latin, if I could have
got it printed. Any scurrile pamphlet is welcome to our mercenary
stationers in English; they print all
------"cuduntque libellos
In quorum foliis vix simia nuda cacaret;"
But in Latin they will not deal; which is one of the reasons [134]Nicholas
Car, in his oration of the paucity of English writers, gives, that so many
flourishing wits are smothered in oblivion, lie dead and buried in this our
nation. Another main fault is, that I have not revised the copy, and
amended the style, which now flows remissly, as it was first conceived; but
my leisure would not permit; _Feci nec quod potui, nec quod volui_, I
confess it is neither as I would, nor as it should be.
[135] "Cum relego scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cerno
Me quoque quae fuerant judice digna lini."
"When I peruse this tract which I have writ,
I am abash'd, and much I hold unfit."
_Et quod gravissimum_, in the matter itself, many things I disallow at this
present, which when I writ, [136]_Non eadem est aetas, non mens_; I would
willingly retract much, &c., but 'tis too late, I can only crave pardon now
for what is amiss.
I might indeed, (had I wisely done) observed that precept of the poet,
------_nonumque prematur in annum_, and have taken more care: or, as
Alexander the physician would have done by lapis lazuli, fifty times washed
before it be used, I should have revised, corrected and amended this tract;
but I had not (as I said) that happy leisure, no amanuenses or assistants.
Pancrates in [137]Lucian, wanting a servant as he went from Memphis to
Coptus in Egypt, took a door bar, and after some superstitious words
pronounced (Eucrates the relator was then present) made it stand up like a
serving-man, fetch him water, turn the spit, serve in supper, and what work
he would besides; and when he had done that service he desired, turned his
man to a stick again. I have no such skill to make new men at my pleasure,
or means to hire them; no whistle to call like the master of a ship, and
bid them run, &c. I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as that
noble [138]Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven amanuenses to
write out his dictates; I must for that cause do my business myself, and
was therefore enforced, as a bear doth her whelps, to bring forth this
confused lump; I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her young
ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written _quicquid in
buccam venit_, in an extemporean style, as [139]I do commonly all other
exercises, _effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus_, out of a confused
company of notes, and writ with as small deliberation as I do ordinarily
speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling
terms, tropes, strong lines, that like [140]Acesta's arrows caught fire as
they flew, strains of wit, brave heats, elegies, hyperbolical exornations,
elegancies, &c., which many so much affect. I am [141]_aquae potor_, drink
no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain,
rude writer, _ficum, voco ficum et ligonem ligonem_ and as free, as loose,
_idem calamo quod in mente_, [142]I call a spade a spade, _animis haec
scribo, non auribus_, I respect matter not words; remembering that of
Cardan, _verba propter res, non res propter verba_: and seeking with
Seneca, _quid scribam, non quemadmodum_, rather _what_ than _how_ to write:
for as Philo thinks, [143]"He that is conversant about matter, neglects
words, and those that excel in this art of speaking, have no profound
learning,"
[144] "Verba nitent phaleris, at nullus verba medullas
Intus habent"------
Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca, [145]"when you see a
fellow careful about his words, and neat in his speech, know this for a
certainty, that man's mind is busied about toys, there's no solidity in
him." _Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas_: as he said of a nightingale,
------_vox es, praeterea nihil_, &c. I am therefore in this point a
professed disciple of [146]Apollonius a scholar of Socrates, I neglect
phrases, and labour wholly to inform my reader's understanding, not to
please his ear; 'tis not my study or intent to compose neatly, which an
orator requires, but to express myself readily and plainly as it happens.
So that as a river runs sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and
slow; now direct, then _per ambages_, now deep, then shallow; now muddy,
then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious, then
light; now comical, then satirical; now more elaborate, then remiss, as the
present subject required, or as at that time I was affected. And if thou
vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no otherwise to thee, than
the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foul; here
champaign, there enclosed; barren, in one place, better soil in another: by
woods, groves, hills, dales, plains, &c. I shall lead thee _per ardua
montium, et lubrica valllum, et roscida cespitum, et [147]glebosa
camporum_, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt like and
surely dislike.
For the matter itself or method, if it be faulty, consider I pray you that
of _Columella, Nihil perfectum, aut a singulari consummatum industria_, no
man can observe all, much is defective no doubt, may be justly taxed,
altered, and avoided in Galen, Aristotle, those great masters. _Boni
venatoris_ ([148]one holds) _plures feras capere, non omnes_; he is a good
huntsman can catch some, not all: I have done my endeavour. Besides, I
dwell not in this study, _Non hic sulcos ducimus, non hoc pulvere
desudamus_, I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger, [149]here and
there I pull a flower; I do easily grant, if a rigid censurer should
criticise on this which I have writ, he should not find three sole faults,
as Scaliger in Terence, but three hundred. So many as he hath done in
Cardan's subtleties, as many notable errors as [150]Gul Laurembergius, a
late professor of Rostock, discovers in that anatomy of Laurentius, or
Barocius the Venetian in _Sacro boscus_. And although this be a sixth
edition, in which I should have been more accurate, corrected all those
former escapes, yet it was _magni laboris opus_, so difficult and tedious,
that as carpenters do find out of experience, 'tis much better build a new
sometimes, than repair an old house; I could as soon write as much more, as
alter that which is written. If aught therefore be amiss (as I grant there
is), I require a friendly admonition, no bitter invective, [151]_Sint musis
socii Charites, Furia omnis abesto_, otherwise, as in ordinary
controversies, _funem contentionis nectamus, sed cui bono_? We may contend,
and likely misuse each other, but to what purpose? We are both scholars,
say,
[152] ------"Arcades ambo
Et Cantare pares, et respondere parati."
"Both young Arcadians, both alike inspir'd
To sing and answer as the song requir'd."
If we do wrangle, what shall we get by it? Trouble and wrong ourselves,
make sport to others. If I be convict of an error, I will yield, I will
amend. _Si quid bonis moribus, si quid veritati dissentaneum, in sacris vel
humanis literis a me dictum sit, id nec dictum esto_. In the mean time I
require a favourable censure of all faults omitted, harsh compositions,
pleonasms of words, tautological repetitions (though Seneca bear me out,
_nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur_) perturbations of
tenses, numbers, printers' faults, &c. My translations are sometimes rather
paraphrases than interpretations, _non ad verbum_, but as an author, I use
more liberty, and that's only taken which was to my purpose. Quotations are
often inserted in the text, which makes the style more harsh, or in the
margin, as it happened. Greek authors, Plato, Plutarch, Athenaeus, &c., I
have cited out of their interpreters, because the original was not so
ready. I have mingled _sacra prophanis_, but I hope not profaned, and in
repetition of authors' names, ranked them _per accidens_, not according to
chronology; sometimes neoterics before ancients, as my memory suggested.
Some things are here altered, expunged in this sixth edition, others
amended, much added, because many good [153]authors in all kinds are come
to my hands since, and 'tis no prejudice, no such indecorum, or oversight.
[154] "Nunquam ita quicquam bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuit,
Quin res, aetas, usus, semper aliquid apportent novi,
Aliquid moneant, ut illa quae scire te credas, nescias,
Et quae tibi putaris prima, in exercendo ut repudias."
"Ne'er was ought yet at first contriv'd so fit,
But use, age, or something would alter it;
Advise thee better, and, upon peruse,
Make thee not say, and what thou tak'st refuse."
But I am now resolved never to put this treatise out again, _Ne quid
nimis_, I will not hereafter add, alter, or retract; I have done. The last
and greatest exception is, that I, being a divine, have meddled with
physic,
[155] "Tantumne est ab re tua otii tibi,
Aliena ut cures, eaque nihil quae ad te attinent."
Which Menedemus objected to Chremes; have I so much leisure, or little
business of mine own, as to look after other men's matters which concern me
not? What have I to do with physic? _Quod medicorum est promittant medici_.
The [156]Lacedaemonians were once in counsel about state matters, a
debauched fellow spake excellent well, and to the purpose, his speech was
generally approved: a grave senator steps up, and by all means would have
it repealed, though good, because _dehonestabatur pessimo auctore_, it had
no better an author; let some good man relate the same, and then it should
pass. This counsel was embraced, _factum est_, and it was registered
forthwith, _Et sic bona sententia mansit, malus auctor mutatus est_. Thou
sayest as much of me, stomachosus as thou art, and grantest, peradventure,
this which I have written in physic, not to be amiss, had another done it,
a professed physician, or so, but why should I meddle with this tract? Hear
me speak. There be many other subjects, I do easily grant, both in humanity
and divinity, fit to be treated of, of which had I written _ad
ostentationem_ only, to show myself, I should have rather chosen, and in
which I have been more conversant, I could have more willingly luxuriated,
and better satisfied myself and others; but that at this time I was fatally
driven upon this rock of melancholy, and carried away by this by-stream,
which, as a rillet, is deducted from the main channel of my studies, in
which I have pleased and busied myself at idle hours, as a subject most
necessary and commodious. Not that I prefer it before divinity, which I do
acknowledge to be the queen of professions, and to which all the rest are
as handmaids, but that in divinity I saw no such great need. For had I
written positively, there be so many books in that kind, so many
commentators, treatises, pamphlets, expositions, sermons, that whole teams
of oxen cannot draw them; and had I been as forward and ambitious as some
others, I might have haply printed a sermon at Paul's Cross, a sermon in
St. Marie's Oxon, a sermon in Christ Church, or a sermon before the right
honourable, right reverend, a sermon before the right worshipful, a sermon
in Latin, in English, a sermon with a name, a sermon without, a sermon, a
sermon, &c. But I have been ever as desirous to suppress my labours in this
kind, as others have been to press and publish theirs. To have written in
controversy had been to cut off an hydra's head, [157]_Lis litem generat_,
one begets another, so many duplications, triplications, and swarms of
questions. _In sacro bello hoc quod stili mucrone agitur_, that having once
begun, I should never make an end. One had much better, as [158]Alexander,
the sixth pope, long since observed, provoke a great prince than a begging
friar, a Jesuit, or a seminary priest, I will add, for _inexpugnabile genus
hoc hominum_, they are an irrefragable society, they must and will have the
last word; and that with such eagerness, impudence, abominable lying,
falsifying, and bitterness in their questions they proceed, that as he
[159]said, _furorne caecus, an rapit vis acrior, an culpa, responsum date_?
Blind fury, or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know
not, I am sure many times, which [160]Austin perceived long since,
_tempestate contentionis, serenitas charitatis obnubilatur_, with this
tempest of contention, the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be
too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more
than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a
racket, that as [161]Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them
to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to
their own destruction."
"At melius fuerat non scribere, namque tacere
Tutum semper erit,"------[162]
'Tis a general fault, so Severinus the Dane complains [163]in physic,
"unhappy men as we are, we spend our days in unprofitable questions and
disputations," intricate subtleties, _de lana caprina_ about moonshine in
the water, "leaving in the mean time those chiefest treasures of nature
untouched, wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be
found, and do not only neglect them ourselves, but hinder, condemn, forbid,
and scoff at others, that are willing to inquire after them." These motives
at this present have induced me to make choice of this medicinal subject.
If any physician in the mean time shall infer, _Ne sutor ultra crepidam_,
and find himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession, I will
tell him in brief, I do not otherwise by them, than they do by us. If it be
for their advantage, I know many of their sect which have taken orders, in
hope of a benefice, 'tis a common transition, and why may not a melancholy
divine, that can get nothing but by simony, profess physic? Drusianus an
Italian (Crusianus, but corruptly, Trithemius calls him) [164]"because he
was not fortunate in his practice, forsook his profession, and writ
afterwards in divinity." Marcilius Ficinus was _semel et simul_; a priest
and a physician at once, and [165]T. Linacer in his old age took orders.
The Jesuits profess both at this time, divers of them _permissu
superiorum_, chirurgeons, panders, bawds, and midwives, &c. Many poor
country-vicars, for want of other means, are driven to their shifts; to
turn mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, and if our greedy patrons hold us
to such hard conditions, as commonly they do, they will make most of us
work at some trade, as Paul did, at last turn taskers, maltsters,
costermongers, graziers, sell ale as some have done, or worse. Howsoever in
undertaking this task, I hope I shall commit no great error or _indecorum_,
if all be considered aright, I can vindicate myself with Georgius Braunus,
and Hieronymus Hemingius, those two learned divines; who (to borrow a line
or two of mine [166]elder brother) drawn by a "natural love, the one of
pictures and maps, prospectives and chorographical delights, writ that
ample theatre of cities; the other to the study of genealogies, penned
_theatrum genealogicum_." Or else I can excuse my studies with [167]Lessius
the Jesuit in like case. It is a disease of the soul on which I am to
treat, and as much appertaining to a divine as to a physician, and who
knows not what an agreement there is betwixt these two professions? A good
divine either is or ought to be a good physician, a spiritual physician at
least, as our Saviour calls himself, and was indeed, Mat. iv. 23; Luke, v.
18; Luke, vii. 8. They differ but in object, the one of the body, the other
of the soul, and use divers medicines to cure; one amends _animam per
corpus_, the other _corpus per animam_ as [168]our Regius Professor of
physic well informed us in a learned lecture of his not long since. One
helps the vices and passions of the soul, anger, lust, desperation, pride,
presumption, &c. by applying that spiritual physic; as the other uses
proper remedies in bodily diseases. Now this being a common infirmity of
body and soul, and such a one that hath as much need of spiritual as a
corporal cure, I could not find a fitter task to busy myself about, a more
apposite theme, so necessary, so commodious, and generally concerning all
sorts of men, that should so equally participate of both, and require a
whole physician. A divine in this compound mixed malady can do little
alone, a physician in some kinds of melancholy much less, both make an
absolute cure.
[169] "Alterius sic altera poscit opem."
------"when in friendship joined
A mutual succour in each other find."
And 'tis proper to them both, and I hope not unbeseeming me, who am by my
profession a divine, and by mine inclination a physician. I had Jupiter in
my sixth house; I say with [170]Beroaldus, _non sum medicus, nec medicinae
prorsus expers_, in the theory of physic I have taken some pains, not with
an intent to practice, but to satisfy myself, which was a cause likewise of
the first undertaking of this subject.
If these reasons do not satisfy thee, good reader, as Alexander Munificus
that bountiful prelate, sometimes bishop of Lincoln, when he had built six
castles, _ad invidiam operis eluendam_, saith [171]Mr. Camden, to take away
the envy of his work (which very words Nubrigensis hath of Roger the rich
bishop of Salisbury, who in king Stephen's time built Shirburn castle, and
that of Devises), to divert the scandal or imputation, which might be
thence inferred, built so many religious houses. If this my discourse be
over-medicinal, or savour too much of humanity, I promise thee that I will
hereafter make thee amends in some treatise of divinity. But this I hope
shall suffice, when you have more fully considered of the matter of this my
subject, _rem substratam_, melancholy, madness, and of the reasons
following, which were my chief motives: the generality of the disease, the
necessity of the cure, and the commodity or common good that will arise to
all men by the knowledge of it, as shall at large appear in the ensuing
preface. And I doubt not but that in the end you will say with me, that to
anatomise this humour aright, through all the members of this our
Microcosmus, is as great a task, as to reconcile those chronological errors
in the Assyrian monarchy, find out the quadrature of a circle, the creeks
and sounds of the north-east, or north-west passages, and all out as good a
discovery as that hungry [172]Spaniard's of Terra Australis Incognita, as
great trouble as to perfect the motion of Mars and Mercury, which so
crucifies our astronomers, or to rectify the Gregorian Calendar. I am so
affected for my part, and hope as [173]Theophrastus did by his characters,
"That our posterity, O friend Policles, shall be the better for this which
we have written, by correcting and rectifying what is amiss in themselves
by our examples, and applying our precepts and cautions to their own use."
And as that great captain Zisca would have a drum made of his skin when he
was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to
flight, I doubt not but that these following lines, when they shall be
recited, or hereafter read, will drive away melancholy (though I be gone)
as much as Zisca's drum could terrify his foes. Yet one caution let me give
by the way to my present, or my future reader, who is actually melancholy,
that he read not the [174]symptoms or prognostics in this following tract,
lest by applying that which he reads to himself, aggravating, appropriating
things generally spoken, to his own person (as melancholy men for the most
part do) he trouble or hurt himself, and get in conclusion more harm than
good. I advise them therefore warily to peruse that tract, _Lapides
loquitur_ (so said [175]Agrippa _de occ. Phil._) _et caveant lectores ne
cerebrum iis excutiat_. The rest I doubt not they may securely read, and to
their benefit. But I am over-tedious, I proceed.
Of the necessity and generality of this which I have said, if any man
doubt, I shall desire him to make a brief survey of the world, as [176]
Cyprian adviseth Donat, "supposing himself to be transported to the top of
some high mountain, and thence to behold the tumults and chances of this
wavering world, he cannot choose but either laugh at, or pity it." S.
Hierom out of a strong imagination, being in the wilderness, conceived with
himself, that he then saw them dancing in Rome; and if thou shalt either
conceive, or climb to see, thou shalt soon perceive that all the world is
mad, that it is melancholy, dotes; that it is (which Epichthonius
Cosmopolites expressed not many years since in a map) made like a fool's
head (with that motto, _Caput helleboro dignum_) a crazed head, _cavea
stultorum_, a fool's paradise, or as Apollonius, a common prison of gulls,
cheaters, flatterers, &c. and needs to be reformed. Strabo in the ninth
book of his geography, compares Greece to the picture of a man, which
comparison of his, Nic. Gerbelius in his exposition of Sophianus' map,
approves; the breast lies open from those Acroceraunian hills in Epirus, to
the Sunian promontory in Attica; Pagae and Magaera are the two shoulders;
that Isthmus of Corinth the neck; and Peloponnesus the head. If this
allusion hold, 'tis sure a mad head; Morea may be Moria; and to speak what
I think, the inhabitants of modern Greece swerve as much from reason and
true religion at this day, as that Morea doth from the picture of a man.
Examine the rest in like sort, and you shall find that kingdoms and
provinces are melancholy, cities and families, all creatures, vegetal,
sensible, and rational, that all sorts, sects, ages, conditions, are out of
tune, as in Cebes' table, _omnes errorem bibunt_, before they come into the
world, they are intoxicated by error's cup, from the highest to the lowest
have need of physic, and those particular actions in [177]Seneca, where
father and son prove one another mad, may be general; Porcius Latro shall
plead against us all. For indeed who is not a fool, melancholy, mad?--[178]
_Qui nil molitur inepte_, who is not brain-sick? Folly, melancholy,
madness, are but one disease, _Delirium_ is a common name to all.
Alexander, Gordonius, Jason Pratensis, Savanarola, Guianerius, Montaltus,
confound them as differing _secundum magis et minus_; so doth David, Psal.
xxxvii. 5. "I said unto the fools, deal not so madly," and 'twas an old
Stoical paradox, _omnes stultos insanire_, [179]all fools are mad, though
some madder than others. And who is not a fool, who is free from
melancholy? Who is not touched more or less in habit or disposition? If in
disposition, "ill dispositions beget habits, if they persevere," saith
[180]Plutarch, habits either are, or turn to diseases. 'Tis the same which
Tully maintains in the second of his Tusculans, _omnium insipientum animi
in morbo sunt, et perturbatorum_, fools are sick, and all that are troubled
in mind: for what is sickness, but as [181]Gregory Tholosanus defines it,
"A dissolution or perturbation of the bodily league, which health
combines:" and who is not sick, or ill-disposed? in whom doth not passion,
anger, envy, discontent, fear and sorrow reign? Who labours not of this
disease? Give me but a little leave, and you shall see by what testimonies,
confessions, arguments, I will evince it, that most men are mad, that they
had as much need to go a pilgrimage to the Anticyrae (as in [182]Strabo's
time they did) as in our days they run to Compostella, our Lady of Sichem,
or Lauretta, to seek for help; that it is like to be as prosperous a voyage
as that of Guiana, and that there is much more need of hellebore than of
tobacco.
That men are so misaffected, melancholy, mad, giddy-headed, hear the
testimony of Solomon, Eccl. ii. 12. "And I turned to behold wisdom, madness
and folly," &c. And ver. 23: "All his days are sorrow, his travel grief,
and his heart taketh no rest in the night." So that take melancholy in what
sense you will, properly or improperly, in disposition or habit, for
pleasure or for pain, dotage, discontent, fear, sorrow, madness, for part,
or all, truly, or metaphorically, 'tis all one. Laughter itself is madness
according to Solomon, and as St. Paul hath it, "Worldly sorrow brings
death." "The hearts of the sons of men are evil, and madness is in their
hearts while they live," Eccl. ix. 3. "Wise men themselves are no better."
Eccl. i. 18. "In the multitude of wisdom is much grief, and he that
increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow," chap. ii. 17. He hated life itself,
nothing pleased him: he hated his labour, all, as [183]he concludes, is
"sorrow, grief, vanity, vexation of spirit." And though he were the wisest
man in the world, _sanctuarium sapientiae_, and had wisdom in abundance, he
will not vindicate himself, or justify his own actions. "Surely I am more
foolish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man in me," Prov.
xxx. 2. Be they Solomon's words, or the words of Agur, the son of Jakeh,
they are canonical. David, a man after God's own heart, confesseth as much
of himself, Psal. xxxvii. 21, 22. "So foolish was I and ignorant, I was
even as a beast before thee." And condemns all for fools, Psal. xciii.;
xxxii. 9; xlix. 20. He compares them to "beasts, horses, and mules, in
which there is no understanding." The apostle Paul accuseth himself in like
sort, 2 Cor. ix. 21. "I would you would suffer a little my foolishness, I
speak foolishly." "The whole head is sick," saith Esay, "and the heart is
heavy," cap. i. 5. And makes lighter of them than of oxen and asses, "the
ox knows his owner," &c.: read Deut. xxxii. 6; Jer. iv.; Amos, iii. 1;
Ephes. v. 6. "Be not mad, be not deceived, foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you?" How often are they branded with this epithet of madness and
folly? No word so frequent amongst the fathers of the Church and divines;
you may see what an opinion they had of the world, and how they valued
men's actions.
I know that we think far otherwise, and hold them most part wise men that
are in authority, princes, magistrates, [184]rich men, they are wise men
born, all politicians and statesmen must needs be so, for who dare speak
against them? And on the other, so corrupt is our judgment, we esteem wise
and honest men fools. Which Democritus well signified in an epistle of his
to Hippocrates: [185]the "Abderites account virtue madness," and so do most
men living. Shall I tell you the reason of it? [186]Fortune and Virtue,
Wisdom and Folly, their seconds, upon a time contended in the Olympics;
every man thought that Fortune and Folly would have the worst, and pitied
their cases; but it fell out otherwise. Fortune was blind and cared not
where she stroke, nor whom, without laws, _Audabatarum instar_, &c. Folly,
rash and inconsiderate, esteemed as little what she said or did. Virtue and
Wisdom gave [187]place, were hissed out, and exploded by the common people;
Folly and Fortune admired, and so are all their followers ever since:
knaves and fools commonly fare and deserve best in worldlings' eyes and
opinions. Many good men have no better fate in their ages: Achish, 1 Sam.
xxi. 14, held David for a madman. [188]Elisha and the rest were no
otherwise esteemed. David was derided of the common people, Ps. ix. 7, "I
am become a monster to many." And generally we are accounted fools for
Christ, 1 Cor. xiv. "We fools thought his life madness, and his end without
honour," Wisd. v. 4. Christ and his Apostles were censured in like sort,
John x.; Mark iii.; Acts xxvi. And so were all Christians in [189]Pliny's
time, _fuerunt et alii, similis dementiae_, &c. And called not long after,
[190]_Vesaniae sectatores, eversores hominum, polluti novatores, fanatici,
canes, malefici, venefici, Galilaei homunciones_, &c. 'Tis an ordinary
thing with us, to account honest, devout, orthodox, divine, religious,
plain-dealing men, idiots, asses, that cannot, or will not lie and
dissemble, shift, flatter, _accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt_,
make good bargains, supplant, thrive, _patronis inservire; solennes
ascendendi modos apprehendere, leges, mores, consuetudines recte observare,
candide laudare, fortiter defendere, sententias amplecti, dubitare de
nullus, credere omnia, accipere omnia, nihil reprehendere, caeteraque quae
promotionem ferunt et securitatem, quae sine ambage felicem, reddunt
hominem, et vere sapientem apud nos_; that cannot temporise as other men
do, [191]hand and take bribes, &c. but fear God, and make a conscience of
their doings. But the Holy Ghost that knows better how to judge, he calls
them fools. "The fool hath said in his heart," Psal. liii. 1. "And their
ways utter their folly," Psal. xlix. 14. [192]"For what can be more mad,
than for a little worldly pleasure to procure unto themselves eternal
punishment?" As Gregory and others inculcate unto us.
Yea even all those great philosophers the world hath ever had in
admiration, whose works we do so much esteem, that gave precepts of wisdom
to others, inventors of Arts and Sciences, Socrates the wisest man of his
time by the Oracle of Apollo, whom his two scholars, [193]Plato and [194]
Xenophon, so much extol and magnify with those honourable titles, "best and
wisest of all mortal men, the happiest, and most just;" and as [195]
Alcibiades incomparably commends him; Achilles was a worthy man, but
Bracides and others were as worthy as himself; Antenor and Nestor were as
good as Pericles, and so of the rest; but none present, before, or after
Socrates, _nemo veterum neque eorum qui nunc sunt_, were ever such, will
match, or come near him. Those seven wise men of Greece, those Britain
Druids, Indian Brachmanni, Ethiopian Gymnosophist, Magi of the Persians,
Apollonius, of whom Philostratus, _Non doctus, sed natus sapiens_, wise
from his cradle, Epicurus so much admired by his scholar Lucretius:
"Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omnes
Perstrinxit stellas exortus ut aetherius sol."
"Whose wit excell'd the wits of men as far,
As the sun rising doth obscure a star,"
Or that so much renowned Empedocles,
[196] "Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus."
All those of whom we read such [197]hyperbolical eulogiums, as of
Aristotle, that he was wisdom itself in the abstract, [198]a miracle of
nature, breathing libraries, as Eunapius of Longinus, lights of nature,
giants for wit, quintessence of wit, divine spirits, eagles in the clouds,
fallen from heaven, gods, spirits, lamps of the world, dictators, _Nulla
ferant talem saecla futura virum_: monarchs, miracles, superintendents of
wit and learning, _oceanus, phoenix, atlas, monstrum, portentum hominis,
orbis universi musaeum, ultimus humana naturae donatus, naturae maritus_,
------"merito cui doctior orbis
Submissis defert fascibus imperium."
As Aelian writ of Protagoras and Gorgias, we may say of them all, _tantum a
sapientibus abfuerunt, quantum a viris pueri_, they were children in
respect, infants, not eagles, but kites; novices, illiterate, _Eunuchi
sapientiae_. And although they were the wisest, and most admired in their
age, as he censured Alexander, I do them, there were 10,000 in his army as
worthy captains (had they been in place of command) as valiant as himself;
there were myriads of men wiser in those days, and yet all short of what
they ought to be. [199]Lactantius, in his book of wisdom, proves them to be
dizzards, fools, asses, madmen, so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets,
and brain-sick positions, that to his thinking never any old woman or sick
person doted worse. [200]Democritus took all from Leucippus, and left,
saith he, "the inheritance of his folly to Epicurus," [201]_insanienti dum
sapientiae_, &c. The like he holds of Plato, Aristippus, and the rest,
making no difference [202]"betwixt them and beasts, saving that they could
speak." [203]Theodoret in his tract, _De cur. grec. affect._ manifestly
evinces as much of Socrates, whom though that Oracle of Apollo confirmed to
be the wisest man then living, and saved him from plague, whom 2000 years
have admired, of whom some will as soon speak evil as of Christ, yet _re
vera_, he was an illiterate idiot, as [204]Aristophanes calls him,
_irriscor et ambitiosus_, as his master Aristotle terms him, _scurra
Atticus_, as Zeno, an [205]enemy to all arts and sciences, as Athaeneus, to
philosophers and travellers, an opiniative ass, a caviller, a kind of
pedant; for his manners, as Theod. Cyrensis describes him, a [206]
sodomite, an atheist, (so convict by Anytus) _iracundus et ebrius, dicax_,
&c. a pot-companion, by [207]Plato's own confession, a sturdy drinker; and
that of all others he was most sottish, a very madman in his actions and
opinions. Pythagoras was part philosopher, part magician, or part witch. If
you desire to hear more of Apollonius, a great wise man, sometime
paralleled by Julian the apostate to Christ, I refer you to that learned
tract of Eusebius against Hierocles, and for them all to Lucian's
_Piscator, Icaromenippus, Necyomantia_: their actions, opinions in general
were so prodigious, absurd, ridiculous, which they broached and maintained,
their books and elaborate treatises were full of dotage, which Tully _ad
Atticum_ long since observed, _delirant plerumque scriptores in libris
suis_, their lives being opposite to their words, they commended poverty to
others, and were most covetous themselves, extolled love and peace, and yet
persecuted one another with virulent hate and malice. They could give
precepts for verse and prose, but not a man of them (as [208]Seneca tells
them home) could moderate his affections. Their music did show us _flebiles
modos_, &c. how to rise and fall, but they could not so contain themselves
as in adversity not to make a lamentable tone. They will measure ground by
geometry, set down limits, divide and subdivide, but cannot yet prescribe
_quantum homini satis_, or keep within compass of reason and discretion.
They can square circles, but understand not the state of their own souls,
describe right lines and crooked, &c. but know not what is right in this
life, _quid in vita rectum sit, ignorant_; so that as he said, _Nescio an
Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem._ I think all the Anticyrae will not
restore them to their wits, [209]if these men now, that held [210]
Xenodotus' heart, Crates' liver, Epictetus' lantern, were so sottish, and
had no more brains than so many beetles, what shall we think of the
commonalty? what of the rest?
Yea, but you will infer, that is true of heathens, if they be conferred
with Christians, 1 Cor. iii. 19. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God, earthly and devilish," as James calls it, iii. 15. "They were
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was full of darkness,"
Rom. i. 21, 22. "When they professed themselves wise, became fools." Their
witty works are admired here on earth, whilst their souls are tormented in
hell fire. In some sense, _Christiani Crassiani_, Christians are Crassians,
and if compared to that wisdom, no better than fools. _Quis est sapiens?
Solus Deus_, [211]Pythagoras replies, "God is only wise," Rom. xvi. Paul
determines "only good," as Austin well contends, "and no man living can be
justified in his sight." "God looked down from heaven upon the children of
men, to see if any did understand," Psalm liii. 2, 3, but all are corrupt,
err. Rom. iii. 12, "None doeth good, no, not one." Job aggravates this, iv.
18, "Behold he found no steadfastness in his servants, and laid folly upon
his angels;" 19. "How much more on them that dwell in houses of clay?" In
this sense we are all fools, and the [212]Scripture alone is _arx
Minervae_, we and our writings are shallow and imperfect. But I do not so
mean; even in our ordinary dealings we are no better than fools. "All our
actions," as [213]Pliny told Trajan, "upbraid us of folly," our whole
course of life is but matter of laughter: we are not soberly wise; and the
world itself, which ought at least to be wise by reason of his antiquity,
as [214]Hugo de Prato Florido will have it, "_semper stultizat_, is every
day more foolish than other; the more it is whipped, the worse it is, and
as a child will still be crowned with roses and flowers." We are apish in
it, _asini bipedes_, and every place is full _inversorum Apuleiorum_ of
metamorphosed and two-legged asses, _inversorum Silenorum_, childish,
_pueri instar bimuli, tremula patris dormientis in ulna_. Jovianus
Pontanus, Antonio Dial, brings in some laughing at an old man, that by
reason of his age was a little fond, but as he admonisheth there, _Ne
mireris mi hospes de hoc sene_, marvel not at him only, for _tota haec
civitas delirium_, all our town dotes in like sort, [215]we are a company
of fools. Ask not with him in the poet, [216]_Larvae hunc intemperiae
insaniaeque agitant senem_? What madness ghosts this old man, but what
madness ghosts us all? For we are _ad unum omnes_, all mad, _semel
insanivimus omnes_ not once, but alway so, _et semel, et simul, et semper_,
ever and altogether as bad as he; and not _senex bis puer, delira anus_,
but say it of us all, _semper pueri_, young and old, all dote, as
Lactantius proves out of Seneca; and no difference betwixt us and children,
saving that, _majora ludimus, et grandioribus pupis_, they play with babies
of clouts and such toys, we sport with greater baubles. We cannot accuse or
condemn one another, being faulty ourselves, _deliramenta loqueris_, you
talk idly, or as [217]Mitio upbraided Demea, _insanis, auferte_, for we are
as mad our own selves, and it is hard to say which is the worst. Nay, 'tis
universally so, [218]_Vitam regit fortuna, non sapientia_.
When [219]Socrates had taken great pains to find out a wise man, and to
that purpose had consulted with philosophers, poets, artificers, he
concludes all men were fools; and though it procured him both anger and
much envy, yet in all companies he would openly profess it. When [220]
Supputius in Pontanus had travelled all over Europe to confer with a wise
man, he returned at last without his errand, and could find none. [221]
Cardan concurs with him, "Few there are (for aught I can perceive) well in
their wits." So doth [222]Tully, "I see everything to be done foolishly and
unadvisedly."
"Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum, unus utrique
Error, sed variis illudit partibus omnes."
"One reels to this, another to that wall,
'Tis the same error that deludes them all."
[223]They dote all, but not alike, [Greek: Mania gar pasin homoia], not in
the same kind, "One is covetous, a second lascivious, a third ambitious, a
fourth envious," &c. as Damasippus the Stoic hath well illustrated in the
poet,
[224] "Desipiunt omnes aeque ac tu."
"And they who call you fool, with equal claim
May plead an ample title to the name."
'Tis an inbred malady in every one of us, there is _seminarium stultitiae_,
a seminary of folly, "which if it be stirred up, or get ahead, will run _in
infinitum_, and infinitely varies, as we ourselves are severally addicted,"
saith [225]Balthazar Castilio: and cannot so easily be rooted out, it takes
such fast hold, as Tully holds, _altae radices stultitiae_, [226]so we are
bred, and so we continue. Some say there be two main defects of wit, error
and ignorance, to which all others are reduced; by ignorance we know not
things necessary, by error we know them falsely. Ignorance is a privation,
error a positive act. From ignorance comes vice, from error heresy, &c. But
make how many kinds you will, divide and subdivide, few men are free, or
that do not impinge on some one kind or other. [227]_Sic plerumque agitat
stultos inscitia_, as he that examines his own and other men's actions
shall find.
[228]Charon in Lucian, as he wittily feigns, was conducted by Mercury to
such a place, where he might see all the world at once; after he had
sufficiently viewed, and looked about, Mercury would needs know of him what
he had observed: He told him that he saw a vast multitude and a
promiscuous, their habitations like molehills, the men as emmets, "he could
discern cities like so many hives of bees, wherein every bee had a sting,
and they did nought else but sting one another, some domineering like
hornets bigger than the rest, some like filching wasps, others as drones."
Over their heads were hovering a confused company of perturbations, hope,
fear, anger, avarice, ignorance, &c., and a multitude of diseases hanging,
which they still pulled on their pates. Some were brawling, some fighting,
riding, running, _sollicite ambientes, callide litigantes_ for toys and
trifles, and such momentary things, Their towns and provinces mere
factions, rich against poor, poor against rich, nobles against artificers,
they against nobles, and so the rest. In conclusion, he condemned them all
for madmen, fools, idiots, asses, _O stulti, quaenam haec est amentia_? O
fools, O madmen, he exclaims, _insana studia, insani labores_, &c. Mad
endeavours, mad actions, mad, mad, mad, [229]_O saeclum insipiens et
infacetum_, a giddy-headed age. Heraclitus the philosopher, out of a
serious meditation of men's lives, fell a weeping, and with continual tears
bewailed their misery, madness, and folly. Democritus on the other side,
burst out a laughing, their whole life seemed to him so ridiculous, and he
was so far carried with this ironical passion, that the citizens of Abdera
took him to be mad, and sent therefore ambassadors to Hippocrates, the
physician, that he would exercise his skill upon him. But the story is set
down at large by Hippocrates, in his epistle to Damogetus, which because it
is not impertinent to this discourse, I will insert verbatim almost as it
is delivered by Hippocrates himself, with all the circumstances belonging
unto it.
When Hippocrates was now come to Abdera, the people of the city came
flocking about him, some weeping, some intreating of him, that he would do
his best. After some little repast, he went to see Democritus, the people
following him, whom he found (as before) in his garden in the suburbs all
alone, [230]"sitting upon a stone under a plane tree, without hose or
shoes, with a book on his knees, cutting up several beasts, and busy at his
study." The multitude stood gazing round about to see the congress.
Hippocrates, after a little pause, saluted him by his name, whom he
resaluted, ashamed almost that he could not call him likewise by his, or
that he had forgot it. Hippocrates demanded of him what he was doing: he
told him that he was [231]"busy in cutting up several beasts, to find out
the cause of madness and melancholy." Hippocrates commended his work,
admiring his happiness and leisure. And why, quoth Democritus, have not you
that leisure? Because, replied Hippocrates, domestic affairs hinder,
necessary to be done for ourselves, neighbours, friends; expenses,
diseases, frailties and mortalities which happen; wife, children, servants,
and such business which deprive us of our time. At this speech Democritus
profusely laughed (his friends and the people standing by, weeping in the
mean time, and lamenting his madness). Hippocrates asked the reason why he
laughed. He told him, at the vanities and the fopperies of the time, to see
men so empty of all virtuous actions, to hunt so far after gold, having no
end of ambition; to take such infinite pains for a little glory, and to be
favoured of men; to make such deep mines into the earth for gold, and many
times to find nothing, with loss of their lives and fortunes. Some to love
dogs, others horses, some to desire to be obeyed in many provinces,[232]
and yet themselves will know no obedience. [233]Some to love their wives
dearly at first, and after a while to forsake and hate them; begetting
children, with much care and cost for their education, yet when they grow
to man's estate, [234]to despise, neglect, and leave them naked to the
world's mercy. [235]Do not these behaviours express their intolerable
folly? When men live in peace, they covet war, detesting quietness, [236]
deposing kings, and advancing others in their stead, murdering some men to
beget children of their wives. How many strange humours are in men! When
they are poor and needy, they seek riches, and when they have them, they do
not enjoy them, but hide them under ground, or else wastefully spend them.
O wise Hippocrates, I laugh at such things being done, but much more when
no good comes of them, and when they are done to so ill purpose. There is
no truth or justice found amongst them, for they daily plead one against
another, [237]the son against the father and the mother, brother against
brother, kindred and friends of the same quality; and all this for riches,
whereof after death they cannot be possessors. And yet notwithstanding they
will defame and kill one another, commit all unlawful actions, contemning
God and men, friends and country. They make great account of many senseless
things, esteeming them as a great part of their treasure, statues,
pictures, and such like movables, dear bought, and so cunningly wrought, as
nothing but speech wanteth in them, [238]and yet they hate living persons
speaking to them. [239]Others affect difficult things; if they dwell on
firm land they will remove to an island, and thence to land again, being no
way constant to their desires. They commend courage and strength in wars,
and let themselves be conquered by lust and avarice; they are, in brief, as
disordered in their minds, as Thersites was in his body. And now, methinks,
O most worthy Hippocrates, you should not reprehend my laughing, perceiving
so many fooleries in men; [240]for no man will mock his own folly, but that
which he seeth in a second, and so they justly mock one another. The
drunkard calls him a glutton whom he knows to be sober. Many men love the
sea, others husbandry; briefly, they cannot agree in their own trades and
professions, much less in their lives and actions.
When Hippocrates heard these words so readily uttered, without
premeditation, to declare the world's vanity, full of ridiculous
contrariety, he made answer, that necessity compelled men to many such
actions, and divers wills ensuing from divine permission, that we might not
be idle, being nothing is so odious to them as sloth and negligence.
Besides, men cannot foresee future events, in this uncertainty of human
affairs; they would not so marry, if they could foretell the causes of
their dislike and separation; or parents, if they knew the hour of their
children's death, so tenderly provide for them; or an husbandman sow, if he
thought there would be no increase; or a merchant adventure to sea, if he
foresaw shipwreck; or be a magistrate, if presently to be deposed. Alas,
worthy Democritus, every man hopes the best, and to that end he doth it,
and therefore no such cause, or ridiculous occasion of laughter.
Democritus hearing this poor excuse, laughed again aloud, perceiving he
wholly mistook him, and did not well understand what he had said concerning
perturbations and tranquillity of the mind. Insomuch, that if men would
govern their actions by discretion and providence, they would not declare
themselves fools as now they do, and he should have no cause of laughter;
but (quoth he) they swell in this life as if they were immortal, and
demigods, for want of understanding. It were enough to make them wise, if
they would but consider the mutability of this world, and how it wheels
about, nothing being firm and sure. He that is now above, tomorrow is
beneath; he that sate on this side today, tomorrow is hurled on the other:
and not considering these matters, they fall into many inconveniences and
troubles, coveting things of no profit, and thirsting after them, tumbling
headlong into many calamities. So that if men would attempt no more than
what they can bear, they should lead contented lives, and learning to know
themselves, would limit their ambition, [241]they would perceive then that
nature hath enough without seeking such superfluities, and unprofitable
things, which bring nothing with them but grief and molestation. As a fat
body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and
fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniences. There are many that
take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversation, and therefore
overthrow themselves in the same manner through their own fault, not
foreseeing dangers manifest. These are things (O more than mad, quoth he)
that give me matter of laughter, by suffering the pains of your impieties,
as your avarice, envy, malice, enormous villainies, mutinies, unsatiable
desires, conspiracies, and other incurable vices; besides your
[242]dissimulation and hypocrisy, bearing deadly hatred one to the other,
and yet shadowing it with a good face, flying out into all filthy lusts,
and transgressions of all laws, both of nature and civility. Many things
which they have left off, after a while they fall to again, husbandry,
navigation; and leave again, fickle and inconstant as they are. When they
are young, they would be old, and old, young. [243] Princes commend a
private life; private men itch after honour: a magistrate commends a quiet
life; a quiet man would be in his office, and obeyed as he is: and what is
the cause of all this, but that they know not themselves? Some delight to
destroy, [244]one to build, another to spoil one country to enrich another
and himself. [245]In all these things they are like children, in whom is no
judgment or counsel and resemble beasts, saving that beasts are better than
they, as being contented with nature. [246] When shall you see a lion hide
gold in the ground, or a bull contend for better pasture? When a boar is
thirsty, he drinks what will serve him, and no more; and when his belly is
full, ceaseth to eat: but men are immoderate in both, as in lust--they
covet carnal copulation at set times; men always, ruinating thereby the
health of their bodies. And doth it not deserve laughter to see an amorous
fool torment himself for a wench; weep, howl for a misshapen slut, a dowdy
sometimes, that might have his choice of the finest beauties? Is there any
remedy for this in physic? I do anatomise and cut up these poor beasts,
[247]to see these distempers, vanities, and follies, yet such proof were
better made on man's body, if my kind nature would endure it: [248]who from
the hour of his birth is most miserable; weak, and sickly; when he sucks he
is guided by others, when he is grown great practiseth unhappiness [249]and
is sturdy, and when old, a child again, and repenteth him of his life past.
And here being interrupted by one that brought books, he fell to it again,
that all were mad, careless, stupid. To prove my former speeches, look into
courts, or private houses. [250]Judges give judgment according to their own
advantage, doing manifest wrong to poor innocents to please others.
Notaries alter sentences, and for money lose their deeds. Some make false
monies; others counterfeit false weights. Some abuse their parents, yea
corrupt their own sisters; others make long libels and pasquils, defaming
men of good life, and extol such as are lewd and vicious. Some rob one,
some another: [251]magistrates make laws against thieves, and are the
veriest thieves themselves. Some kill themselves, others despair, not
obtaining their desires. Some dance, sing, laugh, feast and banquet, whilst
others sigh, languish, mourn and lament, having neither meat, drink, nor
clothes. [252]Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of
execrable vices. Some trot about [253]to bear false witness, and say
anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink
at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity. Women are all
day a dressing, to pleasure other men abroad, and go like sluts at home,
not caring to please their own husbands whom they should. Seeing men are so
fickle, so sottish, so intemperate, why should not I laugh at those to whom
[254]folly seems wisdom, will not be cured, and perceive it not?
It grew late: Hippocrates left him; and no sooner was he come away, but all
the citizens came about flocking, to know how he liked him. He told them in
brief, that notwithstanding those small neglects of his attire, body, diet,
[255]the world had not a wiser, a more learned, a more honest man, and they
were much deceived to say that he was mad.
Thus Democritus esteemed of the world in his time, and this was the cause
of his laughter: and good cause he had.
[256] "Olim jure quidem, nunc plus Democrite ride;
Quin rides? vita haec nunc mage ridicula est."
"Democritus did well to laugh of old,
Good cause he had, but now much more;
This life of ours is more ridiculous
Than that of his, or long before."
Never so much cause of laughter as now, never so many fools and madmen.
'Tis not one [257]Democritus will serve turn to laugh in these days; we
have now need of a "Democritus to laugh at Democritus;" one jester to flout
at another, one fool to fleer at another: a great stentorian Democritus, as
big as that Rhodian Colossus, For now, as [258]Salisburiensis said in his
time, _totus mundus histrionem agit_, the whole world plays the fool; we
have a new theatre, a new scene, a new comedy of errors, a new company of
personate actors, _volupiae sacra_ (as Calcagninus willingly feigns in his
Apologues) are celebrated all the world over, [259]where all the actors
were madmen and fools, and every hour changed habits, or took that which
came next. He that was a mariner today, is an apothecary tomorrow; a smith
one while, a philosopher another, _in his volupiae ludis_; a king now with
his crown, robes, sceptre, attendants, by and by drove a loaded ass before
him like a carter, &c. If Democritus were alive now, he should see strange
alterations, a new company of counterfeit vizards, whifflers, Cumane asses,
maskers, mummers, painted puppets, outsides, fantastic shadows, gulls,
monsters, giddy-heads, butterflies. And so many of them are indeed ([260]if
all be true that I have read). For when Jupiter and Juno's wedding was
solemnised of old, the gods were all invited to the feast, and many noble
men besides: Amongst the rest came Crysalus, a Persian prince, bravely
attended, rich in golden attires, in gay robes, with a majestical presence,
but otherwise an ass. The gods seeing him come in such pomp and state, rose
up to give him place, _ex habitu hominem metientes_; [261]but Jupiter
perceiving what he was, a light, fantastic, idle fellow, turned him and his
proud followers into butterflies: and so they continue still (for aught I
know to the contrary) roving about in pied coats, and are called
chrysalides by the wiser sort of men: that is, golden outsides, drones, and
flies, and things of no worth. Multitudes of such, &c.
[262] ------"ubique invenies
Stultos avaros, sycopliantas prodigos."
Many additions, much increase of madness, folly, vanity, should Democritus
observe, were he now to travel, or could get leave of Pluto to come see
fashions, as Charon did in Lucian to visit our cities of Moronia Pia, and
Moronia Felix: sure I think he would break the rim of his belly with
laughing. [263]_Si foret in terris rideret Democritus, seu_, &c.
A satirical Roman in his time, thought all vice, folly, and madness were
all at full sea, [264]_Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit._
[265]Josephus the historian taxeth his countrymen Jews for bragging of
their vices, publishing their follies, and that they did contend amongst
themselves who should be most notorious in villainies; but we flow higher
in madness, far beyond them,
[266] "Mox daturi progeniem vitiosorem,"
"And yet with crimes to us unknown,
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own,"
and the latter end (you know whose oracle it is) is like to be worse. 'Tis
not to be denied, the world alters every day, _Ruunt urbes, regna
transferuntur, &c. variantur habitus, leges innovantur_, as [267]Petrarch
observes, we change language, habits, laws, customs, manners, but not
vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness, they are still
the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the like name and place, but not
water, and yet ever runs, [268]_Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis
aevum_; our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever will be;
look how nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated,
sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness still,
play the fools still, _nec dum finitus Orestes_; we are of the same humours
and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike,
much at one, we and our sons, _Et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis_.
And so shall our posterity continue to the last. But to speak of times
present.
If Democritus were alive now, and should but see the superstition of our
age, our [269]religious madness, as [270]Meteran calls it, _Religiosam
insaniam_, so many professed Christians, yet so few imitators of Christ; so
much talk of religion, so much science, so little conscience; so much
knowledge, so many preachers, so little practice; such variety of sects,
such have and hold of all sides, [271]--_obvia signis Signa_, &c., such
absurd and ridiculous traditions and ceremonies: If he should meet a [272]
Capuchin, a Franciscan, a Pharisaical Jesuit, a man-serpent, a
shave-crowned Monk in his robes, a begging Friar, or, see their
three-crowned Sovereign Lord the Pope, poor Peter's successor, _servus
servorum Dei_, to depose kings with his foot, to tread on emperors' necks,
make them stand barefoot and barelegged at his gates, hold his bridle and
stirrup, &c. (O that Peter and Paul were alive to see this!) If he should
observe a [273]prince creep so devoutly to kiss his toe, and those red-cap
cardinals, poor parish priests of old, now princes' companions; what would
he say? _Coelum ipsum petitur stultitia_. Had he met some of our devout
pilgrims going barefoot to Jerusalem, our lady of Lauretto, Rome, S. Iago,
S. Thomas' Shrine, to creep to those counterfeit and maggot-eaten relics;
had he been present at a mass, and seen such kissing of paxes, crucifixes,
cringes, duckings, their several attires and ceremonies, pictures of
saints, [274]indulgences, pardons, vigils, fasting, feasts, crossing,
knocking, kneeling at Ave-Marias, bells, with many such; _--jucunda rudi
spectacula plebi_,[275] praying in gibberish, and mumbling of beads. Had he
heard an old woman say her prayers in Latin, their sprinkling of holy
water, and going a procession,
[276] ------"incedunt monachorum agmina mille;
Quid momerem vexilla, cruces, idolaque culta," &c.
Their breviaries, bulls, hallowed beans, exorcisms, pictures, curious
crosses, fables, and baubles. Had he read the Golden Legend, the Turks'
Alcoran, or Jews' Talmud, the Rabbins' Comments, what would he have
thought? How dost thou think he might have been affected? Had he more
particularly examined a Jesuit's life amongst the rest, he should have seen
an hypocrite profess poverty, [277]and yet possess more goods and lands
than many princes, to have infinite treasures and revenues; teach others to
fast, and play the gluttons themselves; like watermen that row one way and
look another. [278]Vow virginity, talk of holiness, and yet indeed a
notorious bawd, and famous fornicator, _lascivum pecus_, a very goat. Monks
by profession, [279]such as give over the world, and the vanities of it,
and yet a Machiavellian rout [280]interested in all manner of state: holy
men, peace-makers, and yet composed of envy, lust, ambition, hatred, and
malice; firebrands, _adulta patriae pestis_, traitors, assassinats, _hac
itur ad astra_, and this is to supererogate, and merit heaven for
themselves and others. Had he seen on the adverse side, some of our nice
and curious schismatics in another extreme, abhor all ceremonies, and
rather lose their lives and livings, than do or admit anything Papists have
formerly used, though in things indifferent (they alone are the true
Church, _sal terrae, cum sint omnium insulsissimi_). Formalists, out of
fear and base flattery, like so many weather-cocks turn round, a rout of
temporisers, ready to embrace and maintain all that is or shall be proposed
in hope of preferment: another Epicurean company, lying at lurch as so many
vultures, watching for a prey of Church goods, and ready to rise by the
downfall of any: as [281]Lucian said in like case, what dost thou think
Democritus would have done, had he been spectator of these things?
Or had he but observed the common people follow like so many sheep one of
their fellows drawn by the horns over a gap, some for zeal, some for fear,
_quo se cunque rapit tempestas_, to credit all, examine nothing, and yet
ready to die before they will adjure any of those ceremonies to which they
have been accustomed; others out of hypocrisy frequent sermons, knock their
breasts, turn up their eyes, pretend zeal, desire reformation, and yet
professed usurers, gripers, monsters of men, harpies, devils in their
lives, to express nothing less.
What would he have said to see, hear, and read so many bloody battles, so
many thousands slain at once, such streams of blood able to turn mills:
_unius ob noxam furiasque_, or to make sport for princes, without any just
cause, [282]"for vain titles" (saith Austin), "precedency, some wench, or
such like toy, or out of desire of domineering, vainglory, malice, revenge,
folly, madness," (goodly causes all, _ob quas universus orbis bellis et
caedibus misceatur_,) whilst statesmen themselves in the mean time are
secure at home, pampered with all delights and pleasures, take their ease,
and follow their lusts, not considering what intolerable misery poor
soldiers endure, their often wounds, hunger, thirst, &c., the lamentable
cares, torments, calamities, and oppressions that accompany such
proceedings, they feel not, take no notice of it. "So wars are begun, by
the persuasion of a few debauched, hair-brain, poor, dissolute, hungry
captains, parasitical fawners, unquiet hotspurs, restless innovators, green
heads, to satisfy one man's private spleen, lust, ambition, avarice," &c.;
_tales rapiunt scelerata in praelia causae. Flos hominum_, proper men, well
proportioned, carefully brought up, able both in body and mind, sound, led
like so many [283]beasts to the slaughter in the flower of their years,
pride, and full strength, without all remorse and pity, sacrificed to
Pluto, killed up as so many sheep, for devils' food, 40,000 at once. At
once, said I, that were tolerable, but these wars last always, and for many
ages; nothing so familiar as this hacking and hewing, massacres, murders,
desolations--_ignoto coelum clangore remugit_, they care not what mischief
they procure, so that they may enrich themselves for the present; they will
so long blow the coals of contention, till all the world be consumed with
fire. The [284]siege of Troy lasted ten years, eight months, there died
870,000 Grecians, 670,000 Trojans, at the taking of the city, and after
were slain 276,000 men, women, and children of all sorts. Caesar killed a
million, [285]Mahomet the second Turk, 300,000 persons; Sicinius Dentatus
fought in a hundred battles, eight times in single combat he overcame, had
forty wounds before, was rewarded with 140 crowns, triumphed nine times for
his good service. M. Sergius had 32 wounds; Scaeva, the Centurion, I know
not how many; every nation had their Hectors, Scipios, Caesars, and
Alexanders! Our [286]Edward the Fourth was in 26 battles afoot: and as they
do all, he glories in it, 'tis related to his honour. At the siege of
Hierusalem, 1,100,000 died with sword and famine. At the battle of Cannas,
70,000 men were slain, as [287]Polybius records, and as many at Battle
Abbey with us; and 'tis no news to fight from sun to sun, as they did, as
Constantine and Licinius, &c. At the siege of Ostend (the devil's academy)
a poor town in respect, a small fort, but a great grave, 120,000 men lost
their lives, besides whole towns, dorps, and hospitals, full of maimed
soldiers; there were engines, fireworks, and whatsoever the devil could
invent to do mischief with 2,500,000 iron bullets shot of 40 pounds weight,
three or four millions of gold consumed. [288]"Who" (saith mine author)
"can be sufficiently amazed at their flinty hearts, obstinacy, fury,
blindness, who without any likelihood of good success, hazard poor
soldiers, and lead them without pity to the slaughter, which may justly be
called the rage of furious beasts, that run without reason upon their own
deaths:" [289]_quis malus genius, quae furia quae pestis_, &c.; what
plague, what fury brought so devilish, so brutish a thing as war first into
men's minds? Who made so soft and peaceable a creature, born to love,
mercy, meekness, so to rave, rage like beasts, and run on to their own
destruction? how may Nature expostulate with mankind, _Ego te divinum
animal finxi_, &c.? I made thee an harmless, quiet, a divine creature: how
may God expostulate, and all good men? yet, _horum facta_ (as [290]one
condoles) _tantum admirantur, et heroum numero habent_: these are the brave
spirits, the gallants of the world, these admired alone, triumph alone,
have statues, crowns, pyramids, obelisks to their eternal fame, that
immortal genius attends on them, _hac itur ad astra_. When Rhodes was
besieged, [291]_fossae urbis cadaveribus repletae sunt_, the ditches were
full of dead carcases: and as when the said Suleiman, great Turk,
beleaguered Vienna, they lay level with the top of the walls. This they
make a sport of, and will do it to their friends and confederates, against
oaths, vows, promises, by treachery or otherwise; [292]--_dolus an virtus?
quis in hoste requirat_? leagues and laws of arms, ([293]_silent leges
inter arma_,) for their advantage, _omnia jura, divina, humana, proculcata
plerumque sunt_; God's and men's laws are trampled under foot, the sword
alone determines all; to satisfy their lust and spleen, they care not what
they attempt, say, or do, [294]_Rara fides, probitasque viris qui castra
sequuntur._ Nothing so common as to have [295] "father fight against the
son, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman, kingdom against
kingdom, province against province, Christians against Christians:" _a
quibus nec unquam cogitatione fuerunt laesi_, of whom they never had
offence in thought, word, or deed. Infinite treasures consumed, towns
burned, flourishing cities sacked and ruinated, _quodque animus meminisse
horret_, goodly countries depopulated and left desolate, old inhabitants
expelled, trade and traffic decayed, maids deflowered, _Virgines nondum
thalamis jugatae, et comis nondum positis ephaebi_; chaste matrons cry out
with Andromache, [296]_Concubitum mox cogar pati ejus, qui interemit
Hectorem_, they shall be compelled peradventure to lie with them that erst
killed their husbands: to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants,
_eodem omnes incommodo macti_, consumed all or maimed, &c. _Et quicquid
gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens_, saith Cyprian, and
whatsoever torment, misery, mischief, hell itself, the devil, [297] fury
and rage can invent to their own ruin and destruction; so abominable a
thing is [298]war, as Gerbelius concludes, _adeo foeda et abominanda res
est bellum, ex quo hominum caedes, vastationes_, &c., the scourge of God,
cause, effect, fruit and punishment of sin, and not _tonsura humani
generis_ as Tertullian calls it, but _ruina_. Had Democritus been present
at the late civil wars in France, those abominable wars--_bellaque matribus
detestata_, [299]"where in less than ten years, ten thousand men were
consumed," saith Collignius, twenty thousand churches overthrown; nay, the
whole kingdom subverted (as [300]Richard Dinoth adds). So many myriads of
the commons were butchered up, with sword, famine, war, _tanto odio
utrinque ut barbari ad abhorrendam lanienam obstupescerent_, with such
feral hatred, the world was amazed at it: or at our late Pharsalian fields
in the time of Henry the Sixth, betwixt the houses of Lancaster and York, a
hundred thousand men slain, [301]one writes; [302]another, ten thousand
families were rooted out, "that no man can but marvel," saith Comineus, "at
that barbarous immanity, feral madness, committed betwixt men of the same
nation, language, and religion." [303]_Quis furor, O cives_? "Why do the
Gentiles so furiously rage," saith the Prophet David, Psal. ii. 1. But we
may ask, why do the Christians so furiously rage? [304]_Arma volunt, quare
poscunt, rapiuntque juventus_? Unfit for Gentiles, much less for us so to
tyrannise, as the Spaniard in the West Indies, that killed up in 42 years
(if we may believe [305]Bartholomeus a Casa, their own bishop) 12 millions
of men, with stupend and exquisite torments; neither should I lie (said he)
if I said 50 millions. I omit those French massacres, Sicilian evensongs,
[306]the Duke of Alva's tyrannies, our gunpowder machinations, and that
fourth fury, as [307]one calls it, the Spanish inquisition, which quite
obscures those ten persecutions, [308]------_saevit toto Mars impius orbe._
Is not this [309]_mundus furiosus_, a mad world, as he terms it, _insanum
bellum_? are not these mad men, as [310]Scaliger concludes, _qui in praelio
acerba morte, insaniae, suae memoriam pro perpetuo teste relinquunt
posteritati_; which leave so frequent battles, as perpetual memorials of
their madness to all succeeding ages? Would this, think you, have enforced
our Democritus to laughter, or rather made him turn his tune, alter his
tone, and weep with [311]Heraclitus, or rather howl, [312]roar, and tear
his hair in commiseration, stand amazed; or as the poets feign, that Niobe
was for grief quite stupefied, and turned to a stone? I have not yet said
the worst, that which is more absurd and [313]mad, in their tumults,
seditions, civil and unjust wars, [314]_quod stulte sucipitur, impie
geritur, misere finitur_. Such wars I mean; for all are not to be
condemned, as those fantastical Anabaptists vainly conceive. Our Christian
tactics are all out as necessary as the Roman acies, or Grecian phalanx, to
be a soldier is a most noble and honourable profession (as the world is),
not to be spared, they are our best walls and bulwarks, and I do therefore
acknowledge that of [315]Tully to be most true, "All our civil affairs, all
our studies, all our pleading, industry, and commendation lies under the
protection of warlike virtues, and whensoever there is any suspicion of
tumult, all our arts cease;" wars are most behoveful, _et bellatores
agricolis civitati sunt utiliores_, as [316]Tyrius defends: and valour is
much to be commended in a wise man; but they mistake most part, _auferre,
trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus virtutem vocant_, &c. ('Twas Galgacus'
observation in Tacitus) they term theft, murder, and rapine, virtue, by a
wrong name, rapes, slaughters, massacres, &c. _jocus et ludus_, are pretty
pastimes, as Ludovicus Vives notes. [317]"They commonly call the most
hair-brain bloodsuckers, strongest thieves, the most desperate villains,
treacherous rogues, inhuman murderers, rash, cruel and dissolute caitiffs,
courageous and generous spirits, heroical and worthy captains, [318]brave
men at arms, valiant and renowned soldiers, possessed with a brute
persuasion of false honour," as Pontus Huter in his Burgundian history
complains. By means of which it comes to pass that daily so many
voluntaries offer themselves, leaving their sweet wives, children, friends,
for sixpence (if they can get it) a day, prostitute their lives and limbs,
desire to enter upon breaches, lie sentinel, perdu, give the first onset,
stand in the fore front of the battle, marching bravely on, with a cheerful
noise of drums and trumpets, such vigour and alacrity, so many banners
streaming in the air, glittering armours, motions of plumes, woods of
pikes, and swords, variety of colours, cost and magnificence, as if they
went in triumph, now victors to the Capitol, and with such pomp, as when
Darius' army marched to meet Alexander at Issus. Void of all fear they run
into imminent dangers, cannon's mouth, &c., _ut vulneribus suis ferrum
hostium hebetent_, saith [319]Barletius, to get a name of valour, humour
and applause, which lasts not either, for it is but a mere flash this fame,
and like a rose, _intra diem unum extinguitur_, 'tis gone in an instant. Of
15,000 proletaries slain in a battle, scarce fifteen are recorded in
history, or one alone, the General perhaps, and after a while his and their
names are likewise blotted out, the whole battle itself is forgotten. Those
Grecian orators, _summa vi ingenii et eloquentiae_, set out the renowned
overthrows at Thermopylae, Salamis, Marathon, Micale, Mantinea, Cheronaea,
Plataea. The Romans record their battle at Cannas, and Pharsalian fields,
but they do but record, and we scarce hear of them. And yet this supposed
honour, popular applause, desire of immortality by this means, pride and
vainglory spur them on many times rashly and unadvisedly, to make away
themselves and multitudes of others. Alexander was sorry, because there
were no more worlds for him to conquer, he is admired by some for it,
_animosa vox videtur, et regia_, 'twas spoken like a Prince; but as wise
[320]Seneca censures him, 'twas _vox inquissima et stultissima_, 'twas
spoken like a Bedlam fool; and that sentence which the same [321]Seneca
appropriates to his father Philip and him, I apply to them all, _Non
minores fuere pestes mortalium quam inundatio, quam conflagratio, quibus_,
&c. they did as much mischief to mortal men as fire and water, those
merciless elements when they rage. [322]Which is yet more to be lamented,
they persuade them this hellish course of life is holy, they promise heaven
to such as venture their lives _bello sacro_, and that by these bloody
wars, as Persians, Greeks, and Romans of old, as modern Turks do now their
commons, to encourage them to fight, _ut cadant infeliciter_. "If they die
in the field, they go directly to heaven, and shall be canonised for
saints." (O diabolical invention!) put in the Chronicles, _in perpetuam rei
memoriam_, to their eternal memory: when as in truth, as [323]some hold, it
were much better (since wars are the scourge of God for sin, by which he
punisheth mortal men's peevishness and folly) such brutish stories were
suppressed, because _ad morum institutionem nihil habent_, they conduce not
at all to manners, or good life. But they will have it thus nevertheless,
and so they put note of [324]"divinity upon the most cruel and pernicious
plague of human kind," adore such men with grand titles, degrees, statues,
images, [325]honour, applaud, and highly reward them for their good
service, no greater glory than to die in the field. So Africanus is
extolled by Ennius: Mars, and [326]Hercules, and I know not how many
besides of old, were deified; went this way to heaven, that were indeed
bloody butchers, wicked destroyers, and troublers of the world, prodigious
monsters, hell-hounds, feral plagues, devourers, common executioners of
human kind, as Lactantius truly proves, and Cyprian to Donat, such as were
desperate in wars, and precipitately made away themselves, (like those
Celts in Damascen, with ridiculous valour, _ut dedecorosum putarent muro
ruenti se subducere_, a disgrace to run away for a rotten wall, now ready
to fall on their heads,) such as will not rush on a sword's point, or seek
to shun a cannon's shot, are base cowards, and no valiant men. By which
means, _Madet orbis mutuo sanguine_, the earth wallows in her own blood,
[327]_Savit amor ferri et scelerati insania belli_; and for that, which if
it be done in private, a man shall be rigorously executed, [328]"and which
is no less than murder itself; if the same fact be done in public in wars,
it is called manhood, and the party is honoured for it."
[329] ------"Prosperum et felix scelus,
Virtus vocatur."------
We measure all as Turks do, by the event, and most part, as Cyprian notes,
in all ages, countries, places, _saevitiae magnitudo impunitatem sceleris
acquirit_; the foulness of the fact vindicates the offender. [330]One is
crowned for that which another is tormented: _Ille crucem sceleris precium
tulit, hic diadema_; made a knight, a lord, an earl, a great duke, (as
[331]Agrippa notes) for that which another should have hung in gibbets, as
a terror to the rest,
[332] ------"et tamen alter,
Si fecisset idem, caderet sub judice morum."
A poor sheep-stealer is hanged for stealing of victuals, compelled
peradventure by necessity of that intolerable cold, hunger, and thirst, to
save himself from starving: but a [333]great man in office may securely rob
whole provinces, undo thousands, pill and poll, oppress _ad libitum_, flea,
grind, tyrannise, enrich himself by spoils of the commons, be
uncontrollable in his actions, and after all, be recompensed with turgent
titles, honoured for his good service, and no man dare find fault, or [334]
mutter at it.
How would our Democritus have been affected to see a wicked caitiff or
[335]"fool, a very idiot, a funge, a golden ass, a monster of men, to have
many good men, wise, men, learned men to attend upon him with all
submission, as an appendix to his riches, for that respect alone, because
he hath more wealth and money," [336]"to honour him with divine titles, and
bombast epithets," to smother him with fumes and eulogies, whom they know
to be a dizzard, a fool, a covetous wretch, a beast, &c. "because he is
rich?" To see _sub exuviis leonis onagrum_, a filthy loathsome carcass, a
Gorgon's head puffed up by parasites, assume this unto himself, glorious
titles, in worth an infant, a Cuman ass, a painted sepulchre, an Egyptian
temple? To see a withered face, a diseased, deformed, cankered complexion,
a rotten carcass, a viperous mind, and Epicurean soul set out with orient
pearls, jewels, diadems, perfumes, curious elaborate works, as proud of his
clothes as a child of his new coats; and a goodly person, of an angel-like
divine countenance, a saint, an humble mind, a meet spirit clothed in rags,
beg, and now ready to be starved? To see a silly contemptible sloven in
apparel, ragged in his coat, polite in speech, of a divine spirit, wise?
another neat in clothes, spruce, full of courtesy, empty of grace, wit,
talk nonsense?
To see so many lawyers, advocates, so many tribunals, so little justice; so
many magistrates, so little care of common good; so many laws, yet never
more disorders; _Tribunal litium segetem_, the Tribunal a labyrinth, so
many thousand suits in one court sometimes, so violently followed? To see
_injustissimum saepe juri praesidentem, impium religioni, imperitissimum
eruditioni, otiosissimum labori, monstrosum humanitati_? to see a lamb
[337]executed, a wolf pronounce sentence, _latro_ arraigned, and _fur_ sit
on the bench, the judge severely punish others, and do worse himself, [338]
_cundem furtum facere et punire_, [339]_rapinam plectere, quum sit ipse
raptor_? Laws altered, misconstrued, interpreted pro and con, as the
[340]judge is made by friends, bribed, or otherwise affected as a nose of
wax, good today, none tomorrow; or firm in his opinion, cast in his?
Sentence prolonged, changed, _ad arbitrium judicis_, still the same case,
[341]"one thrust out of his inheritance, another falsely put in by favour,
false forged deeds or wills." _Incisae leges negliguntur_, laws are made
and not kept; or if put in execution, [342]they be some silly ones that are
punished. As, put case it be fornication, the father will disinherit or
abdicate his child, quite cashier him (out, villain, be gone, come no more
in my sight); a poor man is miserably tormented with loss of his estate
perhaps, goods, fortunes, good name, for ever disgraced, forsaken, and must
do penance to the utmost; a mortal sin, and yet make the worst of it,
_nunquid aliud fecit_, saith Tranio in the [343]poet, _nisi quod faciunt
summis nati generibus_? he hath done no more than what gentlemen usually
do. [344]_Neque novum, neque mirum, neque secus quam alii solent_. For in a
great person, right worshipful Sir, a right honourable grandee, 'tis not a
venial sin, no, not a peccadillo, 'tis no offence at all, a common and
ordinary thing, no man takes notice of it; he justifies it in public, and
peradventure brags of it,
[345] "Nam quod turpe bonis, Titio, Seioque, decebat Crispinum"------
"For what would be base in good men, Titius, and Seius, became
Crispinus."
[346]Many poor men, younger brothers, &c. by reason of bad policy and idle
education (for they are likely brought up in no calling), are compelled to
beg or steal, and then hanged for theft; than which, what can be more
ignominious, _non minus enim turpe principi multa supplicia, quam medico
multa funera_, 'tis the governor's fault. _Libentius verberant quam
docent_, as schoolmasters do rather correct their pupils, than teach them
when they do amiss. [347]"They had more need provide there should be no
more thieves and beggars, as they ought with good policy, and take away the
occasions, than let them run on, as they do to their own destruction: root
out likewise those causes of wrangling, a multitude of lawyers, and compose
controversies, _lites lustrales et seculares_, by some more compendious
means." Whereas now for every toy and trifle they go to law, [348]_Mugit
litibus insanum forum, et saevit invicem discordantium rabies_, they are
ready to pull out one another's throats; and for commodity [349]"to squeeze
blood," saith Hierom, "out of their brother's heart," defame, lie,
disgrace, backbite, rail, bear false witness, swear, forswear, fight and
wrangle, spend their goods, lives, fortunes, friends, undo one another, to
enrich an harpy advocate, that preys upon them both, and cries _Eia
Socrates, Eia Xantippe_; or some corrupt judge, that like the [350]kite in
Aesop, while the mouse and frog fought, carried both away. Generally they
prey one upon another as so many ravenous birds, brute beasts, devouring
fishes, no medium, [351]_omnes hic aut captantur aut captant; aut cadavera
quae lacerantur, aut corvi qui lacerant_, either deceive or be deceived;
tear others or be torn in pieces themselves; like so many buckets in a
well, as one riseth another falleth, one's empty, another's full; his ruin
is a ladder to the third; such are our ordinary proceedings. What's the
market? A place, according to [352]Anacharsis, wherein they cozen one
another, a trap; nay, what's the world itself? [353]A vast chaos, a
confusion of manners, as fickle as the air, _domicilium insanorum_, a
turbulent troop full of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the
theatre of hypocrisy, a shop of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villainy,
the scene of babbling, the school of giddiness, the academy of vice; a
warfare, _ubi velis nolis pugnandum, aut vincas aut succumbas_, in which
kill or be killed; wherein every man is for himself, his private ends, and
stands upon his own guard. No charity, [354]love, friendship, fear of God,
alliance, affinity, consanguinity, Christianity, can contain them, but if
they be any ways offended, or that string of commodity be touched, they
fall foul. Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small
offences, and they that erst were willing to do all mutual offices of love
and kindness, now revile and persecute one another to death, with more than
Vatinian hatred, and will not be reconciled. So long as they are behoveful,
they love, or may bestead each other, but when there is no more good to be
expected, as they do by an old dog, hang him up or cashier him: which [355]
Cato counts a great indecorum, to use men like old shoes or broken glasses,
which are flung to the dunghill; he could not find in his heart to sell an
old ox, much less to turn away an old servant: but they instead of
recompense, revile him, and when they have made him an instrument of their
villainy, as [356]Bajazet the second Emperor of the Turks did by Acomethes
Bassa, make him away, or instead of [357]reward, hate him to death, as
Silius was served by Tiberius. In a word, every man for his own ends. Our
_summum bonum_ is commodity, and the goddess we adore _Dea moneta_, Queen
money, to whom we daily offer sacrifice, which steers our hearts, hands,
[358]affections, all: that most powerful goddess, by whom we are reared,
depressed, elevated, [359]esteemed the sole commandress of our actions, for
which we pray, run, ride, go, come, labour, and contend as fishes do for a
crumb that falleth into the water. It's not worth, virtue, (that's _bonum
theatrale_,) wisdom, valour, learning, honesty, religion, or any
sufficiency for which we are respected, but [360]money, greatness, office,
honour, authority; honesty is accounted folly; knavery, policy; [361]men
admired out of opinion, not as they are, but as they seem to be: such
shifting, lying, cogging, plotting, counterplotting, temporizing,
nattering, cozening, dissembling, [362]"that of necessity one must highly
offend God if he be conformable to the world, _Cretizare cum Crete_, or
else live in contempt, disgrace and misery." One takes upon him temperance,
holiness, another austerity, a third an affected kind of simplicity, when
as indeed, he, and he, and he, and the rest are [363]"hypocrites,
ambidexters," outsides, so many turning pictures, a lion on the one side,
a lamb on the other. [364]How would Democritus have been affected to see
these things!
To see a man turn himself into all shapes like a chameleon, or as Proteus,
_omnia transformans sese in miracula rerum_, to act twenty parts and
persons at once, for his advantage, to temporise and vary like Mercury the
planet, good with good; bad with bad; having a several face, garb, and
character for every one he meets; of all religions, humours, inclinations;
to fawn like a spaniel, _mentitis et mimicis obsequis_; rage like a lion,
bark like a cur, fight like a dragon, sting like a serpent, as meek as a
lamb, and yet again grin like a tiger, weep like a crocodile, insult over
some, and yet others domineer over him, here command, there crouch,
tyrannise in one place, be baffled in another, a wise man at home, a fool
abroad to make others merry.
To see so much difference betwixt words and deeds, so many parasangs
betwixt tongue and heart, men like stage-players act variety of parts,
[365]give good precepts to others, soar aloft, whilst they themselves
grovel on the ground.
To see a man protest friendship, kiss his hand, [366]_quem mallet truncatum
videre_, [367]smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he
salutes, [368]magnify his friend unworthy with hyperbolical eulogiums; his
enemy albeit a good man, to vilify and disgrace him, yea all his actions,
with the utmost that livor and malice can invent.
To see a [369]servant able to buy out his master, him that carries the mace
more worth than the magistrate, which Plato, _lib. 11, de leg._, absolutely
forbids, Epictetus abhors. A horse that tills the [370]land fed with chaff,
an idle jade have provender in abundance; him that makes shoes go barefoot
himself, him that sells meat almost pined; a toiling drudge starve, a drone
flourish.
To see men buy smoke for wares, castles built with fools' heads, men like
apes follow the fashions in tires, gestures, actions: if the king laugh,
all laugh;
[371] "Rides? majore chachiano
Concutitur, flet si lachrymas conspexit amici."
[372]Alexander stooped, so did his courtiers; Alphonsus turned his head,
and so did his parasites. [373]Sabina Poppea, Nero's wife, wore
amber-coloured hair, so did all the Roman ladies in an instant, her fashion
was theirs.
To see men wholly led by affection, admired and censured out of opinion
without judgment: an inconsiderate multitude, like so many dogs in a
village, if one bark all bark without a cause: as fortune's fan turns, if a
man be in favour, or commanded by some great one, all the world applauds
him; [374]if in disgrace, in an instant all hate him, and as at the sun
when he is eclipsed, that erst took no notice, now gaze and stare upon him.
To see a man [375]wear his brains in his belly, his guts in his head, an
hundred oaks on his back, to devour a hundred oxen at a meal, nay more, to
devour houses and towns, or as those Anthropophagi, [376]to eat one
another.
To see a man roll himself up like a snowball, from base beggary to right
worshipful and right honourable titles, unjustly to screw himself into
honours and offices; another to starve his genius, damn his soul to gather
wealth, which he shall not enjoy, which his prodigal son melts and consumes
in an instant. [377]
To see the [Greek: kakozaelian] of our times, a man bend all his forces,
means, time, fortunes, to be a favorite's favorite's favorite, &c., a
parasite's parasite's parasite, that may scorn the servile world as having
enough already.
To see an hirsute beggar's brat, that lately fed on scraps, crept and
whined, crying to all, and for an old jerkin ran of errands, now ruffle in
silk and satin, bravely mounted, jovial and polite, now scorn his old
friends and familiars, neglect his kindred, insult over his betters,
domineer over all.
To see a scholar crouch and creep to an illiterate peasant for a meal's
meat; a scrivener better paid for an obligation; a falconer receive greater
wages than a student; a lawyer get more in a day than a philosopher in a
year, better reward for an hour, than a scholar for a twelvemonth's study;
him that can [378]paint Thais, play on a fiddle, curl hair, &c., sooner get
preferment than a philologer or a poet.
To see a fond mother, like Aesop's ape, hug her child to death, a [379]
wittol wink at his wife's honesty, and too perspicuous in all other
affairs; one stumble at a straw, and leap over a block; rob Peter, and pay
Paul; scrape unjust sums with one hand, purchase great manors by
corruption, fraud and cozenage, and liberally to distribute to the poor
with the other, give a remnant to pious uses, &c. Penny wise, pound
foolish; blind men judge of colours; wise men silent, fools talk; [380]
find fault with others, and do worse themselves; [381]denounce that in
public which he doth in secret; and which Aurelius Victor gives out of
Augustus, severely censure that in a third, of which he is most guilty
himself.
To see a poor fellow, or an hired servant venture his life for his new
master that will scarce give him his wages at year's end; A country colon
toil and moil, till and drudge for a prodigal idle drone, that devours all
the gain, or lasciviously consumes with fantastical expenses; A noble man
in a bravado to encounter death, and for a small flash of honour to cast
away himself; A worldling tremble at an executor, and yet not fear
hell-fire; To wish and hope for immortality, desire to be happy, and yet by
all means avoid death, a necessary passage to bring him to it.
To see a foolhardy fellow like those old Danes, _qui decollari malunt quam
verberari_, die rather than be punished, in a sottish humour embrace death
with alacrity, yet [382]scorn to lament his own sins and miseries, or his
clearest friends' departures.
To see wise men degraded, fools preferred, one govern towns and cities, and
yet a silly woman overrules him at home; [383]Command a province, and yet
his own servants or children prescribe laws to him, as Themistocles' son
did in Greece; [384]"What I will" (said he) "my mother will, and what my
mother will, my father doth." To see horses ride in a coach, men draw it;
dogs devour their masters; towers build masons; children rule; old men go
to school; women wear the breeches; [385]sheep demolish towns, devour men,
&c. And in a word, the world turned upside downward. _O viveret
Democritus_.
[386]To insist in every particular were one of Hercules' labours, there's
so many ridiculous instances, as motes in the sun. _Quantum est in rebus
inane_? (How much vanity there is in things!) And who can speak of all?
_Crimine ab uno disce omnes_, take this for a taste.
But these are obvious to sense, trivial and well known, easy to be
discerned. How would Democritus have been moved, had he seen [387]the
secrets of their hearts? If every man had a window in his breast, which
Momus would have had in Vulcan's man, or that which Tully so much wished it
were written in every man's forehead, _Quid quisque de republica sentiret_,
what he thought; or that it could be effected in an instant, which Mercury
did by Charon in Lucian, by touching of his eyes, to make him discern
_semel et simul rumores et susurros_.
"Spes hominum caecas, morbos, votumque labores,
Et passim toto volitantes aethere curas."
"Blind hopes and wishes, their thoughts and affairs,
Whispers and rumours, and those flying cares."
That he could _cubiculorum obductas foras recludere et secreta cordium
penetrare_, which [388]Cyprian desired, open doors and locks, shoot bolts,
as Lucian's Gallus did with a feather of his tail: or Gyges' invisible
ring, or some rare perspective glass, or _Otacousticon_, which would so
multiply species, that a man might hear and see all at once (as [389]
Martianus Capella's Jupiter did in a spear which he held in his hand, which
did present unto him all that was daily done upon the face of the earth),
observe cuckolds' horns, forgeries of alchemists, the philosopher's stone,
new projectors, &c., and all those works of darkness, foolish vows, hopes,
fears and wishes, what a deal of laughter would it have afforded? He should
have seen windmills in one man's head, an hornet's nest in another. Or had
he been present with Icaromenippus in Lucian at Jupiter's whispering place,
[390]and heard one pray for rain, another for fair weather; one for his
wife's, another for his father's death, &c.; "to ask that at God's hand
which they are abashed any man should hear:" How would he have been
confounded? Would he, think you, or any man else, say that these men were
well in their wits? _Haec sani esse hominis quis sanus juret Orestes_? Can
all the hellebore in the Anticyrae cure these men? No, sure, [391]"an acre
of hellebore will not do it."
That which is more to be lamented, they are mad like Seneca's blind woman,
and will not acknowledge, or [392]seek for any cure of it, for _pauci
vident morbum suum, omnes amant_. If our leg or arm offend us, we covet by
all means possible to redress it; [393]and if we labour of a bodily
disease, we send for a physician; but for the diseases of the mind we take
no notice of them: [394]Lust harrows us on the one side; envy, anger,
ambition on the other. We are torn in pieces by our passions, as so many
wild horses, one in disposition, another in habit; one is melancholy,
another mad; [395]and which of us all seeks for help, doth acknowledge his
error, or knows he is sick? As that stupid fellow put out the candle
because the biting fleas should not find him; he shrouds himself in an
unknown habit, borrowed titles, because nobody should discern him. Every
man thinks with himself, _Egomet videor mihi sanus_, I am well, I am wise,
and laughs at others. And 'tis a general fault amongst them all, that [396]
which our forefathers have approved, diet, apparel, opinions, humours,
customs, manners, we deride and reject in our time as absurd. Old men
account juniors all fools, when they are mere dizzards; and as to sailors,
------_terraeque urbesque recedunt_------ they move, the land stands still,
the world hath much more wit, they dote themselves. Turks deride us, we
them; Italians Frenchmen, accounting them light headed fellows, the French
scoff again at Italians, and at their several customs; Greeks have
condemned all the world but themselves of barbarism, the world as much
vilifies them now; we account Germans heavy, dull fellows, explode many of
their fashions; they as contemptibly think of us; Spaniards laugh at all,
and all again at them. So are we fools and ridiculous, absurd in our
actions, carriages, diet, apparel, customs, and consultations; we [397]
scoff and point one at another, when as in conclusion all are fools, [398]
"and they the veriest asses that hide their ears most." A private man if he
be resolved with himself, or set on an opinion, accounts all idiots and
asses that are not affected as he is, [399]------_nil rectum, nisi quod
placuit sibi, ducit_, that are not so minded, [400](_quodque volunt homines
se bene velle putant_,) all fools that think not as he doth: he will not
say with Atticus, _Suam quisque sponsam, mihi meam_, let every man enjoy
his own spouse; but his alone is fair, _suus amor_, &c. and scorns all in
respect of himself [401]will imitate none, hear none [402]but himself, as
Pliny said, a law and example to himself. And that which Hippocrates, in
his epistle to Dionysius, reprehended of old, is verified in our times,
_Quisque in alio superfluum esse censet, ipse quod non habet nec curat_,
that which he hath not himself or doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity,
an idle quality, a mere foppery in another: like Aesop's fox, when he had
lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. The Chinese
say, that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world
else is blind: (though [403]Scaliger accounts them brutes too, _merum
pecus_,) so thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indifferent, the
rest beside themselves, mere idiots and asses. Thus not acknowledging our
own errors and imperfections, we securely deride others, as if we alone
were free, and spectators of the rest, accounting it an excellent thing, as
indeed it is, _Aliena optimum frui insania_, to make ourselves merry with
other men's obliquities, when as he himself is more faulty than the rest,
_mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur_, he may take himself by the nose for
a fool; and which one calls _maximum stultitiae specimen_, to be ridiculous
to others, and not to perceive or take notice of it, as Marsyas was when he
contended with Apollo, _non intelligens se deridiculo haberi_, saith [404]
Apuleius; 'tis his own cause, he is a convicted madman, as [405]Austin well
infers "in the eyes of wise men and angels he seems like one, that to our
thinking walks with his heels upwards." So thou laughest at me, and I at
thee, both at a third; and he returns that of the poet upon us again,
[406]_Hei mihi, insanire me aiunt, quum ipsi ultro insaniant_. We accuse
others of madness, of folly, and are the veriest dizzards ourselves. For it
is a great sign and property of a fool (which Eccl. x. 3, points at) out of
pride and self-conceit to insult, vilify, condemn, censure, and call other
men fools (_Non videmus manticae quod a tergo est_) to tax that in others
of which we are most faulty; teach that which we follow not ourselves: For
an inconstant man to write of constancy, a profane liver prescribe rules of
sanctity and piety, a dizzard himself make a treatise of wisdom, or with
Sallust to rail downright at spoilers of countries, and yet in [407]office
to be a most grievous poller himself. This argues weakness, and is an
evident sign of such parties' indiscretion. [408]_Peccat uter nostrum cruce
dignius_? "Who is the fool now?" Or else peradventure in some places we are
all mad for company, and so 'tis not seen, _Satietas erroris et dementiae,
pariter absurditatem et admirationem tollit_. 'Tis with us, as it was of
old (in [409]Tully's censure at least) with C. Pimbria in Rome, a bold,
hair-brain, mad fellow, and so esteemed of all, such only excepted, that
were as mad as himself: now in such a case there is [410]no notice taken of
it.
"Nimirum insanus paucis videatur; eo quod
Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem."
"When all are mad, where all are like opprest
Who can discern one mad man from the rest?"
But put case they do perceive it, and some one be manifestly convicted of
madness, [411]he now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture,
speech, a vain humour he hath in building, bragging, jangling, spending,
gaming, courting, scribbling, prating, for which he is ridiculous to
others, [412]on which he dotes, he doth acknowledge as much: yet with all
the rhetoric thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, but to the contrary
notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. 'Tis _amabilis insania,
et mentis gratissimus error_, so pleasing, so delicious, that he [413]
cannot leave it. He knows his error, but will not seek to decline it, tell
him what the event will be, beggary, sorrow, sickness, disgrace, shame,
loss, madness, yet [414]"an angry man will prefer vengeance, a lascivious
his whore, a thief his booty, a glutton his belly, before his welfare."
Tell an epicure, a covetous man, an ambitious man of his irregular course,
wean him from it a little, _pol me occidistis amici_, he cries anon, you
have undone him, and as [415]a "dog to his vomit," he returns to it again;
no persuasion will take place, no counsel, say what thou canst,
"Clames licet et mare coelo
------Confundas, surdo narras,"[416]
demonstrate as Ulysses did to [417]Elpenor and Gryllus, and the rest of his
companions "those swinish men," he is irrefragable in his humour, he will
be a hog still; bray him in a mortar, he will be the same. If he be in an
heresy, or some perverse opinion, settled as some of our ignorant Papists
are, convince his understanding, show him the several follies and absurd
fopperies of that sect, force him to say, _veris vincor_, make it as clear
as the sun, [418]he will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is; and as
he said [419]_si in hoc erro, libenter erro, nec hunc errorem auferri mihi
volo_; I will do as I have done, as my predecessors have done, [420]and as
my friends now do: I will dote for company. Say now, are these men [421]mad
or no, [422]_Heus age responde_? are they ridiculous? _cedo quemvis
arbitrum_, are they _sanae mentis_, sober, wise, and discreet? have they
common sense? ------[423]_uter est insanior horum_? I am of Democritus'
opinion for my part, I hold them worthy to be laughed at; a company of
brain-sick dizzards, as mad as [424]Orestes and Athamas, that they may go
"ride the ass," and all sail along to the Anticyrae, in the "ship of fools"
for company together. I need not much labour to prove this which I say
otherwise than thus, make any solemn protestation, or swear, I think you
will believe me without an oath; say at a word, are they fools? I refer it
to you, though you be likewise fools and madmen yourselves, and I as mad to
ask the question; for what said our comical Mercury?
[425] "Justum ab injustis petere insipientia est."
"I'll stand to your censure yet, what think you?"
But forasmuch as I undertook at first, that kingdoms, provinces, families,
were melancholy as well as private men, I will examine them in particular,
and that which I have hitherto dilated at random, in more general terms, I
will particularly insist in, prove with more special and evident arguments,
testimonies, illustrations, and that in brief. [426]_Nunc accipe quare
desipiant omnes aeque ac tu._ My first argument is borrowed from Solomon,
an arrow drawn out of his sententious quiver, Pro. iii. 7, "Be not wise in
thine own eyes." And xxvi. 12, "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
more hope is of a fool than of him." Isaiah pronounceth a woe against such
men, cap. v. 21, "that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
sight." For hence we may gather, that it is a great offence, and men are
much deceived that think too well of themselves, an especial argument to
convince them of folly. Many men (saith [427]Seneca) "had been without
question wise, had they not had an opinion that they had attained to
perfection of knowledge already, even before they had gone half way," too
forward, too ripe, _praeproperi_, too quick and ready, [428]_cito
prudentes, cito pii, cito mariti, cito patres, cito sacerdotes, cito omnis
officii capaces et curiosi_, they had too good a conceit of themselves, and
that marred all; of their worth, valour, skill, art, learning, judgment,
eloquence, their good parts; all their geese are swans, and that manifestly
proves them to be no better than fools. In former times they had but seven
wise men, now you can scarce find so many fools. Thales sent the golden
tripos, which the fishermen found, and the oracle commanded to be [429]
"given to the wisest, to Bias, Bias to Solon," &c. If such a thing were now
found, we should all fight for it, as the three goddesses did for the
golden apple, we are so wise: we have women politicians, children
metaphysicians; every silly fellow can square a circle, make perpetual
motions, find the philosopher's stone, interpret Apocalypses, make new
Theories, a new system of the world, new Logic, new Philosophy, &c. _Nostra
utique regio_, saith [430]Petronius, "our country is so full of deified
spirits, divine souls, that you may sooner find a God than a man amongst
us," we think so well of ourselves, and that is an ample testimony of much
folly.
My second argument is grounded upon the like place of Scripture, which
though before mentioned in effect, yet for some reasons is to be repeated
(and by Plato's good leave, I may do it, [431][Greek: dis to kalon raethen
ouden blaptei]) "Fools" (saith David) "by reason of their transgressions."
&c. Psal. cvii. 17. Hence Musculus infers all transgressors must needs be
fools. So we read Rom. ii., "Tribulation and anguish on the soul of every
man that doeth evil;" but all do evil. And Isaiah, lxv. 14, "My servant
shall sing for joy, and [432]ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and vexation
of mind." 'Tis ratified by the common consent of all philosophers.
"Dishonesty" (saith Cardan) "is nothing else but folly and madness." [433]
_Probus quis nobiscum vivit_? Show me an honest man, _Nemo malus qui non
stultus_, 'tis Fabius' aphorism to the same end. If none honest, none wise,
then all fools. And well may they be so accounted: for who will account him
otherwise, _Qui iter adornat in occidentem, quum properaret in orientem_?
that goes backward all his life, westward, when he is bound to the east? or
hold him a wise man (saith [434]Musculus) "that prefers momentary pleasures
to eternity, that spends his master's goods in his absence, forthwith to be
condemned for it?" _Nequicquam sapit qui sibi non sapit_, who will say that
a sick man is wise, that eats and drinks to overthrow the temperature of
his body? Can you account him wise or discreet that would willingly have
his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it?
[435]Theodoret, out of Plotinus the Platonist, "holds it a ridiculous thing
for a man to live after his own laws, to do that which is offensive to God,
and yet to hope that he should save him: and when he voluntarily neglects
his own safety, and contemns the means, to think to be delivered by
another:" who will say these men are wise?
A third argument may be derived from the precedent, [436]all men are
carried away with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, &c., they generally
hate those virtues they should love, and love such vices they should hate.
Therefore more than melancholy, quite mad, brute beasts, and void of
reason, so Chrysostom contends; "or rather dead and buried alive," as [437]
Philo Judeus concludes it for a certainty, "of all such that are carried
away with passions, or labour of any disease of the mind. Where is fear and
sorrow," there [438]Lactantius stiffly maintains, "wisdom cannot dwell,"
------"qui cupiet, metuet quoque porro,
Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam."[439]
Seneca and the rest of the stoics are of opinion, that where is any the
least perturbation, wisdom may not be found. "What more ridiculous," as
[440]Lactantius urges, than to hear how Xerxes whipped the Hellespont,
threatened the Mountain Athos, and the like. To speak _ad rem_, who is free
from passion? [441]_Mortalis nemo est quem non attingat dolor, morbusve_,
as [442]Tully determines out of an old poem, no mortal men can avoid sorrow
and sickness, and sorrow is an inseparable companion from melancholy.
[443]Chrysostom pleads farther yet, that they are more than mad, very
beasts, stupefied and void of common sense: "For how" (saith he) "shall I
know thee to be a man, when thou kickest like an ass, neighest like a horse
after women, ravest in lust like a bull, ravenest like a bear, stingest
like a scorpion, rakest like a wolf, as subtle as a fox, as impudent as a
dog? Shall I say thou art a man, that hast all the symptoms of a beast? How
shall I know thee to be a man? by thy shape? That affrights me more, when I
see a beast in likeness of a man."
[444]Seneca calls that of Epicurus, _magnificam vocem_, an heroical speech,
"A fool still begins to live," and accounts it a filthy lightness in men,
every day to lay new foundations of their life, but who doth otherwise? One
travels, another builds; one for this, another for that business, and old
folks are as far out as the rest; _O dementem senectutem_, Tully exclaims.
Therefore young, old, middle age, are all stupid, and dote.
[445]Aeneas Sylvius, amongst many other, sets down three special ways to
find a fool by. He is a fool that seeks that he cannot find: he is a fool
that seeks that, which being found will do him more harm than good: he is a
fool, that having variety of ways to bring him to his journey's end, takes
that which is worst. If so, methinks most men are fools; examine their
courses, and you shall soon perceive what dizzards and mad men the major
part are.
Beroaldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than
ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad. The first pot quencheth thirst, so
Panyasis the poet determines in _Athenaeus, secunda gratiis, horis et
Dyonisio_: the second makes merry, the third for pleasure, _quarta, ad
insaniam_, the fourth makes them mad. If this position be true, what a
catalogue of mad men shall we have? what shall they be that drink four
times four? _Nonne supra omnem furorem, supra omnem insanian reddunt
insanissimos_? I am of his opinion, they are more than mad, much worse than
mad.
The [446]Abderites condemned Democritus for a mad man, because he was
sometimes sad, and sometimes again profusely merry. _Hac Patria_ (saith
Hippocrates) _ob risum furere et insanire dicunt_, his countrymen hold him
mad because he laughs; [447]and therefore "he desires him to advise all his
friends at Rhodes, that they do not laugh too much, or be over sad." Had
those Abderites been conversant with us, and but seen what [448] fleering
and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have concluded, we
had been all out of our wits.
Aristotle in his Ethics holds _felix idemque sapiens_, to be wise and
happy, are reciprocal terms, _bonus idemque sapiens honestus_. 'Tis [449]
Tully's paradox, "wise men are free, but fools are slaves," liberty is a
power to live according to his own laws, as we will ourselves: who hath
this liberty? who is free?
[450] ------"sapiens sibique imperiosus,
Quem neque pauperis, neque mors, neque vincula terrent,
Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores
Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus."
"He is wise that can command his own will,
Valiant and constant to himself still,
Whom poverty nor death, nor bands can fright,
Checks his desires, scorns honours, just and right."
But where shall such a man be found? If no where, then _e diametro_, we are
all slaves, senseless, or worse. _Nemo malus felix_. But no man is happy
in this life, none good, therefore no man wise. [451]_Rari quippe
boni_------ For one virtue you shall find ten vices in the same party;
_pauci Promethei, multi Epimethei_. We may peradventure usurp the name, or
attribute it to others for favour, as Carolus Sapiens, Philippus Bonus,
Lodovicus Pius, &c., and describe the properties of a wise man, as Tully
doth an orator, Xenophon Cyrus, Castilio a courtier, Galen temperament, an
aristocracy is described by politicians. But where shall such a man be
found?
"Vir bonus et sapiens, qualem vix repperit unum
Millibus e multis hominum consultus Apollo."
"A wise, a good man in a million,
Apollo consulted could scarce find one."
A man is a miracle of himself, but Trismegistus adds, _Maximum miraculum
homo sapiens_, a wise man is a wonder: _multi Thirsigeri, pauci Bacchi_.
Alexander when he was presented with that rich and costly casket of king
Darius, and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep
Homer's works, as the most precious jewel of human wit, and yet [452]
Scaliger upbraids Homer's muse, _Nutricem insanae sapientiae_, a nursery of
madness, [453]impudent as a court lady, that blushes at nothing. Jacobus
Mycillus, Gilbertus Cognatus, Erasmus, and almost all posterity admire
Lucian's luxuriant wit, yet Scaliger rejects him in his censure, and calls
him the Cerberus of the muses. Socrates, whom all the world so much
magnified, is by Lactantius and Theodoret condemned for a fool. Plutarch
extols Seneca's wit beyond all the Greeks, _nulli secundus_, yet [454]
Seneca saith of himself, "when I would solace myself with a fool, I reflect
upon myself, and there I have him." Cardan, in his Sixteenth Book of
Subtleties, reckons up twelve supereminent, acute philosophers, for worth,
subtlety, and wisdom: Archimedes, Galen, Vitruvius, Architas Tarentinus,
Euclid, Geber, that first inventor of Algebra, Alkindus the Mathematician,
both Arabians, with others. But his _triumviri terrarum_ far beyond the
rest, are Ptolomaeus, Plotinus, Hippocrates. Scaliger _exercitat. 224_,
scoffs at this censure of his, calls some of them carpenters and
mechanicians, he makes Galen _fimbriam Hippocratis_, a skirt of
Hippocrates: and the said [455]Cardan himself elsewhere condemns both Galen
and Hippocrates for tediousness, obscurity, confusion. Paracelsus will have
them both mere idiots, infants in physic and philosophy. Scaliger and
Cardan admire Suisset the Calculator, _qui pene modum excessit humani
ingenii_, and yet [456]Lod. Vives calls them _nugas Suisseticas_: and
Cardan, opposite to himself in another place, contemns those ancients in
respect of times present, [457]_Majoresque nostros ad presentes collatos
juste pueros appellari_. In conclusion, the said [458]Cardan and Saint
Bernard will admit none into this catalogue of wise men, [459]but only
prophets and apostles; how they esteem themselves, you have heard before.
We are worldly-wise, admire ourselves, and seek for applause: but hear
Saint [460]Bernard, _quanto magis foras es sapiens, tanto magis intus
stultus efficeris_, &c. _in omnibus es prudens, circa teipsum insipiens_:
the more wise thou art to others, the more fool to thyself. I may not deny
but that there is some folly approved, a divine fury, a holy madness, even
a spiritual drunkenness in the saints of God themselves; _sanctum insanium_
Bernard calls it (though not as blaspheming [461]Vorstius, would infer it
as a passion incident to God himself, but) familiar to good men, as that of
Paul, 2 Cor. "he was a fool," &c. and Rom. ix. he wisheth himself to be
anathematised for them. Such is that drunkenness which Ficinus speaks of,
when the soul is elevated and ravished with a divine taste of that heavenly
nectar, which poets deciphered by the sacrifice of Dionysius, and in this
sense with the poet, [462]_insanire lubet_, as Austin exhorts us, _ad
ebrietatem se quisque paret_, let's all be mad and [463]drunk. But we
commonly mistake, and go beyond our commission, we reel to the opposite
part, [464]we are not capable of it, [465]and as he said of the Greeks,
_Vos Graeci semper pueri, vos Britanni, Galli, Germani, Itali_, &c. you are
a company of fools.
Proceed now _a partibus ad totum_, or from the whole to parts, and you
shall find no other issue, the parts shall be sufficiently dilated in this
following Preface. The whole must needs follow by a sorites or induction.
Every multitude is mad, [466]_bellua multorum capitum_, (a many-headed
beast), precipitate and rash without judgment, _stultum animal_, a roaring
rout. [467]Roger Bacon proves it out of Aristotle, _Vulgus dividi in
oppositum contra sapientes, quod vulgo videtur verum, falsum est_; that
which the commonalty accounts true, is most part false, they are still
opposite to wise men, but all the world is of this humour (_vulgus_), and
thou thyself art _de vulgo_, one of the commonalty; and he, and he, and so
are all the rest; and therefore, as Phocion concludes, to be approved in
nought you say or do, mere idiots and asses. Begin then where you will, go
backward or forward, choose out of the whole pack, wink and choose, you
shall find them all alike, "never a barrel better herring."
Copernicus, Atlas his successor, is of opinion, the earth is a planet,
moves and shines to others, as the moon doth to us. Digges, Gilbert,
Keplerus, Origanus, and others, defend this hypothesis of his in sober
sadness, and that the moon is inhabited: if it be so that the earth is a
moon, then are we also giddy, vertiginous and lunatic within this sublunary
maze.
I could produce such arguments till dark night: if you should hear the
rest,
"Ante diem clauso component vesper Olimpo:"
"Through such a train of words if I should run,
The day would sooner than the tale be done:"
but according to my promise, I will descend to particulars. This melancholy
extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles. I speak
not of those creatures which are saturnine, melancholy by nature, as lead,
and such like minerals, or those plants, rue, cypress, &c. and hellebore
itself, of which [468]Agrippa treats, fishes, birds, and beasts, hares,
conies, dormice, &c., owls, bats, nightbirds, but that artificial, which is
perceived in them all. Remove a plant, it will pine away, which is
especially perceived in date trees, as you may read at large in
Constantine's husbandry, that antipathy betwixt the vine and the cabbage,
vine and oil. Put a bird in a cage, he will die for sullenness, or a beast
in a pen, or take his young ones or companions from him, and see what
effect it will cause. But who perceives not these common passions of
sensible creatures, fear, sorrow, &c. Of all other, dogs are most subject
to this malady, insomuch some hold they dream as men do, and through
violence of melancholy run mad; I could relate many stories of dogs that
have died for grief, and pined away for loss of their masters, but they are
common in every [469]author.
Kingdoms, provinces, and politic bodies are likewise sensible and subject
to this disease, as [470]Boterus in his politics hath proved at large. "As
in human bodies" (saith he) "there be divers alterations proceeding from
humours, so be there many diseases in a commonwealth, which do as diversely
happen from several distempers," as you may easily perceive by their
particular symptoms. For where you shall see the people civil, obedient to
God and princes, judicious, peaceable and quiet, rich, fortunate, [471]and
flourish, to live in peace, in unity and concord, a country well tilled,
many fair built and populous cities, _ubi incolae nitent_ as old [472]Cato
said, the people are neat, polite and terse, _ubi bene, beateque vivunt_,
which our politicians make the chief end of a commonwealth; and which [473]
Aristotle, _Polit. lib. 3, cap. 4_, calls _Commune bonum_, Polybius _lib.
6_, _optabilem et selectum statum_, that country is free from melancholy;
as it was in Italy in the time of Augustus, now in China, now in many other
flourishing kingdoms of Europe. But whereas you shall see many discontents,
common grievances, complaints, poverty, barbarism, beggary, plagues, wars,
rebellions, seditions, mutinies, contentions, idleness, riot, epicurism,
the land lie untilled, waste, full of bogs, fens, deserts, &c., cities
decayed, base and poor towns, villages depopulated, the people squalid,
ugly, uncivil; that kingdom, that country, must needs be discontent,
melancholy, hath a sick body, and had need to be reformed.
Now that cannot well be effected, till the causes of these maladies be
first removed, which commonly proceed from their own default, or some
accidental inconvenience: as to be situated in a bad clime, too far north,
sterile, in a barren place, as the desert of Libya, deserts of Arabia,
places void of waters, as those of Lop and Belgian in Asia, or in a bad
air, as at Alexandretta, Bantam, Pisa, Durrazzo, S. John de Ulloa, &c., or
in danger of the sea's continual inundations, as in many places of the Low
Countries and elsewhere, or near some bad neighbours, as Hungarians to
Turks, Podolians to Tartars, or almost any bordering countries, they live
in fear still, and by reason of hostile incursions are oftentimes left
desolate. So are cities by reason [474]of wars, fires, plagues,
inundations, [475]wild beasts, decay of trades, barred havens, the sea's
violence, as Antwerp may witness of late, Syracuse of old, Brundusium in
Italy, Rye and Dover with us, and many that at this day suspect the sea's
fury and rage, and labour against it as the Venetians to their inestimable
charge. But the most frequent maladies are such as proceed from themselves,
as first when religion and God's service is neglected, innovated or
altered, where they do not fear God, obey their prince, where atheism,
epicurism, sacrilege, simony, &c., and all such impieties are freely
committed, that country cannot prosper. When Abraham came to Gerar, and saw
a bad land, he said, sure the fear of God was not in that place. [476]
Cyprian Echovius, a Spanish chorographer, above all other cities of Spain,
commends Borcino, "in which there was no beggar, no man poor, &c., but all
rich, and in good estate, and he gives the reason, because they were more
religious than, their neighbours:" why was Israel so often spoiled by their
enemies, led into captivity, &c., but for their idolatry, neglect of God's
word, for sacrilege, even for one Achan's fault? And what shall we except
that have such multitudes of Achans, church robbers, simoniacal patrons,
&c., how can they hope to flourish, that neglect divine duties, that live
most part like Epicures?
Other common grievances are generally noxious to a body politic; alteration
of laws and customs, breaking privileges, general oppressions, seditions,
&c., observed by [477]Aristotle, Bodin, Boterus, Junius, Arniscus, &c. I
will only point at some of chiefest. [478]_Impotentia gubernandi, ataxia_,
confusion, ill government, which proceeds from unskilful, slothful,
griping, covetous, unjust, rash, or tyrannizing magistrates, when they are
fools, idiots, children, proud, wilful, partial, indiscreet, oppressors,
giddy heads, tyrants, not able or unfit to manage such offices: [479]many
noble cities and flourishing kingdoms by that means are desolate, the whole
body groans under such heads, and all the members must needs be
disaffected, as at this day those goodly provinces in Asia Minor, &c. groan
under the burthen of a Turkish government; and those vast kingdoms of
Muscovia, Russia, [480]under a tyrannizing duke. Who ever heard of more
civil and rich populous countries than those of "Greece, Asia Minor,
abounding with all [481]wealth, multitudes of inhabitants, force, power,
splendour and magnificence?" and that miracle of countries, [482]the Holy
Land, that in so small a compass of ground could maintain so many towns,
cities, produce so many fighting men? Egypt another paradise, now barbarous
and desert, and almost waste, by the despotical government of an imperious
Turk, _intolerabili servitutis jugo premitur_ ([483]one saith) not only
fire and water, goods or lands, _sed ipse spiritus ab insolentissimi
victoris pendet nutu_, such is their slavery, their lives and souls depend
upon his insolent will and command. A tyrant that spoils all wheresoever he
comes, insomuch that an [484]historian complains, "if an old inhabitant
should now see them, he would not know them, if a traveller, or stranger,
it would grieve his heart to behold them." Whereas [485]Aristotle notes,
_Novae exactiones, nova onera imposita_, new burdens and exactions daily
come upon them, like those of which Zosimus, _lib. 2_, so grievous, _ut
viri uxores, patres filios prostituerent ut exactoribus e questu_, &c.,
they must needs be discontent, _hinc civitatum gemitus et ploratus_, as
[486] Tully holds, hence come those complaints and tears of cities, "poor,
miserable, rebellious, and desperate subjects," as [487]Hippolitus adds;
and [488]as a judicious countryman of ours observed not long since, in a
survey of that great Duchy of Tuscany, the people lived much grieved and
discontent, as appeared by their manifold and manifest complainings in that
kind. "That the state was like a sick body which had lately taken physic,
whose humours are not yet well settled, and weakened so much by purging,
that nothing was left but melancholy."
Whereas the princes and potentates are immoderate in lust, hypocrites,
epicures, of no religion, but in show: _Quid hypocrisi fragilius_? what so
brittle and unsure? what sooner subverts their estates than wandering and
raging lusts, on their subjects' wives, daughters? to say no worse. That
they should _facem praeferre_, lead the way to all virtuous actions, are
the ringleaders oftentimes of all mischief and dissolute courses, and by
that means their countries are plagued, [489]"and they themselves often
ruined, banished, or murdered by conspiracy of their subjects, as
Sardanapalus was, Dionysius Junior, Heliogabalus, Periander, Pisistratus,
Tarquinius, Timocrates, Childericus, Appius Claudius, Andronicus, Galeacius
Sforza, Alexander Medices," &c.
Whereas the princes or great men are malicious, envious, factious,
ambitious, emulators, they tear a commonwealth asunder, as so many Guelfs
and Gibelines disturb the quietness of it, [490]and with mutual murders let
it bleed to death; our histories are too full of such barbarous
inhumanities, and the miseries that issue from them.
Whereas they be like so many horseleeches, hungry, griping, corrupt, [491]
covetous, _avaritice mancipia_, ravenous as wolves, for as Tully writes:
_qui praeest prodest, et qui pecudibus praeest, debet eorum utilitati
inservire_: or such as prefer their private before the public good. For as
[492]he said long since, _res privatae publicis semper officere_. Or
whereas they be illiterate, ignorant, empirics in policy, _ubi deest
facultas_, [493]_virtus_ (Aristot. _pol. 5, cap. 8._) _et scientia_, wise
only by inheritance, and in authority by birthright, favour, or for their
wealth and titles; there must needs be a fault, [494]a great defect:
because as an [495]old philosopher affirms, such men are not always fit.
"Of an infinite number, few alone are senators, and of those few, fewer
good, and of that small number of honest, good, and noble men, few that are
learned, wise, discreet and sufficient, able to discharge such places, it
must needs turn to the confusion of a state."
For as the [496]Princes are, so are the people; _Qualis Rex, talis grex_:
and which [497]Antigonus right well said of old, _qui Macedonia regem
erudit, omnes etiam subditos erudit_, he that teacheth the king of Macedon,
teacheth all his subjects, is a true saying still.
"For Princes are the glass, the school, the book,
Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look."
------"Velocius et citius nos
Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica, magnis
Cum subeant animos auctoribus."------[498]
Their examples are soonest followed, vices entertained, if they be profane,
irreligious, lascivious, riotous, epicures, factious, covetous, ambitious,
illiterate, so will the commons most part be, idle, unthrifts, prone to
lust, drunkards, and therefore poor and needy ([Greek: hae penia stasin
empoiei kai kakourgian], for poverty begets sedition and villainy) upon all
occasions ready to mutiny and rebel, discontent still, complaining,
murmuring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts, treasons, murders,
innovations, in debt, shifters, cozeners, outlaws, _Profligatae famae ac
vitae_. It was an old [499]politician's aphorism, "They that are poor and
bad envy rich, hate good men, abhor the present government, wish for a new,
and would have all turned topsy-turvy." When Catiline rebelled in Rome, he
got a company of such debauched rogues together, they were his familiars
and coadjutors, and such have been your rebels most part in all ages, Jack
Cade, Tom Straw, Kette, and his companions.
Where they be generally riotous and contentious, where there be many
discords, many laws, many lawsuits, many lawyers and many physicians, it is
a manifest sign of a distempered, melancholy state, as [500]Plato long
since maintained: for where such kind of men swarm, they will make more
work for themselves, and that body politic diseased, which was otherwise
sound. A general mischief in these our times, an insensible plague, and
never so many of them: "which are now multiplied" (saith Mat. Geraldus,
[501]a lawyer himself,) "as so many locusts, not the parents, but the
plagues of the country, and for the most part a supercilious, bad,
covetous, litigious generation of men." [502]_Crumenimulga natio_ &c. A
purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures, [503]_qui ex
injuria vivent et sanguine civium_, thieves and seminaries of discord;
worse than any pollers by the highway side, _auri accipitres, auri
exterebronides, pecuniarum hamiolae, quadruplatores, curiae harpagones,
fori tintinabula, monstra hominum, mangones_, &c. that take upon them to
make peace, but are indeed the very disturbers of our peace, a company of
irreligious harpies, scraping, griping catchpoles, (I mean our common
hungry pettifoggers, [504]_rabulas forenses_, love and honour in the
meantime all good laws, and worthy lawyers, that are so many [505]oracles
and pilots of a well-governed commonwealth). Without art, without judgment,
that do more harm, as [506]Livy said, _quam bella externa, fames, morbive_,
than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases; "and cause a most incredible
destruction of a commonwealth," saith [507]Sesellius, a famous civilian
sometimes in Paris, as ivy doth by an oak, embrace it so long, until it
hath got the heart out of it, so do they by such places they inhabit; no
counsel at all, no justice, no speech to be had, _nisi eum premulseris_, he
must be fed still, or else he is as mute as a fish, better open an oyster
without a knife. _Experto crede_ (saith [508] Salisburiensis) _in manus
eorum millies incidi, et Charon immitis qui nulli pepercit unquam, his
longe clementior est_; "I speak out of experience, I have been a thousand
times amongst them, and Charon himself is more gentle than they; [509]he is
contented with his single pay, but they multiply still, they are never
satisfied," besides they have _damnificas linguas_, as he terms it, _nisi
funibus argenteis vincias_, they must be fed to say nothing, and [510]get
more to hold their peace than we can to say our best. They will speak their
clients fair, and invite them to their tables, but as he follows it,
[511]"of all injustice there is none so pernicious as that of theirs, which
when they deceive most, will seem to be honest men." They take upon them to
be peacemakers, _et fovere causas humilium_, to help them to their right,
_patrocinantur afflictis_, [512]but all is for their own good, _ut loculos
pleniorom exhauriant_, they plead for poor men gratis, but they are but as
a stale to catch others. If there be no jar, [513]they can make a jar, out
of the law itself find still some quirk or other, to set them at odds, and
continue causes so long, _lustra aliquot_, I know not how many years before
the cause is heard, and when 'tis judged and determined by reason of some
tricks and errors, it is as fresh to begin, after twice seven years
sometimes, as it was at first; and so they prolong time, delay suits till
they have enriched themselves, and beggared their clients. And, as
[514]Cato inveighed against Isocrates' scholars, we may justly tax our
wrangling lawyers, they do _consenescere in litibus_, are so litigious and
busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their client's causes
hereafter, some of them in hell. [515] Simlerus complains amongst the
Swissers of the advocates in his time, that when they should make an end,
they began controversies, and "protract their causes many years, persuading
them their title is good, till their patrimonies be consumed, and that they
have spent more in seeking than the thing is worth, or they shall get by
the recovery." So that he that goes to law, as the proverb is, [516]holds a
wolf by the ears, or as a sheep in a storm runs for shelter to a brier, if
he prosecute his cause he is consumed, if he surcease his suit he loseth
all; [517]what difference? They had wont heretofore, saith Austin, to end
matters, _per communes arbitros_; and so in Switzerland (we are informed by
[518]Simlerus), "they had some common arbitrators or daysmen in every town,
that made a friendly composition betwixt man and man, and he much wonders
at their honest simplicity, that could keep peace so well, and end such
great causes by that means." At [519]Fez in Africa, they have neither
lawyers nor advocates; but if there be any controversies amongst them, both
parties plaintiff and defendant come to their Alfakins or chief judge, "and
at once without any farther appeals or pitiful delays, the cause is heard
and ended." Our forefathers, as [520]a worthy chorographer of ours
observes, had wont _pauculis cruculis aureis_, with a few golden crosses,
and lines in verse, make all conveyances, assurances. And such was the
candour and integrity of succeeding ages, that a deed (as I have oft seen)
to convey a whole manor, was _implicite_ contained in some twenty lines or
thereabouts; like that scede or _Sytala Laconica_, so much renowned of old
in all contracts, which [521]Tully so earnestly commends to Atticus,
Plutarch in his Lysander, Aristotle _polit._: Thucydides, _lib. 1_,
[522]Diodorus and Suidus approve and magnify, for that laconic brevity in
this kind; and well they might, for, according to [523]Tertullian, _certa
sunt paucis_, there is much more certainty in fewer words. And so was it of
old throughout: but now many skins of parchment will scarce serve turn; he
that buys and sells a house, must have a house full of writings, there be
so many circumstances, so many words, such tautological repetitions of all
particulars (to avoid cavillation they say); but we find by our woeful
experience, that to subtle wits it is a cause of much more contention and
variance, and scarce any conveyance so accurately penned by one, which
another will not find a crack in, or cavil at; if any one word be
misplaced, any little error, all is disannulled. That which is a law today,
is none tomorrow; that which is sound in one man's opinion, is most faulty
to another; that in conclusion, here is nothing amongst us but contention
and confusion, we bandy one against another. And that which long since
[524]Plutarch complained of them in Asia, may be verified in our times.
"These men here assembled, come not to sacrifice to their gods, to offer
Jupiter their first-fruits, or merriments to Bacchus; but an yearly disease
exasperating Asia hath brought them hither, to make an end of their
controversies and lawsuits." 'Tis _multitudo perdentium et pereuntium_, a
destructive rout that seek one another's ruin. Such most part are our
ordinary suitors, termers, clients, new stirs every day, mistakes, errors,
cavils, and at this present, as I have heard in some one court, I know not
how many thousand causes: no person free, no title almost good, with such
bitterness in following, so many slights, procrastinations, delays,
forgery, such cost (for infinite sums are inconsiderately spent), violence
and malice, I know not by whose fault, lawyers, clients, laws, both or all:
but as Paul reprehended the [525]Corinthians long since, I may more
positively infer now: "There is a fault amongst you, and I speak it to your
shame, Is there not a [526]wise man amongst you, to judge between his
brethren? but that a brother goes to law with a brother." And [527]Christ's
counsel concerning lawsuits, was never so fit to be inculcated as in this
age: [528]"Agree with thine adversary quickly," &c. Matth. v. 25.
I could repeat many such particular grievances, which must disturb a body
politic. To shut up all in brief, where good government is, prudent and
wise princes, there all things thrive and prosper, peace and happiness is
in that land: where it is otherwise, all things are ugly to behold, incult,
barbarous, uncivil, a paradise is turned to a wilderness. This island
amongst the rest, our next neighbours the French and Germans, may be a
sufficient witness, that in a short time by that prudent policy of the
Romans, was brought from barbarism; see but what Caesar reports of us, and
Tacitus of those old Germans, they were once as uncivil as they in
Virginia, yet by planting of colonies and good laws, they became from
barbarous outlaws, [529]to be full of rich and populous cities, as now they
are, and most flourishing kingdoms. Even so might Virginia, and those wild
Irish have been civilised long since, if that order had been heretofore
taken, which now begins, of planting colonies, &c. I have read a
[530]discourse, printed _anno_ 1612. "Discovering the true causes why
Ireland was never entirely subdued, or brought under obedience to the crown
of England, until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign." Yet if his
reasons were thoroughly scanned by a judicious politician, I am afraid he
would not altogether be approved, but that it would turn to the dishonour
of our nation, to suffer it to lie so long waste. Yea, and if some
travellers should see (to come nearer home) those rich, united provinces of
Holland, Zealand, &c., over against us; those neat cities and populous
towns, full of most industrious artificers, [531]so much land recovered
from the sea, and so painfully preserved by those artificial inventions, so
wonderfully approved, as that of Bemster in Holland, _ut nihil huic par aut
simile invenias in toto orbe_, saith Bertius the geographer, all the world
cannot match it, [532]so many navigable channels from place to place, made
by men's hands, &c. and on the other side so many thousand acres of our
fens lie drowned, our cities thin, and those vile, poor, and ugly to behold
in respect of theirs, our trades decayed, our still running rivers stopped,
and that beneficial use of transportation, wholly neglected, so many havens
void of ships and towns, so many parks and forests for pleasure, barren
heaths, so many villages depopulated, &c. I think sure he would find some
fault.
I may not deny but that this nation of ours, doth _bene audire apud
exteros_, is a most noble, a most flourishing kingdom, by common consent of
all [533]geographers, historians, politicians, 'tis _unica velut arx_,
[534]and which Quintius in Livy said of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus,
may be well applied to us, we are _testudines testa sua inclusi_, like so
many tortoises in our shells, safely defended by an angry sea, as a wall on
all sides. Our island hath many such honourable eulogiums; and as a learned
countryman of ours right well hath it, [535]"Ever since the Normans first
coming into England, this country both for military matters, and all other
of civility, hath been paralleled with the most flourishing kingdoms of
Europe and our Christian world," a blessed, a rich country, and one of the
fortunate isles: and for some things [536]preferred before other countries,
for expert seamen, our laborious discoveries, art of navigation, true
merchants, they carry the bell away from all other nations, even the
Portugals and Hollanders themselves; [537]"without all fear," saith
Boterus, "furrowing the ocean winter and summer, and two of their captains,
with no less valour than fortune, have sailed round about the world." [538]
We have besides many particular blessings, which our neighbours want, the
Gospel truly preached, church discipline established, long peace and
quietness free from exactions, foreign fears, invasions, domestical
seditions, well manured, [539]fortified by art, and nature, and now most
happy in that fortunate union of England and Scotland, which our
forefathers have laboured to effect, and desired to see. But in which we
excel all others, a wise, learned, religious king, another Numa, a second
Augustus, a true Josiah; most worthy senators, a learned clergy, an
obedient commonalty, &c. Yet amongst many roses, some thistles grow, some
bad weeds and enormities, which much disturb the peace of this body
politic, eclipse the honour and glory of it, fit to be rooted out, and with
all speed to be reformed.
The first is idleness, by reason of which we have many swarms of rogues,
and beggars, thieves, drunkards, and discontented persons (whom Lycurgus in
Plutarch calls _morbos reipublicae_, the boils of the commonwealth), many
poor people in all our towns. _Civitates ignobiles_, as [540]Polydore calls
them, base-built cities, inglorious, poor, small, rare in sight, ruinous,
and thin of inhabitants. Our land is fertile we may not deny, full of all
good things, and why doth it not then abound with cities, as well as Italy,
France, Germany, the Low Countries? because their policy hath been
otherwise, and we are not so thrifty, circumspect, industrious. Idleness is
the _malus genius_ of our nation. For as [541]Boterus justly argues,
fertility of a country is not enough, except art and industry be joined
unto it, according to Aristotle, riches are either natural or artificial;
natural are good land, fair mines, &c. artificial, are manufactures, coins,
&c. Many kingdoms are fertile, but thin of inhabitants, as that Duchy of
Piedmont in Italy, which Leander Albertus so much magnifies for corn, wine,
fruits, &c., yet nothing near so populous as those which are more barren.
[542]"England," saith he, "London only excepted, hath never a populous
city, and yet a fruitful country." I find 46 cities and walled towns in
Alsatia, a small province in Germany, 50 castles, an infinite number of
villages, no ground idle, no not rocky places, or tops of hills are
untilled, as [543]Munster informeth us. In [544]Greichgea, a small
territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20 walled towns,
innumerable villages, each one containing 150 houses most part, besides
castles and noblemen's palaces. I observe in [545]Turinge in Dutchland
(twelve miles over by their scale) 12 counties, and in them 144 cities,
2000 villages, 144 towns, 250 castles. In [546]Bavaria 34 cities, 46 towns,
&c. [547]_Portugallia interamnis_, a small plot of ground, hath 1460
parishes, 130 monasteries, 200 bridges. Malta, a barren island, yields
20,000 inhabitants. But of all the rest, I admire Lues Guicciardine's
relations of the Low Countries. Holland hath 26 cities, 400 great villages.
Zealand 10 cities, 102 parishes. Brabant 26 cities, 102 parishes. Flanders
28 cities, 90 towns, 1154 villages, besides abbeys, castles, &c. The Low
Countries generally have three cities at least for one of ours, and those
far more populous and rich: and what is the cause, but their industry and
excellency in all manner of trades? Their commerce, which is maintained by
a multitude of tradesmen, so many excellent channels made by art and
opportune havens, to which they build their cities; all which we have in
like measure, or at least may have. But their chiefest loadstone which
draws all manner of commerce and merchandise, which maintains their present
estate, is not fertility of soil, but industry that enricheth them, the
gold mines of Peru, or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have
neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oil, or scarce any corn
growing in those united provinces, little or no wood, tin, lead, iron,
silk, wool, any stuff almost, or metal; and yet Hungary, Transylvania, that
brag of their mines, fertile England cannot compare with them. I dare
boldly say, that neither France, Tarentum, Apulia, Lombardy, or any part of
Italy, Valentia in Spain, or that pleasant Andalusia, with their excellent
fruits, wine and oil, two harvests, no not any part of Europe is so
flourishing, so rich, so populous, so full of good ships, of well-built
cities, so abounding with all things necessary for the use of man. 'Tis our
Indies, an epitome of China, and all by reason of their industry, good
policy, and commerce. Industry is a loadstone to draw all good things; that
alone makes countries flourish, cities populous, [548]and will enforce by
reason of much manure, which necessarily follows, a barren soil to be
fertile and good, as sheep, saith [549]Dion, mend a bad pasture.
Tell me politicians, why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece, Egypt,
Asia Minor, so much decayed, and (mere carcases now) fallen from that they
were? The ground is the same, but the government is altered, the people are
grown slothful, idle, their good husbandry, policy, and industry is
decayed. _Non fatigata aut effaeta, humus_, as [550]Columella well informs
Sylvinus, _sed nostra fit inertia_, &c. May a man believe that which
Aristotle in his politics, Pausanias, Stephanus, Sophianus, Gerbelius
relate of old Greece? I find heretofore 70 cities in Epirus overthrown by
Paulus Aemilius, a goodly province in times past, [551]now left desolate of
good towns and almost inhabitants. Sixty-two cities in Macedonia in
Strabo's time. I find 30 in Laconia, but now scarce so many villages, saith
Gerbelius. If any man from Mount Taygetus should view the country round
about, and see _tot delicias, tot urbes per Peloponesum dispersas_, so many
delicate and brave built cities with such cost and exquisite cunning, so
neatly set out in Peloponnesus, [552]he should perceive them now ruinous
and overthrown, burnt, waste, desolate, and laid level with the ground.
_Incredibile dictu_, &c. And as he laments, _Quis talia fando Temperet a
lachrymis? Quis tam durus aut ferreus_, (so he prosecutes it). [553]Who is
he that can sufficiently condole and commiserate these ruins? Where are
those 4000 cities of Egypt, those 100 cities in Crete? Are they now come to
two? What saith Pliny and Aelian of old Italy? There were in former ages
1166 cities: Blondus and Machiavel, both grant them now nothing near so
populous, and full of good towns as in the time of Augustus (for now
Leander Albertus can find but 300 at most), and if we may give credit to
[554]Livy, not then so strong and puissant as of old: "They mustered 70
Legions in former times, which now the known world will scarce yield."
Alexander built 70 cities in a short space for his part, our sultans and
Turks demolish twice as many, and leave all desolate. Many will not believe
but that our island of Great Britain is now more populous than ever it was;
yet let them read Bede, Leland and others, they shall find it most
flourished in the Saxon Heptarchy, and in the Conqueror's time was far
better inhabited, than at this present. See that Doomsday Book, and show me
those thousands of parishes, which are now decayed, cities ruined, villages
depopulated, &c. The lesser the territory is, commonly, the richer it is.
_Parvus sed bene cultus ager_. As those Athenian, Lacedaemonian, Arcadian,
Aelian, Sycionian, Messenian, &c. commonwealths of Greece make ample proof,
as those imperial cities and free states of Germany may witness, those
Cantons of Switzers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscany, Luke
and Senes of old, Piedmont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Ragusa, &c.
That prince therefore as, [555]Boterus adviseth, that will have a rich
country, and fair cities, let him get good trades, privileges, painful
inhabitants, artificers, and suffer no rude matter unwrought, as tin, iron,
wool, lead, &c., to be transported out of his country,--[556]a thing in
part seriously attempted amongst us, but not effected. And because industry
of men, and multitude of trade so much avails to the ornament and enriching
of a kingdom; those ancient [557]Massilians would admit no man into their
city that had not some trade. Selym the first Turkish emperor procured a
thousand good artificers to be brought from Tauris to Constantinople. The
Polanders indented with Henry Duke of Anjou, their new chosen king, to
bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland. James the
first in Scotland (as [558]Buchanan writes) sent for the best artificers he
could get in Europe, and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects
their several trades. Edward the Third, our most renowned king, to his
eternal memory, brought clothing first into this island, transporting some
families of artificers from Gaunt hither. How many goodly cities could I
reckon up, that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands of inhabitants live
singular well by their fingers' ends: As Florence in Italy by making cloth
of gold; great Milan by silk, and all curious works; Arras in Artois by
those fair hangings; many cities in Spain, many in France, Germany, have
none other maintenance, especially those within the land. [559]Mecca, in
Arabia Petraea, stands in a most unfruitful country, that wants water,
amongst the rocks (as Vertomannus describes it), and yet it is a most
elegant and pleasant city, by reason of the traffic of the east and west.
Ormus in Persia is a most famous mart-town, hath nought else but the
opportunity of the haven to make it flourish. Corinth, a noble city (Lumen
Greciae, Tully calls it) the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and
Lecheus, those excellent ports, drew all that traffic of the Ionian and
Aegean seas to it; and yet the country about it was _curva et
superciliosa_, as [560]Strabo terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say the
same of Athens, Actium, Thebes, Sparta, and most of those towns in Greece.
Nuremberg in Germany is sited in a most barren soil, yet a noble imperial
city, by the sole industry of artificers, and cunning trades, they draw the
riches of most countries to them, so expert in manufactures, that as
Sallust long since gave out of the like, _Sedem animae in extremis digitis
habent_, their soul, or _intellectus agens_, was placed in their fingers'
end; and so we may say of Basil, Spire, Cambray, Frankfurt, &c. It is
almost incredible to speak what some write of Mexico and the cities
adjoining to it, no place in the world at their first discovery more
populous, [561]Mat. Riccius, the Jesuit, and some others, relate of the
industry of the Chinese most populous countries, not a beggar or an idle
person to be seen, and how by that means they prosper and flourish. We have
the same means, able bodies, pliant wits, matter of all sorts, wool, flax,
iron, tin, lead, wood, &c., many excellent subjects to work upon, only
industry is wanting. We send our best commodities beyond the seas, which
they make good use of to their necessities, set themselves a work about,
and severally improve, sending the same to us back at dear rates, or else
make toys and baubles of the tails of them, which they sell to us again, at
as great a reckoning as the whole. In most of our cities, some few
excepted, like [562]Spanish loiterers, we live wholly by tippling-inns and
alehouses. Malting are their best ploughs, their greatest traffic to sell
ale. [563]Meteran and some others object to us, that we are no whit so
industrious as the Hollanders: "Manual trades" (saith he) "which are more
curious or troublesome, are wholly exercised by strangers: they dwell in a
sea full of fish, but they are so idle, they will not catch so much as
shall serve their own turns, but buy it of their neighbours." Tush
[564]_Mare liberum_, they fish under our noses, and sell it to us when they
have done, at their own prices.
------"Pudet haec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli."
I am ashamed to hear this objected by strangers, and know not how to answer
it.
Amongst our towns, there is only [565]London that bears the face of a city,
[566]_Epitome Britanniae_, a famous emporium, second to none beyond seas, a
noble mart: but _sola crescit, decrescentibus aliis_; and yet, in my
slender judgment, defective in many things. The rest ([567]some few
excepted) are in mean estate, ruinous most part, poor, and full of beggars,
by reason of their decayed trades, neglected or bad policy, idleness of
their inhabitants, riot, which had rather beg or loiter, and be ready to
starve, than work.
I cannot deny but that something may be said in defence of our cities,
[568]that they are not so fair built, (for the sole magnificence of this
kingdom (concerning buildings) hath been of old in those Norman castles and
religious houses,) so rich, thick sited, populous, as in some other
countries; besides the reasons Cardan gives, _Subtil. Lib. 11._ we want
wine and oil, their two harvests, we dwell in a colder air, and for that
cause must a little more liberally [569]feed of flesh, as all northern
countries do: our provisions will not therefore extend to the maintenance
of so many; yet notwithstanding we have matter of all sorts, an open sea
for traffic, as well as the rest, goodly havens. And how can we excuse our
negligence, our riot, drunkenness, &c., and such enormities that follow it?
We have excellent laws enacted, you will say, severe statutes, houses of
correction, &c., to small purpose it seems; it is not houses will serve,
but cities of correction; [570]our trades generally ought to be reformed,
wants supplied. In other countries they have the same grievances, I
confess, but that doth not excuse us, [571]wants, defects, enormities, idle
drones, tumults, discords, contention, lawsuits, many laws made against
them to repress those innumerable brawls and lawsuits, excess in apparel,
diet, decay of tillage, depopulations, [572]especially against rogues,
beggars, Egyptian vagabonds (so termed at least) which have [573] swarmed
all over Germany, France, Italy, Poland, as you may read in [574] Munster,
Cranzius, and Aventinus; as those Tartars and Arabians at this day do in
the eastern countries: yet such has been the iniquity of all ages, as it
seems to small purpose. _Nemo in nostra civitate mendicus esto_, [575]
saith Plato: he will have them purged from a [576]commonwealth, [577]"as a
bad humour from the body," that are like so many ulcers and boils, and must
be cured before the melancholy body can be eased.
What Carolus Magnus, the Chinese, the Spaniards, the duke of Saxony and
many other states have decreed in this case, read Arniseus, _cap. 19_;
Boterus, _libro 8, cap. 2_; Osorius _de Rubus gest. Eman. lib. 11._ When a
country is overstocked with people, as a pasture is oft overlaid with
cattle, they had wont in former times to disburden themselves, by sending
out colonies, or by wars, as those old Romans; or by employing them at home
about some public buildings, as bridges, roadways, for which those Romans
were famous in this island; as Augustus Caesar did in Rome, the Spaniards
in their Indian mines, as at Potosi in Peru, where some 30,000 men are
still at work, 6000 furnaces ever boiling, &c. [578]aqueducts, bridges,
havens, those stupend works of Trajan, Claudius, at [579]Ostium,
Dioclesiani Therma, Fucinus Lacus, that Piraeum in Athens, made by
Themistocles, ampitheatrums of curious marble, as at Verona, Civitas
Philippi, and Heraclea in Thrace, those Appian and Flaminian ways,
prodigious works all may witness; and rather than they should be [580]idle,
as those [581] Egyptian Pharaohs, Maris, and Sesostris did, to task their
subjects to build unnecessary pyramids, obelisks, labyrinths, channels,
lakes, gigantic works all, to divert them from rebellion, riot,
drunkenness, [582]_Quo scilicet alantur et ne vagando laborare desuescant_.
Another eyesore is that want of conduct and navigable rivers, a great
blemish as [583]Boterus, [584]Hippolitus a Collibus, and other politicians
hold, if it be neglected in a commonwealth. Admirable cost and charge is
bestowed in the Low Countries on this behalf, in the duchy of Milan,
territory of Padua, in [585]France, Italy, China, and so likewise about
corrivations of water to moisten and refresh barren grounds, to drain fens,
bogs, and moors. Massinissa made many inward parts of Barbary and Numidia
in Africa, before his time incult and horrid, fruitful and bartable by this
means. Great industry is generally used all over the eastern countries in
this kind, especially in Egypt, about Babylon and Damascus, as Vertomannus
and [586]Gotardus Arthus relate; about Barcelona, Segovia, Murcia, and many
other places of Spain, Milan in Italy; by reason of which, their soil is
much impoverished, and infinite commodities arise to the inhabitants.
The Turks of late attempted to cut that Isthmus betwixt Africa and Asia,
which [587]Sesostris and Darius, and some Pharaohs of Egypt had formerly
undertaken, but with ill success, as [588]Diodorus Siculus records, and
Pliny, for that Red Sea being three [589]cubits higher than Egypt, would
have drowned all the country, _caepto destiterant_, they left off; yet as
the same [590]Diodorus writes, Ptolemy renewed the work many years after,
and absolved in it a more opportune place.
That Isthmus of Corinth was likewise undertaken to be made navigable by
Demetrius, by Julius Caesar, Nero, Domitian, Herodes Atticus, to make a
speedy [591]passage, and less dangerous, from the Ionian and Aegean seas;
but because it could not be so well effected, the Peloponnesians built a
wall like our Picts' wall about Schaenute, where Neptune's temple stood,
and in the shortest cut over the Isthmus, of which Diodorus, _lib. 11._
Herodotus, _lib. 8. Uran._ Our latter writers call it Hexamilium, which
Amurath the Turk demolished, the Venetians, _anno_ 1453, repaired in 15
days with 30,000 men. Some, saith Acosta, would have a passage cut from
Panama to Nombre de Dios in America; but Thuanus and Serres the French
historians speak of a famous aqueduct in France, intended in Henry the
Fourth's time, from the Loire to the Seine, and from Rhodanus to the Loire.
The like to which was formerly assayed by Domitian the emperor, [592]from
Arar to Moselle, which Cornelius Tacitus speaks of in the 13 of his annals,
after by Charles the Great and others. Much cost hath in former times been
bestowed in either new making or mending channels of rivers, and their
passages, (as Aurelianus did by Tiber to make it navigable to Rome, to
convey corn from Egypt to the city, _vadum alvei tumentis effodit_ saith
Vopiscus, _et Tiberis ripas extruxit_ he cut fords, made banks, &c.)
decayed havens, which Claudius the emperor with infinite pains and charges
attempted at Ostia, as I have said, the Venetians at this day to preserve
their city; many excellent means to enrich their territories, have been
fostered, invented in most provinces of Europe, as planting some Indian
plants amongst us, silkworms, [593]the very mulberry leaves in the plains
of Granada yield 30,000 crowns per annum to the king of Spain's coffers,
besides those many trades and artificers that are busied about them in the
kingdom of Granada, Murcia, and all over Spain. In France a great benefit
is raised by salt, &c., whether these things might not be as happily
attempted with us, and with like success, it may be controverted, silkworms
(I mean) vines, fir trees, &c. Cardan exhorts Edward the Sixth to plant
olives, and is fully persuaded they would prosper in this island. With us,
navigable rivers are most part neglected; our streams are not great, I
confess, by reason of the narrowness of the island, yet they run smoothly
and even, not headlong, swift, or amongst rocks and shelves, as foaming
Rhodanus and Loire in France, Tigris in Mesopotamia, violent Durius in
Spain, with cataracts and whirlpools, as the Rhine, and Danubius, about
Shaffausen, Lausenburgh, Linz, and Cremmes, to endanger navigators; or
broad shallow, as Neckar in the Palatinate, Tibris in Italy; but calm and
fair as Arar in France, Hebrus in Macedonia, Eurotas in Laconia, they
gently glide along, and might as well be repaired many of them (I mean Wye,
Trent, Ouse, Thamisis at Oxford, the defect of which we feel in the mean
time) as the river of Lee from Ware to London. B. Atwater of old, or as
some will Henry I. [594]made a channel from Trent to Lincoln, navigable;
which now, saith Mr. Camden, is decayed, and much mention is made of
anchors, and such like monuments found about old [595]Verulamium, good
ships have formerly come to Exeter, and many such places, whose channels,
havens, ports are now barred and rejected. We contemn this benefit of
carriage by waters, and are therefore compelled in the inner parts of this
island, because portage is so dear, to eat up our commodities ourselves,
and live like so many boars in a sty, for want of vent and utterance.
We have many excellent havens, royal havens, Falmouth, Portsmouth, Milford,
&c. equivalent if not to be preferred to that Indian Havana, old Brundusium
in Italy, Aulis in Greece, Ambracia in Acarnia, Suda in Crete, which have
few ships in them, little or no traffic or trade, which have scarce a
village on them, able to bear great cities, _sed viderint politici_. I
could here justly tax many other neglects, abuses, errors, defects among
us, and in other countries, depopulations, riot, drunkenness, &c. and many
such, _quae nunc in aurem susurrare, non libet_. But I must take heed, _ne
quid gravius dicam_, that I do not overshoot myself, _Sus Minervam_, I am
forth of my element, as you peradventure suppose; and sometimes _veritas
odium parit_, as he said, "verjuice and oatmeal is good for a parrot." For
as Lucian said of an historian, I say of a politician. He that will freely
speak and write, must be for ever no subject, under no prince or law, but
lay out the matter truly as it is, not caring what any can, will, like or
dislike.
We have good laws, I deny not, to rectify such enormities, and so in all
other countries, but it seems not always to good purpose. We had need of
some general visitor in our age, that should reform what is amiss; a just
army of Rosy-cross men, for they will amend all matters (they say)
religion, policy, manners, with arts, sciences, &c. Another Attila,
Tamerlane, Hercules, to strive with Achelous, _Augeae stabulum purgare_, to
subdue tyrants, as [596]he did Diomedes and Busiris: to expel thieves, as
he did Cacus and Lacinius: to vindicate poor captives, as he did Hesione:
to pass the torrid zone, the deserts of Libya, and purge the world of
monsters and Centaurs: or another Theban Crates to reform our manners, to
compose quarrels and controversies, as in his time he did, and was
therefore adored for a god in Athens. "As Hercules [597]purged the world of
monsters, and subdued them, so did he fight against envy, lust, anger,
avarice, &c. and all those feral vices and monsters of the mind." It were
to be wished we had some such visitor, or if wishing would serve, one had
such a ring or rings, as Timolaus desired in [598]Lucian, by virtue of
which he should be as strong as 10,000 men, or an army of giants, go
invisible, open gates and castle doors, have what treasure he would,
transport himself in an instant to what place he desired, alter affections,
cure all manner of diseases, that he might range over the world, and reform
all distressed states and persons, as he would himself. He might reduce
those wandering Tartars in order, that infest China on the one side,
Muscovy, Poland, on the other; and tame the vagabond Arabians that rob and
spoil those eastern countries, that they should never use more caravans, or
janissaries to conduct them. He might root out barbarism out of America,
and fully discover _Terra Australis Incognita_, find out the north-east and
north-west passages, drain those mighty Maeotian fens, cut down those vast
Hircinian woods, irrigate those barren Arabian deserts, &c. cure us of our
epidemical diseases, _scorbutum, plica, morbus Neapolitanus_, &c. end all
our idle controversies, cut off our tumultuous desires, inordinate lusts,
root out atheism, impiety, heresy, schism and superstition, which now so
crucify the world, catechise gross ignorance, purge Italy of luxury and
riot, Spain of superstition and jealousy, Germany of drunkenness, all our
northern country of gluttony and intemperance, castigate our hard-hearted
parents, masters, tutors; lash disobedient children, negligent servants,
correct these spendthrifts and prodigal sons, enforce idle persons to work,
drive drunkards off the alehouse, repress thieves, visit corrupt and
tyrannizing magistrates, &c. But as L. Licinius taxed Timolaus, you may us.
These are vain, absurd and ridiculous wishes not to be hoped: all must be
as it is, [599]Bocchalinus may cite commonwealths to come before Apollo,
and seek to reform the world itself by commissioners, but there is no
remedy, it may not be redressed, _desinent homines tum demum stultescere
quando esse desinent_, so long as they can wag their beards, they will play
the knaves and fools.
Because, therefore, it is a thing so difficult, impossible, and far beyond
Hercules labours to be performed; let them be rude, stupid, ignorant,
incult, _lapis super lapidem sedeat_, and as the [600]apologist will,
_resp. tussi, et graveolentia laboret, mundus vitio_, let them be barbarous
as they are, let them [601]tyrannise, epicurise, oppress, luxuriate,
consume themselves with factions, superstitions, lawsuits, wars and
contentions, live in riot, poverty, want, misery; rebel, wallow as so many
swine in their own dung, with Ulysses' companions, _stultos jubeo esse
libenter_. I will yet, to satisfy and please myself, make an Utopia of mine
own, a new Atlantis, a poetical commonwealth of mine own, in which I will
freely domineer, build cities, make laws, statutes, as I list myself. And
why may I not?--[602]_Pictoribus atque poetis_, &c. You know what liberty
poets ever had, and besides, my predecessor Democritus was a politician, a
recorder of Abdera, a law maker as some say; and why may not I presume so
much as he did? Howsoever I will adventure. For the site, if you will needs
urge me to it, I am not fully resolved, it may be in _Terra Australi
Incognita_, there is room enough (for of my knowledge neither that hungry
Spaniard, [603]nor Mercurius Britannicus, have yet discovered half of it)
or else one of these floating islands in Mare del Zur, which like the
Cyanian isles in the Euxine sea, alter their place, and are accessible only
at set times, and to some few persons; or one of the fortunate isles, for
who knows yet where, or which they are? there is room enough in the inner
parts of America, and northern coasts of Asia. But I will choose a site,
whose latitude shall be 45 degrees (I respect not minutes) in the midst of
the temperate zone, or perhaps under the equator, that [604]paradise of the
world, _ubi semper virens laurus_, &c. where is a perpetual spring: the
longitude for some reasons I will conceal. Yet "be it known to all men by
these presents," that if any honest gentleman will send in so much money,
as Cardan allows an astrologer for casting a nativity, he shall be a
sharer, I will acquaint him with my project, or if any worthy man will
stand for any temporal or spiritual office or dignity, (for as he said of
his archbishopric of Utopia, 'tis _sanctus ambitus_, and not amiss to be
sought after,) it shall be freely given without all intercessions, bribes,
letters, &c. his own worth shall be the best spokesman; and because we
shall admit of no deputies or advowsons, if he be sufficiently qualified,
and as able as willing to execute the place himself, be shall have present
possession. It shall be divided into 12 or 13 provinces, and those by
hills, rivers, roadways, or some more eminent limits exactly bounded. Each
province shall have a metropolis, which shall be so placed as a centre
almost in a circumference, and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian
miles asunder, or thereabout, and in them shall be sold all things
necessary for the use of man; _statis horis et diebus_, no market towns,
markets or fairs, for they do but beggar cities (no village shall stand
above 6, 7, or 8 miles from a city) except those emporiums which are by the
sea side, general staples, marts, as Antwerp, Venice, Bergen of old,
London, &c. cities most part shall be situated upon navigable rivers or
lakes, creeks, havens; and for their form, regular, round, square, or long
square, [605]with fair, broad, and straight [606]streets, houses uniform,
built of brick and stone, like Bruges, Brussels, Rhegium Lepidi, Berne in
Switzerland, Milan, Mantua, Crema, Cambalu in Tartary, described by M.
Polus, or that Venetian Palma. I will admit very few or no suburbs, and
those of baser building, walls only to keep out man and horse, except it be
in some frontier towns, or by the sea side, and those to be fortified [607]
after the latest manner of fortification, and situated upon convenient
havens, or opportune places. In every so built city, I will have convenient
churches, and separate places to bury the dead in, not in churchyards; a
_citadella_ (in some, not all) to command it, prisons for offenders,
opportune market places of all sorts, for corn, meat, cattle, fuel, fish,
commodious courts of justice, public halls for all societies, bourses,
meeting places, armouries, [608]in which shall be kept engines for
quenching of fire, artillery gardens, public walks, theatres, and spacious
fields allotted for all gymnastic sports, and honest recreations, hospitals
of all kinds, for children, orphans, old folks, sick men, mad men,
soldiers, pest-houses, &c. not built _precario_, or by gouty benefactors,
who, when by fraud and rapine they have extorted all their lives, oppressed
whole provinces, societies, &c. give something to pious uses, build a
satisfactory alms-house, school or bridge, &c. at their last end, or before
perhaps, which is no otherwise than to steal a goose, and stick down a
feather, rob a thousand to relieve ten; and those hospitals so built and
maintained, not by collections, benevolences, donaries, for a set number,
(as in ours,) just so many and no more at such a rate, but for all those
who stand in need, be they more or less, and that _ex publico aerario_, and
so still maintained, _non nobis solum nati sumus_, &c. I will have conduits
of sweet and good water, aptly disposed in each town, common [609]
granaries, as at Dresden in Misnia, Stetein in Pomerland, Noremberg, &c.
Colleges of mathematicians, musicians, and actors, as of old at Labedum in
Ionia, [610]alchemists, physicians, artists, and philosophers: that all
arts and sciences may sooner be perfected and better learned; and public
historiographers, as amongst those ancient [611]Persians, _qui in
commentarios referebant quae memoratu digna gerebantur_, informed and
appointed by the state to register all famous acts, and not by each
insufficient scribbler, partial or parasitical pedant, as in our times. I
will provide public schools of all kinds, singing, dancing, fencing, &c.
especially of grammar and languages, not to be taught by those tedious
precepts ordinarily used, but by use, example, conversation, [612]as
travellers learn abroad, and nurses teach their children: as I will have
all such places, so will I ordain [613]public governors, fit officers to
each place, treasurers, aediles, quaestors, overseers of pupils, widows'
goods, and all public houses, &c. and those once a year to make strict
accounts of all receipts, expenses, to avoid confusion, _et sic fiet ut non
absumant_ (as Pliny to Trajan,) _quad pudeat dicere_. They shall be
subordinate to those higher officers and governors of each city, which
shall not be poor tradesmen, and mean artificers, but noblemen and
gentlemen, which shall be tied to residence in those towns they dwell next,
at such set times and seasons: for I see no reason (which [614]Hippolitus
complains of) "that it should be more dishonourable for noblemen to govern
the city than the country, or unseemly to dwell there now, than of old."
[615]I will have no bogs, fens, marshes, vast woods, deserts, heaths,
commons, but all enclosed; (yet not depopulated, and therefore take heed
you mistake me not) for that which is common, and every man's, is no man's;
the richest countries are still enclosed, as Essex, Kent, with us, &c.
Spain, Italy; and where enclosures are least in quantity, they are best
[616]husbanded, as about Florence in Italy, Damascus in Syria, &c. which
are liker gardens than fields. I will not have a barren acre in all my
territories, not so much as the tops of mountains: where nature fails, it
shall be supplied by art: [617]lakes and rivers shall not be left desolate.
All common highways, bridges, banks, corrivations of waters, aqueducts,
channels, public works, buildings, &c. out of a [618]common stock,
curiously maintained and kept in repair; no depopulations, engrossings,
alterations of wood, arable, but by the consent of some supervisors that
shall be appointed for that purpose, to see what reformation ought to be
had in all places, what is amiss, how to help it, _et quid quaeque ferat
regio, et quid quaeque recuset_, what ground is aptest for wood, what for
corn, what for cattle, gardens, orchards, fishponds, &c. with a charitable
division in every village, (not one domineering house greedily to swallow
up all, which is too common with us) what for lords, [619]what for tenants;
and because they shall be better encouraged to improve such lands they
hold, manure, plant trees, drain, fence, &c. they shall have long leases, a
known rent, and known fine to free them from those intolerable exactions of
tyrannizing landlords. These supervisors shall likewise appoint what
quantity of land in each manor is fit for the lord's demesnes, [620]what
for holding of tenants, how it ought to be husbanded, _ut [621]magnetis
equis, Minyae gens cognita remis_, how to be manured, tilled, rectified,
[622]_hic segetes veniunt, illic felicius uvae, arborei foetus alibi, atque
injussa virescunt Gramina_, and what proportion is fit for all callings,
because private professors are many times idiots, ill husbands, oppressors,
covetous, and know not how to improve their own, or else wholly respect
their own, and not public good.
Utopian parity is a kind of government, to be wished for, [623]rather than
effected, _Respub. Christianopolitana_, Campanella's city of the Sun, and
that new Atlantis, witty fictions, but mere chimeras; and Plato's community
in many things is impious, absurd and ridiculous, it takes away all
splendour and magnificence. I will have several orders, degrees of
nobility, and those hereditary, not rejecting younger brothers in the mean
time, for they shall be sufficiently provided for by pensions, or so
qualified, brought up in some honest calling, they shall be able to live of
themselves. I will have such a proportion of ground belonging to every
barony, he that buys the land shall buy the barony, he that by riot
consumes his patrimony, and ancient demesnes, shall forfeit his honours.
[624]As some dignities shall be hereditary, so some again by election, or
by gift (besides free officers, pensions, annuities,) like our bishoprics,
prebends, the Bassa's palaces in Turkey, the [625]procurator's houses and
offices in Venice, which, like the golden apple, shall be given to the
worthiest, and best deserving both in war and peace, as a reward of their
worth and good service, as so many goals for all to aim at, (_honos alit
artes_) and encouragements to others. For I hate these severe, unnatural,
harsh, German, French, and Venetian decrees, which exclude plebeians from
honours, be they never so wise, rich, virtuous, valiant, and well
qualified, they must not be patricians, but keep their own rank, this is
_naturae bellum inferre_, odious to God and men, I abhor it. My form of
government shall be monarchical.
[626] "nunquam libertas gratior extat,
Quam sub Rege pio," &c.
few laws, but those severely kept, plainly put down, and in the mother
tongue, that every man may understand. Every city shall have a peculiar
trade or privilege, by which it shall be chiefly maintained: [627]and
parents shall teach their children one of three at least, bring up and
instruct them in the mysteries of their own trade. In each town these
several tradesmen shall be so aptly disposed, as they shall free the rest
from danger or offence: fire-trades, as smiths, forge-men, brewers, bakers,
metal-men, &c., shall dwell apart by themselves: dyers, tanners,
fellmongers, and such as use water in convenient places by themselves:
noisome or fulsome for bad smells, as butchers' slaughterhouses, chandlers,
curriers, in remote places, and some back lanes. Fraternities and
companies, I approve of, as merchants' bourses, colleges of druggists,
physicians, musicians, &c., but all trades to be rated in the sale of
wares, as our clerks of the market do bakers and brewers; corn itself, what
scarcity soever shall come, not to extend such a price. Of such wares as
are transported or brought in, [628]if they be necessary, commodious, and
such as nearly concern man's life, as corn, wood, coal, &c., and such
provision we cannot want, I will have little or no custom paid, no taxes;
but for such things as are for pleasure, delight, or ornament, as wine,
spice, tobacco, silk, velvet, cloth of gold, lace, jewels, &c., a greater
impost. I will have certain ships sent out for new discoveries every year,
[629]and some discreet men appointed to travel into all neighbouring
kingdoms by land, which shall observe what artificial inventions and good
laws are in other countries, customs, alterations, or aught else,
concerning war or peace, which may tend to the common good. Ecclesiastical
discipline, _penes Episcopos_, subordinate as the other. No impropriations,
no lay patrons of church livings, or one private man, but common societies,
corporations, &c., and those rectors of benefices to be chosen out of the
Universities, examined and approved, as the literati in China. No parish to
contain above a thousand auditors. If it were possible, I would have such
priest as should imitate Christ, charitable lawyers should love their
neighbours as themselves, temperate and modest physicians, politicians
contemn the world, philosophers should know themselves, noblemen live
honestly, tradesmen leave lying and cozening, magistrates corruption, &c.,
but this is impossible, I must get such as I may. I will therefore have
[630]of lawyers, judges, advocates, physicians, chirurgeons, &c., a set
number, [631]and every man, if it be possible, to plead his own cause, to
tell that tale to the judge which he doth to his advocate, as at Fez in
Africa, Bantam, Aleppo, Ragusa, _suam quisque causam dicere tenetur_. Those
advocates, chirurgeons, and [632]physicians, which are allowed to be
maintained out of the [633]common treasury, no fees to be given or taken
upon pain of losing their places; or if they do, very small fees, and when
the [634]cause is fully ended. [635]He that sues any man shall put in a
pledge, which if it be proved he hath wrongfully sued his adversary, rashly
or maliciously, he shall forfeit, and lose. Or else before any suit begin,
the plaintiff shall have his complaint approved by a set delegacy to that
purpose; if it be of moment he shall be suffered as before, to proceed, if
otherwise they shall determine it. All causes shall be pleaded _suppresso
nomine_, the parties' names concealed, if some circumstances do not
otherwise require. Judges and other officers shall be aptly disposed in
each province, villages, cities, as common arbitrators to hear causes, and
end all controversies, and those not single, but three at least on the
bench at once, to determine or give sentence, and those again to sit by
turns or lots, and not to continue still in the same office. No controversy
to depend above a year, but without all delays and further appeals to be
speedily despatched, and finally concluded in that time allotted. These and
all other inferior magistrates to be chosen [636]as the literati in China,
or by those exact suffrages of the [637]Venetians, and such again not to be
eligible, or capable of magistracies, honours, offices, except they be
sufficiently [638]qualified for learning, manners, and that by the strict
approbation of deputed examiners: [639]first scholars to take place, then
soldiers; for I am of Vigetius his opinion, a scholar deserves better than
a soldier, because _Unius aetatis sunt quae fortiter fiunt, quae vero pro
utilitate Reipub. scribuntur, aeterna_: a soldier's work lasts for an age,
a scholar's for ever. If they [640]misbehave themselves, they shall be
deposed, and accordingly punished, and whether their offices be annual
[641]or otherwise, once a year they shall be called in question, and give
an account; for men are partial and passionate, merciless, covetous,
corrupt, subject to love, hate, fear, favour, &c., _omne sub regno graviore
regnum_: like Solon's Areopagites, or those Roman Censors, some shall visit
others, and [642]be visited _invicem_ themselves, [643] they shall oversee
that no prowling officer, under colour of authority, shall insult over his
inferiors, as so many wild beasts, oppress, domineer, flea, grind, or
trample on, be partial or corrupt, but that there be _aequabile jus_,
justice equally done, live as friends and brethren together; and which
[644]Sesellius would have and so much desires in his kingdom of France, "a
diapason and sweet harmony of kings, princes, nobles, and plebeians so
mutually tied and involved in love, as well as laws and authority, as that
they never disagree, insult, or encroach one upon another." If any man
deserve well in his office he shall be rewarded.
------"quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam,
Proemia si tollas?"------[645]
He that invents anything for public good in any art or science, writes a
treatise, [646]or performs any noble exploit, at home or abroad, [647]
shall be accordingly enriched, [648]honoured, and preferred. I say with
Hannibal in Ennius, _Hostem qui feriet erit mihi Carthaginensis_, let him
be of what condition he will, in all offices, actions, he that deserves
best shall have best.
Tilianus in Philonius, out of a charitable mind no doubt, wished all his
books were gold and silver, jewels and precious stones, [649]to redeem
captives, set free prisoners, and relieve all poor distressed souls that
wanted means; religiously done. I deny not, but to what purpose? Suppose
this were so well done, within a little after, though a man had Croesus'
wealth to bestow, there would be as many more. Wherefore I will suffer no
[650]beggars, rogues, vagabonds, or idle persons at all, that cannot give
an account of their lives how they [651]maintain themselves. If they be
impotent, lame, blind, and single, they shall be sufficiently maintained in
several hospitals, built for that purpose; if married and infirm, past
work, or by inevitable loss, or some such like misfortune cast behind, by
distribution of [652]corn, house-rent free, annual pensions or money, they
shall be relieved, and highly rewarded for their good service they have
formerly done; if able, they shall be enforced to work. [653]"For I see no
reason" (as [654]he said) "why an epicure or idle drone, a rich glutton, a
usurer, should live at ease, and do nothing, live in honour, in all manner
of pleasures, and oppress others, when as in the meantime a poor labourer,
a smith, a carpenter, an husbandman that hath spent his time in continual
labour, as an ass to carry burdens, to do the commonwealth good, and
without whom we cannot live, shall be left in his old age to beg or starve,
and lead a miserable life worse than a jument." As [655]all conditions
shall be tied to their task, so none shall be overtired, but have their set
times of recreations and holidays, _indulgere genio_, feasts and merry
meetings, even to the meanest artificer, or basest servant, once a week to
sing or dance, (though not all at once) or do whatsoever he shall please;
like [656]that _Saccarum festum_ amongst the Persians, those Saturnals in
Rome, as well as his master. [657]If any be drunk, he shall drink no more
wine or strong drink in a twelvemonth after. A bankrupt shall be [658]
_Catademiatus in Amphitheatro_, publicly shamed, and he that cannot pay his
debts, if by riot or negligence he have been impoverished, shall be for a
twelvemonth imprisoned, if in that space his creditors be not satisfied,
[659]he shall be hanged. He [660]that commits sacrilege shall lose his
hands; he that bears false witness, or is of perjury convicted, shall have
his tongue cut out, except he redeem it with his head. Murder, [661]
adultery, shall be punished by death, [662]but not theft, except it be some
more grievous offence, or notorious offenders: otherwise they shall be
condemned to the galleys, mines, be his slaves whom they have offended,
during their lives. I hate all hereditary slaves, and that _duram Persarum
legem_ as [663]Brisonius calls it; or as [664]Ammianus, _impendio
formidatas et abominandas leges, per quas ob noxam unius, omnis
propinquitas perit_ hard law that wife and children, friends and allies,
should suffer for the father's offence.
No man shall marry until he [665]be 25, no woman till she be 20, [666]
_nisi alitur dispensatum fuerit_. If one [667]die, the other party shall
not marry till six months after; and because many families are compelled to
live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, [668]none shall be
given at all, or very little, and that by supervisors rated, they that are
foul shall have a greater portion; if fair, none at all, or very little:
[669]howsoever not to exceed such a rate as those supervisors shall think
fit. And when once they come to those years, poverty shall hinder no man
from marriage, or any other respect, [670]but all shall be rather enforced
than hindered, [671]except they be [672]dismembered, or grievously
deformed, infirm, or visited with some enormous hereditary disease, in body
or mind; in such cases upon a great pain, or mulct, [673]man or woman shall
not marry, other order shall be taken for them to their content. If people
overabound, they shall be eased by [674]colonies.
[675]No man shall wear weapons in any city. The same attire shall be kept,
and that proper to several callings, by which they shall be distinguished.
[676]_Luxus funerum_ shall be taken away, that intempestive expense
moderated, and many others. Brokers, takers of pawns, biting usurers, I
will not admit; yet because _hic cum hominibus non cum diis agitur_, we
converse here with men, not with gods, and for the hardness of men's hearts
I will tolerate some kind of usury. [677]If we were honest, I confess, _si
probi essemus_, we should have no use of it, but being as it is, we must
necessarily admit it. Howsoever most divines contradict it, _dicimus
inficias, sed vox ea sola reperta est_, it must be winked at by
politicians. And yet some great doctors approve of it, Calvin, Bucer,
Zanchius, P. Martyr, because by so many grand lawyers, decrees of emperors,
princes' statutes, customs of commonwealths, churches' approbations it is
permitted, &c. I will therefore allow it. But to no private persons, nor to
every man that will, to orphans only, maids, widows, or such as by reason
of their age, sex, education, ignorance of trading, know not otherwise how
to employ it; and those so approved, not to let it out apart, but to bring
their money to a [678]common bank which shall be allowed in every city, as
in Genoa, Geneva, Nuremberg, Venice, at [679]5, 6, 7, not above 8 per
centum, as the supervisors, or _aerarii praefecti_ shall think fit.
[680]And as it shall not be lawful for each man to be an usurer that will,
so shall it not be lawful for all to take up money at use, not to prodigals
and spendthrifts, but to merchants, young tradesmen, such as stand in need,
or know honestly how to employ it, whose necessity, cause and condition the
said supervisors shall approve of.
I will have no private monopolies, to enrich one man, and beggar a
multitude, [681]multiplicity of offices, of supplying by deputies, weights
and measures, the same throughout, and those rectified by the _Primum
mobile_ and sun's motion, threescore miles to a degree according to
observation, 1000 geometrical paces to a mile, five foot to a pace, twelve
inches to a foot, &c. and from measures known it is an easy matter to
rectify weights, &c. to cast up all, and resolve bodies by algebra,
stereometry. I hate wars if they be not _ad populi salutem_ upon urgent
occasion, [682]_odimus accipitrim, quia semper vivit in armis_ [683]
offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of. For I
do highly magnify that saying of Hannibal to Scipio, in [684]Livy, "It had
been a blessed thing for you and us, if God had given that mind to our
predecessors, that you had been content with Italy, we with Africa. For
neither Sicily nor Sardinia are worth such cost and pains, so many fleets
and armies, or so many famous Captains' lives." _Omnia prius tentanda_,
fair means shall first be tried. [685]_Peragit tranquilla potestas, Quod
violenta nequit_. I will have them proceed with all moderation: but hear
you, Fabius my general, not Minutius, _nam [686]qui Consilio nititur plus
hostibus nocet, quam qui sini animi ratione, viribus_: And in such wars to
abstain as much as is possible from [687]depopulations, burning of towns,
massacring of infants, &c. For defensive wars, I will have forces still
ready at a small warning, by land and sea, a prepared navy, soldiers _in
procinctu, et quam [688]Bonfinius apud Hungaros suos vult, virgam ferream_,
and money, which is _nerves belli_, still in a readiness, and a sufficient
revenue, a third part as in old [689]Rome and Egypt, reserved for the
commonwealth; to avoid those heavy taxes and impositions, as well to defray
this charge of wars, as also all other public defalcations, expenses, fees,
pensions, reparations, chaste sports, feasts, donaries, rewards, and
entertainments. All things in this nature especially I will have maturely
done, and with great [690]deliberation: _ne quid [691] temere, ne quid
remisse ac timide fiat; Sid quo feror hospes_? To prosecute the rest would
require a volume. _Manum de tabella_, I have been over tedious in this
subject; I could have here willingly ranged, but these straits wherein I am
included will not permit.
From commonwealths and cities, I will descend to families, which have as
many corsives and molestations, as frequent discontents as the rest. Great
affinity there is betwixt a political and economical body; they differ only
in magnitude and proportion of business (so Scaliger [692]writes) as they
have both likely the same period, as [693]Bodin and [694]Peucer hold, out
of Plato, six or seven hundred years, so many times they have the same
means of their vexation and overthrows; as namely, riot, a common ruin of
both, riot in building, riot in profuse spending, riot in apparel, &c. be
it in what kind soever, it produceth the same effects. A [695]chorographer
of ours speaking _obiter_ of ancient families, why they are so frequent in
the north, continue so long, are so soon extinguished in the south, and so
few, gives no other reason but this, _luxus omnia dissipavit_, riot hath
consumed all, fine clothes and curious buildings came into this island, as
he notes in his annals, not so many years since; _non sine dispendio
hospitalitatis_ to the decay of hospitality. Howbeit many times that word
is mistaken, and under the name of bounty and hospitality, is shrouded riot
and prodigality, and that which is commendable in itself well used, hath
been mistaken heretofore, is become by his abuse, the bane and utter ruin
of many a noble family. For some men live like the rich glutton, consuming
themselves and their substance by continual feasting and invitations, with
[696]Axilon in Homer, keep open house for all comers, giving entertainment
to such as visit them, [697]keeping a table beyond their means, and a
company of idle servants (though not so frequent as of old) are blown up on
a sudden; and as Actaeon was by his hounds, devoured by their kinsmen,
friends, and multitude of followers. [698]It is a wonder that Paulus Jovius
relates of our northern countries, what an infinite deal of meat we consume
on our tables; that I may truly say, 'tis not bounty, not hospitality, as
it is often abused, but riot and excess, gluttony and prodigality; a mere
vice; it brings in debt, want, and beggary, hereditary diseases, consumes
their fortunes, and overthrows the good temperature of their bodies. To
this I might here well add their inordinate expense in building, those
fantastical houses, turrets, walks, parks, &c. gaming, excess of pleasure,
and that prodigious riot in apparel, by which means they are compelled to
break up house, and creep into holes. Sesellius in his commonwealth of
[699]France, gives three reasons why the French nobility were so frequently
bankrupts: "First, because they had so many lawsuits and contentions one
upon another, which were tedious and costly; by which means it came to
pass, that commonly lawyers bought them out of their possessions. A second
cause was their riot, they lived beyond their means, and were therefore
swallowed up by merchants." (La Nove, a French writer, yields five reasons
of his countrymen's poverty, to the same effect almost, and thinks verily
if the gentry of France were divided into ten parts, eight of them would be
found much impaired, by sales, mortgages, and debts, or wholly sunk in
their estates.) "The last was immoderate excess in apparel, which consumed
their revenues." How this concerns and agrees with our present state, look
you. But of this elsewhere. As it is in a man's body, if either head,
heart, stomach, liver, spleen, or any one part be misaffected, all the rest
suffer with it: so is it with this economical body. If the head be naught,
a spendthrift, a drunkard, a whoremaster, a gamester, how shall the family
live at ease? [700]_Ipsa si cupiat solus servare, prorsus, non potest hanc
familiam_, as Demea said in the comedy, Safety herself cannot save it. A
good, honest, painful man many times hath a shrew to his wife, a sickly,
dishonest, slothful, foolish, careless woman to his mate, a proud, peevish
flirt, a liquorish, prodigal quean, and by that means all goes to ruin: or
if they differ in nature, he is thrifty, she spends all, he wise, she
sottish and soft; what agreement can there be? what friendship? Like that
of the thrush and swallow in Aesop, instead of mutual love, kind
compellations, whore and thief is heard, they fling stools at one another's
heads. [701]_Quae intemperies vexat hanc familiam_? All enforced marriages
commonly produce such effects, or if on their behalves it be well, as to
live and agree lovingly together, they may have disobedient and unruly
children, that take ill courses to disquiet them, [702]"their son is a
thief, a spendthrift, their daughter a whore;" a step [703]mother, or a
daughter-in-law distempers all; [704]or else for want of means, many
torturers arise, debts, dues, fees, dowries, jointures, legacies to be
paid, annuities issuing out, by means of which, they have not wherewithal
to maintain themselves in that pomp as their predecessors have done, bring
up or bestow their children to their callings, to their birth and quality,
[705]and will not descend to their present fortunes. Oftentimes, too, to
aggravate the rest, concur many other inconveniences, unthankful friends,
decayed friends, bad neighbours, negligent servants [706]_servi furaces,
Versipelles, callidi, occlusa sibi mille clavibus reserant, furtimque;
raptant, consumunt, liguriunt_; casualties, taxes, mulcts, chargeable
offices, vain expenses, entertainments, loss of stock, enmities,
emulations, frequent invitations, losses, suretyship, sickness, death of
friends, and that which is the gulf of all, improvidence, ill husbandry,
disorder and confusion, by which means they are drenched on a sudden in
their estates, and at unawares precipitated insensibly into an inextricable
labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent and melancholy
itself.
I have done with families, and will now briefly run over some few sorts and
conditions of men. The most secure, happy, jovial, and merry in the world's
esteem are princes and great men, free from melancholy: but for their
cares, miseries, suspicions, jealousies, discontents, folly and madness, I
refer you to Xenophon's Tyrannus, where king Hieron discourseth at large
with Simonides the poet, of this subject. Of all others they are most
troubled with perpetual fears, anxieties, insomuch, that as he said in
[707]Valerius, if thou knewest with what cares and miseries this robe were
stuffed, thou wouldst not stoop to take it up. Or put case they be secure
and free from fears and discontents, yet they are void [708]of reason too
oft, and precipitate in their actions, read all our histories, _quos de
stultis prodidere stulti_, Iliades, Aeneides, Annales, and what is the
subject?
"Stultorum regum, et populorum continet aestus."
"The giddy tumults and the foolish rage
Of kings and people."
How mad they are, how furious, and upon small occasions, rash and
inconsiderate in their proceedings, how they dote, every page almost will
witness,
------"delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi."
"When doting monarchs urge
Unsound resolves, their subjects feel the scourge."
Next in place, next in miseries and discontents, in all manner of
hair-brain actions, are great men, _procul a Jove, procul a fulmine_, the
nearer the worse. If they live in court, they are up and down, ebb and flow
with their princes' favours, _Ingenium vultu statque caditque suo_, now
aloft, tomorrow down, as [709]Polybius describes them, "like so many
casting counters, now of gold, tomorrow of silver, that vary in worth as
the computant will; now they stand for units, tomorrow for thousands; now
before all, and anon behind." Beside, they torment one another with mutual
factions, emulations: one is ambitious, another enamoured, a third in debt,
a prodigal, overruns his fortunes, a fourth solicitous with cares, gets
nothing, &c. But for these men's discontents, anxieties, I refer you to
Lucian's Tract, _de mercede conductis_, [710]Aeneas Sylvius (_libidinis et
stultitiae servos_, he calls them), Agrippa, and many others.
Of philosophers and scholars _priscae sapientiae dictatores_, I have
already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning,
men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses,
[711] ------"mentemque habere queis bonam
Et esse [712]corculis datum est."------
[713]These acute and subtle sophisters, so much honoured, have as much need
of hellebore as others.--[714]_O medici mediam pertundite venam._ Read
Lucian's Piscator, and tell how he esteemed them; Agrippa's Tract of the
vanity of Sciences; nay read their own works, their absurd tenets,
prodigious paradoxes, _et risum teneatis amici_? You shall find that of
Aristotle true, _nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae_, they have
a worm as well as others; you shall find a fantastical strain, a fustian, a
bombast, a vainglorious humour, an affected style, &c., like a prominent
thread in an uneven woven cloth, run parallel throughout their works. And
they that teach wisdom, patience, meekness, are the veriest dizzards,
harebrains, and most discontent. [715]"In the multitude of wisdom is grief,
and he that increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow." I need not quote mine
author; they that laugh and contemn others, condemn the world of folly,
deserve to be mocked, are as giddy-headed, and lie as open as any other.
[716]Democritus, that common flouter of folly, was ridiculous himself,
barking Menippus, scoffing Lucian, satirical Lucilius, Petronius, Varro,
Persius, &c., may be censured with the rest, _Loripedem rectus derideat,
Aethiopem albus._ Bale, Erasmus, Hospinian, Vives, Kemnisius, explode as a
vast ocean of obs and sols, school divinity. [717]A labyrinth of intricable
questions, unprofitable contentions, _incredibilem delirationem_, one calls
it. If school divinity be so censured, _subtilis [718]Scotus lima
veritatis, Occam irrefragabilis, cujus ingenium vetera omnia ingenia
subvertit_, &c. Baconthrope, Dr. Resolutus, and _Corculum Theolgiae_,
Thomas himself, Doctor [719]Seraphicus, _cui dictavit Angelus_, &c. What
shall become of humanity? _Ars stulta_, what can she plead? what can her
followers say for themselves? Much learning, [720] _cere-diminuit-brum_,
hath cracked their sconce, and taken such root, that _tribus Anticyris
caput insanabile_, hellebore itself can do no good, nor that renowned
[721]lantern of Epictetus, by which if any man studied, he should be as
wise as he was. But all will not serve; rhetoricians, _in ostentationem
loquacitatis multa agitant_, out of their volubility of tongue, will talk
much to no purpose, orators can persuade other men what they will, _quo
volunt, unde volunt_, move, pacify, &c., but cannot settle their own
brains, what saith Tully? _Malo indisertam prudentiam, quam loquacem,
stultitiam_; and as [722]Seneca seconds him, a wise man's oration should
not be polite or solicitous. [723]Fabius esteems no better of most of them,
either in speech, action, gesture, than as men beside themselves, _insanos
declamatores_; so doth Gregory, _Non mihi sapit qui sermone, sed qui factis
sapit._ Make the best of him, a good orator is a turncoat, an evil man,
_bonus orator pessimus vir_, his tongue is set to sale, he is a mere voice,
as [724]he said of a nightingale, _dat sine mente sonum_, an hyperbolical
liar, a flatterer, a parasite, and as [725] Ammianus Marcellinus will, a
corrupting cozener, one that doth more mischief by his fair speeches, than
he that bribes by money; for a man may with more facility avoid him that
circumvents by money, than him that deceives with glozing terms; which made
[726]Socrates so much abhor and explode them. [727]Fracastorius, a famous
poet, freely grants all poets to be mad; so doth [728]Scaliger; and who
doth not? _Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit_ (He's mad or making verses),
Hor. _Sat. vii. l. 2._ _Insanire lubet, i. versus componere._ Virg. _3
Ecl._; so Servius interprets it, all poets are mad, a company of bitter
satirists, detractors, or else parasitical applauders: and what is poetry
itself, but as Austin holds, _Vinum erroris ab ebriis doctoribus
propinatum_? You may give that censure of them in general, which Sir Thomas
More once did of Germanus Brixius' poems in particular.
------"vehuntur
In rate stultitiae sylvam habitant Furiae."[729]
Budaeus, in an epistle of his to Lupsetus, will have civil law to be the
tower of wisdom; another honours physic, the quintessence of nature; a
third tumbles them both down, and sets up the flag of his own peculiar
science. Your supercilious critics, grammatical triflers, note-makers,
curious antiquaries, find out all the ruins of wit, _ineptiarum delicias_,
amongst the rubbish of old writers; [730]_Pro stultis habent nisi aliquid
sufficiant invenire, quod in aliorum scriptis vertant vitio_, all fools
with them that cannot find fault; they correct others, and are hot in a
cold cause, puzzle themselves to find out how many streets in Rome, houses,
gates, towers, Homer's country, Aeneas's mother, Niobe's daughters, _an
Sappho publica fuerit? ovum [731]prius extiterit an gallina! &c. et alia
quae dediscenda essent scire, si scires_, as [732]Seneca holds. What
clothes the senators did wear in Rome, what shoes, how they sat, where they
went to the close-stool, how many dishes in a mess, what sauce, which for
the present for an historian to relate, [733]according to Lodovic. Vives,
is very ridiculous, is to them most precious elaborate stuff, they admired
for it, and as proud, as triumphant in the meantime for this discovery, as
if they had won a city, or conquered a province; as rich as if they had
found a mine of gold ore. _Quosvis auctores absurdis commentis suis
percacant et stercorant_, one saith, they bewray and daub a company of
books and good authors, with their absurd comments, _correctorum
sterquilinia_ [734]Scaliger calls them, and show their wit in censuring
others, a company of foolish note-makers, humble-bees, dors, or beetles,
_inter stercora ut plurimum versantur_, they rake over all those rubbish
and dunghills, and prefer a manuscript many times before the Gospel itself,
[735]_thesaurum criticum_, before any treasure, and with their deleaturs,
_alii legunt sic, meus codex sic habet_, with their _postremae editiones_,
annotations, castigations, &c. make books dear, themselves ridiculous, and
do nobody good, yet if any man dare oppose or contradict, they are mad, up
in arms on a sudden, how many sheets are written in defence, how bitter
invectives, what apologies? [736]_Epiphilledes hae sunt ut merae, nugae_.
But I dare say no more of, for, with, or against them, because I am liable
to their lash as well as others. Of these and the rest of our artists and
philosophers, I will generally conclude they are a kind of madmen, as [737]
Seneca esteems of them, to make doubts and scruples, how to read them
truly, to mend old authors, but will not mend their own lives, or teach us
_ingevia sanare, memoriam officiorum ingerere, ac fidem in rebus humanis
retinere_, to keep our wits in order, or rectify our manners. _Numquid tibi
demens videtur, si istis operam impenderit_? Is not he mad that draws lines
with Archimedes, whilst his house is ransacked, and his city besieged, when
the whole world is in combustion, or we whilst our souls are in danger,
(_mors sequitur, vita fugit_) to spend our time in toys, idle questions,
and things of no worth?
That [738]lovers are mad, I think no man will deny, _Amare simul et sapere,
ipsi Jovi non datur_, Jupiter himself cannot intend both at once.
[739] "Non bene conveniunt, nec in una sede morantur
Majestas et amor."
Tully, when he was invited to a second marriage, replied, he could not
_simul amare et sapere_ be wise and love both together. [740]_Est orcus
ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana_, love is madness, a hell,
an incurable disease; _inpotentem et insanam libidinem_ [741]Seneca calls
it, an impotent and raging lust. I shall dilate this subject apart; in the
meantime let lovers sigh out the rest.
[742]Nevisanus the lawyer holds it for an axiom, "most women are fools,"
[743]_consilium foeminis invalidum_; Seneca, men, be they young or old; who
doubts it, youth is mad as Elius in Tully, _Stulti adolescentuli_, old age
little better, _deleri senes_, &c. Theophrastes, in the 107th year of his
age, [744]said he then began to be to wise, _tum sapere coepit_, and
therefore lamented his departure. If wisdom come so late, where shall we
find a wise man? Our old ones dote at threescore-and-ten. I would cite more
proofs, and a better author, but for the present, let one fool point at
another. [745]Nevisanus hath as hard an opinion of [746]rich men, "wealth
and wisdom cannot dwell together," _stultitiam patiuntur opes_, [747]and
they do commonly [748]_infatuare cor hominis_, besot men; and as we see it,
"fools have fortune:" [749]_Sapientia non invenitur in terra suaviter
viventium_. For beside a natural contempt of learning, which accompanies
such kind of men, innate idleness (for they will take no pains), and which
[750]Aristotle observes, _ubi mens plurima, ibi minima fortuna, ubi plurima
fortuna, ibi mens perexigua_, great wealth and little wit go commonly
together: they have as much brains some of them in their heads as in their
heels; besides this inbred neglect of liberal sciences, and all arts, which
should _excolere mentem_, polish the mind, they have most part some gullish
humour or other, by which they are led; one is an Epicure, an Atheist, a
second a gamester, a third a whoremaster (fit subjects all for a satirist
to work upon);
[751] "Hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum."
"One burns to madness for the wedded dame;
Unnatural lusts another's heart inflame."
[752]one is mad of hawking, hunting, cocking; another of carousing,
horse-riding, spending; a fourth of building, fighting, &c., _Insanit
veteres statuas Damasippus emendo_, Damasippus hath an humour of his own,
to be talked of: [753]Heliodorus the Carthaginian another. In a word, as
Scaliger concludes of them all, they are _Statuae erectae stultitiae_, the
very statutes or pillars of folly. Choose out of all stories him that hath
been most admired, you shall still find, _multa ad laudem, multa ad
vituperationem magnifica_, as [754]Berosus of Semiramis; _omnes mortales
militia triumphis, divitiis_, &c., _tum et luxu, caede, caeterisque vitiis
antecessit_, as she had some good, so had she many bad parts.
Alexander, a worthy man, but furious in his anger, overtaken in drink:
Caesar and Scipio valiant and wise, but vainglorious, ambitious: Vespasian
a worthy prince, but covetous: [755]Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so
had he many vices; _unam virtutem mille vitia comitantur_, as Machiavel of
Cosmo de Medici, he had two distinct persons in him. I will determine of
them all, they are like these double or turning pictures; stand before
which you see a fair maid, on the one side an ape, on the other an owl;
look upon them at the first sight, all is well, but farther examine, you
shall find them wise on the one side, and fools on the other; in some few
things praiseworthy, in the rest incomparably faulty. I will say nothing of
their diseases, emulations, discontents, wants, and such miseries: let
poverty plead the rest in Aristophanes' Plutus.
Covetous men, amongst others, are most mad, [756]they have all the symptoms
of melancholy, fear, sadness, suspicion, &c., as shall be proved in its
proper place,
"Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris."
"Misers make Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone."
And yet methinks prodigals are much madder than they, be of what condition
they will, that bear a public or private purse; as a [757]Dutch writer
censured Richard the rich duke of Cornwall, suing to be emperor, for his
profuse spending, _qui effudit pecuniam, ante pedes principium Electorum
sicut aquam_, that scattered money like water; I do censure them, _Stulta
Anglia_ (saith he) _quae, tot denariis sponte est privata, stulti principes
Alemaniae, qui nobile jus suum pro pecunia vendiderunt_; spendthrifts,
bribers, and bribe-takers are fools, and so are [758]all they that cannot
keep, disburse, or spend their moneys well.
I might say the like of angry, peevish, envious, ambitious; [759]
_Anticyras melior sorbere meracas_; Epicures, Atheists, Schismatics,
Heretics; _hi omnes habent imaginationem laesam_ (saith Nymannus) "and
their madness shall be evident," 2 Tim. iii. 9. [760]Fabatus, an Italian,
holds seafaring men all mad; "the ship is mad, for it never stands still;
the mariners are mad, to expose themselves to such imminent dangers: the
waters are raging mad, in perpetual motion: the winds are as mad as the
rest, they know not whence they come, whither they would go: and those men
are maddest of all that go to sea; for one fool at home, they find forty
abroad." He was a madman that said it, and thou peradventure as mad to read
it. [761] Felix Platerus is of opinion all alchemists are mad, out of their
wits; [762]Atheneus saith as much of fiddlers, _et musarum luscinias_,
[763] Musicians, _omnes tibicines insaniunt, ubi semel efflant, avolat
illico mens_, in comes music at one ear, out goes wit at another. Proud and
vainglorious persons are certainly mad; and so are [764]lascivious; I can
feel their pulses beat hither; horn-mad some of them, to let others lie
with their wives, and wink at it.
To insist [765]in all particulars, were an Herculean task, to [766]reckon
up [767]_insanas substructiones, insanos labores, insanum luxum_, mad
labours, mad books, endeavours, carriages, gross ignorance, ridiculous
actions, absurd gestures; _insanam gulam, insaniam villarum, insana
jurgia_, as Tully terms them, madness of villages, stupend structures; as
those Egyptian Pyramids, Labyrinths and Sphinxes, which a company of
crowned asses, _ad ostentationem opum_, vainly built, when neither the
architect nor king that made them, or to what use and purpose, are yet
known: to insist in their hypocrisy, inconstancy, blindness, rashness,
_dementem temeritatem_, fraud, cozenage, malice, anger, impudence,
ingratitude, ambition, gross superstition, [768]_tempora infecta et
adulatione sordida_, as in Tiberius' times, such base flattery, stupend,
parasitical fawning and colloguing, &c. brawls, conflicts, desires,
contentions, it would ask an expert Vesalius to anatomise every member.
Shall I say? Jupiter himself, Apollo, Mars, &c. doted; and
monster-conquering Hercules that subdued the world, and helped others,
could not relieve himself in this, but mad he was at last. And where shall
a man walk, converse with whom, in what province, city, and not meet with
Signior Deliro, or Hercules Furens, Maenads, and Corybantes? Their speeches
say no less. [769]_E fungis nati homines_, or else they fetched their
pedigree from those that were struck by Samson with the jaw-bone of an ass.
Or from Deucalion and Pyrrha's stones, for _durum genus sumus_, [770]
_marmorei sumus_, we are stony-hearted, and savour too much of the stock,
as if they had all heard that enchanted horn of Astolpho, that English duke
in Ariosto, which never sounded but all his auditors were mad, and for fear
ready to make away with themselves; [771]or landed in the mad haven in the
Euxine sea of _Daphnis insana_, which had a secret quality to dementate;
they are a company of giddy-heads, afternoon men, it is Midsummer moon
still, and the dog-days last all the year long, they are all mad. Whom
shall I then except? Ulricus Huttenus [772]_nemo, nam, nemo omnibus horis
sapit, Nemo nascitur sine vitiis, Crimine Nemo caret, Nemo sorte sua vivit
contentus, Nemo in amore sapit, Nemo bonus, Nemo sapiens, Nemo, est ex omni
parti beatus_, &c. [773]and therefore Nicholas Nemo, or Monsieur Nobody
shall go free, _Quid valeat nemo, Nemo referre potest_? But whom shall I
except in the second place? such as are silent, _vir sapit qui pauca
loquitur_; [774]no better way to avoid folly and madness, than by
taciturnity. Whom in a third? all senators, magistrates; for all fortunate
men are wise, and conquerors valiant, and so are all great men, _non est
bonum ludere cum diis_, they are wise by authority, good by their office
and place, _his licet impune pessimos esse_, (some say) we must not speak
of them, neither is it fit; _per me sint omnia protinus alba_, I will not
think amiss of them. Whom next? Stoics? _Sapiens Stoicus_, and he alone is
subject to no perturbations, as [775]Plutarch scoffs at him, "he is not
vexed with torments, or burnt with fire, foiled by his adversary, sold of
his enemy: though he be wrinkled, sand-blind, toothless, and deformed; yet
he is most beautiful, and like a god, a king in conceit, though not worth a
groat. He never dotes, never mad, never sad, drunk, because virtue cannot
be taken away," as [776]Zeno holds, "by reason of strong apprehension," but
he was mad to say so. [777]_Anticyrae caelo huic est opus aut dolabra_, he
had need to be bored, and so had all his fellows, as wise as they would
seem to be. Chrysippus himself liberally grants them to be fools as well as
others, at certain times, upon some occasions, _amitti virtutem ait per
ebrietatem, aut atribilarium morbum_, it may be lost by drunkenness or
melancholy, he may be sometimes crazed as well as the rest: [778]_ad summum
sapiens nisi quum pituita molesta_. I should here except some Cynics,
Menippus, Diogenes, that Theban Crates; or to descend to these times, that
omniscious, only wise fraternity [779]of the Rosicrucians, those great
theologues, politicians, philosophers, physicians, philologers, artists,
&c. of whom S. Bridget, Albas Joacchimus, Leicenbergius, and such divine
spirits have prophesied, and made promise to the world, if at least there
be any such (Hen. [780]Neuhusius makes a doubt of it, [781] Valentinus
Andreas and others) or an Elias artifex their Theophrastian master; whom
though Libavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to be "the
[782]renewer of all arts and sciences," reformer of the world, and now
living, for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis, that great patron of
Paracelsus, contends, and certainly avers [783]"a most divine man," and the
quintessence of wisdom wheresoever he is; for he, his fraternity, friends,
&c. are all [784]"betrothed to wisdom," if we may believe their disciples
and followers. I must needs except Lipsius and the Pope, and expunge their
name out of the catalogue of fools. For besides that parasitical testimony
of Dousa,
"A Sole exoriente Maeotidas usque paludes,
Nemo est qui justo se aequiparare queat."[785]
Lipsius saith of himself, that he was [786]_humani generis quidem
paedagogus voce et stylo_, a grand signior, a master, a tutor of us all,
and for thirteen years he brags how he sowed wisdom in the Low Countries,
as Ammonius the philosopher sometimes did in Alexandria, [787]_cum
humanitate literas et sapientiam cum prudentia: antistes sapientiae_, he
shall be _Sapientum Octavus_. The Pope is more than a man, as [788]his
parrots often make him, a demigod, and besides his holiness cannot err, _in
Cathedra_ belike: and yet some of them have been magicians, Heretics,
Atheists, children, and as Platina saith of John 22, _Et si vir literatus,
multa stoliditatem et laevitatem prae se ferentia egit, stolidi et socordis
vir ingenii_, a scholar sufficient, yet many things he did foolishly,
lightly. I can say no more than in particular, but in general terms to the
rest, they are all mad, their wits are evaporated, and, as Ariosto feigns,
_l. 34_, kept in jars above the moon.
"Some lose their wits with love, some with ambition,
Some following [789]Lords and men of high condition.
Some in fair jewels rich and costly set,
Others in Poetry their wits forget.
Another thinks to be an Alchemist,
Till all be spent, and that his number's mist."
Convicted fools they are, madmen upon record; and I am afraid past cure
many of them, [790]_crepunt inguina_, the symptoms are manifest, they are
all of Gotam parish:
[791] "Quum furor haud dubius, quum sit manifesta phrenesis,"
"Since madness is indisputable, since frenzy is obvious."
what remains then [792]but to send for Lorarios, those officers to carry
them all together for company to Bedlam, and set Rabelais to be their
physician.
If any man shall ask in the meantime, who I am that so boldly censure
others, _tu nullane habes vitia_? have I no faults? [793]Yes, more than
thou hast, whatsoever thou art. _Nos numerus sumus_, I confess it again, I
am as foolish, as mad as any one.
[794] "Insanus vobis videor, non deprecor ipse,
Quo minus insanus,"------
I do not deny it, _demens de populo dematur_. My comfort is, I have more
fellows, and those of excellent note. And though I be not so right or so
discreet as I should be, yet not so mad, so bad neither, as thou perhaps
takest me to be.
To conclude, this being granted, that all the world is melancholy, or mad,
dotes, and every member of it, I have ended my task, and sufficiently
illustrated that which I took upon me to demonstrate at first. At this
present I have no more to say; _His sanam mentem Democritus_, I can but
wish myself and them a good physician, and all of us a better mind.
And although for the above-named reasons, I had a just cause to undertake
this subject, to point at these particular species of dotage, that so men
might acknowledge their imperfections, and seek to reform what is amiss;
yet I have a more serious intent at this time; and to omit all impertinent
digressions, to say no more of such as are improperly melancholy, or
metaphorically mad, lightly mad, or in disposition, as stupid, angry,
drunken, silly, sottish, sullen, proud, vainglorious, ridiculous, beastly,
peevish, obstinate, impudent, extravagant, dry, doting, dull, desperate,
harebrain, &c. mad, frantic, foolish, heteroclites, which no new [795]
hospital can hold, no physic help; my purpose and endeavour is, in the
following discourse to anatomise this humour of melancholy, through all its
parts and species, as it is an habit, or an ordinary disease, and that
philosophically, medicinally, to show the causes, symptoms, and several
cures of it, that it may be the better avoided. Moved thereunto for the
generality of it, and to do good, it being a disease so frequent, as [796]
Mercurialis observes, "in these our days; so often happening," saith [797]
Laurentius, "in our miserable times," as few there are that feel not the
smart of it. Of the same mind is Aelian Montaltus, [798]Melancthon, and
others; [799]Julius Caesar Claudinus calls it the "fountain of all other
diseases, and so common in this crazed age of ours, that scarce one of a
thousand is free from it;" and that splenetic hypochondriacal wind
especially, which proceeds from the spleen and short ribs. Being then a
disease so grievous, so common, I know not wherein to do a more general
service, and spend my time better, than to prescribe means how to prevent
and cure so universal a malady, an epidemical disease, that so often, so
much crucifies the body and mind.
If I have overshot myself in this which hath been hitherto said, or that it
is, which I am sure some will object, too fantastical, "too light and
comical for a Divine, too satirical for one of my profession," I will
presume to answer with [800]Erasmus, in like case, 'tis not I, but
Democritus, Democritus _dixit_: you must consider what it is to speak in
one's own or another's person, an assumed habit and name; a difference
betwixt him that affects or acts a prince's, a philosopher's, a
magistrate's, a fool's part, and him that is so indeed; and what liberty
those old satirists have had; it is a cento collected from others; not I,
but they that say it.
[801] "Dixero si quid forte jocosius, hoc mihi juris
Cum venia, dabis"------
"Yet some indulgence I may justly claim,
If too familiar with another's fame."
Take heed you mistake me not. If I do a little forget myself, I hope you
will pardon it. And to say truth, why should any man be offended, or take
exceptions at it?
"Licuit, semperque licebit,
Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis."
"It lawful was of old, and still will be,
To speak of vice, but let the name go free."
I hate their vices, not their persons. If any be displeased, or take aught
unto himself, let him not expostulate or cavil with him that said it (so
did [802]Erasmus excuse himself to Dorpius, _si parva licet componere
magnis_) and so do I; "but let him be angry with himself, that so betrayed
and opened his own faults in applying it to himself:" [803]"if he be guilty
and deserve it, let him amend, whoever he is, and not be angry." "He that
hateth correction is a fool," Prov. xii. 1. If he be not guilty, it
concerns him not; it is not my freeness of speech, but a guilty conscience,
a galled back of his own that makes him wince.
"Suspicione si quis errabit sua,
Et rapiet ad se, quod erit commune omnium,
Stulte nudabit animi conscientiam."[804]
I deny not this which I have said savours a little of Democritus; [805]
_Quamvis ridentem dicere verum quid velat_; one may speak in jest, and yet
speak truth. It is somewhat tart, I grant it; _acriora orexim excitant
embammata_, as he said, sharp sauces increase appetite, [806]_nec cibus
ipse juvat morsu fraudatus aceti_. Object then and cavil what thou wilt, I
ward all with [807]Democritus's buckler, his medicine shall salve it;
strike where thou wilt, and when: _Democritus dixit_, Democritus will
answer it. It was written by an idle fellow, at idle times, about our
Saturnalian or Dionysian feasts, when as he said, _nullum libertati
periculum est_, servants in old Rome had liberty to say and do what them
list. When our countrymen sacrificed to their goddess [808]Vacuna, and sat
tippling by their Vacunal fires. I writ this, and published this [Greek:
houtis helegen], it is _neminis nihil_. The time, place, persons, and all
circumstances apologise for me, and why may not I then be idle with others?
speak my mind freely? If you deny me this liberty, upon these presumptions
I will take it: I say again, I will take it.
[809] "Si quis est qui dictum in se inclementius
Existimavit esse, sic existimet."
If any man take exceptions, let him turn the buckle of his girdle, I care
not. I owe thee nothing (Reader), I look for no favour at thy hands, I am
independent, I fear not.
No, I recant, I will not, I care, I fear, I confess my fault, acknowledge a
great offence,
------"motos praestat componere fluctus."
------"let's first assuage the troubled waves"
I have overshot myself, I have spoken foolishly, rashly, unadvisedly,
absurdly, I have anatomised mine own folly. And now methinks upon a sudden
I am awaked as it were out of a dream; I have had a raving fit, a
fantastical fit, ranged up and down, in and out, I have insulted over the
most kind of men, abused some, offended others, wronged myself; and now
being recovered, and perceiving mine error, cry with [810]Orlando, _Solvite
me_, pardon (_o boni_) that which is past, and I will make you amends in
that which is to come; I promise you a more sober discourse in my following
treatise.
If through weakness, folly, passion, [811]discontent, ignorance, I have
said amiss, let it be forgotten and forgiven. I acknowledge that of [812]
Tacitus to be true, _Asperae facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, acrem sui
memoriam relinquunt_, a bitter jest leaves a sting behind it: and as an
honourable man observes, [813]"They fear a satirist's wit, he their
memories." I may justly suspect the worst; and though I hope I have wronged
no man, yet in Medea's words I will crave pardon,
------"Illud jam voce extrema peto,
Ne si qua noster dubius effudit dolor,
Maneant in animo verba, sed melior tibi
Memoria nostri subeat, haec irae data
Obliterentur"------
"And in my last words this I do desire,
That what in passion I have said, or ire,
May be forgotten, and a better mind,
Be had of us, hereafter as you find."
I earnestly request every private man, as Scaliger did Cardan, not to take
offence. I will conclude in his lines, _Si me cognitum haberes, non solum
donares nobis has facetias nostras, sed etiam indignum duceres, tam humanum
aninum, lene ingenium, vel minimam suspicionem deprecari oportere_. If thou
knewest my [814]modesty and simplicity, thou wouldst easily pardon and
forgive what is here amiss, or by thee misconceived. If hereafter
anatomizing this surly humour, my hand slip, as an unskilful 'prentice I
lance too deep, and cut through skin and all at unawares, make it smart, or
cut awry, [815]pardon a rude hand, an unskilful knife, 'tis a most
difficult thing to keep an even tone, a perpetual tenor, and not sometimes
to lash out; _difficile est Satyram non scribere_, there be so many objects
to divert, inward perturbations to molest, and the very best may sometimes
err; _aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus_ (some times that excellent Homer
takes a nap), it is impossible not in so much to overshoot;--_opere in
longo fas est obrepere, summum_. But what needs all this? I hope there will
no such cause of offence be given; if there be, [816]_Nemo aliquid
recognoscat, nos mentimur omnia_. I'll deny all (my last refuge), recant
all, renounce all I have said, if any man except, and with as much facility
excuse, as he can accuse; but I presume of thy good favour, and gracious
acceptance (gentle reader). Out of an assured hope and confidence thereof,
I will begin.
LECTORI MALE FERIATO.
Tu vero cavesis edico quisquis es, ne temere sugilles Auctorem hujusce
operis, aut cavillator irrideas. Imo ne vel ex aliorum censura tacite
obloquaris (vis dicam verbo) nequid nasutulus inepte improbes, aut falso
fingas. Nam si talis revera sit, qualem prae se fert Junior Democritus,
seniori Democrito saltem affinis, aut ejus Genium vel tantillum sapiat;
actum de te, censorem aeque ac delatorem [817]aget econtra (_petulanti
splene cum sit_) sufflabit te in jocos, comminuet in sales, addo etiam, _et
deo risui_ te sacrificabit.
Iterum moneo, ne quid cavillere, ne dum Democritum Juniorem conviciis
infames, aut ignominiose vituperes, de te non male sentientem, tu idem
audias ab amico cordato, quod olim vulgus Abderitanum ab [818] Hippocrate,
concivem bene meritum et popularem suum Democritum, pro insano habens. _Ne
tu Democrite sapis, stulti autem et insani Abderitae_.
[819] "Abderitanae pectora plebis habes."
Haec te paucis admonitum volo (male feriate Lector) abi.
TO THE READER AT LEISURE.
Whoever you may be, I caution you against rashly defaming the author of
this work, or cavilling in jest against him. Nay, do not silently reproach
him in consequence of others' censure, nor employ your wit in foolish
disapproval, or false accusation. For, should Democritus Junior prove to be
what he professes, even a kinsman of his elder namesake, or be ever so
little of the same kidney, it is all over with you: he will become both
accuser and judge of you in your spleen, will dissipate you in jests,
pulverise you into salt, and sacrifice you, I can promise you, to the God
of Mirth.
I further advise you, not to asperse, or calumniate, or slander, Democritus
Junior, who possibly does not think ill of you, lest you may hear from some
discreet friend, the same remark the people of Abdera did from Hippocrates,
of their meritorious and popular fellow-citizen, whom they had looked on as
a madman; "It is not that you, Democritus, that art wise, but that the
people of Abdera are fools and madmen." "You have yourself an Abderitian
soul;" and having just given you, gentle reader, these few words of
admonition, farewell.
"Heraclite fleas, misero sic convenit aevo,
Nil nisi turpe vides, nil nisi triste vides.
Ride etiam, quantumque lubet, Democrite ride
Non nisi vana vides, non nisi stulta vides.
Is fletu, his risu modo gaudeat, unus utrique
Sit licet usque labor, sit licet usque dolor.
Nunc opes est (nam totus eheu jam desipit orbis)
Mille Heraclitis, milleque Democritis.
Nunc opus est (tanta est insania) transeat omnis
Mundus in Anticyras, gramen in Helleborum."
"Weep, O Heraclitus, it suits the age,
Unless you see nothing base, nothing sad.
Laugh, O Democritus, as much as you please,
Unless you see nothing either vain or foolish.
Let one rejoice in smiles, the other in tears;
Let the same labour or pain be the office of both.
Now (for alas! how foolish the world has become),
A thousand Heraclitus', a thousand Democritus' are required.
Now (so much does madness prevail), all the world must be
Sent to Anticyra, to graze on Hellebore."
THE SYNOPSIS OF THE FIRST PARTITION.
In diseases, consider _Sect. 1. Memb. 1._
Their Causes. _Subs. 1._
Impulsive;
Sin, concupiscence, &c.
Instrumental;
Intemperance, all second causes, &c.
Or Definition, Member, Division. _Subs. 2._
Of the body 300, which are
Epidemical, as Plague, Plica, &c.
Or Particular as Gout, Dropsy, &c.
Or Of the head or mind. _Subs. 3._
In disposition; as all perturbations, evil affection, &c.
Or Habits, as _Subs. 4._
Dotage
Frenzy.
Madness.
Ecstasy.
Lycanthropia.
Chorus sancti Viti.
Hydrophobia.
Possession or obsession of Devils.
Melancholy. See [Symbol: Aries].
[Symbol: Aries] Melancholy: in which consider
Its Equivocations, in Disposition, Improper, &c. _Subsect. 5._
_Memb. 2._
To its explication, a digression of anatomy, in which observe parts of
_Subs. 1._
Body hath parts _Subs. 2._
contained as
Humours, 4. Blood, Phlegm, &c.
Spirits; vital, natural, animal.
or containing
Similar; spermatical, or flesh, bones, nerves, &c. _Subs. 3._
Dissimilar; brain, heart, liver, &c. _Subs. 4._
Soul and its faculties, as
Vegetal. _Subs. 5._
Sensible. _Subs. 6, 7, 8._
Rational. _Subsect. 9, 10, 11._
_Memb. 3._
Its definition, name, difference, _Subs. 1._
The part and parties affected, affection, &c. _Subs. 2._
The matter of melancholy, natural, &c. _Subs. 3._
Species, or kinds [_Subs. 4._], which are
Proper to parts, as
Of the head alone, hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. Of the
whole body.
with their several causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures
Or Indefinite; as Love-melancholy, the subject of the third
Partition.
Its Causes in general. _Sect. 2._ A.
Its Symptoms or signs. _Sect. 3._ B.
Its Prognostics or indications. _Sect. 4._ C.
Its Cures; the subject of the second Partition.
A. _Sect. 2._ Causes of Melancholy are either
General, as _Memb. 1._
Supernatural
As from God immediately, or by second causes. _Subs. 1._
Or from the devil immediately, with a digression of the nature of
spirits and devils. _Subs. 2._
Or mediately, by magicians, witches. _Subs. 3._
Or Natural
Primary, as stars, proved by aphorisms, signs from physiognomy,
metoposcopy, chiromancy. _Subs. 4._
Or Secondary, as
Congenite, inward from
Old age, temperament, _Subs. 5._
Parents, it being an hereditary disease, _Subs. 6._
Or Outward or adventitious, which are
Evident, outward, remote, adventitious, as,
Necessary, see [Symbol: Taurus].
Not necessary, as _M. 4. S. 2._
Nurses, _Subs. 1._
Education, _Subs. 2._
Terrors, affrights, _Subs. 3._
Scoffs, calumnies, bitter jests, _Subs. 4._
Loss of liberty, servitude, imprisonment, _Subs.
5._
Poverty and want, _Subs. 6.
A heap of other accidents, death of friends,
loss, &c. _Subs. 7._
Or Contingent, inward, antecedent, nearest. _Memb. 5.
Sect. 2._
In which the body works on the mind, and this malady
is caused by precedent diseases; as agues, pox,
&c., or temperature, innate _Subs. 1._
Or by particular parts distempered, as brain, heart,
spleen, liver, mesentery, pylorus, stomach &c.
_Subs. 2._
Particular to the three species. See [Symbol: Gemini].
[Symbol: Gemini] Particular causes. _Sect. 2. Memb. 5._
Of head Melancholy are _Subs. 3._
Inward
Innate humour, or from temperature adjust.
A hot brain, corrupted blood in the brain
Excess of venery, or defect
Agues, or some precedent disease
Fumes arising from the stomach, &c.
Or Outward
Heat of the sun, immoderate
A blow on the head
Overmuch use of hot wines, spices, garlic, onions, hot baths,
overmuch waking, &c.
Idleness, solitariness, or overmuch study, vehement labour, &c.
Passions, perturbations, &c.
Of hypochondriacal or windy melancholy are, [_Subs. 4._]
Inward
Default of spleen, belly, bowels, stomach, mesentery, miseraic
veins, liver, &c.
Months or hemorrhoids stopped, or any other ordinary evacuation
or Outward
Those six non-natural things abused.
Over all the body are, _Subs. 5._
Inward
Liver distempered, stopped, over-hot, apt to engender melancholy,
temperature innate.
or Outward
Bad diet, suppression of hemorrhoids &c. and such evacuations,
passions, cares, &c. those six non-natural things abused.
[Symbol: Taurus] Necessary causes, as those six non-natural things, which
are, _Sect. 2 Memb. 2._
Diet offending in _Subs. 1._
Substance
Bread; course and black, &c.
Drink; thick, thin, sour, &c.
Water unclean, milk, oil, vinegar, wine, spices &c.
Flesh
Parts: heads, feet, entrails, fat, bacon, blood, &c.
Kinds:
Beef, pork, venison, hares, goats, pigeons, peacocks,
fen-fowl, &c.
Herbs, Fish, &c.
Of fish; all shellfish, hard and slimy fish, &c.
Of herbs; pulse, cabbage, melons, garlic, onions, &c.
All roots, raw fruits, hard and windy meats
Quality, as in
Preparing, dressing, sharp sauces, salt meats, indurate, soused,
fried, broiled or made-dishes, &c.
Quantity
Disorder in eating, immoderate eating, or at unseasonable times,
&c. _Subs. 2_
Custom; delight, appetite, altered, &c. _Subs. 3._
Retention and evacuation, _Subs. 4._
Costiveness, hot baths, sweating, issues stopped, Venus in excess, or
in defect, phlebotomy, purging, &c.
Air; hot, cold, tempestuous, dark, thick, foggy, moorish, &c. _Subs. 5._
Exercise, _Subs. 6._
Unseasonable, excessive, or defective, of body or mind, solitariness,
idleness, a life out of action, &c.
Sleep and waking, unseasonable, inordinate, overmuch, overlittle, &c.
_Subs. 7._
_Memb. 3. Sect. 2._
Passions and perturbations of the mind, _Subs. 1._ With a digression of
the force of imagination. _Subs. 2._ and division of passions into
_Subs. 3._
Irascible,
Sorrow, cause and symptom, _Subs. 4._
Fear, cause and symptom, _Subs. 5._
Shame, repulse, disgrace, &c. _Subs. 6._
Envy and malice, _Subs. 7._
Emulation, hatred, faction, desire of revenge, _Subs. 8._
Anger a cause, _Subs. 9._
Discontents, cares, miseries, &c. _Subs. 10._
or concupiscible.
Vehement desires, ambition, _Subs. 11._
Covetousness, [Greek: philargurian], _Subs. 12._
Love of pleasures, gaming in excess, &c. _Subs. 13._
Desire of praise, pride, vainglory, &c. _Subs. 14._
Love of learning, study in excess, with a digression, of the
misery of scholars, and why the Muses are melancholy, _Subs.
15._
B. Symptoms of melancholy are either _Sect. 3._
General, as of _Memb. 1._
Body, as ill digestion, crudity, wind, dry brains, hard belly, thick
blood, much waking, heaviness, and palpitation of heart, leaping in
many places, &c., _Subs. 1._
or Mind
Common to all or most.
Fear and sorrow without a just cause, suspicion, jealousy,
discontent, solitariness, irksomeness, continual cogitations,
restless thoughts, vain imaginations, &c. _Subs. 2._
Or Particular to private persons, according to _Subs. 3. 4._
Celestial influences, as [Symbol: Saturn] [Symbol: Jupiter]
[Symbol: Mars], &c. parts of the body, heart, brain, liver,
spleen, stomach, &c.
Humours
Sanguine are merry still, laughing, pleasant, meditating
on plays, women, music, &c.
Phlegmatic, slothful, dull, heavy, &c.
Choleric, furious, impatient, subject to hear and see
strange apparitions, &c.
Black, solitary, sad; they think they are bewitched,
dead, &c.
Or mixed of these four humours adust, or not adust,
infinitely varied.
Their several customs, conditions, inclinations, discipline,
&c.
Ambitious, thinks himself a king, a lord; covetous, runs
on his money; lascivious on his mistress; religious, hath
revelations, visions, is a prophet, or troubled in mind;
a scholar on his book, &c.
Continuance of time as the humour is intended or remitted,
&c.
Pleasant at first, hardly discerned; afterwards harsh and
intolerable, if inveterate. Hence some make three
degrees,
1. _Falsa cogitatio._
2. _Cogitata loqui._
3. _Exequi loquutum._
By fits, or continuate, as the object varies, pleasing,
or displeasing.
Simple, or as it is mixed with other diseases, apoplexies, gout, _caninus
appetitus_, &c. so the symptoms are various.
[Symbol: Cancer] Particular symptoms to the three distinct species. _Sect.
3. Memb. 2._
Head melancholy. _Subs. 1._
In body
Headache, binding and heaviness, vertigo, lightness, singing of
the ears, much waking, fixed eyes, high colour, red eyes, hard
belly, dry body; no great sign of melancholy in the other parts.
Or In mind.
Continual fear, sorrow, suspicion, discontent, superfluous cares,
solicitude, anxiety, perpetual cogitation of such toys they are
possessed with, thoughts like dreams, &c.
Hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. _Subs. 2._
In body
Wind, rumbling in the guts, bellyache, heat in the bowels,
convulsions, crudities, short wind, sour and sharp belchings,
cold sweat, pain in the left side, suffocation, palpitation,
heaviness of the heart, singing in the ears, much spittle, and
moist, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, suspicious, discontent, anxiety, &c. Lascivious by
reason of much wind, troublesome dreams, affected by fits, &c.
Over all the body. _Subs. 3._
In body
Black, most part lean, broad veins, gross, thick blood, their
hemorrhoids commonly stopped, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, solitary, hate light, averse from company, fearful
dreams, &c.
Symptoms of nuns, maids, and widows melancholy, in body and mind, &c.
[_Subs. 4_]
A reason of these symptoms. _Memb. 3._
Why they are so fearful, sad, suspicious without a cause, why
solitary, why melancholy men are witty, why they suppose they hear
and see strange voices, visions, apparitions.
Why they prophesy, and speak strange languages; whence comes their
crudity, rumbling, convulsions, cold sweat, heaviness of heart,
palpitation, cardiaca, fearful dreams, much waking, prodigious
fantasies.
C. Prognostics of melancholy. _Sect. 4._
Tending to good, as
Morphew, scabs, itch, breaking out, &c.
Black jaundice.
If the hemorrhoids voluntarily open.
If varices appear.
Tending to evil, as
Leanness, dryness, hollow-eyed, &c.
Inveterate melancholy is incurable.
If cold, it degenerates often into epilepsy, apoplexy, dotage, or
into blindness.
If hot, into madness, despair, and violent death.
Corollaries and questions.
The grievousness of this above all other diseases.
The diseases of the mind are more grievous than those of the body.
Whether it be lawful, in this case of melancholy, for a man to offer
violence to himself. _Neg._
How a melancholy or mad man offering violence to himself, is to be
censured.
THE FIRST PARTITION.
THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.
_Man's Excellency, Fall, Miseries, Infirmities; The causes of them_.
_Man's Excellency_.] Man the most excellent and noble creature of the
world, "the principal and mighty work of God, wonder of Nature," as
Zoroaster calls him; _audacis naturae miraculum_, "the [820]marvel of
marvels," as Plato; "the [821]abridgment and epitome of the world," as
Pliny; _microcosmus_, a little world, a model of the world, [822]sovereign
lord of the earth, viceroy of the world, sole commander and governor of all
the creatures in it; to whose empire they are subject in particular, and
yield obedience; far surpassing all the rest, not in body only, but in
soul; [823]_imaginis imago_, [824]created to God's own [825]image, to that
immortal and incorporeal substance, with all the faculties and powers
belonging unto it; was at first pure, divine, perfect, happy, [826]
"created after God in true holiness and righteousness;" _Deo congruens_,
free from all manner of infirmities, and put in Paradise, to know God, to
praise and glorify him, to do his will, _Ut diis consimiles parturiat deos_
(as an old poet saith) to propagate the church.
_Man's Fall and Misery_.] But this most noble creature, _Heu tristis, et
lachrymosa commutatio_ ([827]one exclaims) O pitiful change! is fallen from
that he was, and forfeited his estate, become _miserabilis homuncio_, a
castaway, a caitiff, one of the most miserable creatures of the world, if
he be considered in his own nature, an unregenerate man, and so much
obscured by his fall that (some few relics excepted) he is inferior to a
beast, [828]"Man in honour that understandeth not, is like unto beasts that
perish," so David esteems him: a monster by stupend metamorphoses, [829]a
fox, a dog, a hog, what not? _Quantum mutatus ab illo_? How much altered
from that he was; before blessed and happy, now miserable and accursed;
[830]"He must eat his meat in sorrow," subject to death and all manner of
infirmities, all kind of calamities.
_A Description of Melancholy_.] [831]"Great travail is created for all men,
and an heavy yoke on the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of
their mother's womb, unto that day they return to the mother of all things.
Namely, their thoughts, and fear of their hearts, and their imagination of
things they wait for, and the day of death. From him that sitteth in the
glorious throne, to him that sitteth beneath in the earth and ashes; from
him that is clothed in blue silk and weareth a crown, to him that is
clothed in simple linen. Wrath, envy, trouble, and unquietness, and fear of
death, and rigour, and strife, and such things come to both man and beast,
but sevenfold to the ungodly." All this befalls him in this life, and
peradventure eternal misery in the life to come.
_Impulsive Cause of Man's Misery and Infirmities_.] The impulsive cause of
these miseries in man, this privation or destruction of God's image, the
cause of death and diseases, of all temporal and eternal punishments, was
the sin of our first parent Adam, [832]in eating of the forbidden fruit, by
the devil's instigation and allurement. His disobedience, pride, ambition,
intemperance, incredulity, curiosity; from whence proceeded original sin,
and that general corruption of mankind, as from a fountain, flowed all bad
inclinations and actual transgressions which cause our several calamities
inflicted upon us for our sins. And this belike is that which our fabulous
poets have shadowed unto us in the tale of [833] Pandora's box, which being
opened through her curiosity, filled the world full of all manner of
diseases. It is not curiosity alone, but those other crying sins of ours,
which pull these several plagues and miseries upon our heads. For _Ubi
peccatum, ibi procella_, as [834]Chrysostom well observes. [835]"Fools by
reason of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are
afflicted." [836]"Fear cometh like sudden desolation, and destruction like
a whirlwind, affliction and anguish," because they did not fear God.
[837]"Are you shaken with wars?" as Cyprian well urgeth to Demetrius, "are
you molested with dearth and famine? is your health crushed with raging
diseases? is mankind generally tormented with epidemical maladies? 'tis all
for your sins," Hag. i. 9, 10; Amos i.; Jer. vii. God is angry, punisheth
and threateneth, because of their obstinacy and stubbornness, they will not
turn unto him. [838]"If the earth be barren then for want of rain, if dry
and squalid, it yield no fruit, if your fountains be dried up, your wine,
corn, and oil blasted, if the air be corrupted, and men troubled with
diseases, 'tis by reason of their sins:" which like the blood of Abel cry
loud to heaven for vengeance, Lam. v. 15. "That we have sinned, therefore
our hearts are heavy," Isa. lix. 11, 12. "We roar like bears, and mourn
like doves, and want health, &c. for our sins and trespasses." But this we
cannot endure to hear or to take notice of, Jer. ii. 30. "We are smitten in
vain and receive no correction;" and cap. v. 3. "Thou hast stricken them,
but they have not sorrowed; they have refused to receive correction; they
have not returned. Pestilence he hath sent, but they have not turned to
him," Amos iv. [839]Herod could not abide John Baptist, nor [840]Domitian
endure Apollonius to tell the causes of the plague at Ephesus, his
injustice, incest, adultery, and the like.
To punish therefore this blindness and obstinacy of ours as a concomitant
cause and principal agent, is God's just judgment in bringing these
calamities upon us, to chastise us, I say, for our sins, and to satisfy
God's wrath. For the law requires obedience or punishment, as you may read
at large, Deut. xxviii. 15. "If they will not obey the Lord, and keep his
commandments and ordinances, then all these curses shall come upon them."
[841]"Cursed in the town and in the field," &c. [842]"Cursed in the fruit
of the body," &c. [843]"The Lord shall send thee trouble and shame, because
of thy wickedness." And a little after, [844]"The Lord shall smite thee
with the botch of Egypt, and with emerods, and scab, and itch, and thou
canst not be healed; [845]with madness, blindness, and astonishing of
heart." This Paul seconds, Rom. ii. 9. "Tribulation and anguish on the soul
of every man that doeth evil." Or else these chastisements are inflicted
upon us for our humiliation, to exercise and try our patience here in this
life to bring us home, to make us to know God ourselves, to inform and
teach us wisdom. [846]"Therefore is my people gone into captivity, because
they had no knowledge; therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against
his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them." He is desirous
of our salvation. [847]_Nostrae salutis avidus_, saith Lemnius, and for
that cause pulls us by the ear many times, to put us in mind of our duties:
"That they which erred might have understanding, (as Isaiah speaks xxix.
24) and so to be reformed." [848]"I am afflicted, and at the point of
death," so David confesseth of himself, Psal. lxxxviii. v. 15, v. 9. "Mine
eyes are sorrowful through mine affliction:" and that made him turn unto
God. Great Alexander in the midst of all his prosperity, by a company of
parasites deified, and now made a god, when he saw one of his wounds bleed,
remembered that he was but a man, and remitted of his pride. _In morbo
recolligit se animus_,[849] as [850]Pliny well perceived; "In sickness the
mind reflects upon itself, with judgment surveys itself, and abhors its
former courses;" insomuch that he concludes to his friend Marius,[851]
"that it were the period of all philosophy, if we could so continue sound,
or perform but a part of that which we promised to do, being sick. Whoso is
wise then, will consider these things," as David did (Psal. cxliv., verse
last); and whatsoever fortune befall him, make use of it. If he be in
sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity, seriously to recount with
himself, why this or that malady, misery, this or that incurable disease is
inflicted upon him; it may be for his good, [852]_sic expedit_ as Peter
said of his daughter's ague. Bodily sickness is for his soul's health,
_periisset nisi periisset_, had he not been visited, he had utterly
perished; for [853]"the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as a
father doth his child in whom he delighteth." If he be safe and sound on
the other side, and free from all manner of infirmity; [854]_et cui_
"Gratia, forma, valetudo contingat abunde
Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena."
"And that he have grace, beauty, favour, health,
A cleanly diet, and abound in wealth."
Yet in the midst of his prosperity, let him remember that caveat of Moses,
[855]"Beware that he do not forget the Lord his God;" that he be not puffed
up, but acknowledge them to be his good gifts and benefits, and [856]"the
more he hath, to be more thankful," (as Agapetianus adviseth) and use them
aright.
_Instrumental Causes of our Infirmities_.] Now the instrumental causes of
these our infirmities, are as diverse as the infirmities themselves; stars,
heavens, elements, &c. And all those creatures which God hath made, are
armed against sinners. They were indeed once good in themselves, and that
they are now many of them pernicious unto us, is not in their nature, but
our corruption, which hath caused it. For from the fall of our first parent
Adam, they have been changed, the earth accursed, the influence of stars,
altered, the four elements, beasts, birds, plants, are now ready to offend
us. "The principal things for the use of man, are water, fire, iron, salt,
meal, wheat, honey, milk, oil, wine, clothing, good to the godly, to the
sinners turned to evil," Ecclus. xxxix. 26. "Fire, and hail, and famine,
and dearth, all these are created for vengeance," Ecclus. xxxix. 29. The
heavens threaten us with their comets, stars, planets, with their great
conjunctions, eclipses, oppositions, quartiles, and such unfriendly
aspects. The air with his meteors, thunder and lightning, intemperate heat
and cold, mighty winds, tempests, unseasonable weather; from which proceed
dearth, famine, plague, and all sorts of epidemical diseases, consuming
infinite myriads of men. At Cairo in Egypt, every third year, (as it is
related by [857]Boterus, and others) 300,000 die of the plague; and
200,000, in Constantinople, every fifth or seventh at the utmost. How doth
the earth terrify and oppress us with terrible earthquakes, which are most
frequent in [858]China, Japan, and those eastern climes, swallowing up
sometimes six cities at once? How doth the water rage with his inundations,
irruptions, flinging down towns, cities, villages, bridges, &c. besides
shipwrecks; whole islands are sometimes suddenly overwhelmed with all their
inhabitants in [859]Zealand, Holland, and many parts of the continent
drowned, as the [860]lake Erne in Ireland? [861]_Nihilque praeter arcium
cadavera patenti cernimus freto._ In the fens of Friesland 1230, by reason
of tempests, [862]the sea drowned _multa hominum millia, et jumenta sine
numero_, all the country almost, men and cattle in it. How doth the fire
rage, that merciless element, consuming in an instant whole cities? What
town of any antiquity or note hath not been once, again and again, by the
fury of this merciless element, defaced, ruinated, and left desolate? In a
word,
[863] "Ignis pepercit, unda mergit, aeris
Vis pestilentis aequori ereptum necat,
Bello superstes, tabidus morbo perit."
"Whom fire spares, sea doth drown; whom sea,
Pestilent air doth send to clay;
Whom war 'scapes, sickness takes away."
To descend to more particulars, how many creatures are at deadly feud with
men? Lions, wolves, bears, &c. Some with hoofs, horns, tusks, teeth, nails:
How many noxious serpents and venomous creatures, ready to offend us with
stings, breath, sight, or quite kill us? How many pernicious fishes,
plants, gums, fruits, seeds, flowers, &c. could I reckon up on a sudden,
which by their very smell many of them, touch, taste, cause some grievous
malady, if not death itself? Some make mention of a thousand several
poisons: but these are but trifles in respect. The greatest enemy to man,
is man, who by the devil's instigation is still ready to do mischief, his
own executioner, a wolf, a devil to himself, and others. [864]We are all
brethren in Christ, or at least should be, members of one body, servants of
one lord, and yet no fiend can so torment, insult over, tyrannise, vex, as
one man doth another. Let me not fall therefore (saith David, when wars,
plague, famine were offered) into the hands of men, merciless and wicked
men:
[865] ------"Vix sunt homines hoc nomine digni,
Quamque lupi, saevae plus feritatis habent."
We can most part foresee these epidemical diseases, and likely avoid them;
Dearths, tempests, plagues, our astrologers foretell us; Earthquakes,
inundations, ruins of houses, consuming fires, come by little and little,
or make some noise beforehand; but the knaveries, impostures, injuries and
villainies of men no art can avoid. We can keep our professed enemies from
our cities, by gates, walls and towers, defend ourselves from thieves and
robbers by watchfulness and weapons; but this malice of men, and their
pernicious endeavours, no caution can divert, no vigilancy foresee, we have
so many secret plots and devices to mischief one another.
Sometimes by the devil's help as magicians, [866]witches: sometimes by
impostures, mixtures, poisons, stratagems, single combats, wars, we hack
and hew, as if we were _ad internecionem nati_, like Cadmus' soldiers born
to consume one another. 'Tis an ordinary thing to read of a hundred and two
hundred thousand men slain in a battle. Besides all manner of tortures,
brazen bulls, racks, wheels, strappadoes, guns, engines, &c. [867]_Ad unum
corpus humanum supplicia plura, quam membra_: We have invented more
torturing instruments, than there be several members in a man's body, as
Cyprian well observes. To come nearer yet, our own parents by their
offences, indiscretion and intemperance, are our mortal enemies. [868]"The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
They cause our grief many times, and put upon us hereditary diseases,
inevitable infirmities: they torment us, and we are ready to injure our
posterity;
[869] ------"mox daturi progeniem vitiosiorem."
"And yet with crimes to us unknown,
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own;"
and the latter end of the world, as [870]Paul foretold, is still like to be
the worst. We are thus bad by nature, bad by kind, but far worse by art,
every man the greatest enemy unto himself. We study many times to undo
ourselves, abusing those good gifts which God hath bestowed upon us,
health, wealth, strength, wit, learning, art, memory to our own
destruction, [871]_Perditio tua ex te_. As [872]Judas Maccabeus killed
Apollonius with his own weapons, we arm ourselves to our own overthrows;
and use reason, art, judgment, all that should help us, as so many
instruments to undo us. Hector gave Ajax a sword, which so long as he
fought against enemies, served for his help and defence; but after he began
to hurt harmless creatures with it, turned to his own hurtless bowels.
Those excellent means God hath bestowed on us, well employed, cannot but
much avail us; but if otherwise perverted, they ruin and confound us: and
so by reason of our indiscretion and weakness they commonly do, we have too
many instances. This St. Austin acknowledgeth of himself in his humble
confessions, "promptness of wit, memory, eloquence, they were God's good
gifts, but he did not use them to his glory." If you will particularly know
how, and by what means, consult physicians, and they will tell you, that it
is in offending in some of those six non-natural things, of which I shall
[873]dilate more at large; they are the causes of our infirmities, our
surfeiting, and drunkenness, our immoderate insatiable lust, and prodigious
riot. _Plures crapula, quam gladius_, is a true saying, the board consumes
more than the sword. Our intemperance it is, that pulls so many several
incurable diseases upon our heads, that hastens [874]old age, perverts our
temperature, and brings upon us sudden death. And last of all, that which
crucifies us most, is our own folly, madness (_quos Jupiter perdit,
dementat_; by subtraction of his assisting grace God permits it) weakness,
want of government, our facility and proneness in yielding to several
lusts, in giving way to every passion and perturbation of the mind: by
which means we metamorphose ourselves and degenerate into beasts. All which
that prince of [875]poets observed of Agamemnon, that when he was well
pleased, and could moderate his passion, he was--_os oculosque Jovi par_:
like Jupiter in feature, Mars in valour, Pallas in wisdom, another god; but
when he became angry, he was a lion, a tiger, a dog, &c., there appeared no
sign or likeness of Jupiter in him; so we, as long as we are ruled by
reason, correct our inordinate appetite, and conform ourselves to God's
word, are as so many saints: but if we give reins to lust, anger, ambition,
pride, and follow our own ways, we degenerate into beasts, transform
ourselves, overthrow our constitutions, [876]provoke God to anger, and heap
upon us this of melancholy, and all kinds of incurable diseases, as a just
and deserved punishment of our sins.
SUBSECT. II.--_The Definition, Number, Division of Diseases_.
What a disease is, almost every physician defines. [877]Fernelius calleth
it an "affection of the body contrary to nature." [878]Fuschius and Crato,
"an hindrance, hurt, or alteration of any action of the body, or part of
it." [879]Tholosanus, "a dissolution of that league which is between body
and soul, and a perturbation of it; as health the perfection, and makes to
the preservation of it." [880]Labeo in Agellius, "an ill habit of the body,
opposite to nature, hindering the use of it." Others otherwise, all to this
effect.
_Number of Diseases_.] How many diseases there are, is a question not yet
determined; [881]Pliny reckons up 300 from the crown of the head to the
sole of the foot: elsewhere he saith, _morborum infinita multitudo_, their
number is infinite. Howsoever it was in those times, it boots not; in our
days I am sure the number is much augmented:
[882] ------"macies, et nova febrium
Terris incubit cohors."
For besides many epidemical diseases unheard of, and altogether unknown to
Galen and Hippocrates, as scorbutum, small-pox, plica, sweating sickness,
morbus Gallicus, &c., we have many proper and peculiar almost to every
part.
_No man free from some Disease or other_.] No man amongst us so sound, of
so good a constitution, that hath not some impediment of body or mind.
_Quisque suos patimur manes_, we have all our infirmities, first or last,
more or less. There will be peradventure in an age, or one of a thousand,
like Zenophilus the musician in [883]Pliny, that may happily live 105 years
without any manner of impediment; a Pollio Romulus, that can preserve
himself [884]"with wine and oil;" a man as fortunate as Q. Metellus, of
whom Valerius so much brags; a man as healthy as Otto Herwardus, a senator
of Augsburg in Germany, whom [885]Leovitius the astrologer brings in for an
example and instance of certainty in his art; who because he had the
significators in his geniture fortunate, and free from the hostile aspects
of Saturn and Mars, being a very cold man, [886]"could not remember that
ever he was sick." [887]Paracelsus may brag that he could make a man live
400 years or more, if he might bring him up from his infancy, and diet him
as he list; and some physicians hold, that there is no certain period of
man's life; but it may still by temperance and physic be prolonged. We find
in the meantime, by common experience, that no man can escape, but that of
[888]Hesiod is true:
"[Greek: pleiae men gar gaia kakon, pleiae de thalassa,
nousoid' anthropoi ein eph' haemerae, aed' epi nukti
Hautomatoi phoitosi.]"------
"Th' earth's full of maladies, and full the sea,
Which set upon us both by night and day."
_Division of Diseases_.] If you require a more exact division of these
ordinary diseases which are incident to men, I refer you to physicians;
[889]they will tell you of acute and chronic, first and secondary, lethals,
salutares, errant, fixed, simple, compound, connexed, or consequent,
belonging to parts or the whole, in habit, or in disposition, &c. My
division at this time (as most befitting my purpose) shall be into those of
the body and mind. For them of the body, a brief catalogue of which
Fuschius hath made, _Institut. lib. 3, sect. 1, cap. 11._ I refer you to
the voluminous tomes of Galen, Areteus, Rhasis, Avicenna, Alexander, Paulus
Aetius, Gordonerius: and those exact Neoterics, Savanarola, Capivaccius,
Donatus Altomarus, Hercules de Saxonia, Mercurialis, Victorius Faventinus,
Wecker, Piso, &c., that have methodically and elaborately written of them
all. Those of the mind and head I will briefly handle, and apart.
SUBSECT. III.--_Division of the Diseases of the Head_.
These diseases of the mind, forasmuch as they have their chief seat and
organs in the head, which are commonly repeated amongst the diseases of the
head which are divers, and vary much according to their site. For in the
head, as there be several parts, so there be divers grievances, which
according to that division of [890]Heurnius, (which he takes out of
Arculanus,) are inward or outward (to omit all others which pertain to eyes
and ears, nostrils, gums, teeth, mouth, palate, tongue, weezle, chops,
face, &c.) belonging properly to the brain, as baldness, falling of hair,
furfur, lice, &c. [891]Inward belonging to the skins next to the brain,
called _dura_ and _pia mater_, as all headaches, &c., or to the ventricles,
caules, kells, tunicles, creeks, and parts of it, and their passions, as
caro, vertigo, incubus, apoplexy, falling sickness. The diseases of the
nerves, cramps, stupor, convulsion, tremor, palsy: or belonging to the
excrements of the brain, catarrhs, sneezing, rheums, distillations: or else
those that pertain to the substance of the brain itself, in which are
conceived frenzy, lethargy, melancholy, madness, weak memory, sopor, or
_Coma Vigilia et vigil Coma_. Out of these again I will single such as
properly belong to the phantasy, or imagination, or reason itself, which
[892]Laurentius calls the disease of the mind; and Hildesheim, _morbos
imaginationis, aut rationis laesae_, (diseases of the imagination, or of
injured reason,) which are three or four in number, frenzy, madness,
melancholy, dotage, and their kinds: as hydrophobia, lycanthropia, _Chorus
sancti viti, morbi daemoniaci_, (St. Vitus's dance, possession of devils,)
which I will briefly touch and point at, insisting especially in this of
melancholy, as more eminent than the rest, and that through all his kinds,
causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures: as Lonicerus hath done _de
apoplexia_, and many other of such particular diseases. Not that I find
fault with those which have written of this subject before, as Jason
Pratensis, Laurentius, Montaltus, T. Bright, &c., they have done very well
in their several kinds and methods; yet that which one omits, another may
haply see; that which one contracts, another may enlarge. To conclude with
[893]Scribanius, "that which they had neglected, or perfunctorily handled,
we may more thoroughly examine; that which is obscurely delivered in them,
may be perspicuously dilated and amplified by us:" and so made more
familiar and easy for every man's capacity, and the common good, which is
the chief end of my discourse.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Dotage, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropia, Chorus
sancti Viti, Extasis_.
_Delirium, Dotage_.] Dotage, fatuity, or folly, is a common name to all the
following species, as some will have it. [894]Laurentius and [895]
Altomarus comprehended madness, melancholy, and the rest under this name,
and call it the _summum genus_ of them all. If it be distinguished from
them, it is natural or ingenite, which comes by some defect of the organs,
and overmuch brain, as we see in our common fools; and is for the most part
intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than
others: or else it is acquisite, an appendix or symptom of some other
disease, which comes or goes; or if it continue, a sign of melancholy
itself.
_Frenzy_.] _Phrenitis_, which the Greeks derive from the word [Greek:
phraen], is a disease of the mind, with a continual madness or dotage,
which hath an acute fever annexed, or else an inflammation of the brain, or
the membranes or kells of it, with an acute fever, which causeth madness
and dotage. It differs from melancholy and madness, because their dotage is
without an ague: this continual, with waking, or memory decayed, &c.
Melancholy is most part silent, this clamorous; and many such like
differences are assigned by physicians.
_Madness_.] Madness, frenzy, and melancholy are confounded by Celsus, and
many writers; others leave out frenzy, and make madness and melancholy but
one disease, which [896]Jason Pratensis especially labours, and that they
differ only _secundam majus_ or _minus_, in quantity alone, the one being a
degree to the other, and both proceeding from one cause. They differ
_intenso et remisso gradu_, saith [897]Gordonius, as the humour is intended
or remitted. Of the same mind is [898]Areteus, Alexander Tertullianus,
Guianerius, Savanarola, Heurnius; and Galen himself writes promiscuously of
them both by reason of their affinity: but most of our neoterics do handle
them apart, whom I will follow in this treatise. Madness is therefore
defined to be a vehement dotage; or raving without a fever, far more
violent than melancholy, full of anger and clamour, horrible looks,
actions, gestures, troubling the patients with far greater vehemency both
of body and mind, without all fear and sorrow, with such impetuous force
and boldness, that sometimes three or four men cannot hold them. Differing
only in this from frenzy, that it is without a fever, and their memory is
most part better. It hath the same causes as the other, as choler adust,
and blood incensed, brains inflamed, &c. [899]Fracastorius adds, "a due
time, and full age" to this definition, to distinguish it from children,
and will have it confirmed impotency, to separate it from such as
accidentally come and go again, as by taking henbane, nightshade, wine, &c.
Of this fury there be divers kinds; [900]ecstasy, which is familiar with
some persons, as Cardan saith of himself, he could be in one when he list;
in which the Indian priests deliver their oracles, and the witches in
Lapland, as Olaus Magnus writeth, _l. 3, cap. 18._ _Extasi omnia
praedicere_, answer all questions in an ecstasis you will ask; what your
friends do, where they are, how they fare, &c. The other species of this
fury are enthusiasms, revelations, and visions, so often mentioned by
Gregory and Bede in their works; obsession or possession of devils,
sibylline prophets, and poetical furies; such as come by eating noxious
herbs, tarantulas stinging, &c., which some reduce to this. The most known
are these, lycanthropia, hydrophobia, chorus sancti Viti.
_Lycanthropia_.] Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls _cucubuth_, others
_lupinam insaniam_, or wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and
fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or
some such beasts. [901]Aetius and [902]Paulus call it a kind of melancholy;
but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of
it whether there be any such disease. [903]Donat ab Altomari saith, that he
saw two of them in his time: [904]Wierus tells a story of such a one at
Padua 1541, that would not believe to the contrary, but that he was a wolf.
He hath another instance of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear;
[905]Forrestus confirms as much by many examples; one amongst the rest of
which he was an eyewitness, at Alcmaer in Holland, a poor husbandman that
still hunted about graves, and kept in churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly,
and fearful look. Such belike, or little better, were king Praetus'
[906]daughters, that thought themselves kine. And Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel,
as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness.
This disease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of [907]Pliny,
"some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men
again:" and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf,
and afterwards turned to his former shape: to [908]Ovid's tale of Lycaon,
&c. He that is desirous to hear of this disease, or more examples, let him
read Austin in his 18th book _de Civitate Dei, cap. 5._ Mizaldus, _cent. 5.
77._ Sckenkius, _lib. 1._ Hildesheim, _spicel. 2. de Mania_. Forrestus
_lib. 10. de morbis cerebri._ Olaus Magnus, Vincentius Bellavicensis,
_spec. met. lib. 31. c. 122._ Pierius, Bodine, Zuinger, Zeilger, Peucer,
Wierus, Spranger, &c. This malady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in
February, and is nowadays frequent in Bohemia and Hungary, according to
[909]Heurnius. Scheretzius will have it common in Livonia. They lie hid
most part all day, and go abroad in the night, barking, howling, at graves
and deserts; [910]"they have usually hollow eyes, scabbed legs and thighs,
very dry and pale," [911]saith Altomarus; he gives a reason there of all
the symptoms, and sets down a brief cure of them.
_Hydrophobia_ is a kind of madness, well known in every village, which
comes by the biting of a mad dog, or scratching, saith [912]Aurelianus;
touching, or smelling alone sometimes as [913]Sckenkius proves, and is
incident to many other creatures as well as men: so called because the
parties affected cannot endure the sight of water, or any liquor, supposing
still they see a mad dog in it. And which is more wonderful; though they be
very dry, (as in this malady they are) they will rather die than drink:
[914]de Venenis Caelius Aurelianus, an ancient writer, makes a doubt
whether this Hydrophobia be a passion of the body or the mind. The part
affected is the brain: the cause, poison that comes from the mad dog, which
is so hot and dry, that it consumes all the moisture in the body. [915]
Hildesheim relates of some that died so mad; and being cut up, had no
water, scarce blood, or any moisture left in them. To such as are so
affected, the fear of water begins at fourteen days after they are bitten,
to some again not till forty or sixty days after: commonly saith Heurnius,
they begin to rave, fly water and glasses, to look red, and swell in the
face, about twenty days after (if some remedy be not taken in the meantime)
to lie awake, to be pensive, sad, to see strange visions, to bark and howl,
to fall into a swoon, and oftentimes fits of the falling sickness. [916]
Some say, little things like whelps will be seen in their urine. If any of
these signs appear, they are past recovery. Many times these symptoms will
not appear till six or seven months after, saith [917]Codronchus; and
sometimes not till seven or eight years, as Guianerius; twelve as Albertus;
six or eight months after, as Galen holds. Baldus the great lawyer died of
it: an Augustine friar, and a woman in Delft, that were [918]Forrestus'
patients, were miserably consumed with it. The common cure in the country
(for such at least as dwell near the seaside) is to duck them over head and
ears in sea water; some use charms: every good wife can prescribe
medicines. But the best cure to be had in such cases, is from the most
approved physicians; they that will read of them, may consult with
Dioscorides, _lib. 6. c. 37_, Heurnius, Hildesheim, Capivaccius, Forrestus,
Sckenkius and before all others Codronchus an Italian, who hath lately
written two exquisite books on the subject.
_Chorus sancti Viti_, or St. Vitus's dance; the lascivious dance, [919]
Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken from it, can do nothing
but dance till they be dead, or cured. It is so called, for that the
parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help, and after they
had danced there awhile, they were [920]certainly freed. 'Tis strange to
hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms,
tables; even great bellied women sometimes (and yet never hurt their
children) will dance so long that they can stir neither hand nor foot, but
seem to be quite dead. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Music above
all things they love, and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire
musicians to play to them, and some lusty sturdy companions to dance with
them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those
relations of [921]Sckenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of Madness, who
brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Plateras _de
mentis alienat. cap. 3_, reports of a woman in Basil whom he saw, that
danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind of palsy. Bodine
in his 5th book _de Repub. cap. 1_, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius in
his last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may
read more of it.
The last kind of madness or melancholy, is that demoniacal (if I may so
call it) obsession or possession of devils, which Platerus and others would
have to be preternatural: stupend things are said of them, their actions,
gestures, contortions, fasting, prophesying, speaking languages they were
never taught, &c. Many strange stories are related of them, which because
some will not allow, (for Deacon and Darrel have written large volumes on
this subject pro and con.) I voluntarily omit.
[922]Fuschius, _Institut. lib. 3. sec. 1. cap. 11_, Felix Plater,
[923]Laurentius, add to these another fury that proceeds from love, and
another from study, another divine or religious fury; but these more
properly belong to melancholy; of all which I will speak [924]apart,
intending to write a whole book of them.
SUBSECT. V.--_Melancholy in Disposition, improperly so called,
Equivocations_.
Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition
or habit. In disposition, is that transitory melancholy which goes and
comes upon every small occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear,
grief, passion, or perturbation of the mind, any manner of care,
discontent, or thought, which causeth anguish, dullness, heaviness and
vexation of spirit, any ways opposite to pleasure, mirth, joy, delight,
causing frowardness in us, or a dislike. In which equivocal and improper
sense, we call him melancholy that is dull, sad, sour, lumpish, ill
disposed, solitary, any way moved, or displeased. And from these melancholy
dispositions, [925]no man living is free, no stoic, none so wise, none so
happy, none so patient, so generous, so godly, so divine, that can
vindicate himself; so well composed, but more or less, some time or other
he feels the smart of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of
mortality. [926]"Man that is born of a woman, is of short continuance, and
full of trouble." Zeno, Cato, Socrates himself, whom [927]Aelian so highly
commends for a moderate temper, that "nothing could disturb him, but going
out, and coming in, still Socrates kept the same serenity of countenance,
what misery soever befell him," (if we may believe Plato his disciple) was
much tormented with it. Q. Metellus, in whom [928]Valerius gives instance
of all happiness, "the most fortunate man then living, born in that most
flourishing city of Rome, of noble parentage, a proper man of person, well
qualified, healthful, rich, honourable, a senator, a consul, happy in his
wife, happy in his children," &c. yet this man was not void of melancholy,
he had his share of sorrow. [929]Polycrates Samius, that flung his ring
into the sea, because he would participate of discontent with others, and
had it miraculously restored to him again shortly after, by a fish taken as
he angled, was not free from melancholy dispositions. No man can cure
himself; the very gods had bitter pangs, and frequent passions, as their
own [930]poets put upon them. In general, [931]"as the heaven, so is our
life, sometimes fair, sometimes overcast, tempestuous, and serene; as in a
rose, flowers and prickles; in the year itself, a temperate summer
sometimes, a hard winter, a drought, and then again pleasant showers: so is
our life intermixed with joys, hopes, fears, sorrows, calumnies: _Invicem
cedunt dolor et voluptas_," there is a succession of pleasure and pain.
[932] ------"medio de fonte leporum
Surgit amari aliquid, in ipsis floribus angat."
"Even in the midst of laughing there is sorrow," (as [933]Solomon holds):
even in the midst of all our feasting and jollity, as [934]Austin infers in
his _Com. on the 41st Psalm_, there is grief and discontent. _Inter
delicias semper aliquid saevi nos strangulat_, for a pint of honey thou
shalt here likely find a gallon of gall, for a dram of pleasure a pound of
pain, for an inch of mirth an ell of moan; as ivy doth an oak, these
miseries encompass our life. And it is most absurd and ridiculous for any
mortal man to look for a perpetual tenure of happiness in his life. Nothing
so prosperous and pleasant, but it hath [935]some bitterness in it, some
complaining, some grudging; it is all [Greek: glukupikron], a mixed
passion, and like a chequer table black and white: men, families, cities,
have their falls and wanes; now trines, sextiles, then quartiles and
oppositions. We are not here as those angels, celestial powers and bodies,
sun and moon, to finish our course without all offence, with such
constancy, to continue for so many ages: but subject to infirmities,
miseries, interrupted, tossed and tumbled up and down, carried about with
every small blast, often molested and disquieted upon each slender
occasion, [936]uncertain, brittle, and so is all that we trust unto. [937]
"And he that knows not this is not armed to endure it, is not fit to live
in this world (as one condoles our time), he knows not the condition of it,
where with a reciprocalty, pleasure and pain are still united, and succeed
one another in a ring." _Exi e mundo_, get thee gone hence if thou canst
not brook it; there is no way to avoid it, but to arm thyself with
patience, with magnanimity, to [938]oppose thyself unto it, to suffer
affliction as a good soldier of Christ; as [939]Paul adviseth constantly to
bear it. But forasmuch as so few can embrace this good council of his, or
use it aright, but rather as so many brute beasts give away to their
passion, voluntary subject and precipitate themselves into a labyrinth of
cares, woes, miseries, and suffer their souls to be overcome by them,
cannot arm themselves with that patience as they ought to do, it falleth
out oftentimes that these dispositions become habits, and "many affects
contemned" (as [940]Seneca notes) "make a disease. Even as one
distillation, not yet grown to custom, makes a cough; but continual and
inveterate causeth a consumption of the lungs;" so do these our melancholy
provocations: and according as the humour itself is intended, or remitted
in men, as their temperature of body, or rational soul is better able to
make resistance; so are they more or less affected. For that which is but a
flea-biting to one, causeth insufferable torment to another; and which one
by his singular moderation, and well-composed carriage can happily
overcome, a second is no whit able to sustain, but upon every small
occasion of misconceived abuse, injury, grief, disgrace, loss, cross,
humour, &c. (if solitary, or idle) yields so far to passion, that his
complexion is altered, his digestion hindered, his sleep gone, his spirits
obscured, and his heart heavy, his hypochondries misaffected; wind,
crudity, on a sudden overtake him, and he himself overcome with melancholy.
As it is with a man imprisoned for debt, if once in the gaol, every
creditor will bring his action against him, and there likely hold him. If
any discontent seize upon a patient, in an instant all other perturbations
(for--_qua data porta ruunt_) will set upon him, and then like a lame dog
or broken-winged goose he droops and pines away, and is brought at last to
that ill habit or malady of melancholy itself. So that as the philosophers
make [941]eight degrees of heat and cold, we may make eighty-eight of
melancholy, as the parts affected are diversely seized with it, or have
been plunged more or less into this infernal gulf, or waded deeper into it.
But all these melancholy fits, howsoever pleasing at first, or displeasing,
violent and tyrannizing over those whom they seize on for the time; yet
these fits I say, or men affected, are but improperly so called, because
they continue not, but come and go, as by some objects they aye moved. This
melancholy of which we are to treat, is a habit, _mosbus sonticus_, or
_chronicus_, a chronic or continuate disease, a settled humour, as [942]
Aurelianus and [943]others call it, not errant, but fixed; and as it was
long increasing, so now being (pleasant, or painful) grown to an habit, it
will hardly be removed.
SECT. I. MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Digression of Anatomy_.
Before I proceed to define the disease of melancholy, what it is, or to
discourse farther of it, I hold it not impertinent to make a brief
digression of the anatomy of the body and faculties of the soul, for the
better understanding of that which is to follow; because many hard words
will often occur, as mirach, hypocondries, emerods, &c., imagination,
reason, humours, spirits, vital, natural, animal, nerves, veins, arteries,
chylus, pituita; which by the vulgar will not so easily be perceived, what
they are, how cited, and to what end they serve. And besides, it may
peradventure give occasion to some men to examine more accurately, search
further into this most excellent subject, and thereupon with that royal
[944]prophet to praise God, ("for a man is fearfully and wonderfully made,
and curiously wrought") that have time and leisure enough, and are
sufficiently informed in all other worldly businesses, as to make a good
bargain, buy and sell, to keep and make choice of a fair hawk, hound,
horse, &c. But for such matters as concern the knowledge of themselves,
they are wholly ignorant and careless; they know not what this body and
soul are, how combined, of what parts and faculties they consist, or how a
man differs from a dog. And what can be more ignominious and filthy (as
[945]Melancthon well inveighs) "than for a man not to know the structure
and composition of his own body, especially since the knowledge of it tends
so much to the preservation, of his health, and information of his
manners?" To stir them up therefore to this study, to peruse those
elaborate works of [946]Galen, Bauhines, Plater, Vesalius, Falopius,
Laurentius, Remelinus, &c., which have written copiously in Latin; or that
which some of our industrious countrymen have done in our mother tongue,
not long since, as that translation of [947]Columbus and [948]
Microcosmographia, in thirteen books, I have made this brief digression.
Also because [949]Wecker, [950]Melancthon, [951]Fernelius, [952] Fuschius,
and those tedious Tracts _de Anima_ (which have more compendiously handled
and written of this matter,) are not at all times ready to be had, to give
them some small taste, or notice of the rest, let this epitome suffice.
SUBSECT. II.--_Division of the Body, Humours, Spirits_.
Of the parts of the body there may be many divisions: the most approved is
that of [953]Laurentius, out of Hippocrates: which is, into parts
contained, or containing. Contained, are either humours or spirits.
_Humours_.] A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended
in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or
adventitious and acquisite. The radical or innate, is daily supplied by
nourishment, which some call cambium, and make those secondary humours of
ros and gluten to maintain it: or acquisite, to maintain these four first
primary humours, coming and proceeding from the first concoction in the
liver, by which means chylus is excluded. Some divide them into profitable
and excrementitious. But [954]Crato out of Hippocrates will have all four
to be juice, and not excrements, without which no living creature can be
sustained: which four, though they be comprehended in the mass of blood,
yet they have their several affections, by which they are distinguished
from one another, and from those adventitious, peccant, or [955]diseased
humours, as Melancthon calls them.
_Blood_.] Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humour, prepared in the
mesaraic veins, and made of the most temperate parts of the chylus in the
liver, whose office is to nourish the whole body, to give it strength and
colour, being dispersed by the veins through every part of it. And from it
spirits are first begotten in the heart, which afterwards by the arteries
are communicated to the other parts.
Pituita, or phlegm, is a cold and moist humour, begotten of the colder part
of the chylus (or white juice coming out of the meat digested in the
stomach,) in the liver; his office is to nourish and moisten the members of
the body, which as the tongue are moved, that they be not over dry.
Choler, is hot and dry, bitter, begotten of the hotter parts of the chylus,
and gathered to the gall: it helps the natural heat and senses, and serves
to the expelling of excrements.
_Melancholy_.] Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten
of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen, is a
bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in
the blood, and nourishing the bones. These four humours have some analogy
with the four elements, and to the four ages in man.
_Serum, Sweat, Tears_.] To these humours you may add serum, which is the
matter of urine, and those excrementitious humours of the third concoction,
sweat and tears.
_Spirits_.] Spirit is a most subtle vapour, which is expressed from the
blood, and the instrument of the soul, to perform all his actions; a common
tie or medium between the body and the soul, as some will have it; or as
[956]Paracelsus, a fourth soul of itself. Melancthon holds the fountain of
those spirits to be the heart, begotten there; and afterward conveyed to
the brain, they take another nature to them. Of these spirits there be
three kinds, according to the three principal parts, brain, heart, liver;
natural, vital, animal. The natural are begotten in the liver, and thence
dispersed through the veins, to perform those natural actions. The vital
spirits are made in the heart of the natural, which by the arteries are
transported to all the other parts: if the spirits cease, then life
ceaseth, as in a syncope or swooning. The animal spirits formed of the
vital, brought up to the brain, and diffused by the nerves, to the
subordinate members, give sense and motion to them all.
SUBSECT. III.--_Similar Parts_.
_Similar Parts_] Containing parts, by reason of their more solid substance,
are either homogeneal or heterogeneal, similar or dissimilar; so Aristotle
divides them, _lib. 1, cap. 1, de Hist. Animal._; Laurentius, _cap. 20,
lib. 1._ Similar, or homogeneal, are such as, if they be divided, are still
severed into parts of the same nature, as water into water. Of these some
be spermatical, some fleshy or carnal. [957]Spermatical are such as are
immediately begotten of the seed, which are bones, gristles, ligaments,
membranes, nerves, arteries, veins, skins, fibres or strings, fat.
_Bones_.] The bones are dry and hard, begotten of the thickest of the seed,
to strengthen and sustain other parts: some say there be 304, some 307, or
313 in man's body. They have no nerves in them, and are therefore without
sense.
A gristle is a substance softer than bone, and harder than the rest,
flexible, and serves to maintain the parts of motion.
Ligaments are they that tie the bones together, and other parts to the
bones, with their subserving tendons: membranes' office is to cover the
rest.
Nerves, or sinews, are membranes without, and full of marrow within; they
proceed from the brain, and carry the animal spirits for sense and motion.
Of these some be harder, some softer; the softer serve the senses, and
there be seven pair of them. The first be the optic nerves, by which we
see; the second move the eyes; the third pair serve for the tongue to
taste; the fourth pair for the taste in the palate; the fifth belong to the
ears; the sixth pair is most ample, and runs almost over all the bowels;
the seventh pair moves the tongue. The harder sinews serve for the motion
of the inner parts, proceeding from the marrow in the back, of whom there
be thirty combinations, seven of the neck, twelve of the breast, &c.
_Arteries_.] Arteries are long and hollow, with a double skin to convey the
vital spirit; to discern which the better, they say that Vesalius the
anatomist was wont to cut up men alive. [958]They arise in the left side of
the heart, and are principally two, from which the rest are derived, aorta
and venosa: aorta is the root of all the other, which serve the whole body;
the other goes to the lungs, to fetch air to refrigerate the heart.
_Veins_.] Veins are hollow and round, like pipes, arising from the liver,
carrying blood and natural spirits; they feed all the parts. Of these there
be two chief, _Vena porta_ and _Vena cava_, from which the rest are
corrivated. That _Vena porta_ is a vein coming from the concave of the
liver, and receiving those mesaraical veins, by whom he takes the chylus
from the stomach and guts, and conveys it to the liver. The other derives
blood from the liver to nourish all the other dispersed members. The
branches of that _Vena porta_ are the mesaraical and haemorrhoids. The
branches of the _cava_ are inward or outward. Inward, seminal or emulgent.
Outward, in the head, arms, feet, &c., and have several names.
_Fibrae, Fat, Flesh_.] Fibrae are strings, white and solid, dispersed
through the whole member, and right, oblique, transverse, all which have
their several uses. Fat is a similar part, moist, without blood, composed
of the most thick and unctuous matter of the blood. The [959]skin covers
the rest, and hath _cuticulum_, or a little skin tinder it. Flesh is soft
and ruddy, composed of the congealing of blood, &c.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Dissimilar Parts_.
Dissimilar parts are those which we call organical, or instrumental, and
they be inward or outward. The chiefest outward parts are situate forward
or backward:--forward, the crown and foretop of the head, skull, face,
forehead, temples, chin, eyes, ears, nose, &c., neck, breast, chest, upper
and lower part of the belly, hypocondries, navel, groin, flank, &c.;
backward, the hinder part of the head, back, shoulders, sides, loins,
hipbones, _os sacrum_, buttocks, &c. Or joints, arms, hands, feet, legs,
thighs, knees, &c. Or common to both, which, because they are obvious and
well known, I have carelessly repeated, _eaque praecipua et grandiora
tantum; quod reliquum ex libris de anima qui volet, accipiat_.
Inward organical parts, which cannot be seen, are divers in number, and
have several names, functions, and divisions; but that of [960]Laurentius
is most notable, into noble or ignoble parts. Of the noble there be three
principal parts, to which all the rest belong, and whom they serve--brain,
heart, liver; according to whose site, three regions, or a threefold
division, is made of the whole body. As first of the head, in which the
animal organs are contained, and brain itself, which by his nerves give
sense and motion to the rest, and is, as it were, a privy counsellor and
chancellor to the heart. The second region is the chest, or middle belly,
in which the heart as king keeps his court, and by his arteries
communicates life to the whole body. The third region is the lower belly,
in which the liver resides as a _Legat a latere_, with the rest of those
natural organs, serving for concoction, nourishment, expelling of
excrements. This lower region is distinguished from the upper by the
midriff, or diaphragma, and is subdivided again by [961]some into three
concavities or regions, upper, middle, and lower. The upper of the
hypocondries, in whose right side is the liver, the left the spleen; from
which is denominated hypochondriacal melancholy. The second of the navel
and flanks, divided from the first by the rim. The last of the water
course, which is again subdivided into three other parts. The Arabians make
two parts of this region, _Epigastrium_ and _Hypogastrium_, upper or lower.
_Epigastrium_ they call _Mirach_, from whence comes _Mirachialis
Melancholia_, sometimes mentioned of them. Of these several regions I will
treat in brief apart; and first of the third region, in which the natural
organs are contained.
_De Anima.--The Lower Region, Natural Organs_.] But you that are readers in
the meantime, "Suppose you were now brought into some sacred temple, or
majestical palace" (as [962]Melancthon saith), "to behold not the matter
only, but the singular art, workmanship, and counsel of this our great
Creator. And it is a pleasant and profitable speculation, if it be
considered aright." The parts of this region, which present themselves to
your consideration and view, are such as serve to nutrition or generation.
Those of nutrition serve to the first or second concoction; as the
oesophagus or gullet, which brings meat and drink into the stomach. The
ventricle or stomach, which is seated in the midst of that part of the
belly beneath the midriff, the kitchen, as it were, of the first
concoction, and which turns our meat into chylus. It hath two mouths, one
above, another beneath. The upper is sometimes taken for the stomach
itself; the lower and nether door (as Wecker calls it) is named Pylorus.
This stomach is sustained by a large kell or caul, called omentum; which
some will have the same with peritoneum, or rim of the belly. From the
stomach to the very fundament are produced the guts, or intestina, which
serve a little to alter and distribute the chylus, and convey away the
excrements. They are divided into small and great, by reason of their site
and substance, slender or thicker: the slender is duodenum, or whole gut,
which is next to the stomach, some twelve inches long, saith [963]
Fuschius. Jejunum, or empty gut, continuate to the other, which hath many
mesaraic veins annexed to it, which take part of the chylus to the liver
from it. Ilion the third, which consists of many crinkles, which serves
with the rest to receive, keep, and distribute the chylus from the stomach.
The thick guts are three, the blind gut, colon, and right gut. The blind is
a thick and short gut, having one mouth, in which the ilium and colon meet:
it receives the excrements, and conveys them to the colon. This colon hath
many windings, that the excrements pass not away too fast: the right gut is
straight, and conveys the excrements to the fundament, whose lower part is
bound up with certain muscles called sphincters, that the excrements may be
the better contained, until such time as a man be willing to go to the
stool. In the midst of these guts is situated the mesenterium or midriff,
composed of many veins, arteries, and much fat, serving chiefly to sustain
the guts. All these parts serve the first concoction. To the second, which
is busied either in refining the good nourishment or expelling the bad, is
chiefly belonging the liver, like in colour to congealed blood, the shop of
blood, situate in the right hypochondry, in figure like to a half-moon,
_generosum membrum_ Melancthon styles it, a generous part; it serves to
turn the chylus to blood, for the nourishment of the body. The excrements
of it are either choleric or watery, which the other subordinate parts
convey. The gall placed in the concave of the liver, extracts choler to it:
the spleen, melancholy; which is situate on the left side, over against the
liver, a spongy matter, that draws this black choler to it by a secret
virtue, and feeds upon it, conveying the rest to the bottom of the stomach,
to stir up appetite, or else to the guts as an excrement. That watery
matter the two kidneys expurgate by those emulgent veins and ureters. The
emulgent draw this superfluous moisture from the blood; the two ureters
convey it to the bladder, which, by reason of his site in the lower belly,
is apt to receive it, having two parts, neck and bottom: the bottom holds
the water, the neck is constringed with a muscle, which, as a porter, keeps
the water from running out against our will.
Members of generation are common to both sexes, or peculiar to one; which,
because they are impertinent to my purpose, I do voluntarily omit.
_Middle Region_.] Next in order is the middle region, or chest, which
comprehends the vital faculties and parts; which (as I have said) is
separated from the lower belly by the diaphragma or midriff, which is a
skin consisting of many nerves, membranes; and amongst other uses it hath,
is the instrument of laughing. There is also a certain thin membrane, full
of sinews, which covereth the whole chest within, and is called pleura, the
seat of the disease called pleurisy, when it is inflamed; some add a third
skin, which is termed mediastinus, which divides the chest into two parts,
right and left; of this region the principal part is the heart, which is
the seat and fountain of life, of heat, of spirits, of pulse and
respiration--the sun of our body, the king and sole commander of it--the
seat and organ of all passions and affections. _Primum vivens, ultimum
moriens_, it lives first, dies last in all creatures. Of a pyramidical
form, and not much unlike to a pineapple; a part worthy of [964]
admiration, that can yield such variety of affections, by whose motion it
is dilated or contracted, to stir and command the humours in the body. As
in sorrow, melancholy; in anger, choler; in joy, to send the blood
outwardly; in sorrow, to call it in; moving the humours, as horses do a
chariot. This heart, though it be one sole member, yet it may be divided
into two creeks right and left. The right is like the moon increasing,
bigger than the other part, and receives blood from _vena cava_,
distributing some of it to the lungs to nourish them; the rest to the left
side, to engender spirits. The left creek hath the form of a cone, and is
the seat of life, which, as a torch doth oil, draws blood unto it,
begetting of it spirits and fire; and as fire in a torch, so are spirits in
the blood; and by that great artery called aorta, it sends vital spirits
over the body, and takes air from the lungs by that artery which is called
_venosa_; so that both creeks have their vessels, the right two veins, the
left two arteries, besides those two common anfractuous ears, which serve
them both; the one to hold blood, the other air, for several uses. The
lungs is a thin spongy part, like an ox hoof, (saith [965]Fernelius) the
town-clerk or crier, ([966]one terms it) the instrument of voice, as an
orator to a king; annexed to the heart, to express their thoughts by voice.
That it is the instrument of voice, is manifest, in that no creature can
speak, or utter any voice, which wanteth these lights. It is, besides, the
instrument of respiration, or breathing; and its office is to cool the
heart, by sending air unto it, by the venosal artery, which vein comes to
the lungs by that _aspera arteria_ which consists of many gristles,
membranes, nerves, taking in air at the nose and mouth, and by it likewise
exhales the fumes of the heart.
In the upper region serving the animal faculties, the chief organ is the
brain, which is a soft, marrowish, and white substance, engendered of the
purest part of seed and spirits, included by many skins, and seated within
the skull or brain pan; and it is the most noble organ under heaven, the
dwelling-house and seat of the soul, the habitation of wisdom, memory,
judgment, reason, and in which man is most like unto God; and therefore
nature hath covered it with a skull of hard bone, and two skins or
membranes, whereof the one is called _dura mater_, or meninx, the other
_pia mater_. The dura mater is next to the skull, above the other, which
includes and protects the brain. When this is taken away, the pia mater is
to be seen, a thin membrane, the next and immediate cover of the brain, and
not covering only, but entering into it. The brain itself is divided into
two parts, the fore and hinder part; the fore part is much bigger than the
other, which is called the little brain in respect of it. This fore part
hath many concavities distinguished by certain ventricles, which are the
receptacles of the spirits, brought hither by the arteries from the heart,
and are there refined to a more heavenly nature, to perform the actions of
the soul. Of these ventricles there are three--right, left, and middle. The
right and left answer to their site, and beget animal spirits; if they be
any way hurt, sense and motion ceaseth. These ventricles, moreover, are
held to be the seat of the common sense. The middle ventricle is a common
concourse and cavity of them both, and hath two passages--the one to
receive pituita, and the other extends itself to the fourth creek; in this
they place imagination and cogitation, and so the three ventricles of the
fore part of the brain are used. The fourth creek behind the head is common
to the cerebel or little brain, and marrow of the backbone, the last and
most solid of all the rest, which receives the animal spirits from the
other ventricles, and conveys them to the marrow in the back, and is the
place where they say the memory is seated.
SUBSECT. V.--_Of the Soul and her Faculties_.
According to [967]Aristotle, the soul is defined to be [Greek:
entelecheia], _perfectio et actus primus corporis organici, vitam habentis
in potentia_: the perfection or first act of an organical body, having
power of life, which most [968]philosophers approve. But many doubts arise
about the essence, subject, seat, distinction, and subordinate faculties of
it. For the essence and particular knowledge, of all other things it is
most hard (be it of man or beast) to discern, as [969]Aristotle himself,
[970]Tully, [971]Picus Mirandula, [972]Tolet, and other neoteric
philosophers confess:--[973]"We can understand all things by her, but what
she is we cannot apprehend." Some therefore make one soul, divided into
three principal faculties; others, three distinct souls. Which question of
late hath been much controverted by Picolomineus and Zabarel. [974]
Paracelsus will have four souls, adding to the three grand faculties a
spiritual soul: which opinion of his, Campanella, in his book _de sensu
rerum_ [975]much labours to demonstrate and prove, because carcasses bleed
at the sight of the murderer; with many such arguments And [976]some again,
one soul of all creatures whatsoever, differing only in organs; and that
beasts have reason as well as men, though, for some defect of organs, not
in such measure. Others make a doubt whether it be all in all, and all in
every part; which is amply discussed in Zabarel amongst the rest. The
[977]common division of the soul is into three principal
faculties--vegetal, sensitive, and rational, which make three distinct
kinds of living creatures--vegetal plants, sensible beasts, rational men.
How these three principal faculties are distinguished and connected,
_Humano ingenio inaccessum videtur_, is beyond human capacity, as [978]
Taurellus, Philip, Flavins, and others suppose. The inferior may be alone,
but the superior cannot subsist without the other; so sensible includes
vegetal, rational both; which are contained in it (saith Aristotle) _ut
trigonus in tetragono_ as a triangle in a quadrangle.
_Vegetal Soul_.] Vegetal, the first of the three distinct faculties, is
defined to be "a substantial act of an organical body, by which it is
nourished, augmented, and begets another like unto itself." In which
definition, three several operations are specified--altrix, auctrix,
procreatrix; the first is [979]nutrition, whose object is nourishment,
meat, drink, and the like; his organ the liver in sensible creatures; in
plants, the root or sap. His office is to turn the nutriment into the
substance of the body nourished, which he performs by natural heat. This
nutritive operation hath four other subordinate functions or powers
belonging to it--attraction, retention, digestion, expulsion.
_Attraction_.] [980]Attraction is a ministering faculty, which, as a
loadstone doth iron, draws meat into the stomach, or as a lamp doth oil;
and this attractive power is very necessary in plants, which suck up
moisture by the root, as, another mouth, into the sap, as a like stomach.
_Retention_.] Retention keeps it, being attracted unto the stomach, until
such time it be concocted; for if it should pass away straight, the body
could not be nourished.
_Digestion_.] Digestion is performed by natural heat; for as the flame of a
torch consumes oil, wax, tallow, so doth it alter and digest the nutritive
matter. Indigestion is opposite unto it, for want of natural heat. Of this
digestion there be three differences--maturation, elixation, assation.
_Maturation_.] Maturation is especially observed in the fruits of trees;
which are then said to be ripe, when the seeds are fit to be sown again.
Crudity is opposed to it, which gluttons, epicures, and idle persons are
most subject unto, that use no exercise to stir natural heat, or else choke
it, as too much wood puts out a fire.
_Elixation_.] Elixation is the seething of meat in the stomach, by the said
natural heat, as meat is boiled in a pot; to which corruption or
putrefaction is opposite.
_Assation_.] Assation is a concoction of the inward moisture by heat; his
opposite is semiustulation.
_Order of Concoction fourfold_.] Besides these three several operations of
digestion, there is a fourfold order of concoction:--mastication, or
chewing in the mouth; chilification of this so chewed meat in the stomach;
the third is in the liver, to turn this chylus into blood, called
sanguification; the last is assimilation, which is in every part.
_Expulsion_.] Expulsion is a power of nutrition, by which it expels all
superfluous excrements, and relics of meat and drink, by the guts, bladder,
pores; as by purging, vomiting, spitting, sweating, urine, hairs, nails,
&c.
_Augmentation_.] As this nutritive faculty serves to nourish the body, so
doth the augmenting faculty (the second operation or power of the vegetal
faculty) to the increasing of it in quantity, according to all dimensions,
long, broad, thick, and to make it grow till it come to his due proportion
and perfect shape; which hath his period of augmentation, as of
consumption; and that most certain, as the poet observes:--
"Stat sua cuique dies, breve et irreparabile tempus
Omnibus est vitae."------
"A term of life is set to every man,
Which is but short, and pass it no one can."
_Generation_.] The last of these vegetal faculties is generation, which
begets another by means of seed, like unto itself, to the perpetual
preservation of the species. To this faculty they ascribe three subordinate
operations:--the first to turn nourishment into seed, &c.
_Life and Death concomitants of the Vegetal Faculties_.] Necessary
concomitants or affections of this vegetal faculty are life and his
privation, death. To the preservation of life the natural heat is most
requisite, though siccity and humidity, and those first qualities, be not
excluded. This heat is likewise in plants, as appears by their increasing,
fructifying, &c., though not so easily perceived. In all bodies it must
have radical [981]moisture to preserve it, that it be not consumed; to
which preservation our clime, country, temperature, and the good or bad use
of those six non-natural things avail much. For as this natural heat and
moisture decays, so doth our life itself; and if not prevented before by
some violent accident, or interrupted through our own default, is in the
end dried up by old age, and extinguished by death for want of matter, as a
lamp for defect of oil to maintain it.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Of the sensible Soul_.
Next in order is the sensible faculty, which is as far beyond the other in
dignity, as a beast is preferred to a plant, having those vegetal powers
included in it. 'Tis defined an "Act of an organical body by which it
lives, hath sense, appetite, judgment, breath, and motion." His object in
general is a sensible or passible quality, because the sense is affected
with it. The general organ is the brain, from which principally the
sensible operations are derived. This sensible soul is divided into two
parts, apprehending or moving. By the apprehensive power we perceive the
species of sensible things present, or absent, and retain them as wax doth
the print of a seal. By the moving, the body is outwardly carried from one
place to another; or inwardly moved by spirits and pulse. The apprehensive
faculty is subdivided into two parts, inward or outward. Outward, as the
five senses, of touching, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, to which you
may add Scaliger's sixth sense of titillation, if you please; or that of
speech, which is the sixth external sense, according to Lullius. Inward are
three--common sense, phantasy, memory. Those five outward senses have their
object in outward things only, and such as are present, as the eye sees no
colour except it be at hand, the ear sound. Three of these senses are of
commodity, hearing, sight, and smell; two of necessity, touch, and taste,
without which we cannot live. Besides, the sensitive power is active or
passive. Active in sight, the eye sees the colour; passive when it is hurt
by his object, as the eye by the sunbeams. According to that axiom,
_visibile forte destruit sensum_. [982]Or if the object be not pleasing, as
a bad sound to the ear, a stinking smell to the nose, &c.
_Sight_.] Of these five senses, sight is held to be most precious, and the
best, and that by reason of his object, it sees the whole body at once. By
it we learn, and discern all things, a sense most excellent for use: to the
sight three things are required; the object, the organ, and the medium. The
object in general is visible, or that which is to be seen, as colours, and
all shining bodies. The medium is the illumination of the air, which comes
from [983]light, commonly called diaphanum; for in dark we cannot see. The
organ is the eye, and chiefly the apple of it, which by those optic nerves,
concurring both in one, conveys the sight to the common sense. Between the
organ and object a true distance is required, that it be not too near, or
too far off! Many excellent questions appertain to this sense, discussed by
philosophers: as whether this sight be caused _intra mittendo, vel extra
mittendo_, &c., by receiving in the visible species, or sending of them
out, which [984]Plato, [985]Plutarch, [986]Macrobius, [987]Lactantius and
others dispute. And, besides, it is the subject of the perspectives, of
which Alhazen the Arabian, Vitellio, Roger Bacon, Baptista Porta, Guidus
Ubaldus, Aquilonius, &c., have written whole volumes.
_Hearing_.] Hearing, a most excellent outward sense, "by which we learn and
get knowledge." His object is sound, or that which is heard; the medium,
air; organ, the ear. To the sound, which is a collision of the air, three
things are required; a body to strike, as the hand of a musician; the body
struck, which must be solid and able to resist; as a bell, lute-string, not
wool, or sponge; the medium, the air; which is inward, or outward; the
outward being struck or collided by a solid body, still strikes the next
air, until it come to that inward natural air, which as an exquisite organ
is contained in a little skin formed like a drum-head, and struck upon by
certain small instruments like drum-sticks, conveys the sound by a pair of
nerves, appropriated to that use, to the common sense, as to a judge of
sounds. There is great variety and much delight in them; for the knowledge
of which, consult with Boethius and other musicians.
_Smelling_.] Smelling is an "outward sense, which apprehends by the
nostrils drawing in air;" and of all the rest it is the weakest sense in
men. The organ in the nose, or two small hollow pieces of flesh a little
above it: the medium the air to men, as water to fish: the object, smell,
arising from a mixed body resolved, which, whether it be a quality, fume,
vapour, or exhalation, I will not now dispute, or of their differences, and
how they are caused. This sense is an organ of health, as sight and
hearing, saith [988]Agellius, are of discipline; and that by avoiding bad
smells, as by choosing good, which do as much alter and affect the body
many times, as diet itself.
_Taste_.] Taste, a necessary sense, "which perceives all savours by the
tongue and palate, and that by means of a thin spittle, or watery juice."
His organ is the tongue with his tasting nerves; the medium, a watery
juice; the object, taste, or savour, which is a quality in the juice,
arising from the mixture of things tasted. Some make eight species or kinds
of savour, bitter, sweet, sharp, salt, &c., all which sick men (as in an
ague) cannot discern, by reason of their organs misaffected.
_Touching_.] Touch, the last of the senses, and most ignoble, yet of as
great necessity as the other, and of as much pleasure. This sense is
exquisite in men, and by his nerves dispersed all over the body, perceives
any tactile quality. His organ the nerves; his object those first
qualities, hot, dry, moist, cold; and those that follow them, hard, soft,
thick, thin, &c. Many delightsome questions are moved by philosophers about
these five senses; their organs, objects, mediums, which for brevity I
omit.
SUBSECT. VII.--_Of the Inward Senses._
_Common Sense_.] Inner senses are three in number, so called, because they
be within the brainpan, as common sense, phantasy, memory. Their objects
are not only things present, but they perceive the sensible species of
things to come, past, absent, such as were before in the sense. This common
sense is the judge or moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all
differences of objects; for by mine eye I do not know that I see, or by
mine ear that I hear, but by my common sense, who judgeth of sounds and
colours: they are but the organs to bring the species to be censured; so
that all their objects are his, and all their offices are his. The fore
part of the brain is his organ or seat.
_Phantasy_.] Phantasy, or imagination, which some call estimative, or
cogitative, (confirmed, saith [989]Fernelius, by frequent meditation,) is
an inner sense which doth more fully examine the species perceived by
common sense, of things present or absent, and keeps them longer, recalling
them to mind again, or making new of his own. In time of sleep this faculty
is free, and many times conceive strange, stupend, absurd shapes, as in
sick men we commonly observe. His organ is the middle cell of the brain;
his objects all the species communicated to him by the common sense, by
comparison of which he feigns infinite other unto himself. In melancholy
men this faculty is most powerful and strong, and often hurts, producing
many monstrous and prodigious things, especially if it be stirred up by
some terrible object, presented to it from common sense or memory. In poets
and painters imagination forcibly works, as appears by their several
fictions, antics, images: as Ovid's house of sleep, Psyche's palace in
Apuleius, &c. In men it is subject and governed by reason, or at least
should be; but in brutes it hath no superior, and is _ratio brutorum_, all
the reason they have.
_Memory_.] Memory lays up all the species which the senses have brought in,
and records them as a good register, that they may be forthcoming when they
are called for by phantasy and reason. His object is the same with
phantasy, his seat and organ the back part of the brain.
_Affections of the Senses, sleep and waking._] The affections of these
senses are sleep and waking, common to all sensible creatures. "Sleep is a
rest or binding of the outward senses, and of the common sense, for the
preservation of body and soul" (as Scaliger [990]defines it); for when the
common sense resteth, the outward senses rest also. The phantasy alone is
free, and his commander reason: as appears by those imaginary dreams, which
are of divers kinds, natural, divine, demoniacal, &c., which vary according
to humours, diet, actions, objects, &c., of which Artemidorus, Cardanus,
and Sambucus, with their several interpretators, have written great
volumes. This litigation of senses proceeds from an inhibition of spirits,
the way being stopped by which they should come; this stopping is caused of
vapours arising out of the stomach, filling the nerves, by which the
spirits should be conveyed. When these vapours are spent, the passage is
open, and the spirits perform their accustomed duties: so that "waking is
the action and motion of the senses, which the spirits dispersed over all
parts cause."
SUBSECT. VIII.--_Of the Moving Faculty_.
_Appetite_] This moving faculty is the other power of the sensitive soul,
which causeth all those inward and outward animal motions in the body. It
is divided into two faculties, the power of appetite, and of moving from
place to place. This of appetite is threefold, so some will have it;
natural, as it signifies any such inclination, as of a stone to fall
downward, and such actions as retention, expulsion, which depend not on
sense, but are vegetal, as the appetite of meat and drink; hunger and
thirst. Sensitive is common to men and brutes. Voluntary, the third, or
intellective, which commands the other two in men, and is a curb unto them,
or at least should be, but for the most part is captivated and overruled by
them; and men are led like beasts by sense, giving reins to their
concupiscence and several lusts. For by this appetite the soul is led or
inclined to follow that good which the senses shall approve, or avoid that
which they hold evil: his object being good or evil, the one he embraceth,
the other he rejecteth; according to that aphorism, _Omnia appetunt bonum_,
all things seek their own good, or at least seeming good. This power is
inseparable from sense, for where sense is, there are likewise pleasure and
pain. His organ is the same with the common sense, and is divided into two
powers, or inclinations, concupiscible or irascible: or (as one [991]
translates it) coveting, anger invading, or impugning. Concupiscible covets
always pleasant and delightsome things, and abhors that which is
distasteful, harsh, and unpleasant. _Irascible, quasi [992] aversans per
iram et odium_, as avoiding it with anger and indignation. All affections
and perturbations arise out of these two fountains, which, although the
stoics make light of, we hold natural, and not to be resisted. The good
affections are caused by some object of the same nature; and if present,
they procure joy, which dilates the heart, and preserves the body: if
absent, they cause hope, love, desire, and concupiscence. The bad are
simple or mixed: simple for some bad object present, as sorrow, which
contracts the heart, macerates the soul, subverts the good estate of the
body, hindering all the operations of it, causing melancholy, and many
times death itself; or future, as fear. Out of these two arise those mixed
affections and passions of anger, which is a desire of revenge; hatred,
which is inveterate anger; zeal, which is offended with him who hurts that
he loves; and [Greek: epikairekakia], a compound affection of joy and hate,
when we rejoice at other men's mischief, and are grieved at their
prosperity; pride, self-love, emulation, envy, shame, &c., of which
elsewhere.
_Moving from place to place_, is a faculty necessarily following the other.
For in vain were it otherwise to desire and to abhor, if we had not
likewise power to prosecute or eschew, by moving the body from place to
place: by this faculty therefore we locally move the body, or any part of
it, and go from one place to another. To the better performance of which,
three things are requisite: that which moves; by what it moves; that which
is moved. That which moves, is either the efficient cause, or end. The end
is the object, which is desired or eschewed; as in a dog to catch a hare,
&c. The efficient cause in man is reason, or his subordinate phantasy,
which apprehends good or bad objects: in brutes imagination alone, which
moves the appetite, the appetite this faculty, which by an admirable league
of nature, and by meditation of the spirit, commands the organ by which it
moves: and that consists of nerves, muscles, cords, dispersed through the
whole body, contracted and relaxed as the spirits will, which move the
muscles, or [993]nerves in the midst of them, and draw the cord, and so
_per consequens_ the joint, to the place intended. That which is moved, is
the body or some member apt to move. The motion of the body is divers, as
going, running, leaping, dancing, sitting, and such like, referred to the
predicament of _situs_. Worms creep, birds fly, fishes swim; and so of
parts, the chief of which is respiration or breathing, and is thus
performed. The outward air is drawn in by the vocal artery, and sent by
mediation of the midriff to the lungs, which, dilating themselves as a pair
of bellows, reciprocally fetch it in, and send it out to the heart to cool
it; and from thence now being hot, convey it again, still taking in fresh.
Such a like motion is that of the pulse, of which, because many have
written whole books, I will say nothing.
SUBSECT. IX.--_Of the Rational Soul._
In the precedent subsections I have anatomised those inferior faculties of
the soul; the rational remaineth, "a pleasant, but a doubtful subject" (as
[994]one terms it), and with the like brevity to be discussed. Many
erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of it; whether it be
fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether
it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood;
mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body. Some hold that it is _ex
traduce_, as _Phil. 1. de Anima_, Tertullian, Lactantius _de opific. Dei,
cap. 19._ Hugo, _lib. de Spiritu et Anima_, Vincentius Bellavic. _spec.
natural. lib. 23. cap. 2. et 11._ Hippocrates, Avicenna, and many [995]
late writers; that one man begets another, body and soul; or as a candle
from a candle, to be produced from the seed: otherwise, say they, a man
begets but half a man, and is worse than a beast that begets both matter
and form; and, besides, the three faculties of the soul must be together
infused, which is most absurd as they hold, because in beasts they are
begot, the two inferior I mean, and may not be well separated in men. [996]
Galen supposeth the soul _crasin esse_, to be the temperature itself;
Trismegistus, Musaeus, Orpheus, Homer, Pindarus, Phaerecides Syrus,
Epictetus, with the Chaldees and Egyptians, affirmed the soul to be
immortal, as did those British [997]Druids of old. The [998]Pythagoreans
defend Metempsychosis; and Palingenesia, that souls go from one body to
another, _epota prius Lethes unda_, as men into wolves, bears, dogs, hogs,
as they were inclined in their lives, or participated in conditions:
[999] ------"inque ferinas
Possumus ire domus, pecudumque in corpora condi."
[1000]Lucian's cock was first Euphorbus, a captain:
"Ille ego (nam memini) Trojani tempore belli,
Panthoides Euphorbus eram,"
a horse, a man, a sponge. [1001]Julian the Apostate thought Alexander's
soul was descended into his body: Plato in Timaeo, and in his Phaedon, (for
aught I can perceive,) differs not much from this opinion, that it was from
God at first, and knew all, but being enclosed in the body, it forgets, and
learns anew, which he calls _reminiscentia_, or recalling, and that it was
put into the body for a punishment; and thence it goes into a beast's, or
man's, as appears by his pleasant fiction _de sortitione animarum, lib. 10.
de rep._ and after [1002]ten thousand years is to return into the former
body again,
[1003] ------"post varios annos, per mille figuras,
Rursus ad humanae fertur primordia vitae."
Others deny the immortality of it, which Pomponatus of Padua decided out of
Aristotle not long since, Plinias Avunculus, _cap. 1. lib. 2, et lib. 7.
cap. 55_; Seneca, _lib. 7. epist. ad Lucilium, epist. 55_; Dicearchus _in
Tull. Tusc._ Epicurus, Aratus, Hippocrates, Galen, Lucretius, _lib. 1._
(Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore, et una
Cresere sentimus, pariterque senescere mentem.)[1004]
Averroes, and I know not how many Neoterics. [1005]"This question of the
immortality of the soul, is diversely and wonderfully impugned and
disputed, especially among the Italians of late," saith Jab. Colerus, _lib.
de immort. animae, cap. 1._ The popes themselves have doubted of it: Leo
Decimus, that Epicurean pope, as [1006]some record of him, caused this
question to be discussed pro and con before him, and concluded at last, as
a profane and atheistical moderator, with that verse of Cornelius Gallus,
Et redit in nihilum, quod fuit ante nihil. It began of nothing, and in
nothing it ends. Zeno and his Stoics, as [1007]Austin quotes him, supposed
the soul so long to continue, till the body was fully putrified, and
resolved into _materia prima_: but after that, _in fumos evanescere_, to be
extinguished and vanished; and in the meantime, whilst the body was
consuming, it wandered all abroad, _et e longinquo multa annunciare_, and
(as that Clazomenian Hermotimus averred) saw pretty visions, and suffered I
know not what. [1008]Errant exangues sine corpore et ossibus umbrae. Others
grant the immortality thereof, but they make many fabulous fictions in the
meantime of it, after the departure from the body: like Plato's Elysian
fields, and that Turkey paradise. The souls of good men they deified; the
bad (saith [1009]Austin) became devils, as they supposed; with many such
absurd tenets, which he hath confuted. Hierome, Austin, and other Fathers
of the church, hold that the soul is immortal, created of nothing, and so
infused into the child or embryo in his mother's womb, six months after the
[1010]conception; not as those of brutes, which are _ex traduce_, and dying
with them vanish into nothing. To whose divine treatises, and to the
Scriptures themselves, I rejourn all such atheistical spirits, as Tully did
Atticus, doubting of this point, to Plato's Phaedon. Or if they desire
philosophical proofs and demonstrations, I refer them to Niphus, Nic.
Faventinus' tracts of this subject. To Fran. and John Picus _in digress:
sup. 3. de Anima_, Tholosanus, Eugubinus, To. Soto, Canas, Thomas,
Peresius, Dandinus, Colerus, to that elaborate tract in Zanchius, to
Tolet's Sixty Reasons, and Lessius' Twenty-two Arguments, to prove the
immortality of the soul. Campanella, _lib. de sensu rerum_, is large in the
same discourse, Albertinus the Schoolman, Jacob. Nactantus, _tom. 2. op._
handleth it in four questions, Antony Brunus, Aonius Palearius, Marinus
Marcennus, with many others. This reasonable soul, which Austin calls a
spiritual substance moving itself, is defined by philosophers to be "the
first substantial act of a natural, humane, organical body, by which a man
lives, perceives, and understands, freely doing all things, and with
election." Out of which definition we may gather, that this rational soul
includes the powers, and performs the duties of the two other, which are
contained in it, and all three faculties make one soul, which is
inorganical of itself, although it be in all parts, and incorporeal, using
their organs, and working by them. It is divided into two chief parts,
differing in office only, not in essence. The understanding, which is the
rational power apprehending; the will, which is the rational power moving:
to which two, all the other rational powers are subject and reduced.
SUBSECT. X.--_Of the Understanding_.
"Understanding is a power of the soul, [1011]by which we perceive, know,
remember, and judge as well singulars, as universals, having certain innate
notices or beginnings of arts, a reflecting action, by which it judgeth of
his own doings, and examines them." Out of this definition (besides his
chief office, which is to apprehend, judge all that he performs, without
the help of any instruments or organs) three differences appear betwixt a
man and a beast. As first, the sense only comprehends singularities, the
understanding universalities. Secondly, the sense hath no innate notions.
Thirdly, brutes cannot reflect upon themselves. Bees indeed make neat and
curious works, and many other creatures besides; but when they have done,
they cannot judge of them. His object is God, _ens_, all nature, and
whatsoever is to be understood: which successively it apprehends. The
object first moving the understanding, is some sensible thing; after by
discoursing, the mind finds out the corporeal substance, and from thence
the spiritual. His actions (some say) are apprehension, composition,
division, discoursing, reasoning, memory, which some include in invention,
and judgment. The common divisions are of the understanding, agent, and
patient; speculative, and practical; in habit, or in act; simple, or
compound. The agent is that which is called the wit of man, acumen or
subtlety, sharpness of invention, when he doth invent of himself without a
teacher, or learns anew, which abstracts those intelligible species from
the phantasy, and transfers them to the passive understanding, [1012]
"because there is nothing in the understanding, which was not first in the
sense." That which the imagination hath taken from the sense, this agent
judgeth of, whether it be true or false; and being so judged he commits it
to the passible to be kept. The agent is a doctor or teacher, the passive a
scholar; and his office is to keep and further judge of such things as are
committed to his charge; as a bare and rased table at first, capable of all
forms and notions. Now these notions are twofold, actions or habits:
actions, by which we take notions of, and perceive things; habits, which
are durable lights and notions, which we may use when we will. Some reckon
up eight kinds of them, sense, experience, intelligence, faith, suspicion,
error, opinion, science; to which are added art, prudency, wisdom: as also
[1013]synteresis, _dictamen rationis_, conscience; so that in all there be
fourteen species of the understanding, of which some are innate, as the
three last mentioned; the other are gotten by doctrine, learning, and use.
Plato will have all to be innate: Aristotle reckons up but five
intellectual habits; two practical, as prudency, whose end is to practise;
to fabricate; wisdom to comprehend the use and experiments of all notions
and habits whatsoever. Which division of Aristotle (if it be considered
aright) is all one with the precedent; for three being innate, and five
acquisite, the rest are improper, imperfect, and in a more strict
examination excluded. Of all these I should more amply dilate, but my
subject will not permit. Three of them I will only point at, as more
necessary to my following discourse.
Synteresis, or the purer part of the conscience, is an innate habit, and
doth signify "a conversation of the knowledge of the law of God and Nature,
to know good or evil." And (as our divines hold) it is rather in the
understanding than in the will. This makes the major proposition in a
practical syllogism. The _dictamen rationis_ is that which doth admonish us
to do good or evil, and is the minor in the syllogism. The conscience is
that which approves good or evil, justifying or condemning our actions, and
is the conclusion of the syllogism: as in that familiar example of Regulus
the Roman, taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, and suffered to go to Rome,
on that condition he should return again, or pay so much for his ransom.
The synteresis proposeth the question; his word, oath, promise, is to be
religiously kept, although to his enemy, and that by the law of nature.
[1014]"Do not that to another which thou wouldst not have done to thyself."
Dictamen applies it to him, and dictates this or the like: Regulus, thou
wouldst not another man should falsify his oath, or break promise with
thee: conscience concludes, therefore, Regulus, thou dost well to perform
thy promise, and oughtest to keep thine oath. More of this in Religious
Melancholy.
SUBSECT. XI.--_Of the Will_.
Will is the other power of the rational soul, [1015]"which covets or avoids
such things as have been before judged and apprehended by the
understanding." If good, it approves; if evil, it abhors it: so that his
object is either good or evil. Aristotle calls this our rational appetite;
for as, in the sensitive, we are moved to good or bad by our appetite,
ruled and directed by sense; so in this we are carried by reason. Besides,
the sensitive appetite hath a particular object, good or bad; this an
universal, immaterial: that respects only things delectable and pleasant;
this honest. Again, they differ in liberty. The sensual appetite seeing an
object, if it be a convenient good, cannot but desire it; if evil, avoid
it: but this is free in his essence, [1016]"much now depraved, obscured,
and fallen from his first perfection; yet in some of his operations still
free," as to go, walk, move at his pleasure, and to choose whether it will
do or not do, steal or not steal. Otherwise, in vain were laws,
deliberations, exhortations, counsels, precepts, rewards, promises, threats
and punishments: and God should be the author of sin. But in [1017]
spiritual things we will no good, prone to evil (except we be regenerate,
and led by the Spirit), we are egged on by our natural concupiscence, and
there is [Greek: ataxia], a confusion in our powers, [1018]"our whole will
is averse from God and his law," not in natural things only, as to eat and
drink, lust, to which we are led headlong by our temperature and inordinate
appetite,
[1019] "Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum
Sufficimus,"------
we cannot resist, our concupiscence is originally bad, our heart evil, the
seat of our affections captivates and enforceth our will. So that in
voluntary things we are averse from God and goodness, bad by nature, by
[1020]ignorance worse, by art, discipline, custom, we get many bad habits:
suffering them to domineer and tyrannise over us; and the devil is still
ready at hand with his evil suggestions, to tempt our depraved will to some
ill-disposed action, to precipitate us to destruction, except our will be
swayed and counterpoised again with some divine precepts, and good motions
of the spirit, which many times restrain, hinder and check us, when we are
in the full career of our dissolute courses. So David corrected himself,
when he had Saul at a vantage. Revenge and malice were as two violent
oppugners on the one side; but honesty, religion, fear of God, withheld him
on the other.
The actions of the will are _velle_ and _nolle_, to will and nill: which
two words comprehend all, and they are good or bad, accordingly as they are
directed, and some of them freely performed by himself; although the stoics
absolutely deny it, and will have all things inevitably done by destiny,
imposing a fatal necessity upon us, which we may not resist; yet we say
that our will is free in respect of us, and things contingent, howsoever in
respect of God's determinate counsel, they are inevitable and necessary.
Some other actions of the will are performed by the inferior powers, which
obey him, as the sensitive and moving appetite; as to open our eyes, to go
hither and thither, not to touch a book, to speak fair or foul: but this
appetite is many times rebellious in us, and will not be contained within
the lists of sobriety and temperance. It was (as I said) once well agreeing
with reason, and there was an excellent consent and harmony between them,
but that is now dissolved, they often jar, reason is overborne by passion:
_Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas_, as so many wild horses run
away with a chariot, and will not be curbed. We know many times what is
good, but will not do it, as she said,
[1021] "Trahit invitum nova vis, aliudque cupido,
Mens aliud suadet,"------
Lust counsels one thing, reason another, there is a new reluctancy in men.
[1022]_Odi, nec possum, cupiens non esse, quod odi_. We cannot resist, but
as Phaedra confessed to her nurse, [1023]_quae loqueris, vera sunt, sed
furor suggerit sequi pejora_: she said well and true, she did acknowledge
it, but headstrong passion and fury made her to do that which was opposite.
So David knew the filthiness of his fact, what a loathsome, foul, crying
sin adultery was, yet notwithstanding he would commit murder, and take away
another man's wife, enforced against reason, religion, to follow his
appetite.
Those natural and vegetal powers are not commanded by will at all; for "who
can add one cubit to his stature?" These other may, but are not: and thence
come all those headstrong passions, violent perturbations of the mind; and
many times vicious habits, customs, feral diseases; because we give so much
way to our appetite, and follow our inclination, like so many beasts. The
principal habits are two in number, virtue and vice, whose peculiar
definitions, descriptions, differences, and kinds, are handled at large in
the ethics, and are, indeed, the subject of moral philosophy.
MEMB. III.
SUBSECT. I.--_Definition of Melancholy, Name, Difference_.
Having thus briefly anatomised the body and soul of man, as a preparative
to the rest; I may now freely proceed to treat of my intended object, to
most men's capacity; and after many ambages, perspicuously define what this
melancholy is, show his name and differences. The name is imposed from the
matter, and disease denominated from the material cause: as Bruel observes,
[Greek: Melancholia] quasi [Greek: Melainacholae], from black choler. And
whether it be a cause or an effect, a disease or symptom, let Donatus
Altomarus and Salvianus decide; I will not contend about it. It hath
several descriptions, notations, and definitions. [1024]Fracastorius, in
his second book of intellect, calls those melancholy, "whom abundance of
that same depraved humour of black choler hath so misaffected, that they
become mad thence, and dote in most things, or in all, belonging to
election, will, or other manifest operations of the understanding." [1025]
Melanelius out of Galen, Ruffus, Aetius, describe it to be "a bad and
peevish disease, which makes men degenerate into beasts:" Galen, "a
privation or infection of the middle cell of the head," &c. defining it
from the part affected, which [1026]Hercules de Saxonia approves, _lib. 1.
cap. 16._ calling it "a depravation of the principal function:" Fuschius,
_lib. 1. cap. 23._ Arnoldus _Breviar. lib. 1. cap. 18._ Guianerius, and
others: "By reason of black choler," Paulus adds. Halyabbas simply calls it
a "commotion of the mind." Aretaeus, [1027]"a perpetual anguish of the
soul, fastened on one thing, without an ague;" which definition of his,
Mercurialis _de affect. cap. lib. 1. cap. 10._ taxeth: but Aelianus
Montaltus defends, _lib. de morb. cap. 1. de Melan._ for sufficient and
good. The common sort define it to be "a kind of dotage without a fever,
having for his ordinary companions, fear and sadness, without any apparent
occasion." So doth Laurentius, _cap. 4._ Piso. _lib. 1. cap. 43._ Donatus
Altomarus, _cap. 7. art. medic_. Jacchinus, _in com. in lib. 9. Rhasis ad
Almansor, cap. 15._ Valesius, _exerc. 17._ Fuschius, _institut. 3. sec. 1.
c. 11._ &c. which common definition, howsoever approved by most,
[1028]Hercules de Saxonia will not allow of, nor David Crucius, _Theat.
morb. Herm. lib. 2. cap. 6._ he holds it insufficient: as [1029]rather
showing what it is not, than what it is: as omitting the specific
difference, the phantasy and brain: but I descend to particulars. The
_summum genus_ is "dotage, or anguish of the mind," saith Aretaeus; "of the
principal parts," Hercules de Saxonia adds, to distinguish it from cramp
and palsy, and such diseases as belong to the outward sense and motions
[depraved] [1030]to distinguish it from folly and madness (which Montaltus
makes _angor animi_, to separate) in which those functions are not
depraved, but rather abolished; [without an ague] is added by all, to sever
it from frenzy, and that melancholy which is in a pestilent fever. (Fear
and sorrow) make it differ from madness: [without a cause] is lastly
inserted, to specify it from all other ordinary passions of [fear and
sorrow.] We properly call that dotage, as [1031]Laurentius interprets it,
"when some one principal faculty of the mind, as imagination, or reason, is
corrupted, as all melancholy persons have." It is without a fever, because
the humour is most part cold and dry, contrary to putrefaction. Fear and
sorrow are the true characters and inseparable companions of most
melancholy, not all, as Her. de Saxonia, _Tract. de posthumo de
Melancholia, cap. 2._ well excepts; for to some it is most pleasant, as to
such as laugh most part; some are bold again, and free from all manner of
fear and grief, as hereafter shall be declared.
SUBSECT. II.--_Of the part affected. Affection. Parties affected_.
Some difference I find amongst writers, about the principal part affected
in this disease, whether it be the brain, or heart, or some other member.
Most are of opinion that it is the brain: for being a kind of dotage, it
cannot otherwise be but that the brain must be affected, as a similar part,
be it by [1032]consent or essence, not in his ventricles, or any
obstructions in them, for then it would be an apoplexy, or epilepsy, as
[1033]Laurentius well observes, but in a cold, dry distemperature of it in
his substance, which is corrupt and become too cold, or too dry, or else
too hot, as in madmen, and such as are inclined to it: and this [1034]
Hippocrates confirms, Galen, the Arabians, and most of our new writers.
Marcus de Oddis (in a consultation of his, quoted by [1035]Hildesheim) and
five others there cited are of the contrary part; because fear and sorrow,
which are passions, be seated in the heart. But this objection is
sufficiently answered by [1036]Montaltus, who doth not deny that the heart
is affected (as [1037]Melanelius proves out of Galen) by reason of his
vicinity, and so is the midriff and many other parts. They do _compati_,
and have a fellow feeling by the law of nature: but forasmuch as this
malady is caused by precedent imagination, with the appetite, to whom
spirits obey, and are subject to those principal parts, the brain must
needs primarily be misaffected, as the seat of reason; and then the heart,
as the seat of affection. [1038]Capivaccius and Mercurialis have copiously
discussed this question, and both conclude the subject is the inner brain,
and from thence it is communicated to the heart and other inferior parts,
which sympathise and are much troubled, especially when it comes by
consent, and is caused by reason of the stomach, or _mirach_, as the
Arabians term it, whole body, liver, or [1039]spleen, which are seldom
free, pylorus, mesaraic veins, &c. For our body is like a clock, if one
wheel be amiss, all the rest are disordered; the whole fabric suffers: with
such admirable art and harmony is a man composed, such excellent
proportion, as Ludovicus Vives in his Fable of Man hath elegantly declared.
As many doubts almost arise about the [1040]affection, whether it be
imagination or reason alone, or both, Hercules de Saxonia proves it out of
Galen, Aetius, and Altomarus, that the sole fault is in [1041]imagination.
Bruel is of the same mind: Montaltus in his _2 cap._ of Melancholy confutes
this tenet of theirs, and illustrates the contrary by many examples: as of
him that thought himself a shellfish, of a nun, and of a desperate monk
that would not be persuaded but that he was damned; reason was in fault as
well as imagination, which did not correct this error: they make away
themselves oftentimes, and suppose many absurd and ridiculous things. Why
doth not reason detect the fallacy, settle and persuade, if she be free?
[1042]Avicenna therefore holds both corrupt, to whom most Arabians
subscribe. The same is maintained by [1043]Areteus, [1044]Gorgonius,
Guianerius, &c. To end the controversy, no man doubts of imagination, but
that it is hurt and misaffected here; for the other I determine with [1045]
Albertinus Bottonus, a doctor of Padua, that it is first in "imagination,
and afterwards in reason; if the disease be inveterate, or as it is more or
less of continuance;" but by accident, as [1046]Herc. de Saxonia adds;
"faith, opinion, discourse, ratiocination, are all accidentally depraved by
the default of imagination."
_Parties affected_.] To the part affected, I may here add the parties,
which shall be more opportunely spoken of elsewhere, now only signified.
Such as have the moon, Saturn, Mercury misaffected in their genitures, such
as live in over cold or over hot climes: such as are born of melancholy
parents; as offend in those six non-natural things, are black, or of a high
sanguine complexion, [1047]that have little heads, that have a hot heart,
moist brain, hot liver and cold stomach, have been long sick: such as are
solitary by nature, great students, given to much contemplation, lead a
life out of action, are most subject to melancholy. Of sexes both, but men
more often; yet [1048]women misaffected are far more violent, and
grievously troubled. Of seasons of the year, the autumn is most melancholy.
Of peculiar times: old age, from which natural melancholy is almost an
inseparable accident; but this artificial malady is more frequent in such
as are of a [1049]middle age. Some assign 40 years, Gariopontus 30.
Jubertus excepts neither young nor old from this adventitious. Daniel
Sennertus involves all of all sorts, out of common experience, [1050]_in
omnibus omnino corporibus cujuscunque constitutionis dominatar_. Aetius and
Aretius [1051]ascribe into the number "not only [1052]discontented,
passionate, and miserable persons, swarthy, black; but such as are most
merry and pleasant, scoffers, and high coloured." "Generally," saith
Rhasis, [1053]"the finest wits and most generous spirits, are before other
obnoxious to it;" I cannot except any complexion, any condition, sex, or
age, but [1054]fools and stoics, which, according to [1055]Synesius, are
never troubled with any manner of passion, but as Anacreon's _cicada, sine
sanguine et dolore; similes fere diis sunt_. Erasmus vindicates fools from
this melancholy catalogue, because they have most part moist brains and
light hearts; [1056]they are free from ambition, envy, shame and fear; they
are neither troubled in conscience, nor macerated with cares, to which our
whole life is most subject.
SUBSECT. III.--_Of the Matter of Melancholy_.
Of the matter of melancholy, there is much question betwixt Avicen and
Galen, as you may read in [1057]Cardan's Contradictions, [1058]Valesius'
Controversies, Montanus, Prosper Calenus, Capivaccius, [1059]Bright,
[1060]Ficinus, that have written either whole tracts, or copiously of it,
in their several treatises of this subject. [1061]"What this humour is, or
whence it proceeds, how it is engendered in the body, neither Galen, nor
any old writer hath sufficiently discussed," as Jacchinus thinks: the
Neoterics cannot agree. Montanus, in his Consultations, holds melancholy to
be material or immaterial: and so doth Arculanus: the material is one of
the four humours before mentioned, and natural. The immaterial or
adventitious, acquisite, redundant, unnatural, artificial; which [1062]
Hercules de Saxonia will have reside in the spirits alone, and to proceed
from a "hot, cold, dry, moist distemperature, which, without matter, alter
the brain and functions of it." Paracelsus wholly rejects and derides this
division of four humours and complexions, but our Galenists generally
approve of it, subscribing to this opinion of Montanus.
This material melancholy is either simple or mixed; offending in quantity
or quality, varying according to his place, where it settleth, as brain,
spleen, mesaraic veins, heart, womb, and stomach; or differing according to
the mixture of those natural humours amongst themselves, or four unnatural
adust humours, as they are diversely tempered and mingled. If natural
melancholy abound in the body, which is cold and dry, "so that it be more
[1063]than the body is well able to bear, it must needs be distempered,"
saith Faventius, "and diseased;" and so the other, if it be depraved,
whether it arise from that other melancholy of choler adust, or from blood,
produceth the like effects, and is, as Montaltus contends, if it come by
adustion of humours, most part hot and dry. Some difference I find, whether
this melancholy matter may be engendered of all four humours, about the
colour and temper of it. Galen holds it may be engendered of three alone,
excluding phlegm, or pituita, whose true assertion [1064]Valesius and
Menardus stiffly maintain, and so doth [1065]Fuschius, Montaltus, [1066]
Montanus. How (say they) can white become black? But Hercules de Saxonia,
_lib. post. de mela. c. 8_, and [1067]Cardan are of the opposite part (it
may be engendered of phlegm, _etsi raro contingat_, though it seldom come
to pass), so is [1068]Guianerius and Laurentius, _c. 1._ with Melanct. in
his book _de Anima_, and Chap. of Humours; he calls it _asininam_, dull,
swinish melancholy, and saith that he was an eyewitness of it: so is
[1069]Wecker. From melancholy adust ariseth one kind; from choler another,
which is most brutish; another from phlegm, which is dull; and the last
from blood, which is best. Of these some are cold and dry, others hot and
dry, [1070]varying according to their mixtures, as they are intended, and
remitted. And indeed as Rodericus a Fons. _cons. 12. l. 1._ determines,
ichors, and those serous matters being thickened become phlegm, and phlegm
degenerates into choler, choler adust becomes _aeruginosa melancholia_, as
vinegar out of purest wine putrified or by exhalation of purer spirits is
so made, and becomes sour and sharp; and from the sharpness of this humour
proceeds much waking, troublesome thoughts and dreams, &c. so that I
conclude as before. If the humour be cold, it is, saith [1071]Faventinus,
"a cause of dotage, and produceth milder symptoms: if hot, they are rash,
raving mad, or inclining to it." If the brain be hot, the animal spirits
are hot; much madness follows, with violent actions: if cold, fatuity and
sottishness, [1072]Capivaccius. [1073]"The colour of this mixture varies
likewise according to the mixture, be it hot or cold; 'tis sometimes black,
sometimes not," Altomarus. The same [1074]Melanelius proves out of Galen;
and Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy (if at least it be his), giving
instance in a burning coal, "which when it is hot, shines; when it is cold,
looks black; and so doth the humour." This diversity of melancholy matter
produceth diversity of effects. If it be within the [1075]body, and not
putrified, it causeth black jaundice; if putrified, a quartan ague; if it
break out to the skin, leprosy; if to parts, several maladies, as scurvy,
&c. If it trouble the mind; as it is diversely mixed, it produceth several
kinds of madness and dotage: of which in their place.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Of the species or kinds of Melancholy_.
When the matter is divers and confused, how should it otherwise be, but
that the species should be divers and confused? Many new and old writers
have spoken confusedly of it, confounding melancholy and madness, as [1076]
Heurnius, Guianerius, Gordonius, Salustius Salvianus, Jason Pratensis,
Savanarola, that will have madness no other than melancholy in extent,
differing (as I have said) in degrees. Some make two distinct species, as
Ruffus Ephesius, an old writer, Constantinus Africanus, Aretaeus, [1077]
Aurelianus, [1078]Paulus Aegineta: others acknowledge a multitude of kinds,
and leave them indefinite, as Aetius in his _Tetrabiblos_, [1079]Avicenna,
_lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 18._ Arculanus, _cap. 16. in 9. Rasis_.
Montanus, _med. part. 1._ [1080]"If natural melancholy be adust, it maketh
one kind; if blood, another; if choler, a third, differing from the first;
and so many several opinions there are about the kinds, as there be men
themselves." [1081]Hercules de Saxonia sets down two kinds, "material and
immaterial; one from spirits alone, the other from humours and spirits."
Savanarola, _Rub. 11. Tract. 6. cap. 1. de aegritud. capitis_, will have
the kinds to be infinite; one from the mirach, called _myrachialis_ of the
Arabians; another _stomachalis_, from the stomach; another from the liver,
heart, womb, haemorrhoids, [1082]"one beginning, another consummate."
Melancthon seconds him, [1083]"as the humour is diversely adust and mixed,
so are the species divers;" but what these men speak of species I think
ought to be understood of symptoms; and so doth [1084] Arculanus interpret
himself: infinite species, _id est_, symptoms; and in that sense, as Jo.
Gorrheus acknowledgeth in his medicinal definitions, the species are
infinite, but they may be reduced to three kinds by reason of their seat;
head, body, and hypochrondries. This threefold division is approved by
Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy, (if it be his, which some suspect)
by Galen, _lib. 3. de loc. affectis, cap. 6._ by Alexander, _lib. 1. cap.
16._ Rasis, _lib. 1. Continent. Tract. 9. lib. 1. cap. 16._ Avicenna and
most of our new writers. Th. Erastus makes two kinds; one perpetual, which
is head melancholy; the other interrupt, which comes and goes by fits,
which he subdivides into the other two kinds, so that all comes to the same
pass. Some again make four or five kinds, with Rodericus a Castro, _de
morbis mulier. lib. 2. cap. 3._ and Lod. Mercatus, who in his second book
_de mulier. affect. cap. 4._ will have that melancholy of nuns, widows, and
more ancient maids, to be a peculiar species of melancholy differing from
the rest: some will reduce enthusiasts, ecstatical and demoniacal persons
to this rank, adding [1085] love melancholy to the first, and lycanthropia.
The most received division is into three kinds. The first proceeds from the
sole fault of the brain, and is called head melancholy; the second
sympathetically proceeds from the whole body, when the whole temperature is
melancholy: the third ariseth from the bowels, liver, spleen, or membrane,
called _mesenterium_, named hypochondriacal or windy melancholy, which
[1086]Laurentius subdivides into three parts, from those three members,
hepatic, splenetic, mesaraic. Love melancholy, which Avicenna calls
_ilishi_: and Lycanthropia, which he calls _cucubuthe_, are commonly
included in head melancholy; but of this last, which Gerardus de Solo calls
_amoreus_, and most knight melancholy, with that of religious melancholy,
_virginum et viduarum_, maintained by Rod. a Castro and Mercatus, and the
other kinds of love melancholy, I will speak of apart by themselves in my
third partition. The three precedent species are the subject of my present
discourse, which I will anatomise and treat of through all their causes,
symptoms, cures, together and apart; that every man that is in any measure
affected with this malady, may know how to examine it in himself, and apply
remedies unto it.
It is a hard matter, I confess, to distinguish these three species one from
the other, to express their several causes, symptoms, cures, being that
they are so often confounded amongst themselves, having such affinity, that
they can scarce be discerned by the most accurate physicians; and so often
intermixed with other diseases, that the best experienced have been
plunged. Montanus _consil. 26_, names a patient that had this disease of
melancholy and caninus appetitus both together; and _consil. 23_, with
vertigo, [1087]Julius Caesar Claudinus with stone, gout, jaundice.
Trincavellius with an ague, jaundice, caninus appetitus, &c. [1088]Paulus
Regoline, a great doctor in his time, consulted in this case, was so
confounded with a confusion of symptoms, that he knew not to what kind of
melancholy to refer it. [1089]Trincavellius, Fallopius, and Francanzanus,
famous doctors in Italy, all three conferred with about one party, at the
same time, gave three different opinions. And in another place,
Trincavellius being demanded what he thought of a melancholy young man to
whom he was sent for, ingenuously confessed that he was indeed melancholy,
but he knew not to what kind to reduce it. In his seventeenth consultation
there is the like disagreement about a melancholy monk. Those symptoms,
which others ascribe to misaffected parts and humours, [1090]Herc. de
Saxonia attributes wholly to distempered spirits, and those immaterial, as
I have said. Sometimes they cannot well discern this disease from others.
In Reinerus Solenander's counsels, (_Sect, consil. 5_,) he and Dr. Brande
both agreed, that the patient's disease was hypochondriacal melancholy. Dr.
Matholdus said it was asthma, and nothing else. [1091]Solenander and
Guarionius, lately sent for to the melancholy Duke of Cleve, with others,
could not define what species it was, or agree amongst themselves. The
species are so confounded, as in Caesar Claudinus his forty-fourth
consultation for a Polonian Count, in his judgment [1092]"he laboured of
head melancholy, and that which proceeds from the whole temperature both at
once." I could give instance of some that have had all three kinds _semel
et simul_, and some successively. So that I conclude of our melancholy
species, as [1093]many politicians do of their pure forms of commonwealths,
monarchies, aristocracies, democracies, are most famous in contemplation,
but in practice they are temperate and usually mixed, (so [1094]Polybius
informeth us) as the Lacedaemonian, the Roman of old, German now, and many
others. What physicians say of distinct species in their books it much
matters not, since that in their patients' bodies they are commonly mixed.
In such obscurity, therefore, variety and confused mixture of symptoms,
causes, how difficult a thing is it to treat of several kinds apart; to
make any certainty or distinction among so many casualties, distractions,
when seldom two men shall be like effected _per omnia_? 'Tis hard, I
confess, yet nevertheless I will adventure through the midst of these
perplexities, and, led by the clue or thread of the best writers, extricate
myself out of a labyrinth of doubts and errors, and so proceed to the
causes.
SECT. II. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Causes of Melancholy. God a cause._
"It is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such time as
we have considered of the causes," so [1095]Galen prescribes Glauco: and
the common experience of others confirms that those cures must be
imperfect, lame, and to no purpose, wherein the causes have not first been
searched, as [1096]Prosper Calenius well observes in his tract _de atra
bile_ to Cardinal Caesius. Insomuch that [1097]"Fernelius puts a kind of
necessity in the knowledge of the causes, and without which it is
impossible to cure or prevent any manner of disease." Empirics may ease,
and sometimes help, but not thoroughly root out; _sublata causa tollitur
effectus_ as the saying is, if the cause be removed, the effect is likewise
vanquished. It is a most difficult thing (I confess) to be able to discern
these causes whence they are, and in such [1098]variety to say what the
beginning was. [1099]He is happy that can perform it aright. I will
adventure to guess as near as I can, and rip them all up, from the first to
the last, general and particular, to every species, that so they may the
better be described.
General causes, are either supernatural, or natural. "Supernatural are from
God and his angels, or by God's permission from the devil" and his
ministers. That God himself is a cause for the punishment of sin, and
satisfaction of his justice, many examples and testimonies of holy
Scriptures make evident unto us, Ps. cvii, 17. "Foolish men are plagued for
their offence, and by reason of their wickedness." Gehazi was stricken with
leprosy, 2 Reg. v. 27. Jehoram with dysentery and flux, and great diseases
of the bowels, 2 Chron. xxi. 15. David plagued for numbering his people, 1
Par. 21. Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. And this disease is peculiarly
specified, Psalm cxxvii. 12. "He brought down their heart through
heaviness." Deut. xxviii. 28. "He struck them with madness, blindness, and
astonishment of heart." [1100]"An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon
Saul, to vex him." [1101]Nebuchadnezzar did eat grass like an ox, and his
"heart was made like the beasts of the field." Heathen stories are full of
such punishments. Lycurgus, because he cut down the vines in the country,
was by Bacchus driven into madness: so was Pentheus and his mother Agave
for neglecting their sacrifice. [1102]Censor Fulvius ran mad for untiling
Juno's temple, to cover a new one of his own, which he had dedicated to
Fortune, [1103]"and was confounded to death with grief and sorrow of
heart." When Xerxes would have spoiled [1104]Apollo's temple at Delphos of
those infinite riches it possessed, a terrible thunder came from heaven and
struck four thousand men dead, the rest ran mad. [1105]A little after, the
like happened to Brennus, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, upon such a
sacrilegious occasion. If we may believe our pontifical writers, they will
relate unto us many strange and prodigious punishments in this kind,
inflicted by their saints. How [1106]Clodoveus, sometime king of France,
the son of Dagobert, lost his wits for uncovering the body of St. Denis:
and how a [1107]sacrilegious Frenchman, that would have stolen a silver
image of St. John, at Birgburge, became frantic on a sudden, raging, and
tyrannising over his own flesh: of a [1108]Lord of Rhadnor, that coming
from hunting late at night, put his dogs into St. Avan's church, (Llan Avan
they called it) and rising betimes next morning, as hunters use to do,
found all his dogs mad, himself being suddenly strucken blind. Of Tyridates
an [1109]Armenian king, for violating some holy nuns, that was punished in
like sort, with loss of his wits. But poets and papists may go together for
fabulous tales; let them free their own credits: howsoever they feign of
their Nemesis, and of their saints, or by the devil's means may be deluded;
we find it true, that _ultor a tergo Deus_, [1110]"He is God the avenger,"
as David styles him; and that it is our crying sins that pull this and many
other maladies on our own heads. That he can by his angels, which are his
ministers, strike and heal (saith [1111]Dionysius) whom he will; that he
can plague us by his creatures, sun, moon, and stars, which he useth as his
instruments, as a husbandman (saith Zanchius) doth a hatchet: hail, snow,
winds, &c. [1112]_Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti_: as in Joshua's
time, as in Pharaoh's reign in Egypt; they are but as so many executioners
of his justice. He can make the proudest spirits stoop, and cry out with
Julian the Apostate, _Vicisti Galilaee_: or with Apollo's priest in
[1113]Chrysostom, _O coelum! o terra! unde hostis hic_? What an enemy is
this? And pray with David, acknowledging his power, "I am weakened and sore
broken, I roar for the grief of mine heart, mine heart panteth," &c. Psalm
xxxviii. 8. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in
thy wrath," Psalm xxxviii. 1. "Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which thou hast broken, may rejoice," Psalm li. 8. and verse 12.
"Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish me with thy free
spirit." For these causes belike [1114]Hippocrates would have a physician
take special notice whether the disease come not from a divine supernatural
cause, or whether it follow the course of nature. But this is farther
discussed by Fran. Valesius, _de sacr. philos. cap. 8._ [1115] Fernelius,
and [1116]J. Caesar Claudinus, to whom I refer you, how this place of
Hippocrates is to be understood. Paracelsus is of opinion, that such
spiritual diseases (for so he calls them) are spiritually to be cured, and
not otherwise. Ordinary means in such cases will not avail: _Non est
reluctandum cum Deo_ (we must not struggle with God.) When that
monster-taming Hercules overcame all in the Olympics, Jupiter at last in an
unknown shape wrestled with him; the victory was uncertain, till at length
Jupiter descried himself, and Hercules yielded. No striving with supreme
powers. _Nil juvat immensos Cratero promittere montes_, physicians and
physic can do no good, [1117]"we must submit ourselves unto the mighty hand
of God," acknowledge our offences, call to him for mercy. If he strike us
_una eademque manus vulnus opemque feret_, as it is with them that are
wounded with the spear of Achilles, he alone must help; otherwise our
diseases are incurable, and we not to be relieved.
SUBSECT. II.--_A Digression of the nature of Spirits, bad Angels, or
Devils, and how they cause Melancholy_.
How far the power of spirits and devils doth extend, and whether they can
cause this, or any other disease, is a serious question, and worthy to be
considered: for the better understanding of which, I will make a brief
digression of the nature of spirits. And although the question be very
obscure, according to [1118]Postellus, "full of controversy and ambiguity,"
beyond the reach of human capacity, _fateor excedere vires intentionis
meae_, saith [1119]Austin, I confess I am not able to understand it,
_finitum de infinito non potest statuere_, we can sooner determine with
Tully, _de nat. deorum_, _quid non sint, quam quid sint_, our subtle
schoolmen, Cardans, Scaligers, profound Thomists, Fracastoriana and
Ferneliana _acies_, are weak, dry, obscure, defective in these mysteries,
and all our quickest wits, as an owl's eyes at the sun's light, wax dull,
and are not sufficient to apprehend them; yet, as in the rest, I will
adventure to say something to this point. In former times, as we read, Acts
xxiii., the Sadducees denied that there were any such spirits, devils, or
angels. So did Galen the physician, the Peripatetics, even Aristotle
himself, as Pomponatius stoutly maintains, and Scaliger in some sort
grants. Though Dandinus the Jesuit, _com. in lib. 2. de anima_, stiffly
denies it; _substantiae separatae_ and intelligences, are the same which
Christians call angels, and Platonists devils, for they name all the
spirits, _daemones_, be they good or bad angels, as Julius Pollux
_Onomasticon, lib. 1. cap. 1._ observes. Epicures and atheists are of the
same mind in general, because they never saw them. Plato, Plotinus,
Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Proclus, insisting in the steps of Trismegistus,
Pythagoras and Socrates, make no doubt of it: nor Stoics, but that there
are such spirits, though much erring from the truth. Concerning the first
beginning of them, the [1120]Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called
Lilis, before he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. The
Turks' [1121]Alcoran is altogether as absurd and ridiculous in this point:
but the Scripture informs us Christians, how Lucifer, the chief of them,
with his associates, [1122]fell from heaven for his pride and ambition;
created of God, placed in heaven, and sometimes an angel of light, now cast
down into the lower aerial sublunary parts, or into hell, "and delivered
into chains of darkness (2 Pet. ii. 4.) to be kept unto damnation."
_Nature of Devils._] There is a foolish opinion which some hold, that they
are the souls of men departed, good and more noble were deified, the baser
grovelled on the ground, or in the lower parts, and were devils, the which
with Tertullian, Porphyrius the philosopher, M. Tyrius, _ser. 27_
maintains. "These spirits," he [1123]saith, "which we call angels and
devils, are nought but souls of men departed, which either through love and
pity of their friends yet living, help and assist them, or else persecute
their enemies, whom they hated," as Dido threatened to persecute Aeneas:
"Omnibus umbra locis adero: dabis improbe poenas."
"My angry ghost arising from the deep,
Shall haunt thee waking, and disturb thy sleep;
At least my shade thy punishment shall know,
And Fame shall spread the pleasing news below."
They are (as others suppose) appointed by those higher powers to keep men
from their nativity, and to protect or punish them as they see cause: and
are called _boni et mali Genii_ by the Romans. Heroes, lares, if good,
lemures or larvae if bad, by the stoics, governors of countries, men,
cities, saith [1124]Apuleius, _Deos appellant qui ex hominum numero juste
ac prudenter vitae curriculo gubernato, pro numine, postea ab hominibus
praediti fanis et ceremoniis vulgo admittuntur, ut in Aegypto Osyris_, &c.
_Praestites_, Capella calls them, "which protected particular men as well
as princes," Socrates had his _Daemonium Saturninum et ignium_, which of
all spirits is best, _ad sublimes cogitationes animum erigentem_, as the
Platonists supposed; Plotinus his, and we Christians our assisting angel,
as Andreas Victorellus, a copious writer of this subject, Lodovicus de
La-Cerda, the Jesuit, in his voluminous tract _de Angelo Custode_,
Zanchius, and some divines think. But this absurd tenet of Tyreus, Proclus
confutes at large in his book _de Anima et daemone_.
Psellus [1125], a Christian, and sometimes tutor (saith Cuspinian) to
Michael Parapinatius, Emperor of Greece, a great observer of the nature of
devils, holds they are corporeal [1126], and have "aerial bodies, that they
are mortal, live and die," (which Martianus Capella likewise maintains, but
our Christian philosophers explode) "that they [1127]are nourished and have
excrements, they feel pain if they be hurt" (which Cardan confirms, and
Scaliger justly laughs him to scorn for; _Si pascantur aere, cur non
pugnant ob puriorem aera_? &c.) "or stroken:" and if their bodies be cut,
with admirable celerity they come together again. Austin, _in Gen. lib.
iii. lib. arbit._, approves as much, _mutata casu corpora in deteriorem
qualitatem aeris spissioris_, so doth Hierome. _Comment. in epist. ad
Ephes. cap. 3_, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and many ancient Fathers of
the Church: that in their fall their bodies were changed into a more aerial
and gross substance. Bodine, _lib. 4, Theatri Naturae_ and David Crusius,
_Hermeticae Philosophiae, lib. 1. cap. 4_, by several arguments proves
angels and spirits to be corporeal: _quicquid continetur in loco corporeum
est; At spiritus continetur in loco, ergo. [1128]Si spiritus sunt quanti,
erunt corporei: At sunt quanti, ergo. sunt finiti, ergo. quanti_, &c.
Bodine [1129]goes farther yet, and will have these, _Animae separatae
genii_, spirits, angels, devils, and so likewise souls of men departed, if
corporeal (which he most eagerly contends) to be of some shape, and that
absolutely round, like Sun and Moon, because that is the most perfect form,
_quae nihil habet asperitatis, nihil angulis incisum, nihil anfractibus
involutem, nihil eminens, sed inter corpora perfecta est perfectissimum_;
[1130]therefore all spirits are corporeal he concludes, and in their proper
shapes round. That they can assume other aerial bodies, all manner of
shapes at their pleasures, appear in what likeness they will themselves,
that they are most swift in motion, can pass many miles in an instant, and
so likewise [1131]transform bodies of others into what shape they please,
and with admirable celerity remove them from place to place; (as the Angel
did Habakkuk to Daniel, and as Philip the deacon was carried away by the
Spirit, when he had baptised the eunuch; so did Pythagoras and Apollonius
remove themselves and others, with many such feats) that they can represent
castles in the air, palaces, armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange
objects to mortal men's eyes, [1132]cause smells, savours, &c., deceive all
the senses; most writers of this subject credibly believe; and that they
can foretell future events, and do many strange miracles. Juno's image
spake to Camillus, and Fortune's statue to the Roman matrons, with many
such. Zanchius, Bodine, Spondanus, and others, are of opinion that they
cause a true metamorphosis, as Nebuchadnezzar was really translated into a
beast, Lot's wife into a pillar of salt; Ulysses' companions into hogs and
dogs, by Circe's charms; turn themselves and others, as they do witches
into cats, dogs, hares, crows, &c. Strozzius Cicogna hath many examples,
_lib. iii. omnif. mag. cap. 4 and 5_, which he there confutes, as Austin
likewise doth, _de civ. Dei lib. xviii_. That they can be seen when and in
what shape, and to whom they will, saith Psellus, _Tametsi nil tale
viderim, nec optem videre_, though he himself never saw them nor desired
it; and use sometimes carnal copulation (as elsewhere I shall [1133]prove
more at large) with women and men. Many will not believe they can be seen,
and if any man shall say, swear, and stiffly maintain, though he be
discreet and wise, judicious and learned, that he hath seen them, they
account him a timorous fool, a melancholy dizzard, a weak fellow, a
dreamer, a sick or a mad man, they contemn him, laugh him to scorn, and yet
Marcus of his credit told Psellus that he had often seen them. And Leo
Suavius, a Frenchman, _c. 8, in Commentar. l. 1. Paracelsi de vita longa_,
out of some Platonists, will have the air to be as full of them as snow
falling in the skies, and that they may be seen, and withal sets down the
means how men may see them; _Si irreverberatus oculis sole splendente
versus caelum continuaverint obtutus_, &c., [1134]and saith moreover he
tried it, _praemissorum feci experimentum_, and it was true, that the
Platonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them divers times, and
conferred with them, and so doth Alexander ab [1135]Alexandro, "that he so
found it by experience, when as before he doubted of it." Many deny it,
saith Lavater, _de spectris, part 1. c. 2_, and _part 2. c. 11_, "because
they never saw them themselves;" but as he reports at large all over his
book, especially _c. 19. part 1_, they are often seen and heard, and
familiarly converse with men, as Lod. Vives assureth us, innumerable
records, histories, and testimonies evince in all ages, times, places, and
[1136]all travellers besides; in the West Indies and our northern climes,
_Nihil familiarius quam in agris et urbibus spiritus videre, audire qui
vetent, jubeant_, &c. Hieronymus _vita Pauli_, Basil _ser. 40_, Nicephorus,
Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenus, [1137]Jacobus Boissardus in his tract _de
spirituum apparitionibus_, Petrus Loyerus _l. de spectris_, Wierus _l. 1._
have infinite variety of such examples of apparitions of spirits, for him
to read that farther doubts, to his ample satisfaction. One alone I will
briefly insert. A nobleman in Germany was sent ambassador to the King of
Sweden (for his name, the time, and such circumstances, I refer you to
Boissardus, mine [1138]Author). After he had done his business, he sailed
to Livonia, on set purpose to see those familiar spirits, which are there
said to be conversant with men, and do their drudgery works. Amongst other
matters, one of them told him where his wife was, in what room, in what
clothes, what doing, and brought him a ring from her, which at his return,
_non sine omnium admiratione_, he found to be true; and so believed that
ever after, which before he doubted of. Cardan, _l. 19. de subtil_, relates
of his father, Facius Cardan, that after the accustomed solemnities, _An._
1491, 13 August, he conjured up seven devils, in Greek apparel, about forty
years of age, some ruddy of complexion, and some pale, as he thought; he
asked them many questions, and they made ready answer, that they were
aerial devils, that they lived and died as men did, save that they were far
longer lived (700 or 800 [1139]years); they did as much excel men in
dignity as we do juments, and were as far excelled again of those that were
above them; our [1140]governors and keepers they are moreover, which
[1141]Plato in Critias delivered of old, and subordinate to one another,
_Ut enim homo homini sic daemon daemoni dominatur_, they rule themselves as
well as us, and the spirits of the meaner sort had commonly such offices,
as we make horse-keepers, neat-herds, and the basest of us, overseers of
our cattle; and that we can no more apprehend their natures and functions,
than a horse a man's. They knew all things, but might not reveal them to
men; and ruled and domineered over us, as we do over our horses; the best
kings amongst us, and the most generous spirits, were not comparable to the
basest of them. Sometimes they did instruct men, and communicate their
skill, reward and cherish, and sometimes, again, terrify and punish, to
keep them in awe, as they thought fit, _Nihil magis cupientes_ (saith
Lysius, _Phis. Stoicorum_) _quam adorationem hominum_. [1142]The same
Author, Cardan, in his _Hyperchen_, out of the doctrine of Stoics, will
have some of these _genii_ (for so he calls them) to be [1143]desirous of
men's company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs are; others,
again, to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same belike
Tritemius calls _Ignios et sublunares, qui nunquam demergunt ad inferiora,
aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium_: [1144]"Generally they far excel
men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some of them are inferior
to those of their own rank in worth, as the blackguard in a prince's court,
and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures, are
excelled of brute beasts."
That they are mortal, besides these testimonies of Cardan, Martianus, &c.,
many other divines and philosophers hold, _post prolixum tempus moriuntur
omnes_; The [1145]Platonists, and some Rabbins, Porphyrius and Plutarch, as
appears by that relation of Thamus: [1146]"The great God Pan is dead;
Apollo Pythius ceased; and so the rest." St. Hierome, in the life of Paul
the Hermit, tells a story how one of them appeared to St. Anthony in the
wilderness, and told him as much. [1147]Paracelsus of our late writers
stiffly maintains that they are mortal, live and die as other creatures do.
Zozimus, _l. 2_, farther adds, that religion and policy dies and alters
with them. The [1148]Gentiles' gods, he saith, were expelled by
Constantine, and together with them. _Imperii Romani majestas, et fortuna
interiit, et profligata est_; The fortune and majesty of the Roman Empire
decayed and vanished, as that heathen in [1149]Minutius formerly bragged,
when the Jews were overcome by the Romans, the Jew's God was likewise
captivated by that of Rome; and Rabsakeh to the Israelites, no God should
deliver them out of the hands of the Assyrians. But these paradoxes of
their power, corporeity, mortality, taking of shapes, transposing bodies,
and carnal copulations, are sufficiently confuted by Zanch. _c. 10, l. 4._
Pererius in his comment, and Tostatus questions on the 6th of Gen. Th.
Aquin., St. Austin, Wierus, Th. Erastus, Delrio, _tom. 2, l. 2, quaest.
29_; Sebastian Michaelis, _c. 2, de spiritibus_, D. Reinolds _Lect. 47._
They may deceive the eyes of men, yet not take true bodies, or make a real
metamorphosis; but as Cicogna proves at large, they are [1150]_Illusoriae,
et praestigiatrices transformationes_, _omnif. mag. lib. 4. cap. 4_, mere
illusions and cozenings, like that tale of _Pasetis obulus_ in Suidas, or
that of Autolicus, Mercury's son, that dwelt in Parnassus, who got so much
treasure by cozenage and stealth. His father Mercury, because he could
leave him no wealth, taught him many fine tricks to get means, [1151]for he
could drive away men's cattle, and if any pursued him, turn them into what
shapes he would, and so did mightily enrich himself, _hoc astu maximam
praedam est adsecutus_. This, no doubt, is as true as the rest; yet thus
much in general. Thomas, Durand, and others, grant that they have
understanding far beyond men, can probably conjecture and [1152]foretell
many things; they can cause and cure most diseases, deceive our senses;
they have excellent skill in all Arts and Sciences; and that the most
illiterate devil is _Quovis homine scientior_ (more knowing than any man),
as [1153]Cicogna maintains out of others. They know the virtues of herbs,
plants, stones, minerals, &c.; of all creatures, birds, beasts, the four
elements, stars, planets, can aptly apply and make use of them as they see
good; perceiving the causes of all meteors, and the like: _Dant se
coloribus_ (as [1154] Austin hath it) _accommodant se figuris, adhaerent
sonis, subjiciunt se odoribus, infundunt se saporibus, omnes sensus etiam
ipsam intelligentiam daemones fallunt_, they deceive all our senses, even
our understanding itself at once. [1155]They can produce miraculous
alterations in the air, and most wonderful effects, conquer armies, give
victories, help, further, hurt, cross and alter human attempts and projects
(_Dei permissu_) as they see good themselves. [1156]When Charles the Great
intended to make a channel betwixt the Rhine and the Danube, look what his
workmen did in the day, these spirits flung down in the night, _Ut conatu
Rex desisteret, pervicere_. Such feats can they do. But that which Bodine,
_l. 4, Theat. nat._ thinks (following Tyrius belike, and the Platonists,)
they can tell the secrets of a man's heart, _aut cogitationes hominum_, is
most false; his reasons are weak, and sufficiently confuted by Zanch. _lib.
4, cap. 9._ Hierom. _lib. 2, com. in Mat. ad cap. 15_, Athanasius _quaest.
27, ad Antiochum Principem_, and others.
_Orders_.] As for those orders of good and bad devils, which the Platonists
hold, is altogether erroneous, and those Ethnics _boni et mali Genii_, are
to be exploded: these heathen writers agree not in this point among
themselves, as Dandinus notes, _An sint [1157]mali non conveniunt_, some
will have all spirits good or bad to us by a mistake, as if an Ox or Horse
could discourse, he would say the Butcher was his enemy because he killed
him, the grazier his friend because he fed him; a hunter preserves and yet
kills his game, and is hated nevertheless of his game; _nec piscatorem
piscis amare potest_, &c. But Jamblichus, Psellus, Plutarch, and most
Platonists acknowledge bad, _et ab eorum maleficiis cavendum_, and we
should beware of their wickedness, for they are enemies of mankind, and
this Plato learned in Egypt, that they quarrelled with Jupiter, and were
driven by him down to hell. [1158]That which [1159]Apuleius, Xenophon, and
Plato contend of Socrates Daemonium, is most absurd: That which Plotinus of
his, that he had likewise _Deum pro Daemonio_; and that which Porphyry
concludes of them all in general, if they be neglected in their sacrifice
they are angry; nay more, as Cardan in his _Hipperchen_ will, they feed on
men's souls, _Elementa sunt plantis elementum, animalibus plantae,
hominibus animalia, erunt et homines aliis, non autem diis, nimis enim
remota est eorum natura a nostra, quapropter daemonibus_: and so belike
that we have so many battles fought in all ages, countries, is to make them
a feast, and their sole delight: but to return to that I said before, if
displeased they fret and chafe, (for they feed belike on the souls of
beasts, as we do on their bodies) and send many plagues amongst us; but if
pleased, then they do much good; is as vain as the rest and confuted by
Austin, _l. 9. c. 8. de Civ. Dei_. Euseb. _l. 4. praepar. Evang. c. 6._ and
others. Yet thus much I find, that our schoolmen and other [1160]divines
make nine kinds of bad spirits, as Dionysius hath done of angels. In the
first rank are those false gods of the gentiles, which were adored
heretofore in several idols, and gave oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere;
whose prince is Beelzebub. The second rank is of liars and equivocators, as
Apollo, Pythius, and the like. The third are those vessels of anger,
inventors of all mischief; as that Theutus in Plato; Esay calls them
[1161]vessels of fury; their prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious
revenging devils; and their prince is Asmodaeus. The fifth kind are
cozeners, such as belong to magicians and witches; their prince is Satan.
The sixth are those aerial devils that [1162]corrupt the air and cause
plagues, thunders, fires, &c.; spoken of in the Apocalypse, and Paul to the
Ephesians names them the princes of the air; Meresin is their prince. The
seventh is a destroyer, captain of the furies, causing wars, tumults,
combustions, uproars, mentioned in the Apocalypse; and called Abaddon. The
eighth is that accusing or calumniating devil, whom the Greeks call [Greek:
Diabolos], that drives men to despair. The ninth are those tempters in
several kinds, and their prince is Mammon. Psellus makes six kinds, yet
none above the Moon: Wierus in his _Pseudo-monarchia Daemonis_, out of an
old book, makes many more divisions and subordinations, with their several
names, numbers, offices, &c., but Gazaeus cited by [1163]Lipsius will have
all places full of angels, spirits, and devils, above and beneath the Moon,
[1164]ethereal and aerial, which Austin cites out of Varro _l. 7. de Civ.
Dei, c. 6._ "The celestial devils above, and aerial beneath," or, as some
will, gods above, Semi-dei or half gods beneath, Lares, Heroes, Genii,
which climb higher, if they lived well, as the Stoics held; but grovel on
the ground as they were baser in their lives, nearer to the earth: and are
Manes, Lemures, Lamiae, &c. [1165]They will have no place but all full of
spirits, devils, or some other inhabitants; _Plenum Caelum, aer, aqua
terra, et omnia sub terra_, saith [1166]Gazaeus; though Anthony Rusca in
his book _de Inferno, lib. v. cap. 7._ would confine them to the middle
region, yet they will have them everywhere. "Not so much as a hair-breadth
empty in heaven, earth, or waters, above or under the earth." The air is
not so full of flies in summer, as it is at all times of invisible devils:
this [1167]Paracelsus stiffly maintains, and that they have every one their
several chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and each world his
peculiar spirits, gods, angels, and devils to govern and punish it.
"Singula [1168]nonnulli credunt quoque sidera posse
Dici orbes, terramque appellant sidus opacum,
Cui minimus divum praesit."------
"Some persons believe each star to be a world, and this earth an
opaque star, over which the least of the gods presides."
[1169]Gregorius Tholsanus makes seven kinds of ethereal spirits or angels,
according to the number of the seven planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial,
of which Cardan discourseth _lib. 20. de subtil._ he calls them
_substantias primas, Olympicos daemones Tritemius, qui praesunt Zodiaco_,
&c., and will have them to be good angels above, devils beneath the Moon,
their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Dionysius of
Angels, will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, &c.,
which live about them, and as so many assisting powers cause their
operations, will have in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be
stars in the skies. [1170]Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion,
out of Plato, or from himself, I know not, (still ruling their inferiors,
as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the
earth rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call gods or
devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love or hate) but it is most
likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, _quem mori potius
quam mentiri voluisse scribit_, whom he says would rather die than tell a
falsehood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine kinds of them: which
opinion belike Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he
from Zoroastes, first God, second idea, 3. Intelligences, 4. Arch-Angels,
5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8. Principalities, 9. Princes: of which
some were absolutely good, as gods, some bad, some indifferent _inter deos
et homines_, as heroes and daemons, which ruled men, and were called genii,
or as [1171]Proclus and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt God and men.
Principalities and princes, which commanded and swayed kings and countries;
and had several places in the spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is
higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that
Galilaeus a Galileo and Kepler aims at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will
have [1172]Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants: and which Tycho Brahe doth in
some sort touch or insinuate in one of his epistles: but these things
[1173]Zanchius justly explodes, _cap. 3. lib. 4._ P. Martyr, _in 4. Sam.
28._
So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must needs be
infinite: for if that be true that some of our mathematicians say: if a
stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pass
every hour an hundred miles, it would be 65 years, or more, before it would
come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which
contains as some say 170 millions 800 miles, besides those other heavens,
whether they be crystalline or watery which Maginus adds, which
peradventure holds as much more, how many such spirits may it contain? And
yet for all this [1174]Thomas Albertus, and most hold that there be far
more angels than devils.
_Sublunary devils, and their kinds._] But be they more or less, _Quod supra
nos nihil ad nos_ (what is beyond our comprehension does not concern us).
Howsoever as Martianus foolishly supposeth, _Aetherii Daemones non curant
res humanas_, they care not for us, do not attend our actions, or look for
us, those ethereal spirits have other worlds to reign in belike or business
to follow. We are only now to speak in brief of these sublunary spirits or
devils: for the rest, our divines determine that the devil had no power
over stars, or heavens; [1175]_Carminibus coelo possunt deducere lunam_,
&C., (by their charms (verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens).
Those are poetical fictions, and that they can [1176]_sistere aquam
fluviis, et vertere sidera retro_, &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars
backward in their courses) as Canadia in Horace, 'tis all false. [1177]
They are confined until the day of judgment to this sublunary world, and
can work no farther than the four elements, and as God permits them.
Wherefore of these sublunary devils, though others divide them otherwise
according to their several places and offices, Psellus makes six kinds,
fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those
fairies, satyrs, nymphs, &c.
Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars,
fire-drakes, or _ignes fatui_; which lead men often _in flumina aut
praecipitia_, saith Bodine, _lib. 2. Theat. Naturae, fol. 221._ _Quos
inquit arcere si volunt viatores, clara voce Deum appellare aut pronam
facie terram contingente adorare oportet, et hoc amuletum majoribus nostris
acceptum ferre debemus_, &c., (whom if travellers wish to keep off they
must pronounce the name of God with a clear voice, or adore him with their
faces in contact with the ground, &c.); likewise they counterfeit suns and
moons, stars oftentimes, and sit on ship masts: _In navigiorum summitatibus
visuntur_; and are called _dioscuri_, as Eusebius _l. contra Philosophos,
c. xlviii_. informeth us, out of the authority of Zenophanes; or little
clouds, _ad motum nescio quem volantes_; which never appear, saith Cardan,
but they signify some mischief or other to come unto men, though some again
will have them to pretend good, and victory to that side they come towards
in sea fights, St. Elmo's fires they commonly call them, and they do likely
appear after a sea storm; Radzivilius, the Polonian duke, calls this
apparition, _Sancti Germani sidus_; and saith moreover that he saw the same
after in a storm, as he was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes.
[1178]Our stories are full of such apparitions in all kinds. Some think
they keep their residence in that Hecla, a mountain in Iceland, Aetna in
Sicily, Lipari, Vesuvius, &c. These devils were worshipped heretofore by
that superstitious Pyromanteia [1179]and the like.
Aerial spirits or devils, are such as keep quarter most part in the [1180]
air, cause many tempests, thunder, and lightnings, tear oaks, fire
steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, as in Livy's
time, wool, frogs, &c. Counterfeit armies in the air, strange noises,
swords, &c., as at Vienna before the coming of the Turks, and many times in
Rome, as Scheretzius _l. de spect. c. 1. part 1._ Lavater _de spect. part.
1. c. 17._ Julius Obsequens, an old Roman, in his book of prodigies, _ab
urb. cond._ 505. [1181]Machiavel hath illustrated by many examples, and
Josephus, in his book _de bello Judaico_, before the destruction of
Jerusalem. All which Guil. Postellus, in his first book, _c. 7, de orbis
concordia_, useth as an effectual argument (as indeed it is) to persuade
them that will not believe there be spirits or devils. They cause
whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms; which though our
meteorologists generally refer to natural causes, yet I am of Bodine's
mind, _Theat. Nat. l. 2._ they are more often caused by those aerial
devils, in their several quarters; for _Tempestatibus se ingerunt_, saith
[1182] Rich. Argentine; as when a desperate man makes away with himself,
which by hanging or drowning they frequently do, as Kommanus observes, _de
mirac. mort. part. 7, c. 76._ _tripudium agentes_, dancing and rejoicing at
the death of a sinner. These can corrupt the air, and cause plagues,
sickness, storms, shipwrecks, fires, inundations. At Mons Draconis in
Italy, there is a most memorable example in [1183]Jovianus Pontanus: and
nothing so familiar (if we may believe those relations of Saxo Grammaticus,
Olaus Magnus, Damianus A. Goes) as for witches and sorcerers, in Lapland,
Lithuania, and all over Scandia, to sell winds to mariners, and cause
tempests, which Marcus Paulus the Venetian relates likewise of the Tartars.
These kind of devils are much [1184]delighted in sacrifices (saith
Porphyry), held all the world in awe, and had several names, idols,
sacrifices, in Rome, Greece, Egypt, and at this day tyrannise over, and
deceive those Ethnics and Indians, being adored and worshipped for [1185]
gods. For the Gentiles' gods were devils (as [1186]Trismegistus confesseth
in his Asclepius), and he himself could make them come to their images by
magic spells: and are now as much "respected by our papists" (saith [1187]
Pictorius) "under the name of saints." These are they which Cardan thinks
desire so much carnal copulation with witches (Incubi and Succubi),
transform bodies, and are so very cold, if they be touched; and that serve
magicians. His father had one of them (as he is not ashamed to relate),
[1188]an aerial devil, bound to him for twenty and eight years. As
Agrippa's dog had a devil tied to his collar; some think that Paracelsus
(or else Erastus belies him) had one confined to his sword pummel; others
wear them in rings, &c. Jannes and Jambres did many things of old by their
help; Simon Magus, Cinops, Apollonius Tianeus, Jamblichus, and Tritemius of
late, that showed Maximilian the emperor his wife, after she was dead; _Et
verrucam in collo ejus_ (saith [1189]Godolman) so much as the wart in her
neck. Delrio, _lib. 2._ hath divers examples of their feats: Cicogna, _lib.
3. cap. 3._ and Wierus in his book _de praestig. daemonum_. Boissardus _de
magis et veneficis_.
Water-devils are those Naiads or water nymphs which have been heretofore
conversant about waters and rivers. The water (as Paracelsus thinks) is
their chaos, wherein they live; some call them fairies, and say that
Habundia is their queen; these cause inundations, many times shipwrecks,
and deceive men divers ways, as Succuba, or otherwise, appearing most part
(saith Tritemius) in women's shapes. [1190]Paracelsus hath several stories
of them that have lived and been married to mortal men, and so continued
for certain years with them, and after, upon some dislike, have forsaken
them. Such a one as Aegeria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres,
&c. [1191]Olaus Magnus hath a long narration of one Hotherus, a king of
Sweden, that having lost his company, as he was hunting one day, met with
these water nymphs or fairies, and was feasted by them; and Hector
Boethius, or Macbeth, and Banquo, two Scottish lords, that as they were
wandering in the woods, had their fortunes told them by three strange
women. To these, heretofore, they did use to sacrifice, by that [Greek:
hydromanteia], or divination by waters.
Terrestrial devils are those [1192]Lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, [1193]
wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellows, trulli, &c., which as
they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm. Some think it
was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe of old, and had so many
idols and temples erected to them. Of this range was Dagon amongst the
Philistines, Bel amongst the Babylonians, Astartes amongst the Sidonians,
Baal amongst the Samaritans, Isis and Osiris amongst the Egyptians, &c.;
some put our [1194]fairies into this rank, which have been in former times
adored with much superstition, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a
pail of clean water, good victuals, and the like, and then they should not
be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be fortunate in their
enterprises. These are they that dance on heaths and greens, as [1195]
Lavater thinks with Tritemius, and as [1196]Olaus Magnus adds, leave that
green circle, which we commonly find in plain fields, which others hold to
proceed from a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground,
so nature sports herself; they are sometimes seen by old women and
children. Hierom. Pauli, in his description of the city of Bercino in
Spain, relates how they have been familiarly seen near that town, about
fountains and hills; _Nonnunquam_ (saith Tritemius) _in sua latibula
montium simpliciores homines ducant, stupenda mirantibus ostentes miracula,
nolarum sonitus, spectacula_, &c. [1197]Giraldus Cambrensis gives instance
in a monk of Wales that was so deluded. [1198]Paracelsus reckons up many
places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little coats, some two
feet long. A bigger kind there is of them called with us hobgoblins, and
Robin Goodfellows, that would in those superstitious times grind corn for a
mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work. They would mend
old irons in those Aeolian isles of Lipari, in former ages, and have been
often seen and heard. [1199]Tholosanus calls them _trullos_ and Getulos,
and saith, that in his days they were common in many places of France.
Dithmarus Bleskenius, in his description of Iceland, reports for a
certainty, that almost in every family they have yet some such familiar
spirits; and Felix Malleolus, in his book _de crudel. daemon._ affirms as
much, that these trolli or telchines are very common in Norway, "and [1200]
seen to do drudgery work;" to draw water, saith Wierus, _lib. 1. cap. 22_,
dress meat, or any such thing. Another sort of these there are, which
frequent forlorn [1201]houses, which the Italians call foliots, most part
innoxious, [1202]Cardan holds; "They will make strange noises in the night,
howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again, cause great flame and
sudden lights, fling stones, rattle chains, shave men, open doors and shut
them, fling down platters, stools, chests, sometimes appear in the likeness
of hares, crows, black dogs," &c. of which read [1203]Pet Thyraeus the
Jesuit, in his Tract, _de locis infestis, part. 1. et cap. 4_, who will
have them to be devils or the souls of damned men that seek revenge, or
else souls out of purgatory that seek ease; for such examples peruse [1204]
Sigismundus Scheretzius, _lib. de spectris, part 1. c. 1._ which he saith
he took out of Luther most part; there be many instances. [1205]Plinius
Secundus remembers such a house at Athens, which Athenodorus the
philosopher hired, which no man durst inhabit for fear of devils. Austin,
_de Civ. Dei. lib. 22, cap. 1._ relates as much of Hesperius the Tribune's
house, at Zubeda, near their city of Hippos, vexed with evil spirits, to
his great hindrance, _Cum afflictione animalium et servorum suorum_. Many
such instances are to be read in Niderius Formicar, _lib. 5. cap. xii. 3._
&c. Whether I may call these Zim and Ochim, which Isaiah, cap. xiii. 21.
speaks of, I make a doubt. See more of these in the said Scheretz. _lib. 1.
de spect. cap. 4._ he is full of examples. These kind of devils many times
appear to men, and affright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at
[1206]noonday, sometimes at nights, counterfeiting dead men's ghosts, as
that of Caligula, which (saith Suetonius) was seen to walk in Lavinia's
garden, where his body was buried, spirits haunted, and the house where he
died, [1207]_Nulla nox sine terrore transacta, donec incendio consumpta_;
every night this happened, there was no quietness, till the house was
burned. About Hecla, in Iceland, ghosts commonly walk, _animas mortuorum
simulantes_, saith Joh. Anan, _lib. 3. de nat. daem._ Olaus. _lib. 2. cap.
2._ Natal Tallopid. _lib. de apparit. spir._ Kornmannus _de mirac. mort.
part. 1. cap. 44._ such sights are frequently seen _circa sepulchra et
monasteria_, saith Lavat. _lib. 1. cap. 19._ in monasteries and about
churchyards, _loca paludinosa, ampla aedificia, solitaria, et caede hominum
notata_, &c. (marshes, great buildings, solitary places, or remarkable as
the scene of some murder.) Thyreus adds, _ubi gravius peccatum est
commissum, impii, pauperum oppressores et nequiter insignes habitant_
(where some very heinous crime was committed, there the impious and
infamous generally dwell). These spirits often foretell men's deaths by
several signs, as knocking, groanings, &c. [1208]though Rich. Argentine,
_c. 18. de praestigiis daemonum_, will ascribe these predictions to good
angels, out of the authority of Ficinus and others; _prodigia in obitu
principum saepius contingunt_, &c. (prodigies frequently occur at the
deaths of illustrious men), as in the Lateran church in [1209]Rome, the
popes' deaths are foretold by Sylvester's tomb. Near Rupes Nova in Finland,
in the kingdom of Sweden, there is a lake, in which, before the governor of
the castle dies, a spectrum, in the habit of Arion with his harp, appears,
and makes excellent music, like those blocks in Cheshire, which (they say)
presage death to the master of the family; or that [1210]oak in Lanthadran
park in Cornwall, which foreshows as much. Many families in Europe are so
put in mind of their last by such predictions, and many men are forewarned
(if we may believe Paracelsus) by familiar spirits in divers shapes, as
cocks, crows, owls, which often hover about sick men's chambers, _vel quia
morientium foeditatem sentiunt_, as [1211]Baracellus conjectures, _et ideo
super tectum infirmorum crocitant_, because they smell a corse; or for that
(as [1212]Bernardinus de Bustis thinketh) God permits the devil to appear
in the form of crows, and such like creatures, to scare such as live
wickedly here on earth. A little before Tully's death (saith Plutarch) the
crows made a mighty noise about him, _tumultuose perstrepentes_, they
pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus, _hist. Franc. lib.
8_, telleth such another wonderful story at the death of Johannes de
Monteforti, a French lord, _anno_ 1345, _tanta corvorum multitudo aedibus
morientis insedit, quantam esse in Gallia nemo judicasset_ (a multitude of
crows alighted on the house of the dying man, such as no one imagined
existed in France). Such prodigies are very frequent in authors. See more
of these in the said Lavater, Thyreus _de locis infestis, part 3, cap. 58._
Pictorius, Delrio, Cicogna, _lib. 3, cap. 9._ Necromancers take upon them
to raise and lay them at their pleasures: and so likewise, those which
Mizaldus calls _ambulones_, that walk about midnight on great heaths and
desert places, which (saith [1213]Lavater) "draw men out of the way, and
lead them all night a byway, or quite bar them of their way;" these have
several names in several places; we commonly call them Pucks. In the
deserts of Lop, in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are often
perceived, as you may read in M. Paulus the Venetian his travels; if one
lose his company by chance, these devils will call him by his name, and
counterfeit voices of his companions to seduce him. Hieronym. Pauli, in his
book of the hills of Spain, relates of a great [1214]mount in Cantabria,
where such spectrums are to be seen; Lavater and Cicogna have variety of
examples of spirits and walking devils in this kind. Sometimes they sit by
the highway side, to give men falls, and make their horses stumble and
start as they ride (if you will believe the relation of that holy man
Ketellus in [1215]Nubrigensis), that had an especial grace to see devils,
_Gratiam divinitus collatam_, and talk with them, _Et impavidus cum
spiritibus sermonem miscere_, without offence, and if a man curse or spur
his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoice at it; with many such
pretty feats.
Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. Olaus
Magnus, _lib. 6, cap. 19_, make six kinds of them; some bigger, some less.
These (saith [1216]Munster) are commonly seen about mines of metals, and
are some of them noxious; some again do no harm. The metal-men in many
places account it good luck, a sign of treasure and rich ore when they see
them. Georgius Agricola, in his book _de subterraneis animantibus, cap.
37_, reckons two more notable kinds of them, which he calls [1217]_getuli_
and _cobali_, both "are clothed after the manner of metal-men, and will
many times imitate their works." Their office, as Pictorius and Paracelsus
think, is to keep treasure in the earth, that it be not all at once
revealed; and besides, [1218]Cicogna avers that they are the frequent
causes of those horrible earthquakes "which often swallow up, not only
houses, but whole islands and cities;" in his third book, _cap. 11_, he
gives many instances.
The last are conversant about the centre of the earth to torture the souls
of damned men to the day of judgment; their egress and regress some suppose
to be about Etna, Lipari, Mons Hecla in Iceland, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego,
&c., because many shrieks and fearful cries are continually heard
thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men, ghosts and goblins.
_Their Offices, Operations, Study_.] Thus the devil reigns, and in a
thousand several shapes, "as a roaring lion still seeks whom he may
devour," 1 Pet. v., by sea, land, air, as yet unconfined, though [1219]
some will have his proper place the air; all that space between us and the
moon for them that transgressed least, and hell for the wickedest of them,
_Hic velut in carcere ad finem mundi, tunc in locum funestiorum trudendi_,
as Austin holds _de Civit. Dei, c. 22, lib. 14, cap. 3 et 23_; but be where
he will, he rageth while he may to comfort himself, as [1220] Lactantius
thinks, with other men's falls, he labours all he can to bring them into
the same pit of perdition with him. For [1221]"men's miseries, calamities,
and ruins are the devil's banqueting dishes." By many temptations and
several engines, he seeks to captivate our souls. The Lord of Lies, saith
[1222]Austin, "as he was deceived himself, he seeks to deceive others," the
ringleader to all naughtiness, as he did by Eve and Cain, Sodom and
Gomorrah, so would he do by all the world. Sometimes he tempts by
covetousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, &c., errs, dejects, saves,
kills, protects, and rides some men, as they do their horses. He studies
our overthrow, and generally seeks our destruction; and although he pretend
many times human good, and vindicate himself for a god by curing of several
diseases, _aegris sanitatem, et caecis luminis usum restituendo_, as Austin
declares, _lib. 10, de civit Dei, cap. 6_, as Apollo, Aesculapius, Isis, of
old have done; divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretend their
happiness, yet _nihil his impurius, scelestius, nihil humano generi
infestius_, nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may well appear by
their tyrannical and bloody sacrifices of men to Saturn and Moloch, which
are still in use among those barbarous Indians, their several deceits and
cozenings to keep men in obedience, their false oracles, sacrifices, their
superstitious impositions of fasts, penury, &c. Heresies, superstitious
observations of meats, times, &c., by which they [1223] crucify the souls
of mortal men, as shall be showed in our Treatise of Religious Melancholy.
_Modico adhuc tempore sinitur malignari_, as [1224] Bernard expresseth it,
by God's permission he rageth a while, hereafter to be confined to hell and
darkness, "which is prepared for him and his angels," Mat. xxv.
How far their power doth extend it is hard to determine; what the ancients
held of their effects, force and operations, I will briefly show you: Plato
in Critias, and after him his followers, gave out that these spirits or
devils, "were men's governors and keepers, our lords and masters, as we are
of our cattle." [1225]"They govern provinces and kingdoms by oracles,
auguries," dreams, rewards and punishments, prophecies, inspirations,
sacrifices, and religious superstitions, varied in as many forms as there
be diversity of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health,
dearth, plenty, [1226]_Adstantes hic jam nobis, spectantes, et
arbitrantes_, &c. as appears by those histories of Thucydides, Livius,
Dionysius Halicarnassus, with many others that are full of their wonderful
stratagems, and were therefore by those Roman and Greek commonwealths
adored and worshipped for gods with prayers and sacrifices, &c. [1227]In a
word, _Nihil magis quaerunt quam metum et admirationem hominum_; [1228]and
as another hath it, _Dici non potest, quam impotenti ardore in homines
dominium, et Divinos cultus maligni spiritus affectent_. [1229]Tritemius in
his book _de septem secundis_, assigns names to such angels as are
governors of particular provinces, by what authority I know not, and gives
them several jurisdictions. Asclepiades a Grecian, Rabbi Achiba the Jew,
Abraham Avenezra, and Rabbi Azariel, Arabians, (as I find them cited by
[1230]Cicogna) farther add, that they are not our governors only, _Sed ex
eorum concordia et discordia, boni et mali affectus promanant_, but as they
agree, so do we and our princes, or disagree; stand or fall. Juno was a
bitter enemy to Troy, Apollo a good friend, Jupiter indifferent, _Aequa
Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit_; some are for us still, some against us,
_Premente Deo, fert Deus alter opem_. Religion, policy, public and private
quarrels, wars are procured by them, and they are [1231]delighted perhaps
to see men fight, as men are with cocks, bulls and dogs, bears, &c.,
plagues, dearths depend on them, our _bene_ and _male esse_, and almost all
our other peculiar actions, (for as Anthony Rusea contends, _lib. 5, cap.
18_, every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular,
all his life long, which Jamblichus calls _daemonem_,) preferments, losses,
weddings, deaths, rewards and punishments, and as [1232]Proclus will, all
offices whatsoever, _alii genetricem, alii opificem potestatem habent_, &c.
and several names they give them according to their offices, as Lares,
Indegites, Praestites, &c. When the Arcades in that battle at Cheronae,
which was fought against King Philip for the liberty of Greece, had
deceitfully carried themselves, long after, in the very same place, _Diis
Graeciae, ultoribus_ (saith mine author) they were miserably slain by
Metellus the Roman: so likewise, in smaller matters, they will have things
fall out, as these _boni_ and _mali genii_ favour or dislike us: _Saturni
non conveniunt Jovialibus_, &c. He that is Saturninus shall never likely be
preferred. [1233]That base fellows are often advanced, undeserving
Gnathoes, and vicious parasites, whereas discreet, wise, virtuous and
worthy men are neglected and unrewarded; they refer to those domineering
spirits, or subordinate Genii; as they are inclined, or favour men, so they
thrive, are ruled and overcome; for as [1234]Libanius supposeth in our
ordinary conflicts and contentions, _Genius Genio cedit et obtemperat_, one
genius yields and is overcome by another. All particular events almost they
refer to these private spirits; and (as Paracelsus adds) they direct,
teach, inspire, and instruct men. Never was any man extraordinary famous in
any art, action, or great commander, that had not _familiarem daemonem_ to
inform him, as Numa, Socrates, and many such, as Cardan illustrates, _cap.
128_, _Arcanis prudentiae civilis_, [1235] _Speciali siquidem gratia, se a
Deo donari asserunt magi, a Geniis caelestibus instrui, ab iis doceri_. But
these are most erroneous paradoxes, _ineptae et fabulosae nugae_, rejected
by our divines and Christian churches. 'Tis true they have, by God's
permission, power over us, and we find by experience, that they can
[1236]hurt not our fields only, cattle, goods, but our bodies and minds. At
Hammel in Saxony, _An._ 1484. 20 _Junii_, the devil, in likeness of a pied
piper, carried away 130 children that were never after seen. Many times men
are [1237]affrighted out of their wits, carried away quite, as Scheretzius
illustrates, _lib. 1, c. iv._, and severally molested by his means,
Plotinus the Platonist, _lib. 14, advers. Gnos._ laughs them to scorn, that
hold the devil or spirits can cause any such diseases. Many think he can
work upon the body, but not upon the mind. But experience pronounceth
otherwise, that he can work both upon body and mind. Tertullian is of this
opinion, _c. 22._ [1238]"That he can cause both sickness and health," and
that secretly. [1239]Taurellus adds "by clancular poisons he can infect the
bodies, and hinder the operations of the bowels, though we perceive it not,
closely creeping into them," saith [1240]Lipsius, and so crucify our souls:
_Et nociva melancholia furiosos efficit_. For being a spiritual body, he
struggles with our spirits, saith Rogers, and suggests (according to
[1241]Cardan, _verba sine voce, species sine visu_, envy, lust, anger, &c.)
as he sees men inclined.
The manner how he performs it, Biarmannus in his Oration against Bodine,
sufficiently declares. [1242]"He begins first with the phantasy, and moves
that so strongly, that no reason is able to resist." Now the phantasy he
moves by mediation of humours; although many physicians are of opinion,
that the devil can alter the mind, and produce this disease of himself.
_Quibusdam medicorum visum_, saith [1243]Avicenna, _quod Melancholia
contingat a daemonio_. Of the same mind is Psellus and Rhasis the Arab.
_lib. 1. Tract. 9. Cont_. [1244]"That this disease proceeds especially from
the devil, and from him alone." Arculanus, _cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis_, Aelianus
Montaltus, in his _9. cap_. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 11._
confirm as much, that the devil can cause this disease; by reason many
times that the parties affected prophesy, speak strange language, but _non
sine interventu humoris_, not without the humour, as he interprets himself;
no more doth Avicenna, _si contingat a daemonio, sufficit nobis ut
convertat complexionem ad choleram nigram, et sit causa ejus propinqua
cholera nigra_; the immediate cause is choler adust, which [1245]
Pomponatius likewise labours to make good: Galgerandus of Mantua, a famous
physician, so cured a demoniacal woman in his time, that spake all
languages, by purging black choler, and thereupon belike this humour of
melancholy is called _balneum diaboli_, the devil's bath; the devil spying
his opportunity of such humours drives them many times to despair, fury,
rage, &c., mingling himself among these humours. This is that which
Tertullian avers, _Corporibus infligunt acerbos casus, animaeque
repentinos, membra distorquent, occulte repentes_, &c. and which Lemnius
goes about to prove, _Immiscent se mali Genii pravis humoribus, atque
atrae, bili_, &c. And [1246]Jason Pratensis, "that the devil, being a
slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself into
human bodies, and cunningly couched in our bowels vitiate our healths,
terrify our souls with fearful dreams, and shake our minds with furies."
And in another place, "These unclean spirits settled in our bodies, and now
mixed with our melancholy humours, do triumph as it were, and sport
themselves as in another heaven." Thus he argues, and that they go in and
out of our bodies, as bees do in a hive, and so provoke and tempt us as
they perceive our temperature inclined of itself, and most apt to be
deluded. [1247] Agrippa and [1248]Lavater are persuaded, that this humour
invites the devil to it, wheresoever it is in extremity, and of all other,
melancholy persons are most subject to diabolical temptations and
illusions, and most apt to entertain them, and the Devil best able to work
upon them. But whether by obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will
not determine; 'tis a difficult question. Delrio the Jesuit, _Tom. 3. lib.
6._ Springer and his colleague, _mall. malef_. Pet. Thyreus the Jesuit,
_lib. de daemoniacis, de locis infestis, de Terrificationibus nocturnis_,
Hieronymus Mengus _Flagel. daem_. and others of that rank of pontifical
writers, it seems, by their exorcisms and conjurations approve of it,
having forged many stories to that purpose. A nun did eat a lettuce
[1249]without grace, or signing it with the sign of the cross, and was
instantly possessed. Durand. _lib. 6. Rationall. c. 86. numb. 8._ relates
that he saw a wench possessed in Bononia with two devils, by eating an
unhallowed pomegranate, as she did afterwards confess, when she was cured
by exorcisms. And therefore our Papists do sign themselves so often with
the sign of the cross, _Ne daemon ingredi ausit_, and exorcise all manner
of meats, as being unclean or accursed otherwise, as Bellarmine defends.
Many such stories I find amongst pontifical writers, to prove their
assertions, let them free their own credits; some few I will recite in this
kind out of most approved physicians. Cornelius Gemma, _lib. 2. de nat.
mirac. c. 4._ relates of a young maid, called Katherine Gualter, a cooper's
daughter, _an._ 1571. that had such strange passions and convulsions, three
men could not sometimes hold her; she purged a live eel, which he saw, a
foot and a half long, and touched it himself; but the eel afterwards
vanished; she vomited some twenty-four pounds of fulsome stuff of all
colours, twice a day for fourteen days; and after that she voided great
balls of hair, pieces of wood, pigeon's dung, parchment, goose dung, coals;
and after them two pounds of pure blood, and then again coals and stones,
or which some had inscriptions bigger than a walnut, some of them pieces of
glass, brass, &c. besides paroxysms of laughing, weeping and ecstasies, &c.
_Et hoc (inquit) cum horore vidi_, this I saw with horror. They could do no
good on her by physic, but left her to the clergy. Marcellus Donatus, _lib.
2. c. 1. de med. mirab._ hath such another story of a country fellow, that
had four knives in his belly, _Instar serrae dentatos_, indented like a
saw, every one a span long, and a wreath of hair like a globe, with much
baggage of like sort, wonderful to behold: how it should come into his
guts, he concludes, _Certe non alio quam daemonis astutia et dolo_, (could
assuredly only have been through the artifice of the devil). Langius,
_Epist. med. lib. 1. Epist. 38._ hath many relations to this effect, and so
hath Christophorus a Vega: Wierus, Skenkius, Scribanius, all agree that
they are done by the subtlety and illusion of the devil. If you shall ask a
reason of this, 'tis to exercise our patience; for as [1250]Tertullian
holds, _Virtus non est virtus, nisi comparem habet aliquem, in quo
superando vim suam ostendat_ 'tis to try us and our faith, 'tis for our
offences, and for the punishment of our sins, by God's permission they do
it, _Carnifices vindictae justae Dei_, as [1251]Tolosanus styles them,
Executioners of his will; or rather as David, Ps. 78. ver. 49. "He cast
upon them the fierceness of his anger, indignation, wrath, and vexation, by
sending out of evil angels:" so did he afflict Job, Saul, the Lunatics and
demoniacal persons whom Christ cured, Mat. iv. 8. Luke iv. 11. Luke xiii.
Mark ix. Tobit. viii. 3. &c. This, I say, happeneth for a punishment of
sin, for their want of faith, incredulity, weakness, distrust, &c.
SUBSECT. III.--_Of Witches and Magicians, how they cause Melancholy_.
You have heard what the devil can do of himself, now you shall hear what he
can perform by his instruments, who are many times worse (if it be
possible) than he himself, and to satisfy their revenge and lust cause more
mischief, _Multa enim mala non egisset daemon, nisi provocatus a sagis_, as
[1252]Erastus thinks; much harm had never been done, had he not been
provoked by witches to it. He had not appeared in Samuel's shape, if the
Witch of Endor had let him alone; or represented those serpents in
Pharaoh's presence, had not the magicians urged him unto it; _Nec morbos
vel hominibus, vel brutis infligeret_ (Erastus maintains) _si sagae
quiescerent_; men and cattle might go free, if the witches would let him
alone. Many deny witches at all, or if there be any they can do no harm; of
this opinion is Wierus, _lib. 3. cap. 53. de praestig. daem_. Austin
Lerchemer a Dutch writer, Biarmanus, Ewichius, Euwaldus, our countryman
Scot; with him in Horace,
"Somnia, terrores Magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos Lemures, portentaque Thessala risu
Excipiunt."------
"Say, can you laugh indignant at the schemes
Of magic terrors, visionary dreams,
Portentous wonders, witching imps of Hell,
The nightly goblin, and enchanting spell?"
They laugh at all such stories; but on the contrary are most lawyers,
divines, physicians, philosophers, Austin, Hemingius, Danaeus, Chytraeus,
Zanchius, Aretius, &c. Delrio, Springer, [1253]Niderius, _lib. 5._
Fornicar. Guiatius, Bartolus, _consil. 6. tom. 1. Bodine, daemoniant. lib
2. cap. 8._ Godelman, Damhoderius, &c. Paracelsus, Erastus, Scribanius,
Camerarius, &c. The parties by whom the devil deals, may be reduced to
these two, such as command him in show at least, as conjurors, and
magicians, whose detestable and horrid mysteries are contained in their
book called [1254]Arbatell; _daemonis enim advocati praesto sunt, seque
exorcismis et conjurationibus quasi cogi patiuntur, ut miserum magorum
genus, in impietate detineant_. Or such as are commanded, as witches, that
deal _ex parte implicite_, or _explicite_, as the [1255]king hath well
defined; many subdivisions there are, and many several species of
sorcerers, witches, enchanters, charmers, &c. They have been tolerated
heretofore some of them; and magic hath been publicly professed in former
times, in [1256]Salamanca, [1257]Krakow, and other places, though after
censured by several [1258]Universities, and now generally contradicted,
though practised by some still, maintained and excused, _Tanquam res
secreta quae non nisi viris magnis et peculiari beneficio de Coelo
instructis communicatur_ (I use [1259]Boesartus his words) and so far
approved by some princes, _Ut nihil ausi aggredi in politicis, in sacris,
in consiliis, sine eorum arbitrio_; they consult still with them, and dare
indeed do nothing without their advice. Nero and Heliogabalus, Maxentius,
and Julianus Apostata, were never so much addicted to magic of old, as some
of our modern princes and popes themselves are nowadays. Erricus, King of
Sweden, had an [1260]enchanted cap, by virtue of which, and some magical
murmur or whispering terms, he could command spirits, trouble the air, and
make the wind stand which way he would, insomuch that when there was any
great wind or storm, the common people were wont to say, the king now had
on his conjuring cap. But such examples are infinite. That which they can
do, is as much almost as the devil himself, who is still ready to satisfy
their desires, to oblige them the more unto him. They can cause tempests,
storms, which is familiarly practised by witches in Norway, Iceland, as I
have proved. They can make friends enemies, and enemies friends by
philters; [1261]_Turpes amores conciliare_, enforce love, tell any man
where his friends are, about what employed, though in the most remote
places; and if they will, [1262]"bring their sweethearts to them by night,
upon a goat's back flying in the air." Sigismund Scheretzius, _part. 1.
cap. 9. de spect._ reports confidently, that he conferred with sundry such,
that had been so carried many miles, and that he heard witches themselves
confess as much; hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corn, cattle,
plants, make women abortive, not to conceive, [1263]barren, men and women
unapt and unable, married and unmarried, fifty several ways, saith Bodine,
_lib. 2. c. 2._ fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Cicogna
proves, and Lavat. _de spec. part. 2. c. 17._ "steal young children out of
their cradles, _ministerio daemonum_, and put deformed in their rooms,
which we call changelings," saith [1264]Scheretzius, _part. 1. c. 6._ make
men victorious, fortunate, eloquent; and therefore in those ancient
monomachies and combats they were searched of old, [1265]they had no
magical charms; they can make [1266]stick frees, such as shall endure a
rapier's point, musket shot, and never be wounded: of which read more in
Boissardus, _cap. 6. de Magia_, the manner of the adjuration, and by whom
'tis made, where and how to be used _in expeditionibus bellicis, praeliis,
duellis_, &c., with many peculiar instances and examples; they can walk in
fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, _aut alias torturas
sentire_; they can stanch blood, [1267]represent dead men's shapes, alter
and turn themselves and others into several forms, at their pleasures.
[1268]Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do as much publicly to all
spectators, _Modo Pusilla, modo anus, modo procera ut quercus, modo vacca,
avis, coluber_, &c. Now young, now old, high, low, like a cow, like a bird,
a snake, and what not? She could represent to others what forms they most
desired to see, show them friends absent, reveal secrets, _maxima omnium
admiratione_, &c. And yet for all this subtlety of theirs, as Lipsius well
observes, _Physiolog. Stoicor. lib. 1. cap. 17._ neither these magicians
nor devils themselves can take away gold or letters out of mine or Crassus'
chest, _et Clientelis suis largiri_, for they are base, poor, contemptible
fellows most part; as [1269]Bodine notes, they can do nothing _in Judicum
decreta aut poenas, in regum concilia vel arcana, nihil in rem nummariam
aut thesauros_, they cannot give money to their clients, alter judges'
decrees, or councils of kings, these _minuti Genii_ cannot do it, _altiores
Genii hoc sibi adservarunt_, the higher powers reserve these things to
themselves. Now and then peradventure there may be some more famous
magicians like Simon Magus, [1270]Apollonius Tyaneus, Pasetes, Jamblichus,
[1271]Odo de Stellis, that for a time can build castles in the air,
represent armies, &c., as they are [1272]said to have done, command wealth
and treasure, feed thousands with all variety of meats upon a sudden,
protect themselves and their followers from all princes' persecutions, by
removing from place to place in an instant, reveal secrets, future events,
tell what is done in far countries, make them appear that died long since,
and do many such miracles, to the world's terror, admiration and opinion of
deity to themselves, yet the devil forsakes them at last, they come to
wicked ends, and _raro aut nunquam_ such impostors are to be found. The
vulgar sort of them can work no such feats. But to my purpose, they can,
last of all, cure and cause most diseases to such as they love or hate, and
this of [1273]melancholy amongst the rest. Paracelsus, _Tom. 4. de morbis
amentium, Tract. 1._ in express words affirms; _Multi fascinantur in
melancholiam_, many are bewitched into melancholy, out of his experience.
The same saith Danaeus, _lib. 3. de sortiariis_. _Vidi, inquit, qui
Melancholicos morbos gravissimos induxerunt_: I have seen those that have
caused melancholy in the most grievous manner, [1274]dried up women's paps,
cured gout, palsy; this and apoplexy, falling sickness, which no physic
could help, _solu tactu_, by touch alone. Ruland in his _3 Cent. Cura 91._
gives an instance of one David Helde, a young man, who by eating cakes
which a witch gave him, _mox delirare coepit_, began to dote on a sudden,
and was instantly mad: F. H. D. in [1275]Hildesheim, consulted about a
melancholy man, thought his disease was partly magical, and partly natural,
because he vomited pieces of iron and lead, and spake such languages as he
had never been taught; but such examples are common in Scribanius, Hercules
de Saxonia, and others. The means by which they work are usually charms,
images, as that in Hector Boethius of King Duffe; characters stamped of
sundry metals, and at such and such constellations, knots, amulets, words,
philters, &c., which generally make the parties affected, melancholy; as
[1276]Monavius discourseth at large in an epistle of his to Acolsius,
giving instance in a Bohemian baron that was so troubled by a philter
taken. Not that there is any power at all in those spells, charms,
characters, and barbarous words; but that the devil doth use such means to
delude them. _Ut fideles inde magos_ (saith [1277]Libanius) _in officio
retineat, tum in consortium malefactorum vocet._
SUBSECT. IV.--_Stars a cause. Signs from Physiognomy, Metoposcopy,
Chiromancy_.
Natural causes are either primary and universal, or secondary and more
particular. Primary causes are the heavens, planets, stars, &c., by their
influence (as our astrologers hold) producing this and such like effects. I
will not here stand to discuss _obiter_, whether stars be causes, or signs;
or to apologise for judical astrology. If either Sextus Empericus, Picus
Mirandula, Sextus ab Heminga, Pererius, Erastus, Chambers, &c., have so far
prevailed with any man, that he will attribute no virtue at all to the
heavens, or to sun, or moon, more than he doth to their signs at an
innkeeper's post, or tradesman's shop, or generally condemn all such
astrological aphorisms approved by experience: I refer him to Bellantius,
Pirovanus, Marascallerus, Goclenius, Sir Christopher Heidon, &c. If thou
shalt ask me what I think, I must answer, _nam et doctis hisce erroribus
versatus sum_, (for I am conversant with these learned errors,) they do
incline, but not compel; no necessity at all: [1278]_agunt non cogunt_: and
so gently incline, that a wise man may resist them; _sapiens dominabitur
astris_: they rule us, but God rules them. All this (methinks) [1279]Joh.
de Indagine hath comprised in brief, _Quaeris a me quantum in nobis
operantur astra_? &c. "Wilt thou know how far the stars work upon us? I say
they do but incline, and that so gently, that if we will be ruled by
reason, they have no power over us; but if we follow our own nature, and be
led by sense, they do as much in us as in brute beasts, and we are no
better." So that, I hope, I may justly conclude with [1280]Cajetan, _Coelum
est vehiculum divinae virtutis_, &c., that the heaven is God's instrument,
by mediation of which he governs and disposeth these elementary bodies; or
a great book, whose letters are the stars, (as one calls it,) wherein are
written many strange things for such as can read, [1281]"or an excellent
harp, made by an eminent workman, on which, he that can but play, will make
most admirable music." But to the purpose.
[1282]Paracelsus is of opinion, "that a physician without the knowledge of
stars can neither understand the cause or cure of any disease, either of
this or gout, not so much as toothache; except he see the peculiar geniture
and scheme of the party effected." And for this proper malady, he will have
the principal and primary cause of it proceed from the heaven, ascribing
more to stars than humours, [1283]"and that the constellation alone many
times produceth melancholy, all other causes set apart." He gives instance
in lunatic persons, that are deprived of their wits by the moon's motion;
and in another place refers all to the ascendant, and will have the true
and chief cause of it to be sought from the stars. Neither is it his
opinion only, but of many Galenists and philosophers, though they do not so
peremptorily maintain as much. "This variety of melancholy symptoms
proceeds from the stars," saith [1284]Melancthon: the most generous
melancholy, as that of Augustus, comes from the conjunction of Saturn and
Jupiter in Libra: the bad, as that of Catiline's, from the meeting of
Saturn and the moon in Scorpio. Jovianus Pontanus, in his tenth book, and
thirteenth chapter _de rebus coelestibus_, discourseth to this purpose at
large, _Ex atra bile varii generantur morbi_, &c., [1285]"many diseases
proceed from black choler, as it shall be hot or cold; and though it be
cold in its own nature, yet it is apt to be heated, as water may be made to
boil, and burn as bad as fire; or made cold as ice: and thence proceed such
variety of symptoms, some mad, some solitary, some laugh, some rage," &c.
The cause of all which intemperance he will have chiefly and primarily
proceed from the heavens, [1286]"from the position of Mars, Saturn, and
Mercury." His aphorisms be these, [1287]"Mercury in any geniture, if he
shall be found in Virgo, or Pisces his opposite sign, and that in the
horoscope, irradiated by those quartile aspects of Saturn or Mars, the
child shall be mad or melancholy." Again, [1288]"He that shall have Saturn
and Mars, the one culminating, the other in the fourth house, when he shall
be born, shall be melancholy, of which he shall be cured in time, if
Mercury behold them. [1289]If the moon be in conjunction or opposition at
the birth time with the sun, Saturn or Mars, or in a quartile aspect with
them," (_e malo coeli loco_, Leovitius adds,) "many diseases are signified,
especially the head and brain is like to be misaffected with pernicious
humours, to be melancholy, lunatic, or mad," Cardan adds, _quarta luna
natos_, eclipses, earthquakes. Garcaeus and Leovitius will have the chief
judgment to be taken from the lord of the geniture, or where there is an
aspect between the moon and Mercury, and neither behold the horoscope, or
Saturn and Mars shall be lord of the present conjunction or opposition in
Sagittarius or Pisces, of the sun or moon, such persons are commonly
epileptic, dote, demoniacal, melancholy: but see more of these aphorisms in
the above-named Pontanus. Garcaeus, _cap. 23. de Jud. genitur. Schoner.
lib. 1. cap. 8_, which he hath gathered out of [1290]Ptolemy, Albubater,
and some other Arabians, Junctine, Ranzovius, Lindhout, Origen, &c. But
these men you will reject peradventure, as astrologers, and therefore
partial judges; then hear the testimony of physicians, Galenists
themselves. [1291]Carto confesseth the influence of stars to have a great
hand to this peculiar disease, so doth Jason Pratensis, Lonicerius
_praefat. de Apoplexia_, Ficinus, Fernelius, &c. [1292]P. Cnemander
acknowledgeth the stars an universal cause, the particular from parents,
and the use of the six non-natural things. Baptista Port. _mag. l. 1. c.
10, 12, 15_, will have them causes to every particular _individium_.
Instances and examples, to evince the truth of those aphorisms, are common
amongst those astrologian treatises. Cardan, in his thirty-seventh
geniture, gives instance in Matth. Bolognius. _Camerar. hor. natalit.
centur. 7. genit. 6. et 7._ of Daniel Gare, and others; but see Garcaeus,
_cap. 33._ Luc. Gauricus, _Tract. 6. de Azemenis_, &c. The time of this
melancholy is, when the significators of any geniture are directed
according to art, as the hor: moon, hylech, &c. to the hostile beams or
terms of [Symbol: Saturn] and [Symbol: Mars] especially, or any fixed star
of their nature, or if [Symbol: Saturn] by his revolution or transitus,
shall offend any of those radical promissors in the geniture.
Other signs there are taken from physiognomy, metoposcopy, chiromancy,
which because Joh. de Indagine, and Rotman, the landgrave of Hesse his
mathematician, not long since in his Chiromancy; Baptista Porta, in his
celestial Physiognomy, have proved to hold great affinity with astrology,
to satisfy the curious, I am the more willing to insert.
The general notions [1293]physiognomers give, be these; "black colour
argues natural melancholy; so doth leanness, hirsuteness, broad veins, much
hair on the brows," saith [1294]Gratanarolus, _cap. 7_, and a little head,
out of Aristotle, high sanguine, red colour, shows head melancholy; they
that stutter and are bald, will be soonest melancholy, (as Avicenna
supposeth,) by reason of the dryness of their brains; but he that will know
more of the several signs of humour and wits out of physiognomy, let him
consult with old Adamantus and Polemus, that comment, or rather paraphrase
upon Aristotle's Physiognomy, Baptista Porta's four pleasant books, Michael
Scot _de secretis naturae_, John de Indagine, Montaltus, Antony Zara.
_anat. ingeniorum, sect. 1. memb. 13. et lib. 4._
Chiromancy hath these aphorisms to foretell melancholy, Tasneir. _lib. 5.
cap. 2_, who hath comprehended the sum of John de Indagine: Tricassus,
Corvinus, and others in his book, thus hath it; [1295]"The Saturnine line
going from the rascetta through the hand, to Saturn's mount, and there
intersected by certain little lines, argues melancholy; so if the vital and
natural make an acute angle, Aphorism 100. The saturnine, hepatic, and
natural lines, making a gross triangle in the hand, argue as much;" which
Goclenius, _cap. 5. Chiros._ repeats verbatim out of him. In general they
conclude all, that if Saturn's mount be full of many small lines and
intersections, [1296]"such men are most part melancholy, miserable and full
of disquietness, care and trouble, continually vexed with anxious and
bitter thoughts, always sorrowful, fearful, suspicious; they delight in
husbandry, buildings, pools, marshes, springs, woods, walks," &c. Thaddaeus
Haggesius, in his _Metoposcopia_, hath certain aphorisms derived from
Saturn's lines in the forehead, by which he collects a melancholy
disposition; and [1297]Baptista Porta makes observations from those other
parts of the body, as if a spot be over the spleen; [1298]"or in the nails;
if it appear black, it signifieth much care, grief, contention, and
melancholy;" the reason he refers to the humours, and gives instance in
himself, that for seven years space he had such black spots in his nails,
and all that while was in perpetual lawsuits, controversies for his
inheritance, fear, loss of honour, banishment, grief, care, &c. and when
his miseries ended, the black spots vanished. Cardan, in his book _de
libris propriis_, tells such a story of his own person, that a little
before his son's death, he had a black spot, which appeared in one of his
nails; and dilated itself as he came nearer to his end. But I am over
tedious in these toys, which howsoever, in some men's too severe censures,
they may be held absurd and ridiculous, I am the bolder to insert, as not
borrowed from circumforanean rogues and gipsies, but out of the writings of
worthy philosophers and physicians, yet living some of them, and religious
professors in famous universities, who are able to patronise that which
they have said, and vindicate themselves from all cavillers and ignorant
persons.
SUBSECT. V.--_Old age a cause_.
Secondary peculiar causes efficient, so called in respect of the other
precedent, are either _congenitae, internae, innatae_, as they term them,
inward, innate, inbred; or else outward and adventitious, which happen to
us after we are born: congenite or born with us, are either natural, as old
age, or _praeter naturam_ (as [1299]Fernelius calls it) that
distemperature, which we have from our parent's seed, it being an
hereditary disease. The first of these, which is natural to all, and which
no man living can avoid, is [1300]old age, which being cold and dry, and of
the same quality as melancholy is, must needs cause it, by diminution of
spirits and substance, and increasing of adust humours; therefore [1301]
Melancthon avers out of Aristotle, as an undoubted truth, _Senes plerunque
delirasse in senecta_, that old men familiarly dote, _ob atram bilem_, for
black choler, which is then superabundant in them: and Rhasis, that Arabian
physician, in his _Cont. lib. 1. cap. 9_, calls it [1302]"a necessary and
inseparable accident," to all old and decrepit persons. After seventy years
(as the Psalmist saith) [1303]"all is trouble and sorrow;" and common
experience confirms the truth of it in weak and old persons, especially
such as have lived in action all their lives, had great employment, much
business, much command, and many servants to oversee, and leave off _ex
abrupto_; as [1304]Charles the Fifth did to King Philip, resign up all on a
sudden; they are overcome with melancholy in an instant: or if they do
continue in such courses, they dote at last, (_senex bis puer_,) and are
not able to manage their estates through common infirmities incident in
their age; full of ache, sorrow and grief, children again, dizzards, they
carl many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry,
waspish, displeased with every thing, "suspicious of all, wayward,
covetous, hard" (saith Tully,) "self-willed, superstitious, self-conceited,
braggers and admirers of themselves," as [1305]Balthazar Castilio hath
truly noted of them. [1306]This natural infirmity is most eminent in old
women, and such as are poor, solitary, live in most base esteem and
beggary, or such as are witches; insomuch that Wierus, Baptista Porta,
Ulricus Molitor, Edwicus, do refer all that witches are said to do, to
imagination alone, and this humour of melancholy. And whereas it is
controverted, whether they can bewitch cattle to death, ride in the air
upon a cowl-staff out of a chimney-top, transform themselves into cats,
dogs, &c., translate bodies from place to place, meet in companies, and
dance, as they do, or have carnal copulation with the devil, they ascribe
all to this redundant melancholy, which domineers in them, to [1307]
somniferous potions, and natural causes, the devil's policy. _Non laedunt
omnino_ (saith Wierus) _aut quid mirum faciunt_, (_de Lamiis, lib. 3. cap.
36_), _ut putatur, solam vitiatam habent phantasiam_; they do no such
wonders at all, only their [1308]brains are crazed. [1309]"They think they
are witches, and can do hurt, but do not." But this opinion Bodine,
Erastus, Danaeus, Scribanius, Sebastian Michaelis, Campanella _de Sensu
rerum, lib. 4. cap. 9._ [1310]Dandinus the Jesuit, _lib. 2. de Animae
explode_; [1311]Cicogna confutes at large. That witches are melancholy,
they deny not, but not out of corrupt phantasy alone, so to delude
themselves and others, or to produce such effects.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Parents a cause by Propagation_.
That other inward inbred cause of Melancholy is our temperature, in whole
or part, which we receive from our parents, which [1312]Fernelius calls
_Praeter naturam_, or unnatural, it being an hereditary disease; for as he
justifies [1313]_Quale parentum maxime patris semen obtigerit, tales
evadunt similares spermaticaeque paries, quocunque etiam morbo Pater quum
generat tenetur, cum semine transfert, in Prolem_; such as the temperature
of the father is, such is the son's, and look what disease the father had
when he begot him, his son will have after him; [1314]"and is as well
inheritor of his infirmities, as of his lands. And where the complexion and
constitution of the father is corrupt, there ([1315]saith Roger Bacon) the
complexion and constitution of the son must needs be corrupt, and so the
corruption is derived from the father to the son." Now this doth not so
much appear in the composition of the body, according to that of
Hippocrates, [1316]"in habit, proportion, scars, and other lineaments; but
in manners and conditions of the mind," _Et patrum in natos abeunt cum
semine mores._
Seleucus had an anchor on his thigh, so had his posterity, as Trogus
records, _lib. 15._ Lepidus, in Pliny _l. 7. c. 17_, was purblind, so was
his son. That famous family of Aenobarbi were known of old, and so surnamed
from their red beards; the Austrian lip, and those Indian flat noses are
propagated, the Bavarian chin, and goggle eyes amongst the Jews, as [1317]
Buxtorfius observes; their voice, pace, gesture, looks, are likewise
derived with all the rest of their conditions and infirmities; such a
mother, such a daughter; their very [1318]affections Lemnius contends "to
follow their seed, and the malice and bad conditions of children are many
times wholly to be imputed to their parents;" I need not therefore make any
doubt of Melancholy, but that it is an hereditary disease. [1319]
Paracelsus in express words affirms it, _lib. de morb. amentium to. 4. tr.
1_; so doth [1320]Crato in an Epistle of his to Monavius. So doth Bruno
Seidelius in his book _de morbo incurab._ Montaltus proves, _cap. 11_, out
of Hippocrates and Plutarch, that such hereditary dispositions are
frequent, _et hanc (inquit) fieri reor ob participatam melancholicam
intemperantiam_ (speaking of a patient) I think he became so by
participation of Melancholy. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. part 2. cap. 9_,
will have his melancholy constitution derived not only from the father to
the son, but to the whole family sometimes; _Quandoque totis familiis
hereditativam_, [1321]Forestus, in his medicinal observations, illustrates
this point, with an example of a merchant, his patient, that had this
infirmity by inheritance; so doth Rodericus a Fonseca, _tom. 1. consul.
69_, by an instance of a young man that was so affected _ex matre
melancholica_, had a melancholy mother, _et victu melancholico_, and bad
diet together. Ludovicus Mercatus, a Spanish physician, in that excellent
Tract which he hath lately written of hereditary diseases, _tom. 2. oper.
lib. 5_, reckons up leprosy, as those [1322]Galbots in Gascony, hereditary
lepers, pox, stone, gout, epilepsy, &c. Amongst the rest, this and madness
after a set time comes to many, which he calls a miraculous thing in
nature, and sticks for ever to them as an incurable habit. And that which
is more to be wondered at, it skips in some families the father, and goes
to the son, [1323]"or takes every other, and sometimes every third in a
lineal descent, and doth not always produce the same, but some like, and a
symbolizing disease." These secondary causes hence derived, are commonly so
powerful, that (as [1324]Wolfius holds) _saepe mutant decreta siderum_,
they do often alter the primary causes, and decrees of the heavens. For
these reasons, belike, the Church and commonwealth, human and Divine laws,
have conspired to avoid hereditary diseases, forbidding such marriages as
are any whit allied; and as Mercatus adviseth all families to take such,
_si fieri possit quae maxime distant natura_, and to make choice of those
that are most differing in complexion from them; if they love their own,
and respect the common good. And sure, I think, it hath been ordered by
God's especial providence, that in all ages there should be (as usually
there is) once in [1325]600 years, a transmigration of nations, to amend
and purify their blood, as we alter seed upon our land, and that there
should be as it were an inundation of those northern Goths and Vandals, and
many such like people which came out of that continent of Scandia and
Sarmatia (as some suppose) and overran, as a deluge, most part of Europe
and Africa, to alter for our good, our complexions, which were much defaced
with hereditary infirmities, which by our lust and intemperance we had
contracted. A sound generation of strong and able men were sent amongst us,
as those northern men usually are, innocuous, free from riot, and free from
diseases; to qualify and make us as those poor naked Indians are generally
at this day; and those about Brazil (as a late [1326]writer observes), in
the Isle of Maragnan, free from all hereditary diseases, or other
contagion, whereas without help of physic they live commonly 120 years or
more, as in the Orcades and many other places. Such are the common effects
of temperance and intemperance, but I will descend to particular, and show
by what means, and by whom especially, this infirmity is derived unto us.
_Filii ex senibus nati, raro sunt firmi temperamenti_, old men's children
are seldom of a good temperament, as Scoltzius supposeth, _consult. 177_,
and therefore most apt to this disease; and as [1327]Levinus Lemnius
farther adds, old men beget most part wayward, peevish, sad, melancholy
sons, and seldom merry. He that begets a child on a full stomach, will
either have a sick child, or a crazed son (as [1328]Cardan thinks),
_contradict. med. lib. 1. contradict. 18_, or if the parents be sick, or
have any great pain of the head, or megrim, headache, (Hieronymus Wolfius
[1329]doth instance in a child of Sebastian Castalio's); if a drunken man
get a child, it will never likely have a good brain, as Gellius argues,
_lib. 12. cap. 1._ _Ebrii gignunt Ebrios_, one drunkard begets another,
saith [1330]Plutarch, _symp. lib. 1. quest. 5_, whose sentence
[1331]Lemnius approves, _l. 1. c. 4._ Alsarius Crutius, _Gen. de qui sit
med. cent. 3. fol. 182._ Macrobius, _lib. 1._ Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen. 21.
Tract 1. cap. 8_, and Aristotle himself, _sect. 2. prob. 4_, foolish,
drunken, or hair-brain women, most part bring forth children like unto
themselves, _morosos et languidos_, and so likewise he that lies with a
menstruous woman. _Intemperantia veneris, quam in nautis praesertim
insectatur [1332] Lemnius, qui uxores ineunt, nulla menstrui decursus
ratione habita nec observato interlunio, praecipua causa est, noxia,
pernitiosa, concubitum hunc exitialem ideo, et pestiferum vocat.
[1333]Rodoricus a Castro Lucitanus, detestantur ad unum omnes medici, tum
et quarta luna concepti, infelices plerumque et amentes, deliri, stolidi,
morbosi, impuri, invalidi, tetra lue sordidi minime vitales, omnibus bonis
corporis atque animi destituti: ad laborem nati, si seniores, inquit
Eustathius, ut Hercules, et alii. [1334]Judaei maxime insectantur foedum
hunc, et immundum apud Christianas Concubitum, ut illicitum abhorrent, et
apud suos prohibent; et quod Christiani toties leprosi, amentes, tot
morbili, impetigines, alphi, psorae, cutis et faciei decolorationes, tam
multi morbi epidemici, acerbi, et venenosi sint, in hunc immundum
concubitum rejiciunt, et crudeles in pignora vocant, qui quarta, luna
profluente hac mensium illuvie concubitum hunc non perhorrescunt. Damnavit
olim divina Lex et morte mulctavit hujusmodi homines, Lev. 18, 20, et inde
nati, siqui deformes aut mutili, pater dilapidatus, quod non contineret ab
[1335] immunda muliere. Gregorius Magnus, petenti Augustino nunquid apud
[1336]Britannos hujusmodi concubitum toleraret, severe prohibuit viris suis
tum misceri foeminas in consuetis suis menstruis_, &c. I spare to English
this which I have said. Another cause some give, inordinate diet, as if a
man eat garlic, onions, fast overmuch, study too hard, be over-sorrowful,
dull, heavy, dejected in mind, perplexed in his thoughts, fearful, &c.,
"their children" (saith [1337]Cardan _subtil. lib. 18_) "will be much
subject to madness and melancholy; for if the spirits of the brain be
fuzzled, or misaffected by such means, at such a time, their children will
be fuzzled in the brain: they will be dull, heavy, timorous, discontented
all their lives." Some are of opinion, and maintain that paradox or
problem, that wise men beget commonly fools; Suidas gives instance in
Aristarchus the Grammarian, _duos reliquit Filios Aristarchum et
Aristachorum, ambos stultos_; and which [1338]Erasmus urgeth in his
_Moria_, fools beget wise men. Card. _subt. l. 12_, gives this cause,
_Quoniam spiritus sapientum ob studium resolvuntur, et in cerebrum feruntur
a corde_: because their natural spirits are resolved by study, and turned
into animal; drawn from the heart, and those other parts to the brain.
Lemnius subscribes to that of Cardan, and assigns this reason, _Quod
persolvant debitum languide, et obscitanter, unde foetus a parentum
generositate desciscit_: they pay their debt (as Paul calls it) to their
wives remissly, by which means their children are weaklings, and many times
idiots and fools.
Some other causes are given, which properly pertain, and do proceed from
the mother: if she be over-dull, heavy, angry, peevish, discontented, and
melancholy, not only at the time of conception, but even all the while she
carries the child in her womb (saith Fernelius, _path. l. 1, 11_) her son
will be so likewise affected, and worse, as [1339]Lemnius adds, _l. 4. c.
7_, if she grieve overmuch, be disquieted, or by any casualty be affrighted
and terrified by some fearful object, heard or seen, she endangers her
child, and spoils the temperature of it; for the strange imagination of a
woman works effectually upon her infant, that as Baptista Porta proves,
_Physiog. caelestis l. 5. c. 2_, she leaves a mark upon it, which is most
especially seen in such as prodigiously long for such and such meats, the
child will love those meats, saith Fernelius, and be addicted to like
humours: [1340]"if a great-bellied woman see a hare, her child will often
have a harelip," as we call it. Garcaeus, _de Judiciis geniturarum, cap.
33_, hath a memorable example of one Thomas Nickell, born in the city of
Brandeburg, 1551, [1341]"that went reeling and staggering all the days of
his life, as if he would fall to the ground, because his mother being great
with child saw a drunken man reeling in the street." Such another I find in
Martin Wenrichius, _com. de ortu monstrorum, c. 17_, I saw (saith he) at
Wittenberg, in Germany, a citizen that looked like a carcass; I asked him
the cause, he replied, [1342]"His mother, when she bore him in her womb,
saw a carcass by chance, and was so sore affrighted with it, that _ex eo
foetus ei assimilatus_, from a ghastly impression the child was like it."
So many several ways are we plagued and punished for our father's defaults;
insomuch that as Fernelius truly saith, [1343]"It is the greatest part of
our felicity to be well born, and it were happy for human kind, if only
such parents as are sound of body and mind should be suffered to marry." An
husbandman will sow none but the best and choicest seed upon his land, he
will not rear a bull or a horse, except he be right shapen in all parts, or
permit him to cover a mare, except he be well assured of his breed; we make
choice of the best rams for our sheep, rear the neatest kine, and keep the
best dogs, _Quanto id diligentius in procreandis liberis observandum_? And
how careful then should we be in begetting of our children? In former times
some [1344]countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that if a
child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away; so did
the Indians of old by the relation of Curtius, and many other well-governed
commonwealths, according to the discipline of those times. Heretofore in
Scotland, saith [1345]Hect. Boethius, "if any were visited with the falling
sickness, madness, gout, leprosy, or any such dangerous disease, which was
likely to be propagated from the father to the son, he was instantly
gelded; a woman kept from all company of men; and if by chance having some
such disease, she were found to be with child, she with her brood were
buried alive:" and this was done for the common good, lest the whole nation
should be injured or corrupted. A severe doom you will say, and not to be
used amongst Christians, yet more to be looked into than it is. For now by
our too much facility in this kind, in giving way for all to marry that
will, too much liberty and indulgence in tolerating all sorts, there is a
vast confusion of hereditary diseases, no family secure, no man almost free
from some grievous infirmity or other, when no choice is had, but still the
eldest must marry, as so many stallions of the race; or if rich, be they
fools or dizzards, lame or maimed, unable, intemperate, dissolute, exhaust
through riot, as he said, [1346]_jura haereditario sapere jubentur_; they
must be wise and able by inheritance: it comes to pass that our generation
is corrupt, we have many weak persons, both in body and mind, many feral
diseases raging amongst us, crazed families, _parentes, peremptores_; our
fathers bad, and we are like to be worse.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Bad Diet a cause. Substance. Quality of Meats_.
According to my proposed method, having opened hitherto these secondary
causes, which are inbred with us, I must now proceed to the outward and
adventitious, which happen unto us after we are born. And those are either
evident, remote, or inward, antecedent, and the nearest: continent causes
some call them. These outward, remote, precedent causes are subdivided
again into necessary and not necessary. Necessary (because we cannot avoid
them, but they will alter us, as they are used, or abused) are those six
non-natural things, so much spoken of amongst physicians, which are
principal causes of this disease. For almost in every consultation, whereas
they shall come to speak of the causes, the fault is found, and this most
part objected to the patient; _Peccavit circa res sex non naturales_: he
hath still offended in one of those six. Montanus, _consil. 22_, consulted
about a melancholy Jew, gives that sentence, so did Frisemelica in the same
place; and in his 244 counsel, censuring a melancholy soldier, assigns that
reason of his malady, [1347]"he offended in all those six non-natural
things, which were the outward causes, from which came those inward
obstructions;" and so in the rest.
These six non-natural things are diet, retention and evacuation, which are
more material than the other because they make new matter, or else are
conversant in keeping or expelling of it. The other four are air, exercise,
sleeping, waking, and perturbations of the mind, which only alter the
matter. The first of these is diet, which consists in meat and drink, and
causeth melancholy, as it offends in substance, or accidents, that is,
quantity, quality, or the like. And well it may be called a material cause,
since that, as [1348]Fernelius holds, "it hath such a power in begetting of
diseases, and yields the matter and sustenance of them; for neither air,
nor perturbations, nor any of those other evident causes take place, or
work this effect, except the constitution of body, and preparation of
humours, do concur. That a man may say, this diet is the mother of
diseases, let the father be what he will, and from this alone, melancholy
and frequent other maladies arise." Many physicians, I confess, have
written copious volumes of this one subject, of the nature and qualities of
all manner of meats; as namely, Galen, Isaac the Jew, Halyabbas, Avicenna,
Mesue, also four Arabians, Gordonius, Villanovanus, Wecker, Johannes
Bruerinus, _sitologia de Esculentis et Poculentis_, Michael Savanarola,
_Tract 2. c. 8_, Anthony Fumanellus, _lib. de regimine senum_, Curio in his
comment on Schola Salerna, Godefridus Steckius _arte med._, Marcilius
Cognatus, Ficinus, Ranzovius, Fonseca, Lessius, Magninus, _regim.
sanitatis_, Frietagius, Hugo Fridevallius, &c., besides many other in
[1349]English, and almost every peculiar physician, discourseth at large of
all peculiar meats in his chapter of melancholy: yet because these books
are not at hand to every man, I will briefly touch what kind of meats
engender this humour, through their several species, and which are to be
avoided. How they alter and change the matter, spirits first, and after
humours, by which we are preserved, and the constitution of our body,
Fernelius and others will show you. I hasten to the thing itself: and first
of such diet as offends in substance.
_Beef._] Beef, a strong and hearty meat (cold in the first degree, dry in
the second, saith _Gal. l. 3. c. 1. de alim. fac._) is condemned by him and
all succeeding Authors, to breed gross melancholy blood: good for such as
are sound, and of a strong constitution, for labouring men if ordered
aright, corned, young, of an ox (for all gelded meats in every species are
held best), or if old, [1350]such as have been tired out with labour, are
preferred. Aubanus and Sabellicus commend Portugal beef to be the most
savoury, best and easiest of digestion; we commend ours: but all is
rejected, and unfit for such as lead a resty life, any ways inclined to
melancholy, or dry of complexion: _Tales_ (Galen thinks) _de facile
melancholicis aegritudinibus capiuntur_.
_Pork._] Pork, of all meats, is most nutritive in his own nature, [1351]
but altogether unfit for such as live at ease, are any ways unsound of body
or mind: too moist, full of humours, and therefore _noxia delicatis_, saith
Savanarola, _ex earum usu ut dubitetur an febris quartana generetur_:
naught for queasy stomachs, insomuch that frequent use of it may breed a
quartan ague.
_Goat._] Savanarola discommends goat's flesh, and so doth [1352]Bruerinus,
_l. 13. c. 19_, calling it a filthy beast, and rammish: and therefore
supposeth it will breed rank and filthy substance; yet kid, such as are
young and tender, Isaac accepts, Bruerinus and Galen, _l. 1. c. 1. de
alimentorum facultatibus_.
_Hart._] Hart and red deer [1353]hath an evil name: it yields gross
nutriment: a strong and great grained meat, next unto a horse. Which
although some countries eat, as Tartars, and they of China; yet [1354]
Galen condemns. Young foals are as commonly eaten in Spain as red deer, and
to furnish their navies, about Malaga especially, often used; but such
meats ask long baking, or seething, to qualify them, and yet all will not
serve.
Venison, Fallow Deer.] All venison is melancholy, and begets bad blood; a
pleasant meat: in great esteem with us (for we have more parks in England
than there are in all Europe besides) in our solemn feasts. 'Tis somewhat
better hunted than otherwise, and well prepared by cookery; but generally
bad, and seldom to be used.
_Hare._] Hare, a black meat, melancholy, and hard of digestion, it breeds
incubus, often eaten, and causeth fearful dreams, so doth all venison, and
is condemned by a jury of physicians. Mizaldus and some others say, that
hare is a merry meat, and that it will make one fair, as Martial's epigram
testifies to Gellia; but this is _per accidens_, because of the good sport
it makes, merry company and good discourse that is commonly at the eating
of it, and not otherwise to be understood.
_Conies._] [1355]Conies are of the nature of hares. Magninus compares them
to beef, pig, and goat, _Reg. sanit. part. 3. c. 17_; yet young rabbits by
all men are approved to be good.
Generally, all such meats as are hard of digestion breed melancholy.
Areteus, _lib. 7. cap. 5_, reckons up heads and feet, [1356]bowels, brains,
entrails, marrow, fat, blood, skins, and those inward parts, as heart,
lungs, liver, spleen, &c. They are rejected by Isaac, _lib. 2. part. 3_,
Magninus, _part. 3. cap. 17_, Bruerinus, _lib. 12_, Savanarola, _Rub. 32.
Tract. 2._
_Milk._] Milk, and all that comes of milk, as butter and cheese, curds,
&c., increase melancholy (whey only excepted, which is most wholesome):
[1357]some except asses' milk. The rest, to such as are sound, is nutritive
and good, especially for young children, but because soon turned to
corruption, [1358]not good for those that have unclean stomachs, are
subject to headache, or have green wounds, stone, &c. Of all cheeses, I
take that kind which we call Banbury cheese to be the best, _ex vetustis
pessimus_, the older, stronger, and harder, the worst, as Langius
discourseth in his Epistle to Melancthon, cited by Mizaldus, Isaac, _p. 5.
Gal. 3. de cibis boni succi_. &c.
_Fowl._] Amongst fowl, [1359]peacocks and pigeons, all fenny fowl are
forbidden, as ducks, geese, swans, herons, cranes, coots, didappers,
water-hens, with all those teals, curs, sheldrakes, and peckled fowls, that
come hither in winter out of Scandia, Muscovy, Greenland, Friesland, which
half the year are covered all over with snow, and frozen up. Though these
be fair in feathers, pleasant in taste, and have a good outside, like
hypocrites, white in plumes, and soft, their flesh is hard, black,
unwholesome, dangerous, melancholy meat; _Gravant et putrefaciant
stomachum_, saith Isaac, _part. 5. de vol._, their young ones are more
tolerable, but young pigeons he quite disapproves.
_Fishes._] Rhasis and [1360]Magninus discommend all fish, and say, they
breed viscosities, slimy nutriment, little and humorous nourishment.
Savanarola adds, cold, moist: and phlegmatic, Isaac; and therefore
unwholesome for all cold and melancholy complexions: others make a
difference, rejecting only amongst freshwater fish, eel, tench, lamprey,
crawfish (which Bright approves, _cap. 6_), and such as are bred in muddy
and standing waters, and have a taste of mud, as Franciscus Bonsuetus
poetically defines, _Lib. de aquatilibus_.
"Nam pisces omnes, qui stagna, lacusque frequentant,
Semper plus succi deterioris habent."
"All fish, that standing pools, and lakes frequent,
Do ever yield bad juice and nourishment."
Lampreys, Paulus Jovius, _c. 34. de piscibus fluvial._, highly magnifies,
and saith, None speak against them, but _inepti et scrupulosi_, some
scrupulous persons; but [1361]eels, _c. 33_, "he abhorreth in all places,
at all times, all physicians detest them, especially about the solstice."
Gomesius, _lib. 1. c. 22, de sale_, doth immoderately extol sea-fish, which
others as much vilify, and above the rest, dried, soused, indurate fish, as
ling, fumados, red-herrings, sprats, stock-fish, haberdine, poor-John, all
shellfish. [1362]Tim. Bright excepts lobster and crab. Messarius commends
salmon, which Bruerinus contradicts, _lib. 22. c. 17._ Magninus rejects
conger, sturgeon, turbot, mackerel, skate.
Carp is a fish of which I know not what to determine. Franciscus Bonsuetus
accounts it a muddy fish. Hippolitus Salvianus, in his Book _de Piscium
natura et praeparatione_, which was printed at Rome in folio, 1554, with
most elegant pictures, esteems carp no better than a slimy watery meat.
Paulus Jovius on the other side, disallowing tench, approves of it; so doth
Dubravius in his Books of Fishponds. Freitagius [1363]extols it for an
excellent wholesome meat, and puts it amongst the fishes of the best rank;
and so do most of our country gentlemen, that store their ponds almost with
no other fish. But this controversy is easily decided, in my judgment, by
Bruerinus, _l. 22. c. 13._ The difference riseth from the site and nature
of pools, [1364]sometimes muddy, sometimes sweet; they are in taste as the
place is from whence they be taken. In like manner almost we may conclude
of other fresh fish. But see more in Rondoletius, Bellonius, Oribasius,
_lib. 7. cap. 22_, Isaac, _l. 1_, especially Hippolitus Salvianus, who is
_instar omnium solus_, &c. Howsoever they may be wholesome and approved,
much use of them is not good; P. Forestus, in his medicinal observations,
[1365]relates, that Carthusian friars, whose living is most part fish, are
more subject to melancholy than any other order, and that he found by
experience, being sometimes their physician ordinary at Delft, in Holland.
He exemplifies it with an instance of one Buscodnese, a Carthusian of a
ruddy colour, and well liking, that by solitary living, and fish-eating,
became so misaffected.
_Herbs._] Amongst herbs to be eaten I find gourds, cucumbers, coleworts,
melons, disallowed, but especially cabbage. It causeth troublesome dreams,
and sends up black vapours to the brain. Galen, _loc. affect. l. 3. c. 6_,
of all herbs condemns cabbage; and Isaac, _lib. 2. c. 1._ _Animae
gravitatem facit_, it brings heaviness to the soul. Some are of opinion
that all raw herbs and salads breed melancholy blood, except bugloss and
lettuce. Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2_, speaks against all herbs and worts,
except borage, bugloss, fennel, parsley, dill, balm, succory. Magninus,
_regim. sanitatis, part. 3. cap. 31._ _Omnes herbae simpliciter malae, via
cibi_; all herbs are simply evil to feed on (as he thinks). So did that
scoffing cook in [1366]Plautus hold:
"Non ego coenam condio ut alii coqui solent,
Qui mihi condita prata in patinis proferunt,
Boves qui convivas faciunt, herbasque aggerunt."
"Like other cooks I do not supper dress,
That put whole meadows into a platter,
And make no better of their guests than beeves,
With herbs and grass to feed them fatter."
Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of herbs and salads
(which our said Plautus calls _coenas terrestras_, Horace, _coenas sine
sanguine_), by which means, as he follows it,
[1367] "Hic homines tam brevem vitam colunt------
Qui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt,
Formidolosum dictu, non esu modo,
Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt."
"Their lives, that eat such herbs, must needs be short,
And 'tis a fearful thing for to report,
That men should feed on such a kind of meat,
Which very juments would refuse to eat."
[1368]They are windy, and not fit therefore to be eaten of all men raw,
though qualified with oil, but in broths, or otherwise. See more of these
in every [1369]husbandman, and herbalist.
_Roots._] Roots, _Etsi quorundam gentium opes sint_, saith Bruerinus, the
wealth of some countries, and sole food, are windy and bad, or troublesome
to the head: as onions, garlic, scallions, turnips, carrots, radishes,
parsnips: Crato, _lib. 2. consil. 11_, disallows all roots, though [1370]
some approve of parsnips and potatoes. [1371]Magninus is of Crato's
opinion, [1372]"They trouble the mind, sending gross fumes to the brain,
make men mad," especially garlic, onions, if a man liberally feed on them a
year together. Guianerius, _tract. 15. cap. 2_, complains of all manner of
roots, and so doth Bruerinus, even parsnips themselves, which are the best,
_Lib. 9. cap. 14._
_Fruits._] _Pastinacarum usus succos gignit improbos_. Crato, _consil. 21.
lib. 1_, utterly forbids all manner of fruits, as pears, apples, plums,
cherries, strawberries, nuts, medlars, serves, &c. _Sanguinem inficiunt_,
saith Villanovanus, they infect the blood, and putrefy it, Magninus holds,
and must not therefore be taken _via cibi, aut quantitate magna_, not to
make a meal of, or in any great quantity. [1373]Cardan makes that a cause
of their continual sickness at Fessa in Africa, "because they live so much
on fruits, eating them thrice a day." Laurentius approves of many fruits,
in his Tract of Melancholy, which others disallow, and amongst the rest
apples, which some likewise commend, sweetings, pearmains, pippins, as good
against melancholy; but to him that is any way inclined to, or touched with
this malady, [1374]Nicholas Piso in his Practics, forbids all fruits, as
windy, or to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw. Amongst other
fruits, [1375]Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts grapes and figs, but I find
them likewise rejected.
_Pulse._] All pulse are naught, beans, peas, vetches, &c., they fill the
brain (saith Isaac) with gross fumes, breed black thick blood, and cause
troublesome dreams. And therefore, that which Pythagoras said to his
scholars of old, may be for ever applied to melancholy men, _A fabis
abstinete_, eat no peas, nor beans; yet to such as will needs eat them, I
would give this counsel, to prepare them according to those rules that
Arnoldus Villanovanus, and Frietagius prescribe, for eating, and dressing.
fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, &c.
_Spices._] Spices cause hot and head melancholy, and are for that cause
forbidden by our physicians to such men as are inclined to this malady, as
pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, dates, &c. honey and sugar. [1376]
Some except honey; to those that are cold, it may be tolerable, but [1377]
_Dulcia se in bilem vertunt_, (sweets turn into bile,) they are
obstructive. Crato therefore forbids all spice, in a consultation of his,
for a melancholy schoolmaster, _Omnia aromatica et quicquid sanguinem
adurit_: so doth Fernelius, _consil. 45._ Guianerius, _tract 15. cap. 2._
Mercurialis, _cons. 189._ To these I may add all sharp and sour things,
luscious and over-sweet, or fat, as oil, vinegar, verjuice, mustard, salt;
as sweet things are obstructive, so these are corrosive. Gomesius, in his
books, _de sale, l. 1. c. 21_, highly commends salt; so doth Codronchus in
his tract, _de sale Absynthii_, Lemn. _l. 3. c. 9. de occult, nat. mir._
yet common experience finds salt, and salt-meats, to be great procurers of
this disease. And for that cause belike those Egyptian priests abstained
from salt, even so much, as in their bread, _ut sine perturbatione anima
esset_, saith mine author, that their souls might be free from
perturbations.
_Bread._] Bread that is made of baser grain, as peas, beans, oats, rye, or
[1378]over-hard baked, crusty, and black, is often spoken against, as
causing melancholy juice and wind. Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his
History of Scotland, contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread: it
was objected to him then living at Paris in France, that his countrymen fed
on oats, and base grain, as a disgrace; but he doth ingenuously confess,
Scotland, Wales, and a third part of England, did most part use that kind
of bread, that it was as wholesome as any grain, and yielded as good
nourishment. And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horsemeat, and fitter
for juments than men to feed on. But read Galen himself, _Lib. 1. De cibis
boni et mali succi_, more largely discoursing of corn and bread.
_Wine._] All black wines, over-hot, compound, strong thick drinks, as
Muscadine, Malmsey, Alicant, Rumney, Brownbastard, Metheglen, and the like,
of which they have thirty several kinds in Muscovy, all such made drinks
are hurtful in this case, to such as are hot, or of a sanguine choleric
complexion, young, or inclined to head-melancholy. For many times the
drinking of wine alone causeth it. Arculanus, _c. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, puts
in [1379]wine for a great cause, especially if it be immoderately used.
Guianerius, _tract. 15. c. 2_, tells a story of two Dutchmen, to whom he
gave entertainment in his house, "that [1380]in one month's space were both
melancholy by drinking of wine, one did nought but sing, the other sigh."
Galen, _l. de causis morb. c. 3._ Matthiolus on Dioscorides, and above all
other Andreas Bachius, _l. 3. 18, 19, 20_, have reckoned upon those
inconveniences that come by wine: yet notwithstanding all this, to such as
are cold, or sluggish melancholy, a cup of wine is good physic, and so doth
Mercurialis grant, _consil. 25_, in that case, if the temperature be cold,
as to most melancholy men it is, wine is much commended, if it be
moderately used.
_Cider, Perry._] Cider and perry are both cold and windy drinks, and for
that cause to be neglected, and so are all those hot spiced strong drinks.
Beer.] Beer, if it be over-new or over-stale, over-strong, or not sodden,
smell of the cask, sharp, or sour, is most unwholesome, frets, and galls,
&c. Henricus Ayrerus, in a [1381]consultation of his, for one that laboured
of hypochondriacal melancholy, discommends beer. So doth [1382] Crato in
that excellent counsel of his, _Lib. 2. consil. 21_, as too windy, because
of the hop. But he means belike that thick black Bohemian beer used in some
other parts of [1383]Germany.
------"nil spissius illa
Dum bibitur, nil clarius est dum mingitur, unde
Constat, quod multas faeces in corpore linquat."
"Nothing comes in so thick,
Nothing goes out so thin,
It must needs follow then
The dregs are left within."
As that [1384]old poet scoffed, calling it _Stygiae monstrum conforme
paludi_, a monstrous drink, like the river Styx. But let them say as they
list, to such as are accustomed unto it, "'tis a most wholesome" (so [1385]
Polydore Virgil calleth it) "and a pleasant drink," it is more subtle and
better, for the hop that rarefies it, hath an especial virtue against
melancholy, as our herbalists confess, Fuchsius approves, _Lib. 2. sec. 2.
instit. cap. 11_, and many others.
Waters] Standing waters, thick and ill-coloured, such as come forth of
pools, and moats, where hemp hath been steeped, or slimy fishes live, are
most unwholesome, putrefied, and full of mites, creepers, slimy, muddy,
unclean, corrupt, impure, by reason of the sun's heat, and still-standing;
they cause foul distemperatures in the body and mind of man, are unfit to
make drink of, to dress meat with, or to be [1386]used about men inwardly
or outwardly. They are good for many domestic uses, to wash horses, water
cattle, &c., or in time of necessity, but not otherwise. Some are of
opinion, that such fat standing waters make the best beer, and that
seething doth defecate it, as [1387]Cardan holds, _Lib. 13. subtil._ "It
mends the substance, and savour of it," but it is a paradox. Such beer may
be stronger, but not so wholesome as the other, as [1388]Jobertus truly
justifieth out of Galen, _Paradox, dec. 1. Paradox 5_, that the seething of
such impure waters doth not purge or purify them, Pliny, _lib. 31. c. 3_,
is of the same tenet, and P. Crescentius, _agricult. lib. 1. et lib. 4. c.
11. et c. 45._ Pamphilius Herilachus, _l. 4. de not. aquarum_, such waters
are naught, not to be used, and by the testimony of [1389]Galen, "breed
agues, dropsies, pleurisies, splenetic and melancholy passions, hurt the
eyes, cause a bad temperature, and ill disposition of the whole body, with
bad colour." This Jobertus stiffly maintains, _Paradox, lib. 1. part. 5_,
that it causeth blear eyes, bad colour, and many loathsome diseases to such
as use it: this which they say, stands with good reason; for as geographers
relate, the water of Astracan breeds worms in such as drink it. [1390]
Axius, or as now called Verduri, the fairest river in Macedonia, makes all
cattle black that taste of it. Aleacman now Peleca, another stream in
Thessaly, turns cattle most part white, _si polui ducas_, L. Aubanus
Rohemus refers that [1391]struma or poke of the Bavarians and Styrians to
the nature of their waters, as [1392]Munster doth that of Valesians in the
Alps, and [1393]Bodine supposeth the stuttering of some families in
Aquitania, about Labden, to proceed from the same cause, "and that the
filth is derived from the water to their bodies." So that they that use
filthy, standing, ill-coloured, thick, muddy water, must needs have muddy,
ill-coloured, impure, and infirm bodies. And because the body works upon
the mind, they shall have grosser understandings, dull, foggy, melancholy
spirits, and be really subject to all manner of infirmities.
To these noxious simples, we may reduce an infinite number of compound,
artificial, made dishes, of which our cooks afford us a great variety, as
tailors do fashions in our apparel. Such are [1394]puddings stuffed with
blood, or otherwise composed; baked, meats, soused indurate meats, fried
and broiled buttered meats; condite, powdered, and over-dried, [1395]all
cakes, simnels, buns, cracknels made with butter, spice, &c., fritters,
pancakes, pies, sausages, and those several sauces, sharp, or over-sweet,
of which _scientia popinae_, as Seneca calls it, hath served those [1396]
Apician tricks, and perfumed dishes, which Adrian the sixth Pope so much
admired in the accounts of his predecessor Leo Decimus; and which
prodigious riot and prodigality have invented in this age. These do
generally engender gross humours, fill the stomach with crudities, and all
those inward parts with obstructions. Montanus, _consil. 22_, gives
instance, in a melancholy Jew, that by eating such tart sauces, made
dishes, and salt meats, with which he was overmuch delighted, became
melancholy, and was evil affected. Such examples are familiar and common.
SUBSECT. II.--_Quantity of Diet a Cause._
There is not so much harm proceeding from the substance itself of meat, and
quality of it, in ill-dressing and preparing, as there is from the
quantity, disorder of time and place, unseasonable use of it, [1397]
intemperance, overmuch, or overlittle taking of it. A true saying it is,
_Plures crapula quam gladius_. This gluttony kills more than the sword,
this _omnivorantia et homicida gula_, this all-devouring and murdering gut.
And that of [1398]Pliny is truer, "Simple diet is the best; heaping up of
several meats is pernicious, and sauces worse; many dishes bring many
diseases." [1399]Avicen cries out, "That nothing is worse than to feed on
many dishes, or to protract the time of meats longer than ordinary; from
thence proceed our infirmities, and 'tis the fountain of all diseases,
which arise out of the repugnancy of gross humours." Thence, saith [1400]
Fernelius, come crudities, wind, oppilations, cacochymia, plethora,
cachexia, bradiopepsia, [1401]_Hinc subitae, mortes, atque intestata
senectus_, sudden death, &c., and what not.
As a lamp is choked with a multitude of oil, or a little fire with overmuch
wood quite extinguished, so is the natural heat with immoderate eating,
strangled in the body. _Pernitiosa sentina est abdomen insaturabile_: one
saith, An insatiable paunch is a pernicious sink, and the fountain of all
diseases, both of body and mind. [1402]Mercurialis will have it a peculiar
cause of this private disease; Solenander, _consil. 5. sect. 3_,
illustrates this of Mercurialis, with an example of one so melancholy, _ab
intempestivis commessationibus_, unseasonable feasting. [1403]Crato
confirms as much, in that often cited counsel, _21. lib. 2_, putting
superfluous eating for a main cause. But what need I seek farther for
proofs? Hear [1404]Hippocrates himself, _lib. 2. aphor. 10_, "Impure bodies
the more they are nourished, the more they are hurt, for the nourishment is
putrefied with vicious humours."
And yet for all this harm, which apparently follows surfeiting and
drunkenness, see how we luxuriate and rage in this kind; read what Johannes
Stuckius hath written lately of this subject, in his great volume _De
Antiquorum Conviviis_, and of our present age; _Quam [1405]portentosae
coenae_, prodigious suppers, [1406]_Qui dum invitant ad coenam efferunt ad
sepulchrum_, what Fagos, Epicures, Apetios, Heliogables, our times afford?
Lucullus' ghost walks still, and every man desires to sup in Apollo;
Aesop's costly dish is ordinarily served up. [1407]_Magis illa juvant, quae
pluris emuntur_. The dearest cates are best, and 'tis an ordinary thing to
bestow twenty or thirty pounds on a dish, some thousand crowns upon a
dinner: [1408]Mully-Hamet, king of Fez and Morocco, spent three pounds on
the sauce of a capon: it is nothing in our times, we scorn all that is
cheap. "We loathe the very [1409]light" (some of us, as Seneca notes)
"because it comes free, and we are offended with the sun's heat, and those
cool blasts, because we buy them not." This air we breathe is so common, we
care not for it; nothing pleaseth but what is dear. And if we be
[1410]witty in anything, it is _ad gulam_: If we study at all, it is
_erudito luxu_, to please the palate, and to satisfy the gut. "A cook of
old was a base knave" (as [1411]Livy complains), "but now a great man in
request; cookery is become an art, a noble science: cooks are gentlemen:"
_Venter Deus_: They wear "their brains in their bellies, and their guts in
their heads," as [1412]Agrippa taxed some parasites of his time, rushing on
their own destruction, as if a man should run upon the point of a sword,
_usque dum rumpantur comedunt_, "They eat till they burst:" [1413]All day,
all night, let the physician say what he will, imminent danger, and feral
diseases are now ready to seize upon them, that will eat till they vomit,
_Edunt ut vomant, vomut ut edant_, saith Seneca; which Dion relates of
Vitellius, _Solo transitu ciborum nutriri judicatus_: His meat did pass
through and away, or till they burst again. [1414]_Strage animantium
ventrem onerant_, and rake over all the world, as so many [1415]slaves,
belly-gods, and land-serpents, _Et totus orbis ventri nimis angustus_, the
whole world cannot satisfy their appetite. [1416]"Sea, land, rivers, lakes,
&c., may not give content to their raging guts." To make up the mess, what
immoderate drinking in every place? _Senem potum pota trahebat anus_, how
they flock to the tavern: as if they were _fruges consumere nati_, born to
no other end but to eat and drink, like Offellius Bibulus, that famous
Roman parasite, _Qui dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit_; as so many casks to
hold wine, yea worse than a cask, that mars wine, and itself is not marred
by it, yet these are brave men, Silenus Ebrius was no braver. _Et quae
fuerunt vitia, mores sunt_: 'tis now the fashion of our times, an honour:
_Nunc vero res ista eo rediit_ (as Chrysost. _serm. 30. in v. Ephes._
comments) _Ut effeminatae ridendaeque ignaviae loco habeatur, nolle
inebriari_; 'tis now come to that pass that he is no gentleman, a very
milk-sop, a clown, of no bringing up, that will not drink; fit for no
company; he is your only gallant that plays it off finest, no disparagement
now to stagger in the streets, reel, rave, &c., but much to his fame and
renown; as in like case Epidicus told Thesprio his fellow-servant, in the
[1417]Poet. _Aedipol facinus improbum_, one urged, the other replied, _At
jam alii fecere idem, erit illi illa res honori_, 'tis now no fault, there
be so many brave examples to bear one out; 'tis a credit to have a strong
brain, and carry his liquor well; the sole contention who can drink most,
and fox his fellow the soonest. 'Tis the _summum bonum_ of our tradesmen,
their felicity, life, and soul, _Tanta dulcedine affectant_, saith Pliny,
_lib. 14. cap. 12._ _Ut magna pars non aliud vitae praemium intelligat_,
their chief comfort, to be merry together in an alehouse or tavern, as our
modern Muscovites do in their mead-inns, and Turks in their coffeehouses,
which much resemble our taverns; they will labour hard all day long to be
drunk at night, and spend _totius anni labores_, as St. Ambrose adds, in a
tippling feast; convert day into night, as Seneca taxes some in his times,
_Pervertunt officia anoctis et lucis_; when we rise, they commonly go to
bed, like our antipodes,
"Nosque ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis,
Illis sera rubens ascendit lumina vesper."
So did Petronius in Tacitus, Heliogabalus in Lampridius.
[1418] ------"Noctes vigilibat ad ipsum
Mane, diem totum stertebat?"------
------"He drank the night away
Till rising dawn, then snored out all the day."
Snymdiris the Sybarite never saw the sun rise or set so much as once in
twenty years. Verres, against whom Tully so much inveighs, in winter he
never was _extra tectum vix extra lectum_, never almost out of bed, [1419]
still wenching and drinking; so did he spend his time, and so do myriads in
our days. They have _gymnasia bibonum_, schools and rendezvous; these
centaurs and Lapithae toss pots and bowls as so many balls; invent new
tricks, as sausages, anchovies, tobacco, caviar, pickled oysters, herrings,
fumados, &c.: innumerable salt meats to increase their appetite, and study
how to hurt themselves by taking antidotes [1420]"to carry their drink the
better; [1421]and when nought else serves, they will go forth, or be
conveyed out, to empty their gorge, that they may return to drink afresh."
They make laws, _insanas leges, contra bibendi fallacias_, and [1422]brag
of it when they have done, crowning that man that is soonest gone, as their
drunken predecessors have done, --[1423]_quid ego video_? Ps. _Cum corona
Pseudolum ebrium tuum_--. And when they are dead, will have a can of wine
with [1424]Maron's old woman to be engraven on their tombs. So they triumph
in villainy, and justify their wickedness; with Rabelais, that French
Lucian, drunkenness is better for the body than physic, because there be
more old drunkards than old physicians. Many such frothy arguments they
have, [1425]inviting and encouraging others to do as they do, and love them
dearly for it (no glue like to that of good fellowship). So did Alcibiades
in Greece; Nero, Bonosus, Heliogabalus in Rome, or Alegabalus rather, as he
was styled of old (as [1426]Ignatius proves out of some old coins). So do
many great men still, as [1427]Heresbachius observes. When a prince drinks
till his eyes stare, like Bitias in the Poet,
[1428] ------("ille impiger hausit
Spumantem vino pateram.")
------"a thirsty soul;
He took challenge and embrac'd the bowl;
With pleasure swill'd the gold, nor ceased to draw
Till he the bottom of the brimmer saw."
and comes off clearly, sound trumpets, fife and drums, the spectators will
applaud him, "the [1429]bishop himself (if he belie them not) with his
chaplain will stand by and do as much," _O dignum principe haustum_, 'twas
done like a prince. "Our Dutchmen invite all comers with a pail and a
dish," _Velut infundibula integras obbas exhauriunt, et in monstrosis
poculis, ipsi monstrosi monstrosius epotant_, "making barrels of their
bellies." _Incredibile dictu_, as [1430]one of their own countrymen
complains: [1431]_Quantum liquoris immodestissima gens capiat_, &c. "How
they love a man that will be drunk, crown him and honour him for it," hate
him that will not pledge him, stab him, kill him: a most intolerable
offence, and not to be forgiven. [1432]"He is a mortal enemy that will not
drink with him," as Munster relates of the Saxons. So in Poland, he is the
best servitor, and the honestest fellow, saith Alexander Gaguinus, [1433]
"that drinketh most healths to the honour of his master, he shall be
rewarded as a good servant, and held the bravest fellow that carries his
liquor best," when a brewer's horse will bear much more than any sturdy
drinker, yet for his noble exploits in this kind, he shall be accounted a
most valiant man, for [1434]_Tam inter epulas fortis vir esse potest ac in
bello_, as much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some
of our city captains, and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.
Thus they many times wilfully pervert the good temperature of their bodies,
stifle their wits, strangle nature, and degenerate into beasts.
Some again are in the other extreme, and draw this mischief on their heads
by too ceremonious and strict diet, being over-precise, cockney-like, and
curious in their observation of meats, times, as that _Medicina statica_
prescribes, just so many ounces at dinner, which Lessius enjoins, so much
at supper, not a little more, nor a little less, of such meat, and at such
hours, a diet-drink in the morning, cock-broth, China-broth, at dinner,
plum-broth, a chicken, a rabbit, rib of a rack of mutton, wing of a capon,
the merry-thought of a hen, &c.; to sounder bodies this is too nice and
most absurd. Others offend in overmuch fasting: pining adays, saith [1435]
Guianerius, and waking anights, as many Moors and Turks in these our times
do. "Anchorites, monks, and the rest of that superstitious rank (as the
same Guianerius witnesseth, that he hath often seen to have happened in his
time) through immoderate fasting, have been frequently mad." Of such men
belike Hippocrates speaks, _l. Aphor. 5_, when as he saith, [1436]"they
more offend in too sparing diet, and are worse damnified, than they that
feed liberally, and are ready to surfeit."
SUBSECT. III.--_Custom of Diet, Delight, Appetite, Necessity, how they
cause or hinder_.
No rule is so general, which admits not some exception; to this, therefore,
which hath been hitherto said, (for I shall otherwise put most men out of
commons,) and those inconveniences which proceed from the substance of
meats, an intemperate or unseasonable use of them, custom somewhat detracts
and qualifies, according to that of Hippocrates, _2 Aphoris. 50._ [1437]
"Such things as we have been long accustomed to, though they be evil in
their own nature, yet they are less offensive." Otherwise it might well be
objected that it were a mere [1438]tyranny to live after those strict rules
of physic; for custom [1439]doth alter nature itself, and to such as are
used to them it makes bad meats wholesome, and unseasonable times to cause
no disorder. Cider and perry are windy drinks, so are all fruits windy in
themselves, cold most part, yet in some shires of [1440]England, Normandy
in France, Guipuscoa in Spain, 'tis their common drink, and they are no
whit offended with it. In Spain, Italy, and Africa, they live most on
roots, raw herbs, camel's [1441]milk, and it agrees well with them: which
to a stranger will cause much grievance. In Wales, _lacticiniis vescuntur_,
as Humphrey Llwyd confesseth, a Cambro-Briton himself, in his elegant
epistle to Abraham Ortelius, they live most on white meats: in Holland on
fish, roots, [1442]butter; and so at this day in Greece, as [1443]Bellonius
observes, they had much rather feed on fish than flesh. With us, _Maxima
pars victus in carne consistit_, we feed on flesh most part, saith
[1444]Polydore Virgil, as all northern countries do; and it would be very
offensive to us to live after their diet, or they to live after ours. We
drink beer, they wine; they use oil, we butter; we in the north are
[1445]great eaters; they most sparing in those hotter countries; and yet
they and we following our own customs are well pleased. An Ethiopian of old
seeing an European eat bread, wondered, _quomodo stercoribus vescentes
viverimus_, how we could eat such kind of meats: so much differed his
countrymen from ours in diet, that as mine [1446]author infers, _si quis
illorum victum apud nos aemulari vellet_; if any man should so feed with
us, it would be all one to nourish, as Cicuta, Aconitum, or Hellebore
itself. At this day in China the common people live in a manner altogether
on roots and herbs, and to the wealthiest, horse, ass, mule, dogs,
cat-flesh, is as delightsome as the rest, so [1447]Mat. Riccius the Jesuit
relates, who lived many years amongst them. The Tartars eat raw meat, and
most commonly [1448]horse-flesh, drink milk and blood, as the nomades of
old. _Et lac concretum cum sanguine potat equino_. They scoff at our
Europeans for eating bread, which they call tops of weeds, and horse meat,
not fit for men; and yet Scaliger accounts them a sound and witty nation,
living a hundred years; even in the civilest country of them they do thus,
as Benedict the Jesuit observed in his travels, from the great Mogul's
Court by land to Pekin, which Riccius contends to be the same with Cambulu
in Cataia. In Scandia their bread is usually dried fish, and so likewise in
the Shetland Isles; and their other fare, as in Iceland, saith
[1449]Dithmarus Bleskenius, butter, cheese, and fish; their drink water,
their lodging on the ground. In America in many places their bread is
roots, their meat palmettos, pinas, potatoes, &c., and such fruits. There
be of them too that familiarly drink [1450]salt seawater all their lives,
eat [1451]raw meat, grass, and that with delight. With some, fish,
serpents, spiders: and in divers places they [1452]eat man's flesh, raw and
roasted, even the Emperor [1453]Montezuma himself. In some coasts, again,
[1454]one tree yields them cocoanuts, meat and drink, fire, fuel, apparel;
with his leaves, oil, vinegar, cover for houses, &c., and yet these men
going naked, feeding coarse, live commonly a hundred years, are seldom or
never sick; all which diet our physicians forbid. In Westphalia they feed
most part on fat meats and worts, knuckle deep, and call it [1455]_cerebrum
Iovis_: in the Low Countries with roots, in Italy frogs and snails are
used. The Turks, saith Busbequius, delight most in fried meats. In Muscovy,
garlic and onions are ordinary meat and sauce, which would be pernicious to
such as are unaccustomed to them, delightsome to others; and all is
[1456]because they have been brought up unto it. Husbandmen, and such as
labour, can eat fat bacon, salt gross meat, hard cheese, &c., (_O dura
messorum illa_), coarse bread at all times, go to bed and labour upon a
full stomach, which to some idle persons would be present death, and is
against the rules of physic, so that custom is all in all. Our travellers
find this by common experience when they come in far countries, and use
their diet, they are suddenly offended, [1457]as our Hollanders and
Englishmen when they touch upon the coasts of Africa, those Indian capes
and islands, are commonly molested with calentures, fluxes, and much
distempered by reason of their fruits. [1458]_Peregrina, etsi suavia solent
vescentibus perturbationes insignes adferre_, strange meats, though
pleasant, cause notable alterations and distempers. On the other side, use
or custom mitigates or makes all good again. Mithridates by often use,
which Pliny wonders at, was able to drink poison; and a maid, as Curtius
records, sent to Alexander from King Porus, was brought up with poison from
her infancy. The Turks, saith Bellonius, lib. 3. c. 15, eat opium
familiarly, a dram at once, which we dare not take in grains. [1459]Garcias
ab Horto writes of one whom he saw at Goa in the East Indies, that took ten
drams of opium in three days; and yet _consulto loquebatur_, spake
understandingly, so much can custom do. [1460] Theophrastus speaks of a
shepherd that could eat hellebore in substance. And therefore Cardan
concludes out of Galen, _Consuetudinem utcunque ferendam, nisi valde
malam_. Custom is howsoever to be kept, except it be extremely bad: he
adviseth all men to keep their old customs, and that by the authority of
[1461]Hippocrates himself, _Dandum aliquid tempori, aetati regioni,
consuetudini_, and therefore to [1462]continue as they began, be it diet,
bath, exercise, &c., or whatsoever else.
Another exception is delight, or appetite, to such and such meats: though
they be hard of digestion, melancholy; yet as Fuchsius excepts, _cap. 6.
lib. 2. Instit. sect. 2_, [1463]"The stomach doth readily digest, and
willingly entertain such meats we love most, and are pleasing to us, abhors
on the other side such as we distaste." Which Hippocrates confirms,
_Aphoris. 2. 38._ Some cannot endure cheese, out of a secret antipathy; or
to see a roasted duck, which to others is a [1464]delightsome meat.
The last exception is necessity, poverty, want, hunger, which drives men
many times to do that which otherwise they are loath, cannot endure, and
thankfully to accept of it: as beverage in ships, and in sieges of great
cities, to feed on dogs, cats, rats, and men themselves. Three outlaws in
[1465]Hector Boethius, being driven to their shifts, did eat raw flesh, and
flesh of such fowl as they could catch, in one of the Hebrides for some few
months. These things do mitigate or disannul that which hath been said of
melancholy meats, and make it more tolerable; but to such as are wealthy,
live plenteously, at ease, may take their choice, and refrain if they will,
these viands are to be forborne, if they be inclined to, or suspect
melancholy, as they tender their healths: Otherwise if they be intemperate,
or disordered in their diet, at their peril be it. _Qui monet amat, Ave et
cave_.
"He who advises is your friend
Farewell, and to your health attend."
SUBSECT. IV.--_Retention and Evacuation a cause, and how_.
Of retention and evacuation, there be divers kinds, which are either
concomitant, assisting, or sole causes many times of melancholy. [1466]
Galen reduceth defect and abundance to this head; others [1467]"All that is
separated, or remains."
_Costiveness_.] In the first rank of these, I may well reckon up
costiveness, and keeping in of our ordinary excrements, which as it often
causeth other diseases, so this of melancholy in particular. [1468]Celsus,
lib. 1. cap. 3, saith, "It produceth inflammation of the head, dullness,
cloudiness, headache," &c. Prosper Calenus, _lib. de atra bile_, will have
it distemper not the organ only, [1469]"but the mind itself by troubling of
it:" and sometimes it is a sole cause of madness, as you may read in the
first book of [1470]Skenkius's Medicinal Observations. A young merchant
going to Nordeling fair in Germany, for ten days' space never went to
stool; at his return he was [1471]grievously melancholy, thinking that he
was robbed, and would not be persuaded but that all his money was gone; his
friends thought he had some philtrum given him, but Cnelius, a physician,
being sent for, found his [1472]costiveness alone to be the cause, and
thereupon gave him a clyster, by which he was speedily recovered.
Trincavellius, _consult. 35. lib. 1_, saith as much of a melancholy lawyer,
to whom he administered physic, and Rodericus a Fonseca, _consult. 85. tom.
2_, [1473]of a patient of his, that for eight days was bound, and therefore
melancholy affected. Other retentions and evacuations there are, not simply
necessary, but at some times; as Fernelius accounts them, _Path. lib. 1.
cap. 15_, as suppression of haemorrhoids, monthly issues in women, bleeding
at nose, immoderate or no use at all of Venus: or any other ordinary
issues.
[1474]Detention of haemorrhoids, or monthly issues, Villanovanus _Breviar.
lib. 1. cap. 18._ Arculanus, _cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, Vittorius Faventinus,
_pract. mag. tract. 2. cap. 15._ Bruel, &c. put for ordinary causes.
Fuchsius, _l. 2. sect. 5. c. 30_, goes farther, and saith, [1475]"That many
men unseasonably cured of the haemorrhoids have been corrupted with
melancholy, seeking to avoid Scylla, they fall into Charybdis." Galen, _l.
de hum. commen. 3. ad text. 26_, illustrates this by an example of Lucius
Martius, whom he cured of madness, contracted by this means: And [1476]
Skenkius hath two other instances of two melancholy and mad women, so
caused from the suppression of their months. The same may be said of
bleeding at the nose, if it be suddenly stopped, and have been formerly
used, as [1477]Villanovanus urgeth: And [1478]Fuchsius, _lib. 2. sect. 5.
cap. 33_, stiffly maintains, "That without great danger, such an issue may
not be stayed."
Venus omitted produceth like effects. Mathiolus, _epist. 5. l. penult._,
[1479]"avoucheth of his knowledge, that some through bashfulness abstained
from venery, and thereupon became very heavy and dull; and some others that
were very timorous, melancholy, and beyond all measure sad." Oribasius,
_med. collect. l. 6. c. 37_, speaks of some, [1480]"That if they do not use
carnal copulation, are continually troubled with heaviness and headache;
and some in the same case by intermission of it." Not use of it hurts many,
Arculanus, _c. 6. in 9. Rhasis, et Magninus, part. 3. cap. 5_, think,
because it [1481]"sends up poisoned vapours to the brain and heart." And so
doth Galen himself hold, "That if this natural seed be over-long kept (in
some parties) it turns to poison." Hieronymus Mercurialis, in his chapter
of melancholy, cites it for an especial cause of this malady,
[1482]priapismus, satyriasis, &c. Haliabbas, _5. Theor. c. 36_, reckons up
this and many other diseases. Villanovanus _Breviar. l. 1. c. 18_, saith,
"He knew [1483]many monks and widows grievously troubled with melancholy,
and that from this sole cause." [1484]Ludovicus Mercatus, _l. 2. de
mulierum affect. cap. 4_, and Rodericus a Castro, _de morbis mulier. l. 2.
c. 3_, treat largely of this subject, and will have it produce a peculiar
kind of melancholy in stale maids, nuns, and widows, _Ob suppressionem
mensium et venerem omissam, timidae, moestae anxiae, verecundae,
suspicioscae, languentes, consilii inopes, cum summa vitae et rerum
meliorum desperatione_, &c., they are melancholy in the highest degree, and
all for want of husbands. Aelianus Montaltus, _cap. 37. de melanchol._,
confirms as much out of Galen; so doth Wierus, Christophorus a Vega _de
art. med. lib. 3. c. 14_, relates many such examples of men and women, that
he had seen so melancholy. Felix Plater in the first book of his
Observations, [1485]"tells a story of an ancient gentleman in Alsatia, that
married a young wife, and was not able to pay his debts in that kind for a
long time together, by reason of his several infirmities: but she, because
of this inhibition of Venus, fell into a horrible fury, and desired every
one that came to see her, by words, looks, and gestures, to have to do with
her," &c. [1486]Bernardus Paternus, a physician, saith, "He knew a good
honest godly priest, that because he would neither willingly marry, nor
make use of the stews, fell into grievous melancholy fits." Hildesheim,
_spicel. 2_, hath such another example of an Italian melancholy priest, in
a consultation had _Anno_ 1580. Jason Pratensis gives instance in a married
man, that from his wife's death abstaining, [1487]"after marriage, became
exceedingly melancholy," Rodericus a Fonseca in a young man so misaffected,
_Tom. 2. consult. 85._ To these you may add, if you please, that conceited
tale of a Jew, so visited in like sort, and so cured, out of Poggius
Florentinus.
Intemperate Venus is all but as bad in the other extreme. Galen, _l. 6. de
mortis popular. sect. 5. text. 26_, reckons up melancholy amongst those
diseases which are [1488]"exasperated by venery:" so doth Avicenna, _2, 3,
c. 11._ Oribasius, _loc. citat._ Ficinus, _lib. 2. de sanitate tuenda_.
Marsilius Cognatus, Montaltus, _cap. 27._ Guianerius, _Tract. 3. cap. 2._
Magninus, _cap. 5. part. 3._ [1489]gives the reason, because [1490]"it
infrigidates and dries up the body, consumes the spirits; and would
therefore have all such as are cold and dry to take heed of and to avoid it
as a mortal enemy." Jacchinus _in 9 Rhasis, cap. 15_, ascribes the same
cause, and instanceth in a patient of his, that married a young wife in a
hot summer, [1491]"and so dried himself with chamber-work, that he became
in short space from melancholy, mad:" he cured him by moistening remedies.
The like example I find in Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus, _consult. 129_, of a
gentleman of Venice, that upon the same occasion was first melancholy,
afterwards mad. Read in him the story at large.
Any other evacuation stopped will cause it, as well as these above named,
be it bile, [1492]ulcer, issue, &c. Hercules de Saxonia, _lib. 1. c. 16_,
and Gordonius, verify this out of their experience. They saw one wounded in
the head who as long as the sore was open, _Lucida habuit mentis
intervalla_, was well; but when it was stopped, _Rediit melancholia_, his
melancholy fit seized on him again.
Artificial evacuations are much like in effect, as hot houses, baths,
bloodletting, purging, unseasonably and immoderately used. [1493]Baths dry
too much, if used in excess, be they natural or artificial, and offend
extreme hot, or cold; [1494]one dries, the other refrigerates overmuch.
Montanus, _consil. 137_, saith, they overheat the liver. Joh. Struthius,
_Stigmat. artis. l. 4. c. 9_, contends, [1495]"that if one stay longer than
ordinary at the bath, go in too oft, or at unseasonable times, he putrefies
the humours in his body." To this purpose writes Magninus, _l. 3. c. 5._
Guianerius, _Tract. 15. c. 21_, utterly disallows all hot baths in
melancholy adust. [1496]"I saw" (saith he) "a man that laboured of the
gout, who to be freed of this malady came to the bath, and was instantly
cured of his disease, but got another worse, and that was madness." But
this judgment varies as the humour doth, in hot or cold: baths may be good
for one melancholy man, bad for another; that which will cure it in this
party, may cause it in a second.
_Phlebotomy_.] Phlebotomy, many times neglected, may do much harm to the
body, when there is a manifest redundance of bad humours, and melancholy
blood; and when these humours heat and boil, if this be not used in time,
the parties affected, so inflamed, are in great danger to be mad; but if it
be unadvisedly, importunely, immoderately used, it doth as much harm by
refrigerating the body, dulling the spirits, and consuming them: as Joh.
[1497]Curio in his 10th chapter well reprehends, such kind of letting blood
doth more hurt than good: [1498]"The humours rage much more than they did
before, and is so far from avoiding melancholy, that it increaseth it, and
weakeneth the sight." [1499]Prosper Calenus observes as much of all
phlebotomy, except they keep a very good diet after it; yea, and as
[1500]Leonartis Jacchinus speaks out of his own experience, [1501]"The
blood is much blacker to many men after their letting of blood than it was
at first." For this cause belike Salust. Salvinianus, _l. 2. c. 1_, will
admit or hear of no bloodletting at all in this disease, except it be
manifest it proceed from blood: he was (it appears) by his own words in
that place, master of an hospital of mad men, [1502]"and found by long
experience, that this kind of evacuation, either in head, arm, or any other
part, did more harm than good." To this opinion of his, [1503]Felix Plater
is quite opposite, "though some wink at, disallow and quite contradict all
phlebotomy in melancholy, yet by long experience I have found innumerable
so saved, after they had been twenty, nay, sixty times let blood, and to
live happily after it. It was an ordinary thing of old, in Galen's time, to
take at once from such men six pounds of blood, which now we dare scarce
take in ounces: _sed viderint medici_;" great books are written of this
subject.
Purging upward and downward, in abundance of bad humours omitted, may be
for the worst; so likewise as in the precedent, if overmuch, too frequent
or violent, it [1504]weakeneth their strength, saith Fuchsius, _l. 2.
sect., 2 c. 17_, or if they be strong or able to endure physic, yet it
brings them to an ill habit, they make their bodies no better than
apothecaries' shops, this and such like infirmities must needs follow.
SUBSECT. V.--_Bad Air, a cause of Melancholy_.
Air is a cause of great moment, in producing this, or any other disease,
being that it is still taken into our bodies by respiration, and our more
inner parts. [1505]"If it be impure and foggy, it dejects the spirits, and
causeth diseases by infection of the heart," as Paulus hath it, _lib. 1. c.
49._ Avicenna, _lib. 1. Gal. de san. tuenda_. Mercurialis, Montaltus, &c.
[1506]Fernelius saith, "A thick air thickeneth the blood and humours."
[1507]Lemnius reckons up two main things most profitable, and most
pernicious to our bodies; air and diet: and this peculiar disease, nothing
sooner causeth [1508](Jobertus holds) "than the air wherein we breathe and
live." [1509]Such as is the air, such be our spirits; and as our spirits,
such are our humours. It offends commonly if it be too [1510]hot and dry,
thick, fuliginous, cloudy, blustering, or a tempestuous air. Bodine in his
fifth Book, _De repub. cap. 1, 5_, of his Method of History, proves that
hot countries are most troubled with melancholy, and that there are
therefore in Spain, Africa, and Asia Minor, great numbers of mad men,
insomuch that they are compelled in all cities of note, to build peculiar
hospitals for them. Leo [1511]Afer, _lib. 3. de Fessa urbe_, Ortelius and
Zuinger, confirm as much: they are ordinarily so choleric in their
speeches, that scarce two words pass without railing or chiding in common
talk, and often quarrelling in their streets. [1512]Gordonius will have
every man take notice of it: "Note this" (saith he) "that in hot countries
it is far more familiar than in cold." Although this we have now said be
not continually so, for as [1513]Acosta truly saith, under the Equator
itself, is a most temperate habitation, wholesome air, a paradise of
pleasure: the leaves ever green, cooling showers. But it holds in such as
are intemperately hot, as [1514]Johannes a Meggen found in Cyprus, others
in Malta, Aupulia, and the [1515]Holy Land, where at some seasons of the
year is nothing but dust, their rivers dried up, the air scorching hot, and
earth inflamed; insomuch that many pilgrims going barefoot for devotion
sake, from Joppa to Jerusalem upon the hot sands, often run mad, or else
quite overwhelmed with sand, _profundis arenis_, as in many parts of
Africa, Arabia Deserta, Bactriana, now Charassan, when the west wind blows
[1516]_Involuti arenis transeuntes necantur_. [1517]Hercules de Saxonia, a
professor in Venice, gives this cause why so many Venetian women are
melancholy, _Quod diu sub sole degant_, they tarry too long in the sun.
Montanus, _consil. 21_, amongst other causes assigns this; Why that Jew his
patient was mad, _Quod tam multum exposuit se calori et frigori_: he
exposed himself so much to heat and cold, and for that reason in Venice,
there is little stirring in those brick paved streets in summer about noon,
they are most part then asleep: as they are likewise in the great Mogol's
countries, and all over the East Indies. At Aden in Arabia, as [1518]
Lodovicus Vertomannus relates in his travels, they keep their markets in
the night, to avoid extremity of heat; and in Ormus, like cattle in a
pasture, people of all sorts lie up to the chin in water all day long. At
Braga in Portugal; Burgos in Castile; Messina in Sicily, all over Spain and
Italy, their streets are most part narrow, to avoid the sunbeams. The Turks
wear great turbans _ad fugandos solis radios_, to refract the sunbeams; and
much inconvenience that hot air of Bantam in Java yields to our men, that
sojourn there for traffic; where it is so hot, [1519]"that they that are
sick of the pox, lie commonly bleaching in the sun, to dry up their sores."
Such a complaint I read of those isles of Cape Verde, fourteen degrees from
the Equator, they do _male audire_: [1520]One calls them the unhealthiest
clime of the world, for fluxes, fevers, frenzies, calentures, which
commonly seize on seafaring men that touch at them, and all by reason of a
hot distemperature of the air. The hardiest men are offended with this
heat, and stiffest clowns cannot resist it, as Constantine affirms,
_Agricult. l. 2. c. 45._ They that are naturally born in such air, may not
[1521]endure it, as Niger records of some part of Mesopotamia, now called
Diarbecha: _Quibusdam in locis saevienti aestui adeo subjecta est, ut
pleraque animalia fervore solis et coeli extinguantur_, 'tis so hot there
in some places, that men of the country and cattle are killed with it; and
[1522]Adricomius of Arabia Felix, by reason of myrrh, frankincense, and hot
spices there growing, the air is so obnoxious to their brains, that the
very inhabitants at some times cannot abide it, much less weaklings and
strangers. [1523]Amatus Lusitanus, _cent. 1. curat. 45_, reports of a young
maid, that was one Vincent a currier's daughter, some thirteen years of
age, that would wash her hair in the heat of the day (in July) and so let
it dry in the sun, [1524]"to make it yellow, but by that means tarrying too
long in the heat, she inflamed her head, and made herself mad."
Cold air in the other extreme is almost as bad as hot, and so doth
Montaltus esteem of it, _c. 11_, if it be dry withal. In those northern
countries, the people are therefore generally dull, heavy, and many
witches, which (as I have before quoted) Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus, Baptista
Porta ascribe to melancholy. But these cold climes are more subject to
natural melancholy (not this artificial) which is cold and dry: for which
cause [1525]Mercurius Britannicus belike puts melancholy men to inhabit
just under the Pole. The worst of the three is a [1526]thick, cloudy,
misty, foggy air, or such as come from fens, moorish grounds, lakes,
muck-hills, draughts, sinks, where any carcasses, or carrion lies, or from
whence any stinking fulsome smell comes: Galen, Avicenna, Mercurialis, new
and old physicians, hold that such air is unwholesome, and engenders
melancholy, plagues, and what not? [1527]Alexandretta, an haven-town in the
Mediterranean Sea, Saint John de Ulloa, an haven in Nova-Hispania, are much
condemned for a bad air, so are Durazzo in Albania, Lithuania, Ditmarsh,
Pomptinae Paludes in Italy, the territories about Pisa, Ferrara, &c. Romney
Marsh with us; the Hundreds in Essex, the fens in Lincolnshire. Cardan, _de
rerum varietate, l. 17, c. 96_, finds fault with the sight of those rich,
and most populous cities in the Low Countries, as Bruges, Ghent, Amsterdam,
Leiden, Utrecht, &c. the air is bad; and so at Stockholm in Sweden; Regium
in Italy, Salisbury with us, Hull and Lynn: they may be commodious for
navigation, this new kind of fortification, and many other good necessary
uses; but are they so wholesome? Old Rome hath descended from the hills to
the valley, 'tis the site of most of our new cities, and held best to build
in plains, to take the opportunity of rivers. Leander Albertus pleads hard
for the air and site of Venice, though the black moorish lands appear at
every low water: the sea, fire, and smoke (as he thinks) qualify the air;
and [1528]some suppose, that a thick foggy air helps the memory, as in them
of Pisa in Italy; and our Camden, out of Plato, commends the site of
Cambridge, because it is so near the fens. But let the site of such places
be as it may, how can they be excused that have a delicious seat, a
pleasant air, and all that nature can afford, and yet through their own
nastiness, and sluttishness, immund and sordid manner of life, suffer their
air to putrefy, and themselves to be chocked up? Many cities in Turkey do
_male audire_ in this kind: Constantinople itself, where commonly carrion
lies in the street. Some find the same fault in Spain, even in Madrid, the
king's seat, a most excellent air, a pleasant site; but the inhabitants are
slovens, and the streets uncleanly kept.
A troublesome tempestuous air is as bad as impure, rough and foul weather,
impetuous winds, cloudy dark days, as it is commonly with us, _Coelum visu
foedum_, [1529]Polydore calls it a filthy sky, _et in quo facile generantur
nubes_; as Tully's brother Quintus wrote to him in Rome, being then
quaestor in Britain. "In a thick and cloudy air" (saith Lemnius) "men are
tetric, sad, and peevish: And if the western winds blow, and that there be
a calm, or a fair sunshine day, there is a kind of alacrity in men's minds;
it cheers up men and beasts: but if it be a turbulent, rough, cloudy,
stormy weather, men are sad, lumpish, and much dejected, angry, waspish,
dull, and melancholy." This was [1530]Virgil's experiment of old,
"Verum ubi tempestas, et coeli mobilis humor
Mutavere vices, et Jupiter humidus Austro,
Vertuntur species animorum, et pectore motus
Concipiunt alios"------
"But when the face of Heaven changed is
To tempests, rain, from season fair:
Our minds are altered, and in our breasts
Forthwith some new conceits appear."
And who is not weather-wise against such and such conjunctions of planets,
moved in foul weather, dull and heavy in such tempestuous seasons? [1531]
_Gelidum contristat Aquarius annum_: the time requires, and the autumn
breeds it; winter is like unto it, ugly, foul, squalid, the air works on
all men, more or less, but especially on such as are melancholy, or
inclined to it, as Lemnius holds, [1532]"They are most moved with it, and
those which are already mad, rave downright, either in, or against a
tempest. Besides, the devil many times takes his opportunity of such
storms, and when the humours by the air be stirred, he goes in with them,
exagitates our spirits, and vexeth our souls; as the sea waves, so are the
spirits and humours in our bodies tossed with tempestuous winds and
storms." To such as are melancholy therefore, Montanus, _consil. 24_, will
have tempestuous and rough air to be avoided, and _consil. 27_, all night
air, and would not have them to walk abroad, but in a pleasant day.
Lemnius, _l. 3. c. 3_, discommends the south and eastern winds, commends
the north. Montanus, _consil. 31._ [1533]"Will not any windows to be opened
in the night." _Consil. 229. et consil. 230_, he discommends especially the
south wind, and nocturnal air: So doth [1534]Plutarch. The night and
darkness makes men sad, the like do all subterranean vaults, dark houses in
caves and rocks, desert places cause melancholy in an instant, especially
such as have not been used to it, or otherwise accustomed. Read more of air
in Hippocrates, _Aetius, l. 3. a c. 171. ad 175._ Oribasius, _a c. 1. ad
21._ Avicen. _l. 1. can. Fen. 2. doc. 2. Fen. 1. c. 123_ to the 12, &c.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Immoderate Exercise a cause, and how. Solitariness,
Idleness_.
Nothing so good but it may be abused: nothing better than exercise (if
opportunely used) for the preservation of the body: nothing so bad if it be
unseasonable. violent, or overmuch. Fernelius out of Galen, _Path. lib. 1.
c. 16_, saith, [1535]"That much exercise and weariness consumes the spirits
and substance, refrigerates the body; and such humours which Nature would
have otherwise concocted and expelled, it stirs up and makes them rage:
which being so enraged, diversely affect and trouble the body and mind." So
doth it, if it be unseasonably used, upon a full stomach, or when the body
is full of crudities, which Fuchsius so much inveighs against, _lib. 2.
instit. sec. 2. c. 4_, giving that for a cause, why schoolboys in Germany
are so often scabbed, because they use exercise presently after meats.
[1536]Bayerus puts in a caveat against such exercise, because "it
[1537]corrupts the meat in the stomach, and carries the same juice raw, and
as yet undigested, into the veins" (saith Lemnius), "which there putrefies
and confounds the animal spirits." Crato, _consil. 21. l. 2_,
[1538]protests against all such exercise after meat, as being the greatest
enemy to concoction that may be, and cause of corruption of humours, which
produce this, and many other diseases. Not without good reason then doth
Salust. Salvianus, _l. 2. c. 1_, and Leonartus Jacchinus, _in 9. Rhasis_,
Mercurialis, Arcubanus, and many other, set down [1539]immoderate exercise
as a most forcible cause of melancholy.
Opposite to exercise is idleness (the badge of gentry) or want of exercise,
the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, stepmother of
discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins,
and a sole cause of this and many other maladies, the devil's cushion, as
[1540]Gualter calls it, his pillow and chief reposal. "For the mind can
never rest, but still meditates on one thing or other, except it be
occupied about some honest business, of his own accord it rusheth into
melancholy." [1541]"As too much and violent exercise offends on the one
side, so doth an idle life on the other" (saith Crato), "it fills the body
full of phlegm, gross humours, and all manner of obstructions, rheums,
catarrhs," &c. Rhasis, _cont. lib. 1. tract. 9_, accounts of it as the
greatest cause of melancholy. [1542]"I have often seen" (saith he) "that
idleness begets this humour more than anything else." Montaltus, _c. 1_,
seconds him out of his experience, [1543]"They that are idle are far more
subject to melancholy than such as are conversant or employed about any
office or business." [1544]Plutarch reckons up idleness for a sole cause of
the sickness of the soul: "There are they" (saith he) "troubled in mind,
that have no other cause but this." Homer, _Iliad. 1_, brings in Achilles
eating of his own heart in his idleness, because he might not fight.
Mercurialis, _consil. 86_, for a melancholy young man urgeth, [1545]it as a
chief cause; why was he melancholy? because idle. Nothing begets it sooner,
increaseth and continueth it oftener than idleness. [1546]A disease
familiar to all idle persons, an inseparable companion to such as live at
ease, _Pingui otio desidiose agentes_, a life out of action, and have no
calling or ordinary employment to busy themselves about, that have small
occasions; and though they have, such is their laziness, dullness, they
will not compose themselves to do aught; they cannot abide work, though it
be necessary; easy as to dress themselves, write a letter, or the like; yet
as he that is benumbed with cold sits still shaking, that might relieve
himself with a little exercise or stirring, do they complain, but will not
use the facile and ready means to do themselves good; and so are still
tormented with melancholy. Especially if they have been formerly brought up
to business, or to keep much company, and upon a sudden come to lead a
sedentary life; it crucifies their souls, and seizeth on them in an
instant; for whilst they are any ways employed, in action, discourse, about
any business, sport or recreation, or in company to their liking, they are
very well; but if alone or idle, tormented instantly again; one day's
solitariness, one hour's sometimes, doth them more harm, than a week's
physic, labour, and company can do good. Melancholy seizeth on them
forthwith being alone, and is such a torture, that as wise Seneca well
saith, _Malo mihi male quam molliter esse_, I had rather be sick than idle.
This idleness is either of body or mind. That of body is nothing but a kind
of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe
[1547]Fernelius, "causeth crudities, obstructions, excremental humours,
quencheth the natural heat, dulls the spirits, and makes them unapt to do
any thing whatsoever."
[1548] "Neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris."
------"for, a neglected field
Shall for the fire its thorns and thistles yield."
As fern grows in untilled grounds, and all manner of weeds, so do gross
humours in an idle body, _Ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus_. A horse in a
stable that never travels, a hawk in a mew that seldom flies, are both
subject to diseases; which left unto themselves, are most free from any
such encumbrances. An idle dog will be mangy, and how shall an idle person
think to escape? Idleness of the mind is much worse than this of the body;
wit without employment is a disease [1549]_Aerugo animi, rubigo ingenii_:
the rust of the soul, [1550]a plague, a hell itself, _Maximum animi
nocumentum_, Galen, calls it. [1551]"As in a standing pool, worms and
filthy creepers increase, (_et vitium capiunt ni moveantur aquae_, the
water itself putrefies, and air likewise, if it be not continually stirred
by the wind) so do evil and corrupt thoughts in an idle person," the soul
is contaminated. In a commonwealth, where is no public enemy, there is
likely civil wars, and they rage upon themselves: this body of ours, when
it is idle, and knows not how to bestow itself, macerates and vexeth itself
with cares, griefs, false fears, discontents, and suspicions; it tortures
and preys upon his own bowels, and is never at rest. Thus much I dare
boldly say; he or she that is idle, be they of what condition they will,
never so rich, so well allied, fortunate, happy, let them have all things
in abundance and felicity that heart can wish and desire, all contentment,
so long as he or she or they are idle, they shall never be pleased, never
well in body and mind, but weary still, sickly still, vexed still, loathing
still, weeping, sighing, grieving, suspecting, offended with the world,
with every object, wishing themselves gone or dead, or else earned away
with some foolish phantasy or other. And this is the true cause that so
many great men, ladies, and gentlewomen, labour of this disease in country
and city; for idleness is an appendix to nobility; they count it a disgrace
to work, and spend all their days in sports, recreations, and pastimes, and
will therefore take no pains; be of no vocation: they feed liberally, fare
well, want exercise, action, employment, (for to work, I say, they may not
abide,) and Company to their desires, and thence their bodies become full
of gross humours, wind, crudities; their minds disquieted, dull, heavy, &c.
care, jealousy, fear of some diseases, sullen fits, weeping fits seize too
[1552]familiarly on them. For what will not fear and phantasy work in an
idle body? what distempers will they not cause? when the children of [1553]
Israel murmured against Pharaoh in Egypt, he commanded his officers to
double their task, and let them get straw themselves, and yet make their
full number of bricks; for the sole cause why they mutiny, and are evil at
ease, is, "they are idle." When you shall hear and see so many discontented
persons in all places where you come, so many several grievances,
unnecessary complaints, fears, suspicions, [1554]the best means to redress
it is to set them awork, so to busy their minds; for the truth is, they are
idle. Well they may build castles in the air for a time, and sooth up
themselves with fantastical and pleasant humours, but in the end they will
prove as bitter as gall, they shall be still I say discontent, suspicious,
[1555]fearful, jealous, sad, fretting and vexing of themselves; so long as
they be idle, it is impossible to please them, _Otio qui nescit uti, plus
habet negotii quam qui negotium in negotio_, as that [1556]Agellius could
observe: He that knows not how to spend his time, hath more business, care,
grief, anguish of mind, than he that is most busy in the midst of all his
business. _Otiosus animus nescit quid volet_: An idle person (as he follows
it) knows not when he is well, what he would have, or whither he would go,
_Quum illuc ventum est, illinc lubet_, he is tired out with everything,
displeased with all, weary of his life: _Nec bene domi, nec militiae_,
neither at home nor abroad, _errat, et praeter vitam vivitur_, he wanders
and lives besides himself. In a word, What the mischievous effects of
laziness and idleness are, I do not find any where more accurately
expressed, than in these verses of Philolaches in the [1557]Comical Poet,
which for their elegancy I will in part insert.
"Novarum aedium esse arbitror similem ego hominem,
Quando hic natus est: Ei rei argumenta dicam.
Aedes quando sunt ad amussim expolitae,
Quisque laudat fabrum, atque exemplum expetit, &c.
At ubi illo migrat nequam homo indiligensque, &c.
Tempestas venit, confringit tegulas, imbricesque,
Putrifacit aer operam fabri, &c.
Dicam ut homines similes esse aedium arbitremini,
Fabri parentes fundamentum substruunt liberorum,
Expoliunt, docent literas, nec parcunt sumptui,
Ego autem sub fabrorum potestate frugi fui,
Postquam autem migravi in ingenium meum,
Perdidi operam fabrorum illico oppido,
Venit ignavia, ea mihi tempestas fuit,
Adventuque suo grandinem et imbrem attulit,
Illa mihi virtutem deturbavit," &c.
A young man is like a fair new house, the carpenter leaves it well built,
in good repair, of solid stuff; but a bad tenant lets it rain in, and for
want of reparation, fall to decay, &c. Our parents, tutors, friends, spare
no cost to bring us up in our youth, in all manner of virtuous education;
but when we are left to ourselves, idleness as a tempest drives all
virtuous motions out of our minds, et _nihili sumus_, on a sudden, by sloth
and such bad ways, we come to nought.
Cousin german to idleness, and a concomitant cause, which goes hand in hand
with it, is [1558]_nimia solitudo_, too much solitariness, by the testimony
of all physicians, cause and symptom both; but as it is here put for a
cause, it is either coact, enforced, or else voluntary. Enforced
solitariness is commonly seen in students, monks, friars, anchorites, that
by their order and course of life must abandon all company, society of
other men, and betake themselves to a private cell: _Otio superstitioso
seclusi_, as Bale and Hospinian well term it, such as are the Carthusians
of our time, that eat no flesh (by their order), keep perpetual silence,
never go abroad. Such as live in prison, or some desert place, and cannot
have company, as many of our country gentlemen do in solitary houses, they
must either be alone without companions, or live beyond their means, and
entertain all comers as so many hosts, or else converse with their servants
and hinds, such as are unequal, inferior to them, and of a contrary
disposition: or else as some do, to avoid solitariness, spend their time
with lewd fellows in taverns, and in alehouses, and thence addict
themselves to some unlawful disports, or dissolute courses. Divers again
are cast upon this rock of solitariness for want of means, or out of a
strong apprehension of some infirmity, disgrace, or through bashfulness,
rudeness, simplicity, they cannot apply themselves to others' company.
_Nullum solum infelici gratius solitudine, ubi nullus sit qui miseriam
exprobret_; this enforced solitariness takes place, and produceth his
effect soonest in such as have spent their time jovially, peradventure in
all honest recreations, in good company, in some great family or populous
city, and are upon a sudden confined to a desert country cottage far off,
restrained of their liberty, and barred from their ordinary associates;
solitariness is very irksome to such, most tedious, and a sudden cause of
great inconvenience.
Voluntary solitariness is that which is familiar with melancholy, and
gently brings on like a Siren, a shoeing-horn, or some sphinx to this
irrevocable gulf, [1559]a primary cause, Piso calls it; most pleasant it is
at first, to such as are melancholy given, to lie in bed whole days, and
keep their chambers, to walk alone in some solitary grove, betwixt wood and
water, by a brook side, to meditate upon some delightsome and pleasant
subject, which shall affect them most; _amabilis insania, et mentis
gratissimus error_: a most incomparable delight it is so to melancholise,
and build castles in the air, to go smiling to themselves, acting an
infinite variety of parts, which they suppose and strongly imagine they
represent, or that they see acted or done: _Blandae quidem ab initio_,
saith Lemnius, to conceive and meditate of such pleasant things, sometimes,
[1560]"present, past, or to come," as Rhasis speaks. So delightsome these
toys are at first, they could spend whole days and nights without sleep,
even whole years alone in such contemplations, and fantastical meditations,
which are like unto dreams, and they will hardly be drawn from them, or
willingly interrupt, so pleasant their vain conceits are, that they hinder
their ordinary tasks and necessary business, they cannot address themselves
to them, or almost to any study or employment, these fantastical and
bewitching thoughts so covertly, so feelingly, so urgently, so continually
set upon, creep in, insinuate, possess, overcome, distract, and detain
them, they cannot, I say, go about their more necessary business, stave off
or extricate themselves, but are ever musing, melancholising, and carried
along, as he (they say) that is led round about a heath with a Puck in the
night, they run earnestly on in this labyrinth of anxious and solicitous
melancholy meditations, and cannot well or willingly refrain, or easily
leave off, winding and unwinding themselves, as so many clocks, and still
pleasing their humours, until at last the scene is turned upon a sudden, by
some bad object, and they being now habituated to such vain meditations and
solitary places, can endure no company, can ruminate of nothing but harsh
and distasteful subjects. Fear, sorrow, suspicion, _subrusticus pudor_,
discontent, cares, and weariness of life surprise them in a moment, and
they can think of nothing else, continually suspecting, no sooner are their
eyes open, but this infernal plague of melancholy seizeth on them, and
terrifies their souls, representing some dismal object to their minds,
which now by no means, no labour, no persuasions they can avoid, _haeret
lateri lethalis arundo_, (the arrow of death still remains in the side),
they may not be rid of it, [1561]they cannot resist. I may not deny but
that there is some profitable meditation, contemplation, and kind of
solitariness to be embraced, which the fathers so highly commended, [1562]
Hierom, Chrysostom, Cyprian, Austin, in whole tracts, which Petrarch,
Erasmus, Stella, and others, so much magnify in their books; a paradise, a
heaven on earth, if it be used aright, good for the body, and better for
the soul: as many of those old monks used it, to divine contemplations, as
Simulus, a courtier in Adrian's time, Diocletian the emperor, retired
themselves, &c., in that sense, _Vatia solus scit vivere_, Vatia lives
alone, which the Romans were wont to say, when they commended a country
life. Or to the bettering of their knowledge, as Democritus, Cleanthes, and
those excellent philosophers have ever done, to sequester themselves from
the tumultuous world, or as in Pliny's villa Laurentana, Tully's Tusculan,
Jovius' study, that they might better _vacare studiis et Deo_, serve God,
and follow their studies. Methinks, therefore, our too zealous innovators
were not so well advised in that general subversion of abbeys and religious
houses, promiscuously to fling down all; they might have taken away those
gross abuses crept in amongst them, rectified such inconveniences, and not
so far to have raved and raged against those fair buildings, and
everlasting monuments of our forefathers' devotion, consecrated to pious
uses; some monasteries and collegiate cells might have been well spared,
and their revenues otherwise employed, here and there one, in good towns or
cities at least, for men and women of all sorts and conditions to live in,
to sequester themselves from the cares and tumults of the world, that were
not desirous, or fit to marry; or otherwise willing to be troubled with
common affairs, and know not well where to bestow themselves, to live apart
in, for more conveniency, good education, better company sake, to follow
their studies (I say), to the perfection of arts and sciences, common good,
and as some truly devoted monks of old had done, freely and truly to serve
God. For these men are neither solitary, nor idle, as the poet made answer
to the husbandman in Aesop, that objected idleness to him; he was never so
idle as in his company; or that Scipio Africanus in [1563]Tully, _Nunquam
minus solus, quam cum solus; nunquam minus otiosus, quam quum esset
otiosus_; never less solitary, than when he was alone, never more busy,
than when he seemed to be most idle. It is reported by Plato in his
dialogue _de Amore_, in that prodigious commendation of Socrates, how a
deep meditation coming into Socrates' mind by chance, he stood still
musing, _eodem vestigio cogitabundus_, from morning to noon, and when as
then he had not yet finished his meditation, _perstabat cogitans_, he so
continued till the evening, the soldiers (for he then followed the camp)
observed him with admiration, and on set purpose watched all night, but he
persevered immovable _ad exhortim solis_, till the sun rose in the morning,
and then saluting the sun, went his ways. In what humour constant Socrates
did thus, I know not, or how he might be affected, but this would be
pernicious to another man; what intricate business might so really possess
him, I cannot easily guess; but this is _otiosum otium_, it is far
otherwise with these men, according to Seneca, _Omnia nobis mala solitudo
persuadet_; this solitude undoeth us, _pugnat cum vita sociali_; 'tis a
destructive solitariness. These men are devils alone, as the saying is,
_Homo solus aut Deus, aut Daemon_: a man alone, is either a saint or a
devil, _mens ejus aut languescit, aut tumescit_; and [1564]_Vae soli_ in
this sense, woe be to him that is so alone. These wretches do frequently
degenerate from men, and of sociable creatures become beasts, monsters,
inhumane, ugly to behold, _Misanthropi_; they do even loathe themselves,
and hate the company of men, as so many Timons, Nebuchadnezzars, by too
much indulging to these pleasing humours, and through their own default. So
that which Mercurialis, _consil. 11_, sometimes expostulated with his
melancholy patient, may be justly applied to every solitary and idle person
in particular. [1565]_Natura de te videtur conqueri posse_, &c. "Nature may
justly complain of thee, that whereas she gave thee a good wholesome
temperature, a sound body, and God hath given thee so divine and excellent
a soul, so many good parts, and profitable gifts, thou hast not only
contemned and rejected, but hast corrupted them, polluted them, overthrown
their temperature, and perverted those gifts with riot, idleness,
solitariness, and many other ways, thou art a traitor to God and nature, an
enemy to thyself and to the world." _Perditio tua ex te_; thou hast lost
thyself wilfully, cast away thyself, "thou thyself art the efficient cause
of thine own misery, by not resisting such vain cogitations, but giving way
unto them."
SUBSECT. VII.--_Sleeping and Waking, Causes_.
What I have formerly said of exercise, I may now repeat of sleep. Nothing
better than moderate sleep, nothing worse than it, if it be in extremes, or
unseasonably used. It is a received opinion, that a melancholy man cannot
sleep overmuch; _Somnus supra modum prodest_, as an only antidote, and
nothing offends them more, or causeth this malady sooner, than waking, yet
in some cases sleep may do more harm than good, in that phlegmatic,
swinish, cold, and sluggish melancholy which Melancthon speaks of, that
thinks of waters, sighing most part, &c. [1566]It dulls the spirits, if
overmuch, and senses; fills the head full of gross humours; causeth
distillations, rheums, great store of excrements in the brain, and all the
other parts, as [1567]Fuchsius speaks of them, that sleep like so many
dormice. Or if it be used in the daytime, upon a full stomach, the body
ill-composed to rest, or after hard meats, it increaseth fearful dreams,
incubus, night walking, crying out, and much unquietness; such sleep
prepares the body, as [1568]one observes, "to many perilous diseases." But,
as I have said, waking overmuch, is both a symptom, and an ordinary cause.
"It causeth dryness of the brain, frenzy, dotage, and makes the body dry,
lean, hard, and ugly to behold," as [1569]Lemnius hath it. "The temperature
of the brain is corrupted by it, the humours adust, the eyes made to sink
into the head, choler increased, and the whole body inflamed:" and, as may
be added out of Galen, _3. de sanitate tuendo_, Avicenna _3. 1._ [1570]"It
overthrows the natural heat, it causeth crudities, hurts, concoction," and
what not? Not without good cause therefore Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2_;
Hildesheim, _spicel. 2. de delir. et Mania_, Jacchinus, Arculanus on
Rhasis, Guianerius and Mercurialis, reckon up this overmuch waking as a
principal cause.
MEMB. III.
SUBSECT. I.--_Passions and Perturbations of the Mind, how they cause
Melancholy_.
As that gymnosophist in [1571]Plutarch made answer to Alexander (demanding
which spake best), Every one of his fellows did speak better than the
other: so may I say of these causes; to him that shall require which is the
greatest, every one is more grievous than other, and this of passion the
greatest of all. A most frequent and ordinary cause of melancholy, [1572]
_fulmen perturbationum_ (Picolomineus calls it) this thunder and lightning
of perturbation, which causeth such violent and speedy alterations in this
our microcosm, and many times subverts the good estate and temperature of
it. For as the body works upon the mind by his bad humours, troubling the
spirits, sending gross fumes into the brain, and so _per consequens_
disturbing the soul, and all the faculties of it,
[1573] ------"Corpus onustum,
Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat una,"
with fear, sorrow, &c., which are ordinary symptoms of this disease: so on
the other side, the mind most effectually works upon the body, producing by
his passions and perturbations miraculous alterations, as melancholy,
despair, cruel diseases, and sometimes death itself. Insomuch that it is
most true which Plato saith in his Charmides, _omnia corporis mala ab anima
procedere_; all the [1574]mischiefs of the body proceed from the soul: and
Democritus in [1575]Plutarch urgeth, _Damnatam iri animam a corpore_, if
the body should in this behalf bring an action against the soul, surely the
soul would be cast and convicted, that by her supine negligence had caused
such inconveniences, having authority over the body, and using it for an
instrument, as a smith doth his hammer (saith [1576]Cyprian), imputing all
those vices and maladies to the mind. Even so doth [1577]Philostratus, _non
coinquinatur corpus, nisi consensuanimae_; the body is not corrupted, but
by the soul. Lodovicus Vives will have such turbulent commotions proceed
from ignorance and indiscretion. [1578]All philosophers impute the miseries
of the body to the soul, that should have governed it better, by command of
reason, and hath not done it. The Stoics are altogether of opinion (as
[1579]Lipsius and [1580]Picolomineus record), that a wise man should be
[Greek: apathaes], without all manner of passions and perturbations
whatsoever, as [1581]Seneca reports of Cato, the [1582] Greeks of Socrates,
and [1583]Io. Aubanus of a nation in Africa, so free from passion, or
rather so stupid, that if they be wounded with a sword, they will only look
back. [1584]Lactantius, _2 instit._, will exclude "fear from a wise man:"
others except all, some the greatest passions. But let them dispute how
they will, set down in Thesi, give precepts to the contrary; we find that
of [1585]Lemnius true by common experience; "No mortal man is free from
these perturbations: or if he be so, sure he is either a god, or a block."
They are born and bred with us, we have them from our parents by
inheritance. _A parentibus habemus malum hunc assem_, saith [1586]Pelezius,
_Nascitur una nobiscum, aliturque_, 'tis propagated from Adam, Cain was
melancholy, [1587]as Austin hath it, and who is not? Good discipline,
education, philosophy, divinity (I cannot deny), may mitigate and restrain
these passions in some few men at some times, but most part they domineer,
and are so violent, [1588]that as a torrent (_torrens velut aggere rupto_)
bears down all before, and overflows his banks, _sternit agros, sternit
sata_, (lays waste the fields, prostrates the crops,) they overwhelm
reason, judgment, and pervert the temperature of the body; _Fertur [1589]
equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas_. Now such a man (saith
[1590]Austin) "that is so led, in a wise man's eye, is no better than he
that stands upon his head." It is doubted by some, _Gravioresne morbi a
perturbationibus, an ab humoribus_, whether humours or perturbations cause
the more grievous maladies. But we find that of our Saviour, Mat. xxvi. 41,
most true, "The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak," we cannot resist;
and this of [1591]Philo Judeus, "Perturbations often offend the body, and
are most frequent causes of melancholy, turning it out of the hinges of his
health." Vives compares them to [1592]"Winds upon the sea, some only move
as those great gales, but others turbulent quite overturn the ship." Those
which are light, easy, and more seldom, to our thinking, do us little harm,
and are therefore contemned of us: yet if they be reiterated, [1593]"as the
rain" (saith Austin) "doth a stone, so do these perturbations penetrate the
mind:" [1594]and (as one observes) "produce a habit of melancholy at the
last," which having gotten the mastery in our souls, may well be called
diseases.
How these passions produce this effect, [1595]Agrippa hath handled at
large, _Occult. Philos. l. 11. c. 63._ Cardan, _l. 14. subtil._ Lemnius,
_l. 1. c. 12, de occult. nat. mir. et lib. 1. cap. 16._ Suarez, _Met.
disput. 18. sect. 1. art. 25._ T. Bright, _cap. 12._ of his Melancholy
Treatise. Wright the Jesuit, in his Book of the Passions of the Mind, &c.
Thus in brief, to our imagination cometh by the outward sense or memory,
some object to be known (residing in the foremost part of the brain), which
he misconceiving or amplifying presently communicates to the heart, the
seat of all affections. The pure spirits forthwith flock from the brain to
the heart, by certain secret channels, and signify what good or bad object
was presented; [1596]which immediately bends itself to prosecute, or avoid
it; and withal, draweth with it other humours to help it: so in pleasure,
concur great store of purer spirits; in sadness, much melancholy blood; in
ire, choler. If the imagination be very apprehensive, intent, and violent,
it sends great store of spirits to, or from the heart, and makes a deeper
impression, and greater tumult, as the humours in the body be likewise
prepared, and the temperature itself ill or well disposed, the passions are
longer and stronger; so that the first step and fountain of all our
grievances in this kind, is [1597]_laesa imaginatio_, which misinforming
the heart, causeth all these distemperatures, alteration and confusion of
spirits and humours. By means of which, so disturbed, concoction is
hindered, and the principal parts are much debilitated; as [1598]Dr.
Navarra well declared, being consulted by Montanus about a melancholy Jew.
The spirits so confounded, the nourishment must needs be abated, bad
humours increased, crudities and thick spirits engendered with melancholy
blood. The other parts cannot perform their functions, having the spirits
drawn from them by vehement passion, but fail in sense and motion; so we
look upon a thing, and see it not; hear, and observe not; which otherwise
would much affect us, had we been free. I may therefore conclude with
[1599]Arnoldus, _Maxima vis est phantasiae, et huic uni fere, non autem
corporis intemperiei, omnis melancholiae causa est ascribenda_: "Great is
the force of imagination, and much more ought the cause of melancholy to be
ascribed to this alone, than to the distemperature of the body." Of which
imagination, because it hath so great a stroke in producing this malady,
and is so powerful of itself, it will not be improper to my discourse, to
make a brief digression, and speak of the force of it, and how it causeth
this alteration. Which manner of digression, howsoever some dislike, as
frivolous and impertinent, yet I am of [1600]Beroaldus's opinion, "Such
digressions do mightily delight and refresh a weary reader, they are like
sauce to a bad stomach, and I do therefore most willingly use them."
SUBSECT. II.--_Of the Force of Imagination_.
What imagination is, I have sufficiently declared in my digression of the
anatomy of the soul. I will only now point at the wonderful effects and
power of it; which, as it is eminent in all, so most especially it rageth
in melancholy persons, in keeping the species of objects so long,
mistaking, amplifying them by continual and [1601]strong meditation, until
at length it produceth in some parties real effects, causeth this, and many
other maladies. And although this phantasy of ours be a subordinate faculty
to reason, and should be ruled by it, yet in many men, through inward or
outward distemperatures, defect of organs, which are unapt, or otherwise
contaminated, it is likewise unapt, or hindered, and hurt. This we see
verified in sleepers, which by reason of humours and concourse of vapours
troubling the phantasy, imagine many times absurd and prodigious things,
and in such as are troubled with incubus, or witch-ridden (as we call it),
if they lie on their backs, they suppose an old woman rides, and sits so
hard upon them, that they are almost stifled for want of breath; when there
is nothing offends, but a concourse of bad humours, which trouble the
phantasy. This is likewise evident in such as walk in the night in their
sleep, and do strange feats: [1602]these vapours move the phantasy, the
phantasy the appetite, which moving the animal spirits causeth the body to
walk up and down as if they were awake. Fracast. _l. 3. de intellect_,
refers all ecstasies to this force of imagination, such as lie whole days
together in a trance: as that priest whom [1603]Celsus speaks of, that
could separate himself from his senses when he list, and lie like a dead
man, void of life and sense. Cardan brags of himself, that he could do as
much, and that when he list. Many times such men when they come to
themselves, tell strange things of heaven and hell, what visions they have
seen; as that St. Owen, in Matthew Paris, that went into St. Patrick's
purgatory, and the monk of Evesham in the same author. Those common
apparitions in Bede and Gregory, Saint Bridget's revelations, Wier. _l. 3.
de lamiis, c. 11._ Caesar Vanninus, in his Dialogues, &c. reduceth (as I
have formerly said), with all those tales of witches' progresses, dancing,
riding, transformations, operations, &c. to the force of [1604]
imagination, and the [1605]devil's illusions. The like effects almost are
to be seen in such as are awake: how many chimeras, antics, golden
mountains and castles in the air do they build unto themselves? I appeal to
painters, mechanicians, mathematicians. Some ascribe all vices to a false
and corrupt imagination, anger, revenge, lust, ambition, covetousness,
which prefers falsehood before that which is right and good, deluding the
soul with false shows and suppositions. [1606]Bernardus Penottus will have
heresy and superstition to proceed from this fountain; as he falsely
imagineth, so he believeth; and as he conceiveth of it, so it must be, and
it shall be, _contra gentes_, he will have it so. But most especially in
passions and affections, it shows strange and evident effects: what will
not a fearful man conceive in the dark? What strange forms of bugbears,
devils, witches, goblins? Lavater imputes the greatest cause of spectrums,
and the like apparitions, to fear, which above all other passions begets
the strongest imagination (saith [1607]Wierus), and so likewise love,
sorrow, joy, &c. Some die suddenly, as she that saw her son come from the
battle at Cannae, &c. Jacob the patriarch, by force of imagination, made
speckled lambs, laying speckled rods before his sheep. Persina, that
Ethiopian queen in Heliodorus, by seeing the picture of Persius and
Andromeda, instead of a blackamoor, was brought to bed of a fair white
child. In imitation of whom belike, a hard-favoured fellow in Greece,
because he and his wife were both deformed, to get a good brood of
children, _Elegantissimas imagines in thalamo collocavit_, &c. hung the
fairest pictures he could buy for money in his chamber, "That his wife by
frequent sight of them, might conceive and bear such children." And if we
may believe Bale, one of Pope Nicholas the Third's concubines by seeing of
[1608]a bear was brought to bed of a monster. "If a woman" (saith [1609]
Lemnius), "at the time of her conception think of another man present or
absent, the child will be like him." Great-bellied women, when they long,
yield us prodigious examples in this kind, as moles, warts, scars,
harelips, monsters, especially caused in their children by force of a
depraved phantasy in them: _Ipsam speciem quam animo effigiat, faetui
inducit_: She imprints that stamp upon her child which she [1610]conceives
unto herself. And therefore Lodovicus Vives, _lib. 2. de Christ, faem._,
gives a special caution to great-bellied women, [1611]"that they do not
admit such absurd conceits and cogitations, but by all means avoid those
horrible objects, heard or seen, or filthy spectacles." Some will laugh,
weep, sigh, groan, blush, tremble, sweat, at such things as are suggested
unto them by their imagination. Avicenna speaks of one that could cast
himself into a palsy when he list; and some can imitate the tunes of birds
and beasts that they can hardly be discerned: Dagebertus' and Saint
Francis' scars and wounds, like those of Christ's (if at the least any such
were), [1612]Agrippa supposeth to have happened by force of imagination:
that some are turned to wolves, from men to women, and women again to men
(which is constantly believed) to the same imagination; or from men to
asses, dogs, or any other shapes. [1613]Wierus ascribes all those famous
transformations to imagination; that in hydrophobia they seem to see the
picture of a dog, still in their water, [1614]that melancholy men and sick
men conceive so many fantastical visions, apparitions to themselves, and
have such absurd apparitions, as that they are kings, lords, cocks, bears,
apes, owls; that they are heavy, light, transparent, great and little,
senseless and dead (as shall be showed more at large, in our [1615]
sections of symptoms), can be imputed to nought else, but to a corrupt,
false, and violent imagination. It works not in sick and melancholy men
only, but even most forcibly sometimes in such as are sound: it makes them
suddenly sick, and [1616]alters their temperature in an instant. And
sometimes a strong conceit or apprehension, as [1617]Valesius proves, will
take away diseases: in both kinds it will produce real effects. Men, if
they see but another man tremble, giddy or sick of some fearful disease,
their apprehension and fear is so strong in this kind, that they will have
the same disease. Or if by some soothsayer, wiseman, fortune-teller, or
physician, they be told they shall have such a disease, they will so
seriously apprehend it, that they will instantly labour of it. A thing
familiar in China (saith Riccius the Jesuit), [1618]"If it be told them
they shall be sick on such a day, when that day comes they will surely be
sick, and will be so terribly afflicted, that sometimes they die upon it."
Dr. Cotta in his discovery of ignorant practitioners of physic, _cap. 8_,
hath two strange stories to this purpose, what fancy is able to do. The one
of a parson's wife in Northamptonshire, _An._ 1607, that coming to a
physician, and told by him that she was troubled with the sciatica, as he
conjectured (a disease she was free from), the same night after her return,
upon his words, fell into a grievous fit of a sciatica: and such another
example he hath of another good wife, that was so troubled with the cramp,
after the same manner she came by it, because her physician did but name
it. Sometimes death itself is caused by force of phantasy. I have heard of
one that coming by chance in company of him that was thought to be sick of
the plague (which was not so) fell down suddenly dead. Another was sick of
the plague with conceit. One seeing his fellow let blood falls down in a
swoon. Another (saith [1619]Cardan out of Aristotle), fell down dead (which
is familiar to women at any ghastly sight), seeing but a man hanged. A Jew
in France (saith [1620]Lodovicus Vives), came by chance over a dangerous
passage or plank, that lay over a brook in the dark, without harm, the next
day perceiving what danger he was in, fell down dead. Many will not believe
such stories to be true, but laugh commonly, and deride when they hear of
them; but let these men consider with themselves, as [1621]Peter Byarus
illustrates it, If they were set to walk upon a plank on high, they would
be giddy, upon which they dare securely walk upon the ground. Many (saith
Agrippa), [1622]"strong-hearted men otherwise, tremble at such sights,
dazzle, and are sick, if they look but down from a high place, and what
moves them but conceit?" As some are so molested by phantasy; so some
again, by fancy alone, and a good conceit, are as easily recovered. We see
commonly the toothache, gout, falling-sickness, biting of a mad dog, and
many such maladies cured by spells, words, characters, and charms, and many
green wounds by that now so much used _Unguentum Armarium_, magnetically
cured, which Crollius and Goclenius in a book of late hath defended,
Libavius in a just tract as stiffly contradicts, and most men controvert.
All the world knows there is no virtue in such charms or cures, but a
strong conceit and opinion alone, as [1623]Pomponatius holds, "which
forceth a motion of the humours, spirits, and blood, which takes away the
cause of the malady from the parts affected." The like we may say of our
magical effects, superstitious cures, and such as are done by mountebanks
and wizards. "As by wicked incredulity many men are hurt" (so saith
[1624]Wierus of charms, spells, &c.), "we find in our experience, by the
same means many are relieved." An empiric oftentimes, and a silly
chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician. Nymannus
gives a reason, because the patient puts his confidence in him, [1625]
which Avicenna "prefers before art, precepts, and all remedies whatsoever."
'Tis opinion alone (saith [1626]Cardan), that makes or mars physicians, and
he doth the best cures, according to Hippocrates, in whom most trust. So
diversely doth this phantasy of ours affect, turn, and wind, so imperiously
command our bodies, which as another [1627]"Proteus, or a chameleon, can
take all shapes; and is of such force (as Ficinus adds), that it can work
upon others, as well as ourselves." How can otherwise blear eyes in one man
cause the like affection in another? Why doth one man's yawning [1628]make
another yawn? One man's pissing provoke a second many times to do the like?
Why doth scraping of trenchers offend a third, or hacking of files? Why
doth a carcass bleed when the murderer is brought before it, some weeks
after the murder hath been done? Why do witches and old women fascinate and
bewitch children: but as Wierus, Paracelsus, Cardan, Mizaldus, Valleriola,
Caesar Vanninus, Campanella, and many philosophers think, the forcible
imagination of the one party moves and alters the spirits of the other. Nay
more, they can cause and cure not only diseases, maladies, and several
infirmities, by this means, as Avicenna, _de anim. l. 4. sect. 4_,
supposeth in parties remote, but move bodies from their places, cause
thunder, lightning, tempests, which opinion Alkindus, Paracelsus, and some
others, approve of. So that I may certainly conclude this strong conceit or
imagination is _astrum hominis_, and the rudder of this our ship, which
reason should steer, but, overborne by phantasy, cannot manage, and so
suffers itself, and this whole vessel of ours to be overruled, and often
overturned. Read more of this in Wierus, _l. 3. de Lamiis, c. 8, 9, 10._
Franciscus Valesius, _med. controv. l. 5. cont. 6._ Marcellus Donatus, _l.
2. c. 1. de hist. med. mirabil_. Levinus Lemnius, _de occult. nat. mir. l.
1. c. 12._ Cardan, _l. 18. de rerum var_. Corn. Agrippa, _de occult.
plilos. cap. 64, 65._ Camerarius, _1 cent. cap. 54. horarum subcis_.
Nymannus, _morat. de Imag_. Laurentius, and him that is _instar omnium_,
Fienus, a famous physician of Antwerp, that wrote three books _de viribus
imaginationis_. I have thus far digressed, because this imagination is the
medium deferens of passions, by whose means they work and produce many
times prodigious effects: and as the phantasy is more or less intended or
remitted, and their humours disposed, so do perturbations move, more or
less, and take deeper impression.
SUBSECT. III.--_Division of Perturbations_.
Perturbations and passions, which trouble the phantasy, though they dwell
between the confines of sense and reason, yet they rather follow sense than
reason, because they are drowned in corporeal organs of sense. They are
commonly [1629]reduced into two inclinations, irascible and concupiscible.
The Thomists subdivide them into eleven, six in the coveting, and five in
the invading. Aristotle reduceth all to pleasure and pain, Plato to love
and hatred, [1630]Vives to good and bad. If good, it is present, and then
we absolutely joy and love; or to come, and then we desire and hope for it.
If evil, we absolute hate it; if present, it is by sorrow; if to come fear.
These four passions [1631]Bernard compares "to the wheels of a chariot, by
which we are carried in this world." All other passions are subordinate
unto these four, or six, as some will: love, joy, desire, hatred, sorrow,
fear; the rest, as anger, envy, emulation, pride, jealousy, anxiety, mercy,
shame, discontent, despair, ambition, avarice, &c., are reducible unto the
first; and if they be immoderate, they [1632]consume the spirits, and
melancholy is especially caused by them. Some few discreet men there are,
that can govern themselves, and curb in these inordinate affections, by
religion, philosophy, and such divine precepts, of meekness, patience, and
the like; but most part for want of government, out of indiscretion,
ignorance, they suffer themselves wholly to be led by sense, and are so far
from repressing rebellious inclinations, that they give all encouragement
unto them, leaving the reins, and using all provocations to further them:
bad by nature, worse by art, discipline, [1633]custom, education, and a
perverse will of their own, they follow on, wheresoever their unbridled
affections will transport them, and do more out of custom, self-will, than
out of reason. _Contumax voluntas_, as Melancthon calls it, _malum facit_:
this stubborn will of ours perverts judgment, which sees and knows what
should and ought to be done, and yet will not do it. _Mancipia gulae_,
slaves to their several lusts and appetite, they precipitate and plunge
[1634]themselves into a labyrinth of cares, blinded with lust, blinded with
ambition; [1635]"They seek that at God's hands which they may give unto
themselves, if they could but refrain from those cares and perturbations,
wherewith they continually macerate their minds." But giving way to these
violent passions of fear, grief, shame, revenge, hatred, malice, &c., they
are torn in pieces, as Actaeon was with his dogs, and [1636]crucify their
own souls.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Sorrow a Cause of Melancholy_.
_Sorrow. Insanus dolor_.] In this catalogue of passions, which so much
torment the soul of man, and cause this malady, (for I will briefly speak
of them all, and in their order,) the first place in this irascible
appetite, may justly be challenged by sorrow. An inseparable companion,
[1637]"The mother and daughter of melancholy, her epitome, symptom, and
chief cause:" as Hippocrates hath it, they beget one another, and tread in
a ring, for sorrow is both cause and symptom of this disease. How it is a
symptom shall be shown in its place. That it is a cause all the world
acknowledgeth, _Dolor nonnullis insaniae causa fuit, et aliorum morborum
insanabilium_, saith Plutarch to Apollonius; a cause of madness, a cause of
many other diseases, a sole cause of this mischief, [1638]Lemnius calls it.
So doth Rhasis, _cont. l. 1. tract. 9._ Guianerius, _Tract. 15. c. 5_, And
if it take root once, it ends in despair, as [1639]Felix Plater observes,
and as in [1640]Cebes' table, may well be coupled with it.
[1641]Chrysostom, in his seventeenth epistle to Olympia, describes it to be
"a cruel torture of the soul, a most inexplicable grief, poisoned worm,
consuming body and soul, and gnawing the very heart, a perpetual
executioner, continual night, profound darkness, a whirlwind, a tempest, an
ague not appearing, heating worse than any fire, and a battle that hath no
end. It crucifies worse than any tyrant; no torture, no strappado, no
bodily punishment is like unto it." 'Tis the eagle without question which
the poets feigned to gnaw [1642]Prometheus' heart, and "no heaviness is
like unto the heaviness of the heart," Eccles. xxv. 15, 16. [1643]"Every
perturbation is a misery, but grief a cruel torment," a domineering
passion: as in old Rome, when the Dictator was created, all inferior
magistracies ceased; when grief appears, all other passions vanish. "It
dries up the bones," saith Solomon, cap. 17. Prov., makes them hollow-eyed,
pale, and lean, furrow-faced, to have dead looks, wrinkled brows,
shrivelled cheeks, dry bodies, and quite perverts their temperature that
are misaffected with it. As Eleonara, that exiled mournful duchess (in our
[1644]English Ovid), laments to her noble husband Humphrey, Duke of
Gloucester,
"Sawest thou those eyes in whose sweet cheerful look
Duke Humphrey once such joy and pleasure took,
Sorrow hath so despoil'd me of all grace,
Thou couldst not say this was my Elnor's face.
Like a foul Gorgon," &c.
[1645]"It hinders concoction, refrigerates the heart, takes away stomach,
colour, and sleep, thickens the blood," ([1646]Fernelius, _l. 1. c. 18. de
morb. causis_,) "contaminates the spirits." ([1647]Piso.) Overthrows the
natural heat, perverts the good estate of body and mind, and makes them
weary of their lives, cry out, howl and roar for very anguish of their
souls. David confessed as much, Psalm xxxviii. 8, "I have roared for the
very disquietness of my heart." And Psalm cxix. 4, part 4 v. "My soul
melteth away for very heaviness," v. 38. "I am like a bottle in the smoke."
Antiochus complained that he could not sleep, and that his heart fainted
for grief, [1648]Christ himself, _vir dolorum_, out of an apprehension of
grief, did sweat blood, Mark xiv. "His soul was heavy to the death, and no
sorrow was like unto his." Crato, _consil. 24. l. 2_, gives instance in one
that was so melancholy by reason of [1649]grief; and Montanus, _consil.
30_, in a noble matron, [1650]"that had no other cause of this mischief."
I. S. D. in Hildesheim, fully cured a patient of his that was much troubled
with melancholy, and for many years, [1651]"but afterwards, by a little
occasion of sorrow, he fell into his former fits, and was tormented as
before." Examples are common, how it causeth melancholy, [1652]desperation,
and sometimes death itself; for (Eccles. xxxviii. 15,) "Of heaviness comes
death; worldly sorrow causeth death." 2 Cor. vii. 10, Psalm xxxi. 10, "My
life is wasted with heaviness, and my years with mourning." Why was Hecuba
said to be turned to a dog? Niobe into a stone? but that for grief she was
senseless and stupid. Severus the Emperor [1653] died for grief; and how
[1654]many myriads besides? _Tanta illi est feritas, tanta est insania
luctus_. [1655]Melancthon gives a reason of it, [1656]"the gathering of
much melancholy blood about the heart, which collection extinguisheth the
good spirits, or at least dulleth them, sorrow strikes the heart, makes it
tremble and pine away, with great pain; and the black blood drawn from the
spleen, and diffused under the ribs, on the left side, makes those perilous
hypochondriacal convulsions, which happen to them that are troubled with
sorrow."
SUBSECT. V.--_Fear, a Cause_.
Cousin german to sorrow, is fear, or rather a sister, _fidus Achates_, and
continual companion, an assistant and a principal agent in procuring of
this mischief; a cause and symptom as the other. In a word, as [1657]
Virgil of the Harpies, I may justly say of them both,
"Tristius haud illis monstrum, nec saevior ulla
Pestis et ira Deum stygiis sese extulit undis."
"A sadder monster, or more cruel plague so fell,
Or vengeance of the gods, ne'er came from Styx or Hell."
This foul fiend of fear was worshipped heretofore as a god by the
Lacedaemonians, and most of those other torturing [1658]affections, and so
was sorrow amongst the rest, under the name of Angerona Dea, they stood in
such awe of them, as Austin, _de Civitat. Dei, lib. 4. cap. 8_, noteth out
of Varro, fear was commonly [1659]adored and painted in their temples with
a lion's head; and as Macrobius records, _l. 10. Saturnalium_; [1660]"In
the calends of January, Angerona had her holy day, to whom in the temple of
Volupia, or goddess of pleasure, their augurs and bishops did yearly
sacrifice; that, being propitious to them, she might expel all cares,
anguish, and vexation of the mind for that year following." Many lamentable
effects this fear causeth in men, as to be red, pale, tremble, sweat,
[1661]it makes sudden cold and heat to come over all the body, palpitation
of the heart, syncope, &c. It amazeth many men that are to speak, or show
themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages, as Tully
confessed of himself, that he trembled still at the beginning of his
speech; and Demosthenes, that great orator of Greece, before Philippus. It
confounds voice and memory, as Lucian wittily brings in Jupiter Tragoedus,
so much afraid of his auditory, when he was to make a speech to the rest of
the Gods, that he could not utter a ready word, but was compelled to use
Mercury's help in prompting. Many men are so amazed and astonished with
fear, they know not where they are, what they say, [1662]what they do, and
that which is worst, it tortures them many days before with continual
affrights and suspicion. It hinders most honourable attempts, and makes
their hearts ache, sad and heavy. They that live in fear are never free,
[1663]resolute, secure, never merry, but in continual pain: that, as Vives
truly said, _Nulla est miseria major quam metus_, no greater misery, no
rack, nor torture like unto it, ever suspicious, anxious, solicitous, they
are childishly drooping without reason, without judgment, [1664]"especially
if some terrible object be offered," as Plutarch hath it. It causeth
oftentimes sudden madness, and almost all manner of diseases, as I have
sufficiently illustrated in my [1665] digression of the force of
imagination, and shall do more at large in my section of [1666]terrors.
Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, invites the devil to come
to us, as [1667]Agrippa and Cardan avouch, and tyranniseth over our
phantasy more than all other affections, especially in the dark. We see
this verified in most men, as [1668]Lavater saith, _Quae metuunt, fingunt_;
what they fear they conceive, and feign unto themselves; they think they
see goblins, hags, devils, and many times become melancholy thereby.
Cardan, _subtil. lib. 18_, hath an example of such an one, so caused to be
melancholy (by sight of a bugbear) all his life after. Augustus Caesar
durst not sit in the dark, _nisi aliquo assidente_, saith [1669]Suetonius,
_Nunquam tenebris exigilavit_. And 'tis strange what women and children
will conceive unto themselves, if they go over a churchyard in the night,
lie, or be alone in a dark room, how they sweat and tremble on a sudden.
Many men are troubled with future events, foreknowledge of their fortunes,
destinies, as Severus the Emperor, Adrian and Domitian, _Quod sciret
ultimum vitae diem_, saith Suetonius, _valde solicitus_, much tortured in
mind because he foreknew his end; with many such, of which I shall speak
more opportunely in another place.[1670] Anxiety, mercy, pity, indignation,
&c., and such fearful branches derived from these two stems of fear and
sorrow, I voluntarily omit; read more of them in [1671]Carolus Pascalius,
[1672]Dandinus, &c.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Shame and Disgrace, Causes_.
Shame and disgrace cause most violent passions and bitter pangs. _Ob
pudorem et dedecus publicum, ob errorum commissum saepe moventur generosi
animi_ (Felix Plater, _lib. 3. de alienat mentis_.) Generous minds are
often moved with shame, to despair for some public disgrace. And he, saith
Philo, _lib. 2. de provid. dei_, [1673]"that subjects himself to fear,
grief, ambition, shame, is not happy, but altogether miserable, tortured
with continual labour, care, and misery." It is as forcible a batterer as
any of the rest: [1674]"Many men neglect the tumults of the world, and care
not for glory, and yet they are afraid of infamy, repulse, disgrace,"
(_Tul. offic. l. 1_,) "they can severely contemn pleasure, bear grief
indifferently, but they are quite [1675]battered and broken, with reproach
and obloquy:" (_siquidem vita et fama pari passu ambulant_) and are so
dejected many times for some public injury, disgrace, as a box on the ear
by their inferior, to be overcome of their adversary, foiled in the field,
to be out in a speech, some foul fact committed or disclosed, &c. that they
dare not come abroad all their lives after, but melancholise in corners,
and keep in holes. The most generous spirits are most subject to it;
_Spiritus altos frangit et generosos_: Hieronymus. Aristotle, because he
could not understand the motion of Euripus, for grief and shame drowned
himself: Caelius Rodigimus _antiquar. lec. lib. 29. cap. 8._ _Homerus
pudore consumptus_, was swallowed up with this passion of shame [1676]
"because he could not unfold the fisherman's riddle." Sophocles killed
himself, [1677]"for that a tragedy of his was hissed off the stage:"
_Valer. max. lib. 9. cap. 12._ Lucretia stabbed herself, and so did
[1678]Cleopatra, "when she saw that she was reserved for a triumph, to
avoid the infamy." Antonius the Roman, [1679]"after he was overcome of his
enemy, for three days' space sat solitary in the fore-part of the ship,
abstaining from all company, even of Cleopatra herself, and afterwards for
very shame butchered himself," Plutarch, _vita ejus_. Apollonius Rhodius
[1680]"wilfully banished himself, forsaking his country, and all his dear
friends, because he was out in reciting his poems," Plinius, _lib. 7. cap.
23._ Ajax ran mad, because his arms were adjudged to Ulysses. In China 'tis
an ordinary thing for such as are excluded in those famous trials of
theirs, or should take degrees, for shame and grief to lose their wits,
[1681]Mat Riccius _expedit. ad Sinas, l. 3. c. 9._ Hostratus the friar took
that book which Reuclin had writ against him, under the name of _Epist.
obscurorum virorum_, so to heart, that for shame and grief he made away
with himself, [1682]_Jovius in elogiis_. A grave and learned minister, and
an ordinary preacher at Alcmar in Holland, was (one day as he walked in the
fields for his recreation) suddenly taken with a lax or looseness, and
thereupon compelled to retire to the next ditch; but being [1683]surprised
at unawares, by some gentlewomen of his parish wandering that way, was so
abashed, that he did never after show his head in public, or come into the
pulpit, but pined away with melancholy: (Pet. Forestus _med. observat. lib.
10. observat. 12._) So shame amongst other passions can play his prize.
I know there be many base, impudent, brazenfaced rogues, that will [1684]
_Nulla pallescere culpa_, be moved with nothing, take no infamy or disgrace
to heart, laugh at all; let them be proved perjured, stigmatised, convict
rogues, thieves, traitors, lose their ears, be whipped, branded, carted,
pointed at, hissed, reviled, and derided with [1685]Ballio the Bawd in
Plautus, they rejoice at it, _Cantores probos_; "babe and Bombax," what
care they? We have too many such in our times,
------"Exclamat Melicerta perisse
------Frontem de rebus."[1686]
Yet a modest man, one that hath grace, a generous spirit, tender of his
reputation, will be deeply wounded, and so grievously affected with it,
that he had rather give myriads of crowns, lose his life, than suffer the
least defamation of honour, or blot in his good name. And if so be that he
cannot avoid it, as a nightingale, _Que cantando victa moritur_, (saith
[1687]Mizaldus,) dies for shame if another bird sing better, he languisheth
and pineth away in the anguish of his spirit.
SUBSECT. VII.--_Envy, Malice, Hatred, Causes_.
Envy and malice are two links of this chain, and both, as Guianerius,
_Tract. 15. cap. 2_, proves out of Galen, _3 Aphorism, com. 22_, [1688]
"cause this malady by themselves, especially if their bodies be otherwise
disposed to melancholy." 'Tis Valescus de Taranta, and Felix Platerus'
observation, [1689]"Envy so gnaws many men's hearts, that they become
altogether melancholy." And therefore belike Solomon, Prov. xiv. 13, calls
it, "the rotting of the bones," Cyprian, _vulnus occultum_;
[1690] ------"Siculi non invenere tyranni
Majus tormentum"------
The Sicilian tyrants never invented the like torment. It crucifies their
souls, withers their bodies, makes them hollow-eyed, [1691]pale, lean, and
ghastly to behold, Cyprian, _ser. 2. de zelo et livore_. [1692]"As a moth
gnaws a garment, so," saith Chrysostom, "doth envy consume a man;" to be a
living anatomy: a "skeleton, to be a lean and [1693]pale carcass, quickened
with a [1694]fiend", Hall _in Charact._ for so often as an envious wretch
sees another man prosper, to be enriched, to thrive, and be fortunate in
the world, to get honours, offices, or the like, he repines and grieves.
[1695] ------"intabescitque videndo
Successus hominum--suppliciumque suum est."
He tortures himself if his equal, friend, neighbour, be preferred,
commended, do well; if he understand of it, it galls him afresh; and no
greater pain can come to him than to hear of another man's well-doing; 'tis
a dagger at his heart every such object. He looks at him as they that fell
down in Lucian's rock of honour, with an envious eye, and will damage
himself, to do another a mischief: _Atque cadet subito, dum super hoste
cadat_. As he did in Aesop, lose one eye willingly, that his fellow might
lose both, or that rich man in [1696]Quintilian that poisoned the flowers
in his garden, because his neighbour's bees should get no more honey from
them. His whole life is sorrow, and every word he speaks a satire: nothing
fats him but other men's ruins. For to speak in a word, envy is nought else
but _Tristitia de bonis alienis_, sorrow for other men's good, be it
present, past, or to come: _et gaudium de adversis_, and [1697]joy at their
harms, opposite to mercy, [1698]which grieves at other men's mischances,
and misaffects the body in another kind; so Damascen defines it, _lib. 2.
de orthod. fid._ Thomas, _2. 2. quaest. 36. art. 1._ Aristotle, _l. 2.
Rhet. c. 4. et 10._ Plato _Philebo_. Tully, _3. Tusc_. Greg. Nic. _l. de
virt. animae, c. 12._ Basil, _de Invidia_. Pindarus _Od. 1. ser. 5_, and we
find it true. 'Tis a common disease, and almost natural to us, as
[1699]Tacitus holds, to envy another man's prosperity. And 'tis in most men
an incurable disease. [1700]"I have read," saith Marcus Aurelius, "Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldee authors; I have consulted with many wise men for a remedy
for envy, I could find none, but to renounce all happiness, and to be a
wretch, and miserable for ever." 'Tis the beginning of hell in this life,
and a passion not to be excused. [1701]"Every other sin hath some pleasure
annexed to it, or will admit of an excuse; envy alone wants both. Other
sins last but for awhile; the gut may be satisfied, anger remits, hatred
hath an end, envy never ceaseth." Cardan, _lib. 2. de sap._ Divine and
humane examples are very familiar; you may run and read them, as that of
Saul and David, Cain and Abel, _angebat illum non proprium peccatum, sed
fratris prosperitas_, saith Theodoret, it was his brother's good fortune
galled him. Rachel envied her sister, being barren, Gen. xxx. Joseph's
brethren him, Gen. xxxvii. David had a touch of this vice, as he
confesseth, [1702]Psal. 37. [1703]Jeremy and [1704]Habakkuk, they repined
at others' good, but in the end they corrected themselves, Psal. 75, "fret
not thyself," &c. Domitian spited Agricola for his worth, [1705]"that a
private man should be so much glorified." [1706]Cecinna was envied of his
fellow-citizens, because he was more richly adorned. But of all others,
[1707]women are most weak, _ob pulchritudinem invidae sunt foeminae
(Musaeus) aut amat, aut odit, nihil est tertium (Granatensis.)_ They love
or hate, no medium amongst them. _Implacabiles plerumque laesae mulieres_,
Agrippina like, [1708]"A woman, if she see her neighbour more neat or
elegant, richer in tires, jewels, or apparel, is enraged, and like a
lioness sets upon her husband, rails at her, scoffs at her, and cannot
abide her;" so the Roman ladies in Tacitus did at Solonina, Cecinna's wife,
[1709]"because she had a better horse, and better furniture, as if she had
hurt them with it; they were much offended." In like sort our gentlewomen
do at their usual meetings, one repines or scoffs at another's bravery and
happiness. Myrsine, an Attic wench, was murdered of her fellows, [1710]
"because she did excel the rest in beauty," Constantine, _Agricult. l. 11.
c. 7._ Every village will yield such examples.
SUBSECT. VIII.--_Emulation, Hatred, Faction, Desire of Revenge, Causes_.
Out of this root of envy [1711]spring those feral branches of faction,
hatred, livor, emulation, which cause the like grievances, and are, _serrae
animae_, the saws of the soul, [1712]_consternationis pleni affectus_,
affections full of desperate amazement; or as Cyprian describes emulation,
it is [1713]"a moth of the soul, a consumption, to make another man's
happiness his misery, to torture, crucify, and execute himself, to eat his
own heart. Meat and drink can do such men no good, they do always grieve,
sigh, and groan, day and night without intermission, their breast is torn
asunder:" and a little after, [1714]"Whomsoever he is whom thou dost
emulate and envy, he may avoid thee, but thou canst neither avoid him nor
thyself; wheresoever thou art he is with thee, thine enemy is ever in thy
breast, thy destruction is within thee, thou art a captive, bound hand and
foot, as long as thou art malicious and envious, and canst not be
comforted. It was the devil's overthrow;" and whensoever thou art
thoroughly affected with this passion, it will be thine. Yet no
perturbation so frequent, no passion so common.
[1715] "[Greek: kai kerameus keramei koteei kai tektoni tekton,
kai ptochos ptochoi phthoneei kai aoidos aoido.]"
"A potter emulates a potter:
One smith envies another:
A beggar emulates a beggar;
A singing man his brother."
Every society, corporation, and private family is full of it, it takes hold
almost of all sorts of men, from the prince to the ploughman, even amongst
gossips it is to be seen, scarce three in a company but there is siding,
faction, emulation, between two of them, some _simultas_, jar, private
grudge, heart-burning in the midst of them. Scarce two gentlemen dwell
together in the country, (if they be not near kin or linked in marriage)
but there is emulation betwixt them and their servants, some quarrel or
some grudge betwixt their wives or children, friends and followers, some
contention about wealth, gentry, precedency, &c., by means of which, like
the frog in [1716]Aesop, "that would swell till she was as big as an ox,
burst herself at last;" they will stretch beyond their fortunes, callings,
and strive so long that they consume their substance in lawsuits, or
otherwise in hospitality, feasting, fine clothes, to get a few bombast
titles, for _ambitiosa paupertate laboramus omnes_, to outbrave one
another, they will tire their bodies, macerate their souls, and through
contentions or mutual invitations beggar themselves. Scarce two great
scholars in an age, but with bitter invectives they fall foul one on the
other, and their adherents; Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals, Plato and
Aristotle, Galenists and Paracelsians, &c., it holds in all professions.
Honest [1717]emulation in studies, in all callings is not to be disliked,
'tis _ingeniorum cos_, as one calls it, the whetstone of wit, the nurse of
wit and valour, and those noble Romans out of this spirit did brave
exploits. There is a modest ambition, as Themistocles was roused up with
the glory of Miltiades; Achilles' trophies moved Alexander,
[1718] "Ambire semper stulta confidentia est,
Ambire nunquam deses arrogantia est."
'Tis a sluggish humour not to emulate or to sue at all, to withdraw
himself, neglect, refrain from such places, honours, offices, through
sloth, niggardliness, fear, bashfulness, or otherwise, to which by his
birth, place, fortunes, education, he is called, apt, fit, and well able to
undergo; but when it is immoderate, it is a plague and a miserable pain.
What a deal of money did Henry VIII. and Francis I. king of France, spend
at that [1719]famous interview? and how many vain courtiers, seeking each
to outbrave other, spent themselves, their livelihood and fortunes, and
died beggars? [1720]Adrian the Emperor was so galled with it, that he
killed all his equals; so did Nero. This passion made [1721]Dionysius the
tyrant banish Plato and Philoxenus the poet, because they did excel and
eclipse his glory, as he thought; the Romans exile Coriolanus, confine
Camillus, murder Scipio; the Greeks by ostracism to expel Aristides,
Nicias, Alcibiades, imprison Theseus, make away Phocion, &c. When Richard
I. and Philip of France were fellow soldiers together, at the siege of Acon
in the Holy Land, and Richard had approved himself to be the more valiant
man, insomuch that all men's eyes were upon him, it so galled Philip,
_Francum urebat Regis victoria_, saith mine [1722]author, _tam aegre
ferebat Richardi gloriam, ut carpere dicta, calumniari facta_; that he
cavilled at all his proceedings, and fell at length to open defiance; he
could contain no longer, but hasting home, invaded his territories, and
professed open war. "Hatred stirs up contention," Prov. x. 12, and they
break out at last into immortal enmity, into virulency, and more than
Vatinian hate and rage; [1723]they persecute each other, their friends,
followers, and all their posterity, with bitter taunts, hostile wars,
scurrile invectives, libels, calumnies, fire, sword, and the like, and will
not be reconciled. Witness that Guelph and Ghibelline faction in Italy;
that of the Adurni and Fregosi in Genoa; that of Cneius Papirius, and
Quintus Fabius in Rome; Caesar and Pompey; Orleans and Burgundy in France;
York and Lancaster in England: yea, this passion so rageth [1724]many
times, that it subverts not men only, and families, but even populous
cities. [1725]Carthage and Corinth can witness as much, nay, flourishing
kingdoms are brought into a wilderness by it. This hatred, malice, faction,
and desire of revenge, invented first all those racks and wheels,
strappadoes, brazen bulls, feral engines, prisons, inquisitions, severe
laws to macerate and torment one another. How happy might we be, and end
our time with blessed days and sweet content, if we could contain
ourselves, and, as we ought to do, put up injuries, learn humility,
meekness, patience, forget and forgive, as in [1726]God's word we are
enjoined, compose such final controversies amongst ourselves, moderate our
passions in this kind, "and think better of others," as [1727]Paul would
have us, "than of ourselves: be of like affection one towards another, and
not avenge ourselves, but have peace with all men." But being that we are
so peevish and perverse, insolent and proud, so factious and seditious, so
malicious and envious; we do _invicem angariare_, maul and vex one another,
torture, disquiet, and precipitate ourselves into that gulf of woes and
cares, aggravate our misery and melancholy, heap upon us hell and eternal
damnation.
SUBSECT. IX.--_Anger, a Cause_.
Anger, a perturbation, which carries the spirits outwards, preparing the
body to melancholy, and madness itself: _Ira furor brevis est_, "anger is
temporary madness;" and as [1728]Picolomineus accounts it, one of the three
most violent passions. [1729]Areteus sets it down for an especial cause (so
doth Seneca, _ep. 18. l. 1_,) of this malady. [1730]Magninus gives the
reason, _Ex frequenti ira supra modum calefiunt_; it overheats their
bodies, and if it be too frequent, it breaks out into manifest madness,
saith St. Ambrose. 'Tis a known saying, _Furor fit Iaesa saepius
palienlia_, the most patient spirit that is, if he be often provoked, will
be incensed to madness; it will make a devil of a saint: and therefore
Basil (belike) in his Homily _de Ira_, calls it _tenebras rationis, morbum
animae, et daemonem pessimum_; the darkening of our understanding, and a
bad angel. [1731]Lucian, _in Abdicato, tom. 1_, will have this passion to
work this effect, especially in old men and women. "Anger and calumny"
(saith he) "trouble them at first, and after a while break out into
madness: many things cause fury in women, especially if they love or hate
overmuch, or envy, be much grieved or angry; these things by little and
little lead them on to this malady." From a disposition they proceed to an
habit, for there is no difference between a mad man, and an angry man, in
the time of his fit; anger, as Lactantius describes it, _L. de Ira Dei, ad
Donatum, c. 5_, is [1732]_saeva animi tempestas_, &c., a cruel tempest of
the mind; "making his eye sparkle fire, and stare, teeth gnash in his head,
his tongue stutter, his face pale, or red, and what more filthy imitation
can be of a mad man?"
[1733] "Ora tument ira, fervescunt sanguine venae,
Lumina Gorgonio saevius angue micant."
They are void of reason, inexorable, blind, like beasts and monsters for
the time, say and do they know not what, curse, swear, rail, fight, and
what not? How can a mad man do more? as he said in the comedy, [1734]
_Iracundia non sum apud me_, I am not mine own man. If these fits be
immoderate, continue long, or be frequent, without doubt they provoke
madness. Montanus, _consil. 21_, had a melancholy Jew to his patient, he
ascribes this for a principal cause: _Irascebatur levibus de causis_, he
was easily moved to anger. Ajax had no other beginning of his madness; and
Charles the Sixth, that lunatic French king, fell into this misery, out of
the extremity of his passion, desire of revenge and malice, [1735]incensed
against the duke of Britain, he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep for
some days together, and in the end, about the calends of July, 1392, he
became mad upon his horseback, drawing his sword, striking such as came
near him promiscuously, and so continued all the days of his life, Aemil.,
_lib. 10._ Gal. _hist._ Aegesippus _de exid. urbis Hieros, l. 1. c. 37_,
hath such a story of Herod, that out of an angry fit, became mad,
[1736]leaping out of his bed, he killed Jossippus, and played many such
bedlam pranks, the whole court could not rule him for a long time after:
sometimes he was sorry and repented, much grieved for that he had done,
_Postquam deferbuit ira_, by and by outrageous again. In hot choleric
bodies, nothing so soon causeth madness, as this passion of anger, besides
many other diseases, as Pelesius observes, _cap. 21. l. 1. de hum. affect.
causis_; _Sanguinem imminuit, fel auget_: and as [1737]Valesius
controverts, _Med. controv., lib. 5. contro. 8_, many times kills them
quite out. If this were the worst of this passion, it were more tolerable,
[1738]"but it ruins and subverts whole towns, [1739]cities, families, and
kingdoms;" _Nulla pestis humano generi pluris stetit_, saith Seneca, _de
Ira, lib. 1._ No plague hath done mankind so much harm. Look into our
histories, and you shall almost meet with no other subject, but what a
company [1740]of harebrains have done in their rage. We may do well
therefore to put this in our procession amongst the rest; "From all
blindness of heart, from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred
and malice, anger, and all such pestiferous perturbations, good Lord
deliver us."
SUBSECT. X.--_Discontents, Cares, Miseries, &c. Causes_.
Discontents, cares, crosses, miseries, or whatsoever it is, that shall
cause any molestation of spirits, grief, anguish, and perplexity, may well
be reduced to this head, (preposterously placed here in some men's
judgments they may seem,) yet in that Aristotle in his [1741]Rhetoric
defines these cares, as he doth envy, emulation, &c. still by grief, I
think I may well rank them in this irascible row; being that they are as
the rest, both causes and symptoms of this disease, producing the like
inconveniences, and are most part accompanied with anguish and pain. The
common etymology will evince it, _Cura quasi cor uro, Dementes curae,
insomnes curae, damnosae curae, tristes, mordaces, carnifices_, &c. biting,
eating, gnawing, cruel, bitter, sick, sad, unquiet, pale, tetric,
miserable, intolerable cares, as the poets [1742]call them, worldly cares,
and are as many in number as the sea sands. [1743]Galen, Fernelius, Felix
Plater, Valescus de Taranta, &c., reckon afflictions, miseries, even all
these contentions, and vexations of the mind, as principal causes, in that
they take away sleep, hinder concoction, dry up the body, and consume the
substance of it. They are not so many in number, but their causes be as
divers, and not one of a thousand free from them, or that can vindicate
himself, whom that _Ate dea_,
[1744] "Per hominum capita molliter ambulans,
Plantas pedum teneras habens:"
"Over men's heads walking aloft,
With tender feet treading so soft,"
Homer's Goddess Ate hath not involved into this discontented [1745]rank, or
plagued with some misery or other. Hyginus, _fab. 220_, to this purpose
hath a pleasant tale. Dame Cura by chance went over a brook, and taking up
some of the dirty slime, made an image of it; Jupiter eftsoons coming by,
put life to it, but Cura and Jupiter could not agree what name to give him,
or who should own him; the matter was referred to Saturn as judge; he gave
this arbitrement: his name shall be _Homo ab humo, Cura eum possideat
quamdiu vivat_, Care shall have him whilst he lives, Jupiter his soul, and
Tellus his body when he dies. But to leave tales. A general cause, a
continuate cause, an inseparable accident, to all men, is discontent, care,
misery; were there no other particular affliction (which who is free from?)
to molest a man in this life, the very cogitation of that common misery
were enough to macerate, and make him weary of his life; to think that he
can never be secure, but still in danger, sorrow, grief, and persecution.
For to begin at the hour of his birth, as [1746]Pliny doth elegantly
describe it, "he is born naked, and falls [1747]a whining at the very
first: he is swaddled, and bound up like a prisoner, cannot help himself,
and so he continues to his life's end." _Cujusque ferae pabulum_, saith
[1748]Seneca, impatient of heat and cold, impatient of labour, impatient of
idleness, exposed to fortune's contumelies. To a naked mariner Lucretius
compares him, cast on shore by shipwreck, cold and comfortless in an
unknown land: [1749]no estate, age, sex, can secure himself from this
common misery. "A man that is born of a woman is of short continuance, and
full of trouble," Job xiv. 1, 22. "And while his flesh is upon him he shall
be sorrowful, and while his soul is in him it shall mourn. All his days are
sorrow and his travels griefs: his heart also taketh not rest in the
night." Eccles. ii. 23, and ii. 11. "All that is in it is sorrow and
vexation of spirit. [1750]Ingress, progress, regress, egress, much alike:
blindness seizeth on us in the beginning, labour in the middle, grief in
the end, error in all. What day ariseth to us without some grief, care, or
anguish? Or what so secure and pleasing a morning have we seen, that hath
not been overcast before the evening?" One is miserable, another
ridiculous, a third odious. One complains of this grievance, another of
that. _Aliquando nervi, aliquando pedes vexant_, (Seneca) _nunc
distillatio, nunc epatis morbus; nunc deest, nunc superest sanguis_: now
the head aches, then the feet, now the lungs, then the liver, &c. _Huic
sensus exuberat, sed est pudori degener sanguis_, &c. He is rich, but base
born; he is noble, but poor; a third hath means, but he wants health
peradventure, or wit to manage his estate; children vex one, wife a second,
&c. _Nemo facile cum conditione sua concordat_, no man is pleased with his
fortune, a pound of sorrow is familiarly mixed with a dram of content,
little or no joy, little comfort, but [1751]everywhere danger, contention,
anxiety, in all places: go where thou wilt, and thou shalt find
discontents, cares, woes, complaints, sickness, diseases, encumbrances,
exclamations: "If thou look into the market, there" (saith [1752]
Chrysostom) "is brawling and contention; if to the court, there knavery and
flattery, &c.; if to a private man's house, there's cark and care,
heaviness," &c. As he said of old,
[1753] "Nil homine in terra spirat miserum magis alma?"
No creature so miserable as man, so generally molested, [1754]"in miseries
of body, in miseries of mind, miseries of heart, in miseries asleep, in
miseries awake, in miseries wheresoever he turns," as Bernard found,
_Nunquid tentatio est vita humana super terram_? A mere temptation is our
life, (Austin, _confess. lib. 10. cap. 28_,) _catena perpetuorum malorum,
et quis potest molestias et difficultates pati_? Who can endure the
miseries of it? [1755]"In prosperity we are insolent and intolerable,
dejected in adversity, in all fortunes foolish and miserable." [1756]"In
adversity I wish for prosperity, and in prosperity I am afraid of
adversity. What mediocrity may be found? Where is no temptation? What
condition of life is free?" [1757]"Wisdom hath labour annexed to it, glory,
envy; riches and cares, children and encumbrances, pleasure and diseases,
rest and beggary, go together: as if a man were therefore born" (as the
Platonists hold) "to be punished in this life for some precedent sins." Or
that, as [1758]Pliny complains, "Nature may be rather accounted a
stepmother, than a mother unto us, all things considered: no creature's
life so brittle, so full of fear, so mad, so furious; only man is plagued
with envy, discontent, griefs, covetousness, ambition, superstition." Our
whole life is an Irish sea, wherein there is nought to be expected but
tempestuous storms and troublesome waves, and those infinite,
[1759] "Tantum malorum pelagus aspicio,
Ut non sit inde enatandi copia,"
no halcyonian times, wherein a man can hold himself secure, or agree with
his present estate; but as Boethius infers, [1760]"there is something in
every one of us which before trial we seek, and having tried abhor: [1761]
we earnestly wish, and eagerly covet, and are eftsoons weary of it." Thus
between hope and fear, suspicions, angers, [1762]_Inter spemque metumque,
timores inter et iras_, betwixt falling in, falling out, &c., we bangle
away our best days, befool out our times, we lead a contentious,
discontent, tumultuous, melancholy, miserable life; insomuch, that if we
could foretell what was to come, and it put to our choice, we should rather
refuse than accept of this painful life. In a word, the world itself is a
maze, a labyrinth of errors, a desert, a wilderness, a den of thieves,
cheaters, &c., full of filthy puddles, horrid rocks, precipitiums, an ocean
of adversity, an heavy yoke, wherein infirmities and calamities overtake,
and follow one another, as the sea waves; and if we scape Scylla, we fall
foul on Charybdis, and so in perpetual fear, labour, anguish, we run from
one plague, one mischief, one burden to another, _duram servientes
servitutem_, and you may as soon separate weight from lead, heat from fire,
moistness from water, brightness from the sun, as misery, discontent, care,
calamity, danger, from a man. Our towns and cities are but so many
dwellings of human misery. "In which grief and sorrow" ([1763]as he right
well observes out of Solon) "innumerable troubles, labours of mortal men,
and all manner of vices, are included, as in so many pens." Our villages
are like molehills, and men as so many emmets, busy, busy still, going to
and fro, in and out, and crossing one another's projects, as the lines of
several sea-cards cut each other in a globe or map. "Now light and merry,"
but ([1764]as one follows it) "by-and-by sorrowful and heavy; now hoping,
then distrusting; now patient, tomorrow crying out; now pale, then red;
running, sitting, sweating, trembling, halting," &c. Some few amongst the
rest, or perhaps one of a thousand, may be Pullus Jovis, in the world's
esteem, _Gallinae filius albae_, an happy and fortunate man, _ad invidiam
felix_, because rich, fair, well allied, in honour and office; yet
peradventure ask himself, and he will say, that of all others [1765]he is
most miserable and unhappy. A fair shoe, _Hic soccus novus, elegans_, as he
[1766]said, _sed nescis ubi urat_, but thou knowest not where it pincheth.
It is not another man's opinion can make me happy: but as [1767]Seneca well
hath it, "He is a miserable wretch that doth not account himself happy,
though he be sovereign lord of a world: he is not happy, if he think
himself not to be so; for what availeth it what thine estate is, or seem to
others, if thou thyself dislike it?" A common humour it is of all men to
think well of other men's fortunes, and dislike their own: [1768]_Cui
placet alterius, sua nimirum est odio sors_; but [1769]_qui fit Mecoenas_,
&c., how comes it to pass, what's the cause of it? Many men are of such a
perverse nature, they are well pleased with nothing, (saith [1770]
Theodoret,) "neither with riches nor poverty, they complain when they are
well and when they are sick, grumble at all fortunes, prosperity and
adversity; they are troubled in a cheap year, in a barren, plenty or not
plenty, nothing pleaseth them, war nor peace, with children, nor without."
This for the most part is the humour of us all, to be discontent,
miserable, and most unhappy, as we think at least; and show me him that is
not so, or that ever was otherwise. Quintus Metellus his felicity is
infinitely admired amongst the Romans, insomuch that as [1771]Paterculus
mentioneth of him, you can scarce find of any nation, order, age, sex, one
for happiness to be compared unto him: he had, in a word, _Bona animi,
corporis et fortunae_, goods of mind, body, and fortune, so had P.
Mutianus, [1772]Crassus. Lampsaca, that Lacedaemonian lady, was such
another in [1773]Pliny's conceit, a king's wife, a king's mother, a king's
daughter: and all the world esteemed as much of Polycrates of Samos. The
Greeks brag of their Socrates, Phocion, Aristides; the Psophidians in
particular of their Aglaus, _Omni vita felix, ab omni periculo immunis_
(which by the way Pausanias held impossible;) the Romans of their [1774]
Cato, Curius, Fabricius, for their composed fortunes, and retired estates,
government of passions, and contempt of the world: yet none of all these
were happy, or free from discontent, neither Metellus, Crassus, nor
Polycrates, for he died a violent death, and so did Cato; and how much evil
doth Lactantius and Theodoret speak of Socrates, a weak man, and so of the
rest. There is no content in this life, but as [1775]he said, "All is
vanity and vexation of spirit;" lame and imperfect. Hadst thou Sampson's
hair, Milo's strength, Scanderbeg's arm, Solomon's wisdom, Absalom's
beauty, Croesus' wealth, _Pasetis obulum_, Caesar's valour, Alexander's
spirit, Tully's or Demosthenes' eloquence, Gyges' ring, Perseus' Pegasus,
and Gorgon's head, Nestor's years to come, all this would not make thee
absolute; give thee content, and true happiness in this life, or so
continue it. Even in the midst of all our mirth, jollity, and laughter, is
sorrow and grief, or if there be true happiness amongst us, 'tis but for a
time,
[1776] "Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne:"
"A handsome woman with a fish's tail,"
a fair morning turns to a lowering afternoon. Brutus and Cassius, once
renowned, both eminently happy, yet you shall scarce find two (saith
Paterculus) _quos fortuna maturius destiturit_, whom fortune sooner
forsook. Hannibal, a conqueror all his life, met with his match, and was
subdued at last, _Occurrit forti, qui mage fortis erit._ One is brought in
triumph, as Caesar into Rome, Alcibiades into Athens, _coronis aureis
donatus_, crowned, honoured, admired; by-and-by his statues demolished, he
hissed out, massacred, &c. [1777]Magnus Gonsalva, that famous Spaniard, was
of the prince and people at first honoured, approved; forthwith confined
and banished. _Admirandas actiones; graves plerunque sequuntur invidiae, et
acres calumniae_: 'tis Polybius his observation, grievous enmities, and
bitter calumnies, commonly follow renowned actions. One is born rich, dies
a beggar; sound today, sick tomorrow; now in most flourishing estate,
fortunate and happy, by-and-by deprived of his goods by foreign enemies,
robbed by thieves, spoiled, captivated, impoverished, as they of
[1778]"Rabbah put under iron saws, and under iron harrows, and under axes
of iron, and cast into the tile kiln,"
[1779] "Quid me felicem toties jactastis amici,
Qui cecidit, stabili non erat ille gradu."
He that erst marched like Xerxes with innumerable armies, as rich as
Croesus, now shifts for himself in a poor cock-boat, is bound in iron
chains, with Bajazet the Turk, and a footstool with Aurelian, for a
tyrannising conqueror to trample on. So many casualties there are, that as
Seneca said of a city consumed with fire, _Una dies interest inter maximum
civitatem et nullam_, one day betwixt a great city and none: so many
grievances from outward accidents, and from ourselves, our own
indiscretion, inordinate appetite, one day betwixt a man and no man. And
which is worse, as if discontents and miseries would not come fast enough
upon us: _homo homini daemon_, we maul, persecute, and study how to sting,
gall, and vex one another with mutual hatred, abuses, injuries; preying
upon and devouring as so many, [1780]ravenous birds; and as jugglers,
panders, bawds, cozening one another; or raging as [1781]wolves, tigers,
and devils, we take a delight to torment one another; men are evil, wicked,
malicious, treacherous, and [1782]naught, not loving one another, or loving
themselves, not hospitable, charitable, nor sociable as they ought to be,
but counterfeit, dissemblers, ambidexters, all for their own ends,
hard-hearted, merciless, pitiless, and to benefit themselves, they care not
what mischief they procure to others. [1783]Praxinoe and Gorgo in the poet,
when they had got in to see those costly sights, they then cried _bene
est_, and would thrust out all the rest: when they are rich themselves, in
honour, preferred, full, and have even that they would, they debar others
of those pleasures which youth requires, and they formerly have enjoyed. He
sits at table in a soft chair at ease, but he doth remember in the mean
time that a tired waiter stands behind him, "an hungry fellow ministers to
him full, he is athirst that gives him drink" (saith [1784]Epictetus) "and
is silent whilst he speaks his pleasure: pensive, sad, when he laughs."
_Pleno se proluit auro_: he feasts, revels, and profusely spends, hath
variety of robes, sweet music, ease, and all the pleasure the world can
afford, whilst many an hunger-starved poor creature pines in the street,
wants clothes to cover him, labours hard all day long, runs, rides for a
trifle, fights peradventure from sun to sun, sick and ill, weary, full of
pain and grief, is in great distress and sorrow of heart. He loathes and
scorns his inferior, hates or emulates his equal, envies his superior,
insults over all such as are under him, as if he were of another species, a
demigod, not subject to any fall, or human infirmities. Generally they love
not, are not beloved again: they tire out others' bodies with continual
labour, they themselves living at ease, caring for none else, _sibi nati_;
and are so far many times from putting to their helping hand, that they
seek all means to depress, even most worthy and well deserving, better than
themselves, those whom they are by the laws of nature bound to relieve and
help, as much as in them lies, they will let them caterwaul, starve, beg,
and hang, before they will any ways (though it be in their power) assist or
ease: [1785]so unnatural are they for the most part, so unregardful; so
hard-hearted, so churlish, proud, insolent, so dogged, of so bad a
disposition. And being so brutish, so devilishly bent one towards another,
how is it possible but that we should be discontent of all sides, full of
cares, woes, and miseries?
If this be not a sufficient proof of their discontent and misery, examine
every condition and calling apart. Kings, princes, monarchs, and
magistrates seem to be most happy, but look into their estate, you shall
[1786]find them to be most encumbered with cares, in perpetual fear, agony,
suspicion, jealousy: that, as [1787]he said of a crown, if they knew but
the discontents that accompany it, they would not stoop to take it up.
_Quem mihi regent dabis_ (saith Chrysostom) _non curis plenum_? What king
canst thou show me, not full of cares? [1788]"Look not on his crown, but
consider his afflictions; attend not his number of servants, but multitude
of crosses." _Nihil aliud potestas culminis, quam tempestas mentis_, as
Gregory seconds him; sovereignty is a tempest of the soul: Sylla like they
have brave titles, but terrible fits: _splendorem titulo, cruciatum animo_:
which made [1789]Demosthenes vow, _si vel ad tribunal, vel ad interitum
duceretur_: if to be a judge, or to be condemned, were put to his choice,
he would be condemned. Rich men are in the same predicament; what their
pains are, _stulti nesciunt, ipsi sentiunt_: they feel, fools perceive not,
as I shall prove elsewhere, and their wealth is brittle, like children's
rattles: they come and go, there is no certainty in them: those whom they
elevate, they do as suddenly depress, and leave in a vale of misery. The
middle sort of men are as so many asses to bear burdens; or if they be
free, and live at ease, they spend themselves, and consume their bodies and
fortunes with luxury and riot, contention, emulation, &c. The poor I
reserve for another [1790]place and their discontents.
For particular professions, I hold as of the rest, there's no content or
security in any; on what course will you pitch, how resolve? to be a
divine, 'tis contemptible in the world's esteem; to be a lawyer, 'tis to be
a wrangler; to be a physician, [1791]_pudet lotii_, 'tis loathed; a
philosopher, a madman; an alchemist, a beggar; a poet, _esurit_, an hungry
jack; a musician, a player; a schoolmaster, a drudge; an husbandman, an
emmet; a merchant, his gains are uncertain; a mechanician, base; a
chirurgeon, fulsome; a tradesman, a [1792]liar; a tailor, a thief; a
serving-man, a slave; a soldier, a butcher; a smith, or a metalman, the
pot's never from his nose; a courtier a parasite, as he could find no tree
in the wood to hang himself; I can show no state of life to give content.
The like you may say of all ages; children live in a perpetual slavery,
still under that tyrannical government of masters; young men, and of riper
years, subject to labour, and a thousand cares of the world, to treachery,
falsehood, and cozenage,
[1793] ------"Incedit per ignes,
Suppositos cineri doloso,"
------"you incautious tread
On fires, with faithless ashes overhead."
[1794]old are full of aches in their bones, cramps and convulsions,
_silicernia_, dull of hearing, weak sighted, hoary, wrinkled, harsh, so
much altered as that they cannot know their own face in a glass, a burthen
to themselves and others, after 70 years, "all is sorrow" (as David hath
it), they do not live but linger. If they be sound, they fear diseases; if
sick, weary of their lives: _Non est vivere, sed valere vita._ One
complains of want, a second of servitude, [1795]another of a secret or
incurable disease; of some deformity of body, of some loss, danger, death
of friends, shipwreck, persecution, imprisonment, disgrace, repulse, [1796]
contumely, calumny, abuse, injury, contempt, ingratitude, unkindness,
scoffs, flouts, unfortunate marriage, single life, too many children, no
children, false servants, unhappy children, barrenness, banishment,
oppression, frustrate hopes and ill-success, &c.
[1797] "Talia de genere hoc adeo sunt multa, loquacem ut
Delassare valent Fabium."------
"But, every various instance to repeat,
Would tire even Fabius of incessant prate."
Talking Fabius will be tired before he can tell half of them; they are the
subject of whole volumes, and shall (some of them) be more opportunely
dilated elsewhere. In the meantime thus much I may say of them, that
generally they crucify the soul of man, [1798]attenuate our bodies, dry
them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them as so many
anatomies ([1799]_ossa atque pellis est totus, ita curis macet_) they cause
_tempus foedum et squalidum_, cumbersome days, _ingrataque tempora_, slow,
dull, and heavy times: make us howl, roar, and tear our hairs, as sorrow
did in [1800]Cebes' table, and groan for the very anguish of our souls. Our
hearts fail us as David's did, Psal. xl. 12, "for innumerable troubles that
compassed him;" and we are ready to confess with Hezekiah, Isaiah lviii.
17, "behold, for felicity I had bitter grief;" to weep with Heraclitus, to
curse the day of our birth with Jeremy, xx. 14, and our stars with Job: to
hold that axiom of Silenus, [1801]"better never to have been born, and the
best next of all, to die quickly:" or if we must live, to abandon the
world, as Timon did; creep into caves and holes, as our anchorites; cast
all into the sea, as Crates Thebanus; or as Theombrotus Ambrociato's 400
auditors, precipitate ourselves to be rid of these miseries.
SUBSECT. XI.--_Concupiscible Appetite, as Desires, Ambition, Causes_.
These concupiscible and irascible appetites are as the two twists of a
rope, mutually mixed one with the other, and both twining about the heart:
both good, as Austin, holds, _l. 14. c. 9. de civ. Dei_, [1802]"if they be
moderate; both pernicious if they be exorbitant." This concupiscible
appetite, howsoever it may seem to carry with it a show of pleasure and
delight, and our concupiscences most part affect us with content and a
pleasing object, yet if they be in extremes, they rack and wring us on the
other side. A true saying it is, "Desire hath no rest;" is infinite in
itself, endless; and as [1803]one calls it, a perpetual rack, [1804]or
horse-mill, according to Austin, still going round as in a ring. They are
not so continual, as divers, _felicius atomos denumerare possem_, saith
[1805]Bernard, _quam motus cordis; nunc haec, nunc illa cogito_, you may as
well reckon up the motes in the sun as them. [1806]"It extends itself to
everything," as Guianerius will have it, "that is superfluously sought
after:"' or to any [1807]fervent desire, as Fernelius interprets it; be it
in what kind soever, it tortures if immoderate, and is (according to [1808]
Plater and others) an especial cause of melancholy. _Multuosis
concupiscentiis dilaniantur cogitationes meae_, [1809]Austin confessed,
that he was torn a pieces with his manifold desires: and so doth [1810]
Bernard complain, "that he could not rest for them a minute of an hour:
this I would have, and that, and then I desire to be such and such." 'Tis a
hard matter therefore to confine them, being they are so various and many,
impossible to apprehend all. I will only insist upon some few of the chief,
and most noxious in their kind, as that exorbitant appetite and desire of
honour, which we commonly call ambition; love of money, which is
covetousness, and that greedy desire of gain: self-love, pride, and
inordinate desire of vainglory or applause, love of study in excess; love
of women (which will require a just volume of itself), of the other I will
briefly speak, and in their order.
Ambition, a proud covetousness, or a dry thirst of honour, a great torture
of the mind, composed of envy, pride, and covetousness, a gallant madness,
one [1811]defines it a pleasant poison, Ambrose, "a canker of the soul, an
hidden plague:" [1812]Bernard, "a secret poison, the father of livor, and
mother of hypocrisy, the moth of holiness, and cause of madness, crucifying
and disquieting all that it takes hold of." [1813]Seneca calls it, _rem
solicitam, timidam, vanam, ventosam_, a windy thing, a vain, solicitous,
and fearful thing. For commonly they that, like Sisyphus, roll this
restless stone of ambition, are in a perpetual agony, still [1814]
perplexed, _semper taciti, tritesque recedunt_ (Lucretius), doubtful,
timorous, suspicious, loath to offend in word or deed, still cogging and
colloguing, embracing, capping, cringing, applauding, flattering, fleering,
visiting, waiting at men's doors, with all affability, counterfeit honesty
and humility. [1815]If that will not serve, if once this humour (as
[1816]Cyprian describes it) possess his thirsty soul, _ambitionis salsugo
ubi bibulam animam possidet_, by hook and by crook he will obtain it, "and
from his hole he will climb to all honours and offices, if it be possible
for him to get up, flattering one, bribing another, he will leave no means
unessay'd to win all." [1817]It is a wonder to see how slavishly these kind
of men subject themselves, when they are about a suit, to every inferior
person; what pains they will take, run, ride, cast, plot, countermine,
protest and swear, vow, promise, what labours undergo, early up, down late;
how obsequious and affable they are, how popular and courteous, how they
grin and fleer upon every man they meet; with what feasting and inviting,
how they spend themselves and their fortunes, in seeking that many times,
which they had much better be without; as [1818]Cyneas the orator told
Pyrrhus: with what waking nights, painful hours, anxious thoughts, and
bitterness of mind, _inter spemque metumque_, distracted and tired, they
consume the interim of their time. There can be no greater plague for the
present. If they do obtain their suit, which with such cost and solicitude
they have sought, they are not so freed, their anxiety is anew to begin,
for they are never satisfied, _nihil aliud nisi imperium spirant_, their
thoughts, actions, endeavours are all for sovereignty and honour, like
[1819]Lues Sforza that huffing Duke of Milan, "a man of singular wisdom,
but profound ambition, born to his own, and to the destruction of Italy,"
though it be to their own ruin, and friends' undoing, they will contend,
they may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a
squirrel in a chain, so [1820]Budaeus compares them; [1821]they climb and
climb still, with much labour, but never make an end, never at the top. A
knight would be a baronet, and then a lord, and then a viscount, and then
an earl, &c.; a doctor, a dean, and then a bishop; from tribune to praetor;
from bailiff to major; first this office, and then that; as Pyrrhus in
[1822]Plutarch, they will first have Greece, then Africa, and then Asia,
and swell with Aesop's frog so long, till in the end they burst, or come
down with Sejanus, _ad Gemonias scalas_, and break their own necks; or as
Evangelus the piper in Lucian, that blew his pipe so long, till he fell
down dead. If he chance to miss, and have a canvass, he is in a hell on the
other side; so dejected, that he is ready to hang himself, turn heretic,
Turk, or traitor in an instant. Enraged against his enemies, he rails,
swears, fights, slanders, detracts, envies, murders: and for his own part,
_si appetitum explere non potest, furore corripitur_; if he cannot satisfy
his desire (as [1823]Bodine writes) he runs mad. So that both ways, hit or
miss, he is distracted so long as his ambition lasts, he can look for no
other but anxiety and care, discontent and grief in the meantime,
[1824]madness itself, or violent death in the end. The event of this is
common to be seen in populous cities, or in princes' courts, for a
courtier's life (as Budaeus describes it) "is a [1825]gallimaufry of
ambition, lust, fraud, imposture, dissimulation, detraction, envy, pride;
[1826]the court, a common conventicle of flatterers, time-servers,
politicians," &c.; or as [1827] Anthony Perez will, "the suburbs of hell
itself." If you will see such discontented persons, there you shall likely
find them. [1828]And which he observed of the markets of old Rome,
"Qui perjurum convenire vult hominem, mitto in Comitium;
Qui mendacem et gloriosum, apud Cluasinae sacrum;
Dites, damnosos maritos, sub basilica quaerito," &c.
Perjured knaves, knights of the post, liars, crackers, bad husbands, &c.
keep their several stations; they do still, and always did in every
commonwealth.
SUBSECT. XII.--[Greek: philarguria], _Covetousness, a Cause_.
Plutarch, in his [1829]book whether the diseases of the body be more
grievous than those of the soul, is of opinion, "if you will examine all
the causes of our miseries in this life, you shall find them most part to
have had their beginning from stubborn anger, that furious desire of
contention, or some unjust or immoderate affection, as covetousness," &c.
From whence "are wars and contentions amongst you?" [1830]St. James asks: I
will add usury, fraud, rapine, simony, oppression, lying, swearing, bearing
false witness, &c. are they not from this fountain of covetousness, that
greediness in getting, tenacity in keeping, sordidity in spending; that
they are so wicked, [1831]"unjust against God, their neighbour,
themselves;" all comes hence. "The desire of money is the root of all evil,
and they that lust after it, pierce themselves through with many sorrows,"
1 Tim. vi. 10. Hippocrates therefore in his Epistle to Crateva, an
herbalist, gives him this good counsel, that if it were possible, [1832]
"amongst other herbs, he should cut up that weed of covetousness by the
roots, that there be no remainder left, and then know this for a certainty,
that together with their bodies, thou mayst quickly cure all the diseases
of their minds." For it is indeed the pattern, image, epitome of all
melancholy, the fountain of many miseries, much discontented care and woe;
this "inordinate, or immoderate desire of gain, to get or keep money," as
[1833]Bonaventure defines it: or, as Austin describes it, a madness of the
soul, Gregory a torture; Chrysostom, an insatiable drunkenness; Cyprian,
blindness, _speciosum supplicium_, a plague subverting kingdoms, families,
an [1834]incurable disease; Budaeus, an ill habit, [1835]"yielding to no
remedies:" neither Aesculapius nor Plutus can cure them: a continual
plague, saith Solomon, and vexation of spirit, another hell. I know there
be some of opinion, that covetous men are happy, and worldly, wise, that
there is more pleasure in getting of wealth than in spending, and no
delight in the world like unto it. 'Twas [1836]Bias' problem of old, "With
what art thou not weary? with getting money. What is most delectable? to
gain." What is it, trow you, that makes a poor man labour all his lifetime,
carry such great burdens, fare so hardly, macerate himself, and endure so
much misery, undergo such base offices with so great patience, to rise up
early, and lie down late, if there were not an extraordinary delight in
getting and keeping of money? What makes a merchant that hath no need,
_satis superque domi_, to range all over the world, through all those
intemperate [1837]Zones of heat and cold; voluntarily to venture his life,
and be content with such miserable famine, nasty usage, in a stinking ship;
if there were not a pleasure and hope to get money, which doth season the
rest, and mitigate his indefatigable pains? What makes them go into the
bowels of the earth, an hundred fathom deep, endangering their dearest
lives, enduring damps and filthy smells, when they have enough already, if
they could be content, and no such cause to labour, but an extraordinary
delight they take in riches. This may seem plausible at first show, a
popular and strong argument; but let him that so thinks, consider better of
it, and he shall soon perceive, that it is far otherwise than he supposeth;
it may be haply pleasing at the first, as most part all melancholy is. For
such men likely have some _lucida intervalla_, pleasant symptoms
intermixed; but you must note that of [1838]Chrysostom, "'Tis one thing to
be rich, another to be covetous:" generally they are all fools, dizzards,
madmen, [1839]miserable wretches, living besides themselves, _sine arte
fruendi_, in perpetual slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow, and discontent,
_plus aloes quam mellis habent_; and are indeed, "rather possessed by their
money, than possessors:" as [1840]Cyprian hath it, _mancipati pecuniis_;
bound prentice to their goods, as [1841]Pliny; or as Chrysostom, _servi
divitiarum_, slaves and drudges to their substance; and we may conclude of
them all, as [1842]Valerius doth of Ptolomaeus king of Cyprus, "He was in
title a king of that island, but in his mind, a miserable drudge of money:"
[1843] ------"potiore metallis
libertate carens"------
wanting his liberty, which is better than gold. Damasippus the Stoic, in
Horace, proves that all mortal men dote by fits, some one way, some
another, but that covetous men [1844]are madder than the rest; and he that
shall truly look into their estates, and examine their symptoms, shall find
no better of them, but that they are all [1845]fools, as Nabal was, _Re et
nomine_ (1. Reg. 15.) For what greater folly can there be, or [1846]
madness, than to macerate himself when he need not? and when, as Cyprian
notes, [1847]"he may be freed from his burden, and eased of his pains, will
go on still, his wealth increasing, when he hath enough, to get more, to
live besides himself," to starve his genius, keep back from his wife
[1848]and children, neither letting them nor other friends use or enjoy
that which is theirs by right, and which they much need perhaps; like a
hog, or dog in the manger, he doth only keep it, because it shall do nobody
else good, hurting himself and others: and for a little momentary pelf,
damn his own soul? They are commonly sad and tetric by nature, as Achab's
spirit was because he could not get Naboth's vineyard, (1. Reg. 22.) and if
he lay out his money at any time, though it be to necessary uses, to his
own children's good, he brawls and scolds, his heart is heavy, much
disquieted he is, and loath to part from it: _Miser abstinet et timet uti_,
Hor. He is of a wearish, dry, pale constitution, and cannot sleep for cares
and worldly business; his riches, saith Solomon, will not let him sleep,
and unnecessary business which he heapeth on himself; or if he do sleep,
'tis a very unquiet, interrupt, unpleasing sleep: with his bags in his
arms,
------"congestis undique sacc
indormit inhians,"------
And though he be at a banquet, or at some merry feast, "he sighs for grief
of heart" (as [1849]Cyprian hath it) "and cannot sleep though it be upon a
down bed; his wearish body takes no rest," [1850]"troubled in his
abundance, and sorrowful in plenty, unhappy for the present, and more
unhappy in the life to come." Basil. He is a perpetual drudge,
[1851]restless in his thoughts, and never satisfied, a slave, a wretch, a
dust-worm, _semper quod idolo suo immolet, sedulus observat_ Cypr. _prolog.
ad sermon_ still seeking what sacrifice he may offer to his golden god,
_per fas et nefas_, he cares not how, his trouble is endless,
[1852]_crescunt divitiae, tamen curtae nescio quid semper abest rei_: his
wealth increaseth, and the more he hath, the more [1853]he wants: like
Pharaoh's lean kine, which devoured the fat, and were not satisfied.
[1854]Austin therefore defines covetousness, _quarumlibet rerum inhonestam
et insatiabilem cupiditatem_ a dishonest and insatiable desire of gain; and
in one of his epistles compares it to hell; [1855]"which devours all, and
yet never hath enough, a bottomless pit," an endless misery; _in quem
scopulum avaritiae cadaverosi senes utplurimum impingunt_, and that which
is their greatest corrosive, they are in continual suspicion, fear, and
distrust, He thinks his own wife and children are so many thieves, and go
about to cozen him, his servants are all false:
"Rem suam periisse, seque eradicarier,
Et divum atque hominum clamat continuo fidem,
De suo tigillo si qua exit foras."
"If his doors creek, then out he cries anon,
His goods are gone, and he is quite undone."
_Timidus Plutus_, an old proverb, As fearful as Plutus: so doth
Aristophanes and Lucian bring him in fearful still, pale, anxious,
suspicious, and trusting no man, [1856]"They are afraid of tempests for
their corn; they are afraid of their friends lest they should ask something
of them, beg or borrow; they are afraid of their enemies lest they hurt
them, thieves lest they rob them; they are afraid of war and afraid of
peace, afraid of rich and afraid of poor; afraid of all." Last of all, they
are afraid of want, that they shall die beggars, which makes them lay up
still, and dare not use that they have: what if a dear year come, or
dearth, or some loss? and were it not that they are both to [1857]lay out
money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save
charges, and make away themselves, if their corn and cattle miscarry;
though they have abundance left, as [1858]Agellius notes. [1859]Valerius
makes mention of one that in a famine sold a mouse for 200 pence, and
famished himself: such are their cares, [1860]griefs and perpetual fears.
These symptoms are elegantly expressed by Theophrastus in his character of
a covetous man; [1861]"lying in bed, he asked his wife whether she shut the
trunks and chests fast, the cap-case be sealed, and whether the hall door
be bolted; and though she say all is well, he riseth out of his bed in his
shirt, barefoot and barelegged, to see whether it be so, with a dark
lantern searching every corner, scarce sleeping a wink all night." Lucian
in that pleasant and witty dialogue called Gallus, brings in Mycillus the
cobbler disputing with his cock, sometimes Pythagoras; where after much
speech pro and con, to prove the happiness of a mean estate, and
discontents of a rich man, Pythagoras' cock in the end, to illustrate by
examples that which he had said, brings him to Gnyphon the usurer's house
at midnight, and after that to Encrates; whom, they found both awake,
casting up their accounts, and telling of their money, [1862]lean, dry,
pale and anxious, still suspecting lest somebody should make a hole through
the wall, and so get in; or if a rat or mouse did but stir, starting upon a
sudden, and running to the door to see whether all were fast. Plautus, in
his Aulularia, makes old Euclio [1863]commanding Staphyla his wife to shut
the doors fast, and the fire to be put out, lest anybody should make that
an errand to come to his house: when he washed his hands, [1864]he was
loath to fling away the foul water, complaining that he was undone, because
the smoke got out of his roof. And as he went from home, seeing a crow
scratch upon the muck-hill, returned in all haste, taking it for _malum
omen_, an ill sign, his money was digged up; with many such. He that will
but observe their actions, shall find these and many such passages not
feigned for sport, but really performed, verified indeed by such covetous
and miserable wretches, and that it is,
[1865] ------"manifesta phrenesis
Ut locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato."
A mere madness, to live like a wretch, and die rich.
SUBSECT. XIII.--_Love of Gaming, &c. and pleasures immoderate; Causes_.
It is a wonder to see, how many poor, distressed, miserable wretches, one
shall meet almost in every path and street, begging for an alms, that have
been well descended, and sometimes in flourishing estate, now ragged,
tattered, and ready to be starved, lingering out a painful life, in
discontent and grief of body and mind, and all through immoderate lust,
gaming, pleasure and riot. 'Tis the common end of all sensual epicures and
brutish prodigals, that are stupefied and carried away headlong with their
several pleasures and lusts. Cebes in his table, St. Ambrose in his second
book of Abel and Cain, and amongst the rest Lucian in his tract _de Mercede
conductis_, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his
picture of Opulentia, whom he feigns to dwell on the top of a high mount,
much sought after by many suitors; at their first coming they are generally
entertained by pleasure and dalliance, and have all the content that
possibly may be given, so long as their money lasts: but when their means
fail, they are contemptibly thrust out at a back door, headlong, and there
left to shame, reproach, despair. And he at first that had so many
attendants, parasites, and followers, young and lusty, richly arrayed, and
all the dainty fare that might be had, with all kind of welcome and good
respect, is now upon a sudden stripped of all, [1866]pale, naked, old,
diseased and forsaken, cursing his stars, and ready to strangle himself;
having no other company but repentance, sorrow, grief, derision, beggary,
and contempt, which are his daily attendants to his life's end. As the
[1867]prodigal son had exquisite music, merry company, dainty fare at
first; but a sorrowful reckoning in the end; so have all such vain delights
and their followers. [1868]_Tristes voluptatum exitus, et quisquis
voluptatum suarum reminisci volet, intelliget_, as bitter as gall and
wormwood is their last; grief of mind, madness itself. The ordinary rocks
upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice,
hawks, and hounds, _Insanum venandi studium_, one calls it, _insanae
substructiones_: their mad structures, disports, plays, &c., when they are
unseasonably used, imprudently handled, and beyond their fortunes. Some men
are consumed by mad fantastical buildings, by making galleries, cloisters,
terraces, walks, orchards, gardens, pools, rillets, bowers, and such like
places of pleasure; _Inutiles domos_, [1869]Xenophon calls them, which
howsoever they be delightsome things in themselves, and acceptable to all
beholders, an ornament, and benefiting some great men: yet unprofitable to
others, and the sole overthrow of their estates. Forestus in his
observations hath an example of such a one that became melancholy upon the
like occasion, having consumed his substance in an unprofitable building,
which would afterward yield him no advantage. Others, I say, are [1870]
overthrown by those mad sports of hawking and hunting; honest recreations,
and fit for some great men, but not for every base inferior person; whilst
they will maintain their falconers, dogs, and hunting nags, their wealth,
saith [1871]Salmutze, "runs away with hounds, and their fortunes fly away
with hawks." They persecute beasts so long, till in the end they themselves
degenerate into beasts, as [1872]Agrippa taxeth them, [1873]Actaeon like,
for as he was eaten to death by his own dogs, so do they devour themselves
and their patrimonies, in such idle and unnecessary disports, neglecting in
the mean time their more necessary business, and to follow their vocations.
Over-mad too sometimes are our great men in delighting, and doting too much
on it. [1874]"When they drive poor husbandmen from their tillage," as
[1875]Sarisburiensis objects, _Polycrat. l. 1. c. 4_, "fling down country
farms, and whole towns, to make parks, and forests, starving men to feed
beasts, and [1876]punishing in the mean time such a man that shall molest
their game, more severely than him that is otherwise a common hacker, or a
notorious thief." But great men are some ways to be excused, the meaner
sort have no evasion why they should not be counted mad. Poggius the
Florentine tells a merry story to this purpose, condemning the folly and
impertinent business of such kind of persons. A physician of Milan, saith
he, that cured mad men, had a pit of water in his house, in which he kept
his patients, some up to the knees, some to the girdle, some to the chin,
_pro modo insaniae_, as they were more or less affected. One of them by
chance, that was well recovered, stood in the door, and seeing a gallant
ride by with a hawk on his fist, well mounted, with his spaniels after him,
would needs know to what use all this preparation served; he made answer to
kill certain fowls; the patient demanded again, what his fowl might be
worth which he killed in a year; he replied 5 or 10 crowns; and when he
urged him farther what his dogs, horse, and hawks stood him in, he told him
400 crowns; with that the patient bad be gone, as he loved his life and
welfare, for if our master come and find thee here, he will put thee in the
pit amongst mad men up to the chin: taxing the madness and folly of such
vain men that spend themselves in those idle sports, neglecting their
business and necessary affairs. Leo Decimus, that hunting pope, is much
discommended by [1877]Jovius in his life, for his immoderate desire of
hawking and hunting, in so much that (as he saith) he would sometimes live
about Ostia weeks and months together, leave suitors [1878]unrespected,
bulls and pardons unsigned, to his own prejudice, and many private men's
loss. [1879]"And if he had been by chance crossed in his sport, or his game
not so good, he was so impatient, that he would revile and miscall many
times men of great worth with most bitter taunts, look so sour, be so angry
and waspish, so grieved and molested, that it is incredible to relate it."
But if he had good sport, and been well pleased, on the other side,
_incredibili munificentia_, with unspeakable bounty and munificence he
would reward all his fellow hunters, and deny nothing to any suitor when he
was in that mood. To say truth, 'tis the common humour of all gamesters, as
Galataeus observes, if they win, no men living are so jovial and merry, but
[1880]if they lose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at
tables, or a dealing at cards for two pence a game, they are so choleric
and testy that no man may speak with them, and break many times into
violent passions, oaths, imprecations, and unbeseeming speeches, little
differing from mad men for the time. Generally of all gamesters and gaming,
if it be excessive, thus much we may conclude, that whether they win or
lose for the present, their winnings are not _Munera fortunae, sed
insidiae_ as that wise Seneca determines, not fortune's gifts, but baits,
the common catastrophe is [1881]beggary, [1882]_Ut pestis vitam, sic adimit
alea pecuniam_, as the plague takes away life, doth gaming goods, for
[1883] _omnes nudi, inopes et egeni_;
[1884] "Alea Scylla vorax, species certissima furti,
Non contenta bonis animum quoque perfida mergit,
Foeda, furax, infamis, iners, furiosa, ruina."
For a little pleasure they take, and some small gains and gettings now and
then, their wives and children are ringed in the meantime, and they
themselves with loss of body and soul rue it in the end. I will say nothing
of those prodigious prodigals, _perdendae pecuniae, genitos_, as he [1885]
taxed Anthony, _Qui patrimonium sine ulla fori calumnia amittunt_, saith
[1886]Cyprian, and [1887]mad sybaritical spendthrifts, _Quique una comedunt
patrimonia coena_; that eat up all at a breakfast, at a supper, or amongst
bawds, parasites, and players, consume themselves in an instant, as if they
had flung it into [1888]Tiber, with great wages, vain and idle expenses,
&c., not themselves only, but even all their friends, as a man desperately
swimming drowns him that comes to help him, by suretyship and borrowing
they will willingly undo all their associates and allies. [1889] _Irati
pecuniis_, as he saith, angry with their money: [1890]"what with a wanton
eye, a liquorish tongue, and a gamesome hand," when they have indiscreetly
impoverished themselves, mortgaged their wits, together with their lands,
and entombed their ancestors' fair possessions in their bowels, they may
lead the rest of their days in prison, as many times they do; they repent
at leisure; and when all is gone begin to be thrifty: but _Sera est in
fundo parsimonia_, 'tis then too late to look about; their [1891]end is
misery, sorrow, shame, and discontent. And well they deserve to be infamous
and discontent. [1892]_Catamidiari in Amphitheatro_, as by Adrian the
emperor's edict they were of old, _decoctores bonorum suorum_, so he calls
them, prodigal fools, to be publicly shamed, and hissed out of all
societies, rather than to be pitied or relieved. [1893]The Tuscans and
Boetians brought their bankrupts into the marketplace in a bier with an
empty purse carried before them, all the boys following, where they sat all
day _circumstante plebe_, to be infamous and ridiculous. At [1894]Padua in
Italy they have a stone called the stone of turpitude, near the
senate-house, where spendthrifts, and such as disclaim non-payment of
debts, do sit with their hinder parts bare, that by that note of disgrace
others may be terrified from all such vain expense, or borrowing more than
they can tell how to pay. The [1895]civilians of old set guardians over
such brain-sick prodigals, as they did over madmen, to moderate their
expenses, that they should not so loosely consume their fortunes, to the
utter undoing of their families.
I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of human
kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people;
they go commonly together.
[1896] "Qui vino indulget, quemque aloa decoquit, ille
In venerem putret"------
To whom is sorrow, saith Solomon, Pro. xxiii. 39, to whom is woe, but to
such a one as loves drink? it causeth torture, (_vino tortus et ira_) and
bitterness of mind, Sirac. 31. 21. _Vinum furoris_, Jeremy calls it, _15.
cap._ wine of madness, as well he may, for _insanire facit sanos_, it makes
sound men sick and sad, and wise men [1897]mad, to say and do they know not
what. _Accidit hodie terribilis casus_ (saith [1898]S. Austin) hear a
miserable accident; Cyrillus' son this day in his drink, _Matrem
praegnantem nequiter oppressit, sororem violare voluit, patrem occidit
fere, et duas alias sorores ad mortem vulneravit_, would have violated his
sister, killed his father, &c. A true saying it was of him, _Vino dari
laetitiam et dolorem_, drink causeth mirth, and drink causeth sorrow, drink
causeth "poverty and want," (Prov. xxi.) shame and disgrace. _Multi
ignobiles evasere ob vini potum, et_ (Austin) _amissis honoribus profugi
aberrarunt_: many men have made shipwreck of their fortunes, and go like
rogues and beggars, having turned all their substance into _aurum
potabile_, that otherwise might have lived in good worship and happy
estate, and for a few hours' pleasure, for their Hilary term's but short,
or [1899]free madness, as Seneca calls it, purchase unto themselves eternal
tediousness and trouble.
That other madness is on women, _Apostatare facit cor_, saith the wise man,
[1900]_Atque homini cerebrum minuit_. Pleasant at first she is, like
Dioscorides Rhododaphne, that fair plant to the eye, but poison to the
taste, the rest as bitter as wormwood in the end (Prov. v. 4.) and sharp as
a two-edged sword, (vii. 27.) "Her house is the way to hell, and goes down
to the chambers of death." What more sorrowful can be said? they are
miserable in this life, mad, beasts, led like [1901]"oxen to the
slaughter:" and that which is worse, whoremasters and drunkards shall be
judged, _amittunt gratiam_, saith Austin, _perdunt gloriam, incurrunt
damnationem aeternam_. They lose grace and glory;
[1902] ------"brevis illa voluptas
Abrogat aeternum caeli decus"------
they gain hell and eternal damnation.
SUBSECT. XIV.--_Philautia, or Self-love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour,
Immoderate Applause, Pride, overmuch Joy, &c., Causes_.
Self-love, pride, and vainglory, [1903]_caecus amor sui_, which Chrysostom
calls one of the devil's three great nets; [1904]"Bernard, an arrow which
pierceth the soul through, and slays it; a sly, insensible enemy, not
perceived," are main causes. Where neither anger, lust, covetousness, fear,
sorrow, &c., nor any other perturbation can lay hold; this will slyly and
insensibly pervert us, _Quem non gula vicit, Philautia, superavit_, (saith
Cyprian) whom surfeiting could not overtake, self-love hath overcome.
[1905]"He hath scorned all money, bribes, gifts, upright otherwise and
sincere, hath inserted himself to no fond imagination, and sustained all
those tyrannical concupiscences of the body, hath lost all his honour,
captivated by vainglory." Chrysostom, _sup. Io._ _Tu sola animum mentemque
peruris, gloria_. A great assault and cause of our present malady, although
we do most part neglect, take no notice of it, yet this is a violent
batterer of our souls, causeth melancholy and dotage. This pleasing humour;
this soft and whispering popular air, _Amabilis insania_; this delectable
frenzy, most irrefragable passion, _Mentis gratissimus error_, this
acceptable disease, which so sweetly sets upon us, ravisheth our senses,
lulls our souls asleep, puffs up our hearts as so many bladders, and that
without all feeling, [1906]insomuch as "those that are misaffected with it,
never so much as once perceive it, or think of any cure." We commonly love
him best in this [1907]malady, that doth us most harm, and are very willing
to be hurt; _adulationibus nostris libentur facemus_ (saith [1908] Jerome)
we love him, we love him for it: [1909]_O Bonciari suave, suave fuit a te
tali haec tribui_; 'Twas sweet to hear it. And as [1910]Pliny doth
ingenuously confess to his dear friend Augurinus, "all thy writings are
most acceptable, but those especially that speak of us." Again, a little
after to Maximus, [1911]"I cannot express how pleasing it is to me to hear
myself commended." Though we smile to ourselves, at least ironically, when
parasites bedaub us with false encomiums, as many princes cannot choose but
do, _Quum tale quid nihil intra se repererint_, when they know they come as
far short, as a mouse to an elephant, of any such virtues; yet it doth us
good. Though we seem many times to be angry, [1912] "and blush at our own
praises, yet our souls inwardly rejoice, it puffs us up;" 'tis _fallax
suavitas, blandus daemon_, "makes us swell beyond our bounds, and forget
ourselves." Her two daughters are lightness of mind, immoderate joy and
pride, not excluding those other concomitant vices, which [1913]Iodocus
Lorichius reckons up; bragging, hypocrisy, peevishness, and curiosity.
Now the common cause of this mischief, ariseth from ourselves or others,
[1914]we are active and passive. It proceeds inwardly from ourselves, as we
are active causes, from an overweening conceit we have of our good parts,
own worth, (which indeed is no worth) our bounty, favour, grace, valour,
strength, wealth, patience, meekness, hospitality, beauty, temperance,
gentry, knowledge, wit, science, art, learning, our [1915] excellent gifts
and fortunes, for which, Narcissus-like, we admire, flatter, and applaud
ourselves, and think all the world esteems so of us; and as deformed women
easily believe those that tell them they be fair, we are too credulous of
our own good parts and praises, too well persuaded of ourselves. We brag
and venditate our [1916]own works, and scorn all others in respect of us;
_Inflati scientia_, (saith Paul) our wisdom, [1917]our learning, all our
geese are swans, and we as basely esteem and vilify other men's, as we do
over-highly prize and value our own. We will not suffer them to be _in
secundis_, no, not _in tertiis_; what, _Mecum confertur Ulysses_? they are
_Mures, Muscae, culices prae se_, nits and flies compared to his inexorable
and supercilious, eminent and arrogant worship: though indeed they be far
before him. Only wise, only rich, only fortunate, valorous, and fair,
puffed up with this tympany of self-conceit; [1918]as that proud Pharisee,
they are not (as they suppose) "like other men," of a purer and more
precious metal: [1919]_Soli rei gerendi sunt efficaces_, which that wise
Periander held of such: [1920]_meditantur omne qui prius negotium_, &c.
_Novi quendam_ (saith [1921]Erasmus) I knew one so arrogant that he thought
himself inferior to no man living, like [1922]Callisthenes the philosopher,
that neither held Alexander's acts, or any other subject worthy of his pen,
such was his insolency; or Seleucus king of Syria, who thought none fit to
contend with him but the Romans. [1923]_Eos solos dignos ratus quibuscum de
imperio certaret_. That which Tully writ to Atticus long since, is still in
force. [1924]"There was never yet true poet nor orator, that thought any
other better than himself." And such for the most part are your princes,
potentates, great philosophers, historiographers, authors of sects or
heresies, and all our great scholars, as [1925]Hierom defines; "a natural
philosopher is a glorious creature, and a very slave of rumour, fame, and
popular opinion," and though they write _de contemptu gloriae_, yet as he
observes, they will put their names to their books. _Vobis et famae, me
semper dedi_, saith Trebellius Pollio, I have wholly consecrated myself to
you and fame. "'Tis all my desire, night and day, 'tis all my study to
raise my name." Proud [1926]Pliny seconds him; _Quamquam O_! &c. and that
vainglorious [1927]orator is not ashamed to confess in an Epistle of his to
Marcus Lecceius, _Ardeo incredibili cupididate_, &c. "I burn with an
incredible desire to have my [1928]name registered in thy book." Out of
this fountain proceed all those cracks and brags,--[1929]_speramus carmina
fingi Posse linenda cedro, et leni servanda cupresso_--[1930]_Non usitata
nec tenui ferar penna.--nec in terra morabor longius. Nil parvum aut humili
modo, nil mortale loquor. Dicar qua violens obstrepit Ausidus.--Exegi
monumentum aere perennius. Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec
ignis, &c. cum venit ille dies, &c. parte tamen meliore mei super alta
perennis astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum_. (This of Ovid I
have paraphrased in English.)
"And when I am dead and gone,
My corpse laid under a stone
My fame shall yet survive,
And I shall be alive,
In these my works for ever,
My glory shall persever," &c.
And that of Ennius,
"Nemo me lachrymis decoret, neque funera fletu
Faxit, cur? volito docta per ora virum."
"Let none shed tears over me, or adorn my bier with sorrow--because I am
eternally in the mouths of men." With many such proud strains, and foolish
flashes too common with writers. Not so much as Democharis on the [1931]
Topics, but he will be immortal. _Typotius de fama_, shall be famous, and
well he deserves, because he writ of fame; and every trivial poet must be
renowned,--_Plausuque petit clarescere vulgi_. "He seeks the applause of
the public." This puffing humour it is, that hath produced so many great
tomes, built such famous monuments, strong castles, and Mausolean tombs, to
have their acts eternised,--_Digito monstrari, et dicier hic est_; "to be
pointed at with the finger, and to have it said 'there he goes,'" to see
their names inscribed, as Phryne on the walls of Thebes, _Phryne fecit_;
this causeth so many bloody battles,--_Et noctes cogit vigilare serenas_;
"and induces us to watch during calm nights." Long journeys, _Magnum iter
intendo, sed dat mihi gloria vires_, "I contemplate a monstrous journey,
but the love of glory strengthens me for it," gaining honour, a little
applause, pride, self-love, vainglory. This is it which makes them take
such pains, and break out into those ridiculous strains, this high conceit
of themselves, to [1932]scorn all others; _ridiculo fastu et intolerando
contemptu_; as [1933]Palaemon the grammarian contemned Varro, _secum et
natas et morituras literas jactans_, and brings them to that height of
insolency, that they cannot endure to be contradicted, [1934]"or hear of
anything but their own commendation," which Hierom notes of such kind of
men. And as [1935]Austin well seconds him, "'tis their sole study day and
night to be commended and applauded." When as indeed, in all wise men's
judgments, _quibus cor sapit_, they are [1936]mad, empty vessels, funges,
beside themselves, derided, _et ut Camelus in proverbio quaerens cornua,
etiam quas habebat aures amisit_, [1937]their works are toys, as an almanac
out of date, [1938]_authoris pereunt garrulitate sui_, they seek fame and
immortality, but reap dishonour and infamy, they are a common obloquy,
_insensati_, and come far short of that which they suppose or expect.
[1939]_O puer ut sis vitalis metuo_,
------"How much I dread
Thy days are short, some lord shall strike thee dead."
Of so many myriads of poets, rhetoricians, philosophers, sophisters, as
[1940]Eusebius well observes, which have written in former ages, scarce one
of a thousand's works remains, _nomina et libri simul cum corporibus
interierunt_, their books and bodies are perished together. It is not as
they vainly think, they shall surely be admired and immortal, as one told
Philip of Macedon insultingly, after a victory, that his shadow was no
longer than before, we may say to them,
"Nos demiramur, sed non cum deside vulgo,
Sed velut Harpyas, Gorgonas, et Furias."
"We marvel too, not as the vulgar we,
But as we Gorgons, Harpies, or Furies see."
Or if we do applaud, honour and admire, _quota pars_, how small a part, in
respect of the whole world, never so much as hears our names, how few take
notice of us, how slender a tract, as scant as Alcibiades' land in a map!
And yet every man must and will be immortal, as he hopes, and extend his
fame to our antipodes, when as half, no not a quarter of his own province
or city, neither knows nor hears of him--but say they did, what's a city to
a kingdom, a kingdom to Europe, Europe to the world, the world itself that
must have an end, if compared to the least visible star in the firmament,
eighteen times bigger than it? and then if those stars be infinite, and
every star there be a sun, as some will, and as this sun of ours hath his
planets about him, all inhabited, what proportion bear we to them, and
where's our glory? _Orbem terrarum victor Romanus habebat_, as he cracked
in Petronius, all the world was under Augustus: and so in Constantine's
time, Eusebius brags he governed all the world, _universum mundum praeclare
admodum administravit,--et omnes orbis gentes Imperatori subjecti_: so of
Alexander it is given out, the four monarchies, &c. when as neither Greeks
nor Romans ever had the fifteenth part of the now known world, nor half of
that which was then described. What braggadocios are they and we then?
_quam brevis hic de nobis sermo_, as [1941]he said, [1942]_pudebit aucti
nominis_, how short a time, how little a while doth this fame of ours
continue? Every private province, every small territory and city, when we
have all done, will yield as generous spirits, as brave examples in all
respects, as famous as ourselves, Cadwallader in Wales, Rollo in Normandy,
Robin Hood and Little John, are as much renowned in Sherwood, as Caesar in
Rome, Alexander in Greece, or his Hephestion, [1943] _Omnis aetas omnisque
populus in exemplum et admirationem veniet_, every town, city, book, is
full of brave soldiers, senators, scholars; and though [1944]Bracyclas was
a worthy captain, a good man, and as they thought, not to be matched in
Lacedaemon, yet as his mother truly said, _plures habet Sparta Bracyda
meliores_, Sparta had many better men than ever he was; and howsoever thou
admirest thyself, thy friend, many an obscure fellow the world never took
notice of, had he been in place or action, would have done much better than
he or he, or thou thyself.
Another kind of mad men there is opposite to these, that are insensibly
mad, and know not of it, such as contemn all praise and glory, think
themselves most free, when as indeed they are most mad: _calcant sed alio
fastu_: a company of cynics, such as are monks, hermits, anchorites, that
contemn the world, contemn themselves, contemn all titles, honours,
offices: and yet in that contempt are more proud than any man living
whatsoever. They are proud in humility, proud in that they are not proud,
_saepe homo de vanae gloriae contemptu, vanius gloriatur_, as Austin hath
it, _confess. lib. 10, cap. 38_, like Diogenes, _intus gloriantur_, they
brag inwardly, and feed themselves fat with a self-conceit of sanctity,
which is no better than hypocrisy. They go in sheep's russet, many great
men that might maintain themselves in cloth of gold, and seem to be
dejected, humble by their outward carriage, when as inwardly they are
swollen full of pride, arrogancy, and self-conceit. And therefore Seneca
adviseth his friend Lucilius, [1945]"in his attire and gesture, outward
actions, especially to avoid all such things as are more notable in
themselves: as a rugged attire, hirsute head, horrid beard, contempt of
money, coarse lodging, and whatsoever leads to fame that opposite way."
All this madness yet proceeds from ourselves, the main engine which batters
us is from others, we are merely passive in this business: from a company
of parasites and flatterers, that with immoderate praise, and bombast
epithets, glossing titles, false eulogiums, so bedaub and applaud, gild
over many a silly and undeserving man, that they clap him quite out of his
wits. _Res imprimis violenta est_, as Hierom notes, this common applause is
a most violent thing, _laudum placenta_, a drum, fife, and trumpet cannot
so animate; that fattens men, erects and dejects them in an instant. [1946]
_Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum_. It makes them fat and lean,
as frost doth conies. [1947]"And who is that mortal man that can so contain
himself, that if he be immoderately commended and applauded, will not be
moved?" Let him be what he will, those parasites will overturn him: if he
be a king, he is one of the nine worthies, more than a man, a god
forthwith,--[1948]_edictum Domini Deique nostri_: and they will sacrifice
unto him,
[1949] ------"divinos si tu patiaris honores,
Ultro ipsi dabimus meritasque sacrabimus aras."
If he be a soldier, then Themistocles, Epaminondas, Hector, Achilles, _duo
fulmina belli, triumviri terrarum_, &c., and the valour of both Scipios is
too little for him, he is _invictissimus, serenissimus, multis trophaeus
ornatissimus, naturae, dominus_, although he be _lepus galeatus_, indeed a
very coward, a milk-sop, [1950]and as he said of Xerxes, _postremus in
pugna, primus in fuga_, and such a one as never durst look his enemy in the
face. If he be a big man, then is he a Samson, another Hercules; if he
pronounce a speech, another Tully or Demosthenes; as of Herod in the Acts,
"the voice of God and not of man:" if he can make a verse, Homer, Virgil,
&c., And then my silly weak patient takes all these eulogiums to himself;
if he be a scholar so commended for his much reading, excellent style,
method, &c., he will eviscerate himself like a spider, study to death,
_Laudatas ostendit avis Junonia pennas_, peacock-like he will display all
his feathers. If he be a soldier, and so applauded, his valour extolled,
though it be _impar congressus_, as that of Troilus and Achilles, _Infelix
puer_, he will combat with a giant, run first upon a breach, as another
[1951]Philippus, he will ride into the thickest of his enemies. Commend his
housekeeping, and he will beggar himself; commend his temperance, he will
starve himself.
------"laudataque virtus
Crescit, et immensum gloria calcar habet."[1952]
he is mad, mad, mad, no woe with him:--_impatiens consortis erit_, he will
over the [1953]Alps to be talked of, or to maintain his credit. Commend an
ambitious man, some proud prince or potentate, _si plus aequo laudetur_
(saith [1954]Erasmus) _cristas erigit, exuit hominem, Deum se putat_, he
sets up his crest, and will be no longer a man but a God.
[1955] ------"nihil est quod credere de se
Non audet quum laudatur diis aequa potestas."[1956]
How did this work with Alexander, that would needs be Jupiter's son, and go
like Hercules in a lion's skin? Domitian a god, [1957](_Dominus Deus noster
sic fieri jubet_,) like the [1958]Persian kings, whose image was adored by
all that came into the city of Babylon. Commodus the emperor was so gulled
by his flattering parasites, that he must be called Hercules.
[1959]Antonius the Roman would be crowned with ivy, carried in a chariot,
and adored for Bacchus. Cotys, king of Thrace, was married to [1960]
Minerva, and sent three several messengers one after another, to see if she
were come to his bedchamber. Such a one was [1961]Jupiter Menecrates,
Maximinus, Jovianus, Dioclesianus Herculeus, Sapor the Persian king,
brother of the sun and moon, and our modern Turks, that will be gods on
earth, kings of kings, God's shadow, commanders of all that may be
commanded, our kings of China and Tartary in this present age. Such a one
was Xerxes, that would whip the sea, fetter Neptune, _stulta jactantia_,
and send a challenge to Mount Athos; and such are many sottish princes,
brought into a fool's paradise by their parasites, 'tis a common humour,
incident to all men, when they are in great places, or come to the solstice
of honour, have done, or deserved well, to applaud and flatter themselves.
_Stultitiam suam produnt_, &c., (saith [1962]Platerus) your very tradesmen
if they be excellent, will crack and brag, and show their folly in excess.
They have good parts, and they know it, you need not tell them of it; out
of a conceit of their worth, they go smiling to themselves, a perpetual
meditation of their trophies and plaudits, they run at last quite mad, and
lose their wits. [1963]Petrarch, _lib. 1 de contemptu mundi_, confessed as
much of himself, and Cardan, in his fifth book of wisdom, gives an instance
in a smith of Milan, a fellow-citizen of his, [1964]one Galeus de Rubeis,
that being commended for refining of an instrument of Archimedes, for joy
ran mad. Plutarch in the life of Artaxerxes, hath such a like story of one
Chamus, a soldier, that wounded king Cyrus in battle, and "grew thereupon
so [1965]arrogant, that in a short space after he lost his wits." So many
men, if any new honour, office, preferment, booty, treasure, possession, or
patrimony, _ex insperato_ fall unto them for immoderate joy, and continual
meditation of it, cannot sleep [1966]or tell what they say or do, they are
so ravished on a sudden; and with vain conceits transported, there is no
rule with them. Epaminondas, therefore, the next day after his Leuctrian
victory, [1967]"came abroad all squalid and submiss," and gave no other
reason to his friends of so doing, than that he perceived himself the day
before, by reason of his good fortune, to be too insolent, overmuch joyed.
That wise and virtuous lady, [1968]Queen Katherine, Dowager of England, in
private talk, upon like occasion, said, that [1969]"she would not willingly
endure the extremity of either fortune; but if it were so, that of
necessity she must undergo the one, she would be in adversity, because
comfort was never wanting in it, but still counsel and government were
defective in the other:" they could not moderate themselves.
SUBSECT. XV.--_Love of Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of
the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy_.
Leonartus Fuchsius _Instit. lib. iii. sect. 1. cap. 1._ Felix Plater, _lib.
iii. de mentis alienat_. Herc. de Saxonia, _Tract. post. de melanch. cap.
3_, speak of a [1970]peculiar fury, which comes by overmuch study.
Fernelius, _lib. 1, cap. 18_, [1971]puts study, contemplation, and
continual meditation, as an especial cause of madness: and in his _86
consul._ cites the same words. Jo. Arculanus, _in lib. 9, Rhasis ad
Alnansorem, cap. 16_, amongst other causes reckons up _studium vehemens_:
so doth Levinus Lemnius, _lib. de occul. nat. mirac. lib. 1, cap. 16._
[1972]"Many men" (saith he) "come to this malady by continual [1973]study,
and night-waking, and of all other men, scholars are most subject to it:"
and such Rhasis adds, [1974]"that have commonly the finest wits." _Cont.
lib. 1, tract. 9_, Marsilius Ficinus, _de sanit. tuenda, lib. 1. cap. 7_,
puts melancholy amongst one of those five principal plagues of students,
'tis a common Maul unto them all, and almost in some measure an inseparable
companion. Varro belike for that cause calls _Tristes Philosophos et
severos_, severe, sad, dry, tetric, are common epithets to scholars: and
[1975]Patritius therefore, in the institution of princes, would not have
them to be great students. For (as Machiavel holds) study weakens their
bodies, dulls the spirits, abates their strength and courage; and good
scholars are never good soldiers, which a certain Goth well perceived, for
when his countrymen came into Greece, and would have burned all their
books, he cried out against it, by no means they should do it, [1976]
"leave them that plague, which in time will consume all their vigour, and
martial spirits." The [1977]Turks abdicated Cornutus the next heir from the
empire, because he was so much given to his book: and 'tis the common tenet
of the world, that learning dulls and diminisheth the spirits, and so _per
consequens_ produceth melancholy.
Two main reasons may be given of it, why students should be more subject to
this malady than others. The one is, they live a sedentary, solitary life,
_sibi et musis_, free from bodily exercise, and those ordinary disports
which other men use: and many times if discontent and idleness concur with
it, which is too frequent, they are precipitated into this gulf on a
sudden: but the common cause is overmuch study; too much learning (as
[1978]Festus told Paul) hath made thee mad; 'tis that other extreme which
effects it. So did Trincavelius, _lib. 1, consil. 12 and 13_, find by his
experience, in two of his patients, a young baron, and another that
contracted this malady by too vehement study. So Forestus, _observat. l.
10, observ. 13_, in a young divine in Louvain, that was mad, and said
[1979]"he had a Bible in his head:" Marsilius Ficinus _de sanit. tuend.
lib. 1, cap. 1, 3, 4_, and _lib. 2, cap. 16_, gives many reasons, [1980]
"why students dote more often than others." The first is their negligence;
[1981]"other men look to their tools, a painter will wash his pencils, a
smith will look to his hammer, anvil, forge; a husbandman will mend his
plough-irons, and grind his hatchet if it be dull; a falconer or huntsman
will have an especial care of his hawks, hounds, horses, dogs, &c.; a
musician will string and unstring his lute, &c.; only scholars neglect that
instrument, their brain and spirits (I mean) which they daily use, and by
which they range overall the world, which by much study is consumed."
_Vide_ (saith Lucian) _ne funiculum nimis intendendo aliquando abrumpas_:
"See thou twist not the rope so hard, till at length it [1982]break."
Facinus in his fourth chap. gives some other reasons; Saturn and Mercury,
the patrons of learning, they are both dry planets: and Origanus assigns
the same cause, why Mercurialists are so poor, and most part beggars; for
that their president Mercury had no better fortune himself. The destinies
of old put poverty upon him as a punishment; since when, poetry and beggary
are Gemelli, twin-born brats, inseparable companions;
[1983] "And to this day is every scholar poor;
Gross gold from them runs headlong to the boor:"
Mercury can help them to knowledge, but not to money. The second is
contemplation, [1984]"which dries the brain and extinguisheth natural heat;
for whilst the spirits are intent to meditation above in the head, the
stomach and liver are left destitute, and thence come black blood and
crudities by defect of concoction, and for want of exercise the superfluous
vapours cannot exhale," &c. The same reasons are repeated by Gomesius,
_lib. 4, cap. 1, de sale_ [1985]Nymannus _orat. de Imag._ Jo. Voschius,
_lib. 2, cap. 5, de peste_: and something more they add, that hard students
are commonly troubled with gouts, catarrhs, rheums, cachexia, bradiopepsia,
bad eyes, stone and colic, [1986]crudities, oppilations, vertigo, winds,
consumptions, and all such diseases as come by overmuch sitting; they are
most part lean, dry, ill-coloured, spend their fortunes, lose their wits,
and many times their lives, and all through immoderate pains, and
extraordinary studies. If you will not believe the truth of this, look upon
great Tostatus and Thomas Aquinas's works, and tell me whether those men
took pains? peruse Austin, Hierom, &c., and many thousands besides.
"Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam,
Multa tulit, fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit."
"He that desires this wished goal to gain,
Must sweat and freeze before he can attain,"
and labour hard for it. So did Seneca, by his own confession, _ep. 8._
[1987]"Not a day that I spend idle, part of the night I keep mine eyes
open, tired with waking, and now slumbering to their continual task." Hear
Tully _pro Archia Poeta_: "whilst others loitered, and took their
pleasures, he was continually at his book," so they do that will be
scholars, and that to the hazard (I say) of their healths, fortunes, wits,
and lives. How much did Aristotle and Ptolemy spend? _unius regni precium_
they say, more than a king's ransom; how many crowns per annum, to perfect
arts, the one about his History of Creatures, the other on his Almagest?
How much time did Thebet Benchorat employ, to find out the motion of the
eighth sphere? forty years and more, some write: how many poor scholars
have lost their wits, or become dizzards, neglecting all worldly affairs
and their own health, wealth, _esse_ and _bene esse_, to gain knowledge for
which, after all their pains, in this world's esteem they are accounted
ridiculous and silly fools, idiots, asses, and (as oft they are) rejected,
contemned, derided, doting, and mad. Look for examples in Hildesheim
_spicel. 2, de mania et delirio_: read Trincavellius, _l. 3. consil. 36, et
c. 17._ Montanus, _consil. 233._ [1988]Garceus _de Judic. genit. cap. 33._
Mercurialis, _consil. 86, cap. 25._ Prosper [1989]Calenius in his Book _de
atra bile_; Go to Bedlam and ask. Or if they keep their wits, yet they are
esteemed scrubs and fools by reason of their carriage: "after seven years'
study"
------"statua, taciturnius exit,
Plerumque et risum populi quatit."------
"He becomes more silent than a statue, and generally excites people's
laughter." Because they cannot ride a horse, which every clown can do;
salute and court a gentlewoman, carve at table, cringe and make conges,
which every common swasher can do, [1990]_hos populus ridet_, &c., they are
laughed to scorn, and accounted silly fools by our gallants. Yea, many
times, such is their misery, they deserve it: [1991]a mere scholar, a mere
ass.
[1992] "Obstipo capite, et figentes lumine terram,
Murmura cum secum, et rabiosa silentia rodunt,
Atque experrecto trutinantur verba labello,
Aegroti veteris meditantes somnia, gigni
De nihilo nihilum; in nihilum nil posse reverti."
[1993] ------"who do lean awry
Their heads, piercing the earth with a fixt eye;
When, by themselves, they gnaw their murmuring,
And furious silence, as 'twere balancing
Each word upon their out-stretched lip, and when
They meditate the dreams of old sick men,
As, 'Out of nothing, nothing can be brought;
And that which is, can ne'er be turn'd to nought.'"
Thus they go commonly meditating unto themselves, thus they sit, such is
their action and gesture. Fulgosus, _l. 8, c. 7_, makes mention how Th.
Aquinas supping with king Lewis of France, upon a sudden knocked his fist
upon the table, and cried, _conclusum est contra Manichaeos_, his wits were
a wool-gathering, as they say, and his head busied about other matters,
when he perceived his error, he was much [1994]abashed. Such a story there
is of Archimedes in Vitruvius, that having found out the means to know how
much gold was mingled with the silver in king Hieron's crown, ran naked
forth of the bath and cried [Greek: heuraeka], I have found: [1995]"and was
commonly so intent to his studies, that he never perceived what was done
about him: when the city was taken, and the soldiers now ready to rifle his
house, he took no notice of it." St. Bernard rode all day long by the
Lemnian lake, and asked at last where he was, Marullus, _lib. 2, cap. 4._
It was Democritus's carriage alone that made the Abderites suppose him to
have been mad, and send for Hippocrates to cure him: if he had been in any
solemn company, he would upon all occasions fall a laughing. Theophrastus
saith as much of Heraclitus, for that he continually wept, and Laertius of
Menedemus Lampsacus, because he ran like a madman, [1996]saying, "he came
from hell as a spy, to tell the devils what mortal men did." Your greatest
students are commonly no better, silly, soft fellows in their outward
behaviour, absurd, ridiculous to others, and no whit experienced in worldly
business; they can measure the heavens, range over the world, teach others
wisdom, and yet in bargains and contracts they are circumvented by every
base tradesman. Are not these men fools? and how should they be otherwise,
"but as so many sots in schools, when" (as [1997]he well observed) "they
neither hear nor see such things as are commonly practised abroad?" how
should they get experience, by what means? [1998]"I knew in my time many
scholars," saith Aeneas Sylvius (in an epistle of his to Gasper Scitick,
chancellor to the emperor), "excellent well learned, but so rude, so silly,
that they had no common civility, nor knew how to manage their domestic or
public affairs." "Paglarensis was amazed, and said his farmer had surely
cozened him, when he heard him tell that his sow had eleven pigs, and his
ass had but one foal." To say the best of this profession, I can give no
other testimony of them in general, than that of Pliny of Isaeus; [1999]"He
is yet a scholar, than which kind of men there is nothing so simple, so
sincere, none better, they are most part harmless, honest, upright,
innocent, plain-dealing men."
Now because they are commonly subject to such hazards and inconveniences as
dotage, madness, simplicity, &c. Jo. Voschius would have good scholars to
be highly rewarded, and had in some extraordinary respect above other men,
"to have greater [2000]privileges than the rest, that adventure themselves
and abbreviate their lives for the public good." But our patrons of
learning are so far nowadays from respecting the muses, and giving that
honour to scholars, or reward which they deserve, and are allowed by those
indulgent privileges of many noble princes, that after all their pains
taken in the universities, cost and charge, expenses, irksome hours,
laborious tasks, wearisome days, dangers, hazards, (barred interim from all
pleasures which other men have, mewed up like hawks all their lives) if
they chance to wade through them, they shall in the end be rejected,
contemned, and which is their greatest misery, driven to their shifts,
exposed to want, poverty, and beggary. Their familiar attendants are,
[2001] "Pallentes morbi, luctus, curaeque laborque
Et metus, et malesuada fames, et turpis egestas,
Terribiles visu formae"------
"Grief, labour, care, pale sickness, miseries,
Fear, filthy poverty, hunger that cries,
Terrible monsters to be seen with eyes."
If there were nothing else to trouble them, the conceit of this alone were
enough to make them all melancholy. Most other trades and professions,
after some seven years' apprenticeship, are enabled by their craft to live
of themselves. A merchant adventures his goods at sea, and though his
hazard be great, yet if one ship return of four, he likely makes a saving
voyage. An husbandman's gains are almost certain; _quibus ipse Jupiter
nocere non potest_ (whom Jove himself can't harm) ('tis [2002]Cato's
hyperbole, a great husband himself); only scholars methinks are most
uncertain, unrespected, subject to all casualties, and hazards. For first,
not one of a many proves to be a scholar, all are not capable and docile,
[2003]_ex omniligno non fit Mercurius_: we can make majors and officers
every year, but not scholars: kings can invest knights and barons, as
Sigismund the emperor confessed; universities can give degrees; and _Tu
quod es, e populo quilibet esse potest_; but he nor they, nor all the
world, can give learning, make philosophers, artists, orators, poets; we
can soon say, as Seneca well notes, _O virum bonum, o divitem_, point at a
rich man, a good, a happy man, a prosperous man, _sumptuose vestitum,
Calamistratum, bene olentem, magno temporis impendio constat haec laudatio,
o virum literarum_, but 'tis not so easily performed to find out a learned
man. Learning is not so quickly got, though they may be willing to take
pains, to that end sufficiently informed, and liberally maintained by their
patrons and parents, yet few can compass it. Or if they be docile, yet all
men's wills are not answerable to their wits, they can apprehend, but will
not take pains; they are either seduced by bad companions, _vel in puellam
impingunt, vel in poculum_ (they fall in with women or wine) and so spend
their time to their friends' grief and their own undoings. Or put case they
be studious, industrious, of ripe wits, and perhaps good capacities, then
how many diseases of body and mind must they encounter? No labour in the
world like unto study. It may be, their temperature will not endure it, but
striving to be excellent to know all, they lose health, wealth, wit, life
and all. Let him yet happily escape all these hazards, _aereis intestinis_
with a body of brass, and is now consummate and ripe, he hath profited in
his studies, and proceeded with all applause: after many expenses, he is
fit for preferment, where shall he have it? he is as far to seek it as he
was (after twenty years' standing) at the first day of his coming to the
University. For what course shall he take, being now capable and ready? The
most parable and easy, and about which many are employed, is to teach a
school, turn lecturer or curate, and for that he shall have falconer's
wages, ten pound per annum, and his diet, or some small stipend, so long as
he can please his patron or the parish; if they approve him not (for
usually they do but a year or two) as inconstant, as [2004]they that cried
"Hosanna" one day, and "Crucify him" the other; serving-man-like, he must
go look a new master; if they do, what is his reward?
[2005] "Hoc quoque te manet ut pueros elementa docentem
Occupet extremis in vicis alba senectus."
"At last thy snow-white age in suburb schools,
Shall toil in teaching boys their grammar rules."
Like an ass, he wears out his time for provender, and can show a stump rod,
_togam tritam et laceram_ saith [2006]Haedus, an old torn gown, an ensign
of his infelicity, he hath his labour for his pain, a modicum to keep him
till he be decrepit, and that is all. _Grammaticus non est felix_, &c. If
he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's house, as it befell [2007]
Euphormio, after some seven years' service, he may perchance have a living
to the halves, or some small rectory with the mother of the maids at
length, a poor kinswoman, or a cracked chambermaid, to have and to hold
during the time of his life. But if he offend his good patron, or displease
his lady mistress in the mean time,
[2008] "Ducetur Planta velut ictus ab Hercule Cacus,
Poneturque foras, si quid tentaverit unquam
Hiscere"------
as Hercules did by Cacus, he shall be dragged forth of doors by the heels,
away with him. If he bend his forces to some other studies, with an intent
to be _a secretis_ to some nobleman, or in such a place with an ambassador,
he shall find that these persons rise like apprentices one under another,
and in so many tradesmen's shops, when the master is dead, the foreman of
the shop commonly steps in his place. Now for poets, rhetoricians,
historians, philosophers, [2009]mathematicians, sophisters, &c.; they are
like grasshoppers, sing they must in summer, and pine in the winter, for
there is no preferment for them. Even so they were at first, if you will
believe that pleasant tale of Socrates, which he told fair Phaedrus under a
plane-tree, at the banks of the river Iseus; about noon when it was hot,
and the grasshoppers made a noise, he took that sweet occasion to tell him
a tale, how grasshoppers were once scholars, musicians, poets, &c., before
the Muses were born, and lived without meat and drink, and for that cause
were turned by Jupiter into grasshoppers. And may be turned again, _In
Tythoni Cicadas, aut Lyciorum ranas_, for any reward I see they are like to
have: or else in the mean time, I would they could live, as they did,
without any viaticum, like so many [2010]manucodiatae, those Indian birds
of paradise, as we commonly call them, those I mean that live with the air
and dew of heaven, and need no other food; for being as they are, their
[2011]"rhetoric only serves them to curse their bad fortunes," and many of
them for want of means are driven to hard shifts; from grasshoppers they
turn humble-bees and wasps, plain parasites, and make the muses, mules, to
satisfy their hunger-starved paunches, and get a meal's meat. To say truth,
'tis the common fortune of most scholars, to be servile and poor, to
complain pitifully, and lay open their wants to their respectless patrons,
as [2012]Cardan doth, as [2013]Xilander and many others: and which is too
common in those dedicatory epistles, for hope of gain, to lie, flatter, and
with hyperbolical eulogiums and commendations, to magnify and extol an
illiterate unworthy idiot, for his excellent virtues, whom they should
rather, as [2014]Machiavel observes, vilify, and rail at downright for his
most notorious villainies and vices. So they prostitute themselves as
fiddlers, or mercenary tradesmen, to serve great men's turns for a small
reward. They are like [2015]Indians, they have store of gold, but know not
the worth of it: for I am of Synesius's opinion, [2016]"King Hieron got
more by Simonides' acquaintance, than Simonides did by his;" they have
their best education, good institution, sole qualification from us, and
when they have done well, their honour and immortality from us: we are the
living tombs, registers, and as so many trumpeters of their fames: what was
Achilles without Homer? Alexander without Arian and Curtius? who had known
the Caesars, but for Suetonius and Dion?
[2017] "Vixerunt fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi: sed omnes illachrymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro."
"Before great Agamemnon reign'd,
Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave,
Whose huge ambition's now contain'd
In the small compass of a grave:"
"In endless night, they sleep, unwept, unknown,
No bard they had to make all time their own."
they are more beholden to scholars, than scholars to them; but they
undervalue themselves, and so by those great men are kept down. Let them
have that encyclopaedian, all the learning in the world; they must keep it
to themselves, [2018]"live in base esteem, and starve, except they will
submit," as Budaeus well hath it, "so many good parts, so many ensigns of
arts, virtues, be slavishly obnoxious to some illiterate potentate, and
live under his insolent worship, or honour, like parasites," _Qui tanquam
mures alienum panem comedunt_. For to say truth, _artes hae, non sunt
Lucrativae_, as Guido Bonat that great astrologer could foresee, they be
not gainful arts these, _sed esurientes et famelicae_, but poor and hungry.
[2019] "Dat Galenus opes, dat Justinianus honores,
Sed genus et species cogitur ire pedes:"
"The rich physician, honour'd lawyers ride,
Whilst the poor scholar foots it by their side."
Poverty is the muses' patrimony, and as that poetical divinity teacheth us,
when Jupiter's daughters were each of them married to the gods, the muses
alone were left solitary, Helicon forsaken of all suitors, and I believe it
was, because they had no portion.
"Calliope longum caelebs cur vixit in aevum?
Nempe nihil dotis, quod numeraret, erat."
"Why did Calliope live so long a maid?
Because she had no dowry to be paid."
Ever since all their followers are poor, forsaken and left unto themselves.
Insomuch, that as [2020]Petronius argues, you shall likely know them by
their clothes. "There came," saith he, "by chance into my company, a fellow
not very spruce to look on, that I could perceive by that note alone he was
a scholar, whom commonly rich men hate: I asked him what he was, he
answered, a poet: I demanded again why he was so ragged, he told me this
kind of learning never made any man rich."
[2021] "Qui Pelago credit, magno se faenore tollit,
Qui pugnas et rostra petit, praecingitur auro:
Vilis adulator picto jacet ebrius ostro,
Sola pruinosis horret facundia pannis."
"A merchant's gain is great, that goes to sea;
A soldier embossed all in gold;
A flatterer lies fox'd in brave array;
A scholar only ragged to behold."
All which our ordinary students, right well perceiving in the universities,
how unprofitable these poetical, mathematical, and philosophical studies
are, how little respected, how few patrons; apply themselves in all haste
to those three commodious professions of law, physic, and divinity, sharing
themselves between them, [2022]rejecting these arts in the mean time,
history, philosophy, philology, or lightly passing them over, as pleasant
toys fitting only table-talk, and to furnish them with discourse. They are
not so behoveful: he that can tell his money hath arithmetic enough: he is
a true geometrician, can measure out a good fortune to himself; a perfect
astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others, and mark their
errant motions to his own use. The best optics are, to reflect the beams of
some great man's favour and grace to shine upon him. He is a good engineer
that alone can make an instrument to get preferment. This was the common
tenet and practice of Poland, as Cromerus observed not long since, in the
first book of his history; their universities were generally base, not a
philosopher, a mathematician, an antiquary, &c., to be found of any note
amongst them, because they had no set reward or stipend, but every man
betook himself to divinity, _hoc solum in votis habens, opimum
sacerdotium_, a good parsonage was their aim. This was the practice of some
of our near neighbours, as [2023]Lipsius inveighs, "they thrust their
children to the study of law and divinity, before they be informed aright,
or capable of such studies." _Scilicet omnibus artibus antistat spes lucri,
et formosior est cumulus auri, quam quicquid Graeci Latinique delirantes
scripserunt. Ex hoc numero deinde veniunt ad gubernacula reipub. intersunt
et praesunt consiliis regum, o pater, o patria_? so he complained, and so
may others. For even so we find, to serve a great man, to get an office in
some bishop's court (to practise in some good town) or compass a benefice,
is the mark we shoot at, as being so advantageous, the highway to
preferment.
Although many times, for aught I can see, these men fail as often as the
rest in their projects, and are as usually frustrate of their hopes. For
let him be a doctor of the law, an excellent civilian of good worth, where
shall he practise and expatiate? Their fields are so scant, the civil law
with us so contracted with prohibitions, so few causes, by reason of those
all-devouring municipal laws, _quibus nihil illiteratius_, saith [2024]
Erasmus, an illiterate and a barbarous study, (for though they be never so
well learned in it, I can hardly vouchsafe them the name of scholars,
except they be otherwise qualified) and so few courts are left to that
profession, such slender offices, and those commonly to be compassed at
such dear rates, that I know not how an ingenious man should thrive amongst
them. Now for physicians, there are in every village so many mountebanks,
empirics, quacksalvers, Paracelsians, as they call themselves, _Caucifici
et sanicidae_ so [2025]Clenard terms them, wizards, alchemists, poor
vicars, cast apothecaries, physicians' men, barbers, and good wives,
professing great skill, that I make great doubt how they shall be
maintained, or who shall be their patients. Besides, there are so many of
both sorts, and some of them such harpies, so covetous, so clamorous, so
impudent; and as [2026]he said, litigious idiots,
"Quibus loquacis affatim arrogantiae est
Pentiae parum aut nihil,
Nec ulla mica literarii salis,
Crumenimulga natio:
Loquuteleia turba, litium strophae,
Maligna litigantium cohors, togati vultures,"
"Lavernae alumni, Agyrtae," &c.
"Which have no skill but prating arrogance,
No learning, such a purse-milking nation:
Gown'd vultures, thieves, and a litigious rout
Of cozeners, that haunt this occupation,"
that they cannot well tell how to live one by another, but as he jested in
the Comedy of Clocks, they were so many, [2027]_major pars populi arida
reptant fame_, they are almost starved a great part of them, and ready to
devour their fellows, [2028]_Et noxia callidilate se corripere_, such a
multitude of pettifoggers and empirics, such impostors, that an honest man
knows not in what sort to compose and behave himself in their society, to
carry himself with credit in so vile a rout, _scientiae nomen, tot
sumptibus partum et vigiliis, profiteri dispudeat, postquam_, &c.
Last of all to come to our divines, the most noble profession and worthy of
double honour, but of all others the most distressed and miserable. If you
will not believe me, hear a brief of it, as it was not many years since
publicly preached at Paul's cross, [2029]by a grave minister then, and now
a reverend bishop of this land: "We that are bred up in learning, and
destinated by our parents to this end, we suffer our childhood in the
grammar-school, which Austin calls _magnam tyrannidem, et grave malum_, and
compares it to the torments of martyrdom; when we come to the university,
if we live of the college allowance, as Phalaris objected to the Leontines,
[Greek: pan ton endeis plaen limou kai phobou], needy of all things but
hunger and fear, or if we be maintained but partly by our parents' cost, do
expend in unnecessary maintenance, books and degrees, before we come to any
perfection, five hundred pounds, or a thousand marks. If by this price of
the expense of time, our bodies and spirits, our substance and patrimonies,
we cannot purchase those small rewards, which are ours by law, and the
right of inheritance, a poor parsonage, or a vicarage of 50_l._ per annum,
but we must pay to the patron for the lease of a life (a spent and out-worn
life) either in annual pension, or above the rate of a copyhold, and that
with the hazard and loss of our souls, by simony and perjury, and the
forfeiture of all our spiritual preferments, in _esse_ and _posse_, both
present and to come. What father after a while will be so improvident to
bring up his son to his great charge, to this necessary beggary? What
Christian will be so irreligious, to bring up his son in that course of
life, which by all probability and necessity, _cogit ad turpia_, enforcing
to sin, will entangle him in simony and perjury, when as the poet said,
_Invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit_: a beggar's brat taken from
the bridge where he sits a begging, if he knew the inconvenience, had cause
to refuse it." This being thus, have not we fished fair all this while,
that are initiate divines, to find no better fruits of our labours, [2030]
_hoc est cur palles, cur quis non prandeat hoc est_? do we macerate
ourselves for this? Is it for this we rise so early all the year long?
[2031]"Leaping" (as he saith) "out of our beds, when we hear the bell ring,
as if we had heard a thunderclap." If this be all the respect, reward and
honour we shall have, [2032]_frange leves calamos, et scinde Thalia
libellos_: let us give over our books, and betake ourselves to some other
course of life; to what end should we study? [2033]_Quid me litterulas
stulti docuere parentes_, what did our parents mean to make us scholars, to
be as far to seek of preferment after twenty years' study, as we were at
first: why do we take such pains? _Quid tantum insanis juvat impallescere
chartis_? If there be no more hope of reward, no better encouragement, I
say again, _Frange leves calamos, et scinde Thalia libellos_; let's turn
soldiers, sell our books, and buy swords, guns, and pikes, or stop bottles
with them, turn our philosopher's gowns, as Cleanthes once did, into
millers' coats, leave all and rather betake ourselves to any other course
of life, than to continue longer in this misery. [2034]_Praestat
dentiscalpia radere, quam literariis monumentis magnatum favorem
emendicare_.
Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words, that though this
be true which I have said of the estate of scholars, and especially of
divines, that it is miserable and distressed at this time, that the church
suffers shipwreck of her goods, and that they have just cause to complain;
there is a fault, but whence proceeds it? If the cause were justly
examined, it would be retorted upon ourselves, if we were cited at that
tribunal of truth, we should be found guilty, and not able to excuse it
That there is a fault among us, I confess, and were there not a buyer,
there would not be a seller; but to him that will consider better of it, it
will more than manifestly appear, that the fountain of these miseries
proceeds from these griping patrons. In accusing them, I do not altogether
excuse us; both are faulty, they and we: yet in my judgment, theirs is the
greater fault, more apparent causes and much to be condemned. For my part,
if it be not with me as I would, or as it should, I do ascribe the cause,
as [2035]Cardan did in the like case; _meo infortunio potius quam illorum
sceleri_, to [2036]mine own infelicity rather than their naughtiness:
although I have been baffled in my time by some of them, and have as just
cause to complain as another: or rather indeed to mine own negligence; for
I was ever like that Alexander in [2037]Plutarch, Crassus his tutor in
philosophy, who, though he lived many years familiarly with rich Crassus,
was even as poor when from, (which many wondered at) as when he came first
to him; he never asked, the other never gave him anything; when he
travelled with Crassus he borrowed a hat of him, at his return restored it
again. I have had some such noble friends' acquaintance and scholars, but
most part (common courtesies and ordinary respects excepted) they and I
parted as we met, they gave me as much as I requested, and that was--And as
Alexander ab Alexandro _Genial. dier. l. 6. c. 16._ made answer to
Hieronymus Massainus, that wondered, _quum plures ignavos et ignobiles ad
dignitates et sacerdotia promotos quotidie videret_, when other men rose,
still he was in the same state, _eodem tenore et fortuna cui mercedem
laborum studiorumque deberi putaret_, whom he thought to deserve as well as
the rest. He made answer, that he was content with his present estate, was
not ambitious, and although _objurgabundus suam segnitiem accusaret, cum
obscurae sortis homines ad sacerdotia et pontificatus evectos_, &c., he
chid him for his backwardness, yet he was still the same: and for my part
(though I be not worthy perhaps to carry Alexander's books) yet by some
overweening and well-wishing friends, the like speeches have been used to
me; but I replied still with Alexander, that I had enough, and more
peradventure than I deserved; and with Libanius Sophista, that rather chose
(when honours and offices by the emperor were offered unto him) to be
_talis Sophista, quam tails Magistratus_. I had as lief be still Democritus
junior, and _privus privatus, si mihi jam daretur optio, quam talis
fortasse Doctor, talis Dominus.--Sed quorsum haec_? For the rest 'tis on
both sides _facinus detestandum_, to buy and sell livings, to detain from
the church, that which God's and men's laws have bestowed on it; but in
them most, and that from the covetousness and ignorance of such as are
interested in this business; I name covetousness in the first place, as the
root of all these mischiefs, which, Achan-like, compels them to commit
sacrilege, and to make simoniacal compacts, (and what not) to their own
ends, [2038]that kindles God's wrath, brings a plague, vengeance, and a
heavy visitation upon themselves and others. Some out of that insatiable
desire of filthy lucre, to be enriched, care not how they come by it _per
fas et nefas_, hook or crook, so they have it. And others when they have
with riot and prodigality embezzled their estates, to recover themselves,
make a prey of the church, robbing it, as [2039]Julian the apostate did,
spoil parsons of their revenues (in keeping half back, [2040]as a great man
amongst us observes:) "and that maintenance on which they should live:" by
means whereof, barbarism is increased, and a great decay of Christian
professors: for who will apply himself to these divine studies, his son, or
friend, when after great pains taken, they shall have nothing whereupon to
live? But with what event do they these things?
[2041] "Opesque totis viribus venamini
At inde messis accidit miserrima."
They toil and moil, but what reap they? They are commonly unfortunate
families that use it, accursed in their progeny, and, as common experience
evinceth, accursed themselves in all their proceedings. "With what face"
(as [2042]he quotes out of Aust.) "can they expect a blessing or
inheritance from Christ in heaven, that defraud Christ of his inheritance
here on earth?" I would all our simoniacal patrons, and such as detain
tithes, would read those judicious tracts of Sir Henry Spelman, and Sir
James Sempill, knights; those late elaborate and learned treatises of Dr.
Tilslye, and Mr. Montague, which they have written of that subject. But
though they should read, it would be to small purpose, _clames licet et
mare coelo Confundas_; thunder, lighten, preach hell and damnation, tell
them 'tis a sin, they will not believe it; denounce and terrify, they have
[2043]cauterised consciences, they do not attend, as the enchanted adder,
they stop their ears. Call them base, irreligious, profane, barbarous,
pagans, atheists, epicures, (as some of them surely are) with the bawd in
Plautus, _Euge, optime_, they cry and applaud themselves with that miser,
[2044]_simul ac nummos contemplor in arca_: say what you will, _quocunque
modo rem_: as a dog barks at the moon, to no purpose are your sayings: Take
your heaven, let them have money. A base, profane, epicurean, hypocritical
rout: for my part, let them pretend what zeal they will, counterfeit
religion, blear the world's eyes, bombast themselves, and stuff out their
greatness with church spoils, shine like so many peacocks; so cold is my
charity, so defective in this behalf, that I shall never think better of
them, than that they are rotten at core, their bones are full of epicurean
hypocrisy, and atheistical marrow, they are worse than heathens. For as
Dionysius Halicarnassaeus observes, _Antiq. Rom. lib. 7._ [2045]_Primum
locum_, &c. "Greeks and Barbarians observe all religious rites, and dare
not break them for fear of offending their gods;" but our simoniacal
contractors, our senseless Achans, our stupefied patrons, fear neither God
nor devil, they have evasions for it, it is no sin, or not due _jure
divino_, or if a sin, no great sin, &c. And though they be daily punished
for it, and they do manifestly perceive, that as he said, frost and fraud
come to foul ends; yet as [2046]Chrysostom follows it _Nulla ex poena sit
correctio, et quasi adversis malitia hominum provocetur, crescit quotidie
quod puniatur_: they are rather worse than better,--_iram atque animos a
crimine sumunt_, and the more they are corrected, the more they offend: but
let them take their course, [2047]_Rode caper vites_, go on still as they
begin, 'tis no sin, let them rejoice secure, God's vengeance will overtake
them in the end, and these ill-gotten goods, as an eagle's feathers, [2048]
will consume the rest of their substance; it is [2049]_aurum Tholosanum_,
and will produce no better effects. [2050]"Let them lay it up safe, and
make their conveyances never so close, lock and shut door," saith
Chrysostom, "yet fraud and covetousness, two most violent thieves are still
included, and a little gain evil gotten will subvert the rest of their
goods." The eagle in Aesop, seeing a piece of flesh now ready to be
sacrificed, swept it away with her claws, and carried it to her nest; but
there was a burning coal stuck to it by chance, which unawares consumed her
young ones, nest, and all together. Let our simoniacal church-chopping
patrons, and sacrilegious harpies, look for no better success.
A second cause is ignorance, and from thence contempt, _successit odium in
literas ab ignorantia vulgi_; which [2051]Junius well perceived: this
hatred and contempt of learning proceeds out of [2052]ignorance; as they
are themselves barbarous, idiots, dull, illiterate, and proud, so they
esteem of others. _Sint Mecaenates, non deerunt Flacce Marones_: Let there
be bountiful patrons, and there will be painful scholars in all sciences.
But when they contemn learning, and think themselves sufficiently
qualified, if they can write and read, scramble at a piece of evidence, or
have so much Latin as that emperor had, [2053]_qui nescit dissimulare,
nescit vivere_, they are unfit to do their country service, to perform or
undertake any action or employment, which may tend to the good of a
commonwealth, except it be to fight, or to do country justice, with common
sense, which every yeoman can likewise do. And so they bring up their
children, rude as they are themselves, unqualified, untaught, uncivil most
part. [2054]_Quis e nostra juventute legitime instituitur literis? Quis
oratores aut Philosophos tangit? quis historiam legit, illam rerum
agendarum quasi animam? praecipitant parentes vota sua_, &c. 'twas Lipsius'
complaint to his illiterate countrymen, it may be ours. Now shall these men
judge of a scholar's worth, that have no worth, that know not what belongs
to a student's labours, that cannot distinguish between a true scholar and
a drone? or him that by reason of a voluble tongue, a strong voice, a
pleasing tone, and some trivially polyanthean helps, steals and gleans a
few notes from other men's harvests, and so makes a fairer show, than he
that is truly learned indeed: that thinks it no more to preach, than to
speak, [2055]"or to run away with an empty cart;" as a grave man said: and
thereupon vilify us, and our pains; scorn us, and all learning. [2056]
Because they are rich, and have other means to live, they think it concerns
them not to know, or to trouble themselves with it; a fitter task for
younger brothers, or poor men's sons, to be pen and inkhorn men, pedantical
slaves, and no whit beseeming the calling of a gentleman, as Frenchmen and
Germans commonly do, neglect therefore all human learning, what have they
to do with it? Let mariners learn astronomy; merchants, factors study
arithmetic; surveyors get them geometry; spectacle-makers optics;
land-leapers geography; town-clerks rhetoric, what should he do with a
spade, that hath no ground to dig; or they with learning, that have no use
of it? thus they reason, and are not ashamed to let mariners, apprentices,
and the basest servants, be better qualified than themselves. In former
times, kings, princes, and emperors, were the only scholars, excellent in
all faculties. Julius Caesar mended the year, and writ his own
Commentaries,
[2057] ------"media inter prealia semper,
Stellarum coelique plagis, superisque vacavit."
[2058]Antonius, Adrian, Nero, Seve. Jul. &c. [2059]Michael the emperor, and
Isacius, were so much given to their studies, that no base fellow would
take so much pains: Orion, Perseus, Alphonsus, Ptolomeus, famous
astronomers; Sabor, Mithridates, Lysimachus, admired physicians: Plato's
kings all: Evax, that Arabian prince, a most expert jeweller, and an
exquisite philosopher; the kings of Egypt were priests of old, chosen and
from thence,--_Idem rex hominum, Phoebique sacerdos_: but those heroical
times are past; the Muses are now banished in this bastard age, _ad sordida
tuguriola_, to meaner persons, and confined alone almost to universities.
In those days, scholars were highly beloved, [2060]honoured, esteemed; as
old Ennius by Scipio Africanus, Virgil by Augustus; Horace by Meceanas:
princes' companions; dear to them, as Anacreon to Polycrates; Philoxenus to
Dionysius, and highly rewarded. Alexander sent Xenocrates the philosopher
fifty talents, because he was poor, _visu rerum, aut eruditione praestantes
viri, mensis olim regum adhibiti_, as Philostratus relates of Adrian and
Lampridius of Alexander Severus: famous clerks came to these princes'
courts, _velut in Lycaeum_, as to a university, and were admitted to their
tables, _quasi divum epulis accumbentes_; Archilaus, that Macedonian king,
would not willingly sup without Euripides, (amongst the rest he drank to
him at supper one night, and gave him a cup of gold for his pains)
_delectatus poetae suavi sermone_; and it was fit it should be so; because
as [2061]Plato in his Protagoras well saith, a good philosopher as much
excels other men, as a great king doth the commons of his country; and
again, [2062]_quoniam illis nihil deest, et minime egere solent, et
disciplinas quas profitentur, soli a contemptu vindicare possunt_, they
needed not to beg so basely, as they compel [2063]scholars in our times to
complain of poverty, or crouch to a rich chuff for a meal's meat, but could
vindicate themselves, and those arts which they professed. Now they would
and cannot: for it is held by some of them, as an axiom, that to keep them
poor, will make them study; they must be dieted, as horses to a race, not
pampered, [2064]_Alendos volunt, non saginandos, ne melioris mentis
flammula extinguatur_; a fat bird will not sing, a fat dog cannot hunt, and
so by this depression of theirs [2065]some want means, others will, all
want [2066]encouragement, as being forsaken almost; and generally
contemned. 'Tis an old saying, _Sint Mecaenates, non deerunt Flacce
Marones_, and 'tis a true saying still. Yet oftentimes I may not deny it
the main fault is in ourselves. Our academics too frequently offend in
neglecting patrons, as [2067]Erasmus well taxeth, or making ill choice of
them; _negligimus oblatos aut amplectimur parum aptos_, or if we get a good
one, _non studemus mutuis officiis favorem ejus alere_, we do not ply and
follow him as we should. _Idem mihi accidit Adolescenti_ (saith Erasmus)
acknowledging his fault, _et gravissime peccavi_, and so may [2068]I say
myself, I have offended in this, and so peradventure have many others. We
did not _spondere magnatum favoribus, qui caeperunt nos amplecti_, apply
ourselves with that readiness we should: idleness, love of liberty,
_immodicus amor libertatis effecit ut diu cum perfidis amicis_, as he
confesseth, _et pertinaci pauperate colluctarer_, bashfulness, melancholy,
timorousness, cause many of us to be too backward and remiss. So some
offend in one extreme, but too many on the other, we are most part too
forward, too solicitous, too ambitious, too impudent; we commonly complain
_deesse Maecenates_, of want of encouragement, want of means, when as the
true defect is in our own want of worth, our insufficiency: did Maecenas
take notice of Horace or Virgil till they had shown themselves first? or
had Bavius and Mevius any patrons? _Egregium specimen dent_, saith Erasmus,
let them approve themselves worthy first, sufficiently qualified for
learning and manners, before they presume or impudently intrude and put
themselves on great men as too many do, with such base flattery,
parasitical colloguing, such hyperbolical elogies they do usually insinuate
that it is a shame to hear and see. _Immodicae laudes conciliant invidiam,
potius quam laudem_, and vain commendations derogate from truth, and we
think in conclusion, _non melius de laudato, pejus de laudante_, ill of
both, the commender and commended. So we offend, but the main fault is in
their harshness, defect of patrons. How beloved of old, and how much
respected was Plato to Dionysius? How dear to Alexander was Aristotle,
Demeratus to Philip, Solon to Croesus, Auexarcus and Trebatius to Augustus,
Cassius to Vespasian, Plutarch to Trajan, Seneca to Nero, Simonides to
Hieron? how honoured?
[2069] "Sed haec prius fuere, nunc recondita
Senent quiete,"
those days are gone; _Et spes, et ratio studiorum in Caesare tantum_:
[2070] as he said of old, we may truly say now, he is our amulet, our
[2071]sun, our sole comfort and refuge, our Ptolemy, our common Maecenas,
_Jacobus munificus, Jacobus pacificus, mysta Musarum, Rex Platonicus:
Grande decus, columenque nostrum_: a famous scholar himself, and the sole
patron, pillar, and sustainer of learning: but his worth in this kind is so
well known, that as Paterculus of Cato, _Jam ipsum laudare nefas sit_: and
which [2072] Pliny to Trajan. _Seria te carmina, honorque aeternus
annalium, non haec brevis et pudenda praedicatio colet_. But he is now
gone, the sun of ours set, and yet no night follows, _Sol occubuit, nox
nulla sequuta est_. We have such another in his room, [2073]_aureus alter.
Avulsus, simili frondescit virga metallo_, and long may he reign and
flourish amongst us.
Let me not be malicious, and lie against my genius, I may not deny, but
that we have a sprinkling of our gentry, here and there one, excellently
well learned, like those Fuggeri in Germany; Dubartus, Du Plessis, Sadael,
in France; Picus Mirandula, Schottus, Barotius, in Italy; _Apparent rari
nantes in gurgite vasto_. But they are but few in respect of the multitude,
the major part (and some again excepted, that are indifferent) are wholly
bent for hawks and hounds, and carried away many times with intemperate
lust, gaming and drinking. If they read a book at any time (_si quod est
interim otii a venatu, poculis, alea, scortis_) 'tis an English Chronicle,
St. Huon of Bordeaux, Amadis de Gaul, &c., a play-book, or some pamphlet of
news, and that at such seasons only, when they cannot stir abroad, to drive
away time, [2074]their sole discourse is dogs, hawks, horses, and what
news? If some one have been a traveller in Italy, or as far as the
emperor's court, wintered in Orleans, and can court his mistress in broken
French, wear his clothes neatly in the newest fashion, sing some choice
outlandish tunes, discourse of lords, ladies, towns, palaces, and cities,
he is complete and to be admired: [2075]otherwise he and they are much at
one; no difference between the master and the man, but worshipful titles;
wink and choose betwixt him that sits down (clothes excepted) and him that
holds the trencher behind him: yet these men must be our patrons, our
governors too sometimes, statesmen, magistrates, noble, great, and wise by
inheritance.
Mistake me not (I say again) _Vos o Patritius sanguis_, you that are worthy
senators, gentlemen, I honour your names and persons, and with all
submissiveness, prostrate myself to your censure and service. There are
amongst you, I do ingenuously confess, many well-deserving patrons, and
true patriots, of my knowledge, besides many hundreds which I never saw, no
doubt, or heard of, pillars of our commonwealth, [2076]whose worth, bounty,
learning, forwardness, true zeal in religion, and good esteem of all
scholars, ought to be consecrated to all posterity; but of your rank, there
are a debauched, corrupt, covetous, illiterate crew again, no better than
stocks, _merum pecus (testor Deum, non mihi videri dignos ingenui hominis
appellatione)_ barbarous Thracians, _et quis ille thrax qui hoc neget_? a
sordid, profane, pernicious company, irreligious, impudent and stupid, I
know not what epithets to give them, enemies to learning, confounders of
the church, and the ruin of a commonwealth; patrons they are by right of
inheritance, and put in trust freely to dispose of such livings to the
church's good; but (hard taskmasters they prove) they take away their
straw, and compel them to make their number of brick: they commonly respect
their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their actions, and him they
present in conclusion, as a man of greatest gifts, that will give most; no
penny, [2077]no paternoster, as the saying is. _Nisi preces auro fulcias,
amplius irritas: ut Cerberus offa_, their attendants and officers must be
bribed, feed, and made, as Cerberus is with a sop by him that goes to hell.
It was an old saying, _Omnia Romae venalia_ (all things are venal at Rome,)
'tis a rag of Popery, which will never be rooted out, there is no hope, no
good to be done without money. A clerk may offer himself, approve his
[2078]worth, learning, honesty, religion, zeal, they will commend him for
it; but [2079]_probitas laudatur et alget_. If he be a man of extraordinary
parts, they will flock afar off to hear him, as they did in Apuleius, to
see Psyche: _multi mortales confluebant ad videndum saeculi decus, speculum
gloriosum, laudatur ab omnibus, spectatur ob omnibus, nec quisquam non rex,
non regius, cupidus ejus nuptiarium petitor accedit; mirantur quidem
divinam formam omnes, sed ut simulacrum fabre politum mirantur_; many
mortal men came to see fair Psyche the glory of her age, they did admire
her, commend, desire her for her divine beauty, and gaze upon her; but as
on a picture; none would marry her, _quod indotato_, fair Psyche had no
money. [2080]So they do by learning;
[2081] ------"didicit jam dives avarus
Tantum admirari, tantum laudare disertos,
Ut pueri Junonis avem"------
"Your rich men have now learn'd of latter days
T'admire, commend, and come together
To hear and see a worthy scholar speak,
As children do a peacock's feather."
He shall have all the good words that may be given, [2082]a proper man, and
'tis pity he hath no preferment, all good wishes, but inexorable, indurate
as he is, he will not prefer him, though it be in his power, because he is
_indotatus_, he hath no money. Or if he do give him entertainment, let him
be never so well qualified, plead affinity, consanguinity, sufficiency, he
shall serve seven years, as Jacob did for Rachel, before he shall have it.
[2083]If he will enter at first, he must get in at that Simoniacal gate,
come off soundly, and put in good security to perform all covenants, else
he will not deal with, or admit him. But if some poor scholar, some parson
chaff, will offer himself; some trencher chaplain, that will take it to the
halves, thirds, or accepts of what he will give, he is welcome; be
conformable, preach as he will have him, he likes him before a million of
others; for the host is always best cheap: and then as Hierom said to
Cromatius, _patella dignum operculum_, such a patron, such a clerk; the
cure is well supplied, and all parties pleased. So that is still verified
in our age, which [2084]Chrysostom complained of in his time, _Qui
opulentiores sunt, in ordinem parasitorum cogunt eos, et ipsos tanquam
canes ad mensas suas enutriunt, eorumque impudentes. Venires iniquarum
coenarum reliquiis differtiunt, iisdem pro arbitro abulentes_: Rich men
keep these lecturers, and fawning parasites, like so many dogs at their
tables, and filling their hungry guts with the offals of their meat, they
abuse them at their pleasure, and make them say what they propose.
[2085]"As children do by a bird or a butterfly in a string, pull in and let
him out as they list, do they by their trencher chaplains, prescribe,
command their wits, let in and out as to them it seems best." If the patron
be precise, so must his chaplain be; if he be papistical, his clerk must be
so too, or else be turned out. These are those clerks which serve the turn,
whom they commonly entertain, and present to church livings, whilst in the
meantime we that are University men, like so many hidebound calves in a
pasture, tarry out our time, wither away as a flower ungathered in a
garden, and are never used; or as so many candles, illuminate ourselves
alone, obscuring one another's light, and are not discerned here at all,
the least of which, translated to a dark room, or to some country benefice,
where it might shine apart, would give a fair light, and be seen over all.
Whilst we lie waiting here as those sick men did at the Pool of [2086]
Bethesda, till the Angel stirred the water, expecting a good hour, they
step between, and beguile us of our preferment. I have not yet said, if
after long expectation, much expense, travel, earnest suit of ourselves and
friends, we obtain a small benefice at last; our misery begins afresh, we
are suddenly encountered with the flesh, world, and devil, with a new
onset; we change a quiet life for an ocean of troubles, we come to a
ruinous house, which before it be habitable, must be necessarily to our
great damage repaired; we are compelled to sue for dilapidations, or else
sued ourselves, and scarce yet settled, we are called upon for our
predecessor's arrearages; first-fruits, tenths, subsidies, are instantly to
be paid, benevolence, procurations, &c., and which is most to be feared, we
light upon a cracked title, as it befell Clenard of Brabant, for his
rectory, and charge of his _Beginae_; he was no sooner inducted, but
instantly sued, _cepimusque_ [2087](saith he) _strenue litigare, et
implacabili bello confligere_: at length after ten years' suit, as long as
Troy's siege, when he had tired himself, and spent his money, he was fain
to leave all for quietness' sake, and give it up to his adversary. Or else
we are insulted over, and trampled on by domineering officers, fleeced by
those greedy harpies to get more fees; we stand in fear of some precedent
lapse; we fall amongst refractory, seditious sectaries, peevish puritans,
perverse papists, a lascivious rout of atheistical Epicures, that will not
be reformed, or some litigious people (those wild beasts of Ephesus must be
fought with) that will not pay their dues without much repining, or
compelled by long suit; _Laici clericis oppido infesti_, an old axiom, all
they think well gotten that is had from the church, and by such uncivil,
harsh dealings, they make their poor minister weary of his place, if not
his life; and put case they be quiet honest men, make the best of it, as
often it falls out, from a polite and terse academic, he must turn rustic,
rude, melancholise alone, learn to forget, or else, as many do, become
maltsters, graziers, chapmen, &c. (now banished from the academy, all
commerce of the muses, and confined to a country village, as Ovid was from
Rome to Pontus), and daily converse with a company of idiots and clowns.
Nos interim quod, attinet (nec enim immunes ab hac noxa sumus) idem realus
manet, idem nobis, et si non multo gravius, crimen objici potest: nostra
enim culpa sit, nostra incuria, nostra avaritia, quod tam frequentes,
foedaeque fiant in Ecclesia nundinationes, (templum est vaenale, deusque)
tot sordes invehantur, tanta grassetur impietas, tanta nequitia, tam
insanus miseriarum Euripus, et turbarum aestuarium, nostro inquam, omnium
(Academicorum imprimis) vitio sit. Quod tot Resp. malis afficiatur, a nobis
seminarium; ultro malum hoc accersimus, et quavis contumelia, quavis
interim miseria digni, qui pro virili non occurrimus. Quid enim fieri posse
speramus, quum tot indies sine delectu pauperes alumni, terrae filii, et
cujuscunque ordinis homunciones ad gradus certatim admittantur? qui si
definitionem, distinctionemque unam aut alteram memoriter edidicerint, et
pro more tot annos in dialectica posuerint, non refert quo profectu, quales
demum sint, idiotae, nugatores, otiatores, aleatores, compotores, indigni,
libidinis voluptatumque administri, "Sponsi Penelopes, nebulones,
Alcinoique," modo tot annos in academia insumpserint, et se pro togatis
venditarint; lucri causa, et amicorum intercessu praesentantur; addo etiam
et magnificis nonnunquam elogiis morum et scientiae; et jam valedicturi
testimonialibus hisce litteris, amplissime conscriptis in eorum gratiam
honorantur, abiis, qui fidei suae et existimationis jacturam proculdubio
faciunt. "Doctores enim et professores" (quod ait [2088]ille) "id unum
curant, ut ex professionibus frequentibus, et tumultuariis potius quam
legitimis, commoda sua promoverant, et ex dispendio publico suum faciant
incrementum." Id solum in votis habent annui plerumque magistratus, ut ab
incipientium numero [2089]pecunias emungant, nec multum interest qui sint,
literatores an literati, modo pingues, nitidi, ad aspectum speciosi, et
quod verbo dicam, pecuniosi sint. [2090]Philosophastri licentiantur in
artibus, artem qui non habent, [2091]"Eosque sapientes esse jubent, qui
nulla praediti sunt sapientia, et nihil ad gradum praeterquam velle
adferunt." Theologastri (solvant modo) satis superque docti, per omnes
honorum gradus evehuntur et ascendunt. Atque hinc fit quod tam viles
scurrae, tot passim idiotae, literarum crepusculo positi, larvae pastorum,
circumforanei, vagi, barbi, fungi, crassi, asini, merum pecus in
sacrosanctos theologiae aditus, illotis pedibus irrumpant, praeter
inverecundam frontem adferentes nihil, vulgares quasdam quisquilias, et
scholarium quaedam nugamenta, indigna quae vel recipiantur in triviis. Hoc
illud indignum genus hominum et famelicum, indigum, vagum, ventris
mancipium, ad stivam potius relegandum, ad haras aptius quam ad aras, quod
divinas hasce literas turpiter prostituit; hi sunt qui pulpita complent, in
aedes nobilium irrepunt, et quum reliquis vitae destituantur subsidiis, ob
corporis et animi egestatem, aliarum in repub. partium minime capaces sint;
ad sacram hanc anchoram confugiunt, sacerdotium quovis modo captantes, non
ex sinceritate, quod [2092]Paulus ait, "sed cauponantes verbum Dei." Ne
quis interim viris bonis detractum quid putet, quos habet ecclesia
Anglicana quamplurimos, eggregie doctos, illustres, intactae famae,
homines, et plures forsan quam quaevis Europae provincia; ne quis a
florentisimis Academiis, quae viros undiquaque doctissimos, omni virtutum
genere suspiciendos, abunde producunt. Et multo plures utraque habitura,
multo splendidior futura, si non hae sordes splendidum lumen ejus
obfuscarent, obstaret corruptio, et cauponantes quaedam harpyae,
proletariique bonum hoc nobis non inviderent. Nemo enim tam caeca mente,
qui non hoc ipsum videat: nemo tam stolido ingenio, qui non intelligat; tam
pertinaci judicio, qui non agnoscat, ab his idiotis circumforaneis, sacram
pollui Theologiam, ac caelestes Musas quasi prophanum quiddam prostitui.
"Viles animae et effrontes" (sic enim Lutherus [2093] alicubi vocat)
"lucelli causa, ut muscae ad mulctra, ad nobilium et heroum mensas
advolant, in spem sacerdotii," cujuslibet honoris, officii, in quamvis
aulam, urbem se ingerunt, ad quodvis se ministerium componunt.-- "Ut nervis
alienis mobile lignum--Ducitur"--Hor. _Lib. II. Sat. 7_. [2094] "offam
sequentes, psittacorum more, in praedae spem quidvis effutiunt:"
obsecundantes Parasiti [2095](Erasmus ait) "quidvis docent, dicunt,
scribunt, suadent, et contra conscientiam probant, non ut salutarem reddant
gregem, sed ut magnificam sibi parent fortunam." [2096]"Opiniones quasvis
et decreta contra verbum Dei astruunt, ne non offendant patronum, sed ut
retineant favorem procerum, et populi plausum, sibique ipsis opes
accumulent." Eo etenim plerunque animo ad Theologiam accedunt, non ut rem
divinam, sed ut suam facient; non ad Ecclesiae bonum promovendum, sed
expilandum; quaerentes, quod Paulus ait, "non quae Jesu Christi, sed quae
sua," non domini thesaurum, sed ut sibi, suisque thesaurizent. Nec tantum
iis, qui vilirrie fortunae, et abjectae, sortis sunt, hoc in usu est: sed
et medios, summos elatos, ne dicam Episcopos, hoc malum invasit. [2097]
"Dicite pontifices, in sacris quid facit aurum?" [2098]"summos saepe viros
transversos agit avaritia," et qui reliquis morum probitate praelucerent;
hi facem praeferunt ad Simoniam, et in corruptionis hunc scopulum
impingentes, non tondent pecus, sed deglubunt, et quocunque se conferunt,
expilant, exhauriunt, abradunt, magnum famae suae, si non animae naufragium
facientes; ut non ab infimis ad summos, sed a summis ad infimos malum
promanasse videatur, et illud verum sit quod ille olim lusit, "emerat ille
prius, vendere jure potest. Simoniacus enim" (quod cum Leone dicam)
"gratiam non accepit, si non accipit, non habet, et si non habet, nec
gratus potest esse;" tantum enim absunt istorum nonnulli, qui ad clavum
sedent a promovendo reliquos, ut penitus impediant, probe sibi conscii,
quibus artibus illic pervenerint. [2099]"Nam qui ob literas emersisse illos
credat, desipit; qui vero ingenii, eruditionis, experientiae, probitatis,
pietatis, et Musarum id esse pretium putat" (quod olim revera fuit, hodie
promittitur) "planissime insanit." Utcunque vel undecunque malum hoc
originem ducat, non ultra quaeram, ex his primordiis caepit vitiorum
colluvies, omnis calamitas, omne miseriarum agmen in Ecclesiam invehitur.
Hinc tam frequens simonia, hinc ortae querelae, fraudes, imposturae, ab hoc
fonte se derivarunt omnes nequitiae. Ne quid obiter dicam de ambitione,
adulatione plusquam aulica, ne tristi domicaenio laborent, de luxu, de
foedo nonnunquam vitae exemplo, quo nonnullos offendunt, de compotatione
Sybaritica, &c. hinc ille squalor academicus, "tristes hac tempestate
Camenae," quum quivis homunculus artium ignarus, hic artibus assurgat, hunc
in modum promoveatur et ditescat, ambitiosis appellationibus insignis, et
multis dignitatibus augustus vulgi oculos perstringat, bene se habeat, et
grandia gradiens majestatem quandam ac amplitudinem prae se ferens,
miramque sollicitudinem, barba reverendus, toga nitidus, purpura coruscus,
supellectilis splendore, et famulorum numero maxime conspicuus. "Quales
statuae" (quod ait [2100]ille) "quae sacris in aedibus columnis imponuntur,
velut oneri cedentes videntur, ac si insudarent, quum revera sensu sint
carentes, et nihil saxeam adjuvent firmitatem:" atlantes videri volunt,
quum sint statuae lapideae, umbratiles revera homunciones, fungi, forsan et
bardi, nihil a saxo differentes. Quum interim docti viri, et vilae
sanctioris ornamentis praediti, qui aestum diei sustinent, his iniqua sorte
serviant, minimo forsan salario contenti, puris nominibus nuncupati,
humiles, obscuri, multoque digniores licet, egentes, inhonorati vitam
privam privatam agant, tenuique sepulti sacerdotio, vel in collegiis suis
in aeternum incarcerati, inglorie delitescant. Sed nolo diutius hanc movere
sentinam, hinc illae lachrymae, lugubris musarum habitus, [2101]hinc ipsa
religio (quod cum Secellio dicam) "in ludibrium et contemptum adducitur,"
abjectum sacerdotium (atque haec ubi fiunt, ausim dicere, et pulidum [2102]
putidi dicterium de clero usurpare) "putidum vulgus," inops, rude,
sordidum, melancholicum, miserum, despicabile, contemnendum.[2103]
MEMB. IV.
SUBSECT. I--_Non-necessary, remote, outward, adventitious, or accidental
causes: as first from the Nurse_.
Of those remote, outward, ambient, necessary causes, I have sufficiently
discoursed in the precedent member, the non-necessary follow; of which,
saith [2104]Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty,
casualty, and multitude; so called "not necessary" because according to
[2105]Fernelius, "they may be avoided, and used without necessity." Many of
these accidental causes, which I shall entreat of here, might have well
been reduced to the former, because they cannot be avoided, but fatally
happen to us, though accidentally, and unawares, at some time or other; the
rest are contingent and inevitable, and more properly inserted in this rank
of causes. To reckon up all is a thing impossible; of some therefore most
remarkable of these contingent causes which produce melancholy, I will
briefly speak and in their order.
From a child's nativity, the first ill accident that can likely befall him
in this kind is a bad nurse, by whose means alone he may be tainted with
this [2106]malady from his cradle, Aulus Gellius _l. 12. c. 1._ brings in
Phavorinus, that eloquent philosopher, proving this at large, [2107] "that
there is the same virtue and property in the milk as in the seed, and not
in men alone, but in all other creatures; he gives instance in a kid and
lamb, if either of them suck of the other's milk, the lamb of the goat's,
or the kid of the ewe's, the wool of the one will be hard, and the hair of
the other soft." Giraldus Cambrensis _Itinerar. Cambriae, l. 1. c. 2._
confirms this by a notable example which happened in his time. A sow-pig by
chance sucked a brach, and when she was grown [2108]"would miraculously
hunt all manner of deer, and that as well, or rather better, than any
ordinary hound." His conclusion is, [2109]"that men and beasts participate
of her nature and conditions by whose milk they are fed." Phavorinus urges
it farther, and demonstrates it more evidently, that if a nurse be
[2110]"misshapen, unchaste, dishonest, impudent, [2111]cruel, or the like,
the child that sucks upon her breast will be so too;" all other affections
of the mind and diseases are almost engrafted, as it were, and imprinted
into the temperature of the infant, by the nurse's milk; as pox, leprosy,
melancholy, &c. Cato for some such reason would make his servants' children
suck upon his wife's breast, because by that means they would love him and
his the better, and in all likelihood agree with them. A more evident
example that the minds are altered by milk cannot be given, than that of
[2112]Dion, which he relates of Caligula's cruelty; it could neither be
imputed to father nor mother, but to his cruel nurse alone, that anointed
her paps with blood still when he sucked, which made him such a murderer,
and to express her cruelty to a hair: and that of Tiberius, who was a
common drunkard, because his nurse was such a one. _Et si delira fuerit_
([2113]one observes) _infantulum delirum faciet_, if she be a fool or dolt,
the child she nurseth will take after her, or otherwise be misaffected;
which Franciscus Barbarus _l. 2. c. ult. de re uxoria_ proves at full, and
Ant. Guivarra, _lib. 2. de Marco Aurelio_: the child will surely
participate. For bodily sickness there is no doubt to be made. Titus,
Vespasian's son, was therefore sickly, because the nurse was so,
Lampridius. And if we may believe physicians, many times children catch the
pox from a bad nurse, Botaldus _cap. 61. de lue vener._ Besides evil
attendance, negligence, and many gross inconveniences, which are incident
to nurses, much danger may so come to the child. [2114]For these causes
Aristotle _Polit. lib. 7. c. 17._ Phavorinus and Marcus Aurelius would not
have a child put to nurse at all, but every mother to bring up her own, of
what condition soever she be; for a sound and able mother to put out her
child to nurse, is _naturae intemperies_, so [2115]Guatso calls it, 'tis
fit therefore she should be nurse herself; the mother will be more careful,
loving, and attendant, than any servile woman, or such hired creatures;
this all the world acknowledgeth, _convenientissimum est_ (as Rod. a Castro
_de nat. mulierum. lib. 4. c. 12._ in many words confesseth) _matrem ipsam
lactare infantem_, "It is most fit that the mother should suckle her own
infant"--who denies that it should be so?--and which some women most
curiously observe; amongst the rest, [2116]that queen of France, a Spaniard
by birth, that was so precise and zealous in this behalf, that when in her
absence a strange nurse had suckled her child, she was never quiet till she
had made the infant vomit it up again. But she was too jealous. If it be
so, as many times it is, they must be put forth, the mother be not fit or
well able to be a nurse, I would then advise such mothers, as
[2117]Plutarch doth in his book _de liberis educandis_ and [2118]S. Hierom,
_li. 2. epist. 27. Laetae de institut. fil. Magninus part 2. Reg. sanit.
cap. 7._ and the said Rodericus, that they make choice of a sound woman, of
a good complexion, honest, free from bodily diseases, if it be possible,
all passions and perturbations of the mind, as sorrow, fear, grief,
[2119]folly, melancholy. For such passions corrupt the milk, and alter the
temperature of the child, which now being [2120] _Udum et molle lutum_, "a
moist and soft clay," is easily seasoned and perverted. And if such a nurse
may be found out, that will be diligent and careful withal, let Phavorinus
and M. Aurelius plead how they can against it, I had rather accept of her
in some cases than the mother herself, and which Bonacialus the physician,
Nic. Biesius the politician, _lib. 4. de repub. cap. 8._ approves,
[2121]"Some nurses are much to be preferred to some mothers." For why may
not the mother be naught, a peevish drunken flirt, a waspish choleric slut,
a crazed piece, a fool (as many mothers are), unsound as soon as the nurse?
There is more choice of nurses than mothers; and therefore except the
mother be most virtuous, staid, a woman of excellent good parts, and of a
sound complexion, I would have all children in such cases committed to
discreet strangers. And 'tis the only way; as by marriage they are
engrafted to other families to alter the breed, or if anything be amiss in
the mother, as Ludovicus Mercatus contends, _Tom. 2. lib. de morb. haered._
to prevent diseases and future maladies, to correct and qualify the child's
ill-disposed temperature, which he had from his parents. This is an
excellent remedy, if good choice be made of such a nurse.
SUBSECT. II.--_Education a Cause of Melancholy_.
Education, of these accidental causes of melancholy, may justly challenge
the next place, for if a man escape a bad nurse, he may be undone by evil
bringing up. [2122]Jason Pratensis puts this of education for a principal
cause; bad parents, stepmothers, tutors, masters, teachers, too rigorous,
too severe, too remiss or indulgent on the other side, are often fountains
and furtherers of this disease. Parents and such as have the tuition and
oversight of children, offend many times in that they are too stern, always
threatening, chiding, brawling, whipping, or striking; by means of which
their poor children are so disheartened and cowed, that they never after
have any courage, a merry hour in their lives, or take pleasure in
anything. There is a great moderation to be had in such things, as matters
of so great moment to the making or marring of a child. Some fright their
children with beggars, bugbears, and hobgoblins, if they cry, or be
otherwise unruly: but they are much to blame in it, many times, saith
Lavater, _de spectris, part. 1, cap. 5._ _ex metu in morbos graves incidunt
et noctu dormientes clamant_, for fear they fall into many diseases, and
cry out in their sleep, and are much the worse for it all their lives:
these things ought not at all, or to be sparingly done, and upon just
occasion. Tyrannical, impatient, hair-brain schoolmasters, _aridi
magistri_, so [2123]Fabius terms them, _Ajaces flagelliferi_, are in this
kind as bad as hangmen and executioners, they make many children endure a
martyrdom all the while they are at school, with bad diet, if they board in
their houses, too much severity and ill-usage, they quite pervert their
temperature of body and mind: still chiding, railing, frowning, lashing,
tasking, keeping, that they are _fracti animis_, moped many times, weary of
their lives, [2124]_nimia severitate deficiunt et desperant_, and think no
slavery in the world (as once I did myself) like to that of a grammar
scholar. _Praeceptorum ineptiis discruciantur ingenia puerorum_, [2125]
saith Erasmus, they tremble at his voice, looks, coming in. St. Austin, in
the first book of his _confess. et 4 ca._ calls this schooling _meliculosam
necessitatem_, and elsewhere a martyrdom, and confesseth of himself, how
cruelly he was tortured in mind for learning Greek, _nulla verba noveram,
et saevis terroribus et poenis, ut nossem, instabatur mihi vehementer_, I
know nothing, and with cruel terrors and punishment I was daily compelled.
[2126]Beza complains in like case of a rigorous schoolmaster in Paris, that
made him by his continual thunder and threats once in a mind to drown
himself, had he not met by the way with an uncle of his that vindicated him
from that misery for the time, by taking him to his house. Trincavellius,
_lib. 1. consil. 16._ had a patient nineteen years of age, extremely
melancholy, _ob nimium studium, Tarvitii et praeceptoris minas_, by reason
of overmuch study, and his [2127]tutor's threats. Many masters are
hard-hearted, and bitter to their servants, and by that means do so deject,
with terrible speeches and hard usage so crucify them, that they become
desperate, and can never be recalled.
Others again, in that opposite extreme, do as great harm by their too much
remissness, they give them no bringing up, no calling to busy themselves
about, or to live in, teach them no trade, or set them in any good course;
by means of which their servants, children, scholars, are carried away with
that stream of drunkenness, idleness, gaming, and many such irregular
courses, that in the end they rue it, curse their parents, and mischief
themselves. Too much indulgence causeth the like, [2128]_inepta patris
lenitas et facilitas prava_, when as Mitio-like, with too much liberty and
too great allowance, they feed their children's humours, let them revel,
wench, riot, swagger, and do what they will themselves, and then punish
them with a noise of musicians;
[2129] "Obsonet, potet, oleat unguenta de meo;
Amat? dabitur a me argentum ubi erit commodum.
Fores effregit? restituentur: descidit
Vestem? resarcietur.--Faciat quod lubet,
Sumat, consumat, perdat, decretum est pati."
But as Demeo told him, _tu illum corrumpi sinis_, your lenity will be his
undoing, _praevidere videor jam diem, illum, quum hic egens profugiet
aliquo militatum_, I foresee his ruin. So parents often err, many fond
mothers especially, dote so much upon their children, like [2130]Aesop's
ape, till in the end they crush them to death, _Corporum nutrices animarum
novercae_, pampering up their bodies to the undoing of their souls: they
will not let them be [2131]corrected or controlled, but still soothed up in
everything they do, that in conclusion "they bring sorrow, shame, heaviness
to their parents" (Ecclus. cap. xxx. 8, 9), "become wanton, stubborn,
wilful, and disobedient;" rude, untaught, headstrong, incorrigible, and
graceless; "they love them so foolishly," saith [2132]Cardan, "that they
rather seem to hate them, bringing them not up to virtue but injury, not to
learning but to riot, not to sober life and conversation, but to all
pleasure and licentious behaviour." Who is he of so little experience that
knows not this of Fabius to be true? [2133]"Education is another nature,
altering the mind and will, and I would to God" (saith he) "we ourselves
did not spoil our children's manners, by our overmuch cockering and nice
education, and weaken the strength of their bodies and minds, that causeth
custom, custom nature," &c. For these causes Plutarch in his book _de lib.
educ._ and Hierom. _epist. lib. 1. epist. 17. to Laeta de institut.
filiae_, gives a most especial charge to all parents, and many good
cautions about bringing up of children, that they be not committed to
indiscreet, passionate, bedlam tutors, light, giddy-headed, or covetous
persons, and spare for no cost, that they may be well nurtured and taught,
it being a matter of so great consequence. For such parents as do
otherwise, Plutarch esteems of them [2134]"that are more careful of their
shoes than of their feet," that rate their wealth above their children. And
he, saith [2135]Cardan, "that leaves his son to a covetous schoolmaster to
be informed, or to a close Abbey to fast and learn wisdom together, doth no
other, than that he be a learned fool, or a sickly wise man."
SUBSECT. III.--_Terrors and Affrights, Causes of Melancholy_.
Tully, in the fourth of his Tusculans, distinguishes these terrors which
arise from the apprehension of some terrible object heard or seen, from
other fears, and so doth Patritius _lib. 5. Tit. 4. de regis institut._ Of
all fears they are most pernicious and violent, and so suddenly alter the
whole temperature of the body, move the soul and spirits, strike such a
deep impression, that the parties can never be recovered, causing more
grievous and fiercer melancholy, as Felix Plater, _c. 3. de mentis
alienat_. [2136]speaks out of his experience, than any inward cause
whatsoever: "and imprints itself so forcibly in the spirits, brain,
humours, that if all the mass of blood were let out of the body, it could
hardly be extracted. This horrible kind of melancholy" (for so he terms it)
"had been often brought before him, and troubles and affrights commonly men
and women, young and old of all sorts." [2137]Hercules de Saxonia calls
this kind of melancholy (_ab agitatione spirituum_) by a peculiar name, it
comes from the agitation, motion, contraction, dilatation of spirits, not
from any distemperature of humours, and produceth strong effects. This
terror is most usually caused, as [2138]Plutarch will have, "from some
imminent danger, when a terrible object is at hand," heard, seen, or
conceived, [2139]"truly appearing, or in a [2140]dream:" and many times the
more sudden the accident, it is the more violent.
[2141] "Stat terror animis, et cor attonitum salit,
Pavidumque trepidis palpitat venis jecur."
"Their soul's affright, their heart amazed quakes,
The trembling liver pants i' th' veins, and aches."
Arthemedorus the grammarian lost his wits by the unexpected sight of a
crocodile, Laurentius _7. de melan_. [2142]The massacre at Lyons, 1572, in
the reign of Charles IX., was so terrible and fearful, that many ran mad,
some died, great-bellied women were brought to bed before their time,
generally all affrighted aghast. Many lose their wits [2143]"by the sudden
sight of some spectrum or devil, a thing very common in all ages," saith
Lavater _part 1. cap. 9._ as Orestes did at the sight of the Furies, which
appeared to him in black (as [2144]Pausanias records). The Greeks call them
[Greek: mormolucheia], which so terrify their souls, or if they be but
affrighted by some counterfeit devils in jest,
[2145] ------"ut pueri trepidant, atque omnia caecis
In tenebris metuunt"------
as children in the dark conceive hobgoblins, and are so afraid, they are
the worse for it all their lives. Some by sudden fires, earthquakes,
inundations, or any such dismal objects: Themiscon the physician fell into
a hydrophobia, by seeing one sick of that disease: (Dioscorides _l. 6. c.
33._) or by the sight of a monster, a carcase, they are disquieted many
months following, and cannot endure the room where a corpse hath been, for
a world would not be alone with a dead man, or lie in that bed many years
after in which a man hath died. At [2146]Basil many little children in the
springtime went to gather flowers in a meadow at the town's end, where a
malefactor hung in gibbets; all gazing at it, one by chance flung a stone,
and made it stir, by which accident, the children affrighted ran away; one
slower than the rest, looking back, and seeing the stirred carcase wag
towards her, cried out it came after, and was so terribly affrighted, that
for many days she could not rest, eat, or sleep, she could not be pacified,
but melancholy, died. [2147]In the same town another child, beyond the
Rhine, saw a grave opened, and upon the sight of a carcase, was so troubled
in mind that she could not be comforted, but a little after departed, and
was buried by it. Platerus _observat. l. 1_, a gentlewoman of the same city
saw a fat hog cut up, when the entrails were opened, and a noisome savour
offended her nose, she much misliked, and would not longer abide: a
physician in presence, told her, as that hog, so was she, full of filthy
excrements, and aggravated the matter by some other loathsome instances,
insomuch, this nice gentlewoman apprehended it so deeply, that she fell
forthwith a-vomiting, was so mightily distempered in mind and body, that
with all his art and persuasions, for some months after, he could not
restore her to herself again, she could not forget it, or remove the object
out of her sight, _Idem_. Many cannot endure to see a wound opened, but
they are offended: a man executed, or labour of any fearful disease, as
possession, apoplexies, one bewitched; [2148]or if they read by chance of
some terrible thing, the symptoms alone of such a disease, or that which
they dislike, they are instantly troubled in mind, aghast, ready to apply
it to themselves, they are as much disquieted as if they had seen it, or
were so affected themselves. _Hecatas sibi videntur somniare_, they dream
and continually think of it. As lamentable effects are caused by such
terrible objects heard, read, or seen, _auditus maximos motus in corpore
facit_, as [2149]Plutarch holds, no sense makes greater alteration of body
and mind: sudden speech sometimes, unexpected news, be they good or bad,
_praevisa minus oratio_, will move as much, _animum obruere, et de sede sua
dejicere_, as a [2150]philosopher observes, will take away our sleep and
appetite, disturb and quite overturn us. Let them bear witness that have
heard those tragical alarms, outcries, hideous noises, which are many times
suddenly heard in the dead of the night by irruption of enemies and
accidental fires, &c., those [2151]panic fears, which often drive men out
of their wits, bereave them of sense, understanding and all, some for a
time, some for their whole lives, they never recover it. The [2152]
Midianites were so affrighted by Gideon's soldiers, they breaking but every
one a pitcher; and [2153]Hannibal's army by such a panic fear was
discomfited at the walls of Rome. Augusta Livia hearing a few tragical
verses recited out of Virgil, _Tu Marcellus eris_, &c., fell down dead in a
swoon. Edinus king of Denmark, by a sudden sound which he heard, [2154]
"was turned into fury with all his men," Cranzius, _l. 5, Dan. hist._ and
Alexander ab Alexandro _l. 3. c. 5._ Amatus Lusitanus had a patient, that
by reason of bad tidings became epilepticus, _cen. 2. cura 90_, Cardan
_subtil. l. 18_, saw one that lost his wits by mistaking of an echo. If one
sense alone can cause such violent commotions of the mind, what may we
think when hearing, sight, and those other senses are all troubled at once?
as by some earthquakes, thunder, lightning, tempests, &c. At Bologna in
Italy, _anno_ 1504, there was such a fearful earthquake about eleven
o'clock in the night (as [2155]Beroaldus in his book _de terrae motu_, hath
commended to posterity) that all the city trembled, the people thought the
world was at an end, _actum de mortalibus_, such a fearful noise, it made
such a detestable smell, the inhabitants were infinitely affrighted, and
some ran mad. _Audi rem atrocem, et annalibus memorandam_ (mine author
adds), hear a strange story, and worthy to be chronicled: I had a servant
at the same time called Fulco Argelanus, a bold and proper man, so
grievously terrified with it, that he [2156]was first melancholy, after
doted, at last mad, and made away himself. At [2157]Fuscinum in Japona
"there was such an earthquake, and darkness on a sudden, that many men were
offended with headache, many overwhelmed with sorrow and melancholy. At
Meacum whole streets and goodly palaces were overturned at the same time,
and there was such a hideous noise withal, like thunder, and filthy smell,
that their hair stared for fear, and their hearts quaked, men and beasts
were incredibly terrified. In Sacai, another city, the same earthquake was
so terrible unto them, that many were bereft of their senses; and others by
that horrible spectacle so much amazed, that they knew not what they did."
Blasius a Christian, the reporter of the news, was so affrighted for his
part, that though it were two months after, he was scarce his own man,
neither could he drive the remembrance of it out of his mind. Many times,
some years following, they will tremble afresh at the [2158]remembrance or
conceit of such a terrible object, even all their lives long, if mention be
made of it. Cornelius Agrippa relates out of Gulielmus Parisiensis, a story
of one, that after a distasteful purge which a physician had prescribed
unto him, was so much moved, [2159]"that at the very sight of physic he
would be distempered," though he never so much as smelled to it, the box of
physic long after would give him a purge; nay, the very remembrance of it
did effect it; [2160]"like travellers and seamen," saith Plutarch, "that
when they have been sanded, or dashed on a rock, for ever after fear not
that mischance only, but all such dangers whatsoever."
SUBSECT. IV.--_Scoffs, Calumnies, bitter Jests, how they cause Melancholy_.
It is an old saying, [2161]"A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow
with a sword:" and many men are as much galled with a calumny, a scurrilous
and bitter jest, a libel, a pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, stage-play
or the like, as with any misfortune whatsoever. Princes and potentates,
that are otherwise happy, and have all at command, secure and free, _quibus
potentia sceleris impunitatem fecit_, are grievously vexed with these
pasquilling libels, and satires: they fear a railing [2162]Aretine, more
than an enemy in the field, which made most princes of his time (as some
relate) "allow him a liberal pension, that he should not tax them in his
satires." [2163]The Gods had their Momus, Homer his Zoilus, Achilles his
Thersites, Philip his Demades: the Caesars themselves in Rome were commonly
taunted. There was never wanting a Petronius, a Lucian in those times, nor
will be a Rabelais, an Euphormio, a Boccalinus in ours. Adrian the sixth
pope [2164]was so highly offended, and grievously vexed with pasquillers at
Rome, he gave command that his statue should be demolished and burned, the
ashes flung into the river Tiber, and had done it forthwith, had not
Ludovicus Suessanus, a facete companion, dissuaded him to the contrary, by
telling him, that pasquil's ashes would turn to frogs in the bottom of the
river, and croak worse and louder than before,--_genus irritabile vatum_,
and therefore [2165]Socrates in Plato adviseth all his friends, "that
respect their credits, to stand in awe of poets, for they are terrible
fellows, can praise and dispraise as they see cause." _Hinc quam sit
calamus saevior ense patet_. The prophet David complains, Psalm cxxiii. 4.
"that his soul was full of the mocking of the wealthy, and of the
despitefulness of the proud," and Psalm lv. 4. "for the voice of the
wicked, &c., and their hate: his heart trembled within him, and the terrors
of death came upon him; fear and horrible fear," &c., and Psal. lxix. 20.
"Rebuke hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness." Who hath not
like cause to complain, and is not so troubled, that shall fall into the
mouths of such men? for many are of so [2166]petulant a spleen; and have
that figure Sarcasmus so often in their mouths, so bitter, so foolish, as
[2167]Balthazar Castilio notes of them, that "they cannot speak, but they
must bite;" they had rather lose a friend than a jest; and what company
soever they come in, they will be scoffing, insulting over their inferiors,
especially over such as any way depend upon them, humouring, misusing, or
putting gulleries on some or other till they have made by their humouring
or gulling [2168]_ex stulto insanum_, a mope or a noddy, and all to make
themselves merry:
[2169] ------"dummodo risum
Excutiat sibi; non hic cuiquam parcit amico;"
Friends, neuters, enemies, all are as one, to make a fool a madman, is
their sport, and they have no greater felicity than to scoff and deride
others; they must sacrifice to the god of laughter, with them in [2170]
Apuleius, once a day, or else they shall be melancholy themselves; they
care not how they grind and misuse others, so they may exhilarate their own
persons. Their wits indeed serve them to that sole purpose, to make sport,
to break a scurrile jest, which is _levissimus ingenii fructus_, the froth
of wit, as [2171]Tully holds, and for this they are often applauded, in all
other discourse, dry, barren, stramineous, dull and heavy, here lies their
genius, in this they alone excel, please themselves and others. Leo
Decimus, that scoffing pope, as Jovius hath registered in the Fourth book
of his life, took an extraordinary delight in humouring of silly fellows,
and to put gulleries upon them, [2172]by commending some, persuading others
to this or that: he made _ex stolidis stultissimos, et maxime ridiculos, ex
stultis insanos_; soft fellows, stark noddies; and such as were foolish,
quite mad before he left them. One memorable example he recites there, of
Tarascomus of Parma, a musician that was so humoured by Leo Decimus, and
Bibiena his second in this business, that he thought himself to be a man of
most excellent skill, (who was indeed a ninny) they [2173]"made him set
foolish songs, and invent new ridiculous precepts, which they did highly
commend," as to tie his arm that played on the lute, to make him strike a
sweeter stroke, [2174]"and to pull down the arras hangings, because the
voice would be clearer, by reason of the reverberation of the wall." In the
like manner they persuaded one Baraballius of Caieta, that he was as good a
poet as Petrarch; would have him to be made a laureate poet, and invite all
his friends to his instalment; and had so possessed the poor man with a
conceit of his excellent poetry, that when some of his more discreet
friends told him of his folly, he was very angry with them, and said
[2175]"they envied his honour, and prosperity:" it was strange (saith
Jovius) to see an old man of 60 years, a venerable and grave old man, so
gulled. But what cannot such scoffers do, especially if they find a soft
creature, on whom they may work? nay, to say truth, who is so wise, or so
discreet, that may not be humoured in this kind, especially if some
excellent wits shall set upon him; he that mads others, if he were so
humoured, would be as mad himself, as much grieved and tormented; he might
cry with him in the comedy, _Proh Jupiter tu homo me, adigas ad insaniam_.
For all is in these things as they are taken; if he be a silly soul, and do
not perceive it, 'tis well, he may haply make others sport, and be no whit
troubled himself; but if he be apprehensive of his folly, and take it to
heart, then it torments him worse than any lash: a bitter jest, a slander,
a calumny, pierceth deeper than any loss, danger, bodily pain, or injury
whatsoever; _leviter enim volat_, (it flies swiftly) as Bernard of an
arrow, _sed graviter vulnerat_, (but wounds deeply), especially if it shall
proceed from a virulent tongue, "it cuts" (saith David) "like a two-edged
sword. They shoot bitter words as arrows," Psal. lxiv. 5. "And they smote
with their tongues," Jer. xviii. 18, and that so hard, that they leave an
incurable wound behind them. Many men are undone by this means, moped, and
so dejected, that they are never to be recovered; and of all other men
living, those which are actually melancholy, or inclined to it, are most
sensible, (as being suspicious, choleric, apt to mistake) and impatient of
an injury in that kind: they aggravate, and so meditate continually of it,
that it is a perpetual corrosive, not to be removed, till time wear it out.
Although they peradventure that so scoff, do it alone in mirth and
merriment, and hold it _optimum aliena frui insania_, an excellent thing to
enjoy another man's madness; yet they must know, that it is a mortal sin
(as [2176]Thomas holds) and as the prophet [2177]David denounceth, "they
that use it, shall never dwell in God's tabernacle."
Such scurrilous jests, flouts, and sarcasms, therefore, ought not at all to
be used; especially to our betters, to those that are in misery, or any way
distressed: for to such, _aerumnarum incrementa sunt_, they multiply grief,
and as [2178]he perceived, _In multis pudor, in multis iracundia_, &c.,
many are ashamed, many vexed, angered, and there is no greater cause or
furtherer of melancholy. Martin Cromerus, in the Sixth book of his history,
hath a pretty story to this purpose, of Vladislaus, the second king of
Poland, and Peter Dunnius, earl of Shrine; they had been hunting late, and
were enforced to lodge in a poor cottage. When they went to bed, Vladislaus
told the earl in jest, that his wife lay softer with the abbot of Shrine;
he not able to contain, replied, _Et tua cum Dabesso_, and yours with
Dabessus, a gallant young gentleman in the court, whom Christina the queen
loved. _Tetigit id dictum Principis animum_, these words of his so galled
the prince, that he was long after _tristis et cogitabundus_, very sad and
melancholy for many months; but they were the earl's utter undoing: for
when Christina heard of it, she persecuted him to death. Sophia the
empress, Justinian's wife, broke a bitter jest upon Narsetes the eunuch, a
famous captain then disquieted for an overthrow which he lately had: that
he was fitter for a distaff and to keep women company, than to wield a
sword, or to be general of an army: but it cost her dear, for he so far
distasted it, that he went forthwith to the adverse part, much troubled in
his thoughts, caused the Lombards to rebel, and thence procured many
miseries to the commonwealth. Tiberius the emperor withheld a legacy from
the people of Rome, which his predecessor Augustus had lately given, and
perceiving a fellow round a dead corse in the ear, would needs know
wherefore he did so; the fellow replied, that he wished the departed soul
to signify to Augustus, the commons of Rome were yet unpaid: for this
bitter jest the emperor caused him forthwith to be slain, and carry the
news himself. For this reason, all those that otherwise approve of jests in
some cases, and facete companions, (as who doth not?) let them laugh and be
merry, _rumpantur et illa Codro_, 'tis laudable and fit, those yet will by
no means admit them in their companies, that are any way inclined to this
malady: _non jocandum cum iis qui miseri sunt, et aerumnosi_, no jesting
with a discontented person. 'Tis Castilio's caveat, [2179]Jo. Pontanus, and
[2180]Galateus, and every good man's.
"Play with me, but hurt me not:
Jest with me, but shame me not."
Comitas is a virtue between rusticity and scurrility, two extremes, as
affability is between flattery and contention, it must not exceed; but be
still accompanied with that [2181][Greek: ablabeia] or innocency, _quae
nemini nocet, omnem injuriae, oblationem abhorrens_, hurts no man, abhors
all offer of injury. Though a man be liable to such a jest or obloquy, have
been overseen, or committed a foul fact, yet it is no good manners or
humanity, to upbraid, to hit him in the teeth with his offence, or to scoff
at such a one; 'tis an old axiom, _turpis in reum omnis exprobratio_.[2182]
I speak not of such as generally tax vice, Barclay, Gentilis, Erasmus,
Agrippa, Fishcartus, &c., the Varronists and Lucians of our time,
satirists, epigrammists, comedians, apologists, &c., but such as personate,
rail, scoff, calumniate, perstringe by name, or in presence offend;
[2183] "Ludit qui stolida procacitate
Non est Sestius ille sed caballus:"
'Tis horse-play this, and those jests (as he [2184]saith) "are no better
than injuries," biting jests, _mordentes et aculeati_, they are poisoned
jests, leave a sting behind them, and ought not to be used.
[2185] "Set not thy foot to make the blind to fall;
Nor wilfully offend thy weaker brother:
Nor wound the dead with thy tongue's bitter gall,
Neither rejoice thou in the fall of other."
If these rules could be kept, we should have much more ease and quietness
than we have, less melancholy, whereas on the contrary, we study to misuse
each other, how to sting and gall, like two fighting boors, bending all our
force and wit, friends, fortune, to crucify [2186]one another's souls; by
means of which, there is little content and charity, much virulency,
hatred, malice, and disquietness among us.
SUBSECT. V.--_Loss of Liberty, Servitude, Imprisonment, how they cause
Melancholy_.
To this catalogue of causes, I may well annex loss of liberty, servitude,
or imprisonment, which to some persons is as great a torture as any of the
rest. Though they have all things convenient, sumptuous houses to their
use, fair walks and gardens, delicious bowers, galleries, good fare and
diet, and all things correspondent, yet they are not content, because they
are confined, may not come and go at their pleasure, have and do what they
will, but live [2187]_aliena quadra_, at another man's table and command.
As it is [2188]in meats so it is in all other things, places, societies,
sports; let them be never so pleasant, commodious, wholesome, so good; yet
_omnium rerum est satietas_, there is a loathing satiety of all things. The
children of Israel were tired with manna, it is irksome to them so to live,
as to a bird in his cage, or a dog in his kennel, they are weary of it.
They are happy, it is true, and have all things, to another man's judgment,
that heart can wish, or that they themselves can desire, _bona si sua
norint_: yet they loathe it, and are tired with the present: _Est natura
hominum novitatis avida_; men's nature is still desirous of news, variety,
delights; and our wandering affections are so irregular in this kind, that
they must change, though it must be to the worst. Bachelors must be
married, and married men would be bachelors; they do not love their own
wives, though otherwise fair, wise, virtuous, and well qualified, because
they are theirs; our present estate is still the worst, we cannot endure
one course of life long, _et quod modo voverat, odit_, one calling long,
_esse in honore juvat, mox displicet_; one place long, [2189]_Romae Tibur
amo, ventosus Tybure Romam_, that which we earnestly sought, we now
contemn. _Hoc quosdam agit ad mortem_, (saith [2190]Seneca) _quod proposita
saepe mutando in eadem revolvuntur, et non relinquunt novitati locum:
Fastidio caepit esse vita, et ipsus mundus, et subit illud rapidissimarum
deliciarum, Quousque eadem_? this alone kills many a man, that they are
tied to the same still, as a horse in a mill, a dog in a wheel, they run
round, without alteration or news, their life groweth odious, the world
loathsome, and that which crosseth their furious delights, what? still the
same? Marcus Aurelius and Solomon, that had experience of all worldly
delights and pleasure, confessed as much of themselves; what they most
desired, was tedious at last, and that their lust could never be satisfied,
all was vanity and affliction of mind.
Now if it be death itself, another hell, to be glutted with one kind of
sport, dieted with one dish, tied to one place; though they have all things
otherwise as they can desire, and are in heaven to another man's opinion,
what misery and discontent shall they have, that live in slavery, or in
prison itself? _Quod tristius morte, in servitute vivendum_, as Hermolaus
told Alexander in [2191]Curtius, worse than death is bondage: [2192]_hoc
animo scito omnes fortes, ut mortem servituti anteponant_, All brave men at
arms (Tully holds) are so affected. [2193]_Equidem ego is sum, qui
servitutem extremum omnium malorum esse arbitror_: I am he (saith Boterus)
that account servitude the extremity of misery. And what calamity do they
endure, that live with those hard taskmasters, in gold mines (like those
30,000 [2194]Indian slaves at Potosi, in Peru), tin-mines, lead-mines,
stone-quarries, coal-pits, like so many mouldwarps under ground, condemned
to the galleys, to perpetual drudgery, hunger, thirst, and stripes, without
all hope of delivery? How are those women in Turkey affected, that most
part of the year come not abroad; those Italian and Spanish dames, that are
mewed up like hawks, and locked up by their jealous husbands? how tedious
is it to them that live in stoves and caves half a year together? as in
Iceland, Muscovy, or under the [2195]pole itself, where they have six
months' perpetual night. Nay, what misery and discontent do they endure,
that are in prison? They want all those six non-natural things at once,
good air, good diet, exercise, company, sleep, rest, ease, &c., that are
bound in chains all day long, suffer hunger, and (as [2196]Lucian describes
it) "must abide that filthy stink, and rattling of chains, howlings,
pitiful outcries, that prisoners usually make; these things are not only
troublesome, but intolerable." They lie nastily among toads and frogs in a
dark dungeon, in their own dung, in pain of body, in pain of soul, as
Joseph did, Psal. cv. 18, "they hurt his feet in the stocks, the iron
entered his soul." They live solitary, alone, sequestered from all company
but heart-eating melancholy; and for want of meat, must eat that bread of
affliction, prey upon themselves. Well might [2197]Arculanus put long
imprisonment for a cause, especially to such as have lived jovially, in all
sensuality and lust, upon a sudden are estranged and debarred from all
manner of pleasures: as were Huniades, Edward, and Richard II., Valerian
the Emperor, Bajazet the Turk. If it be irksome to miss our ordinary
companions and repast for once a day, or an hour, what shall it be to lose
them for ever? If it be so great a delight to live at liberty, and to enjoy
that variety of objects the world affords; what misery and discontent must
it needs bring to him, that shall now be cast headlong into that Spanish
inquisition, to fall from heaven to hell, to be cubbed up upon a sudden,
how shall he be perplexed, what shall become of him? [2198] Robert Duke of
Normandy being imprisoned by his youngest brother Henry I., _ab illo die
inconsolabili dolore in carcere contabuit_, saith Matthew Paris, from that
day forward pined away with grief. [2199]Jugurtha that generous captain,
"brought to Rome in triumph, and after imprisoned, through anguish of his
soul, and melancholy, died." [2200]Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, the second
man from King Stephen (he that built that famous castle of [2201]Devizes in
Wiltshire,) was so tortured in prison with hunger, and all those calamities
accompanying such men, [2202]_ut vivere noluerit, mori nescierit_, he would
not live, and could not die, between fear of death, and torments of life.
Francis King of France was taken prisoner by Charles V., _ad mortem fere
melancholicus_, saith Guicciardini, melancholy almost to death, and that in
an instant. But this is as clear as the sun, and needs no further
illustration.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Poverty and Want, Causes of Melancholy_.
Poverty and want are so violent oppugners, so unwelcome guests, so much
abhorred of all men, that I may not omit to speak of them apart. Poverty,
although (if considered aright, to a wise, understanding, truly regenerate,
and contented man) it be _donum Dei_, a blessed estate, the way to heaven,
as [2203]Chrysostom calls it, God's gift, the mother of modesty, and much
to be preferred before riches (as shall be shown in his [2204]place), yet
as it is esteemed in the world's censure, it is a most odious calling, vile
and base, a severe torture, _summum scelus_, a most intolerable burden; we
[2205]shun it all, _cane pejus et angue_ (worse than a dog or a snake), we
abhor the name of it, [2206]_Paupertas fugitur, totoque arcessitur orbe_,
as being the fountain of all other miseries, cares, woes, labours, and
grievances whatsoever. To avoid which, we will take any pains,--_extremos
currit mercator ad Indos_, we will leave no haven, no coast, no creek of
the world unsearched, though it be to the hazard of our lives, we will dive
to the bottom of the sea, to the bowels of the earth, [2207]five, six,
seven, eight, nine hundred fathom deep, through all five zones, and both
extremes of heat and cold: we will turn parasites and slaves, prostitute
ourselves, swear and lie, damn our bodies and souls, forsake God, abjure
religion, steal, rob, murder, rather than endure this insufferable yoke of
poverty, which doth so tyrannise, crucify, and generally depress us.
For look into the world, and you shall see men most part esteemed according
to their means, and happy as they are rich: [2208]_Ubique tanti quisque
quantum habuit fuit_. If he be likely to thrive, and in the way of
preferment, who but he? In the vulgar opinion, if a man be wealthy, no
matter how he gets it, of what parentage, how qualified, how virtuously
endowed, or villainously inclined; let him be a bawd, a gripe, an usurer, a
villain, a pagan, a barbarian, a wretch, [2209]Lucian's tyrant, "on whom
you may look with less security than on the sun;" so that he be rich (and
liberal withal) he shall be honoured, admired, adored, reverenced, and
highly [2210]magnified. "The rich is had in reputation because of his
goods," Eccl. x. 31. He shall be befriended: "for riches gather many
friends," Prov. xix. 4,--_multos numerabit amicos_, all [2211]happiness
ebbs and flows with his money. He shall be accounted a gracious lord, a
Mecaenas, a benefactor, a wise, discreet, a proper, a valiant, a fortunate
man, of a generous spirit, _Pullus Jovis, et gallinae, filius albae_: a
hopeful, a good man, a virtuous, honest man. _Quando ego ie Junonium
puerum, et matris partum vere aureum_, as [2212]Tully said of Octavianus,
while he was adopted Caesar, and an heir [2213]apparent of so great a
monarchy, he was a golden child. All [2214]honour, offices, applause, grand
titles, and turgent epithets are put upon him, _omnes omnia bona dicere_;
all men's eyes are upon him, God bless his good worship, his honour;
[2215]every man speaks well of him, every man presents him, seeks and sues
to him for his love, favour, and protection, to serve him, belong unto him,
every man riseth to him, as to Themistocles in the Olympics, if he speak,
as of Herod, _Vox Dei, non hominis_, the voice of God, not of man. All the
graces, Veneres, pleasures, elegances attend him, [2216] golden fortune
accompanies and lodgeth with him; and as to those Roman emperors, is placed
in his chamber.
[2217] ------"Secura naviget aura,
Fortunamque suo temperet arbitrio:"
he may sail as he will himself, and temper his estate at his pleasure,
jovial days, splendour and magnificence, sweet music, dainty fare, the good
things, and fat of the land, fine clothes, rich attires, soft beds, down
pillows are at his command, all the world labours for him, thousands of
artificers are his slaves to drudge for him, run, ride, and post for him:
[2218]Divines (for _Pythia Philippisat_) lawyers, physicians, philosophers,
scholars are his, wholly devote to his service. Every man seeks his
[2219]acquaintance, his kindred, to match with him, though he be an oaf, a
ninny, a monster, a goose-cap, _uxorem ducat Danaen_, [2220]when, and whom
he will, _hunc optant generum Rex et Regina_--he is an excellent
[2221]match for my son, my daughter, my niece, &c. _Quicquid calcaverit
hic, Rosa fiet_, let him go whither he will, trumpets sound, bells ring,
&c., all happiness attends him, every man is willing to entertain him, he
sups in [2222]Apollo wheresoever he comes; what preparation is made for his
[2223]entertainment? fish and fowl, spices and perfumes, all that sea and
land affords. What cookery, masking, mirth to exhilarate his person?
[2224] "Da Trebio, pone ad Trebium, vis frater ab illia
Ilibus?"------
What dish will your good worship eat of?
[2225] ------"dulcia poma,
Et quoscunque feret cultus tibi fundus honores,
Ante Larem, gustet venerabilior Lare dives."
"Sweet apples, and whate'er thy fields afford,
Before thy Gods be serv'd, let serve thy Lord."
What sport will your honour have? hawking, hunting, fishing, fowling,
bulls, bears, cards, dice, cocks, players, tumblers, fiddlers, jesters,
&c., they are at your good worship's command. Fair houses, gardens,
orchards, terraces, galleries, cabinets, pleasant walks, delightsome
places, they are at hand: [2226]_in aureis lac, vinum in argenteis,
adolescentulae ad nutum speciosae_, wine, wenches, &c. a Turkish paradise,
a heaven upon earth. Though he be a silly soft fellow, and scarce have
common sense, yet if he be borne to fortunes (as I have said) [2227]_jure
haereditario sapere jubetur_, he must have honour and office in his course:
[2228]_Nemo nisi dives honore dignus_ (Ambros. _offic. 21._) none so worthy
as himself: he shall have it, _atque esto quicquid Servius aut Labeo_. Get
money enough and command [2229]kingdoms, provinces, armies, hearts, hands,
and affections; thou shalt have popes, patriarchs to be thy chaplains and
parasites: thou shalt have (Tamerlane-like) kings to draw thy coach, queens
to be thy laundresses, emperors thy footstools, build more towns and cities
than great Alexander, Babel towers, pyramids and Mausolean tombs, &c.
command heaven and earth, and tell the world it is thy vassal, _auro emitur
diadema, argento caelum panditur, denarius philosophum conducit, nummus jus
cogit, obolus literatum pascit, metallum sanitatem conciliat, aes amicos
conglutinat_. [2230]And therefore not without good cause, John de Medicis,
that rich Florentine, when he lay upon his death-bed, calling his sons,
Cosmo and Laurence, before him, amongst other sober sayings, repeated this,
_animo quieto digredior, quod vos sanos et divites post me relinquam_, "It
doth me good to think yet, though I be dying, that I shall leave you, my
children, sound and rich:" for wealth sways all. It is not with us, as
amongst those Lacedaemonian senators of Lycurgus in Plutarch, "He preferred
that deserved best, was most virtuous and worthy of the place, [2231]not
swiftness, or strength, or wealth, or friends carried it in those days:"
but _inter optimos optimus, inter temperantes temperantissimus_, the most
temperate and best. We have no aristocracies but in contemplation, all
oligarchies, wherein a few rich men domineer, do what they list, and are
privileged by their greatness. [2232]They may freely trespass, and do as
they please, no man dare accuse them, no not so much as mutter against
them, there is no notice taken of it, they may securely do it, live after
their own laws, and for their money get pardons, indulgences, redeem their
souls from purgatory and hell itself,--_clausum possidet arca Jovem_. Let
them be epicures, or atheists, libertines, Machiavellians, (as they often
are) [2233]_Et quamvis perjuris erit, sine gente, cruentus_, they may go
to heaven through the eye of a needle, if they will themselves, they may be
canonised for saints, they shall be [2234]honourably interred in Mausolean
tombs, commended by poets, registered in histories, have temples and
statues erected to their names,--_e manibus illis--nascentur violae_.--If
he be bountiful in his life, and liberal at his death, he shall have one to
swear, as he did by Claudius the Emperor in Tacitus, he saw his soul go to
heaven, and be miserably lamented at his funeral. _Ambubalarum collegia,
&c. Trimalcionis topanta_ in Petronius _recta in caelum abiit_, went right
to heaven: a, base quean, [2235]"thou wouldst have scorned once in thy
misery to have a penny from her;" and why? _modio nummos metiit_, she
measured her money by the bushel. These prerogatives do not usually belong
to rich men, but to such as are most part seeming rich, let him have but a
good [2236]outside, he carries it, and shall be adored for a god, as
[2237]Cyrus was amongst the Persians, _ob splendidum apparatum_, for his
gay attires; now most men are esteemed according to their clothes. In our
gullish times, whom you peradventure in modesty would give place to, as
being deceived by his habit, and presuming him some great worshipful man,
believe it, if you shall examine his estate, he will likely be proved a
serving man of no great note, my lady's tailor, his lordship's barber, or
some such gull, a Fastidius Brisk, Sir Petronel Flash, a mere outside. Only
this respect is given him, that wheresoever he comes, he may call for what
he will, and take place by reason of his outward habit.
But on the contrary, if he be poor, Prov. xv. 15, "all his days are
miserable," he is under hatches, dejected, rejected and forsaken, poor in
purse, poor in spirit; [2238]_prout res nobis fluit, ita et animus se
habet_; [2239]money gives life and soul. Though he be honest, wise,
learned, well-deserving, noble by birth, and of excellent good parts; yet
in that he is poor, unlikely to rise, come to honour, office, or good
means, he is contemned, neglected, _frustra sapit, inter literas esurit,
amicus molestus_. [2240]"If he speak, what babbler is this?" Ecclus, his
nobility without wealth, is [2241]_projecta vilior alga_, and he not
esteemed: _nos viles pulli nati infelicibus ovis_, if once poor, we are
metamorphosed in an instant, base slaves, villains, and vile drudges;
[2242]for to be poor, is to be a knave, a fool, a wretch, a wicked, an
odious fellow, a common eyesore, say poor and say all; they are born to
labour, to misery, to carry burdens like juments, _pistum stercus comedere_
with Ulysses' companions, and as Chremilus objected in Aristophanes, [2243]
_salem lingere_, lick salt, to empty jakes, fay channels, [2244]carry out
dirt and dunghills, sweep chimneys, rub horse-heels, &c. I say nothing of
Turks, galley-slaves, which are bought [2245]and sold like juments, or
those African Negroes, or poor [2246]Indian drudges, _qui indies hinc inde
deferendis oneribus occumbunt, nam quod apud nos boves et asini vehunt,
trahunt_, &c. [2247]_Id omne misellis Indis_, they are ugly to behold, and
though erst spruce, now rusty and squalid, because poor, [2248]_immundas
fortunas aquum est squalorem sequi_, it is ordinarily so. [2249]"Others eat
to live, but they live to drudge," [2250]_servilis et misera gens nihil
recusare audet_, a servile generation, that dare refuse no
task.--[2251]_Heus tu Dromo, cape hoc flabellum, ventulum hinc facito dum
lavamus_, sirrah blow wind upon us while we wash, and bid your fellow get
him up betimes in the morning, be it fair or foul, he shall run fifty miles
afoot tomorrow, to carry me a letter to my mistress, _Socia ad pistrinam_,
Socia shall tarry at home and grind malt all day long, Tristan thresh. Thus
are they commanded, being indeed some of them as so many footstools for
rich men to tread on, blocks for them to get on horseback, or as
[2252]"walls for them to piss on." They are commonly such people, rude,
silly, superstitious idiots, nasty, unclean, lousy, poor, dejected,
slavishly humble: and as [2253]Leo Afer observes of the commonalty of
Africa, _natura viliores sunt, nec apud suos duces majore in precio quam si
canes essent_: [2254]base by nature, and no more esteemed than dogs,
_miseram, laboriosam, calamitosam vitam agunt, et inopem, infelicem,
rudiores asinis, ut e brutis plane natos dicas_: no learning, no knowledge,
no civility, scarce common, sense, nought but barbarism amongst them,
_belluino more vivunt, neque calceos gestant, neque vestes_, like rogues
and vagabonds, they go barefooted and barelegged, the soles of their feet
being as hard as horse-hoofs, as [2255]Radzivilus observed at Damietta in
Egypt, leading a laborious, miserable, wretched, unhappy life, [2256]"like
beasts and juments, if not worse:" (for a [2257]Spaniard in Incatan, sold
three Indian boys for a cheese, and a hundred Negro slaves for a horse)
their discourse is scurrility, their _summum bonum_, a pot of ale. There is
not any slavery which these villains will not undergo, _inter illos
plerique latrinas evacuant, alii culinariam curant, alii stabularios agunt,
urinatores et id genus similia exercent_, &c. like those people that dwell
in the [2258]Alps, chimney-sweepers, jakes-farmers, dirt-daubers, vagrant
rogues, they labour hard some, and yet cannot get clothes to put on, or
bread to eat. For what can filthy poverty give else, but [2259]beggary,
fulsome nastiness, squalor, contempt, drudgery, labour, ugliness, hunger
and thirst; _pediculorum, et pulicum numerum_? as [2260] he well followed
it in Aristophanes, fleas and lice, _pro pallio vestem laceram, et pro
pulvinari lapidem bene magnum ad caput_, rags for his raiment, and a stone
for his pillow, _pro cathedra, ruptae caput urnae_, he sits in a broken
pitcher, or on a block for a chair, _et malvae, ramos pro panibus comedit_,
he drinks water, and lives on wort leaves, pulse, like a hog, or scraps
like a dog, _ut nunc nobis vita afficitur, quis non putabit insaniam esse,
infelicitatemque_? as Chremilus concludes his speech, as we poor men live
nowadays, who will not take our life to be [2261] infelicity, misery, and
madness?
If they be of little better condition than those base villains,
hunger-starved beggars, wandering rogues, those ordinary slaves, and
day-labouring drudges; yet they are commonly so preyed upon by [2262]
polling officers for breaking the laws, by their tyrannising landlords, so
flayed and fleeced by perpetual [2263]exactions, that though they do
drudge, fare hard, and starve their genius, they cannot live in [2264]some
countries; but what they have is instantly taken from them, the very care
they take to live, to be drudges, to maintain their poor families, their
trouble and anxiety "takes away their sleep," Sirac. xxxi. 1, it makes them
weary of their lives: when they have taken all pains, done their utmost and
honest endeavours, if they be cast behind by sickness, or overtaken with
years, no man pities them, hard-hearted and merciless, uncharitable as they
are, they leave them so distressed, to beg, steal, murmur, and [2265]
rebel, or else starve. The feeling and fear of this misery compelled those
old Romans, whom Menenius Agrippa pacified, to resist their governors:
outlaws, and rebels in most places, to take up seditious arms, and in all
ages hath caused uproars, murmurings, seditions, rebellions, thefts,
murders, mutinies, jars and contentions in every commonwealth: grudging,
repining, complaining, discontent in each private family, because they want
means to live according to their callings, bring up their children, it
breaks their hearts, they cannot do as they would. No greater misery than
for a lord to have a knight's living, a gentleman a yeoman's, not to be
able to live as his birth and place require. Poverty and want are generally
corrosives to all kinds of men, especially to such as have been in good and
flourishing estate, are suddenly distressed, [2266]nobly born, liberally
brought up, and, by some disaster and casualty miserably dejected. For the
rest, as they have base fortunes, so have they base minds correspondent,
like beetles, _e stercore orti, e stercore victus, in stercore delicium_,
as they were obscurely born and bred, so they delight in obscenity; they
are not thoroughly touched with it. _Angustas animas angusto in pectore
versant_. [2267]Yet, that which is no small cause of their torments, if
once they come to be in distress, they are forsaken of their fellows, most
part neglected, and left unto themselves; as poor [2268]Terence in Rome was
by Scipio, Laelius, and Furius, his great and noble friends.
"Nil Publius Scipio profuit, nil ei Laelius, nil Furius,
Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime,
Horum ille opera ne domum quident habuit conductitiam."[2269]
'Tis generally so, _Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris_, he is left cold
and comfortless, _nullas ad amissas ibit amicus opes_, all flee from him as
from a rotten wall, now ready to fall on their heads. Prov. xix. 1.
"Poverty separates them from their [2270]neighbours."
[2271] "Dum fortuna favet vultum servatis amici,
Cum cecidit, turpi vertitis ora fuga."
"Whilst fortune favour'd, friends, you smil'd on me,
But when she fled, a friend I could not see."
Which is worse yet, if he be poor [2272]every man contemns him, insults
over him, oppresseth him, scoffs at, aggravates his misery.
[2273] "Quum caepit quassata domus subsidere, partes
In proclinatas omne recumbit onus."
"When once the tottering house begins to shrink,
Thither comes all the weight by an instinct."
Nay they are odious to their own brethren, and dearest friends, Pro. xix.
7. "His brethren hate him if he be poor," [2274]_omnes vicini oderunt_,
"his neighbours hate him," Pro. xiv. 20, [2275]_omnes me noti ac ignoti
deserunt_, as he complained in the comedy, friends and strangers, all
forsake me. Which is most grievous, poverty makes men ridiculous, _Nil
habet infelix paupertas durius in se, quam quod ridiculos homines facit_,
they must endure [2276]jests, taunts, flouts, blows of their betters, and
take all in good part to get a meal's meat: [2277]_magnum pauperies
opprobrium, jubet quidvis et facere et pati_. He must turn parasite,
jester, fool, _cum desipientibus desipere_; saith [2278]Euripides, slave,
villain, drudge to get a poor living, apply himself to each man's humours,
to win and please, &c., and be buffeted when he hath all done, as Ulysses
was by Melanthius [2279]in Homer, be reviled, baffled, insulted over, for
[2280]_potentiorum stultitia perferenda est_, and may not so much as mutter
against it. He must turn rogue and villain; for as the saying is,
_Necessitas cogit ad turpia_, poverty alone makes men thieves, rebels,
murderers, traitors, assassins, "because of poverty we have sinned,"
Ecclus. xxvii. 1, swear and forswear, bear false witness, lie, dissemble,
anything, as I say, to advantage themselves, and to relieve their
necessities: [2281] _Culpae scelerisque magistra est_, when a man is driven
to his shifts, what will he not do?
[2282] ------"si miserum fortuna Sinonem
Finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget."
he will betray his father, prince, and country, turn Turk, forsake
religion, abjure God and all, _nulla tam horrenda proditio, quam illi lucri
causa_ (saith [2283]Leo Afer) _perpetrare nolint_. [2284]Plato, therefore,
calls poverty, "thievish, sacrilegious, filthy, wicked, and mischievous:"
and well he might. For it makes many an upright man otherwise, had he not
been in want, to take bribes, to be corrupt, to do against his conscience,
to sell his tongue, heart, hand, &c., to be churlish, hard, unmerciful,
uncivil, to use indirect means to help his present estate. It makes princes
to exact upon their subjects, great men tyrannise, landlords oppress,
justice mercenary, lawyers vultures, physicians harpies, friends
importunate, tradesmen liars, honest men thieves, devout assassins, great
men to prostitute their wives, daughters, and themselves, middle sort to
repine, commons to mutiny, all to grudge, murmur, and complain. A great
temptation to all mischief, it compels some miserable wretches to
counterfeit several diseases, to dismember, make themselves blind, lame, to
have a more plausible cause to beg, and lose their limbs to recover their
present wants. Jodocus Damhoderius, a lawyer of Bruges, _praxi rerum
criminal. c. 112._ hath some notable examples of such counterfeit cranks,
and every village almost will yield abundant testimonies amongst us; we
have dummerers, Abraham men, &c. And that which is the extent of misery, it
enforceth them through anguish and wearisomeness of their lives, to make
away themselves; they had rather be hanged, drowned, &c., than to live
without means.
[2285] "In mare caetiferum, ne te premat aspera egestas,
Desili, et a celsis corrue Cerne jugis."
"Much better 'tis to break thy neck,
Or drown thyself i' the sea,
Than suffer irksome poverty;
Go make thyself away."
A Sybarite of old, as I find it registered in [2286]Athenaeus, supping in
Phiditiis in Sparta, and observing their hard fare, said it was no marvel
if the Lacedaemonians were valiant men; "for his part, he would rather run
upon a sword point (and so would any man in his wits,) than live with such
base diet, or lead so wretched a life." [2287]In Japonia, 'tis a common
thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abortion,
which Aristotle commends. In that civil commonwealth of China, [2288]the
mother strangles her child, if she be not able to bring it up, and had
rather lose, than sell it, or have it endure such misery as poor men do.
Arnobius, _lib. 7, adversus gentes_, [2289]Lactantius, _lib. 5. cap. 9._
objects as much to those ancient Greeks and Romans, "they did expose their
children to wild beasts, strangle, or knock out their brains against a
stone, in such cases." If we may give credit to [2290]Munster, amongst us
Christians in Lithuania, they voluntarily mancipate and sell themselves,
their wives and children to rich men, to avoid hunger and beggary; [2291]
many make away themselves in this extremity. Apicius the Roman, when he
cast up his accounts, and found but 100,000 crowns left, murdered himself
for fear he should be famished to death. P. Forestus, in his medicinal
observations, hath a memorable example of two brothers of Louvain that,
being destitute of means, became both melancholy, and in a discontented
humour massacred themselves. Another of a merchant, learned, wise otherwise
and discreet, but out of a deep apprehension he had of a loss at seas,
would not be persuaded but as [2292]Ventidius in the poet, he should die a
beggar. In a word, thus much I may conclude of poor men, that though they
have good [2293]parts they cannot show or make use of them: [2294]_ab
inopia ad virtutem obsepta est via_, 'tis hard for a poor man to [2295]
rise, _haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat res angusta domi_.
[2296]"The wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard."
Eccles. vi. 19. His works are rejected, contemned, for the baseness and
obscurity of the author, though laudable and good in themselves, they will
not likely take.
"Nulla placere diu, neque vivere carmina possunt,
Quae scribuntur atquae potoribus."------
"No verses can please men or live long that are written by water-drinkers."
Poor men cannot please, their actions, counsels, consultations, projects,
are vilified in the world's esteem, _amittunt consilium in re_, which
Gnatho long since observed. [2297]_Sapiens crepidas sibi nunquam nec soleas
fecit_, a wise man never cobbled shoes; as he said of old, but how doth he
prove it? I am sure we find it otherwise in our days, [2298] _pruinosis
horret facundia pannis_. Homer himself must beg if he want means, and as by
report sometimes he did [2299]"go from door to door, and sing ballads, with
a company of boys about him." This common misery of theirs must needs
distract, make them discontent and melancholy, as ordinarily they are,
wayward, peevish, like a weary traveller, for [2300] _Fames et mora bilem
in nares conciunt_, still murmuring and repining: _Ob inopiam morosi sunt,
quibus est male_, as Plutarch quotes out of Euripides, and that comical
poet well seconds,
[2301] "Omnes quibus res sunt minus secundae, nescio quomodo
Suspitiosi, ad contumeliam omnia accipiunt magis,
Propter suam impotentiam se credunt negligi."
"If they be in adversity, they are more suspicious and apt to mistake: they
think themselves scorned by reason of their misery:" and therefore many
generous spirits in such cases withdraw themselves from all company, as
that comedian [2302]Terence is said to have done; when he perceived himself
to be forsaken and poor, he voluntarily banished himself to Stymphalus, a
base town in Arcadia, and there miserably died.
[2303] ------"ad summam inopiam redactus,
Itaque e conspectu omnium abiit Graeciae in terram ultimam."
Neither is it without cause, for we see men commonly respected according to
their means, ([2304]_an dives sit omnes quaerunt, nemo an bonus_) and
vilified if they be in bad clothes. [2305]Philophaemen the orator was set
to cut wood, because he was so homely attired, [2306]Terentius was placed
at the lower end of Cecilius' table, because of his homely outside. [2307]
Dante, that famous Italian poet, by reason his clothes were but mean, could
not be admitted to sit down at a feast. Gnatho scorned his old familiar
friend because of his apparel, [2308]_Hominem video pannis, annisque
obsitum, hic ego illum contempsi prae me_. King Persius overcome sent a
letter to [2309]Paulus Aemilius, the Roman general; Persius P. Consuli. S.
but he scorned him any answer, _tacite exprobrans fortunam suam_ (saith
mine author) upbraiding him with a present fortune. [2310]Carolus Pugnax,
that great duke of Burgundy, made H. Holland, late duke of Exeter, exiled,
run after his horse like a lackey, and would take no notice of him: [2311]
'tis the common fashion of the world. So that such men as are poor may
justly be discontent, melancholy, and complain of their present misery, and
all may pray with [2312]Solomon, "Give me, O Lord, neither riches nor
poverty; feed me with food convenient for me."
SUBSECT. VII.--_A heap of other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death of
Friends, Losses, &c._
In this labyrinth of accidental causes, the farther I wander, the more
intricate I find the passage, _multae ambages_, and new causes as so many
by-paths offer themselves to be discussed: to search out all, were an
Herculean work, and fitter for Theseus: I will follow mine intended thread;
and point only at some few of the chiefest.
_Death of Friends_.] Amongst which, loss and death of friends may challenge
a first place, _multi tristantur_, as [2313]Vives well observes, _post
delicias, convivia, dies festos_, many are melancholy after a feast,
holiday, merry meeting, or some pleasing sport, if they be solitary by
chance, left alone to themselves, without employment, sport, or want their
ordinary companions, some at the departure of friends only whom they shall
shortly see again, weep and howl, and look after them as a cow lows after
her calf, or a child takes on that goes to school after holidays. _Ut me
levarat tuus adventus, sic discessus afflixit_, (which [2314]Tully writ to
Atticus) thy coming was not so welcome to me, as thy departure was harsh.
Montanus, _consil. 132._ makes mention of a country woman that parting with
her friends and native place, became grievously melancholy for many years;
and Trallianus of another, so caused for the absence of her husband: which
is an ordinary passion amongst our good wives, if their husband tarry out a
day longer than his appointed time, or break his hour, they take on
presently with sighs and tears, he is either robbed, or dead, some
mischance or other is surely befallen him, they cannot eat, drink, sleep,
or be quiet in mind, till they see him again. If parting of friends,
absence alone can work such violent effects, what shall death do, when they
must eternally be separated, never in this world to meet again? This is so
grievous a torment for the time, that it takes away their appetite, desire
of life, extinguisheth all delights, it causeth deep sighs and groans,
tears, exclamations,
(O dulce germen matris, o sanguis meus,
Eheu tepentes, &c.--o flos tener.)[2315]
howling, roaring, many bitter pangs, [2316]_lamentis gemituque et faemineo
ululatu Tecta fremunt_) and by frequent meditation extends so far
sometimes, [2317]"they think they see their dead friends continually in
their eyes," _observantes imagines_, as Conciliator confesseth he saw his
mother's ghost presenting herself still before him. _Quod nimis miseri
volunt, hoc facile credunt_, still, still, still, that good father, that
good son, that good wife, that dear friend runs in their minds: _Totus
animus hac una cogitatione defixus est_, all the year long, as [2318]Pliny
complains to Romanus, "methinks I see Virginius, I hear Virginius, I talk
with Virginius," &c.
[2319] "Te sine, vae misero mihi, lilia nigra videntur,
Pallentesque rosae, nec dulce rubens hyacinthus,
Nullos nec myrtus, noc laurus spirat odores."
They that are most staid and patient, are so furiously carried headlong by
the passion of sorrow in this case, that brave discreet men otherwise,
oftentimes forget themselves, and weep like children many months together,
[2320]_as if that they to water would_, and will not be comforted. They are
gone, they are gone; what shall I do?
"Abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo,
Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem mihi? quis satis altos
Accendet gemitus, et acerbo verba dolori?
Exhaurit pietas oculos, et hiantia frangit
Pectora, nec plenos avido sinit edere questus,
Magna adeo jactura premit," &c.
"Fountains of tears who gives, who lends me groans,
Deep sighs sufficient to express my moans?
Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieces torn,
My loss so great, I cannot enough mourn."
So Stroza Filius, that elegant Italian poet, in his Epicedium, bewails his
father's death, he could moderate his passions in other matters, (as he
confesseth) but not in this, lie yields wholly to sorrow,
"Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens illa fatiscit,
Indomitus quondam vigor et constantia mentis."
How doth [2321]Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair
almost: Cardan lament his only child in his book _de libris propriis_, and
elsewhere in many of his tracts, [2322]St. Ambrose his brother's death? _an
ego possum non cogitare de te, aut sine lachrymis cogitare? O amari dies, o
flebiles noctes_, &c. "Can I ever cease to think of thee, and to think with
sorrow? O bitter days, O nights of sorrow," &c. Gregory Nazianzen, that
noble Pulcheria! _O decorem, &c. flos recens, pullulans_, &c. Alexander, a
man of most invincible courage, after Hephestion's death, as Curtius
relates, _triduum jacuit ad moriendum obstinatus_, lay three days together
upon the ground, obstinate, to die with him, and would neither eat, drink,
nor sleep. The woman that communed with Esdras (_lib. 2. cap. 10._) when
her son fell down dead. "fled into the field, and would not return into the
city, but there resolved to remain, neither to eat nor drink, but mourn and
fast until she died." "Rachel wept for her children, and would not be
comforted because they were not." Matt. ii. 18. So did Adrian the emperor
bewail his Antinous; Hercules, Hylas; Orpheus, Eurydice; David, Absalom; (O
my dear son Absalom) Austin his mother Monica, Niobe her children, insomuch
that the [2323]poets feigned her to be turned into a stone, as being
stupefied through the extremity of grief. [2324]_Aegeas, signo lugubri
filii consternatus, in mare se praecipitatem dedit_, impatient of sorrow
for his son's death, drowned, himself. Our late physicians are full of such
examples. Montanus _consil. 242._ [2325]had a patient troubled with this
infirmity, by reason of her husband's death, many years together.
Trincavellius, _l. 1. c. 14._ hath such another, almost in despair, after
his [2326]mother's departure, _ut se ferme praecipitatem daret_; and ready
through distraction to make away himself: and in his Fifteenth counsel,
tells a story of one fifty years of age, "that grew desperate upon his
mother's death;" and cured by Fallopius, fell many years after into a
relapse, by the sudden death of a daughter which he had, and could never
after be recovered. The fury of this passion is so violent sometimes, that
it daunts whole kingdoms and cities. Vespasian's death was pitifully
lamented all over the Roman empire, _totus orbis lugebat_, saith Aurelius
Victor. Alexander commanded the battlements of houses to be pulled down,
mules and horses to have their manes shorn off, and many common soldiers to
be slain, to accompany his dear Hephestion's death; which is now practised
amongst the Tartars, when [2327]a great Cham dieth, ten or twelve thousand
must be slain, men and horses, all they meet; and among those the
[2328]Pagan Indians, their wives and servants voluntarily die with them.
Leo Decimus was so much bewailed in Rome after his departure, that as
Jovius gives out, [2329]_communis salus, publica hilaritas_, the common
safety of all good fellowship, peace, mirth, and plenty died with him,
_tanquam eodem sepulchro cum Leone condita lugebantur_: for it was a golden
age whilst he lived, [2330]but after his decease an iron season succeeded,
_barbara vis et foeda vastitas, et dira malorum omnium incommoda_, wars,
plagues, vastity, discontent. When Augustus Caesar died, saith Paterculus,
_orbis ruinam timueramus_, we were all afraid, as if heaven had fallen upon
our heads. [2331]Budaeus records, how that, at Lewis the Twelfth his death,
_tam subita mutatio, ut qui prius digito coelum attingere videbantur, nunc
humi derepente serpere, sideratos esse diceres_, they that were erst in
heaven, upon a sudden, as if they had been planet-strucken, lay grovelling
on the ground;
[2332] "Concussis cecidere animis, seu frondibus ingens
Sylva dolet lapsis"------
they looked like cropped trees. [2333]At Nancy in Lorraine, when Claudia
Valesia, Henry the Second French king's sister, and the duke's wife
deceased, the temples for forty days were all shut up, no prayers nor
masses, but in that room where she was. The senators all seen in black,
"and for a twelvemonth's space throughout the city, they were forbid to
sing or dance."
[2334] "Non ulli pastos illis egre diebus
Frigida (Daphne) boves ad flumina, nulla nec amnem
Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam."
"The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink;
The thirsty cattle, of themselves, abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdain'd."
How were we affected here in England for our Titus, _deliciae, humani
generis_, Prince Henry's immature death, as if all our dearest friends'
lives had exhaled with his? [2335]Scanderbeg's death was not so much
lamented in Epirus. In a word, as [2336]he saith of Edward the First at the
news of Edward of Caernarvon his son's birth, _immortaliter gavisus_, he
was immortally glad, may we say on the contrary of friends' deaths,
_immortaliter gementes_, we are diverse of us as so many turtles, eternally
dejected with it.
There is another sorrow, which arises from the loss of temporal goods and
fortunes, which equally afflicts, and may go hand in hand with the
preceding; loss of time, loss of honour, office, of good name, of labour,
frustrate hopes, will much torment; but in my judgment, there is no torture
like unto it, or that sooner procureth this malady and mischief:
[2337] "Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris:"
"Lost money is bewailed with grief sincere."
it wrings true tears from our eyes, many sighs, much sorrow from our
hearts, and often causes habitual melancholy itself, Guianerius _tract. 15.
5._ repeats this for an especial cause: [2338]"Loss of friends, and loss of
goods, make many men melancholy, as I have often seen by continual
meditation of such things." The same causes Arnoldus Villanovanus
inculcates, _Breviar. l. 1. c. 18._ _ex rerum amissione, damno, amicorum
morte_, &c. Want alone will make a man mad, to be _Sans argent_ will cause
a deep and grievous melancholy. Many persons are affected like [2339]
Irishmen in this behalf, who if they have a good scimitar, had rather have
a blow on their arm, than their weapon hurt: they will sooner lose their
life, than their goods: and the grief that cometh hence, continueth long
(saith [2340]Plater) "and out of many dispositions, procureth an habit."
[2341]Montanus and Frisemelica cured a young man of 22 years of age, that
so became melancholy, _ab amissam pecuniam_, for a sum of money which he
had unhappily lost. Sckenkius hath such another story of one melancholy,
because he overshot himself, and spent his stock in unnecessary building.
[2342]Roger that rich bishop of Salisbury, _exutus opibus et castris a Rege
Stephano_, spoiled of his goods by king Stephen, _vi doloris absorptus,
atque in amentiam versus, indecentia fecit_, through grief ran mad, spoke
and did he knew not what. Nothing so familiar, as for men in such cases,
through anguish of mind to make away themselves. A poor fellow went to hang
himself, (which Ausonius hath elegantly expressed in a neat [2343]Epigram)
but finding by chance a pot of money, flung away the rope, and went merrily
home, but he that hid the gold, when he missed it, hanged himself with that
rope which the other man had left, in a discontented humour.
"At qui condiderat, postquam non reperit aurum,
Aptavit collo, quem reperit laqueum."
Such feral accidents can want and penury produce. Be it by suretyship,
shipwreck, fire, spoil and pillage of soldiers, or what loss soever, it
boots not, it will work the like effect, the same desolation in provinces
and cities, as well as private persons. The Romans were miserably dejected
after the battle of Cannae, the men amazed for fear, the stupid women tore
their hair and cried. The Hungarians, when their king Ladislaus and bravest
soldiers were slain by the Turks, _Luctus publicus_, &c. The Venetians when
their forces were overcome by the French king Lewis, the French and Spanish
kings, pope, emperor, all conspired against them, at Cambray, the French
herald denounced open war in the senate: _Lauredane Venetorum dux_, &c.,
and they had lost Padua, Brixia, Verona, Forum Julii, their territories in
the continent, and had now nothing left, but the city of Venice itself, _et
urbi quoque ipsi_ (saith [2344]Bembus) _timendum putarent_, and the loss of
that was likewise to be feared, _tantus repente dolor omnes tenuit, ut
nunquam, alias_, &c., they were pitifully plunged, never before in such
lamentable distress. _Anno_ 1527, when Rome was sacked by Burbonius, the
common soldiers made such spoil, that fair [2345]churches were turned to
stables, old monuments and books made horse-litter, or burned like straw;
relics, costly pictures defaced; altars demolished, rich hangings, carpets,
&c., trampled in the dirt. [2346]Their wives and loveliest daughters
constuprated by every base cullion, as Sejanus' daughter was by the hangman
in public, before their fathers and husbands' faces. Noblemen's children,
and of the wealthiest citizens, reserved for princes' beds, were prostitute
to every common soldier, and kept for concubines; senators and cardinals
themselves dragged along the streets, and put to exquisite torments, to
confess where their money was hid; the rest, murdered on heaps, lay
stinking in the streets; infants' brains dashed out before their mothers'
eyes. A lamentable sight it was to see so goodly a city so suddenly
defaced, rich citizens sent a begging to Venice, Naples, Ancona, &c., that
erst lived in all manner of delights. [2347]"Those proud palaces that even
now vaunted their tops up to heaven, were dejected as low as hell in an
instant." Whom will not such misery make discontent? Terence the poet
drowned himself (some say) for the loss of his comedies, which suffered
shipwreck. When a poor man hath made many hungry meals, got together a
small sum, which he loseth in an instant; a scholar spent many an hour's
study to no purpose, his labours lost, &c., how should it otherwise be? I
may conclude with Gregory, _temporalium amor, quantum afficit, cum haeret
possessio, tantum quum subtrahitur, urit dolor_; riches do not so much
exhilarate us with their possession, as they torment us with their loss.
Next to sorrow still I may annex such accidents as procure fear; for
besides those terrors which I have [2348]before touched, and many other
fears (which are infinite) there is a superstitious fear, one of the three
great causes of fear in Aristotle, commonly caused by prodigies and dismal
accidents, which much trouble many of us, (_Nescio quid animus mihi
praesagit mali._) As if a hare cross the way at our going forth, or a mouse
gnaw our clothes: if they bleed three drops at nose, the salt falls towards
them, a black spot appear in their nails, &c., with many such, which Delrio
_Tom. 2. l. 3. sect. 4._ Austin Niphus in his book _de Auguriis._ Polydore
Virg. _l. 3. de Prodigas_. Sarisburiensis _Polycrat. l. 1. c. 13._ discuss
at large. They are so much affected, that with the very strength of
imagination, fear, and the devil's craft, [2349]"they pull those
misfortunes they suspect, upon their own heads, and that which they fear,
shall come upon them," as Solomon fortelleth, Prov. x. 24. and Isaiah
denounceth, lxvi. 4. which if [2350]"they could neglect and contemn, would
not come to pass," _Eorum vires nostra resident opinione, ut morbi gravitas
?grotantium cogitatione_, they are intended and remitted, as our opinion is
fixed, more or less. _N. N. dat poenas_, saith [2351]Crato of such a one,
_utinam non attraheret_: he is punished, and is the cause of it [2352]
himself:
[2353]_Dum fata fugimus fata stulti incurrimus_, the thing that I feared,
saith Job, is fallen upon me.
As much we may say of them that are troubled with their fortunes; or ill
destinies foreseen: _multos angit praecientia malorum_: The foreknowledge
of what shall come to pass, crucifies many men: foretold by astrologers, or
wizards, _iratum ob coelum_, be it ill accident, or death itself: which
often falls out by God's permission; _quia daemonem timent_ (saith
Chrysostom) _Deus ideo permittit accidere_. Severus, Adrian, Domitian, can
testify as much, of whose fear and suspicion, Sueton, Herodian, and the
rest of those writers, tell strange stories in this behalf. [2354]Montanus
_consil. 31._ hath one example of a young man, exceeding melancholy upon
this occasion. Such fears have still tormented mortal men in all ages, by
reason of those lying oracles, and juggling priests. [2355]There was a
fountain in Greece, near Ceres' temple in Achaia, where the event of such
diseases was to be known; "A glass let down by a thread," &c. Amongst those
Cyanean rocks at the springs of Lycia, was the oracle of Thrixeus Apollo,
"where all fortunes were foretold, sickness, health, or what they would
besides:" so common people have been always deluded with future events. At
this day, _Metus futurorum maxime torquet Sinas_, this foolish fear,
mightily crucifies them in China: as [2356]Matthew Riccius the Jesuit
informeth us, in his commentaries of those countries, of all nations they
are most superstitious, and much tormented in this kind, attributing so
much to their divinators, _ut ipse metus fidem faciat_, that fear itself
and conceit, cause it to [2357]fall out: If he foretell sickness such a
day, that very time they will be sick, _vi metus afflicti in aegritudinem
cadunt_; and many times die as it is foretold. A true saying, _Timor
mortis, morte pejor_, the fear of death is worse than death itself, and the
memory of that sad hour, to some fortunate and rich men, "is as bitter as
gall," Eccl. xli. 1. _Inquietam nobis vitam facit mortis metus_, a worse
plague cannot happen to a man, than to be so troubled in his mind; 'tis
_triste divortium_, a heavy separation, to leave their goods, with so much
labour got, pleasures of the world, which they have so deliciously enjoyed,
friends and companions whom they so dearly loved, all at once. Axicchus the
philosopher was bold and courageous all his life, and gave good precepts
_de contemnenda morte_, and against the vanity of the world, to others; but
being now ready to die himself, he was mightily dejected, _hac luce
privabor? his orbabor bonis_? [2358]he lamented like a child, &c. And
though Socrates himself was there to comfort him, _ubi pristina virtutum
jactatio O Axioche_? "where is all your boasted virtue now, my friend?" yet
he was very timorous and impatient of death, much troubled in his mind,
_Imbellis pavor et impatientia_, &c. "O Clotho," Megapetus the tyrant in
Lucian exclaims, now ready to depart, "let me live a while longer. [2359]I
will give thee a thousand talents of gold, and two boles besides, which I
took from Cleocritus, worth a hundred talents apiece." "Woe's me," [2360]
saith another, "what goodly manors shall I leave! what fertile fields! what
a fine house! what pretty children! how many servants! who shall gather my
grapes, my corn? Must I now die so well settled? Leave all, so richly and
well provided? Woe's me, what shall I do?" [2361]_Animula vagula, blandula,
qua nunc abibis in loca_?
To these tortures of fear and sorrow, may well be annexed curiosity, that
irksome, that tyrannising care, _nimia solicitudo_, [2362]"superfluous
industry about unprofitable things, and their qualities," as Thomas defines
it: an itching humour or a kind of longing to see that which is not to be
seen, to do that which ought not to be done, to know that [2363]secret
which should not be known, to eat of the forbidden fruit. We commonly
molest and tire ourselves about things unfit and unnecessary, as Martha
troubled herself to little purpose. Be it in religion, humanity, magic,
philosophy, policy, any action or study, 'tis a needless trouble, a mere
torment. For what else is school divinity, how many doth it puzzle? what
fruitless questions about the Trinity, resurrection, election,
predestination, reprobation, hell-fire, &c., how many shall be saved,
damned? What else is all superstition, but an endless observation of idle
ceremonies, traditions? What is most of our philosophy but a labyrinth of
opinions, idle questions, propositions, metaphysical terms? Socrates,
therefore, held all philosophers, cavillers, and mad men, _circa subtilia
Cavillatores pro insanis habuit, palam eos arguens_, saith [2364]Eusebius,
because they commonly sought after such things _quae nec percipi a nobis
neque comprehendi posset_, or put case they did understand, yet they were
altogether unprofitable. For what matter is it for us to know how high the
Pleiades are, how far distant Perseus and Cassiopeia from us, how deep the
sea, &c., we are neither wiser, as he follows it, nor modester, nor better,
nor richer, nor stronger for the knowledge of it. _Quod supra nos nihil ad,
nos_, I may say the same of those genethliacal studies, what is astrology
but vain elections, predictions? all magic, but a troublesome error, a
pernicious foppery? physic, but intricate rules and prescriptions?
philology, but vain criticisms? logic, needless sophisms? metaphysics
themselves, but intricate subtleties, and fruitless abstractions? alchemy,
but a bundle of errors? to what end are such great tomes? why do we spend
so many years in their studies? Much better to know nothing at all, as
those barbarous Indians are wholly ignorant, than as some of us, to be so
sore vexed about unprofitable toys: _stultus labor est ineptiarum_, to
build a house without pins, make a rope of sand, to what end? _cui bono_?
He studies on, but as the boy told St. Austin, when I have laved the sea
dry, thou shalt understand the mystery of the Trinity. He makes
observations, keeps times and seasons; and as [2365]Conradus the emperor
would not touch his new bride, till an astrologer had told him a masculine
hour, but with what success? He travels into Europe, Africa, Asia,
searcheth every creek, sea, city, mountain, gulf, to what end? See one
promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and
see all. An alchemist spends his fortunes to find out the philosopher's
stone forsooth, cure all diseases, make men long-lived, victorious,
fortunate, invisible, and beggars himself, misled by those seducing
impostors (which he shall never attain) to make gold; an antiquary consumes
his treasure and time to scrape up a company of old coins, statues, rules,
edicts, manuscripts, &c., he must know what was done of old in Athens,
Rome, what lodging, diet, houses they had, and have all the present news at
first, though never so remote, before all others, what projects, counsels,
consultations, &c., _quid Juno in aurem insusurret Jovi_, what's now
decreed in France, what in Italy: who was he, whence comes he, which way,
whither goes he, &c. Aristotle must find out the motion of Euripus; Pliny
must needs see Vesuvius, but how sped they? One loseth goods, another his
life; Pyrrhus will conquer Africa first, and then Asia: he will be a sole
monarch, a second immortal, a third rich; a fourth commands. [2366]
_Turbine magno spes solicitae in urbibus errant_; we run, ride, take
indefatigable pains, all up early, down late, striving to get that which we
had better be without, (Ardelion's busybodies as we are) it were much
fitter for us to be quiet, sit still, and take our ease. His sole study is
for words, that they be--_Lepidae lexeis compostae, ut tesserulae omnes_,
not a syllable misplaced, to set out a stramineous subject: as thine is
about apparel, to follow the fashion, to be terse and polite, 'tis thy sole
business: both with like profit. His only delight is building, he spends
himself to get curious pictures, intricate models and plots, another is
wholly ceremonious about titles, degrees, inscriptions: a third is
over-solicitous about his diet, he must have such and such exquisite
sauces, meat so dressed, so far-fetched, _peregrini aeris volucres_, so
cooked, &c., something to provoke thirst, something anon to quench his
thirst. Thus he redeems his appetite with extraordinary charge to his
purse, is seldom pleased with any meal, whilst a trivial stomach useth all
with delight and is never offended. Another must have roses in winter,
_alieni temporis flores_, snow-water in summer, fruits before they can be
or are usually ripe, artificial gardens and fishponds on the tops of
houses, all things opposite to the vulgar sort, intricate and rare, or else
they are nothing worth. So busy, nice, curious wits, make that
insupportable in all vocations, trades, actions, employments, which to
duller apprehensions is not offensive, earnestly seeking that which others
so scornfully neglect. Thus through our foolish curiosity do we macerate
ourselves, tire our souls, and run headlong, through our indiscretion,
perverse will, and want of government, into many needless cares, and
troubles, vain expenses, tedious journeys, painful hours; and when all is
done, _quorsum haec? cui bono_? to what end?
[2367] "Nescire velle quae Magister maximus
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est."
_Unfortunate marriage_.] Amongst these passions and irksome accidents,
unfortunate marriage may be ranked: a condition of life appointed by God
himself in Paradise, an honourable and happy estate, and as great a
felicity as can befall a man in this world, [2368]if the parties can agree
as they ought, and live as [2369]Seneca lived with his Paulina; but if they
be unequally matched, or at discord, a greater misery cannot be expected,
to have a scold, a slut, a harlot, a fool, a fury or a fiend, there can be
no such plague. Eccles. xxvi. 14, "He that hath her is as if he held a
scorpion," &c. xxvi. 25, "a wicked wife makes a sorry countenance, a heavy
heart, and he had rather dwell with a lion than keep house with such a
wife." Her [2370]properties Jovianus Pontanus hath described at large,
_Ant. dial. Tom. 2_, under the name of Euphorbia. Or if they be not equal
in years, the like mischief happens. Cecilius in _Agellius lib. 2. cap.
23_, complains much of an old wife, _dum ejus morti inhio, egomet mortuus
vivo inter vivos_, whilst I gape after her death, I live a dead man amongst
the living, or if they dislike upon any occasion,
[2371] "Judge who that are unfortunately wed
What 'tis to come into a loathed bed."
The same inconvenience befalls women.
[2372] "At vos o duri miseram lugete parentes,
Si ferro aut laqueo laeva hac me exsolvere sorte
Sustineo:"------
"Hard hearted parents both lament my fate,
If self I kill or hang, to ease my state."
[2373]A young gentlewoman in Basil was married, saith Felix Plater,
_observat. l. 1_, to an ancient man against her will, whom she could not
affect; she was continually melancholy, and pined away for grief; and
though her husband did all he could possibly to give her content, in a
discontented humour at length she hanged herself. Many other stories he
relates in this kind. Thus men are plagued with women; they again with men,
when they are of divers humours and conditions; he a spendthrift, she
sparing; one honest, the other dishonest, &c. Parents many times disquiet
their children, and they their parents. [2374]"A foolish son is an
heaviness to his mother." _Injusta noverca_: a stepmother often vexeth a
whole family, is matter of repentance, exercise of patience, fuel of
dissension, which made Cato's son expostulate with his father, why he
should offer to marry his client Solinius' daughter, a young wench, _Cujus
causa novercam induceret_; what offence had he done, that he should marry
again?
Unkind, unnatural friends, evil neighbours, bad servants, debts and
debates, &c., 'twas Chilon's sentence, _comes aeris alieni et litis est
miseria_, misery and usury do commonly together; suretyship is the bane of
many families, _Sponde, praesto noxa est_: "he shall be sore vexed that is
surety for a stranger," Prov. xi. 15, "and he that hateth suretyship is
sure." Contention, brawling, lawsuits, falling out of neighbours and
friends.--_discordia demens_ (Virg. _Aen. 6_,) are equal to the first,
grieve many a man, and vex his soul. _Nihil sane miserabilius eorum
mentibus_, (as [2375]Boter holds) "nothing so miserable as such men, full
of cares, griefs, anxieties, as if they were stabbed with a sharp sword,
fear, suspicion, desperation, sorrow, are their ordinary companions." Our
Welshmen are noted by some of their [2376]own writers, to consume one
another in this kind; but whosoever they are that use it, these are their
common symptoms, especially if they be convict or overcome, [2377]cast in a
suit. Arius put out of a bishopric by Eustathius, turned heretic, and lived
after discontented all his life. [2378]Every repulse is of like nature;
_heu quanta de spe decidi_! Disgrace, infamy, detraction, will almost
effect as much, and that a long time after. Hipponax, a satirical poet, so
vilified and lashed two painters in his iambics, _ut ambo laqueo se
suffocarent_, [2379]Pliny saith, both hanged themselves. All oppositions,
dangers, perplexities, discontents, [2380]to live in any suspense, are of
the same rank: _potes hoc sub casu ducere somnos_? Who can be secure in
such cases? Ill-bestowed benefits, ingratitude, unthankful friends, much
disquiet and molest some. Unkind speeches trouble as many; uncivil carriage
or dogged answers, weak women above the rest, if they proceed from their
surly husbands, are as bitter as gall, and not to be digested. A glassman's
wife in Basil became melancholy because her husband said he would marry
again if she died. "No cut to unkindness," as the saying is, a frown and
hard speech, ill respect, a browbeating, or bad look, especially to
courtiers, or such as attend upon great persons, is present death:
_Ingenium vultu statque caditque suo_, they ebb and flow with their
masters' favours. Some persons are at their wits' ends, if by chance they
overshoot themselves, in their ordinary speeches, or actions, which may
after turn to their disadvantage or disgrace, or have any secret disclosed.
Ronseus _epist. miscel. 2_, reports of a gentlewoman 25 years old, that
falling foul with one of her gossips, was upbraided with a secret infirmity
(no matter what) in public, and so much grieved with it, that she did
thereupon _solitudines quaerere omnes ab se ablegare, ac tandem in
gravissimam incidens melancholiam, contabescere_, forsake all company,
quite moped, and in a melancholy humour pine away. Others are as much
tortured to see themselves rejected, contemned, scorned, disabled, defamed,
detracted, undervalued, or [2381]"left behind their fellows." Lucian brings
in Aetamacles, a philosopher in his _Lapith. convivio_, much discontented
that he was not invited amongst the rest, expostulating the matter, in a
long epistle, with Aristenetus their host. Praetextatus, a robed gentleman
in Plutarch, would not sit down at a feast, because he might not sit
highest, but went his ways all in a chafe. We see the common quarrelings,
that are ordinary with us, for taking of the wall, precedency, and the
like, which though toys in themselves, and things of no moment, yet they
cause many distempers, much heart-burning amongst us. Nothing pierceth
deeper than a contempt or disgrace, [2382]especially if they be generous
spirits, scarce anything affects them more than to be despised or vilified.
Crato, _consil. 16, l. 2_, exemplifies it, and common experience confirms
it. Of the same nature is oppression, Ecclus. 77, "surely oppression makes
a man mad," loss of liberty, which made Brutus venture his life, Cato kill
himself, and [2383]Tully complain, _Omnem hilaritatem in perpetuum amisi_,
mine heart's broken, I shall never look up, or be merry again, [2384]_haec
jactura intolerabilis_, to some parties 'tis a most intolerable loss.
Banishment a great misery, as Tyrteus describes it in an epigram of his,
"Nam miserum est patria amissa, laribusque vagari
Mendicum, et timida voce rogare cibos:
Omnibus invisus, quocunque accesserit exul
Semper erit, semper spretus egensque jacet," &c.
"A miserable thing 'tis so to wander,
And like a beggar for to whine at door,
Contemn'd of all the world, an exile is,
Hated, rejected, needy still and poor."
Polynices in his conference with Jocasta in [2385]Euripides, reckons up
five miseries of a banished man, the least of which alone were enough to
deject some pusillanimous creatures. Oftentimes a too great feeling of our
own infirmities or imperfections of body or mind, will shrivel us up; as if
we be long sick:
"O beata sanitas, te praesente, amaenum
Ver florit gratiis, absque te nemo beatus:"
O blessed health! "thou art above all gold and treasure," Ecclus. xxx. 15,
the poor man's riches, the rich man's bliss, without thee there can be no
happiness: or visited with some loathsome disease, offensive to others, or
troublesome to ourselves; as a stinking breath, deformity of our limbs,
crookedness, loss of an eye, leg, hand, paleness, leanness, redness,
baldness, loss or want of hair, &c., _hic ubi fluere caepit, diros ictus
cordi infert_, saith [2386]Synesius, he himself troubled not a little _ob
comae defectum_, the loss of hair alone, strikes a cruel stroke to the
heart. Acco, an old woman, seeing by chance her face in a true glass (for
she used false flattering glasses belike at other times, as most
gentlewomen do,) _animi dolore in insaniam delapsa est_, (Caelius
Rhodiginus _l. 17, c. 2_,) ran mad. [2387]Brotheus, the son of Vulcan,
because he was ridiculous for his imperfections, flung himself into the
fire. Lais of Corinth, now grown old, gave up her glass to Venus, for she
could hot abide to look upon it. [2388]_Qualis sum nolo, qualis eram
nequeo_. Generally to fair nice pieces, old age and foul linen are two most
odious things, a torment of torments, they may not abide the thought of it,
[2389] ------"o deorum
Quisquis haec audis, utinam inter errem
Nuda leones,"
"Antequam turpis macies decentes
Occupet malas, teneraeque succus
Defluat praedae, speciosa quaerro
Pascere tigres."
"Hear me, some gracious heavenly power,
Let lions dire this naked corse devour.
My cheeks ere hollow wrinkles seize.
Ere yet their rosy bloom decays:
While youth yet rolls its vital flood,
Let tigers friendly riot in my blood."
To be foul, ugly, and deformed, much better be buried alive. Some are fair
but barren, and that galls them. "Hannah wept sore, did not eat, and was
troubled in spirit, and all for her barrenness," 1 Sam. 1. and Gen. 30.
Rachel said "in the anguish of her soul, give me a child, or I shall die:"
another hath too many: one was never married, and that's his hell, another
is, and that's his plague. Some are troubled in that they are obscure;
others by being traduced, slandered, abused, disgraced, vilified, or any
way injured: _minime miror eos_ (as he said) _qui insanire occipiunt ex
injuria_, I marvel not at all if offences make men mad. Seventeen
particular causes of anger and offence Aristotle reckons them up, which for
brevity's sake I must omit. No tidings troubles one; ill reports, rumours,
bad tidings or news, hard hap, ill success, cast in a suit, vain hopes, or
hope deferred, another: expectation, _adeo omnibus in rebus molesta semper
est expectatio_, as [2390]Polybius observes; one is too eminent, another
too base born, and that alone tortures him as much as the rest: one is out
of action, company, employment; another overcome and tormented with worldly
cares, and onerous business. But what [2391]tongue can suffice to speak of
all?
Many men catch this malady by eating certain meats, herbs, roots, at
unawares; as henbane, nightshade, cicuta, mandrakes, &c. [2392]A company of
young men at Agrigentum in Sicily, came into a tavern; where after they had
freely taken their liquor, whether it were the wine itself, or something
mixed with it 'tis not yet known, [2393]but upon a sudden they began to be
so troubled in their brains, and their phantasy so crazed, that they
thought they were in a ship at sea, and now ready to be cast away by reason
of a tempest. Wherefore to avoid shipwreck and present drowning, they flung
all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the
sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season, and being
brought before the magistrate to give an account of this their fact, they
told him (not yet recovered of their madness) that what was done they did
for fear of death, and to avoid imminent danger: the spectators were all
amazed at this their stupidity, and gazed on them still, whilst one of the
ancientest of the company, in a grave tone, excused himself to the
magistrate upon his knees, _O viri Tritones, ego in imo jacui_, I beseech
your deities, &c. for I was in the bottom of the ship all the while:
another besought them as so many sea gods to be good unto them, and if ever
he and his fellows came to land again, [2394]he would build an altar to
their service. The magistrate could not sufficiently laugh at this their
madness, bid them sleep it out, and so went his ways. Many such accidents
frequently happen, upon these unknown occasions. Some are so caused by
philters, wandering in the sun, biting of a mad dog, a blow on the head,
stinging with that kind of spider called tarantula, an ordinary thing if we
may believe Skeuck. _l. 6. de Venenis_, in Calabria and Apulia in Italy,
Cardan, _subtil. l. 9._ Scaliger _exercitat. 185._ Their symptoms are
merrily described by Jovianus Pontanus, _Ant. dial._ how they dance
altogether, and are cured by music. [2395]Cardan speaks of certain stones,
if they be carried about one, which will cause melancholy and madness; he
calls them unhappy, as an [2396]_adamant, selenites_, &c. "which dry up the
body, increase cares, diminish sleep:" Ctesias in Persicis, makes mention
of a well in those parts, of which if any man drink, [2397]"he is mad for
24 hours." Some lose their wits by terrible objects (as elsewhere I have
more [2398]copiously dilated) and life itself many times, as Hippolitus
affrighted by Neptune's seahorses, Athemas by Juno's furies: but these
relations are common in all writers.
[2399] "Hic alias poteram, et plures subnectere causas,
Sed jumenta vocant, et Sol inclinat, Eundum est."
"Many such causes, much more could I say,
But that for provender my cattle stay:
The sun declines, and I must needs away."
These causes if they be considered, and come alone, I do easily yield, can
do little of themselves, seldom, or apart (an old oak is not felled at a
blow) though many times they are all sufficient every one: yet if they
concur, as often they do, _vis unita fortior; et quae non obsunt singula,
multa nocent_, they may batter a strong constitution; as [2400]Austin said,
"many grains and small sands sink a ship, many small drops make a flood,"
&c., often reiterated; many dispositions produce an habit.
MEMB. V.
SUBSECT. I.--_Continent, inward, antecedent, next causes and how the body
works on the mind_.
As a purlieu hunter, I have hitherto beaten about the circuit of the forest
of this microcosm, and followed only those outward adventitious causes. I
will now break into the inner rooms, and rip up the antecedent immediate
causes which are there to be found. For as the distraction of the mind,
amongst other outward causes and perturbations, alters the temperature of
the body, so the distraction and distemper of the body will cause a
distemperature of the soul, and 'tis hard to decide which of these two do
more harm to the other. Plato, Cyprian, and some others, as I have formerly
said, lay the greatest fault upon the soul, excusing the body; others again
accusing the body, excuse the soul, as a principal agent. Their reasons
are, because [2401]"the manners do follow the temperature of the body," as
Galen proves in his book of that subject, Prosper Calenius _de Atra bile_,
Jason Pratensis _c. de Mania_, Lemnius _l. 4. c. 16._ and many others. And
that which Gualter hath commented, _hom. 10. in epist. Johannis_, is most
true, concupiscence and originals in, inclinations, and bad humours, are
[2402]radical in every one of us, causing these perturbations, affections,
and several distempers, offering many times violence unto the soul. "Every
man is tempted by his own concupiscence (James i. 14), the spirit is
willing but the flesh is weak, and rebelleth against the spirit," as our
[2403]apostle teacheth us: that methinks the soul hath the better plea
against the body, which so forcibly inclines us, that we cannot resist,
_Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum sufficimus_. How the body being
material, worketh upon the immaterial soul, by mediation of humours and
spirits, which participate of both, and ill-disposed organs, Cornelius
Agrippa hath discoursed _lib. 1. de occult. Philos. cap. 63, 64, 65._
Levinus Lemnius _lib. 1. de occult. nat. mir. cap. 12. et 16. et 21.
institut. ad opt. vit_. Perkins _lib. 1. Cases of Cons. cap. 12._ T. Bright
_c. 10, 11, 12._ "in his treatise of melancholy," for as, [2404] anger,
fear, sorrow, obtrectation, emulation, &c. _si mentis intimos recessus
occuparint_, saith [2405]Lemnius, _corpori quoque infesta sunt, et illi
teterrimos morbos inferunt_, cause grievous diseases in the body, so bodily
diseases affect the soul by consent. Now the chiefest causes proceed from
the [2406]heart, humours, spirits: as they are purer, or impurer, so is the
mind, and equally suffers, as a lute out of tune, if one string or one
organ be distempered, all the rest miscarry, [2407]_corpus onustum
hesternis vitiis, animum quoque praegravat una_. The body is _domicilium
animae_, her house, abode, and stay; and as a torch gives a better light, a
sweeter smell, according to the matter it is made of; so doth our soul
perform all her actions, better or worse, as her organs are disposed; or as
wine savours of the cask wherein it is kept; the soul receives a tincture
from the body, through which it works. We see this in old men, children,
Europeans; Asians, hot and cold climes; sanguine are merry, melancholy sad,
phlegmatic dull, by reason of abundance of those humours, and they cannot
resist such passions which are inflicted by them. For in this infirmity of
human nature, as Melancthon declares, the understanding is so tied to, and
captivated by his inferior senses, that without their help he cannot
exercise his functions, and the will being weakened, hath but a small power
to restrain those outward parts, but suffers herself to be overruled by
them; that I must needs conclude with Lemnius, _spiritus et humores maximum
nocumentum obtinent_, spirits and humours do most harm in [2408]troubling
the soul. How should a man choose but be choleric and angry, that hath his
body so clogged with abundance of gross humours? or melancholy, that is so
inwardly disposed? That thence comes then this malady, madness, apoplexies,
lethargies, &c. it may not be denied.
Now this body of ours is most part distempered by some precedent diseases,
which molest his inward organs and instruments, and so _per consequens_
cause melancholy, according to the consent of the most approved physicians.
[2409]"This humour" (as Avicenna _l. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. c. 18._ Arnoldus
_breviar. l. 1. c. 18._ Jacchinus _comment. in 9 Rhasis, c. 15._ Montaltus,
_c. 10._ Nicholas Piso _c. de Melan._ &c. suppose) "is begotten by the
distemperature of some inward part, innate, or left after some
inflammation, or else included in the blood after an [2410]ague, or some
other malignant disease." This opinion of theirs concurs with that of
Galen, _l. 3. c. 6. de locis affect_. Guianerius gives an instance in one
so caused by a quartan ague, and Montanus _consil. 32._ in a young man of
twenty-eight years of age, so distempered after a quartan, which had
molested him five years together; Hildesheim _spicel. 2. de Mania_, relates
of a Dutch baron, grievously tormented with melancholy after a long
[2411]ague: Galen, _l. de atra bile, c. 4._ puts the plague a cause.
Botaldus in his book _de lue vener. c. 2._ the French pox for a cause,
others, frenzy, epilepsy, apoplexy, because those diseases do often
degenerate into this. Of suppression of haemorrhoids, haemorrhagia, or
bleeding at the nose, menstruous retentions, (although they deserve a
larger explication, as being the sole cause of a proper kind of melancholy,
in more ancient maids, nuns and widows, handled apart by Rodericus a
Castro, and Mercatus, as I have elsewhere signified,) or any other
evacuation stopped, I have already spoken. Only this I will add, that this
melancholy which shall be caused by such infirmities, deserves to be pitied
of all men, and to be respected with a more tender compassion, according to
Laurentius, as coming from a more inevitable cause.
SUBSECT. II.--_Distemperature of particular Parts, causes_.
There is almost no part of the body, which being distempered, doth not
cause this malady, as the brain and his parts, heart, liver, spleen,
stomach, matrix or womb, pylorus, mirach, mesentery, hypochondries,
mesaraic veins; and in a word, saith [2412]Arculanus, "there is no part
which causeth not melancholy, either because it is adust, or doth not expel
the superfluity of the nutriment." Savanarola _Pract. major. rubric. 11.
Tract. 6. cap. 1._ is of the same opinion, that melancholy is engendered in
each particular part, and [2413]Crato _in consil. 17. lib. 2._ Gordonius,
who is _instar omnium, lib. med. partic. 2. cap. 19._ confirms as much,
putting the [2414]"matter of melancholy, sometimes in the stomach, liver,
heart, brain, spleen, mirach, hypochondries, when as the melancholy humour
resides there, or the liver is not well cleansed from melancholy blood."
The brain is a familiar and frequent cause, too hot, or too cold, [2415]
"through adust blood so caused," as Mercurialis will have it, "within or
without the head," the brain itself being distempered. Those are most apt
to this disease, [2416]"that have a hot heart and moist brain," which
Montaltus _cap. 11. de Melanch._ approves out of Halyabbas, Rhasis, and
Avicenna. Mercurialis _consil. 11._ assigns the coldness of the brain a
cause, and Salustius Salvianus _med. lect. l. 2. c. 1._ [2417]will have it
"arise from a cold and dry distemperature of the brain." Piso, Benedictus
Victorius Faventinus, will have it proceed from a [2418]"hot distemperature
of the brain;" and [2419]Montaltus _cap. 10._ from the brain's heat,
scorching the blood. The brain is still distempered by himself, or by
consent: by himself or his proper affection, as Faventinus calls it,
[2420]"or by vapours which arise from the other parts, and fume up into the
head, altering the animal facilities."
Hildesheim _spicel. 2. de Mania_, thinks it may be caused from a [2421]
"distemperature of the heart; sometimes hot; sometimes cold." A hot liver,
and a cold stomach, are put for usual causes of melancholy: Mercurialis
_consil. 11. et consil. 6. consil. 86._ assigns a hot liver and cold
stomach for ordinary causes. [2422]Monavius, in an epistle of his to Crato
in Scoltzius, is of opinion, that hypochondriacal melancholy may proceed
from a cold liver; the question is there discussed. Most agree that a hot
liver is in fault; [2423]"the liver is the shop of humours, and especially
causeth melancholy by his hot and dry distemperature." [2424]"The stomach
and mesaraic veins do often concur, by reason of their obstructions, and
thence their heat cannot be avoided, and many times the matter is so adust
and inflamed in those parts, that it degenerates into hypochondriacal
melancholy." Guianerius _c. 2. Tract. 15._ holds the mesaraic veins to be a
sufficient [2425]cause alone. The spleen concurs to this malady, by all
their consents, and suppression of haemorrhoids, _dum non expurget alter a
causa lien_, saith Montaltus, if it be [2426]"too cold and dry, and do not
purge the other parts as it ought," _consil. 23._ Montanus puts the [2427]
"spleen stopped" for a great cause. [2428]Christophorus a Vega reports of
his knowledge, that he hath known melancholy caused from putrefied blood in
those seed-veins and womb; [2429]"Arculanus, from that menstruous blood
turned into melancholy, and seed too long detained (as I have already
declared) by putrefaction or adustion."
The mesenterium, or midriff, diaphragma, is a cause which the [2430]Greeks
called [Greek: phrenas]: because by his inflammation, the mind is much
troubled with convulsions and dotage. All these, most part, offend by
inflammation, corrupting humours and spirits, in this non-natural
melancholy: for from these are engendered fuliginous and black spirits. And
for that reason [2431]Montaltus _cap. 10. de causis melan._ will have "the
efficient cause of melancholy to be hot and dry, not a cold and dry
distemperature, as some hold, from the heat of the brain, roasting the
blood, immoderate heat of the liver and bowels, and inflammation of the
pylorus. And so much the rather, because that," as Galen holds, "all spices
inflame the blood, solitariness, waking, agues, study, meditation, all
which heat: and therefore he concludes that this distemperature causing
adventitious melancholy is not cold and dry, but hot and dry." But of this
I have sufficiently treated in the matter of melancholy, and hold that this
may be true in non-natural melancholy, which produceth madness, but not in
that natural, which is more cold, and being immoderate, produceth a gentle
dotage. [2432]Which opinion Geraldus de Solo maintains in his comment upon
Rhasis.
SUBSECT. III.--_Causes of Head-Melancholy_.
After a tedious discourse of the general causes of melancholy, I am now
returned at last to treat in brief of the three particular species, and
such causes as properly appertain unto them. Although these causes
promiscuously concur to each and every particular kind, and commonly
produce their effects in that part which is most ill-disposed, and least
able to resist, and so cause all three species, yet many of them are proper
to some one kind, and seldom found in the rest. As for example,
head-melancholy is commonly caused by a cold or hot distemperature of the
brain, according to Laurentius _cap. 5 de melan_. but as [2433]Hercules de
Saxonia contends, from that agitation or distemperature of the animal
spirits alone. Salust. Salvianus, before mentioned, _lib. 2. cap. 3. de re
med._ will have it proceed from cold: but that I take of natural
melancholy, such as are fools and dote: for as Galen writes _lib. 4. de
puls. 8._ and Avicenna, [2434]"a cold and moist brain is an inseparable
companion of folly." But this adventitious melancholy which is here meant,
is caused of a hot and dry distemperature, as [2435]Damascen the Arabian
_lib. 3. cap. 22._ thinks, and most writers: Altomarus and Piso call it
[2436]"an innate burning intemperateness, turning blood and choler into
melancholy." Both these opinions may stand good, as Bruel maintains, and
Capivaccius, _si cerebrum sit calidius_, [2437]"if the brain be hot, the
animal spirits will be hot, and thence comes madness; if cold, folly."
David Crusius _Theat. morb. Hermet. lib. 2. cap. 6. de atra bile_, grants
melancholy to be a disease of an inflamed brain, but cold notwithstanding
of itself: _calida per accidens, frigida per se_, hot by accident only; I
am of Capivaccius' mind for my part. Now this humour, according to
Salvianus, is sometimes in the substance of the brain, sometimes contained
in the membranes and tunicles that cover the brain, sometimes in the
passages of the ventricles of the brain, or veins of those ventricles. It
follows many times [2438]"frenzy, long diseases, agues, long abode in hot
places, or under the sun, a blow on the head," as Rhasis informeth us: Piso
adds solitariness, waking, inflammations of the head, proceeding most part
[2439]from much use of spices, hot wines, hot meats: all which Montanus
reckons up _consil. 22._ for a melancholy Jew; and Heurnius repeats _cap.
12. de Mania_: hot baths, garlic, onions, saith Guianerius, bad air,
corrupt, much [2440]waking, &c., retention of seed or abundance, stopping
of haemorrhagia, the midriff misaffected; and according to Trallianus _l.
1. 16._ immoderate cares, troubles, griefs, discontent, study, meditation,
and, in a word, the abuse of all those six non-natural things. Hercules de
Saxonia, _cap. 16. lib. 1._ will have it caused from a [2441]cautery, or
boil dried up, or an issue. Amatus Lusitanus _cent. 2. cura. 67._ gives
instance in a fellow that had a hole in his arm, [2442]"after that was
healed, ran mad, and when the wound was open, he was cured again."
Trincavellius _consil. 13. lib. 1._ hath an example of a melancholy man so
caused by overmuch continuance in the sun, frequent use of venery, and
immoderate exercise: and in his _cons. 49. lib. 3._ from a [2443]headpiece
overheated, which caused head-melancholy. Prosper Calenus brings in
Cardinal Caesius for a pattern of such as are so melancholy by long study;
but examples are infinite.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Causes of Hypochondriacal, or Windy Melancholy_.
In repeating of these causes, I must _crambem bis coctam apponere_, say
that again which I have formerly said, in applying them to their proper
species. Hypochondriacal or flatuous melancholy, is that which the Arabians
call mirachial, and is in my judgment the most grievous and frequent,
though Bruel and Laurentius make it least dangerous, and not so hard to be
known or cured. His causes are inward or outward. Inward from divers parts
or organs, as midriff, spleen, stomach, liver, pylorus, womb, diaphragma,
mesaraic veins, stopping of issues, &c. Montaltus _cap. 15._ out of Galen
recites, [2444]"heat and obstruction of those mesaraic veins, as an
immediate cause, by which means the passage of the chilus to the liver is
detained, stopped or corrupted, and turned into rumbling and wind."
Montanus, _consil. 233_, hath an evident demonstration, Trincavelius
another, _lib. 1, cap. 1_, and Plater a third, _observat. lib. 1_, for a
doctor of the law visited with this infirmity, from the said obstruction
and heat of these mesaraic veins, and bowels; _quoniam inter ventriculum et
jecur venae effervescunt_, the veins are inflamed about the liver and
stomach. Sometimes those other parts are together misaffected; and concur
to the production of this malady: a hot liver and cold stomach, or cold
belly: look for instances in Hollerius, Victor Trincavelius, _consil. 35,
l. 3_, Hildesheim _Spicel. 2, fol. 132_, Solenander _consil. 9, pro cive
Lugdunensi_, Montanus _consil. 229_, for the Earl of Montfort in Germany,
1549, and Frisimelica in the 233 consultation of the said Montanus. I.
Caesar Claudinus gives instance of a cold stomach and over-hot liver,
almost in every consultation, _con. 89_, for a certain count; and _con.
106_, for a Polonian baron, by reason of heat the blood is inflamed, and
gross vapours sent to the heart and brain. Mercurialis subscribes to them,
_cons. 89_, [2445]"the stomach being misaffected," which he calls the king
of the belly, because if he be distempered, all the rest suffer with him,
as being deprived of their nutriment, or fed with bad nourishment, by means
of which come crudities, obstructions, wind, rumbling, griping, &c.
Hercules de Saxonia, besides heat, will have the weakness of the liver and
his obstruction a cause, _facultatem debilem jecinoris_, which he calls the
mineral of melancholy. Laurentius assigns this reason, because the liver
over-hot draws the meat undigested out of the stomach, and burneth the
humours. Montanus, _cons. 244_, proves that sometimes a cold liver may be a
cause. Laurentius _c. 12_, Trincavelius _lib. 12, consil._, and Gualter
Bruel, seems to lay the greatest fault upon the spleen, that doth not his
duty in purging the liver as he ought, being too great, or too little, in
drawing too much blood sometimes to it, and not expelling it, as P.
Cnemiandrus in a [2446]consultation of his noted _tumorem lienis_, he names
it, and the fountain of melancholy. Diocles supposed the ground of this
kind of melancholy to proceed from the inflammation of the pylorus, which
is the nether mouth of the ventricle. Others assign the mesenterium or
midriff distempered by heat, the womb misaffected, stopping of
haemorrhoids, with many such. All which Laurentius, _cap. 12_, reduceth to
three, mesentery, liver, and spleen, from whence he denominates hepatic,
splenetic, and mesaraic melancholy. Outward causes, are bad diet, care,
griefs, discontents, and in a word all those six non-natural things, as
Montanus found by his experience, _consil. 244._ Solenander _consil. 9_,
for a citizen of Lyons, in France, gives his reader to understand, that he
knew this mischief procured by a medicine of cantharides, which an
unskilful physician ministered his patient to drink _ad venerem
excitandam_. But most commonly fear, grief, and some sudden commotion, or
perturbation of the mind, begin it, in such bodies especially as are
ill-disposed. Melancthon, _tract. 14, cap. 2, de anima_, will have it as
common to men, as the mother to women, upon some grievous trouble, dislike,
passion, or discontent. For as Camerarius records in his life, Melancthon
himself was much troubled with it, and therefore could speak out of
experience. Montanus, _consil. 22, pro delirante Judaeo_, confirms it,
[2447]grievous symptoms of the mind brought him to it. Randolotius relates
of himself, that being one day very intent to write out a physician's
notes, molested by an occasion, he fell into a hypochondriacal fit, to
avoid which he drank the decoction of wormwood, and was freed.
[2448]Melancthon "(being the disease is so troublesome and frequent) holds
it a most necessary and profitable study, for every man to know the
accidents of it, and a dangerous thing to be ignorant," and would therefore
have all men in some sort to understand the causes, symptoms, and cures of
it.
SUBSECT. V.--_Causes of Melancholy from the whole Body_.
As before, the cause of this kind of melancholy is inward or outward.
Inward, [2449]"when the liver is apt to engender such a humour, or the
spleen weak by nature, and not able to discharge his office." A melancholy
temperature, retention of haemorrhoids, monthly issues, bleeding at nose,
long diseases, agues, and all those six non-natural things increase it. But
especially [2450]bad diet, as Piso thinks, pulse, salt meat, shellfish,
cheese, black wine, &c. Mercurialis out of Averroes and Avicenna condemns
all herbs: Galen, _lib. 3, de loc. affect. cap. 7_, especially cabbage. So
likewise fear, sorrow, discontents, &c., but of these before. And thus in
brief you have had the general and particular causes of melancholy.
Now go and brag of thy present happiness, whosoever thou art, brag of thy
temperature, of thy good parts, insult, triumph, and boast; thou seest in
what a brittle state thou art, how soon thou mayst be dejected, how many
several ways, by bad diet, bad air, a small loss, a little sorrow or
discontent, an ague, &c.; how many sudden accidents may procure thy ruin,
what a small tenure of happiness thou hast in this life, how weak and silly
a creature thou art. "Humble thyself, therefore, under the mighty hand of
God," 1 Peter, v. 6, know thyself, acknowledge thy present misery, and make
right use of it. _Qui stat videat ne cadat._ Thou dost now flourish, and
hast _bona animi, corporis, et fortunae_, goods of body, mind, and fortune,
_nescis quid serus secum vesper ferat_, thou knowest not what storms and
tempests the late evening may bring with it. Be not secure then, "be sober
and watch," [2451]_fortunam reverenter habe_, if fortunate and rich; if
sick and poor, moderate thyself. I have said.
SECT. III. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Symptoms, or Signs of Melancholy in the Body_.
Parrhasius, a painter of Athens, amongst those Olynthian captives Philip of
Macedon brought home to sell, [2452]bought one very old man; and when he
had him at Athens, put him to extreme torture and torment, the better by
his example to express the pains and passions of his Prometheus, whom he
was then about to paint. I need not be so barbarous, inhuman, curious, or
cruel, for this purpose to torture any poor melancholy man, their symptoms
are plain, obvious and familiar, there needs no such accurate observation
or far-fetched object, they delineate themselves, they voluntarily betray
themselves, they are too frequent in all places, I meet them still as I go,
they cannot conceal it, their grievances are too well known, I need not
seek far to describe them.
Symptoms therefore are either [2453]universal or particular, saith
Gordonius, _lib. med. cap. 19, part. 2_, to persons, to species; "some
signs are secret, some manifest, some in the body, some in the mind, and
diversely vary, according to the inward or outward causes," Capivaccius: or
from stars, according to Jovianus Pontanus, _de reb. caelest. lib. 10, cap.
13_, and celestial influences, or from the humours diversely mixed,
Ficinus, _lib. 1, cap. 4, de sanit. tuenda_: as they are hot, cold,
natural, unnatural, intended, or remitted, so will Aetius have
_melancholica deliria multiformia_, diversity of melancholy signs.
Laurentius ascribes them to their several temperatures, delights, natures,
inclinations, continuance of time, as they are simple or mixed with other
diseases, as the causes are divers, so must the signs be, almost infinite,
Altomarus _cap. 7, art. med._ And as wine produceth divers effects, or that
herb Tortocolla in [2454]Laurentius, "which makes some laugh, some weep,
some sleep, some dance, some sing, some howl, some drink," &c. so doth this
our melancholy humour work several signs in several parties.
But to confine them, these general symptoms may be reduced to those of the
body or the mind. Those usual signs appearing in the bodies of such as are
melancholy, be these cold and dry, or they are hot and dry, as the humour
is more or less adust. From [2455]these first qualities arise many other
second, as that of [2456]colour, black, swarthy, pale, ruddy, &c., some are
_impense rubri_, as Montaltus _cap. 16_ observes out of Galen, _lib. 3, de
locis affectis_, very red and high coloured. Hippocrates in his book
[2457]_de insania et melan._ reckons up these signs, that they are [2458]
"lean, withered, hollow-eyed, look old, wrinkled, harsh, much troubled with
wind, and a griping in their bellies, or bellyache, belch often, dry
bellies and hard, dejected looks, flaggy beards, singing of the ears,
vertigo, light-headed, little or no sleep, and that interrupt, terrible and
fearful dreams," [2459]_Anna soror, quae, me suspensam insomnia terrent_?
The same symptoms are repeated by Melanelius in his book of melancholy
collected out of Galen, Ruffus, Aetius, by Rhasis, Gordonius, and all the
juniors, [2460]"continual, sharp, and stinking belchings, as if their meat
in their stomachs were putrefied, or that they had eaten fish, dry bellies,
absurd and interrupt dreams, and many fantastical visions about their eyes,
vertiginous, apt to tremble, and prone to venery." [2461]Some add
palpitation of the heart, cold sweat, as usual symptoms, and a leaping in
many parts of the body, _saltum in multis corporis partibus_, a kind of
itching, saith Laurentius, on the superficies of the skin, like a
flea-biting sometimes. [2462]Montaltus _cap. 21._ puts fixed eyes and much
twinkling of their eyes for a sign, and so doth Avicenna, _oculos habentes
palpitantes, trauli, vehementer rubicundi_, &c., _lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4.
cap. 18._ They stut most part, which he took out of Hippocrates' aphorisms.
[2463]Rhasis makes "headache and a binding heaviness for a principal
token, much leaping of wind about the skin, as well as stutting, or
tripping in speech, &c., hollow eyes, gross veins, and broad lips." To some
too, if they be far gone, mimical gestures are too familiar, laughing,
grinning, fleering, murmuring, talking to themselves, with strange mouths
and faces, inarticulate voices, exclamations, &c. And although they be
commonly lean, hirsute, uncheerful in countenance, withered, and not so
pleasant to behold, by reason of those continual fears, griefs, and
vexations, dull, heavy, lazy, restless, unapt to go about any business; yet
their memories are most part good, they have happy wits, and excellent
apprehensions. Their hot and dry brains make them they cannot sleep,
_Ingentes habent et crebras vigilias_ (Arteus) mighty and often watchings,
sometimes waking for a month, a year together. [2464]Hercules de Saxonia
faithfully averreth, that he hath heard his mother swear, she slept not for
seven months together: Trincavelius, _Tom. 2. cons. 16._ speaks of one that
waked 50 days, and Skenkius hath examples of two years, and all without
offence. In natural actions their appetite is greater than their
concoction, _multa appetunt pauca digerunt_ as Rhasis hath it, they covet
to eat, but cannot digest. And although they [2465]"do eat much, yet they
are lean, ill-liking," saith Areteus, "withered and hard, much troubled
with costiveness," crudities, oppilations, spitting, belching, &c. Their
pulse is rare and slow, except it be of the [2466]Carotides, which is very
strong; but that varies according to their intended passions or
perturbations, as Struthius hath proved at large, _Spigmaticae. artis l. 4.
c. 13._ To say truth, in such chronic diseases the pulse is not much to be
respected, there being so much superstition in it, as [2467]Crato notes,
and so many differences in Galen, that he dares say they may not be
observed, or understood of any man.
Their urine is most part pale, and low coloured, _urina pauca acris,
biliosa_ (Areteus), not much in quantity; but this, in my judgment, is all
out as uncertain as the other, varying so often according to several
persons, habits, and other occasions not to be respected in chronic
diseases. [2468]"Their melancholy excrements in some very much, in others
little, as the spleen plays his part," and thence proceeds wind,
palpitation of the heart, short breath, plenty of humidity in the stomach,
heaviness of heart and heartache, and intolerable stupidity and dullness of
spirits. Their excrements or stool hard, black to some and little. If the
heart, brain, liver, spleen, be misaffected, as usually they are, many
inconveniences proceed from them, many diseases accompany, as incubus,
[2469]apoplexy, epilepsy, vertigo, those frequent wakings and terrible
dreams, [2470]intempestive laughing, weeping, sighing, sobbing,
bashfulness, blushing, trembling, sweating, swooning, &c. [2471]All their
senses are troubled, they think they see, hear, smell, and touch that which
they do not, as shall be proved in the following discourse.
SUBSECT. II.--_Symptoms or Signs in the Mind_.
_Fear_.] Arculanus _in 9. Rhasis ad Almansor. cap. 16._ will have these
symptoms to be infinite, as indeed they are, varying according to the
parties, "for scarce is there one of a thousand that dotes alike," [2472]
Laurentius _c. 16._ Some few of greater note I will point at; and amongst
the rest, fear and sorrow, which as they are frequent causes, so if they
persevere long, according to Hippocrates [2473]and Galen's aphorisms, they
are most assured signs, inseparable companions, and characters of
melancholy; of present melancholy and habituated, saith Montaltus _cap.
11._ and common to them all, as the said Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and
all Neoterics hold. But as hounds many times run away with a false cry,
never perceiving themselves to be at a fault, so do they. For Diocles of
old, (whom Galen confutes,) and amongst the juniors, [2474]Hercules de
Saxonia, with Lod. Mercatus _cap. 17. l. 1. de melan._, takes just
exceptions, at this aphorism of Hippocrates, 'tis not always true, or so
generally to be understood, "fear and sorrow are no common symptoms to all
melancholy; upon more serious consideration, I find some" (saith he) "that
are not so at all. Some indeed are sad, and not fearful; some fearful and
not sad; some neither fearful nor sad; some both." Four kinds he excepts,
fanatical persons, such as were Cassandra, Nanto, Nicostrata, Mopsus,
Proteus, the sibyls, whom [2475]Aristotle confesseth to have been deeply
melancholy. Baptista Porta seconds him, _Physiog. lib. 1, cap. 8_, they
were _atra bile perciti_: demoniacal persons, and such as speak strange
languages, are of this rank: some poets, such as laugh always, and think
themselves kings, cardinals, &c., sanguine they are, pleasantly disposed
most part, and so continue. [2476]Baptista Portia confines fear and sorrow
to them that are cold; but lovers, Sibyls, enthusiasts, he wholly excludes.
So that I think I may truly conclude, they are not always sad and fearful,
but usually so: and that [2477]without a cause, _timent de non timendis_,
(Gordonius,) _quaeque momenti non sunt_, "although not all alike" (saith
Altomarus), [2478]"yet all likely fear," [2479]"some with an extraordinary
and a mighty fear," Areteus. [2480]"Many fear death, and yet in a contrary
humour, make away themselves," Galen, _lib. 3. de loc. affec. cap. 7._ Some
are afraid that heaven will fall on their heads: some they are damned, or
shall be. [2481]"They are troubled with scruples of consciences,
distrusting God's mercies, think they shall go certainly to hell, the devil
will have them, and make great lamentation," Jason Pratensis. Fear of
devils, death, that they shall be so sick, of some such or such disease,
ready to tremble at every object, they shall die themselves forthwith, or
that some of their dear friends or near allies are certainly dead; imminent
danger, loss, disgrace still torment others, &c.; that they are all glass,
and therefore will suffer no man to come near them: that they are all cork,
as light as feathers; others as heavy as lead; some are afraid their heads
will fall off their shoulders, that they have frogs in their bellies, &c.
[2482]Montanus _consil. 23_, speaks of one "that durst not walk alone from
home, for fear he should swoon or die." A second [2483]"fears every man he
meets will rob him, quarrel with him, or kill him." A third dares not
venture to walk alone, for fear he should meet the devil, a thief, be sick;
fears all old women as witches, and every black dog or cat he sees he
suspecteth to be a devil, every person comes near him is maleficiated,
every creature, all intend to hurt him, seek his ruin; another dares not go
over a bridge, come near a pool, rock, steep hill, lie in a chamber where
cross beams are, for fear he be tempted to hang, drown, or precipitate
himself. If he be in a silent auditory, as at a sermon, he is afraid he
shall speak aloud at unawares, something indecent, unfit to be said. If he
be locked in a close room, he is afraid of being stifled for want of air,
and still carries biscuit, aquavitae, or some strong waters about him, for
fear of deliquiums, or being sick; or if he be in a throng, middle of a
church, multitude, where he may not well get out, though he sit at ease, he
is so misaffected. He will freely promise, undertake any business
beforehand, but when it comes to be performed, he dare not adventure, but
fears an infinite number of dangers, disasters, &c. Some are [2484] "afraid
to be burned, or that the [2485]ground will sink under them, or
[2486]swallow them quick, or that the king will call them in question for
some fact they never did (Rhasis _cont._) and that they shall surely be
executed." The terror of such a death troubles them, and they fear as much
and are equally tormented in mind, [2487]"as they that have committed a
murder, and are pensive without a cause, as if they were now presently to
be put to death." Plater, _cap. 3. de mentis alienat._ They are afraid of
some loss, danger, that they shall surely lose their lives, goods, and all
they have, but why they know not. Trincavelius, _consil. 13. lib. 1._ had a
patient that would needs make away himself, for fear of being hanged, and
could not be persuaded for three years together, but that he had killed a
man. Plater, _observat. lib. 1._ hath two other examples of such as feared
to be executed without a cause. If they come in a place where a robbery,
theft, or any such offence hath been done, they presently fear they are
suspected, and many times betray themselves without a cause. Lewis XI., the
French king, suspected every man a traitor that came about him, durst trust
no officer. _Alii formidolosi omnium, alii quorundam_ (Fracatorius _lib. 2.
de Intellect._) [2488]"some fear all alike, some certain men, and cannot
endure their companies, are sick in them, or if they be from home." Some
suspect [2489]treason still, others "are afraid of their [2490]dearest and
nearest friends." (_Melanelius e Galeno, Ruffo, Aetio_,) and dare not be
alone in the dark for fear of hobgoblins and devils: he suspects everything
he hears or sees to be a devil, or enchanted, and imagineth a thousand
chimeras and visions, which to his thinking he certainly sees, bugbears,
talks with black men, ghosts, goblins, &c., [2491]_Omnes se terrent aurae,
sonus excitat omnis._ Another through bashfulness, suspicion, and
timorousness will not be seen abroad, [2492]"loves darkness as life, and
cannot endure the light," or to sit in lightsome places, his hat still in
his eyes, he will neither see nor be seen by his goodwill, Hippocrates,
_lib. de Insania et Melancholia_. He dare not come in company for fear he
should be misused, disgraced, overshoot himself in gesture or speeches, or
be sick; he thinks every man observes him, aims at him, derides him, owes
him malice. Most part [2493]"they are afraid they are bewitched, possessed,
or poisoned by their enemies, and sometimes they suspect their nearest
friends: he thinks something speaks or talks within him, and he belcheth of
the poison." Christophorus a Vega, _lib. 2. cap. 1._ had a patient so
troubled, that by no persuasion or physic he could be reclaimed. Some are
afraid that they shall have every fearful disease they see others have,
hear of, or read, and dare not therefore hear or read of any such subject,
no not of melancholy itself, lest by applying to themselves that which they
hear or read, they should aggravate and increase it. If they see one
possessed, bewitched, an epileptic paroxysm, a man shaking with the palsy,
or giddy-headed, reeling or standing in a dangerous place, &c., for many
days after it runs in their minds, they are afraid they shall be so too,
they are in like danger, as Perkins _c. 12. sc. 12._ well observes in his
Cases of Conscience and many times by violence of imagination they produce
it. They cannot endure to see any terrible object, as a monster, a man
executed, a carcase, hear the devil named, or any tragical relation seen,
but they quake for fear, _Hecatas somniare sibi videntur_ (Lucian) they
dream of hobgoblins, and may not get it out of their minds a long time
after: they apply (as I have said) all they hear, see, read, to themselves;
as [2494]Felix Plater notes of some young physicians, that study to cure
diseases, catch them themselves, will be sick, and appropriate all symptoms
they find related of others, to their own persons. And therefore (_quod
iterum moneo, licet nauseam paret lectori, malo decem potius verba, decies
repetita licet abundare, quam unum desiderari_) I would advise him that is
actually melancholy not to read this tract of Symptoms, lest he disquiet or
make himself for a time worse, and more melancholy than he was before.
Generally of them all take this, _de inanibus semper conqueruntur et
timent_, saith Aretius; they complain of toys, and fear [2495]without a
cause, and still think their melancholy to be most grievous, none so bad as
they are, though it be nothing in respect, yet never any man sure was so
troubled, or in this sort. As really tormented and perplexed, in as great
an agony for toys and trifles (such things as they will after laugh at
themselves) as if they were most material and essential matters indeed,
worthy to be feared, and will not be satisfied. Pacify them for one, they
are instantly troubled with some other fear; always afraid of something
which they foolishly imagine or conceive to themselves, which never
peradventure was, never can be, never likely will be; troubled in mind upon
every small occasion, unquiet, still complaining, grieving, vexing,
suspecting, grudging, discontent, and cannot be freed so long as melancholy
continues. Or if their minds be more quiet for the present, and they free
from foreign fears, outward accidents, yet their bodies are out of tune,
they suspect some part or other to be amiss, now their head aches, heart,
stomach, spleen, &c. is misaffected, they shall surely have this or that
disease; still troubled in body, mind, or both, and through wind, corrupt
fantasy, some accidental distemper, continually molested. Yet for all this,
as [2496]Jacchinus notes, "in all other things they are wise, staid,
discreet, and do nothing unbeseeming their dignity, person, or place, this
foolish, ridiculous, and childish fear excepted;" which so much, so
continually tortures and crucifies their souls, like a barking dog that
always bawls, but seldom bites, this fear ever molesteth, and so long as
melancholy lasteth, cannot be avoided.
Sorrow is that other character, and inseparable companion, as individual as
Saint Cosmus and Damian, _fidus Achates_, as all writers witness, a common
symptom, a continual, and still without any evident cause, [2497]_moerent
omnes, et si roges eos reddere causam, non possunt_: grieving still, but
why they cannot tell: _Agelasti, moesti, cogitabundi_, they look as if they
had newly come forth of Trophonius' den. And though they laugh many times,
and seem to be extraordinary merry (as they will by fits), yet extreme
lumpish again in an instant, dull and heavy, _semel et simul_, merry and
sad, but most part sad: [2498]_Si qua placent, abeunt; inimica tenacius
haerent_: sorrow sticks by them still continually, gnawing as the vulture
did [2499]Titius' bowels, and they cannot avoid it. No sooner are their
eyes open, but after terrible and troublesome dreams their heavy hearts
begin to sigh: they are still fretting, chafing, sighing, grieving,
complaining, finding faults, repining, grudging, weeping,
_Heautontimorumenoi_, vexing themselves, [2500]disquieted in mind, with
restless, unquiet thoughts, discontent, either for their own, other men's
or public affairs, such as concern them not; things past, present, or to
come, the remembrance of some disgrace, loss, injury, abuses, &c. troubles
them now being idle afresh, as if it were new done; they are afflicted
otherwise for some danger, loss, want, shame, misery, that will certainly
come, as they suspect and mistrust. Lugubris Ate frowns upon them, insomuch
that Areteus well calls it _angorem animi_, a vexation of the mind, a
perpetual agony. They can hardly be pleased, or eased, though in other
men's opinion most happy, go, tarry, run, ride, [2501]--_post equitem sedet
atra cura_: they cannot avoid this feral plague, let them come in what
company they will, [2502]_haeret leteri lethalis arundo_, as to a deer that
is struck, whether he run, go, rest with the herd, or alone, this grief
remains: irresolution, inconstancy, vanity of mind, their fear, torture,
care, jealousy, suspicion, &c., continues, and they cannot be relieved. So
[2503]he complained in the poet,
"Domum revertor moestus, atque animo fere
Perturbato, atque incerto prae aegritudine,
Assido, accurrunt servi: succos detrahunt,
Video alios festinare, lectos sternere,
Coenam apparare, pro se quisque sedulo
Faciebant, quo illam mihi lenirent miseriam."
"He came home sorrowful, and troubled in his mind, his servants did all
they possibly could to please him; one pulled off his socks, another made
ready his bed, a third his supper, all did their utmost endeavours to ease
his grief, and exhilarate his person, he was profoundly melancholy, he had
lost his son, _illud angebat_, that was his Cordolium, his pain, his agony
which could not be removed."
_Taedium vitae._] Hence it proceeds many times, that they are weary of
their lives, and feral thoughts to offer violence to their own persons come
into their minds, _taedium vitae_ is a common symptom, _tarda fluunt,
ingrataque tempora_, they are soon tired with all things; they will now
tarry, now be gone; now in bed they will rise, now up, then go to bed, now
pleased, then again displeased; now they like, by and by dislike all, weary
of all, _sequitur nunc vivendi, nunc moriendi cupido_, saith Aurelianus,
_lib. 1. cap. 6_, but most part [2504]_vitam damnant_, discontent,
disquieted, perplexed upon every light, or no occasion, object: often
tempted, I say, to make away themselves: [2505]_Vivere nolunt, mori
nesciunt_: they cannot die, they will not live: they complain, weep,
lament, and think they lead a most miserable life, never was any man so
bad, or so before, every poor man they see is most fortunate in respect of
them, every beggar that comes to the door is happier than they are, they
could be contented to change lives with them, especially if they be alone,
idle, and parted from their ordinary company, molested, displeased, or
provoked: grief, fear, agony, discontent, wearisomeness, laziness,
suspicion, or some such passion forcibly seizeth on them. Yet by and by
when they come in company again, which they like, or be pleased, _suam
sententiam rursus damnant, et vitae solatia delectantur_, as Octavius
Horatianus observes, _lib. 2. cap. 5_, they condemn their former mislike,
and are well pleased to live. And so they continue, till with some fresh
discontent they be molested again, and then they are weary of their lives,
weary of all, they will die, and show rather a necessity to live, than a
desire. Claudius the emperor, as [2506] Sueton describes him, had a spice
of this disease, for when he was tormented with the pain of his stomach, he
had a conceit to make away himself. Julius Caesar Claudinus, _consil. 84._
had a Polonian to his patient, so affected, that through [2507]fear and
sorrow, with which he was still disquieted, hated his own life, wished for
death every moment, and to be freed of his misery. Mercurialis another, and
another that was often minded to despatch himself, and so continued for
many years.
_Suspicion, Jealousy._] Suspicion, and jealousy, are general symptoms: they
are commonly distrustful, apt to mistake, and amplify, _facile
irascibiles_, [2508]testy, pettish, peevish, and ready to snarl upon every
[2509]small occasion, _cum amicissimis_, and without a cause, _datum vel
non datum_, it will be _scandalum acceptum_. If they speak in jest, he
takes it in good earnest. If they be not saluted, invited, consulted with,
called to counsel, &c., or that any respect, small compliment, or ceremony
be omitted, they think themselves neglected, and contemned; for a time that
tortures them. If two talk together, discourse, whisper, jest, or tell a
tale in general, he thinks presently they mean him, applies all to himself,
_de se putat omnia dici_. Or if they talk with him, he is ready to
misconstrue every word they speak, and interpret it to the worst; he cannot
endure any man to look steadily on him, speak to him almost, laugh, jest,
or be familiar, or hem, or point, cough, or spit, or make a noise
sometimes, &c. [2510]He thinks they laugh or point at him, or do it in
disgrace of him, circumvent him, contemn him; every man looks at him, he is
pale, red, sweats for fear and anger, lest somebody should observe him. He
works upon it, and long after this false conceit of an abuse troubles him.
Montanus _consil. 22._ gives instance in a melancholy Jew, that was
_Iracundior Adria_, so waspish and suspicious, _tam facile iratus_, that no
man could tell how to carry himself in his company.
_Inconstancy._] Inconstant they are in all their actions, vertiginous,
restless, unapt to resolve of any business, they will and will not,
persuaded to and fro upon every small occasion, or word spoken: and yet if
once they be resolved, obstinate, hard to be reconciled. If they abhor,
dislike, or distaste, once settled, though to the better by odds, by no
counsel, or persuasion, to be removed. Yet in most things wavering,
irresolute, unable to deliberate, through fear, _faciunt, et mox facti
poenitent (Areteus) avari, et paulo post prodigi_. Now prodigal, and then
covetous, they do, and by-and-by repent them of that which they have done,
so that both ways they are troubled, whether they do or do not, want or
have, hit or miss, disquieted of all hands, soon weary, and still seeking
change, restless, I say, fickle, fugitive, they may not abide to tarry in
one place long.
[2511] "Romae rus optans, absentem rusticus urbem
Tollit ad astra"------
no company long, or to persevere in any action or business.
[2512] "Et similis regum pueris, pappare minutum
Poscit, et iratus mammae lallare recusat,"
eftsoons pleased, and anon displeased, as a man that's bitten with fleas,
or that cannot sleep turns to and fro in his bed, their restless minds are
tossed and vary, they have no patience to read out a book, to play out a
game or two, walk a mile, sit an hour, &c., erected and dejected in an
instant; animated to undertake, and upon a word spoken again discouraged.
_Passionate._] Extreme passionate, _Quicquid volunt valde volunt_; and what
they desire, they do most furiously seek; anxious ever, and very
solicitous, distrustful, and timorous, envious, malicious, profuse one
while, sparing another, but most part covetous, muttering, repining,
discontent, and still complaining, grudging, peevish, _injuriarum tenaces_,
prone to revenge, soon troubled, and most violent in all their
imaginations, not affable in speech, or apt to vulgar compliment, but
surly, dull, sad, austere; _cogitabundi_ still, very intent, and as [2513]
Albertus Durer paints melancholy, like a sad woman leaning on her arm with
fixed looks, neglected habit, &c., held therefore by some proud, soft,
sottish, or half-mad, as the Abderites esteemed of Democritus: and yet of a
deep reach, excellent apprehension, judicious, wise, and witty: for I am of
that [2514]nobleman's mind, "Melancholy advanceth men's conceits, more than
any humour whatsoever," improves their meditations more than any strong
drink or sack. They are of profound judgment in some things, although in
others _non recte judicant inquieti_, saith Fracastorius, _lib. 2. de
Intell_. And as Arculanus, _c. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, terms it, _Judicium
plerumque perversum, corrupti, cum judicant honesta inhonesta, et amicitiam
habent pro inimicitia_: they count honesty dishonesty, friends as enemies,
they will abuse their best friends, and dare not offend their enemies.
Cowards most part _et ad inferendam injuriam timidissimi_, saith Cardan,
_lib. 8. cap. 4. de rerum varietate_: loath to offend, and if they chance
to overshoot themselves in word or deed: or any small business or
circumstance be omitted, forgotten, they are miserably tormented, and frame
a thousand dangers and inconveniences to themselves, _ex musca elephantem_,
if once they conceit it: overjoyed with every good rumour, tale, or
prosperous event, transported beyond themselves: with every small cross
again, bad news, misconceived injury, loss, danger, afflicted beyond
measure, in great agony, perplexed, dejected, astonished, impatient,
utterly undone: fearful, suspicious of all. Yet again, many of them
desperate harebrains, rash, careless, fit to be assassinates, as being void
of all fear and sorrow, according to [2515]Hercules de Saxonia, "Most
audacious, and such as dare walk alone in the night, through deserts and
dangerous places, fearing none."
_Amorous_.] "They are prone to love," and [2516]easy to be taken; _Propensi
ad amorem et excandescentiam_ (Montaltus _cap. 21._) quickly enamoured, and
dote upon all, love one dearly, till they see another, and then dote on
her, _Et hanc, et hanc, et illam, et omnes_, the present moves most, and
the last commonly they love best. Yet some again _Anterotes_, cannot endure
the sight of a woman, abhor the sex, as that same melancholy [2517]duke of
Muscovy, that was instantly sick, if he came but in sight of them; and that
[2518]Anchorite, that fell into a cold palsy, when a woman was brought
before him.
_Humorous_.] Humorous they are beyond all measure, sometimes profusely
laughing, extraordinarily merry, and then again weeping without a cause,
(which is familiar with many gentlewomen,) groaning, sighing, pensive, sad,
almost distracted, _multa absurda fingunt, et a ratione aliena_ (saith
[2519]Frambesarius), they feign many absurdities, vain, void of reason: one
supposeth himself to be a dog, cock, bear, horse, glass, butter, &c. He is
a giant, a dwarf, as strong as an hundred men, a lord, duke, prince, &c.
And if he be told he hath a stinking breath, a great nose, that he is sick,
or inclined to such or such a disease, he believes it eftsoons, and
peradventure by force of imagination will work it out. Many of them are
immovable, and fixed in their conceits, others vary upon every object,
heard or seen. If they see a stage-play, they run upon that a week after;
if they hear music, or see dancing, they have nought but bagpipes in their
brain: if they see a combat, they are all for arms. [2520]If abused, an
abuse troubles them long after; if crossed, that cross, &c. Restless in
their thoughts and actions, continually meditating, _Velut aegri somnia,
vanae finguntur species_; more like dreams, than men awake, they fain a
company of antic, fantastical conceits, they have most frivolous thoughts,
impossible to be effected; and sometimes think verily they hear and see
present before their eyes such phantasms or goblins, they fear, suspect, or
conceive, they still talk with, and follow them. In fine, _cogitationes
somniantibus similes, id vigilant, quod alii somniant cogitabundi_, still,
saith Avicenna, they wake, as others dream, and such for the most part are
their imaginations and conceits, [2521]absurd, vain, foolish toys, yet they
are [2522]most curious and solicitous, continual, _et supra modum_, Rhasis
_cont. lib. 1. cap. 9._ _praemeditantur de aliqua re_. As serious in a toy,
as if it were a most necessary business, of great moment, importance, and
still, still, still thinking of it: _saeviunt in se_, macerating
themselves. Though they do talk with you, and seem to be otherwise
employed, and to your thinking very intent and busy, still that toy runs in
their mind, that fear, that suspicion, that abuse, that jealousy, that
agony, that vexation, that cross, that castle in the air, that crotchet,
that whimsy, that fiction, that pleasant waking dream, whatsoever it is.
_Nec interrogant_ (saith [2523]Fracastorius) _nec interrogatis recte
respondent_. They do not much heed what you say, their mind is on another
matter; ask what you will, they do not attend, or much intend that business
they are about, but forget themselves what they are saying, doing, or
should otherwise say or do, whither they are going, distracted with their
own melancholy thoughts. One laughs upon a sudden, another smiles to
himself, a third frowns, calls, his lips go still, he acts with his hand as
he walks, &c. 'Tis proper to all melancholy men, saith [2524]Mercurialis,
_con. 11._ "What conceit they have once entertained, to be most intent,
violent, and continually about it." _Invitas occurrit_, do what they may
they cannot be rid of it, against their wills they must think of it a
thousand times over, _Perpetuo molestantur nec oblivisci possunt_, they are
continually troubled with it, in company, out of company; at meat, at
exercise, at all times and places, [2525]_non desinunt ea, quae, minime
volunt, cogitare_, if it be offensive especially, they cannot forget it,
they may not rest or sleep for it, but still tormenting themselves,
_Sysiphi saxum volvunt sibi ipsis_, as [2526]Brunner observes, _Perpetua
calamitas et miserabile flagellum_.
_Bashfulness._] [2527]Crato, [2528]Laurentius, and Fernelius, put
bashfulness for an ordinary symptom, _sabrusticus pudor_, or _vitiosus
pudor_, is a thing which much haunts and torments them. If they have been
misused, derided, disgraced, chidden, &c., or by any perturbation of mind,
misaffected, it so far troubles them, that they become quite moped many
times, and so disheartened, dejected, they dare not come abroad, into
strange companies especially, or manage their ordinary affairs, so
childish, timorous, and bashful, they can look no man in the face; some are
more disquieted in this kind, some less, longer some, others shorter, by
fits, &c., though some on the other side (according to [2529]Fracastorius)
be _inverecundi et pertinaces_, impudent and peevish. But most part they
are very shamefaced, and that makes them with Pet. Blesensis, Christopher
Urswick, and many such, to refuse honours, offices, and preferments, which
sometimes fall into their mouths, they cannot speak, or put forth
themselves as others can, _timor hos, pudor impedit illos_, timorousness
and bashfulness hinder their proceedings, they are contented with their
present estate, unwilling to undertake any office, and therefore never
likely to rise. For that cause they seldom visit their friends, except some
familiars: _pauciloqui_, of few words, and oftentimes wholly silent. [2530]
Frambeserius, a Frenchman, had two such patients, _omnino taciturnos_,
their friends could not get them to speak: Rodericus a Fonseca _consult.
tom. 2. 85. consil._ gives instance in a young man, of twenty-seven years
of age, that was frequently silent, bashful, moped, solitary, that would
not eat his meat, or sleep, and yet again by fits apt to be angry, &c.
_Solitariness._] Most part they are, as Plater notes, _desides, taciturni,
aegre impulsi, nec nisi coacti procedunt_, &c. they will scarce be
compelled to do that which concerns them, though it be for their good, so
diffident, so dull, of small or no compliment, unsociable, hard to be
acquainted with, especially of strangers; they had rather write their minds
than speak, and above all things love solitariness. _Ob voluptatem, an ob
timorem soli sunt_? Are they so solitary for pleasure (one asks,) or pain?
for both; yet I rather think for fear and sorrow, &c.
[2531] "Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent fugiuntque, nec auras
Respiciunt, clausi tenebris, et carcere caeco."
"Hence 'tis they grieve and fear, avoiding light,
And shut themselves in prison dark from sight."
As Bellerophon in [2532]Homer,
"Qui miser in sylvis moerens errabat opacis,
Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans."
"That wandered in the woods sad all alone,
Forsaking men's society, making great moan."
They delight in floods and waters, desert places, to walk alone in
orchards, gardens, private walks, back lanes, averse from company, as
Diogenes in his tub, or Timon Misanthropus [2533], they abhor all
companions at last, even their nearest acquaintances and most familiar
friends, for they have a conceit (I say) every man observes them, will
deride, laugh to scorn, or misuse them, confining themselves therefore
wholly to their private houses or chambers, _fugiunt homines sine causa_
(saith Rhasis) _et odio habent_, _cont. l. 1. c. 9._ they will diet
themselves, feed and live alone. It was one of the chiefest reasons why the
citizens of Abdera suspected Democritus to be melancholy and mad, because
that, as Hippocrates related in his Epistle to Philopaemenes, [2534]"he
forsook the city, lived in groves and hollow trees, upon a green bank by a
brook side, or confluence of waters all day long, and all night." _Quae
quidem_ (saith he) _plurimum atra bile vexatis et melancholicis eveniunt,
deserta frequentant, hominumque congressum aversantur_; [2535]which is an
ordinary thing with melancholy men. The Egyptians therefore in their
hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as
being a most timorous and solitary creature, Pierius _Hieroglyph. l. 12._
But this, and all precedent symptoms, are more or less apparent, as the
humour is intended or remitted, hardly perceived in some, or not all, most
manifest in others. Childish in some, terrible in others; to be derided in
one, pitied or admired in another; to him by fits, to a second continuate:
and howsoever these symptoms be common and incident to all persons, yet
they are the more remarkable, frequent, furious and violent in melancholy
men. To speak in a word, there is nothing so vain, absurd, ridiculous,
extravagant, impossible, incredible, so monstrous a chimera, so prodigious
and strange, [2536]such as painters and poets durst not attempt, which they
will not really fear, feign, suspect and imagine unto themselves: and that
which [2537]Lod. Vives said in a jest of a silly country fellow, that
killed his ass for drinking up the moon, _ut lunam mundo redderet_, you may
truly say of them in earnest; they will act, conceive all extremes,
contrarieties, and contradictions, and that in infinite varieties.
_Melancholici plane incredibilia sibi persuadent, ut vix omnibus saeculis
duo reperti sint, qui idem imaginati sint (Erastus de Lamiis)_, scarce two
of two thousand that concur in the same symptoms. The tower of Babel never
yielded such confusion of tongues, as the chaos of melancholy doth variety
of symptoms. There is in all melancholy _similitudo dissimilis_, like men's
faces, a disagreeing likeness still; and as in a river we swim in the same
place, though not in the same numerical water; as the same instrument
affords several lessons, so the same disease yields diversity of symptoms.
Which howsoever they be diverse, intricate, and hard to be confined, I will
adventure yet in such a vast confusion and generality to bring them into
some order; and so descend to particulars.
SUBSECT. III.--_Particular Symptoms from the influence of Stars, parts of
the Body, and Humours_.
Some men have peculiar symptoms, according to their temperament and crisis,
which they had from the stars and those celestial influences, variety of
wits and dispositions, as Anthony Zara contends, _Anat. ingen. sect. 1.
memb. 11, 12, 13, 14._ _plurimum irritant influentiae, caelestes, unde
cientur animi aegritudines et morbi corporum_. [2538]One saith, diverse
diseases of the body and mind proceed from their influences, [2539]as I
have already proved out of Ptolemy, Pontanus, Lemnius, Cardan, and others
as they are principal significators of manners, diseases, mutually
irradiated, or lords of the geniture, &c. Ptolomeus in his centiloquy,
Hermes, or whosoever else the author of that tract, attributes all these
symptoms, which are in melancholy men, to celestial influences: which
opinion Mercurialis _de affect, lib. cap. 10._ rejects; but, as I say,
[2540]Jovianus Pontanus and others stiffly defend. That some are solitary,
dull, heavy, churlish; some again blithe, buxom, light, and merry, they
ascribe wholly to the stars. As if Saturn be predominant in his nativity,
and cause melancholy in his temperature, then [2541]he shall be very
austere, sullen, churlish, black of colour, profound in his cogitations,
full of cares, miseries, and discontents, sad and fearful, always silent,
solitary, still delighting in husbandry, in woods, orchards, gardens,
rivers, ponds, pools, dark walks and close: _Cogitationes sunt velle
aedificare, velle arbores plantare, agros colere_, &c. To catch birds,
fishes, &c. still contriving and musing of such matters. If Jupiter
domineers, they are more ambitious, still meditating of kingdoms,
magistracies, offices, honours, or that they are princes, potentates, and
how they would carry themselves, &c. If Mars, they are all for wars, brave
combats, monomachies, testy, choleric, harebrain, rash, furious, and
violent in their actions. They will feign themselves victors, commanders,
are passionate and satirical in their speeches, great braggers, ruddy of
colour. And though they be poor in show, vile and base, yet like Telephus
and Peleus in the [2542]poet, _Ampullas jactant et sesquipedalia verba_,
"forget their swelling and gigantic words," their mouths are full of
myriads, and tetrarchs at their tongues' end. If the sun, they will be
lords, emperors, in conceit at least, and monarchs, give offices, honours,
&c. If Venus, they are still courting of their mistresses, and most apt to
love, amorously given, they seem to hear music, plays, see fine pictures,
dancers, merriments, and the like. Ever in love, and dote on all they see.
Mercurialists are solitary, much in contemplation, subtle, poets,
philosophers, and musing most part about such matters. If the moon have a
hand, they are all for peregrinations, sea voyages, much affected with
travels, to discourse, read, meditate of such things; wandering in their
thoughts, diverse, much delighting in waters, to fish, fowl, &c.
But the most immediate symptoms proceed from the temperature itself, and
the organical parts, as head, liver, spleen, mesaraic veins, heart, womb,
stomach, &c., and most especially from distemperature of spirits (which, as
[2543]Hercules de Saxonia contends, are wholly immaterial), or from the
four humours in those seats, whether they be hot or cold, natural,
unnatural, innate or adventitious, intended or remitted, simple or mixed,
their diverse mixtures, and several adustions, combinations, which may be
as diversely varied, as those [2544]four first qualities in [2545] Clavius,
and produce as many several symptoms and monstrous fictions as wine doth
effect, which as Andreas Bachius observes, _lib. 3. de vino, cap. 20._ are
infinite. Of greater note be these.
If it be natural melancholy, as Lod. Mercatus, _lib. 1. cap. 17. de melan._
T. Bright. _c. 16._ hath largely described, either of the spleen, or of the
veins, faulty by excess of quantity, or thickness of substance, it is a
cold and dry humour, as Montanus affirms, _consil. 26_ the parties are sad,
timorous and fearful. Prosper Calenus, in his book _de atra bile_, will
have them to be more stupid than ordinary, cold, heavy, solitary, sluggish.
_Si multam atram bilem et frigidam habent_. Hercules de Saxonia, _c. 19. l.
7._ [2546]"holds these that are naturally melancholy, to be of a leaden
colour or black," and so doth Guianerius, _c. 3. tract. 15._ and such as
think themselves dead many times, or that they see, talk with black men,
dead men, spirits and goblins frequently, if it be in excess. These
symptoms vary according to the mixture of those four humours adust, which
is unnatural melancholy. For as Trallianus hath written, _cap. 16. l. 7._
[2547]"There is not one cause of this melancholy, nor one humour which
begets, but divers diversely intermixed, from whence proceeds this variety
of symptoms:" and those varying again as they are hot or cold. [2548]"Cold
melancholy" (saith Benedic. Vittorius Faventinus _pract. mag._) "is a cause
of dotage, and more mild symptoms, if hot or more adust, of more violent
passions, and furies." Fracastorius, _l. 2. de intellect._ will have us to
consider well of it, [2549]"with what kind of melancholy every one is
troubled, for it much avails to know it; one is enraged by fervent heat,
another is possessed by sad and cold; one is fearful, shamefaced; the other
impudent and bold;" as Ajax, _Arma rapit superosque furens inpraelia
poscit_: quite mad or tending to madness. _Nunc hos, nunc impetit illos._
Bellerophon on the other side, _solis errat male sanus in agris_, wanders
alone in the woods; one despairs, weeps, and is weary of his life, another
laughs, &c. All which variety is produced from the several degrees of heat
and cold, which [2550]Hercules de Saxonia will have wholly proceed from the
distemperature of spirits alone, animal especially, and those immaterial,
the next and immediate causes of melancholy, as they are hot, cold, dry,
moist, and from their agitation proceeds that diversity of symptoms, which
he reckons up, in the [2551]thirteenth chap. of his Tract of Melancholy,
and that largely through every part. Others will have them come from the
diverse adustion of the four humours, which in this unnatural melancholy,
by corruption of blood, adust choler, or melancholy natural, [2552]"by
excessive distemper of heat turned, in comparison of the natural, into a
sharp lye by force of adustion, cause, according to the diversity of their
matter, diverse and strange symptoms," which T. Bright reckons up in his
following chapter. So doth [2553]Arculanus, according to the four principal
humours adust, and many others.
For example, if it proceed from phlegm, (which is seldom and not so
frequently as the rest) [2554]it stirs up dull symptoms, and a kind of
stupidity, or impassionate hurt: they are sleepy, saith [2555]Savanarola,
dull, slow, cold, blockish, ass-like, _Asininam melancholiam_, [2556]
Melancthon calls it, "they are much given to weeping, and delight in
waters, ponds, pools, rivers, fishing, fowling," &c. (Arnoldus _breviar. 1.
cap. 18._) They are [2557]pale of colour, slothful, apt to sleep, heavy;
[2558]much troubled with headache, continual meditation, and muttering to
themselves; they dream of waters, [2559]that they are in danger of
drowning, and fear such things, Rhasis. They are fatter than others that
are melancholy, of a muddy complexion, apter to spit, [2560] sleep, more
troubled with rheum than the rest, and have their eyes still fixed on the
ground. Such a patient had Hercules de Saxonia, a widow in Venice, that was
fat and very sleepy still; Christophorus a Vega another affected in the
same sort. If it be inveterate or violent, the symptoms are more evident,
they plainly denote and are ridiculous to others, in all their gestures,
actions, speeches; imagining impossibilities, as he in Christophorus a
Vega, that thought he was a tun of wine, [2561]and that Siennois, that
resolved within himself not to piss, for fear he should drown all the town.
If it proceed from blood adust, or that there be a mixture of blood in it,
[2562]"such are commonly ruddy of complexion, and high-coloured," according
to Salust. Salvianus, and Hercules de Saxonia. And as Savanarola, Vittorius
Faventinus Emper. farther adds, [2563]"the veins of their eyes be red, as
well as their faces." They are much inclined to laughter, witty and merry,
conceited in discourse, pleasant, if they be not far gone, much given to
music, dancing, and to be in women's company. They meditate wholly on such
things, and think [2564]"they see or hear plays, dancing, and suchlike
sports" (free from all fear and sorrow, as [2565]Hercules de Saxonia
supposeth.) If they be more strongly possessed with this kind of
melancholy, Arnoldus adds, _Breviar. lib. 1. cap. 18._ Like him of Argos in
the Poet, that sate laughing [2566]all day long, as if he had been at a
theatre. Such another is mentioned by [2567]Aristotle, living at Abydos, a
town of Asia Minor, that would sit after the same fashion, as if he had
been upon a stage, and sometimes act himself; now clap his hands, and
laugh, as if he had been well pleased with the sight. Wolfius relates of a
country fellow called Brunsellius, subject to this humour, [2568]"that
being by chance at a sermon, saw a woman fall off from a form half asleep,
at which object most of the company laughed, but he for his part was so
much moved, that for three whole days after he did nothing but laugh, by
which means he was much weakened, and worse a long time following." Such a
one was old Sophocles, and Democritus himself had _hilare delirium_, much
in this vein. Laurentius _cap. 3. de melan._ thinks this kind of
melancholy, which is a little adust with some mixture of blood, to be that
which Aristotle meant, when he said melancholy men of all others are most
witty, which causeth many times a divine ravishment, and a kind of
_enthusiasmus_, which stirreth them up to be excellent philosophers, poets,
prophets, &c. Mercurialis, _consil. 110._ gives instance in a young man his
patient, sanguine melancholy, [2569]"of a great wit, and excellently
learned."
If it arise from choler adust, they are bold and impudent, and of a more
harebrain disposition, apt to quarrel, and think of such things, battles,
combats, and their manhood, furious; impatient in discourse, stiff,
irrefragable and prodigious in their tenets; and if they be moved, most
violent, outrageous, [2570]ready to disgrace, provoke any, to kill
themselves and others; Arnoldus adds, stark mad by fits, [2571]"they sleep
little, their urine is subtle and fiery." (Guianerius.) "In their fits you
shall hear them speak all manner of languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,
that never were taught or knew them before." Apponensis in _com. in Pro.
sec. 30._ speaks of a mad woman that spake excellent good Latin: and Rhasis
knew another, that could prophecy in her fit, and foretell things truly to
come. [2572]Guianerius had a patient could make Latin verses when the moon
was combust, otherwise illiterate. Avicenna and some of his adherents will
have these symptoms, when they happen, to proceed from the devil, and that
they are rather _demoniaci_, possessed, than mad or melancholy, or both
together, as Jason Pratensis thinks, _Immiscent se mali genii_, &c. but
most ascribe it to the humour, which opinion Montaltus _cap. 21._ stiffly
maintains, confuting Avicenna and the rest, referring it wholly to the
quality and disposition of the humour and subject. Cardan _de rerum var.
lib. 8. cap. 10._ holds these men of all others fit to be assassins, bold,
hardy, fierce, and adventurous, to undertake anything by reason of their
choler adust. [2573]"This humour, saith he, prepares them to endure death
itself, and all manner of torments with invincible courage, and 'tis a
wonder to see with what alacrity they will undergo such tortures," _ut
supra naturam res videatur_: he ascribes this generosity, fury, or rather
stupidity, to this adustion of choler and melancholy: but I take these
rather to be mad or desperate, than properly melancholy; for commonly this
humour so adust and hot, degenerates into madness.
If it come from melancholy itself adust, those men, saith Avicenna, [2574]
"are usually sad and solitary, and that continually, and in excess, more
than ordinarily suspicious more fearful, and have long, sore, and most
corrupt imaginations;" cold and black, bashful, and so solitary, that as
[2575]Arnoldus writes, "they will endure no company, they dream of graves
still, and dead men, and think themselves bewitched or dead:" if it be
extreme, they think they hear hideous noises, see and talk [2576]"with
black men, and converse familiarly with devils, and such strange chimeras
and visions," (Gordonius) or that they are possessed by them, that somebody
talks to them, or within them. _Tales melancholici plerumque daemoniaci_,
Montaltus _consil. 26. ex Avicenna_. Valescus de Taranta had such a woman
in cure, [2577]"that thought she had to do with the devil:" and Gentilis
Fulgosus _quaest. 55._ writes that he had a melancholy friend, that [2578]
"had a black man in the likeness of a soldier" still following him
wheresoever he was. Laurentius _cap. 7._ hath many stories of such as have
thought themselves bewitched by their enemies; and some that would eat no
meat as being dead. [2579]_Anno_ 1550 an advocate of Paris fell into such a
melancholy fit, that he believed verily he was dead, he could not be
persuaded otherwise, or to eat or drink, till a kinsman of his, a scholar
of Bourges, did eat before him dressed like a corse. The story, saith
Serres, was acted in a comedy before Charles the Ninth. Some think they are
beasts, wolves, hogs, and cry like dogs, foxes, bray like asses, and low
like kine, as King Praetus' daughters. [2580]Hildesheim _spicel. 2. de
mania_, hath an example of a Dutch baron so affected, and Trincavelius
_lib. 1. consil. 11._ another of a nobleman in his country, [2581]"that
thought he was certainly a beast, and would imitate most of their voices,"
with many such symptoms, which may properly be reduced to this kind.
If it proceed from the several combinations of these four humours, or
spirits, Herc. de Saxon. adds hot, cold, dry, moist, dark, confused,
settled, constringed, as it participates of matter, or is without matter,
the symptoms are likewise mixed. One thinks himself a giant, another a
dwarf. One is heavy as lead, another is as light as a feather. Marcellus
Donatus _l. 2. cap. 41._ makes mention out of Seneca, of one Seneccio, a
rich man, [2582]"that thought himself and everything else he had, great:
great wife, great horses, could not abide little things, but would have
great pots to drink in, great hose, and great shoes bigger than his feet."
Like her in [2583]Trallianus, that supposed she "could shake all the world
with her finger," and was afraid to clinch her hand together, lest she
should crush the world like an apple in pieces: or him in Galen, that
thought he was [2584]Atlas, and sustained heaven with his shoulders.
Another thinks himself so little, that he can creep into a mouse-hole: one
fears heaven will fall on his head: a second is a cock; and such a one,
[2585]Guianerius saith he saw at Padua, that would clap his hands together
and crow. [2586]Another thinks he is a nightingale, and therefore sings all
the night long; another he is all glass, a pitcher, and will therefore let
nobody come near him, and such a one [2587]Laurentius gives out upon his
credit, that he knew in France. Christophorus a Vega _cap. 3. lib. 14._
Skenkius and Marcellus Donatus _l. 2. cap. 1._ have many such examples, and
one amongst the rest of a baker in Ferrara that thought he was composed of
butter, and durst not sit in the sun, or come near the fire for fear of
being melted: of another that thought he was a case of leather, stuffed
with wind. Some laugh, weep; some are mad, some dejected, moped, in much
agony, some by fits, others continuate, &c. Some have a corrupt ear, they
think they hear music, or some hideous noise as their phantasy conceives,
corrupt eyes, some smelling, some one sense, some another. [2588]Lewis the
Eleventh had a conceit everything did stink about him, all the odoriferous
perfumes they could get, would not ease him, but still he smelled a filthy
stink. A melancholy French poet in [2589]Laurentius, being sick of a fever,
and troubled with waking, by his physicians was appointed to use _unguentum
populeum_ to anoint his temples; but he so distasted the smell of it, that
for many years after, all that came near him he imagined to scent of it,
and would let no man talk with him but aloof off, or wear any new clothes,
because he thought still they smelled of it; in all other things wise and
discreet, he would talk sensibly, save only in this. A gentleman in
Limousin, saith Anthony Verdeur, was persuaded he had but one leg,
affrighted by a wild boar, that by chance struck him on the leg; he could
not be satisfied his leg was sound (in all other things well) until two
Franciscans by chance coming that way, fully removed him from the conceit.
_Sed abunde fabularum audivimus_,--enough of story-telling.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Symptoms from Education, Custom, continuance of Time, our
Condition, mixed with other Diseases, by Fits, Inclination, &c._
Another great occasion of the variety of these symptoms proceeds from
custom, discipline, education, and several inclinations, [2590]"this humour
will imprint in melancholy men the objects most answerable to their
condition of life, and ordinary actions, and dispose men according to their
several studies and callings." If an ambitious man become melancholy, he
forthwith thinks he is a king, an emperor, a monarch, and walks alone,
pleasing himself with a vain hope of some future preferment, or present as
he supposeth, and withal acts a lord's part, takes upon him to be some
statesman or magnifico, makes conges, gives entertainment, looks big, &c.
Francisco Sansovino records of a melancholy man in Cremona, that would not
be induced to believe but that he was pope, gave pardons, made cardinals,
&c. [2591]Christophorus a Vega makes mention of another of his
acquaintance, that thought he was a king, driven from his kingdom, and was
very anxious to recover his estate. A covetous person is still conversant
about purchasing of lands and tenements, plotting in his mind how to
compass such and such manors, as if he were already lord of, and able to go
through with it; all he sees is his, _re_ or _spe_, he hath devoured it in
hope, or else in conceit esteems it his own: like him in [2592]Athenaeus,
that thought all the ships in the haven to be his own. A lascivious
_inamorato_ plots all the day long to please his mistress, acts and struts,
and carries himself as if she were in presence, still dreaming of her, as
Pamphilus of his Glycerium, or as some do in their morning sleep. [2593]
Marcellus Donatus knew such a gentlewoman in Mantua, called Elionora
Meliorina, that constantly believed she was married to a king, and [2594]
"would kneel down and talk with him, as if he had been there present with
his associates; and if she had found by chance a piece of glass in a
muck-hill or in the street, she would say that it was a jewel sent from her
lord and husband." If devout and religious, he is all for fasting, prayer,
ceremonies, alms, interpretations, visions, prophecies, revelations, [2595]
he is inspired by the Holy Ghost, full of the spirit: one while he is
saved, another while damned, or still troubled in mind for his sins, the
devil will surely have him, &c. more of these in the third partition of
love-melancholy. [2596]A scholar's mind is busied about his studies, he
applauds himself for that he hath done, or hopes to do, one while fearing
to be out in his next exercise, another while contemning all censures;
envies one, emulates another; or else with indefatigable pains and
meditation, consumes himself. So of the rest, all which vary according to
the more remiss and violent impression of the object, or as the humour
itself is intended or remitted. For some are so gently melancholy, that in
all their carriage, and to the outward apprehension of others it can hardly
be discerned, yet to them an intolerable burden, and not to be endured.
[2597]_Quaedam occulta quaedam manifesta_, some signs are manifest and
obvious to all at all times, some to few, or seldom, or hardly perceived;
let them keep their own council, none will take notice or suspect them.
"They do not express in outward show their depraved imaginations," as
[2598]Hercules de Saxonia observes, "but conceal them wholly to themselves,
and are very wise men, as I have often seen; some fear, some do not fear at
all, as such as think themselves kings or dead, some have more signs, some
fewer, some great, some less," some vex, fret, still fear, grieve, lament,
suspect, laugh, sing, weep, chafe, &c. by fits (as I have said) or more
during and permanent. Some dote in one thing, are most childish, and
ridiculous, and to be wondered at in that, and yet for all other matters
most discreet and wise. To some it is in disposition, to another in habit;
and as they write of heat and cold, we may say of this humour, one is
_melancholicus ad octo_, a second two degrees less, a third halfway. 'Tis
superparticular, _sesquialtera, sesquitertia_, and _superbipartiens
tertias, quintas Melancholiae_, &c. all those geometrical proportions are
too little to express it. [2599]"It comes to many by fits, and goes; to
others it is continuate:" many (saith [2600]Faventinus) "in spring and fall
only are molested," some once a year, as that Roman [2601] Galen speaks of:
[2602]one, at the conjunction of the moon alone, or some unfortunate
aspects, at such and such set hours and times, like the sea-tides, to some
women when they be with child, as [2603]Plater notes, never otherwise: to
others 'tis settled and fixed; to one led about and variable still by that
_ignis fatuus_ of phantasy, like an _arthritis_ or running gout, 'tis here
and there, and in every joint, always molesting some part or other; or if
the body be free, in a myriad of forms exercising the mind. A second once
peradventure in his life hath a most grievous fit, once in seven years,
once in five years, even to the extremity of madness, death, or dotage, and
that upon, some feral accident or perturbation, terrible object, and for a
time, never perhaps so before, never after. A third is moved upon all such
troublesome objects, cross fortune, disaster, and violent passions,
otherwise free, once troubled in three or four years. A fourth, if things
be to his mind, or he in action, well pleased, in good company, is most
jocund, and of a good complexion: if idle, or alone, a la mort, or carried
away wholly with pleasant dreams and phantasies, but if once crossed and
displeased,
"Pectore concipiet nil nisi triste suo;"
"He will imagine naught save sadness in his heart;"
his countenance is altered on a sudden, his heart heavy, irksome thoughts
crucify his soul, and in an instant he is moped or weary of his life, he
will kill himself. A fifth complains in his youth, a sixth in his middle
age, the last in his old age.
Generally thus much we may conclude of melancholy; that it is [2604]most
pleasant at first, I say, _mentis gratissimus error_, [2605]a most
delightsome humour, to be alone, dwell alone, walk alone, meditate, lie in
bed whole days, dreaming awake as it were, and frame a thousand fantastical
imaginations unto themselves. They are never better pleased than when they
are so doing, they are in paradise for the time, and cannot well endure to
be interrupt; with him in the poet, [2606]_pol me occidistis amici, non
servastis ait_? you have undone him, he complains, if you trouble him: tell
him what inconvenience will follow, what will be the event, all is one,
_canis ad vomitum_, [2607]'tis so pleasant he cannot refrain. He may thus
continue peradventure many years by reason of a strong temperature, or some
mixture of business, which may divert his cogitations: but at the last
_laesa imaginatio_, his phantasy is crazed, and now habituated to such
toys, cannot but work still like a fate, the scene alters upon a sudden,
fear and sorrow supplant those pleasing thoughts, suspicion, discontent,
and perpetual anxiety succeed in their places; so by little and little, by
that shoeing-horn of idleness, and voluntary solitariness, melancholy this
feral fiend is drawn on, [2608]_et quantum vertice ad auras Aethereas,
tantum radice in Tartara tendit_, "extending up, by its branches, so far
towards Heaven, as, by its roots, it does down towards Tartarus;" it was
not so delicious at first, as now it is bitter and harsh; a cankered soul
macerated with cares and discontents, _taedium vitae_, impatience, agony,
inconstancy, irresolution, precipitate them unto unspeakable miseries. They
cannot endure company, light, or life itself, some unfit for action, and
the like. [2609]Their bodies are lean and dried up, withered, ugly, their
looks harsh, very dull, and their souls tormented, as they are more or less
entangled, as the humour hath been intended, or according to the
continuance of time they have been troubled.
To discern all which symptoms the better, [2610]Rhasis the Arabian makes
three degrees of them. The first is, _falsa cogitatio_, false conceits and
idle thoughts: to misconstrue and amplify, aggravating everything they
conceive or fear; the second is, _falso cogitata loqui_, to talk to
themselves, or to use inarticulate incondite voices, speeches, obsolete
gestures, and plainly to utter their minds and conceits of their hearts, by
their words and actions, as to laugh, weep, to be silent, not to sleep, eat
their meat, &c.: the third is to put in practice [2611]that which they
think or speak. Savanarola, _Rub. 11. tract. 8. cap. 1. de aegritudine_,
confirms as much, [2612]"when he begins to express that in words, which he
conceives in his heart, or talks idly, or goes from one thing to another,"
which [2613]Gordonius calls _nec caput habentia, nec caudam_, ("having
neither head nor tail,") he is in the middle way: [2614] "but when he
begins to act it likewise, and to put his fopperies in execution, he is
then in the extent of melancholy, or madness itself." This progress of
melancholy you shall easily observe in them that have been so affected,
they go smiling to themselves at first, at length they laugh out; at first
solitary, at last they can endure no company: or if they do, they are now
dizzards, past sense and shame, quite moped, they care not what they say or
do, all their actions, words, gestures, are furious or ridiculous. At first
his mind is troubled, he doth not attend what is said, if you tell him a
tale, he cries at last, what said you? but in the end he mutters to
himself, as old women do many times, or old men when they sit alone, upon a
sudden they laugh, whoop, halloo, or run away, and swear they see or hear
players, [2615]devils, hobgoblins, ghosts, strike, or strut, &c., grow
humorous in the end; like him in the poet, _saepe ducentos, saepe decem
servos_, ("at one time followed by two hundred servants, at another only by
ten") he will dress himself, and undress, careless at last, grows
insensible, stupid, or mad. [2616]He howls like a wolf, barks like a dog,
and raves like Ajax and Orestes, hears music and outcries, which no man
else hears. As [2617]he did whom Amatus Lusitanus mentioneth _cent. 3,
cura. 55_, or that woman in [2618]Springer, that spake many languages, and
said she was possessed: that farmer in [2619]Prosper Calenius, that
disputed and discoursed learnedly in philosophy and astronomy, with
Alexander Achilles his master, at Bologna, in Italy. But of these I have
already spoken.
Who can sufficiently speak of these symptoms, or prescribe rules to
comprehend them? as Echo to the painter in Ausonius, _vane quid affectas_,
&c., foolish fellow; what wilt? if you must needs paint me, paint a voice,
_et similem si vis pingere, pinge sonum_; if you will describe melancholy,
describe a fantastical conceit, a corrupt imagination, vain thoughts and
different, which who can do? The four and twenty letters make no more
variety of words in diverse languages, than melancholy conceits produce
diversity of symptoms in several persons. They are irregular, obscure,
various, so infinite, Proteus himself is not so diverse, you may as well
make the moon a new coat, as a true character of a melancholy man; as soon
find the motion of a bird in the air, as the heart of man, a melancholy
man. They are so confused, I say, diverse, intermixed with other diseases.
As the species be confounded (which [2620]I have showed) so are the
symptoms; sometimes with headache, cachexia, dropsy, stone; as you may
perceive by those several examples and illustrations, collected by [2621]
Hildesheim _spicel. 2._ Mercurialis _consil. 118. cap. 6 and 11._ with
headache, epilepsy, priapismus. Trincavelius _consil. 12. lib. 1. consil.
49._ with gout: _caninus appetitus_. Montanus _consil. 26, &c. 23, 234,
249_, with falling-sickness, headache, vertigo, lycanthropia, &c. J. Caesar
Claudinus _consult. 4. consult. 89 and 116._ with gout, agues,
haemorrhoids, stone, &c., who can distinguish these melancholy symptoms so
intermixed with others, or apply them to their several kinds, confine them
into method? 'Tis hard I confess, yet I have disposed of them as I could,
and will descend to particularise them according to their species. For
hitherto I have expatiated in more general lists or terms, speaking
promiscuously of such ordinary signs, which occur amongst writers. Not that
they are all to be found in one man, for that were to paint a monster or
chimera, not a man: but some in one, some in another, and that successively
or at several times.
Which I have been the more curious to express and report; not to upbraid
any miserable man, or by way of derision, (I rather pity them,) but the
better to discern, to apply remedies unto them; and to show that the best
and soundest of us all is in great danger; how much we ought to fear our
own fickle estates, remember our miseries and vanities, examine and
humiliate ourselves, seek to God, and call to Him for mercy, that needs not
look for any rods to scourge ourselves, since we carry them in our bowels,
and that our souls are in a miserable captivity, if the light of grace and
heavenly truth doth not shine continually upon us: and by our discretion to
moderate ourselves, to be more circumspect and wary in the midst of these
dangers.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Symptoms of Head-Melancholy_.
"If [2622]no symptoms appear about the stomach, nor the blood be
misaffected, and fear and sorrow continue, it is to be thought the brain
itself is troubled, by reason of a melancholy juice bred in it, or
otherwise conveyed into it, and that evil juice is from the distemperature
of the part, or left after some inflammation," thus far Piso. But this is
not always true, for blood and hypochondries both are often affected even
in head-melancholy. [2623]Hercules de Saxonia differs here from the common
current of writers, putting peculiar signs of head-melancholy, from the
sole distemperature of spirits in the brain, as they are hot, cold, dry,
moist, "all without matter from the motion alone, and tenebrosity of
spirits;" of melancholy which proceeds from humours by adustion, he treats
apart, with their several symptoms and cures. The common signs, if it be by
essence in the head, "are ruddiness of face, high sanguine complexion, most
part _rubore saturato_," [2624]one calls it, a bluish, and sometimes full
of pimples, with red eyes. Avicenna _l. 3, Fen. 2, Tract. 4, c. 18._
Duretus and others out of Galen, _de affect. l. 3, c. 6._ [2625]Hercules de
Saxonia to this of redness of face, adds "heaviness of the head, fixed and
hollow eyes." [2626]"If it proceed from dryness of the brain, then their
heads will be light, vertiginous, and they most apt to wake, and to
continue whole months together without sleep. Few excrements in their eyes
and nostrils, and often bald by reason of excess of dryness," Montaltus
adds, _c. 17._ If it proceed from moisture: dullness, drowsiness, headache
follows; and as Salust. Salvianus, _c. 1, l. 2_, out of his own experience
found, epileptical, with a multitude of humours in the head. They are very
bashful, if ruddy, apt to blush, and to be red upon all occasions,
_praesertim si metus accesserit_. But the chiefest symptom to discern this
species, as I have said, is this, that there be no notable signs in the
stomach, hypochondries, or elsewhere, _digna_, as [2627] Montaltus terms
them, or of greater note, because oftentimes the passions of the stomach
concur with them. Wind is common to all three species, and is not excluded,
only that of the hypochondries is [2628]more windy than the rest, saith
Hollerius. Aetius _tetrab. l. 2, sc. 2, c. 9 and 10_, maintains the same,
[2629]if there be more signs, and more evident in the head than elsewhere,
the brain is primarily affected, and prescribes head-melancholy to be cured
by meats amongst the rest, void of wind, and good juice, not excluding
wind, or corrupt blood, even in head-melancholy itself: but these species
are often confounded, and so are their symptoms, as I have already proved.
The symptoms of the mind are superfluous and continual cogitations;
[2630]"for when the head is heated, it scorcheth the blood, and from thence
proceed melancholy fumes, which trouble the mind," Avicenna. They are very
choleric, and soon hot, solitary, sad, often silent, watchful, discontent,
Montaltus, _cap. 24._ If anything trouble them, they cannot sleep, but fret
themselves still, till another object mitigate, or time wear it out. They
have grievous passions, and immoderate perturbations of the mind, fear,
sorrow, &c., yet not so continuate, but that they are sometimes merry, apt
to profuse laughter, which is more to be wondered at, and that by the
authority of [2631]Galen himself, by reason of mixture of blood, _praerubri
jocosis delectantur, et irrisores plerumque sunt_, if they be ruddy, they
are delighted in jests, and oftentimes scoffers themselves, conceited: and
as Rodericus a Vega comments on that place of Galen, merry, witty, of a
pleasant disposition, and yet grievously melancholy anon after: _omnia
discunt sine doctore_, saith Aretus, they learn without a teacher: and as
[2632]Laurentius supposeth, those feral passions and symptoms of such as
think themselves glass, pitchers, feathers, &c., speak strange languages,
_a colore cerebri_ (if it be in excess) from the brain's distempered heat.
SUBSECT. II.--_Symptoms of windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy_.
"In this hypochondriacal or flatuous melancholy, the symptoms are so
ambiguous," saith [2633]Crato in a counsel of his for a noblewoman, "that
the most exquisite physicians cannot determine of the part affected."
Matthew Flaccius, consulted about a noble matron, confessed as much, that
in this malady he with Hollerius, Fracastorius, Falopius, and others, being
to give their sentence of a party labouring of hypochondriacal melancholy,
could not find out by the symptoms which part was most especially affected;
some said the womb, some heart, some stomach, &c., and therefore Crato,
_consil. 24. lib. 1._ boldly avers, that in this diversity of symptoms,
which commonly accompany this disease, [2634]"no physician can truly say
what part is affected." Galen _lib. 3. de loc. affect._, reckons up these
ordinary symptoms, which all the Neoterics repeat of Diocles; only this
fault he finds with him, that he puts not fear and sorrow amongst the other
signs. Trincavelius excuseth Diocles, _lib. 3. consil. 35._ because that
oftentimes in a strong head and constitution, a generous spirit, and a
valiant, these symptoms appear not, by reason of his valour and courage.
[2635]Hercules de Saxonia (to whom I subscribe) is of the same mind (which
I have before touched) that fear and sorrow are not general symptoms; some
fear and are not sad; some be sad and fear not; some neither fear nor
grieve. The rest are these, beside fear and sorrow, [2636]"sharp belchings,
fulsome crudities, heat in the bowels, wind and rumbling in the guts,
vehement gripings, pain in the belly and stomach sometimes, after meat that
is hard of concoction, much watering of the stomach, and moist spittle,
cold sweat, _importunus sudor_, unseasonable sweat all over the body," as
Octavius Horatianus _lib. 2. cap. 5._ calls it; "cold joints, indigestion,
[2637]they cannot endure their own fulsome belchings, continual wind about
their hypochondries, heat and griping in their bowels, _praecordia sursum
convelluntur_, midriff and bowels are pulled up, the veins about their eyes
look red, and swell from vapours and wind." Their ears sing now and then,
vertigo and giddiness come by fits, turbulent dreams, dryness, leanness,
apt they are to sweat upon all occasions, of all colours and complexions.
Many of them are high-coloured especially after meals, which symptom
Cardinal Caecius was much troubled with, and of which he complained to
Prosper Calenus his physician, he could not eat, or drink a cup of wine,
but he was as red in the face as if he had been at a mayor's feast. That
symptom alone vexeth many. [2638]Some again are black, pale, ruddy,
sometimes their shoulders and shoulder blades ache, there is a leaping all
over their bodies, sudden trembling, a palpitation of the heart, and that
_cardiaca passio_, grief in the mouth of the stomach, which maketh the
patient think his heart itself acheth, and sometimes suffocation,
_difficultas anhelitus_, short breath, hard wind, strong pulse, swooning.
Montanus _consil. 55._ Trincavelius _lib. 3. consil. 36. et 37._ Fernelius
_cons. 43._ Frambesarius _consult. lib. 1. consil. 17._ Hildesheim,
Claudinus, &c., give instance of every particular. The peculiar symptoms
which properly belong to each part be these. If it proceed from the
stomach, saith [2639]Savanarola, 'tis full of pain wind. Guianerius adds,
vertigo, nausea, much spitting, &c. If from the mirach, a swelling and wind
in the hypochondries, a loathing, and appetite to vomit, pulling upward. If
from the heart, aching and trembling of it, much heaviness. If from the
liver, there is usually a pain in the right hypochondry. If from the
spleen, hardness and grief in the left hypochondry, a rumbling, much
appetite and small digestion, Avicenna. If from the mesaraic veins and
liver on the other side, little or no appetite, Herc. de Saxonia. If from
the hypochondries, a rumbling inflation, concoction is hindered, often
belching, &c. And from these crudities, windy vapours ascend up to the
brain which trouble the imagination, and cause fear, sorrow, dullness,
heaviness, many terrible conceits and chimeras, as Lemnius well observes,
_l. 1. c. 16._ "as [2640]a black and thick cloud covers the sun, and
intercepts his beams and light, so doth this melancholy vapour obnubilate
the mind, enforce it to many absurd thoughts and imaginations," and compel
good, wise, honest, discreet men (arising to the brain from the [2641]
lower parts, "as smoke out of a chimney") to dote, speak, and do that which
becomes them not, their persons, callings, wisdoms. One by reason of those
ascending vapours and gripings, rumbling beneath, will not be persuaded but
that he hath a serpent in his guts, a viper, another frogs. Trallianus
relates a story of a woman, that imagined she had swallowed an eel, or a
serpent, and Felix Platerus, _observat. lib. 1._ hath a most memorable
example of a countryman of his, that by chance, falling into a pit where
frogs and frogs' spawn was, and a little of that water swallowed, began to
suspect that he had likewise swallowed frogs' spawn, and with that conceit
and fear, his phantasy wrought so far, that he verily thought he had young
live frogs in his belly, _qui vivebant ex alimento suo_, that lived by his
nourishment, and was so certainly persuaded of it, that for many years
afterwards he could not be rectified in his conceit: He studied physic
seven years together to cure himself, travelled into Italy, France and
Germany to confer with the best physicians about it, and A.D. 1609, asked
his counsel amongst the rest; he told him it was wind, his conceit, &c.,
but _mordicus contradicere, et ore, et scriptis probare nitebatur_: no
saying would serve, it was no wind, but real frogs: "and do you not hear
them croak?" Platerus would have deceived him, by putting live frog's into
his excrements; but he, being a physician himself, would not be deceived,
_vir prudens alias, et doctus_ a wise and learned man otherwise, a doctor
of physic, and after seven years' dotage in this kind, _a phantasia
liberatus est_, he was cured. Laurentius and Goulart have many such
examples, if you be desirous to read them. One commodity above the rest
which are melancholy, these windy flatuous have, _lucidia intervalla_,
their symptoms and pains are not usually so continuate as the rest, but
come by fits, fear and sorrow, and the rest: yet in another they exceed all
others; and that is, [2642]they are luxurious, incontinent, and prone to
venery, by reason of wind, _et facile amant, et quamlibet fere amant_.
(Jason Pratensis) [2643]Rhasis is of opinion, that Venus doth many of them
much good; the other symptoms of the mind be common with the rest.
SUBSECT. III.--_Symptoms of Melancholy abounding in the whole body_.
Their bodies that are affected with this universal melancholy are most part
black, [2644]"the melancholy juice is redundant all over," hirsute they
are, and lean, they have broad veins, their blood is gross and thick [2645]
"Their spleen is weak," and a liver apt to engender the humour; they have
kept bad diet, or have had some evacuation stopped, as haemorrhoids, or
months in women, which [2646]Trallianus, in the cure, would have carefully
to be inquired, and withal to observe of what complexion the party is of,
black or red. For as Forrestus and Hollerius contend, if [2647]they be
black, it proceeds from abundance of natural melancholy; if it proceed from
cares, agony, discontents, diet, exercise, &c., they may be as well of any
other colour: red, yellow, pale, as black, and yet their whole blood
corrupt: _praerubri colore saepe sunt tales, saepe flavi_, (saith [2648]
Montaltus _cap. 22._) The best way to discern this species, is to let them
bleed, if the blood be corrupt, thick and black, and they withal free from
those hypochondriacal symptoms, and not so grievously troubled with them,
or those of the head, it argues they are melancholy, _a toto corpore_. The
fumes which arise from this corrupt blood, disturb the mind, and make them
fearful and sorrowful, heavy hearted, as the rest, dejected, discontented,
solitary, silent, weary of their lives, dull and heavy, or merry, &c., and
if far gone, that which Apuleius wished to his enemy, by way of
imprecation, is true in them; [2649]"Dead men's bones, hobgoblins, ghosts
are ever in their minds, and meet them still in every turn: all the
bugbears of the night, and terrors, fairy-babes of tombs, and graves are
before their eyes, and in their thoughts, as to women and children, if they
be in the dark alone." If they hear, or read, or see any tragical object,
it sticks by them, they are afraid of death, and yet weary of their lives,
in their discontented humours they quarrel with all the world, bitterly
inveigh, tax satirically, and because they cannot otherwise vent their
passions or redress what is amiss, as they mean, they will by violent death
at last be revenged on themselves.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Symptoms of Maids, Nuns, and Widows' Melancholy_.
Because Lodovicus Mercatus in his second book _de mulier. affect. cap. 4._
and Rodericus a Castro _de morb. mulier. cap. 3. lib. 2._ two famous
physicians in Spain, Daniel Sennertus of Wittenberg _lib. 1. part 2. cap.
13._ with others, have vouchsafed in their works not long since published,
to write two just treatises _de Melancholia virginum, Monialium et
Viduarum_, as a particular species of melancholy (which I have already
specified) distinct from the rest; [2650](for it much differs from that
which commonly befalls men and other women, as having one only cause proper
to women alone) I may not omit in this general survey of melancholy
symptoms, to set down the particular signs of such parties so misaffected.
The causes are assigned out of Hippocrates, Cleopatra, Moschion, and those
old _Gynaeciorum Scriptores_, of this feral malady, in more ancient maids,
widows, and barren women, _ob septum transversum violatum_, saith Mercatus,
by reason of the midriff or _Diaphragma_, heart and brain offended with
those vicious vapours which come from menstruous blood, _inflammationem
arteriae circa dorsum_, Rodericus adds, an inflammation of the back, which
with the rest is offended by [2651]that fuliginous exhalation of corrupt
seed, troubling the brain, heart and mind; the brain, I say, not in
essence, but by consent, _Universa enim hujus affectus causa ab utero
pendet, et a sanguinis menstrui malitia_, for in a word, the whole malady
proceeds from that inflammation, putridity, black smoky vapours, &c., from
thence comes care, sorrow, and anxiety, obfuscation of spirits, agony,
desperation, and the like, which are intended or remitted; _si amatorius
accesserit ardor_, or any other violent object or perturbation of mind.
This melancholy may happen to widows, with much care and sorrow, as
frequently it doth, by reason of a sudden alteration of their accustomed
course of life, &c. To such as lie in childbed _ob suppressam
purgationem_; but to nuns and more ancient maids, and some barren women for
the causes abovesaid, 'tis more familiar, _crebrius his quam reliquis
accidit, inquit Rodericus_, the rest are not altogether excluded.
Out of these causes Rodericus defines it with Areteus, to be _angorem
animi_, a vexation of the mind, a sudden sorrow from a small, light, or no
occasion, [2652]with a kind of still dotage and grief of some part or
other, head, heart, breasts, sides, back, belly, &c., with much
solitariness, weeping, distraction, &c., from which they are sometimes
suddenly delivered, because it comes and goes by fits, and is not so
permanent as other melancholy.
But to leave this brief description, the most ordinary symptoms be these,
_pulsatio juxta dorsum_, a beating about the back, which is almost
perpetual, the skin is many times rough, squalid, especially, as Areteus
observes, about the arms, knees, and knuckles. The midriff and
heart-strings do burn and beat very fearfully, and when this vapour or fume
is stirred, flieth upward, the heart itself beats, is sore grieved, and
faints, _fauces siccitate praecluduntur, ut difficulter possit ab uteri
strangulatione decerni_, like fits of the mother, _Alvus plerisque nil
reddit, aliis exiguum, acre, biliosum, lotium flavum_. They complain many
times, saith Mercatus, of a great pain in their heads, about their hearts,
and hypochondries, and so likewise in their breasts, which are often sore,
sometimes ready to swoon, their faces are inflamed, and red, they are dry,
thirsty, suddenly hot, much troubled with wind, cannot sleep, &c. And from
hence proceed _ferina deliramenta_, a brutish kind of dotage, troublesome
sleep, terrible dreams in the night, _subrusticus pudor et verecundia
ignava_, a foolish kind of bashfulness to some, perverse conceits and
opinions, [2653]dejection of mind, much discontent, preposterous judgment.
They are apt to loath, dislike, disdain, to be weary of every object, &c.,
each thing almost is tedious to them, they pine away, void of counsel, apt
to weep, and tremble, timorous, fearful, sad, and out of all hope of better
fortunes. They take delight in nothing for the time, but love to be alone
and solitary, though that do them more harm: and thus they are affected so
long as this vapour lasteth; but by-and-by, as pleasant and merry as ever
they were in their lives, they sing, discourse, and laugh in any good
company, upon all occasions, and so by fits it takes them now and then,
except the malady be inveterate, and then 'tis more frequent, vehement, and
continuate. Many of them cannot tell how to express themselves in words, or
how it holds them, what ails them, you cannot understand them, or well tell
what to make of their sayings; so far gone sometimes, so stupefied and
distracted, they think themselves bewitched, they are in despair, _aptae ad
fletum, desperationem, dolores mammis et hypocondriis_. Mercatus therefore
adds, now their breasts, now their hypochondries, belly and sides, then
their heart and head aches, now heat, then wind, now this, now that
offends, they are weary of all; [2654]and yet will not, cannot again tell
how, where or what offends them, though they be in great pain, agony, and
frequently complain, grieving, sighing, weeping, and discontented still,
_sine causa manifesta_, most part, yet I say they will complain, grudge,
lament, and not be persuaded, but that they are troubled with an evil
spirit, which is frequent in Germany, saith Rodericus, amongst the common
sort: and to such as are most grievously affected, (for he makes three
degrees of this disease in women,) they are in despair, surely forespoken
or bewitched, and in extremity of their dotage, (weary of their lives,)
some of them will attempt to make away themselves. Some think they see
visions, confer with spirits and devils, they shall surely be damned, are
afraid of some treachery, imminent danger, and the like, they will not
speak, make answer to any question, but are almost distracted, mad, or
stupid for the time, and by fits: and thus it holds them, as they are more
or less affected, and as the inner humour is intended or remitted, or by
outward objects and perturbations aggravated, solitariness, idleness, &c.
Many other maladies there are incident to young women, out of that one and
only cause above specified, many feral diseases. I will not so much as
mention their names, melancholy alone is the subject of my present
discourse, from which I will not swerve. The several cures of this
infirmity, concerning diet, which must be very sparing, phlebotomy, physic,
internal, external remedies, are at large in great variety in [2655]
Rodericus a Castro, Sennertus, and Mercatus, which whoso will, as occasion
serves, may make use of. But the best and surest remedy of all, is to see
them well placed, and married to good husbands in due time, _hinc illae,
lachrymae_, that is the primary cause, and this the ready cure, to give
them content to their desires. I write not this to patronise any wanton,
idle flirt, lascivious or light housewives, which are too forward many
times, unruly, and apt to cast away themselves on him that comes next,
without all care, counsel, circumspection, and judgment. If religion, good
discipline, honest education, wholesome exhortation, fair promises, fame
and loss of good name cannot inhibit and deter such, (which to chaste and
sober maids cannot choose but avail much,) labour and exercise, strict
diet, rigour and threats may more opportunely be used, and are able of
themselves to qualify and divert an ill-disposed temperament. For seldom
should you see an hired servant, a poor handmaid, though ancient, that is
kept hard to her work, and bodily labour, a coarse country wench troubled
in this kind, but noble virgins, nice gentlewomen, such as are solitary and
idle, live at ease, lead a life out of action and employment, that fare
well, in great houses and jovial companies, ill-disposed peradventure of
themselves, and not willing to make any resistance, discontented otherwise,
of weak judgment, able bodies, and subject to passions, (_grandiores
virgines_, saith Mercatus, _steriles et viduae plerumque melancholicae_,)
such for the most part are misaffected, and prone to this disease. I do not
so much pity them that may otherwise be eased, but those alone that out of
a strong temperament, innate constitution, are violently carried away with
this torrent of inward humours, and though very modest of themselves,
sober, religious, virtuous, and well given, (as many so distressed maids
are,) yet cannot make resistance, these grievances will appear, this malady
will take place, and now manifestly show itself, and may not otherwise be
helped. But where am I? Into what subject have I rushed? What have I to do
with nuns, maids, virgins, widows? I am a bachelor myself, and lead a
monastic life in a college, _nae ego sane ineptus qui haec dixerim_,) I
confess 'tis an indecorum, and as Pallas a virgin blushed, when Jupiter by
chance spake of love matters in her presence, and turned away her face; _me
reprimam_ though my subject necessarily require it, I will say no more.
And yet I must and will say something more, add a word or two _in gratiam
virginum et viduarum_, in favour of all such distressed parties, in
commiseration of their present estate. And as I cannot choose but condole
their mishap that labour of this infirmity, and are destitute of help in
this case, so must I needs inveigh against them that are in fault, more
than manifest causes, and as bitterly tax those tyrannising
pseudopoliticians, superstitious orders, rash vows, hard-hearted parents,
guardians, unnatural friends, allies, (call them how you will,) those
careless and stupid overseers, that out of worldly respects, covetousness,
supine negligence, their own private ends (_cum sibi sit interim bene_) can
so severely reject, stubbornly neglect, and impiously contemn, without all
remorse and pity, the tears, sighs, groans, and grievous miseries of such
poor souls committed to their charge. How odious and abominable are those
superstitious and rash vows of Popish monasteries, so to bind and enforce
men and women to vow virginity, to lead a single life, against the laws of
nature, opposite to religion, policy, and humanity, so to starve, to offer
violence, to suppress the vigour of youth, by rigorous statutes, severe
laws, vain persuasions, to debar them of that to which by their innate
temperature they are so furiously inclined, urgently carried, and sometimes
precipitated, even irresistibly led, to the prejudice of their soul's
health, and good estate of body and mind: and all for base and private
respects, to maintain their gross superstition, to enrich themselves and
their territories as they falsely suppose, by hindering some marriages,
that the world be not full of beggars, and their parishes pestered with
orphans; stupid politicians; _haeccine fieri flagilia_? ought these things
so to be carried? better marry than burn, saith the Apostle, but they are
otherwise persuaded. They will by all means quench their neighbour's house
if it be on fire, but that fire of lust which breaks out into such
lamentable flames, they will not take notice of, their own bowels
oftentimes, flesh and blood shall so rage and burn, and they will not see
it: _miserum est_, saith Austin, _seipsum non miserescere_, and they are
miserable in the meantime that cannot pity themselves, the common good of
all, and _per consequens_ their own estates. For let them but consider what
fearful maladies, feral diseases, gross inconveniences, come to both sexes
by this enforced temperance, it troubles me to think of, much more to
relate those frequent abortions and murdering of infants in their nunneries
(read [2656]Kemnisius and others), and notorious fornications, those
Spintrias, Tribadas, Ambubeias, &c., those rapes, incests, adulteries,
mastuprations, sodomies, buggeries of monks and friars. See Bale's
visitation of abbeys, [2657]Mercurialis, Rodericus a Castro, Peter
Forestus, and divers physicians; I know their ordinary apologies and
excuses for these things, _sed viderint Politici, Medici, Theologi_, I
shall more opportunely meet with them [2658]elsewhere.
[2659] "Illius viduae, aut patronum Virginis hujus,
Ne me forte putes, verbum non amplius addam."
MEMB. III.
_Immediate cause of these precedent Symptoms_.
To give some satisfaction to melancholy men that are troubled with these
symptoms, a better means in my judgment cannot be taken, than to show them
the causes whence they proceed; not from devils as they suppose, or that
they are bewitched or forsaken of God, hear or see, &c. as many of them
think, but from natural and inward causes, that so knowing them, they may
better avoid the effects, or at least endure them with more patience. The
most grievous and common symptoms are fear and sorrow, and that without a
cause to the wisest and discreetest men, in this malady not to be avoided.
The reason why they are so, Aetius discusseth at large, _Tetrabib. 2. 2._
in his first problem out of Galen, _lib. 2. de causis sympt. 1._ For Galen
imputeth all to the cold that is black, and thinks that the spirits being
darkened, and the substance of the brain cloudy and dark, all the objects
thereof appear terrible, and the [2660]mind itself, by those dark, obscure,
gross fumes, ascending from black humours, is in continual darkness, fear,
and sorrow; divers terrible monstrous fictions in a thousand shapes and
apparitions occur, with violent passions, by which the brain and fantasy
are troubled and eclipsed. [2661]Fracastorius, _lib. 2. de intellect_,
"will have cold to be the cause of fear and sorrow; for such as are cold
are ill-disposed to mirth, dull, and heavy, by nature solitary, silent; and
not for any inward darkness (as physicians think) for many melancholy men
dare boldly be, continue, and walk in the dark, and delight in it:" _solum
frigidi timidi_: if they be hot, they are merry; and the more hot, the more
furious, and void of fear, as we see in madmen; but this reason holds not,
for then no melancholy, proceeding from choler adust, should fear.
[2662]Averroes scoffs at Galen for his reasons, and brings five arguments
to repel them: so doth Herc. de Saxonia, _Tract. de Melanch. cap. 3._
assigning other causes, which are copiously censured and confuted by
Aelianus Montaltus, _cap. 5 and 6._ Lod. Mercatus _de Inter. morb. cur.
lib. 1. cap. 17._ Altomarus, _cap. 7. de mel._ Guianerius, _tract. 15. c.
1._ Bright _cap. 37._ Laurentius, _cap. 5._ Valesius, _med. cont. lib. 5,
con. 1._ [2663]"Distemperature," they conclude, "makes black juice,
blackness obscures the spirits, the spirits obscured, cause fear and
sorrow." Laurentius, _cap. 13._ supposeth these black fumes offend
specially the diaphragma or midriff, and so _per consequens_ the mind,
which is obscured as [2664]the sun by a cloud. To this opinion of Galen,
almost all the Greeks and Arabians subscribe, the Latins new and old,
_internae, tenebrae offuscant animum, ut externae nocent pueris_, as
children are affrighted in the dark, so are melancholy men at all times,
[2665]as having the inward cause with them, and still carrying it about.
Which black vapours, whether they proceed from the black blood about the
heart, as T. W. Jes. thinks in his treatise of the passions of the mind, or
stomach, spleen, midriff, or all the misaffected parts together, it boots
not, they keep the mind in a perpetual dungeon, and oppress it with
continual fears, anxieties, sorrows, &c. It is an ordinary thing for such
as are sound to laugh at this dejected pusillanimity, and those other
symptoms of melancholy, to make themselves merry with them, and to wonder
at such, as toys and trifles, which may be resisted and withstood, if they
will themselves: but let him that so wonders, consider with himself, that
if a man should tell him on a sudden, some of his especial friends were
dead, could he choose but grieve? Or set him upon a steep rock, where he
should be in danger to be precipitated, could he be secure? His heart would
tremble for fear, and his head be giddy. P. Byaras, _Tract. de pest._ gives
instance (as I have said) [2666]"and put case" (saith he) "in one that
walks upon a plank, if it lie on the ground, he can safely do it: but if
the same plank be laid over some deep water, instead of a bridge, he is
vehemently moved, and 'tis nothing but his imagination, _forma cadendi
impressa_, to which his other members and faculties obey." Yea, but you
infer, that such men have a just cause to fear, a true object of fear; so
have melancholy men an inward cause, a perpetual fume and darkness, causing
fear, grief, suspicion, which they carry with them, an object which cannot
be removed; but sticks as close, and is as inseparable as a shadow to a
body, and who can expel or overrun his shadow? Remove heat of the liver, a
cold stomach, weak spleen: remove those adust humours and vapours arising
from them, black blood from the heart, all outward perturbations, take away
the cause, and then bid them not grieve nor fear, or be heavy, dull,
lumpish, otherwise counsel can do little good; you may as well bid him that
is sick of an ague not to be a dry; or him that is wounded not to feel
pain.
Suspicion follows fear and sorrow at heels, arising out of the same
fountain, so thinks [2667]Fracastorius, "that fear is the cause of
suspicion, and still they suspect some treachery, or some secret
machination to be framed against them, still they distrust." Restlessness
proceeds from the same spring, variety of fumes make them like and dislike.
Solitariness, avoiding of light, that they are weary of their lives, hate
the world, arise from the same causes, for their spirits and humours are
opposite to light, fear makes them avoid company, and absent themselves,
lest they should be misused, hissed at, or overshoot themselves, which
still they suspect. They are prone to venery by reason of wind. Angry,
waspish, and fretting still, out of abundance of choler, which causeth
fearful dreams and violent perturbations to them, both sleeping and waking:
That they suppose they have no heads, fly, sink, they are pots, glasses,
&c. is wind in their heads. [2668]Herc. de Saxonia doth ascribe this to the
several motions in the animal spirits, "their dilation, contraction,
confusion, alteration, tenebrosity, hot or cold distemperature," excluding
all material humours. [2669]Fracastorius "accounts it a thing worthy of
inquisition, why they should entertain such false conceits, as that they
have horns, great noses, that they are birds, beasts," &c., why they should
think themselves kings, lords, cardinals. For the first, [2670]
Fracastorius gives two reasons: "One is the disposition of the body; the
other, the occasion of the fantasy," as if their eyes be purblind, their
ears sing, by reason of some cold and rheum, &c. To the second, Laurentius
answers, the imagination inwardly or outwardly moved, represents to the
understanding, not enticements only, to favour the passion or dislike, but
a very intensive pleasure follows the passion or displeasure, and the will
and reason are captivated by delighting in it.
Why students and lovers are so often melancholy and mad, the philosopher of
[2671]Conimbra assigns this reason, "because by a vehement and continual
meditation of that wherewith they are affected, they fetch up the spirits
into the brain, and with the heat brought with them, they incend it beyond
measure: and the cells of the inner senses dissolve their temperature,
which being dissolved, they cannot perform their offices as they ought."
Why melancholy men are witty, which Aristotle hath long since maintained in
his problems; and that [2672]all learned men, famous philosophers, and
lawgivers, _ad unum fere omnes melancholici_, have still been melancholy,
is a problem much controverted. Jason Pratensis will have it understood of
natural melancholy, which opinion Melancthon inclines to, in his book _de
Anima_, and Marcilius Ficinus _de san. tuend. lib. 1. cap. 5._ but not
simple, for that makes men stupid, heavy, dull, being cold and dry,
fearful, fools, and solitary, but mixed with the other humours, phlegm only
excepted; and they not adust, [2673]but so mixed as that blood he half,
with little or no adustion, that they be neither too hot nor too cold.
Aponensis, cited by Melancthon, thinks it proceeds from melancholy adust,
excluding all natural melancholy as too cold. Laurentius condemns his
tenet, because adustion of humours makes men mad, as lime burns when water
is cast on it. It must be mixed with blood, and somewhat adust, and so that
old aphorism of Aristotle may be verified, _Nullum magnum ingenium sine
mixtura dementiae_, no excellent wit without a mixture of madness.
Fracastorius shall decide the controversy, [2674]"phlegmatic are dull:
sanguine lively, pleasant, acceptable, and merry, but not witty; choleric
are too swift in motion, and furious, impatient of contemplation, deceitful
wits: melancholy men have the most excellent wits, but not all; this humour
may be hot or cold, thick, or thin; if too hot, they are furious and mad:
if too cold, dull, stupid, timorous, and sad: if temperate, excellent,
rather inclining to that extreme of heat, than cold." This sentence of his
will agree with that of Heraclitus, a dry light makes a wise mind,
temperate heat and dryness are the chief causes of a good wit; therefore,
saith Aelian, an elephant is the wisest of all brute beasts, because his
brain is driest, _et ob atrae, bilis capiam_: this reason Cardan approves,
_subtil. l. 12._ Jo. Baptista Silvaticus, a physician of Milan, in his
first controversy, hath copiously handled this question: Rulandus in his
problems, Caelius Rhodiginus, _lib. 17._ Valleriola _6to. narrat. med._
Herc. de Saxonia, _Tract. posth. de mel. cap. 3._ Lodovicus Mercatus, _de
inter. morb. cur. lib. cap. 17._ Baptista Porta, _Physiog. lib. 1. c. 13._
and many others.
Weeping, sighing, laughing, itching, trembling, sweating, blushing, hearing
and seeing strange noises, visions, wind, crudity, are motions of the body,
depending upon these precedent motions of the mind: neither are tears,
affections, but actions (as Scaliger holds) [2675]"the voice of such as are
afraid, trembles, because the heart is shaken" (_Conimb. prob. 6. sec. 3.
de som._) why they stutter or falter in their speech, Mercurialis and
Montaltus, _cap. 17._ give like reasons out of Hippocrates, [2676]"dryness,
which makes the nerves of the tongue torpid." Fast speaking (which is a
symptom of some few) Aetius will have caused [2677] "from abundance of
wind, and swiftness of imagination:" [2678]"baldness comes from excess of
dryness," hirsuteness from a dry temperature. The cause of much waking in a
dry brain, continual meditation, discontent, fears and cares, that suffer
not the mind to be at rest, incontinency is from wind, and a hot liver,
Montanus, _cons. 26._ Rumbling in the guts is caused from wind, and wind
from ill concoction, weakness of natural heat, or a distempered heat and
cold; [2679]Palpitation of the heart from vapours, heaviness and aching
from the same cause. That the belly is hard, wind is a cause, and of that
leaping in many parts. Redness of the face, and itching, as if they were
flea-bitten, or stung with pismires, from a sharp subtle wind. [2680]Cold
sweat from vapours arising from the hypochondries, which pitch upon the
skin; leanness for want of good nourishment. Why their appetite is so
great, [2681]Aetius answers: _Os ventris frigescit_, cold in those inner
parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds
from perturbations, [2682]our souls for want of spirits cannot attend
exactly to so many intentive operations, being exhaust, and overswayed by
passion, she cannot consider the reasons which may dissuade her from such
affections.
[2683]Bashfulness and blushing, is a passion proper to men alone, and is
not only caused for [2684]some shame and ignominy, or that they are guilty
unto themselves of some foul fact committed, but as [2685]Fracastorius well
determines, _ob defectum proprium, et timorem_, "from fear, and a conceit
of our defects; the face labours and is troubled at his presence that sees
our defects, and nature willing to help, sends thither heat, heat draws the
subtlest blood, and so we blush. They that are bold, arrogant, and
careless, seldom or never blush, but such as are fearful." Anthonius
Lodovicus, in his book _de pudore_, will have this subtle blood to arise in
the face, not so much for the reverence of our betters in presence,
[2686]"but for joy and pleasure, or if anything at unawares shall pass from
us, a sudden accident, occurse, or meeting:" (which Disarius in [2687]
Macrobius confirms) any object heard or seen, for blind men never blush, as
Dandinus observes, the night and darkness make men impudent. Or that we be
staid before our betters, or in company we like not, or if anything molest
and offend us, _erubescentia_ turns to _rubor_, blushing to a continuate
redness. [2688]Sometimes the extremity of the ears tingle, and are red,
sometimes the whole face, _Etsi nihil vitiosum commiseris_, as Lodovicus
holds: though Aristotle is of opinion, _omnis pudor ex vitio commisso_, all
shame for some offence. But we find otherwise, it may as well proceed
[2689]from fear, from force and inexperience, (so [2690]Dandinus holds) as
vice; a hot liver, saith Duretus (_notis in Hollerium_:) "from a hot brain,
from wind, the lungs heated, or after drinking of wine, strong drink,
perturbations," &c.
Laughter what it is, saith [2691]Tully, "how caused, where, and so suddenly
breaks out, that desirous to stay it, we cannot, how it comes to possess
and stir our face, veins, eyes, countenance, mouth, sides, let Democritus
determine." The cause that it often affects melancholy men so much, is
given by Gomesius, _lib. 3. de sale genial. cap. 18._ abundance of pleasant
vapours, which, in sanguine melancholy especially, break from the heart,
[2692]"and tickle the midriff, because it is transverse and full of nerves:
by which titillation the sense being moved, and arteries distended, or
pulled, the spirits from thence move and possess the sides, veins,
countenance, eyes." See more in Jossius _de risu et fletu_, Vives _3 de
Anima_. Tears, as Scaliger defines, proceed from grief and pity, [2693]"or
from the heating of a moist brain, for a dry cannot weep."
That they see and hear so many phantasms, chimeras, noises, visions, &c. as
Fienus hath discoursed at large in his book of imagination, and [2694]
Lavater _de spectris, part. 1. cap. 2. 3. 4._ their corrupt phantasy makes
them see and hear that which indeed is neither heard nor seen, _Qui multum
jejunant, aut noctes ducunt insomnes_, they that much fast, or want sleep,
as melancholy or sick men commonly do, see visions, or such as are
weak-sighted, very timorous by nature, mad, distracted, or earnestly seek.
_Sabini quod volunt somniant_, as the saying is, they dream of that they
desire. Like Sarmiento the Spaniard, who when he was sent to discover the
straits of Magellan, and confine places, by the Prorex of Peru, standing on
the top of a hill, _Amaenissimam planitiem despicere sibi visus fuit,
aedificia magnifica, quamplurimos Pagos, alias Turres, splendida Templa_,
and brave cities, built like ours in Europe, not, saith mine [2695]author,
that there was any such thing, but that he was _vanissimus et nimis
credulus_, and would fain have had it so. Or as [2696]Lod. Mercatus proves,
by reason of inward vapours, and humours from blood, choler, &c. diversely
mixed, they apprehend and see outwardly, as they suppose, divers images,
which indeed are not. As they that drink wine think all runs round, when it
is in their own brain; so is it with these men, the fault and cause is
inward, as Galen affirms, [2697]mad men and such as are near death, _quas
extra se videre putant Imagines, intra oculos habent_, 'tis in their brain,
which seems to be before them; the brain as a concave glass reflects solid
bodies. _Senes etiam decrepiti cerebrum habent concavum et aridum, ut
imaginentur se videre_ (saith [2698]Boissardus) _quae non sunt_, old men
are too frequently mistaken and dote in like case: or as he that looketh
through a piece of red glass, judgeth everything he sees to be red; corrupt
vapours mounting from the body to the head, and distilling again from
thence to the eyes, when they have mingled themselves with the watery
crystal which receiveth the shadows of things to be seen, make all things
appear of the same colour, which remains in the humour that overspreads our
sight, as to melancholy men all is black, to phlegmatic all white, &c. Or
else as before the organs corrupt by a corrupt phantasy, as Lemnius, _lib.
1. cap. 16._ well quotes, [2699]"cause a great agitation of spirits, and
humours, which wander to and fro in all the creeks of the brain, and cause
such apparitions before their eyes." One thinks he reads something written
in the moon, as Pythagoras is said to have done of old, another smells
brimstone, hears Cerberus bark: Orestes now mad supposed he saw the furies
tormenting him, and his mother still ready to run upon him,
[2700] "O mater obsecro noli me persequi
His furiis, aspectu anguineis, horribilibus,
Ecce ecce me invadunt, in me jam ruunt;"
but Electra told him thus raving in his mad fit, he saw no such sights at
all, it was but his crazed imagination.
[2701] "Quiesce, quiesce miser in linteis tuis,
Non cernis etenim quae videre te putas."
So Pentheus (in Bacchis Euripidis) saw two suns, two Thebes, his brain
alone was troubled. Sickness is an ordinary cause of such sights. Cardan,
_subtil. 8._ _Mens aegra laboribus et jejuniis fracta, facit eos videre,
audire_, &c. And, Osiander beheld strange visions, and Alexander ab
Alexandro both, in their sickness, which he relates _de rerum varietat.
lib. 8. cap. 44._ Albategnius that noble Arabian, on his death-bed, saw a
ship ascending and descending, which Fracastorius records of his friend
Baptista Tirrianus. Weak sight and a vain persuasion withal, may effect as
much, and second causes concurring, as an oar in water makes a refraction,
and seems bigger, bended double, &c. The thickness of the air may cause
such effects, or any object not well-discerned in the dark, fear and
phantasy will suspect to be a ghost, a devil, &c. [2702]_Quod nimis miseri
timent, hoc facile credunt_, we are apt to believe, and mistake in such
cases. Marcellus Donatus, _lib. 2. cap. 1._ brings in a story out of
Aristotle, of one Antepharon which likely saw, wheresoever he was, his own
image in the air, as in a glass. Vitellio, _lib. 10. perspect._ hath such
another instance of a familiar acquaintance of his, that after the want of
three or four nights sleep, as he was riding by a river side, saw another
riding with him, and using all such gestures as he did, but when more light
appeared, it vanished. Eremites and anchorites have frequently such absurd
visions, revelations by reason of much fasting, and bad diet, many are
deceived by legerdemain, as Scot hath well showed in his book of the
discovery of witchcraft, and Cardan, _subtil. 18._ suffites, perfumes,
suffumigations, mixed candles, perspective glasses, and such natural
causes, make men look as if they were dead, or with horse-heads,
bull's-horns, and such like brutish shapes, the room full of snakes,
adders, dark, light, green, red, of all colours, as you may perceive in
Baptista Porta, Alexis, Albertus, and others, glow-worms, fire-drakes,
meteors, _Ignis fatuus_, which Plinius, _lib. 2. cap. 37._ calls Castor and
Pollux, with many such that appear in moorish grounds, about churchyards,
moist valleys, or where battles have been fought, the causes of which read
in Goclenius, Velouris, Fickius, &c. such fears are often done, to frighten
children with squibs, rotten wood, &c. to make folks look as if they were
dead, [2703]_solito majores_, bigger, lesser, fairer, fouler, _ut astantes
sine capitibus videantur; aut toti igniti, aut forma daemonum, accipe pilos
canis nigri_, &c. saith Albertus; and so 'tis ordinary to see strange
uncouth sights by catoptrics: who knows not that if in a dark room, the
light be admitted at one only little hole, and a paper or glass put upon
it, the sun shining, will represent on the opposite wall all such objects
as are illuminated by his rays? with concave and cylinder glasses, we may
reflect any shape of men, devils, antics, (as magicians most part do, to
gull a silly spectator in a dark room), we will ourselves, and that hanging
in the air, when 'tis nothing but such an horrible image as [2704]Agrippa
demonstrates, placed in another room. Roger Bacon of old is said to have
represented his own image walking in the air by this art, though no such
thing appear in his perspectives. But most part it is in the brain that
deceives them, although I may not deny, but that oftentimes the devil
deludes them, takes his opportunity to suggest, and represent vain objects
to melancholy men, and such as are ill affected. To these you may add the
knavish impostures of jugglers, exorcists, mass-priests, and mountebanks,
of whom Roger Bacon speaks, &c. _de miraculis naturae et artis. cap. 1._
[2705]they can counterfeit the voices of all birds and brute beasts almost,
all tones and tunes of men, and speak within their throats, as if they
spoke afar off, that they make their auditors believe they hear spirits,
and are thence much astonished and affrighted with it. Besides, those
artificial devices to overhear their confessions, like that whispering
place of Gloucester [2706]with us, or like the duke's place at Mantua in
Italy, where the sound is reverberated by a concave wall; a reason of which
Blancanus in his Echometria gives, and mathematically demonstrates.
So that the hearing is as frequently deluded as the sight, from the same
causes almost, as he that hears bells, will make them sound what he list.
"As the fool thinketh, so the bell clinketh." Theophilus in Galen thought
he heard music, from vapours which made his ears sound, &c. Some are
deceived by echoes, some by roaring of waters, or concaves and
reverberation of air in the ground, hollow places and walls. [2707]At
Cadurcum, in Aquitaine, words and sentences are repeated by a strange echo
to the full, or whatsoever you shall play upon a musical instrument, more
distinctly and louder, than they are spoken at first. Some echoes repeat a
thing spoken seven times, as at Olympus, in Macedonia, as Pliny relates,
_lib. 36. cap. 15._ Some twelve times, as at Charenton, a village near
Paris, in France. At Delphos, in Greece, heretofore was a miraculous echo,
and so in many other places. Cardan, _subtil. l. 18_, hath wonderful
stories of such as have been deluded by these echoes. Blancanus the Jesuit,
in his Echometria, hath variety of examples, and gives his reader full
satisfaction of all such sounds by way of demonstration. [2708]At Barrey,
an isle in the Severn mouth, they seem to hear a smith's forge; so at
Lipari, and those sulphureous isles, and many such like, which Olaus speaks
of in the continent of Scandia, and those northern countries. Cardan _de
rerum var. l. 15, c. 84_, mentioneth a woman, that still supposed she heard
the devil call her, and speaking to her, she was a painter's wife in Milan:
and many such illusions and voices, which proceed most part from a corrupt
imagination.
Whence it comes to pass, that they prophesy, speak several languages, talk
of astronomy, and other unknown sciences to them (of which they have been
ever ignorant): [2709]I have in brief touched, only this I will here add,
that Arculanus, _Bodin. lib. 3, cap. 6, daemon._ and some others, [2710]
hold as a manifest token that such persons are possessed with the devil; so
doth [2711]Hercules de Saxonia, and Apponensis, and fit only to be cured by
a priest. But [2712]Guianerius, [2713]Montaltus, Pomporiatius of Padua, and
Lemnius _lib. 2. cap. 2_, refer it wholly to the ill-disposition of the
[2714]humour, and that out of the authority of Aristotle _prob. 30. 1_,
because such symptoms are cured by purging; and as by the striking of a
flint fire is enforced, so by the vehement motion of spirits, they do
_elicere voces inauditas_, compel strange speeches to be spoken: another
argument he hath from Plato's _reminiscentia_, which all out as likely as
that which [2715]Marsilius Ficinus speaks of his friend Pierleonus; by a
divine kind of infusion he understood the secrets of nature, and tenets of
Grecian and barbarian philosophers, before ever he heard of, saw, or read
their works: but in this I should rather hold with Avicenna and his
associates, that such symptoms proceed from evil spirits, which take all
opportunities of humours decayed, or otherwise to pervert the soul of man:
and besides, the humour itself is _balneum diaboli_, the devil's bath; and
as Agrippa proves, doth entice him to seize upon them.
SECT. IV. MEMB. I.
_Prognostics of Melancholy_.
Prognostics, or signs of things to come, are either good or bad. If this
malady be not hereditary, and taken at the beginning, there is good hope of
cure, _recens curationem non habet difficilem_, saith Avicenna, _l. 3, Fen.
1, Tract. 4, c. 18._ That which is with laughter, of all others is most
secure, gentle, and remiss, Hercules de Saxonia. [2716]"If that evacuation
of haemorrhoids, or _varices_, which they call the water between the skin,
shall happen to a melancholy man, his misery is ended," Hippocrates _Aphor.
6, 11._ Galen _l. 6, de morbis vulgar. com. 8_, confirms the same; and to
this aphorism of Hippocrates, all the Arabians, new and old Latins
subscribe; Montaltus _c. 25_, Hercules de Saxonia, Mercurialis, Vittorius
Faventinus, &c. Skenkius, _l. 1, observat. med. c. de Mania_, illustrates
this aphorism, with an example of one Daniel Federer a coppersmith that was
long melancholy, and in the end mad about the 27th year of his age, these
_varices_ or water began to arise in his thighs, and he was freed from his
madness. Marius the Roman was so cured, some, say, though with great pain.
Skenkius hath some other instances of women that have been helped by
flowing of their mouths, which before were stopped. That the opening of the
haemorrhoids will do as much for men, all physicians jointly signify, so
they be voluntary, some say, and not by compulsion. All melancholy are
better after a quartan; [2717]Jobertus saith, scarce any man hath that ague
twice; but whether it free him from this malady, 'tis a question; for many
physicians ascribe all long agues for especial causes, and a quartan ague
amongst the rest. [2718]Rhasis _cont. lib. 1, tract. 9._ "When melancholy
gets out at the superficies of the skin, or settles breaking out in scabs,
leprosy, morphew, or is purged by stools, or by the urine, or that the
spleen is enlarged, and those _varices_ appear, the disease is dissolved."
Guianerius, _cap. 5, tract. 15_, adds dropsy, jaundice, dysentery, leprosy,
as good signs, to these scabs, morphews, and breaking out, and proves it
out of the 6th of Hippocrates' Aphorisms.
Evil prognostics on the other part. _Inveterata melancholia incurabilis_,
if it be inveterate, it is [2719]incurable, a common axiom, _aut
difficulter curabilis_ as they say that make the best, hardly cured. This
Galen witnesseth, _l. 3, de loc. affect. cap. 6_, [2720]"be it in whom it
will, or from what cause soever, it is ever long, wayward, tedious, and
hard to be cured, if once it be habituated." As Lucian said of the gout,
she was [2721]"the queen of diseases, and inexorable," may we say of
melancholy. Yet Paracelsus will have all diseases whatsoever curable, and
laughs at them which think otherwise, as T. Erastus _par. 3_, objects to
him; although in another place, hereditary diseases he accounts incurable,
and by no art to be removed. [2722]Hildesheim _spicel. 2, de mel._ holds it
less dangerous if only [2723]"imagination be hurt, and not reason,"
[2724]"the gentlest is from blood. Worse from choler adust, but the worst
of all from melancholy putrefied." [2725]Bruel esteems hypochondriacal
least dangerous, and the other two species (opposite to Galen) hardest to
be cured. [2726]The cure is hard in man, but much more difficult in women.
And both men and women must take notice of that saying of Montanus _consil.
230, pro Abate Italo_, [2727]"This malady doth commonly accompany them to
their grave; physicians may ease, and it may lie hid for a time, but they
cannot quite cure it, but it will return again more violent and sharp than
at first, and that upon every small occasion or error:" as in Mercury's
weather-beaten statue, that was once all over gilt, the open parts were
clean, yet there was _in fimbriis aurum_, in the chinks a remnant of gold:
there will be some relics of melancholy left in the purest bodies (if once
tainted) not so easily to be rooted out. [2728] Oftentimes it degenerates
into epilepsy, apoplexy, convulsions, and blindness: by the authority of
Hippocrates and Galen, [2729]all aver, if once it possess the ventricles of
the brain, Frambesarius, and Salust. Salvianus adds, if it get into the
optic nerves, blindness. Mercurialis, _consil. 20_, had a woman to his
patient, that from melancholy became epileptic and blind. [2730]If it come
from a cold cause, or so continue cold, or increase, epilepsy; convulsions
follow, and blindness, or else in the end they are moped, sottish, and in
all their actions, speeches, and gestures, ridiculous. [2731]If it come
from a hot cause, they are more furious, and boisterous, and in conclusion
mad. _Calescentem melancholiam saepius sequitur mania_. [2732]If it heat
and increase, that is the common event, [2733]_per circuitus, aut semper
insanit_, he is mad by fits, or altogether. For as [2734]Sennertus contends
out of Crato, there is _seminarius ignis_ in this humour, the very seeds of
fire. If it come from melancholy natural adust, and in excess, they are
often demoniacal, Montanus.
[2735]Seldom this malady procures death, except (which is the greatest,
most grievous calamity, and the misery of all miseries,) they make away
themselves, which is a frequent thing, and familiar amongst them. 'Tis
[2736]Hippocrates' observation, Galen's sentence, _Etsi mortem timent,
tamen plerumque sibi ipsis mortem consciscunt_, _l. 3. de locis affec. cap.
7._ The doom of all physicians. 'Tis [2737]Rabbi Moses' Aphorism, the
prognosticon of Avicenna, Rhasis, Aetius, Gordonius, Valescus, Altomarus,
Salust. Salvianus, Capivaccius, Mercatus, Hercules de Saxonia, Piso, Bruel,
Fuchsius, all, &c.
[2738] "Et saepe usque adeo mortis formidine vitae
Percipit infelix odium lucisque videndae,
Ut sibi consciscat maerenti pectore lethum."
"And so far forth death's terror doth affright,
He makes away himself, and hates the light
To make an end of fear and grief of heart,
He voluntary dies to ease his smart."
In such sort doth the torture and extremity of his misery torment him, that
he can take no pleasure in his life, but is in a manner enforced to offer
violence unto himself, to be freed from his present insufferable pains. So
some (saith [2739]Fracastorius) "in fury, but most in despair, sorrow,
fear, and out of the anguish and vexation of their souls, offer violence to
themselves: for their life is unhappy and miserable. They can take no rest
in the night, nor sleep, or if they do slumber, fearful dreams astonish
them." In the daytime they are affrighted still by some terrible object,
and torn in pieces with suspicion, fear, sorrow, discontents, cares, shame,
anguish, &c. as so many wild horses, that they cannot be quiet an hour, a
minute of time, but even against their wills they are intent, and still
thinking of it, they cannot forget it, it grinds their souls day and night,
they are perpetually tormented, a burden to themselves, as Job was, they
can neither eat, drink or sleep. Psal. cvii. 18. "Their soul abhorreth all
meat, and they are brought to death's door, [2740]being bound in misery and
iron:" they [2741]curse their stars with Job, [2742]"and day of their
birth, and wish for death:" for as Pineda and most interpreters hold, Job
was even melancholy to despair, and almost [2743]madness itself; they
murmur many times against the world, friends, allies, all mankind, even
against God himself in the bitterness of their passion, [2744]_vivere
nolunt, mori nesciunt_, live they will not, die they cannot. And in the
midst of these squalid, ugly, and such irksome days, they seek at last,
finding no comfort, [2745]no remedy in this wretched life, to be eased of
all by death. _Omnia appetunt bonum_, all creatures seek the best, and for
their good as they hope, _sub specie_, in show at least, _vel quia mori
pulchrum putant_ (saith [2746]Hippocrates) _vel quia putant inde se
majoribus malis liberari_, to be freed as they wish. Though many times, as
Aesop's fishes, they leap from the frying-pan into the fire itself, yet
they hope to be eased by this means: and therefore (saith Felix
[2747]Platerus) "after many tedious days at last, either by drowning,
hanging, or some such fearful end," they precipitate or make away
themselves: "many lamentable examples are daily seen amongst us:" _alius
ante, fores se laqueo suspendit_ (as Seneca notes), _alius se praecipitavit
a tecto, ne dominum stomachantem audiret, alius ne reduceretur a fuga
ferrum redegit in viscera_, "one hangs himself before his own
door,--another throws himself from the house-top, to avoid his master's
anger,--a third, to escape expulsion, plunges a dagger into his heart,"--so
many causes there are--_His amor exitio est, furor his_--love, grief,
anger, madness, and shame, &c. 'Tis a common calamity, [2748]a fatal end to
this disease, they are condemned to a violent death, by a jury of
physicians, furiously disposed, carried headlong by their tyrannising
wills, enforced by miseries, and there remains no more to such persons, if
that heavenly Physician, by his assisting grace and mercy alone do not
prevent, (for no human persuasion or art can help) but to be their own
butchers, and execute themselves. Socrates his _cicuta_, Lucretia's dagger,
Timon's halter, are yet to be had; Cato's knife, and Nero's sword are left
behind them, as so many fatal engines, bequeathed to posterity, and will be
used to the world's end, by such distressed souls: so intolerable,
insufferable, grievous, and violent is their pain, [2749]so unspeakable and
continuate. One day of grief is an hundred years, as Cardan observes: 'Tis
_carnificina hominum, angor animi_, as well saith Areteus, a plague of the
soul, the cramp and convulsion of the soul, an epitome of hell; and if
there be a hell upon earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart.
"For that deep torture may be call'd an hell,
When more is felt, than one hath power to tell."
Yea, that which scoffing Lucian said of the gout in jest, I may truly
affirm of melancholy in earnest.
[2750] "O triste nomen! o diis odibile
Melancholia lacrymosa, Cocyti filia,
Tu Tartari specubus opacis edita
Erinnys, utero quam Megara suo tulit,
Et ab uberibus aluit, cuique parvidae
Amarulentum in os lac Alecto dedit,
Omnes abominabilem te daemones
Produxere in lucem, exitio mortalium. _Et paulo post_
Non Jupiter ferit tale telum fulminis,
Non ulla sic procella saevit aequoris,
Non impetuosi tanta vis est turbinis.
An asperos sustineo morsus Cerberi?
Num virus Echidnae membra mea depascitur?
Aut tunica sanie tincta Nessi sanguinis?
Illacrymabile et immedicabile malum hoc."
"O sad and odious name! a name so fell,
Is this of melancholy, brat of hell.
There born in hellish darkness doth it dwell,
The Furies brought it up, Megara's teat,
Alecto gave it bitter milk to eat.
And all conspir'd a bane to mortal men,
To bring this devil out of that black den.
Jupiter's thunderbolt, not storm at sea,
Nor whirlwind doth our hearts so much dismay.
What? am I bit by that fierce Cerberus?
Or stung by [2751]serpent so pestiferous?
Or put on shirt that's dipt in Nessus' blood?
My pain's past cure; physic can do no good."
No torture of body like unto it, _Siculi non invenere tyranni majus
tormentum_, no strappadoes, hot irons, Phalaris' bulls,
[2752] "Nec ira deum tantum, nec tela, nec hostis,
Quantum sola noces animis illapsa."
"Jove's wrath, nor devils can
Do so much harm to th' soul of man."
All fears, griefs, suspicions, discontents, imbonites, insuavities are
swallowed up, and drowned in this Euripus, this Irish sea, this ocean of
misery, as so many small brooks; 'tis _coagulum omnium aerumnarum_: which
[2753]Ammianus applied to his distressed Palladins. I say of our melancholy
man, he is the cream of human adversity, the [2754] quintessence, and
upshot; all other diseases whatsoever, are but flea-bitings to melancholy
in extent: 'Tis the pith of them all, [2755] _Hospitium est calamitatis;
quid verbis opus est_?
"Quamcunque malam rem quaeris, illic reperies:"
"What need more words? 'tis calamities inn,
Where seek for any mischief, 'tis within;"
and a melancholy man is that true Prometheus, which is bound to Caucasus;
the true Titius, whose bowels are still by a vulture devoured (as poets
feign) for so doth [2756]Lilius Geraldus interpret it, of anxieties, and
those griping cares, and so ought it to be understood. In all other
maladies, we seek for help, if a leg or an arm ache, through any
distemperature or wound, or that we have an ordinary disease, above all
things whatsoever, we desire help and health, a present recovery, if by any
means possible it may be procured; we will freely part with all our other
fortunes, substance, endure any misery, drink bitter potions, swallow those
distasteful pills, suffer our joints to be seared, to be cut off, anything
for future health: so sweet, so dear, so precious above all other things in
this world is life: 'tis that we chiefly desire, long life and happy days,
[2757]_multos da Jupiter annos_, increase of years all men wish; but to a
melancholy man, nothing so tedious, nothing so odious; that which they so
carefully seek to preserve [2758]he abhors, he alone; so intolerable are
his pains; some make a question, _graviores morbi corporis an animi_,
whether the diseases of the body or mind be more grievous, but there is no
comparison, no doubt to be made of it, _multo enim saevior longeque est
atrocior animi, quam corporis cruciatus_ (Lem. _l. 1. c. 12._) the diseases
of the mind are far more grievous.--_Totum hic pro vulnere corpus_, body
and soul is misaffected here, but the soul especially. So Cardan testifies
_de rerum var. lib. 8. 40._ [2759]Maximus Tyrius a Platonist, and Plutarch,
have made just volumes to prove it. [2760]_Dies adimit aegritudinem
hominibus_, in other diseases there is some hope likely, but these unhappy
men are born to misery, past all hope of recovery, incurably sick, the
longer they live the worse they are, and death alone must ease them.
Another doubt is made by some philosophers, whether it be lawful for a man
in such extremity of pain and grief, to make away himself: and how these
men that so do are to be censured. The Platonists approve of it, that it is
lawful in such cases, and upon a necessity; Plotinus _l. de beatitud. c.
7._ and Socrates himself defends it, in Plato's Phaedon, "if any man labour
of an incurable disease, he may despatch himself, if it be to his good."
Epicurus and his followers, the cynics and stoics in general affirm it,
Epictetus and [2761]Seneca amongst the rest, _quamcunque veram esse viam ad
libertatem_, any way is allowable that leads to liberty, [2762]"let us give
God thanks, that no man is compelled to live against his will;" [2763]
_quid ad hominem claustra, career, custodia? liberum ostium habet_, death
is always ready and at hand. _Vides illum praecipitem locum, illud flumen_,
dost thou see that steep place, that river, that pit, that tree, there's
liberty at hand, _effugia servitutis et doloris sunt_, as that Laconian lad
cast himself headlong (_non serviam aiebat puer_) to be freed of his
misery: every vein in thy body, if these be _nimis operosi exitus_, will
set thee free, _quid tua refert finem facias an accipias_? there's no
necessity for a man to live in misery. _Malum est necessitati vivere; sed
in necessitate vivere, necessitas nulla est. Ignavus qui sine causa
moritur, et stultus qui cum dolore vivit_. _Idem epi. 58._ Wherefore hath
our mother the earth brought out poisons, saith [2764]Pliny, in so great a
quantity, but that men in distress might make away themselves? which kings
of old had ever in a readiness, _ad incerta fortunae venenum sub custode
promptum_, Livy writes, and executioners always at hand. Speusippes being
sick was met by Diogenes, and carried on his slaves' shoulders, he made his
moan to the philosopher; but I pity thee not, quoth Diogenes, _qui cum
talis vivere sustines_, thou mayst be freed when thou wilt, meaning by
death. [2765]Seneca therefore commends Cato, Dido, and Lucretia, for their
generous courage in so doing, and others that voluntarily die, to avoid a
greater mischief, to free themselves from misery, to save their honour, or
vindicate their good name, as Cleopatra did, as Sophonisba, Syphax's wife
did, Hannibal did, as Junius Brutus, as Vibius Virus, and those Campanian
senators in Livy (_Dec. 3. lib. 6._) to escape the Roman tyranny, that
poisoned themselves. Themistocles drank bull's blood, rather than he would
fight against his country, and Demosthenes chose rather to drink poison,
Publius Crassi _filius_, Censorius and Plancus, those heroical Romans to
make away themselves, than to fall into their enemies' hands. How many
myriads besides in all ages might I remember, _qui sibi lethum Insontes
pepperere manu_, &c. [2766]Rhasis in the Maccabees is magnified for it,
Samson's death approved. So did Saul and Jonas sin, and many worthy men and
women, _quorum memoria celebratur in Ecclesia_, saith [2767]Leminchus, for
killing themselves to save their chastity and honour, when Rome was taken,
as Austin instances, _l. 1. de Civit. Dei, cap. 16._ Jerome vindicateth the
same in _Ionam_ and Ambrose, _l. 3. de virginitate_ commendeth Pelagia for
so doing. Eusebius, _lib. 8. cap. 15._ admires a Roman matron for the same
fact to save herself from the lust of Maxentius the Tyrant. Adelhelmus,
abbot of Malmesbury, calls them _Beatas virgines quae sic_, &c. Titus
Pomponius Atticus, that wise, discreet, renowned Roman senator, Tully's
dear friend, when he had been long sick, as he supposed, of an incurable
disease, _vitamque produceret ad augendos dolores, sine spe salutis_, was
resolved voluntarily by famine to despatch himself to be rid of his pain;
and when as Agrippa, and the rest of his weeping friends earnestly besought
him, _osculantes obsecrarent ne id quod natura cogeret, ipse acceleraret_,
not to offer violence to himself, "with a settled resolution he desired
again they would approve of his good intent, and not seek to dehort him
from it:" and so constantly died, _precesque eorum taciturna sua
obstinatione depressit_. Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave
senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, _epist. lib. 1. epist. 12._
famish himself to death; _pedibus correptus cum incredibiles cruciatus et
indignissima tormenta pateretur, a cibis omnino abstinuit_; [2768]neither
he nor Hispilla his wife could divert him, but _destinatus mori obstinate
magis_, &c. die he would, and die he did. So did Lycurgus, Aristotle, Zeno,
Chrysippus, Empedocles, with myriads, &c. In wars for a man to run rashly
upon imminent danger, and present death, is accounted valour and
magnanimity, [2769]to be the cause of his own, and many a thousand's ruin
besides, to commit wilful murder in a manner, of himself and others, is a
glorious thing, and he shall be crowned for it. The [2770] Massegatae in
former times, [2771]Barbiccians, and I know not what nations besides, did
stifle their old men, after seventy years, to free them from those
grievances incident to that age. So did the inhabitants of the island of
Choa, because their air was pure and good, and the people generally long
lived, _antevertebant fatum suum, priusquam manci forent, aut imbecillitas
accederet, papavere vel cicuta_, with poppy or hemlock they prevented
death. Sir Thomas More in his Utopia commends voluntary death, if he be
_sibi aut aliis molestus_, troublesome to himself or others, ([2772]
"especially if to live be a torment to him,) let him free himself with his
own hands from this tedious life, as from a prison, or suffer himself to be
freed by others." [2773]And 'tis the same tenet which Laertius relates of
Zeno, of old, _Juste sapiens sibi mortem consciscit, si in acerbis
doloribus versetur, membrorum mutilatione aut morbis aegre curandis_, and
which Plato _9. de legibus_ approves, if old age, poverty, ignominy, &c.
oppress, and which Fabius expresseth in effect. (_Praefat. 7. Institut_.)
_Nemo nisi sua culpa diu dolet_. It is an ordinary thing in China, (saith
Mat. Riccius the Jesuit,) [2774]"if they be in despair of better fortunes,
or tired and tortured with misery, to bereave themselves of life, and many
times, to spite their enemies the more, to hang at their door." Tacitus the
historian, Plutarch the philosopher, much approve a voluntary departure,
and Aust. _de civ. Dei, l. 1. c. 29._ defends a violent death, so that it
be undertaken in a good cause, _nemo sic mortuus, qui non fuerat_
_aliquando moriturus_; _quid autem interest, quo mortis genere vita ista
finiatur, quando ille cui finitur, iterum mori non cogitur_? &c. [2775]no
man so voluntarily dies, but _volens nolens_, he must die at last, and our
life is subject to innumerable casualties, who knows when they may happen,
_utrum satius est unam perpeti moriendo, an omnes timere vivendo_, [2776]
rather suffer one, than fear all. "Death is better than a bitter life,"
Eccl. xxx. 17. [2777]and a harder choice to live in fear, than by once
dying, to be freed from all. Theombrotus Ambraciotes persuaded I know not
how many hundreds of his auditors, by a luculent oration he made of the
miseries of this, and happiness of that other life, to precipitate
themselves. And having read Plato's divine tract _de anima_, for example's
sake led the way first. That neat epigram of Callimachus will tell you as
much,
[2778] "Jamque vale Soli cum diceret Ambrociotes,
In Stygios fertur desiluisse lacus,
Morte nihil dignum passus: sed forte Platonis
Divini eximum de nece legit opus."
[2779]Calenus and his Indians hated of old to die a natural death: the
Circumcellians and Donatists, loathing life, compelled others to make them
away, with many such: [2780]but these are false and pagan positions,
profane stoical paradoxes, wicked examples, it boots not what heathen
philosophers determine in this kind, they are impious, abominable, and upon
a wrong ground. "No evil is to be done that good may come of it;" _reclamat
Christus, reclamat Scriptura_, God, and all good men are [2781]against it:
He that stabs another, can kill his body; but he that stabs himself, kills
his own soul. [2782]_Male meretur, qui dat mendico, quod edat_; _nam et
illud quod dat, perit_; _et illi producit vitam ad miseriam_: he that gives
a beggar an alms (as that comical poet said) doth ill, because he doth but
prolong his miseries. But Lactantius _l. 6. c. 7. de vero cultu_, calls it
a detestable opinion, and fully confutes it, _lib. 3. de sap. cap. 18._ and
S. Austin, _epist. 52. ad Macedonium, cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum_: so
doth Hierom to Marcella of Blesilla's death, _Non recipio tales animas_,
&c., he calls such men _martyres stultae Philosophiae_: so doth Cyprian _de
duplici martyrio; Si qui sic moriantur, aut infirmitas, aut ambitio, aut
dementia cogit eos_; 'tis mere madness so to do, [2783]_furore est ne
moriare mori_. To this effect writes Arist. _3. Ethic._ Lipsius _Manuduc.
ad Stoicam Philosophiaem lib. 3. dissertat. 23._ but it needs no
confutation. This only let me add, that in some cases, those [2784]hard
censures of such as offer violence to their own persons, or in some
desperate fit to others, which sometimes they do, by stabbing, slashing,
&c. are to be mitigated, as in such as are mad, beside themselves for the
time, or found to have been long melancholy, and that in extremity, they
know not what they do, deprived of reason, judgment, all, [2785]as a ship
that is void of a pilot, must needs impinge upon the next rock or sands,
and suffer shipwreck. [2786]P. Forestus hath a story of two melancholy
brethren, that made away themselves, and for so foul a fact, were
accordingly censured to be infamously buried, as in such cases they use: to
terrify others, as it did the Milesian virgins of old; but upon farther
examination of their misery and madness, the censure was [2787]revoked, and
they were solemnly interred, as Saul was by David, 2 Sam. ii. 4. and Seneca
well adviseth, _Irascere interfectori, sed miserere interfecti_; be justly
offended with him as he was a murderer, but pity him now as a dead man.
Thus of their goods and bodies we can dispose; but what shall become of
their souls, God alone can tell; his mercy may come _inter pontem et
fontem, inter gladium et jugulum_, betwixt the bridge and the brook, the
knife and the throat. _Quod cuiquam contigit, quivis potest_: Who knows how
he may be tempted? It is his case, it may be thine: [2788]_Quae sua sors
hodie est, eras fore vestra potest._ We ought not to be so rash and
rigorous in our censures, as some are; charity will judge and hope the
best: God be merciful unto us all.
THE SYNOPSIS OF THE SECOND PARTITION.
Cure of melancholy is either
_Sect 1._ General to all, which contains
Unlawful means forbidden,
_Memb. 1._ From the devil, magicians, witches, &c., by charms,
spells, incantations, &c.
_Quest. 1._ Whether they can cure this, or other such like
diseases?
_Quest. 2._ Whether, if they can so cure, it be lawful to
seek to them for help?
or Lawful means, which are
_Memb. 2._ Immediately from God, _a Jove principium_ by prayer
&c.
_Memb. 3. Quest. 1._ Whether saints and their relics can help
this infirmity?
_Quest. 2._ Whether it be lawful to sue to them for aid.
or _Memb. 4._ Mediately by Nature which concerns and works by
_Subsect. 1._ Physician, in whom is required science,
confidence, honesty, &c.
_Subsect. 2._ Patient, in whom is required obedience,
constancy, willingness, patience, confidence, bounty, &c.,
not to practise on himself.
_Subsect. 3._ Physic, which consists of
Dietetical [Symbol: Aries]
Pharmaceutical [Symbol: Taurus]
Chirurgical [Symbol: Gemini]
or Particular to the three distinct species, [Symbol: Cancer] [Symbol:
Leo] [Symbol: Virgo]
[Symbol: Aries] _Sect. 2._ Dietetical, which consists in reforming those
six non-natural things, as in
Diet rectified _1. Memb._
Matter and quality _1 Subs._
Such meats as are easy of digestion, well-dressed, hot, sod, &c.,
young, moist, of good nourishment, &c.
Bread of pure wheat, well-baked.
Water clear from the fountain.
Wine and drink not too strong, &c.
Flesh
Mountain birds, partridge, pheasant, quails, &c. Hen, capon,
mutton, veal, kid, rabbit, &c.
Fish
That live in gravelly waters, as pike, perch, trout,
sea-fish, solid, white, &c.
Herbs
Borage, bugloss, balm, succory, endive, violets, in broth,
not raw, &c.
Fruits and roots.
Raisins of the sun, apples corrected for wind, oranges, &c.,
parsnips, potatoes, &c.
or _Subs. 2._ Quantity.
At seasonable and unusual times of repast, in good order, not
before the first be concocted, sparing, not overmuch of one
dish.
_Memb. 2._ Rectification of retention and evacuation, as costiveness,
venery, bleeding at nose, months stopped, baths, &c.
_Memb. 3._ Air rectified, with a digression of the air
Naturally in the choice and site of our country, dwelling-place, to
be hot and moist, light, wholesome, pleasant &c.
Artificially, by often change of air, avoiding winds, fogs, tempests,
opening windows, perfumes, &c.
_Memb. 4._ Exercise
Of body and mind, but moderate, as hawking, hunting, riding,
shooting, bowling, fishing, fowling, walking in fair fields,
galleries, tennis, bar.
Of mind, as chess, cards, tables &c., to see plays, masks, &c.,
serious studies, business, all honest recreations.
_Memb. 5._ Rectification of waking and terrible dreams, &c.
_Memb. 6._ Rectification of passions and perturbations of the mind.
[Symbol: Libra]
_Memb. 6._ Passions and perturbations of the mind rectified.
From himself
_Subsect. 1._ By using all good means of help, confessing to a
friend, &c.
Avoiding all occasions of his infirmity.
Not giving way to passions, but resisting to his utmost.
or from his friends.
_Subsect. 2._ By fair and foul means, counsel, comfort, good
persuasion, witty devices, fictions, and, if it be possible, to
satisfy his mind.
_Subsect. 3._ Music of all sorts aptly applied.
_Subsect. 4._ Mirth and merry company.
_Sect. 3._ A consolatory digression, containing remedies to all
discontents and passions of the mind.
_Memb. 1._ General discontents and grievances satisfied.
_Memb. 2._ Particular discontents, as deformity of body,
sickness, baseness of birth, &c.
_Memb. 3._ Poverty and want, such calamites and adversities.
_Memb. 4._ Against servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment,
banishment, &c.
_Memb. 5._ Against vain fears, sorrows for death of friends, or
otherwise.
_Memb. 6._ Against envy, livor, hatred, malice, emulation,
ambition, and self-love, &c.
_Memb. 7._ Against repulses, abuses, injuries, contempts,
disgraces, contumelies, slanders, and scoffs, &c.
_Memb. 8._ Against all other grievous and ordinary symptoms of
this disease of melancholy.
[Symbol: Taurus] _Sect. 4._ Pharmaceutics, or Physic which cureth with
medicines, with a digression of this kind of physic, is either _Memb. 1.
Subsect. 1._
General to all
Alterative
Simples altering melancholy, with a digression of exotic simples
_2. Subs._
Herbs. _3. Subs._
To the heart; borage, bugloss, scorzonera, &c.
To the head; balm, hops, nenuphar, &c.
Liver; eupatory, artemisia, &c.
Stomach; wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal.
Spleen; ceterache, ash, tamarisk.
To Purify the blood; endive, succory, &c.
Against wind; origan, fennel, aniseed, &c.
_4. Subs_ Precious stones; as smaragdes, chelidonies, &c.
Minerals;
or compounds altering melancholy, with a digression of compounds.
_5. Subs._
Inwardly taken
Liquid
fluid
Wines; as of hellebore, bugloss, tamarisk, &c.
Syrups of borage, bugloss, hops, epithyme,
endive, succory, &c.
or consisting.
Conserves of violets, maidenhair, borage,
bugloss, roses, &c.
Confections; treacle, mithridate, eclegms or
linctures.
or solid, as those aromatical confections.
hot
Diambra, dianthos.
Diamargaritum calidum.
Diamoscum dulce.
Electuarium de gemmis.
Laetificans Galeni et Rhasis.
or cold
Diamargaritum frigidum.
Diarrhodon abbatis.
Diacorolli, diacodium with their tables.
Condites of all sorts, &c.
or Outwardly used, as
Oils of camomile, violets, roses, &c.
Ointments, alablastritum, populeum, &c.
Liniments, plasters, cerotes, cataplasms, frontals,
fomentations, epithymes, sacks, bags, odoraments,
posies, &c.
or Purging [Symbol: Moon-3/4]
or Particular to three distinct species, [Symbol: Cancer] [Symbol: Leo]
[Symbol: Virgo].
Medicines purging melancholy are either _Memb. 2._
Simples purging melancholy
_1. Subs._ Upward, as vomits
Asrabecca, laurel, white hellebore, scilla, or sea-onion,
antimony, tobacco
or Downward. _2. Subs._
More gentle; as senna, epithyme, polypody, mirobalanes, fumitory,
&c.
Stronger; aloes, lapis Armenus, lapis lazuli, black hellebore.
or _3. Subs._ Compounds purging melancholy
Superior parts
Mouth
swallowed
Liquid, as potions, juleps, syrups, wine of hellebore,
bugloss, &c.
Solid, as lapis Armenus, and lazuli, pills of Indie,
pills of fumitory, &c.
Electuaries, diasena, confection of hamech,
hierologladium, &c.
or Not swallowed, as gargarisms, masticatories, &c.
or Nostrils, sneezing powders, odoraments, perfumes, &c.
or Inferior parts, as clysters strong and weak, and suppositories of
Castilian soap, honey boiled, &c.
[Symbol: Gemini] Chirurgical physic, which consists of _Memb. 3._
Phlebotomy, to all parts almost, and all the distinct species.
With knife, horseleeches.
Cupping-glasses.
Cauteries, and searing with hot irons, boring.
Dropax and sinapismus.
Issues to several parts, and upon several occasions.
[Symbol: Cancer] _Sect. 5._ Cure of head-melancholy. _Memb. 1._
_1. Subsect._ Moderate diet, meat of good juice, moistening, easy of
digestion.
Good air.
Sleep more than ordinary.
Excrements daily to be voided by art or nature.
Exercise of body and mind not too violent, or too remiss, passions of the
mind, and perturbations to be avoided.
_Subsect. 2._ Bloodletting, if there be need, or that the blood be
corrupt, in the arm, forehead, &c., or with cupping-glasses.
_Subsect. 3._ Preparatives and purgers.
Preparatives; as syrup of borage, bugloss, epithyme, hops, with their
distilled waters, &c.
Purgers; as Montanus, and Matthiolus _helleborismus, Quercetanus_,
syrup of hellebore, extract of hellebore, pulvis Hali, antimony
prepared, _Rulandi aqua mirabilis_; which are used, if gentler
medicines will not take place, with Arnoldus, _vinum buglossatum_,
senna, cassia, mirobalanes, _aurum potabile_, or before Hamech,
Pil. Indae, Hiera, Pil. de lap. Armeno, lazuli.
_Subsect. 4._ Averters.
Cardan's nettles, frictions, clysters, suppositories, sneezings,
masticatories, nasals, cupping-glasses.
To open the haemorrhoids with horseleeches, to apply horseleeches to
the forehead without scarification, to the shoulders, thighs.
Issues, boring, cauteries, hot irons in the suture of the crown.
_Subsect. 5._ Cordials, resolvers, hinderers.
A cup of wine or strong drink.
Bezars stone, amber, spice.
Conserves of borage, bugloss, roses, fumitory.
Confection of Alchermes.
_Electuarium laetificans Galeni et Rhasis_, &c.
_Diamargaritum frig. diaboraginatum_, &c.
_Subsect. 6._ Correctors of accidents, as,
Odoraments of roses, violets.
Irrigations of the head, with the decoctions of nymphea, lettuce,
mallows, &c.
Epithymes, ointments, bags to the heart.
Fomentations of oil for the belly.
Baths of sweet water, in which were sod mallows, violets, roses,
water-lilies, borage flowers, ramsheads, &c.
To procure sleep, and are
Inwardly taken,
Simples
Poppy, nymphea, lettuce, roses, purslane, henbane,
mandrake, nightshade, opium, &c.
or Compounds.
Liquid, as syrups of poppy, verbasco, violets, roses.
Solid, as _requies Nicholai, Philonium, Romanum, Laudanum
Paracelsi_.
or Outwardly used, as
Oil of nymphea, poppy, violets, roses, mandrake, nutmegs.
Odoraments of vinegar, rosewater, opium.
Frontals of rose-cake, rose-vinegar, nutmeg.
Ointments, alablastritum, unguentum populeum, simple or mixed
with opium.
Irrigations of the head, feet, sponges, music, murmur and
noise of waters.
Frictions of the head and outward parts, sacculi of henbane,
wormwood at his pillow, &c.
Against terrible dreams; not to sup late, or eat peas, cabbage,
venison, meats heavy of digestion, use balm, hart's-tongue, &c.
Against ruddiness and blushing, inward and outward remedies.
[Symbol: Leo] _2. Memb._ Cure of melancholy over the body.
Diet, preparatives, purges, averters, cordials, correctors, as before.
Phlebotomy in this kind more necessary, and more frequent.
To correct and cleanse the blood with fumitory, senna, succory,
dandelion, endive, &c.
[Symbol: Virgo] Cure of hypochondriacal or windy melancholy. _3. Memb._
_Subsect. 1_ Phlebotomy, if need require.
Diet, preparatives, averters, cordials, purgers, as before, saving that
they must not be so vehement.
Use of pennyroyal, wormwood, centaury sod, which alone hath cured many.
To provoke urine with aniseed, daucus, asarum, &c., and stools, if need
be, by clysters and suppositories.
To respect the spleen, stomach, liver, hypochondries.
To use treacle now and then in winter.
To vomit after meals sometimes, if it be inveterate.
_Subsect. 2._ To expel wind.
Inwardly Taken,
Simples,
Roots,
Galanga, gentian, enula, angelica, calamus aromaticus,
zedoary, china, condite ginger, &c.
Herbs,
Pennyroyal, rue, calamint, bay leaves, and berries,
scordium, bethany, lavender, camomile, centaury,
wormwood, cumin, broom, orange pills.
Spices,
Saffron, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, pepper, musk, zedoary
with wine, &c.
Seeds,
Aniseed, fennel-seed, ammi, cary, cumin, nettle, bays,
parsley, grana paradisi.
or Compounds, as
Dianisum, diagalanga, diaciminum, diacalaminthes, electuarium
de baccis lauri, benedicta laxativa, &c. pulvia
carminativus, and pulvis descrip. Antidotario Florentine,
aromaticum, rosatum, Mithridate.
or Outwardly used, as cupping-glasses to the hypochonries without
scarification, oil of camomile, rue, aniseed, their decoctions, &c.
THE SECOND PARTITION.
THE CURE OF MELANCHOLY.
THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.
_Unlawful Cures rejected_.
Inveterate Melancholy, howsoever it may seem to be a continuate, inexorable
disease, hard to be cured, accompanying them to their graves, most part, as
[2789]Montanus observes, yet many times it may be helped, even that which
is most violent, or at least, according to the same [2790]author, "it may
be mitigated and much eased." _Nil desperandum._ It may be hard to cure,
but not impossible for him that is most grievously affected, if he but
willing to be helped.
Upon this good hope I will proceed, using the same method in the cure,
which I have formerly used in the rehearsing of the causes; first general,
then particular; and those according to their several species. Of these
cures some be lawful, some again unlawful, which though frequent, familiar,
and often used, yet justly censured, and to be controverted. As first,
whether by these diabolical means, which are commonly practised by the
devil and his ministers, sorcerers, witches, magicians, &c., by spells,
cabilistical words, charms, characters, images, amulets, ligatures,
philters, incantations, &c., this disease and the like may be cured? and if
they may, whether it be lawful to make use of them, those magnetical cures,
or for our good to seek after such means in any case? The first, whether
they can do any such cures, is questioned amongst many writers, some
affirming, some denying. Valesius, _cont. med. lib. 5. cap. 6. Malleus
Maleficar_, Heurnius, _lib. 3. pract. med. cap. 28._ Caelius _lib. 16. c.
16._ Delrio _Tom. 3._ Wierus _lib. 2. de praestig. daem._ Libanius Lavater
_de spect. part. 2. cap. 7._ Holbrenner the Lutheran in Pistorium, Polydore
Virg. _l. 1. de prodig._ Tandlerus, Lemnius, (Hippocrates and Avicenna
amongst the rest) deny that spirits or devils have any power over us, and
refer all with Pomponatius of Padua to natural causes and humours. Of the
other opinion are Bodinus _Daemonamantiae, lib. 3, cap. 2._ Arnoldus,
Marcellus Empyricus, I. Pistorius, Paracelsus _Apodix. Magic._ Agrippa
_lib. 2. de occult. Philos. cap. 36. 69. 71. 72. et l. 3, c. 23, et 10._
Marcilius Ficinus _de vit. coelit. compar. cap. 13. 15. 18. 21. &c._
Galeottus _de promiscua doct. cap. 24._ Jovianus Pontanus _Tom. 2. Plin.
lib. 28, c. 2._ Strabo, _lib. 15._ Geog. Leo Suavius: Goclenius _de ung.
armar._ Oswoldus Crollius, Ernestus Burgravius, Dr. Flud, &c. Cardan _de
subt._ brings many proofs out of Ars Notoria, and Solomon's decayed works,
old Hermes, Artefius, Costaben Luca, Picatrix, &c. that such cures may be
done. They can make fire it shall not burn, fetch back thieves or stolen
goods, show their absent faces in a glass, make serpents lie still, stanch
blood, salve gouts, epilepsies, biting of mad dogs, toothache, melancholy,
_et omnia mundi mala_, make men immortal, young again as the [2791]Spanish
marquis is said to have done by one of his slaves, and some, which jugglers
in [2792]China maintain still (as Tragaltius writes) that they can do by
their extraordinary skill in physic, and some of our modern chemists by
their strange limbecks, by their spells, philosopher's stones and charms.
[2793]"Many doubt," saith Nicholas Taurellus, "whether the devil can cure
such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly deny it, howsoever common
experience confirms to our astonishment, that magicians can work such
feats, and that the devil without impediment can penetrate through all the
parts of our bodies, and cure such maladies by means to us unknown." Daneus
in his tract _de Sortiariis_ subscribes to this of Taurellus; Erastus _de
lamiis_, maintaineth as much, and so do most divines, out of their
excellent knowledge and long experience they can commit [2794]_agentes cum
patientibus, colligere semina rerum, eaque materiae applicare_, as Austin
infers _de Civ. Dei et de Trinit. lib. 3. cap. 7. et 8._ they can work
stupendous and admirable conclusions; we see the effects only, but not the
causes of them. Nothing so familiar as to hear of such cures. Sorcerers are
too common; cunning men, wizards, and white-witches, as they call them, in
every village, which if they be sought unto, will help almost all
infirmities of body and mind, _Servatores_ in Latin, and they have commonly
St. Catherine's wheel printed in the roof of their mouth, or in some other
part about them, _resistunt incantatorum praestigiis_ ([2795]Boissardus
writes) _morbos a sagis motos propulsant_ &c., that to doubt of it any
longer, [2796]"or not to believe, were to run into that other sceptical
extreme of incredulity," saith Taurellus. Leo Suavius in his comment upon
Paracelsus seems to make it an art, which ought to be approved; Pistorius
and others stiffly maintain the use of charms, words, characters, &c. _Ars
vera est, sed pauci artifices reperiuntur_; the art is true, but there be
but a few that have skill in it. Marcellius Donatus _lib. 2. de hist, mir.
cap. 1._ proves out of Josephus' eight books of antiquities, that
[2797]"Solomon so cured all the diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and
drove away devils, and that Eleazer did as much before Vespasian." Langius
in his _med. epist._ holds Jupiter Menecrates, that did so many stupendous
cures in his time, to have used this art, and that he was no other than a
magician. Many famous cures are daily done in this kind, the devil is an
expert physician, as Godelman calls him, _lib. 1. cap. 18._ and God permits
oftentimes these witches and magicians to produce such effects, as Lavater
_cap. 3. lib. 8. part. 3. cap. 1._ Polid. Virg. _lib. 1. de prodigiis_,
Delrio and others admit. Such cures may be done, and as Paracels. _Tom. 4.
de morb. ament._ stiffly maintains, [2798]"they cannot otherwise be cured
but by spells, seals, and spiritual physic." [2799]Arnoldus, _lib. de
sigillis_, sets down the making of them, so doth Rulandus and many others.
_Hoc posito_, they can effect such cures, the main question is, whether it
be lawful in a desperate case to crave their help, or ask a wizard's
advice. 'Tis a common practice of some men to go first to a witch, and then
to a physician, if one cannot the other shall, _Flectere si nequeant
superos Acheronta movebunt_. [2800]"It matters not," saith Paracelsus,
"whether it be God or the devil, angels, or unclean spirits cure him, so
that he be eased." If a man fall into a ditch, as he prosecutes it, what
matter is it whether a friend or an enemy help him out? and if I be
troubled with such a malady, what care I whether the devil himself, or any
of his ministers by God's permission, redeem me? He calls a [2801]
magician, God's minister and his vicar, applying that of _vos estis dii_
profanely to them, for which he is lashed by T. Erastus _part. 1. fol. 45._
And elsewhere he encourageth his patients to have a good faith, [2802] "a
strong imagination, and they shall find the effects: let divines say to the
contrary what they will." He proves and contends that many diseases cannot
otherwise be cured. _Incantatione orti incantatione curari debent_; if they
be caused by incantation, [2803]they must be cured by incantation.
Constantinus _lib. 4._ approves of such remedies: Bartolus the lawyer,
Peter Aerodius _rerum Judic. lib. 3. tit. 7._ Salicetus Godefridus, with
others of that sect, allow of them; _modo sint ad sanitatem quae a magis
fiunt, secus non_, so they be for the parties good, or not at all. But
these men are confuted by Remigius, Bodinus, _daem. lib. 3. cap 2._
Godelmanus _lib. 1. cap. 8_, Wierus, Delrio _lib. 6. quaest. 2. tom. 3.
mag. inquis._ Erastus _de Lamiis_; all our [2804]divines, schoolmen, and
such as write cases of conscience are against it, the scripture itself
absolutely forbids it as a mortal sin, Levit. cap. xviii. xix. xx. Deut.
xviii. &c. Rom. viii. 19. "Evil is not to be done, that good may come of
it." Much better it were for such patients that are so troubled, to endure
a little misery in this life, than to hazard their souls' health for ever,
and as Delrio counselleth, [2805]"much better die, than be so cured." Some
take upon them to expel devils by natural remedies, and magical exorcisms,
which they seem to approve out of the practice of the primitive church, as
that above cited of Josephus, Eleazer, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Austin.
Eusebius makes mention of such, and magic itself hath been publicly
professed in some universities, as of old in Salamanca in Spain, and Krakow
in Poland: but condemned anno 1318, by the chancellor and university of
[2806]Paris. Our pontifical writers retain many of these adjurations and
forms of exorcisms still in the church; besides those in baptism used, they
exorcise meats, and such as are possessed, as they hold, in Christ's name.
Read Hieron. Mengus _cap. 3._ Pet. Tyreus, _part. 3. cap. 8._ What
exorcisms they prescribe, besides those ordinary means of [2807]"fire
suffumigations, lights, cutting the air with swords," _cap. 57._ herbs,
odours: of which Tostatus treats, _2. Reg. cap. 16. quaest. 43_, you shall
find many vain and frivolous superstitious forms of exorcisms among them,
not to be tolerated, or endured.
MEMB. II.
_Lawful Cures, first from God_.
Being so clearly evinced, as it is, all unlawful cures are to be refused,
it remains to treat of such as are to be admitted, and those are commonly
such which God hath appointed, [2808]by virtue of stones, herbs, plants,
meats, and the like, which are prepared and applied to our use, by art and
industry of physicians, who are the dispensers of such treasures for our
good, and to be [2809]"honoured for necessities' sake," God's intermediate
ministers, to whom in our infirmities we are to seek for help. Yet not so
that we rely too much, or wholly upon them: _a Jove principium_, we must
first begin with [2810]prayer, and then use physic; not one without the
other, but both together. To pray alone, and reject ordinary means, is to
do like him in Aesop, that when his cart was stalled, lay flat on his back,
and cried aloud help Hercules, but that was to little purpose, except as
his friend advised him, _rotis tute ipse annitaris_, he whipped his horses
withal, and put his shoulder to the wheel. God works by means, as Christ
cured the blind man with clay and spittle: _Orandum est ut sit mens sana in
corpore sano_. As we must pray for health of body and mind, so we must use
our utmost endeavours to preserve and continue it. Some kind of devils are
not cast out but by fasting and prayer, and both necessarily required, not
one without the other. For all the physic we can use, art, excellent
industry, is to no purpose without calling upon God, _nil juvat immensos
Cratero promittere montes_: it is in vain to seek for help, run, ride,
except God bless us.
[2811] ------"non Siculi dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem.
Non animum cytheraeve cantus."
[2812] "Non domus et fundus, non aeris acervus et auri
Aegroto possunt domino deducere febres."
[2813] "With house, with land, with money, and with gold,
The master's fever will not be controll'd."
We must use our prayer and physic both together: and so no doubt but our
prayers will be available, and our physic take effect. 'Tis that Hezekiah
practised, 2 King. xx. Luke the Evangelist: and which we are enjoined,
Coloss. iv. not the patient only, but the physician himself. Hippocrates, a
heathen, required this in a good practitioner, and so did Galen, _lib. de
Plat. et Hipp. dog. lib. 9. cap. 15._ and in that tract of his, _an mores
sequantur temp. cor. ca. 11._. 'tis a rule which he doth inculcate, [2814]
and many others. Hyperius in his first book _de sacr. script. lect._
speaking of that happiness and good success which all physicians desire and
hope for in their cures, [2815]"tells them that it is not to be expected,
except with a true faith they call upon God, and teach their patients to do
the like." The council of Lateran, _Canon 22._ decreed they should do so:
the fathers of the church have still advised as much: whatsoever thou
takest in hand (saith [2816]Gregory) "let God be of thy counsel, consult
with him; that healeth those that are broken in heart, (Psal. cxlvii. 3.)
and bindeth up their sores." Otherwise as the prophet Jeremiah, cap. xlvi.
11. denounced to Egypt, In vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou
shalt have no health. It is the same counsel which [2817]Comineus that
politic historiographer gives to all Christian princes, upon occasion of
that unhappy overthrow of Charles Duke of Burgundy, by means of which he
was extremely melancholy, and sick to death: insomuch that neither physic
nor persuasion could do him any good, perceiving his preposterous error
belike, adviseth all great men in such cases, [2818]"to pray first to God
with all submission and penitency, to confess their sins, and then to use
physic." The very same fault it was, which the prophet reprehends in Asa
king of Judah, that he relied more on physic than on God, and by all means
would have him to amend it. And 'tis a fit caution to be observed of all
other sorts of men. The prophet David was so observant of this precept,
that in his greatest misery and vexation of mind, he put this rule first in
practice. Psal. lxxvii. 3. "When I am in heaviness, I will think on God."
Psal. lxxxvi. 4. "Comfort the soul of thy servant, for unto thee I lift up
my soul:" and verse 7. "In the day of trouble will I call upon thee, for
thou hearest me." Psal. liv. 1. "Save me, O God, by thy name," &c. Psal.
lxxxii. Psal. xx. And 'tis the common practice of all good men, Psal. cvii.
13. "when their heart was humbled with heaviness, they cried to the Lord in
their troubles, and he delivered them from their distress." And they have
found good success in so doing, as David confesseth, Psal. xxx. 12. "Thou
hast turned my mourning into joy, thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded
me with gladness." Therefore he adviseth all others to do the like, Psal.
xxxi. 24. "All ye that trust in the Lord, be strong, and he shall establish
your heart." It is reported by [2819]Suidas, speaking of Hezekiah, that
there was a great book of old, of King Solomon's writing, which contained
medicines for all manner of diseases, and lay open still as they came into
the temple: but Hezekiah king of Jerusalem, caused it to be taken away,
because it made the people secure, to neglect their duty in calling and
relying upon God, out of a confidence on those remedies. [2820]Minutius
that worthy consul of Rome in an oration he made to his soldiers, was much
offended with them, and taxed their ignorance, that in their misery called
more on him than upon God. A general fault it is all over the world, and
Minutius's speech concerns us all, we rely more on physic, and seek oftener
to physicians, than to God himself. As much faulty are they that prescribe,
as they that ask, respecting wholly their gain, and trusting more to their
ordinary receipts and medicines many times, than to him that made them. I
would wish all patients in this behalf, in the midst of their melancholy,
to remember that of Siracides, Ecc. i. 11. and 12. "The fear of the Lord is
glory and gladness, and rejoicing. The fear of the Lord maketh a merry
heart, and giveth gladness, and joy, and long life:" and all such as
prescribe physic, to begin _in nomine Dei_, as [2821]Mesue did, to imitate
Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus, that in all his consultations, still concludes
with a prayer for the good success of his business; and to remember that of
Creto one of their predecessors, _fuge avaritiam, et sine oratione et
invocations Dei nihil facias_ avoid covetousness, and do nothing without
invocation upon God.
MEMB. III.
_Whether it be lawful to seek to Saints for Aid in this Disease_.
That we must pray to God, no man doubts; but whether we should pray to
saints in such cases, or whether they can do us any good, it may be
lawfully controverted. Whether their images, shrines, relics, consecrated
things, holy water, medals, benedictions, those divine amulets, holy
exorcisms, and the sign of the cross, be available in this disease? The
papists on the one side stiffly maintain how many melancholy, mad,
demoniacal persons are daily cured at St. Anthony's Church in Padua, at St.
Vitus' in Germany, by our Lady of Loretto in Italy, our Lady of Sichem in
the Low Countries: [2822]_Quae et caecis lumen, aegris salutem, mortuis
vitam, claudis gressum reddit, omnes morbos corporis, animi, curat, et in
ipsos daemones imperium exercet_; she cures halt, lame, blind, all diseases
of body and mind, and commands the devil himself, saith Lipsius.
"twenty-five thousand in a day come thither," [2823]_quis nisi numen in
illum locum sic induxit_; who brought them? _in auribus, in oculis omnium
gesta, novae novitia_; new news lately done, our eyes and ears are full of
her cures, and who can relate them all? They have a proper saint almost for
every peculiar infirmity: for poison, gouts, agues, Petronella: St. Romanus
for such as are possessed; Valentine for the falling sickness; St. Vitus
for madmen, &c. and as of old [2824]Pliny reckons up Gods for all diseases,
(_Febri fanum dicalum est_) Lilius Giraldus repeats many of her ceremonies:
all affections of the mind were heretofore accounted gods, [2825]love, and
sorrow, virtue, honour, liberty, contumely, impudency, had their temples,
tempests, seasons, _Crepitus Ventris, dea Vacuna, dea Cloacina_, there was
a goddess of idleness, a goddess of the draught, or jakes, Prema, Premunda,
Priapus, bawdy gods, and gods for all [2826] offices. Varro reckons up
30,000 gods: Lucian makes Podagra the gout a goddess, and assigns her
priests and ministers: and melancholy comes not behind; for as Austin
mentioneth, _lib. 4. de Civit. Dei, cap. 9._ there was of old _Angerona
dea_, and she had her chapel and feasts, to whom (saith [2827]Macrobius)
they did offer sacrifice yearly, that she might be pacified as well as the
rest. 'Tis no new thing, you see this of papists; and in my judgment, that
old doting Lipsius might have fitter dedicated his [2828]pen after all his
labours, to this our goddess of melancholy, than to his _Virgo Halensis_,
and been her chaplain, it would have become him better: but he, poor man,
thought no harm in that which he did, and will not be persuaded but that he
doth well, he hath so many patrons, and honourable precedents in the like
kind, that justify as much, as eagerly, and more than he there saith of his
lady and mistress: read but superstitious Coster and Gretser's Tract _de
Cruce_, Laur. Arcturus _Fanteus de Invoc. Sanct._ Bellarmine, Delrio _dis.
mag. tom. 3. l. 6. quaest. 2. sect. 3._ Greg. Tolosanus _tom. 2. lib. 8.
cap. 24._ Syntax. Strozius Cicogna _lib. 4. cap. 9._ Tyreus, Hieronymus
Mengus, and you shall find infinite examples of cures done in this kind, by
holy waters, relics, crosses, exorcisms, amulets, images, consecrated
beads, &c. Barradius the Jesuit boldly gives it out, that Christ's
countenance, and the Virgin Mary's, would cure melancholy, if one had
looked steadfastly on them. P. Morales the Spaniard in his book _de pulch.
Jes. et Mar._ confirms the same out of Carthusianus, and I know not whom,
that it was a common proverb in those days, for such as were troubled in
mind to say, _eamus ad videndum filium Mariae_, let us see the son of Mary,
as they now do post to St. Anthony's in Padua, or to St. Hilary's at
Poitiers in France. [2829] In a closet of that church, there is at this day
St. Hilary's bed to be seen, "to which they bring all the madmen in the
country, and after some prayers and other ceremonies, they lay them down
there to sleep, and so they recover." It is an ordinary thing in those
parts, to send all their madmen to St. Hilary's cradle. They say the like
of St. Tubery in [2830] another place. Giraldus Cambrensis _Itin. Camb. c.
1._ tells strange stories of St. Ciricius' staff, that would cure this and
all other diseases. Others say as much (as [2831]Hospinian observes) of the
three kings of Cologne; their names written in parchment, and hung about a
patient's neck, with the sign of the cross, will produce like effects. Read
Lippomanus, or that golden legend of Jacobus de Voragine, you shall have
infinite stories, or those new relations of our [2832]Jesuits in Japan and
China, of Mat. Riccius, Acosta, Loyola, Xaverius's life, &c. Jasper Belga,
a Jesuit, cured a mad woman by hanging St. John's gospel about her neck,
and many such. Holy water did as much in Japan, &c. Nothing so familiar in
their works, as such examples.
But we on the other side seek to God alone. We say with David, Psal. xlvi.
1. "God is our hope and strength, and help in trouble, ready to be found."
For their catalogue of examples, we make no other answer, but that they are
false fictions, or diabolical illusions, counterfeit miracles. We cannot
deny but that it is an ordinary thing on St. Anthony's day in Padua, to
bring diverse madmen and demoniacal persons to be cured: yet we make a
doubt whether such parties be so affected indeed, but prepared by their
priests, by certain ointments and drams, to cozen the commonalty, as [2833]
Hildesheim well saith; the like is commonly practised in Bohemia as
Mathiolus gives us to understand in his preface to his comment upon
Dioscorides. But we need not run so far for examples in this kind, we have
a just volume published at home to this purpose. [2834]"A declaration of
egregious popish impostures, to withdraw the hearts of religious men under
the pretence of casting out of devils, practised by Father Edmunds, alias
Weston, a Jesuit, and divers Romish priests, his wicked associates," with
the several parties' names, confessions, examinations, &c. which were
pretended to be possessed. But these are ordinary tricks only to get
opinion and money, mere impostures. Aesculapius of old, that counterfeit
God, did as many famous cures; his temple (as [2835]Strabo relates) was
daily full of patients, and as many several tables, inscriptions, pendants,
donories, &c. to be seen in his church, as at this day our Lady of
Loretto's in Italy. It was a custom long since,
------"suspendisse potenti
Vestimenta maris deo."[2836] _Hor. Od. 1. lib. 5. Od._
To do the like, in former times they were seduced and deluded as they are
now. 'Tis the same devil still, called heretofore Apollo, Mars, Neptune,
Venus, Aesculapius, &c. as [2837]Lactantius _lib. 2. de orig. erroris, c.
17._ observes. The same Jupiter and those bad angels are now worshipped and
adored by the name of St. Sebastian, Barbara, &c. Christopher and George
are come in their places. Our lady succeeds Venus (as they use her in many
offices), the rest are otherwise supplied, as [2838]Lavater writes, and so
they are deluded. [2839]"And God often winks at these impostures, because
they forsake his word, and betake themselves to the devil, as they do that
seek after holy water, crosses," &c. Wierus, _lib. 4. cap. 3._ What can
these men plead for themselves more than those heathen gods, the same cures
done by both, the same spirit that seduceth; but read more of the Pagan
god's effects in Austin _de Civitate Dei, l. 10. cap. 6._ and of
Aesculapius especially in Cicogna _l. 3. cap. 8._ or put case they could
help, why should we rather seek to them, than to Christ himself, since that
he so kindly invites us unto him, "Come unto me all ye that are heavy
laden, and I will ease you," Mat. xi. and we know that there is one God,
"one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ," (1 Tim. ii. 5) "who gave
himself a ransom for all men." We know that "we have an [2840] advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ" (1 Joh. ii. 1.) that there is no "other name
under heaven, by which we can be saved, but by his," who is always ready to
hear us, and sits at the right hand of God, and from [2841] whom we can
have no repulse, _solus vult, solus potest, curat universos tanquam
singulos, et [2842]unumquemque nostrum et solum_, we are all as one to him,
he cares for us all as one, and why should we then seek to any other but to
him.
MEMB. IV.
SUBSECT. I.--_Physician, Patient, Physic_.
Of those diverse gifts which our apostle Paul saith God hath bestowed on
man, this of physic is not the least, but most necessary, and especially
conducing to the good of mankind. Next therefore to God in all our
extremities ("for of the most high cometh healing," Ecclus. xxxviii. 2.) we
must seek to, and rely upon the Physician, [2843]who is _Manus Dei_, saith
Hierophilus, and to whom he hath given knowledge, that he might be
glorified in his wondrous works. "With such doth he heal men, and take away
their pains," Ecclus. xxxviii. 6. 7. "when thou hast need of him, let him
not go from thee. The hour may come that their enterprises may have good
success," ver. 13. It is not therefore to be doubted, that if we seek a
physician as we ought, we may be eased of our infirmities, such a one I
mean as is sufficient, and worthily so called; for there be many
mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, in every street almost, and in every
village, that take upon them this name, make this noble and profitable art
to be evil spoken of and contemned, by reason of these base and illiterate
artificers: but such a physician I speak of, as is approved, learned,
skilful, honest, &c., of whose duty Wecker, _Antid. cap. 2._ and _Syntax.
med._ Crato, Julius Alexandrinus _medic._ Heurnius _prax. med. lib. 3. cap.
1._ &c. treat at large. For this particular disease, him that shall take
upon him to cure it, [2844]Paracelsus will have to be a magician, a
chemist, a philosopher, an astrologer; Thurnesserus, Severinus the Dane,
and some other of his followers, require as much: "many of them cannot be
cured but by magic." [2845]Paracelsus is so stiff for those chemical
medicines, that in his cures he will admit almost of no other physic,
deriding in the mean time Hippocrates, Galen, and all their followers: but
magic, and all such remedies I have already censured, and shall speak of
chemistry [2846]elsewhere. Astrology is required by many famous physicians,
by Ficinus, Crato, Fernelius; [2847]doubted of, and exploded by others: I
will not take upon me to decide the controversy myself, Johannes Hossurtus,
Thomas Boderius, and Maginus in the preface to his mathematical physic,
shall determine for me. Many physicians explode astrology in physic (saith
he), there is no use of it, _unam artem ac quasi temerarium insectantur, ac
gloriam sibi ab ejus imperitia, aucupari_: but I will reprove physicians by
physicians, that defend and profess it, Hippocrates, Galen, Avicen. &c.,
that count them butchers without it, _homicidas medicos Astrologiae
ignaros_, &c. Paracelsus goes farther, and will have his physician
[2848]predestinated to this man's cure, this malady; and time of cure, the
scheme of each geniture inspected, gathering of herbs, of administering
astrologically observed; in which Thurnesserus and some iatromathematical
professors, are too superstitious in my judgment. [2849]"Hellebore will
help, but not alway, not given by every physician," &c. but these men are
too peremptory and self-conceited as I think. But what do I do, interposing
in that which is beyond my reach? A blind man cannot judge of colours, nor
I peradventure of these things. Only thus much I would require, honesty in
every physician, that he be not over-careless or covetous, harpy-like to
make a prey of his patient; _Carnificis namque est_ (as [2850]Wecker notes)
_inter ipsos cruciatus ingens precium exposcere_, as a hungry chirurgeon
often produces and wire-draws his cure, so long as there is any hope of
pay, _Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris hirudo._ [2851]Many of them, to
get a fee, will give physic to every one that comes, when there is no
cause, and they do so _irritare silentem morbum_, as [2852]Heurnius
complains, stir up a silent disease, as it often falleth out, which by good
counsel, good advice alone, might have been happily composed, or by
rectification of those six non-natural things otherwise cured. This is
_Naturae bellum inferre_, to oppugn nature, and to make a strong body weak.
Arnoldus in his 8 and 11 Aphorisms gives cautions against, and expressly
forbiddeth it. [2853]"A wise physician will not give physic, but upon
necessity, and first try medicinal diet, before he proceed to medicinal
cure." [2854]In another place he laughs those men to scorn, that think
_longis syrupis expugnare daemones et animi phantasmata_, they can purge
fantastical imaginations and the devil by physic. Another caution is, that
they proceed upon good grounds, if so be there be need of physic, and not
mistake the disease; they are often deceived by the [2855]similitude of
symptoms, saith Heurnius, and I could give instance in many consultations,
wherein they have prescribed opposite physic. Sometimes they go too
perfunctorily to work, in not prescribing a just [2856]course of physic: To
stir up the humour, and not to purge it, doth often more harm than good.
Montanus _consil. 30._ inveighs against such perturbations, "that purge to
the halves, tire nature, and molest the body to no purpose." 'Tis a crabbed
humour to purge, and as Laurentius calls this disease, the reproach of
physicians: _Bessardus, flagellum medicorum_, their lash; and for that
cause, more carefully to be respected. Though the patient be averse, saith
Laurentius, desire help, and refuse it again, though he neglect his own
health, it behoves a good physician not to leave him helpless. But most
part they offend in that other extreme, they prescribe too much physic, and
tire out their bodies with continual potions, to no purpose. Aetius
_tetrabib. 2. 2. ser. cap. 90._ will have them by all means therefore
[2857]"to give some respite to nature," to leave off now and then; and
Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus in his consultations, found it (as he there
witnesseth) often verified by experience, [2858]"that after a deal of
physic to no purpose, left to themselves, they have recovered." 'Tis that
which Nic. Piso, Donatus Altomarus, still inculcate, _dare requiem
naturae_, to give nature rest.
SUBSECT. II.--_Concerning the Patient_.
When these precedent cautions are accurately kept, and that we have now got
a skilful, an honest physician to our mind, if his patient will not be
conformable, and content to be ruled by him, all his endeavours will come
to no good end. Many things are necessarily to be observed and continued on
the patient's behalf: First that he be not too niggardly miserable of his
purse, or think it too much he bestows upon himself, and to save charges
endanger his health. The Abderites, when they sent for [2859]Hippocrates,
promised him what reward he would, [2860]"all the gold they had, if all the
city were gold he should have it." Naaman the Syrian, when he went into
Israel to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy, took with him ten talents of
silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, (2 Kings
v. 5.) Another thing is, that out of bashfulness he do not conceal his
grief; if aught trouble his mind, let him freely disclose it, _Stultorum
incurata pudor malus ulcera celat_: by that means he procures to himself
much mischief, and runs into a greater inconvenience: he must be willing to
be cured, and earnestly desire it. _Pars sanitatis velle sanare fuit_,
(Seneca). 'Tis a part of his cure to wish his own health, and not to defer
it too long.
[2861] "Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum,
Soro recusat ferre quod subiit jugum."
"He that by cherishing a mischief doth provoke,
Too late at last refuseth to cast off his yoke,"
[2862] "Helleborum frustra cum jam cutis aegra tumebit,
Poscentes videas; venienti occurrite morbo."
"When the skin swells, to seek it to appease
With hellebore, is vain; meet your disease."
By this means many times, or through their ignorance in not taking notice
of their grievance and danger of it, contempt, supine negligence,
extenuation, wretchedness and peevishness; they undo themselves. The
citizens, I know not of what city now, when rumour was brought their
enemies were coming, could not abide to hear it; and when the plague begins
in many places and they certainly know it, they command silence and hush it
up; but after they see their foes now marching to their gates, and ready to
surprise them, they begin to fortify and resist when 'tis too late; when,
the sickness breaks out and can be no longer concealed, then they lament
their supine negligence: 'tis no otherwise with these men. And often out of
prejudice, a loathing, and distaste of physic, they had rather die, or do
worse, than take any of it. "Barbarous immanity" ([2863]Melancthon terms
it) "and folly to be deplored, so to contemn the precepts of health, good
remedies, and voluntarily to pull death, and many maladies upon their own
heads." Though many again are in that other extreme too profuse,
suspicious, and jealous of their health, too apt to take physic on every
small occasion, to aggravate every slender passion, imperfection,
impediment: if their finger do but ache, run, ride, send for a physician,
as many gentlewomen do, that are sick, without a cause, even when they will
themselves, upon every toy or small discontent, and when he comes, they
make it worse than it is, by amplifying that which is not. [2864]Hier.
Capivaccius sets it down as a common fault of all "melancholy persons to
say their symptoms are greater than they are, to help themselves." And
which [2865]Mercurialis notes, _consil. 53._ "to be more troublesome to
their physicians, than other ordinary patients, that they may have change
of physic."
A third thing to be required in a patient, is confidence, to be of good
cheer, and have sure hope that his physician can help him. [2866]Damascen
the Arabian requires likewise in the physician himself, that he be
confident he can cure him, otherwise his physic will not be effectual, and
promise withal that he will certainly help him, make him believe so at
least. [2867]Galeottus gives this reason, because the form of health is
contained in the physician's mind, and as Galen, holds [2868]"confidence
and hope to be more good than physic," he cures most in whom most are
confident. Axiocus sick almost to death, at the very sight of Socrates
recovered his former health. Paracelsus assigns it for an only cause, why
Hippocrates was so fortunate in his cures, not for any extraordinary skill
he had; [2869]but "because the common people had a most strong conceit of
his worth." To this of confidence we may add perseverance, obedience, and
constancy, not to change his physician, or dislike him upon every toy; for
he that so doth (saith [2870]Janus Damascen) "or consults with many, falls
into many errors; or that useth many medicines." It was a chief caveat of
[2871]Seneca to his friend Lucilius, that he should not alter his
physician, or prescribed physic: "Nothing hinders health more; a wound can
never be cured, that hath several plasters." Crato _consil. 186._ taxeth
all melancholy persons of this fault: [2872]"'Tis proper to them, if things
fall not out to their mind, and that they have not present ease, to seek
another and another;" (as they do commonly that have sore eyes) "twenty one
after another, and they still promise all to cure them, try a thousand
remedies; and by this means they increase their malady, make it most
dangerous and difficult to be cured." "They try many" (saith [2873]
Montanus) "and profit by none:" and for this cause, _consil. 24._ he
enjoins his patient before he take him in hand, [2874]"perseverance and
sufferance, for in such a small time no great matter can be effected, and
upon that condition he will administer physic, otherwise all his endeavour
and counsel would be to small purpose." And in his _31. counsel_ for a
notable matron, he tells her, [2875]"if she will be cured, she must be of a
most abiding patience, faithful obedience, and singular perseverance; if
she remit, or despair, she can expect or hope for no good success."
_Consil. 230._ for an Italian Abbot, he makes it one of the greatest
reasons why this disease is so incurable, [2876]"because the parties are so
restless, and impatient, and will therefore have him that intends to be
eased," [2877]"to take physic, not for a month, a year, but to apply
himself to their prescriptions all the days of his life." Last of all, it
is required that the patient be not too bold to practise upon himself,
without an approved physician's consent, or to try conclusions, if he read
a receipt in a book; for so, many grossly mistake, and do themselves more
harm than good. That which is conducing to one man, in one case, the same
time is opposite to another. [2878]An ass and a mule went laden over a
brook, the one with salt, the other with wool: the mule's pack was wet by
chance, the salt melted, his burden the lighter, and he thereby much eased:
he told the ass, who, thinking to speed as well, wet his pack likewise at
the next water, but it was much the heavier, he quite tired. So one thing
may be good and bad to several parties, upon diverse occasions. "Many
things" (saith [2879] Penottus) "are written in our books, which seem to
the reader to be excellent remedies, but they that make use of them are
often deceived, and take for physic poison." I remember in Valleriola's
observations, a story of one John Baptist a Neapolitan, that finding by
chance a pamphlet in Italian, written in praise of hellebore, would needs
adventure on himself, and took one dram for one scruple, and had not he
been sent for, the poor fellow had poisoned himself. From whence he
concludes out of Damascenus _2 et 3. Aphoris._ [2880]"that without
exquisite knowledge, to work out of books is most dangerous: how unsavoury
a thing it is to believe writers, and take upon trust, as this patient
perceived by his own peril." I could recite such another example of mine
own knowledge, of a friend of mine, that finding a receipt in Brassivola,
would needs take hellebore in substance, and try it on his own person; but
had not some of his familiars come to visit him by chance, he had by his
indiscretion hazarded himself: many such I have observed. These are those
ordinary cautions, which I should think fit to be noted, and he that shall
keep them, as [2881] Montanus saith, shall surely be much eased, if not
thoroughly cured.
SUBSECT. III.--_Concerning Physic_.
Physic itself in the last place is to be considered; "for the Lord hath
created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them."
Ecclus. xxxviii. 4. ver. 7.[0000] "of such doth the apothecary make a
confection," &c. Of these medicines there be diverse and infinite kinds,
plants, metals, animals, &c., and those of several natures, some good for
one, hurtful to another: some noxious in themselves, corrected by art, very
wholesome and good, simples, mixed, &c., and therefore left to be managed
by discreet and skilful physicians, and thence applied to man's use. To
this purpose they have invented method, and several rules of art, to put
these remedies in order, for their particular ends. Physic (as Hippocrates
defines it) is nought else but [2882]"addition and subtraction;" and as it
is required in all other diseases, so in this of melancholy it ought to be
most accurate, it being (as [2883]Mercurialis acknowledgeth) so common an
affection in these our times, and therefore fit to be understood. Several
prescripts and methods I find in several men, some take upon them to cure
all maladies with one medicine, severally applied, as that panacea, _aurum
potabile_, so much controverted in these days, _herba solis_, &c.
Paracelsus reduceth all diseases to four principal heads, to whom
Severinus, Ravelascus, Leo Suavius, and others adhere and imitate: those
are leprosy, gout, dropsy, falling-sickness. To which they reduce the rest;
as to leprosy, ulcers, itches, furfurs, scabs, &c. To gout, stone, colic,
toothache, headache, &c. To dropsy, agues, jaundice, cachexia, &c. To the
falling-sickness, belong palsy, vertigo, cramps, convulsions, incubus,
apoplexy, &c. [2884]"If any of these four principal be cured" (saith
Ravelascus) "all the inferior are cured," and the same remedies commonly
serve: but this is too general, and by some contradicted: for this peculiar
disease of melancholy, of which I am now to speak, I find several cures,
several methods and prescripts. They that intend the practic cure of
melancholy, saith Duretus in his notes to Hollerius, set down nine peculiar
scopes or ends; Savanarola prescribes seven especial canons. Aelianus
Montaltus _cap. 26._ Faventinus in his empirics, Hercules de Saxonia, &c.,
have their several injunctions and rules, all tending to one end. The
ordinary is threefold, which I mean to follow. [Greek: Diaitaetikae],
_Pharmaceutica_, and _Chirurgica_, diet, or living, apothecary, chirurgery,
which Wecker, Crato, Guianerius, &c., and most, prescribe; of which I will
insist, and speak in their order.
SECT. II. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Diet rectified in substance_.
Diet, [Greek: Diaitaetikae], _victus_, or living, according to [2885]
Fuchsius and others, comprehends those six non-natural things, which I have
before specified, are especial causes, and being rectified, a sole or chief
part of the cure. [2886]Johannes Arculanus, _cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis_,
accounts the rectifying of these six a sufficient cure. Guianerius, _tract.
15, cap. 9._ calls them, _propriam et primam curam_, the principal cure: so
doth Montanus, Crato, Mercurialis, Altomarus, &c., first to be tried,
Lemnius, _instit. cap. 22_, names them the hinges of our health, [2887]no
hope of recovery without them. Reinerus Solenander, in his seventh
consultation for a Spanish young gentlewoman, that was so melancholy she
abhorred all company, and would not sit at table with her familiar friends,
prescribes this physic above the rest, [2888]no good to be done without it.
[2889]Aretus, _lib. 1. cap. 7._ an old physician, is of opinion, that this
is enough of itself, if the party be not too far gone in sickness.
[2890]Crato, in a consultation of his for a noble patient, tells him
plainly, that if his highness will keep but a good diet, he will warrant
him his former health. [2891]Montanus, _consil. 27._ for a nobleman of
France, admonisheth his lordship to be most circumspect in his diet, or
else all his other physic will [2892]be to small purpose. The same
injunction I find verbatim in J. Caesar Claudinus, _Respon. 34. Scoltzii_,
_consil. 183._ Trallianus, _cap. 16. lib. 1._ Laelius a Fonte Aeugubinus
often brags, that he hath done more cures in this kind by rectification of
diet, than all other physic besides. So that in a word I may say to most
melancholy men, as the fox said to the weasel, that could not get out of
the garner, _Macra cavum repetes, quem macra subisti_, [2893]the six
non-natural things caused it, and they must cure it. Which howsoever I
treat of, as proper to the meridian of melancholy, yet nevertheless, that
which is here said with him in [2894]Tully, though writ especially for the
good of his friends at Tarentum and Sicily, yet it will generally serve
[2895]most other diseases, and help them likewise, if it be observed.
Of these six non-natural things, the first is diet, properly so called,
which consists in meat and drink, in which we must consider substance,
quantity, quality, and that opposite to the precedent. In substance, such
meats are generally commended, which are [2896]"moist, easy of digestion,
and not apt to engender wind, not fried, nor roasted, but sod" (saith
Valescus, Altomarus, Piso, &c.) "hot and moist, and of good nourishment;"
Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2._ admits roast meat, [2897]if the burned and
scorched _superficies_, the brown we call it, be pared off. Salvianus,
_lib. 2. cap. 1._ cries out on cold and dry meats; [2898]young flesh and
tender is approved, as of kid, rabbits, chickens, veal, mutton, capons,
hens, partridge, pheasant, quails, and all mountain birds, which are so
familiar in some parts of Africa, and in Italy, and as [2899]Dublinius
reports, the common food of boors and clowns in Palestine. Galen takes
exception at mutton, but without question he means that rammy mutton, which
is in Turkey and Asia Minor, which have those great fleshy tails, of
forty-eight pounds weight, as Vertomannus witnesseth, _navig. lib. 2.
cap. 5._ The lean of fat meat is best, and all manner of broths, and
pottage, with borage, lettuce, and such wholesome herbs are excellent good,
especially of a cock boiled; all spoon meat. Arabians commend brains, but
[2900]Laurentius, _c. 8._ excepts against them, and so do many others;
[2901]eggs are justified as a nutritive wholesome meat, butter and oil may
pass, but with some limitation; so [2902]Crato confines it, and "to some
men sparingly at set times, or in sauce," and so sugar and honey are
approved. [2903]All sharp and sour sauces must be avoided, and spices, or
at least seldom used: and so saffron sometimes in broth may be tolerated;
but these things may be more freely used, as the temperature of the party
is hot or cold, or as he shall find inconvenience by them. The thinnest,
whitest, smallest wine is best, not thick, nor strong; and so of beer, the
middling is fittest. Bread of good wheat, pure, well purged from the bran
is preferred; Laurentius, _cap. 8._ would have it kneaded with rain water,
if it may be gotten.
_Water_.] Pure, thin, light water by all means use, of good smell and
taste, like to the air in sight, such as is soon hot, soon cold, and which
Hippocrates so much approves, if at least it may be had. Rain water is
purest, so that it fall not down in great drops, and be used forthwith, for
it quickly putrefies. Next to it fountain water that riseth in the east,
and runneth eastward, from a quick running spring, from flinty, chalky,
gravelly grounds: and the longer a river runneth, it is commonly the
purest, though many springs do yield the best water at their fountains. The
waters in hotter countries, as in Turkey, Persia, India, within the
tropics, are frequently purer than ours in the north, more subtile, thin,
and lighter, as our merchants observe, by four ounces in a pound,
pleasanter to drink, as good as our beer, and some of them, as Choaspis in
Persia, preferred by the Persian kings, before wine itself.
[2904] "Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit
Vina fugit gaudetque meris abstemius undis."
Many rivers I deny not are muddy still, white, thick, like those in China,
Nile in Egypt, Tiber at Rome, but after they be settled two or three days,
defecate and clear, very commodious, useful and good. Many make use of deep
wells, as of old in the Holy Land, lakes, cisterns, when they cannot be
better provided; to fetch it in carts or gondolas, as in Venice, or camels'
backs, as at Cairo in Egypt, [2905]Radzivilius observed 8000 camels daily
there, employed about that business; some keep it in trunks, as in the East
Indies, made four square with descending steps, and 'tis not amiss, for I
would not have any one so nice as that Grecian Calis, sister to Nicephorus,
emperor of Constantinople, and [2906]married to Dominitus Silvius, duke of
Venice, that out of incredible wantonness, _communi aqua uti nolebat_,
would use no vulgar water; but she died _tanta_ (saith mine author)
_foetidissimi puris copia_, of so fulsome a disease, that no water could
wash her clean. [2907]Plato would not have a traveller lodge in a city that
is not governed by laws, or hath not a quick stream running by it; _illud
enim animum, hoc corrumpit valetudinem_, one corrupts the body, the other
the mind. But this is more than needs, too much curiosity is naught, in
time of necessity any water is allowed. Howsoever, pure water is best, and
which (as Pindarus holds) is better than gold; an especial ornament it is,
and "very commodious to a city" (according to [2908]Vegetius) "when fresh
springs are included within the walls," as at Corinth, in the midst of the
town almost, there was _arx altissima scatens fontibus_, a goodly mount
full of fresh water springs: "if nature afford them not they must be had by
art." It is a wonder to read of those [2909]stupend aqueducts, and infinite
cost hath been bestowed in Rome of old, Constantinople, Carthage,
Alexandria, and such populous cities, to convey good and wholesome waters:
read [2910]Frontinus, Lipsius _de admir._ [2911]Plinius, _lib. 3. cap. 11_,
Strabo in his _Geogr._ That aqueduct of Claudius was most eminent, fetched
upon arches fifteen miles, every arch 109 feet high: they had fourteen such
other aqueducts, besides lakes and cisterns, 700 as I take it; [2912]every
house had private pipes and channels to serve them for their use. Peter
Gillius, in his accurate description of Constantinople, speaks of an old
cistern which he went down to see, 336 feet long, 180 feet broad, built of
marble, covered over with arch-work, and sustained by 336 pillars, 12 feet
asunder, and in eleven rows, to contain sweet water. Infinite cost in
channels and cisterns, from Nilus to Alexandria, hath been formerly
bestowed, to the admiration of these times; [2913]their cisterns so
curiously cemented and composed, that a beholder would take them to be all
of one stone: when the foundation is laid, and cistern made, their house is
half built. That Segovian aqueduct in Spain, is much wondered at in these
days, [2914]upon three rows of pillars, one above another, conveying sweet
water to every house: but each city almost is full of such aqueducts.
Amongst the rest [2915]he is eternally to be commended, that brought that
new stream to the north side of London at his own charge: and Mr. Otho
Nicholson, founder of our waterworks and elegant conduit in Oxford. So much
have all times attributed to this element, to be conveniently provided of
it: although Galen hath taken exceptions at such waters, which run through
leaden pipes, _ob cerussam quae in iis generatur_, for that unctuous
ceruse, which causeth dysenteries and fluxes; [2916]yet as Alsarius Crucius
of Genna well answers, it is opposite to common experience. If that were
true, most of our Italian cities, Montpelier in France, with infinite
others, would find this inconvenience, but there is no such matter. For
private families, in what sort they should furnish themselves, let them
consult with P. Crescentius, _de Agric. l. 1. c. 4_, Pamphilius Hirelacus,
and the rest.
Amongst fishes, those are most allowed of, that live in gravelly or sandy
waters, pikes, perch, trout, gudgeon, smelts, flounders, &c. Hippolitus
Salvianus takes exception at carp; but I dare boldly say with [2917]
Dubravius, it is an excellent meat, if it come not from [2918]muddy pools,
that it retain not an unsavoury taste. Erinacius Marinus is much commended
by Oribatius, Aetius, and most of our late writers.
[2919]Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2._ censures all manner of fruits, as
subject to putrefaction, yet tolerable at sometimes, after meals, at second
course, they keep down vapours, and have their use. Sweet fruits are best,
as sweet cherries, plums, sweet apples, pearmains, and pippins, which
Laurentius extols, as having a peculiar property against this disease, and
Plater magnifies, _omnibus modis appropriata conveniunt_, but they must be
corrected for their windiness: ripe grapes are good, and raisins of the
sun, musk-melons well corrected, and sparingly used. Figs are allowed, and
almonds blanched. Trallianus discommends figs, [2920]Salvianus olives and
capers, which [2921]others especially like of, and so of pistick nuts.
Montanus and Mercurialis out of Avenzoar, admit peaches, [2922]pears, and
apples baked after meals, only corrected with sugar, and aniseed, or
fennel-seed, and so they may be profitably taken, because they strengthen
the stomach, and keep down vapours. The like may be said of preserved
cherries, plums, marmalade of plums, quinces, &c., but not to drink after
them. [2923]Pomegranates, lemons, oranges are tolerated, if they be not too
sharp.
[2924]Crato will admit of no herbs, but borage, bugloss, endive, fennel,
aniseed, baum; Callenius and Arnoldus tolerate lettuce, spinach, beets, &c.
The same Crato will allow no roots at all to be eaten. Some approve of
potatoes, parsnips, but all corrected for wind. No raw salads; but as
Laurentius prescribes, in broths; and so Crato commends many of them: or to
use borage, hops, baum, steeped in their ordinary drink. [2925]Avenzoar
magnifies the juice of a pomegranate, if it be sweet, and especially rose
water, which he would have to be used in every dish, which they put in
practice in those hot countries, about Damascus, where (if we may believe
the relations of Vertomannus) many hogsheads of rose water are to be sold
in the market at once, it is in so great request with them.
SUBSECT. II.--_Diet rectified in quantity_.
Man alone, saith [2926]Cardan, eats and drinks without appetite, and useth
all his pleasure without necessity, _animae vitio_, and thence come many
inconveniences unto him. For there is no meat whatsoever, though otherwise
wholesome and good, but if unseasonably taken, or immoderately used, more
than the stomach can well bear, it will engender crudity, and do much harm.
Therefore [2927]Crato adviseth his patient to eat but twice a day, and that
at his set meals, by no means to eat without an appetite, or upon a full
stomach, and to put seven hours' difference between dinner and supper.
Which rule if we did observe in our colleges, it would be much better for
our healths: but custom, that tyrant, so prevails, that contrary to all
good order and rules of physic, we scarce admit of five. If after seven
hours' tarrying he shall have no stomach, let him defer his meal, or eat
very little at his ordinary time of repast. This very counsel was given by
Prosper Calenus to Cardinal Caesius, labouring of this disease; and [2928]
Platerus prescribes it to a patient of his, to be most severely kept.
Guianerius admits of three meals a day, but Montanus, _consil. 23. pro. Ab.
Italo_, ties him precisely to two. And as he must not eat overmuch, so he
may not absolutely fast; for as Celsus contends, _lib. 1. Jacchinus 15. in
9. Rhasis_, [2929]repletion and inanition may both do harm in two contrary
extremes. Moreover, that which he doth eat, must be well [2930]chewed, and
not hastily gobbled, for that causeth crudity and wind; and by all means to
eat no more than he can well digest. "Some think" (saith [2931]
Trincavelius, _lib. 11. cap. 29. de curand. part. hum._) "the more they eat
the more they nourish themselves:" eat and live, as the proverb is, "not
knowing that only repairs man, which is well concocted, not that which is
devoured." Melancholy men most part have good [2932]appetites, but ill
digestion, and for that cause they must be sure to rise with an appetite;
and that which Socrates and Disarius the physicians in [2933]Macrobius so
much require, St. Hierom enjoins Rusticus to eat and drink no more than,
will [2934]satisfy hunger and thirst. [2935]Lessius, the Jesuit, holds
twelve, thirteen, or fourteen ounces, or in our northern countries, sixteen
at most, (for all students, weaklings, and such as lead an idle sedentary
life) of meat, bread, &c., a fit proportion for a whole day, and as much or
little more of drink. Nothing pesters the body and mind sooner than to be
still fed, to eat and ingurgitate beyond all measure, as many do. [2936]
"By overmuch eating and continual feasts they stifle nature, and choke up
themselves; which, had they lived coarsely, or like galley slaves been tied
to an oar, might have happily prolonged many fair years."
A great inconvenience comes by variety of dishes, which causeth the
precedent distemperature, [2937]"than which" (saith Avicenna) "nothing is
worse; to feed on diversity of meats, or overmuch," Sertorius-like, _in
lucem caenare_, and as commonly they do in Muscovy and Iceland, to prolong
their meals all day long, or all night. Our northern countries offend
especially in this, and we in this island (_ampliter viventes in prandiis
et caenis_, as [2938]Polydore notes) are most liberal feeders, but to our
own hurt. [2939]_Persicos odi puer apparatus_: "Excess of meat breedeth
sickness, and gluttony causeth choleric diseases: by surfeiting many
perish, but he that dieteth himself prolongeth his life," Ecclus. xxxvii.
29, 30. We account it a great glory for a man to have his table daily
furnished with variety of meats: but hear the physician, he pulls thee by
the ear as thou sittest, and telleth thee, [2940]"that nothing can be more
noxious to thy health than such variety and plenty." Temperance is a bridle
of gold, and he that can use it aright, [2941]_ego non summis viris
comparo, sed simillimum Deo judico_, is liker a God than a man: for as it
will transform a beast to a man again, so will it make a man a God. To
preserve thine honour, health, and to avoid therefore all those inflations,
torments, obstructions, crudities, and diseases that come by a full diet,
the best way is to [2942]feed sparingly of one or two dishes at most, to
have _ventrem bene moratum_, as Seneca calls it, [2943]"to choose one of
many, and to feed on that alone," as Crato adviseth his patient. The same
counsel [2944]Prosper Calenus gives to Cardinal Caesius, to use a moderate
and simple diet: and though his table be jovially furnished by reason of
his state and guests, yet for his own part to single out some one savoury
dish and feed on it. The same is inculcated by [2945]Crato, _consil. 9. l.
2._ to a noble personage affected with this grievance, he would have his
highness to dine or sup alone, without all his honourable attendance and
courtly company, with a private friend or so, [2946]a dish or two, a cup of
Rhenish wine, &c. Montanus, _consil. 24._ for a noble matron enjoins her
one dish, and by no means to drink between meals. The like, _consil. 229._
or not to eat till he be an hungry, which rule Berengarius did most
strictly observe, as Hilbertus, _Cenomecensis Episc._ writes in his life,
------"cui non fuit unquam
Ante sitim potus, nec cibus ante famem,"
and which all temperate men do constantly keep. It is a frequent solemnity
still used with us, when friends meet, to go to the alehouse or tavern,
they are not sociable otherwise: and if they visit one another's houses,
they must both eat and drink. I reprehend it not moderately used; but to
some men nothing can be more offensive; they had better, I speak it with
Saint [2947]Ambrose, pour so much water in their shoes.
It much avails likewise to keep good order in our diet, [2948]"to eat
liquid things first, broths, fish, and such meats as are sooner corrupted
in the stomach; harder meats of digestion must come last." Crato would have
the supper less than the dinner, which Cardan, _Contradict. lib. 1. tract.
5. contradict. 18._ disallows, and that by the authority of Galen. _7. art.
curat. cap. 6._ and for four reasons he will have the supper biggest: I
have read many treatises to this purpose, I know not how it may concern
some few sick men, but for my part generally for all, I should subscribe to
that custom of the Romans, to make a sparing dinner, and a liberal supper;
all their preparation and invitation was still at supper, no mention of
dinner. Many reasons I could give, but when all is said _pro_ and _con_,
[2949]Cardan's rule is best, to keep that we are accustomed unto, though it
be naught, and to follow our disposition and appetite in some things is not
amiss; to eat sometimes of a dish which is hurtful, if we have an
extraordinary liking to it. Alexander Severus loved hares and apples above
all other meats, as [2950]Lampridius relates in his life: one pope pork,
another peacock, &c.; what harm came of it? I conclude our own experience
is the best physician; that diet which is most propitious to one, is often
pernicious to another, such is the variety of palates, humours, and
temperatures, let every man observe, and be a law unto himself. Tiberius,
in [2951]Tacitus, did laugh at all such, that thirty years of age would ask
counsel of others concerning matters of diet; I say the same.
These few rules of diet he that keeps, shall surely find great ease and
speedy remedy by it. It is a wonder to relate that prodigious temperance of
some hermits, anchorites, and fathers of the church: he that shall but read
their lives, written by Hierom, Athanasius, &c., how abstemious heathens
have been in this kind, those Curii and Fabritii, those old philosophers,
as Pliny records, _lib. 11._ Xenophon, _lib. 1. de vit. Socrat._ Emperors
and kings, as Nicephorus relates, _Eccles. hist. lib. 18. cap. 8._ of
Mauritius, Ludovicus Pius, &c., and that admirable [2952]example of
Ludovicus Cornarus, a patrician of Venice, cannot but admire them. This
have they done voluntarily and in health; what shall these private men do
that are visited with sickness, and necessarily [2953]enjoined to recover,
and continue their health? It is a hard thing to observe a strict diet, _et
qui medice vivit, misere vivit_, [2954]as the saying is, _quale hoc ipsum
erit vivere, his si privatus fueris_? as good be buried, as so much
debarred of his appetite; _excessit medicina malum_, the physic is more
troublesome than the disease, so he complained in the poet, so thou
thinkest: yet he that loves himself will easily endure this little misery,
to avoid a greater inconvenience; _e malis minimum_ better do this than do
worse. And as [2955]Tully holds, "better be a temperate old man than a
lascivious youth." 'Tis the only sweet thing (which he adviseth) so to
moderate ourselves, that we may have _senectutem in juventute, et in
juventute senectutem_, be youthful in our old age, staid in our youth,
discreet and temperate in both.
MEMB. II.
_Retention and Evacuation rectified_.
I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring
this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean
at least, as indeed it is, and to this cure necessarily required; _maxime
conducit_, saith Montaltus, _cap. 27._ it very much avails. [2956]
Altomarus, _cap. 7_, "commends walking in a morning, into some fair green
pleasant fields, but by all means first, by art or nature, he will have
these ordinary excrements evacuated." Piso calls it, _Beneficium ventris_,
the benefit, help or pleasure of the belly, for it doth much ease it.
Laurentius, _cap. 8_, Crato, _consil. 21. l. 2._ prescribes it once a day
at least: where nature is defective, art must supply, by those lenitive
electuaries, suppositories, condite prunes, turpentine, clysters, as shall
be shown. Prosper Calenus, _lib. de atra bile_, commends clysters in
hypochondriacal melancholy, still to be used as occasion serves; [2957]
Peter Cnemander in a consultation of his _pro hypocondriaco_, will have his
patient continually loose, and to that end sets down there many forms of
potions and clysters. Mercurialis, _consil. 88._ if this benefit come not
of its own accord, prescribes [2958]clysters in the first place: so doth
Montanus, _consil. 24. consil. 31 et 229._ he commends turpentine to that
purpose: the same he ingeminates, _consil. 230._ for an Italian abbot. 'Tis
very good to wash his hands and face often, to shift his clothes, to have
fair linen about him, to be decently and comely attired, for _sordes
vitiant_, nastiness defiles and dejects any man that is so voluntarily, or
compelled by want, it dulleth the spirits.
Baths are either artificial or natural, both have their special uses in
this malady, and as [2959]Alexander supposeth, _lib. 1. cap. 16._ yield as
speedy a remedy as any other physic whatsoever. Aetius would have them
daily used, _assidua balnea_, _Tetra. 2. sect. 2. c. 9._ Galen cracks how
many several cures he hath performed in this kind by use of baths alone,
and Rufus pills, moistening them which are otherwise dry. Rhasis makes it a
principal cure, _Tota cura sit in humectando_, to bathe and afterwards
anoint with oil. Jason Pratensis, Laurentius, _cap. 8._ and Montanus set
down their peculiar forms of artificial baths. Crato, _consil. 17. lib. 2._
commends mallows, camomile, violets, borage to be boiled in it, and
sometimes fair water alone, and in his following counsel, _Balneum aquae
dulcis solum saepissime profuisse compertum habemus_. So doth Fuchsius,
_lib. 1. cap. 33._ _Frisimelica, 2. consil. 42._ in Trincavelius. Some
beside herbs prescribe a ram's head and other things to be boiled. [2960]
Fernelius, _consil. 44._ will have them used ten or twelve days together;
to which he must enter fasting, and so continue in a temperate heat, and
after that frictions all over the body. Lelius Aegubinus, _consil. 142._
and Christoph. Aererus, in a consultation of his, hold once or twice a week
sufficient to bathe, the [2961]"water to be warm, not hot, for fear of
sweating." Felix Plater, _observ. lib. 1._ for a melancholy lawyer, [2962]
"will have lotions of the head still joined to these baths, with a ley
wherein capital herbs have been boiled." [2963]Laurentius speaks of baths
of milk, which I find approved by many others. And still after bath, the
body to be anointed with oil of bitter almonds, of violets, new or fresh
butter, [2964]capon's grease, especially the backbone, and then lotions of
the head, embrocations, &c. These kinds of baths have been in former times
much frequented, and diversely varied, and are still in general use in
those eastern countries. The Romans had their public baths very sumptuous
and stupend, as those of Antoninus and Diocletian. Plin. 36. saith there
were an infinite number of them in Rome, and mightily frequented; some
bathed seven times a day, as Commodus the emperor is reported to have done;
usually twice a day, and they were after anointed with most costly
ointments: rich women bathed themselves in milk, some in the milk of five
hundred she-asses at once: we have many ruins of such, baths found in this
island, amongst those parietines and rubbish of old Roman towns. Lipsius,
_de mag. Urb. Rom. l. 3, c. 8_, Rosinus, Scot of Antwerp, and other
antiquaries, tell strange stories of their baths. Gillius, _l. 4. cap. ult.
Topogr. Constant._ reckons up 155 public [2965]baths in Constantinople, of
fair building; they are still [2966]frequented in that city by the Turks of
all sorts, men and women, and all over Greece, and those hot countries; to
absterge belike that fulsomeness of sweat, to which they are there subject.
[2967]Busbequius, in his epistles, is very copious in describing the manner
of them, how their women go covered, a maid following with a box of
ointment to rub them. The richer sort have private baths in their houses;
the poorer go to the common, and are generally so curious in this behalf,
that they will not eat nor drink until they have bathed, before and after
meals some, [2968]"and will not make water (but they will wash their hands)
or go to stool." Leo Afer. _l. 3._ makes mention of one hundred several
baths at Fez in Africa, most sumptuous, and such as have great revenues
belonging to them. Buxtorf. _cap. 14, Synagog. Jud._ speaks of many
ceremonies amongst the Jews in this kind; they are very superstitious in
their baths, especially women.
Natural baths are praised by some, discommended by others; but it is in a
divers respect. [2969]Marcus, _de Oddis in Hip. affect._ consulted about
baths, condemns them for the heat of the liver, because they dry too fast;
and yet by and by, [2970]in another counsel for the same disease, he
approves them because they cleanse by reason of the sulphur, and would have
their water to be drunk. Areteus, _c. 7._ commends alum baths above the
rest; and [2971]Mercurialis, _consil. 88._ those of Lucca in that
hypochondriacal passion. "He would have his patient tarry there fifteen
days together, and drink the water of them, and to be bucketed, or have the
water poured on his head." John Baptista, _Sylvaticus cont. 64._ commends
all the baths in Italy, and drinking of their water, whether they be iron,
alum, sulphur; so doth [2972]Hercules de Saxonia. But in that they cause
sweat and dry so much, he confines himself to hypochondriacal melancholy
alone, excepting that of the head and the other. Trincavelius, _consil. 14.
lib. 1._ refers those [2973]Porrectan baths before the rest, because of the
mixture of brass, iron, alum, and _consil. 35. l. 3._ for a melancholy
lawyer, and _consil. 36._ in that hypochondriacal passion, the [2974]baths
of Aquaria, and _36. consil._ the drinking of them. Frisimelica, consulted
amongst the rest in Trincavelius, _consil. 42. lib. 2._ prefers the waters
of [2975]Apona before all artificial baths whatsoever in this disease, and
would have one nine years affected with hypochondriacal passions fly to
them as to a [2976]holy anchor. Of the same mind is Trincavelius himself
there, and yet both put a hot liver in the same party for a cause, and send
him to the waters of St. Helen, which are much hotter. Montanus, _consil.
230._ magnifies the [2977]Chalderinian baths, and _consil 237. et 239._ he
exhorteth to the same, but with this caution, [2978]"that the liver be
outwardly anointed with some coolers that it be not overheated." But these
baths must be warily frequented by melancholy persons, or if used, to such
as are very cold of themselves, for as Gabelius concludes of all Dutch
baths, and especially of those of Baden, "they are good for all cold
diseases, [2979]naught for choleric, hot and dry, and all infirmities
proceeding of choler, inflammations of the spleen and liver." Our English
baths, as they are hot, must needs incur the same censure: but D. Turner of
old, and D. Jones have written at large of them. Of cold baths I find
little or no mention in any physician, some speak against them:
[2980]Cardan alone out of Agathinus commends "bathing in fresh rivers, and
cold waters, and adviseth all such as mean to live long to use it, for it
agrees with all ages and complexions, and is most profitable for hot
temperatures." As for sweating, urine, bloodletting by haemrods, or
otherwise, I shall elsewhere more opportunely speak of them.
Immoderate Venus in excess, as it is a cause, or in defect; so moderately
used to some parties an only help, a present remedy. Peter Forestus calls
it _aptissimum remedium_, a most apposite remedy, [2981]"remitting anger,
and reason, that was otherwise bound." Avicenna _Fen. 3. 20._ Oribasius
_med. collect. lib. 6. cap. 37._ contend out of Ruffus and others, [2982]
"that many madmen, melancholy, and labouring of the falling sickness, have
been cured by this alone." Montaltus _cap. 27. de melan._ will have it
drive away sorrow, and all illusions of the brain, to purge the heart and
brain from ill smokes and vapours that offend them: [2983]"and if it be
omitted," as Valescus supposeth, "it makes the mind sad, the body dull and
heavy." Many other inconveniences are reckoned up by Mercatus, and by
Rodericus a Castro, in their tracts _de melancholia virginum et monialium;
ob seminis retentionem saviunt saepe moniales et virgines_, but as Platerus
adds, _si nubant sanantur_, they rave single, and pine away, much
discontent, but marriage mends all. Marcellus Donatus _lib. 2. med. hist.
cap. 1._ tells a story to confirm this out of Alexander Benedictus, of a
maid that was mad, _ob menses inhibitos, cum in officinam meritoriam
incidisset, a quindecem viris eadem nocte compressa, mensium largo
profluvio, quod pluribus annis ante constiterat, non sine magno pudore mane
menti restituta discessit_. But this must be warily understood, for as
Arnoldus objects, _lib. 1. breviar. 18. cap._ _Quid coitus ad melancholicum
succum_? What affinity have these two? [2984]"except it be manifest that
superabundance of seed, or fullness of blood be a cause, or that love, or
an extraordinary desire of Venus, have gone before," or that as Lod.
Mercatus excepts, they be very flatuous, and have been otherwise accustomed
unto it. Montaltus _cap. 27._ will not allow of moderate Venus to such as
have the gout, palsy, epilepsy, melancholy, except they be very lusty, and
full of blood. [2985]Lodovicus Antonius _lib. med. miscet._ in his chapter
of Venus, forbids it utterly to all wrestlers, ditchers, labouring men, &c.
[2986]Ficinus and [2987]Marsilius Cognatus puts Venus one of the five
mortal enemies of a student: "it consumes the spirits, and weakeneth the
brain." Halyabbas the Arabian, _5. Theor. cap. 36._ and Jason Pratensis
make it the fountain of most diseases, [2988]"but most pernicious to them
who are cold and dry:" a melancholy man must not meddle with it, but in
some cases. Plutarch in his book _de san. tuend._ accounts of it as one of
the three principal signs and preservers of health, temperance in this
kind: [2989]"to rise with an appetite, to be ready to work, and abstain
from venery," _tria saluberrima_, are three most healthful things. We see
their opposites how pernicious they are to mankind, as to all other
creatures they bring death, and many feral diseases: _Immodicis brevis est
aetas et rara senectus_. Aristotle gives instance in sparrows, which are
_parum vivaces ob salacitatem_, [2990]short lived because of their
salacity, which is very frequent, as Scoppius in Priapus will better inform
you. The extremes being both bad, [2991]the medium is to be kept, which
cannot easily be determined. Some are better able to sustain, such as are
hot and moist, phlegmatic, as Hippocrates insinuateth, some strong and
lusty, well fed like [2992]Hercules, [2993] Proculus the emperor, lusty
Laurence, [2994]_prostibulum faeminae Messalina_ the empress, that by
philters, and such kind of lascivious meats, use all means to [2995]enable
themselves: and brag of it in the end, _confodi multas enim, occidi vero
paucas per ventrem vidisti_, as that Spanish [2996]Celestina merrily said:
others impotent, of a cold and dry constitution, cannot sustain those
gymnics without great hurt done to their own bodies, of which number
(though they be very prone to it) are melancholy men for the most part.
MEMB. III.
_Air rectified. With a digression of the Air_.
As a long-winged hawk, when he is first whistled off the fist, mounts
aloft, and for his pleasure fetcheth many a circuit in the air, still
soaring higher and higher, till he be come to his full pitch, and in the
end when the game is sprung, comes down amain, and stoops upon a sudden: so
will I, having now come at last into these ample fields of air, wherein I
may freely expatiate and exercise myself for my recreation, awhile rove,
wander round about the world, mount aloft to those ethereal orbs and
celestial spheres, and so descend to my former elements again. In which
progress I will first see whether that relation of the friar of [2997]
Oxford be true, concerning those northern parts under the pole (if I meet
_obiter_ with the wandering Jew, Elias Artifex, or Lucian's
_Icaromenippus_, they shall be my guides) whether there be such 4. Euripes,
and a great rock of loadstones, which may cause the needle in the compass
still to bend that way, and what should be the true cause of the variation
of the compass, [2998]is it a magnetical rock, or the pole-star, as Cardan
will; or some other star in the bear, as Marsilius Ficinus; or a magnetical
meridian, as Maurolieus; _Vel situs in vena terrae_, as Agricola; or the
nearness of the next continent, as Cabeus will; or some other cause, as
Scaliger, Cortesius, Conimbricenses, Peregrinus contend; why at the Azores
it looks directly north, otherwise not? In the Mediterranean or Levant (as
some observe) it varies 7. grad. by and by 12. and then 22. In the Baltic
Seas, near Rasceburg in Finland, the needle runs round, if any ships come
that way, though [2999]Martin Ridley write otherwise, that the needle near
the Pole will hardly be forced from his direction. 'Tis fit to be inquired
whether certain rules may be made of it, as _11. grad. Lond. variat. alibi
36._ &c. and that which is more prodigious, the variation varies in the
same place, now taken accurately, 'tis so much after a few years quite
altered from that it was: till we have better intelligence, let our Dr.
Gilbert, and Nicholas [3000]Cabeus the Jesuit, that have both written great
volumes of this subject, satisfy these inquisitors. Whether the sea be open
and navigable by the Pole arctic, and which is the likeliest way, that of
Bartison the Hollander, under the Pole itself, which for some reasons I
hold best: or by Fretum Davis, or Nova Zembla. Whether [3001]Hudson's
discovery be true of a new found ocean, any likelihood of Button's Bay in
50. degrees, Hubberd's Hope in 60. that of _ut ultra_ near Sir Thomas Roe's
welcome in Northwest Fox, being that the sea ebbs and flows constantly
there 15. foot in 12. hours, as our [3002]new cards inform us that
California is not a cape, but an island, and the west winds make the neap
tides equal to the spring, or that there be any probability to pass by the
straits of Anian to China, by the promontory of Tabin. If there be, I shall
soon perceive whether [3003]Marcus Polus the Venetian's narration be true
or false, of that great city of Quinsay and Cambalu; whether there be any
such places, or that as [3004]Matth. Riccius the Jesuit hath written, China
and Cataia be all one, the great Cham of Tartary and the king of China be
the same; Xuntain and Quinsay, and the city of Cambalu be that new Peking,
or such a wall 400 leagues long to part China from Tartary: whether
[3005]Presbyter John be in Asia or Africa; M. Polus Venetus puts him in
Asia, [3006]the most received opinion is, that he is emperor of the
Abyssines, which of old was Ethiopia, now Nubia, under the equator in
Africa. Whether [3007]Guinea be an island or part of the continent, or that
hungry [3008]Spaniard's discovery of _Terra Australis Incognita_, or
Magellanica, be as true as that of Mercurius Britannius, or his of Utopia,
or his of Lucinia. And yet in likelihood it may be so, for without all
question it being extended from the tropic of Capricorn to the circle
Antarctic, and lying as it doth in the temperate zone, cannot choose but
yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages, as America did
unto the Spaniards. Shouten and Le Meir have done well in the discovery of
the Straits of Magellan, in finding a more convenient passage to _Mare
pacificum_: methinks some of our modern argonauts should prosecute the
rest. As I go by Madagascar, I would see that great bird [3009]ruck, that
can carry a man and horse or an elephant, with that Arabian phoenix
described by [3010]Adricomius; see the pelicans of Egypt, those Scythian
gryphes in Asia: and afterwards in Africa examine the fountains of Nilus,
whether Herodotus, [3011]Seneca, Plin. _lib. 5. cap. 9._ Strabo. _lib. 5._
give a true cause of his annual flowing, [3012]Pagaphetta discourse rightly
of it, or of Niger and Senegal; examine Cardan, [3013]Scaliger's reasons,
and the rest. Is it from those Etesian winds, or melting of snow in the
mountains under the equator (for Jordan yearly overflows when the snow
melts in Mount Libanus), or from those great dropping perpetual showers
which are so frequent to the inhabitants within the tropics, when the sun
is vertical, and cause such vast inundations in Senegal, Maragnan, Oronoco
and the rest of those great rivers in Zona Torrida, which have all commonly
the same passions at set times: and by good husbandry and policy hereafter
no doubt may come to be as populous, as well tilled, as fruitful, as Egypt
itself or Cauchinthina? I would observe all those motions of the sea, and
from what cause they proceed, from the moon (as the vulgar hold) or earth's
motion, which Galileus, in the fourth dialogue of his system of the world,
so eagerly proves, and firmly demonstrates; or winds, as [3014] some will.
Why in that quiet ocean of Zur, _in mari pacifico_, it is scarce perceived,
in our British seas most violent, in the Mediterranean and Red Sea so
vehement, irregular, and diverse? Why the current in that Atlantic Ocean
should still be in some places from, in some again towards the north, and
why they come sooner than go? and so from Moabar to Madagascar in that
Indian Ocean, the merchants come in three weeks, as [3015]Scaliger
discusseth, they return scarce in three months, with the same or like
winds: the continual current is from east to west. Whether Mount Athos,
Pelion, Olympus, Ossa, Caucasus, Atlas, be so high as Pliny, Solinus, Mela
relate, above clouds, meteors, _ubi nec aurae nec venti spirant_ (insomuch
that they that ascend die suddenly very often, the air is so subtile,) 1250
paces high, according to that measure of Dicearchus, or 78 miles
perpendicularly high, as Jacobus Mazonius, _sec. 3. et 4._ expounding that
place of Aristotle about Caucasus; and as [3016]Blancanus the Jesuit
contends out of Clavius and Nonius demonstrations _de Crepusculis_: or
rather 32 stadiums, as the most received opinion is; or 4 miles, which the
height of no mountain doth perpendicularly exceed, and is equal to the
greatest depths of the sea, which is, as Scaliger holds, 1580 paces, Exer.
38, others 100 paces. I would see those inner parts of America, whether
there be any such great city of Manoa, or Eldorado, in that golden empire,
where the highways are as much beaten (one reports) as between Madrid and
Valadolid in Spain; or any such Amazons as he relates, or gigantic
Patagones in Chica; with that miraculous mountain [3017]Ybouyapab in the
Northern Brazil, _cujus jugum sternitur in amoenissimam planitiem_, &c. or
that of Pariacacca so high elevated in Peru. [3018]The peak of Tenerife how
high it is? 70 miles, or 50 as Patricius holds, or 9 as Snellius
demonstrates in his Eratosthenes: see that strange [3019]Cirknickzerksey
lake in Carniola, whose waters gush so fast out of the ground, that they
will overtake a swift horseman, and by and by with as incredible celerity
are supped up: which Lazius and Wernerus make an argument of the Argonauts
sailing under ground. And that vast den or hole called [3020]Esmellen in
Muscovia, _quae visitur horriendo hiatu_, &c. which if anything casually
fall in, makes such a roaring noise, that no thunder, or ordnance, or
warlike engine can make the like; such another is Gilber's Cave in Lapland,
with many the like. I would examine the Caspian Sea, and see where and how
it exonerates itself, after it hath taken in Volga, Jaxares, Oxus, and
those great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where? What vent the Mexican
lake hath, the Titicacan in Peru, or that circular pool in the vale of
Terapeia, of which Acosta _l. 3. c. 16._ hot in a cold country, the spring
of which boils up in the middle twenty foot square, and hath no vent but
exhalation: and that of _Mare mortuum_ in Palestine, of Thrasymene, at
Peruzium in Italy: the Mediterranean itself. For from the ocean, at the
Straits of Gibraltar, there is a perpetual current into the Levant, and so
likewise by the Thracian Bosphorus out of the Euxine or Black Sea, besides
all those great rivers of Nile, Po, Rhone, &c. how is this water consumed,
by the sun or otherwise? I would find out with Trajan the fountains of
Danube, of Ganges, Oxus, see those Egyptian pyramids, Trajan's bridge,
_Grotto de Sybilla_, Lucullus's fishponds, the temple of Nidrose, &c.
(And, if I could, observe what becomes of swallows, storks, cranes,
cuckoos, nightingales, redstarts, and many other kind of singing birds,
water-fowls, hawks, &c. some of them are only seen in summer, some in
winter; some are observed in the [3021]snow, and at no other times, each
have their seasons. In winter not a bird is in Muscovy to be found, but at
the spring in an instant the woods and hedges are full of them, saith
[3022]Herbastein: how comes it to pass? Do they sleep in winter, like
Gesner's Alpine mice; or do they lie hid (as [3023]Olaus affirms) "in the
bottom of lakes and rivers, _spiritum continentes_? often so found by
fishermen in Poland and Scandia, two together, mouth to mouth, wing to
wing; and when the spring comes they revive again, or if they be brought
into a stove, or to the fireside." Or do they follow the sun, as Peter
Martyr _legat Babylonica l. 2._ manifestly convicts, out of his own
knowledge; for when he was ambassador in Egypt, he saw swallows, Spanish
kites, [3024]and many such other European birds, in December and January
very familiarly flying, and in great abundance, about Alexandria, _ubi
floridae tunc arbores ac viridaria_. Or lie they hid in caves, rocks, and
hollow trees, as most think, in deep tin-mines or sea-cliffs, as [3025]Mr.
Carew gives out? I conclude of them all, for my part, as [3026]Munster doth
of cranes and storks; whence they come, whither they go, _incompertum
adhuc_, as yet we know not. We see them here, some in summer, some in
winter; "their coming and going is sure in the night: in the plains of
Asia" (saith he) "the storks meet on such a set day, he that comes last is
torn in pieces, and so they get them gone." Many strange places, Isthmi,
Euripi, Chersonesi, creeks, havens, promontories, straits, Lakes, baths,
rocks, mountains, places, and fields, where cities have been ruined or
swallowed, battles fought, creatures, sea-monsters, remora, &c. minerals,
vegetals. Zoophytes were fit to be considered in such an expedition, and
amongst the rest that of [3027]Harbastein his Tartar lamb, [3028]Hector
Boethius goosebearing tree in the orchards, to which Cardan _lib. 7. cap.
36. de rerum varietat._ subscribes: [3029]Vertomannus wonderful palm, that
[3030] fly in Hispaniola, that shines like a torch in the night, that one
may well see to write; those spherical stones in Cuba which nature hath so
made, and those like birds, beasts, fishes, crowns, swords, saws, pots, &c.
usually found in the metal mines in Saxony about Mansfield, and in Poland
near Nokow and Pallukie, as [3031]Munster and others relate. Many rare
creatures and novelties each part of the world affords: amongst the rest, I
would know for a certain whether there be any such men, as Leo Suavius, in
his comment on Paracelsus _de sanit. tuend_. and [3032]Gaguinus records in
his description of Muscovy, "that in Lucomoria, a province in Russia, lie
fast asleep as dead all winter, from the 27 of November, like frogs and
swallows, benumbed with cold, but about the 24 of April in the spring they
revive again, and go about their business." I would examine that
demonstration of Alexander Picolomineus, whether the earth's superficies be
bigger than the seas: or that of Archimedes be true, the superficies of all
water is even? Search the depth, and see that variety of sea-monsters and
fishes, mermaids, seamen, horses, &c. which it affords. Or whether that be
true which Jordanus Brunus scoffs at, that if God did not detain it, the
sea would overflow the earth by reason of his higher site, and which
Josephus Blancanus the Jesuit in his interpretation on those mathematical
places of Aristotle, foolishly fears, and in a just tract proves by many
circumstances, that in time the sea will waste away the land, and all the
globe of the earth shall be covered with waters; _risum teneatis amici_?
what the sea takes away in one place it adds in another. Methinks he might
rather suspect the sea should in time be filled by land, trees grow up,
carcasses, &c. that all-devouring fire, _omnia devorans et consumens_, will
sooner cover and dry up the vast ocean with sand and ashes. I would examine
the true seat of that terrestrial [3033]paradise, and where Ophir was
whence Solomon did fetch his gold: from Peruana, which some suppose, or
that Aurea Chersonesus, as Dominicus Niger, Arias Montanus, Goropius, and
others will. I would censure all Pliny's, Solinus', Strabo's, Sir John
Mandeville's, Olaus Magnus', Marcus Polus' lies, correct those errors in
navigation, reform cosmographical charts, and rectify longitudes, if it
were possible; not by the compass, as some dream, with Mark Ridley in his
treatise of magnetical bodies, _cap. 43._ for as Cabeus _magnet philos.
lib. 3. cap. 4._ fully resolves, there is no hope thence, yet I would
observe some better means to find them out.
I would have a convenient place to go down with Orpheus, Ulysses, Hercules,
[3034]Lucian's Menippus, at St. Patrick's purgatory, at Trophonius' den,
Hecla in Iceland, Aetna in Sicily, to descend and see what is done in the
bowels of the earth: do stones and metals grow there still? how come fir
trees to be [3035]digged out from tops of hills, as in our mosses, and
marshes all over Europe? How come they to dig up fish bones, shells, beams,
ironworks, many fathoms under ground, and anchors in mountains far remote
from all seas? [3036]Anno 1460 at Bern in Switzerland 50 fathom deep a ship
was digged out of a mountain, where they got metal ore, in which were 48
carcasses of men, with other merchandise. That such things are ordinarily
found in tops of hills, Aristotle insinuates in his meteors,
[3037]Pomponius Mela in his first book, _c. de Numidia_, and familiarly in
the Alps, saith [3038]Blancanus the Jesuit, the like is to be seen: came
this from earthquakes, or from Noah's flood, as Christians suppose, or is
there a vicissitude of sea and land, as Anaximenes held of old, the
mountains of Thessaly would become seas, and seas again mountains? The
whole world belike should be new moulded, when it seemed good to those
all-commanding powers, and turned inside out, as we do haycocks in harvest,
top to bottom, or bottom to top: or as we turn apples to the fire, move the
world upon his centre; that which is under the poles now, should be
translated to the equinoctial, and that which is under the torrid zone to
the circle arctic and antarctic another while, and so be reciprocally
warmed by the sun: or if the worlds be infinite, and every fixed star a
sun, with his compassing planets (as Brunus and Campanella conclude) cast
three or four worlds into one; or else of one world make three or four new,
as it shall seem to them best. To proceed, if the earth be 21,500 miles in
[3039]compass, its diameter is 7,000 from us to our antipodes, and what
shall be comprehended in all that space? What is the centre of the earth?
is it pure element only, as Aristotle decrees, inhabited (as [3040]
Paracelsus thinks) with creatures, whose chaos is the earth: or with
fairies, as the woods and waters (according to him) are with nymphs, or as
the air with spirits? Dionisiodorus, a mathematician in [3041]Pliny, that
sent a letter, _ad superos_ after he was dead, from the centre of the
earth, to signify what distance the same centre was from the _superficies_
of the same, viz. 42,000 stadiums, might have done well to have satisfied
all these doubts. Or is it the place of hell, as Virgil in his Aenides,
Plato, Lucian, Dante, and others poetically describe it, and as many of our
divines think? In good earnest, Anthony Rusca, one of the society of that
Ambrosian College, in Milan, in his great volume _de Inferno, lib. 1. cap.
47._ is stiff in this tenet, 'tis a corporeal fire tow, _cap. 5. I. 2._ as
he there disputes. "Whatsoever philosophers write" (saith [3042]Surius)
"there be certain mouths of hell, and places appointed for the punishment
of men's souls, as at Hecla in Iceland, where the ghosts of dead men are
familiarly seen, and sometimes talk with the living: God would have such
visible places, that mortal men might be certainly informed, that there be
such punishments after death, and learn hence to fear God." Kranzius _Dan.
hist. lib. 2. cap. 24._ subscribes to this opinion of Surius, so doth
Colerus _cap. 12. lib. de immortal animae_ (out of the authority belike of
St. Gregory, Durand, and the rest of the schoolmen, who derive as much from
Aetna in Sicily, Lipari, Hiera, and those sulphureous vulcanian islands)
making Terra del Fuego, and those frequent volcanoes in America, of which
Acosta _lib. 3. cap. 24._ that fearful mount Hecklebirg in Norway, an
especial argument to prove it, [3043]"where lamentable screeches and
howlings are continually heard, which strike a terror to the auditors;
fiery chariots are commonly seen to bring in the souls of men in the
likeness of crows, and devils ordinarily go in and out." Such another proof
is that place near the Pyramids in Egypt, by Cairo, as well to confirm this
as the resurrection, mentioned by [3044]Kornmannus _mirac. mort. lib. 1.
cap. 30._ Camerarius _oper. suc. cap. 37._ Bredenbachius _pereg. ter.
sanct._ and some others, "where once a year dead bodies arise about March,
and walk, after awhile hide themselves again: thousands of people come
yearly to see them." But these and such like testimonies others reject, as
fables, illusions of spirits, and they will have no such local known place,
more than Styx or Phlegethon, Pluto's court, or that poetical _Infernus_,
where Homer's soul was seen hanging on a tree, &c., to which they ferried
over in Charon's boat, or went down at Hermione in Greece, _compendiaria ad
Infernos via_, which is the shortest cut, _quia nullum a mortuis naulum eo
loci exposcunt_, (saith [3045]Gerbelius) and besides there were no fees to
be paid. Well then, is it hell, or purgatory, as Bellarmine: or _Limbus
patrum_, as Gallucius will, and as Rusca will (for they have made maps of
it) [3046]or Ignatius parler? Virgil, sometimes bishop of Saltburg (as
Aventinus _anno_ 745 relates) by Bonifacius bishop of Mentz was therefore
called in question, because he held antipodes (which they made a doubt
whether Christ died for) and so by that means took away the seat of hell,
or so contracted it, that it could bear no proportion to heaven, and
contradicted that opinion of Austin, Basil, Lactantius that held the earth
round as a trencher (whom Acosta and common experience more largely
confute) but not as a ball; and Jerusalem where Christ died the middle of
it; or Delos, as the fabulous Greeks feigned: because when Jupiter let two
eagles loose, to fly from the world's ends east and west, they met at
Delos. But that scruple of Bonifacius is now quite taken away by our latter
divines: Franciscus Ribera, _in cap. 14. Apocalyps._ will have hell a
material and local fire in the centre of the earth, 200 Italian miles in
diameter, as he defines it out of those words, _Exivit sanguis de
terra--per stadia mille sexcenta_, &c. But Lessius _lib. 13. de moribus
divinis, cap. 24._ will have this local hell far less, one Dutch mile in
diameter, all filled with fire and brimstone: because, as he there
demonstrates, that space, cubically multiplied, will make a sphere able to
hold eight hundred thousand millions of damned bodies (allowing each body
six foot square) which will abundantly suffice; _Cum cerium sit, inquit,
facta subductione, non futuros centies mille milliones damnandorum._ But if
it be no material fire (as Sco. Thomas, Bonaventure, Soncinas, Voscius, and
others argue) it may be there or elsewhere, as Keckerman disputes _System.
Theol._ for sure somewhere it is, _certum est alicubi, etsi definitus
circulus non assignetur._ I will end the controversy in [3047]Austin's
words, "Better doubt of things concealed, than to contend about
uncertainties, where Abraham's bosom is, and hell fire:" [3048]_Vix a
mansuetis, a contentiosis nunquam invenitur_; scarce the meek, the
contentious shall never find. If it be solid earth, 'tis the fountain of
metals, waters, which by his innate temper turns air into water, which
springs up in several chinks, to moisten the earth's _superficies_, and
that in a tenfold proportion (as Aristotle holds) or else these fountains
come directly from the sea, by [3049]secret passages, and so made fresh
again, by running through the bowels of the earth; and are either thick,
thin, hot, cold, as the matter or minerals are by which they pass; or as
Peter Martyr _Ocean. Decad. lib. 9._ and some others hold, from [3050]
abundance of rain that falls, or from that ambient heat and cold, which
alters that inward heat, and so _per consequens_ the generation of waters.
Or else it may be full of wind, or a sulphureous innate fire, as our
meteorologists inform us, which sometimes breaking out, causeth those
horrible earthquakes, which are so frequent in these days in Japan, China,
and oftentimes swallow up whole cities. Let Lucian's Menippus consult with
or ask of Tiresias, if you will not believe philosophers, he shall clear
all your doubts when he makes a second voyage.
In the mean time let us consider of that which is _sub dio_, and find out a
true cause, if it be possible, of such accidents, meteors, alterations, as
happen above ground. Whence proceed that variety of manners, and a distinct
character (as it were) to several nations? Some are wise, subtile, witty;
others dull, sad and heavy; some big, some little, as Tully de Fato, Plato
in Timaeo, Vegetius and Bodine prove at large, _method. cap. 5._ some soft,
and some hardy, barbarous, civil, black, dun, white, is it from the air,
from the soil, influence of stars, or some other secret cause? Why doth
Africa breed so many venomous beasts, Ireland none? Athens owls, Crete
none? [3051]Why hath Daulis and Thebes no swallows (so Pausanius informeth
us) as well as the rest of Greece, [3052]Ithaca no hares, Pontus asses,
Scythia swine? whence comes this variety of complexions, colours, plants,
birds, beasts, [3053]metals, peculiar almost to every place? Why so many
thousand strange birds and beasts proper to America alone, as Acosta
demands _lib. 4. cap. 36._ were they created in the six days, or ever in
Noah's ark? if there, why are they not dispersed and found in other
countries? It is a thing (saith he) hath long held me in suspense; no
Greek, Latin, Hebrew ever heard of them before, and yet as differing from
our European animals, as an egg and a chestnut: and which is more, kine,
horses, sheep, &c., till the Spaniards brought them, were never heard of in
those parts? How comes it to pass, that in the same site, in one latitude,
to such as are _Perioeci_, there should be such difference of soil,
complexion, colour, metal, air, &c. The Spaniards are white, and so are
Italians, when as the inhabitants about [3054]_Caput bonae spei_ are
blackamoors, and yet both alike distant from the equator: nay they that
dwell in the same parallel line with these Negroes, as about the Straits of
Magellan, are white coloured, and yet some in Presbyter John's country in
Ethiopia are dun; they in Zeilan and Malabar parallel with them again
black: Manamotapa in Africa, and St. Thomas Isle are extreme hot, both
under the line, coal black their inhabitants, whereas in Peru they are
quite opposite in colour, very temperate, or rather cold, and yet both
alike elevated. Moscow in 53. degrees of latitude extreme cold, as those
northern countries usually are, having one perpetual hard frost all winter
long; and in 52. deg. lat. sometimes hard frost and snow all summer, as
Button's Bay, &c., or by fits; and yet [3055]England near the same
latitude, and Ireland, very moist, warm, and more temperate in winter than
Spain, Italy, or France. Is it the sea that causeth this difference, and
the air that comes from it: Why then is [3056]Ister so cold near the
Euxine, Pontus, Bithynia, and all Thrace; _frigidas regiones_ Maginus calls
them, and yet their latitude is but 42. which should be hot: [3057]
Quevira, or Nova Albion in America, bordering on the sea, was so cold in
July, that our [3058]Englishmen could hardly endure it. At Noremberga in
45. lat. all the sea is frozen ice, and yet in a more southern latitude
than ours. New England, and the island of Cambrial Colchos, which that
noble gentleman Mr. Vaughan, or Orpheus junior, describes in his Golden
Fleece, is in the same latitude with little Britain in France, and yet
their winter begins not till January, their spring till May; which search
he accounts worthy of an astrologer: is this from the easterly winds, or
melting of ice and snow dissolved within the circle arctic; or that the air
being thick, is longer before it be warm by the sunbeams, and once heated
like an oven will keep itself from cold? Our climes breed lice, [3059]
Hungary and Ireland _male audiunt_ in this kind; come to the Azores, by a
secret virtue of that air they are instantly consumed, and all our European
vermin almost, saith Ortelius. Egypt is watered with Nilus not far from the
sea, and yet there it seldom or never rains: Rhodes, an island of the same
nature, yields not a cloud, and yet our islands ever dropping and inclining
to rain. The Atlantic Ocean is still subject to storms, but in Del Zur, or
_Mare pacifico_, seldom or never any. Is it from tropic stars, _apertio
portarum_, in the dodecotemories or constellations, the moon's mansions,
such aspects of planets, such winds, or dissolving air, or thick air, which
causeth this and the like differences of heat and cold? Bodin relates of a
Portugal ambassador, that coming from [3060]Lisbon to [3061]Danzig in
Spruce, found greater heat there than at any time at home. Don Garcia de
Sylva, legate to Philip III., king of Spain, residing at Ispahan in Persia,
1619, in his letter to the Marquess of Bedmar, makes mention of greater
cold in Ispahan, whose lat. is 31. gr. than ever he felt in Spain, or any
part of Europe. The torrid zone was by our predecessors held to be
uninhabitable, but by our modern travellers found to be most temperate,
bedewed with frequent rains, and moistening showers, the breeze and cooling
blasts in some parts, as [3062]Acosta describes, most pleasant and fertile.
Arica in Chile is by report one of the sweetest places that ever the sun
shined on, _Olympus terrae_, a heaven on earth: how incomparably do some
extol Mexico in Nova Hispania, Peru, Brazil, &c., in some again hard, dry,
sandy, barren, a very desert, and still in the same latitude. Many times we
find great diversity of air in the same [3063]country, by reason of the
site to seas, hills or dales, want of water, nature of soil, and the like:
as in Spain Arragon is _aspera et sicca_, harsh and evil inhabited;
Estremadura is dry, sandy, barren most part, extreme hot by reason of his
plains; Andalusia another paradise; Valencia a most pleasant air, and
continually green; so is it about [3064]Granada, on the one side fertile
plains, on the other, continual snow to be seen all summer long on the hill
tops. That their houses in the Alps are three quarters of the year covered
with snow, who knows not? That Tenerife is so cold at the top, extreme hot
at the bottom: Mons Atlas in Africa, Libanus in Palestine, with many such,
_tantos inter ardores fidos nivibus_, [3065]Tacitus calls them, and
Radzivilus _epist. 2. fol. 27._ yields it to be far hotter there than in
any part of Italy: 'tis true; but they are highly elevated, near the middle
region, and therefore cold, _ob paucam solarium radiorum refractionem_, as
Serrarius answers, _com. in. 3. cap. Josua quaest. 5._ Abulensis _quaest.
37._ In the heat of summer, in the king's palace in Escurial, the air is
most temperate, by reason of a cold blast which comes from the snowy
mountains of Sierra de Cadarama hard by, when as in Toledo it is very hot:
so in all other countries. The causes of these alterations are commonly by
reason of their nearness (I say) to the middle region; but this diversity
of air, in places equally situated, elevated and distant from the pole, can
hardly be satisfied with that diversity of plants, birds, beasts, which is
so familiar with us: with Indians, everywhere, the sun is equally distant,
the same vertical stars, the same irradiations of planets, aspects like,
the same nearness of seas, the same superficies, the same soil, or not much
different. Under the equator itself, amongst the Sierras, Andes, Lanos, as
Herrera, Laet, and [3066]Acosta contend, there is _tam mirabilis et
inopinata varietas_, such variety of weather, _ut merito exerceat ingenia_,
that no philosophy can yet find out the true cause of it. When I consider
how temperate it is in one place, saith [3067]Acosta, within the tropic of
Capricorn, as about Laplata, and yet hard by at Potosi, in that same
altitude, mountainous alike, extreme cold; extreme hot in Brazil, &c. _Hic
ego_, saith Acosta, _philosophiam Aristotelis meteorologicam vehementer
irrisi, cum_, &c., when the sun comes nearest to them, they have great
tempests, storms, thunder and lightning, great store of rain, snow, and the
foulest weather: when the sun is vertical, their rivers overflow, the
morning fair and hot, noonday cold and moist: all which is opposite to us.
How comes it to pass? Scaliger _poetices l. 3. c. 16._ discourseth thus of
this subject. How comes, or wherefore is this _temeraria siderum
dispositio_, this rash placing of stars, or as Epicurus will, _fortuita_,
or accidental? Why are some big, some little, why are they so confusedly,
unequally situated in the heavens, and set so much out of order? In all
other things nature is equal, proportionable, and constant; there be
_justae dimensiones, et prudens partium dispositio_, as in the fabric of
man, his eyes, ears, nose, face, members are correspondent, _cur non idem
coelo opere omnium pulcherrimo_? Why are the heavens so irregular, _neque
paribus molibus, neque paribus intervallis_, whence is this difference?
_Diversos_ (he concludes) _efficere locorum Genios_, to make diversity of
countries, soils, manners, customs, characters, and constitutions among us,
_ut quantum vicinia ad charitatem addat, sidera distrahant ad perniciem_,
and so by this means _fluvio vel monte distincti sunt dissimiles_, the same
places almost shall be distinguished in manners. But this reason is weak
and most insufficient. The fixed stars are removed since Ptolemy's time 26.
gr. from the first of Aries, and if the earth be immovable, as their site
varies, so should countries vary, and diverse alterations would follow. But
this we perceive not; as in Tully's time with us in Britain, _coelum visu
foedum, et in quo facile generantur nubes_, &c., 'tis so still. Wherefore
Bodine _Theat. nat. lib. 2._ and some others, will have all these
alterations and effects immediately to proceed from those genii, spirits,
angels, which rule and domineer in several places; they cause storms,
thunder, lightning, earthquakes, ruins, tempests, great winds, floods, &c.,
the philosophers of Conimbra, will refer this diversity to the influence of
that empyrean heaven: for some say the eccentricity of the sun is come
nearer to the earth than in Ptolemy's time, the virtue therefore of all the
vegetals is decayed, [3068]men grow less, &c. There are that observe new
motions of the heavens, new stars, _palantia sidera_, comets, clouds, call
them what you will, like those Medicean, Burbonian, Austrian planets,
lately detected, which do not decay, but come and go, rise higher and
lower, hide and show themselves amongst the fixed stars, amongst the
planets, above and beneath the moon, at set times, now nearer, now farther
off, together, asunder; as he that plays upon a sackbut by pulling it up
and down alters his tones and tunes, do they their stations and places,
though to us undiscerned; and from those motions proceed (as they conceive)
diverse alterations. Clavius conjectures otherwise, but they be but
conjectures. About Damascus in Coeli-Syria is a [3069]Paradise, by reason
of the plenty of waters, _in promptu causa est_, and the deserts of Arabia
barren, because of rocks, rolling seas of sands, and dry mountains _quod
inaquosa_ (saith Adricomius) _montes habens asperos, saxosos, praecipites,
horroris et mortis speciem prae se ferentes_, "uninhabitable therefore of
men, birds, beasts, void of all green trees, plants, and fruits, a vast
rocky horrid wilderness, which by no art can be manured, 'tis evident."
Bohemia is cold, for that it lies all along to the north. But why should it
be so hot in Egypt, or there never rain? Why should those [3070]etesian and
northeastern winds blow continually and constantly so long together, in
some places, at set times, one way still, in the dog-days only: here
perpetual drought, there dropping showers; here foggy mists, there a
pleasant air; here [3071]terrible thunder and lightning at such set
seasons, here frozen seas all the year, there open in the same latitude, to
the rest no such thing, nay quite opposite is to be found? Sometimes (as in
[3072]Peru) on the one side of the mountains it is hot, on the other cold,
here snow, there wind, with infinite such. Fromundus in his Meteors will
excuse or solve all this by the sun's motion, but when there is such
diversity to such as _Perioeci_ or very near site, how can that position
hold?
Who can give a reason of this diversity of meteors, that it should rain
[3073]stones, frogs, mice, &c. Rats, which they call _lemmer_ in Norway,
and are manifestly observed (as [3074]Munster writes) by the inhabitants,
to descend and fall with some feculent showers, and like so many locusts,
consume all that is green. Leo Afer speaks as much of locusts, about Fez in
Barbary there be infinite swarms in their fields upon a sudden: so at Aries
in France, 1553, the like happened by the same mischief, all their grass
and fruits were devoured, _magna incolarum admiratione et consternatione_
(as Valleriola _obser. med. lib. 1. obser. 1._ relates) _coelum subito
obumbrabant_, &c. he concludes, [3075]it could not be from natural causes,
they cannot imagine whence they come, but from heaven. Are these and such
creatures, corn, wood, stones, worms, wool, blood, &c. lifted up into the
middle region by the sunbeams, as [3076]Baracellus the physician disputes,
and thence let fall with showers, or there engendered? [3077]Cornelius
Gemma is of that opinion, they are there conceived by celestial influences:
others suppose they are immediately from God, or prodigies raised by art
and illusions of spirits, which are princes of the air; to whom Bodin.
_lib. 2. Theat. Nat_. subscribes. In fine, of meteors in general,
Aristotle's reasons are exploded by Bernardinus Telesius, by Paracelsus his
principles confuted, and other causes assigned, sal, sulphur, mercury, in
which his disciples are so expert, that they can alter elements, and
separate at their pleasure, make perpetual motions, not as Cardan, Tasneir,
Peregrinus, by some magnetical virtue, but by mixture of elements; imitate
thunder, like Salmoneus, snow, hail, the sea's ebbing and flowing, give
life to creatures (as they say) without generation, and what not? P. Nonius
Saluciensis and Kepler take upon them to demonstrate that no meteors,
clouds, fogs, [3078]vapours, arise higher than fifty or eighty miles, and
all the rest to be purer air or element of fire: which [3079]Cardan,
[3080]Tycho, and [3081]John Pena manifestly confute by refractions, and
many other arguments, there is no such element of fire at all. If, as Tycho
proves, the moon be distant from us fifty and sixty semi-diameters of the
earth: and as Peter Nonius will have it, the air be so angust, what
proportion is there betwixt the other three elements and it? To what use
serves it? Is it full of spirits which inhabit it, as the Paracelsians and
Platonists hold, the higher the more noble, [3082]full of birds, or a mere
vacuum to no purpose? It is much controverted between Tycho Brahe and
Christopher Rotman, the landgrave of Hesse's mathematician, in their
astronomical epistles, whether it be the same _Diaphanum_ clearness, matter
of air and heavens, or two distinct essences? Christopher Rotman, John
Pena, Jordanus Brunus, with many other late mathematicians, contend it is
the same and one matter throughout, saving that the higher still the purer
it is, and more subtile; as they find by experience in the top of some
hills in [3083]America; if a man ascend, he faints instantly for want of
thicker air to refrigerate the heart. Acosta, _l. 3. c. 9._ calls this
mountain Periacaca in Peru; it makes men cast and vomit, he saith, that
climb it, as some other of those Andes do in the deserts of Chile for five
hundred miles together, and for extremity of cold to lose their fingers and
toes. Tycho will have two distinct matters of heaven and air; but to say
truth, with some small qualification, they have one and the self-same
opinion about the essence and matter of heavens; that it is not hard and
impenetrable, as peripatetics hold, transparent, of a _quinta essentia_,
[3084]"but that it is penetrable and soft as the air itself is, and that
the planets move in it, as birds in the air, fishes in the sea." This they
prove by motion of comets, and otherwise (though Claremontius in his
Antitycho stiffly opposes), which are not generated, as Aristotle teacheth,
in the aerial region, of a hot and dry exhalation, and so consumed: but as
Anaxagoras and Democritus held of old, of a celestial matter: and as [3085]
Tycho, [3086]Eliseus, Roeslin, Thaddeus, Haggesius, Pena, Rotman,
Fracastorius, demonstrate by their progress, parallaxes, refractions,
motions of the planets, which interfere and cut one another's orbs, now
higher, and then lower, as [Symbol: Mars] amongst the rest, which
sometimes, as [3087]Kepler confirms by his own, and Tycho's accurate
observations, comes nearer the earth than the [Symbol: Sun] and is again
eftsoons aloft in Jupiter's orb; and [3088]other sufficient reasons, far
above the moon: exploding in the meantime that element of fire, those
fictitious first watery movers, those heavens I mean above the firmament,
which Delrio, Lodovicus Imola, Patricius, and many of the fathers affirm;
those monstrous orbs of eccentrics, and _Eccentre Epicycles deserentes_.
Which howsoever Ptolemy, Alhasen, Vitellio, Purbachius, Maginus, Clavius,
and many of their associates, stiffly maintain to be real orbs, eccentric,
concentric, circles aequant, &c. are absurd and ridiculous. For who is so
mad to think that there should be so many circles, like subordinate wheels
in a clock, all impenetrable and hard, as they feign, add and subtract at
their pleasure. [3089]Maginus makes eleven heavens, subdivided into their
orbs and circles, and all too little to serve those particular appearances:
Fracastorius, seventy-two homocentrics; Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Ramerus,
Heliseus Roeslin, have peculiar hypotheses of their own inventions; and
they be but inventions, as most of them acknowledge, as we admit of
equators, tropics, colures, circles arctic and antarctic, for doctrine's
sake (though Ramus thinks them all unnecessary), they will have them
supposed only for method and order. Tycho hath feigned I know not how many
subdivisions of epicycles in epicycles, &c., to calculate and express the
moon's motion: but when all is done, as a supposition, and no otherwise;
not (as he holds) hard, impenetrable, subtile, transparent, &c., or making
music, as Pythagoras maintained of old, and Robert Constantine of late, but
still, quiet, liquid, open, &c.
If the heavens then be penetrable, as these men deliver, and no lets, it
were not amiss in this aerial progress, to make wings and fly up, which
that Turk in Busbequius made his fellow-citizens in Constantinople believe
he would perform: and some new-fangled wits, methinks, should some time or
other find out: or if that may not be, yet with a Galileo's glass, or
Icaromenippus' wings in Lucian, command the spheres and heavens, and see
what is done amongst them. Whether there be generation and corruption, as
some think, by reason of ethereal comets, that in Cassiopea, 1572, that in
Cygno, 1600, that in Sagittarius, 1604, and many like, which by no means
Jul. Caesar la Galla, that Italian philosopher, in his physical disputation
with Galileis _de phenomenis in orbe lunae, cap. 9._ will admit: or that
they were created _ab initio_, and show themselves at set times. and as
[3090]Helisaeus Roeslin contends, have poles, axle-trees, circles of their
own, and regular motions. For, _non pereunt, sed minuuntur et disparent_,
[3091]Blancanus holds they come and go by fits, casting their tails still
from the sun: some of them, as a burning-glass, projects the sunbeams from
it; though not always neither: for sometimes a comet casts his tail from
Venus, as Tycho observes. And as [3092]Helisaeus Roeslin of some others,
from the moon, with little stars about them _ad stuporem astronomorum; cum
multis aliis in coelo miraculis_, all which argue with those Medicean,
Austrian, and Burbonian stars, that the heaven of the planets is
indistinct, pure, and open, in which the planets move _certis legibus ac
metis_. Examine likewise, _An coelum sit coloratum_? Whether the stars be
of that bigness, distance, as astronomers relate, so many in [3093]number,
1026, or 1725, as J. Bayerus; or as some Rabbins, 29,000 myriads; or as
Galileo discovers by his glasses, infinite, and that _via lactea_, a
confused light of small stars, like so many nails in a door: or all in a
row, like those 12,000 isles of the Maldives in the Indian ocean? Whether
the least visible star in the eighth sphere be eighteen times bigger than
the earth; and as Tycho calculates, 14,000 semi-diameters distant from it?
Whether they be thicker parts of the orbs, as Aristotle delivers: or so
many habitable worlds, as Democritus? Whether they have light of their own,
or from the sun, or give light round, as Patritius discourseth? _An aeque
distent a centra mundi_? Whether light be of their essence; and that light
be a substance or an accident? Whether they be hot by themselves, or by
accident cause heat? Whether there be such a precession of the equinoxes as
Copernicus holds, or that the eighth sphere move? _An bene philosophentur_,
R. Bacon and J. Dee, _Aphorism. de multiplicatione specierum_? Whether
there be any such images ascending with each degree of the zodiac in the
east, as Aliacensis feigns? _An aqua super coelum_? as Patritius and the
schoolmen will, a crystalline [3094]watery heaven, which is [3095]
certainly to be understood of that in the middle region? for otherwise, if
at Noah's flood the water came from thence, it must be above a hundred
years falling down to us, as [3096]some calculate. Besides, _An terra sit
animata_? which some so confidently believe, with Orpheus, Hermes,
Averroes, from which all other souls of men, beasts, devils, plants,
fishes, &c. are derived, and into which again, after some revolutions, as
Plato in his Timaeus, Plotinus in his Enneades more largely discuss, they
return (see Chalcidius and Bennius, Plato's commentators), as all
philosophical matter, _in materiam primam_. Keplerus, Patritius, and some
other Neoterics, have in part revived this opinion. And that every star in
heaven hath a soul, angel or intelligence to animate or move it, &c. Or to
omit all smaller controversies, as matters of less moment, and examine that
main paradox, of the earth's motion, now so much in question: Aristarchus
Samius, Pythagoras maintained it of old, Democritus and many of their
scholars, Didacus Astunica, Anthony Fascarinus, a Carmelite, and some other
commentators, will have Job to insinuate as much, _cap. 9. ver. 4._ _Qui
commovet terram de loco suo_, &c., and that this one place of scripture
makes more for the earth's motion than all the other prove against it; whom
Pineda confutes most contradict. Howsoever, it is revived since by
Copernicus, not as a truth, but a supposition, as he himself confesseth in
the preface to pope Nicholas, but now maintained in good earnest by [3097]
Calcagninus, Telesius, Kepler, Rotman, Gilbert, Digges, Galileo,
Campanella, and especially by [3098]Lansbergius, _naturae, rationi, et
veritati consentaneum_, by Origanus, and some [3099]others of his
followers. For if the earth be the centre of the world, stand still, and
the heavens move, as the most received [3100]opinion is, which they call
_inordinatam coeli dispositionem_, though stiffly maintained by Tycho,
Ptolemeus, and their adherents, _quis ille furor_? &c. what fury is that,
saith [3101]Dr. Gilbert, _satis animose_, as Cabeus notes, that shall drive
the heavens about with such incomprehensible celerity in twenty-four hours,
when as every point of the firmament, and in the equator, must needs move
(so [3102]Clavius calculates) 176,660 in one 246th part of an hour, and an
arrow out of a bow must go seven times about the earth, whilst a man can
say an Ave Maria, if it keep the same space, or compass the earth 1884
times in an hour, which is _supra humanam cogitationem_, beyond human
conceit: _ocyor et jaculo, et ventos, aequante sagitta_. A man could not
ride so much ground, going 40 miles a day, in 2904 years, as the firmament
goes in 23 hours: or so much in 203 years, as the firmament in one minute:
_quod incredibile videtur_: and the [3103]pole-star, which to our thinking
scarce moveth out of his place, goeth a bigger circuit than the sun, whose
diameter is much larger than the diameter of the heaven of the sun, and
20,000 semi-diameters of the earth from us, with the rest of the fixed
stars, as Tycho proves. To avoid therefore these impossibilities, they
ascribe a triple motion to the earth, the sun immovable in the centre of
the whole world, the earth centre of the moon, alone, above [Symbol: Mars]
and [Symbol: Mercury], beneath [Symbol: Saturn], [Symbol: Jupiter],
[Symbol: Mars] (or as [3104]Origanus and others will, one single motion to
the earth, still placed in the centre of the world, which is more probable)
a single motion to the firmament, which moves in 30 or 26 thousand years;
and so the planets, Saturn in 30 years absolves his sole and proper motion,
Jupiter in 12, Mars in 3, &c. and so solve all appearances better than any
way whatsoever: calculate all motions, be they in _longum_ or _latum_,
direct, stationary, retrograde, ascent or descent, without epicycles,
intricate eccentrics, &c. _rectius commodiusque per unicum motum terrae_,
saith Lansbergius, much more certain than by those Alphonsine, or any such
tables, which are grounded from those other suppositions. And 'tis true
they say, according to optic principles, the visible appearances of the
planets do so indeed answer to their magnitudes and orbs, and come nearest
to mathematical observations and precedent calculations, there is no
repugnancy to physical axioms, because no penetration of orbs; but then
between the sphere of Saturn and the firmament, there is such an incredible
and vast [3105]space or distance (7,000,000 semi-diameters of the earth, as
Tycho calculates) void of stars: and besides, they do so enhance the
bigness of the stars, enlarge their circuit, to solve those ordinary
objections of parallaxes and retrogradations of the fixed stars, that
alteration of the poles, elevation in several places or latitude of cities
here on earth (for, say they, if a man's eye were in the firmament, he
should not at all discern that great annual motion of the earth, but it
would still appear _punctum indivisibile_ and seem to be fixed in one
place, of the same bigness) that it is quite opposite to reason, to natural
philosophy, and all out as absurd as disproportional (so some will) as
prodigious, as that of the sun's swift motion of heavens. But _hoc posito_,
to grant this their tenet of the earth's motion: if the earth move, it is a
planet, and shines to them in the moon, and to the other planetary
inhabitants, as the moon and they do to us upon the earth: but shine she
doth, as Galileo, [3106] Kepler, and others prove, and then _per
consequens_, the rest of the planets are inhabited, as well as the moon,
which he grants in his dissertation with Galileo's _Nuncius Sidereus_,
[3107]"that there be Jovial and Saturn inhabitants," &c., and those several
planets have their several moons about them, as the earth hath hers, as
Galileo hath already evinced by his glasses: [3108]four about Jupiter, two
about Saturn (though Sitius the Florentine, Fortunius Licetus, and Jul.
Caesar le Galla cavil at it) yet Kepler, the emperor's mathematician,
confirms out of his experience, that he saw as much by the same help, and
more about Mars, Venus, and the rest they hope to find out, peradventure
even amongst the fixed stars, which Brunus and Brutius have already
averred. Then (I say) the earth and they be planets alike, moved about the
sun, the common centre of the world alike, and it may be those two green
children which [3109] Nubrigensis speaks of in his time, that fell from
heaven, came from thence; and that famous stone that fell from heaven in
Aristotle's time, olymp. 84, _anno tertio, ad Capuas Fluenta_, recorded by
Laertius and others, or Ancile or buckler in Numa's time, recorded by
Festus. We may likewise insert with Campanella and Brunus, that which
Pythagoras, Aristarchus, Samius, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Melissus,
Democritus, Leucippus maintained in their ages, there be [3110]infinite
worlds, and infinite earths or systems, _in infinito aethere_, which
[3111]Eusebius collects out of their tenets, because infinite stars and
planets like unto this of ours, which some stick not still to maintain and
publicly defend, _sperabundus expecto innumerabilium mundorum in
aeternitate per ambulationem_, &c. (Nic. Hill. Londinensis _philos.
Epicur._) For if the firmament be of such an incomparable bigness, as these
Copernical giants will have it, _infinitum, aut infinito proximum_, so vast
and full of innumerable stars, as being infinite in extent, one above
another, some higher, some lower, some nearer, some farther off, and so far
asunder, and those so huge and great, insomuch that if the whole sphere of
Saturn, and all that is included in it, _totum aggregatum_ (as Fromundus of
Louvain in his tract, _de immobilitate terrae_ argues) _evehatur inter
stellas, videri a nobis non poterat, tam immanis est distantia inter
tellurem et fixas, sed instar puncti_, &c. If our world be small in
respect, why may we not suppose a plurality of worlds, those infinite stars
visible in the firmament to be so many suns, with particular fixed centres;
to have likewise their subordinate planets, as the sun hath his dancing
still round him? which Cardinal Cusanus, Walkarinus, Brunus, and some
others have held, and some still maintain, _Animae, Aristotelismo
innutritae, et minutis speculationibus assuetae, secus forsan_, &c. Though
they seem close to us, they are infinitely distant, and so _per
consequens_, there are infinite habitable worlds: what hinders? Why should
not an infinite cause (as God is) produce infinite effects? as Nic. Hill.
_Democrit. philos._ disputes: Kepler (I confess) will by no means admit of
Brunus's infinite worlds, or that the fixed stars should be so many suns,
with their compassing planets, yet the said [3112]Kepler between jest and
earnest in his perspectives, lunar geography, [3113] & _somnio suo,
dissertat. cum nunc. sider._ seems in part to agree with this, and partly
to contradict; for the planets, he yields them to be inhabited, he doubts
of the stars; and so doth Tycho in his astronomical epistles, out of a
consideration of their vastity and greatness, break out into some such like
speeches, that he will never believe those great and huge bodies were made
to no other use than this that we perceive, to illuminate the earth, a
point insensible in respect of the whole. But who shall dwell in these vast
bodies, earths, worlds, [3114] "if they be inhabited? rational creatures?"
as Kepler demands, "or have they souls to be saved? or do they inhabit a
better part of the world than we do? Are we or they lords of the world? And
how are all things made for man?" _Difficile est nodum hunc expedire, eo
quod nondum omnia quae huc pertinent explorata habemus_: 'tis hard to
determine: this only he proves, that we are in _praecipuo mundi sinu_, in
the best place, best world, nearest the heart of the sun. [3115]Thomas
Campanella, a Calabrian monk, in his second book _de sensu rerum, cap. 4_,
subscribes to this of Kepler; that they are inhabited he certainly
supposeth, but with what kind of creatures he cannot say, he labours to
prove it by all means: and that there are infinite worlds, having made an
apology for Galileo, and dedicates this tenet of his to Cardinal Cajetanus.
Others freely speak, mutter, and would persuade the world (as [3116]Marinus
Marcenus complains) that our modern divines are too severe and rigid
against mathematicians; ignorant and peevish, in not admitting their true
demonstrations and certain observations, that they tyrannise over art,
science, and all philosophy, in suppressing their labours (saith
Pomponatius), forbidding them to write, to speak a truth, all to maintain
their superstition, and for their profit's sake. As for those places of
Scripture which oppugn it, they will have spoken _ad captum vulgi_, and if
rightly understood, and favourably interpreted, not at all against it; and
as Otho Gasman, _Astrol. cap. 1. part. 1._ notes, many great divines,
besides Porphyrius, Proclus, Simplicius, and those heathen philosophers,
_doctrina et aetate venerandi, Mosis Genesin mundanam popularis nescio
cujus ruditatis, quae longa absit a vera Philosophorum eruditione,
insimulant_: for Moses makes mention but of two planets, [Symbol: Sun] and
[Symbol: Moon-3/4], no four elements, &c. Read more on him, in
[3117]Grossius and Junius. But to proceed, these and such like insolent and
bold attempts, prodigious paradoxes, inferences must needs follow, if it
once be granted, which Rotman, Kepler, Gilbert, Diggeus, Origanus, Galileo,
and others, maintain of the earth's motion, that 'tis a planet, and shines
as the moon doth, which contains in it [3118]"both land and sea as the moon
doth:" for so they find by their glasses that _Maculae in facie Lunae_,
"the brighter parts are earth, the dusky sea," which Thales, Plutarch, and
Pythagoras formerly taught: and manifestly discern hills and dales, and
such like concavities, if we may subscribe to and believe Galileo's
observations. But to avoid these paradoxes of the earth's motion (which the
Church of Rome hath lately [3119]condemned as heretical, as appears by
Blancanus and Fromundus's writings) our latter mathematicians have rolled
all the stones that may be stirred: and to solve all appearances and
objections, have invented new hypotheses, and fabricated new systems of the
world, out of their own Dedalaean heads. Fracastorius will have the earth
stand still, as before; and to avoid that supposition of eccentrics and
epicycles, he hath coined seventy-two homocentrics, to solve all
appearances. Nicholas Ramerus will have the earth the centre of the world,
but movable, and the eighth sphere immovable, the five upper planets to
move about the sun, the sun and moon about the earth. Of which orbs Tycho
Brahe puts the earth the centre immovable, the stars immovable, the rest
with Ramerus, the planets without orbs to wander in the air, keep time and
distance, true motion, according to that virtue which God hath given them.
[3120]Helisaeus Roeslin censureth both, with Copernicus (whose hypothesis
_de terrae motu_, Philippus Lansbergius hath lately vindicated, and
demonstrated with solid arguments in a just volume, Jansonius Caesins
[3121]hath illustrated in a sphere.) The said Johannes Lansbergius, 1633,
hath since defended his assertion against all the cavils and calumnies of
Fromundus his Anti-Aristarchus, Baptista Morinus, and Petrus Bartholinus:
Fromundus, 1634, hath written against him again, J. Rosseus of Aberdeen,
&c. (sound drums and trumpets) whilst Roeslin (I say) censures all, and
Ptolemeus himself as insufficient: one offends against natural philosophy,
another against optic principles, a third against mathematical, as not
answering to astronomical observations: one puts a great space between
Saturn's orb and the eighth sphere, another too narrow. In his own
hypothesis he makes the earth as before the universal centre, the sun to
the five upper planets, to the eighth sphere he ascribes diurnal motion,
eccentrics, and epicycles to the seven planets, which hath been formerly
exploded; and so, _Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt_, [3122]as
a tinker stops one hole and makes two, he corrects them, and doth worse
himself: reforms some, and mars all. In the mean time, the world is tossed
in a blanket amongst them, they hoist the earth up and down like a ball,
make it stand and go at their pleasures: one saith the sun stands, another
he moves; a third comes in, taking them all at rebound, and lest there
should any paradox be wanting, he [3123]finds certain spots and clouds in
the sun, by the help of glasses, which multiply (saith Keplerus) a thing
seen a thousand times bigger _in plano_, and makes it come thirty-two times
nearer to the eye of the beholder: but see the demonstration of this glass
in [3124]Tarde, by means of which, the sun must turn round upon his own
centre, or they about the sun. Fabricius puts only three, and those in the
sun: Apelles 15, and those without the sun, floating like the Cyanean Isles
in the Euxine sea. [3125]Tarde, the Frenchman, hath observed thirty-three,
and those neither spots nor clouds, as Galileo, _Epist. ad Valserum_,
supposeth, but planets concentric with the sun, and not far from him with
regular motions. [3126]Christopher Shemer, a German Suisser Jesuit, _Ursica
Rosa_, divides them _in maculas et faculas_, and will have them to be fixed
_in Solis superficie_: and to absolve their periodical and regular motion
in twenty-seven or twenty-eight days, holding withal the rotation of the
sun upon his centre; and all are so confident, that they have made schemes
and tables of their motions. The [3127]Hollander, in his _dissertatiuncula
cum Apelle_, censures all; and thus they disagree amongst themselves, old
and new, irreconcilable in their opinions; thus Aristarchus, thus
Hipparchus, thus Ptolemeus, thus Albateginus, thus Alfraganus, thus Tycho,
thus Ramerus, thus Roeslinus, thus Fracastorius, thus Copernicus and his
adherents, thus Clavius and Maginus, &c., with their followers, vary and
determine of these celestial orbs and bodies: and so whilst these men
contend about the sun and moon, like the philosophers in Lucian, it is to
be feared, the sun and moon will hide themselves, and be as much offended
as [3128]she was with those, and send another messenger to Jupiter, by some
new-fangled Icaromenippus, to make an end of all those curious
controversies, and scatter them abroad.
But why should the sun and moon be angry, or take exceptions at
mathematicians and philosophers? when as the like measure is offered unto
God himself, by a company of theologasters: they are not contented to see
the sun and moon, measure their site and biggest distance in a glass,
calculate their motions, or visit the moon in a poetical fiction, or a
dream, as he saith, [3129]_Audax facinus et memorabile nunc incipiam, neque
hoc saeculo usurpatum prius, quid in Lunae regno hac nocte gestum sit
exponam, et quo nemo unquam nisi somniando pervenit_, [3130]but he and
Menippus: or as [3131]Peter Cuneus, _Bona fide agam, nihil eorum quae
scripturus sum, verum esse scitote, &c. quae nec facta, nec futura sunt,
dicam, [3132]stili tantum et ingenii causa_, not in jest, but in good
earnest these gigantical Cyclops will transcend spheres, heaven, stars,
into that Empyrean heaven; soar higher yet, and see what God himself doth.
The Jewish Talmudists take upon them to determine how God spends his whole
time, sometimes playing with Leviathan, sometimes overseeing the world,
&c., like Lucian's Jupiter, that spent much of the year in painting
butterflies' wings, and seeing who offered sacrifice; telling the hours
when it should rain, how much snow should fall in such a place, which way
the wind should stand in Greece, which way in Africa. In the Turks'
Alcoran, Mahomet is taken up to heaven, upon a Pegasus sent on purpose for
him, as he lay in bed with his wife, and after some conference with God is
set on ground again. The pagans paint him and mangle him after a thousand
fashions; our heretics, schismatics, and some schoolmen, come not far
behind: some paint him in the habit of an old man, and make maps of heaven,
number the angels, tell their several [3133]names, offices: some deny God
and his providence, some take his office out of his hands, will [3134]bind
and loose in heaven, release, pardon, forgive, and be quarter-master with
him: some call his Godhead in question, his power, and attributes, his
mercy, justice, providence: they will know with [3135]Cecilius, why good
and bad are punished together, war, fires, plagues, infest all alike, why
wicked men flourish, good are poor, in prison, sick, and ill at ease. Why
doth he suffer so much mischief and evil to be done, if he be [3136]able to
help? why doth he not assist good, or resist bad, reform our wills, if he
be not the author of sin, and let such enormities be committed, unworthy of
his knowledge, wisdom, government, mercy, and providence, why lets he all
things be done by fortune and chance? Others as prodigiously inquire after
his omnipotency, _an possit plures similes creare deos? an ex scarcibaeo
deum? &c., et quo demum ruetis sacrificuli_? Some, by visions and
revelations, take upon them to be familiar with God, and to be of privy
council with him; they will tell how many, and who shall be saved, when the
world shall come to an end, what year, what month, and whatsoever else God
hath reserved unto himself, and to his angels. Some again, curious
fantastics, will know more than this, and inquire with [3137]Epicurus, what
God did before the world was made? was he idle? Where did he bide? What did
he make the world of? why did he then make it, and not before? If he made
it new, or to have an end, how is he unchangeable, infinite, &c. Some will
dispute, cavil, and object, as Julian did of old, whom Cyril confutes, as
Simon Magus is feigned to do, in that [3138]dialogue betwixt him and Peter:
and Ammonius the philosopher, in that dialogical disputation with Zacharias
the Christian. If God be infinitely and only good, why should he alter or
destroy the world? if he confound that which is good, how shall himself
continue good? If he pull it down because evil, how shall he be free from
the evil that made it evil? &c., with many such absurd and brain-sick
questions, intricacies, froth of human wit, and excrements of curiosity,
&c., which, as our Saviour told his inquisitive disciples, are not fit for
them to know. But hoo! I am now gone quite out of sight, I am almost giddy
with roving about: I could have ranged farther yet; but I am an infant, and
not [3139]able to dive into these profundities, or sound these depths; not
able to understand, much less to discuss. I leave the contemplation of
these things to stronger wits, that have better ability, and happier
leisure to wade into such philosophical mysteries; for put case I were as
able as willing, yet what can one man do? I will conclude with
[3140]Scaliger, _Nequaquam nos homines sumus, sed partes hominis, ex
omnibus aliquid fieri potest, idque non magnum; ex singulis fere nihil_.
Besides (as Nazianzen hath it) _Deus latere nos multa voluit_; and with
Seneca, _cap. 35. de Cometis_, _Quid miramur tam rara mundi spectacula non
teneri certis legibus, nondum intelligi? multae sunt gentes quae tantum de
facie sciunt coelum, veniet, tempus fortasse, quo ista quae, nunc latent in
lucem dies extrahat longioris aevi diligentia, una aetas non sufficit,
posteri_, &c., when God sees his time, he will reveal these mysteries to
mortal men, and show that to some few at last, which he hath concealed so
long. For I am of [3141]his mind, that Columbus did not find out America by
chance, but God directed him at that time to discover it: it was contingent
to him, but necessary to God; he reveals and conceals to whom and when he
will. And which [3142]one said of history and records of former times, "God
in his providence, to check our presumptuous inquisition, wraps up all
things in uncertainty, bars us from long antiquity, and bounds our search
within the compass of some few ages:" many good things are lost, which our
predecessors made use of, as Pancirola will better inform you; many new
things are daily invented, to the public good; so kingdoms, men, and
knowledge ebb and flow, are hid and revealed, and when you have all done,
as the Preacher concluded, _Nihil est sub sole novum_ (nothing new under
the sun.) But my melancholy spaniel's quest, my game is sprung, and I must
suddenly come down and follow.
Jason Pratensis, in his book _de morbis capitis_, and chapter of
Melancholy, hath these words out of Galen, [3143]"Let them come to me to
know what meat and drink they shall use, and besides that, I will teach
them what temper of ambient air they shall make choice of, what wind, what
countries they shall choose, and what avoid." Out of which lines of his,
thus much we may gather, that to this cure of melancholy, amongst other
things, the rectification of air is necessarily required. This is
performed, either in reforming natural or artificial air. Natural is that
which is in our election to choose or avoid: and 'tis either general, to
countries, provinces; particular, to cities, towns, villages, or private
houses. What harm those extremities of heat or cold do in this malady, I
have formerly shown: the medium must needs be good, where the air is
temperate, serene, quiet, free from bogs, fens, mists, all manner of
putrefaction, contagious and filthy noisome smells. The [3144]Egyptians by
all geographers are commended to be _hilares_, a conceited and merry
nation: which I can ascribe to no other cause than the serenity of their
air. They that live in the Orcades are registered by [3145]Hector Boethius
and [3146]Cardan, to be of fair complexion, long-lived, most healthful,
free from all manner of infirmities of body and mind, by reason of a sharp
purifying air, which comes from the sea. The Boeotians in Greece were dull
and heavy, _crassi Boeoti_, by reason of a foggy air in which they lived,
[3147]_Boeotum in crasso jurares aere natum_, Attica most acute, pleasant,
and refined. The clime changes not so much customs, manners, wits (as
Aristotle _Polit. lib. 6. cap. 4._ Vegetius, Plato, Bodine, _method. hist.
cap. 5._ hath proved at large) as constitutions of their bodies, and
temperature itself. In all particular provinces we see it confirmed by
experience, as the air is, so are the inhabitants, dull, heavy, witty,
subtle, neat, cleanly, clownish, sick, and sound. In [3148]Perigord in
France the air is subtle, healthful, seldom any plague or contagious
disease, but hilly and barren: the men sound, nimble, and lusty; but in
some parts of Guienne, full of moors and marshes, the people dull, heavy,
and subject to many infirmities. Who sees not a great difference between
Surrey, Sussex, and Romney Marsh, the wolds in Lincolnshire and the fens.
He therefore that loves his health, if his ability will give him leave,
must often shift places, and make choice of such as are wholesome,
pleasant, and convenient: there is nothing better than change of air in
this malady, and generally for health to wander up and down, as those
[3149]_Tartari Zamolhenses_, that live in hordes, and take opportunity of
times, places, seasons. The kings of Persia had their summer and winter
houses; in winter at Sardis, in summer at Susa; now at Persepolis, then at
Pasargada. Cyrus lived seven cold months at Babylon, three at Susa, two at
Ecbatana, saith [3150]Xenophon, and had by that means a perpetual spring.
The great Turk sojourns sometimes at Constantinople, sometimes at
Adrianople, &c. The kings of Spain have their Escurial in heat of summer,
[3151]Madrid for a wholesome seat, Valladolid a pleasant site, &c., variety
of _secessus_ as all princes and great men have, and their several
progresses to this purpose. Lucullus the Roman had his house at Rome, at
Baiae, &c. [3152]When Cn. Pompeius, Marcus Cicero (saith Plutarch) and many
noble men in the summer came to see him, at supper Pompeius jested with
him, that it was an elegant and pleasant village, full of windows,
galleries, and all offices fit for a summer house; but in his judgment very
unfit for winter: Lucullus made answer that the lord of the house had wit
like a crane, that changeth her country with the season; he had other
houses furnished, and built for that purpose, all out as commodious as
this. So Tully had his Tusculan, Plinius his Lauretan village, and every
gentleman of any fashion in our times hath the like. The [3153]bishop of
Exeter had fourteen several houses all furnished, in times past. In Italy,
though they bide in cities in winter, which is more gentlemanlike, all the
summer they come abroad to their country-houses, to recreate themselves.
Our gentry in England live most part in the country (except it be some few
castles) building still in bottoms (saith [3154]Jovius) or near woods,
_corona arborum virentium_; you shall know a village by a tuft of trees at
or about it, to avoid those strong winds wherewith the island is infested,
and cold winter blasts. Some discommend moated houses, as unwholesome; so
Camden saith of [3155]Ew-elme, that it was therefore unfrequented, _ob
stagni vicini halitus_, and all such places as be near lakes or rivers. But
I am of opinion that these inconveniences will be mitigated, or easily
corrected by good fires, as [3156]one reports of Venice, that
_graveolentia_ and fog of the moors is sufficiently qualified by those
innumerable smokes. Nay more, [3157]Thomas Philol. Ravennas, a great
physician, contends that the Venetians are generally longer-lived than any
city in Europe, and live many of them 120 years. But it is not water simply
that so much offends, as the slime and noisome smells that accompany such
overflowed places, which is but at some few seasons after a flood, and is
sufficiently recompensed with sweet smells and aspects in summer, _Ver
pinget vario gemmantia prata colore_, and many other commodities of
pleasure and profit; or else may be corrected by the site, if it be
somewhat remote from the water, as Lindley, [3158]_Orton super montem_,
[3159]Drayton, or a little more elevated, though nearer, as [3160]Caucut,
[3161]Amington, [3162]Polesworth, [3163]Weddington (to insist in such
places best to me known, upon the river of Anker, in Warwickshire, [3164]
Swarston, and [3165]Drakesly upon Trent). Or howsoever they be unseasonable
in winter, or at some times, they have their good use in summer. If so be
that their means be so slender as they may not admit of any such variety,
but must determine once for all, and make one house serve each season, I
know no men that have given better rules in this behalf than our husbandry
writers. [3166]Cato and Columella prescribe a good house to stand by a
navigable river, good highways, near some city, and in a good soil, but
that is more for commodity than health.
The best soil commonly yields the worst air, a dry sandy plat is fittest to
build upon, and such as is rather hilly than plain, full of downs, a
Cotswold country, as being most commodious for hawking, hunting, wood,
waters, and all manner of pleasures. Perigord in France is barren, yet by
reason of the excellency of the air, and such pleasures that it affords,
much inhabited by the nobility; as Nuremberg in Germany, Toledo in Spain.
Our countryman Tusser will tell us so much, that the fieldone is for
profit, the woodland for pleasure and health; the one commonly a deep clay,
therefore noisome in winter, and subject to bad highways: the other a dry
sand. Provision may be had elsewhere, and our towns are generally bigger in
the woodland than the fieldone, more frequent and populous, and gentlemen
more delight to dwell in such places. Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire
(where I was once a grammar scholar), may be a sufficient witness, which
stands, as Camden notes, _loco ingrato et sterili_, but in an excellent
air, and full of all manner of pleasures. [3167]Wadley in Berkshire is
situate in a vale, though not so fertile a soil as some vales afford, yet a
most commodious site, wholesome, in a delicious air, a rich and pleasant
seat. So Segrave in Leicestershire (which town [3168]I am now bound to
remember) is situated in a champaign, at the edge of the wolds, and more
barren than the villages about it, yet no place likely yields a better air.
And he that built that fair house, [3169]Wollerton in Nottinghamshire, is
much to be commended (though the tract be sandy and barren about it) for
making choice of such a place. Constantine, _lib. 2. cap. de Agricult._
praiseth mountains, hilly, steep places, above the rest by the seaside, and
such as look toward the [3170]north upon some great river, as [3171]
Farmack in Derbyshire, on the Trent, environed with hills, open only to the
north, like Mount Edgecombe in Cornwall, which Mr. [3172]Carew so much
admires for an excellent seat: such is the general site of Bohemia:
_serenat Boreas_, the north wind clarifies, [3173]"but near lakes or
marshes, in holes, obscure places, or to the south and west, he utterly
disproves," those winds are unwholesome, putrefying, and make men subject
to diseases. The best building for health, according to him, is in [3174]
"high places, and in an excellent prospect," like that of Cuddeston in
Oxfordshire (which place I must _honoris ergo_ mention) is lately and
fairly [3175]built in a good air, good prospect, good soil, both for profit
and pleasure, not so easily to be matched. P. Crescentius, in his _lib. 1.
de Agric. cap. 5._ is very copious in this subject, how a house should be
wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air, wind, &c., Varro _de re rust.
lib. 1. cap. 12._ [3176]forbids lakes and rivers, marshy and manured
grounds, they cause a bad air, gross diseases, hard to be cured: [3177]"if
it be so that he cannot help it, better (as he adviseth) sell thy house and
land than lose thine health." He that respects not this in choosing of his
seat, or building his house, is _mente captus_, mad, [3178]Cato saith, "and
his dwelling next to hell itself," according to Columella: he commends, in
conclusion, the middle of a hill, upon a descent. Baptista, _Porta Villae,
lib. 1. cap. 22._ censures Varro, Cato, Columella, and those ancient
rustics, approving many things, disallowing some, and will by all means
have the front of a house stand to the south, which how it may be good in
Italy and hotter climes, I know not, in our northern countries I am sure it
is best: Stephanus, a Frenchman, _praedio rustic. lib. 1. cap. 4._
subscribes to this, approving especially the descent of a hill south or
south-east, with trees to the north, so that it be well watered; a
condition in all sites which must not be omitted, as Herbastein inculcates,
_lib. 1._ Julius Caesar Claudinus, a physician, _consult. 24_, for a
nobleman in Poland, melancholy given, adviseth him to dwell in a house
inclining to the [3179]east, and [3180]by all means to provide the air be
clear and sweet; which Montanus, _consil. 229_, counselleth the earl of
Monfort, his patient, to inhabit a pleasant house, and in a good air. If it
be so the natural site may not be altered of our city, town, village, yet
by artificial means it may be helped. In hot countries, therefore, they
make the streets of their cities very narrow, all over Spain, Africa,
Italy, Greece, and many cities of France, in Languedoc especially, and
Provence, those southern parts: Montpelier, the habitation and university
of physicians, is so built, with high houses, narrow streets, to divert the
sun's scalding rays, which Tacitus commends, _lib. 15. Annat._, as most
agreeing to their health, [3181]"because the height of buildings, and
narrowness of streets, keep away the sunbeams." Some cities use galleries,
or arched cloisters towards the street, as Damascus, Bologna, Padua, Berne
in Switzerland, Westchester with us, as well to avoid tempests, as the
sun's scorching heat. They build on high hills, in hot countries, for more
air; or to the seaside, as Baiae, Naples, &c. In our northern countries we
are opposite, we commend straight, broad, open, fair streets, as most
befitting and agreeing to our clime. We build in bottoms for warmth: and
that site of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, in the Aegean sea, which
Vitruvius so much discommends, magnificently built with fair houses, _sed
imprudenter positam_ unadvisedly sited, because it lay along to the south,
and when the south wind blew, the people were all sick, would make an
excellent site in our northern climes.
Of that artificial site of houses I have sufficiently discoursed: if the
plan of the dwelling may not be altered, yet there is much in choice of
such a chamber or room, in opportune opening and shutting of windows,
excluding foreign air and winds, and walking abroad at convenient times.
[3182]Crato, a German, commends east and south site (disallowing cold air
and northern winds in this case, rainy weather and misty days), free from
putrefaction, fens, bogs, and muck--hills. If the air be such, open no
windows, come not abroad. Montanus will have his patient not to [3183]stir
at all, if the wind be big or tempestuous, as most part in March it is with
us; or in cloudy, lowering, dark days, as in November, which we commonly
call the black month; or stormy, let the wind stand how it will, _consil.
27. and 30._ he must not [3184]"open a casement in bad weather," or in a
boisterous season, _consil. 299_, he especially forbids us to open windows
to a south wind. The best sites for chamber windows, in my judgment, are
north, east, south, and which is the worst, west. Levinus Lemnius, _lib. 3.
cap. 3. de occult. nat. mir._ attributes so much to air, and rectifying of
wind and windows, that he holds it alone sufficient to make a man sick or
well; to alter body and mind. [3185]"A clear air cheers up the spirits,
exhilarates the mind; a thick, black, misty, tempestuous, contracts,
overthrows." Great heed is therefore to be taken at what times we walk, how
we place our windows, lights, and houses, how we let in or exclude this
ambient air. The Egyptians, to avoid immoderate heat, make their windows on
the top of the house like chimneys, with two tunnels to draw a thorough
air. In Spain they commonly make great opposite windows without glass,
still shutting those which are next to the sun: so likewise in Turkey and
Italy (Venice excepted, which brags of her stately glazed palaces) they use
paper windows to like purpose; and lie, _sub dio_, in the top of their
flat-roofed houses, so sleeping under the canopy of heaven. In some parts
of [3186]Italy they have windmills, to draw a cooling air out of hollow
caves, and disperse the same through all the chambers of their palaces, to
refresh them; as at Costoza, the house of Caesareo Trento, a gentleman of
Vicenza, and elsewhere. Many excellent means are invented to correct nature
by art. If none of these courses help, the best way is to make artificial
air, which howsoever is profitable and good, still to be made hot and
moist, and to be seasoned with sweet perfumes, [3187]pleasant and lightsome
as it may be; to have roses, violets, and sweet-smelling flowers ever in
their windows, posies in their hand. Laurentius commends water-lilies, a
vessel of warm water to evaporate in the room, which will make a more
delightful perfume, if there be added orange-flowers, pills of citrons,
rosemary, cloves, bays, rosewater, rose-vinegar, benzoin, laudanum, styrax,
and such like gums, which make a pleasant and acceptable perfume.
[3188]Bessardus Bisantinus prefers the smoke of juniper to melancholy
persons, which is in great request with us at Oxford, to sweeten our
chambers. [3189]Guianerius prescribes the air to be moistened with water,
and sweet herbs boiled in it, vine, and sallow leaves, &c., [3190] to
besprinkle the ground and posts with rosewater, rose-vinegar, which
Avicenna much approves. Of colours it is good to behold green, red, yellow,
and white, and by all means to have light enough, with windows in the day,
wax candles in the night, neat chambers, good fires in winter, merry
companions; for though melancholy persons love to be dark and alone, yet
darkness is a great increaser of the humour.
Although our ordinary air be good by nature or art, yet it is not amiss, as
I have said, still to alter it; no better physic for a melancholy man than
change of air, and variety of places, to travel abroad and see fashions.
[3191]Leo Afer speaks of many of his countrymen so cured, without all other
physic: amongst the Negroes, "there is such an excellent air, that if any
of them be sick elsewhere, and brought thither, he is instantly recovered,
of which he was often an eyewitness." [3192]Lipsius, Zuinger, and some
others, add as much of ordinary travel. No man, saith Lipsius, in an
epistle to Phil. Lanoius, a noble friend of his, now ready to make a
voyage, [3193]"can be such a stock or stone, whom that pleasant speculation
of countries, cities, towns, rivers, will not affect." [3194] Seneca the
philosopher was infinitely taken with the sight of Scipio Africanus' house,
near Linternum, to view those old buildings, cisterns, baths, tombs, &c.
And how was [3195]Tully pleased with the sight of Athens, to behold those
ancient and fair buildings, with a remembrance of their worthy inhabitants.
Paulus Aemilius, that renowned Roman captain, after he had conquered
Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, and now made an end of his tedious
wars, though he had been long absent from Rome, and much there desired,
about the beginning of autumn (as [3196]Livy describes it) made a pleasant
peregrination all over Greece, accompanied with his son Scipio, and
Atheneus the brother of king Eumenes, leaving the charge of his army with
Sulpicius Gallus. By Thessaly he went to Delphos, thence to Megaris, Aulis,
Athens, Argos, Lacedaemon, Megalopolis, &c. He took great content,
exceeding delight in that his voyage, as who doth not that shall attempt
the like, though his travel be _ad jactationem magis quam ad usum reipub._
(as [3197]one well observes) to crack, gaze, see fine sights and fashions,
spend time, rather than for his own or public good? (as it is to many
gallants that travel out their best days, together with their means,
manners, honesty, religion) yet it availeth howsoever. For peregrination
charms our senses with such unspeakable and sweet variety, [3198]that some
count him unhappy that never travelled, and pity his case, that from his
cradle to his old age beholds the same still; still, still the same, the
same. Insomuch that [3199]Rhasis, _cont. lib. 1. Tract. 2._ doth not only
commend, but enjoin travel, and such variety of objects to a melancholy
man, "and to lie in diverse inns, to be drawn into several companies:"
Montaltus, _cap. 36._ and many neoterics are of the same mind: Celsus
adviseth him therefore that will continue his health, to have _varium vitae
genus_, diversity of callings, occupations, to be busied about, [3200]
"sometimes to live in the city, sometimes in the country; now to study or
work, to be intent, then again to hawk or hunt, swim, run, ride, or
exercise himself." A good prospect alone will ease melancholy, as Comesius
contends, _lib. 2. c. 7. de Sale_. The citizens of [3201]Barcino, saith he,
otherwise penned in, melancholy, and stirring little abroad, are much
delighted with that pleasant prospect their city hath into the sea, which
like that of old Athens besides Aegina Salamina, and many pleasant islands,
had all the variety of delicious objects: so are those Neapolitans and
inhabitants of Genoa, to see the ships, boats, and passengers go by, out of
their windows, their whole cities being situated on the side of a hill,
like Pera by Constantinople, so that each house almost hath a free prospect
to the sea, as some part of London to the Thames: or to have a free
prospect all over the city at once, as at Granada in Spain, and Fez in
Africa, the river running betwixt two declining hills, the steepness
causeth each house almost, as well to oversee, as to be overseen of the
rest. Every country is full of such [3202]delightsome prospects, as well
within land, as by sea, as Hermon and [3203]Rama in Palestina, Colalto in
Italy, the top of Magetus, or Acrocorinthus, that old decayed castle in
Corinth, from which Peloponessus, Greece, the Ionian and Aegean seas were
_semel et simul_ at one view to be taken. In Egypt the square top of the
great pyramid, three hundred yards in height, and so the Sultan's palace in
Grand Cairo, the country being plain, hath a marvellous fair prospect as
well over Nilus, as that great city, five Italian miles long, and two
broad, by the river side: from mount Sion in Jerusalem, the Holy Land is of
all sides to be seen: such high places are infinite: with us those of the
best note are Glastonbury tower, Box Hill in Surrey, Bever castle, Rodway
Grange, [3204]Walsby in Lincolnshire, where I lately received a real
kindness, by the munificence of the right honourable my noble lady and
patroness, the Lady Frances, countess dowager of Exeter: and two amongst
the rest, which I may not omit for vicinity's sake, Oldbury in the confines
of Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with great delight, at
the foot of which hill [3205]I was born: and Hanbury in Staffordshire,
contiguous to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and an ancient patrimony
belonging to our family, now in the possession of mine elder brother,
William Burton, Esquire. [3206]Barclay the Scot commends that of Greenwich
tower for one of the best prospects in Europe, to see London on the one
side, the Thames, ships, and pleasant meadows on the other. There be those
that say as much and more of St. Mark's steeple in Venice. Yet these are at
too great a distance: some are especially affected with such objects as be
near, to see passengers go by in some great roadway, or boats in a river,
_in subjectum forum despicere_, to oversee a fair, a marketplace, or out of
a pleasant window into some thoroughfare street, to behold a continual
concourse, a promiscuous rout, coming and going, or a multitude of
spectators at a theatre, a mask, or some such like show. But I rove: the
sum is this, that variety of actions, objects, air, places, are excellent
good in this infirmity, and all others, good for man, good for beast.
[3207]Constantine the emperor, _lib. 18. cap. 13. ex Leontio_, "holds it an
only cure for rotten sheep, and any manner of sick cattle." Laelius a Fonte
Aegubinus, that great doctor, at the latter end of many of his
consultations (as commonly he doth set down what success his physic had,)
in melancholy most especially approves of this above all other remedies
whatsoever, as appears _consult. 69. consult. 229._ &c. [3208]"Many other
things helped, but change of air was that which wrought the cure, and did
most good."
MEMB. IV.
_Exercise rectified of Body and Mind_.
To that great inconvenience, which comes on the one side by immoderate and
unseasonable exercise, too much solitariness and idleness on the other,
must be opposed as an antidote, a moderate and seasonable use of it, and
that both of body and mind, as a most material circumstance, much conducing
to this cure, and to the general preservation of our health. The heavens
themselves run continually round, the sun riseth and sets, the moon
increaseth and decreaseth, stars and planets keep their constant motions,
the air is still tossed by the winds, the waters ebb and flow to their
conservation no doubt, to teach us that we should ever be in action. For
which cause Hieron prescribes Rusticus the monk, that he be always occupied
about some business or other, [3209]"that the devil do not find him idle."
[3210]Seneca would have a man do something, though it be to no purpose.
[3211]Xenophon wisheth one rather to play at tables, dice, or make a jester
of himself (though he might be far better employed) than do nothing. The
[3212]Egyptians of old, and many flourishing commonwealths since, have
enjoined labour and exercise to all sorts of men, to be of some vocation
and calling, and give an account of their time, to prevent those grievous
mischiefs that come by idleness: "for as fodder, whip, and burthen belong
to the ass: so meat, correction, and work unto the servant," Ecclus.
xxxiii. 23. The Turks enjoin all men whatsoever, of what degree, to be of
some trade or other, the Grand Signior himself is not excused. [3213]"In
our memory" (saith Sabellicus) "Mahomet the Turk, he that conquered Greece,
at that very time when he heard ambassadors of other princes, did either
carve or cut wooden spoons, or frame something upon a table." [3214]This
present sultan makes notches for bows. The Jews are most severe in this
examination of time. All well-governed places, towns, families, and every
discreet person will be a law unto himself. But amongst us the badge of
gentry is idleness: to be of no calling, not to labour, for that's
derogatory to their birth, to be a mere spectator, a drone, _fruges
consumere natus_, to have no necessary employment to busy himself about in
church and commonwealth (some few governors exempted), "but to rise to
eat," &c., to spend his days in hawking, hunting, &c., and such like
disports and recreations ([3215]which our casuists tax), are the sole
exercise almost, and ordinary actions of our nobility, and in which they
are too immoderate. And thence it comes to pass, that in city and country
so many grievances of body and mind, and this feral disease of melancholy
so frequently rageth, and now domineers almost all over Europe amongst our
great ones. They know not how to spend their time (disports excepted, which
are all their business), what to do, or otherwise how to bestow themselves:
like our modern Frenchmen, that had rather lose a pound of blood in a
single combat, than a drop of sweat in any honest labour. Every man almost
hath something or other to employ himself about, some vocation, some trade,
but they do all by ministers and servants, _ad otia duntaxat se natos
existimant, imo ad sui ipsius plerumque et aliorum perniciem_, [3216]as one
freely taxeth such kind of men, they are all for pastimes, 'tis all their
study, all their invention tends to this alone, to drive away time, as if
they were born some of them to no other ends. Therefore to correct and
avoid these errors and inconveniences, our divines, physicians, and
politicians, so much labour, and so seriously exhort; and for this disease
in particular, [3217]"there can be no better cure than continual business,"
as Rhasis holds, "to have some employment or other, which may set their
mind awork, and distract their cogitations." Riches may not easily be had
without labour and industry, nor learning without study, neither can our
health be preserved without bodily exercise. If it be of the body,
Guianerius allows that exercise which is gentle, [3218]"and still after
those ordinary frications" which must be used every morning. Montaltus,
_cap. 26._ and Jason Pratensis use almost the same words, highly commending
exercise if it be moderate; "a wonderful help so used," Crato calls it,"
and a great means to preserve our health, as adding strength to the whole
body, increasing natural heat, by means of which the nutriment is well
concocted in the stomach, liver, and veins, few or no crudities left, is
happily distributed over all the body." Besides, it expels excrements by
sweat and other insensible vapours; insomuch, that [3219]Galen prefers
exercise before all physic, rectification of diet, or any regimen in what
kind soever; 'tis nature's physician. [3220]Fulgentius, out of Gordonius
_de conserv. vit. hom. lib. 1. cap. 7._ terms exercise, "a spur of a dull,
sleepy nature, the comforter of the members, cure of infirmity, death of
diseases, destruction of all mischiefs and vices." The fittest time for
exercise is a little before dinner, a little before supper, [3221]or at any
time when the body is empty. Montanus, _consil. 31._ prescribes it every
morning to his patient, and that, as [3222]Calenus adds, "after he hath
done his ordinary needs, rubbed his body, washed his hands and face, combed
his head and gargarised." What kind of exercise he should use, Galen tells
us, _lib. 2. et 3. de sanit. tuend._ and in what measure, [3223] "till the
body be ready to sweat," and roused up; _ad ruborem_, some say, _non ad
sudorem_, lest it should dry the body too much; others enjoin those
wholesome businesses, as to dig so long in his garden, to hold the plough,
and the like. Some prescribe frequent and violent labour and exercises, as
sawing every day so long together (_epid. 6._ Hippocrates confounds them),
but that is in some cases, to some peculiar men; [3224]the most forbid, and
by no means will have it go farther than a beginning sweat, as being
[3225]perilous if it exceed.
Of these labours, exercises, and recreations, which are likewise included,
some properly belong to the body, some to the mind, some more easy, some
hard, some with delight, some without, some within doors, some natural,
some are artificial. Amongst bodily exercises, Galen commends _ludum parvae
pilae_, to play at ball, be it with the hand or racket, in tennis-courts or
otherwise, it exerciseth each part of the body, and doth much good, so that
they sweat not too much. It was in great request of old amongst the Greeks,
Romans, Barbarians, mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, and Plinius. Some write,
that Aganella, a fair maid of Corcyra, was the inventor of it, for she
presented the first ball that ever was made to Nausica, the daughter of
King Alcinous, and taught her how to use it.
The ordinary sports which are used abroad are hawking, hunting, _hilares
venandi labores_, [3226]one calls them, because they recreate body and
mind, [3227]another, the [3228]"best exercise that is, by which alone many
have been [3229]freed from all feral diseases." Hegesippus, _lib. 1. cap.
37._ relates of Herod, that he was eased of a grievous melancholy by that
means. Plato, _7. de leg_. highly magnifies it, dividing it into three
parts, "by land, water, air." Xenophon, in _Cyropaed_. graces it with a
great name, _Deorum munus_, the gift of the gods, a princely sport, which
they have ever used, saith Langius, _epist. 59. lib. 2._ as well for health
as pleasure, and do at this day, it being the sole almost and ordinary
sport of our noblemen in Europe, and elsewhere all over the world. Bohemus,
_de mor. gent. lib. 3. cap. 12._ styles it therefore, _studium nobilium,
communiter venantur, quod sibi solis licere contendunt_, 'tis all their
study, their exercise, ordinary business, all their talk: and indeed some
dote too much after it, they can do nothing else, discourse of naught else.
Paulus Jovius, _descr. Brit._ doth in some sort tax our [3230] "English
nobility for it, for living in the country so much, and too frequent use of
it, as if they had no other means but hawking and hunting to approve
themselves gentlemen with."
Hawking comes near to hunting, the one in the air, as the other on the
earth, a sport as much affected as the other, by some preferred. [3231]It
was never heard of amongst the Romans, invented some twelve hundred years
since, and first mentioned by Firmicus, _lib. 5. cap. 8._ The Greek
emperors began it, and now nothing so frequent: he is nobody that in the
season hath not a hawk on his fist. A great art, and many [3232]books
written of it. It is a wonder to hear [3233]what is related of the Turks'
officers in this behalf, how many thousand men are employed about it, how
many hawks of all sorts, how much revenues consumed on that only disport,
how much time is spent at Adrianople alone every year to that purpose. The
[3234]Persian kings hawk after butterflies with sparrows made to that use,
and stares: lesser hawks for lesser games they have, and bigger for the
rest, that they may produce their sport to all seasons. The Muscovian
emperors reclaim eagles to fly at hinds, foxes, &c., and such a one was
sent for a present to [3235]Queen Elizabeth: some reclaim ravens, castrils,
pies, &c., and man them for their pleasures.
Fowling is more troublesome, but all out as delightsome to some sorts of
men, be it with guns, lime, nets, glades, gins, strings, baits, pitfalls,
pipes, calls, stalking-horses, setting-dogs, decoy-ducks, &c., or
otherwise. Some much delight to take larks with day-nets, small birds with
chaff-nets, plovers, partridge, herons, snipe, &c. Henry the Third, king of
Castile (as Mariana the Jesuit reports of him, _lib. 3. cap. 7._) was much
affected [3236]"with catching of quails," and many gentlemen take a
singular pleasure at morning and evening to go abroad with their
quail-pipes, and will take any pains to satisfy their delight in that kind.
The [3237]Italians have gardens fitted to such use, with nets, bushes,
glades, sparing no cost or industry, and are very much affected with the
sport. Tycho Brahe, that great astronomer, in the chorography of his Isle
of Huena, and Castle of Uraniburge, puts down his nets, and manner of
catching small birds, as an ornament and a recreation, wherein he himself
was sometimes employed.
Fishing is a kind of hunting by water, be it with nets, weels, baits,
angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much pleasure to some men as
dogs or hawks; [3238]"When they draw their fish upon the bank," saith Nic.
Henselius _Silesiographiae, cap. 3._ speaking of that extraordinary delight
his countrymen took in fishing, and in making of pools. James Dubravius,
that Moravian, in his book _de pisc._ telleth, how travelling by the
highway side in Silesia, he found a nobleman, [3239]"booted up to the
groins," wading himself, pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any
fisherman of them all: and when some belike objected to him the baseness of
his office, he excused himself, [3240]"that if other men might hunt hares,
why should not he hunt carps?" Many gentlemen in like sort with us will
wade up to the arm-holes upon such occasions, and voluntarily undertake
that to satisfy their pleasures, which a poor man for a good stipend would
scarce be hired to undergo. Plutarch, in his book _de soler. animal._
speaks against all fishing, [3241]"as a filthy, base, illiberal employment,
having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor worth the labour." But he
that shall consider the variety of baits for all seasons, and pretty
devices which our anglers have invented, peculiar lines, false flies,
several sleights, &c. will say, that it deserves like commendation,
requires as much study and perspicacity as the rest, and is to be preferred
before many of them. Because hawking and hunting are very laborious, much
riding, and many dangers accompany them; but this is still and quiet: and
if so be the angler catch no fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the
brookside, pleasant shade by the sweet silver streams; he hath good air,
and sweet smells of fine fresh meadow flowers, he hears the melodious
harmony of birds, he sees the swans, herons, ducks, water-horns, coots,
&c., and many other fowl, with their brood, which he thinketh better than
the noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all the sport that they can
make.
Many other sports and recreations there be, much in use, as ringing,
bowling, shooting, which Ascam recommends in a just volume, and hath in
former times been enjoined by statute, as a defensive exercise, and an
[3242]honour to our land, as well may witness our victories in France.
Keelpins, tronks, quoits, pitching bars, hurling, wrestling, leaping,
running, fencing, mustering, swimming, wasters, foils, football, balloon,
quintain, &c., and many such, which are the common recreations of the
country folks. Riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and
tournaments, horse races, wild-goose chases, which are the disports of
greater men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by that means
gallop quite out of their fortunes.
But the most pleasant of all outward pastimes is that of [3243]Areteus,
_deambulatio per amoena loca_, to make a petty progress, a merry journey
now and then with some good companions, to visit friends, see cities,
castles, towns,
[3244] "Visere saepe amnes nitidos, per amaenaque Tempe,
Et placidas summis sectari in montibus auras."
"To see the pleasant fields, the crystal fountains,
And take the gentle air amongst the mountains."
[3245]To walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, mounts, and arbours,
artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns, rivulets,
fountains, and such like pleasant places, like that Antiochian Daphne,
brooks, pools, fishponds, between wood and water, in a fair meadow, by a
river side, [3246]_ubi variae, avium cantationes, florum colores, pratorum
frutices_, &c. to disport in some pleasant plain, park, run up a steep hill
sometimes, or sit in a shady seat, must needs be a delectable recreation.
_Hortus principis et domus ad delectationem facia, cum sylva, monte et
piscina, vulgo la montagna_: the prince's garden at Ferrara [3247]Schottus
highly magnifies, with the groves, mountains, ponds, for a delectable
prospect, he was much affected with it: a Persian paradise, or pleasant
park, could not be more delectable in his sight. St. Bernard, in the
description of his monastery, is almost ravished with the pleasures of it.
"A sick [3248]man" (saith he) "sits upon a green bank, and when the
dog-star parcheth the plains, and dries up rivers, he lies in a shady
bower, _Fronde sub arborea ferventia temperat astra_, and feeds his eyes
with variety of objects, herbs, trees, to comfort his misery, he receives
many delightsome smells, and fills his ears with that sweet and various
harmony of birds: good God" (saith he), "what a company of pleasures hast
thou made for man!" He that should be admitted on a sudden to the sight of
such a palace as that of Escurial in Spain, or to that which the Moors
built at Granada, Fontainebleau in France, the Turk's gardens in his
seraglio, wherein all manner of birds and beasts are kept for pleasure;
wolves, bears, lynxes, tigers, lions, elephants, &c., or upon the banks of
that Thracian Bosphorus: the pope's Belvedere in Rome, [3249]as pleasing as
those _horti pensiles_ in Babylon, or that Indian king's delightsome garden
in [3250]Aelian; or [3251]those famous gardens of the Lord Cantelow in
France, could, not choose, though he were never so ill paid, but be much
recreated for the time; or many of our noblemen's gardens at home. To take
a boat in a pleasant evening, and with music [3252]to row upon the waters,
which Plutarch so much applauds, Elian admires, upon the river Pineus: in
those Thessalian fields, beset with green bays, where birds so sweetly sing
that passengers, enchanted as it were with their heavenly music, _omnium
laborum et curarum obliviscantur_, forget forthwith all labours, care, and
grief: or in a gondola through the Grand Canal in Venice, to see those
goodly palaces, must needs refresh and give content to a melancholy dull
spirit. Or to see the inner rooms of a fair-built and sumptuous edifice, as
that of the Persian kings, so much renowned by Diodorus and Curtius, in
which all was almost beaten gold, [3253]chairs, stools, thrones,
tabernacles, and pillars of gold, plane trees, and vines of gold, grapes of
precious stones, all the other ornaments of pure gold,
[3254] "Fulget gemma floris, et jaspide fulva supellex,
Strata micant Tyrio"------
With sweet odours and perfumes, generous wines, opiparous fare, &c.,
besides the gallantest young men, the fairest [3255]virgins, _puellae
scitulae ministrantes_, the rarest beauties the world could afford, and
those set out with costly and curious attires, _ad stuporem usque
spectantium_, with exquisite music, as in [3256]Trimaltion's house, in
every chamber sweet voices ever sounding day and night, _incomparabilis
luxus_, all delights and pleasures in each kind which to please the senses
could possibly be devised or had, _convives coronati, delitiis ebrii_, &c.
Telemachus, in Homer, is brought in as one ravished almost at the sight of
that magnificent palace, and rich furniture of Menelaus, when he beheld
[3257] "Aeris fulgorem et resonantia tecta corusco
Auro, atque electro nitido, sectoque elephanto,
Argentoque simul. Talis Jovis ardua sedes,
Aulaque coelicolum stellans splendescit Olympo."
"Such glittering of gold and brightest brass to shine,
Clear amber, silver pure, and ivory so fine:
Jupiter's lofty palace, where the gods do dwell,
Was even such a one, and did it not excel."
It will _laxare animos_, refresh the soul of man to see fair-built cities,
streets, theatres, temples, obelisks, &c. The temple of Jerusalem was so
fairly built of white marble, with so many pyramids covered with gold;
_tectumque templi fulvo coruscans auro, nimio suo fulgore obcaecabat oculos
itinerantium_, was so glorious, and so glistened afar off, that the
spectators might not well abide the sight of it. But the inner parts were
all so curiously set out with cedar, gold, jewels, &c., as he said of
Cleopatra's palace in Egypt,--[3258]_Crassumque trabes absconderat aurum_,
that the beholders were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some pageant or
sight go by, as at coronations, weddings, and such like solemnities, to see
an ambassador or a prince met, received, entertained with masks, shows,
fireworks, &c. To see two kings fight in single combat, as Porus and
Alexander; Canute and Edmund Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa the Turk;
when not honour alone but life itself is at stake, as the [3259]poet of
Hector,
------"nec enim pro tergore Tauri,
Pro bove nec certamen erat, quae praemia cursus
Esse solent, sed pro magni viraque animaque--Hectoris."
To behold a battle fought, like that of Crecy, or Agincourt, or Poitiers,
_qua nescio_ (saith Froissart) _an vetustas ullam proferre possit
clariorem_. To see one of Caesar's triumphs in old Rome revived, or the
like. To be present at an interview, [3260]as that famous of Henry the
Eighth and Francis the First, so much renowned all over Europe; _ubi tanto
apparatu_ (saith Hubertus Veillius) _tamque triumphali pompa ambo reges com
eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla unquam aetas tam celebria festa viderit
aut audieriti_, no age ever saw the like. So infinitely pleasant are such
shows, to the sight of which oftentimes they will come hundreds of miles,
give any money for a place, and remember many years after with singular
delight. Bodine, when he was ambassador in England, said he saw the
noblemen go in their robes to the parliament house, _summa cum jucunditate
vidimus_, he was much affected with the sight of it. Pomponius Columna,
saith Jovius in his life, saw thirteen Frenchmen, and so many Italians,
once fight for a whole army: _Quod jucundissimum spectaculum in vita dicit
sua_, the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life. Who would not
have been affected with such a spectacle? Or that single combat of [3261]
Breaute the Frenchman, and Anthony Schets a Dutchman, before the walls of
Sylvaducis in Brabant, anno 1600. They were twenty-two horse on the one
side, as many on the other, which like Livy's Horatii, Torquati and Corvini
fought for their own glory and country's honour, in the sight and view of
their whole city and army. [3262]When Julius Caesar warred about the banks
of Rhone, there came a barbarian prince to see him and the Roman army, and
when he had beheld Caesar a good while, [3263]"I see the gods now" (saith
he) "which before I heard of," _nec feliciorem ullam vitae meae aut optavi,
aut sensi diem_: it was the happiest day that ever he had in his life. Such
a sight alone were able of itself to drive away melancholy; if not for
ever, yet it must needs expel it for a time. Radzivilus was much taken with
the pasha's palace in Cairo, and amongst many other objects which that
place afforded, with that solemnity of cutting the banks of the Nile by
Imbram Pasha, when it overflowed, besides two or three hundred gilded
galleys on the water, he saw two millions of men gathered together on the
land, with turbans as white as snow; and 'twas a goodly sight. The very
reading of feasts, triumphs, interviews, nuptials, tilts, tournaments,
combats, and monomachies, is most acceptable and pleasant. [3264]
Franciscus Modius hath made a large collection of such solemnities in two
great tomes, which whoso will may peruse. The inspection alone of those
curious iconographies of temples and palaces, as that of the Lateran church
in Albertus Durer, that of the temple of Jerusalem in [3265]Josephus,
Adricomius, and Villalpandus: that of the Escurial in Guadas, of Diana at
Ephesus in Pliny, Nero's golden palace in Rome, [3266]Justinian's in
Constantinople, that Peruvian Jugo's in [3267]Cusco, _ut non ab hominibus,
sed a daemoniis constructum videatur_; St. Mark's in Venice, by Ignatius,
with many such; _priscorum artificum opera_ (saith that [3268]interpreter
of Pausanias), the rare workmanship of those ancient Greeks, in theatres,
obelisks, temples, statues, gold, silver, ivory, marble images, _non minore
ferme quum leguntur, quam quum cernuntur, animum delectatione complent_,
affect one as much by reading almost as by sight.
The country hath his recreations, the city his several gymnics and
exercises, May games, feasts, wakes, and merry meetings, to solace
themselves; the very being in the country; that life itself is a sufficient
recreation to some men, to enjoy such pleasures, as those old patriarchs
did. Diocletian, the emperor, was so much affected with it, that he gave
over his sceptre, and turned gardener. Constantine wrote twenty books of
husbandry. Lysander, when ambassadors came to see him, bragged of nothing
more than of his orchard, _hi sunt ordines mei_. What shall I say of
Cincinnatus, Cato, Tully, and many such? how they have been pleased with
it, to prune, plant, inoculate and graft, to show so many several kinds of
pears, apples, plums, peaches, &c.
[3269] "Nunc captare feras laqueo, nunc fallere visco,
Atque etiam magnos canibus circundare saltus
Insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres."
"Sometimes with traps deceive, with line and string
To catch wild birds and beasts, encompassing
The grove with dogs, and out of bushes firing."
------"et nidos aviumscrutari," &c.
Jucundus, in his preface to Cato, Varro, Columella, &c., put out by him,
confesseth of himself, that he was mightily delighted with these husbandry
studies, and took extraordinary pleasure in them: if the theory or
speculation can so much affect, what shall the place and exercise itself,
the practical part do? The same confession I find in Herbastein, Porta,
Camerarius, and many others, which have written of that subject. If my
testimony were aught worth, I could say as much of myself; I am _vere
Saturnus_; no man ever took more delight in springs, woods, groves,
gardens, walks, fishponds, rivers, &c. But
[3270] "Tantalus a labris sitiens fugientia captat
Flumina;"
And so do I; _Velle licet, potiri non licet_.[3271]
Every palace, every city almost hath its peculiar walks, cloisters,
terraces, groves, theatres, pageants, games, and several recreations; every
country, some professed gymnics to exhilarate their minds, and exercise
their bodies. The [3272]Greeks had their Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian,
Nemean games, in honour of Neptune, Jupiter, Apollo; Athens hers: some for
honour, garlands, crowns; for [3273]beauty, dancing, running, leaping, like
our silver games. The [3274]Romans had their feasts, as the Athenians, and
Lacedaemonians held their public banquets, in Pritanaeo, Panathenaeis,
Thesperiis, Phiditiis, plays, naumachies, places for sea-fights,
[3275]theatres, amphitheatres able to contain 70,000 men, wherein they had
several delightsome shows to exhilarate the people; [3276] gladiators,
combats of men with themselves, with wild beasts, and wild beasts one with
another, like our bull-baitings, or bear-baitings (in which many countrymen
and citizens amongst us so much delight and so frequently use), dancers on
ropes. Jugglers, wrestlers, comedies, tragedies, publicly exhibited at the
emperor's and city's charge, and that with incredible cost and
magnificence. In the Low-Countries (as [3277]Meteran relates) before these
wars, they had many solemn feasts, plays, challenges, artillery gardens,
colleges of rhymers, rhetoricians, poets: and to this day, such places are
curiously maintained in Amsterdam, as appears by that description of
Isaacus Pontanus, _rerum Amstelrod. lib. 2. cap. 25._ So likewise not long
since at Friburg in Germany, as is evident by that relation of
[3278]Neander, they had _Ludos septennales_, solemn plays every seven
years, which Bocerus, one of their own poets, hath elegantly described:
[3279] "At nunc magnifico spectacula structa paratu
Quid memorem, veteri non concessura Quirino,
Ludorum pompa," &c.
In Italy they have solemn declamations of certain select young gentlemen in
Florence (like those reciters in old Rome), and public theatres in most of
their cities, for stage-players and others, to exercise and recreate
themselves. All seasons almost, all places, have their several pastimes;
some in summer, some in winter; some abroad, some within: some of the body,
some of the mind: and diverse men have diverse recreations and exercises.
Domitian, the emperor, was much delighted with catching flies; Augustus to
play with nuts amongst children; [3280]Alexander Severus was often pleased
to play with whelps and young pigs. [3281]Adrian was so wholly enamoured
with dogs and horses, that he bestowed monuments and tombs of them, and
buried them in graves. In foul weather, or when they can use no other
convenient sports, by reason of the time, as we do cock-fighting, to avoid
idleness, I think, (though some be more seriously taken with it, spend much
time, cost and charges, and are too solicitous about it) [3282]Severus used
partridges and quails, as many Frenchmen do still, and to keep birds in
cages, with which he was much pleased, when at any time he had leisure from
public cares and businesses. He had (saith Lampridius) tame pheasants,
ducks, partridges, peacocks, and some 20,000 ring-doves and pigeons.
Busbequius, the emperor's orator, when he lay in Constantinople, and could
not stir much abroad, kept for his recreation, busying himself to see them
fed, almost all manner of strange birds and beasts; this was something,
though not to exercise his body, yet to refresh his mind. Conradus Gesner,
at Zurich in Switzerland, kept so likewise for his pleasure, a great
company of wild beasts; and (as he saith) took great delight to see them
eat their meat. Turkey gentlewomen, that are perpetual prisoners, still
mewed up according to the custom of the place, have little else beside
their household business, or to play with their children to drive away
time, but to dally with their cats, which they have _in delitiis_, as many
of our ladies and gentlewomen use monkeys and little dogs. The ordinary
recreations which we have in winter, and in most solitary times busy our
minds with, are cards, tables and dice, shovelboard, chess-play, the
philosopher's game, small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks,
singing, dancing, Yule-games, frolics, jests, riddles, catches, purposes,
questions and commands, [3283]merry tales of errant knights, queens,
lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies,
goblins, friars, &c., such as the old woman told Psyche in [3284]Apuleius,
Boccace novels, and the rest, _quarum auditione pueri delectantur, senes
narratione_, which some delight to hear, some to tell; all are well pleased
with. Amaranthus, the philosopher, met Hermocles, Diophantus and Philolaus,
his companions, one day busily discoursing about Epicurus and Democritus'
tenets, very solicitous which was most probable and came nearest to truth:
to put them out of that surly controversy, and to refresh their spirits, he
told them a pleasant tale of Stratocles the physician's wedding, and of all
the particulars, the company, the cheer, the music, &c., for he was new
come from it; with which relation they were so much delighted, that
Philolaus wished a blessing to his heart, and many a good wedding,[3285]
many such merry meetings might he be at, "to please himself with the sight,
and others with the narration of it." News are generally welcome to all our
ears, _avide audimus, aures enim hominum novitate laetantur_ ([3286]as
Pliny observes), we long after rumour to hear and listen to it,
[3287]_densum humeris bibit aure vulgus_. We are most part too inquisitive
and apt to hearken after news, which Caesar, in his [3288]Commentaries,
observes of the old Gauls, they would be inquiring of every carrier and
passenger what they had heard or seen, what news abroad?
------"quid toto fiat in orbe,
Quid Seres, quid Thraces agant, secreta novercae,
Et pueri, quis amet," &c.
as at an ordinary with us, bakehouse or barber's shop. When that great
Gonsalva was upon some displeasure confined by King Ferdinand to the city
of Loxa in Andalusia, the only, comfort (saith [3289]Jovius) he had to
ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to listen after those
ordinary occurrences which were brought him _cum primis_, by letters or
otherwise out of the remotest parts of Europe. Some men's whole delight is,
to take tobacco, and drink all day long in a tavern or alehouse, to
discourse, sing, jest, roar, talk of a cock and bull over a pot, &c. Or
when three or four good companions meet, tell old stories by the fireside,
or in the sun, as old folks usually do, _quae aprici meminere senes_,
remembering afresh and with pleasure ancient matters, and such like
accidents, which happened in their younger years: others' best pastime is
to game, nothing to them so pleasant. [3290]_Hic Veneri indulget, hunc
decoquit alea_--many too nicely take exceptions at cards, [3291]tables,
and dice, and such mixed lusorious lots, whom Gataker well confutes. Which
though they be honest recreations in themselves, yet may justly be
otherwise excepted at, as they are often abused, and forbidden as things
most pernicious; _insanam rem et damnosam_, [3292]Lemnius calls it. "For
most part in these kind of disports 'tis not art or skill, but subtlety,
cony-catching, knavery, chance and fortune carries all away:" 'tis
_ambulatoria pecunia_,
[3293] ------"puncto mobilis horae
Permutat dominos, et cedit in altera jura."
They labour most part not to pass their time in honest disport, but for
filthy lucre, and covetousness of money. _In foedissimum lucrum et
avaritiam hominum convertitur_, as Daneus observes. _Fons fraudum et
maleficiorum_, 'tis the fountain of cozenage and villainy. [3294]"A thing
so common all over Europe at this day, and so generally abused, that many
men are utterly undone by it," their means spent, patrimonies consumed,
they and their posterity beggared; besides swearing, wrangling, drinking,
loss of time, and such inconveniences, which are ordinary concomitants:
[3295]"for when once they have got a haunt of such companies, and habit of
gaming, they can hardly be drawn from it, but as an itch it will tickle
them, and as it is with whoremasters, once entered, they cannot easily
leave it off:" _Vexat mentes insania cupido_, they are mad upon their
sport. And in conclusion (which Charles the Seventh, that good French king,
published in an edict against gamesters) _unde piae et hilaris vitae,
suffugium sibi suisque liberis, totique familiae_, &c. "That which was once
their livelihood, should have maintained wife, children, family, is now
spent and gone;" _maeror et egestas_, &c., sorrow and beggary succeeds. So
good things may be abused, and that which was first invented to [3296]
refresh men's weary spirits, when they come from other labours and studies
to exhilarate the mind, to entertain time and company, tedious otherwise in
those long solitary winter nights, and keep them from worse matters, an
honest exercise is contrarily perverted.
Chess-play is a good and witty exercise of the mind for some kind of men,
and fit for such melancholy, Rhasis holds, as are idle, and have
extravagant impertinent thoughts, or troubled with cares, nothing better to
distract their mind, and alter their meditations: invented (some say) by
the [3297]general of an army in a famine, to keep soldiers from mutiny: but
if it proceed from overmuch study, in such a case it may do more harm than
good; it is a game too troublesome for some men's brains, too full of
anxiety, all out as bad as study; besides it is a testy choleric game, and
very offensive to him that loseth the mate. [3298]William the Conqueror, in
his younger years, playing at chess with the Prince of France (Dauphine was
not annexed to that crown in those days) losing a mate, knocked the
chess-board about his pate, which was a cause afterward of much enmity
between them. For some such reason it is belike, that Patritius, in his _3.
book, tit. 12. de reg. instit_. forbids his prince to play at chess;
hawking and hunting, riding, &c. he will allow; and this to other men, but
by no means to him. In Muscovy, where they live in stoves and hot houses
all winter long, come seldom or little abroad, it is again very necessary,
and therefore in those parts, (saith [3299]Herbastein) much used. At Fez in
Africa, where the like inconvenience of keeping within doors is through
heat, it is very laudable; and (as [3300]Leo Afer relates) as much
frequented. A sport fit for idle gentlewomen, soldiers in garrison, and
courtiers that have nought but love matters to busy themselves about, but
not altogether so convenient for such as are students. The like I may say
of Col. Bruxer's philosophy game, D. Fulke's _Metromachia_ and his
_Ouronomachia_, with the rest of those intricate astrological and
geometrical fictions, for such especially as are mathematically given; and
the rest of those curious games.
Dancing, singing, masking, mumming, stage plays, howsoever they be heavily
censured by some severe Catos, yet if opportunely and soberly used, may
justly be approved. _Melius est foedere, quam saltare_, [3301]saith Austin:
but what is that if they delight in it? [3302]_Nemo saltat sobrius_. But in
what kind of dance? I know these sports have many oppugners, whole volumes
writ against them; when as all they say (if duly considered) is but
_ignoratio Elenchi_; and some again, because they are now cold and wayward,
past themselves, cavil at all such youthful sports in others, as he did in
the comedy; they think them, _illico nasci senes_, &c. Some out of
preposterous zeal object many times trivial arguments, and because of some
abuse, will quite take away the good use, as if they should forbid wine
because it makes men drunk; but in my judgment they are too stern: there
"is a time for all things, a time to mourn, a time to dance," Eccles. iii.
4. "a time to embrace, a time not to embrace," (verse 5.) "and nothing
better than that a man should rejoice in his own works," verse 22; for my
part, I will subscribe to the king's declaration, and was ever of that
mind, those May games, wakes, and Whitsun ales, &c., if they be not at
unseasonable hours, may justly be permitted. Let them freely feast, sing
and dance, have their puppet-plays, hobby-horses, tabors, crowds, bagpipes,
&c., play at ball, and barley-breaks, and what sports and recreations they
like best. In Franconia, a province of Germany, (saith [3303]Aubanus
Bohemus) the old folks, after evening prayer, went to the alehouse, the
younger sort to dance: and to say truth with [3304]Salisburiensis, _satius
fuerat sic otiari, quam turpius occupari_, better to do so than worse, as
without question otherwise (such is the corruption of man's nature) many of
them will do. For that cause, plays, masks, jesters, gladiators, tumblers,
jugglers, &c., and all that crew is admitted and winked at: [3305]_Tota
jocularium scena procedit, et ideo spectacula admissa sunt, et infinita
tyrocinia vanitatum, ut his occupentur, qui perniciosius otiari solent_:
that they might be busied about such toys, that would otherwise more
perniciously be idle. So that as [3306]Tacitus said of the astrologers in
Rome, we may say of them, _genus hominum est quod in civitate nostra et
vitabitur semper et retinebitur_, they are a debauched company most part,
still spoken against, as well they deserve some of them (for I so relish
and distinguish them as fiddlers, and musicians), and yet ever retained.
"Evil is not to be done (I confess) that good may come of it:" but this is
evil _per accidens_, and in a qualified sense, to avoid a greater
inconvenience, may justly be tolerated. Sir Thomas More, in his Utopian
Commonwealth, [3307]"as he will have none idle, so will he have no man
labour over hard, to be toiled out like a horse, 'tis more than slavish
infelicity, the life of most of our hired servants and tradesmen elsewhere"
(excepting his Utopians) "but half the day allotted for work, and half for
honest recreation, or whatsoever employment they shall think fit for
themselves." If one half day in a week were allowed to our household
servants for their merry meetings, by their hard masters, or in a year some
feasts, like those Roman Saturnals, I think they would labour harder all
the rest of their time, and both parties be better pleased: but this needs
not (you will say), for some of them do nought but loiter all the week
long.
This which I aim at, is for such as are _fracti animis_, troubled in mind,
to ease them, over-toiled on the one part, to refresh: over idle on the
other, to keep themselves busied. And to this purpose, as any labour or
employment will serve to the one, any honest recreation will conduce to the
other, so that it be moderate and sparing, as the use of meat and drink;
not to spend all their life in gaming, playing, and pastimes, as too many
gentlemen do; but to revive our bodies and recreate our souls with honest
sports: of which as there be diverse sorts, and peculiar to several
callings, ages, sexes, conditions, so there be proper for several seasons,
and those of distinct natures, to fit that variety of humours which is
amongst them, that if one will not, another may: some in summer, some in
winter, some gentle, some more violent, some for the mind alone, some for
the body and mind: (as to some it is both business and a pleasant
recreation to oversee workmen of all sorts, husbandry, cattle, horses, &c.
To build, plot, project, to make models, cast up accounts, &c.) some
without, some within doors; new, old, &c., as the season serveth, and as
men are inclined. It is reported of Philippus Bonus, that good duke of
Burgundy (by Lodovicus Vives, in Epist. and Pont. [3308]Heuter in his
history) that the said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the
king of Portugal, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnised in the deep
of winter, when, as by reason of unseasonable weather, he could neither
hawk nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c., and such other
domestic sports, or to see ladies dance, with some of his courtiers, he
would in the evening walk disguised all about the town. It so fortuned, as
he was walking late one night, he found a country fellow dead drunk,
snorting on a bulk; [3309]he caused his followers to bring him to his
palace, and there stripping him of his old clothes, and attiring him after
the court fashion, when he waked, he and they were all ready to attend upon
his excellency, persuading him he was some great duke. The poor fellow
admiring how he came there, was served in state all the day long; after
supper he saw them dance, heard music, and the rest of those court-like
pleasures: but late at night, when he was well tippled, and again fast
asleep, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the place where
they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them so good sport the
day before as he did when he returned to himself; all the jest was, to see
how he [3310]looked upon it. In conclusion, after some little admiration,
the poor man told his friends he had seen a vision, constantly believed it,
would not otherwise be persuaded, and so the jest ended. [3311]Antiochus
Epiphanes would often disguise himself, steal from his court, and go into
merchants', goldsmiths', and other tradesmen's shops, sit and talk with
them, and sometimes ride or walk alone, and fall aboard with any tinker,
clown, serving man, carrier, or whomsoever he met first. Sometimes he did
_ex insperato_ give a poor fellow money, to see how he would look, or on
set purpose lose his purse as he went, to watch who found it, and withal
how he would be affected, and with such objects he was much delighted. Many
such tricks are ordinarily put in practice by great men, to exhilarate
themselves and others, all which are harmless jests, and have their good
uses.
But amongst those exercises, or recreations of the mind within doors, there
is none so general, so aptly to be applied to all sorts of men, so fit and
proper to expel idleness and melancholy, as that of study: _Studia,
senectutem oblectant, adolescentiam, alunt, secundas res ornant, adversis
perfugium et solatium praebent, domi delectant_, &c., find the rest in
Tully _pro Archia Poeta._ [3312]What so full of content, as to read, walk,
and see maps, pictures, statues, jewels, marbles, which some so much
magnify, as those that Phidias made of old so exquisite and pleasing to be
beheld, that as [3313]Chrysostom thinketh, "if any man be sickly, troubled
in mind, or that cannot sleep for grief, and shall but stand over against
one of Phidias' images, he will forget all care, or whatsoever else may
molest him, in an instant?" There be those as much taken with Michael
Angelo's, Raphael de Urbino's, Francesco Francia's pieces, and many of
those Italian and Dutch painters, which were excellent in their ages; and
esteem of it as a most pleasing sight, to view those neat architectures,
devices, escutcheons, coats of arms, read such books, to peruse old coins
of several sorts in a fair gallery; artificial works, perspective glasses,
old relics, Roman antiquities, variety of colours. A good picture is _falsa
veritas, et muta poesis_: and though (as [3314]Vives saith) _artificialia
delectant, sed mox fastidimus_, artificial toys please but for a time; yet
who is he that will not be moved with them for the present? When Achilles
was tormented and sad for the loss of his dear friend Patroclus, his mother
Thetis brought him a most elaborate and curious buckler made by Vulcan, in
which were engraven sun, moon, stars, planets, sea, land, men fighting,
running, riding, women scolding, hills, dales, towns, castles, brooks,
rivers, trees, &c., with many pretty landscapes, and perspective pieces:
with sight of which he was infinitely delighted, and much eased of his
grief.
[3315] "Continuo eo spectaculo captus delenito maerore
Oblectabatur, in manibus tenens dei splendida dona."
Who will not be affected so in like case, or see those well-furnished
cloisters and galleries of the Roman cardinals, so richly stored with all
modern pictures, old statues and antiquities? _Cum se--spectando recreet
simul et legendo_, to see their pictures alone and read the description, as
[3316]Boisardus well adds, whom will it not affect? which Bozius,
Pomponius, Laetus, Marlianus, Schottus, Cavelerius, Ligorius, &c., and he
himself hath well performed of late. Or in some prince's cabinets, like
that of the great dukes in Florence, of Felix Platerus in Basil, or
noblemen's houses, to see such variety of attires, faces, so many, so rare,
and such exquisite pieces, of men, birds, beasts, &c., to see those
excellent landscapes, Dutch works, and curious cuts of Sadlier of Prague,
Albertus Durer, Goltzius Vrintes, &c., such pleasant pieces of perspective,
Indian pictures made of feathers, China works, frames, thaumaturgical
motions, exotic toys, &c. Who is he that is now wholly overcome with
idleness, or otherwise involved in a labyrinth of worldly cares, troubles
and discontents, that will not be much lightened in his mind by reading of
some enticing story, true or feigned, whereas in a glass he shall observe
what our forefathers have done, the beginnings, ruins, falls, periods of
commonwealths, private men's actions displayed to the life, &c. [3317]
Plutarch therefore calls them, _secundas mensas et bellaria_, the second
course and junkets, because they were usually read at noblemen's feasts.
Who is not earnestly affected with a passionate speech, well penned, an
elegant poem, or some pleasant bewitching discourse, like that of [3318]
Heliodorus, _ubi oblectatio quaedam placide fuit, cum hilaritate
conjuncta_? Julian the Apostate was so taken with an oration of Libanius,
the sophister, that, as he confesseth, he could not be quiet till he had
read it all out. _Legi orationem tuam magna ex parte, hesterna die ante
prandium, pransus vero sine ulla intermissione totam absolvi_. [3319]_O
argumenta! O compositionem!_ I may say the same of this or that pleasing
tract, which will draw his attention along with it. To most kind of men it
is an extraordinary delight to study. For what a world of books offers
itself, in all subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet content and
capacity of the reader? In arithmetic, geometry, perspective, optics,
astronomy, architecture, sculpture, painting, of which so many and such
elaborate treatises are of late written: in mechanics and their mysteries,
military matters, navigation, [3320]riding of horses, [3321]fencing,
swimming, gardening, planting, great tomes of husbandry, cookery, falconry,
hunting, fishing, fowling, &c., with exquisite pictures of all sports,
games, and what not? In music, metaphysics, natural and moral philosophy,
philology, in policy, heraldry, genealogy, chronology, &c., they afford
great tomes, or those studies of [3322]antiquity, &c., _et [3323]quid
subtilius Arithmeticis inventionibus, quid jucundius Musicis rationibus,
quid divinius Astronomicis, quid rectius Geometricis demonstrationibus_?
What so sure, what so pleasant? He that shall but see that geometrical
tower of Garezenda at Bologna in Italy, the steeple and clock at Strasburg,
will admire the effects of art, or that engine of Archimedes, to remove the
earth itself, if he had but a place to fasten his instrument: Archimedes
Coclea, and rare devices to corrivate waters, musical instruments, and
tri-syllable echoes again, again, and again repeated, with myriads of such.
What vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and divinity, for profit,
pleasure, practice, speculation, in verse or prose, &c.! their names alone
are the subject of whole volumes, we have thousands of authors of all
sorts, many great libraries full well furnished, like so many dishes of
meat, served out for several palates; and he is a very block that is
affected with none of them. Some take an infinite delight to study the very
languages wherein these books are written, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Chaldee,
Arabic, &c. Methinks it would please any man to look upon a geographical
map, [3324]_sauvi animum delectatione allicere, ob incredibilem rerum
varietatem et jucunditatem, et ad pleniorem sui cognitionem excitare_,
chorographical, topographical delineations, to behold, as it were, all the
remote provinces, towns, cities of the world, and never to go forth of the
limits of his study, to measure by the seale and compass their extent,
distance, examine their site. Charles the Great, as Platina writes, had
three fair silver tables, in one of which superficies was a large map of
Constantinople, in the second Rome neatly engraved, in the third an
exquisite description of the whole world, and much delight he took in them.
What greater pleasure can there now be, than to view those elaborate maps
of Ortelius, [3325]Mercator, Hondius, &c.? To peruse those books of cities,
put out by Braunus and Hogenbergius? To read those exquisite descriptions
of Maginus, Munster, Herrera, Laet, Merula, Boterus, Leander, Albertus,
Camden, Leo Afer, Adricomius, Nic. Gerbelius, &c.? Those famous expeditions
of Christoph. Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Marcus Polus the Venetian, Lod.
Vertomannus, Aloysius Cadamustus, &c.? Those accurate diaries of
Portuguese, Hollanders, of Bartison, Oliver a Nort, &c. Hakluyt's voyages,
Pet. Martyr's Decades, Benzo, Lerius, Linschoten's relations, those
Hodoeporicons of Jod. a Meggen, Brocard the monk, Bredenbachius, Jo.
Dublinius, Sands, &c., to Jerusalem, Egypt, and other remote places of the
world? those pleasant itineraries of Paulus Hentzerus, Jodocus Sincerus,
Dux Polonus, &c., to read Bellonius' observations, P. Gillius his surveys;
those parts of America, set out, and curiously cut in pictures, by Fratres
a Bry. To see a well-cut herbal, herbs, trees, flowers, plants, all
vegetables expressed in their proper colours to the life, as that of
Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, Delacampius, Lobel, Bauhinus, and that last
voluminous and mighty herbal of Beslar of Nuremberg, wherein almost every
plant is to his own bigness. To see birds, beasts, and fishes of the sea,
spiders, gnats, serpents, flies, &c., all creatures set out by the same
art, and truly expressed in lively colours, with an exact description of
their natures, virtues, qualities, &c., as hath been accurately performed
by Aelian, Gesner, Ulysses Aldrovandus, Bellonius, Rondoletius, Hippolitus
Salvianus, &c. [3326]_Arcana coeli, naturae secreta, ordinem universi scire
majoris felicitatis et dulcedinis est, quam cogitatione quis assequi
possit, aut mortalis sperare_. What more pleasing studies can there be than
the mathematics, theoretical or practical parts? as to survey land, make
maps, models, dials, &c., with which I was ever much delighted myself.
_Tails est Mathematum pulchritudo_ (saith [3327] Plutarch) _ut his indignum
sit divitiarum phaleras istas et bullas, et puellaria spectacula
comparari_; such is the excellency of these studies, that all those
ornaments and childish bubbles of wealth, are not worthy to be compared to
them: _credi mihi_ ( [3328]saith one) _extingui dulce erit Mathematicarum
artium studio_, I could even live and die with such meditation, [3329]and
take more delight, true content of mind in them, than thou hast in all thy
wealth and sport, how rich soever thou art. And as [3330]Cardan well
seconds me, _Honorificum magis est et gloriosum haec intelligere, quam
provinciis praeesse, formosum aut ditem juvenem esse_. [3331]The like
pleasure there is in all other studies, to such as are truly addicted to
them, [3332]_ea suavitas_ (one holds) _ut cum quis ea degustaverit, quasi
poculis Circeis captus, non possit unquam ab illis divelli_; the like
sweetness, which as Circe's cup bewitcheth a student, he cannot leave off,
as well may witness those many laborious hours, days and nights, spent in
the voluminous treatises written by them; the same content. [3333]Julius
Scaliger was so much affected with poetry, that he brake out into a
pathetical protestation, he had rather be the author of twelve verses in
Lucan, or such an ode in [3334]Horace, than emperor of Germany.
[3335]Nicholas Gerbelius, that good old man, was so much ravished with a
few Greek authors restored to light, with hope and desire of enjoying the
rest, that he exclaims forthwith, _Arabibus atque Indis omnibus erimus
ditiores_, we shall be richer than all the Arabic or Indian princes; of
such [3336]esteem they were with him, incomparable worth and value. Seneca
prefers Zeno and Chrysippus, two doting stoics (he was so much enamoured of
their works), before any prince or general of an army; and Orontius, the
mathematician, so far admires Archimedes, that he calls him _Divinum et
homine majorem_, a petty god, more than a man; and well he might, for aught
I see, if you respect fame or worth. Pindarus, of Thebes, is as much
renowned for his poems, as Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Hercules or Bacchus, his
fellow citizens, for their warlike actions; _et si famam respicias, non
pauciores Aristotelis quam Alexandri meminerunt_ (as Cardan notes),
Aristotle is more known than Alexander; for we have a bare relation of
Alexander's deeds, but Aristotle, _totus vivit in monumentis_, is whole in
his works: yet I stand not upon this; the delight is it, which I aim at, so
great pleasure, such sweet content there is in study. [3337]King James,
1605, when he came to see our University of Oxford, and amongst other
edifices now went to view that famous library, renewed by Sir Thomas
Bodley, in imitation of Alexander, at his departure brake out into that
noble speech, If I were not a king, I would be a university man: [3338]
"and if it were so that I must be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I
would desire to have no other prison than that library, and to be chained
together with so many good authors _et mortuis magistris_." So sweet is the
delight of study, the more learning they have (as he that hath a dropsy,
the more he drinks the thirstier he is) the more they covet to learn, and
the last day is _prioris discipulus_; harsh at first learning is, _radices
amarcae_, but _fractus dulces_, according to that of Isocrates, pleasant at
last; the longer they live, the more they are enamoured with the Muses.
Heinsius, the keeper of the library at Leyden in Holland, was mewed up in
it all the year long: and that which to thy thinking should have bred a
loathing, caused in him a greater liking. [3339]"I no sooner" (saith he)
"come into the library, but I bolt the door to me, excluding lust,
ambition, avarice, and all such vices, whose nurse is idleness, the mother
of ignorance, and melancholy herself, and in the very lap of eternity,
amongst so many divine souls, I take my seat, with so lofty a spirit and
sweet content, that I pity all our great ones, and rich men that know not
this happiness." I am not ignorant in the meantime (notwithstanding this
which I have said) how barbarously and basely, for the most part, our ruder
gentry esteem of libraries and books, how they neglect and contemn so great
a treasure, so inestimable a benefit, as Aesop's cock did the jewel he
found in the dunghill; and all through error, ignorance, and want of
education. And 'tis a wonder, withal, to observe how much they will vainly
cast away in unnecessary expenses, _quot modis pereant_ (saith
[3340]Erasmus) _magnatibus pecuniae, quantum absumant alea, scorta,
compotationes, profectiones non necessariae, pompae, bella quaesita,
ambitio, colax, morio, ludio_, &c., what in hawks, hounds, lawsuits, vain
building, gormandising, drinking, sports, plays, pastimes, &c. If a
well-minded man to the Muses, would sue to some of them for an exhibition,
to the farther maintenance or enlargement of such a work, be it college,
lecture, library, or whatsoever else may tend to the advancement of
learning, they are so unwilling, so averse, that they had rather see these
which are already, with such cost and care erected, utterly ruined,
demolished or otherwise employed; for they repine many and grudge at such
gifts and revenues so bestowed: and therefore it were in vain, as Erasmus
well notes, _vel ab his, vel a negotiatoribus qui se Mammonae dediderunt,
improbum fortasse tale officium exigere_, to solicit or ask anything of
such men that are likely damned to riches; to this purpose. For my part I
pity these men, _stultos jubeo esse libenter_, let them go as they are, in
the catalogue of Ignoramus. How much, on the other side, are all we bound
that are scholars, to those munificent Ptolemies, bountiful Maecenases,
heroical patrons, divine spirits,
[3341] ------"qui nobis haec otio fecerunt, namque erit ille mihi semper
Deus"------
"These blessings, friend, a Deity bestow'd,
For never can I deem him less than God."
that have provided for us so many well-furnished libraries, as well in our
public academies in most cities, as in our private colleges? How shall I
remember [3342]Sir Thomas Bodley, amongst the rest, [3343]Otho Nicholson,
and the Right Reverend John Williams, Lord Bishop of Lincoln (with many
other pious acts), who besides that at St. John's College in Cambridge,
that in Westminster, is now likewise in _Fieri_ with a library at Lincoln
(a noble precedent for all corporate towns and cities to imitate), _O quam
te memorem (vir illustrissime) quibus elogiis_? But to my task again.
Whosoever he is therefore that is overrun with solitariness, or carried
away with pleasing melancholy and vain conceits, and for want of employment
knows not how to spend his time, or crucified with worldly care, I can
prescribe him no better remedy than this of study, to compose himself to
the learning of some art or science. Provided always that this malady
proceed not from overmuch study; for in such case he adds fuel to the fire,
and nothing can be more pernicious: let him take heed he do not overstretch
his wits, and make a skeleton of himself; or such inamoratos as read
nothing but play-books, idle poems, jests, Amadis de Gaul, the Knight of
the Sun, the Seven Champions, Palmerin de Oliva, Huon of Bordeaux, &c. Such
many times prove in the end as mad as Don Quixote. Study is only prescribed
to those that are otherwise idle, troubled in mind, or carried headlong
with vain thoughts and imaginations, to distract their cogitations
(although variety of study, or some serious subject, would do the former no
harm) and divert their continual meditations another way. Nothing in this
case better than study; _semper aliquid memoriter ediscant_, saith Piso,
let them learn something without book, transcribe, translate, &c. Read the
Scriptures, which Hyperius, _lib. 1. de quotid. script. lec. fol. 77._
holds available of itself, [3344]"the mind is erected thereby from all
worldly cares, and hath much quiet and tranquillity." For as [3345]Austin
well hath it, 'tis _scientia scientiarum, omni melle dulcior, omni pane
suavior, omni vino, hilarior_: 'tis the best nepenthe, surest cordial,
sweetest alterative, presentest diverter: for neither as [3346]Chrysostom
well adds, "those boughs and leaves of trees which are plashed for cattle
to stand under, in the heat of the day, in summer, so much refresh them
with their acceptable shade, as the reading of the Scripture doth recreate
and comfort a distressed soul, in sorrow and affliction." Paul bids "pray
continually;" _quod cibus corpori, lectio animae facit_, saith Seneca, as
meat is to the body, such is reading to the soul. [3347]"To be at leisure
without books is another hell, and to be buried alive." [3348]Cardan calls
a library the physic of the soul; [3349]"divine authors fortify the mind,
make men bold and constant; and (as Hyperius adds) godly conference will
not permit the mind to be tortured with absurd cogitations." Rhasis enjoins
continual conference to such melancholy men, perpetual discourse of some
history, tale, poem, news, &c., _alternos sermones edere ac bibere, aeque
jucundum quam cibus, sive potus_, which feeds the mind as meat and drink
doth the body, and pleaseth as much: and therefore the said Rhasis, not
without good cause, would have somebody still talk seriously, or dispute
with them, and sometimes [3350]"to cavil and wrangle" (so that it break not
out to a violent perturbation), "for such altercation is like stirring of a
dead fire to make it burn afresh," it whets a dull spirit, "and will not
suffer the mind to be drowned in those profound cogitations, which
melancholy men are commonly troubled with." [3351]Ferdinand and Alphonsus,
kings of Arragon and Sicily, were both cured by reading the history, one of
Curtius, the other of Livy, when no prescribed physic would take place.
[3352]Camerarius relates as much of Lorenzo de' Medici. Heathen
philosophers arc so full of divine precepts in this kind, that, as some
think, they alone are able to settle a distressed mind. [3353]_Sunt verba
et voces, quibus liunc lenire dolorem_, &c. Epictetus, Plutarch, and
Seneca; _qualis ille, quae tela_, saith Lipsius, _adversus omnes animi
casus administrat, et ipsam mortem, quomodo vitia eripit, infert virtutes_?
when I read Seneca, [3354]"methinks I am beyond all human fortunes, on the
top of a hill above mortality." Plutarch saith as much of Homer, for which
cause belike Niceratus, in Xenophon, was made by his parents to con Homer's
Iliads and Odysseys without book, _ut in virum bonum evaderet_, as well to
make him a good and honest man, as to avoid idleness. If this comfort be
got from philosophy, what shall be had from divinity? What shall Austin,
Cyprian, Gregory, Bernard's divine meditations afford us?
[3355] "Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicunt."
Nay, what shall the Scripture itself? Which is like an apothecary's shop,
wherein are all remedies for all infirmities of mind, purgatives, cordials,
alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c. "Every disease of the soul,"
saith [3356]Austin, "hath a peculiar medicine in the Scripture; this only
is required, that the sick man take the potion which God hath already
tempered." [3357]Gregory calls it "a glass wherein we may see all our
infirmities," _ignitum colloquium_, Psalm cxix. 140. [3358]Origen a charm.
And therefore Hierom prescribes Rusticus the monk, [3359]"continually to
read the Scripture, and to meditate on that which he hath read; for as
mastication is to meat, so is meditation on that which we read." I would
for these causes wish him that, is melancholy to use both human and divine
authors, voluntarily to impose some task upon himself, to divert his
melancholy thoughts: to study the art of memory, Cosmus Rosselius, Pet.
Ravennas, Scenkelius' Detectus, or practise brachygraphy, &c., that will
ask a great deal of attention: or let him demonstrate a proposition in
Euclid, in his five last books, extract a square root, or study Algebra:
than which, as [3360]Clavius holds, "in all human disciplines nothing can
be more excellent and pleasant, so abstruse and recondite, so bewitching,
so miraculous, so ravishing, so easy withal and full of delight," _omnem
humanum captum superare videtur_. By this means you may define _ex ungue
leonem_, as the diverb is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules, or
the true dimensions of the great [3361]Colossus, Solomon's temple, and
Domitian's amphitheatre out of a little part. By this art you may
contemplate the variation of the twenty-three letters, which may be so
infinitely varied, that the words complicated and deduced thence will not
be contained within the compass of the firmament; ten words may be varied
40,320 several ways: by this art you may examine how many men may stand one
by another in the whole superficies of the earth, some say
148,456,800,000,000, _assignando singulis passum quadratum_ (assigning a
square foot to each), how many men, supposing all the world as habitable as
France, as fruitful and so long-lived, may be born in 60,000 years, and so
may you demonstrate with [3362]Archimedes how many sands the mass of the
whole world might contain if all sandy, if you did but first know how much
a small cube as big as a mustard-seed might hold, with infinite such. But
in all nature what is there so stupendous as to examine and calculate the
motion of the planets, their magnitudes, apogees, perigees, eccentricities,
how far distant from the earth, the bigness, thickness, compass of the
firmament, each star, with their diameters and circumference, apparent
area, superficies, by those curious helps of glasses, astrolabes, sextants,
quadrants, of which Tycho Brahe in his mechanics, optics ([3363]divine
optics) arithmetic, geometry, and such like arts and instruments? What so
intricate and pleasing withal, as to peruse and practise Heron
Alexandrinus's works, _de spiritalibus, de machinis bellicis, de machina se
movente_, Jordani Nemorarii _de ponderibus proposit. 13_, that pleasant
tract of Machometes Bragdedinus _de superficierum divisionibus_,
Apollonius's Conics, or Commandinus's labours in that kind, _de centro
gravitatis_, with many such geometrical theorems and problems? Those rare
instruments and mechanical inventions of Jac. Bessonus, and Cardan to this
purpose, with many such experiments intimated long since by Roger Bacon, in
his tract _de [3364]Secretis artis et naturae_, as to make a chariot to
move _sine animali_, diving boats, to walk on the water by art, and to fly
in the air, to make several cranes and pulleys, _quibus homo trahat ad se
mille homines_, lift up and remove great weights, mills to move themselves,
Archita's dove, Albertus's brazen head, and such thaumaturgical works. But
especially to do strange miracles by glasses, of which Proclus and Bacon
writ of old, burning glasses, multiplying glasses, perspectives, _ut unus
homo appareat exercitus_, to see afar off, to represent solid bodies by
cylinders and concaves, to walk in the air, _ut veraciter videant_, (saith
Bacon) _aurum et argentum et quicquid aliud volunt, et quum veniant ad
locum visionis, nihil inveniant_, which glasses are much perfected of late
by Baptista Porta and Galileo, and much more is promised by Maginus and
Midorgius, to be performed in this kind. _Otocousticons_ some speak of, to
intend hearing, as the other do sight; Marcellus Vrencken, a Hollander, in
his epistle to Burgravius, makes mention of a friend of his that is about
an instrument, _quo videbit quae in altero horizonte sint_. But our
alchemists, methinks, and Rosicrucians afford most rarities, and are fuller
of experiments: they can make gold, separate and alter metals, extract
oils, salts, lees, and do more strange works than Geber, Lullius, Bacon, or
any of those ancients. Crollius hath made after his master Paracelsus,
_aurum fulminans_, or _aurum volatile_, which shall imitate thunder and
lightning, and crack louder than any gunpowder; Cornelius Drible a
perpetual motion, inextinguishable lights, _linum non ardens_, with many
such feats; see his book _de natura elementorum_, besides hail, wind, snow,
thunder, lightning, &c., those strange fireworks, devilish petards, and
such like warlike machinations derived hence, of which read Tartalea and
others. Ernestus Burgravius, a disciple of Paracelsus, hath published a
discourse, in which he specifies a lamp to be made of man's blood, _Lucerna
vitae et mortis index_, so he terms it, which chemically prepared forty
days, and afterwards kept in a glass, shall show all the accidents of this
life; _si lampus hic clarus, tunc homo hilaris et sanus corpore et animo;
si nebulosus et depressus, male afficitur, et sic pro statu hominis
variatur, unde sumptus sanguis_; [3365]and which is most wonderful, it dies
with the party, _cum homine perit, et evanescit_, the lamp and the man
whence the blood was taken, are extinguished together. The same author hath
another tract of Mumia (all out as vain and prodigious as the first) by
which he will cure most diseases, and transfer them from a man to a beast,
by drawing blood from one, and applying it to the other, _vel in plantam
derivare_, and an Alexi-pharmacum, of which Roger Bacon of old in his
_Tract. de retardanda senectute_, to make a man young again, live three or
four hundred years. Besides panaceas, martial amulets, _unguentum
armarium_, balsams, strange extracts, elixirs, and such like
magico-magnetical cures. Now what so pleasing can there be as the
speculation of these things, to read and examine such experiments, or if a
man be more mathematically given, to calculate, or peruse Napier's
Logarithms, or those tables of artificial [3366]sines and tangents, not
long since set out by mine old collegiate, good friend, and late
fellow-student of Christ Church in Oxford, [3367]Mr. Edmund Gunter, which
will perform that by addition and subtraction only, which heretofore
Regiomontanus's tables did by multiplication and division, or those
elaborate conclusions of his [3368]sector, quadrant, and cross-staff. Or
let him that is melancholy calculate spherical triangles, square a circle,
cast a nativity, which howsoever some tax, I say with [3369]Garcaeus,
_dabimus hoc petulantibus ingeniis_, we will in some cases allow: or let
him make an _ephemerides_, read Suisset the calculator's works, Scaliger
_de emendatione temporum_, and Petavius his adversary, till he understand
them, peruse subtle Scotus and Suarez's metaphysics, or school divinity,
Occam, Thomas, Entisberus, Durand, &c. If those other do not affect him,
and his means be great, to employ his purse and fill his head, he may go
find the philosopher's stone; he may apply his mind, I say, to heraldry,
antiquity, invent impresses, emblems; make epithalamiums, epitaphs,
elegies, epigrams, palindroma epigrammata, anagrams, chronograms,
acrostics, upon his friends' names; or write a comment on Martianus
Capella, Tertullian _de pallio_, the Nubian geography, or upon Aelia Laelia
Crispis, as many idle fellows have essayed; and rather than do nothing,
vary a [3370]verse a thousand ways with Putean, so torturing his wits, or
as Rainnerus of Luneburg, [3371]2150 times in his _Proteus Poeticus_, or
Scaliger, Chrysolithus, Cleppissius, and others, have in like sort done. If
such voluntary tasks, pleasure and delight, or crabbedness of these
studies, will not yet divert their idle thoughts, and alienate their
imaginations, they must be compelled, saith Christophorus a Vega, _cogi
debent_, _l. 5. c. 14_, upon some mulct, if they perform it not, _quod ex
officio incumbat_, loss of credit or disgrace, such as our public
University exercises. For, as he that plays for nothing will not heed his
game; no more will voluntary employment so thoroughly affect a student,
except he be very intent of himself, and take an extraordinary delight in
the study, about which he is conversant. It should be of that nature his
business, which _volens nolens_ he must necessarily undergo, and without
great loss, mulct, shame, or hindrance, he may not omit.
Now for women, instead of laborious studies, they have curious needleworks,
cut-works, spinning, bone-lace, and many pretty devices of their own
making, to adorn their houses, cushions, carpets, chairs, stools, ("for she
eats not the bread of idleness," Prov. xxxi. 27. _quaesivit lanam et
linum_) confections, conserves, distillations, &c., which they show to
strangers.
[3372] "Ipsa comes praesesque operis venientibus ultro
Hospitibus monstrare solet, non segniter horas
Contestata suas, sed nec sibi depertisse."
"Which to her guests she shows, with all her pelf,
Thus far my maids, but this I did myself."
This they have to busy themselves about, household offices, &c., [3373]
neat gardens, full of exotic, versicolour, diversely varied, sweet-smelling
flowers, and plants in all kinds, which they are most ambitious to get,
curious to preserve and keep, proud to possess, and much many times brag
of. Their merry meetings and frequent visitations, mutual invitations in
good towns, I voluntarily omit, which are so much in use, gossiping among
the meaner sort, &c., old folks have their beads: an excellent invention to
keep them from idleness, that are by nature melancholy, and past all
affairs, to say so many paternosters, avemarias, creeds, if it were not
profane and superstitious. In a word, body and mind must be exercised, not
one, but both, and that in a mediocrity; otherwise it will cause a great
inconvenience. If the body be overtired, it tires the mind. The mind
oppresseth the body, as with students it oftentimes falls out, who (as
[3374]Plutarch observes) have no care of the body, "but compel that which
is mortal to do as much as that which is immortal: that which is earthly,
as that which is ethereal. But as the ox tired, told the camel, (both
serving one master) that refused to carry some part of his burden, before
it were long he should be compelled to carry all his pack, and skin to boot
(which by and by, the ox being dead, fell out), the body may say to the
soul, that will give him no respite or remission: a little after, an ague,
vertigo, consumption, seizeth on them both, all his study is omitted, and
they must be compelled to be sick together:" he that tenders his own good
estate, and health, must let them draw with equal yoke, both alike, [3375]
"that so they may happily enjoy their wished health."
MEMB. V.
_Waking and terrible Dreams rectified_.
As waking that hurts, by all means must be avoided, so sleep, which so much
helps, by like ways, [3376]"must be procured, by nature or art, inward or
outward medicines, and be protracted longer than ordinary, if it may be, as
being an especial help." It moistens and fattens the body, concocts, and
helps digestion (as we see in dormice, and those Alpine mice that sleep all
winter), which Gesner speaks of, when they are so found sleeping under the
snow in the dead of winter, as fat as butter. It expels cares, pacifies the
mind, refresheth the weary limbs after long work:
[3377]Somne quies rerum, placidissime somne deorum,
Pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris
Fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori."
"Sleep, rest of things, O pleasing deity,
Peace of the soul, which cares dost crucify,
Weary bodies refresh and mollify."
The chiefest thing in all physic, [3378]Paracelsus calls it, _omnia arcana
gemmarum superans et metallorum_. The fittest time is [3379]"two or three
hours after supper, when as the meat is now settled at the bottom of the
stomach, and 'tis good to lie on the right side first, because at that site
the liver doth rest under the stomach, not molesting any way, but heating
him as a fire doth a kettle, that is put to it. After the first sleep 'tis
not amiss to lie on the left side, that the meat may the better descend;"
and sometimes again on the belly, but never on the back. Seven or eight
hours is a competent time for a melancholy man to rest, as Crato thinks;
but as some do, to lie in bed and not sleep, a day, or half a day together,
to give assent to pleasing conceits and vain imaginations, is many ways
pernicious. To procure this sweet moistening sleep, it's best to take away
the occasions (if it be possible) that hinder it, and then to use such
inward or outward remedies, which may cause it. _Constat hodie_ (saith
Boissardus in his tract _de magia, cap. 4._) _multos ita fascinari ut
noctes integras exigant insomnes, summa, inquietudine animorum et
corporum_; many cannot sleep for witches and fascinations, which are too
familiar in some places; they call it, _dare alicui malam noctem_. But the
ordinary causes are heat and dryness, which must first be removed: [3380]a
hot and dry brain never sleeps well: grief, fears, cares, expectations,
anxieties, great businesses, [3381]_In aurum utramque otiose ut dormias_,
and all violent perturbations of the mind, must in some sort be qualified,
before we can hope for any good repose. He that sleeps in the daytime, or
is in suspense, fear, any way troubled in mind, or goes to bed upon a full
[3382]stomach, may never hope for quiet rest in the night; _nec enim
meritoria somnos admittunt_, as the [3383]poet saith; inns and such like
troublesome places are not for sleep; one calls ostler, another tapster,
one cries and shouts, another sings, whoops, halloos,
[3384] ------"absentem cantat amicam,
Multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator."
Who not accustomed to such noises can sleep amongst them? He that will
intend to take his rest must go to bed _animo securo, quieto et libero_,
with a [3385]secure and composed mind, in a quiet place: _omnia noctes
erunt placida composta quiete_: and if that will not serve, or may not be
obtained, to seek then such means as are requisite. To lie in clean linen
and sweet; before he goes to bed, or in bed, to hear [3386]"sweet music,"
which Ficinus commends, _lib. 1. cap. 24_, or as Jobertus, _med. pract.
lib. 3. cap. 10._ [3387]"to read some pleasant author till he be asleep, to
have a basin of water still dropping by his bedside," or to lie near that
pleasant murmur, _lene sonantis aquae_. Some floodgates, arches, falls of
water, like London Bridge, or some continuate noise which may benumb the
senses, _lenis motus, silentium et tenebra, tum et ipsa voluntas somnos
faciunt_; as a gentle noise to some procures sleep, so, which Bernardinus
Tilesius, _lib. de somno_, well observes, silence, in a dark room, and the
will itself, is most available to others. Piso commends frications, Andrew
Borde a good draught of strong drink before one goes to bed; I say, a
nutmeg and ale, or a good draught of Muscadine, with a toast and nutmeg, or
a posset of the same, which many use in a morning, but methinks, for such
as have dry brains, are much more proper at night; some prescribe a [3388]
sup of vinegar as they go to bed, a spoonful, saith Aetius _Tetrabib. lib.
2. ser. 2. cap. 10. lib. 6. cap. 10._ Aegineta, _lib. 3. cap. 14._ Piso, "a
little after meat," [3389]"because it rarefies melancholy, and procures an
appetite to sleep." _Donat. ab Altomar. cap. 7._ and Mercurialis approve of
it, if the malady proceed from the [3390]spleen. Salust. Salvian. _lib. 2.
cap. 1. de remed._ Hercules de Saxonia _in Pan. Aelinus_, Montaltus _de
morb. capitis, cap. 28. de Melan._ are altogether against it. Lod.
Mercatus, _de inter. Morb. cau. lib. 1. cap. 17._ in some cases doth allow
it. [3391]Rhasis seems to deliberate of it, though Simeon commend it (in
sauce peradventure) he makes a question of it: as for baths, fomentations,
oils, potions, simples or compounds, inwardly taken to this purpose, [3392]
I shall speak of them elsewhere. If, in the midst of the night, when they
lie awake, which is usual to toss and tumble, and not sleep, [3393]
Ranzovius would have them, if it be in warm weather, to rise and walk three
or four turns (till they be cold) about the chamber, and then go to bed
again.
Against fearful and troublesome dreams, Incubus and such inconveniences,
wherewith melancholy men are molested, the best remedy is to eat a light
supper, and of such meats as are easy of digestion, no hare, venison, beef,
&c., not to lie on his back, not to meditate or think in the daytime of any
terrible objects, or especially talk of them before he goes to bed. For, as
he said in Lucian after such conference, _Hecates somniare mihi videor_, I
can think of nothing but hobgoblins: and as Tully notes, [3394] "for the
most part our speeches in the daytime cause our fantasy to work upon the
like in our sleep," which Ennius writes of Homer: _Et canis in somnis
leporis vestigia latrat_: as a dog dreams of a hare, so do men on such
subjects they thought on last.
[3395] "Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris,
Nec delubra deum, nec ab aethere numina mittunt,
Sed sibi quisque facit," &c.
For that cause when Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had posed the seventy
interpreters in order, and asked the nineteenth man what would make one
sleep quietly in the night, he told him, [3396]"the best way was to have
divine and celestial meditations, and to use honest actions in the daytime.
[3397]Lod. Vives wonders how schoolmen could sleep quietly, and were not
terrified in the night, or walk in the dark, they had such monstrous
questions, and thought of such terrible matters all day long." They had
need, amongst the rest, to sacrifice to god Morpheus, whom [3398]
Philostratus paints in a white and black coat, with a horn and ivory box
full of dreams, of the same colours, to signify good and bad. If you will
know how to interpret them, read Artemidorus, Sambucus and Cardan; but how
to help them, [3399]I must refer you to a more convenient place.
MEMB. VI.
SUBSECT. I.--_Perturbations of the mind rectified. From himself, by
resisting to the utmost, confessing his grief to a friend, &c._
Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself or any
other, must first rectify these passions and perturbations of the mind: the
chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that _voluptas_, or _summum
bonum_ of Epicurus, _non dolere, curis vacare, animo tranquillo esse_, not
to grieve, but to want cares, and have a quiet soul, is the only pleasure
of the world, as Seneca truly recites his opinion, not that of eating and
drinking, which injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for
which he is still mistaken, _male audit et vapulat_, slandered without a
cause, and lashed by all posterity. [3400]"Fear and sorrow, therefore, are
especially to be avoided, and the mind to be mitigated with mirth,
constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed, and all
such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased." Gualter Bruel.
Fernelius, _consil. 43._ Mercurialis, _consil. 6._ Piso, Jacchinus, _cap.
15. in 9. Rhasis_, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all inculcate this as an
especial means of their cure, that their [3401]"minds be quietly pacified,
vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares," [3402]
"fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest
or trouble the soul," because that otherwise there is no good to be done.
[3403]"The body's mischiefs," as Plato proves, "proceed from the soul: and
if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured."
Alcibiades raves (saith [3404]Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious
desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleading place, thence to the sea, so
into Sicily, thence to Lacedaemon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then
again to Athens; Critias tyranniseth over all the city; Sardanapalus is
lovesick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured, till
their minds be otherwise qualified. Crato, therefore, in that often-cited
Counsel of his for a nobleman his patient, when he had sufficiently
informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, concludes with these as
matters of greatest moment, _Quod reliquum est, animae accidentia
corrigantur_, from which alone proceeds melancholy; they are the fountain,
the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed.
[3405]"For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on
the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat,
overthrows appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and
perverts the understanding:" fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart,
attenuates the soul: and for these causes all passions and perturbations
must, to the uttermost of our power and most seriously, be removed.
Aelianus Montaltus attributes so much to them, [3406]"that he holds the
rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of melancholy in
most patients." Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c.,
enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the
common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags,
_lib. 1. de san. tuend._, that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this
infirmity, _solum animis ad rectum institutis_, by right settling alone of
their minds.
Yea, but you will here infer, that this is excellent good indeed if it
could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means?
_hic labor, hoc opus est._ 'Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful
adversary, all men are subject to passions, and melancholy above all
others, as being distempered by their innate humours, abundance of choler
adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be
avoided? The wisest men, greatest philosophers of most excellent wit,
reason, judgment, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this
behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer's gods,
all are passionate, and furiously carried sometimes; and how shall we that
are already crazed, _fracti animis_, sick in body, sick in mind, resist? we
cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts, as who cannot?
But how shall they be put in practice? I may not deny but our passions are
violent, and tyrannise of us, yet there be means to curb them; though they
be headstrong, they may be tamed, they may be qualified, if he himself or
his friends will but use their honest endeavours, or make use of such
ordinary helps as are commonly prescribed.
He himself (I say); from the patient himself the first and chiefest remedy
must be had; for if he be averse, peevish, waspish, give way wholly to his
passions, will not seek to be helped, or be ruled by his friends, how is it
possible he should be cured? But if he be willing at least, gentle,
tractable, and desire his own good, no doubt but he may _magnam morbi
deponere partem_, be eased at least, if not cured. He himself must do his
utmost endeavour to resist and withstand the beginnings. _Principiis
obsta_, "Give not water passage, no not a little," Ecclus. xxv. 27. If they
open a little, they will make a greater breach at length. Whatsoever it is
that runneth in his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing,
which so much affects or troubleth him, [3407]"by all possible means he
must withstand it, expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd
conceits, feigned fears and sorrows; from which," saith Piso, "this disease
primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or beginning, by doing
something or other that shall be opposite unto them, thinking of something
else, persuading by reason, or howsoever to make a sudden alteration of
them." Though he have hitherto run in a full career, and precipitated
himself, following his passions, giving reins to his appetite, let him now
stop upon a sudden, curb himself in; and as [3408]Lemnius adviseth, "strive
against with all his power, to the utmost of his endeavour, and not cherish
those fond imaginations, which so covertly creep into his mind, most
pleasing and amiable at first, but bitter as gall at last, and so
headstrong, that by no reason, art, counsel, or persuasion, they may be
shaken off." Though he be far gone, and habituated unto such fantastical
imaginations, yet as [3409]Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose,
fortify, or prepare himself against them, by premeditation, reason, or as
we do by a crooked staff, bend himself another way.
[3410] "Tu tamen interea effugito quae tristia mentem
Solicitant, procul esse jube curasque metumque
Pallentum, ultrices iras, sint omnia laeta."
"In the meantime expel them from thy mind,
Pale fears, sad cares, and griefs which do it grind,
Revengeful anger, pain and discontent,
Let all thy soul be set on merriment."
_Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum_. If it be idleness hath caused
this infirmity, or that he perceive himself given to solitariness, to walk
alone, and please his mind with fond imaginations, let him by all means
avoid it; 'tis a bosom enemy, 'tis delightsome melancholy, a friend in
show, but a secret devil, a sweet poison, it will in the end be his
undoing; let him go presently, task or set himself a work, get some good
company. If he proceed, as a gnat flies about a candle, so long till at
length he burn his bodv, so in the end he will undo himself: if it be any
harsh object, ill company, let him presently go from it. If by his own
default, through ill diet, bad air, want of exercise, &c., let him now
begin to reform himself. "It would be a perfect remedy against all
corruption, if," as [3411]Roger Bacon hath it, "we could but moderate
ourselves in those six non-natural things." [3412]"If it be any disgrace,
abuse, temporal loss, calumny, death of friends, imprisonment, banishment,
be not troubled with it, do not fear, be not angry, grieve not at it, but
with all courage sustain it." (Gordonius, _lib. 1. c. 15. de conser. vit._)
_Tu contra audentior ito_. [3413]If it be sickness, ill success, or any
adversity that hath caused it, oppose an invincible courage, "fortify
thyself by God's word, or otherwise," _mala bonis persuadenda_, set
prosperity against adversity, as we refresh our eyes by seeing some
pleasant meadow, fountain, picture, or the like: recreate thy mind by some
contrary object, with some more pleasing meditation divert thy thoughts.
Yea, but you infer again, _facile consilium damus aliis_, we can easily
give counsel to others; every man, as the saying is, can tame a shrew but
he that hath her; _si hic esses, aliter sentires_; if you were in our
misery, you would find it otherwise, 'tis not so easily performed. We know
this to be true; we should moderate ourselves, but we are furiously
carried, we cannot make use of such precepts, we are overcome, sick, _male
sani_, distempered and habituated to these courses, we can make no
resistance; you may as well bid him that is diseased not to feel pain, as a
melancholy man not to fear, not to be sad: 'tis within his blood, his
brains, his whole temperature, it cannot be removed. But he may choose
whether he will give way too far unto it, he may in some sort correct
himself. A philosopher was bitten with a mad dog, and as the nature of that
disease is to abhor all waters, and liquid things, and to think still they
see the picture of a dog before them: he went for all this, _reluctante
se_, to the bath, and seeing there (as he thought) in the water the picture
of a dog, with reason overcame this conceit, _quid cani cum balneo_? what
should a dog do in a bath? a mere conceit. Thou thinkest thou hearest and
seest devils, black men, &c., 'tis not so, 'tis thy corrupt fantasy; settle
thine imagination, thou art well. Thou thinkest thou hast a great nose,
thou art sick, every man observes thee, laughs thee to scorn; persuade
thyself 'tis no such matter: this is fear only, and vain suspicion. Thou
art discontent, thou art sad and heavy; but why? upon what ground? consider
of it: thou art jealous, timorous, suspicious; for what cause? examine it
thoroughly, thou shalt find none at all, or such as is to be contemned;
such as thou wilt surely deride, and contemn in thyself, when it is past.
Rule thyself then with reason, satisfy thyself, accustom thyself, wean
thyself from such fond conceits, vain fears, strong imaginations, restless
thoughts. Thou mayst do it; _Est in nobis assuescere_ (as Plutarch saith),
we may frame ourselves as we will. As he that useth an upright shoe, may
correct the obliquity, or crookedness, by wearing it on the other side; we
may overcome passions if we will. _Quicquid sibi imperavit animus obtinuit_
(as [3414]Seneca saith) _nulli tam feri affectus, ut non disciplina
perdomentur_, whatsoever the will desires, she may command: no such cruel
affections, but by discipline they may be tamed; voluntarily thou wilt not
do this or that, which thou oughtest to do, or refrain, &c., but when thou
art lashed like a dull jade, thou wilt reform it: fear of a whip will make
thee do, or not do. Do that voluntarily then which thou canst do, and must
do by compulsion; thou mayst refrain if thou wilt, and master thine
affections. [3415]"As in a city" (saith Melancthon) "they do by stubborn
rebellious rogues, that will not submit themselves to political judgment,
compel them by force; so must we do by our affections. If the heart will
not lay aside those vicious motions, and the fantasy those fond
imaginations, we have another form of government to enforce and refrain our
outward members, that they be not led by our passions." If appetite will
not obey, let the moving faculty overrule her, let her resist and compel
her to do otherwise. In an ague the appetite would drink; sore eyes that
itch would be rubbed; but reason saith no, and therefore the moving faculty
will not do it. Our fantasy would intrude a thousand fears, suspicions,
chimeras upon us, but we have reason to resist, yet we let it be overborne
by our appetite; [3416]"imagination enforceth spirits, which, by an
admirable league of nature, compel the nerves to obey, and they our several
limbs:" we give too much way to our passions. And as to him that is sick of
an ague, all things are distasteful and unpleasant, _non ex cibi vitio_
saith Plutarch, not in the meat, but in our taste: so many things are
offensive to us, not of themselves, but out of our corrupt judgment,
jealousy, suspicion, and the like: we pull these mischiefs upon our own
heads.
If then our judgment be so depraved, our reason overruled, will
precipitated, that we cannot seek our own good, or moderate ourselves, as
in this disease commonly it is, the best way for ease is to impart our
misery to some friend, not to smother it up in our own breast: _aliter
vitium crescitque tegendo_, &c., and that which was most offensive to us, a
cause of fear and grief, _quod nunc te coquit_, another hell; for [3417]
_strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus_, grief concealed
strangles the soul; but when as we shall but impart it to some discreet,
trusty, loving friend, it is [3418]instantly removed, by his counsel
happily, wisdom, persuasion, advice, his good means, which we could not
otherwise apply unto ourselves. A friend's counsel is a charm, like
mandrake wine, _curas sopit_; and as a [3419]bull that is tied to a
fig-tree becomes gentle on a sudden (which some, saith [3420]Plutarch,
interpret of good words), so is a savage, obdurate heart mollified by fair
speeches. "All adversity finds ease in complaining" (as [3421]Isidore
holds), "and 'tis a solace to relate it," [3422][Greek: Agathae de
paraiphasis estin etairou]. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all
times, as fire in winter, shade in summer, _quale sopor fessis in gramine_,
meat and drink to him that is hungry or athirst; Democritus's collyrium is
not so sovereign to the eyes as this is to the heart; good words are
cheerful and powerful of themselves, but much more from friends, as so many
props, mutually sustaining each other like ivy and a wall, which Camerarius
hath well illustrated in an emblem. _Lenit animum simplex vel saepe
narratio_, the simple narration many times easeth our distressed mind, and
in the midst of greatest extremities; so diverse have been relieved, by
[3423]exonerating themselves to a faithful friend: he sees that which we
cannot see for passion and discontent, he pacifies our minds, he will ease
our pain, assuage our anger; _quanta inde voluptas, quanta securitas_,
Chrysostom adds, what pleasure, what security by that means! [3424]"Nothing
so available, or that so much refresheth the soul of man." Tully, as I
remember, in an epistle to his dear friend Atticus, much condoles the
defect of such a friend. [3425]"I live here" (saith he) "in a great city,
where I have a multitude of acquaintance, but not a man of all that company
with whom I dare familiarly breathe, or freely jest. Wherefore I expect
thee, I desire thee, I send for thee; for there be many things which
trouble and molest me, which had I but thee in presence, I could quickly
disburden myself of in a walking discourse." The like, peradventure, may he
and he say with that old man in the comedy,
[3426] "Nemo est meorum amicorum hodie,
Apud quem expromere occulta mea audeam."
and much inconvenience may both he and he suffer in the meantime by it. He
or he, or whosoever then labours of this malady, by all means let him get
some trusty friend, [3427]_Semper habens Pylademque aliquem qui curet
Orestem_, a Pylades, to whom freely and securely he may open himself. For
as in all other occurrences, so it is in this, _Si quis in coelum
ascendisset_, &c. as he said in [3428]Tully, if a man had gone to heaven,
"seen the beauty of the skies," stars errant, fixed, &c., _insuavis erit
admiratio_, it will do him no pleasure, except he have somebody to impart
what he hath seen. It is the best thing in the world, as [3429]Seneca
therefore adviseth in such a case, "to get a trusty friend, to whom we may
freely and sincerely pour out our secrets; nothing so delighteth and easeth
the mind, as when we have a prepared bosom, to which our secrets may
descend, of whose conscience we are assured as our own, whose speech may
ease our succourless estate, counsel relieve, mirth expel our mourning, and
whose very sight may be acceptable unto us." It was the counsel which that
politic [3430]Comineus gave to all princes, and others distressed in mind,
by occasion of Charles Duke of Burgundy, that was much perplexed, "first to
pray to God, and lay himself open to him, and then to some special friend,
whom we hold most dear, to tell all our grievances to him; nothing so
forcible to strengthen, recreate, and heal the wounded soul of a miserable
man."
SUBSECT. II.--_Help from friends by counsel, comfort, fair and foul means,
witty devices, satisfaction, alteration of his course of life, removing
objects, &c._
When the patient of himself is not able to resist, or overcome these
heart-eating passions, his friends or physician must be ready to supply
that which is wanting. _Suae erit humanitatis et sapientiae_ (which [3431]
Tully enjoineth in like case) _siquid erratum, curare, aut improvisum, sua
diligentia corrigere._ They must all join; _nec satis medico_, saith [3432]
Hippocrates, _suum fecisse officium, nisi suum quoque aegrotus, suum
astantes_, &c. First, they must especially beware, a melancholy
discontented person (be it in what kind of melancholy soever) never be left
alone or idle: but as physicians prescribe physic, _cum custodia_, let them
not be left unto themselves, but with some company or other, lest by that
means they aggravate and increase their disease; _non oportet aegros
humjusmodi esse solos vel inter ignotos, vel inter eos quos non amant aut
negligunt_, as Rod. a Fonseca, _tom. 1. consul. 35._ prescribes. _Lugentes
custodire solemus_ (saith [3433]Seneca) _ne solitudine male utantur_; we
watch a sorrowful person, lest he abuse his solitariness, and so should we
do a melancholy man; set him about some business, exercise or recreation,
which may divert his thoughts, and still keep him otherwise intent; for his
fantasy is so restless, operative and quick, that if it be not in perpetual
action, ever employed, it will work upon itself, melancholise, and be
carried away instantly, with some fear, jealousy, discontent, suspicion,
some vain conceit or other. If his weakness be such that he cannot discern
what is amiss, correct, or satisfy, it behoves them by counsel, comfort, or
persuasion, by fair or foul means, to alienate his mind, by some artificial
invention, or some contrary persuasion, to remove all objects, causes,
companies, occasions, as may any ways molest him, to humour him, please
him, divert him, and if it be possible, by altering his course of life, to
give him security and satisfaction. If he conceal his grievances, and will
not be known of them, [3434]"they must observe by his looks, gestures,
motions, fantasy, what it is that offends," and then to apply remedies unto
him: many are instantly cured, when their minds are satisfied.
[3435]Alexander makes mention of a woman, "that by reason of her husband's
long absence in travel, was exceeding peevish and melancholy, but when she
heard her husband was returned, beyond all expectation, at the first sight
of him, she was freed from all fear, without help of any other physic
restored to her former health." Trincavellius, _consil. 12. lib. 1._ hath
such a story of a Venetian, that being much troubled with melancholy,
[3436]"and ready to die for grief, when he heard his wife was brought to
bed of a son, instantly recovered." As Alexander concludes, [3437]"If our
imaginations be not inveterate, by this art they may be cured, especially
if they proceed from such a cause." No better way to satisfy, than to
remove the object, cause, occasion, if by any art or means possible we may
find it out. If he grieve, stand in fear, be in suspicion, suspense, or any
way molested, secure him, _Solvitur malum_, give him satisfaction, the cure
is ended; alter his course of life, there needs no other physic. If the
party be sad, or otherwise affected, "consider" (saith [3438]Trallianus)
"the manner of it, all circumstances, and forthwith make a sudden
alteration," by removing the occasions, avoid all terrible objects, heard
or seen, [3439]"monstrous and prodigious aspects," tales of devils,
spirits, ghosts, tragical stories; to such as are in fear they strike a
great impression, renewed many times, and recall such chimeras and terrible
fictions into their minds. [3440]"Make not so much as mention of them in
private talk, or a dumb show tending to that purpose: such things" (saith
Galateus) "are offensive to their imaginations." And to those that are now
in sorrow, [3441]Seneca "forbids all sad companions, and such as lament; a
groaning companion is an enemy to quietness." [3442]"Or if there be any
such party, at whose presence the patient is not well pleased, he must be
removed: gentle speeches, and fair means, must first be tried; no harsh
language used, or uncomfortable words; and not expel, as some do, one
madness with another; he that so doth, is madder than the patient himself:"
all things must be quietly composed; _eversa non evertenda, sed erigenda_,
things down must not be dejected, but reared, as Crato counselleth; [3443]
"he must be quietly and gently used," and we should not do anything against
his mind, but by little and little effect it. As a horse that starts at a
drum or trumpet, and will not endure the shooting of a piece, may be so
manned by art, and animated, that he cannot only endure, but is much more
generous at the hearing of such things, much more courageous than before,
and much delighteth in it: they must not be reformed _ex abrupto_, but by
all art and insinuation, made to such companies, aspects, objects they
could not formerly away with. Many at first cannot endure the sight of a
green wound, a sick man, which afterward become good chirurgeons, bold
empirics: a horse starts at a rotten post afar off, which coming near he
quietly passeth. 'Tis much in the manner of making such kind of persons, be
they never so averse from company, bashful, solitary, timorous, they may be
made at last with those Roman matrons, to desire nothing more than in a
public show, to see a full company of gladiators breathe out their last.
If they may not otherwise be accustomed to brook such distasteful and
displeasing objects, the best way then is generally to avoid them.
Montanus, _consil. 229._ to the Earl of Montfort, a courtier, and his
melancholy patient, adviseth him to leave the court, by reason of those
continual discontents, crosses, abuses, [3444]"cares, suspicions,
emulations, ambition, anger, jealousy, which that place afforded, and which
surely caused him to be so melancholy at the first:" _Maxima quaeque domus
servis est plena superbis_; a company of scoffers and proud jacks are
commonly conversant and attend in such places, and able to make any man
that is of a soft, quiet disposition (as many times they do) _ex stulto
insanum_, if once they humour him, a very idiot, or stark mad. A thing too
much practised in all common societies, and they have no better sport than
to make themselves merry by abusing some silly fellow, or to take advantage
of another man's weakness. In such cases as in a plague, the best remedy is
_cito longe tarde_: (for to such a party, especially if he be apprehensive,
there can be no greater misery) to get him quickly gone far enough off, and
not to be overhasty in his return. If he be so stupid that he do not
apprehend it, his friends should take some order, and by their discretion
supply that which is wanting in him, as in all other cases they ought to
do. If they see a man melancholy given, solitary, averse from company,
please himself with such private and vain meditations, though he delight in
it, they ought by all means seek to divert him, to dehort him, to tell him
of the event and danger that may come of it. If they see a man idle, that
by reason of his means otherwise will betake himself to no course of life,
they ought seriously to admonish him, he makes a noose to entangle himself,
his want of employment will be his undoing. If he have sustained any great
loss, suffered a repulse, disgrace, &c., if it be possible, relieve him. If
he desire aught, let him be satisfied; if in suspense, fear, suspicion, let
him be secured: and if it may conveniently be, give him his heart's
content; for the body cannot be cured till the mind be satisfied. [3445]
Socrates, in Plato, would prescribe no physic for Charmides' headache,
"till first he had eased his troubled mind; body and soul must be cured
together, as head and eyes."
[3446] "Oculum non curabis sine toto capite,
Nec caput sine toto corpora,
Nec totum corpus sine anima."
If that may not be hoped or expected, yet ease him with comfort, cheerful
speeches, fair promises, and good words, persuade him, advise him. "Many,"
saith [3447]Galen, "have been cured by good counsel and persuasion alone."
"Heaviness of the heart of man doth bring it down, but a good word
rejoiceth it," Prov. xii. 25. "And there is he that speaketh words like the
pricking of a sword, but the tongue of a wise man is health," ver. 18.
_Oratio, namque saucii animi est remedium_, a gentle speech is the true
cure of a wounded soul, as [3448]Plutarch contends out of Aeschylus and
Euripides: "if it be wisely administered it easeth grief and pain, as
diverse remedies do many other diseases." 'Tis _incantationis instar_, a
charm, _aestuantis animi refrigerium_, that true Nepenthe of Homer, which
was no Indian plant, or feigned medicine, which Epidamna, Thonis' wife,
sent Helena for a token, as Macrobius, _7. Saturnal._ Goropius _Hermat.
lib. 9._ Greg. Nazianzen, and others suppose, but opportunity of speech:
for Helena's bowl, Medea's unction, Venus's girdle, Circe's cup, cannot so
enchant, so forcibly move or alter as it doth. A letter sent or read will
do as much; _multum allevor quum tuas literas lego_, I am much eased, as
[3449]Tully wrote to Pomponius Atticus, when I read thy letters, and as
Julianus the Apostate once signified to Maximus the philosopher; as
Alexander slept with Homer's works, so do I with thine epistles, _tanquam
Paeoniis medicamentis, easque assidue tanquam, recentes et novas iteramus;
scribe ergo, et assidue scribe_, or else come thyself; _amicus ad amicum
venies_. Assuredly a wise and well-spoken man may do what he will in such a
case; a good orator alone, as [3450]Tully holds, can alter affections by
power of his eloquence, "comfort such as are afflicted, erect such as are
depressed, expel and mitigate fear, lust, anger," &c. And how powerful is
the charm of a discreet and dear friend? _Ille regit dictis animos et
temperat iras_. What may not he effect? As [3451]Chremes told Menedemus,
"Fear not, conceal it not, O friend! but tell me what it is that troubles
thee, and I shall surely help thee by comfort, counsel, or in the matter
itself." [3452] Arnoldus, _lib. 1. breviar. cap. 18._ speaks of a usurer in
his time, that upon a loss, much melancholy and discontent, was so cured.
As imagination, fear, grief, cause such passions, so conceits alone,
rectified by good hope, counsel, &c., are able again to help: and 'tis
incredible how much they can do in such a case, as [3453]Trincavellius
illustrates by an example of a patient of his; Porphyrius, the philosopher,
in Plotinus's life (written by him), relates, that being in a discontented
humour through insufferable anguish of mind, he was going to make away
himself: but meeting by chance his master Plotinus, who perceiving by his
distracted looks all was not well, urged him to confess his grief: which
when he had heard, he used such comfortable speeches, that he redeemed him
_e faucibus Erebi_, pacified his unquiet mind, insomuch that he was easily
reconciled to himself, and much abashed to think afterwards that he should
ever entertain so vile a motion. By all means, therefore, fair promises,
good words, gentle persuasions, are to be used, not to be too rigorous at
first, [3454]"or to insult over them, not to deride, neglect, or contemn,"
but rather, as Lemnius exhorteth, "to pity, and by all plausible means to
seek to redress them:" but if satisfaction may not be had, mild courses,
promises, comfortable speeches, and good counsel will not take place; then
as Christophorus a Vega determines, _lib. 3. cap. 14. de Mel._ to handle
them more roughly, to threaten and chide, saith [3455]Altomarus, terrify
sometimes, or as Salvianus will have them, to be lashed and whipped, as we
do by a starting horse, [3456]that is affrighted without a cause, or as
[3457]Rhasis adviseth, "one while to speak fair and flatter, another while
to terrify and chide, as they shall see cause."
When none of these precedent remedies will avail, it will not be amiss,
which Savanarola and Aelian Montaltus so much commend, _clavum clavo
pellere_, [3458]"to drive out one passion with another, or by some contrary
passion," as they do bleeding at nose by letting blood in the arm, to expel
one fear with another, one grief with another. [3459] Christophorus a Vega
accounts it rational physic, _non alienum a ratione_: and Lemnius much
approves it, "to use a hard wedge to a hard knot," to drive out one disease
with another, to pull out a tooth, or wound him, to geld him, saith
[3460]Platerus, as they did epileptical patients of old, because it quite
alters the temperature, that the pain of the one may mitigate the grief of
the other; [3461]"and I knew one that was so cured of a quartan ague, by
the sudden coming of his enemies upon him." If we may believe [3462]Pliny,
whom Scaliger calls _mendaciorum patrem_, the father of lies, Q. Fabius
Maximus, that renowned consul of Rome, in a battle fought with the king of
the Allobroges, at the river Isaurus, was so rid of a quartan ague.
Valesius, in his controversies, holds this an excellent remedy, and if it
be discreetly used in this malady, better than any physic.
Sometimes again by some [3463]feigned lie, strange news, witty device,
artificial invention, it is not amiss to deceive them. [3464]"As they hate
those," saith Alexander, "that neglect or deride, so they will give ear to
such as will soothe them up. If they say they have swallowed frogs or a
snake, by all means grant it, and tell them you can easily cure it;" 'tis
an ordinary thing. Philodotus, the physician, cured a melancholy king, that
thought his head was off, by putting a leaden cap thereon; the weight made
him perceive it, and freed him of his fond imagination. A woman, in the
said Alexander, swallowed a serpent as she thought; he gave her a vomit,
and conveyed a serpent, such as she conceived, into the basin; upon the
sight of it she was amended. The pleasantest dotage that ever I read, saith
[3465]Laurentius, was of a gentleman at Senes in Italy, who was afraid to
piss, lest all the town should be drowned; the physicians caused the bells
to be rung backward, and told him the town was on fire, whereupon he made
water, and was immediately cured. Another supposed his nose so big that he
should dash it against the wall if he stirred; his physician took a great
piece of flesh, and holding it in his hand, pinched him by the nose, making
him believe that flesh was cut from it. Forestus, _obs. lib. 1._ had a
melancholy patient, who thought he was dead, [3466]"he put a fellow in a
chest, like a dead man, by his bedside, and made him rear himself a little,
and eat: the melancholy man asked the counterfeit, whether dead men use to
eat meat? He told him yea; whereupon he did eat likewise and was cured."
Lemnius, _lib. 2. cap. 6. de 4. complex_, hath many such instances, and
Jovianus Pontanus, _lib. 4. cap. 2. of Wisd._ of the like; but amongst the
rest I find one most memorable, registered in the [3467]French chronicles
of an advocate of Paris before mentioned, who believed verily he was dead,
&c. I read a multitude of examples of melancholy men cured by such
artificial inventions.
SUBSECT. III.--_Music a remedy_.
Many and sundry are the means which philosophers and physicians have
prescribed to exhilarate a sorrowful heart, to divert those fixed and
intent cares and meditations, which in this malady so much offend; but in
my judgment none so present, none so powerful, none so apposite as a cup of
strong drink, mirth, music, and merry company. Ecclus. xl. 20. "Wine and
music rejoice the heart." [3468]Rhasis, _cont. 9. Tract. 15._ Altomarus,
_cap. 7._ Aelianus Montaltus, _c. 26._ Ficinus, Bened. Victor. Faventinus
are almost immoderate in the commendation of it; a most forcible medicine
[3469]Jacchinus calls it: Jason Pratensis, "a most admirable thing, and
worthy of consideration, that can so mollify the mind, and stay those
tempestuous affections of it." _Musica est mentis medicina moestae_, a
roaring-meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul;
[3470]"affecting not only the ears, but the very arteries, the vital and
animal spirits, it erects the mind, and makes it nimble." Lemnius, _instit,
cap. 44._ This it will effect in the most dull, severe and sorrowful souls,
[3471]"expel grief with mirth, and if there be any clouds, dust, or dregs
of cares yet lurking in our thoughts, most powerfully it wipes them all
away," Salisbur. _polit. lib. 1. cap. 6._ and that which is more, it will
perform all this in an instant: [3472]"Cheer up the countenance, expel
austerity, bring in hilarity" (Girald. Camb. _cap. 12. Topog. Hiber._)
"inform our manners, mitigate anger;" Athenaeus (_Dipnosophist. lib. 14.
cap. 10._) calleth it an infinite treasure to such as are endowed with it:
_Dulcisonum reficit tristia corda melos_, Eobanus Hessus. Many other
properties [3473]Cassiodorus, _epist. 4._ reckons up of this our divine
music, not only to expel the greatest griefs, but "it doth extenuate fears
and furies, appeaseth cruelty, abateth heaviness, and to such as are
watchful it causeth quiet rest; it takes away spleen and hatred," be it
instrumental, vocal, with strings, wind, [3474]_Quae, a spiritu, sine
manuum dexteritate gubernetur_, &c. it cures all irksomeness and heaviness
of the soul. [3475]Labouring men that sing to their work, can tell as much,
and so can soldiers when they go to fight, whom terror of death cannot so
much affright, as the sound of trumpet, drum, fife, and such like music
animates; _metus enim mortis_, as [3476]Censorinus informeth us, _musica
depellitur_. "It makes a child quiet," the nurse's song, and many times the
sound of a trumpet on a sudden, bells ringing, a carman's whistle, a boy
singing some ballad tune early in the streets, alters, revives, recreates a
restless patient that cannot sleep in the night, &c. In a word, it is so
powerful a thing that it ravisheth the soul, _regina sensuum_, the queen of
the senses, by sweet pleasure (which is a happy cure), and corporal tunes
pacify our incorporeal soul, _sine ore loquens, dominatum in animam
exercet_, and carries it beyond itself, helps, elevates, extends it.
Scaliger, _exercit. 302_, gives a reason of these effects, [3477]"because
the spirits about the heart take in that trembling and dancing air into the
body, are moved together, and stirred up with it," or else the mind, as
some suppose harmonically composed, is roused up at the tunes of music. And
'tis not only men that are so affected, but almost all other creatures. You
know the tale of Hercules Gallus, Orpheus, and Amphion, _felices animas_
Ovid calls them, that could _saxa movere sono testudinis_, &c. make stocks
and stones, as well as beasts and other animals, dance after their pipes:
the dog and hare, wolf and lamb; _vicinumque lupo praebuit agna latus;
clamosus graculus, stridula cornix, et Jovis aquila_, as Philostratus
describes it in his images, stood all gaping upon Orpheus; and [3478]trees
pulled up by the roots came to hear him, _Et comitem quercum pinus amica
trahit_.
Arion made fishes follow him, which, as common experience evinceth, [3479]
are much affected with music. All singing birds are much pleased with it,
especially nightingales, if we may believe Calcagninus; and bees amongst
the rest, though they be flying away, when they hear any tingling sound,
will tarry behind. [3480]"Harts, hinds, horses, dogs, bears, are
exceedingly delighted with it." Scal, _exerc. 302._ Elephants, Agrippa
adds, _lib. 2. cap. 24._ and in Lydia in the midst of a lake there be
certain floating islands (if ye will believe it), that after music will
dance.
But to leave all declamatory speeches in praise [3481]of divine music, I
will confine myself to my proper subject: besides that excellent power it
hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against [3482]
despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a
Rhodian fiddler, in [3483]Philostratus, when Apollonius was inquisitive to
know what he could do with his pipe, told him, "That he would make a
melancholy man merry, and him that was merry much merrier than before, a
lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." Ismenias the Theban,
[3484]Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other
diseases by music alone: as now they do those, saith [3485]Bodine, that are
troubled with St. Vitus's Bedlam dance. [3486]Timotheus, the musician,
compelled Alexander to skip up and down, and leave his dinner (like the
tale of the Friar and the Boy), whom Austin, _de civ. Dei, lib. 17. cap.
14._ so much commends for it. Who hath not heard how David's harmony drove
away the evil spirits from king Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. and Elisha when he was
much troubled by importunate kings, called for a minstrel, "and when he
played, the hand of the Lord came upon him," 2 Kings iii. Censorinus _de
natali, cap. 12._ reports how Asclepiades the physician helped many frantic
persons by this means, _phreneticorum mentes morbo turbatas_--Jason
Pratensis, _cap. de Mania_, hath many examples, how Clinias and Empedocles
cured some desperately melancholy, and some mad by this our music. Which
because it hath such excellent virtues, belike [3487]Homer brings in
Phemius playing, and the Muses singing at the banquet of the gods.
Aristotle, _Polit. l. 8. c. 5_, Plato _2. de legibus_, highly approve it,
and so do all politicians. The Greeks, Romans, have graced music, and made
it one of the liberal sciences, though it be now become mercenary. All
civil Commonwealths allow it: Cneius Manlius (as [3488]Livius relates)
_anno ab urb. cond._ 567. brought first out of Asia to Rome singing
wenches, players, jesters, and all kinds of music to their feasts. Your
princes, emperors, and persons of any quality, maintain it in their courts;
no mirth without music. Sir Thomas More, in his absolute Utopian
commonwealth, allows music as an appendix to every meal, and that
throughout, to all sorts. Epictetus calls _mensam mutam praesepe_, a table
without music a manger: for "the concert of musicians at a banquet is a
carbuncle set in gold; and as the signet of an emerald well trimmed with
gold, so is the melody of music in a pleasant banquet." Ecclus. xxxii. 5,
6. [3489]Louis the Eleventh, when he invited Edward the Fourth to come to
Paris, told him that as a principal part of his entertainment, he should
hear sweet voices of children, Ionic and Lydian tunes, exquisite music, he
should have a --, and the cardinal of Bourbon to be his confessor, which he
used as a most plausible argument: as to a sensual man indeed it is. [3490]
Lucian in his book, _de saltatione_, is not ashamed to confess that he took
infinite delight in singing, dancing, music, women's company, and such like
pleasures: "and if thou" (saith he) "didst but hear them play and dance, I
know thou wouldst be so well pleased with the object, that thou wouldst
dance for company thyself, without doubt thou wilt be taken with it." So
Scaliger ingenuously confesseth, _exercit. 274._ [3491]"I am beyond all
measure affected with music, I do most willingly behold them dance, I am
mightily detained and allured with that grace and comeliness of fair women,
I am well pleased to be idle amongst them." And what young man is not? As
it is acceptable and conducing to most, so especially to a melancholy man.
Provided always, his disease proceed not originally from it, that he be not
some light _inamarato_, some idle fantastic, who capers in conceit all the
day long, and thinks of nothing else, but how to make jigs, sonnets,
madrigals, in commendation of his mistress. In such cases music is most
pernicious, as a spur to a free horse will make him run himself blind, or
break his wind; _Incitamentum enim amoris musica_, for music enchants, as
Menander holds, it will make such melancholy persons mad, and the sound of
those jigs and hornpipes will not be removed out of the ears a week after.
[3492]Plato for this reason forbids music and wine to all young men,
because they are most part amorous, _ne ignis addatur igni_, lest one fire
increase another. Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a
pleasing melancholy that it causeth; and therefore to such as are
discontent, in woe, fear, sorrow, or dejected, it is a most present remedy:
it expels cares, alters their grieved minds, and easeth in an instant.
Otherwise, saith [3493]Plutarch, _Musica magis dementat quam vinum_; music
makes some men mad as a tiger; like Astolphos' horn in Ariosto; or
Mercury's golden wand in Homer, that made some wake, others sleep, it hath
divers effects: and [3494]Theophrastus right well prophesied, that diseases
were either procured by music, or mitigated.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Mirth and merry company, fair objects, remedies_.
Mirth and merry company may not be separated from music, both concerning
and necessarily required in this business. "Mirth," (saith [3495]Vives)
"purgeth the blood, confirms health, causeth a fresh, pleasing, and fine
colour," prorogues life, whets the wit, makes the body young, lively and
fit for any manner of employment. The merrier the heart the longer the
life; "A merry heart is the life of the flesh," Prov. xiv. 30. "Gladness
prolongs his days," Ecclus. xxx. 22; and this is one of the three
Salernitan doctors, Dr. Merryman, Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, [3496]which cure all
diseases--_Mens hilaris, requies, moderata dieta_. [3497]Gomesius,
_praefat. lib. 3. de sal. gen._ is a great magnifier of honest mirth, by
which (saith he) "we cure many passions of the mind in ourselves, and in
our friends;" which [3498]Galateus assigns for a cause why we love merry
companions: and well they deserve it, being that as [3499]Magninus holds, a
merry companion is better than any music, and as the saying is, _comes
jucundus in via pro vehiculo_, as a wagon to him that is wearied on the
way. _Jucunda confabulatio, sales, joci_, pleasant discourse, jests,
conceits, merry tales, _melliti verborum globuli_, as Petronius, [3500]
Pliny, [3501]Spondanus, [3502]Caelius, and many good authors plead, are
that sole Nepenthes of Homer, Helena's bowl, Venus's girdle, so renowned of
old [3503]to expel grief and care, to cause mirth and gladness of heart, if
they be rightly understood, or seasonably applied. In a word,
[3504] "Amor, voluptas, Venus, gaudium,
Jocus, ludus, sermo suavis, suaviatio."
"Gratification, pleasure, love, joy,
Mirth, sport, pleasant words and no alloy,"
are the true Nepenthes. For these causes our physicians generally prescribe
this as a principal engine to batter the walls of melancholy, a chief
antidote, and a sufficient cure of itself. "By all means" (saith [3505]
Mesue) "procure mirth to these men in such things as are heard, seen,
tasted, or smelled, or any way perceived, and let them have all enticements
and fair promises, the sight of excellent beauties, attires, ornaments,
delightsome passages to distract their minds from fear and sorrow, and such
things on which they are so fixed and intent." [3506]"Let them use hunting,
sports, plays, jests, merry company," as Rhasis prescribes, "which will not
let the mind be molested, a cup of good drink now and then, hear music, and
have such companions with whom they are especially delighted;" [3507]"merry
tales or toys, drinking, singing, dancing, and whatsoever else may procure
mirth:" and by no means, saith Guianerius, suffer them to be alone.
Benedictus Victorius Faventinus, in his empirics, accounts it an especial
remedy against melancholy, [3508]"to hear and see singing, dancing,
maskers, mummers, to converse with such merry fellows and fair maids." "For
the beauty of a woman cheereth the countenance," Ecclus. xxxvi. 22. [3509]
Beauty alone is a sovereign remedy against fear, grief, and all melancholy
fits; a charm, as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirm, a
banquet itself; he gives instance in discontented Menelaus, that was so
often freed by Helena's fair face: and [3510]Tully, _3 Tusc_. cites
Epicurus as a chief patron of this tenet. To expel grief, and procure
pleasure, sweet smells, good diet, touch, taste, embracing, singing,
dancing, sports, plays, and above the rest, exquisite beauties, _quibus
oculi jucunde moventur et animi_, are most powerful means, _obvia forma_,
to meet or see a fair maid pass by, or to be in company with her. He found
it by experience, and made good use of it in his own person, if Plutarch
belie him not; for he reckons up the names of some more elegant pieces;
[3511]Leontia, Boedina, Hedieia, Nicedia, that were frequently seen in
Epicurus' garden, and very familiar in his house. Neither did he try it
himself alone, but if we may give credit to [3512]Atheneus, he practised it
upon others. For when a sad and sick patient was brought unto him to be
cured, "he laid him on a down bed, crowned him with a garland of
sweet-smelling flowers, in a fair perfumed closet delicately set out, and
after a portion or two of good drink, which he administered, he brought in
a beautiful young [3513]wench that could play upon a lute, sing, and
dance," &c. Tully, _3. Tusc._ scoffs at Epicurus, for this his profane
physic (as well he deserved), and yet Phavorinus and Stobeus highly approve
of it; most of our looser physicians in some cases, to such parties
especially, allow of this; and all of them will have a melancholy, sad, and
discontented person, make frequent use of honest sports, companies, and
recreations, _et incitandos ad Venerem_, as [3514]Rodericus a Fonseca will,
_aspectu et contactu pulcherrimarum foeminarum_, to be drawn to such
consorts, whether they will or no. Not to be an auditor only, or a
spectator, but sometimes an actor himself. _Dulce est desipere in loco_, to
play the fool now and then is not amiss, there is a time for all things.
Grave Socrates would be merry by fits, sing, dance, and take his liquor
too, or else Theodoret belies him; so would old Cato, [3515]Tully by his
own confession, and the rest. Xenophon, in his _Sympos._ brings in Socrates
as a principal actor, no man merrier than himself, and sometimes he would
[3516]"ride a cockhorse with his children."--_equitare in arundine longa_.
(Though Alcibiades scoffed at him for it) and well he might; for now and
then (saith Plutarch) the most virtuous, honest, and gravest men will use
feasts, jests, and toys, as we do sauce to our meats. So did Scipio and
Laelius,
[3517] "Qui ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant,
Virtus Scipiadae et mitis sapientia Laeli,
Nugari cum illo, et discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, soliti"------
"Valorous Scipio and gentle Laelius,
Removed from the scene and rout so clamorous,
Were wont to recreate themselves their robes laid by,
Whilst supper by the cook was making ready."
Machiavel, in the eighth book of his Florentine history, gives this note of
Cosmo de Medici, the wisest and gravest man of his time in Italy, that he
would [3518]"now and then play the most egregious fool in his carriage, and
was so much given to jesters, players and childish sports, to make himself
merry, that he that should but consider his gravity on the one part, his
folly and lightness on the other, would surely say, there were two distinct
persons in him." Now methinks he did well in it, though [3519]
Salisburiensis be of opinion, that magistrates, senators, and grave men,
should not descend to lighter sports, _ne respublica ludere videatur_: but
as Themistocles, still keep a stern and constant carriage. I commend Cosmo
de Medici and Castruccius Castrucanus, than whom Italy never knew a
worthier captain, another Alexander, if [3520]Machiavel do not deceive us
in his life: "when a friend of his reprehended him for dancing beside his
dignity," (belike at some cushion dance) he told him again, _qui sapit
interdiu, vix unquam noctii desipit_, he that is wise in the day may dote a
little in the night. Paulus Jovius relates as much of Pope Leo Decimus,
that he was a grave, discreet, staid man, yet sometimes most free, and too
open in his sports. And 'tis not altogether [3521]unfit or misbeseeming the
gravity of such a man, if that decorum of time, place, and such
circumstances be observed. [3522]_Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem_--and
as [3523]he said in an epigram to his wife, I would have every man say to
himself, or to his friend,
"Moll, once in pleasant company by chance,
I wished that you for company would dance:
Which you refus'd, and said, your years require,
Now, matron-like, both manners and attire.
Well, Moll, if needs you will be matron-like,
Then trust to this, I will thee matron-like:
Yet so to you my love, may never lessen,
As you for church, house, bed, observe this lesson:
Sit in the church as solemn as a saint,
No deed, word, thought, your due devotion taint:
Veil, if you will, your head, your soul reveal
To him that only wounded souls can heal:
Be in my house as busy as a bee.
Having a sting for every one but me;
Buzzing in every corner, gath'ring honey:
Let nothing waste, that costs or yieldeth money.
[3524] And when thou seest my heart to mirth incline,
Thy tongue, wit, blood, warm with good cheer and wine:
Then of sweet sports let no occasion scape,
But be as wanton, toying as an ape."
Those old [3525]Greeks had their _Lubentiam Deam_, goddess of pleasure, and
the Lacedaemonians, instructed from Lycurgus, did _Deo Risui sucrificare_,
after their wars especially, and in times of peace, which was used in
Thessaly, as it appears by that of [3526]Apuleius, who was made an
instrument of their laughter himself: [3527]"Because laughter and merriment
was to season their labours and modester life." [3528]_Risus enim divum
atque; hominum est aeterna voluptas_. Princes use jesters, players, and
have those masters of revels in their courts. The Romans at every supper
(for they had no solemn dinner) used music, gladiators, jesters, &c. as
[3529]Suetonius relates of Tiberius, Dion of Commodus, and so did the
Greeks. Besides music, in Xenophon's _Sympos._ _Philippus ridendi artifex_,
Philip, a jester, was brought to make sport. Paulus Jovius, in the eleventh
book of his history, hath a pretty digression of our English customs, which
howsoever some may misconstrue, I, for my part, will interpret to the best.
[3530]"The whole nation beyond all other mortal men, is most given to
banqueting and feasts; for they prolong them many hours together, with
dainty cheer, exquisite music, and facete jesters, and afterwards they fall
a dancing and courting their mistresses, till it be late in the night."
Volateran gives the same testimony of this island, commending our jovial
manner of entertainment and good mirth, and methinks he saith well, there
is no harm in it; long may they use it, and all such modest sports. Ctesias
reports of a Persian king, that had 150 maids attending at his table, to
play, sing, and dance by turns; and [3531]Lil. Geraldus of an Egyptian
prince, that kept nine virgins still to wait upon him, and those of most
excellent feature, and sweet voices, which afterwards gave occasion to the
Greeks of that fiction of the nine Muses. The king of Ethiopia in Africa,
most of our Asiatic princes have done so and do; those Sophies, Mogors,
Turks, &c. solace themselves after supper amongst their queens and
concubines, _quae jucundioris oblectamenti causa_ ([3532]saith mine author)
_coram rege psallere et saltare consueverant_, taking great pleasure to see
and hear them sing and dance. This and many such means to exhilarate the
heart of men, have been still practised in all ages, as knowing there is no
better thing to the preservation of man's life. What shall I say, then, but
to every melancholy man,
[3533] "Utere convivis, non tristibus utere amicis,
Quos nugae et risus, et joca salsa juvant."
"Feast often, and use friends not still so sad,
Whose jests and merriments may make thee glad."
Use honest and chaste sports, scenical shows, plays, games; [3534]
_Accedant juvenumque Chori, mistaeque puellae_. And as Marsilius Ficinus
concludes an epistle to Bernard Canisianus, and some other of his friends,
will I this tract to all good students, [3535]"Live merrily, O my friends,
free from cares, perplexity, anguish, grief of mind, live merrily,"
_laetitia caelum vos creavit_: [3536]"Again and again I request you to be
merry, if anything trouble your hearts, or vex your souls, neglect and
contemn it," [3537]"let it pass." [3538]"And this I enjoin you, not as a
divine alone, but as a physician; for without this mirth, which is the life
and quintessence of physic, medicines, and whatsoever is used and applied
to prolong the life of man, is dull, dead, and of no force." _Dum fata
sinunt, vivite laeti_ (Seneca), I say be merry.
[3539] "Nec lusibus virentem
Viduemus hanc juventam."
It was Tiresias the prophet's council to [3540]Menippus, that travelled all
the world over, even down to hell itself to seek content, and his last
farewell to Menippus, to be merry. [3541]"Contemn the world" (saith he)
"and count that is in it vanity and toys; this only covet all thy life
long; be not curious, or over solicitous in anything, but with a well
composed and contented estate to enjoy thyself, and above all things to be
merry."
[3542] "Si Numerus uti censet sine amore jocisque,
Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque."
Nothing better (to conclude with Solomon, Eccles. iii. 22), "than that a
man should rejoice in his affairs." 'Tis the same advice which every
physician in this case rings to his patient, as Capivaccius to his, [3543]
"avoid overmuch study and perturbations of the mind, and as much as in thee
lies live at heart's-ease:" Prosper Calenus to that melancholy Cardinal
Caesius, [3544]"amidst thy serious studies and business, use jests and
conceits, plays and toys, and whatsoever else may recreate thy mind."
Nothing better than mirth and merry company in this malady. [3545]"It
begins with sorrow" (saith Montanus), "it must be expelled with hilarity."
But see the mischief; many men, knowing that merry company is the only
medicine against melancholy, will therefore neglect their business; and in
another extreme, spend all their days among good fellows in a tavern or an
alehouse, and know not otherwise how to bestow their time but in drinking;
malt-worms, men-fishes, or water-snakes, [3546]_Qui bibunt solum ranarum
more, nihil comedentes_, like so many frogs in a puddle. 'Tis their sole
exercise to eat, and drink; to sacrifice to Volupia, Rumina, Edulica,
Potina, Mellona, is all their religion. They wish for Philoxenus' neck,
Jupiter's trinoctium, and that the sun would stand still as in Joshua's
time, to satisfy their lust, that they might _dies noctesque pergraecari et
bibere_. Flourishing wits, and men of good parts, good fashion, and good
worth, basely prostitute themselves to every rogue's company, to take
tobacco and drink, to roar and sing scurrilous songs in base places.
[3547] "Invenies aliquem cum percussore jacentem,
Permistum nautis, aut furibus, aut fugitivis."
Which Thomas Erastus objects to Paracelsus, that he would be drinking all
day long with carmen and tapsters in a brothel-house, is too frequent among
us, with men of better note: like Timocreon of Rhodes, _multa bibens, et
multa vorans_, &c. They drown their wits, seethe their brains in ale,
consume their fortunes, lose their time, weaken their temperatures,
contract filthy diseases, rheums, dropsies, calentures, tremor, get swollen
jugulars, pimpled red faces, sore eyes, &c.; heat their livers, alter their
complexions, spoil their stomachs, overthrow their bodies; for drink drowns
more than the sea and all the rivers that fall into it (mere funges and
casks), confound their souls, suppress reason, go from Scylla to Charybdis,
and use that which is a help to their undoing. [3548]_Quid refert morbo an
ferro pereamve ruina_? [3549]When the Black Prince went to set the exiled
king of Castile into his kingdom, there was a terrible battle fought
between the English and the Spanish: at last the Spanish fled, the English
followed them to the river side, where some drowned themselves to avoid
their enemies, the rest were killed. Now tell me what difference is between
drowning and killing? As good be melancholy still, as drunken beasts and
beggars. Company a sole comfort, and an only remedy to all kind of
discontent, is their sole misery and cause of perdition. As Hermione
lamented in Euripides, _malae mulieres me fecerunt malam_. Evil company
marred her, may they justly complain, bad companions have been their bane.
For, [3550]_malus malum vult ut sit sui similis_; one drunkard in a
company, one thief, one whoremaster, will by his goodwill make all the rest
as bad as himself,
[3551] ------"Et si
Nocturnos jures te formidare vapores,"
be of what complexion you will, inclination, love or hate, be it good or
bad, if you come amongst them, you must do as they do; yea, [3552]though it
be to the prejudice of your health, you must drink _venenum pro vino_. And
so like grasshoppers, whilst they sing over their cups all summer, they
starve in winter; and for a little vain merriment shall find a sorrowful
reckoning in the end.
SECT. III. MEMB. I.
_A Consolatory Digression, containing the Remedies of all manner of
Discontents_.
Because in the preceding section I have made mention of good counsel,
comfortable speeches, persuasion, how necessarily they are required to the
cure of a discontented or troubled mind, how present a remedy they yield,
and many times a sole sufficient cure of themselves; I have thought fit in
this following section, a little to digress (if at least it be to digress
in this subject), to collect and glean a few remedies, and comfortable
speeches out of our best orators, philosophers, divines, and fathers of the
church, tending to this purpose. I confess, many have copiously written of
this subject, Plato, Seneca, Plutarch, Xenophon, Epictetus, Theophrastus,
Xenocrates, Grantor, Lucian, Boethius: and some of late, Sadoletus, Cardan,
Budaeus, Stella, Petrarch, Erasmus, besides Austin, Cyprian, Bernard, &c.
And they so well, that as Hierome in like case said, _si nostrum areret
ingenium, de illorum posset fontibus irrigari_, if our barren wits were
dried up, they might be copiously irrigated from those well-springs: and I
shall but _actum agere_; yet because these tracts are not so obvious and
common, I will epitomise, and briefly insert some of their divine precepts,
reducing their voluminous and vast treatises to my small scale; for it were
otherwise impossible to bring so great vessels into so little a creek. And
although (as Cardan said of his book _de consol._) [3553]"I know
beforehand, this tract of mine many will contemn and reject; they that are
fortunate, happy, and in flourishing estate, have no need of such
consolatory speeches; they that are miserable and unhappy, think them
insufficient to ease their grieved minds, and comfort their misery:" yet I
will go on; for this must needs do some good to such as are happy, to bring
them to a moderation, and make them reflect and know themselves, by seeing
the inconstancy of human felicity, others' misery; and to such as are
distressed, if they will but attend and consider of this, it cannot choose
but give some content and comfort. [3554]"'Tis true, no medicine can cure
all diseases, some affections of the mind are altogether incurable; yet
these helps of art, physic, and philosophy must not be contemned." Arrianus
and Plotinus are stiff in the contrary opinion, that such precepts can do
little good. Boethius himself cannot comfort in some cases, they will
reject such speeches like bread of stones, _Insana stultae mentis haec
solatia._ [3555]
"Words add no courage," which [3556]Catiline once said to his soldiers, "a
captain's oration doth not make a coward a valiant man:" and as Job [3557]
feelingly said to his friends, "you are but miserable comforters all." 'Tis
to no purpose in that vulgar phrase to use a company of obsolete sentences,
and familiar sayings: as [3558]Plinius Secundus, being now sorrowful and
heavy for the departure of his dear friend Cornelius Rufus, a Roman
senator, wrote to his fellow Tiro in like case, _adhibe solatia, sed nova
aliqua, sed fortia, quae audierim nunquam, legerim nunquam: nam quae
audivi, quae legi omnia, tanto dolore superantur_, either say something
that I never read nor heard of before, or else hold thy peace. Most men
will here except trivial consolations, ordinary speeches, and known
persuasions in this behalf will be of small force; what can any man say
that hath not been said? To what end are such paraenetical discourses? you
may as soon remove Mount Caucasus, as alter some men's affections. Yet sure
I think they cannot choose but do some good, and comfort and ease a little,
though it be the same again, I will say it, and upon that hope I will
adventure. [3559]_Non meus hic sermo_, 'tis not my speech this, but of
Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Austin, Bernard, Christ and his Apostles. If I
make nothing, as [3560]Montaigne said in like case, I will mar nothing;
'tis not my doctrine but my study, I hope I shall do nobody wrong to speak
what I think, and deserve not blame in imparting my mind. If it be not for
thy ease, it may for mine own; so Tully, Cardan, and Boethius wrote _de
consol_. as well to help themselves as others; be it as it may I will
essay.
Discontents and grievances are either general or particular; general are
wars, plagues, dearths, famine, fires, inundations, unseasonable weather,
epidemical diseases which afflict whole kingdoms, territories, cities; or
peculiar to private men, [3561]as cares, crosses, losses, death of friends,
poverty, want, sickness, orbities, injuries, abuses, &c. Generally all
discontent, [3562]_homines quatimur fortunae, salo_. No condition free,
_quisque suos patimur manes_. Even in the midst of our mirth and jollity,
there is some grudging, some complaint; as [3563]he saith, our whole life
is a glycypicron, a bitter sweet passion, honey and gall mixed together, we
are all miserable and discontent, who can deny it? If all, and that it be a
common calamity, an inevitable necessity, all distressed, then as Cardan
infers, [3564]"who art thou that hopest to go free? Why dost thou not
grieve thou art a mortal man, and not governor of the world?" _Ferre quam
sortem patiuntur omnes, Nemo recuset_, [3565]"If it be common to all, why
should one man be more disquieted than another?" If thou alone wert
distressed, it were indeed more irksome, and less to be endured; but when
the calamity is common, comfort thyself with this, thou hast more fellows,
_Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris_; 'tis not thy sole case, and why
shouldst thou be so impatient? [3566]"Aye, but alas we are more miserable
than others, what shall we do? Besides private miseries, we live in
perpetual fear and danger of common enemies: we have Bellona's whips, and
pitiful outcries, for epithalamiums; for pleasant music, that fearful noise
of ordnance, drums, and warlike trumpets still sounding in our ears;
instead of nuptial torches, we have firing of towns and cities; for
triumphs, lamentations; for joy, tears." [3567]"So it is, and so it was,
and so it ever will be. He that refuseth to see and hear, to suffer this,
is not fit to live in this world, and knows not the common condition of all
men, to whom so long as they live, with a reciprocal course, joys and
sorrows are annexed, and succeed one another." It is inevitable, it may not
be avoided, and why then shouldst thou be so much troubled? _Grave nihil
est homini quod fert necessitas_, as [3568]Tully deems out of an old poet,
"that which is necessary cannot be grievous." If it be so, then comfort
thyself in this, [3569]"that whether thou wilt or no, it must be endured:"
make a virtue of necessity, and conform thyself to undergo it. [3570]_Si
longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est._ If it be long, 'tis
light; if grievous, it cannot last. It will away, _dies dolorem minuit_,
and if nought else, time will wear it out; custom will ease it; [3571]
oblivion is a common medicine for all losses, injuries, griefs, and
detriments whatsoever, [3572]"and when they are once past, this commodity
comes of infelicity, it makes the rest of our life sweeter unto us:" [3573]
_Atque haec olim meminisse juvabit_, "recollection of the past is
pleasant:" "the privation and want of a thing many times makes it more
pleasant and delightsome than before it was." We must not think the
happiest of us all to escape here without some misfortunes,
[3574] ------"Usque adeo nulla est sincera voluptas,
Solicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit."------
Heaven and earth are much unlike: [3575]"Those heavenly bodies indeed are
freely carried in their orbs without any impediment or interruption, to
continue their course for innumerable ages, and make their conversions: but
men are urged with many difficulties, and have diverse hindrances,
oppositions still crossing, interrupting their endeavours and desires, and
no mortal man is free from this law of nature." We must not therefore hope
to have all things answer our own expectation, to have a continuance of
good success and fortunes, _Fortuna nunquam perpetuo est bona_. And as
Minutius Felix, the Roman consul, told that insulting Coriolanus, drunk
with his good fortunes, look not for that success thou hast hitherto had;
[3576]"It never yet happened to any man since the beginning of the world,
nor ever will, to have all things according to his desire, or to whom
fortune was never opposite and adverse." Even so it fell out to him as he
foretold. And so to others, even to that happiness of Augustus; though he
were Jupiter's almoner, Pluto's treasurer, Neptune's admiral, it could not
secure him. Such was Alcibiades's fortune, Narsetes, that great Gonsalvus,
and most famous men's, that as [3577]Jovius concludes, "it is almost fatal
to great princes, through their own default or otherwise circumvented with
envy and malice, to lose their honours, and die contumeliously." 'Tis so,
still hath been, and ever will be, _Nihil est ab omni parte beatum_,
"There's no perfection is so absolute,
That some impurity doth not pollute."
Whatsoever is under the moon is subject to corruption, alteration; and so
long as thou livest upon earth look not for other. [3578]"Thou shalt not
here find peaceable and cheerful days, quiet times, but rather clouds,
storms, calumnies, such is our fate." And as those errant planets in their
distinct orbs have their several motions, sometimes direct, stationary,
retrograde, in apogee, perigee, oriental, occidental, combust, feral, free,
and as our astrologers will, have their fortitudes and debilities, by
reason of those good and bad irradiations, conferred to each other's site
in the heavens, in their terms, houses, case, detriments, &c. So we rise
and fall in this world, ebb and flow, in and out, reared and dejected, lead
a troublesome life, subject to many accidents and casualties of fortunes,
variety of passions, infirmities as well from ourselves as others.
Yea, but thou thinkest thou art more miserable than the rest, other men are
happy but in respect of thee, their miseries are but flea-bitings to thine,
thou alone art unhappy, none so bad as thyself. Yet if, as Socrates said,
[3579]"All men in the world should come and bring their grievances
together, of body, mind, fortune, sores, ulcers, madness, epilepsies,
agues, and all those common calamities of beggary, want, servitude,
imprisonment, and lay them on a heap to be equally divided, wouldst thou
share alike, and take thy portion? or be as thou art? Without question thou
wouldst be as thou art." If some Jupiter should say, to give us all
content,
[3580] "Jam faciam quod vultis; eris tu, qui modo miles,
Mercator; tu consultus modo, rusticus; hinc vos,
Vos hinc mutatis discedite partibus; eia
Quid slatis? nolint."
"Well be't so then; you master soldier
Shall be a merchant; you sir lawyer
A country gentlemen; go you to this,
That side you; why stand ye? it's well as 'tis."
[3581]"Every man knows his own, but not others' defects and miseries; and
'tis the nature of all men still to reflect upon themselves, their own
misfortunes," not to examine or consider other men's, not to compare
themselves with others: To recount their miseries, but not their good
gifts, fortunes, benefits, which they have, or ruminate on their adversity,
but not once to think on their prosperity, not what they have, but what
they want: to look still on them that go before, but not on those infinite
numbers that come after. [3582]"Whereas many a man would think himself in
heaven, a pretty prince, if he had but the least part of that fortune which
thou so much repinest at, abhorrest and accountest a most vile and wretched
estate." How many thousands want that which thou hast? how many myriads of
poor slaves, captives, of such as work day and night in coal-pits,
tin-mines, with sore toil to maintain a poor living, of such as labour in
body and mind, live in extreme anguish, and pain, all which thou art free
from? _O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint_: Thou art most happy if thou
couldst be content, and acknowledge thy happiness; [3583]_Rem carendo, non
fruendo cognoscimus_, when thou shalt hereafter come to want that which
thou now loathest, abhorrest, and art weary of, and tired with, when 'tis
past thou wilt say thou wert most happy: and after a little miss, wish with
all thine heart thou hadst the same content again, mightst lead but such a
life, a world for such a life: the remembrance of it is pleasant. Be silent
then, [3584]rest satisfied, _desine, intuensque in aliorum infortunia
solare mentem_, comfort thyself with other men's misfortunes, and as the
mouldwarp in Aesop told the fox, complaining for want of a tail, and the
rest of his companions, _tacete, quando me occulis captum videtis_, you
complain of toys, but I am blind, be quiet. I say to thee be thou
satisfied. It is [3585]recorded of the hares, that with a general consent
they went to drown themselves, out of a feeling of their misery; but when
they saw a company of frogs more fearful than they were, they began to take
courage, and comfort again. Compare thine estate with others. _Similes
aliorum respice casus, mitius ista feres_. Be content and rest satisfied,
for thou art well in respect to others: be thankful for that thou hast,
that God hath done for thee, he hath not made thee a monster, a beast, a
base creature, as he might, but a man, a Christian, such a man; consider
aright of it, thou art full well as thou art. [3586]_Quicquid vult habere
nemo potest_, no man can have what he will, _Illud potest nolle quod non
habet_, he may choose whether he will desire that which he hath not. Thy
lot is fallen, make the best of it. [3587]"If we should all sleep at all
times," (as Endymion is said to have done) "who then were happier than his
fellow?" Our life is but short, a very dream, and while we look about
[3588]_immortalitas adest_, eternity is at hand: [3589]"Our life is a
pilgrimage on earth, which wise men pass with great alacrity." If thou be
in woe, sorrow, want, distress, in pain, or sickness, think of that of our
apostle, "God chastiseth them whom he loveth: they that sow in tears, shall
reap in joy," Psal. cxxvi. 6. "As the furnace proveth the potter's vessel,
so doth temptation try men's thoughts," Eccl. xxv. 5, 'tis for [3590]thy
good, _Periisses nisi periisses_: hadst thou not been so visited, thou
hadst been utterly undone: "as gold in the fire," so men are tried in
adversity. _Tribulatio ditut_: and which Camerarius hath well shadowed in
an emblem of a thresher and corn,
"Si tritura absit paleis sunt abdita grana,
Nos crux mundanis separat a paleis:"
"As threshing separates from straw the corn,
By crosses from the world's chaff are we born."
'Tis the very same which [3591]Chrysostom comments, _hom. 2. in 3 Mat._
"Corn is not separated but by threshing, nor men from worldly impediments
but by tribulation." 'Tis that which [3592]Cyprian ingeminates, _Ser. 4. de
immort._ 'Tis that which [3593]Hierom, which all the fathers inculcate, "so
we are catechised for eternity." 'Tis that which the proverb insinuates.
_Nocumentum documentum_; 'tis that which all the world rings in our ears.
_Deus unicum habet filium sine peccato, nullum sine flagello_: God, saith
[3594]Austin, hath one son without sin, none without correction. [3595]"An
expert seaman is tried in a tempest, a runner in a race, a captain in a
battle, a valiant man in adversity, a Christian in tentation and misery."
_Basil, hom. 8._ We are sent as so many soldiers into this world, to strive
with it, the flesh, the devil; our life is a warfare, and who knows it not?
[3596]_Non est ad astra mollis e terris via_: [3597]"and therefore
peradventure this world here is made troublesome unto us," that, as Gregory
notes, "we should not be delighted by the way, and forget whither we are
going."
[3598] "Ite nunc fortes, ubi celsa magni
Ducit exempli via, cur inertis
Terga nudatis? superata tellus
Sidera donat."
Go on then merrily to heaven. If the way be troublesome, and you in misery,
in many grievances: on the other side you have many pleasant sports,
objects, sweet smells, delightsome tastes, music, meats, herbs, flowers,
&c. to recreate your senses. Or put case thou art now forsaken of the
world, dejected, contemned, yet comfort thyself, as it was said to Agar in
the wilderness, [3599]"God sees thee, he takes notice of thee:" there is a
God above that can vindicate thy cause, that can relieve thee. And surely
[3600]Seneca thinks he takes delight in seeing thee. "The gods are well
pleased when they see great men contending with adversity," as we are to
see men fight, or a man with a beast. But these are toys in respect, [3601]
"Behold," saith he, "a spectacle worthy of God; a good man contented with
his estate." A tyrant is the best sacrifice to Jupiter, as the ancients
held, and his best object "a contented mind." For thy part then rest
satisfied, "cast all thy care on him, thy burthen on him," [3602]"rely on
him, trust on him, and he shall nourish thee, care for thee, give thee
thine heart's desire;" say with David, "God is our hope and strength, in
troubles ready to be found," Psal. xlvi. 1. "for they that trust in the
Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed," Psal. cxxiv. 1. 2.
"as the mountains are about Jerusalem, so is the Lord about his people,
from henceforth and for ever."
MEMB. II.
_Deformity of body, sickness, baseness of birth, peculiar discontents_.
Particular discontents and grievances, are either of body, mind, or
fortune, which as they wound the soul of man, produce this melancholy, and
many great inconveniences, by that antidote of good counsel and persuasion
may be eased or expelled. Deformities and imperfections of our bodies, as
lameness, crookedness, deafness, blindness, be they innate or accidental,
torture many men: yet this may comfort them, that those imperfections of
the body do not a whit blemish the soul, or hinder the operations of it,
but rather help and much increase it. Thou art lame of body, deformed to
the eye, yet this hinders not but that thou mayst be a good, a wise,
upright, honest man. [3603]"Seldom," saith Plutarch, "honesty and beauty
dwell together," and oftentimes under a threadbare coat lies an excellent
understanding, _saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste_. [3604]Cornelius
Mussus, that famous preacher in Italy, when he came first into the pulpit
in Venice, was so much contemned by reason of his outside, a little lean,
poor, dejected person, [3605]they were all ready to leave the church; but
when they heard his voice they did admire him, and happy was that senator
could enjoy his company, or invite him first to his house. A silly fellow
to look to, may have more wit, learning, honesty, than he that struts it
out _Ampullis jactans, &c. grandia gradiens_, and is admired in the world's
opinion: _Vilis saepe cadus nobile nectar habet_, the best wine comes out
of an old vessel. How many deformed princes, kings, emperors, could I
reckon up, philosophers, orators? Hannibal had but one eye, Appius
Claudius, Timoleon, blind, Muleasse, king of Tunis, John, king of Bohemia,
and Tiresias the prophet. [3606]"The night hath his pleasure;" and for the
loss of that one sense such men are commonly recompensed in the rest; they
have excellent memories, other good parts, music, and many recreations;
much happiness, great wisdom, as Tully well discourseth in his [3607]
Tusculan questions: Homer was blind, yet who (saith he) made more accurate,
lively, or better descriptions, with both his eyes? Democritus was blind,
yet as Laertius writes of him, he saw more than all Greece besides, as
[3608]Plato concludes, _Tum sane mentis oculus acute incipit cernere, quum
primum corporis oculus deflorescit_, when our bodily eyes are at worst,
generally the eyes of our soul see best. Some philosophers and divines have
evirated themselves, and put out their eyes voluntarily, the better to
contemplate. Angelus Politianus had a tetter in his nose continually
running, fulsome in company, yet no man so eloquent and pleasing in his
works. Aesop was crooked, Socrates purblind, long-legged, hairy; Democritus
withered, Seneca lean and harsh, ugly to behold, yet show me so many
flourishing wits, such divine spirits: Horace a little blear-eyed
contemptible fellow, yet who so sententious and wise? Marcilius Picinus,
Faber Stapulensis, a couple of dwarfs, [3609]Melancthon a short
hard-favoured man, _parvus erat, sed magnus erat_, &c., yet of incomparable
parts all three. [3610]Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits, by
reason of a hurt he received in his leg, at the siege of Pampeluna, the
chief town of Navarre in Spain, unfit for wars and less serviceable at
court, upon that accident betook himself to his beads, and by those means
got more honour than ever he should have done with the use of his limbs,
and properness of person: [3611]_Vulnus non penetrat animum_, a wound hurts
not the soul. Galba the emperor was crook-backed, Epictetus lame: that
great Alexander a little man of stature, [3612]Augustus Caesar of the same
pitch: Agesilaus _despicabili forma_; Boccharis a most deformed prince as
ever Egypt had, yet as [3613]Diodorus Siculus records of him, in wisdom and
knowledge far beyond his predecessors. _A. Dom._ 1306. [3614] Uladeslaus
Cubitalis that pigmy king of Poland reigned and fought more victorious
battles than any of his long-shanked predecessors. _Nullam virtus respuit
staturam_, virtue refuseth no stature, and commonly your great vast bodies,
and fine features, are sottish, dull, and leaden spirits. What's in them?
[3615]_Quid nisi pondus iners stolidaeque ferocia memtis_, What in Osus and
Ephialtes (Neptune's sons in Homer), nine acres long?
[3616] "Qui ut magnus Orion,
Cum pedes incedit, medii per maxima Nerei
Stagna, viam findens humero supereminet undas."
"Like tall Orion stalking o'er the flood:
When with his brawny breast he cuts the waves,
His shoulder scarce the topmost billow laves."
What in Maximinus, Ajax, Caligula, and the rest of those great Zanzummins,
or gigantical Anakims, heavy, vast, barbarous lubbers?
[3617] ------"si membra tibi dant grandia Parcae,
Mentis eges?"
Their body, saith [3618]Lemnius, "is a burden to them, and their spirits
not so lively, nor they so erect and merry:" _Non est in magno corpore mica
salis_: a little diamond is more worth than a rocky mountain: which made
Alexander Aphrodiseus positively conclude, "The lesser, the [3619]wiser,
because the soul was more contracted in such a body." Let Bodine in his _5.
c. method, hist._ plead the rest; the lesser they are, as in Asia, Greece,
they have generally the finest wits. And for bodily stature which some so
much admire, and goodly presence, 'tis true, to say the best of them, great
men are proper, and tall, I grant,--_caput inter nubila condunt_, (hide
their heads in the clouds); but _belli pusilli_ little men are pretty: _Sed
si bellus homo est Cotta, pusillus homo est_. Sickness, diseases, trouble
many, but without a cause; [3620]"It may be 'tis for the good of their
souls:" _Pars fati fuit_, the flesh rebels against the spirit; that which
hurts the one, must needs help the other. Sickness is the mother of
modesty, putteth us in mind of our mortality; and when we are in the full
career of worldly pomp and jollity, she pulleth us by the ear, and maketh
us know ourselves. [3621]Pliny calls it, the sum of philosophy, "If we
could but perform that in our health, which we promise in our sickness."
_Quum infirmi sumus, optimi sumus_; [3622]for what sick man (as [3623]
Secundus expostulates with Rufus) was ever "lascivious, covetous, or
ambitious? he envies no man, admires no man, flatters no man, despiseth no
man, listens not after lies and tales," &c. And were it not for such gentle
remembrances, men would have no moderation of themselves, they would be
worse than tigers, wolves, and lions: who should keep them in awe?
"princes, masters, parents, magistrates, judges, friends, enemies, fair or
foul means cannot contain us, but a little sickness," (as [3624]Chrysostom
observes) "will correct and amend us." And therefore with good discretion,
[3625]Jovianus Pontanus caused this short sentence to be engraven on his
tomb in Naples: "Labour, sorrow, grief, sickness, want and woe, to serve
proud masters, bear that superstitious yoke, and bury your clearest
friends, &c., are the sauces of our life." If thy disease be continuate and
painful to thee, it will not surely last: "and a light affliction, which is
but for a moment, causeth unto us a far more excellent and eternal weight
of glory," 2 Cor. iv. 17. bear it with patience; women endure much sorrow
in childbed, and yet they will not contain; and those that are barren, wish
for this pain; "be courageous, [3626]there is as much valour to be shown in
thy bed, as in an army, or at a sea fight:" _aut vincetur, aut vincet_,
thou shalt be rid at last. In the mean time, let it take its course, thy
mind is not any way disabled. Bilibaldus Pirkimerus, senator to Charles the
Fifth, ruled all Germany, lying most part of his days sick of the gout upon
his bed. The more violent thy torture is, the less it will continue: and
though it be severe and hideous for the time, comfort thyself as martyrs
do, with honour and immortality. [3627]That famous philosopher Epicurus,
being in as miserable pain of stone and colic, as a man might endure,
solaced himself with a conceit of immortality; "the joy of his soul for his
rare inventions, repelled the pain of his bodily torments."
Baseness of birth is a great disparagement to some men, especially if they
be wealthy, bear office, and come to promotion in a commonwealth; then (as
[3628]he observes) if their birth be not answerable to their calling, and
to their fellows, they are much abashed and ashamed of themselves. Some
scorn their own father and mother, deny brothers and sisters, with the rest
of their kindred and friends, and will not suffer them to come near them,
when they are in their pomp, accounting it a scandal to their greatness to
have such beggarly beginnings. Simon in Lucian, having now got a little
wealth, changed his name from Simon to Simonides, for that there were so
many beggars of his kin, and set the house on fire where he was born,
because no body should point at it. Others buy titles, coats of arms, and
by all means screw themselves into ancient families, falsifying pedigrees,
usurping scutcheons, and all because they would not seem to be base. The
reason is, for that this gentility is so much admired by a company of
outsides, and such honour attributed unto it, as amongst [3629]Germans,
Frenchmen, and Venetians, the gentry scorn the commonalty, and will not
suffer them to match with them; they depress, and make them as so many
asses, to carry burdens. In our ordinary talk and fallings out, the most
opprobrious and scurrile name we can fasten upon a man, or first give, is
to call him base rogue, beggarly rascal, and the like: Whereas in my
judgment, this ought of all other grievances to trouble men least. Of all
vanities and fopperies, to brag of gentility is the greatest; for what is
it they crack so much of, and challenge such superiority, as if they were
demigods? Birth? _Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri_? [3630]It is
_non ens_, a mere flash, a ceremony, a toy, a thing of nought. Consider the
beginning, present estate, progress, ending of gentry, and then tell me
what it is. [3631]"Oppression, fraud, cozening, usury, knavery, bawdry,
murder, and tyranny, are the beginning of many ancient families:"
[3632]"one hath been a bloodsucker, a parricide, the death of many a silly
soul in some unjust quarrels, seditions, made many an orphan and poor
widow, and for that he is made a lord or an earl, and his posterity
gentlemen for ever after. Another hath been a bawd, a pander to some great
men, a parasite, a slave," [3633]"prostituted himself, his wife, daughter,"
to some lascivious prince, and for that he is exalted. Tiberius preferred
many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and
sturdy drinkers; many come into this parchment-row (so [3634]one calls it)
by flattery or cozening; search your old families, and you shall scarce
find of a multitude (as Aeneas Sylvius observes) _qui sceleratum non habent
ortum_, that have not a wicked beginning; _aut qui vi et dolo eo fastigii
non ascendunt_, as that plebeian in [3635]Machiavel in a set oration proved
to his fellows, that do not rise by knavery, force, foolery, villainy, or
such indirect means. "They are commonly able that are wealthy; virtue and
riches seldom settle on one man: who then sees not the beginning of
nobility? spoils enrich one, usury another, treason a third, witchcraft a
fourth, flattery a fifth, lying, stealing, bearing false witness a sixth,
adultery the seventh," &c. One makes a fool of himself to make his lord
merry, another dandles my young master, bestows a little nag on him, a
third marries a cracked piece, &c. Now may it please your good worship,
your lordship, who was the first founder of your family? The poet answers,
[3636]_Aut Pastor fuit, aut illud quod dicere nolo._ Are he or you the
better gentleman? If he, then we have traced him to his form. If you, what
is it of which thou boastest so much? That thou art his son. It may be his
heir, his reputed son, and yet indeed a priest or a serving man may be the
true father of him; but we will not controvert that now; married women are
all honest; thou art his son's son's son, begotten and born _infra quatuor
maria_, &c. Thy great great great grandfather was a rich citizen, and then
in all likelihood a usurer, a lawyer, and then a--a courtier, and then a--a
country gentleman, and then he scraped it out of sheep, &c. And you are the
heir of all his virtues, fortunes, titles; so then, what is your gentry,
but as Hierom saith, _Opes antiquae, inveteratae divitiae_, ancient wealth?
that is the definition of gentility. The father goes often to the devil, to
make his son a gentleman. For the present, what is it? "It began" (saith
[3637]Agrippa) "with strong impiety, with tyranny, oppression," &c. and so
it is maintained: wealth began it (no matter how got), wealth continueth
and increaseth it. Those Roman knights were so called, if they could
dispend _per annum_ so much. [3638]In the kingdom of Naples and France, he
that buys such lands, buys the honour, title, barony, together with it; and
they that can dispend so much amongst us, must be called to bear office, to
be knights, or fine for it, as one observes, [3639]_nobiliorum ex censu
judicant_, our nobles are measured by their means. And what now is the
object of honour? What maintains our gentry but wealth? [3640]_Nobilitas
sine re projecta vilior alga._ Without means gentry is naught worth,
nothing so contemptible and base. [3641]_Disputare de nobilitate generis,
sine divitiis, est disputare de nobilitate stercoris_, saith Nevisanus the
lawyer, to dispute of gentry without wealth, is (saving your reverence) to
discuss the original of a merd. So that it is wealth alone that
denominates, money which maintains it, gives _esse_ to it, for which every
man may have it. And what is their ordinary exercise? [3642]"sit to eat,
drink, lie down to sleep, and rise to play:" wherein lies their worth and
sufficiency? in a few coats of arms, eagles, lions, serpents, bears,
tigers, dogs, crosses, bends, fesses, &c., and such like baubles, which
they commonly set up in their galleries, porches, windows, on bowls,
platters, coaches, in tombs, churches, men's sleeves, &c. [3643]"If he can
hawk and hunt, ride a horse, play at cards and dice, swagger, drink,
swear," take tobacco with a grace, sing, dance, wear his clothes in
fashion, court and please his mistress, talk big fustian, [3644]insult,
scorn, strut, contemn others, and use a little mimical and apish compliment
above the rest, he is a complete, (_Egregiam vero laudem_) a well-qualified
gentleman; these are most of their employments, this their greatest
commendation. What is gentry, this parchment nobility then, but as [3645]
Agrippa defines it, "a sanctuary of knavery and naughtiness, a cloak for
wickedness and execrable vices, of pride, fraud, contempt, boasting,
oppression, dissimulation, lust, gluttony, malice, fornication, adultery,
ignorance, impiety?" A nobleman therefore in some likelihood, as he
concludes, is an "atheist, an oppressor, an epicure, a [3646]gull, a
dizzard, an illiterate idiot, an outside, a glowworm, a proud fool, an
arrant ass," _Ventris et inguinis mancipium_, a slave to his lust and
belly, _solaque libidine fortis_. And as Salvianus observed of his
countrymen the Aquitanes in France, _sicut titulis primi fuere, sic et
vitiis_ (as they were the first in rank so also in rottenness); and Cabinet
du Roy, their own writer, distinctly of the rest. "The nobles of Berry are
most part lechers, they of Touraine thieves, they of Narbonne covetous,
they of Guienne coiners, they of Provence atheists, they of Rheims
superstitious, they of Lyons treacherous, of Normandy proud, of Picardy
insolent," &c. We may generally conclude, the greater men, the more
vicious. In fine, as [3647]Aeneas Sylvius adds, "they are most part
miserable, sottish, and filthy fellows, like the walls of their houses,
fair without, foul within." What dost thou vaunt of now? [3648]"What dost
thou gape and wonder at? admire him for his brave apparel, horses, dogs,
fine houses, manors, orchards, gardens, walks? Why? a fool may be possessor
of this as well as he; and he that accounts him a better man, a nobleman
for having of it, he is a fool himself." Now go and brag of thy gentility.
This is it belike which makes the [3649]Turks at this day scorn nobility,
and all those huffing bombast titles, which so much elevate their poles:
except it be such as have got it at first, maintain it by some supereminent
quality, or excellent worth. And for this cause, the Ragusian commonwealth,
Switzers, and the united provinces, in all their aristocracies, or
democratical monarchies, (if I may so call them,) exclude all these degrees
of hereditary honours, and will admit of none to bear office, but such as
are learned, like those Athenian Areopagites, wise, discreet, and well
brought up. The [3650]Chinese observe the same customs, no man amongst them
noble by birth; out of their philosophers and doctors they choose
magistrates: their politic nobles are taken from such as be _moraliter
nobiles_ virtuous noble; _nobilitas ut olim ab officio, non a natura_, as
in Israel of old, and their office was to defend and govern their country
in war and peace, not to hawk, hunt, eat, drink, game alone, as too many
do. Their Loysii, Mandarini, literati, licentiati, and such as have raised
themselves by their worth, are their noblemen only, though fit to govern a
state: and why then should any that is otherwise of worth be ashamed of his
birth? why should not he be as much respected that leaves a noble
posterity, as he that hath had noble ancestors? nay why not more? for
_plures solem orientem_ we adore the sun rising most part; and how much
better is it to say, _Ego meis majoribus virtute praeluxi_, (I have
outshone my ancestors in virtues), to boast himself of his virtues, than of
his birth? Cathesbeius, sultan of Egypt and Syria, was by his condition a
slave, but for worth, valour, and manhood second to no king, and for that
cause (as, [3651]Jovius writes) elected emperor of the Mamelukes. That poor
Spanish Pizarro for his valour made by Charles the fifth marquess of
Anatillo; the Turkey Pashas are all such. Pertinax, Philippus Arabs,
Maximinus, Probus, Aurelius, &c., from common soldiers, became emperors,
Cato, Cincinnatus, &c. consuls. Pius Secundus, Sixtus Quintus, Johan,
Secundus, Nicholas Quintus, &c. popes. Socrates, Virgil, Horace, _libertino
parte natus_. [3652]The kings of Denmark fetch their pedigree, as some say,
from one Ulfo, that was the son of a bear. [3653]_E tenui casa saepe vir
magnus exit_, many a worthy man comes out of a poor cottage. Hercules,
Romulus, Alexander (by Olympia's confession), Themistocles, Jugurtha, King
Arthur, William the Conqueror, Homer, Demosthenes, P. Lumbard, P. Comestor,
Bartholus, Adrian the fourth Pope, &c., bastards; and almost in every
kingdom, the most ancient families have been at first princes' bastards:
their worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, bravest spirits in
all our annals, have been base. [3654]Cardan, in his subtleties, gives a
reason why they are most part better able than others in body and mind, and
so, _per consequens_, more fortunate. Castruccius Castrucanus, a poor
child, found in the field, exposed to misery, became prince of Lucca and
Senes in Italy, a most complete soldier and worthy captain; Machiavel
compares him to Scipio or Alexander. "And 'tis a wonderful thing" ([3655]
saith he) "to him that shall consider of it, that all those, or the
greatest part of them, that have done the bravest exploits here upon earth,
and excelled the rest of the nobles of their time, have been still born in
some abject, obscure place, or of base and obscure abject parents." A most
memorable observation, [3656]Scaliger accounts it, _et non praetereundum,
maximorum virorum plerosque patres ignoratos, matres impudicas fuisse_.
[3657]"I could recite a great catalogue of them," every kingdom, every
province will yield innumerable examples: and why then should baseness of
birth be objected to any man? Who thinks worse of Tully for being
_arpinas_, an upstart? Or Agathocles, that Silician king, for being a
potter's son? Iphicrates and Marius were meanly born. What wise man thinks
better of any person for his nobility? as he said in [3658]Machiavel,
_omnes eodem patre nati_, Adam's sons, conceived all and born in sin, &c.
"We are by nature all as one, all alike, if you see us naked; let us wear
theirs and they our clothes, and what is the difference?" To speak truth,
as [3659]Bale did of P. Schalichius, "I more esteem thy worth, learning,
honesty, than thy nobility; honour thee more that thou art a writer, a
doctor of divinity, than Earl of the Huns, Baron of Skradine, or hast title
to such and such provinces," &c. "Thou art more fortunate and great" (so
[3660]Jovius writes to Cosmo de Medici, then Duke of Florence) "for thy
virtues, than for thy lovely wife, and happy children, friends, fortunes,
or great duchy of Tuscany." So I account thee; and who doth not so indeed?
[3661]Abdolominus was a gardener, and yet by Alexander for his virtues made
King of Syria. How much better is it to be born of mean parentage, and to
excel in worth, to be morally noble, which is preferred before that natural
nobility, by divines, philosophers, and [3662]politicians, to be learned,
honest, discreet, well-qualified, to be fit for any manner of employment,
in country and commonwealth, war and peace, than to be _Degeneres
Neoptolemi_, as many brave nobles are, only wise because rich, otherwise
idiots, illiterate, unfit for any manner of service? [3663] Udalricus, Earl
of Cilia, upbraided John Huniades with the baseness of his birth, but he
replied, _in te Ciliensis comitatus turpiter extinguitur, in me gloriose
Bistricensis exoritur_, thine earldom is consumed with riot, mine begins
with honour and renown. Thou hast had so many noble ancestors; what is that
to thee? _Vix ea nostra voco_, [3664]when thou art a dizzard thyself: _quod
prodest, Pontice, longo stemmate censeri_? &c. I conclude, hast thou a
sound body, and a good soul, good bringing up? Art thou virtuous, honest,
learned, well-qualified, religious, are thy conditions good?--thou art a
true nobleman, perfectly noble, although born of Thersites--_dum modo tu
sis--Aeacidae similis, non natus, sed factus_, noble [Greek: kat'
exochaen], [3665]"for neither sword, nor fire, nor water, nor sickness, nor
outward violence, nor the devil himself can take thy good parts from thee."
Be not ashamed of thy birth then, thou art a gentleman all the world over,
and shalt be honoured, when as he, strip him of his fine clothes,
[3666]dispossess him of his wealth, is a funge (which [3667] Polynices in
his banishment found true by experience, gentry was not esteemed) like a
piece of coin in another country, that no man will take, and shall be
contemned. Once more, though thou be a barbarian, born at Tontonteac, a
villain, a slave, a Saldanian Negro, or a rude Virginian in Dasamonquepec,
he a French monsieur, a Spanish don, a signor of Italy, I care not how
descended, of what family, of what order, baron, count, prince, if thou be
well qualified, and he not, but a degenerate Neoptolemus, I tell thee in a
word, thou art a man, and he is a beast.
Let no _terrae filius_, or upstart, insult at this which I have said, no
worthy gentleman take offence. I speak it not to detract from such as are
well deserving, truly virtuous and noble: I do much respect and honour true
gentry and nobility; I was born of worshipful parents myself, in an ancient
family, but I am a younger brother, it concerns me not: or had I been some
great heir, richly endowed, so minded as I am, I should not have been
elevated at all, but so esteemed of it, as of all other human happiness,
honours, &c., they have their period, are brittle and inconstant. As [3668]
he said of that great river Danube, it riseth from a small fountain, a
little brook at first, sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, now slow, then
swift, increased at last to an incredible greatness by the confluence of
sixty navigable rivers, it vanisheth in conclusion, loseth his name, and is
suddenly swallowed up of the Euxine sea: I may say of our greatest
families, they were mean at first, augmented by rich marriages, purchases,
offices, they continue for some ages, with some little alteration of
circumstances, fortunes, places, &c., by some prodigal son, for some
default, or for want of issue they are defaced in an instant, and their
memory blotted out.
So much in the mean time I do attribute to Gentility, that if he be
well-descended, of worshipful or noble parentage, he will express it in his
conditions,
[3669] ------"nec enim feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbas."
And although the nobility of our times be much like our coins, more in
number and value, but less in weight and goodness, with finer stamps, cuts,
or outsides than of old; yet if he retain those ancient characters of true
gentry, he will be more affable, courteous, gently disposed, of fairer
carriage, better temper, or a more magnanimous, heroical, and generous
spirit, than that _vulgus hominum_, those ordinary boors and peasants, _qui
adeo improbi, agrestes, et inculti plerumque sunt, ne dicam maliciosi, ut
nemini ullum humanitatis officium praestent, ne ipsi Deo si advenerit_, as
[3670]one observes of them, a rude, brutish, uncivil, wild, a currish
generation, cruel and malicious, incapable of discipline, and such as have
scarce common sense. And it may be generally spoken of all, which [3671]
Lemnius the physician said of his travel into England, the common people
were silly, sullen, dogged clowns, _sed mitior nobilitas, ad omne
humanitatis officium paratissima_, the gentlemen were courteous and civil.
If it so fall out (as often it doth) that such peasants are preferred by
reason of their wealth, chance, error, &c., or otherwise, yet as the cat in
the fable, when she was turned to a fair maid, would play with mice; a cur
will be a cur, a clown will be a clown, he will likely savour of the stock
whence he came, and that innate rusticity can hardly be shaken off.
[3672] "Licet superbus ambulet pecunia,
Fortuna non mutat genus."
And though by their education such men may be better qualified, and more
refined; yet there be many symptoms by which they may likely be descried,
an affected fantastical carriage, a tailor-like spruceness, a peculiar garb
in all their proceedings; choicer than ordinary in his diet, and as [3673]
Hierome well describes such a one to his Nepotian; "An upstart born in a
base cottage, that scarce at first had coarse bread to fill his hungry
guts, must now feed on kickshaws and made dishes, will have all variety of
flesh and fish, the best oysters," &c. A beggar's brat will be commonly
more scornful, imperious, insulting, insolent, than another man of his
rank: "Nothing so intolerable as a fortunate fool," as [3674]Tully found
out long since out of his experience; _Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit
in altum_, set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride a gallop, a gallop,
&c.
[3675] ------"desaevit in omnes
Dum se posse putat, nec bellua saevior ulla est,
Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis;"
he forgets what he was, domineers, &c., and many such other symptoms he
hath, by which you may know him from a true gentleman. Many errors and
obliquities are on both sides, noble, ignoble, _factis, natis_; yet still
in all callings, as some degenerate, some are well deserving, and most
worthy of their honours. And as Busbequius said of Suleiman the
Magnificent, he was _tanto dignus imperio_, worthy of that great empire.
Many meanly descended are most worthy of their honour, _politice nobiles_,
and well deserve it. Many of our nobility so born (which one said of
Hephaestion, Ptolemeus, Seleucus, Antigonus, &c., and the rest of
Alexander's followers, they were all worthy to be monarchs and generals of
armies) deserve to be princes. And I am so far forth of [3676]Sesellius's
mind, that they ought to be preferred (if capable) before others, "as being
nobly born, ingenuously brought up, and from their infancy trained to all
manner of civility." For learning and virtue in a nobleman is more eminent,
and, as a jewel set in gold is more precious, and much to be respected,
such a man deserves better than others, and is as great an honour to his
family as his noble family to him. In a word, many noblemen are an ornament
to their order: many poor men's sons are singularly well endowed, most
eminent, and well deserving for their worth, wisdom, learning, virtue,
valour, integrity; excellent members and pillars of a commonwealth. And
therefore to conclude that which I first intended, to be base by birth,
meanly born is no such disparagement. _Et sic demonstratur, quod erat
demonstrandum_.
MEMB. III.
_Against Poverty and Want, with such other Adversities_.
One of the greatest miseries that can befall a man, in the world's esteem,
is poverty or want, which makes men steal, bear false witness, swear,
forswear, contend, murder and rebel, which breaketh sleep, and causeth
death itself. [Greek: ouden penias baruteron esti phortion], no burden
(saith [3677]Menander) so intolerable as poverty: it makes men desperate,
it erects and dejects, _census honores, census amicitias_; money makes, but
poverty mars, &c. and all this in the world's esteem: yet if considered
aright, it is a great blessing in itself, a happy estate, and yields no
cause of discontent, or that men should therefore account themselves vile,
hated of God, forsaken, miserable, unfortunate. Christ himself was poor,
born in a manger, and had not a house to hide his head in all his life,
[3678]"lest any man should make poverty a judgment of God, or an odious
estate." And as he was himself, so he informed his Apostles and Disciples,
they were all poor, Prophets poor, Apostles poor, (Act. iii. "Silver and
gold have I none.") "As sorrowing" (saith Paul) "and yet always rejoicing;
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things," 1 Cor. vi. 10. Your
great Philosophers have been voluntarily poor, not only Christians, but
many others. Crates Thebanus was adored for a God in Athens, [3679]"a
nobleman by birth, many servants he had, an honourable attendance, much
wealth, many manors, fine apparel; but when he saw this, that all the
wealth of the world was but brittle, uncertain and no whit availing to live
well, he flung his burden into the sea, and renounced his estate." Those
Curii and Fabricii will be ever renowned for contempt of these fopperies,
wherewith the world is so much affected. Amongst Christians I could reckon
up many kings and queens, that have forsaken their crowns and fortunes, and
wilfully abdicated themselves from these so much esteemed toys; [3680]many
that have refused honours, titles, and all this vain pomp and happiness,
which others so ambitiously seek, and carefully study to compass and
attain. Riches I deny not are God's good gifts, and blessings; and _honor
est in honorante_, honours are from God; both rewards of virtue, and fit to
be sought after, sued for, and may well be possessed: yet no such great
happiness in having, or misery in wanting of them. _Dantur quidem bonis_,
saith Austin, _ne quis mala aestimet: mails autem ne quis nimis bona_, good
men have wealth that we should not think, it evil; and bad men that they
should not rely on or hold it so good; as the rain falls on both sorts, so
are riches given to good and bad, _sed bonis in bonum_, but they are good
only to the godly. But [3681]compare both estates, for natural parts they
are not unlike; and a beggar's child, as [3682]Cardan well observes, "is no
whit inferior to a prince's, most part better;" and for those accidents of
fortune, it will easily appear there is no such odds, no such extraordinary
happiness in the one, or misery in the other. He is rich, wealthy, fat;
what gets he by it? pride, insolency, lust, ambition, cares, fears,
suspicion, trouble, anger, emulation, and many filthy diseases of body and
mind. He hath indeed variety of dishes, better fare, sweet wine, pleasant
sauce, dainty music, gay clothes, lords it bravely out, &c., and all that
which Misillus admired in [3683]Lucian; but with them he hath the gout,
dropsies, apoplexies, palsies, stone, pox, rheums, catarrhs, crudities,
oppilations, [3684]melancholy, &c., lust enters in, anger, ambition,
according to [3685]Chrysostom, "the sequel of riches is pride, riot,
intemperance, arrogancy, fury, and all irrational courses."
[3686] ------"turpi fregerunt saecula luxu
Divitiae molles"------
with their variety of dishes, many such maladies of body and mind get in,
which the poor man knows not of. As Saturn in [3687]Lucian answered the
discontented commonalty, (which because of their neglected Saturnal feasts
in Rome, made a grievous complaint and exclamation against rich men) that
they were much mistaken in supposing such happiness in riches; [3688]"you
see the best" (said he) "but you know not their several gripings and
discontents:" they are like painted walls, fair without, rotten within:
diseased, filthy, crazy, full of intemperance's effects; [3689]"and who can
reckon half? if you but knew their fears, cares, anguish of mind and
vexation, to which they are subject, you would hereafter renounce all
riches."
[3690] "O si pateant pectora divitum,
Quantos intus sublimis agit
Fortuna metus? Brutia Coro
Pulsante fretum mitior unda est."
"O that their breasts were but conspicuous,
How full of fear within, how furious?
The narrow seas are not so boisterous."
Yea, but he hath the world at will that is rich, the good things of the
earth: _suave est de magno tollere acervo_, (it is sweet to draw from a
great heap) he is a happy man, [3691]adored like a god, a prince, every man
seeks to him, applauds, honours, admires him. He hath honours indeed,
abundance of all things; but (as I said) withal [3692]"pride, lust, anger,
faction, emulation, fears, cares, suspicion enter with his wealth;" for his
intemperance he hath aches, crudities, gouts, and as fruits of his
idleness, and fullness, lust, surfeiting and drunkenness, all manner of
diseases: _pecuniis augetur improbitas_, the wealthier, the more dishonest.
[3693]"He is exposed to hatred, envy, peril and treason, fear of death,
degradation," &c. 'tis _lubrica statio et proxima praecipitio_, and the
higher he climbs, the greater is his fall.
[3694] ------"celsae graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos"
_Fulgura montes_, the lightning commonly sets on fire the highest towers;
[3695]in the more eminent place he is, the more subject to fall.
"Rumpitur innumeris arbos uberrima pomis,
Et subito nimiae praecipitantur opes."
As a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks her own boughs, with their
own greatness they ruin themselves: which Joachimus Camerarius hath
elegantly expressed in his _13 Emblem cent. 1._ _Inopem se copia fecit_.
Their means is their misery, though they do apply themselves to the times,
to lie, dissemble, collogue and flatter their lieges, obey, second his will
and commands as much as may be, yet too frequently they miscarry, they fat
themselves like so many hogs, as [3696]Aeneas Sylvius observes, that when
they are full fed, they may be devoured by their princes, as Seneca by Nero
was served, Sejanus by Tiberius, and Haman by Ahasuerus: I resolve with
Gregory, _potestas culminis, est tempestas mentis; et quo dignitas altior,
casus gravior_, honour is a tempest, the higher they are elevated, the more
grievously depressed. For the rest of his prerogatives which wealth
affords, as he hath more his expenses are the greater. "When goods
increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good cometh to the
owners, but the beholding thereof with the eyes?" Eccles. iv. 10.
[3697] "Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum,
Non tuus hinc capiet venter plus quam meus"------
"an evil sickness," Solomon calls it, "and reserved to them for an evil,"
12 verse. "They that will be rich fall into many fears and temptations,
into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition." 1 Tim.
vi. 9. "Gold and silver hath destroyed many," Ecclus. viii. 2. _divitia
saeculi sunt laquei diaboli_: so writes Bernard; worldly wealth is the
devil's bait: and as the Moon when she is fuller of light is still farthest
from the Sun, the more wealth they have, the farther they are commonly from
God. (If I had said this of myself, rich men would have pulled me to
pieces; but hear who saith, and who seconds it, an Apostle) therefore St.
James bids them "weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them;
their gold shall rust and canker, and eat their flesh as fire," James v. 1,
2, 3. I may then boldly conclude with [3698]Theodoret, _quotiescunque
divitiis affluentem_, &c. "As often as you shall see a man abounding in
wealth," _qui gemmis bibit et Serrano dormit in ostro_, "and naught withal,
I beseech you call him not happy, but esteem him unfortunate, because he
hath many occasions offered to live unjustly; on the other side, a poor man
is not miserable, if he be good, but therefore happy, that those evil
occasions are taken from him."
[3699] "Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti,
Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
Pejusque laetho flagitium timet."
"He is not happy that is rich,
And hath the world at will,
But he that wisely can God's gifts
Possess and use them still:
That suffers and with patience
Abides hard poverty,
And chooseth rather for to die;
Than do such villainy."
Wherein now consists his happiness? what privileges hath he more than other
men? or rather what miseries, what cares and discontents hath he not more
than other men?
[3700] "Non enim gazae, neque consularis
Summovet lictor miseros tumultus
Mentis, et curas laqueata circum
Tecta volantes."
"Nor treasures, nor majors officers remove
The miserable tumults of the mind:
Or cares that lie about, or fly above
Their high-roofed houses, with huge beams combin'd."
'Tis not his wealth can vindicate him, let him have Job's inventory, _sint
Craesi et Crassi licet, non hos Pactolus aureas undas agens, eripiat unquum
e miseriis_, Croesus or rich Crassus cannot now command health, or get
himself a stomach. [3701]"His worship," as Apuleius describes him, "in all
his plenty and great provision, is forbidden to eat, or else hath no
appetite," (sick in bed, can take no rest, sore grieved with some chronic
disease, contracted with full diet and ease, or troubled in mind) "when as,
in the meantime, all his household are merry, and the poorest servant that
he keeps doth continually feast." 'Tis _Bracteata felicitas_, as [3702]
Seneca terms it, tinfoiled happiness, _infelix felicitas_, an unhappy kind
of happiness, if it be happiness at all. His gold, guard, clattering of
harness, and fortifications against outward enemies, cannot free him from
inward fears and cares.
"Reveraque metus hominum, curaeque sequaces
Nec metuunt fremitus armorum, aut ferrea tela,
Audacterque inter reges, regumque potentes
Versantur, neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro."
"Indeed men still attending fears and cares
Nor armours clashing, nor fierce weapons fears:
With kings converse they boldly, and kings peers,
Fearing no flashing that from gold appears."
Look how many servants he hath, and so many enemies he suspects; for
liberty he entertains ambition; his pleasures are no pleasures; and that
which is worst, he cannot be private or enjoy himself as other men do, his
state is a servitude. [3703]A countryman may travel from kingdom to
kingdom, province to province, city to city, and glut his eyes with
delightful objects, hawk, hunt, and use those ordinary disports, without
any notice taken, all which a prince or a great man cannot do. He keeps in
for state, _ne majestatis dignitas evilescat_, as our China kings, of
Borneo, and Tartarian Chams, those _aurea mancipia_, are said to do, seldom
or never seen abroad, _ut major sit hominum erga se observantia_, which the
[3704]Persian kings so precisely observed of old. A poor man takes more
delight in an ordinary meal's meat, which he hath but seldom, than they do
with all their exotic dainties and continual viands; _Quippe voluptatem
commendat rarior usus_, 'tis the rarity and necessity that makes a thing
acceptable and pleasant. Darius, put to flight by Alexander, drank puddle
water to quench his thirst, and it was pleasanter, he swore, than any wine
or mead. All excess, as [3705]Epictetus argues, will cause a dislike; sweet
will be sour, which made that temperate Epicurus sometimes voluntarily
fast. But they being always accustomed to the same [3706]dishes, (which are
nastily dressed by slovenly cooks, that after their obscenities never wash
their bawdy hands) be they fish, flesh, compounded, made dishes, or
whatsoever else, are therefore cloyed; nectar's self grows loathsome to
them, they are weary of all their fine palaces, they are to them but as so
many prisons. A poor man drinks in a wooden dish, and eats his meat in
wooden spoons, wooden platters, earthen vessels, and such homely stuff: the
other in gold, silver, and precious stones; but with what success? _in auro
bibitur venenum_, fear of poison in the one, security in the other. A poor
man is able to write, to speak his mind, to do his own business himself;
_locuples mittit parasitum_, saith [3707]Philostratus, a rich man employs a
parasite, and as the major of a city, speaks by the town clerk, or by Mr.
Recorder, when he cannot express himself. [3708]Nonius the senator hath a
purple coat as stiff with jewels as his mind is full of vices; rings on his
fingers worth 20,000 sesterces, and as [3709]Perox the Persian king, an
union in his ear worth one hundred pounds weight of gold: [3710]Cleopatra
hath whole boars and sheep served up to her table at once, drinks jewels
dissolved, 40,000 sesterces in value; but to what end?
[3711] "Num tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris
Pocula?"------
Doth a man that is adry desire to drink in gold? Doth not a cloth suit
become him as well, and keep him as warm, as all their silks, satins,
damasks, taffeties and tissues? Is not homespun cloth as great a
preservative against cold, as a coat of Tartar lamb's-wool, died in grain,
or a gown of giant's beards? Nero, saith [3712]Sueton., never put on one
garment twice, and thou hast scarce one to put on? what's the difference?
one's sick, the other sound: such is the whole tenor of their lives, and
that which is the consummation and upshot of all, death itself makes the
greatest difference. One like a hen feeds on the dunghill all his days, but
is served up at last to his Lord's table; the other as a falcon is fed with
partridge and pigeons, and carried on his master's fist, but when he dies
is flung to the muck-hill, and there lies. The rich man lives like Dives
jovially here on earth, _temulentus divitiis_, make the best of it; and
"boasts himself in the multitude of his riches," Psalm xlix. 6. 11. he
thinks his house "called after his own name," shall continue for ever; "but
he perisheth like a beast," verse 20. "his way utters his folly," verse 13.
_male parta, male dilabuntur_; "like sheep they lie in the grave," verse
14. _Puncto descendunt ad infernum_, "they spend their days in wealth, and
go suddenly down to hell," Job xxi. 13. For all physicians and medicines
enforcing nature, a swooning wife, families' complaints, friends' tears,
dirges, masses, _naenias_, funerals, for all orations, counterfeit hired
acclamations, eulogiums, epitaphs, hearses, heralds, black mourners,
solemnities, obelisks, and Mausolean tombs, if he have them, at least,
[3713]he, like a hog, goes to hell with a guilty conscience (_propter hos
dilatavit infernos os suum_), and a poor man's curse; his memory stinks
like the snuff of a candle when it is put out; scurrilous libels, and
infamous obloquies accompany him. When as poor Lazarus is _Dei sacrarium_,
the temple of God, lives and dies in true devotion, hath no more
attendants, but his own innocency, the heaven a tomb, desires to be
dissolved, buried in his mother's lap, and hath a company of [3714]Angels
ready to convey his soul into Abraham's bosom, he leaves an everlasting and
a sweet memory behind him. Crassus and Sylla are indeed still recorded, but
not so much for their wealth as for their victories: Croesus for his end,
Solomon for his wisdom. In a word, [3715]"to get wealth is a great trouble,
anxiety to keep, grief to lose it."
[3716] "Quid dignum stolidis mentibus imprecer?
Opes, honores ambiant:
Et cum falsa gravi mole paraverint,
Tum vera cognoscant bona."
But consider all those other unknown, concealed happinesses, which a poor
man hath (I call them unknown, because they be not acknowledged in the
world's esteem, or so taken) _O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint_:
happy they are in the meantime if they would take notice of it, make use,
or apply it to themselves. "A poor man wise is better than a foolish king,"
Eccles. ii. 13. [3717]"Poverty is the way to heaven," [3718]"the mistress
of philosophy," [3719]"the mother of religion, virtue, sobriety, sister of
innocency, and an upright mind." How many such encomiums might I add out of
the fathers, philosophers, orators? It troubles many that are poor, they
account of it as a great plague, curse, a sign of God's hatred, _ipsum
scelus_, damned villainy itself, a disgrace, shame and reproach; but to
whom, or why? [3720]"If fortune hath envied me wealth, thieves have robbed
me, my father have not left me such revenues as others have," that I am a
younger brother, basely born,--_cui sine luce genus, surdumque
parentum--nomen_, of mean parentage, a dirt-dauber's son, am I therefore to
be blamed? "an eagle, a bull, a lion is not rejected for his poverty, and
why should a man?" 'Tis [3721]_fortunae telum, non culpae_, fortune's
fault, not mine. "Good Sir, I am a servant," (to use [3722]Seneca's words)
"howsoever your poor friend; a servant, and yet your chamber-fellow, and if
you consider better of it, your fellow-servant." I am thy drudge in the
world's eyes, yet in God's sight peradventure thy better, my soul is more
precious, and I dearer unto him. _Etiam servi diis curae sunt_, as
Evangelus at large proves in Macrobius, the meanest servant is most
precious in his sight. Thou art an epicure, I am a good Christian; thou art
many parasangs before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius's
Narcissus, Nero's Massa, Domitian's Parthenius, a favourite, a golden
slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy walls
with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c., what of all this?
_calcas opes_, &c., what's all this to true happiness? I live and breathe
under that glorious heaven, that august capitol of nature, enjoy the
brightness of stars, that clear light of sun and moon, those infinite
creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land
afford, far surpassing all that art and _opulentia_ can give. I am free,
and which [3723]Seneca said of Rome, _culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et
auro postea servitus habitavit_, thou hast _Amaltheae cornu_, plenty,
pleasure, the world at will, I am despicable and poor; but a word overshot,
a blow in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the
prince's dislike, a little sickness, &c., may make us equal in an instant;
howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult awhile, _cinis aequat_, as
[3724]Alphonsus said, death will equalise us all at last. I live sparingly,
in the mean time, am clad homely, fare hardly; is this a reproach? am I the
worse for it? am I contemptible for it? am I to be reprehended? A learned
man in [3725] Nevisanus was taken down for sitting amongst gentlemen, but
he replied, "my nobility is about the head, yours declines to the tail,"
and they were silent. Let them mock, scoff and revile, 'tis not thy scorn,
but his that made thee so; "he that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him that
made him," Prov. xi. 5. "and he that rejoiceth at affliction, shall not be
unpunished." For the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou art,
_ditior est, at non melior_, saith [3726]Epictetus, he is richer, not
better than thou art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition.
"Beatus ille qui procul negotiis
Paterna rura bobus exercet suis."
Happy he, in that he is [3727]freed from the tumults of the world, he seeks
no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not,
temporiseth not, but lives privately, and well contented with his estate;
"Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem
Securus quo fata cadant."
He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdoms thrive better by
succession or election; whether monarchies should be mixed, temperate, or
absolute; the house of Ottomans and Austria is all one to him; he inquires
not after colonies or new discoveries; whether Peter were at Rome, or
Constantine's donation be of force; what comets or new stars signify,
whether the earth stand or move, there be a new world in the moon, or
infinite worlds, &c. He is not touched with fear of invasions, factions or
emulations;
[3728] "Felix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis,
Quem non mordaci resplendens gloria fuco
Solicitat, non fastosi mala gaudia luxus,
Sed tacitos sinit ire dies, et paupere cultu
[3729] Exigit innocuae tranquilla silentia vitae.
"A happy soul, and like to God himself,
Whom not vain glory macerates or strife.
Or wicked joys of that proud swelling pelf,
But leads a still, poor, and contented life."
A secure, quiet, blissful state he hath, if he could acknowledge it. But
here is the misery, that he will not take notice of it; he repines at rich
men's wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare, as [3730]Simonides objected to
Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the world, [3731]_in lectis eburneis
dormit, vinum phialis bibit, optimis unguentis delibuitur_, "he knows not
the affliction of Joseph, stretching himself on ivory beds, and singing to
the sound of the viol." And it troubles him that he hath not the like:
there is a difference (he grumbles) between Laplolly and Pheasants, to
tumble i' th' straw and lie in a down bed, betwixt wine and water, a
cottage and a palace. "He hates nature" (as [3732]Pliny characterised him)
"that she hath made him lower than a god, and is angry with the gods that
any man goes before him;" and although he hath received much, yet (as
[3733]Seneca follows it) "he thinks it an injury that he hath no more, and
is so far from giving thanks for his tribuneship, that he complains he is
not praetor, neither doth that please him, except he may be consul." Why is
he not a prince, why not a monarch, why not an emperor? Why should one man
have so much more than his fellows, one have all, another nothing? Why
should one man be a slave or drudge to another? One surfeit, another
starve, one live at ease, another labour, without any hope of better
fortune? Thus they grumble, mutter, and repine: not considering that
inconstancy of human affairs, judicially conferring one condition with
another, or well weighing their own present estate. What they are now, thou
mayst shortly be; and what thou art they shall likely be. Expect a little,
compare future and times past with the present, see the event, and comfort
thyself with it. It is as well to be discerned in commonwealths, cities,
families, as in private men's estates. Italy was once lord of the world,
Rome the queen of cities, vaunted herself of two [3734]myriads of
inhabitants; now that all-commanding country is possessed by petty princes,
[3735]Rome a small village in respect. Greece of old the seat of civility,
mother of sciences and humanity; now forlorn, the nurse of barbarism, a den
of thieves. Germany then, saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of
magnificent cities: Athens, Corinth, Carthage, how flourishing cities, now
buried in their own ruins! _Corvorum, ferarum, aprorum et bestiarum
lustra_, like so many wildernesses, a receptacle of wild beasts. Venice a
poor fisher-town; Paris, London, small cottages in Caesar's time, now most
noble emporiums. Valois, Plantagenet, and Scaliger how fortunate families,
how likely to continue! now quite extinguished and rooted out. He stands
aloft today, full of favour, wealth, honour, and prosperity, in the top of
fortune's wheel: tomorrow in prison, worse than nothing, his son's a
beggar. Thou art a poor servile drudge, _Foex populi_, a very slave, thy
son may come to be a prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c. a senator, a
general of an army; thou standest bare to him now, workest for him,
drudgest for him and his, takest an alms of him: stay but a little, and his
next heir peradventure shall consume all with riot, be degraded, thou
exalted, and he shall beg of thee. Thou shalt be his most honourable
patron, he thy devout servant, his posterity shall run, ride, and do as
much for thine, as it was with [3736]Frisgobald and Cromwell, it may be for
thee. Citizens devour country gentlemen, and settle in their seats; after
two or three descents, they consume all in riot, it returns to the city
again.
[3737] ------"Novus incola venit;
Nam propriae telluris herum natura, neque illum.
Nec me, nec quenquam statuit; nos expulit ille:
Illum aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris."
------"have we liv'd at a more frugal rate,
Since this new stranger seiz'd on our estate?
Nature will no perpetual heir assign,
Or make the farm his property or mine.
He turn'd us out: but follies all his own,
Or lawsuits and their knaveries yet unknown,
Or, all his follies and his lawsuits past,
Some long-liv'd heir shall turn him out at last."
A lawyer buys out his poor client, after a while his client's posterity buy
out him and his; so things go round, ebb and flow.
"Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli
Dictus erat, nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum
Nunc mihi, nunc aliis;"------
"The farm, once mine, now bears Umbrenus' name;
The use alone, not property, we claim;
Then be not with your present lot depressed,
And meet the future with undaunted breast;"
as he said then, _ager cujus, quot habes Dominos_? So say I of land,
houses, movables and money, mine today, his anon, whose tomorrow? In fine,
(as [3738]Machiavel observes) "virtue and prosperity beget rest; rest
idleness; idleness riot; riot destruction from which we come again to good
laws; good laws engender virtuous actions; virtue, glory, and prosperity;"
"and 'tis no dishonour then" (as Guicciardine adds) "for a flourishing man,
city, or state to come to ruin," [3739]"nor infelicity to be subject to the
law of nature." _Ergo terrena calcanda, sitienda coelestia_, (therefore I
say) scorn this transitory state, look up to heaven, think not what others
are, but what thou art: [3740]_Qua parte locatus es in re_: and what thou
shalt be, what thou mayst be. Do (I say) as Christ himself did, when he
lived here on earth, imitate him as much as in thee lies. How many great
Caesars, mighty monarchs, tetrarchs, dynasties, princes lived in his days,
in what plenty, what delicacy, how bravely attended, what a deal of gold
and silver, what treasure, how many sumptuous palaces had they, what
provinces and cities, ample territories, fields, rivers, fountains, parks,
forests, lawns, woods, cells, &c.? Yet Christ had none of all this, he
would have none of this, he voluntarily rejected all this, he could not be
ignorant, he could not err in his choice, he contemned all this, he chose
that which was safer, better, and more certain, and less to be repented, a
mean estate, even poverty itself; and why dost thou then doubt to follow
him, to imitate him, and his apostles, to imitate all good men: so do thou
tread in his divine steps, and thou shalt not err eternally, as too many
worldlings do, that run on in their own dissolute courses, to their
confusion and ruin, thou shalt not do amiss. Whatsoever thy fortune is, be
contented with it, trust in him, rely on him, refer thyself wholly to him.
For know this, in conclusion, _Non est volentis nec currentis, sed
miserentis Dei_, 'tis not as men, but as God will. "The Lord maketh poor
and maketh rich, bringeth low, and exalteth" (1 Sam. ii. ver. 7. 8), "he
lifteth the poor from the dust, and raiseth the beggar from the dunghill,
to set them amongst princes, and make them inherit the seat of glory;" 'tis
all as he pleaseth, how, and when, and whom; he that appoints the end
(though to us unknown) appoints the means likewise subordinate to the end.
Yea, but their present estate crucifies and torments most mortal men, they
have no such forecast, to see what may be, what shall likely be, but what
is, though not wherefore, or from whom, _hoc anget_, their present
misfortunes grind their souls, and an envious eye which they cast upon
other men's prosperities, _Vicinumque pecus grandius uber habet_, how rich,
how fortunate, how happy is he? But in the meantime he doth not consider
the other miseries, his infirmities of body and mind, that accompany his
estate, but still reflects upon his own false conceived woes and wants,
whereas if the matter were duly examined, [3741]he is in no distress at
all, he hath no cause to complain.
[3742] ------"tolle querelas,
Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus,"
"Then cease complaining, friend, and learn to live.
He is not poor to whom kind fortune grants,
Even with a frugal hand, what Nature wants."
he is not poor, he is not in need. [3743]"Nature is content with bread and
water; and he that can rest satisfied with that, may contend with Jupiter
himself for happiness." In that golden age, [3744]_somnos dedit umbra
salubres, potum quoque lubricus amnis_, the tree gave wholesome shade to
sleep under, and the clear rivers drink. The Israelites drank water in the
wilderness; Samson, David, Saul, Abraham's servant when he went for Isaac's
wife, the Samaritan woman, and how many besides might I reckon up, Egypt,
Palestine, whole countries in the [3745]Indies, that drank pure water all
their lives. [3746]The Persian kings themselves drank no other drink than
the water of Chaospis, that runs by Susa, which was carried in bottles
after them, whithersoever they went. Jacob desired no more of God, but
bread to eat, and clothes to put on in his journey, Gen. xxviii. 20. _Bene
est cui deus obtulit Parca quod satis est manu_; bread is enough [3747]"to
strengthen the heart." And if you study philosophy aright, saith [3748]
Maudarensis, "whatsoever is beyond this moderation, is not useful, but
troublesome." [3749]Agellius, out of Euripides, accounts bread and water
enough to satisfy nature, "of which there is no surfeit, the rest is not a
feast, but a riot." [3750]S. Hierome esteems him rich "that hath bread to
eat, and a potent man that is not compelled to be a slave; hunger is not
ambitious, so that it have to eat, and thirst doth not prefer a cup of
gold." It was no epicurean speech of an epicure, he that is not satisfied
with a little will never have enough: and very good counsel of him in the
[3751]poet, "O my son, mediocrity of means agrees best with men; too much
is pernicious."
"Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce,
Aequo animo."------
And if thou canst be content, thou hast abundance, _nihil est, nihil
deest_, thou hast little, thou wantest nothing. 'Tis all one to be hanged
in a chain of gold, or in a rope; to be filled with dainties or coarser
meat.
[3752] "Si ventri bene, si lateri, pedibusque tuis, nil
Divitiae poterunt regales addere majus."
"If belly, sides and feet be well at ease,
A prince's treasure can thee no more please."
Socrates in a fair, seeing so many things bought and sold, such a multitude
of people convented to that purpose, exclaimed forthwith, "O ye gods what a
sight of things do not I want?" 'Tis thy want alone that keeps thee in
health of body and mind, and that which thou persecutest and abhorrest as a
feral plague is thy physician and [3753]chiefest friend, which makes thee a
good man, a healthful, a sound, a virtuous, an honest and happy man. For
when virtue came from heaven (as the poet feigns) rich men kicked her up,
wicked men abhorred her, courtiers scoffed at her, citizens hated her,
[3754]and that she was thrust out of doors in every place, she came at last
to her sister Poverty, where she had found good entertainment. Poverty and
Virtue dwell together.
[3755] ------"O vitae tuta facultas
Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum
Intellecta deum."
How happy art thou if thou couldst be content. "Godliness is a great gain,
if a man can be content with that which he hath," 1 Tim. vi. 6. And all
true happiness is in a mean estate. I have a little wealth, as he said,
[3756]_sed quas animus magnas facit_, a kingdom in conceit;
[3757] ------"nil amplius opto
Maia nate, nisi ut propria haec mihi munera faxis;"
I have enough and desire no more.
[3758] "Dii bene fecerunt inopis me quodque pusilli
Fecerunt animi"------
'tis very well, and to my content. [3759]_Vestem et fortunam concinnam
potius quam laxam probo_, let my fortune and my garments be both alike fit
for me. And which [3760]Sebastian Foscarinus, sometime Duke of Venice,
caused to be engraven on his tomb in St. Mark's Church, "Hear, O ye
Venetians, and I will tell you which is the best thing in the world: to
contemn it." I will engrave it in my heart, it shall be my whole study to
contemn it. Let them take wealth, _Stercora stercus amet_ so that I may
have security: _bene qui latuit, bene vixit_; though I live obscure, [3761]
yet I live clean and honest; and when as the lofty oak is blown down, the
silky reed may stand. Let them take glory, for that's their misery; let
them take honour, so that I may have heart's ease. _Duc me O Jupiter et tu
fatum_, [3762]&c. Lead me, O God, whither thou wilt, I am ready to follow;
command, I will obey. I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;
[3763] "Stet quicunque volet potens
Aulae culmine lubrico,
Me dulcis saturet quies."
let me live quiet and at ease. [3764]_Erimus fortasse_ (as he comforted
himself) _quando illi non erunt_, when they are dead and gone, and all
their pomp vanished, our memory may flourish:
[3765] ------"dant perennes
Stemmata non peritura Musae."
Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess so many goodly
castles, 'tis well for me [3766]that I have a poor house, and a little
wood, and a well by it, &c.
"His me consolor victurum suavius, ac si
Quaestor avus pater atque meus, patruusque fuissent."
"With which I feel myself more truly blest
Than if my sires the quaestor's power possess'd."
I live, I thank God, as merrily as he, and triumph as much in this my mean
estate, as if my father and uncle had been lord treasurer, or my lord
mayor. He feeds of many dishes, I of one: [3767]_qui Christum curat, non
multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus conficiat_, what care I of
what stuff my excrements be made? [3768]"He that lives according to nature
cannot be poor, and he that exceeds can never have enough," _totus non
sufficit orbis_, the whole world cannot give him content. "A small thing
that the righteous hath, is better than the riches of the ungodly," Psal.
xxxvii. 19; "and better is a poor morsel with quietness, than abundance
with strife," Prov. xvii. 7. Be content then, enjoy thyself, and as [3769]
Chrysostom adviseth, "be not angry for what thou hast not, but give God
hearty thanks for what thou hast received."
[3770] "Si dat oluscula
Mensa minuscula
pace referta,"
"Ne pete grandia,
Lautaque prandia
lite repleta."
But what wantest thou, to expostulate the matter? or what hast thou not
better than a rich man? [3771]"health, competent wealth, children,
security, sleep, friends, liberty, diet, apparel, and what not," or at
least mayst have (the means being so obvious, easy, and well known) for as
he inculcated to himself,
[3772] "Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem,
Jucundissime Martialis, haec sunt;
Res non parta labore, sed relicta,
Lis nunquam," &c.
I say again thou hast, or at least mayst have it, if thou wilt thyself, and
that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart. "Passing by a village in the
territory of Milan," saith [3773]St. Austin, "I saw a poor beggar that had
got belike his bellyful of meat, jesting and merry; I sighed, and said to
some of my friends that were then with me, what a deal of trouble, madness,
pain and grief do we sustain and exaggerate unto ourselves, to get that
secure happiness which this poor beggar hath prevented us of, and which we
peradventure shall never have? For that which he hath now attained with the
begging of some small pieces of silver, a temporal happiness, and present
heart's ease, I cannot compass with all my careful windings, and running in
and out," [3774]"And surely the beggar was very merry, but I was heavy; he
was secure, but I timorous. And if any man should ask me now, whether I had
rather be merry, or still so solicitous and sad, I should say, merry. If he
should ask me again, whether I had rather be as I am, or as this beggar
was, I should sure choose to be as I am, tortured still with cares and
fears; but out of peevishness, and not out of truth." That which St. Austin
said of himself here in this place, I may truly say to thee, thou
discontented wretch, thou covetous niggard, thou churl, thou ambitious and
swelling toad, 'tis not want but peevishness which is the cause of thy
woes; settle thine affection, thou hast enough.
[3775] "Denique sit finis quaerendi, quoque habeas plus,
Pauperiem metuas minus, et finire laborem
Incipias; parto, quod avebas, utere."
Make an end of scraping, purchasing this manor, this field, that house, for
this and that child; thou hast enough for thyself and them:
[3776] ------"Quod petis hic est,
Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus."
'Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly seekest. But
------"O si angulus ille
Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum,"
O that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there, that pasture,
_O si venam argenti fors quis mihi monstret--_. O that I could but find a
pot of money now, to purchase, &c., to build me a new house, to marry my
daughter, place my son, &c. [3777]"O if I might but live a while longer to
see all things settled, some two or three years, I would pay my debts,"
make all my reckonings even: but they are come and past, and thou hast more
business than before. "O madness, to think to settle that in thine old age
when thou hast more, which in thy youth thou canst not now compose having
but a little." [3778]Pyrrhus would first conquer Africa, and then Asia, _et
tum suaviter agere_, and then live merrily and take his ease: but when
Cyneas the orator told him he might do that already, _id jam posse fieri_,
rested satisfied, condemning his own folly. _Si parva licet componere
magnis_, thou mayst do the like, and therefore be composed in thy fortune.
Thou hast enough: he that is wet in a bath, can be no more wet if he be
flung into Tiber, or into the ocean itself: and if thou hadst all the
world, or a solid mass of gold as big as the world, thou canst not have
more than enough; enjoy thyself at length, and that which thou hast; the
mind is all; be content, thou art not poor, but rich, and so much the
richer as [3779]Censorinus well writ to Cerellius, _quanto pauciora optas,
non quo plura possides_, in wishing less, not having more. I say then, _Non
adjice opes, sed minue cupiditates_ ('tis [3780]Epicurus' advice), add no
more wealth, but diminish thy desires; and as [3781]Chrysostom well seconds
him, _Si vis ditari, contemne divitias_; that's true plenty, not to have,
but not to want riches, _non habere, sed non indigere, vera abundantia_:
'tis more glory to contemn, than to possess; _et nihil agere, est deorum_,
"and to want nothing is divine." How many deaf, dumb, halt, lame, blind,
miserable persons could I reckon up that are poor, and withal distressed,
in imprisonment, banishment, galley slaves, condemned to the mines,
quarries, to gyves, in dungeons, perpetual thraldom, than all which thou
art richer, thou art more happy, to whom thou art able to give an alms, a
lord, in respect, a petty prince: [3782]be contented then I say, repine and
mutter no more, "for thou art not poor indeed but in opinion."
Yea, but this is very good counsel, and rightly applied to such as have it,
and will not use it, that have a competency, that are able to work and get
their living by the sweat of their brows, by their trade, that have
something yet; he that hath birds, may catch birds; but what shall we do
that are slaves by nature, impotent, and unable to help ourselves, mere
beggars, that languish and pine away, that have no means at all, no hope of
means, no trust of delivery, or of better success? as those old Britons
complained to their lords and masters the Romans oppressed by the Picts.
_mare ad barbaros, barbari ad mare_, the barbarians drove them to the sea,
the sea drove them back to the barbarians: our present misery compels us to
cry out and howl, to make our moan to rich men: they turn us back with a
scornful answer to our misfortune again, and will take no pity of us; they
commonly overlook their poor friends in adversity; if they chance to meet
them, they voluntarily forget and will take no notice of them; they will
not, they cannot help us. Instead of comfort they threaten us, miscall,
scoff at us, to aggravate our misery, give us bad language, or if they do
give good words, what's that to relieve us? According to that of Thales,
_Facile est alios monere_; who cannot give good counsel? 'tis cheap, it
costs them nothing. It is an easy matter when one's belly is full to
declaim against fasting, _Qui satur est pleno laudat jejunia ventre_; "Doth
the wild ass bray when he hath grass, or loweth the ox when he hath
fodder?" Job vi. 5. [3783]_Neque enim populo Romano quidquam potest esse
laetius_, no man living so jocund, so merry as the people of Rome when they
had plenty; but when they came to want, to be hunger-starved, "neither
shame, nor laws, nor arms, nor magistrates could keep them in obedience."
Seneca pleadeth hard for poverty, and so did those lazy philosophers: but
in the meantime [3784]he was rich, they had wherewithal to maintain
themselves; but doth any poor man extol it? "There are those" (saith [3785]
Bernard) "that approve of a mean estate, but on that condition they never
want themselves: and some again are meek so long as they may say or do what
they list; but if occasion be offered, how far are they from all patience?"
I would to God (as he said) [3786]"No man should commend poverty, but he
that is poor," or he that so much admires it, would relieve, help, or ease
others.
[3787] "Nunc si nos audis, atque es divinus Apollo,
Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat:"
"Now if thou hear'st us, and art a good man,
Tell him that wants, to get means, if you can."
But no man hears us, we are most miserably dejected, the scum of the world.
[3788]_Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum_. We can get no relief, no
comfort, no succour, [3789]_Et nihil inveni quod mihi ferret opem_. We have
tried all means, yet find no remedy: no man living can express the anguish
and bitterness of our souls, but we that endure it; we are distressed,
forsaken, in torture of body and mind, in another hell: and what shall we
do? When [3790]Crassus the Roman consul warred against the Parthians, after
an unlucky battle fought, he fled away in the night, and left four thousand
men, sore, sick, and wounded in his tents, to the fury of the enemy, which,
when the poor men perceived, _clamoribus et ululatibus omnia complerunt_,
they made lamentable moan, and roared downright, as loud as Homer's Mars
when he was hurt, which the noise of 10,000 men could not drown, and all
for fear of present death. But our estate is far more tragical and
miserable, much more to be deplored, and far greater cause have we to
lament; the devil and the world persecute us, all good fortune hath
forsaken us, we are left to the rage of beggary, cold, hunger, thirst,
nastiness, sickness, irksomeness, to continue all torment, labour and pain,
to derision and contempt, bitter enemies all, and far worse than any death;
death alone we desire, death we seek, yet cannot have it, and what shall we
do? _Quod male fers, assuesce; feres bene_ --accustom thyself to it, and it
will be tolerable at last. Yea, but I may not, I cannot, _In me consumpsit
vires fortuna nocendo_, I am in the extremity of human adversity; and as a
shadow leaves the body when the sun is gone, I am now left and lost, and
quite forsaken of the world. _Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde cadat_;
comfort thyself with this yet, thou art at the worst, and before it be long
it will either overcome thee or thou it. If it be violent, it cannot
endure, _aut solvetur, aut solvet_: let the devil himself and all the
plagues of Egypt come upon thee at once, _Ne tu cede malis, sed contra
audentior ito_, be of good courage; misery is virtue's whetstone.
[3791] "--serpens, sitis, ardor, arenae,
Dulcia virtuti,"
as Cato told his soldiers marching in the deserts of Libya, "Thirst, heat,
sands, serpents, were pleasant to a valiant man;" honourable enterprises
are accompanied with dangers and damages, as experience evinceth: they will
make the rest of thy life relish the better. But put case they continue;
thou art not so poor as thou wast born, and as some hold, much better to be
pitied than envied. But be it so thou hast lost all, poor thou art,
dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee,
thou art as bad as Job; yet tell me (saith Chrysostom) "was Job or the
devil the greater conqueror? surely Job; the [3792]devil had his goods, he
sat on the muck-hill and kept his good name; he lost his children, health,
friends, but he kept his innocency; he lost his money, but he kept his
confidence in God, which was better than any treasure." Do thou then as Job
did, triumph as Job did, [3793]and be not molested as every fool is. _Sed
qua ratione potero_? How shall this be done? Chrysostom answers, _facile si
coelum cogitaveris_, with great facility, if thou shalt but meditate on
heaven. [3794]Hannah wept sore, and troubled in mind, could not eat; "but
why weepest thou," said Elkanah her husband, "and why eatest thou not? why
is thine heart troubled? am not I better to thee than ten sons?" and she
was quiet. Thou art here [3795]vexed in this world; but say to thyself,
"Why art thou troubled, O my soul?" Is not God better to thee than all
temporalities, and momentary pleasures of the world? be then pacified. And
though thou beest now peradventure in extreme want, [3796]it may be 'tis
for thy further good, to try thy patience, as it did Job's, and exercise
thee in this life: trust in God, and rely upon him, and thou shalt be
[3797]crowned in the end. What's this life to eternity? The world hath
forsaken thee, thy friends and fortunes all are gone: yet know this, that
the very hairs of thine head are numbered, that God is a spectator of all
thy miseries, he sees thy wrongs, woes, and wants. [3798]"'Tis his
goodwill and pleasure it should be so, and he knows better what is for thy
good than thou thyself. His providence is over all, at all times; he hath
set a guard of angels over us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye," Ps.
xvii. 8. Some he doth exalt, prefer, bless with worldly riches, honours,
offices, and preferments, as so many glistering stars he makes to shine
above the rest: some he doth miraculously protect from thieves, incursions,
sword, fire, and all violent mischances, and as the [3799]poet feigns of
that Lycian Pandarus, Lycaon's son, when he shot at Menelaus the Grecian
with a strong arm, and deadly arrow, Pallas, as a good mother keeps flies
from her child's face asleep, turned by the shaft, and made it hit on the
buckle of his girdle; so some he solicitously defends, others he exposeth
to danger, poverty, sickness, want, misery, he chastiseth and corrects, as
to him seems best, in his deep, unsearchable and secret judgment, and all
for our good. "The tyrant took the city" (saith [3800]Chrysostom), "God did
not hinder it; led them away captives, so God would have it; he bound them,
God yielded to it: flung them into the furnace, God permitted it: heat the
oven hotter, it was granted: and when the tyrant had done his worst, God
showed his power, and the children's patience; he freed them:" so can he
thee, and can [3801]help in an instant, when it seems to him good. [3802]
"Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; for though I fall, I shall rise: when
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall lighten me." Remember all those martyrs
what they have endured, the utmost that human rage and fury could invent,
with what [3803]patience they have borne, with what willingness embraced
it. "Though he kill me," saith Job, "I will trust in him." _Justus
[3804]inexpugnabilis_, as Chrysostom holds, a just man is impregnable, and
not to be overcome. The gout may hurt his hands, lameness his feet,
convulsions may torture his joints, but not _rectam mentem_ his soul is
free.
[3805] ------"nempe pecus, rem,
Lectos, argentum tollas licet; in manicis, et
Compedibus saevo teneas custode"------
"Perhaps, you mean,
My cattle, money, movables or land,
Then take them all.--But, slave, if I command,
A cruel jailor shall thy freedom seize."
[3806]"Take away his money, his treasure is in heaven: banish him his
country, he is an inhabitant of that heavenly Jerusalem: cast him into
bands, his conscience is free; kill his body, it shall rise again; he
fights with a shadow that contends with an upright man:" he will not be
moved.
------"si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."
Though heaven itself should fall on his head, he will not be offended. He
is impenetrable, as an anvil hard, as constant as Job.
[3807] "Ipse deus simul atque volet me solvet opinor."
"A God shall set me free whene'er I please."
Be thou such a one; let thy misery be what it will, what it can, with
patience endure it; thou mayst be restored as he was. _Terris proscriptus,
ad coelum propera; ab hominibus desertus, ad deum fuge_. "The poor shall
not always be forgotten, the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish
for ever," Psal. x. 18. ver. 9. "The Lord will be a refuge of the
oppressed, and a defence in the time of trouble."
"Servus Epictetus, multilati corporis, Irus
Pauper: at haec inter charus erat superis."
"Lame was Epictetus, and poor Irus,
Yet to them both God was propitious."
Lodovicus Vertomannus, that famous traveller, endured much misery, yet
surely, saith Scaliger, he was _vir deo charus_, in that he did escape so
many dangers, "God especially protected him, he was dear unto him:" _Modo
in egestate, tribulatione, convalle deplorationis_, &c. "Thou art now in
the vale of misery, in poverty, in agony," [3808]"in temptation; rest,
eternity, happiness, immortality, shall be thy reward," as Chrysostom
pleads, "if thou trust in God, and keep thine innocency." _Non si male
nunc, et olim sic erit semper_; a good hour may come upon a sudden; [3809]
expect a little.
Yea, but this expectation is it which tortures me in the mean time; [3810]
_futura expectans praesentibus angor_, whilst the grass grows the horse
starves: [3811]despair not, but hope well,
[3812] "Spera Batte, tibi melius lux Crastina ducet;
Dum spiras spera"------
Cheer up, I say, be not dismayed; _Spes alit agricolas_: "he that sows in
tears, shall reap in joy," Psal. cxxvi. 7.
"Si fortune me tormente,
Esperance me contente."
Hope refresheth, as much as misery depresseth; hard beginnings have many
times prosperous events, and that may happen at last which never was yet.
"A desire accomplished delights the soul," Prov. xiii. 19.
[3813] "Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora:"
"Which makes m'enjoy my joys long wish'd at last,
Welcome that hour shall come when hope is past:"
a lowering morning may turn to a fair afternoon, [3814]_Nube solet pulsa
candidus ire dies_. "The hope that is deferred, is the fainting of the
heart, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life," Prov. xiii. 12,
[3815]_suavissimum est voti compos fieri_. Many men are both wretched and
miserable at first, but afterwards most happy: and oftentimes it so falls
out, as [3816]Machiavel relates of Cosmo de Medici, that fortunate and
renowned citizen of Europe, "that all his youth was full of perplexity,
danger, and misery, till forty years were past, and then upon a sudden the
sun of his honour broke out as through a cloud." Huniades was fetched out
of prison, and Henry the Third of Portugal out of a poor monastery, to be
crowned kings.
"Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra,"
"Many things happen between the cup and the lip,"
beyond all hope and expectation many things fall out, and who knows what
may happen? _Nondum omnium dierum Soles occiderunt_, as Philippus said, all
the suns are not yet set, a day may come to make amends for all. "Though my
father and mother forsake me, yet the Lord will gather me up," Psal. xxvii.
10. "Wait patiently on the Lord, and hope in him," Psal. xxxvii. 7. "Be
strong, hope and trust in the Lord, and he will comfort thee, and give thee
thine heart's desire," Psal. xxvii. 14.
"Sperate et vosmet rebus servate secundis."
"Hope, and reserve yourself for prosperity."
Fret not thyself because thou art poor, contemned, or not so well for the
present as thou wouldst be, not respected as thou oughtest to be, by birth,
place, worth; or that which is a double corrosive, thou hast been happy,
honourable, and rich, art now distressed and poor, a scorn of men, a burden
to the world, irksome to thyself and others, thou hast lost all: _Miserum
est fuisse, felicem_, and as Boethius calls it, _Infelicissimum genus
infortunii_; this made Timon half mad with melancholy, to think of his
former fortunes and present misfortunes: this alone makes many miserable
wretches discontent. I confess it is a great misery to have been happy, the
quintessence of infelicity, to have been honourable and rich, but yet
easily to be endured: [3817]security succeeds, and to a judicious man a far
better estate. The loss of thy goods and money is no loss; [3818] "thou
hast lost them, they would otherwise have lost thee." If thy money be gone,
[3819]"thou art so much the lighter," and as Saint Hierome persuades
Rusticus the monk, to forsake all and follow Christ: "Gold and silver are
too heavy metals for him to carry that seeks heaven."
[3820] "Vel nos in mare proximum,
Gemmas et lapides, aurum et inutile,
Summi materiam mali
Mittamus, scelerum si hene poenitet."
Zeno the philosopher lost all his goods by shipwreck, [3821]he might like
of it, fortune had done him a good turn: _Opes a me, animum auferre non
potest_: she can take away my means, but not my mind. He set her at
defiance ever after, for she could not rob him that had nought to lose: for
he was able to contemn more than they could possess or desire. Alexander
sent a hundred talents of gold to Phocion of Athens for a present, because
he heard he was a good man: but Phocion returned his talents back again
with a _permitte me in posterum virum bonum esse_ to be a good man still;
let me be as I am: _Non mi aurum posco, nec mi precium_[3822]--That Theban
Crates flung of his own accord his money into the sea, _abite nummi, ego
vos mergam, ne mergar, a vobis_, I had rather drown you, than you should
drown me. Can stoics and epicures thus contemn wealth, and shall not we
that are Christians? It was _mascula vox et praeclara_, a generous speech
of Cotta in [3823]Sallust, "Many miseries have happened unto me at home,
and in the wars abroad, of which by the help of God some I have endured,
some I have repelled, and by mine own valour overcome: courage was never
wanting to my designs, nor industry to my intents: prosperity or adversity
could never alter my disposition." A wise man's mind, as Seneca holds,
[3824] "is like the state of the world above the moon, ever serene." Come
then what can come, befall what may befall, _infractum invictumque [3825]
animum opponas: Rebus angustis animosus atque fortis appare_. (Hor. _Od.
11. lib. 2._) Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the
surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity:
[3826] "Durum sed levius fit patientia,
Quicquid corrigere est nefas."
"What can't be cured must be endured."
If it cannot be helped, or amended, [3827]make the best of it; [3828]
_necessitati qui se accommodat, sapit_, he is wise that suits himself to
the time. As at a game at tables, so do by all such inevitable accidents.
[3829] "Ita vita est hominum quasi cum ludas tesseris,
Si illud quod est maxime opus jactu non cadit,
Illud quod cecidit forte, id arte ut corrigas;"
If thou canst not fling what thou wouldst, play thy cast as well as thou
canst. Everything, saith [3830]Epictetus, hath two handles, the one to be
held by, the other not: 'tis in our choice to take and leave whether we
will (all which Simplicius's Commentator hath illustrated by many
examples), and 'tis in our power, as they say, to make or mar ourselves.
Conform thyself then to thy present fortune, and cut thy coat according to
thy cloth, [3831]_Ut quimus (quod aiunt) quando quod volumus non licet_,
"Be contented with thy loss, state, and calling, whatsoever it is, and rest
as well satisfied with thy present condition in this life:"
"Este quod es; quod sunt alii, sine quamlibet esse;
Quod non es, nolis; quod potus esse, velis."
"Be as thou art; and as they are, so let
Others be still; what is and may be covert."
And as he that is [3832]invited to a feast eats what is set before him, and
looks for no other, enjoy that thou hast, and ask no more of God than what
he thinks fit to bestow upon thee. _Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum_,
we may not be all gentlemen, all Catos, or Laelii, as Tully telleth us, all
honourable, illustrious, and serene, all rich; but because mortal men want
many things, [3833]"therefore," saith Theodoret, "hath God diversely
distributed his gifts, wealth to one, skill to another, that rich men might
encourage and set poor men at work, poor men might learn several trades to
the common good." As a piece of arras is composed of several parcels, some
wrought of silk, some of gold, silver, crewel of diverse colours, all to
serve for the exornation of the whole: music is made of diverse discords
and keys, a total sum of many small numbers, so is a commonwealth of
several unequal trades and callings. [3834]If all should be Croesi and
Darii, all idle, all in fortunes equal, who should till the land? As
[3835]Menenius Agrippa well satisfied the tumultuous rout of Rome, in his
elegant apologue of the belly and the rest of the members. Who should build
houses, make our several stuffs for raiments? We should all be starved for
company, as Poverty declared at large in Aristophanes' Plutus, and sue at
last to be as we were at first. And therefore God hath appointed this
inequality of states, orders, and degrees, a subordination, as in all other
things. The earth yields nourishment to vegetables, sensible creatures feed
on vegetables, both are substitutes to reasonable souls, and men are
subject amongst themselves, and all to higher powers, so God would have it.
All things then being rightly examined and duly considered as they ought,
there is no such cause of so general discontent, 'tis not in the matter
itself, but in our mind, as we moderate our passions and esteem of things.
_Nihil aliud necessarium ut sis miser_ (saith [3836]Cardan) _quam ut te
miserum credas_, let thy fortune be what it will, 'tis thy mind alone that
makes thee poor or rich, miserable or happy. _Vidi ego_ (saith divine
Seneca) _in villa hilari et amaena maestos, et media solitudine occupatos;
non locus, sed animus facit ad tranquillitatem_. I have seen men miserably
dejected in a pleasant village, and some again well occupied and at good
ease in a solitary desert. 'Tis the mind not the place causeth
tranquillity, and that gives true content. I will yet add a word or two for
a corollary. Many rich men, I dare boldly say it, that lie on down beds,
with delicacies pampered every day, in their well-furnished houses, live at
less heart's ease, with more anguish, more bodily pain, and through their
intemperance, more bitter hours, than many a prisoner or galley-slave;
[3837]_Maecenas in pluma aeque vigilat ac Regulus in dolio_: those poor
starved Hollanders, whom [3838]Bartison their captain left in Nova Zembla,
anno 1596, or those [3839]eight miserable Englishmen that were lately left
behind, to winter in a stove in Greenland, in 77 deg. of lat., 1630, so
pitifully forsaken, and forced to shift for themselves in a vast, dark, and
desert place, to strive and struggle with hunger, cold, desperation, and
death itself. 'Tis a patient and quiet mind (I say it again and again)
gives true peace and content. So for all other things, they are, as old
[3840]Chremes told us, as we use them.
"Parentes, patriam, amicos, genus, cognates, divitias,
Haec perinde sunt ac illius animus qui ea possidet;
Qui uti scit, ei bona; qui utitur non recte, mala."
"Parents, friends, fortunes, country, birth, alliance, &c., ebb and flow
with our conceit; please or displease, as we accept and construe them, or
apply them to ourselves." _Faber quisque fortunae suae_, and in some sort I
may truly say, prosperity and adversity are in our own hands. _Nemo
laeditur nisi a seipso_, and which Seneca confirms out of his judgment and
experience. [3841]"Every man's mind is stronger than fortune, and leads him
to what side he will; a cause to himself each one is of his good or bad
life." But will we, or nill we, make the worst of it, and suppose a man in
the greatest extremity, 'tis a fortune which some indefinitely prefer
before prosperity; of two extremes it is the best. _Luxuriant animi rebus
plerumque secundis_, men in [3842]prosperity forget God and themselves,
they are besotted with their wealth, as birds with henbane: [3843]
miserable if fortune forsake them, but more miserable if she tarry and
overwhelm them: for when they come to be in great place, rich, they that
were most temperate, sober, and discreet in their private fortunes, as
Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Heliogabalus (_optimi imperatores nisi imperassent_)
degenerate on a sudden into brute beasts, so prodigious in lust, such
tyrannical oppressors, &c., they cannot moderate themselves, they become
monsters, odious, harpies, what not? _Cum triumphos, opes, honores adepti
sunt, ad voluptatem et otium deinceps se convertunt_: 'twas [3844]Cato's
note, "they cannot contain." For that cause belike
[3845] "Eutrapilus cuicunque nocere volebat,
Vestimenta dabat pretiosa: beatus enim jam,
Cum pulchris tunicis sumet nova consilia et spes,
Dormiet in lucem scorto, postponet honestum
Officium"------
"Eutrapilus when he would hurt a knave,
Gave him gay clothes and wealth to make him brave:
Because now rich he would quite change his mind,
Keep whores, fly out, set honesty behind."
On the other side, in adversity many mutter and repine, despair, &c., both
bad, I confess,
[3846] ------"ut calceus olim
Si pede major erit, subvertet: si minor, uret."
"As a shoe too big or too little, one pincheth, the other sets the foot
awry," _sed e malis minimum_. If adversity hath killed his thousand,
prosperity hath killed his ten thousand: therefore adversity is to be
preferred; [3847]_haec froeno indiget, illa solatio: illa fallit, haec
instruit_: the one deceives, the other instructs; the one miserably happy,
the other happily miserable; and therefore many philosophers have
voluntarily sought adversity, and so much commend it in their precepts.
Demetrius, in Seneca, esteemed it a great infelicity, that in his lifetime
he had no misfortune, _miserum cui nihil unquam accidisset, adversi_.
Adversity then is not so heavily to be taken, and we ought not in such
cases so much to macerate ourselves: there is no such odds in poverty and
riches. To conclude in [3848]Hierom's words, "I will ask our magnificoes
that build with marble, and bestow a whole manor on a thread, what
difference between them and Paul the Eremite, that bare old man? They drink
in jewels, he in his hand: he is poor and goes to heaven, they are rich and
go to hell."
MEMB. IV.
_Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment, Banishment_.
Servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment, are no such miseries as they are
held to be: we are slaves and servants the best of us all: as we do
reverence our masters, so do our masters their superiors: gentlemen serve
nobles, and nobles subordinate to kings, _omne sub regno graviore regnum_,
princes themselves are God's servants, _reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis_.
They are subject to their own laws, and as the kings of China endure more
than slavish imprisonment, to maintain their state and greatness, they
never come abroad. Alexander was a slave to fear, Caesar of pride,
Vespasian to his money (_nihil enim refert, rerum sis servus an hominum_),
[3849] Heliogabalus to his gut, and so of the rest. Lovers are slaves to
their mistresses, rich men to their gold, courtiers generally to lust and
ambition, and all slaves to our affections, as Evangelus well discourseth
in [3850]Macrobius, and [3851]Seneca the philosopher, _assiduam servitutem
extremam et ineluctabilem_ he calls it, a continual slavery, to be so
captivated by vices; and who is free? Why then dost thou repine? _Satis est
potens_, Hierom saith, _qui servire non cogitur_. Thou carriest no burdens,
thou art no prisoner, no drudge, and thousands want that liberty, those
pleasures which thou hast. Thou art not sick, and what wouldst thou have?
But _nitimur in vetitum_, we must all eat of the forbidden fruit. Were we
enjoined to go to such and such places, we would not willingly go: but
being barred of our liberty, this alone torments our wandering soul that we
may not go. A citizen of ours, saith [3852]Cardan, was sixty years of age,
and had never been forth of the walls of the city of Milan; the prince
hearing of it, commanded him not to stir out: being now forbidden that
which all his life he had neglected, he earnestly desired, and being
denied, _dolore confectus mortem, obiit_, he died for grief.
What I have said of servitude, I again say of imprisonment, we are all
prisoners. [3853]What is our life but a prison? We are all imprisoned in an
island. The world itself to some men is a prison, our narrow seas as so
many ditches, and when they have compassed the globe of the earth, they
would fain go see what is done in the moon. In [3854]Muscovy and many other
northern parts, all over Scandia, they are imprisoned half the year in
stoves, they dare not peep out for cold. At [3855]Aden in Arabia they are
penned in all day long with that other extreme of heat, and keep their
markets in the night. What is a ship but a prison? And so many cities are
but as so many hives of bees, anthills; but that which thou abhorrest, many
seek: women keep in all winter, and most part of summer, to preserve their
beauties; some for love of study: Demosthenes shaved his beard because he
would cut off all occasions from going abroad: how many monks and friars,
anchorites, abandon the world. _Monachus in urbe, piscis in arido_. Art in
prison? Make right use of it, and mortify thyself; [3856] "Where may a man
contemplate better than in solitariness," or study more than in quietness?
Many worthy men have been imprisoned all their lives, and it hath been
occasion of great honour and glory to them, much public good by their
excellent meditation. [3857]Ptolomeus king of Egypt, _cum viribus
attenuatis infirma valetudine laboraret, miro descendi studio affectus_,
&c. now being taken with a grievous infirmity of body that he could not
stir abroad, became Strato's scholar, fell hard to his book, and gave
himself wholly to contemplation, and upon that occasion (as mine author
adds), _pulcherrimum regiae opulentiae monumentum_, &c., to his great
honour built that renowned library at Alexandria, wherein were 40,000
volumes. Severinus Boethius never writ so elegantly as in prison, Paul so
devoutly, for most of his epistles were dictated in his bands: "Joseph,"
saith [3858]Austin, "got more credit in prison, than when he distributed
corn, and was lord of Pharaoh's house." It brings many a lewd, riotous
fellow home, many wandering rogues it settles, that would otherwise have
been like raving tigers, ruined themselves and others.
Banishment is no grievance at all, _Omne solum forti patria, &c. et patria
est ubicunque bene est_, that's a man's country where he is well at ease.
Many travel for pleasure to that city, saith Seneca, to which thou art
banished, and what a part of the citizens are strangers born in other
places? [3859]_Incolentibus patria_, 'tis their country that are born in
it, and they would think themselves banished to go to the place which thou
leavest, and from which thou art so loath to depart. 'Tis no disparagement
to be a stranger, or so irksome to be an exile. [3860]"The rain is a
stranger to the earth, rivers to the sea, Jupiter in Egypt, the sun to us
all. The soul is an alien to the body, a nightingale to the air, a swallow
in a house, and Ganymede in heaven, an elephant at Rome, a Phoenix in
India;" and such things commonly please us best, which are most strange and
come the farthest off. Those old Hebrews esteemed the whole world Gentiles;
the Greeks held all barbarians but themselves; our modern Italians account
of us as dull Transalpines by way of reproach, they scorn thee and thy
country which thou so much admirest. 'Tis a childish humour to hone after
home, to be discontent at that which others seek; to prefer, as base
islanders and Norwegians do, their own ragged island before Italy or
Greece, the gardens of the world. There is a base nation in the north,
saith [3861]Pliny, called Chauci, that live amongst rocks and sands by the
seaside, feed on fish, drink water: and yet these base people account
themselves slaves in respect, when they come to Rome. _Ita est profecto_
(as he concludes) _multis fortuna parcit in poenam_, so it is, fortune
favours some to live at home, to their further punishment: 'tis want of
judgment. All places are distant from heaven alike, the sun shines happily
as warm in one city as in another, and to a wise man there is no difference
of climes; friends are everywhere to him that behaves himself well, and a
prophet is not esteemed in his own country. Alexander, Caesar, Trajan,
Adrian, were as so many land-leapers, now in the east, now in the west,
little at home; and Polus Venetus, Lod. Vertomannus, Pinzonus, Cadamustus,
Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Vascus Gama, Drake, Candish, Oliver Anort,
Schoutien, got, all their honour by voluntary expeditions. But you say such
men's travel is voluntary; we are compelled, and as malefactors must
depart; yet know this of [3862]Plato to be true, _ultori Deo summa cura
peregrinus est_, God hath an especial care of strangers, "and when he wants
friends and allies, he shall deserve better and find more favour with God
and men." Besides the pleasure of peregrination, variety of objects will
make amends; and so many nobles, Tully, Aristides, Themistocles, Theseus,
Codrus, &c. as have been banished, will give sufficient credit unto it.
Read Pet. Alcionius his two books of this subject.
MEMB. V.
_Against Sorrow for Death of Friends or otherwise, vain Fear, &c._
Death and departure of friends are things generally grievous, [3863]
_Omnium quae in humana vita contingunt, luctus atque mors sunt
acerbissima_, the most austere and bitter accidents that can happen to a
man in this life, _in aeternum valedicere_, to part for ever, to forsake
the world and all our friends, 'tis _ultimum terribilium_, the last and the
greatest terror, most irksome and troublesome unto us, [3864]_Homo toties
moritur, quoties amittit suos_. And though we hope for a better life,
eternal happiness, after these painful and miserable days, yet we cannot
compose ourselves willingly to die; the remembrance of it is most grievous
unto us, especially to such who are fortunate and rich: they start at the
name of death, as a horse at a rotten post. Say what you can of that other
world, [3865]Montezuma that Indian prince, _Bonum est esse hic_, they had
rather be here. Nay many generous spirits, and grave staid men otherwise,
are so tender in this, that at the loss of a dear friend they will cry out,
roar, and tear their hair, lamenting some months after, howling "O Hone,"
as those Irish women and [3866]Greeks at their graves, commit many indecent
actions, and almost go beside themselves. My dear father, my sweet husband,
mine only brother's dead, to whom shall I make my moan? _O me miserum! Quis
dabit in lachrymas fontem_, &c. What shall I do?
[3867] "Sed totum hoc studium luctu fraterna mihi mors
Abstulit, hei misero frater adempte mihi?"
"My brother's death my study hath undone,
Woe's me, alas my brother he is gone."
Mezentius would not live after his son:
[3868] "Nunc vivo, nec adhuc homines lucemque relinquo,
Sed linquam"------
And Pompey's wife cried out at the news of her husband's death,
[3869] "Turpe mori post te solo non posse dolore,
Violenta luctu et nescia tolerandi,"
as [3870]Tacitus of Agrippina, not able to moderate her passions. So when
she heard her son was slain, she abruptly broke off her work, changed
countenance and colour, tore her hair, and fell a roaring downright.
[3871] ------"subitus miserae color ossa reliquit,
Excussi manibus radii, revolutaque pensa:
Evolat infelix et foemineo ululatu
Scissa comam"------
Another would needs run upon the sword's point after Euryalus' departure,
[3872] "Figite me, si qua est pietas, in me omnia tela
Conjicite o Rutili;"------
O let me die, some good man or other make an end of me. How did Achilles
take on for Patroclus' departure? A black cloud of sorrows overshadowed
him, saith Homer. Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth about his loins,
sorrowed for his son a long season, and could not be comforted, but would
needs go down into the grave unto his son, Gen. xxxvii. 37. Many years
after, the remembrance of such friends, of such accidents, is most grievous
unto us, to see or hear of it, though it concern not ourselves but others.
Scaliger saith of himself, that he never read Socrates' death, in Plato's
Phaedon, but he wept: [3873]Austin shed tears when he read the destruction
of Troy. But howsoever this passion of sorrow be violent, bitter, and
seizeth familiarly on wise, valiant, discreet men, yet it may surely be
withstood, it may be diverted. For what is there in this life, that it
should be so dear unto us? or that we should so much deplore the departure
of a friend? The greatest pleasures are common society, to enjoy one
another's presence, feasting, hawking, hunting, brooks, woods, hills,
music, dancing, &c. all this is but vanity and loss of time, as I have
sufficiently declared.
[3874] ------"dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas
Poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus."
"Whilst we drink, prank ourselves, with wenches dally,
Old age upon's at unawares doth sally."
As alchemists spend that small modicum they have to get gold, and never
find it, we lose and neglect eternity, for a little momentary pleasure
which we cannot enjoy, nor shall ever attain to in this life. We abhor
death, pain, and grief, all, yet we will do nothing of that which should
vindicate us from, but rather voluntarily thrust ourselves upon it. [3875]
"The lascivious prefers his whore before his life, or good estate; an angry
man his revenge: a parasite his gut; ambitious, honours; covetous, wealth;
a thief his booty; a soldier his spoil; we abhor diseases, and yet we pull
them upon us." We are never better or freer from cares than when we sleep,
and yet, which we so much avoid and lament, death is but a perpetual sleep;
and why should it, as [3876]Epicurus argues, so much affright us? "When we
are, death is not: but when death is, then we are not:" our life is tedious
and troublesome unto him that lives best; [3877]"'tis a misery to be born,
a pain to live, a trouble to die:" death makes an end of our miseries, and
yet we cannot consider of it; a little before [3878]Socrates drank his
portion of cicuta, he bid the citizens of Athens cheerfully farewell, and
concluded his speech with this short sentence; "My time is now come to be
gone, I to my death, you to live on; but which of these is best, God alone
knows." For there is no pleasure here but sorrow is annexed to it,
repentance follows it. [3879]"If I feed liberally, I am likely sick or
surfeit: if I live sparingly my hunger and thirst is not allayed; I am well
neither full nor fasting; if I live honest, I burn in lust;" if I take my
pleasure, I tire and starve myself, and do injury to my body and soul.
[3880]"Of so small a quantity of mirth, how much sorrow? after so little
pleasure, how great misery?" 'Tis both ways troublesome to me, to rise and
go to bed, to eat and provide my meat; cares and contentions attend me all
day long, fears and suspicions all my life. I am discontented, and why
should I desire so much to live? But a happy death will make an end of all
our woes and miseries; _omnibus una meis certa medela malis_; why shouldst
not thou then say with old Simeon since thou art so well affected, "Lord
now let thy servant depart in peace:" or with Paul, "I desire to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ"? _Beata mors quae ad beatam vitam aditum
aperit_, 'tis a blessed hour that leads us to a [3881]blessed life, and
blessed are they that die in the Lord. But life is sweet, and death is not
so terrible in itself as the concomitants of it, a loathsome disease, pain,
horror, &c. and many times the manner of it, to be hanged, to be broken on
the wheel, to be burned alive. [3882]Servetus the heretic, that suffered in
Geneva, when he was brought to the stake, and saw the executioner come with
fire in his hand, _homo viso igne tam horrendum exclamavit, ut universum
populum perterrefecerit_, roared so loud, that he terrified the people. An
old stoic would have scorned this. It troubles some to be unburied, or so:
------"non te optima mater
Condet humi, patriove onerabit membra sepulchro;
Alitibus linguere feris, et gurgite mersum
Unda feret, piscesque impasti vulnera lambent."
"Thy gentle parents shall not bury thee,
Amongst thine ancestors entomb'd to be,
But feral fowl thy carcass shall devour,
Or drowned corps hungry fish maws shall scour."
As Socrates told Crito, it concerns me not what is done with me when I am
dead; _Facilis jactura sepulchri_: I care not so long as I feel it not; let
them set mine head on the pike of Tenerife, and my quarters in the four
parts of the world,--_pascam licet in cruce corvos_, let wolves or bears
devour me;--[3883]_Caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam_, the canopy of heaven
covers him that hath no tomb. So likewise for our friends, why should their
departure so much trouble us? They are better as we hope, and for what then
dost thou lament, as those do whom Paul taxed in his time, 1 Thes. iv. 13.
"that have no hope"? 'Tis fit there should be some solemnity.
[3884] "Sed sepelire decet defunctum, pectore forti,
Constantes, unumque diem fletui indulgentes."
Job's friends said not a word to him the first seven days, but let sorrow
and discontent take their course, themselves sitting sad and silent by him.
When Jupiter himself wept for Sarpedon, what else did the poet insinuate,
but that some sorrow is good
[3885] "Quis matrem nisi mentis inops in funere nati
Flere vetat?"------
who can blame a tender mother if she weep for her children? Beside, as
[3886]Plutarch holds, 'tis not in our power not to lament, _Indolentia non
cuivis contingit_, it takes away mercy and pity, not to be sad; 'tis a
natural passion to weep for our friends, an irresistible passion to lament
and grieve. "I know not how" (saith Seneca) "but sometimes 'tis good to be
miserable in misery: and for the most part all grief evacuates itself by
tears,"
[3887] ------"est quaedam flere voluptas,
Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor:"
"yet after a day's mourning or two, comfort thyself for thy heaviness,"
Eccles. xxxviii. 17. [3888]_Non decet defunctum ignavo quaestu prosequi_;
'twas Germanicus' advice of old, that we should not dwell too long upon our
passions, to be desperately sad, immoderate grievers, to let them
tyrannise, there's _indolentiae, ars_, a medium to be kept: we do not
(saith [3889]Austin) forbid men to grieve, but to grieve overmuch. "I
forbid not a man to be angry, but I ask for what cause he is so? Not to be
sad, but why is he sad? Not to fear, but wherefore is he afraid?" I require
a moderation as well as a just reason. [3890]The Romans and most civil
commonwealths have set a time to such solemnities, they must not mourn
after a set day, "or if in a family a child be born, a daughter or son
married, some state or honour be conferred, a brother be redeemed from his
bands, a friend from his enemies," or the like, they must lament no more.
And 'tis fit it should be so; to what end is all their funeral pomp,
complaints, and tears? When Socrates was dying, his friends Apollodorus and
Crito, with some others, were weeping by him, which he perceiving, asked
them what they meant: [3891]"for that very cause he put all the women out
of the room, upon which words of his they were abashed, and ceased from
their tears." Lodovicus Cortesius, a rich lawyer of Padua (as [3892]
Bernardinus Scardeonius relates) commanded by his last will, and a great
mulct if otherwise to his heir, that no funeral should be kept for him, no
man should lament: but as at a wedding, music and minstrels to be provided;
and instead of black mourners, he took order, [3893]"that twelve virgins
clad in green should carry him to the church." His will and testament was
accordingly performed, and he buried in St. Sophia's church. [3894]Tully
was much grieved for his daughter Tulliola's death at first, until such
time that he had confirmed his mind with some philosophical precepts,
[3895]"then he began to triumph over fortune and grief, and for her
reception into heaven to be much more joyed than before he was troubled for
her loss." If a heathen man could so fortify himself from philosophy, what
shall a Christian from divinity? Why dost thou so macerate thyself? 'Tis an
inevitable chance, the first statute in Magna Charta, an everlasting Act of
Parliament, all must [3896]die.
[3897] "Constat aeterna positumque lege est,
Ut constet genitum nihil."
It cannot be revoked, we are all mortal, and these all commanding gods and
princes "die like men:"[3898]--_involvit humile pariter et celsum caput,
aquatque summis infima_. "O weak condition of human estate," Sylvius
exclaims: [3899]Ladislaus, king of Bohemia, eighteen years of age, in the
flower of his youth, so potent, rich, fortunate and happy, in the midst of
all his friends, amongst so many [3900]physicians, now ready to be [3901]
married, in thirty-six hours sickened and died. We must so be gone sooner
or later all, and as Calliopeius in the comedy took his leave of his
spectators and auditors, _Vos valete et plaudite, Calliopeius recensui_,
must we bid the world farewell (_Exit Calliopeius_), and having now played
our parts, for ever be gone. Tombs and monuments have the like fate, _data
sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris_, kingdoms, provinces, towns, and cities
have their periods, and are consumed. In those flourishing times of Troy,
Mycenae was the fairest city in Greece, _Graeciae cunctae imperitabat_, but
it, alas, and that [3902]"Assyrian Nineveh are quite overthrown:" the like
fate hath that Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes, Delos, _commune Graeciae,
conciliabulum_, the common council-house of Greece, [3903]and Babylon, the
greatest city that ever the sun shone on, hath now nothing but walls and
rubbish left. [3904]_Quid Pandioniae restat nisi nomen Athenae_? Thus
[3905]Pausanias complained in his times. And where is Troy itself now,
Persepolis, Carthage, Cizicum, Sparta, Argos, and all those Grecian cities?
Syracuse and Agrigentum, the fairest towns in Sicily, which had sometimes
700,000 inhabitants, are now decayed: the names of Hieron, Empedocles, &c.,
of those mighty numbers of people, only left. One Anacharsis is remembered
amongst the Scythians; the world itself must have an end; and every part of
it. _Caeterae igitur urbes sunt mortales_, as Peter [3906]Gillius concludes
of Constantinople, _haec sane quamdiu erunt homines, futura mihi videtur
immortalis_; but 'tis not so: nor site, nor strength, nor sea nor land, can
vindicate a city, but it and all must vanish at last. And as to a traveller
great mountains seem plains afar off, at last are not discerned at all;
cities, men, monuments decay,--_nec solidis prodest sua machina terris_,
[3907]the names are only left, those at length forgotten, and are involved
in perpetual night.
[3908]"Returning out of Asia, when I sailed from Aegina toward Megara, I
began" (saith Servius Sulpicius, in a consolatory epistle of his to Tully)
"to view the country round about. Aegina was behind me, Megara before,
Piraeus on the right hand, Corinth on the left, what flourishing towns
heretofore, now prostrate and overwhelmed before mine eyes? I began to
think with myself, alas, why are we men so much disquieted with the
departure of a friend, whose life is much shorter? [3909]When so many
goodly cities lie buried before us. Remember, O Servius, thou art a man;
and with that I was much confirmed, and corrected myself." Correct then
likewise, and comfort thyself in this, that we must necessarily die, and
all die, that we shall rise again: as Tully held; _Jucundiorque multo
congressus noster futurus, quam insuavis et acerbus digressus_, our second
meeting shall be much more pleasant than our departure was grievous.
Aye, but he was my most dear and loving friend, my sole friend,
[3910] "Quis deciderio sit pudor aut modus
Tam chari capitis?"------
"And who can blame my woe?"
Thou mayst be ashamed, I say with [3911]Seneca, to confess it, "in such a
[3912]tempest as this to have but one anchor," go seek another: and for his
part thou dost him great injury to desire his longer life. [3913]"Wilt thou
have him crazed and sickly still," like a tired traveller that comes weary
to his inn, begin his journey afresh, "or to be freed from his miseries;
thou hast more need rejoice that he is gone." Another complains of a most
sweet wife, a young wife, _Nondum sustulerat flavum Proserpina crinem_,
such a wife as no mortal man ever had, so good a wife, but she is now dead
and gone, _laethaeoque jacet condita sarcophago_. I reply to him in
Seneca's words, if such a woman at least ever was to be had, [3914]"He did
either so find or make her; if he found her, he may as happily find
another;" if he made her, as Critobulus in Xenophon did by his, he may as
good cheap inform another, _et bona tam sequitur, quam bona prima fuit_; he
need not despair, so long as the same master is to be had. But was she
good? Had she been so tired peradventure as that Ephesian widow in
Petronius, by some swaggering soldier, she might not have held out. Many a
man would have been willingly rid of his: before thou wast bound, now thou
art free; [3915]"and 'tis but a folly to love thy fetters though they be of
gold." Come into a third place, you shall have an aged father sighing for a
son, a pretty child;
[3916] "Impube pectus quale vel impia
Molliret Thracum pectora."
------"He now lies asleep,
Would make an impious Thracian weep."
Or some fine daughter that died young, _Nondum experta novi gaudia prima
tori_. Or a forlorn son for his deceased father. But why? _Prior exiit,
prior intravit_, he came first, and he must go first. [3917]_Tu frustra
pius, heu_, &c. What, wouldst thou have the laws of nature altered, and him
to live always? Julius Caesar, Augustus, Alcibiades, Galen, Aristotle, lost
their fathers young. And why on the other side shouldst thou so heavily
take the death of thy little son?
[3918] "Num quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat,
Sed miser ante diem"------
he died before his time, perhaps, not yet come to the solstice of his age,
yet was he not mortal? Hear that divine [3919]Epictetus, "If thou covet thy
wife, friends, children should live always, thou art a fool." He was a fine
child indeed, _dignus Apollineis lachrymis_, a sweet, a loving, a fair, a
witty child, of great hope, another Eteoneus, whom Pindarus the poet and
Aristides the rhetorician so much lament; but who can tell whether he would
have been an honest man? He might have proved a thief, a rogue, a
spendthrift, a disobedient son, vexed and galled thee more than all the
world beside, he might have wrangled with thee and disagreed, or with his
brothers, as Eteocles and Polynices, and broke thy heart; he is now gone to
eternity, as another Ganymede, in the [3920]flower of his youth, "as if he
had risen," saith [3921]Plutarch, "from the midst of a feast" before he was
drunk, "the longer he had lived, the worse he would have been," _et quo
vita longior_, (Ambrose thinks) _culpa numerosior_, more sinful, more to
answer he would have had. If he was naught, thou mayst be glad he is gone;
if good, be glad thou hadst such a son. Or art thou sure he was good? It
may be he was an hypocrite, as many are, and howsoever he spake thee fair,
peradventure he prayed, amongst the rest that Icaro Menippus heard at
Jupiter's whispering place in Lucian, for his father's death, because he
now kept him short, he was to inherit much goods, and many fair manors
after his decease. Or put case he was very good, suppose the best, may not
thy dead son expostulate with thee, as he did in the same [3922]Lucian,
"why dost thou lament my death, or call me miserable that am much more
happy than thyself? what misfortune is befallen me? Is it because I am not
so bald, crooked, old, rotten, as thou art? What have I lost, some of your
good cheer, gay clothes, music, singing, dancing, kissing, merry-meetings,
_thalami lubentias_, &c., is that it? Is it not much better not to hunger
at all than to eat: not to thirst than to drink to satisfy thirst: not to
be cold than to put on clothes to drive away cold? You had more need
rejoice that I am freed from diseases, agues, cares, anxieties, livor,
love, covetousness, hatred, envy, malice, that I fear no more thieves,
tyrants, enemies, as you do." [3923]_Ad cinerem et manes credis curare
sepultos_? "Do they concern us at all, think you, when we are once dead?"
Condole not others then overmuch, "wish not or fear thy death." [3924]
_Summum nec optes diem nec metuas_; 'tis to no purpose.
"Excessi e vitae aerumnis facilisque lubensque
Ne perjora ipsa morte dehinc videam."
"I left this irksome life with all mine heart,
Lest worse than death should happen to my part."
[3925]Cardinal Brundusinus caused this epitaph in Rome to be inscribed on
his tomb, to show his willingness to die, and tax those that were so both
to depart. Weep and howl no more then, 'tis to small purpose; and as Tully
adviseth us in the like case, _Non quos amisimus, sed quantum lugere par
sit cogitemus_: think what we do, not whom we have lost. So David did, 2
Sam. xxii., "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; but being
now dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him again? I shall go to him, but
he cannot return to me." He that doth otherwise is an intemperate, a weak,
a silly, and indiscreet man. Though Aristotle deny any part of intemperance
to be conversant about sorrow, I am of [3926]Seneca's mind, "he that is
wise is temperate, and he that is temperate is constant, free from passion,
and he that is such a one, is without sorrow," as all wise men should be.
The [3927]Thracians wept still when a child was born, feasted and made
mirth when any man was buried: and so should we rather be glad for such as
die well, that they are so happily freed from the miseries of this life.
When Eteoneus, that noble young Greek, was so generally lamented by his
friends, Pindarus the poet feigns some god saying, _Silete homines, non
enim miser est_, &c. be quiet good folks, this young man is not so
miserable as you think; he is neither gone to Styx nor Acheron, _sed
gloriosus et senii expers heros_, he lives for ever in the Elysian fields.
He now enjoys that happiness which your great kings so earnestly seek, and
wears that garland for which ye contend. If our present weakness is such,
we cannot moderate our passions in this behalf, we must divert them by all
means, by doing something else, thinking of another subject. The Italians
most part sleep away care and grief, if it unseasonably seize upon them,
Danes, Dutchmen, Polanders and Bohemians drink it down, our countrymen go
to plays: do something or other, let it not transpose thee, or by [3928]
"premeditation make such accidents familiar," as Ulysses that wept for his
dog, but not for his wife, _quod paratus esset animo obfirmato_, (Plut. _de
anim. tranq._) "accustom thyself, and harden beforehand by seeing other
men's calamities, and applying them to thy present estate;" _Praevisum est
levius quod fuit ante malum_. I will conclude with [3929]Epictetus, "If
thou lovest a pot, remember 'tis but a, pot thou lovest, and thou wilt not
be troubled when 'tis broken: if thou lovest a son or wife, remember they
were mortal, and thou wilt not be so impatient." And for false fears and
all other fortuitous inconveniences, mischances, calamities, to resist and
prepare ourselves, not to faint is best: [3930]_Stultum est timere quod
vitari non potest_, 'tis a folly to fear that which cannot be avoided, or
to be discouraged at all.
[3931] "Nam quisquis trepidus pavet vel optat,
Abjecit clypeum, locoque motus
Nectit qua valeat trahi catenam."
"For he that so faints or fears, and yields to his passion, flings away his
own weapons, makes a cord to bind himself, and pulls a beam upon his own
head."
MEMB. VI.
_Against Envy, Livor, Emulation, Hatred, Ambition, Self-love, and all other
Affections_.
Against those other [3932]passions and affections, there is no better
remedy than as mariners when they go to sea, provide all things necessary
to resist a tempest: to furnish ourselves with philosophical and Divine
precepts, other men's examples, [3933]_Periculum ex aliis facere, sibi quod
ex usu siet_: To balance our hearts with love, charity, meekness, patience,
and counterpoise those irregular motions of envy, livor, spleen, hatred,
with their opposite virtues, as we bend a crooked staff another way, to
oppose [3934]"sufferance to labour, patience to reproach," bounty to
covetousness, fortitude to pusillanimity, meekness to anger, humility to
pride, to examine ourselves for what cause we are so much disquieted, on
what ground, what occasion, is it just or feigned? And then either to
pacify ourselves by reason, to divert by some other object, contrary
passion, or premeditation. [3935]_Meditari secum oportet quo pacto adversam
aerumnam ferat, Paricla, damna, exilia peregre rediens semper cogitet, aut
filii peccatum, aut uxoris mortem, aut morbum filiae, communia esse haec:
fieri posse, ut ne quid animo sit novum_. To make them familiar, even all
kind of calamities, that when they happen they may be less troublesome unto
us. _In secundis meditare, quo pacto feras adversa_: or out of mature
judgment to avoid the effect, or disannul the cause, as they do that are
troubled with toothache, pull them quite out.
[3936] "Ut vivat castor, sibi testes amputat ipse;
Tu quoque siqua nocent, abjice, tutus eris."
"The beaver bites off's stones to save the rest:
Do thou the like with that thou art opprest."
Or as they that play at wasters, exercise themselves by a few cudgels how
to avoid an enemy's blows: let us arm ourselves against all such violent
incursions, which may invade our minds. A little experience and practice
will inure us to it; _vetula vulpes_, as the proverb saith, _laqueo haud
capitur_, an old fox is not so easily taken in a snare; an old soldier in
the world methinks should not be disquieted, but ready to receive all
fortunes, encounters, and with that resolute captain, come what may come,
to make answer,
[3937] ------"non ulla laborum
O virgo nova mi facies inopinaque surgit,
Omnia percepi atque animo mecum ante peregi."
"No labour comes at unawares to me,
For I have long before cast what may be."
[3938] ------"non hoc primum mea pectora vulnus
Senserunt, graviora tuli"------
The commonwealth of [3939]Venice in their armoury have this inscription,
"Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war," a fit motto for
every man's private house; happy is the man that provides for a future
assault. But many times we complain, repine and mutter without a cause, we
give way to passions we may resist, and will not. Socrates was bad by
nature, envious, as he confessed to Zophius the physiognomer, accusing him
of it, froward and lascivious: but as he was Socrates, he did correct and
amend himself. Thou art malicious, envious, covetous, impatient, no doubt,
and lascivious, yet as thou art a Christian, correct and moderate thyself.
'Tis something, I confess, and able to move any man, to see himself
contemned, obscure, neglected, disgraced, undervalued, [3940]"left behind;"
some cannot endure it, no not constant Lipsius, a man discreet otherwise,
yet too weak and passionate in this, as his words express, [3941]_collegas
olim, quos ego sine fremitu non intueor, nuper terrae filios, nunc
Maecenates et Agrippas habeo,--summo jam monte potitos_. But he was much to
blame for it: to a wise staid man this is nothing, we cannot all be
honoured and rich, all Caesars; if we will be content, our present state is
good, and in some men's opinion to be preferred. Let them go on, get
wealth, offices, titles, honours, preferments, and what they will
themselves, by chance, fraud, imposture, simony, and indirect means, as too
many do, by bribery, flattery, and parasitical insinuation, by impudence
and time-serving, let them climb up to advancement in despite of virtue,
let them "go before, cross me on every side," _me non offendunt modo non
in, oculos incurrant_, [3942]as he said, correcting his former error, they
do not offend me, so long as they run not into mine eyes. I am inglorious
and poor, _composita paupertate_, but I live secure and quiet: they are
dignified, have great means, pomp, and state, they are glorious; but what
have they with it? [3943]"Envy, trouble, anxiety, as much labour to
maintain their place with credit, as to get it at first." I am contented
with my fortunes, _spectator e longinquo_, and love _Neptunum procul a
terra spectare furentem_: he is ambitious, and not satisfied with his: "but
what [3944]gets he by it? to have all his life laid open, his reproaches
seen: not one of a thousand but he hath done more worthy of dispraise and
animadversion than commendation; no better means to help this than to be
private." Let them run, ride, strive as so many fishes for a crumb, scrape,
climb, catch, snatch, cozen, collogue, temporise and fleer, take all
amongst them, wealth, honour, [3945]and get what they can, it offends me
not:
[3946] ------"me mea tellus
Lare secreto tutoque tegat,"
"I am well pleased with my fortunes," [3947]_Vivo et regno simul ista
relinquens_.
I have learned "in what state soever I am, therewith to be contented,"
Philip, iv 11. Come what can come, I am prepared. _Nave ferar magna an
parva, ferar unus et idem_. I am the same. I was once so mad to bustle
abroad, and seek about for preferment, tire myself, and trouble all my
friends, _sed nihil labor tantus profecit nam dum alios amicorum mors
avocat, aliis ignotus sum, his invisus, alii large promittunt, intercedunt
illi mecum soliciti, hi vana spe lactant; dum alios ambio, hos capto, illis
innotesco, aetas perit, anni defluunt, amici fatigantur, ego deferor, et
jam, mundi taesus, humanaeque satur infidelitatis acquiesco_. [3948]And so
I say still; although I may not deny, but that I have had some [3949]
bountiful patrons, and noble benefactors, _ne sim interim ingratus_, and I
do thankfully acknowledge it, I have received some kindness, _quod Deus
illis beneficium rependat, si non pro votis, fortasse pro meritis_, more
peradventure than I deserve, though not to my desire, more of them than I
did expect, yet not of others to my desert; neither am I ambitious or
covetous, for this while, or a Suffenus to myself; what I have said,
without prejudice or alteration shall stand. And now as a mired horse that
struggles at first with all his might and main to get out, but when he sees
no remedy, that his beating will not serve, lies still, I have laboured in
vain, rest satisfied, and if I may usurp that of [3950]Prudentius,
"Inveni portum; spes et fortuna valete,
Nil mihi vobiscum, ludite nunc alios."
"Mine haven's found, fortune and hope adieu,
Mock others now, for I have done with you."
MEMB. VII.
_Against Repulse, Abuses, Injuries, Contempts, Disgraces, Contumelies,
Slanders, Scoffs, &c._
I may not yet conclude, think to appease passions, or quiet the mind, till
such time as I have likewise removed some other of their more eminent and
ordinary causes, which produce so grievous tortures and discontents: to
divert all, I cannot hope; to point alone at some few of the chiefest, is
that which I aim at.
_Repulse_.] Repulse and disgrace are two main causes of discontent, but to
an understanding man not so hardly to be taken. Caesar himself hath been
denied, [3951]and when two stand equal in fortune, birth, and all other
qualities alike, one of necessity must lose. Why shouldst thou take it so
grievously? It hath a familiar thing for thee thyself to deny others. If
every man might have what he would, we should all be deified, emperors,
kings, princes; if whatsoever vain hope suggests, insatiable appetite
affects, our preposterous judgment thinks fit were granted, we should have
another chaos in an instant, a mere confusion. It is some satisfaction to
him that is repelled, that dignities, honours, offices, are not always
given by desert or worth, but for love, affinity, friendship, affection,
[3952]great men's letters, or as commonly they are bought and sold.
[3953]"Honours in court are bestowed not according to men's virtues and
good conditions" (as an old courtier observes), "but as every man hath
means, or more potent friends, so he is preferred." With us in France
([3954]for so their own countryman relates) "most part the matter is
carried by favour and grace; he that can get a great man to be his
mediator, runs away with all the preferment." _Indignissimus plerumque
praefertur, Vatinius Catoni, illaudatus laudatissimo_;
[3955] ------"servi dominantur; aselli
Ornantur phaleris, dephalerantur equi."
An illiterate fool sits in a man's seat, and the common people hold him
learned, grave and wise. "One professeth" ([3956]Cardan well notes) "for a
thousand crowns, but he deserves not ten, when as he that deserves a
thousand cannot get ten." _Solarium non dat multis salem._ As good horses
draw in carts, as coaches. And oftentimes, which Machiavel seconds, [3957]
_Principes non sunt qui ob insignem virtutem principatu digni sunt_, he
that is most worthy wants employment; he that hath skill to be a pilot
wants a ship, and he that could govern a commonwealth, a world itself, a
king in conceit, wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office
to manage, and yet all this while he is a better man that is fit to reign,
_etsi careat regno_, though he want a kingdom, [3958]"than he that hath
one, and knows not how to rule it:" a lion serves not always his keeper,
but oftentimes the keeper the lion, and as [3959]Polydore Virgil hath it,
_multi reges ut pupilli ob inscitiam non regunt sed reguntur_. Hieron of
Syracuse was a brave king, but wanted a kingdom; Perseus of Macedon had
nothing of a king, but the bare name and title, for he could not govern it:
so great places are often ill bestowed, worthy persons unrespected. Many
times, too, the servants have more means than the masters whom they serve,
which [3960]Epictetus counts an eyesore and inconvenient. But who can help
it? It is an ordinary thing in these days to see a base impudent ass,
illiterate, unworthy, insufficient, to be preferred before his betters,
because he can put himself forward, because he looks big, can bustle in the
world, hath a fair outside, can temporise, collogue, insinuate, or hath
good store of friends and money, whereas a more discreet, modest, and
better-deserving man shall lie hid or have a repulse. 'Twas so of old, and
ever will be, and which Tiresias advised Ulysses in the [3961]
poet,--_Accipe qua ratione queas ditescere_, &c., is still in use; lie,
flatter, and dissemble: if not, as he concludes,--_Ergo pauper eris_, then
go like a beggar as thou art. Erasmus, Melancthon, Lipsius, Budaeus,
Cardan, lived and died poor. Gesner was a silly old man, _baculo innixus_,
amongst all those huffing cardinals, swelling bishops that flourished in
his time, and rode on foot-clothes. It is not honesty, learning, worth,
wisdom, that prefers men, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong," but as the wise man said, [3962]Chance, and sometimes a
ridiculous chance. [3963]_Casus plerumque ridiculus multos elevavit._ 'Tis
fortune's doings, as they say, which made Brutus now dying exclaim, _O
misera virtus, ergo nihil quam verba eras, atqui ego te tanquam rem
exercebam, sed tu serviebas fortunae._ [3964]Believe it hereafter, O my
friends! virtue serves fortune. Yet be not discouraged (O my well deserving
spirits) with this which I have said, it may be otherwise, though seldom I
confess, yet sometimes it is. But to your farther content, I'll tell you a
[3965]tale. In Maronia pia, or Maronia felix, I know not whether, nor how
long since, nor in what cathedral church, a fat prebend fell void. The
carcass scarce cold, many suitors were up in an instant. The first had rich
friends, a good purse, and he was resolved to outbid any man before he
would lose it, every man supposed he should carry it. The second was my
lord Bishop's chaplain (in whose gift it was), and he thought it his due to
have it. The third was nobly born, and he meant to get it by his great
parents, patrons, and allies. The fourth stood upon his worth, he had newly
found out strange mysteries in chemistry, and other rare inventions, which
he would detect to the public good. The fifth was a painful preacher, and
he was commended by the whole parish where he dwelt, he had all their hands
to his certificate. The sixth was the prebendary's son lately deceased, his
father died in debt (for it, as they say), left a wife and many poor
children. The seventh stood upon fair promises, which to him and his noble
friends had been formerly made for the next place in his lordship's gift.
The eighth pretended great losses, and what he had suffered for the church,
what pains he had taken at home and abroad, and besides he brought
noblemen's letters. The ninth had married a kinswoman, and he sent his wife
to sue for him. The tenth was a foreign doctor, a late convert, and wanted
means. The eleventh would exchange for another, he did not like the
former's site, could not agree with his neighbours and fellows upon any
terms, he would be gone. The twelfth and last was (a suitor in conceit) a
right honest, civil, sober man, an excellent scholar, and such a one as
lived private in the university, but he had neither means nor money to
compass it; besides he hated all such courses, he could not speak for
himself, neither had he any friends to solicit his cause, and therefore
made no suit, could not expect, neither did he hope for, or look after it.
The good bishop amongst a jury of competitors thus perplexed, and not yet
resolved what to do, or on whom to bestow it, at the last, of his own
accord, mere motion, and bountiful nature, gave it freely to the university
student, altogether unknown to him but by fame; and to be brief, the
academical scholar had the prebend sent him for a present. The news was no
sooner published abroad, but all good students rejoiced, and were much
cheered up with it, though some would not believe it; others, as men
amazed, said it was a miracle; but one amongst the rest thanked God for it,
and said, _Nunc juvat tandem studiosum esse, et Deo integro corde servire_.
You have heard my tale: but alas it is but a tale, a mere fiction, 'twas
never so, never like to be, and so let it rest. Well, be it so then, they
have wealth and honour, fortune and preferment, every man (there's no
remedy) must scramble as he may, and shift as he can; yet Cardan comforted
himself with this, [3966]"the star Fomahant would make him immortal," and
that [3967]after his decease his books should be found in ladies' studies:
[3968]_Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori_. But why shouldst thou take thy
neglect, thy canvas so to heart? It may be thou art not fit; but a
[3969]child that puts on his father's shoes, hat, headpiece, breastplate,
breeches, or holds his spear, but is neither able to wield the one, or wear
the other; so wouldst thou do by such an office, place, or magistracy: thou
art unfit: "And what is dignity to an unworthy man, but (as [3970]
Salvianus holds) a gold ring in a swine's snout?" Thou art a brute. Like a
bad actor (so [3971]Plutarch compares such men in a tragedy, _diadema fert,
at vox non auditur_: Thou wouldst play a king's part, but actest a clown,
speakest like an ass. [3972]_Magna petis Phaeton et quae non viribus
istis_, &c., as James and John, the sons of Zebedee, did ask they knew not
what: _nescis temerarie nescis_; thou dost, as another Suffenus, overween
thyself; thou art wise in thine own conceit, but in other more mature
judgment altogether unfit to manage such a business. Or be it thou art more
deserving than any of thy rank, God in his providence hath reserved thee
for some other fortunes, _sic superis visum_. Thou art humble as thou art,
it may be; hadst thou been preferred, thou wouldst have forgotten God and
thyself, insulted over others, contemned thy friends, [3973]been a block, a
tyrant, or a demigod, _sequiturque superbia formam_: [3974]"Therefore,"
saith Chrysostom, "good men do not always find grace and favour, lest they
should be puffed up with turgent titles, grow insolent and proud."
Injuries, abuses, are very offensive, and so much the more in that they
think _veterem ferendo invitant novam_, "by taking one they provoke
another:" but it is an erroneous opinion, for if that were true, there
would be no end of abusing each other; _lis litem generat_; 'tis much
better with patience to bear, or quietly to put it up. If an ass kick me,
saith Socrates, shall I strike him again? And when [3975]his wife Xantippe
struck and misused him, to some friends that would have had him strike her
again, he replied, that he would not make them sport, or that they should
stand by and say, _Eia Socrates, eia Xantippe_, as we do when dogs fight,
animate them the more by clapping of hands. Many men spend themselves,
their goods, friends, fortunes, upon small quarrels, and sometimes at other
men's procurements, with much vexation of spirit and anguish of mind, all
which with good advice, or mediation of friends, might have been happily
composed, or if patience had taken place. Patience in such cases is a most
sovereign remedy, to put up, conceal, or dissemble it, to [3976]forget and
forgive, [3977]"not seven, but seventy-seven times, as often as he repents
forgive him;" Luke xvii. 3. as our Saviour enjoins us, stricken, "to turn
the other side:" as our [3978]Apostle persuades us, "to recompense no man
evil for evil, but as much as is possible to have peace with all men: not
to avenge ourselves, and we shall heap burning coals upon our adversary's
head." "For [3979]if you put up wrong" (as Chrysostom comments), "you get
the victory; he that loseth his money, loseth not the conquest in this our
philosophy." If he contend with thee, submit thyself unto him first, yield
to him. _Durum et durum non faciunt murum_, as the diverb is, two
refractory spirits will never agree, the only means to overcome is to
relent, _obsequio vinces_. Euclid in Plutarch, when his brother had angered
him, swore he would be revenged; but he gently replied, [3980]"Let me not
live if I do not make thee to love me again," upon which meek answer he was
pacified.
[3981] "Flectitur obsequio curvatus ab arbore ramus,
Frangis si vires experire tuas."
"A branch if easily bended yields to thee,
Pull hard it breaks: the difference you see."
The noble family of the Colonni in Rome, when they were expelled the city
by that furious Alexander the Sixth, gave the bending branch therefore as
an impress, with this motto, _Flecti potest, frangi non potest_, to signify
that he might break them by force, but so never make them stoop, for they
fled in the midst of their hard usage to the kingdom of Naples, and were
honourably entertained by Frederick the king, according to their callings.
Gentleness in this case might have done much more, and let thine adversary
be never so perverse, it may be by that means thou mayst win him; [3982]
_favore et benevolentia etiam immanis animus mansuescit_, soft words pacify
wrath, and the fiercest spirits are so soonest overcome; [3983]a generous
lion will not hurt a beast that lies prostrate, nor an elephant an
innocuous creature, but is _infestus infestis_, a terror and scourge alone
to such as are stubborn, and make resistance. It was the symbol of Emanuel
Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and he was not mistaken in it, for
[3984] "Quo quisque est major, magis est placabilis irae,
Et faciles motus mens generosa capit."
"A greater man is soonest pacified,
A noble spirit quickly satisfied."
It is reported by [3985]Gualter Mapes, an old historiographer of ours (who
lived 400 years since), that King Edward senior, and Llewellyn prince of
Wales, being at an interview near Aust upon Severn, in Gloucestershire, and
the prince sent for, refused to come to the king; he would needs go over to
him; which Llewellyn perceiving, [3986]"went up to the arms in water, and
embracing his boat, would have carried him out upon his shoulders, adding
that his humility and wisdom had triumphed over his pride and folly," and
thereupon he was reconciled unto him and did his homage. If thou canst not
so win him, put it up, if thou beest a true Christian, a good divine, an
imitator of Christ, [3987]("for he was reviled and put it up, whipped and
sought no revenge,") thou wilt pray for thine enemies, [3988]"and bless
them that persecute thee;" be patient, meek, humble, &c. An honest man will
not offer thee injury, _probus non vult_; if he were a brangling knave,
'tis his fashion so to do; where is least heart is most tongue; _quo
quisque stultior, eo magis insolescit_, the more sottish he is, still the
more insolent: [3989]"Do not answer a fool according to his folly." If he
be thy superior, [3990]bear it by all means, grieve not at it, let him take
his course; Anitus and Melitus [3991]"may kill me, they cannot hurt me;" as
that generous Socrates made answer in like case. _Mens immota manet_,
though the body be torn in pieces with wild horses, broken on the wheel,
pinched with fiery tongs, the soul cannot be distracted. 'Tis an ordinary
thing for great men to vilify and insult, oppress, injure, tyrannise, to
take what liberty they list, and who dare speak against? _Miserum est ab eo
laedi, a quo non possis queri_, a miserable thing 'tis to be injured of
him, from whom is no appeal: [3992]and not safe to write against him that
can proscribe and punish a man at his pleasure, which Asinius Pollio was
aware of, when Octavianus provoked him. 'Tis hard I confess to be so
injured: one of Chilo's three difficult things: [3993]"To keep counsel;
spend his time well; put up injuries:" but be thou patient, and [3994]leave
revenge unto the Lord. [3995]"Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the
Lord"--"I know the Lord," saith [3996]David, "will avenge the afflicted and
judge the poor."--"No man" (as [3997]Plato farther adds) "can so severely
punish his adversary, as God will such as oppress miserable men."
[3998] "Iterum ille rem judicatam judicat,
Majoreque mulcta mulctat."
If there be any religion, any God, and that God be just, it shall be so; if
thou believest the one, believe the other: _Erit, erit_, it shall be so.
Nemesis comes after, _sero sed serio_, stay but a little and thou shalt see
God's just judgment overtake him.
[3999] "Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruit pede poena claudo."
"Yet with sure steps, though lame and slow,
Vengeance o'ertakes the trembling villain's speed."
Thou shalt perceive that verified of Samuel to Agag, 1 Sam. xv. 33. "Thy
sword hath made many women childless, so shall thy mother be childless
amongst other women." It shall be done to them as they have done to others.
Conradinus, that brave Suevian prince, came with a well-prepared army into
the kingdom of Naples, was taken prisoner by king Charles, and put to death
in the flower of his youth; a little after (_ultionem Conradini mortis_,
Pandulphus Collinutius _Hist. Neap. lib. 5._ calls it), King Charles's own
son, with two hundred nobles, was so taken prisoner, and beheaded in like
sort. Not in this only, but in all other offences, _quo quisque peccat in
eo punietur_, [4000]they shall be punished in the same kind, in the same
part, like nature, eye with or in the eye, head with or in the head,
persecution with persecution, lust with effects of lust; let them march on
with ensigns displayed, let drums beat on, trumpets sound taratantarra, let
them sack cities, take the spoil of countries, murder infants, deflower
virgins, destroy, burn, persecute, and tyrannise, they shall be fully
rewarded at last in the same measure, they and theirs, and that to their
desert.
[4001] "Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci
Descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni."
"Few tyrants in their beds do die,
But stabb'd or maim'd to hell they hie."
Oftentimes too a base contemptible fellow is the instrument of God's
justice to punish, to torture, and vex them, as an ichneumon doth a
crocodile. They shall be recompensed according to the works of their hands,
as Haman was hanged on the gallows he provided for Mordecai; "They shall
have sorrow of heart, and be destroyed from under the heaven," Thre. iii.
64, 65, 66. Only be thou patient: [4002]_vincit qui patitur_: and in the
end thou shalt be crowned. Yea, but 'tis a hard matter to do this, flesh
and blood may not abide it; 'tis _grave, grave_! no (Chrysostom replies)
_non est grave, o homo_! 'tis not so grievous, [4003]"neither had God
commanded it, if it had been so difficult." But how shall it be done?
"Easily," as he follows it, "if thou shalt look to heaven, behold the
beauty of it, and what God hath promised to such as put up injuries." But
if thou resist and go about _vim vi repellere_, as the custom of the world
is, to right thyself, or hast given just cause of offence, 'tis no injury
then but a condign punishment; thou hast deserved as much: _A te
principium, in te recredit crimen quod a te fuit; peccasti, quiesce_, as
Ambrose expostulates with Cain, _lib. 3. de Abel et Cain_. [4004]Dionysius
of Syracuse, in his exile, was made to stand without door, _patienter
ferendum, fortasse nos tale quid fecimus, quum in honore essemus_, he
wisely put it up, and laid the fault where it was, on his own pride and
scorn, which in his prosperity he had formerly showed others. 'Tis [4005]
Tully's axiom, _ferre ea molestissime homines non debent, quae ipsorum
culpa contracta sunt_, self do, self have, as the saying is, they may thank
themselves. For he that doth wrong must look to be wronged again; _habet et
musca splenem, et formicae sua bills inest_. The least fly hath a spleen,
and a little bee a sting. [4006]An ass overwhelmed a thistlewarp's nest,
the little bird pecked his galled back in revenge; and the humble-bee in
the fable flung down the eagle's eggs out of Jupiter's lap. Bracides, in
Plutarch, put his hand into a mouse's nest and hurt her young ones, she bit
him by the finger: [4007]I see now (saith he) there is no creature so
contemptible, that will not be revenged. 'Tis _lex talionis_, and the
nature of all things so to do: if thou wilt live quietly thyself, [4008]do
no wrong to others; if any be done thee, put it up, with patience endure
it, for [4009]"this is thankworthy," saith our apostle, "if any man for
conscience towards God endure grief, and suffer wrong undeserved; for what
praise is it, if when ye be buffeted for you faults, ye take it patiently?
But if when you do well, ye suffer wrong, and take it patiently, there is
thanks with God; for hereunto verily we are called." _Qui mala non fert,
ipse sibi testis est per impatientiam quod bonus non est_, "he that cannot
bear injuries, witnesseth against himself that he is no good man," as
Gregory holds. [4010]"'Tis the nature of wicked men to do injuries, as it
is the property of all honest men patiently to bear them." _Improbitas
nullo flectitur obsequio_. The wolf in the [4011]emblem sucked the goat (so
the shepherd would have it), but he kept nevertheless a wolf's nature;
[4012]a knave will be a knave. Injury is on the other side a good man's
footboy, his _fidus Acliates_, and as a lackey follows him wheresoever he
goes. Besides, _misera est fortuna quae caret inimico_, he is in a
miserable estate that wants enemies: [4013]it is a thing not to be avoided,
and therefore with more patience to be endured. Cato Censorius, that
upright Cato of whom Paterculus gives that honourable eulogium, _bene fecit
quod aliter facere non potuit_, was [4014]fifty times indicted and accused
by his fellow citizens, and as [4015]Ammianus well hath it, _Quis erit
innocens si clam vel palam accusasse sufficiat_? if it be sufficient to
accuse a man openly or in private, who shall be free? If there were no
other respect than that of Christianity, religion and the like, to induce
men to be long-suffering and patient, yet methinks the nature of injury
itself is sufficient to keep them quiet, the tumults, uproars, miseries,
discontents, anguish, loss, dangers that attend upon it might restrain the
calamities of contention: for as it is with ordinary gamesters, the gains
go to the box, so falls it out to such as contend; the lawyers get all; and
therefore if they would consider of it, _aliena pericula cantos_, other
men's misfortunes in this kind, and common experience might detain them.
[4016]The more they contend, the more they are involved in a labyrinth of
woes, and the catastrophe is to consume one another, like the elephant and
dragon's conflict in Pliny; [4017]the dragon got under the elephant's
belly, and sucked his blood so long, till he fell down dead upon the
dragon, and killed him with the fall, so both were ruined. 'Tis a hydra's
head, contention; the more they strive, the more they may: and as
Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake it in
pieces: but for that one he saw many more as bad in a moment: for one
injury done they provoke another _cum foenore_, and twenty enemies for one.
_Noli irritare crabrones_, oppose not thyself to a multitude: but if thou
hast received a wrong, wisely consider of it, and if thou canst possibly,
compose thyself with patience to bear it. This is the safest course, and
thou shalt find greatest ease to be quiet.
[4018]I say the same of scoffs, slanders, contumelies, obloquies,
defamations, detractions, pasquilling libels, and the like, which may tend
any way to our disgrace: 'tis but opinion; if we could neglect, contemn, or
with patience digest them, they would reflect on them that offered them at
first. A wise citizen, I know not whence, had a scold to his wife: when she
brawled, he played on his drum, and by that means madded her more, because
she saw that he would not be moved. Diogenes in a crowd when one called him
back, and told him how the boys laughed him to scorn, _Ego, inquit, non
rideor_, took no notice of it. Socrates was brought upon the stage by
Aristophanes, and misused to his face, but he laughed as if it concerned
him not: and as Aelian relates of him, whatsoever good or bad accident or
fortune befel him going in or coming out, Socrates still kept the same
countenance; even so should a Christian do, as Hierom describes him, _per
infamiam et bonam famam grassari ad immortalitatem_, march on through good
and bad reports to immortality, [4019]not to be moved: for honesty is a
sufficient reward, probitas sibi, praemium; and in our times the sole
recompense to do well, is, to do well: but naughtiness will punish itself
at last, [4020]_Improbis ipsa nequitia supplicium_. As the diverb is,
"Qui bene fecerunt, illi sua facta sequentur;
Qui male fecerunt, facta sequentur eos:"
"They that do well, shall have reward at last:
But they that ill, shall suffer for that's past."
Yea, but I am ashamed, disgraced, dishonoured, degraded, exploded: my
notorious crimes and villainies are come to light (_deprendi miserum est_),
my filthy lust, abominable oppression and avarice lies open, my good name's
lost, my fortune's gone, I have been stigmatised, whipped at post,
arraigned and condemned, I am a common obloquy, I have lost my ears,
odious, execrable, abhorred of God and men. Be content, 'tis but a nine
days' wonder, and as one sorrow drives out another, one passion another,
one cloud another, one rumour is expelled by another; every day almost,
come new news unto our ears, as how the sun was eclipsed, meteors seen in
the air, monsters born, prodigies, how the Turks were overthrown in Persia,
an earthquake in Helvetia, Calabria, Japan, or China, an inundation in
Holland, a great plague in Constantinople, a fire at Prague, a dearth in
Germany, such a man is made a lord, a bishop, another hanged, deposed,
pressed to death, for some murder, treason, rape, theft, oppression, all
which we do hear at first with a kind of admiration, detestation,
consternation, but by and by they are buried in silence: thy father's dead,
thy brother robbed, wife runs mad, neighbour hath killed himself; 'tis
heavy, ghastly, fearful news at first, in every man's mouth, table talk;
but after a while who speaks or thinks of it? It will be so with thee and
thine offence, it will be forgotten in an instant, be it theft, rape,
sodomy, murder, incest, treason, &c., thou art not the first offender, nor
shalt not be the last, 'tis no wonder, every hour such malefactors are
called in question, nothing so common, _Quocunque in populo, quocunque sub
axe_? [4021]Comfort thyself, thou art not the sole man. If he that were
guiltless himself should fling the first stone at thee, and he alone should
accuse thee that were faultless, how many executioners, how many accusers
wouldst thou have? If every man's sins were written in his forehead, and
secret faults known, how many thousands would parallel, if not exceed thine
offence? It may be the judge that gave sentence, the jury that condemned
thee, the spectators that gazed on thee, deserved much more, and were far
more guilty than thou thyself. But it is thine infelicity to be taken, to
be made a public example of justice, to be a terror to the rest; yet should
every man have his desert, thou wouldst peradventure be a saint in
comparison; _vexat censura columbas_, poor souls are punished; the great
ones do twenty thousand times worse, and are not so much as spoken of.
[4022] "Non rete accipitri tenditur neque milvio,
Qui male faciunt nobis; illis qui nil faciunt tenditur."
"The net's not laid for kites or birds of prey,
But for the harmless still our gins we lay."
Be not dismayed then, _humanum est errare_, we are all sinners, daily and
hourly subject to temptations, the best of us is a hypocrite, a grievous
offender in God's sight, Noah, Lot, David, Peter, &c., how many mortal sins
do we commit? Shall I say, be penitent, ask forgiveness, and make amends by
the sequel of thy life, for that foul offence thou hast committed? recover
thy credit by some noble exploit, as Themistocles did, for he was a most
debauched and vicious youth, _sed juventae maculas praeclaris factis
delevit_, but made the world amends by brave exploits; at last become a new
man, and seek to be reformed. He that runs away in a battle, as Demosthenes
said, may fight again; and he that hath a fall may stand as upright as ever
he did before. _Nemo desperet meliora lapsus_, a wicked liver may be
reclaimed, and prove an honest man; he that is odious in present, hissed
out, an exile, may be received again with all men's favours, and singular
applause; so Tully was in Rome, Alcibiades in Athens. Let thy disgrace then
be what it will, _quod fit, infectum non potest esse_, that which is past
cannot be recalled; trouble not thyself, vex and grieve thyself no more, be
it obloquy, disgrace, &c. No better way, than to neglect, contemn, or seem
not to regard it, to make no reckoning of it, _Deesse robur arguit
dicacitas_: if thou be guiltless it concerns thee not:
[4023] "Irrita vaniloquae quid curas spicula linguae,
Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?"
Doth the moon care for the barking of a dog? They detract, scoff and rail,
saith one, [4024]and bark at me on every side, but I, like that Albanian
dog sometimes given to Alexander for a present, _vindico me ab illis solo
contemptu_, I lie still and sleep, vindicate myself by contempt alone.
[4025]_Expers terroris Achilles armatus_: as a tortoise in his shell,
[4026]_virtute mea me involvo_, or an urchin round, _nil moror ictus_
[4027]a lizard in camomile, I decline their fury and am safe.
"Integritas virtusque suo munimine tuta,
Non patet adversae morsibus invidiae:"
"Virtue and integrity are their own fence,
Care not for envy or what comes from thence."
Let them rail then, scoff, and slander, _sapiens contumelia non afficitur_,
a wise man, Seneca thinks, is not moved, because he knows, _contra
Sycophantae morsum non est remedium_, there is no remedy for it: kings and
princes, wise, grave, prudent, holy, good men, divine, are all so served
alike. [4028]_O Jane a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit_, Antevorta and
Postvorta, Jupiter's guardians, may not help in this case, they cannot
protect; Moses had a Dathan, a Corath, David a Shimei, God himself is
blasphemed: _nondum felix es si te nondum turba deridet_. It is an ordinary
thing so to be misused. [4029]_Regium est cum bene faceris male audire_,
the chiefest men and most understanding are so vilified; let him take his
[4030]course. And as that lusty courser in Aesop, that contemned the poor
ass, came by and by after with his bowels burst, a pack on his back, and
was derided of the same ass: _contemnentur ab iis quos ipsi prius
contempsere, et irridebuntur ab iis quos ipsi prius irrisere_, they shall
be contemned and laughed to scorn of those whom they have formerly derided.
Let them contemn, defame, or undervalue, insult, oppress, scoff, slander,
abuse, wrong, curse and swear, feign and lie, do thou comfort thyself with
a good conscience, _in sinu gaudeas_, when they have all done, [4031]"a
good conscience is a continual feast," innocency will vindicate itself: and
which the poet gave out of Hercules, _diis fruitur iratis_, enjoy thyself,
though all the world be set against thee, contemn and say with him,
_Elogium mihi prae, foribus_, my posy is, "not to be moved, that [4032]my
palladium, my breastplate, my buckler, with which I ward all injuries,
offences, lies, slanders; I lean upon that stake of modesty, so receive and
break asunder all that foolish force of liver and spleen." And whosoever he
is that shall observe these short instructions, without all question he
shall much ease and benefit himself.
In fine, if princes would do justice, judges be upright, clergymen truly
devout, and so live as they teach, if great men would not be so insolent,
if soldiers would quietly defend us, the poor would be patient, rich men.
would be liberal and humble, citizens honest, magistrates meek, superiors
would give good example, subjects peaceable, young men would stand in awe:
if parents would be kind to their children, and they again obedient to
their parents, brethren agree amongst themselves, enemies be reconciled,
servants trusty to their masters, virgins chaste, wives modest, husbands
would be loving and less jealous: if we could imitate Christ and his
apostles, live after God's laws, these mischiefs would not so frequently
happen amongst us; but being most part so irreconcilable as we are,
perverse, proud, insolent, factious, and malicious, prone to contention,
anger and revenge, of such fiery spirits, so captious, impious,
irreligious, so opposite to virtue, void of grace, how should it otherwise
be? Many men are very testy by nature, apt to mistake, apt to quarrel, apt
to provoke and misinterpret to the worst, everything that is said or done,
and thereupon heap unto themselves a great deal of trouble, and
disquietness to others, smatterers in other men's matters, tale-bearers,
whisperers, liars, they cannot speak in season, or hold their tongues when
they should, [4033]_Et suam partem itidem tacere cum aliena est oratio_:
they will speak more than comes to their shares, in all companies, and by
those bad courses accumulate much evil to their own souls (_qui contendit,
sibi convicium facit_) their life is a perpetual brawl, they snarl like so
many dogs, with their wives, children, servants, neighbours, and all the
rest of their friends, they can agree with nobody. But to such as are
judicious, meek, submissive, and quiet, these matters are easily remedied:
they will forbear upon all such occasions, neglect, contemn, or take no
notice of them, dissemble, or wisely turn it off. If it be a natural
impediment, as a red nose, squint eyes, crooked legs, or any such
imperfection, infirmity, disgrace, reproach, the best way is to speak of it
first thyself, [4034]and so thou shalt surely take away all occasions from
others to jest at, or contemn, that they may perceive thee to be careless
of it. Vatinius was wont to scoff at his own deformed feet, to prevent his
enemies' obloquies and sarcasms in that kind; or else by prevention, as
Cotys, king of Thrace, that brake a company of fine glasses presented to
him, with his own hands, lest he should be overmuch moved when they were
broken by chance. And sometimes again, so that it be discreetly and
moderately done, it shall not be amiss to make resistance, to take down
such a saucy companion, no better means to vindicate himself to purchase
final peace: for he that suffers himself to be ridden, or through
pusillanimity or sottishness will let every man baffle him, shall be a
common laughing stock to flout at. As a cur that goes through a village, if
he clap his tail between his legs, and run away, every cur will insult over
him: but if he bristle up himself, and stand to it, give but a
counter-snarl, there's not a dog dares meddle with him: much is in a man's
courage and discreet carriage of himself.
Many other grievances there are, which happen to mortals in this life, from
friends, wives, children, servants, masters, companions, neighbours, our
own defaults, ignorance, errors, intemperance, indiscretion, infirmities,
&c., and many good remedies to mitigate and oppose them, many divine
precepts to counterpoise our hearts, special antidotes both in Scriptures
and human authors, which, whoso will observe, shall purchase much ease and
quietness unto himself: I will point out a few. Those prophetical,
apostolical admonitions are well known to all; what Solomon, Siracides, our
Saviour Christ himself hath said tending to this purpose, as "fear God:
obey the prince: be sober and watch: pray continually: be angry but sin
not: remember thy last: fashion not yourselves to this world, &c., apply
yourselves to the times: strive not with a mighty man: recompense good for
evil, let nothing be done through contention or vainglory, but with
meekness of mind, every man esteeming of others better than himself: love
one another;" or that epitome of the law and the prophets, which our
Saviour inculcates, "love God above all, thy neighbour as thyself:" and
"whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, so do unto them," which
Alexander Severus writ in letters of gold, and used as a motto, [4035]
Hierom commends to Celantia as an excellent way, amongst so many
enticements and worldly provocations, to rectify her life. Out of human
authors take these few cautions, [4036]"know thyself. [4037]Be contented
with thy lot. [4038]Trust not wealth, beauty, nor parasites, they will
bring thee to destruction. [4039]Have peace with all men, war with vice.
[4040]Be not idle. [4041]Look before you leap. [4042]Beware of 'had I
wist.' [4043]Honour thy parents, speak well of friends. Be temperate in
four things, _lingua, locis, oculis, et poculis_. Watch thine eye.[4044]
Moderate thine expenses. Hear much, speak little, [4045]_sustine et
abstine_. If thou seest ought amiss in another, mend it in thyself. Keep
thine own counsel, reveal not thy secrets, be silent in thine intentions.
[4046]Give not ear to tale-tellers, babblers, be not scurrilous in
conversation: [4047]jest without bitterness: give no man cause of offence:
set thine house in order: [4048]take heed of suretyship. [4049]_Fide et
diffide_, as a fox on the ice, take heed whom you trust. [4050]Live not
beyond thy means. [4051]Give cheerfully. Pay thy dues willingly. Be not a
slave to thy money; [4052]omit not occasion, embrace opportunity, lose no
time. Be humble to thy superiors, respective to thine equals, affable to
all, [4053]but not familiar. Flatter no man. [4054]Lie not, dissemble not.
Keep thy word and promise, be constant in a good resolution. Speak truth.
Be not opiniative, maintain no factions. Lay no wagers, make no
comparisons. [4055]Find no faults, meddle not with other men's matters.
Admire not thyself. [4056]Be not proud or popular. Insult not. _Fortunam
reverentur habe_. [4057]Fear not that which cannot be avoided. [4058]
Grieve not for that which cannot be recalled. [4059]Undervalue not thyself.
[4060]Accuse no man, commend no man rashly. Go not to law without great
cause. Strive not with a greater man. Cast not off an old friend, take heed
of a reconciled enemy. [4061]If thou come as a guest stay not too long. Be
not unthankful. Be meek, merciful, and patient. Do good to all. Be not fond
of fair words. [4062]Be not a neuter in a faction; moderate thy passions.
[4063]Think no place without a witness. [4064] Admonish thy friend in
secret, commend him in public. Keep good company. [4065]Love others to be
beloved thyself. _Ama tanquam osurus_. _Amicus tardo fias_. Provide for a
tempest. _Noli irritare crabrones_. Do not prostitute thy soul for gain.
Make not a fool of thyself to make others merry. Marry not an old crony or
a fool for money. Be not over solicitous or curious. Seek that which may be
found. Seem not greater than thou art. Take thy pleasure soberly. _Ocymum
ne terito_. [4066]Live merrily as thou canst. [4067]Take heed by other
men's examples. Go as thou wouldst be met, sit as thou wouldst be found,
[4068]yield to the time, follow the stream. Wilt thou live free from fears
and cares? [4069]Live innocently, keep thyself upright, thou needest no
other keeper," &c. Look for more in Isocrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus,
&c., and for defect, consult with cheese-trenchers and painted cloths.
MEMB. VIII.
_Against Melancholy itself_.
"Every man," saith [4070]Seneca, "thinks his own burthen the heaviest," and
a melancholy man above all others complains most; weariness of life,
abhorring all company and light, fear, sorrow, suspicion, anguish of mind,
bashfulness, and those other dread symptoms of body and mind, must needs
aggravate this misery; yet compared to other maladies, they are not so
heinous as they be taken. For first this disease is either in habit or
disposition, curable or incurable. If new and in disposition, 'tis commonly
pleasant, and it may be helped. If inveterate, or a habit, yet they have
_lucida intervalla_, sometimes well, and sometimes ill; or if more
continuate, as the [4071]Vejentes were to the Romans, 'tis _hostis magis
assiduus quam gravis_, a more durable enemy than dangerous: and amongst
many inconveniences, some comforts are annexed to it. First it is not
catching, and as Erasmus comforted himself, when he was grievously sick of
the stone, though it was most troublesome, and an intolerable pain to him,
yet it was no whit offensive to others, not loathsome to the spectators,
ghastly, fulsome, terrible, as plagues, apoplexies, leprosies, wounds,
sores, tetters, pox, pestilent agues are, which either admit of no company,
terrify or offend those that are present. In this malady, that which is, is
wholly to themselves: and those symptoms not so dreadful, if they be
compared to the opposite extremes. They are most part bashful, suspicious,
solitary, &c., therefore no such ambitious, impudent intruders as some are,
no sharkers, no cony-catchers, no prowlers, no smell-feasts, praters,
panders, parasites, bawds, drunkards, whoremasters; necessity and defect
compel them to be honest; as Mitio told Demea in the [4072]comedy,
"Haec si neque ego neque tu fecimus,
Non sinit egestas facere nos."
"If we be honest 'twas poverty made us so:" if we melancholy men be not as
bad as he that is worst, 'tis our dame melancholy kept us so: _Non deerat
voluntas sed facultas_. [4073]
Besides they are freed in this from many other infirmities, solitariness
makes them more apt to contemplate, suspicion wary, which is a necessary
humour in these times, [4074]_Nam pol que maxime cavet, is saepe cautor
captus est_, "he that takes most heed, is often circumvented, and
overtaken." Fear and sorrow keep them temperate and sober, and free them
from any dissolute acts, which jollity and boldness thrust men upon: they
are therefore no _sicarii_, roaring boys, thieves or assassins. As they are
soon dejected, so they are as soon, by soft words and good persuasions,
reared. Wearisomeness of life makes them they are not so besotted on the
transitory vain pleasures of the world. If they dote in one thing, they are
wise and well understanding in most other. If it be inveterate, they are
_insensati_, most part doting, or quite mad, insensible of any wrongs,
ridiculous to others, but most happy and secure to themselves. Dotage is a
state which many much magnify and commend: so is simplicity, and folly, as
he said, [4075]_sic hic furor o superi, sit mihi perpetuus_. Some think
fools and dizzards live the merriest lives, as Ajax in Sophocles, _Nihil
scire vita jucundissima_, "'tis the pleasantest life to know nothing;"
_iners malorum remedium ignorantia_, "ignorance is a downright remedy of
evils." These curious arts and laborious sciences, Galen's, Tully's,
Aristotle's, Justinian's, do but trouble the world some think; we might
live better with that illiterate Virginian simplicity, and gross ignorance;
entire idiots do best, they are not macerated with cares, tormented with
fears, and anxiety, as other wise men are: for as [4076]he said, if folly
were a pain, you should hear them howl, roar, and cry out in every house,
as you go by in the street, but they are most free, jocund, and merry, and
in some [4077]countries, as amongst the Turks, honoured for saints, and
abundantly maintained out of the common stock. [4078]They are no
dissemblers, liars, hypocrites, for fools and madmen tell commonly truth.
In a word, as they are distressed, so are they pitied, which some hold
better than to be envied, better to be sad than merry, better to be foolish
and quiet, _quam sapere et ringi_, to be wise and still vexed; better to be
miserable than happy: of two extremes it is the best.
SECT. IV. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Of Physic which cureth with Medicines_.
After a long and tedious discourse of these six non-natural things and
their several rectifications, all which are comprehended in diet, I am come
now at last to _Pharmaceutice_, or that kind of physic which cureth by
medicines, which apothecaries most part make, mingle, or sell in their
shops. Many cavil at this kind of physic, and hold it unnecessary,
unprofitable to this or any other disease, because those countries which
use it least, live longest, and are best in health, as [4079]Hector
Boethius relates of the isles of Orcades, the people are still sound of
body and mind, without any use of physic, they live commonly 120 years, and
Ortelius in his itinerary of the inhabitants of the Forest of Arden, [4080]
"they are very painful, long-lived, sound," &c. [4081]Martianus Capella,
speaking of the Indians of his time, saith, they were (much like our
western Indians now) "bigger than ordinary men, bred coarsely, very
long-lived, insomuch, that he that died at a hundred years of age, went
before his time," &c. Damianus A-Goes, Saxo Grammaticus, Aubanus Bohemus,
say the like of them that live in Norway, Lapland, Finmark, Biarmia,
Corelia, all over Scandia, and those northern countries, they are most
healthful, and very long-lived, in which places there is no use at all of
physic, the name of it is not once heard. Dithmarus Bleskenius in his
accurate description of Iceland, 1607, makes mention, amongst other
matters, of the inhabitants, and their manner of living, [4082]"which is
dried fish instead of bread, butter, cheese, and salt meats, most part they
drink water and whey, and yet without physic or physician, they live many
of them 250 years." I find the same relation by Lerius, and some other
writers, of Indians in America. Paulus Jovius in his description of
Britain, and Levinus Lemnius, observe as much of this our island, that
there was of old no use of [4083]physic amongst us, and but little at this
day, except it be for a few nice idle citizens, surfeiting courtiers, and
stall-fed gentlemen lubbers. The country people use kitchen physic, and
common experience tells vis, that they live freest from all manner of
infirmities, that make least use of apothecaries' physic. Many are
overthrown by preposterous use of it, and thereby get their bane, that
might otherwise have escaped: [4084]some think physicians kill as many as
they save, and who can tell, [4085]_Quot Themison aegros autumno occiderit
uno_? "How many murders they make in a year," _quibus impune licet hominem
occidere_, "that may freely kill folks," and have a reward for it, and
according to the Dutch proverb, a new physician must have a new churchyard;
and who daily observes it not? Many that did ill under physicians' hands,
have happily escaped, when they have been given over by them, left to God
and nature, and themselves; 'twas Pliny's dilemma of old, [4086]"every
disease is either curable or incurable, a man recovers of it or is killed
by it; both ways physic is to be rejected. If it be deadly, it cannot be
cured; if it may be helped, it requires no physician, nature will expel it
of itself." Plato made it a great sign of an intemperate and corrupt
commonwealth, where lawyers and physicians did abound; and the Romans
distasted them so much that they were often banished out of their city, as
Pliny and Celsus relate, for 600 years not admitted. It is no art at all,
as some hold, no not worthy the name of a liberal science (nor law
neither), as [4087]Pet. And. Canonherius a patrician of Rome and a great
doctor himself, "one of their own tribe," proves by sixteen arguments,
because it is mercenary as now used, base, and as fiddlers play for a
reward. _Juridicis, medicis, fisco, fas vivere rapto_, 'tis a corrupt
trade, no science, art, no profession; the beginning, practice, and
progress of it, all is naught, full of imposture, uncertainty, and doth
generally more harm than good. The devil himself was the first inventor of
it: _Inventum est medicina meum_, said Apollo, and what was Apollo, but the
devil? The Greeks first made an art of it, and they were all deluded by
Apollo's sons, priests, oracles. If we may believe Varro, Pliny, Columella,
most of their best medicines were derived from his oracles. Aesculapius his
son had his temples erected to his deity, and did many famous cures; but,
as Lactantius holds, he was a magician, a mere impostor, and as his
successors, Phaon, Podalirius, Melampius, Menecrates, (another God), by
charms, spells, and ministry of bad spirits, performed most of their cures.
The first that ever wrote in physic to any purpose, was Hippocrates, and
his disciple and commentator Galen, whom Scaliger calls _Fimbriam
Hippocratis_; but as [4088]Cardan censures them, both immethodical and
obscure, as all those old ones are, their precepts confused, their
medicines obsolete, and now most part rejected. Those cures which they did,
Paracelsus holds, were rather done out of their patients' confidence,
[4089]and good opinion they had of them, than out of any skill of theirs,
which was very small, he saith, they themselves idiots and infants, as are
all their academical followers. The Arabians received it from the Greeks,
and so the Latins, adding new precepts and medicines of their own, but so
imperfect still, that through ignorance of professors, impostors,
mountebanks, empirics, disagreeing of sectaries, (which are as many almost
as there be diseases) envy, covetousness, and the like, they do much harm
amongst us. They are so different in their consultations, prescriptions,
mistaking many times the parties' constitution, [4090]disease, and causes
of it, they give quite contrary physic; [4091]"one saith this, another
that," out of singularity or opposition, as he said of Adrian, _multitudo
medicorum principem interfecit_, "a multitude of physicians hath killed the
emperor;" _plus a medico quam a morbo periculi_, "more danger there is from
the physician, than from the disease." Besides, there is much imposture and
malice amongst them. "All arts" (saith [4092]Cardan) "admit of cozening,
physic, amongst the rest, doth appropriate it to herself;" and tells a
story of one Curtius, a physician in Venice: because he was a stranger, and
practised amongst them, the rest of the physicians did still cross him in
all his precepts. If he prescribed hot medicines they would prescribe cold,
_miscentes pro calidis frigida, pro frigidis humida, pro purgantibus
astringentia_, binders for purgatives, _omnia perturbabant_. If the party
miscarried, _Curtium damnabant_, Curtius killed him, that disagreed from
them: if he recovered, then [4093]they cured him themselves. Much
emulation, imposture, malice, there is amongst them: if they be honest and
mean well, yet a knave apothecary that administers the physic, and makes
the medicine, may do infinite harm, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine
drugs, bad mixtures, _quid pro quo_, &c. See Fuchsius _lib. 1. sect. 1.
cap. 8._ Cordus' _Dispensatory_, and Brassivola's _Examen simpl._, &c. But
it is their ignorance that doth more harm than rashness, their art is
wholly conjectural, if it be an art, uncertain, imperfect, and got by
killing of men, they are a kind of butchers, leeches, men-slayers;
chirurgeons and apothecaries especially, that are indeed the physicians'
hangman, _carnifices_, and common executioners; though to say truth,
physicians themselves come not far behind; for according to that facete
epigram of Maximilianus Urentius, what's the difference?
[4094] "Chirurgicus medico quo differt? scilicet isto,
Enecat hic succis, enecat ille manu:
Carnifice hoc ambo tantum differre videntur,
Tardius hi faciunt, quod facit ille cito."
But I return to their skill; many diseases they cannot cure at all, as
apoplexy, epilepsy, stone, strangury, gout, _Tollere nodosam nescit
medicina Podagram_; [4095]quartan agues, a common ague sometimes stumbles
them all, they cannot so much as ease, they know not how to judge of it. If
by pulses, that doctrine, some hold, is wholly superstitious, and I dare
boldly say with [4096]Andrew Dudeth, "that variety of pulses described by
Galen, is neither observed nor understood of any." And for urine, that is
_meretrix medicorum_, the most deceitful thing of all, as Forestus and some
other physicians have proved at large: I say nothing of critic days, errors
in indications, &c. The most rational of them, and skilful, are so often
deceived, that as [4097]Tholosanus infers, "I had rather believe and commit
myself to a mere empiric, than to a mere doctor, and I cannot sufficiently
commend that custom of the Babylonians, that have no professed physicians,
but bring all their patients to the market to be cured:" which Herodotus
relates of the Egyptians: Strabo, Sardus, and Aubanus Bohemus of many other
nations. And those that prescribed physic, amongst them, did not so
arrogantly take upon them to cure all diseases, as our professors do, but
some one, some another, as their skill and experience did serve; [4098]
"One cured the eyes, a second the teeth, a third the head, another the
lower parts," &c., not for gain, but in charity, to do good, they made
neither art, profession, nor trade of it, which in other places was
accustomed: and therefore Cambyses in [4099]Xenophon told Cyrus, that to
his thinking, physicians "were like tailors and cobblers, the one mended
our sick bodies, as the other did our clothes." But I will urge these
cavilling and contumelious arguments no farther, lest some physician should
mistake me, and deny me physic when I am sick: for my part, I am well
persuaded of physic: I can distinguish the abuse from the use, in this and
many other arts and sciences: [4100]_Alliud vinum, aliud ebrietas_, wine
and drunkenness are two distinct things. I acknowledge it a most noble and
divine science, in so much that Apollo, Aesculapius, and the first founders
of it, _merito pro diis habiti_, were worthily counted gods by succeeding
ages, for the excellency of their invention. And whereas Apollo at Delos,
Venus at Cyprus, Diana at Ephesus, and those other gods were confined and
adored alone in some peculiar places: Aesculapius and his temple and altars
everywhere, in Corinth, Lacedaemon, Athens, Thebes, Epidaurus, &c.
Pausanius records, for the latitude of his art, deity, worth, and
necessity. With all virtuous and wise men therefore I honour the name and
calling, as I am enjoined "to honour the physician for necessity's sake.
The knowledge of the physician lifteth up his head, and in the sight of
great men he shall be admired. The Lord hath created medicines of the
earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them," Eccles. lviii 1. But of
this noble subject, how many panegyrics are worthily written? For my part,
as Sallust said of Carthage, _praestat silere, quam pauca dicere_; I have
said, yet one thing I will add, that this kind of physic is very moderately
and advisedly to be used, upon good occasion, when the former of diet will
not take place. And 'tis no other which I say, than that which Arnoldus
prescribes in his 8. Aphoris. [4101]"A discreet and goodly physician doth
first endeavour to expel a disease by medicinal diet, than by pure
medicine:" and in his ninth, [4102]"he that may be cured by diet, must not
meddle with physic." So in 11. Aphoris. [4103]"A modest and wise physician
will never hasten to use medicines, but upon urgent necessity, and that
sparingly too:" because (as he adds in his 13. Aphoris.) [4104]"Whosoever
takes much physic in his youth, shall soon bewail it in his old age:"
purgative physic especially, which doth much debilitate nature. For which
causes some physicians refrain from the use of purgatives, or else
sparingly use them. [4105]Henricus Ayrerus in a consultation for a
melancholy person, would have him take as few purges as he could, "because
there be no such medicines, which do not steal away some of our strength,
and rob the parts of our body, weaken nature, and cause that cacochymia,"
which [4106]Celsus and others observe, or ill digestion, and bad juice
through all the parts of it. Galen himself confesseth, [4107]"that
purgative physic is contrary to nature, takes away some of our best
spirits, and consumes the very substance of our bodies:" But this, without
question, is to be understood of such purges as are unseasonably or
immoderately taken: they have their excellent use in this, as well as most
other infirmities. Of alteratives and cordials no man doubts, be they
simples or compounds. I will amongst that infinite variety of medicines,
which I find in every pharmacopoeia, every physician, herbalist, &c.,
single out some of the chiefest.
SUBSECT. II.--_Simples proper to Melancholy, against Exotic Simples_.
Medicines properly applied to melancholy, are either simple or compound.
Simples are alterative or purgative. Alteratives are such as correct,
strengthen nature, alter, any way hinder or resist the disease; and they be
herbs, stones, minerals, &c. all proper to this humour. For as there be
diverse distinct infirmities continually vexing us,
[4108] "[Greek: nousoi d' anthropoisi eph aemerae aed' epi nukti
automatoi phoitosi kaka thnaetoisi pherousai
sigae, epei phonaen aexeileto maetieta zeus.]"
"Diseases steal both day and night on men,
For Jupiter hath taken voice from them."
So there be several remedies, as [4109]he saith, "each disease a medicine,
for every humour;" and as some hold, every clime, every country, and more
than that, every private place hath his proper remedies growing in it,
peculiar almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it, As
[4110]one discourseth, "wormwood grows sparingly in Italy, because most
part there they be misaffected with hot diseases: but henbane, poppy, and
such cold herbs: with us in Germany and Poland, great store of it in every
waste." Baracellus _Horto geniali_, and Baptista Porta _Physiognomicae,
lib. 6. cap. 23_, give many instances and examples of it, and bring many
other proofs. For that cause belike that learned Fuchsius of Nuremberg,
[4111]"when he came into a village, considered always what herbs did grow
most frequently about it, and those he distilled in a silver alembic,
making use of others amongst them as occasion served." I know that many are
of opinion, our northern simples are weak, imperfect, not so well
concocted, of such force, as those in the southern parts, not so fit to be
used in physic, and will therefore fetch their drugs afar off: senna,
cassia out of Egypt, rhubarb from Barbary, aloes from Socotra; turbith,
agaric, mirabolanes, hermodactils, from the East Indies, tobacco from the
west, and some as far as China, hellebore from the Anticyrae, or that of
Austria which bears the purple flower, which Mathiolus so much approves,
and so of the rest. In the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, [4112]Maginus
commends two mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples; [4113]
Leander Albertus, [4114]Baldus a mountain near the Lake Benacus in the
territory of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the country continually
flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Istria; others
Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus prefers Egyptian simples, Garcias ab
Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy, Crete, &c. Many times
they are over-curious in this kind, whom Fuchsius taxeth, _Instit. l. 1.
sec. 1. cap. 1._ [4115]"that think they do nothing, except they rake all
over India, Arabia, Ethiopia for remedies, and fetch their physic from the
three quarters of the world, and from beyond the Garamantes. Many an old
wife or country woman doth often more good with a few known and common
garden herbs, than our bombast physicians, with all their prodigious,
sumptuous, far-fetched, rare, conjectural medicines:" without all question
if we have not these rare exotic simples, we hold that at home, which is in
virtue equivalent unto them, ours will serve as well as theirs, if they be
taken in proportionable quantity, fitted and qualified aright, if not much
better, and more proper to our constitutions. But so 'tis for the most
part, as Pliny writes to Gallus, [4116]"We are careless of that which is
near us, and follow that which is afar off, to know which we will travel
and sail beyond the seas, wholly neglecting that which is under our eyes."
Opium in Turkey doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it
stupefies; cicuta or hemlock is a strong poison in Greece, but with us it
hath no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much
inveighs against those exotic medicines, so he promiseth by our European, a
full cure and absolute of all diseases; _a capite ad calcem, nostrae
regionis herbae nostris corporibus magis conducunt_, our own simples agree
best with us. It was a thing that Fernelius much laboured in his French
practice, to reduce all his cure to our proper and domestic physic; so did
[4117]Janus Cornarius, and Martin Rulandus in Germany. T. B. with us, as
appeareth by a treatise of his divulged in our tongue 1615, to prove the
sufficiency of English medicines, to the cure of all manner of diseases. If
our simples be not altogether of such force, or so apposite, it may be, if
like industry were used, those far fetched drugs would prosper as well with
us, as in those countries whence now we have them, as well as cherries,
artichokes, tobacco, and many such. There have been diverse worthy
physicians, which have tried excellent conclusions in this kind, and many
diligent, painful apothecaries, as Gesner, Besler, Gerard, &c., but amongst
the rest those famous public gardens of Padua in Italy, Nuremberg in
Germany, Leyden in Holland, Montpelier in France, (and ours in Oxford now
in _fieri_, at the cost and charges for the Right Honourable the Lord
Danvers Earl of Danby) are much to be commended, wherein all exotic plants
almost are to be seen, and liberal allowance yearly made for their better
maintenance, that young students may be the sooner informed in the
knowledge of them: which as [4118]Fuchsius holds, "is most necessary for
that exquisite manner of curing," and as great a shame for a physician not
to observe them, as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, square, or any
other tool which he must of necessity use.
SUBSECT. III.--_Alteratives, Herbs, other Vegetables, &c._
Amongst these 800 simples, which Galeottus reckons up, _lib. 3. de promise,
doctor, cap. 3_, and many exquisite herbalists have written of, these few
following alone I find appropriated to this humour: of which some be
alteratives; [4119]"which by a secret force," saith Renodeus, "and special
quality expel future diseases, perfectly cure those which are, and many
such incurable effects." This is as well observed in other plants, stones,
minerals, and creatures, as in herbs, in other maladies as in this. How
many things are related of a man's skull? What several virtues of corns in
a horse-leg, [4120]of a wolf's liver, &c. Of [4121]diverse excrements of
beasts, all good against several diseases? What extraordinary virtues are
ascribed unto plants? [4122]_Satyrium et eruca penem erigunt, vitex et
nymphea semen extinguunt_, [4123]some herbs provoke lust, some again, as
agnus castus, water-lily, quite extinguisheth seed; poppy causeth sleep,
cabbage resisteth drunkenness, &c., and that which is more to be admired,
that such and such plants should have a peculiar virtue to such particular
parts, [4124]as to the head aniseeds, foalfoot, betony, calamint,
eye-bright, lavender, bays, roses, rue, sage, marjoram, peony, &c. For the
lungs calamint, liquorice, ennula campana, hyssop, horehound, water
germander, &c. For the heart, borage, bugloss, saffron, balm, basil,
rosemary, violet, roses, &c. For the stomach, wormwood, mints, betony,
balm, centaury, sorrel, parslan. For the liver, darthspine or camaepitis,
germander, agrimony, fennel, endive, succory, liverwort, barberries. For
the spleen, maidenhair, finger-fern, dodder of thyme, hop, the rind of ash,
betony. For the kidneys, grumel, parsley, saxifrage, plaintain, mallow. For
the womb, mugwort, pennyroyal, fetherfew, savine, &c. For the joints,
camomile, St. John's wort, organ, rue, cowslips, centaury the less, &c. And
so to peculiar diseases. To this of melancholy you shall find a catalogue
of herbs proper, and that in every part. See more in Wecker, Renodeus,
Heurnius _lib. 2. cap. 19._ &c. I will briefly speak of them, as first of
alteratives, which Galen, in his third book of diseased parts, prefers
before diminutives, and Trallianus brags, that he hath done more cures on
melancholy men [4125]by moistening, than by purging of them.
_Borage_.] In this catalogue, borage and bugloss may challenge the chiefest
place, whether in substance, juice, roots, seeds, flowers, leaves,
decoctions, distilled waters, extracts, oils, &c., for such kind of herbs
be diversely varied. Bugloss is hot and moist, and therefore worthily
reckoned up amongst those herbs which expel melancholy, and [4126]
exhilarate the heart, Galen, _lib. 6. cap. 80. de simpl. med._ Dioscorides,
_lib. 4. cap. 123._ Pliny much magnifies this plant. It may be diversely
used; as in broth, in [4127]wine, in conserves, syrups, &c. It is an
excellent cordial, and against this malady most frequently prescribed; a
herb indeed of such sovereignty, that as Diodorus, _lib. 7. bibl._ Plinius,
_lib. 25. cap. 2. et lib. 21. cap. 22._ Plutarch, _sympos. lib. 1. cap. 1._
Dioscorides, _lib. 5. cap. 40._ Caelius, _lib. 19. c. 3._ suppose it was
that famous Nepenthes of [4128]Homer, which Polydaenna, Thonis's wife (then
king of Thebes in Egypt), sent Helena for a token, of such rare virtue,
"that if taken steeped in wine, if wife and children, father and mother,
brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should die before thy face,
thou couldst not grieve or shed a tear for them."
"Qui semel id patera mistum Nepenthes Iaccho
Hauserit, hic lachrymam, non si suavissima proles,
Si germanus ei charus, materque paterque
Oppetat, ante oculos ferro confossus atroci."
Helena's commended bowl to exhilarate the heart, had no other ingredient,
as most of our critics conjecture, than this of borage.
_Balm_.] Melissa balm hath an admirable virtue to alter melancholy, be it
steeped in our ordinary drink, extracted, or otherwise taken. Cardan, _lib.
8._ much admires this herb. It heats and dries, saith [4129] Heurnius, in
the second degree, with a wonderful virtue comforts the heart, and purgeth
all melancholy vapours from the spirits, Matthiol. _in lib. 3. cap. 10. in
Dioscoridem_. Besides they ascribe other virtues to it, [4130]"as to help
concoction, to cleanse the brain, expel all careful thoughts, and anxious
imaginations:" the same words in effect are in Avicenna, Pliny, Simon
Sethi, Fuchsius, Leobel, Delacampius, and every herbalist. Nothing better
for him that is melancholy than to steep this and borage in his ordinary
drink.
Mathiolus, in his fifth book of Medicinal Epistles, reckons up scorzonera,
[4131]"not against poison only, falling sickness, and such as are
vertiginous, but to this malady; the root of it taken by itself expels
sorrow, causeth mirth and lightness of heart."
Antonius Musa, that renowned physician to Caesar Augustus, in his book
which he writ of the virtues of betony, _cap. 6._ wonderfully commends that
herb, _animas hominum et corpora custodit, securas de metu reddit_, it
preserves both body and mind, from fears, cares, griefs; cures falling
sickness, this and many other diseases, to whom Galen subscribes, _lib. 7.
simp. med._ Dioscorides, _lib. 4. cap. 1. &c._
Marigold is much approved against melancholy, and often used therefore in
our ordinary broth, as good against this and many other diseases.
_Hop_.] Lupulus, hop, is a sovereign remedy; Fuchsius, _cap. 58. Plant.
hist_. much extols it; [4132]"it purgeth all choler, and purifies the
blood." Matthiol. _cap. 140. in 4. Dioscor._ wonders the physicians of his
time made no more use of it, because it rarefies and cleanseth: we use it
to this purpose in our ordinary beer, which before was thick and fulsome.
Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and much prescribed
(as I shall after show), especially in hypochondriac melancholy, daily to
be used, sod in whey: and as Ruffus Ephesias, [4133]Areteus relate, by
breaking wind, helping concoction, many melancholy men have been cured with
the frequent use of them alone.
And because the spleen and blood are often misaffected in melancholy, I may
not omit endive, succory, dandelion, fumitory, &c., which cleanse the
blood, Scolopendria, cuscuta, ceterache, mugwort, liverwort, ash, tamarisk,
genist, maidenhair, &c., which must help and ease the spleen.
To these I may add roses, violets, capers, featherfew, scordium, staechas,
rosemary, ros solis, saffron, ochyme, sweet apples, wine, tobacco, sanders,
&c. That Peruvian chamico, _monstrosa facultate &c._, Linshcosteus Datura;
and to such as are cold, the [4134]decoction of guiacum, China
sarsaparilla, sassafras, the flowers of carduus benedictus, which I find
much used by Montanus in his Consultations, Julius Alexandrinus, Lelius,
Egubinus, and others. [4135]Bernardus Penottus prefers his herba solis, or
Dutch sindaw, before all the rest in this disease, "and will admit of no
herb upon the earth to be comparable to it." It excels Homer's moly, cures
this, falling sickness, and almost all other infirmities. The same Penottus
speaks of an excellent balm out of Aponensis, which, taken to the quantity
of three drops in a cup of wine, [4136]"will cause a sudden alteration,
drive away dumps, and cheer up the heart." Ant. Guianerius, in his
Antidotary, hath many such. [4137]Jacobus de Dondis the aggregator, repeats
ambergris, nutmegs, and allspice amongst the rest. But that cannot be
general. Amber and spice will make a hot brain mad, good for cold and
moist. Garcias ab Horto hath many Indian plants, whose virtues he much
magnifies in this disease. Lemnius, _instit. cap. 58._ admires rue, and
commends it to have excellent virtue, [4138]"to expel vain imaginations,
devils, and to ease afflicted souls." Other things are much magnified
[4139]by writers, as an old cock, a ram's head, a wolf's heart borne or
eaten, which Mercurialis approves; Prosper Altinus the water of Nilus;
Gomesius all seawater, and at seasonable times to be seasick: goat's milk,
whey, &c.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Precious Stones, Metals, Minerals, Alteratives_.
Precious stones are diversely censured; many explode the use of them or any
minerals in physic, of whom Thomas Erastus is the chief, in his tract
against Paracelsus, and in an epistle of his to Peter Monavius, [4140]
"That stones can work any wonders, let them believe that list, no man shall
persuade me; for my part, I have found by experience there is no virtue in
them." But Matthiolus, in his comment upon [4141]Dioscorides, is as profuse
on the other side, in their commendation; so is Cardan, Renodeus, Alardus,
Rueus, Encelius, Marbodeus, &c. [4142]Matthiolus specifies in coral: and
Oswaldus Crollius, _Basil. Chym_. prefers the salt of coral.
[4143]Christoph. Encelius, _lib. 3. cap. 131._ will have them to be as so
many several medicines against melancholy, sorrow, fear, dullness, and the
like; [4144]Renodeus admires them, "besides they adorn kings' crowns, grace
the fingers, enrich our household stuff, defend us from enchantments,
preserve health, cure diseases, they drive away grief, cares, and
exhilarate the mind." The particulars be these.
Granatus, a precious stone so called, because it is like the kernels of a
pomegranate, an imperfect kind of ruby, it comes from Calecut; [4145]"if
hung about the neck, or taken in drink, it much resisteth sorrow, and
recreates the heart." The same properties I find ascribed to the hyacinth
and topaz. [4146]They allay anger, grief, diminish madness, much delight
and exhilarate the mind. [4147]"If it be either carried about, or taken in
a potion, it will increase wisdom," saith Cardan, "expel fear; he brags
that he hath cured many madmen with it, which, when they laid by the stone,
were as mad again as ever they were at first." Petrus Bayerus, _lib. 2.
cap. 13. veni mecum_, Fran. Rueus, _cap. 19. de geminis_, say as much of
the chrysolite, [4148]a friend of wisdom, an enemy to folly. Pliny, _lib.
37._ Solinus, _cap. 52._ Albertus _de Lapid._ Cardan. Encelius, _lib. 3.
cap. 66._ highly magnifies the virtue of the beryl, [4149]"it much avails
to a good understanding, represseth vain conceits, evil thoughts, causeth
mirth," &c. In the belly of a swallow there is a stone found called
chelidonius, [4150]"which if it be lapped in a fair cloth, and tied to the
right arm, will cure lunatics, madmen, make them amiable and merry."
There is a kind of onyx called a chalcedony, which hath the same qualities,
[4151]"avails much against fantastic illusions which proceed from
melancholy," preserves the vigour and good estate of the whole body.
The Eban stone, which goldsmiths use to sleeken their gold with, borne
about or given to drink, [4152]hath the same properties, or not much
unlike.
Levinus Lemnius, _Institui. ad vit. cap. 58._ amongst other jewels, makes
mention of two more notable; carbuncle and coral, [4153]"which drive away
childish fears, devils, overcome sorrow, and hung about the neck repress
troublesome dreams," which properties almost Cardan gives to that
green-coloured [4154]emmetris if it be carried about, or worn in a ring;
Rueus to the diamond.
Nicholas Cabeus, a Jesuit of Ferrara, in the first book of his Magnetical
Philosophy, _cap. 3._ speaking of the virtues of a loadstone, recites many
several opinions; some say that if it be taken in parcels inward, _si quis
per frustra voret, juventutem restituet_, it will, like viper's wine,
restore one to his youth; and yet if carried about them, others will have
it to cause melancholy; let experience determine.
Mercurialis admires the emerald for its virtues in pacifying all affections
of the mind; others the sapphire, which is "the [4155]fairest of all
precious stones, of sky colour, and a great enemy to black choler, frees
the mind, mends manners," &c. Jacobus de Dondis, in his catalogue of
simples, hath ambergris, _os in corde cervi_, [4156]the bone in a stag's
heart, a monocerot's horn, bezoar's stone [4157](of which elsewhere), it is
found in the belly of a little beast in the East Indies, brought into
Europe by Hollanders, and our countrymen merchants. Renodeus, _cap. 22.
lib. 3. de ment. med_. saith he saw two of these beasts alive, in the
castle of the Lord of Vitry at Coubert.
Lapis lazuli and armenus, because they purge, shall be mentioned in their
place.
Of the rest in brief thus much I will add out of Cardan, Renodeus, _cap.
23. lib. 3._ Rondoletius, _lib. 1. de Testat. c. 15. &c._ [4158]"That
almost all jewels and precious stones have excellent virtues" to pacify the
affections of the mind, for which cause rich men so much covet to have
them: [4159]"and those smaller unions which are found in shells amongst the
Persians and Indians, by the consent of all writers, are very cordial, and
most part avail to the exhilaration of the heart."
_Minerals._] Most men say as much of gold and some other minerals, as these
have done of precious stones. Erastus still maintains the opposite part.
_Disput. in Paracelsum. cap. 4. fol. 196._ he confesseth of gold, [4160]
"that it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a
miser's chest:" _at mihi plaudo simul ac nummos contemplor in arca_, as he
said in the poet, it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent recipe
against melancholy,
[4161] _For gold in physic is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special._
_Aurum potabile_, [4162]he discommends and inveighs against it, by reason
of the corrosive waters which are used in it: which argument our Dr. Guin
urgeth against D. Antonius. [4163]Erastus concludes their philosophical
stones and potable gold, &c. "to be no better than poison," a mere
imposture, a _non ens_; dug out of that broody hill belike this golden
stone is, _ubi nascetur ridiculus mus_. Paracelsus and his chemistical
followers, as so many Promethei, will fetch fire from heaven, will cure all
manner of diseases with minerals, accounting them the only physic on the
other side. [4164]Paracelsus calls Galen, Hippocrates, and all their
adherents, infants, idiots, sophisters, &c. _Apagesis istos qui Vulcanias
istas metamorphoses sugillant, inscitiae soboles, supinae pertinaciae
alumnos_, &c., not worthy the name of physicians, for want of these
remedies: and brags that by them he can make a man live 160 years, or to
the world's end, with their [4165]_Alexipharmacums, Panaceas, Mummias,
unguentum Armarium_, and such magnetical cures, _Lampas vitae et mortis,
Balneum Dianae, Balsamum, Electrum Magico-physicum, Amuleta Martialia_, &c.
What will not he and his followers effect? He brags, moreover, that he was
_primus medicorum_, and did more famous cures than all the physicians in
Europe besides, [4166]"a drop of his preparations should go farther than a
dram, or ounce of theirs," those loathsome and fulsome filthy potions,
heteroclitical pills (so he calls them), horse medicines, _ad quoram
aspectum Cyclops Polyphemus exhorresceret_. And though some condemn their
skill and magnetical cures as tending to magical superstition, witchery,
charms, &c., yet they admire, stiffly vindicate nevertheless, and
infinitely prefer them. But these are both in extremes, the middle sort
approve of minerals, though not in so high a degree. Lemnius _lib. 3. cap.
6. de occult. nat. mir_. commends gold inwardly and outwardly used, as in
rings, excellent good in medicines; and such mixtures as are made for
melancholy men, saith Wecker, _antid. spec. lib. 1._ to whom Renodeus
subscribes, _lib. 2. cap. 2._ Ficinus, _lib. 2. cap. 19._ Fernel. _meth.
med. lib. 5. cap. 21. de Cardiacis_. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. part. 2.
cap. 9._ Audernacus, Libavius, Quercetanus, Oswaldus Crollius, Euvonymus,
Rubeus, and Matthiolus in the fourth book of his Epistles, Andreas a Blawen
_epist. ad Matthiolum_, as commended and formerly used by Avicenna,
Arnoldus, and many others: [4167]Matthiolus in the same place approves of
potable gold, mercury, with many such chemical confections, and goes so far
in approbation of them, that he holds [4168] "no man can be an excellent
physician that hath not some skill in chemistical distillations, and that
chronic diseases can hardly be cured without mineral medicines:" look for
antimony among purgers.
SUBSECT. V.--_Compound Alteratives; censure of Compounds, and mixed
Physic_.
Pliny, _lib. 24. c. 1_, bitterly taxeth all compound medicines, [4169]
"Men's knavery, imposture, and captious wits, have invented those shops, in
which every man's life is set to sale: and by and by came in those
compositions and inexplicable mixtures, far-fetched out of India and
Arabia; a medicine for a botch must be had as far as the Red Sea." And 'tis
not without cause which he saith; for out of question they are much to
[4170]blame in their compositions, whilst they make infinite variety of
mixtures, as [4171]Fuchsius notes. "They think they get themselves great
credit, excel others, and to be more learned than the rest, because they
make many variations; but he accounts them fools, and whilst they brag of
their skill, and think to get themselves a name, they become ridiculous,
betray their ignorance and error." A few simples well prepared and
understood, are better than such a heap of nonsense, confused compounds,
which are in apothecaries' shops ordinarily sold. "In which many vain,
superfluous, corrupt, exolete, things out of date are to be had" (saith
Cornarius); "a company of barbarous names given to syrups, juleps, an
unnecessary company of mixed medicines;" _rudis indigestaque moles_. Many
times (as Agrippa taxeth) there is by this means [4172]"more danger from
the medicine than from the disease," when they put together they know not
what, or leave it to an illiterate apothecary to be made, they cause death
and horror for health. Those old physicians had no such mixtures; a simple
potion of hellebore in Hippocrates' time was the ordinary purge; and at
this day, saith [4173]Mat. Riccius, in that flourishing commonwealth of
China, "their physicians give precepts quite opposite to ours, not unhappy
in their physic; they use altogether roots, herbs, and simples in their
medicines, and all their physic in a manner is comprehended in a herbal: no
science, no school, no art, no degree, but like a trade, every man in
private is instructed of his master." [4174]Cardan cracks that he can cure
all diseases with water alone, as Hippocrates of old did most infirmities
with one medicine. Let the best of our rational physicians demonstrate and
give a sufficient reason for those intricate mixtures, why just so many
simples in mithridate or treacle, why such and such quantity; may they not
be reduced to half or a quarter? _Frustra fit per plura_ (as the saying is)
_quod fieri potest per pauciora_; 300 simples in a julep, potion, or a
little pill, to what end or purpose? I know not what [4175]Alkindus,
Capivaccius, Montagna, and Simon Eitover, the best of them all and most
rational, have said in this kind; but neither he, they, nor any one of
them, gives his reader, to my judgment, that satisfaction which he ought;
why such, so many simples? Rog. Bacon hath taxed many errors in his tract
_de graduationibus_, explained some things, but not cleared. Mercurialis in
his book _de composit. medicin._ gives instance in Hamech, and Philonium
Romanum, which Hamech an Arabian, and Philonius a Roman, long since
composed, but _crasse_ as the rest. If they be so exact, as by him it seems
they were, and those mixtures so perfect, why doth Fernelius alter the one,
and why is the other obsolete? [4176]Cardan taxeth Galen for presuming out
of his ambition to correct Theriachum Andromachi, and we as justly may carp
at all the rest. Galen's medicines are now exploded and rejected; what
Nicholas Meripsa, Mesue, Celsus, Scribanius, Actuarius, &c. writ of old,
are most part contemned. Mellichius, Cordus, Wecker, Quercetan, Renodeus,
the Venetian, Florentine states have their several receipts, and
magistrals: they of Nuremberg have theirs, and Augustana Pharmacopoeia,
peculiar medicines to the meridian of the city: London hers, every city,
town, almost every private man hath his own mixtures, compositions,
receipts, magistrals, precepts, as if he scorned antiquity, and all others
in respect of himself. But each man must correct and alter to show his
skill, every opinionative fellow must maintain his own paradox, be it what
it will; _Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi_: they dote, and in the
meantime the poor patients pay for their new experiments, the commonalty
rue it.
Thus others object, thus I may conceive out of the weakness of my
apprehension; but to say truth, there is no such fault, no such ambition,
no novelty, or ostentation, as some suppose; but as [4177]one answers, this
of compound medicines, "is a most noble and profitable invention found out,
and brought into physic with great judgment, wisdom, counsel and
discretion." Mixed diseases must have mixed remedies, and such simples are
commonly mixed as have reference to the part affected, some to qualify, the
rest to comfort, some one part, some another. Cardan and Brassavola both
hold that _Nullum simplex medicamentum sine noxa_, no simple medicine is
without hurt or offence; and although Hippocrates, Erasistratus, Diocles of
old, in the infancy of this art, were content with ordinary simples: yet
now, saith [4178]Aetius, "necessity compelleth to seek for new remedies,
and to make compounds of simples, as well to correct their harms if cold,
dry, hot, thick, thin, insipid, noisome to smell, to make them savoury to
the palate, pleasant to taste and take, and to preserve them for
continuance, by admixtion of sugar, honey, to make them last months and
years for several uses." In such cases, compound medicines may be approved,
and Arnoldus in his 18. aphorism, doth allow of it. [4179]"If simples
cannot, necessity compels us to use compounds;" so for receipts and
magistrals, _dies diem docet_, one day teacheth another, and they are as so
many words or phrases, _Que nunc sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus_,
ebb and flow with the season, and as wits vary, so they may be infinitely
varied. _Quisque suum placitum quo capiatur habet._ "Every man as he likes,
so many men so many minds," and yet all tending to good purpose, though not
the same way. As arts and sciences, so physic is still perfected amongst
the rest; _Horae musarum nutrices_, and experience teacheth us every day
[4180]many things which our predecessors knew not of. Nature is not effete,
as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath
reserved some for posterity, to show her power, that she is still the same,
and not old or consumed. Birds and beasts can cure themselves by nature,
[4181]_naturae usu ea plerumque cognoscunt quae homines vix longo labore et
doctrina assequuntur_, but "men must use much labour and industry to find
it out." But I digress.
Compound medicines are inwardly taken, or outwardly applied. Inwardly
taken, be either liquid or solid: liquid, are fluid or consisting. Fluid,
as wines and syrups. The wines ordinarily used to this disease are wormwood
wine, tamarisk, and buglossatum, wine made of borage and bugloss, the
composition of which is specified in Arnoldus Villanovanus, _lib. de
vinis_, of borage, balm, bugloss, cinnamon, &c. and highly commended for
its virtues: [4182]"it drives away leprosy, scabs, clears the blood,
recreates the spirits, exhilarates the mind, purgeth the brain of those
anxious black melancholy fumes, and cleanseth the whole body of that black
humour by urine. To which I add," saith Villanovanus, "that it will bring
madmen, and such raging bedlamites as are tied in chains, to the use of
their reason again. My conscience bears me witness, that I do not lie, I
saw a grave matron helped by this means; she was so choleric, and so
furious sometimes, that she was almost mad, and beside herself; she said,
and did she knew not what, scolded, beat her maids, and was now ready to be
bound till she drank of this borage wine, and by this excellent remedy was
cured, which a poor foreigner, a silly beggar, taught her by chance, that
came to crave an alms from door to door." The juice of borage, if it be
clarified, and drunk in wine, will do as much, the roots sliced and
steeped, &c. saith Ant. Mizaldus, _art. med._ who cities this story
verbatim out of Villanovanus, and so doth Magninus a physician of Milan, in
his regimen of health. Such another excellent compound water I find in
Rubeus _de distill. sect. 3._ which he highly magnifies out of Savanarola,
[4183]"for such as are solitary, dull, heavy or sad without a cause, or be
troubled with trembling of heart." Other excellent compound waters for
melancholy, he cites in the same place. [4184]"If their melancholy be not
inflamed, or their temperature over-hot." Evonimus hath a precious
_aquavitae_ to this purpose, for such as are cold. But he and most commend
_aurum potabile_, and every writer prescribes clarified whey, with borage,
bugloss, endive, succory, &c. of goat's milk especially, some indefinitely
at all times, some thirty days together in the spring, every morning
fasting, a good draught. Syrups are very good, and often used to digest
this humour in the heart, spleen, liver, &c. As syrup of borage (there is a
famous syrup of borage highly commended by Laurentius to this purpose in
his tract of melancholy), _de pomis_ of king Sabor, now obsolete, of thyme
and epithyme, hops, scolopendria, fumitory, maidenhair, bizantine, &c.
These are most used for preparatives to other physic, mixed with distilled
waters of like nature, or in juleps otherwise.
Consisting, are conserves or confections; conserves of borage, bugloss,
balm, fumitory, succory, maidenhair, violets, roses, wormwood, &c.
Confections, treacle, mithridate, eclegms, or linctures, &c. Solid, as
aromatical confections: hot, _diambra, diamargaritum calidum, dianthus,
diamoschum dulce, electuarium de gemmis laetificans Galeni et Rhasis,
diagalanga, diaciminum dianisum, diatrion piperion, diazinziber, diacapers,
diacinnamonum_: Cold, as _diamargaritum frigidum, diacorolli, diarrhodon
abbatis, diacodion_, &c. as every _pharmacopoeia_ will show you, with their
tables or losings that are made out of them: with condites and the like.
Outwardly used as occasion serves, as amulets, oils hot and cold, as of
camomile, staechados, violets, roses, almonds, poppy, nymphea, mandrake,
&c. to be used after bathing, or to procure sleep.
Ointments composed of the said species, oils and wax, &c., as
_Alablastritum Populeum_, some hot, some cold, to moisten, procure sleep,
and correct other accidents.
Liniments are made of the same matter to the like purpose: emplasters of
herbs, flowers, roots, &c., with oils, and other liquors mixed and boiled
together.
Cataplasms, salves, or poultices made of green herbs, pounded, or sod in
water till they be soft, which are applied to the hypochondries, and other
parts, when the body is empty.
Cerotes are applied to several parts and frontals, to take away pain,
grief, heat, procure sleep. Fomentations or sponges, wet in some
decoctions, &c., epithemata, or those moist medicines, laid on linen, to
bathe and cool several parts misaffected.
Sacculi, or little bags of herbs, flowers, seeds, roots, and the like,
applied to the head, heart, stomach, &c., odoraments, balls, perfumes,
posies to smell to, all which have their several uses in melancholy, as
shall be shown, when I treat of the cure of the distinct species by
themselves.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Purging Simples upward_.
Melanagoga, or melancholy purging medicines, are either simple or compound,
and that gently, or violently, purging upward or downward. These following
purge upward. [4185]Asarum, or Asrabecca, which, as Mesue saith, is hot in
the second degree, and dry in the third, "it is commonly taken in wine,
whey," or as with us, the juice of two or three leaves or more sometimes,
pounded in posset drink qualified with a little liquorice, or aniseed, to
avoid the fulsomeness of the taste, or as _Diaserum Fernelii_. Brassivola
_in Catart_. reckons it up amongst those simples that only purge
melancholy, and Ruellius confirms as much out of his experience, that it
purgeth [4186]black choler, like hellebore itself. Galen, _lib. G.
simplic_. and [4187]Matthiolus ascribe other virtues to it, and will have
it purge other humours as well as this.
Laurel, by Heurnius's method, _ad prax. lib. 2. cap. 24._ is put amongst
the strong purgers of melancholy; it is hot and dry in the fourth degree.
Dioscorides, _lib. 11. cap. 114._ adds other effects to it. [4188]Pliny
sets down fifteen berries in drink for a sufficient potion: it is commonly
corrected with his opposites, cold and moist, as juice of endive, purslane,
and is taken in a potion to seven grains and a half. But this and
asrabecca, every gentlewoman in the country knows how to give, they are two
common vomits.
Scilla, or sea-onion, is hot and dry in the third degree. Brassivola _in
Catart_. out of Mesue, others, and his own experience, will have this
simple to purge [4189]melancholy alone. It is an ordinary vomit, _vinum
scilliticum_ mixed with rubel in a little white wine.
White hellebore, which some call sneezing-powder, a strong purger upward,
which many reject, as being too violent: Mesue and Averroes will not admit
of it, [4190]"by reason of danger of suffocation," [4191]"great pain and
trouble it puts the poor patient to," saith Dodonaeus. Yet Galen, _lib. 6.
simpl. med._ and Dioscorides, _cap. 145._ allow of it. It was indeed [4192]
"terrible in former times," as Pliny notes, but now familiar, insomuch that
many took it in those days, [4193]"that were students, to quicken their
wits," which Persius _Sat. 1._ objects to Accius the poet, _Illas Acci
ebria veratro_. [4194]"It helps melancholy, the falling sickness, madness,
gout, &c., but not to be taken of old men, youths, such as are weaklings,
nice, or effeminate, troubled with headache, high-coloured, or fear
strangling," saith Dioscorides. [4195]Oribasius, an old physician, hath
written very copiously, and approves of it, "in such affections which can
otherwise hardly be cured." Hernius, _lib. 2. prax. med. de vomitoriis_,
will not have it used [4196]"but with great caution, by reason of its
strength, and then when antimony will do no good," which caused Hermophilus
to compare it to a stout captain (as Codroneus observes _cap. 7. comment.
de Helleb._) that will see all his soldiers go before him and come _post
principia_, like the bragging soldier, last himself; [4197]when other helps
fail in inveterate melancholy, in a desperate case, this vomit is to be
taken. And yet for all this, if it be well prepared, it may be [4198]
securely given at first. [4199]Matthiolus brags, that he hath often, to the
good of many, made use of it, and Heurnius, [4200]"that he hath happily
used it, prepared after his own prescript," and with good success.
Christophorus a Vega, _lib. 3. c. 41_, is of the same opinion, that it may
be lawfully given; and our country gentlewomen find it by their common
practice, that there is no such great danger in it. Dr. Turner, speaking of
this plant in his Herbal, telleth us, that in his time it was an ordinary
receipt among good wives, to give hellebore in powder to ii'd weight, and
he is not much against it. But they do commonly exceed, for who so bold as
blind Bayard, and prescribe it by pennyworths, and such irrational ways, as
I have heard myself market folks ask for it in an apothecary's shop: but
with what success God knows; they smart often for their rash boldness and
folly, break a vein, make their eyes ready to start out of their heads, or
kill themselves. So that the fault is not in the physic, but in the rude
and indiscreet handling of it. He that will know, therefore, when to use,
how to prepare it aright, and in what dose, let him read Heurnius _lib. 2.
prax. med_. Brassivola _de Catart_. Godefridus Stegius the emperor
Rudolphus' physician, _cap. 16._ Matthiolus in Dioscor. and that excellent
commentary of Baptista Codroncus, which is _instar omnium de Helleb. alb._
where we shall find great diversity of examples and receipts.
Antimony or stibium, which our chemists so much magnify, is either taken in
substance or infusion, &c., and frequently prescribed in this disease. "It
helps all infirmities," saith [4201]Matthiolus, "which proceed from black
choler, falling sickness, and hypochondriacal passions;" and for farther
proof of his assertion, he gives several instances of such as have been
freed with it: [4202]one of Andrew Gallus, a physician of Trent, that after
many other essays, "imputes the recovery of his health, next after God, to
this remedy alone." Another of George Handshius, that in like sort, when
other medicines failed, [4203]"was by this restored to his former health,
and which of his knowledge others have likewise tried, and by the help of
this admirable medicine, been recovered." A third of a parish priest at
Prague in Bohemia, [4204]"that was so far gone with melancholy, that he
doted, and spake he knew not what; but after he had taken twelve grains of
stibium, (as I myself saw, and can witness, for I was called to see this
miraculous accident) he was purged of a deal of black choler, like little
gobbets of flesh, and all his excrements were as black blood (a medicine
fitter for a horse than a man), yet it did him so much good, that the next
day he was perfectly cured." This very story of the Bohemian priest,
Sckenkius relates _verbatim, Exoter. experiment. ad. var. morb. cent. 6.
observ. 6._ with great approbation of it. Hercules de Saxonia calls it a
profitable medicine, if it be taken after meat to six or eight grains, of
such as are apt to vomit. Rodericus a Fonseca the Spaniard, and late
professor of Padua in Italy, extols it to this disease, Tom. 2. consul. 85.
so doth Lod. Mercatus _de inter. morb. cur. lib. 1. cap. 17._ with many
others. Jacobus Gervinus a French physician, on the other side, _lib. 2. de
venemis confut._ explodes all this, and saith he took three grains only
upon Matthiolus and some others' commendation, but it almost killed him,
whereupon he concludes, [4205]"antimony is rather poison than a medicine."
Th. Erastus concurs with him in his opinion, and so doth Aelian Montaltus
_cap. 30 de melan._ But what do I talk? 'tis the subject of whole books; I
might cite a century of authors _pro_ and _con_. I will conclude with
[4206]Zuinger, antimony is like Scanderbeg's sword, which is either good or
bad, strong or weak, as the party is that prescribes, or useth it: "a
worthy medicine if it be rightly applied to a strong man, otherwise
poison." For the preparing of it, look in _Evonimi thesaurus_, Quercetan,
Oswaldus Crollius, Basil. _Chim. Basil._ Valentius, &c.
Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all
the panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher's stones, a sovereign remedy to
all diseases. A good vomit, I confess, a virtuous herb, if it be well
qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly
abused by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a
mischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish and
damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.
SUBSECT. II.--_Simples purging Melancholy downward_.
Polypody and epithyme are, without all exceptions, gentle purgers of
melancholy. Dioscorides will have them void phlegm; but Brassivola out of
his experience averreth, that they purge this humour; they are used in
decoction, infusion, &c. simple, mixed, &c.
Mirabolanes, all five kinds, are happily [4207]prescribed against
melancholy and quartan agues; Brassivola speaks out [4208]"of a thousand"
experiences, he gave them in pills, decoctions, &c., look for peculiar
receipts in him.
Stoechas, fumitory, dodder, herb mercury, roots of capers, genista or
broom, pennyroyal and half-boiled cabbage, I find in this catalogue of
purgers of black choler, origan, featherfew, ammoniac [4209]salt,
saltpetre. But these are very gentle; alyppus, dragon root, centaury,
ditany, colutea, which Fuchsius _cap. 168_ and others take for senna, but
most distinguish. Senna is in the middle of violent and gentle purgers
downward, hot in the second degree, dry in the first. Brassivola calls it
[4210]"a wonderful herb against melancholy, it scours the blood, lightens
the spirits, shakes off sorrow, a most profitable medicine," as [4211]
Dodonaeus terms it, invented by the Arabians, and not heard of before. It
is taken diverse ways, in powder, infusion, but most commonly in the
infusion, with ginger, or some cordial flowers added to correct it.
Actuarius commends it sodden in broth, with an old cock, or in whey, which
is the common conveyor of all such things as purge black choler; or steeped
in wine, which Heurnius accounts sufficient, without any farther
correction.
Aloes by most is said to purge choler, but Aurelianus _lib. 2. c. 6. de
morb. chron._ Arculanus _cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis_ Julius Alexandrinus,
_consil. 185._ Scoltz. Crato _consil 189._ Scoltz. prescribe it to this
disease; as good for the stomach and to open the haemorrhoids, out of
Mesue, Rhasis, Serapio, Avicenna: Menardus _ep. lib. 1. epist. 1._ opposeth
it, aloes [4212]"doth not open the veins," or move the haemorrhoids, which
Leonhartus Fuchsius _paradox. lib. 1._ likewise affirms; but Brassivola and
Dodonaeus defend Mesue out of their experience; let [4213]Valesius end the
controversy.
Lapis armenus and lazuli are much magnified by [4214]Alexander _lib. 1.
cap. 16._ Avicenna, Aetius, and Actuarius, if they be well washed, that the
water be no more coloured, fifty times some say. [4215]"That good
Alexander" (saith Guianerus) "puts such confidence in this one medicine,
that he thought all melancholy passions might be cured by it; and I for my
part have oftentimes happily used it, and was never deceived in the
operation of it." The like may be said of lapis lazuli, though it be
somewhat weaker than the other. Garcias ab Horto, _hist. lib. 1. cap. 65._
relates, that the [4216]physicians of the Moors familiarly prescribe it to
all melancholy passions, and Matthiolus _ep. lib. 3._ [4217]brags of that
happy success which he still had in the administration of it. Nicholas
Meripsa puts it amongst the best remedies, _sect. 1. cap. 12._ in
Antidotis; [4218]"and if this will not serve" (saith Rhasis) "then there
remains nothing but lapis armenus and hellebore itself." Valescus and Jason
Pratensis much commend pulvis hali, which is made of it. James Damascen.
_2. cap. 12._ Hercules de Saxonia, &c., speaks well of it. Crato will not
approve this; it and both hellebores, he saith, are no better than poison.
Victor Trincavelius, _lib. 2. cap. 14_, found it in his experience,
[4219]"to be very noisome, to trouble the stomach, and hurt their bodies
that take it overmuch."
Black hellebore, that most renowned plant, and famous purger of melancholy,
which all antiquity so much used and admired, was first found out by
Melanpodius a shepherd, as Pliny records, _lib. 25. cap. 5._ [4220]who,
seeing it to purge his goats when they raved, practised it upon Elige and
Calene, King Praetus' daughters, that ruled in Arcadia, near the fountain
Clitorius, and restored them to their former health. In Hippocrates's time
it was in only request, insomuch that he writ a book of it, a fragment of
which remains yet. Theophrastus, [4221]Galen, Pliny, Caelius Aurelianus, as
ancient as Galen, _lib. 1, cap. 6._ Aretus _lib. 1. cap. 5._ Oribasius
_lib. 7. collect._ a famous Greek, Aetius _ser. 3. cap. 112 & 113 p._
Aegineta, Galen's Ape, _lib. 7. cap. 4._ Actuarius, Trallianus _lib. 5.
cap. 15._ Cornelius Celsus only remaining of the old Latins, _lib. 3. cap.
23_, extol and admire this excellent plant; and it was generally so much
esteemed of the ancients for this disease amongst the rest, that they sent
all such as were crazed, or that doted, to the Anticyrae, or to Phocis in
Achaia, to be purged, where this plant was in abundance to be had. In
Strabo's time it was an ordinary voyage, _Naviget Anticyras_; a common
proverb among the Greeks and Latins, to bid a dizzard or a mad man go take
hellebore; as in Lucian, Menippus to Tantalus, _Tantale desipis, helleboro
epoto tibi opus est, eoque sane meraco_, thou art out of thy little wit, O
Tantalus, and must needs drink hellebore, and that without mixture.
Aristophanes _in Vespis_, drink hellebore, &c. and Harpax in the [4222]
Comoedian, told Simo and Ballio, two doting fellows, that they had need to
be purged with this plant. When that proud Menacrates [Greek: o zeus], had
writ an arrogant letter to Philip of Macedon, he sent back no other answer
but this, _Consulo tibi ut ad Anticyram te conferas_, noting thereby that
he was crazed, _atque ellebore indigere_, had much need of a good purge.
Lilius Geraldus saith, that Hercules, after all his mad pranks upon his
wife and children, was perfectly cured by a purge of hellebore, which an
Anticyrian administered unto him. They that were sound commonly took it to
quicken their wits, (as Ennis of old, [4223]_Qui non nisi potus ad
arma--prosiluit dicenda_, and as our poets drink sack to improve their
inventions (I find it so registered by Agellius _lib. 17. cap. 15._)
Cameades the academic, when he was to write against Zeno the stoic, purged
himself with hellebore first, which [4224]Petronius puts upon Chrysippus.
In such esteem it continued for many ages, till at length Mesue and some
other Arabians began to reject and reprehend it, upon whose authority for
many following lustres, it was much debased and quite out of request, held
to be poison and no medicine; and is still oppugned to this day by [4225]
Crato and some junior physicians. Their reasons are, because Aristotle _l.
1. de plant. c. 3._ said, henbane and hellebore were poison; and Alexander
Aphrodiseus, in the preface of his problems, gave out, that (speaking of
hellebore) [4226]"Quails fed on that which was poison to men." Galen. _l.
6. Epid. com. 5. Text. 35._ confirms as much: [4227]Constantine the emperor
in his Geoponicks, attributes no other virtue to it, than to kill mice and
rats, flies and mouldwarps, and so Mizaldus, Nicander of old, Gervinus,
Sckenkius, and some other Neoterics that have written of poisons, speak of
hellebore in a chief place. [4228]Nicholas Leonicus hath a story of Solon,
that besieging, I know not what city, steeped hellebore in a spring of
water, which by pipes was conveyed into the middle of the town, and so
either poisoned, or else made them so feeble and weak by purging, that they
were not able to bear arms. Notwithstanding all these cavils and
objections, most of our late writers do much approve of it. [4229]
Gariopontus _lib. 1. cap. 13._ Codronchus _com. de helleb._ Fallopius _lib.
de med. purg. simpl. cap. 69. et consil. 15._ Trincavelii, Montanus 239.
Frisemelica _consil. 14._ Hercules de Saxonia, so that it be opportunely
given. Jacobus de Dondis, Agg. Amatus, Lucet. _cent. 66._ Godef. Stegius
_cap. 13._ Hollerius, and all our herbalists subscribe. Fernelius _meth.
med. lib. 5. cap. 16._ "confesseth it to be a [4230] terrible purge and
hard to take, yet well given to strong men, and such as have able bodies."
P. Forestus and Capivaccius forbid it to be taken in substance, but allow
it in decoction or infusion, both which ways P. Monavius approves above all
others, _Epist. 231. Scoltzii_, Jacchinus in _9. Rhasis_, commends a
receipt of his own preparing; Penottus another of his chemically prepared,
Evonimus another. Hildesheim _spicel. 2. de mel._ hath many examples how it
should be used, with diversity of receipts. Heurnius _lib. 7. prax. med.
cap. 14._ "calls it an [4231]innocent medicine howsoever, if it be well
prepared." The root of it is only in use, which may be kept many years, and
by some given in substance, as by Fallopius and Brassivola amongst the
rest, who [4232]brags that he was the first that restored it again to its
use, and tells a story how he cured one Melatasta, a madman, that was
thought to be possessed, in the Duke of Ferrara's court, with one purge of
black hellebore in substance: the receipt is there to be seen; his
excrements were like ink, [4233]he perfectly healed at once; Vidus Vidius,
a Dutch physician, will not admit of it in substance, to whom most
subscribe, but as before, in the decoction, infusion, or which is all in
all, in the extract, which he prefers before the rest, and calls _suave
medicamentum_, a sweet medicine, an easy, that may be securely given to
women, children, and weaklings. Baracellus, _horto geniali_, terms it
_maximae praestantia medicamentum_, a medicine of great worth and note.
Quercetan in his _Spagir Phar_. and many others, tell wonders of the
extract. Paracelsus, above all the rest, is the greatest admirer of this
plant; and especially the extract, he calls it _Theriacum, terrestre
Balsamum_, another treacle, a terrestrial balm, _instar omnium_, "all in
all, the [4234]sole and last refuge to cure this malady, the gout,
epilepsy, leprosy," &c. If this will not help, no physic in the world can
but mineral, it is the upshot of all. Matthiolus laughs at those that
except against it, and though some abhor it out of the authority of Mesue,
and dare not adventure to prescribe it, [4235]"yet I" (saith he) "have
happily used it six hundred times without offence, and communicated it to
divers worthy physicians, who have given me great thanks for it." Look for
receipts, dose, preparation, and other cautions concerning this simple, in
him, Brassivola, Baracelsus, Codronchus, and the rest.
SUBSECT. III.--_Compound Purgers_.
Compound medicines which purge melancholy, are either taken in the superior
or inferior parts: superior at mouth or nostrils. At the mouth swallowed or
not swallowed: If swallowed liquid or solid: liquid, as compound wine of
hellebore, scilla or sea-onion, senna, _Vinum Scilliticum, Helleboratum_,
which [4236]Quercetan so much applauds "for melancholy and madness, either
inwardly taken, or outwardly applied to the head, with little pieces of
linen dipped warm in it." _Oxymel. Scilliticum, Syrupus Helleboratus_ major
and minor in Quercetan, and _Syrupus Genistae_ for hypochondriacal
melancholy in the same author, compound syrup of succory, of fumitory,
polypody, &c. Heurnius his purging cock-broth. Some except against these
syrups, as appears by [4237]Udalrinus Leonoras his epistle to Matthiolus,
as most pernicious, and that out of Hippocrates, _cocta movere, et
medicari, non cruda_, no raw things to be used in physic; but this in the
following epistle is exploded and soundly confuted by Matthiolus: many
juleps, potions, receipts, are composed of these, as you shall find in
Hildesheim _spicel. 2._ Heurnius _lib. 2. cap. 14._ George Sckenkius _Ital.
med. prax._ &c.
Solid purges are confections, electuaries, pills by themselves, or compound
with others, as _de lapide lazulo, armeno, pil. indae, of fumitory_, &c.
Confection of Hamech, which though most approve, Solenander _sec. 5.
consil. 22._ bitterly inveighs against, so doth Rondoletius _Pharmacop.
officina_, Fernelius and others; diasena, diapolypodium, diacassia,
diacatholicon, Wecker's electuary de Epithymo, Ptolemy's hierologadium, of
which divers receipts are daily made.
Aetius _22. 23._ commends _Hieram Ruffi._ Trincavelius _consil. 12. lib.
4._ approves of hiera; _non, inquit, invenio melius medicamentum_, I find
no better medicine, he saith. Heurnius adds _pil. aggregat. pills de
Epithymo. pil. Ind._ Mesue describes in the _Florentine Antidotary_,
_Pilulae sine quibus esse nolo, Pilulae, Cochics, cum Helleboro, Pil.
Arabicae, Faetida, de quinque generibus mirabolanorum_, &c. More proper to
melancholy, not excluding in the meantime, turbith, manna, rhubarb, agaric,
elescophe, &c. which are not so proper to this humour. For, as Montaltus
holds _cap. 30._ and Montanus _cholera etiam purganda, quod atrae, sit
pabulum_, choler is to be purged because it feeds the other: and some are
of an opinion, as Erasistratus and Asclepiades maintained of old, against
whom Galen disputes, [4238]"that no physic doth purge one humour alone, but
all alike or what is next." Most therefore in their receipts and magistrals
which are coined here, make a mixture of several simples and compounds to
purge all humours in general as well as this. Some rather use potions than
pills to purge this humour, because that as Heurnius and Crato observe,
_hic succus a sicco remedio agre trahitur_, this juice is not so easily
drawn by dry remedies, and as Montanus adviseth _25 cons._ "All
[4239]drying medicines are to be repelled, as aloe, hiera," and all pills
whatsoever, because the disease is dry of itself.
I might here insert many receipts of prescribed potions, boles, &c. The
doses of these, but that they are common in every good physician, and that
I am loath to incur the censure of Forestus, _lib. 3. cap. 6. de urinis_,
[4240]"against those that divulge and publish medicines in their
mother-tongue," and lest I should give occasion thereby to some ignorant
reader to practise on himself, without the consent of a good physician.
Such as are not swallowed, but only kept in the mouth, are gargarisms used
commonly after a purge, when the body is soluble and loose. Or
apophlegmatisms, masticatories, to be held and chewed in the mouth, which
are gentle, as hyssop, origan, pennyroyal, thyme, mustard; strong, as
pellitory, pepper, ginger, &c.
Such as are taken into the nostrils, errhina are liquid or dry, juice of
pimpernel, onions, &c., castor, pepper, white hellebore, &c. To these you
may add odoraments, perfumes, and suffumigations, &c.
Taken into the inferior parts are clysters strong or weak, suppositories of
Castilian soap, honey boiled to a consistence; or stronger of scammony,
hellebore, &c.
These are all used, and prescribed to this malady upon several occasions,
as shall be shown in its place.
MEMB. III.
_Chirurgical Remedies_.
In letting of blood three main circumstances are to be considered, [4241]
"Who, how much, when." That is, that it be done to such a one as may endure
it, or to whom it may belong, that he be of a competent age, not too young,
nor too old, overweak, fat, or lean, sore laboured, but to such as have
need, are full of bad blood, noxious humours, and may be eased by it.
The quantity depends upon the party's habit of body, as he is strong or
weak, full or empty, may spare more or less.
In the morning is the fittest time: some doubt whether it be best fasting,
or full, whether the moon's motion or aspect of planets be to be observed;
some affirm, some deny, some grant in acute, but not in chronic diseases,
whether before or after physic. 'Tis Heurnius' aphorism _a phlebotomia
auspicandum esse curiationem, non a pharmacia_, you must begin with
bloodletting and not physic; some except this peculiar malady. But what do
I? Horatius Augenius, a physician of Padua, hath lately writ 17 books of
this subject, Jobertus, &c.
Particular kinds of bloodletting in use [4242]are three, first is that
opening a vein in the arm with a sharp knife, or in the head, knees, or any
other parts, as shall be thought fit.
Cupping-glasses with or without scarification, _ocyssime compescunt_, saith
Fernelius, they work presently, and are applied to several parts, to divert
humours, aches, winds, &c.
Horseleeches are much used in melancholy, applied especially to the
haemorrhoids. Horatius Augenius, _lib. 10. cap. 10._ Platerus _de mentis
alienat. cap. 3._ Altomarus, Piso, and many others, prefer them before any
evacuations in this kind.
[4243]Cauteries, or searing with hot irons, combustions, borings, lancings,
which, because they are terrible, _Dropax_ and _Sinapismus_ are invented by
plasters to raise blisters, and eating medicines of pitch, mustard-seed,
and the like.
Issues still to be kept open, made as the former, and applied in and to
several parts, have their use here on divers occasions, as shall be shown.
SECT. V. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Particular Cure of the three several Kinds; of Head
Melancholy_.
The general cures thus briefly examined and discussed, it remains now to
apply these medicines to the three particular species or kinds, that,
according to the several parts affected, each man may tell in some sort how
to help or ease himself. I will treat of head melancholy first, in which,
as in all other good cures, we must begin with diet, as a matter of most
moment, able oftentimes of itself to work this effect. I have read, saith
Laurentius, _cap. 8. de Melanch_. that in old diseases which have gotten
the upper hand or a habit, the manner of living is to more purpose, than
whatsoever can be drawn out of the most precious boxes of the apothecaries.
This diet, as I have said, is not only in choice of meat and drink, but of
all those other non-natural things. Let air be clear and moist most part:
diet moistening, of good juice, easy of digestion, and not windy: drink
clear, and well brewed, not too strong, nor too small. "Make a melancholy
man fat," as [4244]Rhasis saith, "and thou hast finished the cure."
Exercise not too remiss, nor too violent. Sleep a little more than
ordinary. [4245]Excrements daily to be voided by art or nature; and which
Fernelius enjoins his patient, _consil. 44_, above the rest, to avoid all
passions and perturbations of the mind. Let him not be alone or idle (in
any kind of melancholy), but still accompanied with such friends and
familiars he most affects, neatly dressed, washed, and combed, according to
his ability at least, in clean sweet linen, spruce, handsome, decent, and
good apparel; for nothing sooner dejects a man than want, squalor, and
nastiness, foul, or old clothes out of fashion. Concerning the medicinal
part, he that will satisfy himself at large (in this precedent of diet) and
see all at once the whole cure and manner of it in every distinct species,
let him consult with Gordonius, Valescus, with Prosper Calenius, _lib. de
atra bile ad Card._ Caesium, Laurentius, _cap. 8. et 9. de mela._ Aelian
Montaltus, _de mel. cap. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30._ Donat. ab Altomari, _cap. 7.
artis med_. Hercules de Saxonia, _in Panth. cap. 7. et Tract. ejus
peculiar. de melan. per Bolzetam, edit. Venetiis 1620. cap. 17. 18. 19._
Savanarola, _Rub. 82. Tract. 8. cap. 1._ Sckenkius, _in prax. curat. Ital.
med_. Heurnius, _cap. 12. de morb_. Victorius Faventius, _pract. Magn. et
Empir_. Hildesheim, _Spicel. 2. de man. et mel._ Fel. Plater, Stockerus,
Bruel. P. Baverus, Forestus, Fuchsius, Capivaccius, Rondoletius, Jason
Pratensis, Sullust. Salvian. _de remed. lib. 2. cap. 1._ Jacchinus, _in 9.
Rhasis_, Lod. Mercatus, _de Inter. morb. cur. lib. 1. cap. 17._ Alexan.
Messaria, _pract. med. lib. 1. cap. 21. de mel_. Piso. Hollerius, &c. that
have culled out of those old Greeks, Arabians, and Latins, whatsoever is
observable or fit to be used. Or let him read those counsels and
consultations of Hugo Senensis, _consil. 13. et 14._ Reinerus Solenander,
_consil. 6. sec. 1. et consil. 3. sec. 3._ Crato, _consil. 16. lib. 1._
Montanus 20. 22. and his following counsels, Laelius a Fonte Egubinus,
_consult. 44. 69. 77. 125. 129. 142._ Fernelius, _consil. 44. 45. 46._ Jul.
Caesar Claudinus, Mercurialis, Frambesarius, Sennertus, &c. Wherein he
shall find particular receipts, the whole method, preparatives, purgers,
correctors, averters, cordials in great variety and abundance: out of
which, because every man cannot attend to read or peruse them, I will
collect for the benefit of the reader, some few more notable medicines.
SUBSECT. II.--_Bloodletting_.
Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after physic, commonly before,
and upon occasion is often reiterated, if there be any need at least of it.
For Galen, and many others, make a doubt of bleeding at all in this kind of
head-melancholy. If the malady, saith Piso, _cap. 23._ and Altomarus, _cap.
7._ Fuchsius, _cap. 33._ [4246]"shall proceed primarily from the
misaffected brain, the patient in such case shall not need at all to bleed,
except the blood otherwise abound, the veins be full, inflamed blood, and
the party ready to run mad." In immaterial melancholy, which especially
comes from a cold distemperature of spirits, Hercules de Saxonia, _cap.
17._ will not admit of phlebotomy; Laurentius, _cap. 9_, approves it out of
the authority of the Arabians; but as Mesue, Rhasis, Alexander appoint,
[4247]"especially in the head," to open the veins of the forehead, nose and
ears is good. They commonly set cupping-glasses on the party's shoulders,
having first scarified the place, they apply horseleeches on the head, and
in all melancholy diseases, whether essential or accidental, they cause the
haemorrhoids to be opened, having the eleventh aphorism of the sixth book
of Hippocrates for their ground and warrant, which saith, "That in
melancholy and mad men, the varicose tumour or haemorrhoids appearing doth
heal the same." Valescus prescribes bloodletting in all three kinds, whom
Sallust. Salvian follows. [4248]"If the blood abound, which is discerned by
the fullness of the veins, his precedent diet, the party's laughter, age,
&c., begin with the median or middle vein of the arm; if the blood be ruddy
and clear, stop it, but if black in the spring time, or a good season, or
thick, let it run, according to the party's strength: and some eight or
twelve days after, open the head vein, and the veins in the forehead, or
provoke it out of the nostrils, or cupping-glasses," &c. Trallianus allows
of this, [4249]"If there have been any suppression or stopping of blood at
nose, or haemorrhoids, or women's months, then to open a vein in the head
or about the ankles." Yet he doth hardly approve of this course, if
melancholy be situated in the head alone, or in any other dotage,
[4250]"except it primarily proceed from blood, or that the malady be
increased by it; for bloodletting refrigerates and dries up, except the
body be very full of blood, and a kind of ruddiness in the face." Therefore
I conclude with Areteus, [4251]"before you let blood, deliberate of it,"
and well consider all circumstances belonging to it.
SUBSECT. III.--_Preparatives and Purgers_.
After bloodletting we must proceed to other medicines; first prepare, and
then purge, _Augeae stabulum purgare_, make the body clean before we hope
to do any good. Walter Bruel would have a practitioner begin first with a
clyster of his, which he prescribes before bloodletting: the common sort,
as Mercurialis, Montaltus _cap. 30._ &c. proceed from lenitives to
preparatives, and so to purgers. Lenitives are well known, _electuarium
lenitivum, diaphenicum diacatholicon_, &c. Preparatives are usually syrups
of borage, bugloss, apples, fumitory, thyme and epithyme, with double as
much of the same decoction or distilled water, or of the waters of bugloss,
balm, hops, endive, scolopendry, fumitory, &c. or these sodden in whey,
which must be reiterated and used for many days together. Purges come last,
"which must not be used at all, if the malady may be otherwise helped,"
because they weaken nature and dry so much, and in giving of them, [4252]
"we must begin with the gentlest first." Some forbid all hot medicines, as
Alexander, and Salvianus, &c. _Ne insaniores inde fiant_, hot medicines
increase the disease [4253]"by drying too much." Purge downward rather than
upward, use potions rather than pills, and when you begin physic, persevere
and continue in a course; for as one observes, [4254]_movere et non educere
in omnibus malum est_; to stir up the humour (as one purge commonly doth)
and not to prosecute, doth more harm than good. They must continue in a
course of physic, yet not so that they tire and oppress nature, _danda
quies naturae_, they must now and then remit, and let nature have some
rest. The most gentle purges to begin with, are [4255]senna, cassia,
epithyme, myrabolanea, catholicon: if these prevail not, we may proceed to
stronger, as the confection of hamech, pil. Indae, fumitoriae, de
assaieret, of lapis armenus and lazuli, diasena. Or if pills be too dry;
[4256]some prescribe both hellebores in the last place, amongst the rest
Aretus, [4257]"because this disease will resist a gentle medicine."
Laurentius and Hercules de Saxonia would have antimony tried last, "if the
[4258]party be strong, and it warily given." [4259]Trincavelius prefers
hierologodium, to whom Francis Alexander in his _Apol. rad. 5._ subscribes,
a very good medicine they account it. But Crato in a counsel of his, for
the duke of Bavaria's chancellor, wholly rejects it.
I find a vast chaos of medicines, a confusion of receipts and magistrals,
amongst writers, appropriated to this disease; some of the chiefest I will
rehearse. [4260]To be seasick first is very good at seasonable times.
Helleborismus Matthioli, with which he vaunts and boasts he did so many
several cures, [4261]"I never gave it" (saith he), "but after once or
twice, by the help of God, they were happily cured." The manner of making
it he sets down at large in his third book of Epist. to George Hankshius a
physician. Walter Bruel, and Heurnius, make mention of it with great
approbation; so doth Sckenkius in his memorable cures, and experimental
medicines, _cen. 6. obser. 37._ That famous Helleborisme of Montanus, which
he so often repeats in his consultations and counsels, as _28. pro. melan.
sacerdote, et consil. 148. pro hypochondriaco_, and cracks, [4262] "to be a
most sovereign remedy for all melancholy persons, which he hath often given
without offence, and found by long experience and observations to be such."
Quercetan prefers a syrup of hellebore in his _Spagirica Pharmac._ and
Hellebore's extract _cap. 5._ of his invention likewise ("a most safe
medicine and not unfit to be given children") before all remedies
whatsoever. [4263]
Paracelsus, in his book of black hellebore, admits this medicine, but as it
is prepared by him. [4264]"It is most certain" (saith he) "that the virtue
of this herb is great, and admirable in effect, and little differing from
balm itself; and he that knows well how to make use of it, hath more art
than all their books contain, or all the doctors in Germany can show."
Aelianus Montaltus in his exquisite work _de morb. capitis, cap. 31. de
mel._ sets a special receipt of his own, which, in his practice [4265]"he
fortunately used; because it is but short I will set it down."
"[Symbol: Rx]. Syrupe de pomis [Symbol: Ounce]ij, aquae borag.
[Symbol: Ounce]iiij. Ellebori nigri per noctem infusi in ligatura 6
vel 8 gr. mane facta collatura exhibe."
Other receipts of the same to this purpose you shall find in him. Valescus
admires _pulvis Hali_, and Jason Pratensis after him: the confection of
which our new London Pharmacopoeia hath lately revived. [4266]"Put case"
(saith he) "all other medicines fail, by the help of God this alone shall
do it, and 'tis a crowned medicine which must be kept in secret."
"[Symbol: Rx]. Epithymi semunc. lapidis lazuli, agarici ana [Symbol:
Ounce]ij. Scammnonii. [Symbol: Dram]j, Chariophillorum numero, 20
pulverisentur Omnia, et ipsius pulveris scrup. 4. singulis
septimanis assumat."
To these I may add _Arnoldi vinum Buglossalum_, or borage wine before
mentioned, which [4267]Mizaldus calls _vinum mirabile_, a wonderful wine,
and Stockerus vouchsafes to repeat verbatim amongst other receipts. Rubeus
his [4268]compound water out of Savanarola; Pinetus his balm; Cardan's
_Pulvis Hyacinthi_, with which, in his book _de curis admirandis_, he
boasts that he had cured many melancholy persons in eight days, which
[4269]Sckenkius puts amongst his observable medicines; Altomarus his syrup,
with which [4270]he calls God so solemnly to witness, he hath in his kind
done many excellent cures, and which Sckenkius _cent. 7. observ. 80._
mentioneth, Daniel Sennertus _lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 12._ so much commends;
Rulandus' admirable water for melancholy, which _cent. 2. cap. 96._ he
names _Spiritum vitae aureum, Panaceam_, what not, and his absolute
medicine of 50 eggs, _curat. Empir. cent. 1. cur. 5._ to be taken three in
a morning, with a powder of his. [4271]Faventinus _prac. Emper_. doubles
this number of eggs, and will have 101 to be taken by three and three in
like sort, which Sallust Salvian approves _de red. med. lib. 2. c. 1._ with
some of the same powder, till all be spent, a most excellent remedy for all
melancholy and mad men.
"[Symbol: Rx]. Epithymi, thymi, ana drachmas duas, sacchari albi
unciam unam, croci grana tria, Cinamomi drachmam unam; misce, fiat
pulvis."
All these yet are nothing to those [4272]chemical preparatives of _Aqua
Chalidonia_, quintessence of hellebore, salts, extracts, distillations,
oils, _Aurum potabile_, &c. Dr. Anthony in his book _de auro potab. edit.
1600._ is all in all for it. [4273]"And though all the schools of
Galenists, with a wicked and unthankful pride and scorn, detest it in their
practice, yet in more grievous diseases, when their vegetals will do no
good," they are compelled to seek the help of minerals, though they "use
them rashly, unprofitably, slackly, and to no purpose." Rhenanus, a Dutch
chemist, in his book _de Sale e puteo emergente_, takes upon him to
apologise for Anthony, and sets light by all that speak against him. But
what do I meddle with this great controversy, which is the subject of many
volumes? Let Paracelsus, Quercetan, Crollius, and the brethren of the rosy
cross, defend themselves as they may. Crato, Erastus, and the Galenists
oppugn Paracelsus, he brags on the other side, he did more famous cures by
this means, than all the Galenists in Europe, and calls himself a monarch;
Galen, Hippocrates, infants, illiterate, &c. As Thessalus of old railed
against those ancient Asclepiadean writers, [4274]"he condemns others,
insults, triumphs, overcomes all antiquity" (saith Galen as if he spake to
him) "declares himself a conqueror, and crowns his own doings. [4275]One
drop of their chemical preparatives shall do more good than all their
fulsome potions." Erastus, and the rest of the Galenists vilify them on the
other side, as heretics in physic; [4276]"Paracelsus did that in physic,
which Luther in Divinity. [4277]A drunken rogue he was, a base fellow, a
magician, he had the devil for his master, devils his familiar companions,
and what he did, was done by the help of the devil." Thus they contend and
rail, and every mart write books _pro_ and _con, et adhuc sub judice lis
est_: let them agree as they will, I proceed.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Averters_.
Averters and purgers must go together, as tending all to the same purpose,
to divert this rebellious humour, and turn it another way. In this range,
clysters and suppositories challenge a chief place, to draw this humour
from the brain and heart, to the more ignoble parts. Some would have them
still used a few days between, and those to be made with the boiled seeds
of anise, fennel, and bastard saffron, hops, thyme, epithyme, mallows,
fumitory, bugloss, polypody, senna, diasene, hamech, cassia, diacatholicon,
hierologodium, oil of violets, sweet almonds, &c. For without question, a
clyster opportunely used, cannot choose in this, as most other maladies,
but to do very much good; _Clysteres nutriunt_, sometimes clysters nourish,
as they may be prepared, as I was informed not long since by a learned
lecture of our natural philosophy [4278]reader, which he handled by way of
discourse, out of some other noted physicians. Such things as provoke urine
most commend, but not sweat. Trincavelius _consil. 16. cap. 1._ in
head-melancholy forbids it. P. Byarus and others approve frictions of the
outward parts, and to bathe them with warm water. Instead of ordinary
frictions, Cardan prescribes rubbing with nettles till they blister the
skin, which likewise [4279]Basardus Visontinus so much magnifies.
Sneezing, masticatories, and nasals are generally received. Montaltus _c.
34._ Hildesheim _spicel. 3. fol. 136 and 238._ give several receipts of all
three. Hercules de Saxonia relates of an empiric in Venice [4280]"that had
a strong water to purge by the mouth and nostrils, which he still used in
head-melancholy, and would sell for no gold."
To open months and haemorrhoids is very good physic, [4281]"If they have
been formerly stopped." Faventinus would have them opened with
horseleeches, so would Hercul. de Sax. Julius Alexandrinus _consil. 185.
Scoltzii_ thinks aloes fitter: [4282]most approve horseleeches in this
case, to be applied to the forehead, [4283]nostrils, and other places.
Montaltus _cap. 29._ out of Alexander and others, prescribes [4284]
"cupping-glasses, and issues in the left thigh." Aretus _lib. 7. cap. 5._
[4285]Paulus Regolinus, Sylvius will have them without scarification,
"applied to the shoulders and back, thighs and feet:" [4286]Montaltus _cap.
34._ "bids open an issue in the arm, or hinder part of the head."
[4287]Piso enjoins ligatures, frictions, suppositories, and
cupping-glasses, still without scarification, and the rest.
Cauteries and hot irons are to be used [4288]"in the suture of the crown,
and the seared or ulcerated place suffered to run a good while. 'Tis not
amiss to bore the skull with an instrument, to let out the fuliginous
vapours." Sallus. Salvianus _de re medic. lib. 2. cap. 1._ [4289]"because
this humour hardly yields to other physic, would have the leg cauterised,
or the left leg, below the knee, [4290]and the head bored in two or three
places," for that it much avails to the exhalation of the vapours; [4291]
"I saw" (saith he) "a melancholy man at Rome, that by no remedies could be
healed, but when by chance he was wounded in the head, and the skull
broken, he was excellently cured." Another, to the admiration of the
beholders, [4292]"breaking his head with a fall from on high, was instantly
recovered of his dotage." Gordonius _cap. 13. part. 2._ would have these
cauteries tried last, when no other physic will serve. [4293] "The head to
be shaved and bored to let out fumes, which without doubt will do much
good. I saw a melancholy man wounded in the head with a sword, his brainpan
broken; so long as the wound was open he was well, but when his wound was
healed, his dotage returned again." But Alexander Messaria a professor in
Padua, _lib. 1. pract. med. cap. 21. de melanchol_. will allow no cauteries
at all, 'tis too stiff a humour and too thick as he holds, to be so
evaporated.
Guianerius _c. 8. Tract. 15._ cured a nobleman in Savoy, by boring alone,
[4294]"leaving the hole open a month together," by means of which, after
two years' melancholy and madness, he was delivered. All approve of this
remedy in the suture of the crown; but Arculanus would have the cautery to
be made with gold. In many other parts, these cauteries are prescribed for
melancholy men, as in the thighs, (_Mercurialis consil. 86._) arms, legs.
_Idem consil. 6. & 19. & 25._ Montanus 86. Rodericus a Fonseca _tom. 2.
cousult. 84. pro hypochond. coxa dextra_, &c., but most in the head, "if
other physic will do no good."
SUBSECT. V.--_Alteratives and Cordials, corroborating, resolving the
Reliques, and mending the Temperament_.
Because this humour is so malign of itself, and so hard to be removed, the
reliques are to be cleansed, by alteratives, cordials, and such means: the
temper is to be altered and amended, with such things as fortify and
strengthen the heart and brain, [4295]"which are commonly both affected in
this malady, and do mutually misaffect one another:" which are still to be
given every other day, or some few days inserted after a purge, or like
physic, as occasion serves, and are of such force, that many times they
help alone, and as [4296]Arnoldus holds in his Aphorisms, are to be
"preferred before all other medicines, in what kind soever."
Amongst this number of cordials and alteratives, I do not find a more
present remedy, than a cup of wine or strong drink, if it be soberly and
opportunely used. It makes a man bold, hardy, courageous, [4297]"whetteth
the wit," if moderately taken, (and as Plutarch [4298]saith, _Symp. 7.
quaest. 12._) "it makes those which are otherwise dull, to exhale and
evaporate like frankincense, or quicken" (Xenophon adds) [4299]as oil doth
fire. [4300]"A famous cordial" Matthiolus in Dioscoridum calls it, "an
excellent nutriment to refresh the body, it makes a good colour, a
flourishing age, helps concoction, fortifies the stomach, takes away
obstructions, provokes urine, drives out excrements, procures sleep, clears
the blood, expels wind and cold poisons, attenuates, concocts, dissipates
all thick vapours, and fuliginous humours." And that which is all in all to
my purpose, it takes away fear and sorrow. [4301]_Curas edaces dissipat
Evius_. "It glads the heart of man," Psal. civ. 15. _hilaritatis dulce
seminarium_. Helena's bowl, the sole nectar of the gods, or that true
nepenthes in [4302]Homer, which puts away care and grief, as Oribasius _5.
Collect, cap. 7._ and some others will, was nought else but a cup of good
wine. "It makes the mind of the king and of the fatherless both one, of the
bond and freeman, poor and rich; it turneth all his thoughts to joy and
mirth, makes him remember no sorrow or debt, but enricheth his heart, and
makes him speak by talents," Esdras iii. 19, 20, 21. It gives life itself,
spirits, wit, &c. For which cause the ancients called Bacchus, _Liber pater
a liberando_, and [4303]sacrificed to Bacchus and Pallas still upon an
altar. [4304]"Wine measurably drunk, and in time, brings gladness and
cheerfulness of mind, it cheereth God and men," Judges ix. 13. _laetitiae
Bacchus dator_, it makes an old wife dance, and such as are in misery to
forget evil, and be [4305]merry.
"Bacchus et afflictis requiem mortalibus affert,
Crura licet duro compede vincta forent."
"Wine makes a troubled soul to rest,
Though feet with fetters be opprest."
Demetrius in Plutarch, when he fell into Seleucus's hands, and was prisoner
in Syria, [4306]"spent his time with dice and drink that he might so ease
his discontented mind, and avoid those continual cogitations of his present
condition wherewith he was tormented." Therefore Solomon, Prov. xxxi. 6,
bids "wine be given to him that is ready to [4307]perish, and to him that
hath grief of heart, let him drink that he forget his poverty, and remember
his misery no more." _Sollicitis animis onus eximit_, it easeth a burdened
soul, nothing speedier, nothing better; which the prophet Zachariah
perceived, when he said, "that in the time of Messias, they of Ephraim
should be glad, and their heart should rejoice as through wine." All which
makes me very well approve of that pretty description of a feast in [4308]
Bartholomeus Anglicus, when grace was said, their hands washed, and the
guests sufficiently exhilarated, with good discourse, sweet music, dainty
fare, _exhilarationis gratia, pocula iterum atque iterum offeruntur_, as a
corollary to conclude the feast, and continue their mirth, a grace cup came
in to cheer their hearts, and they drank healths to one another again and
again. Which as I. Fredericus Matenesius, _Crit. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 5, 6,
& 7_, was an old custom in all ages in every commonwealth, so as they be
not enforced, _bibere per violentiam_, but as in that royal feast of [4309]
Ahasuerus, which lasted 180 days, "without compulsion they drank by order
in golden vessels," when and what they would themselves. This of drink is a
most easy and parable remedy, a common, a cheap, still ready against fear,
sorrow, and such troublesome thoughts, that molest the mind; as brimstone
with fire, the spirits on a sudden are enlightened by it. "No better
physic" (saith [4310]Rhasis) "for a melancholy man: and he that can keep
company, and carouse, needs no other medicines," 'tis enough. His
countryman Avicenna, _31. doc. 2. cap. 8._ proceeds farther yet, and will
have him that is troubled in mind, or melancholy, not to drink only, but
now and then to be drunk: excellent good physic it is for this and many
other diseases. _Magninus Reg. san. part. 3. c. 31._ will have them to be
so once a month at least, and gives his reasons for it, [4311]"because it
scours the body by vomit, urine, sweat, of all manner of superfluities, and
keeps it clean." Of the same mind is Seneca the philosopher, in his book
_de tranquil. lib. 1. c. 15._ _nonnunquam ut in aliis morbis ad ebrietatem
usque veniendum; Curas deprimit, tristitiae medetur_, it is good sometimes
to be drunk, it helps sorrow, depresseth cares, and so concludes this tract
with a cup of wine: _Habes, Serene charissime, quae ad, tranquillitatem
animae, pertinent_. But these are epicureal tenets, tending to looseness of
life, luxury and atheism, maintained alone by some heathens, dissolute
Arabians, profane Christians, and are exploded by Rabbi Moses, _tract. 4._
Guliel, Placentius, _lib. 1. cap. 8._ Valescus de Taranta, and most
accurately ventilated by Jo. Sylvaticus, a late writer and physician of
Milan, _med. cont. cap. 14._ where you shall find this tenet copiously
confuted.
Howsoever you say, if this be true, that wine and strong drink have such
virtue to expel fear and sorrow, and to exhilarate the mind, ever hereafter
let's drink and be merry.
[4312] "Prome reconditum, Lyde strenua, caecubum,
Capaciores puer huc affer Scyphos,
Et Chia vina aut Lesbia."
"Come, lusty Lyda, fill's a cup of sack,
And, sirrah drawer, bigger pots we lack,
And Scio wines that have so good a smack."
I say with him in [4313]A. Gellius, "let us maintain the vigour of our
souls with a moderate cup of wine," [4314]_Natis in usum laetitiae
scyphis_, "and drink to refresh our mind; if there be any cold sorrow in
it, or torpid bashfulness, let's wash it all away."--_Nunc vino pellite
curas_; so saith [4315]Horace, so saith Anacreon,
"[Greek: Methuonta gar me keisthai
polu kreisson ae thanonta.]"
Let's drive down care with a cup of wine: and so say I too, (though I drink
none myself) for all this may be done, so that it be modestly, soberly,
opportunely used: so that "they be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,"
which our [4316]Apostle forewarns; for as Chrysostom well comments on that
place, _ad laetitiam datum est vinum, non ad ebrietatem_, 'tis for mirth
wine, but not for madness: and will you know where, when, and how that is
to be understood? _Vis discere ubi bonum sit vinum? Audi quid dicat
Scriptura_, hear the Scriptures, "Give wine to them that are in sorrow," or
as Paul bid Timothy drink wine for his stomach's sake, for concoction,
health, or some such honest occasion. Otherwise, as [4317] Pliny telleth
us; if singular moderation be not had, [4318]"nothing so pernicious, 'tis
mere vinegar, _blandus daemon_, poison itself." But hear a more fearful
doom, Habac. ii. 15. and 16. "Woe be to him that makes his neighbour drunk,
shameful spewing shall be upon his glory." Let not good fellows triumph
therefore (saith Matthiolus) that I have so much commended wine, if it be
immoderately taken, "instead of making glad, it confounds both body and
soul, it makes a giddy head, a sorrowful heart." And 'twas well said of the
poet of old, "Vine causeth mirth and grief," [4319]nothing so good for
some, so bad for others, especially as [4320]one observes, _qui a causa
calida male habent_, that are hot or inflamed. And so of spices, they
alone, as I have showed, cause head-melancholy themselves, they must not
use wine as an [4321]ordinary drink, or in their diet. But to determine
with Laurentius, _c. 8. de melan._ wine is bad for madmen, and such as are
troubled with heat in their inner parts or brains; but to melancholy, which
is cold (as most is), wine, soberly used, may be very good.
I may say the same of the decoction of China roots, sassafras,
sarsaparilla, guaiacum: China, saith Manardus, makes a good colour in the
face, takes away melancholy, and all infirmities proceeding from cold, even
so sarsaparilla provokes sweat mightily, guaiacum dries, Claudinus,
_consult. 89. & 46._ Montanus, Capivaccius, _consult. 188. Scoltzii_, make
frequent and good use of guaiacum and China, [4322]"so that the liver be
not incensed," good for such as are cold, as most melancholy men are, but
by no means to be mentioned in hot.
The Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use no wine), so named of a
berry as black as soot, and as bitter, (like that black drink which was in
use amongst the Lacedaemonians, and perhaps the same,) which they sip still
of, and sup as warm as they can suffer; they spend much time in those
coffeehouses, which are somewhat like our alehouses or taverns, and there
they sit chatting and drinking to drive away the time, and to be merry
together, because they find by experience that kind of drink, so used,
helpeth digestion, and procureth alacrity. Some of them take opium to this
purpose.
Borage, balm, saffron, gold, I have spoken of; Montaltus, _c. 23._ commends
scorzonera roots condite. Garcius ab Horto, _plant. hist. lib. 2. cap. 25._
makes mention of an herb called datura, [4323]"which, if it be eaten for
twenty-four hours following, takes away all sense of grief, makes them
incline to laughter and mirth:" and another called bauge, like in effect to
opium, "which puts them for a time into a kind of ecstasy," and makes them
gently to laugh. One of the Roman emperors had a seed, which he did
ordinarily eat to exhilarate himself. [4324]Christophorus Ayrerus prefers
bezoar stone, and the confection of alkermes, before other cordials, and
amber in some cases. [4325]"Alkermes comforts the inner parts;" and bezoar
stone hath an especial virtue against all melancholy affections, [4326]"it
refresheth the heart, and corroborates the whole body." [4327]Amber
provokes urine, helps the body, breaks wind, &c. After a purge, 3 or 4
grains of bezoar stone, and 3 grains of ambergris, drunk or taken in borage
or bugloss water, in which gold hot hath been quenched, will do much good,
and the purge shall diminish less (the heart so refreshed) of the strength
and substance of the body.
"[Symbol: Rx]. confect. Alkermes [Symbol: Ounce]ß lap. Bezor.
[Symbol: Scruple]j. Succini albi subtiliss. pulverisat. [Symbol:
Scruple]jj. cum Syrup, de cort. citri; fiat electuarium."
To bezoar stone most subscribe, Manardus, and [4328]many others; "it takes
away sadness, and makes him merry that useth it; I have seen some that have
been much diseased with faintness, swooning, and melancholy, that taking
the weight of three grains of this stone, in the water of oxtongue, have
been cured." Garcias ab Horto brags how many desperate cures he hath done
upon melancholy men by this alone, when all physicians had forsaken them.
But alkermes many except against; in some cases it may help, if it be good
and of the best, such as that of Montpelier in France, which [4329]Iodocus
Sincerus, _Itinerario Galliae_, so much magnifies, and would have no
traveller omit to see it made. But it is not so general a medicine as the
other. Fernelius, _consil. 49_, suspects alkermes, by reason of its heat,
[4330]"nothing" (saith he) "sooner exasperates this disease, than the use
of hot working meats and medicines, and would have them for that cause
warily taken." I conclude, therefore, of this and all other medicines, as
Thucydides of the plague at Athens, no remedy could be prescribed for it,
_Nam quod uni profuit, hoc aliis erat exitio_: there is no Catholic
medicine to be had: that which helps one, is pernicious to another.
_Diamargaritum frigidum, diambra, diaboraginatum, electuarium laetificans
Galeni et Rhasis, de gemmis, dianthos, diamoscum dulce et amarum,
electuarium conciliatoris, syrup. Cidoniorum de pomis_, conserves of roses,
violets, fumitory, enula campana, satyrion, lemons, orange-pills, condite,
&c., have their good use.
[4331] "[Symbol: Rx]. Diamoschi dulcis et amari ana [Symbol: Dram]jj.
Diabuglossati, Diaboraginati, sacchari violacei ana j. misce cum
syrupo de pomis."
Every physician is full of such receipts: one only I will add for the
rareness of it, which I find recorded by many learned authors, as an
approved medicine against dotage, head-melancholy, and such diseases of the
brain. Take a [4332]ram's head that never meddled with an ewe, cut off at a
blow, and the horns only take away, boil it well, skin and wool together;
after it is well sod, take out the brains, and put these spices to it,
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, _ana_ [Symbol: Ounce]ß, mingle the
powder of these spices with it, and heat them in a platter upon a
chafing-dish of coals together, stirring them well, that they do not burn;
take heed it be not overmuch dried, or drier than a calf's brains ready to
be eaten. Keep it so prepared, and for three days give it the patient
fasting, so that he fast two hours after it. It may be eaten with bread in
an egg or broth, or any way, so it be taken. For fourteen days let him use
this diet, drink no wine, &c. Gesner, _hist. animal. lib. 1. pag. 917._
Caricterius, _pract. 13. in Nich. de metri. pag. 129._ Iatro: _Wittenberg.
edit. Tubing. pag. 62_, mention this medicine, though with some variation;
he that list may try it, [4333]and many such.
Odoraments to smell to, of rosewater, violet flowers, balm, rose-cakes,
vinegar, &c., do much recreate the brains and spirits, according to
Solomon. Prov. xxvii. 9. "They rejoice the heart," and as some say,
nourish; 'tis a question commonly controverted in our schools, _an odores
nutriant_; let Ficinus, _lib. 2. cap. 18._ decide it; [4334]many arguments
he brings to prove it; as of Democritus, that lived by the smell of bread
alone, applied to his nostrils, for some few days, when for old age he
could eat no meat. Ferrerius, _lib. 2. meth._ speaks of an excellent
confection of his making, of wine, saffron, &c., which he prescribed to
dull, weak, feeble, and dying men to smell to, and by it to have done very
much good, _aeque fere profuisse olfactu, et potu_, as if he had given them
drink. Our noble and learned Lord [4335]Verulam, in his book _de vita et
morte_, commends, therefore, all such cold smells as any way serve to
refrigerate the spirits. Montanus, _consil. 31_, prescribes a form which he
would have his melancholy patient never to have out of his hands. If you
will have them spagirically prepared, look in Oswaldus Crollius, _basil.
Chymica_.
Irrigations of the head shaven, [4336]"of the flowers of water lilies,
lettuce, violets, camomile, wild mallows, wether's-head, &c.," must be used
many mornings together. Montan. _consil. 31_, would have the head so washed
once a week. Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus _consult. 44_, for an Italian count,
troubled with head-melancholy, repeats many medicines which he tried,
[4337]"but two alone which did the cure; use of whey made of goat's milk,
with the extract of hellebore, and irrigations of the head with water
lilies, lettuce, violets, camomile, &c., upon the suture of the crown."
Piso commends a ram's lungs applied hot to the fore part of the head,
[4338]or a young lamb divided in the back, exenterated, &c.; all
acknowledge the chief cure in moistening throughout. Some, saith
Laurentius, use powders and caps to the brain; but forasmuch as such
aromatical things are hot and dry, they must be sparingly administered.
Unto the heart we may do well to apply bags, epithems, ointments, of which
Laurentius, _c. 9. de melan._ gives examples. Bruel prescribes an epithem
for the heart, of bugloss, borage, water-lily, violet waters, sweet-wine,
balm leaves, nutmegs, cloves, &c.
For the belly, make a fomentation of oil, [4339]in which the seeds of
cumin, rue, carrots, dill, have been boiled.
Baths are of wonderful great force in this malady, much admired by [4340]
Galen, [4341]Aetius, Rhasis, &c., of sweet water, in which is boiled the
leaves of mallows, roses, violets, water-lilies, wether's-head, flowers of
bugloss, camomile, melilot, &c. Guianer, _cap. 8. tract. 15_, would have
them used twice a day, and when they came forth of the baths, their back
bones to be anointed with oil of almonds, violets, nymphea, fresh capon
grease, &c.
Amulets and things to be borne about, I find prescribed, taxed by some,
approved by Renodeus, Platerus, (_amuleta inquit non negligenda_) and
others; look for them in Mizaldus, Porta, Albertus, &c. Bassardus
Viscontinus, _ant. philos._ commends hypericon, or St. John's wort gathered
on a [4342]Friday in the hour of "Jupiter, when it comes to his effectual
operation (that is about the full moon in July); so gathered and borne, or
hung about the neck, it mightily helps this affection, and drives away all
fantastical spirits." [4343]Philes, a Greek author that flourished in the
time of Michael Paleologus, writes that a sheep or kid's skin, whom a wolf
worried, [4344]_Haedus inhumani raptus ab ore lupi_, ought not at all to be
worn about a man, "because it causeth palpitation of the heart," not for
any fear, but a secret virtue which amulets have. A ring made of the hoof
of an ass's right fore foot carried about, &c. I say with [4345]Renodeus,
they are not altogether to be rejected. Paeony doth cure epilepsy; precious
stones most diseases; [4346]a wolf's dung borne with one helps the colic,
[4347]a spider an ague, &c. Being in the country in the vacation time not
many years since, at Lindley in Leicestershire, my father's house, I first
observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-shell lapped in silk, &c., so
applied for an ague by [4348]my mother; whom, although I knew to have
excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, &c., and such experimental
medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can witness, to have done
many famous and good cures upon diverse poor folks, that were otherwise
destitute of help: yet among all other experiments, this methought was most
absurd and ridiculous, I could see no warrant for it. _Quid aranea cum
febre_? For what antipathy? till at length rambling amongst authors (as
often I do) I found this very medicine in Dioscorides, approved by
Matthiolus, repeated by Alderovandus, _cap. de Aranea, lib. de insectis_, I
began to have a better opinion of it, and to give more credit to amulets,
when I saw it in some parties answer to experience. Some medicines are to
be exploded, that consist of words, characters, spells, and charms, which
can do no good at all, but out of a strong conceit, as Pomponatius proves;
or the devil's policy, who is the first founder and teacher of them.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Correctors of Accidents to procure Sleep. Against fearful
Dreams, Redness, &c._
When you have used all good means and helps of alteratives, averters,
diminutives, yet there will be still certain accidents to be corrected and
amended, as waking, fearful dreams, flushing in the face to some ruddiness,
&c.
Waking, by reason of their continual cares, fears, sorrows, dry brains, is
a symptom that much crucifies melancholy men, and must therefore be
speedily helped, and sleep by all means procured, which sometimes is a
sufficient [4349]remedy of itself without any other physic. Sckenkius, in
his observations, hath an example of a woman that was so cured. The means
to procure it, are inward or outward. Inwardly taken, are simples, or
compounds; simples, as poppy, nymphea, violets, roses, lettuce, mandrake,
henbane, nightshade or solanum, saffron, hemp-seed, nutmegs, willows, with
their seeds, juice, decoctions, distilled waters, &c. Compounds are syrups,
or opiates, syrup of poppy, violets, verbasco, which are commonly taken
with distilled waters.
"[Symbol: Rx] diacodii [Symbol: Ounce]j. diascordii [Symbol: Dram]ß
aquae lactucae [Symbol: Ounce]iijß mista fiat potio ad horam somni
sumenda."
Requies Nicholai, Philonium Romanum, Triphera magna, pilulae, de
Cynoglossa, Dioscordium, Laudanum Paracelsi, Opium, are in use, &c. Country
folks commonly make a posset of hemp-seed, which Fuchsius in his herbal so
much discommends; yet I have seen the good effect, and it may be used where
better medicines are not to be had.
Laudanum Paracelsi is prescribed in two or three grains, with a dram of
Diascordium, which Oswald. Crollius commends. Opium itself is most part
used outwardly, to smell to in a ball, though commonly so taken by the
Turks to the same quantity [4350]for a cordial, and at Goa in, the Indies;
the dose 40 or 50 grains.
Rulandus calls Requiem Nicholai _ultimum refugium_, the last refuge; but of
this and the rest look for peculiar receipts in Victorius Faventinus, _cap.
de phrensi_. Heurnius _cap. de mania_. Hildesheim _spicel. 4. de somno et
vigil_. &c. Outwardly used, as oil of nutmegs by extraction, or expression
with rosewater to anoint the temples, oils of poppy, nenuphar, mandrake,
purslan, violets, all to the same purpose.
Montan. _consil. 24 & 25._ much commends odoraments of opium, vinegar, and
rosewater. Laurentius _cap. 9._ prescribes pomanders and nodules; see the
receipts in him; Codronchus [4351]wormwood to smell to.
_Unguentum Alabastritum, populeum_ are used to anoint the temples,
nostrils, or if they be too weak, they mix saffron and opium. Take a grain
or two of opium, and dissolve it with three or four drops of rosewater in a
spoon, and after mingle with it as much _Unguentum populeum_ as a nut, use
it as before: or else take half a dram of opium, _Unguentum populeum_, oil
of nenuphar, rosewater, rose-vinegar, of each half an ounce, with as much
virgin wax as a nut, anoint your temples with some of it, _ad horam somni_.
Sacks of wormwood, [4352]mandrake, [4353]henbane, roses made like pillows
and laid under the patient's head, are mentioned by [4354]Cardan and
Mizaldus, "to anoint the soles of the feet with the fat of a dormouse, the
teeth with ear wax of a dog, swine's gall, hare's ears:" charms, &c.
Frontlets are well known to every good wife, rosewater and vinegar, with a
little woman's milk, and nutmegs grated upon a rose-cake applied to both
temples.
For an emplaster, take of castorium a dram and a half, of opium half a
scruple, mixed both together with a little water of life, make two small
plasters thereof, and apply them to the temples.
Rulandus _cent. 1. cur. 17. cent. 3. cur. 94._ prescribes epithems and
lotions of the head, with the decoction of flowers of nymphea,
violet-leaves, mandrake roots, henbane, white poppy. Herc. de Saxonia,
_stillicidia_, or droppings, &c. Lotions of the feet do much avail of the
said herbs: by these means, saith Laurentius, I think you may procure sleep
to the most melancholy man in the world. Some use horseleeches behind the
ears, and apply opium to the place.
[4355]Bayerus _lib. 2. c. 13._ sets down some remedies against fearful
dreams, and such as walk and talk in their sleep. Baptista Porta _Mag. nat.
l. 2. c. 6._ to procure pleasant dreams and quiet rest, would have you take
hippoglossa, or the herb horsetongue, balm, to use them or their distilled
waters after supper, &c. Such men must not eat beans, peas, garlic, onions,
cabbage, venison, hare, use black wines, or any meat hard of digestion at
supper, or lie on their backs, &c.
_Rusticus pudor_, bashfulness, flushing in the face, high colour,
ruddiness, are common grievances, which much torture many melancholy men,
when they meet a man, or come in [4356]company of their betters, strangers,
after a meal, or if they drink a cup of wine or strong drink, they are as
red and fleet, and sweat as if they had been at a mayor's feast,
_praesertim si metus accesserit_, it exceeds, [4357]they think every man
observes, takes notice of it: and fear alone will effect it, suspicion
without any other cause. Sckenkius _observ. med. lib. 1._ speaks of a
waiting gentlewoman in the Duke of Savoy's court, that was so much offended
with it, that she kneeled down to him, and offered Biarus, a physician, all
that she had to be cured of it. And 'tis most true, that [4358]Antony
Ludovicus saith in his book _de Pudore_, "bashfulness either hurts or
helps," such men I am sure it hurts. If it proceed from suspicion or fear,
[4359]Felix Plater prescribes no other remedy but to reject and contemn it:
_Id populus curat scilicet_, as a [4360]worthy physician in our town said
to a friend of mine in like case, complaining without a cause, suppose one
look red, what matter is it, make light of it, who observes it?
If it trouble at or after meals, (as [4361]Jobertus observes _med. pract.
l. 1. c. 7._) after a little exercise or stirring, for many are then hot
and red in the face, or if they do nothing at all, especially women; he
would have them let blood in both arms, first one, then another, two or
three days between, if blood abound; to use frictions of the other parts,
feet especially, and washing of them, because of that consent which is
between the head and the feet. [4362]And withal to refrigerate the face, by
washing it often with rose, violet, nenuphar, lettuce, lovage waters, and
the like: but the best of all is that _lac virginale_, or strained liquor
of litargy: it is diversely prepared; by Jobertus thus; _[Symbol: Rx]
lithar. argent. unc. j cerussae candidissimae, [Symbol: Dram]jjj. caphurae,
[Symbol: Scruple]jj. dissolvantur aquarum solani, lactucae, et nenupharis
ana unc. jjj. aceti vini albi. unc. jj. aliquot horas resideat, deinde
transmittatur per philt. aqua servetur in vase vitreo, ac ea bis terve
facies quotidie irroretur_. [4363]Quercetan _spagir. phar. cap. 6._
commends the water of frog's spawn for ruddiness in the face. [4364]Crato
_consil. 283. Scoltzii_ would fain have them use all summer the condite
flowers of succory, strawberry water, roses (cupping-glasses are good for
the time), _consil. 285. et 286._ and to defecate impure blood with the
infusion of senna, savory, balm water. [4365]Hollerius knew one cured alone
with the use of succory boiled, and drunk for five months, every morning in
the summer. [4366]It is good overnight to anoint the face with hare's
blood, and in the morning to wash it with strawberry and cowslip water, the
juice of distilled lemons, juice of cucumbers, or to use the seeds of
melons, or kernels of peaches beaten small, or the roots of Aron, and mixed
with wheat bran to bake it in an oven, and to crumble it in strawberry
water, [4367] or to put fresh cheese curds to a red face.
If it trouble them at meal times that flushing, as oft it doth, with
sweating or the like, they must avoid all violent passions and actions, as
laughing, &c., strong drink, and drink very little, [4368]one draught,
saith Crato, and that about the midst of their meal; avoid at all times
indurate salt, and especially spice and windy meat.
[4369]Crato prescribes the condite fruit of wild rose, to a nobleman his
patient, to be taken before dinner or supper, to the quantity of a
chestnut. It is made of sugar, as that of quinces. The decoction of the
roots of sowthistle before meat, by the same author is much approved. To
eat of a baked apple some advice, or of a preserved quince, cuminseed
prepared with meat instead of salt, to keep down fumes: not to study or to
be intentive after meals.
"[Symbol: Rx]. Nucleorum persic. seminis melonum ana unc. [Symbol:
Scruple]ß aquae fragrorum l. ij. misce, utatur mane."
[4370]To apply cupping glasses to the shoulders is very good. For the other
kind of ruddiness which is settled in the face with pimples, &c., because
it pertains not to my subject, I will not meddle with it. I refer you to
Crato's counsels, Arnoldus _lib. 1. breviar. cap. 39. 1._ Rulande, Peter
Forestus de Fuco, _lib. 31. obser. 2._ To Platerus, Mercurialis, Ulmus,
Rondoletius, Heurnius, Menadous, and others that have written largely of
it.
Those other grievances and symptoms of headache, palpitation of heart,
_Vertigo deliquium_, &c., which trouble many melancholy men, because they
are copiously handled apart in every physician, I do voluntarily omit.
MEMB. II.
_Cure of Melancholy over all the Body_.
Where the melancholy blood possesseth the whole body with the brain, [4371]
it is best to begin with bloodletting. The Greeks prescribe the [4372]
median or middle vein to be opened, and so much blood to be taken away as
the patient may well spare, and the cut that is made must be wide enough.
The Arabians hold it fittest to be taken from that arm on which side there
is more pain and heaviness in the head: if black blood issue forth, bleed
on; if it be clear and good, let it be instantly suppressed, [4373]
"because the malice of melancholy is much corrected by the goodness of the
blood." If the party's strength will not admit much evacuation in this kind
at once, it must be assayed again and again: if it may not be conveniently
taken from the arm, it must be taken from the knees and ankles, especially
to such men or women whose haemorrhoids or months have been stopped. [4374]
If the malady continue, it is not amiss to evacuate in a part in the
forehead, and to virgins in the ankles, who are melancholy for love
matters; so to widows that are much grieved and troubled with sorrow and
cares: for bad blood flows in the heart, and so crucifies the mind. The
haemorrhoids are to be opened with an instrument or horseleeches, &c. See
more in Montaltus, _cap. 29._ [4375]Sckenkius hath an example of one that
was cured by an accidental wound in his thigh, much bleeding freed him from
melancholy. Diet, diminutives, alteratives, cordials, correctors as before,
intermixed as occasion serves, [4376]"all their study must be to make a
melancholy man fat, and then the cure is ended." Diuretics, or medicines to
procure urine, are prescribed by some in this kind, hot and cold: hot where
the heat of the liver doth not forbid; cold where the heat of the liver is
very great: [4377]amongst hot are parsley roots, lovage, fennel, &c.: cold,
melon seeds, &c., with whey of goat's milk, which is the common conveyer.
To purge and [4378]purify the blood, use sowthistle, succory, senna,
endive, carduus benedictus, dandelion, hop, maidenhair, fumitory, bugloss,
borage, &c., with their juice, decoctions, distilled waters, syrups, &c.
Oswaldus, Crollius, _basil Chym._ much admires salt of corals in this case,
and Aetius, _tetrabib. ser. 2. cap. 114._ Hieram Archigenis, which is an
excellent medicine to purify the blood, "for all melancholy affections,
falling sickness, none to be compared to it."
MEMB. III.
SUBSECT. I.--_Cure of Hypochondriacal Melancholy_.
In this cure, as in the rest, is especially required the rectification of
those six non-natural things above all, as good diet, which Montanus,
_consil. 27._ enjoins a French nobleman, "to have an especial care of it,
without which all other remedies are in vain." Bloodletting is not to be
used, except the patient's body be very full of blood, and that it be
derived from the liver and spleen to the stomach and his vessels, then
[4379]to draw it back, to cut the inner vein of either arm, some say the
salvatella, and if the malady be continuate, [4380]to open a vein in the
forehead.
Preparatives and alteratives may be used as before, saving that there must
be respect had as well to the liver, spleen, stomach, hypochondries, as to
the heart and brain. To comfort the [4381]stomach and inner parts against
wind and obstructions, by Areteus, Galen, Aetius, Aurelianus, &c., and many
latter writers, are still prescribed the decoctions of wormwood, centaury,
pennyroyal, betony sodden in whey, and daily drunk: many have been cured by
this medicine alone.
Prosper Altinus and some others as much magnify the water of Nile against
this malady, an especial good remedy for windy melancholy. For which reason
belike Ptolemeus Philadelphus, when he married his daughter Berenice to the
king of Assyria (as Celsus, _lib. 2._ records), _magnis impensis Nili aquam
afferri jussit_, to his great charge caused the water of Nile to be carried
with her, and gave command, that during her life she should use no other
drink. I find those that commend use of apples, in splenetic and this kind
of melancholy (lamb's-wool some call it), which howsoever approved, must
certainly be corrected of cold rawness and wind.
Codronchus in his book _de sale absyn._ magnifies the oil and salt of
wormwood above all other remedies, [4382]"which works better and speedier
than any simple whatsoever, and much to be preferred before all those
fulsome decoctions and infusions, which must offend by reason of their
quantity; this alone in a small measure taken, expels wind, and that most
forcibly, moves urine, cleanseth the stomach of all gross humours,
crudities, helps appetite," &c. Arnoldus hath a wormwood wine which he
would have used, which every pharmacopoeia speaks of.
Diminutives and purges may [4383]be taken as before, of hiera, manna,
cassia, which Montanus _consil. 230._ for an Italian abbot, in this kind
prefers before all other simples, [4384]"And these must be often used,
still abstaining from those which are more violent, lest they do exasperate
the stomach, &c., and the mischief by that means be increased." Though in
some physicians I find very strong purgers, hellebore itself prescribed in
this affection. If it long continue, vomits may be taken after meat, or
otherwise gently procured with warm water, oxymel, &c., now and then.
Fuchsius _cap. 33._ prescribes hellebore; but still take heed in this
malady, which I have often warned, of hot medicines, [4385]"because" (as
Salvianus adds) "drought follows heat, which increaseth the disease:" and
yet Baptista Sylvaticus _controv. 32._ forbids cold medicines, [4386]
"because they increase obstructions and other bad symptoms." But this
varies as the parties do, and 'tis not easy to determine which to use.
[4387]"The stomach most part in this infirmity is cold, the liver hot;
scarce therefore" (which Montanus insinuates _consil. 229._ for the Earl of
Manfort) "can you help the one and not hurt the other:" much discretion
must be used; take no physic at all he concludes without great need.
Laelius Aegubinus _consil._ for an hypochondriacal German prince, used many
medicines; "but it was after signified to him in [4388]letters, that the
decoction of China and sassafras, and salt of sassafras wrought him an
incredible good." In his _108 consult_, he used as happily the same
remedies; this to a third might have been poison, by overheating his liver
and blood.
For the other parts look for remedies in Savanarola, Gordonius, Massaria,
Mercatus, Johnson, &c. One for the spleen, amongst many other, I will not
omit, cited by Hildesheim, _spicel. 2_, prescribed by Mat. Flaccus, and out
of the authority of Benevenius. Antony Benevenius in a hypochondriacal
passion, [4389]"cured an exceeding great swelling of the spleen with capers
alone, a meat befitting that infirmity, and frequent use of the water of a
smith's forge; by this physic he helped a sick man, whom all other
physicians had forsaken, that for seven years had been splenetic." And of
such force is this water, [4390]"that those creatures as drink of it, have
commonly little or no spleen." See more excellent medicines for the spleen
in him and [4391]Lod. Mercatus, who is a great magnifier of this medicine.
This _Chalybs praeparatus_, or steel-drink, is much likewise commended to
this disease by Daniel Sennertus _l. 1. part. 2. cap. 12._ and admired by
J. Caesar Claudinus _Respons. 29._ he calls steel the proper
[4392]alexipharmacum of this malady, and much magnifies it; look for
receipts in them. Averters must be used to the liver and spleen, and to
scour the mesaraic veins: and they are either too open or provoke urine.
You can open no place better than the haemorrhoids, "which if by
horseleeches they be made to flow, [4393]there may be again such an
excellent remedy," as Plater holds. Sallust. Salvian will admit no other
phlebotomy but this; and by his experience in an hospital which he kept, he
found all mad and melancholy men worse for other bloodletting. Laurentius
_cap. 15._ calls this of horseleeches a sure remedy to empty the spleen and
mesaraic membrane. Only Montanus _consil. 241._ is against it; [4394] "to
other men" (saith he) "this opening of the haemorrhoids seems to be a
profitable remedy; for my part I do not approve of it, because it draws
away the thinnest blood, and leaves the thickest behind."
Aetius, Vidus Vidius, Mercurialis, Fuchsius, recommend diuretics, or such
things as provoke urine, as aniseeds, dill, fennel, germander, ground pine,
sodden in water, or drunk in powder: and yet [4395]P. Bayerus is against
them: and so is Hollerius; "All melancholy men" (saith he) "must avoid such
things as provoke urine, because by them the subtile or thinnest is
evacuated, the thicker matter remains."
Clysters are in good request. Trincavelius _lib. 3. cap. 38._ for a young
nobleman, esteems of them in the first place, and Hercules de Saxonia
_Panth. lib. 1. cap. 16._ is a great approver of them. [4396]"I have found
(saith he) by experience, that many hypochondriacal melancholy men have
been cured by the sole use of clysters," receipts are to be had in him.
Besides those fomentations, irrigations, inunctions, odoraments, prescribed
for the head, there must be the like used for the liver, spleen, stomach,
hypochondries, &c. [4397]"In crudity" (saith Piso) "'tis good to bind the
stomach hard" to hinder wind, and to help concoction.
Of inward medicines I need not speak; use the same cordials as before. In
this kind of melancholy, some prescribe [4398]treacle in winter, especially
before or after purges, or in the spring, as Avicenna, [4399] Trincavellius
mithridate, [4400]Montaltus paeony seed, unicorn's horn; _os de corde
cervi_, &c.
Amongst topics or outward medicines, none are more precious than baths, but
of them I have spoken. Fomentations to the hypochondries are very good, of
wine and water in which are sodden southernwood, melilot, epithyme,
mugwort, senna, polypody, as also [4401]cerotes, [4402]plaisters,
liniments, ointments for the spleen, liver, and hypochondries, of which
look for examples in Laurentius, Jobertus _lib. 3. c. pra. med._ Montanus
_consil. 231._ Montaltus _cap. 33._ Hercules de Saxonia, Faventinus. And so
of epithems, digestive powders, bags, oils, Octavius Horatianus _lib. 2. c.
5._ prescribes calastic cataplasms, or dry purging medicines; Piso
[4403]dropaces of pitch, and oil of rue, applied at certain times to the
stomach, to the metaphrene, or part of the back which is over against the
heart, Aetius sinapisms; Montaltus _cap. 35._ would have the thighs to be
[4404]cauterised, Mercurialis prescribes beneath the knees; Laelius
Aegubinus _consil. 77._ for a hypochondriacal Dutchman, will have the
cautery made in the right thigh, and so Montanus _consil. 55._ The same
Montanus _consil. 34._ approves of issues in the arms or hinder part of the
head. Bernardus Paternus in Hildesheim _spicel 2._ would have [4405] issues
made in both the thighs; [4406]Lod. Mercatus prescribes them near the
spleen, _aut prope ventriculi regimen_, or in either of the thighs.
Ligatures, frictions, and cupping-glasses above or about the belly, without
scarification, which [4407]Felix Platerus so much approves, may be used as
before.
SUBSECT. II.--_Correctors to expel Wind. Against Costiveness, &c._
In this kind of melancholy one of the most offensive symptoms is wind,
which, as in the other species, so in this, hath great need to be corrected
and expelled.
The medicines to expel it are either inwardly taken, or outwardly. Inwardly
to expel wind, are simples or compounds: simples are herbs, roots, &c., as
galanga, gentian, angelica, enula, calamus aromaticus, valerian, zeodoti,
iris, condite ginger, aristolochy, cicliminus, China, dittander,
pennyroyal, rue, calamint, bay-berries, and bay-leaves, betony, rosemary,
hyssop, sabine, centaury, mint, camomile, staechas, agnus castus,
broom-flowers, origan, orange-pills, &c.; spices, as saffron, cinnamon,
bezoar stone, myrrh, mace, nutmegs, pepper, cloves, ginger, seeds of annis,
fennel, amni, cari, nettle, rue, &c., juniper berries, grana paradisi;
compounds, dianisum, diagalanga, diaciminum, diacalaminth, _electuarium de
baccis lauri, benedicta laxativa, pulvis ad status. antid. florent. pulvis
carminativus, aromaticum rosatum, treacle, mithridate_ &c. This one caution
of [4408]Gualter Bruell is to be observed in the administering of these hot
medicines and dry, "that whilst they covet to expel wind, they do not
inflame the blood, and increase the disease; sometimes" (as he saith)
"medicines must more decline to heat, sometimes more to cold, as the
circumstances require, and as the parties are inclined to heat or cold."
Outwardly taken to expel winds, are oils, as of camomile, rue, bays, &c.;
fomentations of the hypochondries, with the decoctions of dill, pennyroyal,
rue, bay leaves, cumin, &c., bags of camomile flowers, aniseed, cumin,
bays, rue, wormwood, ointments of the oil of spikenard, wormwood, rue, &c.
[4409]Areteus prescribes cataplasms of camomile flowers, fennel, aniseeds,
cumin, rosemary, wormwood-leaves, &c.
[4410]Cupping-glasses applied to the hypochondries, without scarification,
do wonderfully resolve wind. Fernelius _consil. 43._ much approves of them
at the lower end of the belly; [4411]Lod. Mercatus calls them a powerful
remedy, and testifies moreover out of his own knowledge, how many he hath
seen suddenly eased by them. Julius Caesar Claudinus _respons. med. resp.
33._ admires these cupping-glasses, which he calls out of Galen, [4412]"a
kind of enchantment, they cause such present help."
Empirics have a myriad of medicines, as to swallow a bullet of lead, &c.,
which I voluntarily omit. Amatus Lusitanus, _cent. 4. curat. 54._ for a
hypochondriacal person, that was extremely tormented with wind, prescribes
a strange remedy. Put a pair of bellows end into a clyster pipe, and
applying it into the fundament, open the bowels, so draw forth the wind,
_natura non admittit vacuum_. He vaunts he was the first invented this
remedy, and by means of it speedily eased a melancholy man. Of the cure of
this flatuous melancholy, read more in Fienus de Flatibus, _cap. 26. et
passim alias_.
Against headache, vertigo, vapours which ascend forth of the stomach to
molest the head, read Hercules de Saxonia, and others.
If costiveness offend in this, or any other of the three species, it is to
be corrected with suppositories, clysters or lenitives, powder of senna,
condite prunes, &c. [Symbol: Rx] _Elect. lenit, e succo rosar. ana [Symbol:
Ounce] j. misce_. Take as much as a nutmeg at a time, half an hour before
dinner or supper, or _pil. mastichin. [Symbol: Ounce] j_. in six pills, a
pill or two at a time. See more in Montan. _consil. 229._ Hildesheim
_spicel. 2._ P. Cnemander, and Montanus commend [4413]"Cyprian turpentine,
which they would have familiarly taken, to the quantity of a small nut, two
or three hours before dinner and supper, twice or thrice a week if need be;
for besides that it keeps the belly soluble, it clears the stomach, opens
obstructions, cleanseth the liver, provokes urine."
These in brief are the ordinary medicines which belong to the cure of
melancholy, which if they be used aright, no doubt may do much good; _Si
non levando saltem leniendo valent, peculiaria bene selecta_, saith
Bessardus, a good choice of particular receipts must needs ease, if not
quite cure, not one, but all or most, as occasion serves. _Et quae non
prosunt singula, multa juvant_.
THE SYNOPSIS OF THE THIRD PARTITION.
Love and love melancholy, _Memb. 1 Sect. 1._
Preface or Introduction. _Subsect. 1._
Love's definition, pedigree, object, fair, amiable, gracious, and
pleasant, from which comes beauty, grace, which all desire and love,
parts affected.
Division or kinds, _Subs. 2._
Natural, in things without life, as love and hatred of elements; and
with life, as vegetable, vine and elm, sympathy, antipathy, &c.
Sensible, as of beasts, for pleasure, preservation of kind, mutual
agreement, custom, bringing up together, &c.
or Rational
Simple, which hath three objects as _M. 2._
Profitable, _Subs. 1._
Health, wealth, honour, we love our benefactors: nothing
so amiable as profit, or that which hath a show of
commodity.
Pleasant, _Subs. 2._
Things without life, made by art, pictures, sports,
games, sensible objects, as hawks, hounds, horses; Or
men themselves for similitude of manners, natural
affection, as to friends, children, kinsmen, &c., for
glory such as commend us.
Of women, as
Before marriage, as Heroical Mel. _Sect. 2. vide_
[Symbol: Aries]
Or after marriage, as Jealousy, _Sect. 3. vide_
[Symbol: Taurus]
Honest, _Subs. 3._
Fucate in show, by some error or hypocrisy; some seem and
are not; or truly for virtue, honesty, good parts,
learning, eloquence, &c.
or Mixed of all three, which extends to _M. 3._
Common good, our neighbour, country, friends, which is
charity; the defect of which is cause of much discontent
and melancholy.
or God, _Sect. 4._
In excess, _vide_ [Symbol: Gemini]
In defect, _vide_ [Symbol: Cancer]
[Symbol: Aries] Heroical or Love-Melancholy, in which consider,
_Memb. 1._ His pedigree, power, extent to vegetables and sensible
creatures, as well as men, to spirits, devils, &c.
His name, definition, object, part affected, tyranny. [_Subs. 2._]
Causes, _Memb. 2._
Stars, temperature, full diet, place, country, clime, condition,
idleness, _S. 1._
Natural allurements, and causes of love, as beauty, its praise, how
it allureth.
Comeliness, grace, resulting from the whole or some parts, as face,
eyes, hair, hands, &c. _Subs. 2._
Artificial allurements, and provocations of lust and love, gestures,
apparel, dowry, money, &c.
_Quest_. Whether beauty owe more to Art or Nature? _Subs. 3._
Opportunity of time and place, conference, discourse, music, singing,
dancing, amorous tales, lascivious objects, familiarity, gifts,
promises, &c. _Subs. 4._
Bawds and Philters, _Subs. 5._
Symptoms or signs, _Memb. 3._
Of body
Dryness, paleness, leanness, waking, sighing, &c.
Quest. _An delur pulsus amatorius_?
or Of mind.
Bad, as
Fear, sorrow, suspicion, anxiety, &c.
A hell, torment, fire, blindness, &c.
Dotage, slavery, neglect of business.
or Good, as
Spruceness, neatness, courage, aptness to learn music,
singing, dancing, poetry, &c.
Prognostics; despair, madness, frenzy, death, _Memb. 4._
Cures, _Memb. 5._
By labour, diet, physic, abstinence, _Subs. 1._
To withstand the beginnings, avoid occasions, fair and foul means,
change of place, contrary passion, witty inventions, discommend the
former, bring in another, _Subs. 2._
By good counsel, persuasion, from future miseries, inconveniences,
&c. _S. 3._
By philters, magical, and poetical cures, _Subs. 4._
To let them have their desire disputed pro and con. Impediments
removed, reasons for it. _Subs. 5._
[Symbol: Taurus] Jealousy, _Sect. 3._
His name, definition, extent, power, tyranny, _Memb. 1._
Division, Equivocations, kinds, _Subs. 1._
Improper
To many beasts; as swans, cocks, bulls.
To kings and princes, of their subjects, successors.
To friends, parents, tutors over their children, or otherwise.
or Proper
Before marriage, corrivals, &c.
After, as in this place our present subject.
Causes, _Subs. 2._
In the parties themselves,
Idleness, impotency in one party, melancholy, long absence.
They have been naught themselves. Hard usage, unkindness,
wantonness, inequality of years, persons, fortunes, &c.
or from others.
Outward enticements and provocations of others.
Symptoms, _Memb. 2._
Fear, sorrow, suspicion, anguish of mind, strange actions, gestures,
looks, speeches, locking up, outrages, severe laws, prodigious
trials, &c.
Prognostics, _Memb. 3._
Despair, madness, to make away themselves, and others.
Cures, _Memb. 4._
By avoiding occasions, always busy, never to be idle.
By good counsel, advice of friends, to contemn or dissemble it.
_Subs. 1._
By prevention before marriage. Plato's communion.
To marry such as are equal in years, birth, fortunes, beauty, of like
conditions, &c.
Of a good family, good education. To use them well. [_Subs. 2._]
[Symbol: Gemini] Religious Melancholy, _Sect. 4._
In excess of such as do that which is not required. _Memb. 1._
A proof that there is such a species of melancholy, name, object God,
what his beauty is, how it allureth, part and parties affected,
superstitious, idolaters, prophets, heretics, &c. _Subs. 1._
Causes, _Subs. 2._
From others
The devil's allurements, false miracles, priests for their
gain. Politicians to keep men in obedience, bad
instructors, blind guides.
or from themselves.
Simplicity, fear, ignorance, solitariness, melancholy,
curiosity, pride, vainglory, decayed image of God.
Symptoms, _Subs. 3._
General
Zeal without knowledge, obstinacy, superstition, strange
devotion, stupidity, confidence, stiff defence of their
tenets, mutual love and hate of other sects, belief of
incredibilities, impossibilities.
or Particular.
Of heretics, pride, contumacy, contempt of others,
wilfulness, vainglory, singularity, prodigious paradoxes.
In superstitious blind zeal, obedience, strange works,
fasting, sacrifices, oblations, prayers, vows,
pseudomartyrdom, mad and ridiculous customs, ceremonies,
observations.
In pseudoprophets, visions, revelations, dreams, prophecies,
new doctrines, &c., of Jews, Gentiles, Mahometans, &c.
Prognostics, _Subs. 4._
New doctrines, paradoxes, blasphemies, madness, stupidity,
despair, damnation.
Cures, _Subs. 5._
By physic, if need be, conference, good counsel, persuasion,
compulsion, correction, punishment. _Quaeritur an cogi debent?
Affir._
In defect, as _Memb. 2._
Secure, void of grace and fears.
Epicures, atheists, magicians, hypocrites, such as have
cauterised consciences, or else are in a reprobate sense,
worldly-secure, some philosophers, impenitent sinners, _Subs.
1._
or Distrustful, or too timorous, as desperate. In despair consider,
Causes, _Subs. 2._
The devil and his allurements, rigid preachers, that wound
their consciences, melancholy, contemplation, solitariness.
How melancholy and despair differ. Distrust, weakness of
faith. Guilty conscience for offence committed,
misunderstanding, &c.
Symptoms, _Subs. 3._
Fear, sorrow, anguish of mind, extreme tortures and horror of
conscience, fearful dreams, conceits, visions, &c.
Prognostics; Blasphemy, violent death, _Subs. 4._
Cures, _Subs. 5._
Physic, as occasion serves, conference, not to be idle or
alone. Good counsel, good company, all comforts and
contents, &c. [_Subs. 6._]
THE THIRD PARTITION,
LOVE-MELANCHOLY.
THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.
_The Preface_.
There will not be wanting, I presume, one or other that will much
discommend some part of this treatise of love-melancholy, and object (which
[4414]Erasmus in his preface to Sir Thomas More suspects of his) "that it
is too light for a divine, too comical a subject to speak of love symptoms,
too fantastical, and fit alone for a wanton poet, a feeling young lovesick
gallant, an effeminate courtier, or some such idle person." And 'tis true
they say: for by the naughtiness of men it is so come to pass, as [4415]
Caussinus observes, _ut castis auribus vox amoris suspecta sit, et invisa_,
the very name of love is odious to chaster ears; and therefore some again,
out of an affected gravity, will dislike all for the name's sake before
they read a word; dissembling with him in [4416]Petronius, and seem to be
angry that their ears are violated with such obscene speeches, that so they
may be admired for grave philosophers and staid carriage. They cannot abide
to hear talk of love toys, or amorous discourses, _vultu, gestu, oculis_ in
their outward actions averse, and yet in their cogitations they are all out
as bad, if not worse than others.
[4417] "Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum
Sed coram Bruto, Brute recede, legit."
But let these cavillers and counterfeit Catos know, that as the Lord John
answered the Queen in that Italian [4418]Guazzo, an old, a grave discreet
man is fittest to discourse of love matters, because he hath likely more
experience, observed more, hath a more staid judgment, can better discern,
resolve, discuss, advise, give better cautions, and more solid precepts,
better inform his auditors in such a subject, and by reason of his riper
years sooner divert. Besides, _nihil in hac amoris voce subtimendum_, there
is nothing here to be excepted at; love is a species of melancholy, and a
necessary part of this my treatise, which I may not omit; _operi suscepto
inserviendum fuit_: so Jacobus Mysillius pleadeth for himself in his
translation of Lucian's dialogues, and so do I; I must and will perform my
task. And that short excuse of Mercerus, for his edition of Aristaenetus
shall be mine, [4419]"If I have spent my time ill to write, let not them be
so idle as to read." But I am persuaded it is not so ill spent, I ought not
to excuse or repent myself of this subject; on which many grave and worthy
men have written whole volumes, Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus, Maximus, Tyrius,
Alcinous, Avicenna, Leon Hebreus in three large dialogues, Xenophon
_sympos._ Theophrastus, if we may believe Athenaeus, _lib. 13. cap. 9._
Picus Mirandula, Marius, Aequicola, both in Italian, Kornmannus _de linea
Amoris, lib. 3._ Petrus Godefridus hath handled in three books, P. Haedus,
and which almost every physician, as Arnoldus, Villanovanus, Valleriola
_observat. med. lib. 2. observ. 7._ Aelian Montaltus and Laurentius in
their treatises of melancholy, Jason Pratensis _de morb. cap._ Valescus de
Taranta, Gordonius, Hercules de Saxonia, Savanarola, Langius, &c., have
treated of apart, and in their works. I excuse myself, therefore, with
Peter Godefridus, Valleriola, Ficinus, and in [4420]Langius' words. Cadmus
Milesius writ fourteen books of love, "and why should I be ashamed to write
an epistle in favour of young men, of this subject?" A company of stern
readers dislike the second of the Aeneids, and Virgil's gravity, for
inserting such amorous passions in an heroical subject; but [4421]Servius,
his commentator, justly vindicates the poet's worth, wisdom, and discretion
in doing as he did. Castalio would not have young men read the [4422]
Canticles, because to his thinking it was too light and amorous a tract, a
ballad of ballads, as our old English translation hath it. He might as well
forbid the reading of Genesis, because of the loves of Jacob and Rachael,
the stories of Sichem and Dinah, Judah and Thamar; reject the Book of
Numbers, for the fornications of the people of Israel with the Moabites;
that of Judges for Samson and Dalilah's embracings; that of the Kings, for
David and Bersheba's adulteries, the incest of Ammon and Thamar, Solomon's
concubines, &c. The stories of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and many such.
Dicearchus, and some other, carp at Plato's majesty, that he would
vouchsafe to indite such love toys: amongst the rest, for that dalliance
with Agatho,
"Suavia dans Agathoni, animam ipse in labra tenebam;
Aegra etenim properans tanquam abitura fuit."
For my part, saith [4423]Maximus Tyrius, a great Platonist himself, _me non
tantum admiratio habet, sed eliam stupor_, I do not only admire, but stand
amazed to read, that Plato and Socrates both should expel Homer from their
city, because he writ of such light and wanton subjects, _Quod Junonem cum
Jove in Ida concumbentes inducit, ab immortali nube contectos_, Vulcan's
net. Mars and Venus' fopperies before all the gods, because Apollo fled,
when he was persecuted by Achilles, the [4424]gods were wounded and ran
whining away, as Mars that roared louder than Stentor, and covered nine
acres of ground with his fall; Vulcan was a summer's day falling down from
heaven, and in Lemnos Isle brake his leg, &c., with such ridiculous
passages; when, as both Socrates and Plato, by his testimony, writ lighter
themselves: _quid enim tam distat_ (as he follows it) _quam amans a
temperante, formarum admirator a demente_, what can be more absurd than for
grave philosophers to treat of such fooleries, to admire Autiloquus,
Alcibiades, for their beauties as they did, to run after, to gaze, to dote
on fair Phaedrus, delicate Agatho, young Lysis, fine Charmides, _haeccine
Philosophum decent_? Doth this become grave philosophers? Thus peradventure
Callias, Thrasimachus, Polus, Aristophanes, or some of his adversaries and
emulators might object; but neither they nor [4425]Anytus and Melitus his
bitter enemies, that condemned him for teaching Critias to tyrannise, his
impiety for swearing by dogs and plain trees, for his juggling sophistry,
&c., never so much as upbraided him with impure love, writing or speaking
of that subject; and therefore without question, as he concludes, both
Socrates and Plato in this are justly to be excused. But suppose they had
been a little overseen, should divine Plato be defamed? no, rather as he
said of Cato's drunkenness, if Cato were drunk, it should be no vice at all
to be drunk. They reprove Plato then, but without cause (as [4426]Ficinus
pleads) "for all love is honest and good, and they are worthy to be loved
that speak well of love." Being to speak of this admirable affection of
love (saith [4427]Valleriola) "there lies open a vast and philosophical
field to my discourse, by which many lovers become mad; let me leave my
more serious meditations, wander in these philosophical fields, and look
into those pleasant groves of the Muses, where with unspeakable variety of
flowers, we may make garlands to ourselves, not to adorn us only, but with
their pleasant smell and juice to nourish our souls, and fill our minds
desirous of knowledge," &c. After a harsh and unpleasing discourse of
melancholy, which hath hitherto molested your patience, and tired the
author, give him leave with [4428]Godefridus the lawyer, and Laurentius
(_cap. 5._) to recreate himself in this kind after his laborious studies,
"since so many grave divines and worthy men have without offence to
manners, to help themselves and others, voluntarily written of it."
Heliodorus, a bishop, penned a love story of Theagines and Chariclea, and
when some Catos of his time reprehended him for it, chose rather, saith
[4429]Nicephorus, to leave his bishopric than his book. Aeneas Sylvius, an
ancient divine, and past forty years of age, (as [4430]he confesseth
himself, after Pope Pius Secundus) indited that wanton history of Euryalus
and Lucretia. And how many superintendents of learning could I reckon up
that have written of light fantastical subjects? Beroaldus, Erasmus,
Alpheratius, twenty-four times printed in Spanish, &c. Give me leave then
to refresh my muse a little, and my weary readers, to expatiate in this
delightsome field, _hoc deliciarum campo_, as Fonseca terms it, to [4431]
season a surly discourse with a more pleasing aspersion of love matters:
_Edulcare vitam convenit_, as the poet invites us, _curas nugis_, &c., 'tis
good to sweeten our life with some pleasing toys to relish it, and as Pliny
tells us, _magna pars studiosorum amaenitates quaerimus_, most of our
students love such pleasant [4432]subjects. Though Macrobius teach us
otherwise, [4433]"that those old sages banished all such light tracts from
their studies, to nurse's cradles, to please only the ear;" yet out of
Apuleius I will oppose as honourable patrons, Solon, Plato, [4434]
Xenophon, Adrian, &c. that as highly approve of these treatises. On the
other side methinks they are not to be disliked, they are not so unfit. I
will not peremptorily say as one did [4435]_tam suavia dicam facinora, ut
male sit ei qui talibus non delectetur_, I will tell you such pretty
stories, that foul befall him that is not pleased with them; _Neque dicam
ea quae vobis usui sit audivisse, et voluptati meminisse_, with that
confidence, as Beroaldus doth his enarrations on Propertius. I will not
expert or hope for that approbation, which Lipsius gives to his Epictetus;
_pluris facio quum relego; semper ut novum, et quum repetivi, repetendum_,
the more I read, the more shall I covet to read. I will not press you with
my pamphlets, or beg attention, but if you like them you may. Pliny holds
it expedient, and most fit, _severitatem jucunditate etiam in scriptis
condire_, to season our works with some pleasant discourse; Synesius
approves it, _licet in ludicris ludere_, the [4436]poet admires it, _Omne
tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci_; and there be those, without
question, that are more willing to read such toys, than [4437]I am to
write: "Let me not live," saith Aretine's Antonia, "If I had not rather
hear thy discourse, [4438]than see a play?" No doubt but there be more of
her mind, ever have been, ever will be, as [4439]Hierome bears me witness.
A far greater part had rather read Apuleius than Plato: Tully himself
confesseth he could not understand Plato's Timaeus, and therefore cared
less for it: but every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius
Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers' ends. The comical poet,
[4440] ------"Id sibi negoti credidit solum dari,
Populo ut placrent, quas fecissit fabulas,"
made this his only care and sole study to please the people, tickle the
ear, and to delight; but mine earnest intent is as much to profit as to
please; _non tam ut populo placerem, quam ut populum juvarem_, and these my
writings, I hope, shall take like gilded pills, which are so composed as
well to tempt the appetite, and deceive the palate, as to help and
medicinally work upon the whole body; my lines shall not only recreate, but
rectify the mind. I think I have said enough; if not, let him that is
otherwise minded, remember that of [4441]Maudarensis, "he was in his life a
philosopher" (as Ausonius apologiseth for him), "in his epigrams a lover,
in his precepts most severe; in his epistle to Caerellia, a wanton."
Annianus, Sulpicius, Evemus, Menander, and many old poets besides, did _in
scriptis prurire_, write Fescennines, Atellans, and lascivious songs;
_laetam materiam_; yet they had _in moribus censuram, et severitatem_, they
were chaste, severe, and upright livers.
[4442] "Castum esse decet pium poetam
Ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est,
Qui tum denique habent salem et leporem."
I am of Catullus' opinion, and make the same apology in mine own behalf;
_Hoc etiam quod scribo, pendet plerumque ex aliorum sententia et
auctoritate; nec ipse forsan insanio, sed insanientes sequor. Atqui detur
hoc insanire me; Semel insanivimus omnes, et tute ipse opinor insanis
aliquando, et is, et ille, et ego, scilicet_.[4443] _Homo sum, humani a me
nihil alienum puto_:[4444] And which he urgeth for himself, accused of the
like fault, I as justly plead, [4445]_lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba
est_. Howsoever my lines err, my life is honest, [4446]_vita verecunda est,
musa jocosa mihi_. But I presume I need no such apologies, I need not, as
Socrates in Plato, cover his face when he spake of love, or blush and hide
mine eyes, as Pallas did in her hood, when she was consulted by Jupiter
about Mercury's marriage, _quod, super nuptiis virgo consulitur_, it is no
such lascivious, obscene, or wanton discourse; I have not offended your
chaster ears with anything that is here written, as many French and Italian
authors in their modern language of late have done, nay some of our Latin
pontificial writers, Zanches, Asorius, Abulensis, Burchardus, &c., whom
[4447]Rivet accuseth to be more lascivious than Virgil in Priapeiis,
Petronius in Catalectis, Aristophanes in Lycistratae, Martialis, or any
other pagan profane writer, _qui tam atrociter_ ([4448]one notes) _hoc
genere peccarunt ut multa ingeniosissime scripta obscaenitatum gratia
castae mentes abhorreant_. 'Tis not scurrile this, but chaste, honest, most
part serious, and even of religion itself. [4449]"Incensed" (as he said)
"with the love of finding love, we have sought it, and found it." More yet,
I have augmented and added something to this light treatise (if light)
which was not in the former editions, I am not ashamed to confess it, with
a good [4450]author, _quod extendi et locupletari hoc subjectum plerique
postulabant, et eorum importunitate victus, animum utcunque renitentem eo
adegi, ut jam sexta vice calamum in manum sumerem, scriptionique longe et a
studiis et professione mea alienae, me accingerem, horas aliquas a seriis
meis occupationibus interim suffuratus, easque veluti ludo cuidam ac
recreationi destinans_;
[4451] "Cogor------retrorsum
Vela dare, atque literare cursus
Olim relictos"------
_etsi non ignorarem novos fortasse detractores novis hisce
interpolationibus meis minime defuturos_. [4452]
And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man
(which [4453]Godefridus feared in his book) should blame in me lightness,
wantonness, rashness, in speaking of love's causes, enticements, symptoms,
remedies, lawful and unlawful loves, and lust itself, [4454]I speak it only
to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to show the vanities and
fopperies of this heroical or Herculean love, [4455]and to apply remedies
unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.
[4456] "Sed dicam vobis, vos porro dicite multis
Millibus, et facite haec charta loquatur anus."
Condemn me not good reader then, or censure me hardly, if some part of this
treatise to thy thinking as yet be too light; but consider better of it;
_Omnia munda mundis_, [4457]a naked man to a modest woman is no otherwise
than a picture, as Augusta Livia truly said, and [4458]_mala mens, malus
animus_, 'tis as 'tis taken. If in thy censure it be too light, I advise
thee as Lipsius did his reader for some places of Plautus, _istos quasi
Sirenum scopulos praetervehare_, if they like thee not, let them pass; or
oppose that which is good to that which is bad, and reject not therefore
all. For to invert that verse of Martial, and with Hierom Wolfius to apply
it to my present purpose, _sunt mala, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt bona
plura_; some is good, some bad, some is indifferent. I say further with him
yet, I have inserted ([4459]_levicula quaedam et ridicula ascribere non sum
gravatus, circumforanea quaedam e theatris, e plateis, etiam e popinis_)
some things more homely, light, or comical, _litans gratiis_, &c. which I
would request every man to interpret to the best, and as Julius Caesar
Scaliger besought Cardan (_si quid urbaniuscule lusum a nobis, per deos
immortales te oro Hieronyme Cardane ne me male capias_). I beseech thee,
good reader, not to mistake me, or misconstrue what is here written; _Per
Musas et Charites, et omnia Poetarum numina, benigne lector, oro te ne me
male capias_. 'Tis a comical subject; in sober sadness I crave pardon of
what is amiss, and desire thee to suspend thy judgment, wink at small
faults, or to be silent at least; but if thou likest, speak well of it, and
wish me good success. _Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem_.[4460]
I am resolved howsoever, _velis, nolis, audacter stadium intrare_, in the
Olympics, with those Aeliensian wrestlers in Philostratus, boldly to show
myself in this common stage, and in this tragicomedy of love, to act
several parts, some satirically, some comically, some in a mixed tone, as
the subject I have in hand gives occasion, and present scene shall require,
or offer itself.
SUBSECT. II.--_Love's Beginning, Object, Definition, Division_.
"Love's limits are ample and great, and a spacious walk it hath, beset with
thorns," and for that cause, which [4461]Scaliger reprehends in Cardan,
"not lightly to be passed over." Lest I incur the same censure, 1 will
examine all the kinds of love, his nature, beginning, difference, objects,
how it is honest or dishonest, a virtue or vice, a natural passion, or a
disease, his power and effects, how far it extends: of which, although
something has been said in the first partition, in those sections of
perturbations ([4462] "for love and hatred are the first and most common
passions, from which all the rest arise, and are attendant," as
Picolomineus holds, or as Nich. Caussinus, the _primum mobile_ of all other
affections, which carry them all about them) I will now more copiously
dilate, through all his parts and several branches, that so it may better
appear what love is, and how it varies with the objects, how in defect, or
(which is most ordinary and common) immoderate, and in excess, causeth
melancholy.
Love universally taken, is defined to be a desire, as a word of more ample
signification: and though Leon Hebreus, the most copious writer of this
subject, in his third dialogue make no difference, yet in his first he
distinguisheth them again, and defines love by desire. [4463]"Love is a
voluntary affection, and desire to enjoy that which is good. [4464]Desire
wisheth, love enjoys; the end of the one is the beginning of the other;
that which we love is present; that which we desire is absent." [4465]"It
is worth the labour," saith Plotinus, "to consider well of love, whether it
be a god or a devil, or passion of the mind, or partly god, partly devil,
partly passion." He concludes love to participate of all three, to arise
from desire of that which is beautiful and fair, and defines it to be "an
action of the mind desiring that which is good." [4466]Plato calls it the
great devil, for its vehemency, and sovereignty over all other passions,
and defines it an appetite, [4467]"by which we desire some good to be
present." Ficinus in his comment adds the word fair to this definition.
Love is a desire of enjoying that which is good and fair. Austin dilates
this common definition, and will have love to be a delectation of the
heart, [4468]"for something which we seek to win, or joy to have, coveting
by desire, resting in joy." [4469]Scaliger _exerc. 301._ taxeth these
former definitions, and will not have love to be defined by desire or
appetite; "for when we enjoy the things we desire, there remains no more
appetite:" as he defines it, "Love is an affection by which we are either
united to the thing we love, or perpetuate our union;" which agrees in part
with Leon Hebreus.
Now this love varies as its object varies, which is always good, amiable,
fair, gracious, and pleasant. [4470]"All things desire that which is good,"
as we are taught in the Ethics, or at least that which to them seems to be
good; _quid enim vis mali_ (as Austin well infers) _dic mihi? puto nihil in
omnibus actionibus_; thou wilt wish no harm, I suppose, no ill in all thine
actions, thoughts or desires, _nihil mali vis_; [4471]thou wilt not have
bad corn, bad soil, a naughty tree, but all good; a good servant, a good
horse, a good son, a good friend, a good neighbour, a good wife. From this
goodness comes beauty; from beauty, grace, and comeliness, which result as
so many rays from their good parts, make us to love, and so to covet it:
for were it not pleasing and gracious in our eyes, we should not seek.
[4472]"No man loves" (saith Aristotle _9. mor. cap. 5._) "but he that was
first delighted with comeliness and beauty." As this fair object varies, so
doth our love; for as Proclus holds, _Omne pulchrum amabile_, every fair
thing is amiable, and what we love is fair and gracious in our eyes, or at
least we do so apprehend and still esteem of it. [4473] "Amiableness is the
object of love, the scope and end is to obtain it, for whose sake we love,
and which our mind covets to enjoy." And it seems to us especially fair and
good; for good, fair, and unity, cannot be separated. Beauty shines, Plato
saith, and by reason of its splendour and shining causeth admiration; and
the fairer the object is, the more eagerly it is sought. For as the same
Plato defines it, [4474]"Beauty is a lively, shining or glittering
brightness, resulting from effused good, by ideas, seeds, reasons, shadows,
stirring up our minds, that by this good they may be united and made one."
Others will have beauty to be the perfection of the whole composition,
[4475]"caused out of the congruous symmetry, measure, order and manner of
parts, and that comeliness which proceeds from this beauty is called grace,
and from thence all fair things are gracious." For grace and beauty are so
wonderfully annexed, [4476]"so sweetly and gently win our souls, and
strongly allure, that they confound our judgment and cannot be
distinguished. Beauty and grace are like those beams and shinings that come
from the glorious and divine sun," which are diverse, as they proceed from
the diverse objects, to please and affect our several senses. [4477]"As the
species of beauty are taken at our eyes, ears, or conceived in our inner
soul," as Plato disputes at large in his _Dialogue de pulchro, Phaedro,
Hyppias_, and after many sophistical errors confuted, concludes that beauty
is a grace in all things, delighting the eyes, ears, and soul itself; so
that, as Valesius infers hence, whatsoever pleaseth our ears, eyes, and
soul, must needs be beautiful, fair, and delightsome to us. [4478]"And
nothing can more please our ears than music, or pacify our minds." Fair
houses, pictures, orchards, gardens, fields, a fair hawk, a fair horse is
most acceptable unto us; whatsoever pleaseth our eyes and ears, we call
beautiful and fair; [4479]"Pleasure belongeth to the rest of the senses,
but grace and beauty to these two alone." As the objects vary and are
diverse, so they diversely affect our eyes, ears, and soul itself. Which
gives occasion to some to make so many several kinds of love as there be
objects. One beauty ariseth from God, of which and divine love S.
Dionysius, [4480]with many fathers and neoterics, have written just
volumes, _De amore Dei_, as they term it, many paraenetical discourses;
another from his creatures; there is a beauty of the body, a beauty of the
soul, a beauty from virtue, _formam martyrum_, Austin calls it, _quam
videmus oculis animi_, which we see with the eyes of our mind; which
beauty, as Tully saith, if we could discern with these corporeal eyes,
_admirabili sui amores excitaret_, would cause admirable affections, and
ravish our souls. This other beauty which ariseth from those extreme parts,
and graces which proceed from gestures, speeches, several motions, and
proportions of creatures, men and women (especially from women, which made
those old poets put the three graces still in Venus' company, as attending
on her, and holding up her train) are infinite almost, and vary their names
with their objects, as love of money, covetousness, love of beauty, lust,
immoderate desire of any pleasure, concupiscence, friendship, love,
goodwill, &c. and is either virtue or vice, honest, dishonest, in excess,
defect, as shall be showed in his place. Heroical love, religious love, &c.
which may be reduced to a twofold division, according to the principal
parts which are affected, the brain and liver. _Amor et amicitia_, which
Scaliger _exercitat. 301._ Valesius and Melancthon warrant out of Plato
[Greek: philein] and [Greek: eran] from that speech of Pausanias belike,
that makes two Veneres and two loves. [4481]"One Venus is ancient without a
mother, and descended from heaven, whom we call celestial; the younger,
begotten of Jupiter and Dione, whom commonly we call Venus." Ficinus, in
his comment upon this place, _cap. 8._ following Plato, calls these two
loves, two devils, [4482]or good and bad angels according to us, which are
still hovering about our souls. [4483]"The one rears to heaven, the other
depresseth us to hell; the one good, which stirs us up to the contemplation
of that divine beauty for whose sake we perform justice and all godly
offices, study philosophy, &c.; the other base, and though bad yet to be
respected; for indeed both are good in their own natures: procreation of
children is as necessary as that finding out of truth, but therefore called
bad, because it is abused, and withdraws our souls from the speculation of
that other to viler objects," so far Ficinus. S. Austin, _lib. 15. de civ.
Dei et sup. Psal. lxiv._, hath delivered as much in effect. [4484]"Every
creature is good, and may be loved well or ill:" and [4485]"Two cities make
two loves, Jerusalem and Babylon, the love of God the one, the love of the
world the other; of these two cities we all are citizens, as by examination
of ourselves we may soon find, and of which." The one love is the root of
all mischief, the other of all good. So, in his _15. cap. lib. de amor.
Ecclesiae_, he will have those four cardinal virtues to be nought else but
love rightly composed; in his 15. book _de civ. Dei, cap. 22._ he calls
virtue the order of love, whom Thomas following _1. part. 2. quaest. 55.
art. 1._ and _quaest. 56. 3. quaest. 62. art. 2._ confirms as much, and
amplifies in many words. [4486]Lucian, to the same purpose, hath a division
of his own, "One love was born in the sea, which is as various and raging
in young men's breasts as the sea itself, and causeth burning lust: the
other is that golden chain which was let down from heaven, and with a
divine fury ravisheth our souls, made to the image of God, and stirs us up
to comprehend the innate and incorruptible beauty to which we were once
created." Beroaldus hath expressed all this in an epigram of his:
"Dogmata divini memorant si vera Platonis,
Sunt geminae Veneres, et geminatus amor.
Coelestis Venus est nullo generata parente,
Quae casto sanctos nectit amore viros.
Altera sed Venus est totum vulgata per orbem,
Quae divum mentes alligat, atque hominum;"
"Improba, seductrix, petulans," &c.
"If divine Plato's tenets they be true,
Two Veneres, two loves there be,
The one from heaven, unbegotten still,
Which knits our souls in unity.
The other famous over all the world,
Binding the hearts of gods and men;
Dishonest, wanton, and seducing she,
Rules whom she will, both where and when."
This twofold division of love, Origen likewise follows, in his Comment on
the Canticles, one from God, the other from the devil, as he holds
(understanding it in the worse sense) which many others repeat and imitate.
Both which (to omit all subdivisions) in excess or defect, as they are
abused, or degenerate, cause melancholy in a particular kind, as shall be
shown in his place. Austin, in another Tract, makes a threefold division of
this love, which we may use well or ill: [4487]"God, our neighbour, and the
world: God above us, our neighbour next us, the world beneath us. In the
course of our desires, God hath three things, the world one, our neighbour
two. Our desire to God, is either from God, with God, or to God, and
ordinarily so runs. From God, when it receives from him, whence, and for
which it should love him: with God, when it contradicts his will in
nothing: to God, when it seeks to him, and rests itself in him. Our love to
our neighbour may proceed from him, and run with him, not to him: from him,
as when we rejoice of his good safety, and well doing: with him, when we
desire to have him a fellow and companion of our journey in the way of the
Lord: not in him, because there is no aid, hope, or confidence in man. From
the world our love comes, when we begin to admire the Creator in his works,
and glorify God in his creatures: with the world it should run, if,
according to the mutability of all temporalities, it should be dejected in
adversity, or over elevated in prosperity: to the world, if it would settle
itself in its vain delights and studies." Many such partitions of love I
could repeat, and subdivisions, but least (which Scaliger objects to
Cardan, _Exercitat. 501._) [4488]"I confound filthy burning lust with pure
and divine love," I will follow that accurate division of Leon Hebreus,
dial. 2. betwixt Sophia and Philo, where he speaks of natural, sensible,
and rational love, and handleth each apart. Natural love or hatred, is that
sympathy or antipathy which is to be seen in animate and inanimate
creatures, in the four elements, metals, stones, _gravia tendunt deorsum_,
as a stone to his centre, fire upward, and rivers to the sea. The sun,
moon, and stars go still around, [4489]_Amantes naturae, debita exercere_,
for love of perfection. This love is manifest, I say, in inanimate
creatures. How comes a loadstone to draw iron to it? jet chaff? the ground
to covet showers, but for love? No creature, S. Hierom concludes, is to be
found, _quod non aliquid amat_, no stock, no stone, that hath not some
feeling of love, 'Tis more eminent in plants, herbs, and is especially
observed in vegetables; as between the vine and elm a great sympathy,
between the vine and the cabbage, between the vine and the olive, [4490]
_Virgo fugit Bromium_, between the vine and bays a great antipathy, the
vine loves not the bay, [4491]"nor his smell, and will kill him, if he grow
near him;" the bur and the lentil cannot endure one another, the olive
[4492]and the myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches if they grow
near. Read more of this in Picolomineus _grad. 7. cap. 1._ Crescentius
_lib. 5. de agric._ Baptista Porta _de mag. lib. 1. cap. de plant. dodio et
element. sym._ Fracastorius _de sym. et antip._ of the love and hatred of
planets, consult with every astrologer. Leon Hebreus gives many fabulous
reasons, and moraliseth them withal.
Sensible love is that of brute beasts, of which the same Leon Hebreus
_dial. 2._ assigns these causes. First for the pleasure they take in the
act of generation, male and female love one another. Secondly, for the
preservation of the species, and desire of young brood. Thirdly, for the
mutual agreement, as being of the same kind: _Sus sui, canis cani, bos
bovi, et asinus asino pulcherrimus videtur_, as Epicharmus held, and
according to that adage of Diogenianus, _Adsidet usque graculus apud
graculum_, they much delight in one another's company, [4493]_Formicae
grata est formica, cicada cicadae_, and birds of a feather will gather
together. Fourthly, for custom, use, and familiarity, as if a dog be
trained up with a lion and a bear, contrary to their natures, they will
love each other. Hawks, dogs, horses, love their masters and keepers: many
stories I could relate in this kind, but see Gillius _de hist. anim. lib.
3. cap. 14._ those two Epistles of Lipsius, of dogs and horses, Agellius,
&c. Fifthly, for bringing up, as if a bitch bring up a kid, a hen
ducklings, a hedge-sparrow a cuckoo, &c.
The third kind is _Amor cognitionis_, as Leon calls it, rational love,
_Intellectivus amor_, and is proper to men, on which I must insist. This
appears in God, angels, men. God is love itself, the fountain of love, the
disciple of love, as Plato styles him; the servant of peace, the God of
love and peace; have peace with all men and God is with you.
[4494] ------"Quisquis veneratur Olympum,
Ipse sibi mundum subjicit atque Deum."
[4495]"By this love" (saith Gerson) "we purchase heaven," and buy the
kingdom of God. This [4496]love is either in the Trinity itself (for the
Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son, &c. John iii. 35, and v.
20, and xiv. 31), or towards us his creatures, as in making the world.
_Amor mundum fecit_, love built cities, _mundi anima_, invented arts,
sciences, and all [4497]good things, incites us to virtue and humanity,
combines and quickens; keeps peace on earth, quietness by sea, mirth in the
winds and elements, expels all fear, anger, and rusticity; _Circulus a bono
in bonum_, a round circle still from good to good; for love is the beginner
and end of all our actions, the efficient and instrumental cause, as our
poets in their symbols, impresses, [4498]emblems of rings, squares, &c.,
shadow unto us,
"Si rerum quaeris fuerit quis finis et ortus,
Desine; nam causa est unica solus amor."
"If first and last of anything you wit,
Cease; love's the sole and only cause of it."
Love, saith [4499]Leo, made the world, and afterwards in redeeming of it,
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son for it," John
iii. 16. "Behold what love the Father hath showed on us, that we should be
called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1. Or by His sweet Providence, in
protecting of it; either all in general, or His saints elect and church in
particular, whom He keeps as the apple of His eye, whom He loves freely, as
Hosea xiv. 5. speaks, and dearly respects, [4500]_Charior est ipsis homo
quam sibi_. Not that we are fair, nor for any merit or grace of ours, for
we are most vile and base; but out of His incomparable love and goodness,
out of His Divine Nature. And this is that Homer's golden chain, which
reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and
depends on his Creator. He made all, saith [4501]Moses, "and it was good;"
He loves it as good.
The love of angels and living souls is mutual amongst themselves, towards
us militant in the church, and all such as love God; as the sunbeams
irradiate the earth from those celestial thrones, they by their well wishes
reflect on us, [4502]_in salute hominum promovenda alacres, et constantes
administri_, there is joy in heaven for every sinner that repenteth; they
pray for us, are solicitous for our good, [4503]_Casti genii_.
[4504] "Ubi regnat charitas, suave desiderium,
Laetitiaque et amor Deo conjunctus."
Love proper to mortal men is the third member of this subdivision, and the
subject of my following discourse.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Love of Men, which varies as his Objects, Profitable,
Pleasant, Honest_.
Valesius, _lib. 3. contr. 13_, defines this love which is in men, "to be
[4505]an affection of both powers, appetite and reason." The rational
resides in the brain, the other in the liver (as before hath been said out
of Plato and others); the heart is diversely affected of both, and carried
a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive faculty most part overrules
reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the understanding captive like
a beast. [4506]"The heart is variously inclined, sometimes they are merry,
sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear, jealousy, fury,
desperation." Now this love of men is diverse, and varies, as the object
varies, by which they are enticed, as virtue, wisdom, eloquence, profit,
wealth, money, fame, honour, or comeliness of person, &c. Leon Hubreus, in
his first dialogue, reduceth them all to these three, _utile, jucundum,
honestum_, profitable, pleasant, honest; (out of Aristotle belike _8.
moral._) of which he discourseth at large, and whatsoever is beautiful and
fair, is referred to them, or any way to be desired. [4507]"To profitable
is ascribed health, wealth, honour, &c., which is rather ambition, desire,
covetousness, than love:" friends, children, love of women, [4508]all
delightful and pleasant objects, are referred to the second. The love of
honest things consists in virtue and wisdom, and is preferred before that
which is profitable and pleasant: intellectual, about that which is honest.
[4509]St. Austin calls "profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest,
spiritual. [4510]Of and from all three, result charity, friendship, and
true love, which respects God and our neighbour." Of each of these I will
briefly dilate, and show in what sort they cause melancholy.
Amongst all these fair enticing objects, which procure love, and bewitch
the soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as profit; and that
which carrieth with it a show of commodity. Health indeed is a precious
thing, to recover and preserve which we will undergo any misery, drink
bitter potions, freely give our goods: restore a man to his health, his
purse lies open to thee, bountiful he is, thankful and beholding to thee;
but give him wealth and honour, give him gold, or what shall be for his
advantage and preferment, and thou shalt command his affections, oblige him
eternally to thee, heart, hand, life, and all is at thy service, thou art
his dear and loving friend, good and gracious lord and master, his
Mecaenas; he is thy slave, thy vassal, most devote, affectioned, and bound
in all duty: tell him good tidings in this kind, there spoke an angel, a
blessed hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator,
he hugs and admires thee; he is thine for ever. No loadstone so attractive
as that of profit, none so fair an object as this of gold; [4511]nothing
wins a man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality command body and
soul:
"Munera (crede mihi) placant hominesque deosque;
Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis."
"Good turns doth pacify both God and men,
And Jupiter himself is won by them."
Gold of all other is a most delicious object; a sweet light, a goodly
lustre it hath; _gratius aurum quam solem intuemur_, saith Austin, and we
had rather see it than the sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping;
it seasons all our labours, intolerable pains we take for it, base
employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy burdens,
all are made light and easy by this hope of gain: _At mihi plaudo ipse
domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca_. The sight of gold refresheth our
spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment and [4512]
golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing sets on fire
his soul with desire of it. It will make a man run to the antipodes, or
tarry at home and turn parasite, lie, flatter, prostitute himself, swear
and bear false witness; he will venture his body, kill a king, murder his
father, and damn his soul to come at it. _Formosior auri massa_, as [4513]
he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian
pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any doting painter could ever make: we
are enamoured with it,
[4514] "Prima fere vota, et cunctis notissima templis,
Divitiae ut crescant."------
All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to get,
how to compass it.
[4515] "Haec est illa cui famulatur maximus orbis,
Diva potens rerum, domitrixque pecunia fati."
"This is the great goddess we adore and worship; this is the sole object of
our desire." If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice
happy, princes, lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected,
discontent, miserable, desperate, and mad. Our estate and _bene esse_ ebbs
and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we
beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer than our wealth; when that is
gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long as bounty, good
cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough; they were tied to thee
by the teeth, and would follow thee as crows do a carcass: but when thy
goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be
contemned, scorned, hated, injured. [4516]Lucian's Timon, when he lived in
prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, only admired; who but Timon?
Everybody loved, honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service,
and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair
possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious
an object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny
to buy a rope, no man would know him.
'Tis the general humour of the world, commodity steers our affections
throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by
whom we may receive mutual kindness, hope for like courtesies, get any
good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are
poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience. And
even those that were now familiar and dear unto us, our loving and long
friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed, and
lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one
another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations,
feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend ourselves,
and of whom we have so freely and honourably spoken, to whom we have given
all those turgent titles, and magnificent eulogiums, most excellent and
most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, &c., and magnified
beyond measure: if any controversy arise between us, some trespass, injury,
abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a piece of land come to be
litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our
commodity, we detest and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity,
consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but [4517]_rupto jecore
exierit Caprificus_. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a
marrowbone or honeycomb were flung amongst bears: father and son, brother
and sister, kinsmen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can
invent, that shall be done, _Terrible, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum_,
mutual injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are
all our studies. If our pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our
bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our commodities,
we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the graces are turned to harpies,
friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutual feastings to plotting
villainies, minings and counterminings; good words to satires and
invectives, we revile _e contra_, nought but his imperfections are in our
eyes, he is a base knave, a devil, a monster, a caterpillar, a viper, a
hog-rubber, &c. _Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne_;[4518] the scene
is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy: so
furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of
commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness:
ambition tyranniseth over our souls, as [4519]I have shown, and in defect
crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence,
prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes, beggary follows, and
melancholy, he becomes an abject, [4520]odious and "worse than an infidel,
in not providing for his family."
SUBSECT. II.--_Pleasant Objects of Love_.
Pleasant objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be
without life; inanimate are countries, provinces, towers, towns, cities, as
he said, [4521]_Pulcherrimam insulam videmus, etiam cum non videmus_ we see
a fair island by description, when we see it not. The [4522]sun never saw a
fairer city, Thessala Tempe, orchards, gardens, pleasant walks, groves,
fountains, &c. The heaven itself is said to be [4523]fair or foul: fair
buildings, [4524]fair pictures, all artificial, elaborate and curious
works, clothes, give an admirable lustre: we admire, and gaze upon them,
_ut pueri Junonis avem_, as children do on a peacock: a fair dog, a fair
horse and hawk, &c. [4525]_Thessalus amat equum pullinum, buculum
Aegyptius, Lacedaemonius Catulum_, &c., such things we love, are most
gracious in our sight, acceptable unto us, and whatsoever else may cause
this passion, if it be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Guianerius
observes. These things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular
ornaments, necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an
immoderate eye, and dote on them over much, this pleasure may turn to pain,
bring much sorrow and discontent unto us, work our final overthrow, and
cause melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching
sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as [4526]I
have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the
Olympics, knighted in the field, &c., and by these means ruinate
themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the glutton on his
dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the epicure on
his several pleasures, the superstitious on his idol, and fats himself with
future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an imaginary persuasion of a
sensual paradise: so several pleasant objects diversely affect diverse men.
But the fairest objects and enticings proceed from men themselves, which
most frequently captivate, allure, and make them dote beyond all measure
upon one another, and that for many respects: first, as some suppose, by
that secret force of stars, (_quod me tibi temperat astrum_?) They do
singularly dote on such a man, hate such again, and can give no reason for
it. [4527]_Non amo te Sabidi_, &c. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian
Antinous, Nero Sporus, &c. The physicians refer this to their temperament,
astrologers to trine and sextile aspects, or opposite of their several
ascendants, lords of their genitures, love and hatred of planets; [4528]
Cicogna, to concord and discord of spirits; but most to outward graces. A
merry companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore, saith
[4529]Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players
commonly in their courts. But [4530]_Pares cum paribus facillime
congregantur_, 'tis that [4531]similitude of manners, which ties most men
in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the same studies or
disports, they delight in one another's companies, "birds of a feather will
gather together:" if they be of divers inclinations, or opposite in
manners, they can seldom agree. Secondly, [4532]affability, custom, and
familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in
manners, as if they be countrymen, fellow-students, colleagues, or have
been fellow-soldiers, [4533]brethren in affliction, ([4534]_acerba
calamitatum societas, diversi etiam ingenii homines conjungit_) affinity,
or some such accidental occasion, though they cannot agree amongst
themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and bold against a third;
so after some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceaseth; or in a foreign
place:
"Pascitur in vivis livor, post fata quiescit:
Et cecidere odia, et tristes mors obruit iras."
A third cause of love and hate, may be mutual offices, _acceptum
beneficium_, [4535]commend him, use him kindly, take his part in a quarrel,
relieve him in his misery, thou winnest him for ever; do the opposite, and
be sure of a perpetual enemy. Praise and dispraise of each other, do as
much, though unknown, as [4536]Schoppius by Scaliger and Casaubonus: _mulus
mulum scabit_; who but Scaliger with him? what encomiums, epithets,
eulogiums? _Antistes sapientiae, perpetuus dictator, literarum ornamentum,
Europae miraculum_, noble Scaliger, [4537] _incredibilis ingenii
praestantia, &c., diis potius quam hominibus per omnia comparandus, scripta
ejus aurea ancylia de coelo delapsa poplitibus veneramur flexis_,
&c.,[4538] but when they began to vary, none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile
and base, as his books _de Burdonum familia_, and other satirical
invectives may witness, Ovid, _in Ibin_, Archilocus himself was not so
bitter. Another great tie or cause of love, is consanguinity: parents are
clear to their children, children to their parents, brothers and sisters,
cousins of all sorts, as a hen and chickens, all of a knot: every crow
thinks her own bird fairest. Many memorable examples are in this kind, and
'tis _portenti simile_, if they do not: [4539]"a mother cannot forget her
child:" Solomon so found out the true owner; love of parents may not be
concealed, 'tis natural, descends, and they that are inhuman in this kind,
are unworthy of that air they breathe, and of the four elements; yet many
unnatural examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents,
disobedient children, of [4540]disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The
love of kinsmen is grown cold, [4541]"many kinsmen" (as the saying is) "few
friends;" if thine estate be good, and thou able, _par pari referre_, to
requite their kindness, there will be mutual correspondence, otherwise thou
art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last object that
ties man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty alone, as men love
women with a wanton eye: which [Greek: kat' exochaen] is termed heroical,
or love-melancholy. Other loves (saith Picolomineus) are so called with
some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, &c., but this of women is
predominant in a higher strain, whose part affected is the liver, and this
love deserves a longer explication, and shall be dilated apart in the next
section.
SUBSECT. III.--_Honest Objects of Love_.
Beauty is the common object of all love, [4542]"as jet draws a straw, so
doth beauty love:" virtue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a
lustre as the rest, especially if they be sincere and right, not fucate,
but proceeding from true form, and an incorrupt judgment; those two Venus'
twins, Eros and Anteros, are then most firm and fast. For many times
otherwise men are deceived by their flattering gnathos, dissembling
camelions, outsides, hypocrites that make a show of great love, learning,
pretend honesty, virtue, zeal, modesty, with affected looks and counterfeit
gestures: feigned protestations often steal away the hearts and favours of
men, and deceive them, _specie virtutis et umbra_, when as _revera_ and
indeed, there is no worth or honesty at all in them, no truth, but mere
hypocrisy, subtlety, knavery, and the like. As true friends they are, as he
that Caelius Secundus met by the highway side; and hard it is in this
temporising age to distinguish such companions, or to find them out. Such
gnathos as these for the most part belong to great men, and by this glozing
flattery, affability, and such like philters, so dive and insinuate into
their favours, that they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdom,
learning, demigods, and so screw themselves into dignities, honours,
offices; but these men cause harsh confusion often, and as many times stirs
as Rehoboam's counsellors in a commonwealth, overthrew themselves and
others. Tandlerus and some authors make a doubt, whether love and hatred
may be compelled by philters or characters; Cardan and Marbodius, by
precious stones and amulets; astrologers by election of times, &c. as
[4543]I shall elsewhere discuss. The true object of this honest love is
virtue, wisdom, honesty, [4544]real worth, _Interna forma_, and this love
cannot deceive or be compelled, _ut ameris amabilis esto_, love itself is
the most potent philtrum, virtue and wisdom, _gratia gratum faciens_, the
sole and only grace, not counterfeit, but open, honest, simple, naked,
[4545]"descending from heaven," as our apostle hath it, an infused habit
from God, which hath given several gifts, as wit, learning, tongues, for
which they shall be amiable and gracious, Eph. iv. 11. as to Saul stature
and a goodly presence, 1 Sam. ix. 1. Joseph found favour in Pharaoh's
court, Gen. xxxix, for [4546]his person; and Daniel with the princes of the
eunuchs, Dan. xix. 19. Christ was gracious with God and men, Luke ii. 52.
There is still some peculiar grace, as of good discourse, eloquence, wit,
honesty, which is the _primum mobile_, first mover, and a most forcible
loadstone to draw the favours and good wills of men's eyes, ears, and
affections unto them. When "Jesus spake, they were all astonished at his
answers," (Luke ii. 47.) "and wondered at his gracious words which
proceeded from his mouth." An orator steals away the hearts of men, and as
another Orpheus, _quo vult, unde vult_, he pulls them to him by speech
alone: a sweet voice causeth admiration; and he that can utter himself in
good words, in our ordinary phrase, is called a proper man, a divine
spirit. For which cause belike, our old poets, _Senatus populusque
poetarum_, made Mercury the gentleman-usher to the Graces, captain of
eloquence, and those charities to be Jupiter's and Eurymone's daughters,
descended from above. Though they be otherwise deformed, crooked, ugly to
behold, those good parts of the mind denominate them fair. Plato commends
the beauty of Socrates; yet who was more grim of countenance, stern and
ghastly to look upon? So are and have been many great philosophers, as
[4547]Gregory Nazianzen observes, "deformed most part in that which is to
be seen with the eyes, but most elegant in that which is not to be seen."
_Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste_. Aesop, Democritus, Aristotle,
Politianus, Melancthon, Gesner, &c. withered old men, _Sileni Alcibiadis_,
very harsh and impolite to the eye; but who were so terse, polite,
eloquent, generally learned, temperate and modest? No man then living was
so fair as Alcibiades, so lovely _quo ad superficiem_, to the eye, as
[4548]Boethius observes, but he had _Corpus turpissimum interne_, a most
deformed soul; honesty, virtue, fair conditions, are great enticers to such
as are well given, and much avail to get the favour and goodwill of men.
Abdolominus in Curtius, a poor man, (but which mine author notes,
[4549]"the cause of this poverty was his honesty") for his modesty and
continency from a private person (for they found him digging in his garden)
was saluted king, and preferred before all the magnificoes of his time,
_injecta ei vestis purpura auroque distincta_, "a purple embroidered
garment was put upon him, [4550]and they bade him wash himself, and, as he
was worthy, take upon him the style and spirit of a king," continue his
continency and the rest of his good parts. Titus Pomponius Atticus, that
noble citizen of Rome, was so fair conditioned, of so sweet a carriage,
that he was generally beloved of all good men, of Caesar, Pompey, Antony,
Tully, of divers sects, &c. _multas haereditates_ ([4551]Cornelius Nepos
writes) _sola bonitate consequutus. Operae, pretium audire_, &c. It is
worthy of your attention, Livy cries, [4552]"you that scorn all but riches,
and give no esteem to virtue, except they be wealthy withal, Q. Cincinnatus
had but four acres, and by the consent of the senate was chosen dictator of
Rome." Of such account were Cato, Fabricius, Aristides, Antonius, Probus,
for their eminent worth: so Caesar, Trajan, Alexander, admired for valour,
[4553] Haephestion loved Alexander, but Parmenio the king: _Titus deliciae
humani generis_, and which Aurelius Victor hath of Vespasian, the darling
of his time, as [4554]Edgar Etheling was in England, for his
[4555]excellent virtues: their memory is yet fresh, sweet, and we love them
many ages after, though they be dead: _Suavem memoriam sui reliquit_, saith
Lipsius of his friend, living and dead they are all one. [4556]"I have ever
loved as thou knowest" (so Tully wrote to Dolabella) "Marcus Brutus for his
great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions; and believe it"
[4557] "there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue." "I [4558]do
mightily love Calvisinus," (so Pliny writes to Sossius) "a most
industrious, eloquent, upright man, which is all in all with me:" the
affection came from his good parts. And as St. Austin comments on the 84th
Psalm, [4559]"there is a peculiar beauty of justice, and inward beauty,
which we see with the eyes of our hearts, love, and are enamoured with, as
in martyrs, though their bodies be torn in pieces with wild beasts, yet
this beauty shines, and we love their virtues." The [4560]stoics are of
opinion that a wise man is only fair; and Cato in Tully _3 de Finibus_
contends the same, that the lineaments of the mind are far fairer than
those of the body, incomparably beyond them: wisdom and valour according to
[4561]Xenophon, especially deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one
fair, _et incomparabiliter pulchrior est_ (as Austin holds) _veritas
Christianorum quam Helena Graecorum_. "Wine is strong, the king is strong,
women are strong, but truth overcometh all things," Esd. i. 3, 10, 11, 12.
"Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the
merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than
gold: it is more precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire
are not to be compared to her," Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just,
upright, and good man, I say it again, is only fair: [4562]it is reported
of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife to Lewis 11th, a Scottish woman by
birth, that walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied M.
Alanus, one of the king's chaplains, a silly, old, [4563]hard-favoured man
fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies
laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did
embrace and reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of
[4564]his soul. Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a
singular lustre hath proceeded from it: and the more virtuous he is, the
more gracious, the more admired. No man so much followed upon earth as
Christ himself: and as the Psalmist saith, xlv. 2, "He was fairer than the
sons of men." Chrysostom _Hom. 8 in Mat._ Bernard _Ser. 1. de omnibus
sanctis_; Austin, Cassiodore, _Hier. in 9 Mat._ interpret it of the
[4565]beauty of his person; there was a divine majesty in his looks, it
shined like lightning and drew all men to it: but Basil, _Cyril, lib. 6.
super. 55. Esay._ Theodoret, Arnobius, &c. of the beauty of his divinity,
justice, grace, eloquence, &c. Thomas _in Psal. xliv._ of both; and so doth
Baradius and Peter Morales, _lib de pulchritud. Jesu et Mariae_, adding as
much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary,--_haec alias forma praecesserit omnes_,
[4566]according to that prediction of Sibylla Cumea. Be they present or
absent, near us, or afar off, this beauty shines, and will attract men many
miles to come and visit it. Plato and Pythagoras left their country, to see
those wise Egyptian priests: Apollonius travelled into Ethiopia, Persia, to
consult with the Magi, Brachmanni, gymnosophists. The Queen of Sheba came
to visit Solomon; and "many," saith [4567]Hierom, "went out of Spain and
remote places a thousand miles, to behold that eloquent Livy:" [4568]_Multi
Romam non ut urbem pulcherrimam, aut urbis et orbis dominum Octavianum, sed
ut hunc unum inviserent audirentque, a Gadibus profecti sunt._ No beauty
leaves such an impression, strikes so deep [4569], or links the souls of
men closer than virtue.
[4570] "Non per deos aut pictor posset,
Aut statuarius ullus fingere
Talem pulchritudinem qualem virtus habet;"
"no painter, no graver, no carver can express virtue's lustre, or those
admirable rays that come from it, those enchanting rays that enamour
posterity, those everlasting rays that continue to the world's end." Many,
saith Phavorinus, that loved and admired Alcibiades in his youth, knew not,
cared not for Alcibiades a man, _nunc intuentes quaerebant Alcibiadem_; but
the beauty of Socrates is still the same; [4571]virtue's lustre never
fades, is ever fresh and green, _semper viva_ to all succeeding ages, and a
most attractive loadstone, to draw and combine such as are present. For
that reason belike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied
hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such
graces. [4572]"O sweet bands (Seneca exclaims), which so happily combine,
that those which are bound by them love their binders, desiring withal much
more harder to be bound," and as so many Geryons to be united into one. For
the nature of true friendship is to combine, to be like affected, of one
mind,
[4573] "Velle et nolle ambobus idem, satiataque toto
Mens aevo"------
as the poet saith, still to continue one and the same. And where this love
takes place there is peace and quietness, a true correspondence, perfect
amity, a diapason of vows and wishes, the same opinions, as between [4574]
David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Pylades and Orestes, [4575]Nysus and
Euryalus, Theseus and Pirithous, [4576]they will live and die together, and
prosecute one another with good turns. [4577]_Nam vinci in amore
turpissimum putant_, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with
tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs elegies, inscriptions, pyramids,
obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts,
anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will
_parentare_ still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of
their names, honours, and eternal memory. [4578]_Illum coloribus, illum
cera, illum aere_, &c. "He did express his friends in colours, in wax, in
brass, in ivory, marble, gold, and silver" (as Pliny reports of a citizen
in Rome), "and in a great auditory not long since recited a just volume of
his life." In another place, [4579]speaking of an epigram which Martial had
composed in praise of him, [4580]"He gave me as much as he might, and would
have done more if he could: though what can a man give more than honour,
glory, and eternity?" But that which he wrote peradventure will not
continue, yet he wrote it to continue. 'Tis all the recompense a poor
scholar can make his well-deserving patron, Mecaenas, friend, to mention
him in his works, to dedicate a book to his name, to write his life, &c.,
as all our poets, orators, historiographers have ever done, and the
greatest revenge such men take of their adversaries, to persecute them with
satires, invectives, &c., and 'tis both ways of great moment, as [4581]
Plato gives us to understand. Paulus Jovius, in the fourth book of the life
and deeds of Pope Leo Decimus, his noble patron, concludes in these words,
[4582]"Because I cannot honour him as other rich men do, with like
endeavour, affection, and piety, I have undertaken to write his life; since
my fortunes will not give me leave to make a more sumptuous monument, I
will perform those rites to his sacred ashes, which a small, perhaps, but a
liberal wit can afford." But I rove. Where this true love is wanting, there
can be no firm peace, friendship from teeth outward, counterfeit, or for
some by-respects, so long dissembled, till they have satisfied their own
ends, which, upon every small occasion, breaks out into enmity, open war,
defiance, heart-burnings, whispering, calumnies, contentions, and all
manner of bitter melancholy discontents. And those men which have no other
object of their love, than greatness, wealth, authority, &c., are rather
feared than beloved; _nec amant quemquam, nec amantur ab ullo_: and
howsoever borne with for a time, yet for their tyranny and oppression,
griping, covetousness, currish hardness, folly, intemperance, imprudence,
and such like vices, they are generally odious, abhorred of all, both God
and men.
"Non uxor salvum te vult, non filius, omnes
Vicini oderunt,"------
"wife and children, friends, neighbours, all the world forsakes them, would
feign be rid of them," and are compelled many times to lay violent hands on
them, or else God's judgments overtake them: instead of graces, come
furies. So when fair [4583]Abigail, a woman of singular wisdom, was
acceptable to David, Nabal was churlish and evil-conditioned; and therefore
[4584]Mordecai was received, when Haman was executed, Haman the favourite,
"that had his seat above the other princes, to whom all the king's servants
that stood in the gates, bowed their knees and reverenced." Though they
flourished many times, such hypocrites, such temporising foxes, and blear
the world's eyes by flattery, bribery, dissembling their natures, or other
men's weakness, that cannot so apprehend their tricks, yet in the end they
will be discerned, and precipitated in a moment: "surely," saith David,
"thou hast set them in slippery places," Psal. xxxvii. 5. as so many
Sejani, they will come down to the Gemonian scales; and as Eusebius in
[4585] Ammianus, that was in such authority, _ad jubendum Imperatorem_, be
cast down headlong on a sudden. Or put case they escape, and rest unmasked
to their lives' end, yet after their death their memory stinks as a snuff
of a candle put out, and those that durst not so much as mutter against
them in their lives, will prosecute their name with satires, libels, and
bitter imprecations, they shall _male audire_ in all succeeding ages, and
be odious to the world's end.
MEMB. III.
_Charity composed of all three Kinds, Pleasant, Profitable, Honest_.
Besides this love that comes from profit, pleasant, honest (for one good
turn asks another in equity), that which proceeds from the law of nature,
or from discipline and philosophy, there is yet another love compounded of
all these three, which is charity, and includes piety, dilection,
benevolence, friendship, even all those virtuous habits; for love is the
circle equant of all other affections, of which Aristotle dilates at large
in his Ethics, and is commanded by God, which no man can well perform, but
he that is a Christian, and a true regenerate man; this is, [4586]"To love
God above all, and our neighbour as ourself;" for this love is _lychnus
accendens et accensus_, a communicating light, apt to illuminate itself as
well as others. All other objects are fair, and very beautiful, I confess;
kindred, alliance, friendship, the love that we owe to our country, nature,
wealth, pleasure, honour, and such moral respects, &c., of which read
[4587]copious Aristotle in his morals; a man is beloved of a man, in that
he is a man; but all these are far more eminent and great, when they shall
proceed from a sanctified spirit, that hath a true touch of religion, and a
reference to God. Nature binds all creatures to love their young ones; a
hen to preserve her brood will run upon a lion, a hind will fight with a
bull, a sow with a bear, a silly sheep with a fox. So the same nature
urgeth a man to love his parents, ([4588]_dii me pater omnes oderint, ni te
magis quam oculos amem meos!_) and this love cannot be dissolved, as Tully
holds, [4589]"without detestable offence:" but much more God's commandment,
which enjoins a filial love, and an obedience in this kind. [4590]"The love
of brethren is great, and like an arch of stones, where if one be
displaced, all comes down," no love so forcible and strong, honest, to the
combination of which, nature, fortune, virtue, happily concur; yet this
love comes short of it. [4591]_Dulce et decorum pro patria mori_, [4592]it
cannot be expressed, what a deal of charity that one name of country
contains. _Amor laudis et patriae pro stipendio est_; the Decii did _se
devovere_, Horatii, Curii, Scaevola, Regulus, Codrus, sacrifice themselves
for their country's peace and good.
[4593] "Una dies Fabios ad bellum miserat omnes,
Ad bellum missos perdidit una dies."
"One day the Fabii stoutly warred,
One day the Fabii were destroyed."
Fifty thousand Englishmen lost their lives willingly near Battle Abbey, in
defence of their country. [4594]P. Aemilius _l. 6._ speaks of six senators
of Calais, that came with halters in their hands to the king of England, to
die for the rest. This love makes so many writers take such pains, so many
historiographers, physicians, &c., or at least, as they pretend, for common
safety, and their country's benefit. [4595]_Sanctum nomen amiciticae,
sociorum communio sacra_; friendship is a holy name, and a sacred communion
of friends. [4596]"As the sun is in the firmament, so is friendship in the
world," a most divine and heavenly band. As nuptial love makes, this
perfects mankind, and is to be preferred (if you will stand to the judgment
of [4597]Cornelius Nepos) before affinity or consanguinity; _plus in
amiciticia valet similitudo morum, quam affinitas_, &c., the cords of love
bind faster than any other wreath whatsoever. Take this away, and take all
pleasure, joy, comfort, happiness, and true content out of the world; 'tis
the greatest tie, the surest indenture, strongest band, and, as our modern
Maro decides it, is much to be preferred before the rest.
[4598] "Hard is the doubt, and difficult to deem,
When all three kinds of love together meet;
And do dispart the heart with power extreme,
Whether shall weigh the balance down; to wit,
The dear affection unto kindred sweet,
Or raging fire of love to women kind,
Or zeal of friends, combin'd by virtues meet;
But of them all the band of virtuous mind,
Methinks the gentle heart should most assured bind.
For natural affection soon doth cease,
And quenched is with Cupid's greater flame;
But faithful friendship doth them both suppress,
And them with mastering discipline doth tame,
Through thoughts aspiring to eternal fame.
For as the soul doth rule the earthly mass,
And all the service of the body frame,
So love of soul doth love of body pass,
No less than perfect gold surmounts the meanest brass."
[4599]A faithful friend is better than [4600]gold, a medicine of misery,
[4601]an only possession; yet this love of friends, nuptial, heroical,
profitable, pleasant, honest, all three loves put together, are little
worth, if they proceed not from a true Christian illuminated soul, if it be
not done _in ordine ad Deum_ for God's sake. "Though I had the gift of
prophecy, spake with tongues of men and angels, though I feed the poor with
all my goods, give my body to be burned, and have not this love, it
profiteth me nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 3. 'tis _splendidum peccatum_,
without charity. This is an all-apprehending love, a deifying love, a
refined, pure, divine love, the quintessence of all love, the true
philosopher's stone, _Non potest enim_, as [4602]Austin infers, _veraciter
amicus esse hominis, nisi fuerit ipsius primitus veritatis_, He is no true
friend that loves not God's truth. And therefore this is true love indeed,
the cause of all good to mortal men, that reconciles all creatures, and
glues them together in perpetual amity and firm league; and can no more
abide bitterness, hate, malice, than fair and foul weather, light and
darkness, sterility and plenty may be together; as the sun in the firmament
(I say), so is love in the world; and for this cause 'tis love without an
addition, love [Greek: kat' exochaen], love of God, and love of men.
[4603]"The love of God begets the love of man; and by this love of our
neighbour, the love of God is nourished and increased." By this happy union
of love, [4604]"all well-governed families and cities are combined, the
heavens annexed, and divine souls complicated, the world itself composed,
and all that is in it conjoined in God, and reduced to one." [4605]"This
love causeth true and absolute virtues, the life, spirit, and root of every
virtuous action, it finisheth prosperity, easeth adversity, corrects all
natural encumbrances," inconveniences, sustained by faith and hope, which
with this our love make an indissoluble twist, a Gordian knot, an
equilateral triangle, "and yet the greatest of them is love," 1 Cor. xiii.
13, [4606]"which inflames our souls with a divine heat, and being so
inflamed, purged, and so purgeth, elevates to God, makes an atonement, and
reconciles us unto him." [4607] "That other love infects the soul of man,
this cleanseth; that depresses, this rears; that causeth cares and
troubles, this quietness of mind; this informs, that deforms our life; that
leads to repentance, this to heaven." For if once we be truly linked and
touched with this charity, we shall love God above all, our neighbour as
ourself, as we are enjoined, Mark xii. 31. Matt. xix. 19. perform those
duties and exercises, even all the operations of a good Christian.
"This love suffereth long, it is bountiful, envieth not, boasteth not
itself, is not puffed up, it deceiveth not, it seeketh not his own things,
is not provoked to anger, it thinketh not evil, it rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but in truth. It suffereth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things," 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7; "it covereth all trespasses,"
Prov, x. 12; "a multitude of sins," 1 Pet. 4, as our Saviour told the woman
in the Gospel, that washed his feet, "many sins were forgiven her, for she
loved much," Luke vii. 47; "it will defend the fatherless and the widow,"
Isa. i. 17; "will seek no revenge, or be mindful of wrong," Levit. xix. 18;
"will bring home his brother's ox if he go astray, as it is commanded,"
Deut. xxii. 1; "will resist evil, give to him that asketh, and not turn
from him that borroweth, bless them that curse him, love his enemy," Matt.
v; "bear his brother's burthen," Gal. vi. 7. He that so loves will be
hospitable, and distribute to the necessities of the saints; he will, if it
be possible, have peace with all men, "feed his enemy if he be hungry, if
he be athirst give him drink;" he will perform those seven works of mercy,
"he will make himself equal to them of the lower sort, rejoice with them
that rejoice, weep with them that weep," Rom. xii; he will speak truth to
his neighbour, be courteous and tender-hearted, "forgiving others for
Christ's sake, as God forgave him," Eph. iv. 32; "he will be like minded,"
Phil. ii. 2. "Of one judgment; be humble, meek, long-suffering," Colos.
iii. "Forbear, forget and forgive," xii. 13. 23. and what he doth shall be
heartily done to God, and not to men. "Be pitiful and courteous," 1 Pet.
iii. "Seek peace and follow it." He will love his brother, not in word and
tongue, but in deed and truth, John iii. 18. "and he that loves God, Christ
will love him that is begotten of him," John v. 1, &c. Thus should we
willingly do, if we had a true touch of this charity, of this divine love,
if we could perform this which we are enjoined, forget and forgive, and
compose ourselves to those Christian laws of love.
[4608] "O felix hominum genus,
Si vestros animos amor
Quo coelum regitur regat!"
"Angelical souls, how blessed, how happy should we be, so loving, how might
we triumph over the devil, and have another heaven upon earth!"
But this we cannot do; and which is the cause of all our woes, miseries,
discontent, melancholy, [4609]want of this charity. We do _invicem
angariare_, contemn, consult, vex, torture, molest, and hold one another's
noses to the grindstone hard, provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge,
hate, abuse (hard-hearted, implacable, malicious, peevish, inexorable as we
are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen, for [4610]toys, trifles, and
impertinent occasions, spend ourselves, goods, friends, fortunes, to be
revenged on our adversary, to ruin him and his. 'Tis all our study,
practice, and business how to plot mischief, mine, countermine, defend and
offend, ward ourselves, injure others, hurt all; as if we were born to do
mischief, and that with such eagerness and bitterness, with such rancour,
malice, rage, and fury, we prosecute our intended designs, that neither
affinity or consanguinity, love or fear of God or men can contain us: no
satisfaction, no composition will be accepted, no offices will serve, no
submission; though he shall upon his knees, as Sarpedon did to Glaucus in
Homer, acknowledging his error, yield himself with tears in his eyes, beg
his pardon, we will not relent, forgive, or forget, till we have confounded
him and his, "made dice of his bones," as they say, see him rot in prison,
banish his friends, followers, _et omne invisum genus_, rooted him out and
all his posterity. Monsters of men as we are, dogs, wolves, [4611]tigers,
fiends, incarnate devils, we do not only contend, oppress, and tyrannise
ourselves, but as so many firebrands, we set on, and animate others: our
whole life is a perpetual combat, a conflict, a set battle, a snarling fit.
_Eris dea_ is settled in our tents, [4612]_Omnia de lite_, opposing wit to
wit, wealth to wealth, strength to strength, fortunes to fortunes, friends
to friends, as at a sea-fight, we turn our broadsides, or two millstones
with continual attrition, we fire ourselves, or break another's backs, and
both are ruined and consumed in the end. Miserable wretches, to fat and
enrich ourselves, we care not how we get it, _Quocunque modo rem_; how many
thousands we undo, whom we oppress, by whose ruin and downfall we arise,
whom we injure, fatherless children, widows, common societies, to satisfy
our own private lust. Though we have myriads, abundance of wealth and
treasure, (pitiless, merciless, remorseless, and uncharitable in the
highest degree), and our poor brother in need, sickness, in great
extremity, and now ready to be starved for want of food, we had rather, as
the fox told the ape, his tail should sweep the ground still, than cover
his buttocks; rather spend it idly, consume it with dogs, hawks, hounds,
unnecessary buildings, in riotous apparel, ingurgitate, or let it be lost,
than he should have part of it; [4613]rather take from him that little
which he hath, than relieve him.
Like the dog in the manger, we neither use it ourselves, let others make
use of or enjoy it; part with nothing while we live: for want of disposing
our household, and setting things in order, set all the world together by
the ears after our death. Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few
crumbs, he only seeks chippings, offals; let him roar and howl, famish, and
eat his own flesh, he respects him not. A poor decayed kinsman of his sets
upon him by the way in all his jollity, and runs begging bareheaded by him,
conjuring by those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity,
&c., uncle, cousin, brother, father,
------"Per ego has lachrymas, dextramque tuam te,
Si quidquam de te merui, fuit aut tibi quidquam
Dulce meum, misere mei."
"Show some pity for Christ's sake, pity a sick man, an old man," &c., he
cares not, ride on: pretend sickness, inevitable loss of limbs, goods,
plead suretyship, or shipwreck, fires, common calamities, show thy wants
and imperfections,
"Et si per sanctum juratus dicat Osyrim,
Credite, non ludo, crudeles tollite claudum."
Swear, protest, take God and all his angels to witness, _quaere
peregrinum_, thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater, he is not touched
with it, _pauper ubique jacet_, ride on, he takes no notice of it. Put up a
supplication to him in the name of a thousand orphans, a hospital, a
spittle, a prison, as he goes by, they cry out to him for aid, ride on,
_surdo narras_, he cares not, let them eat stones, devour themselves with
vermin, rot in their own dung, he cares not. Show him a decayed haven, a
bridge, a school, a fortification, etc., or some public work, ride on; good
your worship, your honour, for God's sake, your country's sake, ride on.
But show him a roll wherein his name shall be registered in golden letters,
and commended to all posterity, his arms set up, with his devices to be
seen, then peradventure he will stay and contribute; or if thou canst
thunder upon him, as Papists do, with satisfactory and meritorious works,
or persuade him by this means he shall save his soul out of hell, and free
it from purgatory (if he be of any religion), then in all likelihood he
will listen and stay; or that he have no children, no near kinsman, heir,
he cares for, at least, or cannot well tell otherwise how or where to
bestow his possessions (for carry them with him he cannot), it may be then
he will build some school or hospital in his life, or be induced to give
liberally to pious uses after his death. For I dare boldly say, vainglory,
that opinion of merit, and this enforced necessity, when they know not
otherwise how to leave, or what better to do with them, is the main cause
of most of our good works. I will not urge this to derogate from any man's
charitable devotion, or bounty in this kind, to censure any good work; no
doubt there be many sanctified, heroical, and worthy-minded men, that in
true zeal, and for virtue's sake (divine spirits), that out of
commiseration and pity extend their liberality, and as much as in them lies
do good to all men, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the sick and
needy, relieve all, forget and forgive injuries, as true charity requires;
yet most part there is _simulatum quid_, a deal of hypocrisy in this kind,
much default and defect. [4614]Cosmo de Medici, that rich citizen of
Florence, ingeniously confessed to a near friend of his, that would know of
him why he built so many public and magnificent palaces, and bestowed so
liberally on scholars, not that he loved learning more than others, "but to
[4615]eternise his own name, to be immortal by the benefit of scholars; for
when his friends were dead, walls decayed, and all inscriptions gone, books
would remain to the world's end." The lantern in [4616]Athens was built by
Zenocles, the theatre by Pericles, the famous port Pyraeum by Musicles,
Pallas Palladium by Phidias, the Pantheon by Callicratidas; but these brave
monuments are decayed all, and ruined long since, their builders' names
alone flourish by meditation of writers. And as [4617]he said of that
Marian oak, now cut down and dead, _nullius Agricolae manu vulta stirps tam
diuturna, quam quae poetae, versu seminari potest_, no plant can grow so
long as that which is _ingenio sata_, set and manured by those ever-living
wits. [4618]Allon Backuth, that weeping oak, under which Deborah, Rebecca's
nurse, died, and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting
monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause
efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmo's sole intent so to
do good, that all the world might take notice of it. Such for the most part
is the charity of our times, such our benefactors, Mecaenates and patrons.
Show me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right, honest, upright,
meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a merciful, a loving, a
charitable man! [4619]_Probus quis nobiscum vivit_? Show me a Caleb or a
Joshua! _Dic mihi Musa virum_--show a virtuous woman, a constant wife, a
good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child, a true friend, &c.
Crows in Africa are not so scant. He that shall examine this [4620]iron age
wherein we live, where love is cold, _et jam terras Astrea reliquit_,
justice fled with her assistants, virtue expelled,
[4621] ------"Justitiae soror,
Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas,"------
all goodness gone, where vice abounds, the devil is loose, and see one man
vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent, or a block,
oppress, tyrannise, prey upon, torture him, vex, gall, torment and crucify
him, starve him, where is charity? He that shall see men [4622]swear and
forswear, lie and bear false witness, to advantage themselves, prejudice
others, hazard goods, lives, fortunes, credit, all, to be revenged on their
enemies, men so unspeakable in their lusts, unnatural in malice, such
bloody designments, Italian blaspheming, Spanish renouncing, &c., may well
ask where is charity? He that shall observe so many lawsuits, such endless
contentions, such plotting, undermining, so much money spent with such
eagerness and fury, every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all:
so many distressed souls, such lamentable complaints, so many factions,
conspiracies, seditions, oppressions, abuses, injuries, such grudging,
repining, discontent, so much emulation, envy, so many brawls, quarrels,
monomachies, &c., may well require what is become of charity? when we see
and read of such cruel wars, tumults, uproars, bloody battles, so many
[4623]men slain, so many cities ruinated, &c. (for what else is the subject
of all our stones almost, but bills, bows, and guns!) so many murders and
massacres, &c., where is charity? Or see men wholly devote to God,
churchmen, professed divines, holy men, [4624]"to make the trumpet of the
gospel the trumpet of war," a company of hell-born Jesuits, and
fiery-spirited friars, _facem praeferre_ to all seditions: as so many
firebrands set all the world by the ears (I say nothing of their
contentious and railing books, whole ages spent in writing one against
another, and that with such virulency and bitterness, _Bionaeis sermonibus
et sale nigro_), and by their bloody inquisitions, that in thirty years,
Bale saith, consumed 39 princes, 148 earls, 235 barons, 14,755 commons;
worse than those ten persecutions, may justly doubt where is charity?
_Obsecro vos quales hi demum Christiani!_ Are these Christians? I beseech
you tell me: he that shall observe and see these things, may say to them as
Cato to Caesar, _credo quae de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas_, "sure I
think thou art of opinion there is neither heaven nor hell." Let them
pretend religion, zeal, make what shows they will, give alms, peace-makers,
frequent sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no
better than hypocrites, epicures, atheists, with the [4625]"fool in their
hearts they say there is no God." 'Tis no marvel then if being so
uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many
discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutual discords,
all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances, general
mischiefs, _si tantae in terris tragoediae, quibus labefactatur et misere
laceratur humanum genus_, so many pestilences, wars, uproars, losses,
deluges, fires, inundations, God's vengeance and all the plagues of Egypt,
come upon us, since we are so currish one towards another, so respectless
of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying sins pull these miseries upon
our own heads. Nay more, 'tis justly to be feared, which [4626]Josephus
once said of his countrymen Jews, "if the Romans had not come when they did
to sack their city, surely it had been swallowed up with some earthquake,
deluge, or fired from heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah: their desperate malice,
wickedness and peevishness was such." 'Tis to be suspected, if we continue
these wretched ways, we may look for the like heavy visitations to come
upon us. If we had any sense or feeling of these things, surely we should
not go on as we do, in such irregular courses, practise all manner of
impieties; our whole carriage would not be so averse from God. If a man
would but consider, when he is in the midst and full career of such
prodigious and uncharitable actions, how displeasing they are in God's
sight, how noxious to himself, as Solomon told Joab, 1 Kings, ii. "The Lord
shall bring this blood upon their heads." Prov. i. 27, "sudden desolation
and destruction shall come like a whirlwind upon them: affliction, anguish,
the reward of his hand shall be given him," Isa. iii. 11, &c., "they shall
fall into the pit they have digged for others," and when they are scraping,
tyrannising, getting, wallowing in their wealth, "this night, O fool, I
will take away thy soul," what a severe account they must make; and how
[4627]gracious on the other side a charitable man is in God's eyes, _haurit
sibi gratiam_. Matt. v. 7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy: he that lendeth to the poor, gives to God," and how it shall be
restored to them again; "how by their patience and long-suffering they
shall heap coals on their enemies' heads," Rom. xii. "and he that followeth
after righteousness and mercy, shall find righteousness and glory;" surely
they would check their desires, curb in their unnatural, inordinate
affections, agree amongst themselves, abstain from doing evil, amend their
lives, and learn to do well. "Behold how comely and good a thing it is for
brethren to live together in [4628]union: it is like the precious ointment,
&c. How odious to contend one with the other!" [4629] _Miseriquid
luctatiunculis hisce volumus? ecce mors supra caput est, et supremum illud
tribunal, ubi et dicta et facta nostra examinanda sunt: Sapiamus!_ "Why do
we contend and vex one another? behold death is over our heads, and we must
shortly give an account of all our uncharitable words and actions: think
upon it: and be wise."
SECT. II. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Heroical love causeth Melancholy. His Pedigree, Power, and
Extent_.
In the preceding section mention was made, amongst other pleasant objects,
of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women, that causeth
heroical, or love-melancholy, is more eminent above the rest, and properly
called love. The part affected in men is the liver, and therefore called
heroical, because commonly gallants. Noblemen, and the most generous
spirits are possessed with it. His power and extent is very large, [4630]
and in that twofold division of love, [Greek: philein] and [Greek: eran]
[4631]those two veneries which Plato and some other make mention of it is
most eminent, and [Greek: kat' exochaen] called Venus, as I have said, or
love itself. Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in
them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures,
those incorporeal substances (as shall be specified), and hath a large
dominion of sovereignty over them. His pedigree is very ancient, derived
from the beginning of the world, as [4632]Phaedrus contends, and his [4633]
parentage of such antiquity, that no poet could ever find it out. Hesiod
makes [4634]Terra and Chaos to be Love's parents, before the Gods were
born: _Ante deos omnes primum generavit amorem_. Some think it is the
self-same fire Prometheus fetched from heaven. Plutarch _amator. libello_,
will have Love to be the son of Iris and Favonius; but Socrates in that
pleasant dialogue of Plato, when it came to his turn to speak of love, (of
which subject Agatho the rhetorician, _magniloquus_ Agatho, that chanter
Agatho, had newly given occasion) in a poetical strain, telleth this tale:
when Venus was born, all the gods were invited to a banquet, and amongst
the rest, [4635]Porus the god of bounty and wealth; Penia or Poverty came a
begging to the door; Porus well whittled with nectar (for there was no wine
in those days) walking in Jupiter's garden, in a bower met with Penia, and
in his drink got her with child, of whom was born Love; and because he was
begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon him. The moral of
this is in [4636]Ficinus. Another tale is there borrowed out of
Aristophanes: [4637]in the beginning of the world, men had four arms and
four feet, but for their pride, because they compared themselves with the
gods, were parted into halves, and now peradventure by love they hope to be
united again and made one. Otherwise thus, [4638]Vulcan met two lovers, and
bid them ask what they would and they should have it; but they made answer,
_O Vulcane faber Deorum_, &c. "O Vulcan the gods' great smith, we beseech
thee to work us anew in thy furnace, and of two make us one; which he
presently did, and ever since true lovers are either all one, or else
desire to be united." Many such tales you shall find in Leon Hebreus,
_dial. 3._ and their moral to them. The reason why Love was still painted
young, (as Phornutus [4639]and others will) [4640]"is because young men are
most apt to love; soft, fair, and fat, because such folks are soonest
taken: naked, because all true affection is simple and open: he smiles,
because merry and given to delights: hath a quiver, to show his power, none
can escape: is blind, because he sees not where he strikes, whom he hits,
&c." His power and sovereignty is expressed by the [4641]poets, in that he
is held to be a god, and a great commanding god, above Jupiter himself;
Magnus Daemon, as Plato calls him, the strongest and merriest of all the
gods according to Alcinous and [4642]Athenaeus. _Amor virorum rex, amor rex
et deum_, as Euripides, the god of gods and governor of men; for we must
all do homage to him, keep a holiday for his deity, adore in his temples,
worship his image, (_numen enim hoc non est nudum nomen_) and sacrifice to
his altar, that conquers all, and rules all:
[4643] "Mallem cum icone, cervo et apro Aeolico,
Cum Anteo et Stymphalicis avibus luctari
Quam cum amore"------
"I had rather contend with bulls, lions, bears, and giants, than with
Love;" he is so powerful, enforceth [4644]all to pay tribute to him,
domineers over all, and can make mad and sober whom he list; insomuch that
Caecilius in Tully's Tusculans, holds him to be no better than a fool or an
idiot, that doth not acknowledge Love to be a great god.
[4645] "Cui in manu sit quem esse dementem velit,
Quem sapere, quam in morbum injici," &c.
That can make sick, and cure whom he list. Homer and Stesichorus were both
made blind, if you will believe [4646]Leon Hebreus, for speaking against
his godhead: and though Aristophanes degrade him, and say that he was
[4647]scornfully rejected from the council of the gods, had his wings
clipped besides, that he might come no more amongst them, and to his
farther disgrace banished heaven for ever, and confined to dwell on earth,
yet he is of that [4648]power, majesty, omnipotency, and dominion, that no
creature can withstand him.
[4649] "Imperat Cupido etiam diis pro arbitrio,
Et ipsum arcere ne armipotens potest Jupiter."
He is more than quarter-master with the gods,
[4650] ------"Tenet
Thetide aequor, umbras Aeaco, coelum Jove:"
and hath not so much possession as dominion. Jupiter himself was turned
into a satyr, shepherd, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and what not, for
love; that as [4651]Lucian's Juno right well objected to him, _ludus amoris
tu es_, thou art Cupid's whirligig: how did he insult over all the other
gods, Mars, Neptune, Pan, Mercury, Bacchus, and the rest? [4652] Lucian
brings in Jupiter complaining of Cupid that he could not be quiet for him;
and the moon lamenting that she was so impotently besotted on Endymion,
even Venus herself confessing as much, how rudely and in what sort her own
son Cupid had used her being his [4653]mother, "now drawing her to Mount
Ida, for the love of that Trojan Anchises, now to Libanus for that Assyrian
youth's sake. And although she threatened to break his bow and arrows, to
clip his wings, [4654]and whipped him besides on the bare buttocks with her
pantofle, yet all would not serve, he was too headstrong and unruly." That
monster-conquering Hercules was tamed by him:
"Quem non mille ferae, quem non Sthenelejus hostis,
Nec potuit Juno vincere, vicit amor."
"Whom neither beasts nor enemies could tame,
Nor Juno's might subdue, Love quell'd the same."
Your bravest soldiers and most generous spirits are enervated with it,
[4655]_ubi mulieribus blanditiis permittunt se, et inquinantur amplexibus_.
Apollo, that took upon him to cure all diseases, [4656]could not help
himself of this; and therefore [4657]Socrates calls Love a tyrant, and
brings him triumphing in a chariot, whom Petrarch imitates in his triumph
of Love, and Fracastorius, in an elegant poem expresseth at large, Cupid
riding, Mars and Apollo following his chariot, Psyche weeping, &c.
In vegetal creatures what sovereignty love hath, by many pregnant proofs
and familiar examples may be proved, especially of palm-trees, which are
both he and she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many
observations have been confirmed.
[4658] "Vivunt in venerem frondes, omnisque vicissim
Felix arbor amat, nutant et mutua palmae
Foedera, populeo suspirat populus ictu,
Et platano platanus, alnoque assibilat alnus."
Constantine _de Agric. lib. 10. cap. 4._ gives an instance out of
Florentius his Georgics, of a palm-tree that loved most fervently, [4659]
"and would not be comforted until such time her love applied herself unto
her; you might see the two trees bend, and of their own accords stretch out
their boughs to embrace and kiss each other: they will give manifest signs
of mutual love." Ammianus Marcellinus, _lib. 24_, reports that they marry
one another, and fall in love if they grow in sight; and when the wind
brings the smell to them, they are marvellously affected. Philostratus _in
Imaginibus_, observes as much, and Galen _lib. 6. de locis affectis, cap.
5._ they will be sick for love; ready to die and pine away, which the
husbandmen perceiving, saith [4660]Constantine, "stroke many palms that
grow together, and so stroking again the palm that is enamoured, they carry
kisses from the one to the other:" or tying the leaves and branches of the
one to the stem of the other, will make them both flourish and prosper a
great deal better: [4661]"which are enamoured, they can perceive by the
bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies." If any man think this
which I say to be a tale, let him read that story of two palm-trees in
Italy, the male growing at Brundusium, the female at Otranto (related by
Jovianus Pontanus in an excellent poem, sometimes tutor to Alphonsus
junior, King of Naples, his secretary of state, and a great philosopher)
"which were barren, and so continued a long time," till they came to see
one another growing up higher, though many stadiums asunder. Pierius in his
Hieroglyphics, and Melchior Guilandinus, _Mem. 3. tract. de papyro_, cites
this story of Pontanus for a truth. See more in Salmuth _Comment. in
Pancirol. de Nova repert. Tit. 1. de novo orbe_ Mizaldus Arcanorum _lib.
2._ Sand's Voyages, _lib. 2. fol. 103._ &c.
If such fury be in vegetals, what shall we think of sensible creatures, how
much more violent and apparent shall it be in them!
[4662] "Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarum,
Et genus aequoreum, pecudes, pictaeque volucres
In furias ignemque ruunt; amor omnibus idem."
"All kind of creatures in the earth,
And fishes of the sea,
And painted birds do rage alike;
This love bears equal sway."
[4663] "Hic Deus et terras et maria alta domat."
Common experience and our sense will inform us how violently brute beasts
are carried away with this passion, horses above the rest,--_furor est
insignis equarum_. [4664]"Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good
cheer, for he was now familiar with lions, and oftentimes did get on their
backs, hold them by the mane, and ride them about like horses, and they
would fawn upon him with their tails." Bulls, bears, and boars are so
furious in this kind they kill one another: but especially cocks, [4665]
lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight half a
mile off, saith [4666]Turberville, and many times kill each other, or
compel them to abandon the rut, that they may remain masters in their
places; "and when one hath driven his co-rival away, he raiseth his nose up
into the air, and looks aloft, as though he gave thanks to nature," which
affords him such great delight. How birds are affected in this kind,
appears out of Aristotle, he will have them to sing _ob futuram venerem_
for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.
[4667] "Aeeriae primum volucres te Diva tuumque
significant initum, perculsae corda tua vi."
"Fishes pine away for love and wax lean," if [4668]Gomesius's authority may
be taken, and are rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius, _lib. 10. de
hist, animal._ tells wonders of a triton in Epirus: there was a well not
far from the shore, where the country wenches fetched water, they,
[4669]tritons, _stupri causa_ would set upon them and carry them to the
sea, and there drown them, if they would not yield; so love tyranniseth in
dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon another of
the same kind; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon
a man? Saxo Grammaticus, _lib. 10. Dan. hist._ hath a story of a bear that
loved a woman, kept her in his den a long time and begot a son of her, out
of whose loins proceeded many northern kings: this is the original belike
of that common tale of Valentine and Orson: Aelian, Pliny, Peter Gillius,
are full of such relations. A peacock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she
died, the peacock pined. [4670]"A dolphin loved a boy called Hernias, and
when he died, the fish came on land, and so perished." The like adds
Gellius, _lib. 10. cap. 22._ out of Appion, _Aegypt. lib. 15._ a dolphin at
Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back,
and carry him about, [4671]"and when by sickness the child was taken away,
the dolphin died." [4672]"Every book is full" (saith Busbequius, the
emperor's orator with the Grand Signior, not long since, _ep. 3. legat.
Turc._), "and yields such instances, to believe which I was always afraid
lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until I saw a lynx which
I had from Assyria, so affected towards one of my men, that it cannot be
denied but that he was in love with him. When my man was present, the beast
would use many notable enticements and pleasant motions, and when he was
going, hold him back, and look after him when he was gone, very sad in his
absence, but most jocund when he returned: and when my man went from me,
the beast expressed his love with continual sickness, and after he had
pined away some few days, died." Such another story he hath of a crane of
Majorca, that loved a Spaniard, that would walk any way with him, and in
his absence seek about for him, make a noise that he might hear her, and
knock at his door, [4673]"and when he took his last farewell, famished
herself." Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts:
([4674]Coelestis aestheris, ponti, terrae claves habet Venus,
Solaque istorum omnium imperium obtinet.)
and if all be certain that is credibly reported, with the spirits of the
air, and devils of hell themselves, who are as much enamoured and dote (if
I may use that word) as any other creatures whatsoever. For if those
stories be true that are written of incubus and succubus, of nymphs,
lascivious fauns, satyrs, and those heathen gods which were devils, those
lascivious Telchines, of whom the Platonists tell so many fables; or those
familiar meetings in our days, and company of witches and devils, there is
some probability for it. I know that Biarmannus, Wierus, _lib. 1. cap. 19.
et 24._ and some others stoutly deny it, that the devil hath any carnal
copulation with women, that the devil takes no pleasure in such facts, they
be mere fantasies, all such relations of incubi, succubi, lies and tales;
but Austin, _lib. 15. de civit. Dei_. doth acknowledge it: Erastus _de
Lamiis_, Jacobus Sprenger and his colleagues, &c. [4675] Zanchius, _cap.
16. lib. 4. de oper. Dei_. Dandinus, _in Arist. de Anima, lib. 2. text. 29.
com. 30._ Bodin, _lib. 2. cap. 7._ and Paracelsus, a great champion of this
tenet amongst the rest, which give sundry peculiar instances, by many
testimonies, proofs, and confessions evince it. Hector Boethius, in his
Scottish history, hath three or four such examples, which Cardan confirms
out of him, _lib. 16. cap. 43._ of such as have had familiar company many
years with them, and that in the habit of men and women Philostratus in his
fourth book _de vita Apollonii_, hath a memorable instance in this kind,
which I may not omit, of one Menippus Lycius, a young man twenty-five years
of age, that going between Cenchreas and Corinth, met such a phantasm in
the habit of a fair gentlewoman, which taking him by the hand, carried him
home to her house in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a
Phoenician by birth, and if he would tarry with her, [4676]"he should hear
her sing and play, and drink such wine as never any drank, and no man
should molest him; but she being fair and lovely would live and die with
him, that was fair and lovely to behold." The young man a philosopher,
otherwise staid and discreet, able to moderate his passions, though not
this of love, tarried with her awhile to his great content, and at last
married her, to whose wedding, amongst other guests, came Apollonius, who,
by some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and
that all her furniture was like Tantalus's gold described by Homer, no
substance, but mere illusions. When she saw herself descried, she wept, and
desired Apollonius to be silent, but he would not be moved, and thereupon
she, plate, house, and all that was in it, vanished in an instant:
[4677]"many thousands took notice of this fact, for it was done in the
midst of Greece." Sabine in his Comment on the tenth of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, at the tale of Orpheus, telleth us of a gentleman of
Bavaria, that for many months together bewailed the loss of his dear wife;
at length the devil in her habit came and comforted him, and told him,
because he was so importunate for her, that she would come and live with
him again, on that condition he would be new married, never swear and
blaspheme as he used formerly to do; for if he did, she should be gone:
[4678]"he vowed it, married, and lived with her, she brought him children,
and governed his house, but was still pale and sad, and so continued, till
one day falling out with him, he fell a swearing; she vanished thereupon,
and was never after seen." [4679]"This I have heard," saith Sabine, "from
persons of good credit, which told me that the Duke of Bavaria did tell it
for a certainty to the Duke of Saxony." One more I will relate out of
Florilegus, _ad annum_ 1058, an honest historian of our nation, because he
telleth it so confidently, as a thing in those days talked of all over
Europe: a young gentleman of Rome, the same day that he was married, after
dinner with the bride and his friends went a walking into the fields, and
towards evening to the tennis-court to recreate himself; whilst he played,
he put his ring upon the finger of _Venus statua_, which was thereby made
in brass; after he had sufficiently played, and now made an end of his
sport, he came to fetch his ring, but Venus had bowed her finger in, and he
could not get it off. Whereupon loath to make his company tarry at present,
there left it, intending to fetch it the next day, or at some more
convenient time, went thence to supper, and so to bed. In the night, when
he should come to perform those nuptial rites, Venus steps between him and
his wife (unseen or felt of her), and told her that she was his wife, that
he had betrothed himself unto her by that ring, which he put upon her
finger: she troubled him for some following nights. He not knowing how to
help himself, made his moan to one Palumbus, a learned magician in those
days, who gave him a letter, and bid him at such a time of the night, in
such a cross-way, at the town's end, where old Saturn would pass by with
his associates in procession, as commonly he did, deliver that script with
his own hands to Saturn himself; the young man of a bold spirit,
accordingly did it; and when the old fiend had read it, he called Venus to
him, who rode before him, and commanded her to deliver his ring, which
forthwith she did, and so the gentleman was freed. Many such stories I find
in several [4680]authors to confirm this which I have said; as that more
notable amongst the rest, of Philinium and Machates in [4681]Phlegon's
Tract, _de rebus mirabilibus_, and though many be against it, yet I, for my
part, will subscribe to Lactantius, _lib. 14. cap. 15._ [4682]"God sent
angels to the tuition of men; but whilst they lived amongst us, that
mischievous all-commander of the earth, and hot in lust, enticed them by
little and little to this vice, and defiled them with the company of
women:" and to Anaxagoras, _de resurrect_. [4683]"Many of those spiritual
bodies, overcome by the love of maids, and lust, failed, of whom those were
born we call giants." Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpicius
Severus, Eusebius, etc., to this sense make a twofold fall of angels, one
from the beginning of the world, another a little before the deluge, as
Moses teacheth us, [4684]openly professing that these genii can beget, and
have carnal copulation with women. At Japan in the East Indies, at this
present (if we may believe the relation of [4685]travellers), there is an
idol called Teuchedy, to whom one of the fairest virgins in the country is
monthly brought, and left in a private room, in the fotoqui, or church,
where she sits alone to be deflowered. At certain times [4686]the Teuchedy
(which is thought to be the devil) appears to her, and knoweth her
carnally. Every month a fair virgin is taken in; but what becomes of the
old, no man can tell. In that goodly temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon,
there was a fair chapel, [4687]saith Herodotus, an eyewitness of it, in
which was _splendide stratus lectus et apposita mensa aurea_, a brave bed,
a table of gold, &c., into which no creature came but one only woman, which
their god made choice of, as the Chaldean priests told him, and that their
god lay with her himself, as at Thebes in Egypt was the like done of old.
So that you see this is no news, the devils themselves, or their juggling
priests, have played such pranks in all ages. Many divines stiffly
contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since
"examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so
manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that
it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in
no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there
ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and
genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial
sentences upon record." Read more of this question in Plutarch, _vit.
Numae_, Austin _de civ. Dei. lib. 15._ Wierus, _lib. 3. de praestig. Daem._
Giraldus Cambrensis, _itinerar. Camb. lib. 1._ _Malleus malefic. quaest. 5.
part. 1._ Jacobus Reussus, _lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54._ Godelman, _lib. 2.
cap. 4._ Erastus, Valesius _de sacra philo. cap. 40._ John Nider,
_Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9._ Stroz. Cicogna. _lib. 3. cap. 3._ Delrio,
Lipsius Bodine, _daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7._ Pererius _in Gen. lib. 8. in 6.
cap. ver. 2._ King James, &c.
SUBSECT. II.--_How Love tyranniseth over men. Love, or Heroical Melancholy,
his definition, part affected_.
You have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits;
now let us consider what passions it causeth amongst men. [4690]_Improbe
amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis_? How it tickles the hearts of mortal
men, _Horresco referens_,--I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, [4691]and
ashamed, it hath wrought such stupendous and prodigious effects, such foul
offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united provinces, built
cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves mankind,
propagates the church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning lust,
a disease, frenzy, madness, hell. [4692]_Est orcus ille, vis est
immedicabilis, est rabies insana_; 'tis no virtuous habit this, but a
vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as
Alexis in [4693]Athenaeus sets it out, _viriliter audax, muliebriter
timidium, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda
percussio_, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families,
mars, corrupts, and makes a massacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars,
fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning
lust, this brutish passion. Let Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares
Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many
cities bear record,--_et fuit ante Helenam_, &c., all succeeding ages will
subscribe: Joanna of Naples in Italy, Fredegunde and Brunhalt in France,
all histories are full of these basilisks. Besides those daily monomachies,
murders, effusion of blood, rapes, riot, and immoderate expense, to satisfy
their lusts, beggary, shame, loss, torture, punishment, disgrace, loathsome
diseases that proceed from thence, worse than calentures and pestilent
fevers, those often gouts, pox, arthritis, palsies, cramps, sciatica,
convulsions, aches, combustions, &c., which torment the body, that feral
melancholy which crucifies the soul in this life, and everlastingly
torments in the world to come.
Notwithstanding they know these and many such miseries, threats, tortures,
will surely come upon them, rewards, exhortations, _e contra_; yet either
out of their own weakness, a depraved nature, or love's tyranny, which so
furiously rageth, they suffer themselves to be led like an ox to the
slaughter: (_Facilis descensus Averni_) they go down headlong to their own
perdition, they will commit folly with beasts, men "leaving the natural use
of women," as [4694]Paul saith, "burned in lust one towards another, and
man with man wrought filthiness."
Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asinae se commiscuit,
Fulvius equae, alii canibus, capris, &c., unde monstra nascuntur aliquando,
Centauri, Sylvani, et ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec cum
brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quod peccatum Sodomiae vulgo
dicitur; et frequens olim vitium apud Orientalis illos fuit, Graecos
nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: [4695]Hercules Hylam habuit, Polycletum,
Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum et Phryga; alii et Euristium ab Hercule amatum
tradunt. Socrates pulchrorum Adolescentum causa frequens Gymnasium adibat,
flagitiosque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quod et Philebus et Phaedon,
Rivales, Charmides et [4696]reliqui Platonis Dialogi, satis superque
testatum faciunt: quod vero Alcibiades de eodem Socrate loquatur, lubens
conticesco, sed et abhorreo; tantum incitamentum praebet libidini. At hunc
perstrinxit Theodoretus _lib. de curat. graec. affect. cap. ultimo._ Quin
et ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem, Xenophon, Cliniam, Virgilius
Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum: Quod autem de Nerone, Claudio, caeterorumque
portentosa libidine memoriae proditum, mallem a Petronio, Suetonio,
caeterisque petatis, quando omnem fidem excedat, quam a me expectetis; sed
vetera querimur. [4697]Apud Asianos, Turcas, Italos, nunquam frequentius
hoc quam hodierno die vitium; Diana Romanorum Sodomia; officinae horum
alicubi apud Turcas,--"qui saxis semina mandant"--arenas arantes; et
frequentes querelae, etiam inter ipsos conjuges hac de re, "quae virorum
concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam partem verso magistratui
indicant"; nullum apud Italos familiare magis peccatum, qui et post
[4698]Lucianum et [4699]Tatium, scriptis voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de
la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque
jactat, se non alia, usum Venere. Nihil usitatius apud monachos,
Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam [4700]furor hic ad mortem, ad insaniam.
[4701]Angelus Politianus, ob pueri amorem, violentas sibi inanus injecit.
Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos patrum memoria, scelus
detestandum hoc saevierit! Quum enim Anno 1538. "prudentissimus Rex
Henricus Octavus cucullatorum coenobia, et sacrificorum collegia,
votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum Laytonum
visitari fecerat, &c., tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos scortatores,
cinaedi, ganeones, paedicones, puerarii, paederastae, Sodomitae",
([4702]Balei verbis utor) "Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam
credideris Gomorrham". Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem
Balcum; "Puellae" (inquit) "in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres
necromanticos". Haec si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet
homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aula factum suspiceris? quid apud
nobiles, quid inter fornices, quam non foeditatem, quam non spurcitiem?
Sileo interim turpes illas, et ne nominandas quidem monachorum [4703]
mastrupationes, masturbatores. [4704]Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum et eos
qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris caedunt, Spintrias, Succubas,
Ambubeias, et lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, quae se invicem
fricant, et praeter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam, artificiosa illa
veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, faemina foeminam Constantinopoli
non ita pridem deperiit, ausa rem plane incredibilem, mutato cultu mentita
virum de nuptiis sermonem init, et brevi nupta est: sed authorem ipsum
consule, Busbequium. Omitto [4705]Salanarios illos Egyptiacos, qui cum
formosarum cadaveribus concumbunt; et eorum vesanam libidinem, qui etiam
idola et imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula Pigmalionis apud
[4706]Ovidium; Mundi et Paulini apud Aegesippum _belli Jud. lib. 2. cap.
4._ Pontius C. Caesaris legatus, referente Plinio, _lib. 35. cap. 3._ quem
suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit, picturis Atalantae et Helenae
adeo libidine incensus, ut tollere eas vellet si natura tectorii
permisisset, alius statuam bonae Fortunae deperiit (Aelianus, _lib. 9. cap.
37._) alius bonae deae, et ne qua pars probro vacet. [4707]"Raptus ad
stupra" (quod ait ille) "et ne [4708]os quidem a libidine exceptum."
Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita
ejus. [4709]Hostius quidam specula fecit, et ita disposuit, ut quum virum
ipse pateretur, aversus omnes admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac
deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum
et foeminam passus, quod dictu foedum et abominandum. Ut veram plane sit,
quod apud [4710]Plutarchum Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. "Ad hunc usque diem apud
nos neque mas marem, neque foemina foeminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos
memorabiles et praeclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules
imberbem sectans socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestrae libidines intra suos
naturae fines coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem
foeditatum, tumultum, confusionemque naturae gignant in re Venerea: nam et
capras, porcos, equos inierunt viri et foeminae, insano bestiarum amore
exarserunt, imde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges", &c. Sed ne
confutando doceam, aut ea foras efferam, quae, non omnes scire convenit
(haec enim doctis solummodo, quod causa non absimili [4711]Rodericus,
scripta velim) ne levissomis ingentis et depravatis mentibus foedissimi
sceleris notitiam, &c., nolo quem diutius hisce sordibus inquinare.
I come at last to that heroical love which is proper to men and women, is a
frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burning
lust, than by such an honourable title. There is an honest love, I confess,
which is natural, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut a mulieribus
non possint separari, "a secret snare to captivate the hearts of men," as
[4712]Christopher Fonseca proves, a strong allurement, of a most
attractive, occult, adamantine property, and powerful virtue, and no man
living can avoid it. [4713]_Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est,
aut bellua_. He is not a man but a block, a very stone, _aut [4714]Numen,
aut Nebuchadnezzar_, he hath a gourd for his head, a pepon for his heart,
that hath not felt the power of it, and a rare creature to be found, one in
an age, _Qui nunquam visae flagravit amore puellae_; [4715]for _semel
insanivimus omnes_, dote we either young or old, as [4716]he said, and none
are excepted but Minerva and the Muses: so Cupid in [4717]Lucian complains
to his mother Venus, that amongst all the rest his arrows could not pierce
them. But this nuptial love is a common passion, an honest, for men to love
in the way of marriage; _ut materia appetit formam, sic mulier virum._
[4718]You know marriage is honourable, a blessed calling, appointed by God
himself in Paradise; it breeds true peace, tranquillity, content, and
happiness, _qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior conjunctio_, as
Daphnaeus in [4719]Plutarch could well prove, _et quae generi humano
immortalitatem parat_, when they live without jarring, scolding, lovingly
as they should do.
[4720] "Felices ter et amplius
Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec ullis
Divulsus querimoniis
Suprema citius solvit amor die."
"Thrice happy they, and more than that,
Whom bond of love so firmly ties,
That without brawls till death them part,
'Tis undissolv'd and never dies."
As Seneca lived with his Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, Orpheus and Eurydice,
Arria and Poetus, Artemisia and Mausolus, Rubenius Celer, that would needs
have it engraven on his tomb, he had led his life with Ennea, his dear
wife, forty-three years eight months, and never fell out. There is no
pleasure in this world comparable to it, 'tis _summum mortalitatis bonum--
[4721]hominum divumque voluptas, Alma Venus--latet enim in muliere aliquid
majus potentiusque, omnibus aliis humanis voluptatibus_, as [4722]one
holds, there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic
virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive. The husband
rules her as head, but she again commands his heart, he is her servant, she
is only joy and content: no happiness is like unto it, no love so great as
this of man and wife, no such comfort as [4723]_placens uxor_, a sweet
wife: [4724]_Omnis amor magnus, sed aperto in conjuge major_. When they
love at last as fresh as they did at first, [4725]_Charaque charo
consenescit conjugi_, as Homer brings Paris kissing Helen, after they had
been married ten years, protesting withal that he loved her as dear as he
did the first hour that he was betrothed. And in their old age, when they
make much of one another, saying, as he did to his wife in the poet,
[4726] "Uxor vivamus quod viximus, et moriamur,
Servantes nomen sumpsimus in thalamo;
Nec ferat ulla dies ut commutemur in aevo,
Quin tibi sim juvenis, tuque puella mihi."
"Dear wife, let's live in love, and die together,
As hitherto we have in all good will:
Let no day change or alter our affections.
But let's be young to one another still."
Such should conjugal love be, still the same, and as they are one flesh, so
should they be of one mind, as in an aristocratical government, one
consent, [4727]Geyron-like, _coalescere in unum_, have one heart in two
bodies, will and nill the same. A good wife, according to Plutarch, should
be as a looking-glass to represent her husband's face and passion: if he be
pleasant, she should be merry: if he laugh, she should smile: if he look
sad, she should participate of his sorrow, and bear a part with him, and so
should they continue in mutual love one towards another.
[4728] "Et me ab amore tuo deducet nulla senectus,
Sive ego Tythonus, sive ego Nestor ero."
"No age shall part my love from thee, sweet wife,
Though I live Nestor or Tithonus' life."
And she again to him, as the [4729]Bride saluted the Bridegroom of old in
Rome, _Ubi tu Caius, ego semper Caia_, be thou still Caius, I'll be Caia.
'Tis a happy state this indeed, when the fountain is blessed (saith
Solomon, Prov. v. 17.) "and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and
she is to him as the loving hind and pleasant roe, and he delights in her
continually." But this love of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to
be comprehended in any bounds. It will not contain itself within the union
of marriage, or apply to one object, but is a wandering, extravagant, a
domineering, a boundless, an irrefragable, a destructive passion: sometimes
this burning lust rageth after marriage, and then it is properly called
jealousy; sometimes before, and then it is called heroical melancholy; it
extends sometimes to co-rivals, &c., begets rapes, incests, murders:
_Marcus Antonius compressit Faustinam sororem, Caracalla Juliam Novercam,
Nero Matrem, Caligula sorores, Cyneras Myrrham filiam_, &c. But it is
confined within no terms of blood, years, sex, or whatsoever else. Some
furiously rage before they come to discretion, or age. [4730]Quartilla in
Petronius never remembered she was a maid; and the wife of Bath, in
Chaucer, cracks,
_Since I was twelve years old, believe,
Husbands at Kirk-door had I five_.
[4731]Aratine Lucretia sold her maidenhead a thousand times before she was
twenty-four years old, _plus milies vendiderant virginitatem, &c. neque te
celabo, non deerant qui ut integram ambirent_. Rahab, that harlot, began to
be a professed quean at ten years of age, and was but fifteen when she hid
the spies, as [4732]Hugh Broughton proves, to whom Serrarius the Jesuit,
_quaest. 6. in cap. 2. Josue_, subscribes. Generally women begin
_pubescere_, as they call it, or _catullire_, as Julius Pollux cites, _lib.
2. cap. 3. onomast_ out of Aristophanes, [4733]at fourteen years old, then
they do offer themselves, and some plainly rage. [4734]Leo Afer saith, that
in Africa a man shall scarce find a maid at fourteen years of age, they are
so forward, and many amongst us after they come into the teens do not live
without husbands, but linger. What pranks in this kind the middle ages have
played is not to be recorded. _Si mihi sint centum linguae, sint oraque
centum_, no tongue can sufficiently declare, every story is full of men and
women's insatiable lust, Nero's, Heliogabali, Bonosi, &c. [4735] _Coelius
Amphilenum, sed Quintius Amphelinam depereunt_, &c. They neigh after other
men's wives (as Jeremia, _cap. v. 8._ complaineth) like fed horses, or
range like town bulls, _raptores virginum et viduarum_, as many of our
great ones do. Solomon's wisdom was extinguished in this fire of lust,
Samson's strength enervated, piety in Lot's daughters quite forgot, gravity
of priesthood in Eli's sons, reverend old age in the Elders that would
violate Susanna, filial duty in Absalom to his stepmother, brotherly love
in Ammon. towards his sister. Human, divine laws, precepts, exhortations,
fear of God and men, fair, foul means, fame, fortune, shame, disgrace,
honour cannot oppose, stave off, or withstand the fury of it, _omnia vincit
amor_, &c. No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love
can do with, a twined thread. The scorching beams under the equinoctial, or
extremity of cold within the circle arctic, where the very seas are frozen,
cold or torrid zone, cannot avoid or expel this heat, fury, and rage of
mortal men.
[4736] "Quo fugis ab demens, nulla est fuga, tu licet usque
Ad Tanaim fugias, usque sequetur amor."
Of women's unnatural, [4737]insatiable lust, what country, what village
doth not complain? Mother and daughter sometimes dote on the same man,
father and son, master and servant, on one woman.
[4738] "--Sed amor, sed ineffrenata libido,
Quid castum in terris intentatumque reliquit?"
What breach of vows and oaths, fury, dotage, madness, might I reckon up?
Yet this is more tolerable in youth, and such as are still in their hot
blood; but for an old fool to dote, to see an old lecher, what more odious,
what can be more absurd? and yet what so common? Who so furious?[4739]
_Amare ea aetate si occiperint, multo insaniunt acrius_. Some dote then
more than ever they did in their youth. How many decrepit, hoary, harsh,
writhen, bursten-bellied, crooked, toothless, bald, blear-eyed, impotent,
rotten, old men shall you see flickering still in every place? One gets him
a young wife, another a courtesan, and when he can scarce lift his leg over
a sill, and hath one foot already in Charon's boat, when he hath the
trembling in his joints, the gout in his feet, a perpetual rheum in his
head, "a continuate cough," [4740]his sight fails him, thick of hearing,
his breath stinks, all his moisture is dried up and gone, may not spit from
him, a very child again, that cannot dress himself, or cut his own meat,
yet he will be dreaming of, and honing after wenches, what can be more
unseemly? Worse it is in women than in men, when she is _aetate declivis,
diu vidua, mater olim, parum decore matrimonium sequi videtur_, an old
widow, a mother so long since ([4741]in Pliny's opinion), she doth very
unseemly seek to marry, yet whilst she is [4742]so old a crone, a beldam,
she can neither see, nor hear, go nor stand, a mere [4743]carcass, a witch,
and scarce feel; she caterwauls, and must have a stallion, a champion, she
must and will marry again, and betroth herself to some young man,
[4744]that hates to look on, but for her goods; abhors the sight of her, to
the prejudice of her good name, her own undoing, grief of friends, and ruin
of her children.
But to enlarge or illustrate this power and effects of love, is to set a
candle in the sun. [4745]It rageth with all sorts and conditions of men,
yet is most evident among such as are young and lusty, in the flower of
their years, nobly descended, high fed, such as live idly, and at ease; and
for that cause (which our divines call burning lust) this [4746]_ferinus
insanus amor_, this mad and beastly passion, as I have said, is named by
our physicians heroical love, and a more honourable title put upon it,
_Amor nobilis_, as [4747]Savanarola styles it, because noble men and women
make a common practice of it, and are so ordinarily affected with it.
Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen, 1. tract. 4. cap. 23._ calleth this passion
_Ilishi_, and defines it [4748]"to be a disease or melancholy vexation, or
anguish of mind, in which a man continually meditates of the beauty,
gesture, manners of his mistress, and troubles himself about it:" desiring,
(as Savanarola adds) with all intentions and eagerness of mind, "to compass
or enjoy her, [4749]as commonly hunters trouble themselves about their
sports, the covetous about their gold and goods, so is he tormented still
about his mistress." Arnoldus Villanovanus, in his book of heroical love,
defines it, [4750]"a continual cogitation of that which he desires, with a
confidence or hope of compassing it;" which definition his commentator
cavils at. For continual cogitation is not the genus but a symptom of love;
we continually think of that which we hate and abhor, as well as that which
we love; and many things we covet and desire, without all hope of
attaining. Carolus a Lorme, in his Questions, makes a doubt, _An amor sit
morbus_, whether this heroical love be a disease: Julius Pollux _Onomast.
lib. 6. cap. 44._ determines it. They that are in love are likewise
[4751]sick; _lascivus, salax, lasciviens, et qui in venerem furit, vere est
aegrotus_, Arnoldus will have it improperly so called, and a malady rather
of the body than mind. Tully, in his _Tusculans_, defines it a furious
disease of the mind. Plato, madness itself. Ficinus, his Commentator, _cap.
12._ a species of madness, "for many have run mad for women," Esdr. iv. 26.
But [4752]Rhasis "a melancholy passion:" and most physicians make it a
species or kind of melancholy (as will appear by the symptoms), and treat
of it apart; whom I mean to imitate, and to discuss it in all his kinds, to
examine his several causes, to show his symptoms, indications, prognostics,
effect, that so it may be with more facility cured.
The part affected in the meantime, as [4753]Arnoldus supposeth, "is the
former part of the head for want of moisture," which his Commentator
rejects. Langius, _med. epist. lib. 1. cap. 24._ will have this passion
seated in the liver, and to keep residence in the heart, [4754]"to proceed
first from the eyes so carried by our spirits, and kindled with imagination
in the liver and heart;" _coget amare jecur_, as the saying is. _Medium
feret per epar_, as Cupid in Anacreon. For some such cause belike [4755]
Homer feigns Titius' liver (who was enamoured of Latona) to be still gnawed
by two vultures day and night in hell, [4756]"for that young men's bowels
thus enamoured, are so continually tormented by love." Gordonius, _cap. 2.
part. 2._ [4757]"will have the testicles an immediate subject or cause, the
liver an antecedent." Fracastorius agrees in this with Gordonius, _inde
primitus imaginatio venerea, erectio, &c. titillatissimam partem vocat, ita
ut nisi extruso semine gestiens voluptas non cessat, nec assidua veneris
recordatio, addit Gnastivinius_ _Comment. 4. Sect. prob. 27. Arist._ But
[4758]properly it is a passion of the brain, as all other melancholy, by
reason of corrupt imagination, and so doth Jason Pratensis, _c. 19. de
morb. cerebri_ (who writes copiously of this erotical love), place and
reckon it amongst the affections of the brain. [4759]Melancthon _de anima_
confutes those that make the liver a part affected, and Guianerius, _Tract.
15. cap. 13 et 17._ though many put all the affections in the heart, refers
it to the brain. Ficinus, _cap. 7. in Convivium Platonis_, "will have the
blood to be the part affected." Jo. Frietagius, _cap. 14. noct. med._
supposeth all four affected, heart, liver, brain, blood; but the major part
concur upon the brain, [4760]'tis _imaginatio laesa_; and both imagination
and reason are misaffected;, because of his corrupt judgment, and continual
meditation of that which he desires, he may truly be said to be melancholy.
If it be violent, or his disease inveterate, as I have determined in the
precedent partitions, both imagination and reason are misaffected, first
one, then the other.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Causes of Heroical Love, Temperature, full Diet, Idleness,
Place, Climate, &c._
Of all causes the remotest are stars. [4761]Ficinus _cap. 19._ saith they
are most prone to this burning lust, that have Venus in Leo in their
horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of
Venus' complexion. [4762]Plutarch interprets astrologically that tale of
Mars and Venus, "in whose genitures [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mars] are
in conjunction," they are commonly lascivious, and if women queans; as the
good wife of Bath confessed in Chaucer;
_I followed aye mine inclination,
By virtue of my constellation_.
But of all those astrological aphorisms which I have ever read, that of
Cardan is most memorable, for which howsoever he is bitterly censured by
[4763]Marinus Marcennus, a malapert friar, and some others (which [4764] he
himself suspected) yet methinks it is free, downright, plain and ingenious.
In his [4765]eighth _Geniture_, or example, he hath these words of himself,
[Symbol: Mars] [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mercury] in [Symbol: Mercury]
_dignitatibus assiduam mihi Venereorum cogitationem praestabunt, ita ut
nunquam quiescam._ Et paulo post, _Cogitatio Venereorum me torquet
perpetuo, et quam facto implere non licuit, aut fecisse potentem puduit,
cogitatione assidua mentitus sum voluptatem_. Et alibi, _ob [Symbol:
Moon-3/4] et [Symbol: Mercury] dominium et radiorum mixtionem, profundum
fuit ingenium, sed lascivum, egoque turpi libidini deditus et obscaenus._
So far Cardan of himself, _quod de se fatetur ideo [4766]ut utilitatem
adferat studiosis hujusce disciplinae_, and for this he is traduced by
Marcennus, when as in effect he saith no more than what Gregory Nazianzen
of old, to Chilo his scholar, _offerebant se mihi visendae mulieres, quarum
praecellenti elegantia et decore spectabili tentabatur meae. integritas
pudicitiae. Et quidem flagitium vitavi fornicationis, at munditiae
virginalis florem arcana cordis cogitatione foedavi. Sed ad rem._ Aptiores
ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, et
in Saturni finibus aut oppositione, &c. Ptolomeus _in quadripart._ plura de
his et specialia habet aphorismata, longo proculdubio usu confirmata, et ab
experientia multa perfecta, inquit commentator ejus Cardanus. Tho.
Campanella _Astrologiae lib. 4. cap. 8. articulis 4 and 5._ insaniam
amatoriam remonstrantia, multa prae caeteris accumulat aphorismata, quae
qui volet, consulat. Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumque conjecturam
faciunt, et monte Veneris, de quorum decretis, Taisnerum, Johan. de
Indagine, Goclenium, ceterosque si lubet, inspicias. Physicians divine
wholly from the temperature and complexion; phlegmatic persons are seldom
taken, according to Ficinus _Comment, cap. 9_; naturally melancholy less
than they, but once taken they are never freed; though many are of opinion
flatuous or hypochondriacal melancholy are most subject of all others to
this infirmity. Valescus assigns their strong imagination for a cause,
Bodine abundance of wind, Gordonius of seed, and spirits, or atomi in the
seed, which cause their violent and furious passions. Sanguine thence are
soon caught, young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith
[4767]Lucian, "would have a bout with every one they see:" the colt's evil
is common to all complexions. Theomestus a young and lusty gallant
acknowledgeth (in the said author) all this to be verified in him, "I am so
amorously given, [4768]you may sooner number the sea-sands, and snow
falling from the skies, than my several loves. Cupid had shot all his
arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another,
and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that
is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most: as an
hydra's head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eyes are so
moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them,
and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be:
alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I!" What
Telchine is my genius? or is it a natural imperfection, an hereditary
passion? Another in [4769]Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty
sweethearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at
Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty
thousand in all: or in a word, [Greek: ei phulla, panta], &c.
"Folia arborum omnium si
Nosti referre cuncta,
Aut computare arenas
In aequore universas,
Solum meorum amorum
Te fecero logistam?"
"Canst count the leaves in May,
Or sands i' th' ocean sea?
Then count my loves I pray."
His eyes are like a balance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed
down with every wench's looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection
tinder, or naphtha itself, which every fair object, sweet smile, or
mistress's favour sets on fire. Guianerius _tract 15. cap. 14._ refers all
this [4770]to "the hot temperature of the testicles," Ferandus a Frenchman
in his _Erotique Mel._ (which [4771]book came first to my hands after the
third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, "such as are very spermatic
and full of seed." I find the same in Aristot. _sect. 4. prob. 17._ _si non
secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt_, as Gaustavinius his
commentator translates it: for which cause these young men that be strong
set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the
same words in effect. But most part I say, such as are aptest to love that
are young and lusty, live at ease, stall-fed, free from cares, like cattle
in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs
_hirquitullire_, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.
[4772] "Mens erit apta capi tum quum laetissima rerum.
Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo."
"The mind is apt to lust, and hot or cold,
As corn luxuriates in a better mould."
The place itself makes much wherein we live, the clime, air, and discipline
if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, near to Pergamus, thou shalt
scarce find an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of
the seat. It was that plenty of all things, which made [4773]Corinth so
infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those
foreign comers; every day strangers came in, at each gate, from all
quarters. In that one temple of Venus a thousand whores did prostitute
themselves, as Strabo writes, besides Lais and the rest of better note: all
nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus. Your hot and southern
countries are prone to lust, and far more incontinent than those that live
in the north, as Bodine discourseth at large, _Method, hist. cap. 5._
_Molles Asiatici_, so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that
latitude; and in those tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and
delicious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy, _domicilium luxus_ Tully
terms it, and (which Hannibal's soldiers can witness) Canopus in Egypt,
Sybaris, Phoeacia, Baiae, [4774]Cyprus, Lampsacus. In [4775]Naples the
fruit of the soil and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter
constitutions: insomuch that Florus calls it _Certamen Bacchi et Veneris_,
but [4776]Foliot admires it. In Italy and Spain they have their stews in
every great city, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, wherein, some say, dwell
ninety thousand inhabitants, of which ten thousand are courtesans; and yet
for all this, every gentleman almost hath a peculiar mistress;
fornications, adulteries, are nowhere so common: _urbs est jam tota
lupanar_; how should a man live honest amongst so many provocations? now if
vigour of youth, greatness, liberty I mean, and that impunity of sin which
grandees take unto themselves in this kind shall meet, what a gap must it
needs open to all manner of vice, with what fury will it rage? For, as
Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, _libido consequuta quum fuerit
materiam improbam et praeruptam licentiam, et effrenatam audaciam_, &c.,
what will not lust effect in such persons? For commonly princes and great
men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that whore in
Spartian, _quicquid libet licet_, they think they may do what they list,
profess it publicly, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend
of his in Rome, [4777]what famous exploits he had done in that kind) than
any way be abashed at it. [4778]Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry VIII. (I
know not how truly) _Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, et
paucissimas non concupierit quas non violarit_, "He saw very few maids that
he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy:" nothing so
familiar amongst them, 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalus,
Messalina, and Joan of Naples, are not comparable to [4779]meaner men and
women; Solomon of old had a thousand concubines; Ahasuerus his eunuchs and
keepers; Nero his Tigillinus panders, and bawds; the Turks, [4780]
Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit
inferior to them in our times. _Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno
forma praestantiorum_ (saith Jovius) _pro imperatore; et quas ille linquit,
nobiles habent_; they press and muster up wenches as we do soldiers, and
have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and
yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and
such prodigious lusts. We may conclude, that if they be young, fortunate,
rich, high-fed, and idle withal, it is almost impossible that they should
live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into these inconveniences
of burning lust.
[4781] "Otium et reges prius et beatas
Perdidit urbes."
Idleness overthrows all, _Vacuo pectore regnat amor_, love tyranniseth in
an idle person. _Amore abundas Antiphio_. If thou hast nothing to do,[4782]
_Invidia vel amore miser torquebere_--Thou shalt be haled in pieces with
envy, lust, some passion or other. _Homines nihil agendo male agere
discunt_; 'tis Aristotle's simile, [4783]"as match or touchwood takes fire,
so doth an idle person love." _Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus
adulter_, &c., why was Aegistus a whoremaster? You need not ask a reason of
it. Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as [4784]Aurora did
Cephalus: no marvel, saith [4785]Plutarch, _Luxurians opibus more hominum
mulier agit_: she was rich, fortunate and jolly, and doth but as men do in
that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone. The poets
therefore did well to feign all shepherds lovers, to give themselves to
songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives. For love, as
[4786]Theophrastus defines it, is _otiosi animi affectus_, an affection of
an idle mind, or as [4787]Seneca describes it, _Juventa gignitur, juxu
nutritur, feriis alitur, otioque inter laeta fortunae bonae_; youth begets
it, riot maintains it, idleness nourisheth it, &c. which makes [4788]
Gordonius the physician _cap. 20. part. 2._ call this disease the proper
passion of nobility. Now if a weak judgment and a strong apprehension do
concur, how, saith Hercules de Saxonia, shall they resist? Savanarola
appropriates it almost to [4789]"monks, friars, and religious persons,
because they live solitarily, fair daintily, and do nothing:" and well he
may, for how should they otherwise choose?
Diet alone is able to cause it: a rare thing to see a young man or a woman
that lives idly and fares well, of what condition soever, not to be in
love. [4790]Alcibiades was still dallying with wanton young women,
immoderate in his expenses, effeminate in his apparel, ever in love, but
why? he was over-delicate in his diet, too frequent and excessive in
banquets, _Ubicunque securitas, ibi libido dominatur_; lust and security
domineer together, as St. Hierome averreth. All which the wife of Bath in
Chaucer freely justifies,
_For all to sicker, as cold engendreth hail,
A liquorish tongue must have a liquorish tail_.
Especially if they shall further it by choice diet, as many times those
Sybarites and Phaeaces do, feed liberally, and by their good will eat
nothing else but lascivious meats. [4791]Vinum imprimis generosum, legumen,
fabas, radices omnium generum bene conditas, et largo pipere aspersas,
carduos hortulanos, lactucas, [4792]erucas, rapas, porros, caepas, nucem
piceam, amygdalas dulces, electuaria, syrupos, succos, cochleas, conchas,
pisces optime praeparatos, aviculas, testiculos animalium, ova, condimenta
diversorum generum, molles lectos, pulvinaria, &c. Et quicquid fere medici
impotentia rei venereae laboranti praescribunt, hoc quasi diasatyrion
habent in delitiis, et his dapes multo delicatiores; mulsum, exquisitas et
exoticas fruges, aromata, placentas, expressos succos multis ferculis
variatos, ipsumque vinum suavitate vincentes, et quicquid culina,
pharmacopaea, aut quaeque fere officina subministrare possit. Et hoc
plerumque victu quum se ganeones infarciant, [4793]ut ille ob Chreseida
suam, se bulbis et cochleis curavit; etiam ad Venerem se parent, et ad hanc
palestram se exerceant, qui fieri possit, ut non misere depereant, [4794]ut
non penitus insaniant? _Aestuans venter cito despuit in libidinem_,
Hieronymus ait. [4795]_Post prandia, Callyroenda_. Quis enim continere se
potest? [4796]_Luxuriosa res vinum_, fomentum libidinis vocat Augustinus,
blandum daemonem, Bernardus; lac veneris, Aristophanes. _Non Aetna, non
Vesuvius tantis ardoribus aestuant, ac juveniles medullae vino plenae_,
addit [4797]Hieronymus: unde ob optimum vinum Lamsacus olim Priapo sacer:
et venerandi Bacchi socia apud [4798] Orpheum Venus audit. Haec si vinum
simplex, et per se sumptum praestare possit, nam--[4799]_quo me Bacche
rapis tui plenum_? quam non insaniam, quem non furorem a caeteris
expectemus? [4800]Gomesius salem enumerat inter ea quae intempstivam
libidinem provocare solent, _et salatiores fieri foeminas ob esum salis
contendit: Venerem ideo dicunt ab Oceano ortam_.
[4801] "Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur stint?
In promptu causa est, est Venus orta mari."
_Et hinc foeta mater Salacea Oceani conjux_, verbumque fortasse salax a
sale effluxit. Mala Bacchica tantum olim in amoribus praevaluerunt, ut
coronae ex illis statuae Bacchi ponerentur. [4802]Cubebis in vino maceratis
utuntur Indi Orientales ad Venerem excitandum, et [4803]Surax radice
Africani. Chinae radix eosdem effectus habet, talisque herbae meminit _mag.
nat. lib. 2. cap. 16_. [4804]Baptista Porta ex India allatae, cujus
mentionem facit et Theophrastus. Sed infinita his similia apud Rhasin,
Matthiolum, Mizaldum, caeterosque medicos occurrunt, quorum ideo mentionem
feci, ne quis imperitior in hos scopulas impingat, sed pro virili tanquam
syrtes et cautes consulto effugiat.
SUBSECT. II.--_Other causes of Love-Melancholy, Sight, Being from the Face,
Eyes, other parts, and how it pierceth_.
Many such causes may be reckoned up, but they cannot avail, except
opportunity be offered of time, place, and those other beautiful objects,
or artificial enticements, as kissing, conference, discourse, gestures
concur, with such like lascivious provocations. Kornmannus, in his book _de
linea amoris_, makes five degrees of lust, out of [4805]Lucian belike,
which he handles in five chapters, _Visus, Colloquium, Convictus, Oscula,
Tactus_. [4806]Sight, of all other, is the first step of this unruly love,
though sometime it be prevented by relation or hearing, or rather incensed.
For there be those so apt, credulous, and facile to love, that if they hear
of a proper man, or woman, they are in love before they see them, and that
merely by relation, as Achilles Tatius observes. [4807]"Such is their
intemperance and lust, that they are as much maimed by report, as if they
saw them. Callisthenes a rich young gentleman of Byzance in Thrace, hearing
of [4808]Leucippe, Sostratus' fair daughter, was far in love with her, and,
out of fame and common rumour, so much incensed, that he would needs have
her to be his wife." And sometimes by reading they are so affected, as he
in [4809]Lucian confesseth of himself, "I never read that place of Panthea
in Xenophon, but I am as much affected as if I were present with her." Such
persons commonly [4810]feign a kind of beauty to themselves; and so did
those three gentlewomen in [4811]Balthazar Castilio fall in love with a
young man whom they never knew, but only heard him commended: or by reading
of a letter; for there is a grace cometh from hearing, [4812] as a moral
philosopher informeth us, "as well from sight; and the species of love are
received into the fantasy by relation alone:" [4813]_ut cupere ab aspectu,
sic velle ab auditu_, both senses affect. _Interdum et absentes amamus_,
sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives
instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he
never saw; _non oculi sed mens videt_, we see with the eyes of our
understanding.
But the most familiar and usual cause of love is that which comes by sight,
which conveys those admirable rays of beauty and pleasing graces to the
heart. Plotinus derives love from sight, [Greek: eros] quasi [Greek:
horasis]. [4814]_Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore duces_, "the eyes are the
harbingers of love," and the first step of love is sight, as [4815]Lilius
Giraldus proves at large, _hist. deor. syntag. 13._ they as two sluices let
in the influences of that divine, powerful, soul-ravishing, and captivating
beauty, which, as [4816]one saith, "is sharper than any dart or needle,
wounds deeper into the heart; and opens a gap through our eyes to that
lovely wound, which pierceth the soul itself" (Ecclus. 18.) Through it love
is kindled like a fire. This amazing, confounding, admirable, amiable
beauty, [4817]"than which in all nature's treasure (saith Isocrates) there
is nothing so majestical and sacred, nothing so divine, lovely, precious,"
'tis nature's crown, gold and glory; _bonum si non summum, de summis tamen
non infrequenter triumphans_, whose power hence may be discerned; we
contemn and abhor generally such things as are foul and ugly to behold,
account them filthy, but love and covet that which is fair. 'Tis [4818]
beauty in all things which pleaseth and allureth us, a fair hawk, a fine
garment, a goodly building, a fair house, &c. That Persian Xerxes when he
destroyed all those temples of the gods in Greece, caused that of Diana,
_in integrum servari_, to be spared alone for that excellent beauty and
magnificence of it. Inanimate beauty can so command. 'Tis that which
painters, artificers, orators, all aim at, as Eriximachus the physician, in
Plato contends, [4819]"It was beauty first that ministered occasion to art,
to find out the knowledge of carving, painting, building, to find out
models, perspectives, rich furnitures, and so many rare inventions."
Whiteness in the lily, red in the rose, purple in the violet, a lustre in
all things without life, the clear light of the moon, the bright beams of
the sun, splendour of gold, purple, sparkling diamond, the excellent
feature of the horse, the majesty of the lion, the colour of birds,
peacock's tails, the silver scales of fish, we behold with singular delight
and admiration. [4820]"And which is rich in plants, delightful in flowers,
wonderful in beasts, but most glorious in men," doth make us affect and
earnestly desire it, as when we hear any sweet harmony, an eloquent tongue,
see any excellent quality, curious work of man, elaborate art, or aught
that is exquisite, there ariseth instantly in us a longing for the same. We
love such men, but most part for comeliness of person, we call them gods
and goddesses, divine, serene, happy, &c. And of all mortal men they alone
([4821]Calcagninus holds) are free from calumny; _qui divitiis, magistratu
et gloria florent, injuria lacessimus_, we backbite, wrong, hate renowned,
rich, and happy men, we repine at their felicity, they are undeserving we
think, fortune is a stepmother to us, a parent to them. "We envy" (saith
[4822]Isocrates) "wise, just, honest men, except with mutual offices and
kindnesses, some good turn or other, they extort this love from us; only
fair persons we love at first sight, desire their acquaintance, and adore
them as so many gods: we had rather serve them than command others, and
account ourselves the more beholding to them, the more service they enjoin
us:" though they be otherwise vicious, dishonest, we love them, favour
them, and are ready to do them any good office for their [4823]beauty's
sake, though they have no other good quality beside. _Dic igitur o fomose,
adolescens_ (as that eloquent Phavorinus breaks out in [4824]Stobeus) _dic
Autiloque, suavius nectare loqueris; dic o Telemache, vehementius Ulysse
dicis; dic Alcibiades utcunque ebrius, libentius tibi licet ebrio
auscultabimus_. "Speak, fair youth, speak Autiloquus, thy words are sweeter
than nectar, speak O Telemachus, thou art more powerful than Ulysses, speak
Alcibiades though drunk, we will willingly hear thee as thou art." Faults
in such are no faults: for when the said Alcibiades had stolen Anytus his
gold and silver plate, he was so far from prosecuting so foul a fact
(though every man else condemned his impudence and insolency) that he
wished it had been more, and much better (he loved him dearly) for his
sweet sake. "No worth is eminent in such lovely persons, all imperfections
hid;" _non enim facile de his quos plurimum diligimus, turpitudinem
suspicamur_, for hearing, sight, touch, &c., our mind and all our senses
are captivated, _omnes sensus formosus delectat_. Many men have been
preferred for their person alone, chosen kings, as amongst the Indians,
Persians, Ethiopians of old; the properest man of person the country could
afford, was elected their sovereign lord; _Gratior est pulchro veniens e
corpore virtus_, [4825]and so have many other nations thought and done, as
[4826]Curtius observes: _Ingens enim in corporis majestate veneratio est_,
"for there is a majestical presence in such men;" and so far was beauty
adored amongst them, that no man was thought fit to reign, that was not in
all parts complete and supereminent. Agis, king of Lacedaemon, had like to
have been deposed, because he married a little wife, they would not have
their royal issue degenerate. Who would ever have thought that Adrian' the
Fourth, an English monk's bastard (as [4827]Papirius Massovius writes in
his life), _inops a suis relectus, squalidus et miser_, a poor forsaken
child, should ever come to be pope of Rome? But why was it? _Erat acri
ingenio, facundia expedita eleganti corpore, facieque laeta ac hilari_, (as
he follows it out of [4828]Nubrigensis, for he ploughs with his heifer,)
"he was wise, learned, eloquent, of a pleasant, a promising countenance, a
goodly, proper man; he had, in a word, a winning look of his own," and that
carried it, for that he was especially advanced. So "Saul was a goodly
person and a fair." Maximinus elected emperor, &c. Branchus the son of
Apollo, whom he begot of Jance, Succron's daughter (saith Lactantius), when
he kept King Admetus' herds in Thessaly, now grown a man, was an earnest
suitor to his mother to know his father; the nymph denied him, because
Apollo had conjured her to the contrary; yet overcome by his importunity at
last she sent him to his father; when he came into Apollo's presence,
_malas Dei reverenter osculatus_, he carried himself so well, and was so
fair a young man, that Apollo was infinitely taken with the beauty of his
person, he could scarce look off him, and said he was worthy of such
parents, gave him a crown of gold, the spirit of divination, and in
conclusion made him a demigod. _O vis superba formae_, a goddess beauty is,
whom the very gods adore, _nam pulchros dii amant_; she is _Amoris domina_,
love's harbinger, love's loadstone, a witch, a charm, &c. Beauty is a dower
of itself, a sufficient patrimony, an ample commendation, an accurate
epistle, as [4829]Lucian, [4830]Apuleius, Tiraquellus, and some others
conclude. _Imperio digna forma_, beauty deserves a kingdom, saith
Abulensis, _paradox. 2. cap. 110._ immortality; and [4831]"more have got
this honour and eternity for their beauty, than for all other virtues
besides:" and such as are fair, "are worthy to be honoured of God and men."
That Idalian Ganymede was therefore fetched by Jupiter into heaven,
Hephaestion dear to Alexander, Antinous to Adrian. Plato calls beauty for
that cause a privilege of nature, _Naturae gaudentis opus_, nature's
masterpiece, a dumb comment; Theophrastus, a silent fraud; still rhetoric
Carneades, that persuades without speech, a kingdom without a guard,
because beautiful persons command as so many captains; Socrates, a tyranny,
"which tyranniseth over tyrants themselves;" which made Diogenes belike
call proper women queens, _quod facerent homines quae praeciperent_,
because men were so obedient to their commands. They will adore, cringe,
compliment, and bow to a common wench (if she be fair) as if she were a
noble woman, a countess, a queen, or a goddess. Those intemperate young men
of Greece erected at Delphos a golden image with infinite cost, to the
eternal memory of Phryne the courtesan, as Aelian relates, for she was a
most beautiful woman, insomuch, saith [4832]Athenaeus, that Apelles and
Praxiteles drew Venus's picture from her. Thus young men will adore and
honour beauty; nay kings themselves I say will do it, and voluntarily
submit their sovereignty to a lovely woman. "Wine is strong, kings are
strong, but a woman strongest," 1 Esd. iv. 10. as Zerobabel proved at large
to King Darius, his princes and noblemen. "Kings sit still and command sea
and land, &c., all pay tribute to the king; but women make kings pay
tribute, and have dominion over them. When they have got gold and silver,
they submit all to a beautiful woman, give themselves wholly to her, gape
and gaze on her, and all men desire her more than gold or silver, or any
precious thing: they will leave father and mother, and venture their lives
for her, labour and travel to get, and bring all their gains to women,
steal, fight, and spoil for their mistress's sake. And no king so strong,
but a fair woman is stronger than he is. All things" (as [4833]he proceeds)
"fear to touch the king; yet I saw him and Apame his concubine, the
daughter of the famous Bartacus, sitting on the right hand of the king, and
she took the crown off his head, and put it on her own, and stroke him with
her left hand; yet the king gaped and gazed on her, and when she laughed he
laughed, and when she was angry he flattered to be reconciled to her." So
beauty commands even kings themselves; nay whole armies and kingdoms are
captivated together with their kings: [4834]_Forma vincit armatos, ferrum
pulchritudo captivat; vincentur specie, qui non vincentur proelio_. And
'tis a great matter saith [4835]Xenophon, "and of which all fair persons
may worthily brag, that a strong man must labour for his living if he will
have aught, a valiant man must fight and endanger himself for it, a wise
man speak, show himself, and toil; but a fair and beautiful person doth all
with ease, he compasseth his desire without any pains-taking:" God and men,
heaven and earth conspire to honour him; every one pities him above other,
if he be in need, [4836]and all the world is willing to do him good.
[4837]Chariclea fell into the hand of pirates, but when all the rest were
put to the edge of the sword, she alone was preserved for her person.
[4838]When Constantinople was sacked by the Turk, Irene escaped, and was so
far from being made a captive, that she even captivated the Grand Signior
himself. So did Rosamond insult over King Henry the Second.
[4839] ------"I was so fair an object;
Whom fortune made my king, my love made subject;
He found by proof the privilege of beauty,
That it had power to countermand all duty."
It captivates the very gods themselves, _Morosiora numina_,
[4840] ------"Deus ipse deorum
Factus ob hanc formam bos, equus imber olor."
And those _mali genii_ are taken with it, as [4841]I have already proved.
_Formosam Barbari verentur, et ad spectum pulchrum immanis animus
mansuescit_. (Heliodor. _lib. 5._) The barbarians stand in awe of a fair
woman, and at a beautiful aspect a fierce spirit is pacified. For when as
Troy was taken, and the wars ended (as Clemens [4842]Alexandrinus quotes
out of Euripides) angry Menelaus with rage and fury armed, came with his
sword drawn, to have killed Helen, with his own hands, as being the sole
cause of all those wars and miseries: but when he saw her fair face, as one
amazed at her divine beauty, he let his weapon fall, and embraced her
besides, he had no power to strike so sweet a creature. _Ergo habetantur
enses pulchritudine_, the edge of a sharp sword (as the saying is) is
dulled with a beautiful aspect, and severity itself is overcome. Hiperides
the orator, when Phryne his client was accused at Athens for her lewdness,
used no other defence in her cause, but tearing her upper garment,
disclosed her naked breast to the judges, with which comeliness of her body
and amiable gesture they were so moved and astonished, that they did acquit
her forthwith, and let her go. O noble piece of justice! mine author
exclaims: and who is he that would not rather lose his seat and robes,
forfeit his office, than give sentence against the majesty of beauty? Such
prerogatives have fair persons, and they alone are free from danger.
Parthenopaeus was so lovely and fair, that when he fought in the Theban
wars, if his face had been by chance bare, no enemy would offer to strike
at or hurt him, such immunities hath beauty. Beasts themselves are moved
with it. Sinalda was a woman of such excellent feature, [4843]and a queen,
that when she was to be trodden on by wild horses for a punishment, "the
wild beasts stood in admiration of her person," (Saxo Grammaticus _lib. 8.
Dan. hist._) "and would not hurt her." Wherefore did that royal virgin in
[4844]Apuleius, when she fled from the thieves' den, in a desert, make such
an apostrophe to her ass on whom she rode; (for what knew she to the
contrary, but that he was an ass?) _Si me parentibus et proco formoso
reddideris, quas, tibi gratias, quos honores habebo, quos cibos exhibebo_?
[4845]She would comb him, dress him, feed him, and trick him every day
herself, and he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, &c.
And besides she would have a dainty picture drawn, in perpetual
remembrance, a virgin riding upon an ass's back with this motto, _Asino
vectore regia virgo fugiens captivitatem_; why said she all this? why did
she make such promises to a dumb beast? but that she perceived the poor ass
to be taken with her beauty, for he did often _obliquo collo pedes puellae
decoros basiare_, kiss her feet as she rode, _et ad delicatulas voculas
tentabat adhinnire_, offer to give consent as much as in him was to her
delicate speeches, and besides he had some feeling, as she conceived of her
misery. And why did Theogine's horse in Heliodorus [4846]curvet, prance,
and go so proudly, _exultans alacriter et superbiens_, &c., but that such
as mine author supposeth, he was in love with his master? _dixisses ipsum
equum pulchrum intelligere pulchram domini fomam_? A fly lighted on [4847]
Malthius' cheek as he lay asleep; but why? Not to hurt him, as a parasite
of his, standing by, well perceived, _non ut pungeret, sed ut oscularetur_,
but certainly to kiss him, as ravished with his divine looks. Inanimate
creatures, I suppose, have a touch of this. When a drop of [4848]Psyche's
candle fell on Cupid's shoulder, I think sure it was to kiss it. When Venus
ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant [4849]poet of our's sets
her out,
------"the bushes in the way
Some catch her neck, some kiss her face,
Some twine about her legs to make her stay,
And all did covet her for to embrace."
_Aer ipse amore inficitur_, as Heliodorus holds, the air itself is in love:
for when Hero plaid upon her lute,
[4850] "The wanton air in twenty sweet forms danc't
After her fingers"------
and those lascivious winds stayed Daphne when she fled from Apollo;
[4851] ------"nudabant corpora venti,
Obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes."
Boreas Ventus loved Hyacinthus, and Orithya Ericthons's daughter of Athens:
_vi rapuit_, &c. he took her away by force, as she was playing with other
wenches at Ilissus, and begat Zetes and Galias his two sons of her. That
seas and waters are enamoured with this our beauty, is all out as likely as
that of the air and winds; for when Leander swam in the Hellespont, Neptune
with his trident did beat down the waves, but
"They still mounted up intending to have kiss'd him.
And fell in drops like tears because they missed him."
The [4852]river Alpheus was in love with Arethusa, as she tells the tale
herself,
[4853] ------"viridesque manu siccata capillos,
Fluminis Alphei veteres recitavit amores;
Pars ego Nympharum," &c.
When our Thame and Isis meet
[4854] "Oscula mille sonant, connexu brachia pallent,
Mutuaque explicitis connectunt colla lacertis."
Inachus and Pineus, and how many loving rivers can I reckon up, whom beauty
hath enthralled! I say nothing all this while of idols themselves that have
committed idolatry in this kind, of looking-glasses, that have been rapt in
love (if you will believe [4855]poets), when their ladies and mistresses
looked on to dress them.
"Et si non habeo sensum, tua gratia sensum
Exhibet, et calidi sentio amoris onus.
Dirigis huc quoties spectantia lumina, flamma
Succendunt inopi saucia membra mihi."
"Though I no sense at all of feeling have.
Yet your sweet looks do animate and save;
And when your speaking eyes do this way turn,
Methinks my wounded members live and burn."
I could tell you such another story of a spindle that was fired by a fair
lady's [4856]looks, or fingers, some say, I know not well whether, but
fired it was by report, and of a cold bath that suddenly smoked, and was
very hot when naked Coelia came into it, _Miramur quis sit tantus et unde
vapor_, [4857]&c. But of all the tales in this kind, that is the most
memorable of [4858]Death himself, when he should have strucken a sweet
young virgin with his dart, he fell in love with the object. Many more such
could I relate which are to be believed with a poetical faith. So dumb and
dead creatures dote, but men are mad, stupefied many times at the first
sight of beauty, amazed, [4859]as that fisherman in Aristaenetus that spied
a maid bathing herself by the seaside,
[4860] "Soluta mihi sunt omnia membra--
A capite ad calcem. sensusque omnis periit
De pectore, tam immensus stupor animam invasit mihi."
And as [4861]Lucian, in his images, confesses of himself, that he was at
his mistress's presence void of all sense, immovable, as if he had seen a
Gorgon's head: which was no such cruel monster (as [4862]Coelius interprets
it, _lib. 3. cap. 9._), "but the very quintessence of beauty," some fair
creature, as without doubt the poet understood in the first fiction of it,
at which the spectators were amazed. [4863]_Miseri quibus intentata nites_,
poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to run
mad, or make away with themselves.
[4864] "They wait the sentence of her scornful eyes;
And whom she favours lives, the other dies."
4865]Heliodorus, _lib. 1._ brings in Thyamis almost besides himself, when
he saw Chariclia first, and not daring to look upon her a second time, "for
he thought it impossible for any man living to see her and contain
himself." The very fame of beauty will fetch them to it many miles off
(such an attractive power this loadstone hath), and they will seem but
short, they will undertake any toil or trouble, [4866]long journeys. Penia
or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through seas, deserts, mountains, and
dangerous places, as they did to gaze on Psyche: "many mortal men came far
and near to see that glorious object of her age," Paris for Helena, Corebus
to Troja.
------"Illis Trojam qui forte diebus
Venerat insano Cassandrae insensus amore."
"who inflamed with a violent passion for Cassandra, happened then to be in
Troy." King John of France, once prisoner in England, came to visit his old
friends again, crossing the seas; but the truth is, his coming was to see
the Countess of Salisbury, the nonpareil of those times, and his dear
mistress. That infernal God Pluto came from hell itself, to steal
Proserpine; Achilles left all his friends for Polixena's sake, his enemy's
daughter; and all the [4867]Graecian gods forsook their heavenly mansions
for that fair lady, Philo Dioneus daughter's sake, the paragon of Greece in
those days; _ea enim venustate fuit, ut eam certatim omnes dii conjugem
expeterent_: "for she was of such surpassing beauty, that all the gods
contended for her love." [4868]_Formosa divis imperat puella_. "The
beautiful maid commands the gods." They will not only come to see, but as a
falcon makes a hungry hawk hover about, follow, give attendance and
service, spend goods, lives, and all their fortunes to attain;
"Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,
Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last."
When fair [4869]Hero came abroad, the eyes, hearts, and affections of her
spectators were still attendant on her.
[4870] "Et medios inter vultus supereminet omnes,
Perque urbem aspiciunt venientem numinis instar."
[4871] "So far above the rest fair Hero shined.
And stole away the enchanted gazer's mind."
[4872]When Peter Aretine's Lucretia came first to Rome, and that the fame
of her beauty, _ad urbanarum deliciarum sectatores venerat, nemo non ad
videndam eam_, &c. was spread abroad, they came in (as they say) thick and
threefold to see her, and hovered about her gates, as they did of old to
Lais of Corinth, and Phryne of Thebes, [4873]_Ad cujus jacuit Graecia tota
fores_, "at whose gates lay all Greece." [4874]"Every man sought to get her
love, some with gallant and costly apparel, some with an affected pace,
some with music, others with rich gifts, pleasant discourse, multitude of
followers; others with letters, vows, and promises, to commend themselves,
and to be gracious in her eyes." Happy was he that could see her, thrice
happy that enjoyed her company. Charmides [4875]in Plato was a proper young
man in comeliness of person, "and all good qualities, far exceeding others;
whensoever fair Charmides came abroad, they seemed all to be in love with
him" (as Critias describes their carriage), "and were troubled at the very
sight of him; many came near him, many followed him wheresoever he went,"
as those [4876]_formarum spectatores_ did Acontius, if at any time he
walked abroad: the Athenian lasses stared on Alcibiades; Sappho and the
Mitilenean women on Phaon the fair. Such lovely sights do not only please,
entice, but ravish and amaze. Cleonimus, a delicate and tender youth,
present at a feast which Androcles his uncle made in Piraeo at Athens, when
he sacrificed to Mercury, so stupefied the guests, Dineas, Aristippus,
Agasthenes, and the rest (as Charidemus in [4877]Lucian relates it), that
they could not eat their meat, they sat all supper time gazing, glancing at
him, stealing looks, and admiring of his beauty. Many will condemn these
men that are so enamoured, for fools; but some again commend them for it;
many reject Paris's judgment, and yet Lucian approves of it, admiring Paris
for his choice; he would have done as much himself, and by good desert in
his mind: beauty is to be preferred [4878]"before wealth or wisdom."
[4879]Athenaeus _Deipnosophist, lib. 13. cap. 7_, holds it not such
indignity for the Trojans and Greeks to contend ten years, to spend so much
labour, lose so many men's lives for Helen's sake, [4880]for so fair a
lady's sake,
"Ob talem uxorem cui praestantissima forma,
Nil mortale refert."
That one woman was worth a kingdom, a hundred thousand other women, a world
itself. Well might [4881]Sterpsichores be blind for carping at so fair a
creature, and a just punishment it was. The same testimony gives Homer of
the old men of Troy, that were spectators of that single combat between
Paris and Menelaus at the Seian gate, when Helen stood in presence; they
said all, the war was worthily prolonged and undertaken [4882]for her sake.
The very gods themselves (as Homer and [4883]Isocrates record) fought more
for Helen, than they did against the giants. When [4884]Venus lost her son
Cupid, she made proclamation by Mercury, that he that could bring tidings
of him should have seven kisses; a noble reward some say, and much better
than so many golden talents; seven such kisses to many men were more
precious than seven cities, or so many provinces. One such a kiss alone
would recover a man if he were a dying, [4885]_Suaviolum Stygia sic te de
valle reducet_, &c. Great Alexander married Roxanne, a poor man's child,
only for her person. [4886]'Twas well done of Alexander, and heroically
done; I admire him for it. Orlando was mad for Angelica, and who doth not
condole his mishap? Thisbe died for Pyramus, Dido for Aeneas; who doth not
weep, as (before his conversion) [4887]Austin did in commiseration of her
estate! she died for him; "methinks" (as he said) "I could die for her."
But this is not the matter in hand; what prerogative this beauty hath, of
what power and sovereignty it is, and how far such persons that so much
admire, and dote upon it, are to be justified; no man doubts of these
matters; the question is, how and by what means beauty produceth this
effect? By sight: the eye betrays the soul, and is both active and passive
in this business; it wounds and is wounded, is an especial cause and
instrument, both in the subject and in the object. [4888]"As tears, it
begins in the eyes, descends to the breast;" it conveys these beauteous
rays, as I have said, unto the heart. _Ut vidi ut perii._ [4889]_Mars videt
hanc, visamque cupit._ Schechem saw Dinah the daughter of Leah, and defiled
her, Gen. xxxiv. 3. Jacob, Rachel, xxix. 17, "for she was beautiful and
fair." David spied Bathsheba afar off, 2 Sam. xi. 2. The Elders, Susanna,
[4890]as that Orthomenian Strato saw fair Aristoclea daughter of
Theophanes, bathing herself at that Hercyne well in Lebadea, and were
captivated in an instant. _Viderunt oculi, rapuerunt pectora flammae_;
Ammon fell sick for Thamar's sake, 2 Sam. xiii. 2. The beauty of Esther was
such, that she found favour not only in the sight of Ahasuerus, "but of all
those that looked upon her." Gerson, Origen, and some others, contended
that Christ himself was the fairest of the sons of men, and Joseph next
unto him, _speciosus prae filiis hominum_, and they will have it literally
taken; his very person was such, that he found grace and favour of all
those that looked upon him. Joseph was so fair, that, as the ordinary gloss
hath it, _filiae decurrerent per murum, et ad fenestras_, they ran to the
top of the walls and to the windows to gaze on him, as we do commonly to
see some great personage go by: and so Matthew Paris describes Matilda the
Empress going through Cullen. [4891]P. Morales the Jesuit saith as much of
the Virgin Mary. Antony no sooner saw Cleopatra, but, saith Appian, _lib.
1_, he was enamoured of her. [4892]Theseus at the first sight of Helen was
so besotted, that he esteemed himself the happiest man in the world if he
might enjoy her, and to that purpose kneeled down, and made his pathetical
prayers unto the gods. [4893]Charicles, by chance, espying that curious
picture of smiling Venus naked in her temple, stood a great while gazing,
as one amazed; at length, he brake into that mad passionate speech, "O
fortunate god Mars, that wast bound in chains, and made ridiculous for her
sake!" He could not contain himself, but kissed her picture, I know not how
oft, and heartily desired to be so disgraced as Mars was. And what did he
that his betters had not done before him?
[4894] ------"atque aliquis de diis non tristibus optat
Sic fieri turpis"------
When Venus came first to heaven, her comeliness was such, that (as mine
author saith) [4895]"all the gods came flocking about, and saluted her,
each of them went to Jupiter, and desired he might have her to be his
wife." When fair [4896]Antilochus came in presence, as a candle in the dark
his beauty shined, all men's eyes (as Xenophon describes the manner of it)
"were instantly fixed on him, and moved at the sight, insomuch that they
could not conceal themselves, but in gesture or looks it was discerned and
expressed." Those other senses, hearing, touching, may much penetrate and
affect, but none so much, none so forcible as sight. _Forma Briseis mediis
in armis movit Achillem_, Achilles was moved in the midst of a battle by
fair Briseis, Ajax by Tecmessa; Judith captivated that great Captain
Holofernes: Dalilah, Samson; Rosamund, [4897]Henry the Second; Roxolana,
Suleiman the Magnificent, &c.
[4898] "[Greek: nika de kai sidaeron
kai pur kalae tis ousa.]"
"A fair woman overcomes fire and sword."
[4899] "Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure
The sense of man and all his mind possess,
As beauty's loveliest bait, that doth procure
Great warriors erst their rigour to suppress,
And mighty hands forget their manliness,
Driven with the power of an heart-burning eye,
And lapt in flowers of a golden tress.
That can with melting pleasure mollify
Their harden'd hearts inur'd to cruelty."
[4900]Clitiphon ingenuously confesseth, that he no sooner came in
Leucippe's presence, but that he did _corde tremere, et oculis lascivius
intueri_; [4901]he was wounded at the first sight, his heart panted, and he
could not possibly turn his eyes from her. So doth Calysiris in Heliodorus,
_lib. 2._ Isis Priest, a reverend old man, complain, who by chance at
Memphis seeing that Thracian Rodophe, might not hold his eyes off her:
[4902]"I will not conceal it, she overcame me with her presence, and quite
assaulted my continency which I had kept unto mine old age; I resisted a
long time my bodily eyes with the eyes of my understanding; at last I was
conquered, and as in a tempest carried headlong." [4903] Xenophiles, a
philosopher, railed at women downright for many years together, scorned,
hated, scoffed at them; coming at last into Daphnis a fair maid's company
(as he condoles his mishap to his friend Demaritis), though free before,
_Intactus nullis ante cupidinibus_, was far in love, and quite overcome
upon a sudden. _Victus sum fateor a Daphnide_, &c. I confess I am taken,
[4904] "Sola haec inflexit sensus, animumque labentem
Impulit"------
I could hold out no longer. Such another mishap, but worse, had Stratocles
the physician, that blear-eyed old man, _muco plenus_ (so [4905]Prodromus
describes him); he was a severe woman's-hater all his life, _foeda et
contumeliosa semper in faeminas profatus_, a bitter persecutor of the whole
sex, _humanas aspides et viperas appellabat_, he forswore them all still,
and mocked them wheresoever he came, in such vile terms, _ut matrem et
sorores odisses_, that if thou hadst heard him, thou wouldst have loathed
thine own mother and sisters for his word's sake. Yet this old doting fool
was taken at last with that celestial and divine look of Myrilla, the
daughter of Anticles the gardener, that smirking wench, that he shaved off
his bushy beard, painted his face, [4906]curled his hair, wore a laurel
crown to cover his bald pate, and for her love besides was ready to run
mad. For the very day that he married he was so furious, _ut solis occasum
minus expectare posset_ (a terrible, a monstrous long day), he could not
stay till it was night, _sed omnibus insalutatis in thalamum festinans
irrupit_, the meat scarce out of his mouth, without any leave taking, he
would needs go presently to bed. What young man, therefore, if old men be
so intemperate, can secure himself? Who can say I will not be taken with a
beautiful object? I can, I will contain. No, saith [4907]Lucian of his
mistress, she is so fair, that if thou dost but see her, she will stupefy
thee, kill thee straight, and, Medusa like, turn thee to a stone; thou
canst not pull thine eyes from her, but, as an adamant doth iron, she will
carry thee bound headlong whither she will herself, infect thee like a
basilisk. It holds both in men and women. Dido was amazed at Aeneas'
presence; _Obstupuit primo aspectu Sidonia Dido_; and as he feelingly
verified out of his experience;
[4908] "Quam ego postquam vidi, non ita amavi ut sani solent
Homines, sed eodem pacto ut insani solent."
"I lov'd her not as others soberly,
But as a madman rageth, so did I."
So Museus of Leander, _nusquam lumen detorquet ab illa_; and [4909]Chaucer
of Palamon,
_He cast his eye upon Emilia,
And therewith he blent and cried ha, ha,
As though he had been stroke unto the hearta_.
If you desire to know more particularly what this beauty is, how it doth
_Influere_, how it doth fascinate (for, as all hold, love is a
fascination), thus in brief. [4910]"This comeliness or beauty ariseth from
the due proportion of the whole, or from each several part." For an exact
delineation of which, I refer you to poets, historiographers, and those
amorous writers, to Lucian's Images, and Charidemus, Xenophon's description
of Panthea, Petronius Catalectes, Heliodorus Chariclia, Tacius Leucippe,
Longus Sophista's Daphnis and Chloe, Theodorus Prodromus his Rhodanthes,
Aristaenetus and Philostratus Epistles, Balthazar Castilio, _lib. 4. de
aulico._ Laurentius, _cap. 10, de melan._ Aeneas Sylvius his Lucretia, and
every poet almost, which have most accurately described a perfect beauty,
an absolute feature, and that through every member, both in men and women.
Each part must concur to the perfection of it; for as Seneca saith, _Ep.
33. lib. 4._ _Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur et brachium, sed
illa cujus simul universa facies admirationem singulis partibus dedit_;
"she is no fair woman, whose arm, thigh, &c. are commended, except the face
and all the other parts be correspondent." And the face especially gives a
lustre to the rest: the face is it that commonly denominates a fair or
foul: _arx formae facies_, the face is beauty's tower; and though the other
parts be deformed, yet a good face carries it (_facies non uxor amatur_)
that alone is most part respected, principally valued, _deliciis suis
ferox_, and of itself able to captivate.
[4911] "Urit te Glycerae nitor,
Urit grata protervitas,
Et vultus nimium lubricus aspici."
"Glycera's too fair a face was it that set him on fire, too fine to be
beheld." When [4912]Chaerea saw the singing wench's sweet looks, he was so
taken, that he cried out, _O faciem pulchram, deleo omnes dehinc ex animo
mulieres, taedet quotidianarum harum formarum!_ "O fair face, I'll never
love any but her, look on any other hereafter but her; I am weary of these
ordinary beauties, away with them." The more he sees her, the worse he
is,--_uritque videndo_, as in a burning-glass, the sunbeams are
re-collected to a centre, the rays of love are projected from her eyes. It
was Aeneas's countenance ravished Queen Dido, _Os humerosque Deo similis_,
he had an angelical face.
[4913] "O sacros vultus Baccho vel Apolline dignos,
Quos vir, quos tuto foemina nulla videt!"
------"O sacred looks, befitting majesty,
Which never mortal wight could safely see."
Although for the greater part this beauty be most eminent in the face, yet
many times those other members yield a most pleasing grace, and are alone
sufficient to enamour. A high brow like unto the bright heavens, _coeli
pulcherrima plaga, Frons ubi vivit honor, frons ubi ludit amor_, white and
smooth like the polished alabaster, a pair of cheeks of vermilion colour,
in which love lodgeth; [4914]_Amor qui mollibus genis puellae pernoctas_: a
coral lip, _suaviorum delubrum_, in which _Basia mille patent, basia mille
latent_, "A thousand appear, as many are concealed;" _gratiarum sedes
gratissima_; a sweet-smelling flower, from which bees may gather honey,
[4915]_Mellilegae volucres quid adhuc cava thyma rosasque_, &c.
"Omnes ad dominae labra venite meae,
Illa rosas spirat," &c.
A white and round neck, that _via lactea_, dimple in the chin, black
eyebrows, _Cupidinis arcus_, sweet breath, white and even teeth, which some
call the salepiece, a fine soft round pap, gives an excellent grace,
[4916]_Quale decus tumidis Pario de marmore mammis!_ [4917]and make a
pleasant valley _lacteum sinum_, between two chalky hills, _Sororiantes
papillulas, et ad pruritum frigidos amatores solo aspectu excitantes. Unde
is, [4918]Forma papillarum quam fuit apta premi!_--Again _Urebant oculos
durae stantesque mamillae_. A flaxen hair; golden hair was even in great
account, for which Virgil commends Dido, _Nondum sustulerat flavum
Proserpinina crinem, Et crines nodantur in aurum_. Apollonius (_Argonaut.
lib. 4._ _Jasonis flava coma incendit cor Medeae_) will have Jason's golden
hair to be the main cause of Medea's dotage on him. Castor and Pollux were
both yellow haired. Paris, Menelaus, and most amorous young men, have been
such in all ages, _molles ac suaves_, as Baptista Porta infers, [4919]
_Physiog. lib. 2._ lovely to behold. Homer so commends Helen, makes
Patroclus and Achilles both yellow haired: Pulchricoma Venus, and Cupid
himself was yellow haired, _in aurum coruscante et crispante capillo_, like
that neat picture of Narcissus in Callistratus; for so [4920]Psyche spied
him asleep, Briseis, Polixena, &c. _flavicomae omnes_,
------"and Hero the fair,
Whom young Apollo courted for her hair."
Leland commends Guithera, king Arthur's wife, for a flaxen hair: so Paulus
Aemilius sets out Clodeveus, that lovely king of France. [4921]Synesius
holds every effeminate fellow or adulterer is fair haired: and Apuleius
adds that Venus herself, goddess of love, cannot delight, [4922]"though she
come accompanied with the graces, and all Cupid's train to attend upon her,
girt with her own girdle, and smell of cinnamon and balm, yet if she be
bald or badhaired, she cannot please her Vulcan." Which belike makes our
Venetian ladies at this day to counterfeit yellow hair so much, great women
to calamistrate and curl it up, _vibrantes ad gratiam crines, et tot
orbibus in captivitatem flexos_, to adorn their heads with spangles,
pearls, and made-flowers; and all courtiers to effect a pleasing grace in
this kind. In a word, [4923]"the hairs are Cupid's nets, to catch all
comers, a brushy wood, in which Cupid builds his nest, and under whose
shadow all loves a thousand several ways sport themselves."
A little soft hand, pretty little mouth, small, fine, long fingers,
_Gratiae quae digitis_ --'tis that which Apollo did admire in
Daphne,--_laudat digitosque manusque_; a straight and slender body, a small
foot, and well-proportioned leg, hath an excellent lustre, [4924]_Cui totum
incumbit corpus uti fundamento aedes_. Clearchus vowed to his friend
Amyander in [4925]Aristaenetus, that the most attractive part in his
mistress, to make him love and like her first, was her pretty leg and foot:
a soft and white skin, &c. have their peculiar graces, [4926]_Nebula haud
est mollior ac hujus cutis est, aedipol papillam bellulam_. Though in men
these parts are not so much respected; a grim Saracen sometimes,--_nudus
membra Pyracmon_, a martial hirsute face pleaseth best; a black man is a
pearl in a fair woman's eye, and is as acceptable as [4927]lame Vulcan was
to Venus; for he being a sweaty fuliginous blacksmith, was dearly beloved
of her, when fair Apollo, nimble Mercury were rejected, and the rest of the
sweet-faced gods forsaken. Many women (as Petronius [4928]observes)
_sordibus calent_ (as many men are more moved with kitchen wenches, and a
poor market maid, than all these illustrious court and city dames) will
sooner dote upon a slave, a servant, a dirt dauber, a brontes, a cook, a
player, if they see his naked legs or arms, _thorosaque brachia_,
[4929]&c., like that huntsman Meleager in Philostratus, though he be all in
rags, obscene and dirty, besmeared like a ruddleman, a gipsy, or a
chimney-sweeper, than upon a noble gallant, Nireus, Ephestion, Alcibiades,
or those embroidered courtiers full of silk and gold. [4930]Justine's wife,
a citizen of Rome, fell in love with Pylades a player, and was ready to run
mad for him, had not Galen himself helped her by chance. Faustina the
empress doted on a fencer.
Not one of a thousand falls in love, but there is some peculiar part or
other which pleaseth most, and inflames him above the rest. [4931]A company
of young philosophers on a time fell at variance, which part of a woman was
most desirable and pleased best? some said the forehead, some the teeth,
some the eyes, cheeks, lips, neck, chin, &c., the controversy was referred
to Lais of Corinth to decide; but she, smiling, said, they were a company
of fools; for suppose they had her where they wished, what would they
[4932]first seek? Yet this notwithstanding I do easily grant, _neque quis
vestrum negaverit opinor_, all parts are attractive, but especially
[4933]the eyes, [4934]
------"videt igne micantes,
Sideribus similes oculos"------
which are love's fowlers; [4935]_aucupium amoris_, the shoeing horns, "the
hooks of love" (as Arandus will) "the guides, touchstone, judges, that in a
moment cure mad men, and make sound folks mad, the watchmen of the body;
what do they not?" How vex they not? All this is true, and (which Athaeneus
_lib. 13. dip. cap. 5._ and Tatius hold) they are the chief seats of love,
and James Lernutius [4936]hath facetely expressed in an elegant ode of his,
"Amorem ocellis flammeolis herae
Vidi insidentem, credite posteri,
Fratresque circum ludibundos
Cum pharetra volitare et arcu," &c.
"I saw Love sitting in my mistress' eyes
Sparkling, believe it all posterity,
And his attendants playing round about
With bow and arrows ready for to fly."
Scaliger calls the eyes, [4937]"Cupid's arrows; the tongue, the lightning
of love; the paps, the tents:" [4938]Balthazar Castilio, the causes, the
chariots, the lamps of love,
------"aemula lumina stellis,
Lumina quae possent sollicitare deos."
"Eyes emulating stars in light,
Enticing gods at the first sight;"
Love's orators, Petronius.
"O blandos oculos, et o facetos,
Et quadam propria nota loquaces
Illic est Venus, et leves amores,
Atque ipsa in medio sedet voluptas."
"O sweet and pretty speaking eyes,
Where Venus, love, and pleasure lies."
Love's torches, touch-box, naphtha and matches, [4939]Tibullus.
"Illius ex oculis quum vult exurere divos,
Accendit geminas lampades acer amor."
"Tart Love when he will set the gods on fire,
Lightens the eyes as torches to desire."
Leander, at the first sight of Hero's eyes, was incensed, saith Musaeus.
"Simul in [4940]oculorum radiis crescebat fax amorum,
Et cor fervebat invecti ignis impetu;
Pulchritudo enim Celebris immaculatae foeminae,
Acutior hominibus est veloci sagitta.
Oculos vero via est, ab oculi ictibus
Vulnus dilabitur, et in praecordia viri manat."
"Love's torches 'gan to burn first in her eyes.
And set his heart on fire which never dies:
For the fair beauty of a virgin pure
Is sharper than a dart, and doth inure
A deeper wound, which pierceth to the heart
By the eyes, and causeth such a cruel smart."
[4941]A modern poet brings in Amnon complaining of Thamar,
------"et me fascino
Occidit ille risus et formae lepos,
Ille nitor, illa gratia, et verus decor,
Illae aemulantes purpuram, et [4942]rosas genae,
Oculique vinctaeque aureo nodo comae."------
"It was thy beauty, 'twas thy pleasing smile,
Thy grace and comeliness did me beguile;
Thy rose-like cheeks, and unto purple fair
Thy lovely eyes and golden knotted hair."
[4943]Philostratus Lemnius cries out on his mistress's basilisk eyes,
_ardentes faces_, those two burning-glasses, they had so inflamed his soul,
that no water could quench it. "What a tyranny" (saith he), "what a
penetration of bodies is this! thou drawest with violence, and swallowest
me up, as Charybdis doth sailors with thy rocky eyes: he that falls into
this gulf of love, can never get out." Let this be the corollary then, the
strongest beams of beauty are still darted from the eyes.
[4944] "Nam quis lumina tanta, tanta
Posset luminibus suis tueri,
Non statim trepidansque, palpitansque,
Prae desiderii aestuantis aura?" &c.
"For who such eyes with his can see,
And not forthwith enamour'd be!"
And as men catch dotterels by putting out a leg or an arm, with those
mutual glances of the eyes they first inveigle one another. [4945]_Cynthia
prima suis miserum me, cepit ocellis_. Of all eyes (by the way) black are
most amiable, enticing and fairer, which the poet observes in commending of
his mistress. [4946]_Spectandum nigris oculis, nigroque capillo_, which
Hesiod admires in his Alemena,
[4947] "Cujus a vertice ac nigricantibus oculis,
Tale quiddam spiral ac ab aurea Venere."
"From her black eyes, and from her golden face
As if from Venus came a lovely grace."
and [4948]Triton in his Milaene--_nigra oculos formosa mihi_. [4949]Homer
useth that epithet of ox-eyed, in describing Juno, because a round black
eye is the best, the son of beauty, and farthest from black the worse:
which [4950]Polydore Virgil taxeth in our nation: _Angli ut plurimum
caesiis oculis_, we have grey eyes for the most part. Baptisma Porta,
_Physiognom. lib. 3._ puts grey colour upon children, they be childish
eyes, dull and heavy. Many commend on the other side Spanish ladies, and
those [4951]Greek dames at this day, for the blackness of their eyes, as
Porta doth his Neapolitan young wives. Suetonius describes Julius Caesar to
have been _nigris vegetisque oculis micantibus_, of a black quick sparkling
eye: and although Averroes in his Colliget will have such persons timorous,
yet without question they are most amorous.
Now last of all, I will show you by what means beauty doth fascinate,
bewitch, as some hold, and work upon the soul of a man by the eye. For
certainly I am of the poet's mind, love doth bewitch and strangely change
us.
[4952] "Ludit amor sensus, oculos perstringit, et aufert
Libertatem animi, mira nos fascinat arte.
Credo aliquis daemon subiens praecordia flammam
Concitat, et raptam tollit de cardine mentem."
"Love mocks our senses, curbs our liberties,
And doth bewitch us with his art and rings,
I think some devil gets into our entrails,
And kindles coals, and heaves our souls from th'hinges."
Heliodorus _lib. 3._ proves at large, [4953]that love is witchcraft, "it
gets in at our eyes, pores, nostrils, engenders the same qualities and
affections in us, as were in the party whence it came." The manner of the
fascination, as Ficinus _10. cap. com. in Plat._ declares it, is thus:
"Mortal men are then especially bewitched, when as by often gazing one on
the other, they direct sight to sight, join eye to eye, and so drink and
suck in love between them; for the beginning of this disease is the eye.
And therefore he that hath a clear eye, though he be otherwise deformed, by
often looking upon him, will make one mad, and tie him fast to him by the
eye." Leonard. Varius, _lib. 1. cap. 2. de fascinat._ telleth us, that by
this interview, [4954]"the purer spirits are infected," the one eye
pierceth through the other with his rays, which he sends forth, and many
men have those excellent piercing eyes, that, which Suetonius relates of
Augustus, their brightness is such, they compel their spectators to look
off, and can no more endure them than the sunbeams. [4955]Barradius, _lib.
6. cap. 10. de Harmonia Evangel._ reports as much of our Saviour Christ,
and [4956]Peter Morales of the Virgin Mary, whom Nicephorus describes
likewise to have been yellow-haired, of a wheat colour, but of a most
amiable and piercing eye. The rays, as some think, sent from the eyes,
carry certain spiritual vapours with them, and so infect the other party,
and that in a moment. I know, they that hold _visio fit intra mittendo_,
will make a doubt of this; but Ficinus proves it from blear-eyes, [4957]
"That by sight alone, make others blear-eyed; and it is more than manifest,
that the vapour of the corrupt blood doth get in together with the rays,
and so by the contagion the spectators' eyes are infected." Other arguments
there are of a basilisk, that kills afar off by sight, as that Ephesian did
of whom [4958]Philostratus speaks, of so pernicious an eye, he poisoned all
he looked steadily on: and that other argument, _menstruae faminae_, out of
Aristotle's Problems, _morbosae_ Capivaccius adds, and [4959]Septalius the
commentator, that contaminate a looking-glass with beholding it. [4960] "So
the beams that come from the agent's heart, by the eyes, infect the spirits
about the patients, inwardly wound, and thence the spirits infect the
blood." To this effect she complained in [4961]Apuleius, "Thou art the
cause of my grief, thy eyes piercing through mine eyes to mine inner parts,
have set my bowels on fire, and therefore pity me that am now ready to die
for thy sake." Ficinus illustrates this with a familiar example of that
Marrhusian Phaedrus and Theban Lycias, [4962]"Lycias he stares on Phaedrus'
face, and Phaedrus fastens the balls of his eyes upon Lycias, and with
those sparkling rays sends out his spirits. The beams of Phaedrus' eyes are
easily mingled with the beams of Lycias, and spirits are joined to spirits.
This vapour begot in Phaedrus' heart, enters into Lycias' bowels; and that
which is a greater wonder, Phaedrus' blood is in Lycias' heart, and thence
come those ordinary love-speeches, my sweetheart Phaedrus, and mine own
self, my dear bowels. And Phaedrus again to Lycias, O my light, my joy, my
soul, my life. Phaedrus follows Lycias, because his heart would have his
spirits, and Lycias follows Phaedrus, because he loves the seat of his
spirits; both follow; but Lycias the earnester of the two: the river hath
more need of the fountain, than the fountain of the river; as iron is drawn
to that which is touched with a loadstone, but draws not it again; so
Lycias draws Phaedrus." But how comes it to pass then, that the blind man
loves, that never saw? We read in the Lives of the Fathers, a story of a
child that was brought up in the wilderness, from his infancy, by an old
hermit: now come to man's estate, he saw by chance two comely women
wandering in the woods: he asked the old man what creatures they were, he
told him fairies; after a while talking _obiter_, the hermit demanded of
him, which was the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life? He
readily replied, the two [4963]fairies he spied in the wilderness. So that,
without doubt, there is some secret loadstone in a beautiful woman, a
magnetic power, a natural inbred affection, which moves our concupiscence,
and as he sings,
"Methinks I have a mistress yet to come,
And still I seek, I love, I know not whom."
'Tis true indeed of natural and chaste love, but not of this heroical
passion, or rather brutish burning lust of which we treat; we speak of
wandering, wanton, adulterous eyes, which, as [4964]he saith, "lie still in
wait as so many soldiers, and when they spy an innocent spectator fixed on
them, shoot him through, and presently bewitch him: especially when they
shall gaze and gloat, as wanton lovers do one upon another, and with a
pleasant eye-conflict participate each other's souls." Hence you may
perceive how easily and how quickly we may be taken in love; since at the
twinkling of an eye, Phaedrus' spirits may so perniciously infect Lycias'
blood. [4965]"Neither is it any wonder, if we but consider how many other
diseases closely, and as suddenly are caught by infection, plague, itch,
scabs, flux," &c. The spirits taken in, will not let him rest that hath
received them, but egg him on. [4966]_Idque petit corpus mens unde est
saucia amore_; and we may manifestly perceive a strange eduction of
spirits, by such as bleed at nose after they be dead, at the presence of
the murderer; but read more of this in Lemnius, _lib. 2. de occult. nat.
mir. cap. 7._ Valleriola _lib. 2. observ. cap. 7._ Valesius _controv._
Ficinus, Cardan, Libavius _de cruentis cadaveribus_, &c.
SUBSECT. III.--_Artificial allurements of Love, Causes and Provocations to
Lust; Gestures, Clothes, Dower, &c._
Natural beauty is a stronger loadstone of itself, as you have heard, a
great temptation, and pierceth to the very heart; [4967]_forma verecundae,
nocuit mihi visa puellae_; but much more when those artificial enticements
and provocations of gestures, clothes, jewels, pigments, exornations, shall
be annexed unto it; those other circumstances, opportunity of time and
place shall concur, which of themselves alone were all sufficient, each one
in particular to produce this effect. It is a question much controverted by
some wise men, _forma debeat plus arti an naturae_? Whether natural or
artificial objects be more powerful? but not decided: for my part I am of
opinion, that though beauty itself be a great motive, and give an excellent
lustre _in sordibus_, in beggary, as a jewel on a dunghill will shine and
cast his rays, it cannot be suppressed, which Heliodorus feigns of
Chariclia, though she were in beggar's weeds: yet as it is used, artificial
is of more force, and much to be preferred.
[4968] "Sic dentata sibi videtur Aegle,
Emptis ossibus Indicoque cornu;
Sic quae nigrior est cadente moro,
Cerussata sibi placet Lychoris."
"So toothless Aegle seems a pretty one,
Set out with new-bought teeth of Indy bone:
So foul Lychoris blacker than berry
Herself admires, now finer than cherry."
John Lerius the Burgundian, _cap. 8. hist. navigat. in Brazil._ is
altogether on my side. For whereas (saith he) at our coming to Brazil, we
found both men and women naked as they were born, without any covering, so
much as of their privities, and could not be persuaded, by our Frenchmen
that lived a year with them, to wear any, [4969]"Many will think that our
so long commerce with naked women, must needs be a great provocation to
lust;" but he concludes otherwise, that their nakedness did much less
entice them to lasciviousness, than our women's clothes. "And I dare boldly
affirm" (saith he) "that those glittering attires, counterfeit colours,
headgears, curled hairs, plaited coats, cloaks, gowns, costly stomachers,
guarded and loose garments, and all those other accoutrements, wherewith
our countrywomen counterfeit a beauty, and so curiously set out themselves,
cause more inconvenience in this kind, than that barbarian homeliness,
although they be no whit inferior unto them in beauty. I could evince the
truth of this by many other arguments, but I appeal" (saith he) "to my
companions at that present, which were all of the same mind." His
countryman, Montague, in his essays, is of the same opinion, and so are
many others; out of whose assertions thus much in brief we may conclude,
that beauty is more beholden to art than nature, and stronger provocations
proceed from outward ornaments, than such as nature hath provided. It is
true that those fair sparkling eyes, white neck, coral lips, turgent paps,
rose-coloured cheeks, &c., of themselves are potent enticers; but when a
comely, artificial, well-composed look, pleasing gesture, an affected
carriage shall be added, it must needs be far more forcible than it was,
when those curious needleworks, variety of colours, purest dyes, jewels,
spangles, pendants, lawn, lace, tiffanies, fair and fine linen,
embroideries, calamistrations, ointments, etc. shall be added, they will
make the veriest dowdy otherwise, a goddess, when nature shall be furthered
by art. For it is not the eye of itself that enticeth to lust, but an
"adulterous eye," as Peter terms it, 2. ii. 14. a wanton, a rolling,
lascivious eye: a wandering eye, which Isaiah taxeth, iii. 16. Christ
himself, and the Virgin Mary, had most beautiful eyes, as amiable eyes as
any persons, saith [4970]Baradius, that ever lived, but withal so modest,
so chaste, that whosoever looked on them was freed from that passion of
burning lust, if we may believe [4971]Gerson and [4972]Bonaventure: there
was no such antidote against it, as the Virgin Mary's face; 'tis not the
eye, but carriage of it, as they use it, that causeth such effects. When
Pallas, Juno, Venus, were to win Paris' favour for the golden apple, as it
is elegantly described in that pleasant interlude of [4973]Apuleius, Juno
came with majesty upon the stage, Minerva gravity, but Venus _dulce
subridens, constitit amaene; et gratissimae, Graticae deam propitiantes_,
&c. came in smiling with her gracious graces and exquisite music, as if she
had danced, _et nonnunquam saltare solis oculis_, and which was the main
matter of all, she danced with her rolling eyes: they were the brokers and
harbingers of her suite. So she makes her brags in a modern poet,
[4974] "Soon could I make my brow to tyrannise,
And force the world do homage to mine eyes."
The eye is a secret orator, the first bawd, _Amoris porta_, and with
private looks, winking, glances and smiles, as so many dialogues they make
up the match many times, and understand one another's meanings, before they
come to speak a word. [4975]Euryalus and Lucretia were so mutually
enamoured by the eye, and prepared to give each other entertainment, before
ever they had conference: he asked her good will with his eyes; she did
_suffragari_, and gave consent with a pleasant look. That [4976]Thracian
Rodophe was so excellent at this dumb rhetoric, "that if she had but looked
upon any one almost" (saith Calisiris) "she would have bewitched him, and
he could not possibly escape it." For as [4977]Salvianus observes, "the
eyes are the windows of our souls, by which as so many channels, all
dishonest concupiscence gets into our hearts." They reveal our thoughts,
and as they say, _frons animi index_, but the eye of the countenance,
[4978]_Quid procacibus intuere ocellis_? &c. I may say the same of smiling,
gait, nakedness of parts, plausible gestures, &c. To laugh is the proper
passion of a man, an ordinary thing to smile; but those counterfeit,
composed, affected, artificial and reciprocal, those counter-smiles are the
dumb shows and prognostics of greater matters, which they most part use, to
inveigle and deceive; though many fond lovers again are so frequently
mistaken, and led into a fool's paradise. For if they see but a fair maid
laugh, or show a pleasant countenance, use some gracious words or gestures,
they apply it all to themselves, as done in their favour; sure she loves
them, she is willing, coming, &c.
"Stultus quando videt quod pulchra puellula ridet,
Tum fatuus credit se quod amare velit:"
"When a fool sees a fair maid for to smile,
He thinks she loves him, 'tis but to beguile."
They make an art of it, as the poet telleth us,
[4979] "Quis credat? discunt etiam ridere puellae,
Quaeritur atque illis hac quoque parte decor."
"Who can believe? to laugh maids make an art,
And seek a pleasant grace to that same part."
And 'tis as great an enticement as any of the rest,
[4980] ------"subrisit molle puella,
Cor tibi rite salit."
"She makes thine heart leap with [4981]a pleasing gentle smile of hers."
[4982] "Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem,"
"I love Lalage as much for smiling, as for discoursing," _delectata illa
risit tam blandum_, as he said in Petronius of his mistress, being well
pleased, she gave so sweet a smile. It won Ismenias, as he [4983]
confesseth, _Ismene subrisit amatorium_, Ismene smiled so lovingly the
second time I saw her, that I could not choose but admire her: and Galla's
sweet smile quite overcame [4984]Faustus the shepherd, _Me aspiciens moils
blande subrisit ocellis_. All other gestures of the body will enforce as
much. Daphnis in [4985]Lucian was a poor tattered wench when I knew her
first, said Corbile, _pannosa et Zacera_, but now she is a stately piece
indeed, hath her maids to attend her, brave attires, money in her purse,
&c., and will you know how this came to pass? "by setting out herself after
the best fashion, by her pleasant carriage, affability, sweet smiling upon
all," &c. Many women dote upon a man for his compliment only, and good
behaviour, they are won in an instant; too credulous to believe that every
light wanton suitor, who sees or makes love to them, is instantly
enamoured, he certainly dotes on, admires them, will surely marry, when as
he means nothing less, 'tis his ordinary carriage in all such companies. So
both delude each other by such outward shows; and amongst the rest, an
upright, a comely grace, courtesies, gentle salutations, cringes, a mincing
gait, a decent and an affected pace, are most powerful enticers, and which
the prophet Isaiah, a courtier himself, and a great observer, objected to
the daughters of Zion, iii. 16. "they minced as they went, and made a
tinkling with their feet." To say the truth, what can they not effect by
such means?
"Whilst nature decks them in their best attires
Of youth and beauty which the world admires."
[4986]_Urit--voce, manu, gressu, pectore, fronte, oculis_. When art shall
be annexed to beauty, when wiles and guiles shall concur; for to speak as
it is, love is a kind of legerdemain; mere juggling, a fascination. When
they show their fair hand, fine foot and leg withal, _magnum sui desiderium
nobis relinquunt_, saith [4987]Balthazar Castilio, _lib. 1._ they set us a
longing, "and so when they pull up their petticoats, and outward garments,"
as usually they do to show their fine stockings, and those of purest silken
dye, gold fringes, laces, embroiderings, (it shall go hard but when they go
to church, or to any other place, all shall be seen) 'tis but a springe to
catch woodcocks; and as [4988]Chrysostom telleth them downright, "though
they say nothing with their mouths, they speak in their gait, they speak
with their eyes, they speak in the carriage of their bodies." And what
shall we say otherwise of that baring of their necks, shoulders, naked
breasts, arms and wrists, to what end are they but only to tempt men to
lust!
[4989] "Nam quid lacteolus sinus, et ipsas
Prae te fers sine linteo papillas?
Hoc est dicere, posce, posce, trado;
Hoc est ad Venerem vocare amantes."
There needs no more, as [4990]Fredericus Matenesius well observes, but a
crier to go before them so dressed, to bid us look out, a trumpet to sound,
or for defect a sow-gelder to blow,
[4991] "Look out, look out and see
What object this may be
That doth perstringe mine eye;
A gallant lady goes
In rich and gaudy clothes,
But whither away God knows,
------look out, &c., _et quae sequuntur_,"
or to what end and purpose? But to leave all these fantastical raptures,
I'll prosecute my intended theme. Nakedness, as I have said, is an odious
thing of itself, _remedium amoris_; yet it may be so used, in part, and at
set times, that there can be no such enticement as it is;
[4992] "Nec mihi cincta Diana placet, nec nuda Cythere,
Illa voluptatis nil habet, haec nimium."
David so espied Bathsheba, the elders Susanna: [4993]Apelles was enamoured
with Campaspe, when he was to paint her naked. Tiberius _in Suet. cap. 42._
supped with Sestius Gallus an old lecher, _libidinoso sene, ea lege ut
nudae puellae administrarent_; some say as much of Nero, and Pontus Huter
of Carolus Pugnax. Amongst the Babylonians, it was the custom of some
lascivious queans to dance frisking in that fashion, saith Curtius _lib.
5._ and Sardus _de mor. gent. lib. 1._ writes of others to that effect. The
[4994]Tuscans at some set banquets had naked women to attend upon them,
which Leonicus _de Varia hist. lib. 3. cap. 96._ confirms of such other
bawdy nations. Nero would have filthy pictures still hanging in his
chamber, which is too commonly used in our times, and Heliogabalus, _etiam
coram agentes, ut ad venerem incitarent_: So things may be abused. A
servant maid in Aristaenetus spied her master and mistress through the
key-hole [4995]merrily disposed; upon the sight she fell in love with her
master. [4996]Antoninus Caracalla observed his mother-in-law with her
breasts amorously laid open, he was so much moved, that he said, _Ah si
liceret_, O that I might; which she by chance overhearing, replied as
impudently, [4997]_Quicquid libet licet_, thou mayst do what thou wilt: and
upon that temptation he married her: this object was not in cause, not the
thing itself, but that unseemly, indecent carriage of it.
When you have all done, _veniunt a veste sagittae_ the greatest
provocations of lust are from our apparel; God makes, they say, man shapes,
and there is no motive like unto it;
[4998] "Which doth even beauty beautify,
And most bewitch a wretched eye,"
a filthy knave, a deformed quean, a crooked carcass, a mawkin, a witch, a
rotten post, a hedgestake may be so set out and tricked up, that it shall
make as fair a show, as much enamour as the rest: many a silly fellow is so
taken. _Primum luxuriae, aucupium_, one calls it, the first snare of lust;
[4999]_Bossus aucupium animarum, lethalem arundinem_, a fatal reed, the
greatest bawd, _forte lenocinium, sanguineis lachrymis deplorandum_, saith
[5000]Matenesius, and with tears of blood to be deplored. Not that
comeliness of clothes is therefore to be condemned, and those usual
ornaments: there is a decency and decorum in this as well as in other
things, fit to be used, becoming several persons, and befitting their
estates; he is only fantastical that is not in fashion, and like an old
image in arras hangings, when a manner of attire is generally received; but
when they are so new-fangled, so unstaid, so prodigious in their attires,
beyond their means and fortunes, unbefitting their age, place, quality,
condition, what should we otherwise think of them? Why do they adorn
themselves with so many colours of herbs, fictitious flowers, curious
needleworks, quaint devices, sweet-smelling odours, with those inestimable
riches of precious stones, pearls, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, &c.? Why do
they crown themselves with gold and silver, use coronets and tires of
several fashions, deck themselves with pendants, bracelets, earrings,
chains, girdles, rings, pins, spangles, embroideries, shadows, rebatoes,
versicolour ribands? why do they make such glorious shows with their
scarves, feathers, fans, masks, furs, laces, tiffanies, ruffs, falls,
calls, cuffs, damasks, velvets, tinsels, cloth of gold, silver, tissue?
with colours of heavens, stars, planets: the strength of metals, stones,
odours, flowers, birds, beasts, fishes, and whatsoever Africa, Asia,
America, sea, land, art, and industry of man can afford? Why do they use
and covet such novelty of inventions; such new-fangled tires, and spend
such inestimable sums on them? "To what end are those crisped, false hairs,
painted faces," as [5001]the satirist observes, "such a composed gait, not
a step awry?" Why are they like so many Sybarites, or Nero's Poppaea,
Ahasuerus' concubines, so costly, so long a dressing, as Caesar was
marshalling his army, or a hawk in pruning? [5002]_Dum moliuntur, dum
comuntur annus est_: a [5003]gardener takes not so much delight and pains
in his garden, a horseman to dress his horse, scour his armour, a mariner
about his ship, a merchant his shop and shop-book, as they do about their
faces, and all those other parts: such setting up with corks, straightening
with whalebones; why is it, but as a day-net catcheth larks, to make young
men stoop unto them? Philocharus, a gallant in Aristenaetus, advised his
friend Poliaenus to take heed of such enticements, [5004]"for it was the
sweet sound and motion of his mistress's spangles and bracelets, the smell
of her ointments, that captivated him first," _Illa fuit mentis prima ruina
meae_. _Quid sibi vult pixidum turba_, saith [5005]Lucian, "to what use are
pins, pots, glasses, ointments, irons, combs, bodkins, setting-sticks? why
bestow they all their patrimonies and husbands' yearly revenues on such
fooleries?" [5006]_bina patrimonia singulis auribus_; "why use they
dragons, wasps, snakes, for chains, enamelled jewels on their necks, ears?"
_dignum potius foret ferro manus istas religari, atque utinam monilia vere
dracones essent_; they had more need some of them be tied in bedlam with
iron chains, have a whip for a fan, and hair-cloths next to their skins,
and instead of wrought smocks, have their cheeks stigmatised with a hot
iron: I say, some of our Jezebels, instead of painting, if they were well
served. But why is all this labour, all this cost, preparation, riding,
running, far-fetched, and dear bought stuff? [5007]"Because forsooth they
would be fair and fine, and where nature, is defective, supply it by art."
[5008]_Sanguine quae vero non rubet, arte rubet_, (Ovid); and to that
purpose they anoint and paint their faces, to make Helen of
Hecuba--_parvamque exortamque puellam--Europen._[5009]To this intent they
crush in their feet and bodies, hurt and crucify themselves, sometimes in
lax-clothes, a hundred yards I think in a gown, a sleeve; and sometimes
again so close, _ut nudos exprimant artus._ [5010]Now long tails and
trains, and then short, up, down, high, low, thick, thin, &c.; now little
or no bands, then as big as cart wheels; now loose bodies, then great
farthingales and close girt, &c. Why is all this, but with the whore in the
Proverbs, to intoxicate some or other? _oculorum decipulam_, [5011]one
therefore calls it, _et indicem libidinis_, the trap of lust, and sure
token, as an ivy-bush is to a tavern.
"Quod pulchros Glycere sumas de pixide vultus,
Quod tibi compositae nec sine lege comae:
Quod niteat digitis adamas, Beryllus in aure,
Non sum divinus, sed scio quid cupias."
"O Glycere, in that you paint so much,
Your hair is so bedeckt in order such.
With rings on fingers, bracelets in your ear,
Although no prophet, tell I can, I fear."
To be admired, to be gazed on, to circumvent some novice; as many times
they do, that instead of a lady he loves a cap and a feather instead of a
maid that should have _verum colorem, corpus solidum et succi plenum_ (as
Chaerea describes his mistress in the [5012]poet), a painted face, a
ruff-band, fair and fine linen, a coronet, a flower, ([5013]_Naturaeque
putat quod fuit artificis_,) a wrought waistcoat he dotes on, or a pied
petticoat, a pure dye instead of a proper woman. For generally, as with
rich-furred conies, their cases are far better than their bodies, and like
the bark of a cinnamon, tree, which is dearer than the whole bulk, their
outward accoutrements are far more precious than their inward endowments.
'Tis too commonly so.
[5014] "Auferimur cultu, et gemmis, auroque teguntur
Omnia; pars minima est ipsa puella sui."
"With gold and jewels all is covered,
And with a strange tire we are won,
(Whilst she's the least part of herself)
And with such baubles quite undone."
Why do they keep in so long together, a whole winter sometimes, and will
not be seen but by torch or candlelight, and come abroad with all the
preparation may be, when they have no business, but only to show
themselves? _Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae._
[5015] "For what is beauty if it be not seen,
Or what is't to be seen if not admir'd,
And though admir'd, unless in love desir'd?"
why do they go with such counterfeit gait, which [5016]Philo Judeus
reprehends them for, and use (I say it again) such gestures, apish,
ridiculous, indecent attires, sybaritical tricks, _fucos genis, purpurissam
venis, cerussam fronti, leges occulis_, &c. use those sweet perfumes,
powders and ointments in public; flock to hear sermons so frequent, is it
for devotion? or rather, as [5017]Basil tells them, to meet their
sweethearts, and see fashions; for, as he saith, commonly they come so
provided to that place, with such curious compliments, with such gestures
and tires, as if they should go to a dancing-school, a stage-play, or
bawdy-house, fitter than a church.
"When such a she-priest comes her mass to say,
Twenty to one they all forget to pray."
"They make those holy temples, consecrated to godly martyrs and religious
uses, the shops of impudence, dens of whores and thieves, and little better
than brothel houses." When we shall see these things daily done, their
husbands bankrupts, if not cornutos, their wives light housewives,
daughters dishonest; and hear of such dissolute acts, as daily we do, how
should we think otherwise? what is their end, but to deceive and inveigle
young men? As tow takes fire, such enticing objects produce their effect,
how can it be altered? When Venus stood before Anchises (as [5018]Homer
feigns in one of his hymns) in her costly robes, he was instantly taken,
"Cum ante ipsum staret Jovis filia, videns eam
Anchises, admirabatur formam, et stupendas vestes;
Erat enim induta peplo, igneis radiis spiendidiore;
Habebat quoque torques fulgidos, flexiles haelices,
Tenerum collum ambiebant monilia pulchra,
Aurea, variegata."------
"When Venus stood before Anchises first,
He was amaz'd to see her in her tires;
For she had on a hood as red as fire,
And glittering chains, and ivy-twisted spires,
About her tender neck were costly brooches,
And necklaces of gold, enamell'd ouches."
So when Medea came in presence of Jason first, attended by her nymphs and
ladies, as she is described by [5019]Apollonius,
"Cunctas vero ignis instar sequebatur splendor,
Tantum ab aureis fimbriis resplendebat jubar,
Accenditque in oculis dulce desiderium."
"A lustre followed them like flaming fire,
And from their golden borders came such beams,
Which in his eyes provok'd a sweet desire."
Such a relation we have in [5020]Plutarch, when the queens came and offered
themselves to Antony, [5021]"with diverse presents, and enticing ornaments,
Asiatic allurements, with such wonderful joy and festivity, they did so
inveigle the Romans, that no man could contain himself, all was turned to
delight and pleasure. The women transformed themselves to Bacchus shapes,
the men-children to Satyrs and Pans; but Antony himself was quite besotted
with Cleopatra's sweet speeches, philters, beauty, pleasing tires: for when
she sailed along the river Cydnus, with such incredible pomp in a gilded
ship, herself dressed like Venus, her maids like the Graces, her pages like
so many Cupids, Antony was amazed, and rapt beyond himself." Heliodorus,
_lib. 1._ brings in Dameneta, stepmother to Cnemon, "whom she [5022]saw in
his scarves, rings, robes, and coronet, quite mad for the love of him." It
was Judith's pantofles that ravished the eyes of Holofernes. And
[5023]Cardan is not ashamed to confess, that seeing his wife the first time
all in white, he did admire and instantly love her. If these outward
ornaments were not of such force, why doth [5024]Naomi give Ruth counsel
how to please Boaz? and [5025]Judith, seeking to captivate Holofernes,
washed and anointed herself with sweet ointments, dressed her hair, and put
on costly attires. The riot in this kind hath been excessive in times past;
no man almost came abroad, but curled and anointed,
[5026] "Et matutino suadans Crispinus amomo.
Quantum vix redolent duo funera."
"one spent as much as two funerals at once, and with perfumed hairs,"
[5027]_et rosa canos odorati capillos Assyriaque nardo_. What strange thing
doth [5028]Sueton. relate in this matter of Caligula's riot? And Pliny,
_lib. 12. & 13._ Read more in Dioscorides, Ulmus, Arnoldus, Randoletius _de
fuco et decoratione_; for it is now an art, as it was of old, (so
[5029]Seneca records) _officinae, sunt adores coquentium_. Women are bad
and men worse, no difference at all between their and our times;
[5030]"good manners" (as Seneca complains) "are extinct with wantonness, in
tricking up themselves men go beyond women, they wear harlots' colours, and
do not walk, but jet and dance," _hic mulier, haec vir_, more like players,
butterflies, baboons, apes, antics, than men. So ridiculous, moreover, we
are in our attires, and for cost so excessive, that as Hierome said of old,
_Uno filio villarum insunt pretia, uno lino decies sestertium inseritur_;
'tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oaks and a hundred oxen into a
suit of apparel, to wear a whole manor on his back. What with shoe-ties,
hangers, points, caps and feathers, scarves, bands, curls, &c., in a short
space their whole patrimonies are consumed. Heliogabalus is taxed by
Lampridius, and admired in his age for wearing jewels in his shoes, a
common thing in our times, not for emperors and princes, but almost for
serving men and tailors; all the flowers, stars, constellations, gold and
precious stones do condescend to set out their shoes. To repress the luxury
of those Roman matrons, there was [5031]Lex Valeria and Oppia, and a Cato
to contradict; but no laws will serve to repress the pride and insolency of
our days, the prodigious riot in this kind. Lucullus's wardrobe is put down
by our ordinary citizens; and a cobbler's wife in Venice, a courtesan in
Florence, is no whit inferior to a queen, if our geographers say true: and
why is all this? "Why do they glory in their jewels" (as [5032]he saith)
"or exult and triumph in the beauty of clothes? why is all this cost? to
incite men the sooner to burning lust." They pretend decency and ornament;
but let them take heed, that while they set out their bodies they do not
damn their souls; 'tis [5033]Bernard's counsel: "shine in jewels, stink in
conditions; have purple robes, and a torn conscience." Let them take heed
of Isaiah's prophecy, that their slippers and attires be not taken from
them, sweet balls, bracelets, earrings, veils, wimples, crisping-pins,
glasses, fine linen, hoods, lawns, and sweet savours, they become not bald,
burned, and stink upon a sudden. And let maids beware, as [5034]Cyprian
adviseth, "that while they wander too loosely abroad, they lose not their
virginities:" and like Egyptian temples, seem fair without, but prove
rotten carcases within. How much better were it for them to follow that
good counsel of Tertullian? [5035]"To have their eyes painted with
chastity, the Word of God inserted into their ears, Christ's yoke tied to
the hair, to subject themselves to their husbands. If they would do so,
they should be comely enough, clothe themselves with the silk of sanctity,
damask of devotion, purple of piety and chastity, and so painted, they
shall have God himself to be a suitor: let whores and queans prank up
themselves, [5036]let them paint their faces with minion and ceruse, they
are but fuels of lust, and signs of a corrupt soul: if ye be good, honest,
virtuous, and religious matrons, let sobriety, modesty and chastity be your
honour, and God himself your love and desire." _Mulier recte olet, ubi
nihil olet_, then a woman smells best, when she hath no perfume at all; no
crown, chain, or jewel (Guivarra adds) is such an ornament to a virgin, or
virtuous woman, _quam virgini pudor_, as chastity is: more credit in a wise
man's eye and judgment they get by their plainness, and seem fairer than
they that are set out with baubles, as a butcher's meat is with pricks,
puffed up, and adorned like so many jays with variety of colours. It is
reported of Cornelia, that virtuous Roman lady, great Scipio's daughter,
Titus Sempronius' wife, and the mother of the Gracchi, that being by chance
in company with a companion, a strange gentlewoman (some light housewife
belike, that was dressed like a May lady, and, as most of our gentlewomen
are, "was [5037]more solicitous of her head-tire than of her health, that
spent her time between a comb and a glass, and had rather be fair than
honest" (as Cato said), "and have the commonwealth turned topsy-turvy than
her tires marred;" and she did nought but brag of her fine robes and
jewels, and provoked the Roman matron to show hers: Cornelia kept her in
talk till her children came from school, and these, said she, are my
jewels, and so deluded and put off a proud, vain, fantastical, housewife.
How much better were it for our matrons to do as she did, to go civilly and
decently, [5038]_Honestae mulieris instar quae utitur auro pro eo quod est,
ad ea tantum quibus opus est_, to use gold as it is gold, and for that use
it serves, and when they need it, than to consume it in riot, beggar their
husbands, prostitute themselves, inveigle others, and peradventure damn
their own souls? How much more would it be for their honour and credit?
Thus doing, as Hierom said of Blesilla, [5039]"Furius did not so triumph
over the Gauls, Papyrius of the Samnites, Scipio of Numantia, as she did by
her temperance;" _pulla semper veste_, &c., they should insult and domineer
over lust, folly, vainglory, all such inordinate, furious and unruly
passions.
But I am over tedious, I confess, and whilst I stand gaping after fine
clothes, there is another great allurement, (in the world's eye at least)
which had like to have stolen out of sight, and that is money, _veniunt a
dote sagittae_, money makes the match; [5040][Greek: Monon arguron
blepousin]: 'tis like sauce to their meat, _cum carne condimentum_, a good
dowry with a wife. Many men if they do hear but of a great portion, a rich
heir, are more mad than if they had all the beauteous ornaments, and those
good parts art and nature can afford, they [5041]care not for honesty,
bringing up, birth, beauty, person, but for money.
[5042] "Canes et equos (o Cyrne) quaerimus
Nobiles, et a bona progenie;
Malam vero uxorem, malique patris filiam
Ducere non curat vir bonus,
Modo ei magnam dotem afferat,"
"Our dogs and horses still from the best breed
We carefully seek, and well may they speed:
But for our wives, so they prove wealthy,
Fair or foul, we care not what they be."
If she be rich, then she is fair, fine, absolute and perfect, then they
burn like fire, they love her dearly, like pig and pie, and are ready to
hang themselves if they may not have her. Nothing so familiar in these
days, as for a young man to marry an old wife, as they say, for a piece of
gold; _asinum auro onustum_; and though she be an old crone, and have never
a tooth in her head, neither good conditions, nor a good face, a natural
fool, but only rich, she shall have twenty young gallants to be suitors in
an instant. As she said in Suetonius, _non me, sed mea ambiunt_, 'tis not
for her sake, but for her lands or money; and an excellent match it were
(as he added) if she were away. So on the other side, many a young lovely
maid will cast away herself upon an old, doting, decrepit dizzard,
[5043] "Bis puer effoeto quamvis balbutiat ore,
Prima legit rarae tam culta roseta puellae,"
that is rheumatic and gouty, hath some twenty diseases, perhaps but one
eye, one leg, never a nose, no hair on his head, wit in his brains, nor
honesty, if he have land or [5044]money, she will have him before all other
suitors, [5045]_Dummodo sit dives barbarus ille placet_. "If he be rich, he
is the man," a fine man, and a proper man, she will go to Jacaktres or
Tidore with him; _Galesimus de monte aureo_. Sir Giles Goosecap, Sir
Amorous La-Fool, shall have her. And as Philemasium in [5046] Aristaenetus
told Emmusus, _absque argento omnia vana_, hang him that hath no money,
"'tis to no purpose to talk of marriage without means," [5047] trouble me
not with such motions; let others do as they will, "I'll be sure to have
one shall maintain me fine and brave." Most are of her mind, [5048] _De
moribus ultima fiet questio_, for his conditions, she shall inquire after
them another time, or when all is done, the match made, and everybody gone
home. [5049]Lucian's Lycia was a proper young maid, and had many fine
gentlemen to her suitors; Ethecles, a senator's son, Melissus, a merchant,
&c.; but she forsook them all for one Passius, a base, hirsute, bald-pated
knave; but why was it? "His father lately died and left him sole heir of
his goods and lands." This is not amongst your dust-worms alone, poor
snakes that will prostitute their souls for money, but with this bait you
may catch our most potent, puissant, and illustrious princes. That proud
upstart domineering Bishop of Ely, in the time of Richard the First,
viceroy in his absence, as [5050]Nubergensis relates it, to fortify
himself, and maintain his greatness, _propinquarum suarum connubiis,
plurimos sibi potentes et nobiles devincire curavit_, married his poor
kinswomen (which came forth of Normandy by droves) to the chiefest nobles
of the land, and they were glad to accept of such matches, fair or foul,
for themselves, their sons, nephews, &c. _Et quis tam praeclaram
aflinitatem sub spe magnae promotionis non optaret_? Who would not have
done as much for money and preferment? as mine author [5051]adds. Vortiger,
King of Britain, married Rowena the daughter of Hengist the Saxon prince,
his mortal enemy; but wherefore? she had Kent for her dowry. Iagello the
great Duke of Lithuania, 1386, was mightily enamoured on Hedenga, insomuch
that he turned Christian from a Pagan, and was baptised himself by the name
of Uladislaus, and all his subjects for her sake: but why was it? she was
daughter and heir of Poland, and his desire was to have both kingdoms
incorporated into one. Charles the Great was an earnest suitor to Irene the
Empress, but, saith [5052]Zonarus, _ob regnum_, to annex the empire of the
East to that of the West. Yet what is the event of all such matches, that
are so made for money, goods, by deceit, or for burning lust, _quos foeda
libido conjunxit_, what follows? they are almost mad at first, but 'tis a
mere flash; as chaff and straw soon fired, burn vehemently for a while, yet
out in a moment; so are all such matches made by those allurements of
burning lust; where there is no respect of honesty, parentage, virtue,
religion, education, and the like, they are extinguished in an instant, and
instead of love comes hate; for joy, repentance and desperation itself.
Franciscus Barbarus in his first book _de re uxoria, c. 5_, hath a story of
one Philip of Padua that fell in love with a common whore, and was now
ready to run mad for her; his father having no more sons let him enjoy her;
[5053]"but after a few days, the young man began to loath, could not so
much as endure the sight of her, and from one madness fell into another."
Such event commonly have all these lovers; and he that so marries, or for
such respects, let them look for no better success than Menelaus had with
Helen, Vulcan with Venus, Theseus with Phaedra, Minos with Pasiphae, and
Claudius with Messalina; shame, sorrow, misery, melancholy, discontent.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Importunity and Opportunity of Time, Place, Conference,
Discourse, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales, Objects, Kissing,
Familiarity, Tokens, Presents, Bribes, Promises, Protestations, Tears, &c._
All these allurements hitherto are afar off, and at a distance; I will come
nearer to those other degrees of love, which are conference, kissing,
dalliance, discourse, singing, dancing, amorous tales, objects, presents,
&c., which as so many sirens steal away the hearts of men and women. For,
as Tacitus observes, _l. 2_, [5054]"It is no sufficient trial of a maid's
affection by her eyes alone, but you must say something that shall be more
available, and use such other forcible engines; therefore take her by the
hand, wring her fingers hard, and sigh withal; if she accept this in good
part, and seem not to be much averse, then call her mistress, take her
about the neck and kiss her," &c. But this cannot be done except they first
get opportunity of living, or coming together, ingress, egress, and
regress; letters and commendations may do much, outward gestures and
actions: but when they come to live near one another, in the same street,
village, or together in a house, love is kindled on a sudden. Many a
serving-man by reason of this opportunity and importunity inveigles his
master's daughter, many a gallant loves a dowdy, many a gentleman runs upon
his wife's maids; many ladies dote upon their men, as the queen in Ariosto
did upon the dwarf, many matches are so made in haste, and they are
compelled as it were by [5055]necessity so to love, which had they been
free, come in company of others, seen that variety which many places
afford, or compared them to a third, would never have looked one upon
another. Or had not that opportunity of discourse and familiarity been
offered, they would have loathed and contemned those whom, for want of
better choice and other objects, they are fatally driven on, and by reason
of their hot blood, idle life, full diet, &c., are forced to dote upon them
that come next. And many times those which at the first sight cannot fancy
or affect each other, but are harsh and ready to disagree, offended with
each other's carriage, like Benedict and Beatrice in the [5056]comedy, and
in whom they find many faults, by this living together in a house,
conference, kissing, colling, and such like allurements, begin at last to
dote insensibly one upon another.
It was the greatest motive that Potiphar's wife had to dote upon Joseph,
and [5057]Clitiphon upon Leucippe his uncle's daughter, because the plague
being at Bizance, it was his fortune for a time to sojourn with her, to sit
next her at the table, as he tells the tale himself in Tatius, _lib. 2._
(which, though it be but a fiction, is grounded upon good observation, and
doth well express the passions of lovers), he had opportunity to take her
by the hand, and after a while to kiss, and handle her paps, &c., [5058]
which made him almost mad. Ismenias the orator makes the like confession in
Eustathius, _lib. 1_, when he came first to Sosthene's house, and sat at
table with Cratistes his friend, Ismene, Sosthene's daughter, waiting on
them "with her breasts open, arms half bare," [5059]_Nuda pedem, discincta
sinum, spoliata lacertos_; after the Greek fashion in those times,--[5060]
_nudos media plus parte lacertos_, as Daphne was when she fled from Phoebus
(which moved him much), was ever ready to give attendance on him, to fill
him drink, her eyes were never off him, _rogabundi oculi_, those speaking
eyes, courting eyes, enchanting eyes; but she was still smiling on him, and
when they were risen, that she had got a little opportunity, [5061]"she
came and drank to him, and withal trod upon his toes, and would come and
go, and when she could not speak for the company, she would wring his
hand," and blush when she met him: and by this means first she overcame him
(_bibens amorem hauriebam simul_), she would kiss the cup and drink to him,
and smile, "and drink where he drank on that side of the cup," by which
mutual compressions, kissings, wringing of hands, treading of feet, &c.
_Ipsam mihi videbar sorbillare virginem_, I sipped and sipped so long, till
at length I was drunk in love upon a sudden. Philocharinus, in [5062]
Aristaenetus, met a fair maid by chance, a mere stranger to him, he looked
back at her, she looked back at him again, and smiled withal.
[5063] "Ille dies lethi primus, primusque malorum
Causa fuit."------
It was the sole cause of his farther acquaintance, and love that undid him.
[5064]_O nullis tutum credere blanditiis_.
This opportunity of time and place, with their circumstances, are so
forcible motives, that it is impossible almost for two young folks equal in
years to live together, and not be in love, especially in great houses,
princes' courts, where they are idle _in summo gradu_, fare well, live at
ease, and cannot tell otherwise how to spend their time. [5065]_Illic
Hippolitum pone, Priapus erit_. Achilles was sent by his mother Thetis to
the island of Scyros in the Aegean sea (where Lycomedes then reigned) in
his nonage to be brought up; to avoid that hard destiny of the oracle (he
should be slain at the siege of Troy): and for that cause was nurtured in
Genesco, amongst the king's children in a woman's habit; but see the event:
he compressed Deidamia, the king's fair daughter, and had a fine son,
called Pyrrhus by her. Peter Abelard the philosopher, as he tells the tale
himself, being set by Fulbertus her uncle to teach Heloise his lovely
niece, and to that purpose sojourned in his house, and had committed _agnam
tenellam famelico lupo_, I use his own words, he soon got her good will,
_plura erant oscula quam sententiae_ and he read more of love than any
other lecture; such pretty feats can opportunity plea; _primum domo
conjuncti, inde animis_, &c. But when as I say, _nox, vinum, et
adolescentia_, youth, wine, and night, shall concur, _nox amoris et quietis
conscia_, 'tis a wonder they be not all plunged over head and ears in love;
for youth is _benigna in amorem, et prona materies_, a very combustible
matter, naphtha itself, the fuel of love's fire, and most apt to kindle it.
If there be seven servants in an ordinary house, you shall have three
couple in some good liking at least, and amongst idle persons how should it
be otherwise? "Living at [5066]Rome," saith Aretine's Lucretia, "in the
flower of my fortunes, rich, fair, young, and so well brought up, my
conversation, age, beauty, fortune, made all the world admire and love me."
Night alone, that one occasion, is enough to set all on fire, and they are
so cunning in great houses, that they make their best advantage of it: Many
a gentlewoman, that is guilty to herself of her imperfections, paintings,
impostures, will not willingly be seen by day, but as [5067]Castilio
noteth, in the night, _Diem ut glis odit, taedarum lucem super omnia
mavult_, she hateth the day like a dormouse, and above all things loves
torches and candlelight, and if she must come abroad in the day, she
covets, as [5068]in a mercer's shop, a very obfuscate and obscure sight.
And good reason she hath for it: _Nocte latent mendae_, and many an amorous
gull is fetched over by that means. Gomesius _lib. 3. de sale gen. c. 22._
gives instance in a Florentine gentleman, that was so deceived with a wife,
she was so radiantly set out with rings and jewels, lawns, scarves, laces,
gold, spangles, and gaudy devices, that the young man took her to be a
goddess (for he never saw her but by torchlight); but after the wedding
solemnities, when as he viewed her the next morning without her tires, and
in a clear day, she was so deformed, a lean, yellow, shrivelled, &c., such
a beastly creature in his eyes, that he could not endure to look upon her.
Such matches are frequently made in Italy, where they have no other
opportunity to woo but when they go to church, or, as [5069]in Turkey, see
them at a distance, they must interchange few or no words, till such time
they come to be married, and then as Sardus _lib. 1. cap. 3. de morb.
gent._ and [5070]Bohemus relate of those old Lacedaemonians, "the bride is
brought into the chamber, with her hair girt about her, the bridegroom
comes in and unties the knot, and must not see her at all by daylight, till
such time as he is made a father by her." In those hotter countries these
are ordinary practices at this day; but in our northern parts, amongst
Germans, Danes, French, and Britons, the continent of Scandia and the rest,
we assume more liberty in such cases; we allow them, as Bohemus saith, to
kiss coming and going, _et modo absit lascivia, in cauponem ducere_, to
talk merrily, sport, play, sing, and dance so that it be modestly done, go
to the alehouse and tavern together. And 'tis not amiss, though [5071]
Chrysostom, Cyprian, Hierome, and some other of the fathers speak bitterly
against it: but that is the abuse which is commonly seen at some drunken
matches, dissolute meetings, or great unruly feasts. [5072]"A young,
pickedevanted, trim-bearded fellow," saith Hierome, "will come with a
company of compliments, and hold you up by the arm as you go, and wringing
your fingers, will so be enticed, or entice: one drinks to you, another
embraceth, a third kisseth, and all this while the fiddler plays or sings a
lascivious song; a fourth singles you out to dance, [5073]one speaks by
beck and signs, and that which he dares not say, signifies by passions;
amongst so many and so great provocations of pleasure, lust conquers the
most hard and crabbed minds, and scarce can a man live honest amongst
feastings, and sports, or at such great meetings." For as he goes on,
[5074]"she walks along and with the ruffling of her clothes, makes men look
at her, her shoes creak, her paps tied up, her waist pulled in to make her
look small, she is straight girded, her hairs hang loose about her ears,
her upper garment sometimes falls, and sometimes tarries to show her naked
shoulders, and as if she would not be seen, she covers that in all haste,
which voluntarily she showed." And not at feasts, plays, pageants, and such
assemblies, [5075]but as Chrysostom objects, these tricks are put in
practice "at service time in churches, and at the communion itself." If
such dumb shows, signs, and more obscure significations of love can so
move, what shall they do that have full liberty to sing, dance, kiss, coll,
to use all manner of discourse and dalliance! What shall he do that is
beleaguered of all sides?
[5076] "Quem tot, tam roseae petunt puellae,
Quem cultae cupiunt nurus, amorque
Omnis undique et undecunque et usque,
Omnis ambit Amor, Venusque Hymenque."
"After whom so many rosy maids inquire,
Whom dainty dames and loving wights desire,
In every place, still, and at all times sue,
Whom gods and gentle goddesses do woo."
How shall he contain? The very tone of some of their voices, a pretty
pleasing speech, an affected tone they use, is able of itself to captivate
a young man; but when a good wit shall concur, art and eloquence,
fascinating speech, pleasant discourse, sweet gestures, the Sirens
themselves cannot so enchant. [5077]P. Jovius commends his Italian
countrywomen, to have an excellent faculty in this kind, above all other
nations, and amongst them the Florentine ladies: some prefer Roman and
Venetian courtesans, they have such pleasing tongues, and such [5078]
elegancy of speech, that they are able to overcome a saint, _Pro facie
multis vox sua lena fuit. Tanta gratia vocis famam conciliabat_, saith
Petronius [5079]in his fragment of pure impurities, I mean his _Satyricon,
tam dulcis sonus permulcebat aera, ut putares inter auras cantare Syrenum
concordiam_; she sang so sweetly that she charmed the air, and thou wouldst
have thought thou hadst heard a concert of Sirens. "O good God, when Lais
speaks, how sweet it is!" Philocolus exclaims in Aristenaetus, to hear a
fair young gentlewoman play upon the virginals, lute, viol, and sing to it,
which as Gellius observes, _lib. 1. cap. 11._ are _lascivientium
delicicae_, the chief delight of lovers, must needs be a great enticement.
Parthenis was so taken. [5080]_Mi vox ista avida haurit ab aure animam_: O
sister Harpedona (she laments) I am undone, [5081]"how sweetly he sings,
I'll speak a bold word, he is the properest man that ever I saw in my life:
O how sweetly he sings, I die for his sake, O that he would love me again!"
If thou didst but hear her sing, saith [5082]Lucian, "thou wouldst forget
father and mother, forsake all thy friends, and follow her." Helena is
highly commended by [5083]Theocritus the poet for her sweet voice and
music; none could play so well as she, and Daphnis in the same Edyllion,
"Quam tibi os dulce est, et vox amabilis o Daphni,
Jucundius est audire te canentem, quam mel lingere!"
"How sweet a face hath Daphne, how lovely a voice!
Honey itself is not so pleasant in my choice."
A sweet voice and music are powerful enticers. Those Samian singing
wenches, Aristonica, Onanthe and Agathocleia, _regiis diadematibus
insultarunt_, insulted over kings themselves, as [5084]Plutarch contends.
_Centum luminibus cinctum caput Argus habebat_, Argus had a hundred eyes,
all so charmed by one silly pipe, that he lost his head. Clitiphon
complains in [5085]Tatius of Leucippe's sweet tunes, "he heard her play by
chance upon the lute, and sing a pretty song to it in commendations of a
rose," out of old Anacreon belike;
"Rosa honor decusque florum,
Rosa flos odorque divum,
Hominum rosa est voluptas,
Decus illa Gratiarum,
Florente amoris hora,
Rosa suavium Diones," &c.
"Rose the fairest of all flowers.
Rose delight of higher powers,
Rose the joy of mortal men,
Rose the pleasure of fine women,
Rose the Graces' ornament,
Rose Dione's sweet content."
To this effect the lovely virgin with a melodious air upon her golden wired
harp or lute, I know not well whether, played and sang, and that
transported him beyond himself, "and that ravished his heart." It was
Jason's discourse as much as his beauty, or any other of his good parts,
which delighted Medea so much.
[5086] ------"Delectabatur enim
Animus simul forma dulcibusque verbis."
It was Cleopatra's sweet voice and pleasant speech which inveigled Antony,
above the rest of her enticements. _Verba ligant hominem, ut taurorum
cornua funes_, "as bulls' horns are bound with ropes, so are men's hearts
with pleasant words." "Her words burn as fire," Eccles. ix. 10. Roxalana
bewitched Suleiman the Magnificent, and Shore's wife by this engine
overcame Edward the Fourth, [5087]_Omnibus una omnes surripuit Veneres_.
The wife of Bath in Chaucer confesseth all this out of her experience.
_Some folk desire us for riches.
Some for shape, some for fairness,
Some for that she can sing or dance.
Some for gentleness, or for dalliance_.
[5088]Peter Aretine's Lucretia telleth as much and more of herself, "I
counterfeited honesty, as if I had been _virgo virginissima_, more than a
vestal virgin, I looked like a wife, I was so demure and chaste, I did add
such gestures, tunes, speeches, signs and motions upon all occasions, that
my spectators and auditors were stupefied, enchanted, fastened all to their
places, like so many stocks and stones." Many silly gentlewomen are fetched
over in like sort, by a company of gulls and swaggering companions, that
frequently belie noblemen's favours, rhyming Coribantiasmi, Thrasonean
Rhadomantes or Bombomachides, that have nothing in them but a few player's
ends and compliments, vain braggadocians, impudent intruders, that can
discourse at table of knights and lords' combats, like [5089]Lucian's
Leonitiscus, of other men's travels, brave adventures, and such common
trivial news, ride, dance, sing old ballad tunes, and wear their clothes in
fashion, with a good grace; a fine sweet gentleman, a proper man, who could
not love him! She will have him though all her friends say no, though she
beg with him. Some again are incensed by reading amorous toys, Amadis de
Gaul, Palmerin de Oliva, the Knight of the Sun, &c., or hearing such tales
of [5090]lovers, descriptions of their persons, lascivious discourses, such
as Astyanassa, Helen's waiting-woman, by the report of Suidas, writ of old,
_de variis concubitus modis_, and after her Philenis and Elephantine; or
those light tracts of [5091]Aristides Milesius (mentioned by Plutarch) and
found by the Persians in Crassus' army amongst the spoils, Aretine's
dialogues, with ditties, love songs, &c., must needs set them on fire, with
such like pictures, as those of Aretine, or wanton objects of what kind
soever; "no stronger engine than to hear or read of love toys, fables and
discourses" ([5092]one saith) "and many by this means are quite mad." At
Abdera in Thrace (Andromeda one of Euripides' tragedies being played) the
spectators were so much moved with the object, and those pathetical love
speeches of Perseus, amongst the rest, "O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men,"
&c. that every man almost a good while after spake pure iambics, and raved
still on Perseus' speech, "O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men." As carmen,
boys and apprentices, when a new song is published with us, go singing that
new tune still in the streets, they continually acted that tragical part of
Perseus, and in every man's mouth was "O Cupid," in every street, "O
Cupid," in every house almost, "O Cupid, Prince of Gods and men,"
pronouncing still like stage-players, "O Cupid;" they were so possessed all
with that rapture, and thought of that pathetical love speech, they could
not a long time after forget, or drive it out of their minds, but "O Cupid,
Prince of Gods and men," was ever in their mouths. This belike made
Aristotle, _Polit. lib. 7. cap. 18._ forbid young men to see comedies, or
to hear amorous tales.
[5093] "Haec igitur juvenes nequam facilesque puellae
Inspiciant"------
"let not young folks meddle at all with such matters." And this made the
Romans, as [5094]Vitruvius relates, put Venus' temple in the suburbs,
_extra murum, ne adolescentes venereis insuescant_, to avoid all occasions
and objects. For what will not such an object do? Ismenias, as he walked in
Sosthene's garden, being now in love, when he saw so many [5095]lascivious
pictures, Thetis' marriage, and I know not what, was almost beside himself.
And to say truth, with a lascivious object who is not moved, to see others
dally, kiss, dance? And much more when he shall come to be an actor
himself.
To kiss and be kissed, which, amongst other lascivious provocations, is as
a burden in a song, and a most forcible battery, as infectious, [5096]
Xenophon thinks, as the poison of a spider; a great allurement, a fire
itself, _prooemium aut anticoenium_, the prologue of burning lust (as
Apuleius adds), lust itself, [5097]_Venus quinta parte sui nectaris
imbuit_, a strong assault, that conquers captains, and those all commanding
forces, ([5098]_Domasque ferro sed domaris osculo_). [5099]Aretine's
Lucretia, when she would in kindness overcome a suitor of hers, and have
her desire of him, "took him about the neck, and kissed him again and
again," and to that, which she could not otherwise effect, she made him so
speedily and willingly condescend. And 'tis a continual
assault,--[5100]_hoc non deficit incipitque semper_, always fresh, and
ready to [5101]begin as at first, _basium nullo fine terminatur, sed semper
recens est_, and hath a fiery touch with it.
[5102] ------"Tenta modo tangere corpus,
Jam tua mellifluo membra calore fluent."
Especially when they shall be lasciviously given, as he feelingly said,
[5103]_et me praessulum deosculata Fotis, Catenatis lacertis_, [5104]
_Obtorto valgiter labello_.
[5105] "Valgiis suaviis,
Dum semiulco suavio
Meam puellam suavior,
Anima tunc aegra et saucia
Concurrit ad labia mihi."
The soul and all is moved; [5106]_Jam pluribus osculis labra crepitabant,
animarum quoque mixturam facientes, inter mutuos complexus animas
anhelantes_,
[5107] "Haesimus calentes,
Et transfudimus hinc et hinc labellis
Errantes animas, valete curae."
"They breathe out their souls and spirits together with their kisses,"
saith [5108]Balthazar Castilio, "change hearts and spirits, and mingle
affections as they do kisses, and it is rather a connection of the mind
than of the body." And although these kisses be delightsome and pleasant,
Ambrosial kisses, [5109]_Suaviolum dulci dulcius Ambrosia_, such as [5110]
Ganymede gave Jupiter, _Nectare suavius_, sweeter than [5111]nectar,
balsam, honey, [5112]_Oscula merum amorem stillantia_, love-dropping
kisses; for
"The gilliflower, the rose is not so sweet,
As sugared kisses be when lovers meet;"
Yet they leave an irksome impression, like that of aloes or gall,
[5113] "Ut mi ex Ambrosia, mutatum jam foret illud
Suaviolum tristi tristius helleboro."
"At first Ambrose itself was not sweeter,
At last black hellebore was not so bitter."
They are deceitful kisses,
[5114] "Quid me mollibus implicas lacertis?
Quid fallacibus osculis inescas?&c."
"Why dost within thine arms me lap,
And with false kisses me entrap."
They are destructive, and the more the worse: [5115]_Et quae me perdunt,
oscula mille dabat_, they are the bane of these miserable lovers. There be
honest kisses, I deny not, _osculum charitatis_, friendly kisses, modest
kisses, vestal-virgin kisses, officious and ceremonial kisses, &c. _Osculi
sensus, brachiorum amplexus_, kissing and embracing are proper gifts of
Nature to a man; but these are too lascivious kisses, [5116]_Implicuitque
suos circum meet colla lacertos_, &c. too continuate and too violent,
[5117]_Brachia non hederae, non vincunt oscula conchae_; they cling like
ivy, close as an oyster, bill as doves, meretricious kisses, biting of
lips, _cum additamento: Tam impresso ore_ (saith [5118]Lucian) _ut vix
labia detrahant, inter deosculandum mordicantes, tum et os aperientes
quoque et mammas attrectantes_, &c. such kisses as she gave to Gyton,
_innumera oscula dedit non repugnanti puero, cervicem invadens_,
innumerable kisses, &c. More than kisses, or too homely kisses: as those
that [5119]he spake of, _Accepturus ab ipsa venere 7, suavia_, &c. with
such other obscenities that vain lovers use, which are abominable and
pernicious. If, as Peter de Ledesmo _cas. cons._ holds, every kiss a man
gives his wife after marriage, be _mortale peccatum_, a mortal sin, or that
of [5120]Hierome, _Adulter est quisquis in uxorem suam ardentior est
amator_; or that of Thomas Secund. _quaest. 154. artic. 4._ _contactus et
osculum sit mortale peccatum_, or that of Durand. _Rational. lib. 1. cap.
10._ _abstinere debent conjuges a complexu, toto tempore quo solennitas
nuptiarum interdicitur_, what shall become of all such [5121]immodest
kisses and obscene actions, the forerunners of brutish lust, if not lust
itself! What shall become of them that often abuse their own wives? But
what have I to do with this?
That which I aim at, is to show you the progress of this burning lust; to
epitomise therefore all this which I have hitherto said, with a familiar
example out of that elegant Musaeus, observe but with me those amorous
proceedings of Leander and Hero: they began first to look one on another
with a lascivious look,
"Oblique intuens inde nutibus,--
Nutibus mutuis inducens in errorem mentem puellae.
Et illa e contra nutibus mutuis juvenis
Leandri quod amorem non renuit, &c. Inde
Adibat in tenebris tacite quidem stringens
Roseos puellae digitos, ex imo suspirabat
Vehementer------Inde
Virginis autem bene olens collum osculatus.
Tale verbum ait amoris ictus stimulo,
Preces audi et amoris miserere mei, &c.
Sic fatus recusantis persuasit mentem puellae."
"With becks and nods he first began
To try the wench's mind.
With becks and nods and smiles again
An answer he did find."
"And in the dark he took her by the hand,
And wrung it hard, and sighed grievously,
And kiss'd her too, and woo'd her as he might,
With pity me, sweetheart, or else I die,
And with such words and gestures as there past,
He won his mistress' favour at the last."
The same proceeding is elegantly described by Apollonius in his
Argonautics, between Jason and Medea, by Eustathius in the ten books of the
loves of Ismenias and Ismene, Achilles Tatius between his Clitophon and
Leucippe, Chaucer's neat poem of Troilus and Cresseide; and in that notable
tale in Petronius of a soldier and a gentlewoman of Ephesus, that was so
famous all over Asia for her chastity, and that mourned for her husband:
the soldier wooed her with such rhetoric as lovers use to do,--_placitone
etiam pugnabis amori_? &c. at last, _frangi pertinaciam passa est_, he got
her good will, not only to satisfy his lust, [5122]but to hang her dead
husband's body on the cross (which he watched instead of the thief's that
was newly stolen away), whilst he wooed her in her cabin. These are tales,
you will say, but they have most significant morals, and do well express
those ordinary proceedings of doting lovers.
Many such allurements there are, nods, jests, winks, smiles, wrestlings,
tokens, favours, symbols, letters, valentines, &c. For which cause belike,
Godfridus _lib. 2. de amor_. would not have women learn to write. Many such
provocations are used when they come in presence, [5123]10 they will and
will not,
"Malo me Galatea petit lasciva puella,
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri."
"My mistress with an apple woos me,
And hastily to covert goes
To hide herself, but would be seen
With all her heart before, God knows."
Hero so tripped away from Leander as one displeased,
[5124] "Yet as she went full often look'd behind,
And many poor excuses did she find
To linger by the way,"------
but if he chance to overtake her, she is most averse, nice and coy,
"Denegat et pugnat, sed vult super omnia vinci."
"She seems not won, but won she is at length,
In such wars women use but half their strength."
Sometimes they lie open and are most tractable and coming, apt, yielding,
and willing to embrace, to take a green gown, with that shepherdess in
Theocritus, _Edyl. 27._ to let their coats, &c., to play and dally, at such
seasons, and to some, as they spy their advantage; and then coy, close
again, so nice, so surly, so demure, you had much better tame a colt, catch
or ride a wild horse, than get her favour, or win her love, not a look, not
a smile, not a kiss for a kingdom. [5125]Aretine's Lucretia was an
excellent artisan in this kind, as she tells her own tale, "Though I was by
nature and art most beautiful and fair, yet by these tricks I seemed to be
far more amiable than I was, for that which men earnestly seek and cannot
attain, draws on their affection with a most furious desire. I had a suitor
loved me dearly" (said she), "and the [5126]more he gave me, the more
eagerly he wooed me, the more I seemed to neglect, to scorn him, and which
I commonly gave others, I would not let him see me, converse with me, no,
not have a kiss." To gull him the more, and fetch him over (for him only I
aimed at) I personated mine own servant to bring in a present from a
Spanish count, whilst he was in my company, as if he had been the count's
servant, which he did excellently well perform: [5127]_Comes de monte
Turco_, "my lord and master hath sent your ladyship a small present, and
part of his hunting, a piece of venison, a pheasant, a few partridges, &c.
(all which she bought with her own money), commends his love and service to
you, desiring you to accept of it in good part, and he means very shortly
to come and see you." Withal she showed him rings, gloves, scarves,
coronets which others had sent her, when there was no such matter, but only
to circumvent him. [5128]By these means (as she concludes) "I made the poor
gentleman so mad, that he was ready to spend himself, and venture his
dearest blood for my sake." Philinna, in [5129]Lucian, practised all this
long before, as it shall appear unto you by her discourse; for when
Diphilus her sweetheart came to see her (as his daily custom was) she
frowned upon him, would not vouchsafe him her company, but kissed Lamprius
his co-rival, at the same time [5130]before his face: but why was it? To
make him (as she telleth her mother that chid her for it) more jealous; to
whet his love, to come with a greater appetite, and to know that her favour
was not so easy to be had. Many other tricks she used besides this (as she
there confesseth), for she would fall out with, and anger him of set
purpose, pick quarrels upon no occasion, because she would be reconciled to
him again. _Amantium irae amoris redintegratio_, as the old saying is, the
falling out of lovers is the renewing of love; and according to that of
Aristenaetis, _jucundiores amorum post injurias deliciae_, love is
increased by injuries, as the sunbeams are more gracious after a cloud. And
surely this aphorism is most true; for as Ampelis informs Crisis in the
said Lucian, [5131]"If a lover be not jealous, angry, waspish, apt to fall
out, sigh and swear, he is no true lover." To kiss and coll, hang about her
neck, protest, swear and wish, are but ordinary symptoms, _incipientis
adhuc et crescentis amoris signa_; but if he be jealous, angry, apt to
mistake, &c., _bene speres licet_, sweet sister he is thine own; yet if you
let him alone, humour him, please him, &c., and that he perceive once he
hath you sure, without any co-rival, his love will languish, and he will
not care so much for you. Hitherto (saith she) can I speak out of
experience; Demophantus a rich fellow was a suitor of mine, I seemed to
neglect him, and gave better entertainment to Calliades the painter before
his face, _principio abiit, verbis me insectatus_, at first he went away
all in a chafe, cursing and swearing, but at last he came submitting
himself, vowing and protesting he loved me most dearly, I should have all
he had, and that he would kill himself for my sake. Therefore I advise thee
(dear sister Crisis) and all maids, not to use your suitors over kindly;
_insolentes enim sunt hoc cum sentiunt_, 'twill make them proud and
insolent; but now and then reject them, estrange thyself, _et si me audies
semel atque iterum exclude_, shut him out of doors once or twice, let him
dance attendance; follow my counsel, and by this means [5132]you shall make
him mad, come off roundly, stand to any conditions, and do whatsoever you
will have him. These are the ordinary practices; yet in the said Lucian,
Melissa methinks had a trick beyond all this; for when her suitor came
coldly on, to stir him up, she writ one of his co-rival's names and her own
in a paper, _Melissa amat Hermotimum, Hermotimus Mellissam_, causing it to
be stuck upon a post, for all gazers to behold, and lost it in the way
where he used to walk; which when the silly novice perceived, _statim ut
legit credidit_, instantly apprehended it was so, came raving to me, &c.
[5133]"and so when I was in despair of his love, four months after I
recovered him again." Eugenia drew Timocles for her valentine, and wore his
name a long time after in her bosom: Camaena singled out Pamphilus to
dance, at Myson's wedding (some say), for there she saw him first;
Felicianus overtook Caelia by the highway side, offered his service, thence
came further acquaintance, and thence came love. But who can repeat half
their devices? What Aretine experienced, what conceited Lucian, or wanton
Aristenaetus? They will deny and take, stiffly refuse, and yet earnestly
seek the same, repel to make them come with more eagerness, fly from if you
follow, but if averse, as a shadow they will follow you again, _fugientem
sequitur, sequentem fugit_; with a regaining retreat, a gentle reluctancy,
a smiling threat, a pretty pleasant peevishness they will put you off, and
have a thousand such several enticements. For as he saith,
[5134] "Non est forma satis, nec quae vult bella videri,
Debet vulgari more placere suis.
Dicta, sales, lusus, sermones, gratia, risus,
Vincunt naturae candidioris opus."
"'Tis not enough though she be fair of hue,
For her to use this vulgar compliment:
But pretty toys and jests, and saws and smiles,
As far beyond what beauty can attempt."
[5135]For this cause belike Philostratus, in his images, makes diverse
loves, "some young, some of one age, some of another, some winged, some of
one sex, some of another, some with torches, some with golden apples, some
with darts, gins, snares, and other engines in their hands," as Propertius
hath prettily painted them out, _lib. 2. et 29._ and which some interpret,
diverse enticements, or diverse affections of lovers, which if not alone,
yet jointly may batter and overcome the strongest constitutions.
It is reported of Decius, and Valerianus, those two notorious persecutors
of the church, that when they could enforce a young Christian by no means
(as [5136]Hierome records) to sacrifice to their idols, by no torments or
promises, they took another course to tempt him: they put him into a fair
garden, and set a young courtesan to dally with him, [5137]"took him about
the neck and kissed him, and that which is not to be named," _manibusque
attrectare_, &c., and all those enticements which might be used, that whom
torments could not, love might batter and beleaguer. But such was his
constancy, she could not overcome, and when this last engine would take no
place, they left him to his own ways. At [5138]Berkley in Gloucestershire,
there was in times past a nunnery (saith Gualterus Mapes, an old
historiographer, that lived 400 years since), "of which there was a noble
and a fair lady abbess: Godwin, that subtile Earl of Kent, travelling that
way, (seeking not her but hers) leaves a nephew of his, a proper young
gallant (as if he had been sick) with her, till he came back again, and
gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit, till he had deflowered
the abbess, and as many besides of the nuns as he could, and leaves him
withal rings, jewels, girdles, and such toys to give them still, when they
came to visit him. The young man, willing to undergo such a business,
played his part so well, that in short space he got up most of their
bellies, and when he had done, told his lord how he had sped: [5139]his
lord made instantly to the court, tells the king how such a nunnery was
become a bawdy-house, procures a visitation, gets them to be turned out,
and begs the lands to his own use." This story I do therefore repeat, that
you may see of what force these enticements are, if they be opportunely
used, and how hard it is even for the most averse and sanctified souls to
resist such allurements. John Major in the life of John the monk, that
lived in the days of Theodosius, commends the hermit to have been a man of
singular continency, and of a most austere life; but one night by chance
the devil came to his cell in the habit of a young market wench that had
lost her way, and desired for God's sake some lodging with him. [5140]"The
old man let her in, and after some common conference of her mishap, she
began to inveigle him with lascivious talk and jests, to play with his
beard, to kiss him, and do worse, till at last she overcame him. As he went
to address himself to that business, she vanished on a sudden, and the
devils in the air laughed him to scorn." Whether this be a true story, or a
tale, I will not much contend, it serves to illustrate this which I have
said.
Yet were it so, that these of which I have hitherto spoken, and such like
enticing baits, be not sufficient, there be many others, which will of
themselves intend this passion of burning lust, amongst which, dancing is
none of the least; and it is an engine of such force, I may not omit it.
_Incitamentum libidinis_, Petrarch calls it, the spur of lust. "A [5141]
circle of which the devil himself is the centre. [5142]Many women that use
it, have come dishonest home, most indifferent, none better." [5143]
Another terms it "the companion of all filthy delights and enticements, and
'tis not easily told what inconveniences come by it, what scurrile talk,
obscene actions," and many times such monstrous gestures, such lascivious
motions, such wanton tunes, meretricious kisses, homely embracings.
[5144] ------"(ut Gaditana canoro
Incipiat prurire choro, plausuque probatae
Ad terram tremula descendant clune puellae,
Irritamentum Veneris languentis)"------
that it will make the spectators mad. When that epitomiser of [5145]Trogus
had to the full described and set out King Ptolemy's riot as a chief engine
and instrument of his overthrow, he adds, _tympanum et tripudium_, fiddling
and dancing: "the king was not a spectator only, but a principal actor
himself." A thing nevertheless frequently used, and part of a gentlewoman's
bringing up, to sing, dance, and play on the lute, or some such instrument,
before she can say her paternoster, or ten commandments. 'Tis the next way
their parents think to get them husbands, they are compelled to learn, and
by that means, [5146]_Incoestos amores de tenero meditantur ungue_; 'tis a
great allurement as it is often used, and many are undone by it. Thais, in
Lucian, inveigled Lamprias in a dance, Herodias so far pleased Herod, that
she made him swear to give her what she would ask, John Baptist's head in a
platter. [5147]Robert, Duke of Normandy, riding by Falais, spied Arlette, a
fair maid, as she danced on a green, and was so much enamoured with the
object, that [5148]she must needs lie with her that night. Owen Tudor won
Queen Catherine's affection in. a dance, falling by chance with his head in
her lap. Who cannot parallel these stories out of his experience?
Speusippas a noble gallant in [5149]that Greek Aristenaetus, seeing
Panareta a fair young gentlewoman dancing by accident, was so far in love
with her, that for a long time after he could think of nothing but
Panareta: he came raving home full of Panareta: "Who would not admire her,
who would not love her, that should but see her dance as I did? O
admirable, O divine Panareta! I have seen old and new Rome, many fair
cities, many proper women, but never any like to Panareta, they are dross,
dowdies all to Panareta! O how she danced, how she tripped, how she turned,
with what a grace! happy is that man that shall enjoy her. O most
incomparable, only, Panareta!" When Xenophon, in _Symposio_, or Banquet,
had discoursed of love, and used all the engines that might be devised, to
move Socrates, amongst the rest, to stir him the more, he shuts up all with
a pleasant interlude or dance of Dionysius and Ariadne. [5150]"First
Ariadne dressed like a bride came in and took her place; by and by
Dionysius entered, dancing to the music. The spectators did all admire the
young man's carriage; and Ariadne herself was so much affected with the
sight, that she could scarce sit. After a while Dionysius beholding
Ariadne, and incensed with love, bowing to her knees, embraced her first,
and kissed her with a grace; she embraced him again, and kissed him with
like affection, &c., as the dance required; but they that stood by, and saw
this, did much applaud and commend them both for it. And when Dionysius
rose up, he raised her up with him, and many pretty gestures, embraces,
kisses, and love compliments passed between them: which when they saw fair
Bacchus and beautiful Ariadne so sweetly and so unfeignedly kissing each
other, so really embracing, they swore they loved indeed, and were so
inflamed with the object, that they began to rouse up themselves, as if
they would have flown. At the last when they saw them still, so willingly
embracing, and now ready to go to the bride-chamber, they were so ravished,
with it, that they that were unmarried, swore they would forthwith marry,
and those that were married called instantly for their horses, and galloped
home to their wives." What greater motive can there be than this burning
lust? what so violent an oppugner? Not without good cause therefore so many
general councils condemn it, so many fathers abhor it, so many grave men
speak against it; "Use not the company of a woman," saith Siracides, 8. 4.
"that is a singer, or a dancer; neither hear, lest thou be taken in her
craftiness." _In circo non tam cernitur quam discitur libido_. [5151]Haedus
holds, lust in theatres is not seen, but learned. Gregory Nazianzen that
eloquent divine, ([5152]as he relates the story himself,) when a noble
friend of his solemnly invited him with other bishops, to his daughter
Olympia's wedding, refused to come: [5153]"For it is absurd to see an old
gouty bishop sit amongst dancers;" he held it unfit to be a spectator, much
less an actor. _Nemo saltat sobrius_, Tully writes, he is not a sober man
that danceth; for some such reason (belike) Domitian forbade the Roman
senators to dance, and for that fact removed many of them from the senate.
But these, you will say, are lascivious and Pagan dances, 'tis the abuse
that causeth such inconvenience, and I do not well therefore to condemn,
speak against, or "innocently to accuse the best and pleasantest thing (so
[5154]Lucian calls it) that belongs to mortal men." You misinterpret, I
condemn it not; I hold it notwithstanding an honest disport, a lawful
recreation, if it be opportune, moderately and soberly used: I am of
Plutarch's mind, [5155]"that which respects pleasure alone, honest
recreation, or bodily exercise, ought not to be rejected and contemned:" I
subscribe to [5156]Lucian, "'tis an elegant thing, which cheereth up the
mind, exerciseth the body, delights the spectators, which teacheth many
comely gestures, equally affecting the ears, eyes, and soul itself."
Sallust discommends singing and dancing in Sempronia, not that she did sing
or dance, but that she did it in excess, 'tis the abuse of it; and
Gregory's refusal doth not simply condemn it, but in some folks. Many will
not allow men and women to dance together, because it is a provocation to
lust: they may as well, with Lycurgus and Mahomet, cut down all vines,
forbid the drinking of wine, for that it makes some men drunk.
[5157] "Nihil prodest quod non laedere posset idem;
Igne quid utilius?"------
I say of this as of all other honest recreations, they are like fire, good
and bad, and I see no such inconvenience, but that they may so dance, if it
be done at due times, and by fit persons: and conclude with Wolfungus
[5158]Hider, and most of our modern divines: _Si decorae, graves,
verecundae, plena luce bonorum virorum et matronarum honestarum, tempestive
fiant, probari possunt, et debent_. "There is a time to mourn, a time to
dance," Eccles. iii. 4. Let them take their pleasures then, and as [5159]
he said of old, "young men and maids flourishing in their age, fair and
lovely to behold, well attired, and of comely carriage, dancing a Greek
galliard, and as their dance required, kept their time, now turning, now
tracing, now apart now altogether, now a courtesy then a caper," &c., and
it was a pleasant sight to see those pretty knots, and swimming figures.
The sun and moon (some say) dance about the earth, the three upper planets
about the sun as their centre, now stationary, now direct, now retrograde,
now in apogee, then in perigee, now swift then slow, occidental, oriental,
they turn round, jump and trace, [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol: Mercury] about
the sun with those thirty-three Maculae or Bourbonian planet, _circa Solem
saltantes Cytharedum_, saith Fromundus. Four Medicean stars dance about
Jupiter, two Austrian about Saturn, &c., and all (belike) to the music of
the spheres. Our greatest counsellors, and staid senators, at some times
dance, as David before the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 14. Miriam, Exod. xv. 20.
Judith, xv. 13. (though the devil hence perhaps hath brought in those bawdy
bacchanals), and well may they do it. The greatest soldiers, as [5160]
Quintilianus, [5161]Aemilius Probus, [5162]Coelius Rhodiginus, have proved
at large, still use it in Greece, Rome, and the most worthy senators,
_cantare, saltare_. Lucian, Macrobius, Libanus, Plutarch, Julius, Pollux,
Athenaeus, have written just tracts in commendation of it. In this our age
it is in much request in those countries, as in all civil commonwealths, as
Alexander ab Alexandro, _lib. 4. cap. 10. et lib. 2. cap. 25._ hath proved
at large, [5163]amongst the barbarians themselves none so precious; all the
world allows it.
[5164] "Divitias contemno tuas, rex Craese, tuamque
Vendo Asiam, unguentis, flore, mero, choreis."
[5165]Plato, in his Commonwealth, will have dancing-schools to be
maintained, "that young folks might meet, be acquainted, see one another,
and be seen;" nay more, he would have them dance naked; and scoffs at them
that laugh at it. But Eusebius _praepar. Evangel. lib. 1. cap. 11._ and
Theodoret _lib. 9. curat. graec. affect_. worthily lash him for it; and
well they might: for as one saith, [5166]"the very sight of naked parts
causeth enormous, exceeding concupiscences, and stirs up both men and women
to burning lust." There is a mean in all things: this is my censure in
brief; dancing is a pleasant recreation of body and mind, if sober and
modest (such as our Christian dances are); if tempestively used, a furious
motive to burning lust; if as by Pagans heretofore, unchastely abused. But
I proceed.
If these allurements do not take place, for [5167]Simierus, that great
master of dalliance, shall not behave himself better, the more effectually
to move others, and satisfy their lust, they will swear and lie, promise,
protest, forge, counterfeit, brag, bribe, flatter and dissemble of all
sides. 'Twas Lucretia's counsel in Aretine, _Si vis amica frui, promitte,
finge, jura, perjura, jacta, simula, mentire_; and they put it well in
practice, as Apollo to Daphne,
[5168] ------"mihi Delphica tellus
Et Claros et Tenedos, patareaque regia servit,
Jupiter est genitor"------
"Delphos, Claros, and Tenedos serve me,
And Jupiter is known my sire to be."
[5169]The poorest swains will do as much, [5170]_Mille pecus nivei sunt et
mihi vallibus agni_; "I have a thousand sheep, good store of cattle, and
they are all at her command,"
[5171] ------"Tibi nos, tibi nostra supellex,
Ruraque servierint"------
"house, land, goods, are at her service," as he is himself. Dinomachus, a
senator's son in [5172]Lucian, in love with a wench inferior to him in
birth and fortunes, the sooner to accomplish his desire, wept unto her, and
swore he loved her with all his heart, and her alone, and that as soon as
ever his father died (a very rich man and almost decrepit) he would make
her his wife. The maid by chance made her mother acquainted with the
business, who being an old fox, well experienced in such matters, told her
daughter, now ready to yield to his desire, that he meant nothing less, for
dost thou think he will ever care for thee, being a poor wench, [5173]that
may have his choice of all the beauties in the city, one noble by birth,
with so many talents, as young, better qualified, and fairer than thyself?
daughter believe him not: the maid was abashed, and so the matter broke
off. When Jupiter wooed Juno first (Lilius Giraldus relates it out of an
old comment on Theocritus) the better to effect his suit, he turned himself
into a cuckoo, and spying her one day walking alone, separated from the
other goddesses, caused a tempest suddenly to arise, for fear of which she
fled to shelter; Jupiter to avoid the storm likewise flew into her lap, _in
virginis Junonis gremium devolavit_, whom Juno for pity covered in her
[5174]apron. But he turned himself forthwith into his own shape, began to
embrace and offer violence unto her, _sed illa matris metu abnuebat_, but
she by no means would yield, _donec pollicitus connubium obtinuit_, till he
vowed and swore to marry her, and then she gave consent. This fact was done
at Thornax hill, which ever after was called Cuckoo hill, and in perpetual
remembrance there was a temple erected to Telia Juno in the same place. So
powerful are fair promises, vows, oaths and protestations. It is an
ordinary thing too in this case to belie their age, which widows usually
do, that mean to marry again, and bachelors too sometimes,
[5175] "Cujus octavum trepidavit aetas,
cernere lustrum;"
to say they are younger than they are. Carmides in the said Lucian loved
Philematium, an old maid of forty-five years; [5176]she swore to him she
was but thirty-two next December. But to dissemble in this kind, is
familiar of all sides, and often it takes. [5177]_Fallere credentem res est
operosa puellam_, 'tis soon done, no such great mastery, _Egregiam vero
laudem, et spolia ampla_,--and nothing so frequent as to belie their
estates, to prefer their suits, and to advance themselves. Many men to
fetch over a young woman, widows, or whom they love, will not stick to
crack, forge and feign any thing comes next, bid his boy fetch his cloak,
rapier, gloves, jewels, &c. in such a chest, scarlet-golden-tissue
breeches, &c. when there is no such matter; or make any scruple to give
out, as he did in Petronius, that he was master of a ship, kept so many
servants, and to personate their part the better take upon them to be
gentlemen of good houses, well descended and allied, hire apparel at
brokers, some scavenger or prick-louse tailors to attend upon them for the
time, swear they have great possessions, [5178]bribe, lie, cog, and foist
how dearly they love, how bravely they will maintain her, like any lady,
countess, duchess, or queen; they shall have gowns, tiers, jewels, coaches,
and caroches, choice diet,
"The heads of parrots, tongues of nightingales,
The brains of peacocks, and of ostriches,
Their bath shall be the juice of gilliflowers,
Spirit of roses and of violets,
The milk of unicorns," &c.
as old Volpone courted Celia in the [5179]comedy, when as they are no such
men, not worth a groat, but mere sharkers, to make a fortune, to get their
desire, or else pretend love to spend their idle hours, to be more welcome,
and for better entertainment. The conclusion is, they mean nothing less,
[5180] "Nil metuunt jurare, nihil promittere curant:
Sed simul accupidae mentis satiata libido est,
Dicta nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant;"
"Oaths, vows, promises, are much protested;
But when their mind and lust is satisfied,
Oaths, vows, promises, are quite neglected;"
though he solemnly swear by the genius of Caesar, by Venus' shrine, Hymen's
deity, by Jupiter, and all the other gods, give no credit to his words. For
when lovers swear, Venus laughs, _Venus haec perjuria ridet_, [5181]Jupiter
himself smiles, and pardons it withal, as grave [5182]Plato gives out; of
all perjury, that alone for love matters is forgiven by the gods. If
promises, lies, oaths, and protestations will not avail, they fall to
bribes, tokens, gifts, and such like feats. [5183]_Plurimus auro
conciliatur amor_: as Jupiter corrupted Danae with a golden shower, and
Liber Ariadne with a lovely crown, (which was afterwards translated into
the heavens, and there for ever shines;) they will rain chickens, florins,
crowns, angels, all manner of coins and stamps in her lap. And so must he
certainly do that will speed, make many feasts, banquets, invitations, send
her some present or other every foot. _Summo studio parentur epulae_ (saith
[5184]Haedus) _et crebrae fiant largitiones_, he must be very bountiful and
liberal, seek and sue, not to her only, but to all her followers, friends,
familiars, fiddlers, panders, parasites, and household servants; he must
insinuate himself, and surely will, to all, of all sorts, messengers,
porters, carriers; no man must be unrewarded, or unrespected. I had a
suitor (saith [5185]Aretine's Lucretia) that when he came to my house,
flung gold and silver about, as if it had been chaff. Another suitor I had
was a very choleric fellow; but I so handled him, that for all his fuming,
I brought him upon his knees. If there had been an excellent bit in the
market, any novelty, fish, fruit, or fowl, muscatel, or malmsey, or a cup
of neat wine in all the city, it was presented presently to me; though
never so dear, hard to come by, yet I had it: the poor fellow was so fond
at last, that I think if I would I might have had one of his eyes out of
his head. A third suitor was a merchant of Rome, and his manner of wooing
was with [5186]exquisite music, costly banquets, poems, &c. I held him off
till at length he protested, promised, and swore _pro virginitate regno me
donaturum_, I should have all he had, house, goods, and lauds, _pro
concubitu solo_; [5187]neither was there ever any conjuror, I think, to
charm his spirits that used such attention, or mighty words, as he did
exquisite phrases, or general of any army so many stratagems to win a city,
as he did tricks and devices to get the love of me. Thus men are active and
passive, and women not far behind them in this kind: _Audax ad omnia
foemina, quae vel amat, vel odit_.
[5188] _For half so boldly there can non
Swear and lye as women can_.
[5189]They will crack, counterfeit, and collogue as well as the best, with
handkerchiefs, and wrought nightcaps, purses, posies, and such toys: as he
justly complained,
[5190] "Cur mittis violas? nempe ut violentius uret;
Quid violas violis me violenta tuis?" &c.
"Why dost thou send me violets, my dear?
To make me burn more violent, I fear,
With violets too violent thou art,
To violate and wound my gentle heart."
When nothing else will serve, the last refuge is their tears. _Haec scripsi
(testor amorem) mixta lachrymis et suspiriis_, 'twixt tears and sighs, I
write this (I take love to witness), saith [5191]Chelidonia to Philonius.
_Lumina quae modo fulmina, jam flumina lachrymarum_, those burning torches
are now turned to floods of tears. Aretine's Lucretia, when her sweetheart
came to town, [5192]wept in his bosom, "that he might be persuaded those
tears were shed for joy of his return." Quartilla in Petronius, when nought
would move, fell a weeping, and as Balthazar Castilio paints them out,
[5193]"To these crocodile's tears they will add sobs, fiery sighs, and
sorrowful countenance, pale colour, leanness, and if you do but stir
abroad, these fiends are ready to meet you at every turn, with such a
sluttish neglected habit, dejected look, as if they were now ready to die
for your sake; and how, saith he, shall a young novice thus beset, escape?"
But believe them not.
[5194] ------"animam ne crede puellis,
Namque est foeminea tutior unda fide."
Thou thinkest, peradventure, because of her vows, tears, smiles, and
protestations, she is solely thine, thou hast her heart, hand, and
affection, when as indeed there is no such matter, as the [5195]Spanish
bawd said, _gaudet illa habere unum in lecto, alterum in porta, tertium qui
domi suspiret_, she will have one sweetheart in bed, another in the gate, a
third sighing at home, a fourth, &c. Every young man she sees and likes
hath as much interest, and shall as soon enjoy her as thyself. On the other
side, which I have said, men are as false, let them swear, protest, and
lie; [5196]_Quod vobis dicunt, dixerunt mille puellis_. They love some of
them those eleven thousand virgins at once, and make them believe, each
particular, he is besotted on her, or love one till they see another, and
then her alone; like Milo's wife in Apuleius, _lib. 2._ _Si quem
conspexerit speciosae formae invenem, venustate ejus sumitur, et in eum
animum intorquet_. 'Tis their common compliment in that case, they care not
what they swear, say or do: One while they slight them, care not for them,
rail downright and scoff at them, and then again they will run mad, hang
themselves, stab and kill, if they may not enjoy them. Henceforth,
therefore,--_nulla viro juranti foemina credat_, let not maids believe
them. These tricks and counterfeit passions are more familiar with women,
[5197]_finem hic dolori faciet aut vitae dies, miserere amantis_, quoth
Phaedra to Hippolitus. Joessa, in [5198]Lucian, told Pythias, a young man,
to move him the more, that if he would not have her, she was resolved to
make away herself. "There is a Nemesis, and it cannot choose but grieve and
trouble thee, to hear that I have either strangled or drowned myself for
thy sake." Nothing so common to this sex as oaths, vows, and protestations,
and as I have already said, tears, which they have at command; for they can
so weep, that one would think their very hearts were dissolved within them,
and would come out in tears; their eyes are like rocks, which still drop
water, _diariae lachrymae et sudoris in modum lurgeri promptae_, saith
[5199] Aristaenetus, they wipe away their tears like sweat, weep with one
eye, laugh with the other; or as children [5200]weep and cry, they can both
together.
[5201] "Neve puellarum lachrymis moveare memento,
Ut flerent oculos erudiere suos."
"Care not for women's tears, I counsel thee,
They teach their eyes as much to weep as see."
And as much pity is to be taken of a woman weeping, as of a goose going
barefoot. When Venus lost her son Cupid, she sent a crier about, to bid
every one that met him take heed.
[5202] "Si fleatam aspicias, ne mox fallare, caveto;
Sin arridebit, magis effuge; et oscula si fors
Ferre volet, fugito; sunt oscula noxia, in ipsis
Suntque venena labris" &c.
"Take heed of Cupid's tears, if cautious.
And of his smiles and kisses I thee tell,
If that he offer't, for they be noxious,
And very poison in his lips doth dwell."
[5203]A thousand years, as Castilio conceives, "will scarce serve to reckon
up those allurements and guiles, that men and women use to deceive one
another with."
SUBSECT. V.--_Bawds, Philters, Causes_.
When all other engines fail, that they can proceed no farther of
themselves, their last refuge is to fly to bawds, panders, magical
philters, and receipts; rather than fail, to the devil himself. _Flectere
si nequeunt superos, Acheronta movebunt_. And by those indirect means many
a man is overcome, and precipitated into this malady, if he take not good
heed. For these bawds, first, they are everywhere so common, and so many,
that, as he said of old [5204]Croton, _omnes hic aut captantur, aut
captant_, either inveigle or be inveigled, we may say of most of our
cities, there be so many professed, cunning bawds in them. Besides, bawdry
is become an art, or a liberal science, as Lucian calls it; and there be
such tricks and subtleties, so many nurses, old women, panders, letter
carriers, beggars, physicians, friars, confessors, employed about it, that
_nullus tradere stilus sufficiat_, one saith,
[5205] ------"trecentis versibus
Suas impuritias traloqui nemo potest."
Such occult notes, stenography, polygraphy, _Nuntius animatus_, or
magnetical telling of their minds, which [5206]Cabeus the Jesuit, by the
way, counts fabulous and false; cunning conveyances in this kind, that
neither Juno's jealousy, nor Danae's custody, nor Argo's vigilancy can keep
them safe. 'Tis the last and common refuge to use an assistant, such as
that Catanean Philippa was to Joan Queen of Naples, a [5207]bawd's help, an
old woman in the business, as [5208]Myrrha did when she doted on Cyniras,
and could not compass her desire, the old jade her nurse was ready at a
pinch, _dic inquit, opemque me sine ferre tibi--et in hac mea (pone
timorem) Sedulitas erit apta libi_, fear it not, if it be possible to be
done, I will effect it: _non est mulieri mulier insuperabilis_,
[5209]Caelestina said, let him or her be never so honest, watched and
reserved, 'tis hard but one of these old women will get access: and scarce
shall you find, as [5210]Austin observes, in a nunnery a maid alone, "if
she cannot have egress, before her window you shall have an old woman, or
some prating gossip, tell her some tales of this clerk, and that monk,
describing or commending some young gentleman or other unto her." "As I was
walking in the street" (saith a good fellow in Petronius) "to see the town
served one evening, [5211]I spied an old woman in a corner selling of
cabbages and roots" (as our hucksters do plums, apples, and such like
fruits); "mother" (quoth he) "can you tell where I can dwell? she, being
well pleased with my foolish urbanity, replied, and why, sir, should I not
tell? With that she rose up and went before me. I took her for a wise
woman, and by-and-by she led me into a by-lane, and told me there I should
dwell. I replied again, I knew not the house; but I perceived, on a sudden,
by the naked queans, that I was now come into a bawdy-house, and then too
late I began to curse the treachery of this old jade." Such tricks you
shall have in many places, and amongst the rest it is ordinary in Venice,
and in the island of Zante, for a man to be bawd to his own wife. No sooner
shall you land or come on shore, but, as the Comical Poet hath it,
[5212] "Morem hunc meretrices habent,
Ad portum mittunt servulos, ancillulas,
Si qua peregrina navis in portum aderit,
Rogant cujatis sit, quod ei nomen siet,
Post illae extemplo sese adplicent."
These white devils have their panders, bawds, and factors in every place to
seek about, and bring in customers, to tempt and waylay novices, and silly
travellers. And when they have them once within their clutches, as Aegidius
Mascrius in his comment upon Valerius Flaccus describes them, [5213]"with
promises and pleasant discourse, with gifts, tokens, and taking their
opportunities, they lay nets which Lucretia cannot avoid, and baits that
Hippolitus himself would swallow; they make such strong assaults and
batteries, that the goddess of virginity cannot withstand them: give gifts
and bribes to move Penelope, and with threats able to terrify Susanna. How
many Proserpinas, with those catchpoles, doth Pluto take? These are the
sleepy rods with which their souls touched descend to hell; this the glue
or lime with which the wings of the mind once taken cannot fly away; the
devil's ministers to allure, entice," &c. Many young men and maids, without
all question, are inveigled by these Eumenides and their associates. But
these are trivial and well known. The most sly, dangerous, and cunning
bawds, are your knavish physicians, empirics, mass-priests, monks, [5214]
Jesuits, and friars. Though it be against Hippocrates' oath, some of them
will give a dram, promise to restore maidenheads, and do it without danger,
make an abortion if need be, keep down their paps, hinder conception,
procure lust, make them able with Satyrions, and now and then step in
themselves. No monastery so close, house so private, or prison so well
kept, but these honest men are admitted to censure and ask questions, to
feel their pulse beat at their bedside, and all under pretence of giving
physic. Now as for monks, confessors, and friars, as he said,
[5215] "Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet
Effrenis monachus, plenaque fraudis anus;"
"That Stygian Pluto dares not tempt or do,
What an old hag or monk will undergo;"
either for himself to satisfy his own lust; for another, if he be hired
thereto, or both at once, having such excellent means. For under colour of
visitation, auricular confession, comfort and penance, they have free
egress and regress, and corrupt, God knows, how many. They can such trades,
some of them, practise physic, use exorcisms, &c.
[5216] _That whereas was wont to walk and Elf,
There now walks the Limiter himself,
In every bush and under every tree,
There needs no other Incubus but he_.
[5217]In the mountains between Dauphine and Savoy, the friars persuaded the
good wives to counterfeit themselves possessed, that their husbands might
give them free access, and were so familiar in those days with some of
them, that, as one [5218]observes, "wenches could not sleep in their beds
for necromantic friars:" and the good abbess in Boccaccio may in some sort
witness, that rising betimes, mistook and put on the friar's breeches
instead of her veil or hat. You have heard the story, I presume, of [5219]
Paulina, a chaste matron in Aegesippus, whom one of Isis's priests did
prostitute to Mundus, a young knight, and made her believe it was their god
Anubis. Many such pranks are played by our Jesuits, sometimes in their own
habits, sometimes in others, like soldiers, courtiers, citizens, scholars,
gallants, and women themselves. Proteus-like, in all forms and disguises,
that go abroad in the night, to inescate and beguile young women, or to
have their pleasure of other men's wives; and, if we may believe [5220]
some relations, they have wardrobes of several suits in the colleges for
that purpose. Howsoever in public they pretend much zeal, seem to be very
holy men, and bitterly preach against adultery, fornication, there are no
verier bawds or whoremasters in a country; [5221]"whose soul they should
gain to God, they sacrifice to the devil." But I spare these men for the
present.
The last battering engines are philters, amulets, spells, charms, images,
and such unlawful means: if they cannot prevail of themselves by the help
of bawds, panders, and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the
devil himself. I know there be those that deny the devil can do any such
thing (Crato _epist. 2. lib. med._), and many divines, there is no other
fascination than that which comes by the eyes, of which I have formerly
spoken, and if you desire to be better informed, read Camerarius, _oper
subcis. cent. 2. c. 5._ It was given out of old, that a Thessalian wench
had bewitched King Philip to dote upon her, and by philters enforced his
love; but when Olympia, the Queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty,
well brought up, and qualified--these, quoth she, were the philters which
inveigled King Philip; those the true charms, as Henry to Rosamond,
[5222] "One accent from thy lips the blood more warms,
Than all their philters, exorcisms, and charms."
With this alone Lucretia brags [5223]in Aretine, she could do more than all
philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, necromancers, witches, and the rest
of the crew. As for herbs and philters, I could never skill of them, "The
sole philter that ever I used was kissing and embracing, by which alone I
made men rave like beasts stupefied, and compelled them to worship me like
an idol." In our times it is a common thing, saith Erastus, in his book _de
Lamiis_, for witches to take upon them the making of these philters,
[5224]"to force men and women to love and hate whom they will, to cause
tempests, diseases," &c., by charms, spells, characters, knots.--[5225]_hic
Thessala vendit Philtra_. St. Hierome proves that they can do it (as in
Hilarius' life, _epist. lib. 3_); he hath a story of a young man, that with
a philter made a maid mad for the love of him, which maid was after cured
by Hilarion. Such instances I find in John Nider, _Formicar. lib. 5. cap.
5._ Plutarch records of Lucullus that he died of a philter; and that
Cleopatra used philters to inveigle Antony, amongst other allurements.
Eusebius reports as much of Lucretia the poet. Panormitan, _lib. 4. de
gest. Aphonsi_, hath a story of one Stephan, a Neapolitan knight, that by a
philter was forced to run mad for love. But of all others, that which
[5226]Petrarch, _epist. famil. lib. 1. ep. 5_, relates of Charles the Great
(Charlemagne) is most memorable. He foolishly doted upon a woman of mean
favour and condition, many years together, wholly delighting in her
company, to the great grief and indignation of his friends and followers.
When she was dead, he did embrace her corpse, as Apollo did the bay-tree
for his Daphne, and caused her coffin (richly embalmed and decked with
jewels) to be carried about with him, over which he still lamented. At last
a venerable bishop, that followed his court, prayed earnestly to God
(commiserating his lord and master's case) to know the true cause of this
mad passion, and whence it proceeded; it was revealed to him, in fine,
"that the cause of the emperor's mad love lay under the dead woman's
tongue." The bishop went hastily to the carcass, and took a small ring
thence; upon the removal the emperor abhorred the corpse, and, instead
[5227]of it, fell as furiously in love with the bishop, he would not suffer
him to be out of his presence; which when the bishop perceived, he flung
the ring into the midst of a great lake, where the king then was. From that
hour the emperor neglected all his other houses, dwelt at [5228]Ache, built
a fair house in the midst of the marsh, to his infinite expense, and a
[5229]temple by it, where after he was buried, and in which city all his
posterity ever since use to be crowned. Marcus the heretic is accused by
Irenaeus, to have inveigled a young maid by this means; and some writers
speak hardly of the Lady Katharine Cobham, that by the same art she
circumvented Humphrey Duke of Gloucester to be her husband. Sycinius
Aemilianus summoned [5230]Apuleius to come before Cneius Maximus, proconsul
of Africa, that he being a poor fellow, "had bewitched by philters
Pudentilla, an ancient rich matron, to love him," and, being worth so many
thousand sesterces, to be his wife. Agrippa, _lib. 1. cap. 48. occult.
philos._ attributes much in this kind to philters, amulets, images: and
Salmutz _com. in Pancirol. Tit. 10. de Horol._ Leo Afer, _lib. 3_, saith,
'tis an ordinary practice at Fez in Africa, _Praestigiatores ibi plures,
qui cogunt amores et concubitus_: as skilful all out as that hyperborean
magician, of whom Cleodemus, in [5231] Lucian, tells so many fine feats
performed in this kind. But Erastus, Wierus, and others are against it;
they grant indeed such things may be done, but (as Wierus discourseth,
_lib. 3. de Lamiis. cap. 37._) not by charms, incantations, philters, but
the devil himself; _lib. 5. cap. 2._ he contends as much; so doth
Freitagius, _noc. med. cap. 74._ Andreas Cisalpinus, _cap. 5_; and so much
Sigismundus Scheretzius, _cap. 9. de hirco nocturno_, proves at large.
[5232]"Unchaste women by the help of these witches, the devil's kitchen
maids, have their loves brought to them in the night, and carried back
again by a phantasm flying in the air in the likeness of a goat. I have
heard" (saith he) "divers confess, that they have been so carried on a
goat's back to their sweethearts, many miles in a night." Others are of
opinion that these feats, which most suppose to be done by charms and
philters, are merely effected by natural causes, as by man's blood
chemically prepared, which much avails, saith Ernestus Burgravius, _in
Lucerna vitae et mortis Indice, ad amorem conciliandum et odium_, (so
huntsmen make their dogs love them, and farmers their pullen,) 'tis an
excellent philter, as he holds, _sed vulgo prodere grande nefas_, but not
fit to be made common: and so be _Mala insana_, mandrake roots, mandrake
[5233]apples, precious stones, dead men's clothes, candles, _mala Bacchica,
panis porcinus, Hyppomanes_, a certain hair in a [5234]wolf's tail, &c., of
which Rhasis, Dioscorides, Porta, Wecker, Rubeus, Mizaldus, Albertus,
treat: a swallow's heart, dust of a dove's heart, _multum valent linguae
viperarum, cerebella asinorum, tela equina, palliola quibus infantes
obvoluti nascuntur, funis strangulati hominis, lapis de nido Aquilae_, &c.
See more in Sckenkius _observat. medicinal, lib. 4._ &c., which are as
forcible and of as much virtue as that fountain Salmacis in [5235]
Vitruvius, Ovid, Strabo, that made all such mad for love that drank of it,
or that hot bath at [5236]Aix in Germany, wherein Cupid once dipped his
arrows, which ever since hath a peculiar virtue to make them lovers all
that wash in it. But hear the poet's own description of it,
[5237] "Unde hic fervor aquis terra erumpentibus uda?
Tela olim hic ludens ignea tinxit amor;
Et gaudens stridore novo, fervete perennes
Inquit, et haec pharetrae sint monumenta meae.
Ex illo fervet, rarusque hic mergitur hospes,
Cui non titillet pectora blandus amor."
These above-named remedies have happily as much power as that bath of Aix,
or Venus' enchanted girdle, in which, saith Natales Comes, "Love toys and
dalliance, pleasantness, sweetness, persuasions, subtleties, gentle
speeches, and all witchcraft to enforce love, was contained." Read more of
these in Agrippa _de occult. Philos. lib. 1. cap. 50. et 45._ _Malleus
malefic. part. 1. quaest. 7._ Delrio _tom. 2. quest. 3. lib. 3._ Wierus,
Pomponatis, _cap. 8. de incantat._ Ficinus, _lib. 13. Theol. Plat._
Calcagninus, &c.
MEMB. III.
_Symptoms or signs of Love Melancholy, in Body, Mind, good, bad, &c._
Symptoms are either of body or mind; of body, paleness, leanness, dryness,
&c. [5238]_Pallidus omnis amans, color hic est aptus amanti_, as the poet
describes lovers: _fecit amor maciem_, love causeth leanness. [5239]
Avicenna _de Ilishi, c. 33._ "makes hollow eyes, dryness, symptoms of this
disease, to go smiling to themselves, or acting as if they saw or heard
some delectable object." Valleriola, _lib. 3. observat. cap. 7._
Laurentius, _cap. 10._ Aelianus Montaltus _de Her. amore_. Langius, _epist.
24. lib. 1. epist. med._ deliver as much, _corpus exangue pallet, corpus
gracile, oculi cavi_, lean, pale,--_ut nudis qui pressit calcibus anguem_,
"as one who trod with naked foot upon a snake," hollow-eyed, their eyes are
hidden in their heads,--[5240]_Tenerque nitidi corposis cecidit decor_,
they pine away, and look ill with waking, cares, sighs.
"Et qui tenebant signa Phoebeae facis
Oculi, nihil gentile nec patrium micant."
"And eyes that once rivalled the locks of Phoebus, lose the patrial and
paternal lustre." With groans, griefs, sadness, dullness,
[5241] ------"Nulla jam Cereris subi
Cura aut salutis"------
want of appetite, &c. A reason of all this, [5242]Jason Pratensis gives,
"because of the distraction of the spirits the liver doth not perform his
part, nor turns the aliment into blood as it ought, and for that cause the
members are weak for want of sustenance, they are lean and pine, as the
herbs of my garden do this month of May, for want of rain." The green
sickness therefore often happeneth to young women, a cachexia or an evil
habit to men, besides their ordinary sighs, complaints, and lamentations,
which are too frequent. As drops from a still,--_ut occluso stillat ab igne
liquor_, doth Cupid's fire provoke tears from a true lover's eyes,
[5243] "The mighty Mars did oft for Venus shriek,
Privily moistening his horrid cheek
With womanish tears,"------
[5244] ------"ignis distillat in undas,
Testis erit largus qui rigat ora liquor,"
with many such like passions. When Chariclia was enamoured of Theagines, as
[5245]Heliodorus sets her out, "she was half distracted, and spake she knew
not what, sighed to herself, lay much awake, and was lean upon a sudden:"
and when she was besotted on her son-in-law, [5246]_pallor deformis,
marcentes oculi_, &c., she had ugly paleness, hollow eyes, restless
thoughts, short wind, &c. Euryalus, in an epistle sent to Lucretia, his
mistress, complains amongst other grievances, _tu mihi et somni et cibi
usum abstulisti_, thou hast taken my stomach and my sleep from me. So he
describes it aright:
[5247] _His sleep, his meat, his drink, in him bereft,
That lean he waxeth, and dry as a shaft,
His eyes hollow and grisly to behold,
His hew pale and ashen to unfold,
And solitary he was ever alone,
And waking all the night making moan_.
Theocritus _Edyl. 2._ makes a fair maid of Delphos, in love with a young
man of Minda, confess as much,
"Ut vidi ut insanii, ut animus mihi male affectiis est,
Miserae mihi forma tabescebat, neque amplius pompam
Ullum curabam, aut quando domum redieram
Novi, sed me ardens quidam morbus consumebat,
Decubui in lecto dies decem, et noctes decem,
Defluebant capite capilli, ipsaque sola reliqua
Ossa et cutis"------
"No sooner seen I had, but mad I was.
My beauty fail'd, and I no more did care
For any pomp, I knew not where I was,
But sick I was, and evil I did fare;
I lay upon my bed ten days and nights,
A skeleton I was in all men's sights."
All these passions are well expressed by [5248]that heroical poet in the
person of Dido:
"At non infelix animi Phaenissa, nec unquam
Solvitur in somnos, oculisque ac pectore amores
Accipit; ingeminant curae, rursusque resurgens
Saevit amor," &c.------
"Unhappy Dido could not sleep at all,
But lies awake, and takes no rest:
And up she gets again, whilst care and grief,
And raging love torment her breast."
Accius Sanazarius _Egloga 2. de Galatea_, in the same manner feigns his
Lychoris [5249]tormenting herself for want of sleep, sighing, sobbing, and
lamenting; and Eustathius in his Ismenias much troubled, and [5250]
"panting at heart, at the sight of his mistress," he could not sleep, his
bed was thorns. [5251]All make leanness, want of appetite, want of sleep
ordinary symptoms, and by that means they are brought often so low, so much
altered and changed, that as [5252]he jested in the comedy, "one scarce
know them to be the same men."
"Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes,
Curaque et immenso qui fit amore dolor."
Many such symptoms there are of the body to discern lovers by,--_quis enim
bene celet amorem_? Can a man, saith Solomon, Prov. vi. 27, carry fire in
his bosom and not burn? it will hardly be hid; though they do all they can
to hide it, it must out, _plus quam mille notis_--it may be described,
[5253]_quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis_. 'Twas Antiphanes
the comedian's observation of old, Love and drunkenness cannot be
concealed, _Celare alia possis, haec praeter duo, vini potum_, &c. words,
looks, gestures, all will betray them; but two of the most notable signs
are observed by the pulse and countenance. When Antiochus, the son of
Seleucus, was sick for Stratonice, his mother-in-law, and would not confess
his grief, or the cause of his disease, Erasistratus, the physician, found
him by his pulse and countenance to be in love with her, [5254]"because
that when she came in presence, or was named, his pulse varied, and he
blushed besides." In this very sort was the love of Callices, the son of
Polycles, discovered by Panacaeas the physician, as you may read the story
at large in [5255]Aristenaetus. By the same signs Galen brags that he found
out Justa, Boethius the consul's wife, to dote on Pylades the player,
because at his name still she both altered pulse and countenance, as [5256]
Polyarchus did at the name of Argenis. Franciscus Valesius, _l. 3. controv.
13. med. contr._ denies there is any such _pulsus amatorius_, or that love
may be so discerned; but Avicenna confirms this of Galen out of his
experience, _lib. 3. Fen. 1._ and Gordonius, _cap. 20._ [5257]"Their pulse,
he saith, is ordinate and swift, if she go by whom he loves," Langius,
_epist. 24. lib. 1. med. epist._ Neviscanus, _lib. 4. numer. 66. syl.
nuptialis_, Valescus de Taranta, Guianerius, _Tract. 15._ Valleriola sets
down this for a symptom, [5258]"Difference of pulse, neglect of business,
want of sleep, often sighs, blushings, when there is any speech of their
mistress, are manifest signs." But amongst the rest, Josephus Struthis,
that Polonian, in the fifth book, _cap. 17._ of his Doctrine of Pulses,
holds that this and all other passions of the mind may be discovered by the
pulse. [5259]"And if you will know, saith he, whether the men suspected be
such or such, touch their arteries," &c. And in his fourth book, fourteenth
chapter, he speaks of this particular pulse, [5260] "Love makes an unequal
pulse," &c., he gives instance of a gentlewoman, [5261]a patient of his,
whom by this means he found to be much enamoured, and with whom: he named
many persons, but at the last when his name came whom he suspected,
[5262]"her pulse began to vary and to beat swifter, and so by often feeling
her pulse, he perceived what the matter was." Apollonius _Argonaut. lib.
4._ poetically setting down the meeting of Jason and Medea, makes them both
to blush at one another's sight, and at the first they were not able to
speak.
[5263] ------"totus Parmeno
Tremo, horreoque postquam aspexi hanc,"
Phaedria trembled at the sight of Thais, others sweat, blow short, _Crura
tremunt ac poplites_,--are troubled with palpitation of heart upon the like
occasion, _cor proximum ori_, saith [5264]Aristenaetus, their heart is at
their mouth, leaps, these burn and freeze, (for love is fire, ice, hot,
cold, itch, fever, frenzy, pleurisy, what not) they look pale, red, and
commonly blush at their first congress; and sometimes through violent
agitation of spirits bleed at nose, or when she is talked of; which very
sign [5265]Eustathius makes an argument of Ismene's affection, that when
she met her sweetheart by chance, she changed her countenance to a
maiden-blush. 'Tis a common thing amongst lovers, as [5266]Arnulphus, that
merry-conceited bishop, hath well expressed in a facetious epigram of his,
"Alterno facies sibi dat responsa rubore,
Et tener affectum prodit utrique pudor," &c.
"Their faces answer, and by blushing say,
How both affected are, they do betray."
But the best conjectures are taken from such symptoms as appear when they
are both present; all their speeches, amorous glances, actions, lascivious
gestures will betray them; they cannot contain themselves, but that they
will be still kissing. [5267]Stratocles, the physician, upon his
wedding-day, when he was at dinner, _Nihil prius sorbillavit, quam tria
basia puellae pangeret_, could not eat his meat for kissing the bride, &c.
First a word, and then a kiss, then some other compliment, and then a kiss,
then an idle question, then a kiss, and when he had pumped his wits dry,
can say no more, kissing and colling are never out of season, [5268]_Hoc
non deficit incipitque semper_, 'tis never at an end, [5269]another kiss,
and then another, another, and another, &c.--_huc ades O Thelayra_--Come
kiss me Corinna?
[5270] "Centum basia centies,
Centum basia millies,
Mille basia millies,
Et tot millia millies,
Quot guttae Siculo mari,
Quot sunt sidera coelo,
Istis purpureis genis,
Istis turgidulis labris,
Ocelisque loquaculis,
Figam continuo impetu;
O formosa Neaera. (As Catullus to Lesbia.)
Da mihi basia mille, deindi centum,
Dein mille altera, da secunda centum,
Dein usque altera millia, deinde centum."
[5271] ------"first give a hundred,
Then a thousand, then another
Hundred, then unto the other
Add a thousand, and so more," &c.
Till you equal with the store, all the grass, &c. So Venus did by her
Adonis, the moon with Endymion, they are still dallying and culling, as so
many doves, _Columbatimque labra conserentes labiis_, and that with
alacrity and courage,
[5272] "Affligunt avide corpus, junguntque salivas
Oris, et inspirant prensantes dentibus ora."
[5273]_Tam impresso ore ut vix inde labra detrahant, cervice reclinata_,
"as Lamprias in Lucian kissed Thais, Philippus her [5274]Aristaenetus,"
_amore lymphato tam uriose adhaesit, ut vix labra solvere esset, totumque
os mihi contrivit_; [5275]Aretine's Lucretia, by a suitor of hers was so
saluted, and 'tis their ordinary fashion.
------"dentes illudunt saepe labellis,
Atque premunt arete adfigentes oscula"------
They cannot, I say, contain themselves, they will be still not only joining
hands, kissing, but embracing, treading on their toes, &c., diving into
their bosoms, and that _libenter, et cum delectatione_, as [5276]
Philostratus confesseth to his mistress; and Lamprias in Lucian, _Mammillas
premens, per sinum clam dextra_, &c., feeling their paps, and that scarce
honestly sometimes: as the old man in the [5277]Comedy well observed of his
son, _Non ego te videbam manum huic puellae in sinum insere_? Did not I see
thee put thy hand into her bosom? go to, with many such love tricks.
[5278]Juno in Lucian _deorum, tom. 3. dial. 3._ complains to Jupiter of
Ixion, [5279]"he looked so attentively on her, and sometimes would sigh and
weep in her company, and when I drank by chance, and gave Ganymede the cup,
he would desire to drink still in the very cup that I drank of, and in the
same place where I drank, and would kiss the cup, and then look steadily on
me, and sometimes sigh, and then again smile." If it be so they cannot come
near to dally, have not that opportunity, familiarity, or acquaintance to
confer and talk together; yet if they be in presence, their eye will betray
them: _Ubi amor ibi oculus_, as the common saying is, "where I look I like,
and where I like I love;" but they will lose themselves in her looks.
"Alter in alterius jactantes lumina vultus,
Quaerebant taciti noster ubi esset amor."
"They cannot look off whom they love," they will _impregnare eam, ipsis
oculis_, deflower her with their eyes, be still gazing, staring, stealing
faces, smiling, glancing at her, as [5280]Apollo on Leucothoe, the moon on
her [5281]Endymion, when she stood still in Caria, and at Latmos caused her
chariot to be stayed. They must all stand and admire, or if she go by, look
after her as long as they can see her, she is _animae auriga_, as Anacreon
calls her, they cannot go by her door or window, but, as an adamant, she
draws their eyes to it; though she be not there present, they must needs
glance that way, and look back to it. Aristenaetus of [5282] Exithemus,
Lucian, in his Imagim. of himself, and Tatius of Clitophon, say as much,
_Ille oculos de Leucippe [5283]nunquam dejiciebat_, and many lovers confess
when they came in their mistress' presence, they could not hold off their
eyes, but looked wistfully and steadily on her, _inconnivo aspectu_, with
much eagerness and greediness, as if they would look through, or should
never have enough sight of her. _Fixis ardens obtutibus haeret_; so she
will do by him, drink to him with her eyes, nay, drink him up, devour him,
swallow him, as Martial's Mamurra is remembered to have done: _Inspexit
molles pueros, oculisque comedit_, &c. There is a pleasant story to this
purpose in _Navigat. Vertom. lib. 3. cap. 5._ The sultan of Sana's wife in
Arabia, because Vertomannus was fair and white, could not look off him,
from sunrising to sunsetting; she could not desist; she made him one day
come into her chamber, _et geminae, horae spatio intuebatur, non a me
anquam aciem oculorum avertebat, me observans veluti Cupidinem quendam_,
for two hours' space she still gazed on him. A young man in [5284]Lucian
fell in love with Venus' picture; he came every morning to her temple, and
there continued all day long [5285]from sunrising to sunset, unwilling to
go home at night, sitting over against the goddess's picture, he did
continually look upon her, and mutter to himself I know not what. If so be
they cannot see them whom they love, they will still be walking and waiting
about their mistress's doors, taking all opportunity to see them, as in
[5286]Longus Sophista, Daphnis and Chloe, two lovers, were still hovering
at one another's gates, he sought all occasions to be in her company, to
hunt in summer, and catch birds in the frost about her father's house in
the winter, that she might see him, and he her. [5287]"A king's palace was
not so diligently attended," saith Aretine's Lucretia, "as my house was
when I lay in Rome; the porch and street was ever full of some, walking or
riding, on set purpose to see me; their eye was still upon my window; as
they passed by, they could not choose but look back to my house when they
were past, and sometimes hem or cough, or take some impertinent occasion to
speak aloud, that I might look out and observe them." 'Tis so in other
places, 'tis common to every lover, 'tis all his felicity to be with her,
to talk with her; he is never well but in her company, and will walk [5288]
"seven or eight times a day through the street where she dwells, and make
sleeveless errands to see her;" plotting still where, when, and how to
visit her,
[5289] "Levesque sub nocte susurri,
Composita repetuntur hora."
And when he is gone, he thinks every minute an hour, every hour as long as
a day, ten days a whole year, till he see her again. [5290]_Tempora si
numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes._ And if thou be in love, thou wilt
say so too, _Et longum formosa, vale_, farewell sweetheart, _vale
charissima Argenis_, &c. Farewell my dear Argenis, once more farewell,
farewell. And though he is to meet her by compact, and that very shortly,
perchance tomorrow, yet both to depart, he'll take his leave again, and
again, and then come back again, look after, and shake his hand, wave his
hat afar off. Now gone, he thinks it long till he see her again, and she
him, the clocks are surely set back, the hour's past,
[5291] "Hospita Demophoon tua te Rodopheia Phillis,
Ultra promissum tempus abesse queror."
She looks out at window still to see whether he come, [5292]and by report
Phillis went nine times to the seaside that day, to see if her Demophoon
were approaching, and [5293]Troilus to the city gates, to look for his
Cresseid. She is ill at ease, and sick till she see him again, peevish in
the meantime; discontent, heavy, sad, and why comes he not? where is he?
why breaks he promise? why tarries he so long? sure he is not well; sure he
hath some mischance; sure he forgets himself and me; with infinite such.
And then, confident again, up she gets, out she looks, listens, and
inquires, hearkens, kens; every man afar off is sure he, every stirring in
the street, now he is there, that's he, _male aurorae, malae soli dicit,
deiratque_, &c., the longest day that ever was, so she raves, restless and
impatient; for _Amor non patitur moras_, love brooks no delays: the time's
quickly gone that's spent in her company, the miles short, the way
pleasant; all weather is good whilst he goes to her house, heat or cold;
though his teeth chatter in his head, he moves not; wet or dry, 'tis all
one; wet to the skin, he feels it not, cares not at least for it, but will
easily endure it and much more, because it is done with alacrity, and for
his mistress's sweet sake; let the burden be never so heavy, love makes it
light. [5294]Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and it was quickly gone
because he loved her. None so merry; if he may happily enjoy her company,
he is in heaven for a time; and if he may not, dejected in an instant,
solitary, silent, he departs weeping, lamenting, sighing, complaining.
But the symptoms of the mind in lovers are almost infinite, and so diverse,
that no art can comprehend them; though they be merry sometimes, and rapt
beyond themselves for joy: yet most part, love is a plague, a torture, a
hell, a bitter sweet passion at last; [5295]_Amor melle et felle est
faecundissimus, gustum dat dulcem et amarum_. 'Tis _suavis amaricies,
dolentia delectabilis, hilare tormentum_;
[5296] "Et me melle beant suaviora,
Et me felle necant amariora."
like a summer fly or sphinx's wings, or a rainbow of all colours,
"Quae ad solis radios conversae aureae erant,
Adversus nubes ceruleae, quale jabar iridis,"
fair, foul, and full of variation, though most part irksome and bad. For in
a word, the Spanish Inquisition is not comparable to it; "a torment" and
[5297]"execution" as it is, as he calls it in the poet, an unquenchable
fire, and what not? [5298]From it, saith Austin, arise "biting cares,
perturbations, passions, sorrows, fears, suspicions, discontents,
contentions, discords, wars, treacheries, enmities, flattery, cozening,
riot, impudence, cruelty, knavery," &c.
[5299] ------"dolor, querelae,
Lamentatio, lachrymae perennes,
Languor, anxietas, amaritudo;
Aut si triste magis potest quid esse,
Hos tu das comites Neaera vitae."
These be the companions of lovers, and the ordinary symptoms, as the poet
repeats them.
[5300] "In amore haec insunt vitia,
Suspiciones, inimicitiae, audaciae,
Bellum, pax rursum," &c.
[5301] "Insomnia, aerumna, error, terror, et fuga,
Excogitantia excors immodestia,
Petulantia, cupiditas, et malevolentia;
Inhaeret etiam aviditas, desidia, injuria,
Inopia, contumelia et dispendium," &c.
"In love these vices are; suspicions.
Peace, war, and impudence, detractions.
Dreams, cares, and errors, terrors and affrights,
Immodest pranks, devices, sleights and flights,
Heart-burnings, wants, neglects, desire of wrong,
Loss continual, expense and hurt among."
Every poet is full of such catalogues of love symptoms; but fear and sorrow
may justly challenge the chief place. Though Hercules de Saxonia, _cap. 3.
Tract. de melanch._ will exclude fear from love melancholy, yet I am
otherwise persuaded. [5302]_Res est solliciti plena timoris amor._ 'Tis
full of fear, anxiety, doubt, care, peevishness, suspicion; it turns a man
into a woman, which made Hesiod belike put Fear and Paleness Venus'
daughters,
------"Marti clypeos atque arma secanti
Alma Venus peperit Pallorem, unaque Timorem:"
because fear and love are still linked together. Moreover they are apt to
mistake, amplify, too credulous sometimes, too full of hope and confidence,
and then again very jealous, unapt to believe or entertain any good news.
The comical poet hath prettily painted out this passage amongst the rest in
a [5303]dialogue betwixt Mitio and Aeschines, a gentle father and a
lovesick son. "Be of good cheer, my son, thou shalt have her to wife. Ae.
Ah father, do you mock me now? M. I mock thee, why? Ae. That which I so
earnestly desire, I more suspect and fear. M. Get you home, and send for
her to be your wife. Ae. What now a wife, now father," &c. These doubts,
anxieties, suspicions, are the least part of their torments; they break
many times from passions to actions, speak fair, and flatter, now most
obsequious and willing, by and by they are averse, wrangle, fight, swear,
quarrel, laugh, weep: and he that doth not so by fits, [5304]Lucian holds,
is not thoroughly touched with this loadstone of love. So their actions and
passions are intermixed, but of all other passions, sorrow hath the
greatest share; [5305]love to many is bitterness itself; _rem amaram_ Plato
calls it, a bitter potion, an agony, a plague.
"Eripite hanc pestem perniciemque mihi;
Quae mihi subrepens imos ut torpor in artus,
Expulit ex omni pectore laetitias."
"O take away this plague, this mischief from me,
Which, as a numbness over all my body,
Expels my joys, and makes my soul so heavy."
Phaedria had a true touch of this, when he cried out,
[5306] "O Thais, utinam esset mihi
Pars aequa amoris tecum, ac paritor fieret ut
Aut hoc tibi doleret itidem, ut mihi dolet."
"O Thais, would thou hadst of these my pains a part,
Or as it doth me now, so it would make thee smart."
So had that young man, when he roared again for discontent,
[5307] "Jactor, crucior, agitor, stimulor,
Versor in amoris rota miser,
Exanimor, feror, distrahor, deripior,
Ubi sum, ibi non sum; ubi non sum, ibi est animus."
"I am vext and toss'd, and rack'd on love's wheel:
Where not, I am; but where am, do not feel."
The moon in [5308]Lucian made her moan to Venus, that she was almost dead
for love, _pereo equidem amore_, and after a long tale, she broke off
abruptly and wept, [5309]"O Venus, thou knowest my poor heart." Charmides,
in [5310]Lucian, was so impatient, that he sobbed and sighed, and tore his
hair, and said he would hang himself. "I am undone, O sister Tryphena, I
cannot endure these love pangs; what shall I do?" _Vos O dii Averrunci
solvite me his curis_, O ye gods, free me from these cares and miseries,
out of the anguish of his soul, [5311]Theocles prays. Shall I say, most
part of a lover's life is full of agony, anxiety, fear, and grief,
complaints, sighs, suspicions, and cares, (heigh-ho, my heart is woe) full
of silence and irksome solitariness?
"Frequenting shady bowers in discontent,
To the air his fruitless clamours he will vent."
except at such times that he hath _lucida intervalla_, pleasant gales, or
sudden alterations, as if his mistress smile upon him, give him a good
look, a kiss, or that some comfortable message be brought him, his service
is accepted, &c.
He is then too confident and rapt beyond himself, as if he had heard the
nightingale in the spring before the cuckoo, or as [5312]Calisto was at
Malebaeas' presence, _Quis unquam hac mortali vita, tam gloriosum corpus
vidit? humanitatem transcendere videor._, &c. who ever saw so glorious a
sight, what man ever enjoyed such delight? More content cannot be given of
the gods, wished, had or hoped of any mortal man. There is no happiness in
the world comparable to his, no content, no joy to this, no life to love,
he is in paradise.
[5313] "Quis me uno vivit felicior? aut magis hac est
Optandum vita dicere quis poterit?"
"Who lives so happy as myself? what bliss
In this our life may be compar'd to this?"
He will not change fortune in that case with a prince,
[5314] "Donec gratus eram tibi,
Persarum vigui rege beatior."
The Persian kings are not so jovial as he is, _O [5315]festus dies
hominis_, O happy day; so Chaerea exclaims when he came from Pamphila his
sweetheart well pleased,
"Nunc est profecto interfici cum perpeti me possem,
Ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aliqua aegritudine."
"He could find in his heart to be killed instantly, lest if he live longer,
some sorrow or sickness should contaminate his joys." A little after, he
was so merrily set upon the same occasion, that he could not contain
himself.
[5316] "O populares, ecquis me vivit hodie fortunatior?
Nemo hercule quisquam; nam in me dii plane potestatem
Suam omnem ostendere;"
"Is't possible (O my countrymen) for any living to be so happy as myself?
No sure it cannot be, for the gods have shown all their power, all their
goodness in me." Yet by and by when this young gallant was crossed in his
wench, he laments, and cries, and roars downright: _Occidi_--I am undone,
"Neque virgo est usquam, neque ego, qui e conspectu illam amisi meo,
Ubi quaeram, ubi investigem, quem percunter, quam insistam viam?"
The virgin's gone, and I am gone, she's gone, she's gone, and what shall I
do? where shall I seek her, where shall I find her, whom shall I ask? what
way, what course shall I take? what will become of me--[5317]_vitales auras
invitus agebat_, he was weary of his life, sick, mad, and desperate,
[5318]_utinam mihi esset aliquid hic, quo nunc me praecipitem darem_. 'Tis
not Chaereas' case this alone, but his, and his, and every lover's in the
like state. If he hear ill news, have bad success in his suit, she frown
upon him, or that his mistress in his presence respect another more (as
[5319]Hedus observes) "prefer another suitor, speak more familiarly to him,
or use more kindly than himself, if by nod, smile, message, she discloseth
herself to another, he is instantly tormented, none so dejected as he is,"
utterly undone, a castaway, [5320]_In quem fortuna omnia odiorum suorum
crudelissima tela exonerat_, a dead man, the scorn of fortune, a monster of
fortune, worse than nought, the loss of a kingdom had been less.
[5321]Aretine's Lucretia made very good proof of this, as she relates it
herself. "For when I made some of my suitors believe I would betake myself
to a nunnery, they took on, as if they had lost father and mother, because
they were for ever after to want my company." _Omnes labores leves fuere_,
all other labour was light: [5322]but this might not be endured. _Tui
carendum quod erat_--"for I cannot be without thy company," mournful
Amyntas, painful Amyntas, careful Amyntas; better a metropolitan city were
sacked, a royal army overcome, an invincible armada sunk, and twenty
thousand kings should perish, than her little finger ache, so zealous are
they, and so tender of her good. They would all turn friars for my sake, as
she follows it, in hope by that means to meet, or see me again, as my
confessors, at stool-ball, or at barley-break: And so afterwards when an
importunate suitor came, [5323]"If I had bid my maid say that I was not at
leisure, not within, busy, could not speak with him, he was instantly
astonished, and stood like a pillar of marble; another went swearing,
chafing, cursing, foaming." [5324]_Illa sibi vox ipsa Jovis violentior ira,
cum tonat_, &c. the voice of a mandrake had been sweeter music: "but he to
whom I gave entertainment, was in the Elysian fields, ravished for joy,
quite beyond himself." 'Tis the general humour of all lovers, she is their
stern, pole-star, and guide. [5325]_Deliciumque animi, deliquiumque sui._
As a tulipant to the sun (which our herbalists calls Narcissus) when it
shines, is _Admirandus flos ad radios solis se pandens_, a glorious flower
exposing itself; [5326]but when the sun sets, or a tempest comes, it hides
itself, pines away, and hath no pleasure left, (which Carolus Gonzaga, duke
of Mantua, in a cause not unlike, sometimes used for an impress) do all
inamorates to their mistress; she is their sun, their _Primum mobile_, or
_anima informans_; this [5327]one hath elegantly expressed by a windmill,
still moved by the wind, which otherwise hath no motion of itself. _Sic tua
ni spiret gratia, truncus ero._ "He is wholly animated from her breath,"
his soul lives in her body, [5328]_sola claves habet interitus et salutis_,
she keeps the keys of his life: his fortune ebbs and flows with her favour,
a gracious or bad aspect turns him up or down, _Mens mea lucescit Lucia
luce tua_. Howsoever his present state be pleasing or displeasing, 'tis
continuate so long as he [5329]loves, he can do nothing, think of nothing
but her; desire hath no rest, she is his cynosure, Hesperus and vesper, his
morning and evening star, his goddess, his mistress, his life, his soul,
his everything; dreaming, waking, she is always in his mouth; his heart,
his eyes, ears, and all his thoughts are full of her. His Laura, his
Victorina, his Columbina, Flavia, Flaminia, Caelia, Delia, or Isabella,
(call her how you will) she is the sole object of his senses, the substance
of his soul, _nidulus animae suae_, he magnifies her above measure, _totus
in illa_, full of her, can breathe nothing but her. "I adore Melebaea,"
saith lovesick [5330]Calisto, "I believe in Melebaea, I honour, admire and
love my Melebaea;" His soul was soused, imparadised, imprisoned in his
lady. When [5331]Thais took her leave of Phaedria,--_mi Phaedria, et
nunquid aliud vis_? Sweet heart (she said) will you command me any further
service? he readily replied, and gave in this charge,
------"egone quid velim?
Dies noctesque ames me, me desideres,
Me somnies, me expectes, me cogites,
Me speres, me te oblectes, mecum tota sis,
Meus fac postremo animus, quando ego sum tuus."
"Dost ask (my dear) what service I will have?
To love me day and night is all I crave,
To dream on me, to expect, to think on me,
Depend and hope, still covet me to see,
Delight thyself in me, be wholly mine,
For know, my love, that I am wholly thine."
But all this needed not, you will say; if she affect once, she will be his,
settle her love on him, on him alone,
[5332] ------"illum absens absentem
Auditque videtque"------
she can, she must think and dream of nought else but him, continually of
him, as did Orpheus on his Eurydice,
"Te dulcis conjux, te solo in littore mecum,
Te veniente die, te discedente canebam."
"On thee sweet wife was all my song.
Morn, evening, and all along."
And Dido upon her Aeneas;
------"et quae me insomnia terrent,
Multa viri virtus, et plurima currit imago."
"And ever and anon she thinks upon the man
That was so fine, so fair, so blithe, so debonair."
Clitophon, in the first book of Achilles, Tatius, complaineth how that his
mistress Leucippe tormented him much more in the night than in the day.
[5333]"For all day long he had some object or other to distract his senses,
but in the night all ran upon her. All night long he lay [5334] awake, and
could think of nothing else but her, he could not get her out of his mind;
towards morning, sleep took a little pity on him, he slumbered awhile, but
all his dreams were of her."
[5335] ------"te nocte sub atra
Alloquor, amplector, falsaque in imagine somni,
Gaudia solicitam palpant evanida mentem."
"In the dark night I speak, embrace, and find
That fading joys deceive my careful mind."
The same complaint Euryalus makes to his Lucretia, [5336]"day and night I
think of thee, I wish for thee, I talk of thee, call on thee, look for
thee, hope for thee, delight myself in thee, day and night I love thee."
[5337] "Nec mihi vespere
Surgente decedunt amores,
Nec rapidum fugiente solem."
Morning, evening, all is alike with me, I have restless thoughts, [5338]
_Te vigilans oculis, animo te nocte requiro._ Still I think on thee. _Anima
non est ubi animat, sed ubi amat_. I live and breathe in thee, I wish for
thee.
[5339] "O niveam quae te poterit mihi reddere lucem,
O mihi felicem terque quaterque diem."
"O happy day that shall restore thee to my sight." In the meantime he raves
on her; her sweet face, eyes, actions, gestures, hands, feet, speech,
length, breadth, height, depth, and the rest of her dimensions, are so
surveyed, measured, and taken, by that Astrolabe of phantasy, and that so
violently sometimes, with such earnestness and eagerness, such continuance,
so strong an imagination, that at length he thinks he sees her indeed; he
talks with her, he embraceth her, Ixion-like, _pro Junone nubem_, a cloud
for Juno, as he said. _Nihil praeter Leucippen cerno, Leucippe mihi
perpetuo in oculis, et animo versatur_, I see and meditate of nought but
Leucippe. Be she present or absent, all is one;
[5340] "Et quamvis aberat placidae praesentia formae
Quem dederat praesens forma, manebat amor."
That impression of her beauty is still fixed in his mind,--[5341]_haerent
infixi pectora vultus_; as he that is bitten with a mad dog thinks all he
sees dogs--dogs in his meat, dogs in his dish, dogs in his drink: his
mistress is in his eyes, ears, heart, in all his senses. Valleriola had a
merchant, his patient, in the same predicament; and [5342]Ulricus Molitor,
out of Austin, hath a story of one, that through vehemency of his love
passion, still thought he saw his mistress present with him, she talked
with him, _Et commisceri cum ea vigilans videbatur_, still embracing him.
Now if this passion of love can produce such effects, if it be pleasantly
intended, what bitter torments shall it breed, when it is with fear and
continual sorrow, suspicion, care, agony, as commonly it is, still
accompanied, what an intolerable [5343]pain must it be?
------"Non tam grandes
Gargara culmos, quot demerso
Pectore curas longa nexas
Usque catena, vel quae penitus
Crudelis amor vulnera miscet."
"Mount Gargarus hath not so many stems
As lover's breast hath grievous wounds,
And linked cares, which love compounds."
When the King of Babylon would have punished a courtier of his, for loving
of a young lady of the royal blood, and far above his fortunes, [5344]
Apollonius in presence by all means persuaded to let him alone; "For to
love and not enjoy was a most unspeakable torment," no tyrant could invent
the like punishment; as a gnat at a candle, in a short space he would
consume himself. For love is a perpetual [5345]_flux, angor animi_, a
warfare, _militat omni amans_, a grievous wound is love still, and a
lover's heart is Cupid's quiver, a consuming [5346]fire, [5347]_accede ad
hunc ignem_, &c. an inextinguishable fire.
[5348] ------"alitur et crescit malum,
Et ardet intus, qualis Aetnaeo vapor
Exundat antro"------
As Aetna rageth, so doth love, and more than Aetna or any material fire.
[5349] ------"Nam amor saepe Lypareo
Vulcano ardentiorem flammam incendere solet."
Vulcan's flames are but smoke to this. For fire, saith [5350]Xenophon,
burns them alone that stand near it, or touch it; but this fire of love
burneth and scorcheth afar off, and is more hot and vehement than any
material fire: [5351]_Ignis in igne furit_, 'tis a fire in a fire, the
quintessence of fire. For when Nero burnt Rome, as Calisto urgeth, he fired
houses, consumed men's bodies and goods; but this fire devours the soul
itself, "and [5352]one soul is worth a hundred thousand bodies." No water
can quench this wild fire.
[5353] ------"In pectus coecos absorbuit ignes,
Ignes qui nec aqua perimi potuere, nec imbre
Diminui, neque graminibus, magicisque susurris."
"A fire he took into his breast,
Which water could not quench.
Nor herb, nor art, nor magic spells
Could quell, nor any drench."
Except it be tears and sighs, for so they may chance find a little ease.
[5354] "Sic candentia colla, sic patens frons,
Sic me blanda tui Neaera ocelli,
Sic pares minio genae perurunt,
Ut ni me lachrymae rigent perennes,
Totus in tenues eam favillas."
"So thy white neck, Neaera, me poor soul
Doth scorch, thy cheeks, thy wanton eyes that roll:
Were it not for my dropping tears that hinder,
I should be quite burnt up forthwith to cinder."
This fire strikes like lightning, which made those old Grecians paint
Cupid, in many of their [5355]temples, with Jupiter's thunderbolts in his
hands; for it wounds, and cannot be perceived how, whence it came, where it
pierced. [5356]_Urimur, et coecum, pectora vulnus habent_, and can hardly
be discerned at first.
[5357] ------"Est mollis flamma medullas,
Et tacitum insano vivit sub pectore vulnus."
"A gentle wound, an easy fire it was,
And sly at first, and secretly did pass."
But by-and-by it began to rage and burn amain;
[5358] ------"Pectus insanum vapor.
Amorque torret, intus saevus vorat
Penitus medullas, atque per venas meat
Visceribus ignis mersus, et venis latens,
Ut agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes."
"This fiery vapour rageth in the veins,
And scorcheth entrails, as when fire burns
A house, it nimbly runs along the beams,
And at the last the whole it overturns."
Abraham Hoffemannus, _lib. 1. amor conjugal, cap. 2. p. 22._ relates out of
Plato, how that Empedocles, the philosopher, was present at the cutting up
of one that died for love, [5359]"his heart was combust, his liver smoky,
his lungs dried up, insomuch that he verily believed his soul was either
sodden or roasted through the vehemency of love's fire." Which belike made
a modern writer of amorous emblems express love's fury by a pot hanging
over the fire, and Cupid blowing the coals. As the heat consumes the water,
[5360]_Sic sua consumit viscera coecus amor_, so doth love dry up his
radical moisture. Another compares love to a melting torch, which stood too
near the fire.
[5361] "Sic quo quis proprior suae puellae est,
Hoc stultus proprior suae runinae est."
"The nearer he unto his mistress is,
The nearer he unto his ruin is."
So that to say truth, as [5362]Castilio describes it, "The beginning,
middle, end of love is nought else but sorrow, vexation, agony, torment,
irksomeness, wearisomeness; so that to be squalid, ugly, miserable,
solitary, discontent, dejected, to wish for death, to complain, rave, and
to be peevish, are the certain signs and ordinary actions of a lovesick
person." This continual pain and torture makes them forget themselves, if
they be far gone with it, in doubt, despair of obtaining, or eagerly bent,
to neglect all ordinary business.
[5363] ------"pendent opera interrupta, minaeque
Murorum ingentes, aequataque machina coelo."
Lovesick Dido left her work undone, so did [5364]Phaedra,
------"Palladis telae vacant
Et inter ipsus pensa labuntur manus."
Faustus, in [5365]Mantuan, took no pleasure in anything he did,
"Nulla quies mihi dulcis erat, nullus labor aegro
Pectore, sensus iners, et mens torpore sepulta,
Carminis occiderat studium."------
And 'tis the humour of them all, to be careless of their persons and their
estates, as the shepherd in [5366]Theocritus, _et haec barba inculta est,
squalidique capilli_, their beards flag, and they have no more care of
pranking themselves or of any business, they care not, as they say, which
end goes forward.
[5367] "Oblitusque greges, et rura domestica totus
[5368] Uritur, et noctes in luctum expendit amaras,
"Forgetting flocks of sheep and country farms,
The silly shepherd always mourns and burns."
Lovesick [5369]Chaerea, when he came from Pamphila's house, and had not so
good welcome as he did expect, was all amort, Parmeno meets him, _quid
tristis es_? Why art thou so sad man? _unde es_? whence comest, how doest?
but he sadly replies, _Ego hercle nescio neque unde eam, neque quorsum eam,
ita prorsus oblitus sum mei_, I have so forgotten myself, I neither know
where I am, nor whence I come, nor whether I will, what I do. P. [5370]"How
so?" Ch. "I am in love." _Prudens sciens._ [5371]--_vivus vidensque pereo,
nec quid agam scio._ [5372]"He that erst had his thoughts free" (as
Philostratus Lemnius, in an epistle of his, describes this fiery passion),
"and spent his time like a hard student, in those delightsome philosophical
precepts; he that with the sun and moon wandered all over the world, with
stars themselves ranged about, and left no secret or small mystery in
nature unsearched, since he was enamoured can do nothing now but think and
meditate of love matters, day and night composeth himself how to please his
mistress; all his study, endeavour, is to approve himself to his mistress,
to win his mistress' favour, to compass his desire, to be counted her
servant." When Peter Abelard, that great scholar of his age, _Cui soli
patuit scibile quicquid erat_, [5373]("whose faculties were equal to any
difficulty in learning,") was now in love with Heloise, he had no mind to
visit or frequent schools and scholars any more, _Taediosum mihi valde
fuit_ (as he [5374]confesseth) _ad scholas procedere, vel in iis morari_,
all his mind was on his new mistress.
Now to this end and purpose, if there be any hope of obtaining his suit, to
prosecute his cause, he will spend himself, goods, fortunes for her, and
though he lose and alienate all his friends, be threatened, be cast off,
and disinherited; for as the poet saith, _Amori quis legem det_?[5375]
though he be utterly undone by it, disgraced, go a begging, yet for her
sweet sake, to enjoy her, he will willingly beg, hazard all he hath, goods,
lands, shame, scandal, fame, and life itself.
"Non recedam neque quiescam, noctu et interdiu,
profecto quam aut ipsam, aut mortem investigavero."
"I'll never rest or cease my suit
Till she or death do make me mute."
Parthenis in Aristaenetus [5376]was fully resolved to do as much. "I may
have better matches, I confess, but farewell shame, farewell honour,
farewell honesty, farewell friends and fortunes, &c. O, Harpedona, keep my
counsel, I will leave all for his sweet sake, I will have him, say no more,
_contra gentes_, I am resolved, I will have him." Gobrias,[5377] the
captain, when, he had espied Rhodanthe, the fair captive maid, fell upon
his knees before Mystilus, the general, with tears, vows, and all the
rhetoric he could, by the scars he had formerly received, the good service
he had done, or whatsoever else was dear unto him, besought his governor he
might have the captive virgin to be his wife, _virtutis suae spolium_, as a
reward of his worth and service; and, moreover, he would forgive him the
money which was owing, and all reckonings besides due unto him, "I ask no
more, no part of booty, no portion, but Rhodanthe to be my wife." And when
as he could not compass her by fair means, he fell to treachery, force and
villainy, and set his life at stake at last to accomplish his desire. 'Tis
a common humour this, a general passion of all lovers to be so affected,
and which Aemilia told Aratine, a courtier in Castilio's discourse, "surely
Aratine, if thou werst not so indeed, thou didst not love; ingenuously
confess, for if thou hadst been thoroughly enamoured, thou wouldst have
desired nothing more than to please thy mistress. For that is the law of
love, to will and nill the same."[5378]_Tantum velle et nolle, velit nolit
quod amica_?[5379]
Undoubtedly this may be pronounced of them all, they are very slaves,
drudges for the time, madmen, fools, dizzards, _atrabilarii_[5380], beside
themselves, and as blind as beetles. Their dotage [5381]is most eminent,
_Amore simul et sapere ipsi Jovi non datur_, as Seneca holds, Jupiter
himself cannot love and be wise both together; the very best of them, if
once they be overtaken with this passion, the most staid, discreet, grave,
generous and wise, otherwise able to govern themselves, in this commit many
absurdities, many indecorums, unbefitting their gravity and persons.
[5382] "Quisquis amat servit, sequitur captivus amantem,
Fert domita cervice jugum"------
Samson, David, Solomon, Hercules, Socrates, &c. are justly taxed of
indiscretion in this point; the middle sort are between hawk and buzzard;
and although they do perceive and acknowledge their own dotage, weakness,
fury, yet they cannot withstand it; as well may witness those
expostulations and confessions of Dido in Virgil.
[5383] "Incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit."
Phaedra in Seneca.
[5384] "Quod ratio poscit, vincit ac regnat furor,
Potensque tota mente dominatur deus."
Myrrha in [5385]. Ovid
"Illa quidem sentit, foedoque repugnat amori,
Et secum quo mente feror, quid molior, inquit,
Dii precor, et pietas," &c.
"She sees and knows her fault, and doth resist,
Against her filthy lust she doth contend.
And whither go I, what am I about?
And God forbid, yet doth it in the end."
Again,
------"Per vigil igne
Carpitur indomito, furiosaque vota retrectat,
Et modo desperat, modo vult tentare, pudetque
Et cupit, et quid agat, non invenit," &c.
"With raging lust she burns, and now recalls
Her vow, and then despairs, and when 'tis past,
Her former thoughts she'll prosecute in haste,
And what to do she knows not at the last."
She will and will not, abhors: and yet as Medea did, doth it,
------"Trahit invitam nova via, aliudque cupido,
Mens aliud suadet; video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor."------
"Reason pulls one way, burning lust another,
She sees and knows what's good, but she doth neither,"
"O fraus, amorque, et mentis emotae furor,
quo me abstulistis?"[5386]
The major part of lovers are carried headlong like so many brute beasts,
reason counsels one way, thy friends, fortunes, shame, disgrace, danger,
and an ocean of cares that will certainly follow; yet this furious lust
precipitates, counterpoiseth, weighs down on the other; though it be their
utter undoing, perpetual infamy, loss, yet they will do it, and become at
last _insensati_, void of sense; degenerate into dogs, hogs, asses, brutes;
as Jupiter into a bull, Apuleius an ass, Lycaon a wolf, Tereus a lapwing,
[5387]Calisto a bear, Elpenor and Grillus info swine by Circe. For what
else may we think those ingenious poets to have shadowed in their witty
fictions and poems but that a man once given over to his lust (as
[5388]Fulgentius interprets that of Apuleius, _Alciat of Tereus_) "is no
better than a beast."
"Rex fueram, sic crista docet, sed sordida vita
Immundam e tanto culmine fecit avem."[5389]
"I was a king, my crown my witness is,
But by my filthiness am come to this."
Their blindness is all out as great, as manifest as their weakness and
dotage, or rather an inseparable companion, an ordinary sign of it, [5390]
love is blind, as the saying is, Cupid's blind, and so are all his
followers. _Quisquis amat ranam, ranam putat esse Dianam_. Every lover
admires his mistress, though she be very deformed of herself, ill-favoured,
wrinkled, pimpled, pale, red, yellow, tanned, tallow-faced, have a swollen
juggler's platter face, or a thin, lean, chitty face, have clouds in her
face, be crooked, dry, bald, goggle-eyed, blear-eyed, or with staring eyes,
she looks like a squissed cat, hold her head still awry, heavy, dull,
hollow-eyed, black or yellow about the eyes, or squint-eyed,
sparrow-mouthed, Persian hook-nosed, have a sharp fox nose, a red nose,
China flat, great nose, _nare simo patuloque_, a nose like a promontory,
gubber-tushed, rotten teeth, black, uneven, brown teeth, beetle browed, a
witch's beard, her breath stink all over the room, her nose drop winter and
summer, with a Bavarian poke under her chin, a sharp chin, lave eared, with
a long crane's neck, which stands awry too, _pendulis mammis_, "her dugs
like two double jugs," or else no dugs, in that other extreme, bloody
fallen fingers, she have filthy, long unpared nails, scabbed hands or
wrists, a tanned skin, a rotten carcass, crooked back, she stoops, is lame,
splay-footed, "as slender in the middle as a cow in the waist," gouty legs,
her ankles hang over her shoes, her feet stink, she breed lice, a mere
changeling, a very monster, an oaf imperfect, her whole complexion savours,
a harsh voice, incondite gesture, vile gait, a vast virago, or an ugly tit,
a slug, a fat fustilugs, a truss, a long lean rawbone, a skeleton, a
sneaker (_si qua latent meliora puta_), and to thy judgment looks like a
merd in a lantern, whom thou couldst not fancy for a world, but hatest,
loathest, and wouldst have spit in her face, or blow thy nose in her bosom,
_remedium amoris_ to another man, a dowdy, a slut, a scold, a nasty, rank,
rammy, filthy, beastly quean, dishonest peradventure, obscene, base,
beggarly, rude, foolish, untaught, peevish, Irus' daughter, Thersites'
sister, Grobians' scholar, if he love her once, he admires her for all
this, he takes no notice of any such errors, or imperfections of body or
mind, [5391]_Ipsa haec--delectant, veluti Balbinum Polypus Agnae_,; he had
rather have her than any woman in the world. If he were a king, she alone
should be his queen, his empress. O that he had but the wealth and treasure
of both the Indies to endow her with, a carrack of diamonds, a chain of
pearl, a cascanet of jewels, (a pair of calfskin gloves of four-pence a
pair were fitter), or some such toy, to send her for a token, she should
have it with all his heart; he would spend myriads of crowns for her sake.
Venus herself, Panthea, Cleopatra, Tarquin's Tanaquil, Herod's Mariamne, or
[5392]Mary of Burgundy, if she were alive, would not match her.
"([5393]Vincit vultus haec Tyndarios,
Qui moverunt horrida bellla."
Let Paris himself be judge) renowned Helen comes short, that Rodopheian
Phillis, Larissean Coronis, Babylonian Thisbe, Polixena, Laura, Lesbia,
&c., your counterfeit ladies were never so fair as she is.
[5394] "Quicquid erit placidi, lepidi, grati, atque faceti,
Vivida cunctorum retines Pandora deorum."
"Whate'er is pretty, pleasant, facete, well,
Whate'er Pandora had, she doth excel."
[5395]_Dicebam Trivioe formam nihil esse Dianoe_. Diana was not to be
compared to her, nor Juno, nor Minerva, nor any goddess. Thetis' feet were
as bright as silver, the ankles of Hebe clearer than crystal, the arms of
Aurora as ruddy as the rose, Juno's breasts as white as snow, Minerva wise,
Venus fair; but what of this? Dainty come thou to me. She is all in all,
[5396] ------"Caelia ridens
Est Venus, incedens Juno, Minerva loquens."
[5397] "Fairest of fair, that fairness doth excel."
Ephemerus in Aristaenetus, so far admireth his mistress' good parts, that
he makes proclamation of them, and challengeth all comers in her behalf.
[5398]"Whoever saw the beauties of the east, or of the west, let them come
from all quarters, all, and tell truth, if ever they saw such an excellent
feature as this is." A good fellow in Petronius cries out, no tongue can
[5399]tell his lady's fine feature, or express it, _quicquid dixeris minus
erit_, &c.
"No tongue can her perfections tell,
In whose each part, all tongues may dwell."
Most of your lovers are of his humour and opinion. She is _nulli secunda_,
a rare creature, a phoenix, the sole commandress of his thoughts, queen of
his desires, his only delight: as [5400]Triton now feelingly sings, that
lovesick sea-god:
"Candida Leucothoe placet, et placet atra Melaene,
Sed Galatea placet longe magis omnibus una."
"Fair Leucothe, black Melene please me well,
But Galatea doth by odds the rest excel."
All the gracious elogies, metaphors, hyperbolical comparisons of the best
things in the world, the most glorious names; whatsoever, I say, is
pleasant, amiable, sweet, grateful, and delicious, are too little for her.
"Phoebo pulchrior et sorore Phoebi."
"His Phoebe is so fair, she is so bright,
She dims the sun's lustre, and the moon's light."
Stars, sun, moons, metals, sweet-smelling flowers, odours, perfumes,
colours, gold, silver, ivory, pearls, precious stones, snow, painted birds,
doves, honey, sugar, spice, cannot express her, [5401]so soft, so tender,
so radiant, sweet, so fair is she.--_Mollior cuniculi capillo_, &c.
[5402] "Lydia bella, puelia candida,
Quae bene superas lac, et lilium,
Albamque simul rosam et rubicundam,
Et expolitum ebur Indicum."
"Fine Lydia, my mistress, white and fair,
The milk, the lily do not thee come near;
The rose so white, the rose so red to see,
And Indian ivory comes short of thee."
Such a description our English Homer makes of a fair lady
[5403] _That Emilia that was fairer to seen,
Then is lily upon the stalk green:
And fresher then May with flowers new,
For with the rose colour strove her hue,
I no't which was the fairer of the two_.
In this very phrase [5404]Polyphemus courts Galatea:
"Candidior folio nivei Galatea ligustri,
Floridior prato, longa procerior alno,
Splendidior vitro, tenero lascivior haedo, &c.
Mollior et cygni plumis, et lacte coacto."
"Whiter Galet than the white withie-wind,
Fresher than a field, higher than a tree,
Brighter than glass, more wanton than a kid,
Softer than swan's down, or ought that may be."
So she admires him again, in that conceited dialogue of Lucian, which John
Secundus, an elegant Dutch modern poet, hath translated into verse. When
Doris and those other sea nymphs upbraided her with her ugly misshapen
lover, Polyphemus; she replies, they speak out of envy and malice,
[5405] "Et plane invidia huc mera vos stimulare videtur.
Quod non vos itidem ut me Polyphemus amet;"
Say what they could, he was a proper man. And as Heloise writ to her
sweetheart Peter Abelard, _Si me Augustus orbis imperator uxorem expeteret,
mallem tua esse meretrix quam orbis imperatrix_; she had rather be his
vassal, his quean, than the world's empress or queen.--_non si me Jupiter
ipse forte velit_,--she would not change her love for Jupiter himself.
To thy thinking she is a most loathsome creature; and as when a country
fellow discommended once that exquisite picture of Helen, made by Zeuxis,
[5406]for he saw no such beauty in it; Nichomachus a lovesick spectator
replied, _Sume tibi meos oculos et deam existimabis_, take mine eyes, and
thou wilt think she is a goddess, dote on her forthwith, count all her
vices virtues; her imperfections infirmities, absolute and perfect: if she
be flat-nosed, she is lovely; if hook-nosed, kingly; if dwarfish and
little, pretty; if tall, proper and man-like, our brave British Boadicea;
if crooked, wise; if monstrous, comely; her defects are no defects at all,
she hath no deformities. _Immo nec ipsum amicae stercus foetet_, though she
be nasty, fulsome, as Sostratus' bitch, or Parmeno's sow; thou hadst as
live have a snake in thy bosom, a toad in thy dish, and callest her witch,
devil, hag, with all the filthy names thou canst invent; he admires her on
the other side, she is his idol, lady, mistress, [5407]venerilla, queen,
the quintessence of beauty, an angel, a star, a goddess.
"Thou art my Vesta, thou my goddess art,
Thy hallowed temple only is my heart."
The fragrancy of a thousand courtesans is in her face: [5408]_Nec pulchrae
effigies, haec Cypridis aut Stratonices_; 'tis not Venus' picture that, nor
the Spanish infanta's, as you suppose (good sir), no princess, or king's
daughter: no, no, but his divine mistress, forsooth, his dainty Dulcinia,
his dear Antiphila, to whose service he is wholly consecrate, whom he alone
adores.
[5409] "Cui comparatus indecens erit pavo,
Inamabilis sciurus, et frequens Phoenix."
"To whom conferr'd a peacock's indecent,
A squirrel's harsh, a phoenix too frequent."
All the graces, veneries, elegancies, pleasures, attend her. He prefers her
before a myriad of court ladies.
[5410] "He that commends Phillis or Neraea,
Or Amaryllis, or Galatea,
Tityrus or Melibea, by your leave,
Let him be mute, his love the praises have."
Nay, before all the gods and goddesses themselves. So [5411]Quintus
Catullus admired his squint-eyed friend Roscius.
"Pace mihi liceat (Coelestes) dicere vestra,
Mortalis visus pulchrior esse Deo."
"By your leave gentle Gods, this I'll say true,
There's none of you that have so fair a hue."
All the bombast epithets, pathetical adjuncts, incomparably fair, curiously
neat, divine, sweet, dainty, delicious, &c., pretty diminutives, _corculum,
suaviolum_, &c. pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss,
pigeon, pigsney, kid, honey, love, dove, chicken, &c. he puts on her.
[5412] "Meum mel, mea suavitas, meum cor,
Meum suaviolum, mei lepores,"
"my life, my light, my jewel, my glory," [5413]_Margareta speciosa, cujus
respectu omnia mundi pretiosa sordent_, my sweet Margaret, my sole delight
and darling. And as [5414]Rhodomant courted Isabella:
"By all kind words and gestures that he might,
He calls her his dear heart, his sole beloved,
His joyful comfort, and his sweet delight.
His mistress, and his goddess, and such names,
As loving knights apply to lovely dames."
Every cloth she wears, every fashion pleaseth him above measure; her hand,
_O quales digitos, quos habet illa manus!_ pretty foot, pretty coronets,
her sweet carriage, sweet voice, tone, O that pretty tone, her divine and
lovely looks, her every thing, lovely, sweet, amiable, and pretty, pretty,
pretty. Her very name (let it be what it will) is a most pretty, pleasing
name; I believe now there is some secret power and virtue in names, every
action, sight, habit, gesture; he admires, whether she play, sing, or
dance, in what tires soever she goeth, how excellent it was, how well it
became her, never the like seen or heard. [5415]_Mille habet ornatus, mille
decenter habet._ Let her wear what she will, do what she will, say what she
will, [5416]_Quicquid enim dicit, seu facit, omne decet_. He applauds and
admires everything she wears, saith or doth,
[5417] "Illam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit,
Composuit furtim subsequiturque decor;
Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis,
Seu compsit, comptis est reverenda comis."
"Whate'er she doth, or whither e'er she go,
A sweet and pleasing grace attends forsooth;
Or loose, or bind her hair, or comb it up,
She's to be honoured in what she doth."
[5418]_Vestem induitur, formosa est: exuitur, tota forma est_, let her be
dressed or undressed, all is one, she is excellent still, beautiful, fair,
and lovely to behold. Women do as much by men; nay more, far fonder,
weaker, and that by many parasangs. "Come to me my dear Lycias," (saith
Musaeus in [5419]Aristaenetus) "come quickly sweetheart, all other men are
satyrs, mere clowns, blockheads to thee, nobody to thee." Thy looks, words,
gestures, actions, &c., "are incomparably beyond all others." Venus was
never so much besotted on her Adonis, Phaedra so delighted in Hippolitus,
Ariadne in Theseus, Thisbe in her Pyramus, as she is enamoured on her
Mopsus.
"Be thou the marigold, and I will be the sun,
Be thou the friar, and I will be the nun."
I could repeat centuries of such. Now tell me what greater dotage or
blindness can there be than this in both sexes? and yet their slavery is
more eminent, a greater sign of their folly than the rest.
They are commonly slaves, captives, voluntary servants, _Amator amicae
mancipium_, as [5420]Castilio terms him, his mistress' servant, her drudge,
prisoner, bondman, what not? "He composeth himself wholly to her affections
to please her, and, as Aemelia said, makes himself her lackey. All his
cares, actions, all his thoughts, are subordinate to her will and
commandment:" her most devote, obsequious, affectionate servant and vassal.
"For love" (as [5421]Cyrus in Xenophon well observed) "is a mere tyranny,
worse than any disease, and they that are troubled with it desire to be
free and cannot, but are harder bound than if they were in iron chains."
What greater captivity or slavery can there be (as [5422]Tully
expostulates) than to be in love? "Is he a free man over whom a woman
domineers, to whom she prescribes laws, commands, forbids what she will
herself; that dares deny nothing she demands; she asks, he gives; she
calls, he comes; she threatens, he fears; _Nequissimum hunc servum puto_, I
account this man a very drudge." And as he follows it, [5423]"Is this no
small servitude for an enamourite to be every hour combing his head,
stiffening his beard, perfuming his hair, washing his face with sweet
water, painting, curling, and not to come abroad but sprucely crowned,
decked, and apparelled?" Yet these are but toys in respect, to go to the
barber, baths, theatres, &c., he must attend upon her wherever she goes,
run along the streets by her doors and windows to see her, take all
opportunities, sleeveless errands, disguise, counterfeit shapes, and as
many forms as Jupiter himself ever took; and come every day to her house
(as he will surely do if he be truly enamoured) and offer her service, and
follow her up and down from room to room, as Lucretia's suitors did, he
cannot contain himself but he will do it, he must and will be where she is,
sit next her, still talking with her. [5424]"If I did but let my glove fall
by chance," (as the said Aretine's Lucretia brags,) "I had one of my
suitors, nay two or three at once ready to stoop and take it up, and kiss
it, and with a low conge deliver it unto me; if I would walk, another was
ready to sustain me by the arm. A third to provide fruits, pears, plums,
cherries, or whatsoever I would eat or drink." All this and much more he
doth in her presence, and when he comes home, as Troilus to his Cressida,
'tis all his meditation to recount with himself his actions, words,
gestures, what entertainment he had, how kindly she used him in such a
place, how she smiled, how she graced him, and that infinitely pleased him;
and then he breaks out, O sweet Areusa, O my dearest Antiphila, O most
divine looks, O lovely graces, and thereupon instantly he makes an epigram,
or a sonnet to five or seven tunes, in her commendation, or else he
ruminates how she rejected his service, denied him a kiss, disgraced him,
&c., and that as effectually torments him. And these are his exercises
between comb and glass, madrigals, elegies, &c., these his cogitations till
he see her again. But all this is easy and gentle, and the least part of
his labour and bondage, no hunter will take such pains for his game, fowler
for his sport, or soldier to sack a city, as he will for his mistress'
favour.
[5425] "Ipsa comes veniam, neque me salebrosa movebunt
Saxa, nec obliquo dente timendus aper."
As Phaedra to Hippolitus. No danger shall affright, for if that be true the
poets feign, Love is the son of Mars and Venus; as he hath delights,
pleasures, elegances from his mother, so hath he hardness, valour, and
boldness from his father. And 'tis true that Bernard hath; _Amore nihil
mollius, nihil volentius_, nothing so boisterous, nothing so tender as
love. If once, therefore, enamoured, he will go, run, ride many a mile to
meet her, day and night, in a very dark night, endure scorching heat, cold,
wait in frost and snow, rain, tempest, till his teeth chatter in his head,
those northern winds and showers cannot cool or quench his flame of love.
_Intempesta nocte non deterretur_, he will, take my word, sustain hunger,
thirst, _Penetrabit omnia, perrumpet omnia_, "love will find out a way,"
through thick and thin he will to her, _Expeditissimi montes videntur omnes
tranabiles_, he will swim through an ocean, ride post over the Alps,
Apennines, or Pyrenean hills,
[5426] "Ignem marisque fluctus, atque turbines
Venti paratus est transire,"------
though it rain daggers with their points downward, light or dark, all is
one: (_Roscida per tenebras Faunus ad antra venit_), for her sweet sake he
will undertake Hercules's twelve labours, endure, hazard, &c., he feels it
not. [5427]"What shall I say," saith Haedus, "of their great dangers they
undergo, single combats they undertake, how they will venture their lives,
creep in at windows, gutters, climb over walls to come to their
sweethearts," (anointing the doors and hinges with oil, because they should
not creak, tread soft, swim, wade, watch, &c.), "and if they be surprised,
leap out at windows, cast themselves headlong down, bruising or breaking
their legs or arms, and sometimes loosing life itself," as Calisto did for
his lovely Melibaea. Hear some of their own confessions, protestations,
complaints, proffers, expostulations, wishes, brutish attempts, labours in
this kind. Hercules served Omphale, put on an apron, took a distaff and
spun; Thraso the soldier was so submissive to Thais, that he was resolved
to do whatever she enjoined. [5428]_Ego me Thaidi dedam; et faciam quod
jubet_, I am at her service. Philostratus in an epistle to his mistress,
[5429]"I am ready to die sweetheart if it be thy will; allay his thirst
whom thy star hath scorched and undone, the fountains and rivers deny no
man drink that comes; the fountain doth not say thou shalt not drink, nor
the apple thou shalt not eat, nor the fair meadow walk not in me, but thou
alone wilt not let me come near thee, or see thee, contemned and despised I
die for grief." Polienus, when his mistress Circe did but frown upon him in
Petronius, drew his sword, and bade her [5430]kill, stab, or whip him to
death, he would strip himself naked, and not resist. Another will take a
journey to Japan, _Longae navigationis molestis non curans_: a third (if
she say it) will not speak a word for a twelvemonth's space, her command
shall be most inviolably kept: a fourth will take Hercules's club from him,
and with that centurion in the Spanish [5431]Caelestina, will kill ten men
for his mistress Areusa, for a word of her mouth he will cut bucklers in
two like pippins, and flap down men like flies, _Elige quo mortis genere
illum occidi cupis_? [5432]Galeatus of Mantua did a little more: for when
he was almost mad for love of a fair maid in the city, she, to try him
belike what he would do for her sake, bade him in jest leap into the river
Po if he loved her; he forthwith did leap headlong off the bridge and was
drowned. Another at Ficinum in like passion, when his mistress by chance
(thinking no harm I dare swear) bade him go hang, the next night at her
doors hanged himself. [5433]"Money" (saith Xenophon) "is a very acceptable
and welcome guest, yet I had rather give it my dear Clinia than take it of
others, I had rather serve him than command others, I had rather be his
drudge than take my ease, undergo any danger for his sake than live in
security. For I had rather see Clinia than all the world besides, and had
rather want the sight of all other things than him alone; I am angry with
the night and sleep that I may not see him, and thank the light and sun
because they show me my Clinia; I will run into the fire for his sake, and
if you did but see him, I know that you likewise would run with me." So
Philostratus to his mistress, [5434]"Command me what you will, I will do
it; bid me go to sea, I am gone in an instant, take so many stripes, I am
ready, run through the fire, and lay down my life and soul at thy feet,
'tis done." So did. Aeolus to Juno.
------"Tuus o regina quod optas
Explorare labor, mihi jussa capescere fas est."
"O queen it is thy pains to enjoin me still,
And I am bound to execute thy will."
And Phaedra to Hippolitus,
"Me vel sororem Hippolite aut famulam voca,
Famulamque potius, omne servitium feram."
"O call me sister, call me servant, choose,
Or rather servant, I am thine to use."
[5435] "Non me per altas ire si jubeas nives,
Pigeat galatis ingredi Pindi jugis,
Non si per ignes ire aut infesta agmina
Cuncter, paratus [5436]ensibus pectus dare,
Te tunc jubere, me decet jussa exequi."
"It shall not grieve me to the snowy hills,
Or frozen Pindus' tops forthwith to climb.
Or run through fire, or through an army,
Say but the word, for I am always thine."
Callicratides in [5437]Lucian breaks out into this passionate speech, "O
God of Heaven, grant me this life for ever to sit over against my mistress,
and to hear her sweet voice, to go in and out with her, to have every other
business common with her; I would labour when she labours; sail when she
sails; he that hates her should hate me; and if a tyrant kill her, he
should kill me; if she should die, I would not live, and one grave should
hold us both." [5438]_Finiet illa meos moriens morientis amores_. Abrocomus
in [5439]Aristaenetus makes the like petition for his Delphia,
--[5440]_Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam lubens_. "I desire to live with
thee, and I am ready to die with thee." 'Tis the same strain which
Theagines used to his Chariclea, "so that I may but enjoy thy love, let me
die presently:" Leander to his Hero, when he besought the sea waves to let
him go quietly to his love, and kill him coming back. [5441]_Parcite dum
propero, mergite dum redeo_. "Spare me whilst I go, drown me as I return."
'Tis the common humour of them all, to contemn death, to wish for death, to
confront death in this case, _Quippe queis nec fera, nec ignis, neque
praecipitium, nec fretum, nec ensis, neque laqueus gravia videntur_; "'Tis
their desire" (saith Tyrius) "to die."
"Haud timet mortem, cupit ire in ipsos
------obvius enses."
"He does not fear death, he desireth such upon the very swords." Though a
thousand dragons or devils keep the gates, Cerberus himself, Scyron and
Procrastes lay in wait, and the way as dangerous, as inaccessible as hell,
through fiery flames and over burning coulters, he will adventure for all
this. And as [5442]Peter Abelard lost his testicles for his Heloise, he
will I say not venture an incision, but life itself. For how many gallants
offered to lose their lives for a night's lodging with Cleopatra in those
days! and in the hour or moment of death, 'tis their sole comfort to
remember their dear mistress, as [5443]Zerbino slain in France, and
Brandimart in Barbary; as Arcite did his Emily.
[5444] ------_when he felt death,
Dusked been his eyes, and faded is his breath
But on his lady yet casteth he his eye,
His last word was, mercy Emely,
His spirit chang'd, and out went there,
Whether I cannot tell, ne where_.
[5445]When Captain Gobrius by an unlucky accident had received his death's
wound, _heu me miserum exclamat_, miserable man that I am, (instead of
other devotions) he cries out, shall I die before I see my sweetheart
Rhodanthe? _Sic amor mortem_, (saith mine author) _aut quicquid humanitus
accidit, aspernatur_, so love triumphs, contemns, insults over death
itself. Thirteen proper young men lost their lives for that fair
Hippodamias' sake, the daughter of Onomaus, king of Elis: when that hard
condition was proposed of death or victory, they made no account of it, but
courageously for love died, till Pelops at last won her by a sleight.
[5446]As many gallants desperately adventured their dearest blood for
Atalanta, the daughter of Schenius, in hope of marriage, all vanquished and
overcame, till Hippomenes by a few golden apples happily obtained his suit.
Perseus, of old, fought with a sea monster for Andromeda's sake; and our
St. George freed the king's daughter of Sabea (the golden legend is mine
author) that was exposed to a dragon, by a terrible combat. Our knights
errant, and the Sir Lancelots of these days, I hope will adventure as much
for ladies' favours, as the Squire of Dames, Knight of the Sun, Sir Bevis
of Southampton, or that renowned peer,
[5447] "Orlando, who long time had loved dear
Angelica the fair, and for her sake
About the world in nations far and near,
Did high attempts perform and undertake;"
he is a very dastard, a coward, a block and a beast, that will not do as
much, but they will sure, they will; for it is an ordinary thing for these
inamoratos of our time to say and do more, to stab their arms, carouse in
blood, [5448]or as that Thessalian Thero, that bit off his own thumb,
_provocans rivalem ad hoc aemulandum_, to make his co-rival do as much.
'Tis frequent with them to challenge the field for their lady and mistress'
sake, to run a tilt,
[5449] "That either bears (so furiously they meet)
The other down under the horses' feet,"
and then up and to it again,
"And with their axes both so sorely pour,
That neither plate nor mail sustain'd the stour,
But riveld wreak like rotten wood asunder,
And fire did flash like lightning after thunder;"
and in her quarrel, to fight so long [5450]"till their headpiece, bucklers
be all broken, and swords hacked like so many saws," for they must not see
her abused in any sort, 'tis blasphemy to speak against her, a dishonour
without all good respect to name her. 'Tis common with these creatures, to
drink [5451]healths upon their bare knees, though it were a mile to the
bottom, no matter of what mixture, off it comes. If she bid them they will
go barefoot to Jerusalem, to the great Cham's court, [5452] to the East
Indies, to fetch her a bird to wear in her hat: and with Drake and Candish
sail round about the world for her sweet sake, _adversis ventis_, serve
twice seven years, as Jacob did for Rachel; do as much as [5453]Gesmunda,
the daughter of Tancredus, prince of Salerna, did for Guisardus, her true
love, eat his heart when he died; or as Artemisia drank her husband's bones
beaten to powder, and so bury him in herself, and endure more torments than
Theseus or Paris. _Et his colitur Venus magis quam thure, et victimis_,
with such sacrifices as these (as [5454] Aristaenetus holds) Venus is well
pleased. Generally they undertake any pain, any labour, any toil, for their
mistress' sake, love and admire a servant, not to her alone, but to all her
friends and followers, they hug and embrace them for her sake; her dog,
picture, and everything she wears, they adore it as a relic. If any man
come from her, they feast him, reward him, will not be out of his company,
do him all offices, still remembering, still talking of her:
[5455] "Nam si abest quod ames, praesto simulacra tamen sunt
Illius, et nomen dulce observatur ad aures."
The very carrier that comes from him to her is a most welcome guest; and if
he bring a letter, she will read it twenty times over, and as [5456]
Lucretia did by Euryalus, "kiss the letter a thousand times together, and
then read it:" And [5457]Chelidonia by Philonius, after many sweet kisses,
put the letter in her bosom,
"And kiss again, and often look thereon,
And stay the messenger that would be gone:"
And asked many pretty questions, over and over again, as how he looked,
what he did, and what he said? In a word,
[5458] "Vult placere sese amicae, vult mihi, vult pedissequae,
Vult famulis, vult etiam ancillis, et catulo meo."
"He strives to please his mistress, and her maid,
Her servants, and her dog, and's well apaid."
If he get any remnant of hers, a busk-point, a feather of her fan, a
shoe-tie, a lace, a ring, a bracelet of hair,
[5459] "Pignusque direptum lacertis;
Aut digito male pertinaci,"
he wears it for a favour on his arm, in his hat, finger, or next his heart.
Her picture he adores twice a day, and for two hours together will not look
off it; as Laodamia did by Protesilaus, when he went to war, [5460]"'sit
at home with his picture before her;' a garter or a bracelet of hers is
more precious than any saint's relic," he lays it up in his casket, (O
blessed relic) and every day will kiss it: if in her presence, his eye is
never off her, and drink he will where she drank, if it be possible, in
that very place, &c. If absent, he will walk in the walk, sit under that
tree where she did use to sit, in that bower, in that very seat,--_et
foribus miser oscula figit_, [5461]many years after sometimes, though she
be far distant and dwell many miles off, he loves yet to walk that way
still, to have his chamber-window look that way: to walk by that river's
side, which (though far away) runs by the house where she dwells, he loves
the wind blows to that coast.
[5462] "O quoties dixi Zephyris properantibus illuc,
Felices pulchram visuri Amaryllada venti."
"O happy western winds that blow that way,
For you shall see my love's fair face to day."
He will send a message to her by the wind.
[5463] "Vos aurae Alpinae, placidis de montibus aurae,
Haec illi portate,"------
[5464]he desires to confer with some of her acquaintance, for his heart is
still with her, [5465]to talk of her, admiring and commending her,
lamenting, moaning, wishing himself anything for her sake, to have
opportunity to see her, O that he might but enjoy her presence! So did
Philostratus to his mistress, [5466]"O happy ground on which she treads,
and happy were I if she would tread upon me. I think her countenance would
make the rivers stand, and when she comes abroad, birds will sing and come
about her."
"Ridebunt valles, ridebunt obvia Tempe,
In florem viridis protinus ibi humus."
"The fields will laugh, the pleasant valleys burn,
And all the grass will into flowers turn."
_Omnis Ambrosiam spirabit aura_. [5467]"When she is in the meadow, she is
fairer than any flower, for that lasts but for a day, the river is
pleasing, but it vanisheth on a sudden, but thy flower doth not fade, thy
stream is greater than the sea. If I look upon the heaven, methinks I see
the sun fallen down to shine below, and thee to shine in his place, whom I
desire. If I look upon the night, methinks I see two more glorious stars,
Hesperus and thyself." A little after he thus courts his mistress, [5468]
"If thou goest forth of the city, the protecting gods that keep the town
will run after to gaze upon thee: if thou sail upon the seas, as so many
small boats, they will follow thee: what river would not run into the sea?"
Another, he sighs and sobs, swears he hath _Cor scissum_, a heart bruised
to powder, dissolved and melted within him, or quite gone from him, to his
mistress' bosom belike, he is in an oven, a salamander in the fire, so
scorched with love's heat; he wisheth himself a saddle for her to sit on, a
posy for her to smell to, and it would not grieve him to be hanged, if he
might be strangled in her garters: he would willingly die tomorrow, so that
she might kill him with her own hands. [5469]Ovid would be a flea, a gnat,
a ring, Catullus a sparrow,
[5470] "O si tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem,
Et tristes animi levare curas."
[5471]Anacreon, a glass, a gown, a chain, anything,
"Sed speculum ego ipse fiam,
Ut me tuum usque cernas,
Et vestis ipse fiam,
Ut me tuum usque gestes.
Mutari et opto in undam,
Lavem tuos ut artus,
Nardus puella fiam,
Ut ego teipsum inungam,
Sim fascia in papillis,
Tuo et monile collo.
Fiamque calceus, me
Saltem ut pede usque calces."
[5472] "But I a looking-glass would be,
Still to be look'd upon by thee,
Or I, my love, would be thy gown,
By thee to be worn up and down;
Or a pure well full to the brims,
That I might wash thy purer limbs:
Or, I'd be precious balm to 'noint,
With choicest care each choicest joint;
Or, if I might, I would be fain
About thy neck thy happy chain,
Or would it were my blessed hap
To be the lawn o'er thy fair pap.
Or would I were thy shoe, to be
Daily trod upon by thee."
O thrice happy man that shall enjoy her: as they that saw Hero in Museus,
and [5473]Salmacis to Hermaphroditus,
[5474] ------"Felices mater, &c. felix nutrix.--
Sed longe cunctis, longeque beatior ille,
Quem fructu sponsi et socii dignabere lecti."
The same passion made her break out in the comedy, [5475]_Nae illae
fortunatae, sunt quae cum illo cubant_, "happy are his bedfellows;" and as
she said of Cyprus, [5476]_Beata quae illi uxor futura esset_, blessed is
that woman that shall be his wife, nay, thrice happy she that shall enjoy
him but a night. [5477]_Una nox Jovis sceptro aequiparanda_, such a night's
lodging is worth Jupiter's sceptre.
[5478] "Qualis nox erit illa, dii, deaeque,
Quam mollis thorus?"
"O what a blissful night would it be, how soft, how sweet a bed!" She will
adventure all her estate for such a night, for a nectarean, a balsam kiss
alone.
[5479] "Qui te videt beatus est,
Beatior qui te audiet,
Qui te potitur est Deus."
The sultan of Sana's wife in Arabia, when she had seen Vertomannus, that
comely traveller, lamented to herself in this manner, [5480]"O God, thou
hast made this man whiter than the sun, but me, mine husband, and all my
children black; I would to God he were my husband, or that I had such a
son;" she fell a weeping, and so impatient for love at last, that (as
Potiphar's wife did by Joseph) she would have had him gone in with her, she
sent away Gazella, Tegeia, Galzerana, her waiting-maids, loaded him with
fair promises and gifts, and wooed him with all the rhetoric she could,--
_extremum hoc miserae da munus amanti_, "grant this last request to a
wretched lover." But when he gave not consent, she would have gone with
him, and left all, to be his page, his servant, or his lackey, _Certa sequi
charum corpus ut umbra solet_, so that she might enjoy him, threatening
moreover to kill herself, &c. Men will do as much and more for women, spend
goods, lands, lives, fortunes; kings will leave their crowns, as King John
for Matilda the nun at Dunmow.
[5481] "But kings in this yet privileg'd may be,
I'll be a monk so I may live with thee."
The very Gods will endure any shame (_atque aliquis de diis non tristibus
inquit_, &c.) be a spectacle as Mars and Venus were, to all the rest; so
did Lucian's Mercury wish, and peradventure so dost thou. They will
adventure their lives with alacrity --[5482]_pro qua non metuam mori_--nay
more, _pro qua non metuam bis mori_, I will die twice, nay, twenty times
for her. If she die, there's no remedy, they must die with her, they cannot
help it. A lover in Calcagninus, wrote this on his darling's tomb,
"Quincia obiit, sed non Quincia sola obiit,
Quincia obiit, sed cum Quincia et ipse obii;
Risus obit, obit gratia, lusus obit.
Nec mea nunc anima in pectore, at in tumulo est."
"Quincia my dear is dead, but not alone,
For I am dead, and with her I am gone:
Sweet smiles, mirth, graces, all with her do rest,
And my soul too, for 'tis not in my breast."
How many doting lovers upon the like occasion might say the same? But these
are toys in respect, they will hazard their very souls for their mistress'
sake.
"Atque aliquis interjuvenes miratus est, et verbum dixit,
Non ego in caelo cuperem Deus esse,
Nostram uxorem habens domi Hero."
"One said, to heaven would I not
desire at all to go,
If that at mine own house I had
such a fine wife as Hero."
Venus forsook heaven for Adonis' sake,--[5483]_caelo praefertur Adonis_.
Old Janivere, in Chaucer, thought when he had his fair May he should never
go to heaven, he should live so merrily here on earth; had I such a
mistress, he protests,
[5484] "Caelum diis ego non suum inviderem,
Sed sortem mihi dii meam inviderent."
"I would not envy their prosperity,
The gods should envy my felicity."
Another as earnestly desires to behold his sweetheart he will adventure and
leave all this, and more than this to see her alone.
[5485] "Omnia quae patior mala si pensare velit fors,
Una aliqua nobis prosperitate, dii
Hoc precor, ut faciant, faciant me cernere coram,
Cor mihi captivum quae tenet hocce, deam."
"If all my mischiefs were recompensed
And God would give we what I requested,
I would my mistress' presence only seek,
Which doth mine heart in prison captive keep."
But who can reckon upon the dotage, madness, servitude and blindness, the
foolish phantasms and vanities of lovers, their torments, wishes, idle
attempts?
Yet for all this, amongst so many irksome, absurd, troublesome symptoms,
inconveniences, fantastical fits and passions which are usually incident to
such persons, there be some good and graceful qualities in lovers, which
this affection causeth. "As it makes wise men fools, so many times it makes
fools become wise; [5486]it makes base fellows become generous, cowards
courageous," as Cardan notes out of Plutarch; "covetous, liberal and
magnificent; clowns, civil; cruel, gentle; wicked, profane persons, to
become religious; slovens, neat; churls, merciful; and dumb dogs, eloquent;
your lazy drones, quick and nimble." _Feras mentes domat cupido_, that
fierce, cruel and rude Cyclops Polyphemus sighed, and shed many a salt tear
for Galatea's sake. No passion causeth greater alterations, or more
vehement of joy or discontent. Plutarch. _Sympos. lib. 5. quaest. 1_,
[5487] saith, "that the soul of a man in love is full of perfumes and sweet
odours, and all manner of pleasing tones and tunes, insomuch that it is
hard to say (as he adds) whether love do mortal men more harm than good."
It adds spirits and makes them, otherwise soft and silly, generous and
courageous, [5488]_Audacem faciebat amor_. Ariadne's love made Theseus so
adventurous, and Medea's beauty Jason so victorious; _expectorat amor
timorem_. [5489]Plato is of opinion that the love of Venus made Mars so
valorous. "A young man will be much abashed to commit any foul offence that
shall come to the hearing or sight of his mistress." As [5490]he that
desired of his enemy now dying, to lay him with his face upward, _ne
amasius videret eum a tergo vulneratum_, lest his sweetheart should say he
was a coward. "And if it were [5491]possible to have an army consist of
lovers, such as love, or are beloved, they would be extraordinary valiant
and wise in their government, modesty would detain them from doing amiss,
emulation incite them to do that which is good and honest, and a few of
them would overcome a great company of others." There is no man so
pusillanimous, so very a dastard, whom love would not incense, make of a
divine temper, and an heroical spirit. As he said in like case, [5492]
_Tota ruat caeli moles, non terreor_, &c. Nothing can terrify, nothing can
dismay them. But as Sir Blandimor and Paridel, those two brave fairy
knights, fought for the love of fair Florimel in presence--
[5493] "And drawing both their swords with rage anew,
Like two mad mastives each other slew,
And shields did share, and males did rash, and helms did hew;
So furiously each other did assail,
As if their souls at once they would have rent,
Out of their breasts, that streams of blood did trail
Adown as if their springs of life were spent,
That all the ground with purple blood was sprent,
And all their armour stain'd with bloody gore,
Yet scarcely once to breath would they relent.
So mortal was their malice and so sore,
That both resolved (than yield) to die before."
Every base swain in love will dare to do as much for his dear mistress'
sake. He will fight and fetch, [5494]Argivum Clypeum, that famous buckler
of Argos, to do her service, adventure at all, undertake any enterprise.
And as Serranus the Spaniard, then Governor of Sluys, made answer to
Marquess Spinola, if the enemy brought 50,000 devils against him he would
keep it. The nine worthies, Oliver and Rowland, and forty dozen of peers
are all in him, he is all mettle, armour of proof, more than a man, and in
this case improved beyond himself. For as [5495]Agatho contends, a true
lover is wise, just, temperate, and valiant. [5496]"I doubt not, therefore,
but if a man had such an army of lovers" (as Castilio supposeth) "he might
soon conquer all the world, except by chance he met with such another army
of inamoratos to oppose it." [5497]For so perhaps they might fight as that
fatal dog and fatal hare in the heavens, course one another round, and
never make an end. Castilio thinks Ferdinand King of Spain would never have
conquered Granada, had not Queen Isabel and her ladies been present at the
siege: [5498]"It cannot be expressed what courage the Spanish knights took,
when the ladies were present, a few Spaniards overcame a multitude of
Moors." They will undergo any danger whatsoever, as Sir Walter Manny in
Edward the Third's time, stuck full of ladies' favours, fought like a
dragon. For _soli amantes_, as [5499]Plato holds, _pro amicis mori
appetunt_, only lovers will die for their friends, and in their mistress'
quarrel. And for that cause he would have women follow the camp, to be
spectators and encouragers of noble actions: upon such an occasion, the
[5500]Squire of Dames himself, Sir Lancelot or Sir Tristram, Caesar, or
Alexander, shall not be more resolute or go beyond them.
Not courage only doth love add, but as I said, subtlety, wit, and many
pretty devices, [5501]_Namque dolos inspirat amor, fraudesque ministrat_,
[5502]Jupiter in love with Leda, and not knowing how to compass his desire,
turned himself into a swan, and got Venus to pursue him in the likeness of
an eagle; which she doing, for shelter, he fled to Leda's lap, _et in ejus
gremio se collocavit_, Leda embraced him, and so fell fast asleep, _sed
dormientem Jupiter compressit_, by which means Jupiter had his will.
Infinite such tricks love can devise, such fine feats in abundance, with
wisdom and wariness, [5503]_quis fallere possit amantem_. All manner of
civility, decency, compliment and good behaviour, _plus solis et leporis_,
polite graces and merry conceits. Boccaccio hath a pleasant tale to this
purpose, which he borrowed from the Greeks, and which Beroaldus hath turned
into Latin, Bebelius in verse, of Cymon and Iphigenia. This Cymon was a
fool, a proper man of person, and the governor of Cyprus' son. but a very
ass, insomuch that his father being ashamed of him, sent him to a farmhouse
he had in the country, to be brought up. Where by chance, as his manner
was, walking alone, he espied a gallant young gentlewoman, named Iphigenia,
a burgomaster's daughter of Cyprus, with her maid, by a brook side in a
little thicket, fast asleep in her smock, where she had newly bathed
herself: "When [5504]Cymon saw her, he stood leaning on his staff, gaping
on her immovable, and in amaze;" at last he fell so far in love with the
glorious object, that he began to rouse himself up, to bethink what he was,
would needs follow her to the city, and for her sake began to be civil, to
learn to sing and dance, to play on instruments, and got all those
gentlemanlike qualities and compliments in a short space, which his friends
were most glad of. In brief, he became, from an idiot and a clown, to be
one of the most complete gentlemen in Cyprus, did many valorous exploits,
and all for the love of mistress Iphigenia. In a word, I may say thus much
of them all, let them be never so clownish, rude and horrid, Grobians and
sluts, if once they be in love they will be most neat and spruce; for,
[5505]_Omnibus rebus, et nitidis nitoribus antevenit amor_, they will
follow the fashion, begin to trick up, and to have a good opinion of
themselves, _venustatem enim mater Venus_; a ship is not so long a rigging
as a young gentlewoman a trimming up herself against her sweetheart comes.
A painter's shop, a flowery meadow, no so gracious aspect in nature's
storehouse as a young maid, _nubilis puella_, a Novitsa or Venetian bride,
that looks for a husband, or a young man that is her suitor; composed
looks, composed gait, clothes, gestures, actions, all composed; all the
graces, elegances in the world are in her face. Their best robes, ribands,
chains, jewels, lawns, linens, laces, spangles, must come on,
[5506]_praeter quam res patitur student elegantiae_, they are beyond all
measure coy, nice, and too curious on a sudden; 'tis all their study, all
their business, how to wear their clothes neat, to be polite and terse, and
to set out themselves. No sooner doth a young man see his sweetheart
coming, but he smugs up himself, pulls up his cloak now fallen about his
shoulders, ties his garters, points, sets his band, cuffs, slicks his hair,
twires his beard, &c. When Mercury was to come before his mistress,
[5507] ------"Chlamydemque ut pendeat apte
Collocat, ut limbus totumque appareat aurum."
"He put his cloak in order, that the lace.
And hem, and gold-work, all might have his grace."
Salmacis would not be seen of Hermaphroditus, till she had spruced up
herself first,
[5508] "Nec tamen ante adiit, etsi properabat adire,
Quam se composuit, quam circumspexit amictus,
Et finxit vultum, et meruit formosa videri."
"Nor did she come, although 'twas her desire,
Till she compos'd herself, and trimm'd her tire,
And set her looks to make him to admire."
Venus had so ordered the matter, that when her son [5509]Aeneas was to
appear before Queen Dido, he was
"Os humerosque deo similis (namque ipsa decoram
Caesariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventae
Purpureum et laetos oculis afflarat honores.")
like a god, for she was the tire-woman herself, to set him out with all
natural and artificial impostures. As mother Mammea did her son
Heliogabalus, new chosen emperor, when he was to be seen of the people
first. When the hirsute cyclopical Polyphemus courted Galatea;
[5510] "Jamque tibi formae, jamque est tibi cura placendi,
Jam rigidos pectis rastris Polypheme capillos,
Jam libet hirsutam tibi falce recidere barbam,
Et spectare feros in aqua et componere vultus."
"And then he did begin to prank himself,
To plait and comb his head, and beard to shave,
And look his face i' th' water as a glass,
And to compose himself for to be brave."
He was upon a sudden now spruce and keen, as a new ground hatchet. He now
began to have a good opinion of his own features and good parts, now to be
a gallant.
"Jam Galatea veni, nec munera despice nostra,
Certe ego me novi, liquidaque in imagine vidi
Nuper aquae, placuitque mihi mea forma videnti."
"Come now, my Galatea, scorn me not,
Nor my poor presents; for but yesterday
I saw myself i' th' water, and methought
Full fair I was, then scorn me not I say."
[5511] "Non sum adeo informis, nuper me in littore vidi,
Cum placidum ventis staret mare"------
'Tis the common humour of all suitors to trick up themselves, to be
prodigal in apparel, _pure lotus_, neat, combed, and curled, with powdered
hair, _comptus et calimistratus_, with a long love-lock, a flower in his
ear, perfumed gloves, rings, scarves, feathers, points, &c. as if he were a
prince's Ganymede, with everyday new suits, as the fashion varies; going as
if he trod upon eggs, as Heinsius writ to Primierus, [5512]"if once he be
besotten on a wench, he must like awake at nights, renounce his book, sigh
and lament, now and then weep for his hard hap, and mark above all things
what hats, bands, doublets, breeches, are in fashion, how to cut his beard,
and wear his locks, to turn up his mustachios, and curl his head, prune his
pickedevant, or if he wear it abroad, that the east side be correspondent
to the west;" he may be scoffed at otherwise, as Julian that apostate
emperor was for wearing a long hirsute goatish beard, fit to make ropes
with, as in his Mysopogone, or that apologetical oration he made at Antioch
to excuse himself, he doth ironically confess, it hindered his kissing,
_nam non licuit inde pura puris, eoque suavioribus labra labris adjungere_,
but he did not much esteem it, as it seems by the sequel, _de accipiendis
dandisve osculis non laboro_, yet (to follow mine author) it may much
concern a young lover, he must be more respectful in this behalf, "he must
be in league with an excellent tailor, barber,"
[5513] "Tonsorem pucrum sed arte talem,
Qualis nec Thalamis fuit Neronis;"
"have neat shoe-ties, points, garters, speak in print, walk in print, eat
and drink in print, and that which is all in all, he must be mad in print."
Amongst other good qualities an amorous fellow is endowed with, he must
learn to sing and dance, play upon some instrument or other, as without all
doubt he will, if he be truly touched with this loadstone of love. For as
[5514]Erasmus hath it, _Musicam docet amor et Poesia_, love will make them
musicians, and to compose ditties, madrigals, elegies, love sonnets, and
sing them to several pretty tunes, to get all good qualities may be had.
[5515]Jupiter perceived Mercury to be in love with Philologia, because he
learned languages, polite speech, (for Suadela herself was Venus' daughter,
as some write) arts and sciences, _quo virgini placeret_, all to ingratiate
himself, and please his mistress. 'Tis their chiefest study to sing, dance;
and without question, so many gentlemen and gentlewomen would not be so
well qualified in this kind, if love did not incite them. [5516]"Who,"
saith Castilio, "would learn to play, or give his mind to music, learn to
dance, or make so many rhymes, love-songs, as most do, but for women's
sake, because they hope by that means to purchase their good wills, and win
their favour?" We see this daily verified in our young women and wives,
they that being maids took so much pains to sing, play, and dance, with
such cost and charge to their parents, to get those graceful qualities, now
being married will scarce touch an instrument, they care not for it.
Constantine _agricult. lib. 11. cap. 18_, makes Cupid himself to be a great
dancer; by the same token as he was capering amongst the gods, [5517]"he
flung down a bowl of nectar, which distilling upon the white rose, ever
since made it red:" and Calistratus, by the help of Dedalus, about Cupid's
statue [5518]made a many of young wenches still a dancing, to signify
belike that Cupid was much affected with it, as without all doubt he was.
For at his and Psyche's wedding, the gods being present to grace the feast,
Ganymede filled nectar in abundance (as [5519]Apuleius describes it),
Vulcan was the cook, the Hours made all fine with roses and flowers, Apollo
played on the harp, the Muses sang to it, _sed suavi Musicae super ingressa
Venus saltavit_, but his mother Venus danced to his and their sweet
content. Witty [5520]Lucian in that pathetical love passage, or pleasant
description of Jupiter's stealing of Europa, and swimming from Phoenicia to
Crete, makes the sea calm, the winds hush, Neptune and Amphitrite riding in
their chariot to break the waves before them, the tritons dancing round
about, with every one a torch, the sea-nymphs half naked, keeping time on
dolphins' backs, and singing Hymeneus, Cupid nimbly tripping on the top of
the waters, and Venus herself coming after in a shell, strewing roses and
flowers on their heads. Praxiteles, in all his pictures of love, feigns
Cupid ever smiling, and looking upon dancers; and in St. Mark's in Rome
(whose work I know not), one of the most delicious pieces, is a many of
[5521]satyrs dancing about a wench asleep. So that dancing still is as it
were a necessary appendix to love matters. Young lasses are never better
pleased than when as upon a holiday, after evensong, they may meet their
sweethearts, and dance about a maypole, or in a town-green under a shady
elm. Nothing so familiar in. [5522]France, as for citizens' wives and maids
to dance a round in the streets, and often too, for want of better
instruments, to make good music of their own voices, and dance after it.
Yea many times this love will make old men and women that have more toes
than teeth, dance,--"John, come kiss me now," mask and mum; for Comus and
Hymen love masks, and all such merriments above measure, will allow men to
put on women's apparel in some cases, and promiscuously to dance, young and
old, rich and poor, generous and base, of all sorts. Paulus Jovius taxeth
Augustine Niphus the philosopher, [5523]"for that being an old man, and a
public professor, a father of many children, he was so mad for the love of
a young maid (that which many of his friends were ashamed to see), an old
gouty fellow, yet would dance after fiddlers." Many laughed him to scorn
for it, but this omnipotent love would have it so.
[5524] "Hyacinthino bacillo
Properans amor, me adegit
Violenter ad sequendum."
"Love hasty with his purple staff did make
Me follow and the dance to undertake."
And 'tis no news this, no indecorum; for why? a good reason may be given of
it. Cupid and death met both in an inn; and being merrily disposed, they
did exchange some arrows from either quiver; ever since young men die, and
oftentimes old men dote--[5525]_Sic moritur Juvenis, sic moribundus amat_.
And who can then withstand it? If once we be in love, young or old, though
our teeth shake in our heads, like virginal jacks, or stand parallel
asunder like the arches of a bridge, there is no remedy, we must dance
trenchmore for a need, over tables, chairs, and stools, &c. And princum
prancum is a fine dance. Plutarch, _Sympos. 1. quaest. 5._ doth in some
sort excuse it, and telleth us moreover in what sense, _Musicam docet amor,
licet prius fuerit rudis_, how love makes them that had no skill before
learn to sing and dance; he concludes, 'tis only that power and prerogative
love hath over us. [5526]"Love" (as he holds) "will make a silent man
speak, a modest man most officious; dull, quick; slow, nimble; and that
which is most to be admired, a hard, base, untractable churl, as fire doth
iron in a smith's forge, free, facile, gentle, and easy to be entreated."
Nay, 'twill make him prodigal in the other extreme, and give a
[5527]hundred sesterces for a night's lodging, as they did of old to Lais
of Corinth, or [5528] _ducenta drachmarum millia pro unica nocte_, as
Mundus to Paulina, spend all his fortunes (as too many do in like case) to
obtain his suit. For which cause many compare love to wine, which makes men
jovial and merry, frolic and sad, whine, sing, dance, and what not.
But above all the other symptoms of lovers, this is not lightly to be
overpassed, that likely of what condition soever, if once they be in love,
they turn to their ability, rhymers, ballad makers, and poets. For as
Plutarch saith, [5529]"They will be witnesses and trumpeters of their
paramours' good parts, bedecking them with verses and commendatory songs,
as we do statues with gold, that they may be remembered and admired of
all." Ancient men will dote in this kind sometimes as well as the rest; the
heat of love will thaw their frozen affections, dissolve the ice of age,
and so far enable them, though they be sixty years of age above the girdle,
to be scarce thirty beneath. Jovianus Pontanus makes an old fool rhyme, and
turn poetaster to please his mistress.
[5530] "Ne ringas Mariana, meos me dispice canos,
De sene nam juvenem dia referre potes," &c.
"Sweet Marian do not mine age disdain,
For thou canst make an old man young again."
They will be still singing amorous songs and ditties (if young especially),
and cannot abstain though it be when they go to, or should be at church. We
have a pretty story to this purpose in [5531]Westmonasteriensis, an old
writer of ours (if you will believe it) _An. Dom._ 1012. at Colewiz in
Saxony, on Christmas eve a company of young men and maids, whilst the
priest was at mass in the church, were singing catches and love songs in
the churchyard, he sent to them to make less noise, but they sung on still:
and if you will, you shall have the very song itself.
"Equitabat homo per sylvam frondosam,
Ducebatque secum Meswinden formosam.
Quid stamus, cur non imus?"
"A fellow rid by the greenwood side,
And fair Meswinde was his bride,
Why stand we so, and do not go?"
This they sung, he chaft, till at length, impatient as he was, he prayed to
St. Magnus, patron of the church, they might all three sing and dance till
that time twelvemonth, and so [5532]they did without meat and drink,
wearisomeness or giving over, till at year's end they ceased singing, and
were absolved by Herebertus archbishop of Cologne. They will in all places
be doing thus, young folks especially, reading love stories, talking of
this or that young man, such a fair maid, singing, telling or hearing
lascivious tales, scurrilous tunes, such objects are their sole delight,
their continual meditation, and as Guastavinius adds, _Com. in 4. Sect. 27.
Prov. Arist._ _ob seminis abundantiam crebrae cogitationes, veneris
frequens recordatio et pruriens voluptas_, &c. an earnest longing comes
hence, _pruriens corpus, pruriens anima_, amorous conceits, tickling
thoughts, sweet and pleasant hopes; hence it is, they can think, discourse
willingly, or speak almost of no other subject. 'Tis their only desire, if
it may be done by art, to see their husband's picture in a glass, they'll
give anything to know when they shall be married, how many husbands they
shall have, by cromnyomantia, a kind of divination with [5533]onions laid
on the altar on Christmas eve, or by fasting on St. Anne's eve or night, to
know who shall be their first husband, or by amphitormantia, by beans in a
cake, &c., to burn the same. This love is the cause of all good conceits,
[5534] neatness, exornations, plays, elegancies, delights, pleasant
expressions, sweet motions, and gestures, joys, comforts, exultancies, and
all the sweetness of our life, [5535]_qualis jam vita foret, aut quid
jucundi sine aurea Venere_? [5536]_Emoriar cum ista non amplius mihi cura
fuerit_, let me live no longer than I may love, saith a mad merry fellow in
Mimnermus. This love is that salt that seasoneth our harsh and dull
labours, and gives a pleasant relish to our other unsavoury proceedings,
[5537]_Absit amor, surgunt tenebrae, torpedo, veternum, pestis_, &c. All
our feasts almost, masques, mummings, banquets, merry meetings, weddings,
pleasing songs, fine tunes, poems, love stories, plays, comedies, Atellans,
jigs, Fescennines, elegies, odes, &c. proceed hence. [5538]Danaus, the son
of Belus, at his daughter's wedding at Argos, instituted the first plays
(some say) that ever were heard of symbols, emblems, impresses, devices, if
we shall believe Jovius, Coutiles, Paradine, Camillus de Camillis, may be
ascribed to it. Most of our arts and sciences, painting amongst the rest,
was first invented, saith [5539]Patritius _ex amoris beneficio_, for love's
sake. For when the daughter of [5540]Deburiades the Sycionian, was to take
leave of her sweetheart now going to wars, _ut desiderio ejus minus
tabesceret_, to comfort herself in his absence, she took his picture with
coal upon a wall, as the candle gave the shadow, which her father admiring,
perfected afterwards, and it was the first picture by report that ever was
made. And long after, Sycion for painting, carving, statuary, music, and
philosophy, was preferred before all the cities in Greece. [5541]Apollo was
the first inventor of physic, divination, oracles; Minerva found out
weaving, Vulcan curious ironwork, Mercury letters, but who prompted all
this into their heads? Love, _Nunquam talia invenissent, nisi talia
adamassent_, they loved such things, or some party, for whose sake they
were undertaken at first. 'Tis true, Vulcan made a most admirable brooch or
necklace, which long after Axion and Temenus, Phegius' sons, for the
singular worth of it, consecrated to Apollo at Delphos, but Pharyllus the
tyrant stole it away, and presented it to Ariston's wife, on whom he
miserably doted (Parthenius tells the story out of Phylarchus); but why did
Vulcan make this excellent Ouch? to give Hermione Cadmus' wife, whom he
dearly loved. All our tilts and tournaments, orders of the garter, golden
fleece, &c.--_Nobilitas sub amore jacet_--owe their beginnings to love, and
many of our histories. By this means, saith Jovius, they would express
their loving minds to their mistress, and to the beholders. 'Tis the sole
subject almost of poetry, all our invention tends to it, all our songs,
whatever those old Anacreons: (and therefore Hesiod makes the Muses and
Graces still follow Cupid, and as Plutarch holds, Menander and the rest of
the poets were love's priests,) all our Greek and Latin epigrammatists,
love writers. Antony Diogenes the most ancient, whose epitome we find in
Phocius Bibliotheca, Longus Sophista, Eustathius, Achilles, Tatius,
Aristaenetus, Heliodorus, Plato, Plutarch, Lucian, Parthenius, Theodorus,
Prodromus, Ovid, Catullus, Tibullus, &c. Our new Ariostoes, Boyards,
Authors of Arcadia, Urania, Faerie Queen, &c. Marullus, Leotichius,
Angerianus, Stroza, Secundus, Capellanus, &c. with the rest of those facete
modern poets, have written in this kind, are but as so many symptoms of
love. Their whole books are a synopsis or breviary of love, the portuous of
love, legends of lovers' lives and deaths, and of their memorable
adventures, nay more, _quod leguntur, quod laudantur amori debent_, as
[5542]Nevisanus the lawyer holds, "there never was any excellent poet that
invented good fables, or made laudable verses, which was not in love
himself;" had he not taken a quill from Cupid's wings, he could never have
written so amorously as he did.
[5543] "Cynthia te vatem fecit lascive Properti,
Ingenium Galli pulchra Lycoris habet.
Fama est arguti Nemesis formosa Tibulli,
Lesbia dictavit docte Catulle tibi.
Non me Pelignus, nec spernet Mantua vatem,
Si qua Corinna mihi, si quis Alexis erit."
"Wanton Propertius and witty Callus,
Subtile Tibullus, and learned Catullus,
It was Cynthia, Lesbia, Lychoris,
That made you poets all; and if Alexis,
Or Corinna chance my paramour to be,
Virgil and Ovid shall not despise me."
[5544] "Non me carminibus vincet nec Thraceus Orpheus,
Nec Linus."
Petrarch's Laura made him so famous, Astrophel's Stella, and Jovianus
Pontanus' mistress was the cause of his roses, violets, lilies, _nequitiae,
blanditiae, joci, decor, nardus, ver, corolla, thus, Mars, Pallas, Venus,
Charis, crocum, Laurus, unguentem, costum, lachrymae, myrrha, musae_, &c.
and the rest of his poems; why are Italians at this day generally so good
poets and painters? Because every man of any fashion amongst them hath his
mistress. The very rustics and hog-rubbers, Menalcas and Corydon, _qui
faetant de stercore equino_, those fulsome knaves, if once they taste of
this love-liquor, are inspired in an instant. Instead of those accurate
emblems, curious impresses, gaudy masques, tilts, tournaments, &c., they
have their wakes, Whitsun-ales, shepherd's feasts, meetings on holidays,
country dances, roundelays, writing their names on [5545]trees, true
lover's knots, pretty gifts.
"With tokens, hearts divided, and half rings,
Shepherds in their loves are as coy as kings."
Choosing lords, ladies, kings, queens, and valentines, &c., they go by
couples,
"Corydon's Phillis, Nysa and Mopsus,
With dainty Dousibel and Sir Tophus."
Instead of odes, epigrams and elegies, &c., they have their ballads,
country tunes, "O the broom, the bonny, bonny broom," ditties and songs,
"Bess a belle, she doth excel,"--they must write likewise and indite all in
rhyme.
[5546] "Thou honeysuckle of the hawthorn hedge,
Vouchsafe in Cupid's cup my heart to pledge;
My heart's dear blood, sweet Cis is thy carouse
Worth all the ale in Gammer Gubbin's house.
I say no more, affairs call me away,
My father's horse for provender doth stay.
Be thou the Lady Cressetlight to me.
Sir Trolly Lolly will I prove to thee.
Written in haste, farewell my cowslip sweet,
Pray let's a Sunday at the alehouse meet."
Your most grim stoics and severe philosophers will melt away with this
passion, and if [5547]Atheneus belie them not, Aristippus, Apollodorus,
Antiphanes, &c., have made love-songs and commentaries of their mistress'
praises, [5548]orators write epistles, princes give titles, honours, what
not? [5549]Xerxes gave to Themistocles Lampsacus to find him wine, Magnesia
for bread, and Myunte for the rest of his diet. The [5550]Persian kings
allotted whole cities to like use, _haec civitas mulieri redimiculum
praebeat, haec in collum, haec in crines_, one whole city served to dress
her hair, another her neck, a third her hood. Ahasuerus would [5551]have
given Esther half his empire, and [5552]Herod bid Herodias "ask what she
would, she should have it." Caligula gave 100,000 sesterces to his
courtesan at first word, to buy her pins, and yet when he was solicited by
the senate to bestow something to repair the decayed walls of Rome for the
commonwealth's good, he would give but 6000 sesterces at most.
[5553]Dionysius, that Sicilian tyrant, rejected all his privy councillors,
and was so besotted on Mirrha his favourite and mistress, that he would
bestow no office, or in the most weightiest business of the kingdom do
aught without her especial advice, prefer, depose, send, entertain no man,
though worthy and well deserving, but by her consent; and he again whom she
commended, howsoever unfit, unworthy, was as highly approved. Kings and
emperors, instead of poems, build cities; Adrian built Antinoa in Egypt,
besides constellations, temples, altars, statues, images, &c., in the
honour of his Antinous. Alexander bestowed infinite sums to set out his
Hephestion to all eternity. [5554]Socrates professeth himself love's
servant, ignorant in all arts and sciences, a doctor alone in love matters,
_et quum alienarum rerum omnium scientiam diffiteretur_, saith
[5555]Maximus Tyrius, _his sectator, hujus negotii professor_, &c., and
this he spake openly, at home and abroad, at public feasts, in the academy,
_in Pyraeo, Lycaeo, sub Platano_, &c., the very bloodhound of beauty, as he
is styled by others. But I conclude there is no end of love's symptoms,
'tis a bottomless pit. Love is subject to no dimensions; not to be surveyed
by any art or engine: and besides, I am of [5556]Haedus' mind, "no man can
discourse of love matters, or judge of them aright, that hath not made
trial in his own person," or as Aeneas Sylvius [5557]adds, "hath not a
little doted, been mad or lovesick himself." I confess I am but a novice, a
contemplator only, _Nescio quid sit amor nec amo_[5558]--I have a tincture;
for why should I lie, dissemble or excuse it, yet _homo sum_, &c., not
altogether inexpert in this subject, _non sum praeceptor amandi_, and what
I say, is merely reading, _ex altorum forsan ineptiis_, by mine own
observation, and others' relation.
MEMB. IV.
_Prognostics of Love-Melancholy_.
What fires, torments, cares, jealousies, suspicions, fears, griefs,
anxieties, accompany such as are in love, I have sufficiently said: the
next question is, what will be the event of such miseries, what they
foretell. Some are of opinion that this love cannot be cured, _Nullis amor
est medicabilis herbis_, it accompanies them to the [5559]last, _Idem amor
exitio est pecori pecorisque magistro_. "The same passion consume both the
sheep and the shepherd," and is so continuate, that by no persuasion almost
it may be relieved. [5560]"Bid me not love," said Euryalus, "bid the
mountains come down into the plains, bid the rivers run back to their
fountains; I can as soon leave to love, as the sun leave his course;"
[5561] "Et prius aequoribus pisces, et montibus umbrae,
Et volucres deerunt sylvis, et murmura ventis,
Quam mihi discedent formosae Amaryllidis ignes."
"First seas shall want their fish, the mountains shade
Woods singing birds, the wind's murmur shall fade,
Than my fair Amaryllis' love allay'd."
Bid me not love, bid a deaf man hear, a blind man see, a dumb speak, lame
run, counsel can do no good, a sick man cannot relish, no physic can ease
me. _Non prosunt domino quae prosunt omnibus artes_. As Apollo confessed,
and Jupiter himself could not be cured.
[5562] "Omnes humanos curat medicina dolores,
Solus amor morbi non habet artificem."
"Physic can soon cure every disease,
[5563] Excepting love that can it not appease."
But whether love may be cured or no, and by what means, shall be explained
in his place; in the meantime, if it take his course, and be not otherwise
eased or amended, it breaks out into outrageous often and prodigious
events. _Amor et Liber violenti dii sunt_) as [5564]Tatius observes, _et
eousque animum incendunt, ut pudoris oblivisci cogant_, love and Bacchus
are so violent gods, so furiously rage in our minds, that they make us
forget all honesty, shame, and common civility. For such men ordinarily, as
are thoroughly possessed with this humour, become _insensati et insani_,
for it is [5565]_amor insanus_, as the poet calls it, beside themselves,
and as I have proved, no better than beasts, irrational, stupid,
headstrong, void of fear of God or men, they frequently forswear
themselves, spend, steal, commit incests, rapes, adulteries, murders,
depopulate towns, cities, countries, to satisfy their lust.
[5566] "A devil 'tis, and mischief such doth work,
As never yet did Pagan, Jew, or Turk."
The wars of Troy may be a sufficient witness; and as Appian, _lib. 5.
hist_, saith of Antony and Cleopatra, [5567]"Their love brought themselves
and all Egypt into extreme and miserable calamities," "the end of her is as
bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword," Prov. v. 4, 5. "Her
feet go down to death, her steps lead on to hell. She is more bitter than
death," (Eccles. vii. 28.) "and the sinner shall be taken by her."
[5568]_Qui in amore praecipitavit, pejus perit, quam qui saxo salit_.
[5569]"He that runs headlong from the top of a rock is not in so bad a case
as he that falls into this gulf of love." "For hence," saith [5570]
Platina, "comes repentance, dotage, they lose themselves, their wits, and
make shipwreck of their fortunes altogether:" madness, to make away
themselves and others, violent death. _Prognosticatio est talis_, saith
Gordonius, [5571]_si non succurratur iis, aut in maniam cadunt, aut
moriuntur_; the prognostication is, they will either run mad, or die. "For
if this passion continue," saith [5572]Aelian Montaltus, "it makes the
blood hot, thick, and black; and if the inflammation get into the brain,
with continual meditation and waking, it so dries it up, that madness
follows, or else they make away themselves," [5573]_O Corydon, Corydon,
quae te dementia cepit_? Now, as Arnoldus adds, it will speedily work these
effects, if it be not presently helped; [5574]"They will pine away, run
mad, and die upon a sudden;" _Facile incidunt in maniam_, saith Valescus,
quickly mad, _nisi succurratur_, if good order be not taken,
[5575] "Ehou triste jugum quisquis amoris habet,
Is prius se norit se periisse perit."
"Oh heavy yoke of love, which whoso bears,
Is quite undone, and that at unawares."
So she confessed of herself in the poet,
[5576] ------"insaniam priusquam quis sentiat,
Vix pili intervallo a furore absum."
"I shall be mad before it be perceived,
A hair-breadth off scarce am I, now distracted."
As mad as Orlando for his Angelica, or Hercules for his Hylas,
"At ille ruebat quo pedes ducebant, furibundus,
Nam illi saevus Deus intus jecur laniabat."
"He went he car'd not whither, mad he was,
The cruel God so tortured him, alas!"
At the sight of Hero I cannot tell how many ran mad,
[5577] "Alius vulnus celans insanit pulchritudine puellae."
"And whilst he doth conceal his grief,
Madness comes on him like a thief."
Go to Bedlam for examples. It is so well known in every village, how many
have either died for love, or voluntary made away themselves, that I need
not much labour to prove it: [5578]_Nec modus aut requies nisi mors
reperitur amoris_: death is the common catastrophe to such persons.
[5579] "Mori mihi contingat, non enim alia
Liberatio ab aeramnis fuerit ullo paeto istis."
"Would I were dead, for nought, God knows,
But death can rid me of these woes."
As soon as Euryalus departed from Senes, Lucretia, his paramour, "never
looked up, no jests could exhilarate her sad mind, no joys comfort her
wounded and distressed soul, but a little after she fell sick and died."
But this is a gentle end, a natural death, such persons commonly make away
themselves.
------"proprioque in sanguine laetus,
Indignantem animam vacuas elludit in auras;"
so did Dido; _Sed moriamur ait, sic sic juvat ire per umbras_; [5580]
Pyramus and Thisbe, Medea, [5581]Coresus and Callirhoe, [5582]Theagines the
philosopher, and many myriads besides, and so will ever do,
[5583] ------"et mihi fortis
Est manus, est et amor, dabit hic in vulnera vires."
"Whoever heard a story of more woe,
Than that of Juliet and her Romeo?"
Read Parthenium in _Eroticis_, and Plutarch's _amatorias narrationes_, or
love stories, all tending almost to this purpose. Valleriola, _lib. 2.
observ. 7_, hath a lamentable narration of a merchant, his patient, [5584]
"that raving through impatience of love, had he not been watched, would
every while have offered violence to himself." Amatus Lusitanus, _cent. 3.
car. 56_, hath such [5585]another story, and Felix Plater, _med. observ.
lib. 1._ a third of a young [5586]gentleman that studied physic, and for
the love of a doctor's daughter, having no hope to compass his desire,
poisoned himself, [5587]anno 1615. A barber in Frankfort, because his wench
was betrothed to another, cut his own throat. [5588]At Neoburg, the same
year, a young man, because he could not get her parents' consent, killed
his sweetheart, and afterward himself, desiring this of the magistrate, as
he gave up the ghost, that they might be buried in one grave, _Quodque
rogis superest una requiescat in urna_, which [5589] Gismunda besought of
Tancredus, her father, that she might be in like sort buried with
Guiscardus, her lover, that so their bodies might lie together in the
grave, as their souls wander about [5590]_Campos lugentes_ in the Elysian
fields,--_quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit_, [5591]in a myrtle grove
[5592] ------"et myrtea circum
Sylva tegit: curae non ipsa in morte relinquunt."
You have not yet heard the worst, they do not offer violence to themselves
in this rage of lust, but unto others, their nearest and dearest friends.
[5593]Catiline killed his only son, _misitque ad orci pallida, lethi
obnubila, obsita tenebris loca_, for the love of Aurelia Oristella, _quod
ejus nuptias vivo filio recusaret_. [5594]Laodice, the sister of
Mithridates, poisoned her husband, to give content to a base fellow whom
she loved. [5595]Alexander, to please Thais, a concubine of his, set
Persepolis on fire. [5596]Nereus' wife, a widow, and lady of Athens, for
the love of a Venetian gentleman, betrayed the city; and he for her sake
murdered his wife, the daughter of a nobleman in Venice. [5597]Constantine
Despota made away Catherine, his wife, turned his son Michael and his other
children out of doors, for the love of a base scrivener's daughter in
Thessalonica, with whose beauty he was enamoured. [5598]Leucophria betrayed
the city where she dwelt, for her sweetheart's sake, that was in the
enemies' camp. [5599]Pithidice, the governor's daughter of Methinia, for
the love of Achilles, betrayed the whole island to him, her father's enemy.
[5600]Diognetus did as much in the city where he dwelt, for the love of
Policrita, Medea for the love of Jason, she taught him how to tame the
fire-breathing brass-feeted bulls, and kill the mighty dragon that kept the
golden fleece, and tore her little brother Absyrtus in pieces, that her
father. Aethes might have something to detain him, while she ran away with
her beloved Jason, &c. Such acts and scenes hath this tragicomedy of love.
MEMB. V.
SUBSECT. 1.--_Cure of Love-Melancholy, by Labour, Diet, Physic, Fasting,
&c._
Although it be controverted by some, whether love-melancholy may be cured,
because it is so irresistible and violent a passion; for as you know,
[5601] ------"facilis descensus Averni;
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras;
Hic labor, hoc opus est."------
"It is an easy passage down to hell,
But to come back, once there, you cannot well."
Yet without question, if it be taken in time, it may be helped, and by many
good remedies amended. Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen. cap. 23. et 24._ sets down
seven compendious ways how this malady may be eased, altered, and expelled.
Savanarola 9. principal observations, Jason Pratensis prescribes eight
rules besides physic, how this passion may be tamed, Laurentius 2. main
precepts, Arnoldus, Valleriola, Montaltus, Hildesheim, Langius, and others
inform us otherwise, and yet all tending to, the same purpose. The sum of
which I will briefly epitomise, (for I light my candle from their torches)
and enlarge again upon occasion, as shall seem best to me, and that after
mine own method. The first rule to be observed in this stubborn and
unbridled passion, is exercise and diet. It is an old and well-known,
sentence, _Sine Cerere et Saccho friget Venus_ (love grows cool without
bread and wine). As an [5602]idle sedentary life, liberal feeding, are
great causes of it, so the opposite, labour, slender and sparing diet, with
continual business, are the best and most ordinary means to prevent it.
"Otio si tollas, periere Cupidinis artes,
Contemptaeque jacent, et sine luce faces."
"Take idleness away, and put to flight
Are Cupid's arts, his torches give no light."
Minerva, Diana, Vesta, and the nine Muses were not enamoured at all,
because they never were idle.
[5603] "Frustra blanditae appulistis ad has,
Frustra nequitiae venistis ad has,
Frustra delitiae obsidebitis has,
Frustra has illecebrae, et procacitates,
Et suspiria, et oscula, et susurri,
Et quisquis male sana corda amantum
Blandis ebria fascinat venenis."
"In vain are all your flatteries,
In vain are all your knaveries,
Delights, deceits, procacities,
Sighs, kisses, and conspiracies,
And whate'er is done by art,
To bewitch a lover's heart."
'Tis in vain to set upon those that are busy. 'Tis Savanarola's third rule,
_Occupari in multis et magnis negotiis_, and Avicenna's precept, _cap. 24._
[5604]_Cedit amor rebus; res, age tutus eris_. To be busy still, and as
[5605]Guianerius enjoins, about matters of great moment, if it may be.
[5606]Magninus adds, "Never to be idle but at the hours of sleep."
[5607] ------"et si
Poscas ante diem librum cum lumine, si non
Intendas animum studiis, et rebus honestis,
Invidia vel amore miser torquebere."------
"For if thou dost not ply thy book,
By candlelight to study bent,
Employ'd about some honest thing,
Envy or love shall thee torment."
No better physic than to be always occupied, seriously intent.
[5608] "Cur in penates rarius tenues subit,
Haec delicatas eligens pestis domus,
Mediumque sanos vulgus affectuss tenet?" &c.
"Why dost thou ask, poor folks are often free,
And dainty places still molested be?"
Because poor people fare coarsely, work hard, go woolward and bare. [5609]
_Non habet unde suum paupertas pascat amorem_. [5610]Guianerius therefore
prescribes his patient "to go with hair-cloth next his skin, to go
barefooted, and barelegged in cold weather, to whip himself now and then,
as monks do, but above all to fast." Not with sweet wine, mutton and
pottage, as many of those tender-bellies do, howsoever they put on Lenten
faces, and whatsoever they pretend, but from all manner of meat. Fasting is
an all-sufficient remedy of itself; for, as Jason Pratensis holds, the
bodies of such persons that feed liberally, and live at ease, [5611]"are
full of bad spirits and devils, devilish thoughts; no better physic for
such parties, than to fast." Hildesheim, _spicel. 2._ to this of hunger,
adds, [5612]"often baths, much exercise and sweat," but hunger and fasting
he prescribes before the rest. And 'tis indeed our Saviour's oracle, "This
kind of devil is not cast out but by fasting and prayer," which makes the
fathers so immoderate in commendation of fasting. As "hunger," saith [5613]
Ambrose, "is a friend of virginity, so is it an enemy to lasciviousness,
but fullness overthrows chastity, and fostereth all manner of
provocations." If thine horse be too lusty, Hierome adviseth thee to take
away some of his provender; by this means those Pauls, Hilaries, Anthonies,
and famous anchorites, subdued the lusts of the flesh; by this means
Hilarion "made his ass, as he called his own body, leave kicking," (so
[5614]Hierome relates of him in his life) "when the devil tempted him to
any such foul offence." By this means those [5615]Indian Brahmins kept
themselves continent: they lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the
red-shanks do on heather, and dieted themselves sparingly on one dish,
which Guianerius would have all young men put in practice, and if that will
not serve, [5616]Gordonius "would have them soundly whipped, or, to cool
their courage, kept in prison," and there fed with bread and water till
they acknowledge their error, and become of another mind. If imprisonment
and hunger will not take them down, according to the directions of that
[5617] Theban Crates, "time must wear it out; if time will not, the last
refuge is a halter." But this, you will say, is comically spoken.
Howsoever, fasting, by all means, must be still used; and as they must
refrain from such meats formerly mentioned, which cause venery, or provoke
lust, so they must use an opposite diet. [5618]Wine must be altogether
avoided of the younger sort. So [5619]Plato prescribes, and would have the
magistrates themselves abstain from it, for example's sake, highly
commending the Carthaginians for their temperance in this kind. And 'twas a
good edict, a commendable thing, so that it were not done for some sinister
respect, as those old Egyptians abstained from wine, because some fabulous
poets had given out, wine sprang first from the blood of the giants, or out
of superstition, as our modern Turks, but for temperance, it being _animae
virus et vitiorum fomes_, a plague itself, if immoderately taken. Women of
old for that cause, [5620]in hot countries, were forbid the use of it; as
severely punished for drinking of wine as for adultery; and young folks, as
Leonicus hath recorded, Var. _hist. l. 3. cap. 87, 88._ out of Athenaeus
and others, and is still practised in Italy, and some other countries of
Europe and Asia, as Claudius Minoes hath well illustrated in his Comment on
the 23. Emblem of Alciat. So choice is to be made of other diet.
"Nec minus erucas aptum est vitare salaces,
Et quicquid veneri corpora nostra parat."
"Eringos are not good for to be taken,
And all lascivious meats must be forsaken."
Those opposite meats which ought to be used are cucumbers, melons,
purslane, water-lilies, rue, woodbine, ammi, lettuce, which Lemnius so much
commends, _lib. 2, cap. 42._ and Mizaldus _hort. med._ to this purpose;
vitex, or agnus castus before the rest, which, saith [5621]Magninus, hath a
wonderful virtue in it. Those Athenian women, in their solemn feasts called
Thesmopheries, were to abstain nine days from the company of men, during
which time, saith Aelian, they laid a certain herb, named hanea, in their
beds, which assuaged those ardent flames of love, and freed them from the
torments of that violent passion. See more in Porta, Matthiolus,
Crescentius _lib. 5._ &c., and what every herbalist almost and physician
hath written, _cap. de Satyriasi et Priapismo_; Rhasis amongst the rest. In
some cases again, if they be much dejected, and brought low in body, and
now ready to despair through anguish, grief, and too sensible a feeling of
their misery, a cup of wine and full diet is not amiss, and as Valescus
adviseth, _cum alia honesta venerem saepe exercendo_, which Langius _epist.
med. lib. 1. epist. 24._ approves out of Rhasis (_ad assiduationem coitus
invitat_] and Guianerius seconds it, _cap. 16. tract. 16._ as a [5622] very
profitable remedy.
[5623] ------"tument tibi quum inguina, cum si
Ancilla, aut verna praesto est, tentigine rumpi
Malis? non ego namque," &c.------
[5624]Jason Pratensis subscribes to this counsel of the poet, _Excretio
enim aut tollet prorsus aut lenit aegritudinem._ As it did the raging lust
of Ahasuerus, [5625]_qui ad impatientiam amoris leniendam, per singulas
fere noctes novas puellas devirginavit._ And to be drunk too by fits; but
this is mad physic, if it be at all to be permitted. If not, yet some
pleasure is to be allowed, as that which Vives speaks of, _lib. 3. de
anima._, [5626]"A lover that hath as it were lost himself through
impotency, impatience, must be called home as a traveller, by music,
feasting, good wine, if need be to drunkenness itself, which many so much
commend for the easing of the mind, all kinds of sports and merriments, to
see fair pictures, hangings, buildings, pleasant fields, orchards, gardens,
groves, ponds, pools, rivers, fishing, fowling, hawking, hunting, to hear
merry tales, and pleasant discourse, reading, to use exercise till he
sweat, that new spirits may succeed, or by some vehement affection or
contrary passion to be diverted till he be fully weaned from anger,
suspicion, cares, fears, &c., and habituated into another course." _Semper
tecum sit_, (as [5627]Sempronius adviseth Calisto his lovesick master) _qui
sermones joculares moveat, conciones ridiculas, dicteria falsa, suaves
historias, fabulas venustas recenseat, coram ludat_, &c., still have a
pleasant companion to sing and tell merry tales, songs and facete
histories, sweet discourse, &c. And as the melody of music, merriment,
singing, dancing, doth augment the passion of some lovers, as [5628]
Avicenna notes, so it expelleth it in others, and doth very much good.
These things must be warily applied, as the parties' symptoms vary, and as
they shall stand variously affected.
If there be any need of physic, that the humours be altered, or any new
matter aggregated, they must be cured as melancholy men. Carolus a Lorme,
amongst other questions discussed for his degree at Montpelier in France,
hath this, _An amantes et amantes iisdem remediis curentur_? Whether lovers
and madmen be cured by the same remedies? he affirms it; for love extended
is mere madness. Such physic then as is prescribed, is either inward or
outward, as hath been formerly handled in the precedent partition in the
cure of melancholy. Consult with Valleriola _observat. lib. 2. observ. 7._
Lod. Mercatus _lib. 2. cap. 4. de mulier. affect._ Daniel Sennertus _lib.
1. part. 2. cap. 10._ [5629]Jacobus Ferrandus the Frenchman, in his Tract
_de amore Erotique_, Forestus _lib. 10. observ. 29 and 30_, Jason Pratensis
and others for peculiar receipts. [5630]Amatus Lusitanus cured a young Jew,
that was almost mad for love, with the syrup of hellebore, and such other
evacuations and purges which are usually prescribed to black choler:
[5631]Avicenna confirms as much if need require, and [5632]"bloodletting
above the rest," which makes _amantes ne sint amentes_, lovers to come to
themselves, and keep in their right minds. 'Tis the same which Schola
Salernitana, Jason Pratensis, Hildesheim, &c., prescribe bloodletting to be
used as a principal remedy. Those old Scythians had a trick to cure all
appetite of burning lust, by [5633] letting themselves blood under the
ears, and to make both men and women barren, as Sabellicus in his
_Aeneades_ relates of them. Which Salmuth. _Tit. 10. de Herol. comment. in
Pancirol. de nov. report._ Mercurialis, _var. lec. lib. 3. cap. 7._ out of
Hippocrates and Benzo say still is in use amongst the Indians, a reason of
which Langius gives _lib. 1. epist. 10._
Huc faciunt medicamenta venerem sopientia, "ut camphora pudendis alligata,
et in bracha gestata" (quidam ait) "membrum flaccidum reddit. Laboravit hoc
morbo virgo nobilis, cui inter caetera praescripsit medicus, ut laminam
plumbeam multis foraminibus pertusam ad dies viginti portaret in dorso; ad
exiccandum vero sperma jussit eam quam parcissime cibari, et manducare
frequentur coriandrum praeparatum, et semen lactucae, et acetosae, et sic
eam a morbo liberavit". Porro impediunt et remittunt coitum folia salicis
trita et epota, et si frequentius usurpentur ipsa in totum auferunt. Idem
praestat Topatius annulo gestatus, dexterum lupi testiculum attritum, et
oleo vel aqua rosata exhibitum veneris taedium inducere scribit Alexander
Benedictus: lac butyri commestum et semen canabis, et camphora exhibita
idem praestant. Verbena herba gestata libidinem extinguit, pulvisquae ranae
decollatae et exiccatae. Ad extinguendum coitum, ungantur membra genitalia,
et renes et pecten aqua in qua opium Thebaicum sit dissolutum; libidini
maxime contraria camphora est, et coriandrum siccum frangit coitum, et
erectionem virgae impedit; idem efficit synapium ebibitum. "Da verbenam in
potu et non erigetur virga sex diebus; utere mentha sicca cum aceto,
genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami aid cicutae, coitus appelitum sedant,
&c. [Symbol: Rx]. seminis lactuc. portulac. coriandri an. [Symbol: Dram]j.
menthae siccae [Symbol: Dram]ß. sacchari albiss. [Symbol: Ounce]iiij.
pulveriscentur omnia subtiliter, et post ea simul misce aqua neunpharis, f.
confec. solida in morsulis. Ex his sumat mane unum quum surgat". Innumera
fere his similia petas ab Hildishemo loco praedicto, Mizaldo, Porta,
caeterisque.
SUBSECT. II.--_Withstand the beginnings, avoid occasions, change his place:
fair and foul means, contrary passions, with witty inventions: to bring in
another, and discommend the former_.
Other good rules and precepts are enjoined by our physicians, which, if not
alone, yet certainly conjoined, may do much; the first of which is _obstare
principiis_, to withstand the beginning,[5634]_Quisquis in primo obstitit,
Pepulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit_, he that will but resist at first,
may easily be a conqueror at the last. Balthazar Castilio, _l. 4._ urgeth
this prescript above the rest, [5635]"when he shall chance" (saith he) "to
light upon a woman that hath good behaviour joined with her excellent
person, and shall perceive his eyes with a kind of greediness to pull unto
them this image of beauty, and carry it to the heart: shall observe himself
to be somewhat incensed with this influence, which moveth within: when he
shall discern those subtle spirits sparkling in her eyes, to administer
more fuel to the fire, he must wisely withstand the beginnings, rouse up
reason, stupefied almost, fortify his heart by all means, and shut up all
those passages, by which it may have entrance." 'Tis a precept which all
concur upon,
[5636] "Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi,
Dum licet, in primo lumine siste pedem."
"Thy quick disease, whilst it is fresh today,
By all means crush, thy feet at first step stay."
Which cannot speedier be done, than if he confess his grief and passion to
some judicious friend [5637](_qui tacitus ardet magis uritur_, the more he
conceals, the greater is his pain) that by his good advice may happily ease
him on a sudden; and withal to avoid occasions, or any circumstance that
may aggravate his disease, to remove the object by all means; for who can
stand by a fire and not burn?
[5638] "Sussilite obsecro et mittite istanc foras,
quae misero mihi amanti ebibit sanguinem."
'Tis good therefore to keep quite out of her company, which Hierom so much
labours to Paula, to Nepotian; Chrysost. so much inculcates in _ser. in
contubern._ Cyprian, and many other fathers of the church, Siracides in his
ninth chapter, Jason Pratensis, Savanarola, Arnoldus, Valleriola, &c., and
every physician that treats of this subject. Not only to avoid, as [5639]
Gregory Tholosanus exhorts, "kissing, dalliance, all speeches, tokens,
love-letters, and the like," or as Castilio, _lib. 4._ to converse with
them, hear them speak, or sing, (_tolerabilius est audire basiliscum
sibilantem_, thou hadst better hear, saith [5640]Cyprian, a serpent hiss)
[5641]"those amiable smiles, admirable graces, and sweet gestures," which
their presence affords.
[5642] "Neu capita liment solitis morsiunculis,
Et his papillarum oppressiunculis
Abstineant:"------
but all talk, name, mention, or cogitation of them, and of any other women,
persons, circumstance, amorous book or tale that may administer any
occasion of remembrance. [5643]Prosper adviseth young men not to read the
Canticles, and some parts of Genesis at other times; but for such as are
enamoured they forbid, as before, the name mentioned, &c., especially all
sight, they must not so much as come near, or look upon them.
[5644] "Et fugitare decet simulacra et pabula amoris,
Abstinere sibi atque alio convertere mentem."
"Gaze not on a maid," saith Siracides, "turn away thine eyes from a
beautiful woman," c. 9. v. 5. 7, 8. _averte oculos_, saith David, or if
thou dost see them, as Ficinus adviseth, let not thine eye be _intentus ad
libidinem_, do not intend her more than the rest: for as [5645]Propertius
holds, _Ipse alimenta sibi maxima praebet amor_, love as a snow ball
enlargeth itself by sight: but as Hierome to Nepotian, _aut aequaliter ama,
aut aequaliter ignora_, either see all alike, or let all alone; make a
league with thine eyes, as [5646]Job did, and that is the safest course,
let all alone, see none of them. Nothing sooner revives, [5647]"or waxeth
sore again," as Petrarch holds, "than love doth by sight." "As pomp renews
ambition; the sight of gold, covetousness; a beauteous object sets on fire
this burning lust." _Et multum saliens incitat unda sitim._ The sight of
drink makes one dry, and the sight of meat increaseth appetite. 'Tis
dangerous therefore to see. A [5648]young gentleman in merriment would
needs put on his mistress's clothes, and walk abroad alone, which some of
her suitors espying, stole him away for her that he represented. So much
can sight enforce. Especially if he have been formerly enamoured, the sight
of his mistress strikes him into a new fit, and makes him rave many days
after.
[5649] ------"Infirmis causa pusilla nocet,
Ut pene extinctum cinerem si sulphure tangas,
Vivet, et ex minimo maximus ignis erit:
Sic nisi vitabis quicquid renovabit amorem,
Flamma recrudescet, quae modo nulla fuit."
"A sickly man a little thing offends,
As brimstone doth a fire decayed renew,
And makes it burn afresh, doth love's dead flames,
If that the former object it review."
Or, as the poet compares it to embers in ashes, which the wind blows,
[5650]_ut solet a ventis_, &c., a scald head (as the saying is) is soon
broken, dry wood quickly kindles, and when they have been formerly wounded
with sight, how can they by seeing but be inflamed? Ismenias acknowledged
as much of himself, when he had been long absent, and almost forgotten his
mistress, [5651]"at the first sight of her, as straw in a fire, I burned
afresh, and more than ever I did before." [5652]"Chariclia was as much
moved at the sight of her dear Theagines, after he had been a great
stranger." [5653]Mertila, in Aristaenetus, swore she would never love
Pamphilus again, and did moderate her passion, so long as he was absent;
but the next time he came in presence, she could not contain, _effuse
amplexa attrectari se sinit_, &c., she broke her vow, and did profusely
embrace him. Hermotinus, a young man (in the said [5654]author) is all out
as unstaid, he had forgot his mistress quite, and by his friends was well
weaned from her love; but seeing her by chance, _agnovit veteris vestigia
flammae_, he raved amain, _Illa tamen emergens veluti lucida stella cepit
elucere_, &c., she did appear as a blazing star, or an angel to his sight.
And it is the common passion of all lovers to be overcome in this sort. For
that cause belike Alexander discerning this inconvenience and danger that
comes by seeing, [5655]"when he heard Darius's wife so much commended for
her beauty, would scarce admit her to come in his sight," foreknowing
belike that of Plutarch, _formosam videre periculosissimum_, how full of
danger it is to see a proper woman, and though he was intemperate in other
things, yet in this _superbe se gessit_, he carried himself bravely. And so
when as Araspus, in Xenophon, had so much magnified that divine face of
Panthea to Cyrus, [5656]"by how much she was fairer than ordinary, by so
much he was the more unwilling to see her." Scipio, a young man of
twenty-three years of age, and the most beautiful of the Romans, equal in
person to that Grecian Charinus, or Homer's Nireus, at the siege of a city
in Spain, when as a noble and most fair young gentlewoman was brought unto
him, [5657]"and he had heard she was betrothed to a lord, rewarded her, and
sent her back to her sweetheart." St. Austin, as [5658]Gregory reports of
him, _ne cum sorore quidem sua putavit habitandum_, would not live in the
house with his own sister. Xenocrates lay with Lais of Corinth all night,
and would not touch her. Socrates, though all the city of Athens supposed
him to dote upon fair Alcibiades, yet when he had an opportunity,
[5659]_solus cum solo_ to lie in the chamber with, and was wooed by him
besides, as the said Alcibiades publicly [5660]confessed, _formam sprevit
et superbe contempsit_, he scornfully rejected him. Petrarch, that had so
magnified his Laura in several poems, when by the pope's means she was
offered unto him, would not accept of her. [5661]"It is a good happiness to
be free from this passion of love, and great discretion it argues in such a
man that he can so contain himself; but when thou art once in love, to
moderate thyself (as he saith) is a singular point of wisdom."
[5662] "Nam vitare plagas in amoris ne jaciamur
Non ita difficile est, quam captum retibus ipsis
Exire, et validos Veneris perrumpere nodos."
"To avoid such nets is no such mastery,
But ta'en escape is all the victory."
But, forasmuch as few men are free, so discreet lovers, or that can contain
themselves, and moderate their passions, to curb their senses, as not to
see them, not to look lasciviously, not to confer with them, such is the
fury of this headstrong passion of raging lust, and their weakness, _ferox
ille ardor a natura insitus_, [5663]as he terms it "such a furious desire
nature hath inscribed, such unspeakable delight."
"Sic Divae Veneris furor,
Insanis adeo mentibus incubat,"
which neither reason, counsel, poverty, pain, misery, drudgery, _partus
dolor_, &c., can deter them from; we must use some speedy means to correct
and prevent that, and all other inconveniences, which come by conference
and the like. The best, readiest, surest way, and which all approve, is
_Loci mutatio_, to send them several ways, that they may neither hear of,
see, nor have an opportunity to send to one another again, or live
together, _soli cum sola_, as so many Gilbertines. _Elongatio a patria_,
'tis Savanarola's fourth rule, and Gordonius' precept, _distrahatur ad
longinquas regiones_, send him to travel. 'Tis that which most run upon, as
so many hounds, with full cry, poets, divines, philosophers, physicians,
all, _mutet patriam_: Valesius: [5664]as a sick man he must be cured with
change of air, Tully _4 Tuscul_. The best remedy is to get thee gone, Jason
Pratensis: change air and soil, Laurentius. [5665]_Fuge littus amatum_.
"Virg. Utile finitimis abstinuisse locis.
[5666] Ovid. I procul, et longas carpere perge vias.
------sed fuge tutus eris."
Travelling is an antidote of love,
[5667] "Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas,
Ut me longa gravi solvat amore via."
For this purpose, saith [5668]Propertius, my parents sent me to Athens;
time and patience wear away pain and grief, as fire goes out for want of
fuel. _Quantum oculis, animo tam procul ibit amor_. But so as they tarry
out long enough: a whole year [5669]Xenophon prescribes _Critobulus, vix
enim intra hoc tempus ab amore sanari poteris_: some will hardly be weaned
under. All this [5670]Heinsius merrily inculcates in an epistle to his
friend Primierus; first fast, then tarry, thirdly, change thy place,
fourthly, think of a halter. If change of place, continuance of time,
absence, will not wear it out with those precedent remedies, it will hardly
be removed: but these commonly are of force. Felix Plater, _observ. lib.
1._ had a baker to his patient, almost mad for the love of his maid, and
desperate; by removing her from him, he was in a short space cured. Isaeus,
a philosopher of Assyria, was a most dissolute liver in his youth, _palam
lasciviens_, in love with all he met; but after he betook himself, by his
friends' advice, to his study, and left women's company, he was so changed
that he cared no more for plays, nor feasts, nor masks, nor songs, nor
verses, fine clothes, nor no such love toys: he became a new man upon a
sudden, _tanquam si priores oculos amisisset_, (saith mine [5671]author) as
if he had lost his former eyes. Peter Godefridus, in the last chapter of
his third book, hath a story out of St. Ambrose, of a young man that
meeting his old love after long absence, on whom he had extremely doted,
would scarce take notice of her; she wondered at it, that he should so
lightly esteem her, called him again, _lenibat dictis animum_, and told him
who she was, _Ego sum, inquit: At ego non sum ego_; but he replied, "he was
not the same man:" _proripuit sese tandem_, as [5672]Aeneas fled from Dido,
not vouchsafing her any farther parley, loathing his folly, and ashamed of
that which formerly he had done. [5673]_Non sum stultus ut ante jam
Neaera_. "O Neaera, put your tricks, and practise hereafter upon somebody
else, you shall befool me no longer." Petrarch hath such another tale of a
young gallant, that loved a wench with one eye, and for that cause by his
parents was sent to travel into far countries, "after some years he
returned, and meeting the maid for whose sake he was sent abroad, asked her
how, and by what chance she lost her eye? no, said she, I have lost none,
but you have found yours:" signifying thereby, that all lovers were blind,
as Fabius saith, _Amantes de forma judicare non possunt_, lovers cannot
judge of beauty, nor scarce of anything else, as they will easily confess
after they return unto themselves, by some discontinuance or better advice,
wonder at their own folly, madness, stupidity, blindness, be much abashed,
"and laugh at love, and call it an idle thing, condemn themselves that ever
they should be so besotted or misled: and be heartily glad they have so
happily escaped."
If so be (which is seldom) that change of place will not effect this
alteration, then other remedies are to be annexed, fair and foul means, as
to persuade, promise, threaten, terrify, or to divert by some contrary
passion, rumour, tales, news, or some witty invention to alter his
affection, [5674]"by some greater sorrow to drive out the less," saith
Gordonius, as that his house is on fire, his best friends dead, his money
stolen. [5675]"That he is made some great governor, or hath some honour,
office, some inheritance is befallen him." He shall be a knight, a baron;
or by some false accusation, as they do to such as have the hiccup, to make
them forget it. St. Hierome, _lib. 2. epist. 16._ to Rusticus the monk,
hath an instance of a young man of Greece, that lived in a monastery in
Egypt, [5676]"that by no labour, no continence, no persuasion, could be
diverted, but at last by this trick he was delivered. The abbot sets one of
his convent to quarrel with him, and with some scandalous reproach or other
to defame him before company, and then to come and complain first, the
witnesses were likewise suborned for the plaintiff. The young man wept, and
when all were against him, the abbot cunningly took his part, lest he
should be overcome with immoderate grief: but what need many words? by this
invention he was cured, and alienated from his pristine
love-thoughts"--Injuries, slanders, contempts, disgraces--_spretaeque
injuria formae_, "the insult of her slighted beauty," are very forcible
means to withdraw men's affections, _contumelia affecti amatores amare
desinunt_, as [5677]Lucian saith, lovers reviled or neglected, contemned or
misused, turn love to hate; [5678]_redeam? Non si me obsecret_, "I'll never
love thee more." _Egone illam, quae illum, quae me, quae non_? So Zephyrus
hated Hyacinthus because he scorned him, and preferred his co-rival Apollo
(Palephaetus _fab. Nar._), he will not come again though he be invited.
Tell him but how he was scoffed at behind his back, ('tis the counsel of
Avicenna), that his love is false, and entertains another, rejects him,
cares not for him, or that she is a fool; a nasty quean, a slut, a vixen, a
scold, a devil, or, which Italians commonly do, that he or she hath some
loathsome filthy disease, gout, stone, strangury, falling sickness, and
that they are hereditary, not to be avoided, he is subject to a
consumption, hath the pox, that he hath three or four incurable tetters,
issues; that she is bald, her breath stinks, she is mad by inheritance, and
so are all the kindred, a hair-brain, with many other secret infirmities,
which I will not so much as name, belonging to women. That he is a
hermaphrodite, an eunuch, imperfect, impotent, a spendthrift, a gamester, a
fool, a gull, a beggar, a whoremaster, far in debt, and not able to
maintain her, a common drunkard, his mother was a witch, his father hanged,
that he hath a wolf in his bosom, a sore leg, he is a leper, hath some
incurable disease, that he will surely beat her, he cannot hold his water,
that he cries out or walks in the night, will stab his bedfellow, tell all
his secrets in his sleep, and that nobody dare lie with him, his house is
haunted with spirits, with such fearful and tragical things, able to avert
and terrify any man or woman living, Gordonius, _cap. 20. part. 2._ hunc in
modo consulit; _Paretur aliqua vetula turpissima aspectu, cum turpi et vili
habitu: et portet subtus gremium pannum menstrualem, et dicat quod amica
sua sit ebriosa, et quod mingat in lecto, et quod est epileptica et
impudicia; et quod in corpore suo sunt excrescentiae enormes, cum faetore
anhelitus, et aliae enormitates, quibus vetulae sunt edoctae: si nolit his
persuaderi, subito extrahat [5679]pannum menstrualem, coram facie portando,
exclamando, talis est amica tua; et si ex his non demiserit, non est homo,
sed diabolus incarnatus_. Idem fere, Avicenna, _cap. 24, de cura Elishi,
lib. 3, Fen. 1. Tract. 4._ _Narrent res immundas vetulae, ex quibus
abominationem incurrat, et res [5680]sordidas et, hoc assiduent_. Idem
Arculanus _cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, &c.
Withal as they do discommend the old, for the better effecting a more
speedy alteration, they must commend another paramour, _alteram inducere_,
set him or her to be wooed, or woo some other that shall be fairer, of
better note, better fortune, birth, parentage, much to be preferred, [5681]
_Invenies alium si te hic fastidit Alexis_, by this means, which Jason
Pratensis wisheth, to turn the stream of affection another way, _Successore
novo truditur omnis amor_; or, as Valesius adviseth, by [5682]subdividing
to diminish it, as a great river cut into many channels runs low at last.
[5683]_Hortor et ut pariter binas habeatis amicas_, &c. If you suspect to
be taken, be sure, saith the poet, to have two mistresses at once, or go
from one to another: as he that goes from a good fire in cold weather is
both to depart from it, though in the next room there be a better which
will refresh him as much; there's as much difference of _haec_ as _hac
ignis_; or bring him to some public shows, plays, meetings, where he may
see variety, and he shall likely loathe his first choice: carry him but to
the next town, yea peradventure to the next house, and as Paris lost
Oenone's love by seeing Helen, and Cressida forsook Troilus by conversing
with Diomede, he will dislike his former mistress, and leave her quite
behind him, as [5684]Theseus left Ariadne fast asleep in the island of Dia,
to seek her fortune, that was erst his loving mistress. [5685]_Nunc primum
Dorida vetus amator contempsi_, as he said, Doris is but a dowdy to this.
As he that looks himself in a glass forgets his physiognomy forthwith, this
flattering glass of love will be diminished by remove; after a little
absence it will be remitted, the next fair object will likely alter it. A
young man in [5686]Lucian was pitifully in love, he came to the theatre by
chance, and by seeing other fair objects there, _mentis sanitatem recepit_,
was fully recovered, [5687] "and went merrily home, as if he had taken a
dram of oblivion." [5688]A mouse (saith an apologer) was brought up in a
chest, there fed with fragments of bread and cheese, though there could be
no better meat, till coming forth at last, and feeding liberally of other
variety of viands, loathed his former life: moralise this fable by thyself.
Plato, in. his seventh book _De Legibus_, hath a pretty fiction of a city
under ground, [5689]to which by little holes some small store of light
came; the inhabitants thought there could not be a better place, and at
their first coming abroad they might not endure the light, _aegerrime solem
intueri_; but after they were accustomed a little to it, [5690]"they
deplored their fellows' misery that lived under ground." A silly lover is
in like state, none so fair as his mistress at first, he cares for none but
her; yet after a while, when he hath compared her with others, he abhors
her name, sight, and memory. 'Tis generally true; for as he observes,
[5691]_Priorem flammam novus ignis extrudit; et ea multorum natura, ut
praesentes maxime ament_, one fire drives out another; and such is women's
weakness, that they love commonly him that is present. And so do many men;
as he confessed, he loved Amye, till he saw Florial, and when he saw
Cynthia, forgat them both: but fair Phillis was incomparably beyond, them
all, Cloris surpassed her, and yet when he espied Amaryllis, she was his
sole mistress; O divine Amaryllis: _quam procera, cupressi ad instar, quam
elegans, quam decens_, &c. How lovely, how tall, how comely she was (saith
Polemius) till he saw another, and then she was the sole subject of his
thoughts. In conclusion, her he loves best he saw last. [5692]Triton, the
sea-god, first loved Leucothoe, till he came in presence of Milaene, she
was the commandress of his heart, till he saw Galatea: but (as [5693]she
complains) he loved another eftsoons, another, and another. 'Tis a thing
which, by Hierom's report, hath been usually practised. [5694]"Heathen
philosophers drive out one love with another, as they do a peg, or pin with
a pin. Which those seven Persian princes did to Ahasuerus, that they might
requite the desire of Queen Vashti with the love of others." Pausanias in
Eliacis saith, that therefore one Cupid was painted to contend with
another, and to take the garland from him, because one love drives out
another, [5695]_Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor_; and Tully, _3. Nat.
Deor._ disputing with C. Cotta, makes mention of three several Cupids, all
differing in office. Felix Plater, in the first book of his observations,
boasts how he cured a widower in Basil, a patient of his, by this stratagem
alone, that doted upon a poor servant his maid, when friends, children, no
persuasion could serve to alienate his mind: they motioned him to another
honest man's daughter in the town, whom he loved, and lived with long
after, abhorring the very name and sight of the first. After the death of
Lucretia, [5696]Euryalus would admit of no comfort, till the Emperor
Sigismund married him to a noble lady of his court, and so in short space
he was freed.
SUBSECT. III.--_By counsel and persuasion, foulness of the fact, men's,
women's faults, miseries of marriage, events of lust, &c._
As there be divers causes of this burning lust, or heroical love, so there
be many good remedies to ease and help; amongst which, good counsel and
persuasion, which I should have handled in the first place, are of great
moment, and not to be omitted. Many are of opinion, that in this blind
headstrong passion counsel can do no good.
[5697] "Quae enim res in se neque consilium neque modum
Habet, ullo eam consilio regere non potes."
"Which thing hath neither judgment, or an end,
How should advice or counsel it amend?"
[5698]_Quis enim modus adsit amori_? But, without question, good counsel
and advice must needs be of great force, especially if it shall proceed
from a wise, fatherly, reverent, discreet person, a man of authority, whom
the parties do respect, stand in awe of, or from a judicious friend, of
itself alone it is able to divert and suffice. Gordonius, the physician,
attributes so much to it, that he would have it by all means used in the
first place. _Amoveatur ab illa, consilio viri quem timet, ostendendo
pericula saeculi, judicium inferni, gaudia Paradisi_. He would have some
discreet men to dissuade them, after the fury of passion is a little spent,
or by absence allayed; for it is as intempestive at first, to give counsel,
as to comfort parents when their children are in that instant departed; to
no purpose to prescribe narcotics, cordials, nectarines, potions, Homer's
nepenthes, or Helen's bowl, &c. _Non cessabit pectus tundere_, she will
lament and howl for a season: let passion have his course awhile, and then
he may proceed, by foreshowing the miserable events and dangers which will
surely happen, the pains of hell, joys of Paradise, and the like, which by
their preposterous courses they shall forfeit or incur; and 'tis a fit
method, a very good means; for what [5699]Seneca said of vice, I say of
love, _Sine magistro discitur, vix sine magistro deseritur_, 'tis learned
of itself, but [5700]hardly left without a tutor. 'Tis not amiss therefore
to have some such overseer, to expostulate and show them such absurdities,
inconveniences, imperfections, discontents, as usually follow; which their
blindness, fury, madness, cannot apply unto themselves, or will not
apprehend through weakness; and good for them to disclose themselves, to
give ear to friendly admonitions. "Tell me, sweetheart (saith Tryphena to a
lovesick Charmides in [5701]Lucian), what is it that troubles thee?
peradventure I can ease thy mind, and further thee in thy suit;" and so,
without question, she might, and so mayst thou, if the patient be capable
of good counsel, and will hear at least what may be said.
If he love at all, she is either an honest woman or a whore. If dishonest,
let him read or inculcate to him that 5. of Solomon's Proverbs, Ecclus. 26.
Ambros. _lib. 1. cap. 4._ in his book of Abel and Cain, Philo Judeus _de
mercede mer_. Platina's _dial. in Amores_, Espencaeus, and those three
books of Pet. Haedus _de contem. amoribus_, Aeneas Sylvius' tart Epistle,
which he wrote to his friend Nicholas of Warthurge, which he calls _medelam
illiciti amoris_ &c. [5702]"For what's a whore," as he saith, "but a poller
of youth, a [5703]ruin of men, a destruction, a devourer of patrimonies, a
downfall of honour, fodder for the devil, the gate of death, and supplement
of hell?" [5704]_Talis amor est laqueus animae_, &c., a bitter honey, sweet
poison, delicate destruction, a voluntary mischief, _commixtum coenum,
sterquilinium_. And as [5705]Pet. Aretine's Lucretia, a notable quean,
confesseth: "Gluttony, anger, envy, pride, sacrilege, theft, slaughter,
were all born that day that a whore began her profession; for," as she
follows it, "her pride is greater than a rich churl's, she is more envious
than the pox, as malicious as melancholy, as covetous as hell. If from the
beginning of the world any were _mala, pejor, pessima_, bad in the
superlative degree, 'tis a whore; how many have I undone, caused to be
wounded, slain! O Antonia, thou seest [5706]what I am without, but within,
God knows, a puddle of iniquity, a sink of sin, a pocky quean." Let him now
that so dotes meditate on this; let him see the event and success of
others, Samson, Hercules, Holofernes, &c. Those infinite mischiefs attend
it: if she be another man's wife he loves, 'tis abominable in the sight of
God and men; adultery is expressly forbidden in God's commandment, a mortal
sin, able to endanger his soul: if he be such a one that fears God, or have
any religion, he will eschew it, and abhor the loathsomeness of his own
fact. If he love an honest maid, 'tis to abuse or marry her; if to abuse,
'tis fornication, a foul fact (though some make light of it), and almost
equal to adultery itself. If to marry, let him seriously consider what he
takes in hand, look before ye leap, as the proverb is, or settle his
affections, and examine first the party, and condition of his estate and
hers, whether it be a fit match, for fortunes, years, parentage, and such
other circumstances, _an sit sitae Veneris_. Whether it be likely to
proceed: if not, let him wisely stave himself off at the first, curb in his
inordinate passion, and moderate his desire, by thinking of some other
subject, divert his cogitations. Or if it be not for his good, as Aeneas,
forewarned by Mercury in a dream, left Dido's love, and in all haste got
him to sea,
[5707] "Mnestea, Surgestumque vocat fortemque Cloanthem,
Classem aptent taciti jubet"------
and although she did oppose with vows, tears, prayers, and imprecation.
[5708] ------"nullis ille movetur
Fletibus, aut illas voces tractabilis audit;"
Let thy Mercury-reason rule thee against all allurements, seeming delights,
pleasing inward or outward provocations. Thou mayst do this if thou wilt,
_pater non deperit filiam, nec frater sororem_, a father dotes not on his
own daughter, a brother on a sister; and why? because it is unnatural,
unlawful, unfit. If he be sickly, soft, deformed, let him think of his
deformities, vices, infirmities; if in debt, let him ruminate how to pay
his debts: if he be in any danger, let him seek to avoid it: if he have any
lawsuit, or other business, he may do well to let his love-matters alone
and follow it, labour in his vocation whatever it is. But if he cannot so
ease himself, yet let him wisely premeditate of both their estates; if they
be unequal in years, she young and he old, what an unfit match must it
needs be, an uneven yoke, how absurd and indecent a thing is it! as Lycinus
in [5709]Lucian told Timolaus, for an old bald crook-nosed knave to marry a
young wench; how odious a thing it is to see an old lecher! What should a
bald fellow do with a comb, a dumb doter with a pipe, a blind man with a
looking-glass, and thou with such a wife? How absurd it is for a young man
to marry an old wife for a piece of good. But put case she be equal in
years, birth, fortunes, and other qualities correspondent, he doth desire
to be coupled in marriage, which is an honourable estate, but for what
respects? Her beauty belike, and comeliness of person, that is commonly the
main object, she is a most absolute form, in his eye at least, _Cui formam
Paphia, et Charites tribuere decoram_; but do other men affirm as much? or
is it an error in his judgment.
[5710] "Fallunt nos oculi vagique sensus,
Oppressa ratione mentiuntur,"
"our eyes and other senses will commonly deceive us;" it may be, to thee
thyself upon a more serious examination, or after a little absence, she is
not so fair as she seems. _Quaedam videntur et non sunt_; compare her to
another standing by, 'tis a touchstone to try, confer hand to hand, body to
body, face to face, eye to eye, nose to nose, neck to neck, &c., examine
every part by itself, then altogether, in all postures, several sites, and
tell me how thou likest her. It may be not she, that is so fair, but her
coats, or put another in her clothes, and she will seem all out as fair; as
the [5711]poet then prescribes, separate her from her clothes: suppose thou
saw her in a base beggar's weed, or else dressed in some old hirsute
attires out of fashion, foul linen, coarse raiment, besmeared with soot,
colly, perfumed with opoponax, sagapenum, asafoetida, or some such filthy
gums, dirty, about some indecent action or other; or in such a case as
[5712]Brassivola, the physician, found Malatasta, his patient, after a
potion of hellebore, which he had prescribed: _Manibus in terram depositis,
et ano versus caelum elevato (ac si videretur Socraticus ille Aristophanes,
qui Geometricas figuras in terram scribens, tubera colligere videbatur)
atram bilem in album parietem injiciebat, adeoque totam cameram, et se
deturpabat, ut_, &c., all to bewrayed, or worse; if thou saw'st her (I say)
would thou affect her as thou dost? Suppose thou beheldest her in a [5713]
frosty morning, in cold weather, in some passion or perturbation of mind,
weeping, chafing, &c., rivelled and ill-favoured to behold. She many times
that in a composed look seems so amiable and delicious, _tam scitula,
forma_, if she do but laugh or smile, makes an ugly sparrow-mouthed face,
and shows a pair of uneven, loathsome, rotten, foul teeth: she hath a black
skin, gouty legs, a deformed crooked carcass under a fine coat. It may be
for all her costly tires she is bald, and though she seem so fair by dark,
by candlelight, or afar off at such a distance, as Callicratides observed
in [5714]Lucian, "If thou should see her near, or in a morning, she would
appear more ugly than a beast;" [5715]_si diligenter consideres, quid per
os et nares et caeteros corporis meatus egreditur, vilius sterquilinium
nunquam vidisti_. Follow my counsel, see her undressed, see her, if it be
possible, out of her attires, _furtivis nudatam coloribus_, it may be she
is like Aesop's jay, or [5716]Pliny's cantharides, she will be loathsome,
ridiculous, thou wilt not endure her sight: or suppose thou saw'st her,
pale, in a consumption, on her death-bed, skin and bones, or now dead,
_Cujus erat gratissimus amplexus_ (whose embrace was so agreeable) as
Barnard saith, _erit horribilis aspectus; Non redolet, sed olet, quae,
redolere solet_, "As a posy she smells sweet, is most fresh and fair one
day, but dried up, withered, and stinks another." Beautiful Nireus, by that
Homer so much admired, once dead, is more deformed than Thersites, and
Solomon deceased as ugly as Marcolphus: thy lovely mistress that was erst
[5717]_Charis charior ocellis_, "dearer to thee than thine eyes," once sick
or departed, is _Vili vilior aestimata coeno_, "worse than any dirt or
dunghill." Her embraces were not so acceptable, as now her looks be
terrible: thou hadst better behold a Gorgon's head, than Helen's carcass.
Some are of opinion, that to see a woman naked is able of itself to alter
his affection; and it is worthy of consideration, saith [5718]Montaigne the
Frenchman in his Essays, that the skilfulest masters of amorous dalliance,
appoint for a remedy of venerous passions, a full survey of the body; which
the poet insinuates,
[5719] "Ille quod obscaenas in aperto corpore partes
Viderat, in cursu qui fuit, haesit amor."
"The love stood still, that run in full career,
When once it saw those parts should not appear."
It is reported of Seleucus, king of Syria, that seeing his wife
Stratonice's bald pate, as she was undressing her by chance, he could never
affect her after. Remundus Lullius, the physician, spying an ulcer or
cancer in his mistress' breast, whom he so dearly loved, from that day
following abhorred the looks of her. Philip the French king, as
Neubrigensis, _lib. 4. cap. 24._ relates it, married the king of Denmark's
daughter, [5720]"and after he had used her as a wife one night, because her
breath stunk, they say, or for some other secret fault, sent her back again
to her father." Peter Mattheus, in the life of Lewis the Eleventh, finds
fault with our English [5721]chronicles, for writing how Margaret the king
of Scots' daughter, and wife to Louis the Eleventh, French king, was _ob
graveolentiam oris_, rejected by her husband. Many such matches are made
for by-respects, or some seemly comeliness, which after honeymoon's past,
turn to bitterness: for burning lust is but a flash, a gunpowder passion;
and hatred oft follows in the highest degree, dislike and contempt.
[5722] ------"Cum se cutis arida laxat,
Fiunt obscuri dentes"------
when they wax old, and ill-favoured, they may commonly no longer abide
them,--_Jam gravis es nobis_, Be gone, they grow stale, fulsome, loathsome,
odious, thou art a beastly filthy quean,--[5723]_faciem Phoebe cacantis
habes_, thou art _Saturni podex_, withered and dry, _insipida et
vetula_,--[5724]_Te quia rugae turpant, et capitis nives_, (I say) be gone,
[5725]_portae patent, proficiscere_.
Yea, but you will infer, your mistress is complete, of a most absolute form
in all men's opinions, no exceptions can be taken at her, nothing may be
added to her person, nothing detracted, she is the mirror of women for her
beauty, comeliness and pleasant grace, inimitable, _merae deliciae, meri
lepores_, she is _Myrothetium Veneris, Gratiarum pixis_, a mere magazine of
natural perfections, she hath all the Veneres and Graces,--_mille faces et
mille figuras_, in each part absolute and complete, [5726]_Laeta genas
laeta os roseum, vaga lumina laeta_: to be admired for her person, a most
incomparable, unmatchable piece, _aurea proles, ad simulachrum alicujus
numinis composita, a Phoenix, vernantis aetatulae Venerilla_, a nymph, a
fairy, [5727]like Venus herself when she was a maid, _nulli secunda_, a
mere quintessence, _flores spirans et amaracum, foeminae prodigium_: put
case she be, how long will she continue? [5728]_Florem decoris singuli
carpunt dies_: "Every day detracts from her person," and this beauty is
_bonum fragile_, a mere flash, a Venice glass, quickly broken,
[5729] "Anceps forma bonum mortalibus,
------exigui donum breve temporis,"
it will not last. As that fair flower [5730]Adonis, which we call an
anemone, flourisheth but one month, this gracious all-commanding beauty
fades in an instant. It is a jewel soon lost, the painter's goddess, _fulsa
veritas_, a mere picture. "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vanity,"
Prov. xxxi. 30.
[5731] "Vitrea gemmula, fluxaque bullula, candida forma est,
Nix, rosa, fumus, ventus et aura, nihil."
"A brittle gem, bubble, is beauty pale,
A rose, dew, snow, smoke, wind, air, nought at all."
If she be fair, as the saying is, she is commonly a fool: if proud,
scornful, _sequiturque superbia formam_, or dishonest, _rara est concordia
formae, atque pudicitiae_, "can she be fair and honest too?" [5732] Aristo,
the son of Agasicles, married a Spartan lass, the fairest lady in all
Greece next to Helen, but for her conditions the most abominable and
beastly creature of the world. So that I would wish thee to respect, with
[5733]Seneca, not her person but qualities. "Will you say that's a good
blade which hath a gilded scabbard, embroidered with gold and jewels? No,
but that which hath a good edge and point, well tempered metal, able to
resist." This beauty is of the body alone, and what is that, but as [5734]
Gregory Nazianzen telleth us, "a mock of time and sickness?" or as
Boethius, [5735]"as mutable as a flower, and 'tis not nature so makes us,
but most part the infirmity of the beholder." For ask another, he sees no
such matter: _Dic mihi per gratias quails tibi videtur_, "I pray thee tell
me how thou likest my sweetheart," as she asked her sister in Aristenaetus,
[5736]"whom I so much admire, methinks he is the sweetest gentleman, the
properest man that ever I saw: but I am in love, I confess (_nec pudet
fateri_) and cannot therefore well judge." But be she fair indeed,
golden-haired, as Anacreon his Bathillus, (to examine particulars) she have
[5737]_Flammeolos oculos, collaque lacteola_, a pure sanguine complexion,
little mouth, coral lips, white teeth, soft and plump neck, body, hands,
feet, all fair and lovely to behold, composed of all graces, elegances, an
absolute piece,
[5738] "Lumina sint Melitae Junonia, dextra Minervae,
Mamillae Veneris, sura maris dominae," &c.
Let [5739]her head be from Prague, paps out of Austria, belly from France,
back from Brabant, hands out of England, feet from Rhine, buttocks from
Switzerland, let her have the Spanish gait, the Venetian tire, Italian
compliment and endowments:
[5740] "Candida sideriis ardescant lumina flammis,
Sudent colla rosas, et cedat crinibus aurum,
Mellea purpurem depromant ora ruborem;
Fulgeat, ac Venerem coelesti corpore vincat,
Forma dearum omnis," &c.
Let her be such a one throughout, as Lucian deciphers in his Imagines, as
Euphranor of old painted Venus, Aristaenetus describes Lais, another
Helena, Chariclea, Leucippe, Lucretia, Pandora; let her have a box of
beauty to repair herself still, such a one as Venus gave Phaon, when he
carried her over the ford; let her use all helps art and nature can yield;
be like her, and her, and whom thou wilt, or all these in one; a little
sickness, a fever, small-pox, wound, scar, loss of an eye, or limb, a
violent passion, a distemperature of heat or cold, mars all in an instant,
disfigures all; child-bearing, old age, that tyrant time will turn Venus to
Erinnys; raging time, care, rivels her upon a sudden; after she hath been
married a small while, and the black ox hath trodden on her toe, she will
be so much altered, and wax out of favour, thou wilt not know her. One
grows to fat, another too lean, &c., modest Matilda, pretty pleasing Peg,
sweet-singing Susan, mincing merry Moll, dainty dancing Doll, neat Nancy,
jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate, bouncing Bess, with black eyes, fair
Phyllis, with fine white hands, fiddling Frank, tall Tib, slender Sib, &c.,
will quickly lose their grace, grow fulsome, stale, sad, heavy, dull, sour,
and all at last out of fashion. _Ubi jam vultus argutia, suavis suavitatio,
blandus, risus_, &c. Those fair sparkling eyes will look dull, her soft
coral lips will be pale, dry, cold, rough, and blue, her skin rugged, that
soft and tender superficies will be hard and harsh, her whole complexion
change in a moment, and as [5741]Matilda writ to King John.
"I am not now as when thou saw'st me last,
That favour soon is vanished and past;
That rosy blush lapt in a lily vale,
Now is with morphew overgrown and pale."
'Tis so in the rest, their beauty fades as a tree in winter, which Dejanira
hath elegantly expressed in the poet,
[5742] "Deforme solis aspicis truncis nemus?
Sic nostra longum forma percurrens iter,
Deperdit aliquid semper, et fulget minus,
Malisque minus est quiquid in nobis fuit,
Olim petitum cecidit, et partu labat,
Maturque multum rapuit ex illa mihi,
Aetas citato senior eripuit gradu."
"And as a tree that in the green wood grows,
With fruit and leaves, and in the summer blows,
In winter like a stock deformed shows:
Our beauty takes his race and journey goes,
And doth decrease, and lose, and come to nought,
Admir'd of old, to this by child-birth brought:
And mother hath bereft me of my grace,
And crooked old age coining on apace."
To conclude with Chrysostom, [5743]"When thou seest a fair and beautiful
person, a brave Bonaroba, _a bella donna, quae salivam moveat, lepidam
puellam et quam tu facile ames_, a comely woman, having bright eyes, a
merry countenance, a shining lustre in her look, a pleasant grace, wringing
thy soul, and increasing thy concupiscence; bethink with thyself that it is
but earth thou lovest, a mere excrement, which so vexeth thee, which thou
so admirest, and thy raging soul will be at rest. Take her skin from her
face, and thou shalt see all loathsomeness under it, that beauty is a
superficial skin and bones, nerves, sinews: suppose her sick, now rivelled,
hoary-headed, hollow-cheeked, old; within she is full of filthy phlegm,
stinking, putrid, excremental stuff: snot and snivel in her nostrils,
spittle in her mouth, water in her eyes, what filth in her brains," &c. Or
take her at best, and look narrowly upon her in the light, stand near her,
nearer yet, thou shalt perceive almost as much, and love less, as [5744]
Cardan well writes, _minus amant qui acute vident_, though Scaliger deride
him for it: if he see her near, or look exactly at such a posture,
whosoever he is, according to the true rules of symmetry and proportion,
those I mean of Albertus Durer, Lomatius and Tasnier, examine him of her.
If he be _elegans formarum spectator_ he shall find many faults in
physiognomy, and ill colour: if form, one side of the face likely bigger
than the other, or crooked nose, bad eyes, prominent veins, concavities
about the eyes, wrinkles, pimples, red streaks, freckles, hairs, warts,
neves, inequalities, roughness, scabredity, paleness, yellowness, and as
many colours as are in a turkeycock's neck, many indecorums in their other
parts; _est quod desideres, est quod amputes_, one leers, another frowns, a
third gapes, squints, &c. And 'tis true that he saith, [5745]_Diligenter
consideranti raro facies absoluta, et quae vitio caret_, seldom shall you
find an absolute face without fault, as I have often observed; not in the
face alone is this defect or disproportion to be found; but in all the
other parts, of body and mind; she is fair, indeed, but foolish; pretty,
comely, and decent, of a majestical presence, but peradventure, imperious,
dishonest, _acerba, iniqua_, self-willed: she is rich, but deformed; hath a
sweet face, but bad carriage, no bringing up, a rude and wanton flirt; a
neat body she hath, but it is a nasty quean otherwise, a very slut, of a
bad kind. As flowers in a garden have colour some, but no smell, others
have a fragrant smell, but are unseemly to the eye; one is unsavoury to the
taste as rue, as bitter as wormwood, and yet a most medicinal cordial
flower, most acceptable to the stomach; so are men and women; one is well
qualified, but of ill proportion, poor and base: a good eye she hath, but a
bad hand and foot, _foeda pedes et foeda manus_, a fine leg, bad teeth, a
vast body, &c. Examine all parts of body and mind, I advise thee to inquire
of all. See her angry, merry, laugh, weep, hot, cold, sick, sullen,
dressed, undressed, in all attires, sites, gestures, passions, eat her
meals, &c., and in some of these you will surely dislike. Yea, not her only
let him observe, but her parents how they carry themselves: for what
deformities, defects, encumbrances of body or mind be in them at such an
age, they will likely be subject to, be molested in like manner, they will
_patrizare_ or _matrizare._ And withal let him take notice of her
companions, _in convictu_ (as Quiverra prescribes), _et quibuscum
conversetur_, whom she converseth with. _Noscitur ex comite, qui non
cognoscitur ex se._ [5746]According to Thucydides, she is commonly the
best, _de quo minimus foras habetur sermo_, that is least talked of abroad.
For if she be a noted reveller, a gadder, a singer, a pranker or dancer,
than take heed of her. For what saith Theocritus?
[5747] "At vos festivae ne ne saltate puellae,
En malus hireus adest in vos saltare paratus."
Young men will do it when they come to it. Fauns and satyrs will certainly
play reaks, when they come in such wanton Baccho's or Elenora's presence.
Now when they shall perceive any such obliquity, indecency, disproportion,
deformity, bad conditions, &c., let them still ruminate on that, and as
[5748]Haedus adviseth out of Ovid, _earum mendas notent_, note their
faults, vices, errors, and think of their imperfections; 'tis the next way
to divert and mitigate love's furious headstrong passions; as a peacock's
feet, and filthy comb, they say, make him forget his fine feathers, and
pride of his tail; she is lovely, fair, well-favoured, well qualified,
courteous and kind, "but if she be not so to me, what care I how kind she
be?" I say with [5749]Philostratus, _formosa aliis, mihi superba_, she is a
tyrant to me, and so let her go. Besides these outward neves or open
faults, errors, there be many inward infirmities, secret, some private
(which I will omit), and some more common to the sex, sullen fits, evil
qualities, filthy diseases, in this case fit to be considered; consideratio
foeditatis mulierum, menstruae imprimis, quam immundae sunt, quam
Savanarola proponit regula septima penitus observandam; et Platina _dial.
amoris_ fuse perstringit. Lodovicus Bonacsialus, _mulieb. lib. 2. cap. 2._
Pet. Haedus, Albertus, et infiniti fere medici. [5750]A lover, in
Calcagninus's Apologies, wished with all his heart he were his mistress's
ring, to hear, embrace, see, and do I know not what: O thou fool, quoth the
ring, if thou wer'st in my room, thou shouldst hear, observe, and see
_pudenda et poenitenda_, that which would make thee loathe and hate her,
yea, peradventure, all women for her sake.
I will say nothing of the vices of their minds, their pride, envy,
inconstancy, weakness, malice, selfwill, lightness, insatiable lust,
jealousy, Ecclus. v. 14. "No malice to a woman's, no bitterness like to
hers," Eccles. vii. 21. and as the same author urgeth, Prov. xxxi. 10. "Who
shall find a virtuous woman?" He makes a question of it. _Neque jus neque
bonum, neque aequum sciunt, melius pejus, prosit, obsit, nihil vident, nisi
quod libido suggerit_. "They know neither good nor bad, be it better or
worse" (as the comical poet hath it), "beneficial or hurtful, they will do
what they list."
[5751] "Insidiae humani generis, querimonia vitae,
Exuviae noctis, durissima cura diei,
Poena virum, nex et juvenum," &c.------
And to that purpose were they first made, as Jupiter insinuates in the
[5752]poet;
"The fire that bold Prometheus stole from me,
With plagues call'd women shall revenged be,
On whose alluring and enticing face,
Poor mortals doting shall their death embrace."
In fine, as Diogenes concludes in Nevisanus, _Nulla est faemina quae non
habeat quid_: they have all their faults.
[5753] _Every each of them hath some vices,
If one be full of villainy,
Another hath a liquorish eye,
If one be full of wantonness,
Another is a chideress_.
When Leander was drowned, the inhabitants of Sestos consecrated Hero's
lantern to Anteros, _Anteroti sacrum_, [5754]and he that had good success
in his love should light the candle: but never any man was found to light
it; which I can refer to nought, but the inconstancy and lightness of
women.
[5755] "For in a thousand, good there is not one;
All be so proud, unthankful, and unkind,
With flinty hearts, careless of other's moan.
In their own lusts carried most headlong blind,
But more herein to speak I am forbidden;
Sometimes for speaking truth one may be chidden."
I am not willing, you see, to prosecute the cause against them, and
therefore take heed you mistake me not, [5756]_matronam nullam ego tango_,
I honour the sex, with all good men, and as I ought to do, rather than
displease them, I will voluntarily take the oath which Mercurius
Britannicus took, _Viragin. descript. tib. 2. fol. 95._ _Me nihil unquam
mali nobilissimo sexui, vel verbo, vel facto machinaturum_, &c., let
Simonides, Mantuan, Platina, Pet. Aretine, and such women-haters bare the
blame, if aught be said amiss; I have not writ a tenth of that which might
be urged out of them and others; [5757]_non possunt invectivae omnes, et
satirae in foeminas scriptae, uno volumine comprehendi_. And that which I
have said (to speak truth) no more concerns them than men, though women be
more frequently named in this tract; (to apologise once for all) I am
neither partial against them, or therefore bitter; what is said of the one,
_mutato nomine_, may most part be understood of the other. My words are
like Passus' picture in [5758]Lucian, of whom, when a good fellow had
bespoke a horse to be painted with his heels upwards, tumbling on his back,
he made him passant: now when the fellow came for his piece, he was very
angry, and said, it was quite opposite to his mind; but Passus instantly
turned the picture upside down, showed him the horse at that site which he
requested, and so gave him satisfaction. If any man take exception at my
words, let him alter the name, read him for her, and 'tis all one in
effect.
But to my purpose: If women in general be so bad (and men worse than they)
what a hazard is it to marry? where shall a man find a good wife, or a
woman a good husband? A woman a man may eschew, but not a wife: wedding is
undoing (some say) marrying marring, wooing woeing: [5759]"a wife is a
fever hectic," as Scaliger calls her, "and not be cured but by death," as
out of Menander, Athenaeus adds,
"In pelaprus te jacis negotiorum,--
Non Libyum, non Aegeum, ubi ex triginta non pereunt
Tria navigia: duceus uxorem servatur prorsus nemo."
"Thou wadest into a sea itself of woes;
In Libya and Aegean each man knows
Of thirty not three ships are cast away,
But on this rock not one escapes, I say."
The worldly cares, miseries, discontents, that accompany marriage, I pray
you learn of them that have experience, for I have none; [5760][Greek:
paidas ego logous egensamaen], _libri mentis liberi_. For my part I'll
dissemble with him,
[5761] "Este procul nymphae, fallax genus este puellae,
Vita jugata meo non facit ingenio: me juvat," &c.
many married men exclaim at the miseries of it, and rail at wives
downright; I never tried, but as I hear some of them say, [5762]_Mare haud
mare, vos mare acerrimum_, an Irish Sea is not so turbulent and raging as a
litigious wife.
[5763] "Scylla et Charybdis Sicula contorquens freta,
Minus est timenda, nulla non melior fera est."
"Scylla and Charybdis are less dangerous,
There is no beast that is so noxious."
Which made the devil belike, as most interpreters hold, when he had taken
away Job's goods, _corporis et fortunae bona_, health, children, friends,
to persecute him the more, leave his wicked wife, as Pineda proves out of
Tertullian, Cyprian, Austin, Chrysostom, Prosper, Gaudentius, &c. _ut novum
calamitatis inde genus viro existeret_, to vex and gall him worse _quam
totus infernus_ than all the fiends in hell, as knowing the conditions of a
bad woman. Jupiter _non tribuit homini pestilentius malum_, saith
Simonides: "better dwell with a dragon or a lion, than keep house with a
wicked wife," Ecclus. xxv. 18. "better dwell in a wilderness," Prov. xxi.
19. "no wickedness like to her," Ecclus. xxv. 22. "She makes a sorry heart,
an heavy countenance, a wounded mind, weak hands, and feeble knees," vers.
25. "A woman and death are two the bitterest things in the world:" _uxor
mihi ducenda est hodie, id mihi visus est dicere, abi domum et suspende
te_. _Ter. And. 1. 5._ And yet for all this we bachelors desire to be
married; with that vestal virgin, we long for it, [5764]_Felices nuptae!
moriar, nisi nubere dulce est_. 'Tis the sweetest thing in the world, I
would I had a wife saith he,
"For fain would I leave a single life,
If I could get me a good wife."
Heigh-ho for a husband, cries she, a bad husband, nay, the worst that ever
was is better than none: O blissful marriage, O most welcome marriage, and
happy are they that are so coupled: we do earnestly seek it, and are never
well till we have effected it. But with what fate? like those birds in the
[5765]Emblem, that fed about a cage, so long as they could fly away at
their pleasure liked well of it; but when they were taken and might not get
loose, though they had the same meat, pined away for sullenness, and would
not eat. So we commend marriage,
------"donec miselli liberi
Aspichmis dominam; sed postquam heu janua clausa est,
Fel intus est quod mel fuit:"
"So long as we are wooers, may kiss and coll at our pleasure, nothing is so
sweet, we are in heaven as we think; but when we are once tied, and have
lost our liberty, marriage is an hell," "give me my yellow hose again:" a
mouse in a trap lives as merrily, we are in a purgatory some of us, if not
hell itself. _Dulce bellum inexpertis_, as the proverb is, 'tis fine
talking of war, and marriage sweet in contemplation, till it be tried: and
then as wars are most dangerous, irksome, every minute at death's door, so
is, &c. When those wild Irish peers, saith [5766]Stanihurst, were feasted
by king Henry the Second, (at what time he kept his Christmas at Dublin)
and had tasted of his prince-like cheer, generous wines, dainty fare, had
seen his [5767]massy plate of silver, gold, enamelled, beset with jewels,
golden candlesticks, goodly rich hangings, brave furniture, heard his
trumpets sound, fifes, drums, and his exquisite music in all kinds: when
they had observed his majestical presence as he sat in purple robes,
crowned, with his sceptre, &c., in his royal seat, the poor men were so
amazed, enamoured, and taken with the object, that they were _pertaesi
domestici et pristini tyrotarchi_, as weary and ashamed of their own
sordidity and manner of life. They would all be English forthwith; who but
English! but when they had now submitted themselves, and lost their former
liberty, they began to rebel some of them, others repent of what they had
done, when it was too late. 'Tis so with us bachelors, when we see and
behold those sweet faces, those gaudy shows that women make, observe their
pleasant gestures and graces, give ear to their siren tunes, see them
dance, &c., we think their conditions are as fine as their faces, we are
taken, with dumb signs, _in amplexum ruimus_, we rave, we burn, and would
fain be married. But when we feel the miseries, cares, woes, that accompany
it, we make our moan many of us, cry out at length and cannot be released.
If this be true now, as some out of experience will inform us, farewell
wiving for my part, and as the comical poet merrily saith,
[5768] "Perdatur ille pessime qui foeminam
Duxit secundus, nam nihil primo imprecor!
Ignarus ut puto mali primus fuit."
[5769] "Foul fall him that brought the second match to pass,
The first I wish no harm, poor man alas!
He knew not what he did, nor what it was."
What shall I say to him that marries again and again, [5770]_Stulta
maritali qui porrigit ora capistro_, I pity him not, for the first time he
must do as he may, bear it out sometimes by the head and shoulders, and let
his next neighbour ride, or else run away, or as that Syracusian in a
tempest, when all ponderous things were to be exonerated out of the ship,
_quia maximum pondus erat_, fling his wife into the sea. But this I confess
is comically spoken, [5771]and so I pray you take it. In sober sadness,
[5772]marriage is a bondage, a thraldom, a yoke, a hindrance to all good
enterprises, ("he hath married a wife and cannot come") a stop to all
preferments, a rock on which many are saved, many impinge and are cast
away: not that the thing is evil in itself or troublesome, but full of all
contentment and happiness, one of the three things which please God, [5773]
"when a man and his wife agree together," an honourable and happy estate,
who knows it not? If they be sober, wise, honest, as the poet infers,
[5774] "Si commodos nanciscantur amores,
Nullum iis abest voluptatis genus."
"If fitly match'd be man and wife,
No pleasure's wanting to their life."
But to undiscreet sensual persons, that as brutes are wholly led by sense,
it is a feral plague, many times a hell itself, and can give little or no
content, being that they are often so irregular and prodigious in their
lusts, so diverse in their affections. _Uxor nomen dignitatis, non
voluptatis_, as [5775]he said, a wife is a name of honour, not of pleasure:
she is fit to bear the office, govern a family, to bring up children, sit
at a board's end and carve, as some carnal men think and say; they had
rather go to the stews, or have now and then a snatch as they can come by
it, borrow of their neighbours, than have wives of their own; except they
may, as some princes and great men do, keep as many courtesans as they will
themselves, fly out _impune_, [5776]_Permolere uxores alienas_, that
polygamy of Turks, Lex Julia, with Caesar once enforced in Rome, (though
Levinus Torrentius and others suspect it) _uti uxores quot et quas vellent
liceret_, that every great man might marry, and keep as many wives as he
would, or Irish divorcement were in use: but as it is, 'tis hard and gives
not that satisfaction to these carnal men, beastly men as too many are:
[5777]What still the same, to be tied [5778]to one, be she never so fair,
never so virtuous, is a thing they may not endure, to love one long. Say
thy pleasure, and counterfeit as thou wilt, as [5779]Parmeno told Thais,
_Neque tu uno eris contenta_, "one man will never please thee;" nor one
woman many men. But as [5780]Pan replied to his father Mercury, when he
asked whether he was married, _Nequaquam pater, amator enim sum_ &c. "No,
father, no, I am a lover still, and cannot be contented with one woman."
Pythias, Echo, Menades, and I know not how many besides, were his
mistresses, he might not abide marriage. _Varietas delectat_, 'tis
loathsome and tedious, what one still? which the satirist said of Iberina,
is verified in most,
[5781] "Unus Iberinae vir sufficit? ocyus illud
Extorquebis ut haec oculo contenta sit uno."
"'Tis not one man will serve her by her will,
As soon she'll have one eye as one man still."
As capable of any impression as _materia prima_ itself, that still desires
new forms, like the sea their affections ebb and flow. Husband is a cloak
for some to hide their villainy; once married she may fly out at her
pleasure, the name of husband is a sanctuary to make all good. _Eo ventum_
(saith Seneca) _ut nulla virum habeat, nisi ut irritet adulterum_. They are
right and straight, as true Trojans as mine host's daughter, that Spanish
wench in [5782]Ariosto, as good wives as Messalina. Many men are as
constant in their choice, and as good husbands as Nero himself, they must
have their pleasure of all they see, and are in a word far more fickle than
any woman.
_For either they be full of jealousy,
Or masterfull, or loven novelty_.
Good men have often ill wives, as bad as Xanthippe was to Socrates, Elevora
to St. Lewis, Isabella to our Edward the Second; and good wives are as
often matched to ill husbands, as Mariamne to Herod, Serena to Diocletian,
Theodora to Theophilus, and Thyra to Gurmunde. But I will say nothing of
dissolute and bad husbands, of bachelors and their vices; their good
qualities are a fitter subject for a just volume, too well known already in
every village, town and city, they need no blazon; and lest I should mar
any matches, or dishearten loving maids, for this present I will let them
pass.
Being that men and women are so irreligious, depraved by nature, so
wandering in their affections, so brutish, so subject to disagreement, so
unobservant of marriage rites, what shall I say? If thou beest such a one,
or thou light on such a wife, what concord can there be, what hope of
agreement? 'tis not _conjugium_ but _conjurgium_, as the Reed and Fern in
the [5783]Emblem, averse and opposite in nature: 'tis twenty to one thou
wilt not marry to thy contentment: but as in a lottery forty blanks were
drawn commonly for one prize, out of a multitude you shall hardly choose a
good one: a small ease hence then, little comfort,
[5784] "Nec integrum unquam transiges laetus diem."
"If he or she be such a one,
Thou hadst much better be alone."
If she be barren, she is not--&c. If she have [5785]children, and thy state
be not good, though thou be wary and circumspect, thy charge will undo
thee,--_foecunda domum tibi prole gravabit_, [5786]thou wilt not be able to
bring them up, [5787]"and what greater misery can there be than to beget
children, to whom thou canst leave no other inheritance but hunger and
thirst?" [5788]_cum fames dominatur, strident voces rogantium panem,
penetrantes patris cor_: what so grievous as to turn them up to the wide
world, to shift for themselves? No plague like to want: and when thou hast
good means, and art very careful of their education, they will not be
ruled. Think but of that old proverb, [Greek: haeiroon tekna paemata],
_heroum filii noxae_, great men's sons seldom do well; _O utinam aut
coelebs mansissem, aut prole carerem!_ "would that I had either remained
single, or not had children," [5789]Augustus exclaims in Suetonius. Jacob
had his Reuben, Simeon and Levi; David an Amnon, an Absalom, Adoniah; wise
men's sons are commonly fools, insomuch that Spartian concludes, _Neminem
prope magnorum virorum optimum et utilem reliquisse filium_: [5790]they had
been much better to have been childless. 'Tis too common in the middle
sort; thy son's a drunkard, a gamester, a spendthrift; thy daughter a fool,
a whore; thy servants lazy drones and thieves; thy neighbours devils, they
will make thee weary of thy life. [5791]"If thy wife be froward, when she
may not have her will, thou hadst better be buried alive; she will be so
impatient, raving still, and roaring like Juno in the tragedy, there's
nothing but tempests, all is in an uproar." If she be soft and foolish,
thou wert better have a block, she will shame thee and reveal thy secrets;
if wise and learned, well qualified, there is as much danger on the other
side, _mulierem doctam ducere periculosissimum_, saith Nevisanus, she will
be too insolent and peevish, [5792]_Malo Venusinam quam te Cornelia mater_.
Take heed; if she be a slut, thou wilt loathe her; if proud, she'll beggar
thee, so [5793]"she'll spend thy patrimony in baubles, all Arabia will not
serve to perfume her hair," saith Lucian; if fair and wanton, she'll make
thee a cornuto; if deformed, she will paint. [5794]"If her face be filthy
by nature, she will mend it by art," _alienis et adscititiis imposturis_,
"which who can endure?" If she do not paint, she will look so filthy, thou
canst not love her, and that peradventure will make thee dishonest.
Cromerus _lib. 12. hist._, relates of Casimirus, [5795]that he was
unchaste, because his wife Aleida, the daughter of Henry, Landgrave of
Hesse, was so deformed. If she be poor, she brings beggary with her (saith
Nevisanus), misery and discontent. If you marry a maid, it is uncertain how
she proves, _Haec forsan veniet non satis apta tibi_. [5796]If young, she
is likely wanton and untaught; if lusty, too lascivious; and if she be not
satisfied, you know where and when, _nil nisi jurgia_, all is in an uproar,
and there is little quietness to be had; If an old maid, 'tis a hazard she
dies in childbed; if a [5797]rich widow, _induces te in laqueum_, thou dost
halter thyself, she will make all away beforehand, to her other children,
&c.--[5798]_dominam quis possit ferre tonantem_? she will hit thee still in
the teeth with her first husband; if a young widow, she is often insatiable
and immodest. If she be rich, well descended, bring a great dowry, or be
nobly allied, thy wife's friends will eat thee out of house and home,
_dives ruinam aedibus inducit_, she will be so proud, so high-minded, so
imperious. For--_nihil est magis intolerabile dite_, "there's nothing so
intolerable," thou shalt be as the tassel of a goshawk, [5799]"she will
ride upon thee, domineer as she list," wear the breeches in her
oligarchical government, and beggar thee besides. _Uxores divites
servitutem exigunt_ (as Seneca hits them, _declam. lib. 2. declam.
6._)--_Dotem accepi imperium perdidi_. They will have sovereignty, _pro
conjuge dominam arcessis_, they will have attendance, they will do what
they list. [5800]In taking a dowry thou losest thy liberty, _dos intrat,
libertas exit_, hazardest thine estate.
"Hae sunt atque aliae multae in magnis dotibus
Incommoditates, sumptusque intolerabiles," &c.
"with many such inconveniences:" say the best, she is a commanding servant;
thou hadst better have taken a good housewife maid in her smock. Since then
there is such hazard, if thou be wise keep thyself as thou art, 'tis good
to match, much better to be free.
[5801] "--procreare liberos lepidissimum.
Hercle vero liberum esse, id multo est lepidius."
[5802]Art thou young? then match not yet; if old, match not at all.
"Vis juvenis nubere? nondum venit tempus.
Ingravescente aetate jam tempus praeteriit."
And therefore, with that philosopher, still make answer to thy friends that
importune thee to marry, _adhuc intempestivum_, 'tis yet unseasonable, and
ever will be.
Consider withal how free, how happy, how secure, how heavenly, in respect,
a single man is, [5803]as he said in the comedy, _Et isti quod fortunatum
esse autumant, uxorem nunquam habui_, and that which all my neighbours
admire and applaud me for, account so great a happiness, I never had a
wife; consider how contentedly, quietly, neatly, plentifully, sweetly, and
how merrily he lives! he hath no man to care for but himself, none to
please, no charge, none to control him, is tied to no residence, no cure to
serve, may go and come, when, whither, live where he will, his own master,
and do what he list himself. Consider the excellency of virgins, [5804]
_Virgo coelum meruit_, marriage replenisheth the earth, but virginity
Paradise; Elias, Eliseus, John Baptist, were bachelors: virginity is a
precious jewel, a fair garland, a never-fading flower; [5805]for why was
Daphne turned to a green bay-tree, but to show that virginity is immortal?
[5806] "Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quam mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber, &c.
Sic virgo dum intacta manet, dum chara suis, sed
Cum Castum amisit," &c.------
Virginity is a fine picture, as [5807]Bonaventure calls it, a blessed thing
in itself, and if you will believe a Papist, meritorious. And although
there be some inconveniences, irksomeness, solitariness, &c., incident to
such persons, want of those comforts, _quae, aegro assideat et curet
aegrotum, fomentum paret, roget medieum_, &c., embracing, dalliance,
kissing, colling, &c., those furious motives and wanton pleasures a
new-married wife most part enjoys; yet they are but toys in respect, easily
to be endured, if conferred to those frequent encumbrances of marriage.
Solitariness may be otherwise avoided with mirth, music, good company,
business, employment; in a word, [5808]_Gaudebit minus, et minus dolebit_;
for their good nights, he shall have good days. And methinks some time or
other, amongst so many rich bachelors, a benefactor should be found to
build a monastical college for old, decayed, deformed, or discontented
maids to live together in, that have lost their first loves, or otherwise
miscarried, or else are willing howsoever to lead a single life. The rest I
say are toys in respect, and sufficiently recompensed by those innumerable
contents and incomparable privileges of virginity. Think of these things,
confer both lives, and consider last of all these commodious prerogatives a
bachelor hath, how well he is esteemed, how heartily welcome to all his
friends, _quam mentitis obsequiis_, as Tertullian observes, with what
counterfeit courtesies they will adore him, follow him, present him with
gifts, _humatis donis_; "it cannot be believed" (saith [5809]Ammianus)
"with what humble service he shall be worshipped," how loved and respected:
"If he want children, (and have means) he shall be often invited, attended
on by princes, and have advocates to plead his cause for nothing," as
[5810] Plutarch adds. Wilt thou then be reverenced, and had in estimation?
[5811] ------"dominus tamen et domini rex
Si tu vis fieri, nullus tibi parvulus aula.
Luserit Aeneas, nec filia dulcior illa?
Jucundum et charum sterilis facit uxor amicum."
Live a single man, marry not, and thou shalt soon perceive how those
Haeredipetae (for so they were called of old) will seek after thee, bribe
and flatter thee for thy favour, to be thine heir or executor: Aruntius and
Aterius, those famous parasites in this kind, as Tacitus and [5812]Seneca
have recorded, shall not go beyond them. Periplectomines, that good
personate old man, _delicium senis_, well understood this in Plautus: for
when Pleusides exhorted him to marry that he might have children of his
own, he readily replied in this sort,
"Quando habeo multos cognatos, quid opus mihi sit liberis?
Nunc bene vivo et fortunate, atque animo ut lubet.
Mea bona mea morte cognatis dicam interpartiant.
Illi apud me edunt, me curant, visunt quid agam, ecquid velim,
Qui mihi mittunt munera, ad prandium, ad coenam vocant."
"Whilst I have kin, what need I brats to have?
Now I live well, and as I will, most brave.
And when I die, my goods I'll give away
To them that do invite me every day.
That visit me, and send me pretty toys,
And strive who shall do me most courtesies."
This respect thou shalt have in like manner, living as he did, a single
man. But if thou marry once, [5813]_cogitato in omni vita te servum fore_,
bethink thyself what a slavery it is, what a heavy burden thou shalt
undertake, how hard a task thou art tied to, (for as Hierome hath it, _qui
uxorem habet, debitor est, et uxoris servus alligatus_,) and how
continuate, what squalor attends it, what irksomeness, what charges, for
wife and children are a perpetual bill of charges; besides a myriad of
cares, miseries, and troubles; for as that comical Plautus merrily and
truly said, he that wants trouble, must get to be master of a ship, or
marry a wife; and as another seconds him, wife and children have undone me;
so many and such infinite encumbrances accompany this kind of life.
Furthermore, _uxor intumuit_, &c., or as he said in the comedy, [5814]_Duxi
uxorem, quam ibi miseriam vidi, nati filii, alia cura_. All gifts and
invitations cease, no friend will esteem thee, and thou shalt be compelled
to lament thy misery, and make thy moan with [5815]Bartholomeus Scheraeus,
that famous poet laureate, and professor of Hebrew in Wittenberg: I had
finished this work long since, but that _inter alia dura et tristia quae
misero mihi pene tergum fregerunt_, (I use his own words) amongst many
miseries which almost broke my back, [Greek: syzygia] _ob Xantipismum_, a
shrew to my wife tormented my mind above measure, and beyond the rest. So
shalt thou be compelled to complain, and to cry out at last, with
[5816]Phoroneus the lawyer, "How happy had I been, if I had wanted a wife!"
If this which I have said will not suffice, see more in Lemnius _lib. 4.
cap. 13. de occult. nat. mir._ Espensaeus _de continentia, lib. 6. cap. 8._
Kornman _de virginitate_, Platina _in Amor. dial. Practica artis amandi_,
Barbarus _de re uxoria_, Arnisaeus _in polit. cap. 3._ and him that is
_instar omnium_, Nevisanus the lawyer, _Sylva nuptial_, almost in every
page.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Philters, Magical and Poetical Cures_.
Where persuasions and other remedies will not take place, many fly to
unlawful means, philters, amulets, magic spells, ligatures, characters,
charms, which as a wound with the spear of Achilles, if so made and caused,
must so be cured. If forced by spells and philters, saith Paracelsus, it
must be eased by characters, _Mag. lib. 2. cap 28._ and by incantations.
Fernelius _Path. lib. 6. cap. 13._ [5817]Skenkius _lib. 4. observ. med_.
hath some examples of such as have been so magically caused, and magically
cured, and by witchcraft: so saith Baptista Codronchus, _lib. 3. cap. 9. de
mor. ven._ _Malleus malef. cap. 6._ 'Tis not permitted to be done, I
confess; yet often attempted: see more in Wierus _lib. 3. cap. 18. de
praestig. de remediis per philtra._ Delrio _tom. 2. lib. 2. quaest. 3.
sect. 3. disquisit. magic_. Cardan _lib. 16. cap. 90._ reckons up many
magnetical medicines, as to piss through a ring, &c. Mizaldus _cent. 3.
30_, Baptista Porta, Jason Pratensis, Lobelius _pag. 87_, Matthiolus, &c.,
prescribe many absurd remedies. Radix mandragora ebibitae, Annuli ex
ungulis Asini, Stercus amatae sub cervical positum, illa nesciente, &c.,
quum odorem foeditatis sentit, amor solvitur. Noctuae ocum abstemios facit
comestum, ex consilio Jarthae Indorum gymnosophistae apud Philostratum
_lib. 3._ Sanguis amasiae, ebibitus omnem amoris sensum tollit: Faustinam
Marci Aurelii uxorem, gladiatoris amore captam, ita penitus consilio
Chaldaeorum liberatam, refert Julius Capitolinus. Some of our astrologers
will effect as much by characteristical images, _ex sigillis Hermetis,
Salomonis, Chaelis, &c. mulieris imago habentis crines sparsos_, &c. Our
old poets and fantastical writers have many fabulous remedies for such as
are lovesick, as that of Protesilaus' tomb in Philostratus, in his dialogue
between Phoenix and Vinitor: Vinitor, upon occasion discoursing of the rare
virtues of that shrine, telleth him that Protesilaus' altar and tomb
[5818]"cures almost all manner of diseases, consumptions, dropsies,
quartan-agues, sore eyes: and amongst the rest, such as are lovesick shall
there be helped." But the most famous is [5819]Leucata Petra, that renowned
rock in Greece, of which Strabo writes, _Geog. lib. 10._ not far from St.
Maures, saith Sands, _lib. 1._ from which rock if any lover flung himself
down headlong, he was instantly cured. Venus after the death of Adonis,
"when she could take no rest for love," [5820]_Cum vesana suas torreret
flamma medullas_, came to the temple of Apollo to know what she should do
to be eased of her pain: Apollo sent her to Leucata Petra, where she
precipitated herself, and was forthwith freed; and when she would needs
know of him a reason of it, he told her again, that he had often observed
[5821]Jupiter, when he was enamoured on Juno, thither go to ease and wash
himself, and after him divers others. Cephalus for the love of Protela,
Degonetus' daughter, leaped down here, that Lesbian Sappho for Phaon, on
whom she miserably doted. [5822]_Cupidinis aestro percita e summo praeceps
ruit_, hoping thus to ease herself, and to be freed of her love pangs.
[5823] "Hic se Deucalion Pyrrhae suecensus amore
Mersit, et illaeso corpore pressit aquas.
Nec mora, fugit amor," &c.------
"Hither Deucalion came, when Pyrrha's love
Tormented him, and leapt down to the sea,
And had no harm at all, but by and by
His love was gone and chased quite away."
This medicine Jos. Scaliger speaks of, _Ausoniarum lectionum lib. 18._
Salmutz _in Pancirol. de 7. mundi mirac._ and other writers. Pliny reports,
that amongst the Cyzeni, there is a well consecrated to Cupid, of which if
any lover taste, his passion is mitigated: and Anthony Verdurius _Imag.
deorum de Cupid._ saith, that amongst the ancients there was [5824]_Amor
Lethes_, "he took burning torches, and extinguished them in the river; his
statute was to be seen in the temple of Venus Eleusina," of which Ovid
makes mention, and saith "that all lovers of old went thither on
pilgrimage, that would be rid of their love-pangs." Pausanias, in [5825]
Phocicis, writes of a temple dedicated _Veneri in spelunca_, to Venus in
the vault, at Naupactus in Achaia (now Lepanto) in which your widows that
would have second husbands, made their supplications to the goddess; all
manner of suits concerning lovers were commenced, and their grievances
helped. The same author, in Achaicis, tells as much of the river [5826]
Senelus in Greece; if any lover washed himself in it, by a secret virtue of
that water, (by reason of the extreme coldness belike) he was healed, of
love's torments, [5827]_Amoris vulnus idem qui sanat facit_; which if it be
so, that water, as he holds, is _omni auro pretiosior_, better than any
gold. Where none of all these remedies will take place, I know no other but
that all lovers must make a head and rebel, as they did in [5828]Ausonius,
and crucify Cupid till he grant their request, or satisfy their desires.
SUBSECT. V.--_The last and best Cure of Love-Melancholy, is to let them
have their Desire_.
The last refuge and surest remedy, to be put in practice in the utmost
place, when no other means will take effect, is to let them go together,
and enjoy one another: _potissima cura est ut heros amasia sua potiatur_,
saith Guianerius, _cap. 15. tract. 15._ Aesculapius himself, to this
malady, cannot invent a better remedy, _quam ut amanti cedat amatum_,
[5829](Jason Pratensis) than that a lover have his desire.
"Et pariter torulo bini jungantur in uno,
Et pulchro detur Aeneae Lavinia conjux."
"And let them both be joined in a bed,
And let Aeneas fair Lavinia wed;"
'Tis the special cure, to let them bleed in _vena Hymencaea_, for love is a
pleurisy, and if it be possible, so let it be,--_optataque gaudia carpant_.
[5830]Arculanus holds it the speediest and the best cure, 'tis Savanarola's
[5831]last precept, a principal infallible remedy, the last, sole, and
safest refuge.
[5832] "Julia sola poles nostras extinguere flammas,
Non nive, nun glacie, sed potes igne pari."
"Julia alone can quench my desire,
With neither ice nor snow, but with like fire."
When you have all done, saith [5833]Avicenna, "there is no speedier or
safer course, than to join the parties together according to their desires
and wishes, the custom and form of law; and so we have seen him quickly
restored to his former health, that was languished away to skin and bones;
after his desire was satisfied, his discontent ceased, and we thought it
strange; our opinion is therefore that in such cases nature is to be
obeyed." Areteus, an old author, _lib. 3. cap. 3._ hath an instance of a
young man, [5834]when no other means could prevail, was so speedily
relieved. What remains then but to join them in marriage?
[5835] "Tunc et basia morsiunculasque
Surreptim dare, mutuos fovere
Amplexus licet, et licet jocari;"
"they may then kiss and coll, lie and look babies in one another's eyes,"
as heir sires before them did, they may then satiate themselves with love's
pleasures, which they have so long wished and expected;
"Atque uno simul in toro quiescant,
Conjuncto simul ore suavientur,
Et somnos agitent quiete in una."
Yea, but _hic labor, hoc opus_, this cannot conveniently be done, by reason
of many and several impediments. Sometimes both parties themselves are not
agreed: parents, tutors, masters, guardians, will not give consent; laws,
customs, statutes hinder: poverty, superstition, fear and suspicion: many
men dote on one woman, _semel et simul_: she dotes as much on him, or them,
and in modesty must not, cannot woo, as unwilling to confess as willing to
love: she dare not make it known, show her affection, or speak her mind.
"And hard is the choice" (as it is in Euphues) "when one is compelled
either by silence to die with grief, or by speaking to live with shame." In
this case almost was the fair lady Elizabeth, Edward the Fourth his
daughter, when she was enamoured on Henry the Seventh, that noble young
prince, and new saluted king, when she broke forth into that passionate
speech, [5836] "O that I were worthy of that comely prince! but my father
being dead, I want friends to motion such a matter! What shall I say? I am
all alone, and dare not open my mind to any. What if I acquaint my mother
with it? bashfulness forbids. What if some of the lords? audacity wants. O
that I might but confer with him, perhaps in discourse I might let slip
such a word that might discover mine intention!" How many modest maids may
this concern, I am a poor servant, what shall I do? I am a fatherless
child, and want means, I am blithe and buxom, young and lusty, but I have
never a suitor, _Expectant stolidi ut ego illos rogatum veniam_, as
[5837]she said, A company of silly fellows look belike that I should woo
them and speak first: fain they would and cannot woo,--[5838]_quae primum
exordia sumam_? being merely passive they may not make suit, with many such
lets and inconveniences, which I know not; what shall we do in such a case?
sing "Fortune my foe? "------
Some are so curious in this behalf, as those old Romans, our modern
Venetians, Dutch and French, that if two parties clearly love, the one
noble, the other ignoble, they may not by their laws match, though equal
otherwise in years, fortunes, education, and all good affection. In
Germany, except they can prove their gentility by three descents, they
scorn to match with them. A nobleman must marry a noblewoman: a baron, a
baron's daughter; a knight, a knight's; a gentleman, a gentleman's: as
slaters sort their slates, do they degrees and families. If she be never so
rich, fair, well qualified otherwise, they will make him forsake her. The
Spaniards abhor all widows; the Turks repute them old women, if past
five-and-twenty. But these are too severe laws, and strict customs, _dandum
aliquid amori_, we are all the sons of Adam, 'tis opposite to nature, it
ought not to be so. Again: he loves her most impotently, she loves not him,
and so _e contra_. [5839]Pan loved Echo, Echo Satyrus, Satyrus Lyda.
"Quantum ipsorum aliquis amantem oderat,
Tantum ipsius amans odiosus erat."
"They love and loathe of all sorts, he loves her, she hates him; and is
loathed of him, on whom she dotes." Cupid hath two darts, one to force
love, all of gold, and that sharp,--[5840]_Quod facit auratum est_; another
blunt, of lead, and that to hinder;--_fugat hoc, facit illud amorem_, "this
dispels, that creates love." This we see too often verified in our common
experience. [5841]Choresus dearly loved that virgin Callyrrhoe; but the
more he loved her, the more she hated him. Oenone loved Paris, but he
rejected her: they are stiff of all sides, as if beauty were therefore
created to undo, or be undone. I give her all attendance, all observance, I
pray and intreat, [5842]_Alma precor miserere mei_, fair mistress pity me,
I spend myself, my time, friends and fortunes, to win her favour, (as he
complains in the [5843]Eclogue,) I lament, sigh, weep, and make my moan to
her, "but she is hard as flint,"--_cautibus Ismariis immotior_--as fair and
hard as a diamond, she will not respect, _Despectus tibi sum_, or hear me,
[5844] ------"fugit illa vocantem
Nil lachrymas miserata meas, nil flexa querelis."
What shall I do?
"I wooed her as a young man should do,
But sir, she said, I love not you."
[5845] "Durior at scopulis mea Coelia, marmore, ferro,
Robore, rupe, antro, cornu, adamante, gelu."
"Rock, marble, heart of oak with iron barr'd,
Frost, flint or adamants, are not so hard."
I give, I bribe, I send presents, but they are refused. [5846]_Rusticus est
Coridon, nec munera curat Alexis_. I protest, I swear, I weep,
[5847] ------"odioque rependit amores,
Irrisu lachrymas"------
"She neglects me for all this, she derides me," contemns me, she hates me,
"Phillida flouts me:" _Caute, feris, quercu durior Eurydice_, stiff,
churlish, rocky still.
And 'tis most true, many gentlewomen are so nice, they scorn all suitors,
crucify their poor paramours, and think nobody good enough for them, as
dainty to please as Daphne herself.
[5848] "Multi illum petiere, illa aspernate petentes,
Nec quid Hymen, quid amor, quid sint connubia curat."
"Many did woo her, but she scorn'd them still,
And said she would not marry by her will."
One while they will not marry, as they say at least, (when as they intend
nothing less) another while not yet, when 'tis their only desire, they rave
upon it. She will marry at last, but not him: he is a proper man indeed,
and well qualified, but he wants means: another of her suitors hath good
means, but he wants wit; one is too old, another too young, too deformed,
she likes not his carriage: a third too loosely given, he is rich, but base
born: she will be a gentlewoman, a lady, as her sister is, as her mother
is: she is all out as fair, as well brought up, hath as good a portion, and
she looks for as good a match, as Matilda or Dorinda: if not, she is
resolved as yet to tarry, so apt are young maids to boggle at every object,
so soon won or lost with every toy, so quickly diverted, so hard to be
pleased. In the meantime, _quot torsit amantes_? one suitor pines away,
languisheth in love, _mori quot denique cogit!_ another sighs and grieves,
she cares not: and which [5849]Siroza objected to Ariadne,
"Nec magis Euryali gemitu, lacrymisque moveris,
Quam prece turbati flectitur ora sati.
Tu juvenem, quo non formosior alter in urbe,
Spernis, et insano cogis amore mori."
"Is no more mov'd with those sad sighs and tears,
Of her sweetheart, than raging sea with prayers:
Thou scorn'st the fairest youth in all our city,
And mak'st him almost mad for love to die:"
They take a pride to prank up themselves, to make young men. enamoured,--
[5850]_captare viros et spernere capias_, to dote on them, and to run mad
for their sakes,
[5851] ------"sed nullis illa movetur
Fletibus, aut voces ullas tractabilis audit."
"Whilst niggardly their favours they discover,
They love to be belov'd, yet scorn the lover."
All suit and service is too little for them, presents too base: _Tormentis
gaudet amantis--et spoliis_. As Atalanta they must be overrun, or not won.
Many young men are as obstinate, and as curious in their choice, as
tyrannically proud, insulting, deceitful, false-hearted, as irrefragable
and peevish on the other side; Narcissus-like,
[5852] "Multi illum juvenes, multae petiere puellae,
Sed fuit in tenera tam dira superbia forma,
Nulli illum juvenes, nullas petiere puellae."
"Young men and maids did to him sue,
But in his youth, so proud, so coy was he,
Young men and maids bade him adieu."
Echo wept and wooed him by all means above the rest, Love me for pity, or
pity me for love, but he was obstinate, _Ante ait emoriar quam sit tibi
copia nostri_, "he would rather die than give consent." Psyche ran whining
after Cupid,
[5853] "Formosum tua te Psyche formosa requirit,
Et poscit te dia deum, puerumque puella;"
"Fair Cupid, thy fair Psyche to thee sues,
A lovely lass a fine young gallant woos;"
but he rejected her nevertheless. Thus many lovers do hold out so long,
doting on themselves, stand in their own light, till in the end they come
to be scorned and rejected, as Stroza's Gargiliana was,
"Te juvenes, te odere senes, desertaque langues,
Quae fueras procerum publica cura prius."
"Both young and old do hate thee scorned now,
That once was all their joy and comfort too."
As Narcissus was himself,
------"Who despising many.
Died ere he could enjoy the love of any."
They begin to be contemned themselves of others, as he was of his shadow,
and take up with a poor curate, or an old serving-man at last, that might
have had their choice of right good matches in their youth; like that
generous mare, in [5854]Plutarch, which would admit of none but great
horses, but when her tail was cut off and mane shorn close, and she now saw
herself so deformed in the water, when she came to drink, _ab asino
conscendi se passa_, she was contented at last to be covered by an ass. Yet
this is a common humour, will not be left, and cannot be helped.
[5855] "Hanc volo quae non vult, illam quae vult ego nolo:
Vincere vult animos, non satiare Venus."
"I love a maid, she loves me not: full fain
She would have me, but I not her again;
So love to crucify men's souls is bent:
But seldom doth it please or give consent."
"Their love danceth in a ring, and Cupid hunts them round about; he dotes,
is doted on again." _Dumque petit petitur, pariterque accedit et ardet_,
their affection cannot be reconciled. Oftentimes they may and will not,
'tis their own foolish proceedings that mars all, they are too distrustful
of themselves, too soon dejected: say she be rich, thou poor: she young,
thou old; she lovely and fair, thou most ill-favoured and deformed; she
noble, thou base: she spruce and fine, but thou an ugly clown: _nil
desperandum_, there's hope enough yet: _Mopso Nisa datur, quid non speremus
amantes_? Put thyself forward once more, as unlikely matches have been and
are daily made, see what will be the event. Many leave roses and gather
thistles, loathe honey and love verjuice: our likings are as various as our
palates. But commonly they omit opportunities, _oscula qui sumpsit_, &c.,
they neglect the usual means and times.
"He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay."
They look to be wooed, sought after, and sued to. Most part they will and
cannot, either for the above-named reasons, or for that there is a
multitude of suitors equally enamoured, doting all alike; and where one
alone must speed, what shall become of the rest? Hero was beloved of many,
but one did enjoy her; Penelope had a company of suitors, yet all missed of
their aim. In such cases he or they must wisely and warily unwind
themselves, unsettle his affections by those rules above prescribed,--
[5856]_quin stultos excutit ignes_, divert his cogitations, or else bravely
bear it out, as Turnus did, _Tua sit Lavinia conjux_, when he could not get
her, with a kind of heroical scorn he bid Aeneas take her, or with a milder
farewell, let her go. _Et Phillida solus habeto_, "Take her to you, God
give you joy, sir." The fox in the emblem would eat no grapes, but why?
because he could not get them; care not then for that which may not be had.
Many such inconveniences, lets, and hindrances there are, which cross their
projects and crucify poor lovers, which sometimes may, sometimes again
cannot be so easily removed. But put case they be reconciled all, agreed
hitherto, suppose this love or good liking be between two alone, both
parties well pleased, there is _mutuus amor_, mutual love and great
affection; yet their parents, guardians, tutors, cannot agree, thence all
is dashed, the match is unequal: one rich, another poor: _durus pater_, a
hard-hearted, unnatural, a covetous father will not marry his son, except
he have so much money, _ita in aurum omnes insaniunt_, as [5857]Chrysostom
notes, nor join his daughter in marriage, to save her dowry, or for that he
cannot spare her for the service she doth him, and is resolved to part with
nothing whilst he lives, not a penny, though he may peradventure well give
it, he will not till he dies, and then as a pot of money broke, it is
divided amongst them that gaped after it so earnestly. Or else he wants
means to set her out, he hath no money, and though it be to the manifest
prejudice of her body and soul's health, he cares not, he will take no
notice of it, she must and shall tarry. Many slack and careless parents,
_iniqui patres_, measure their children's affections by their own, they are
now cold and decrepit themselves, past all such youthful conceits, and they
will therefore starve their children's genus, have them _a pueris [5858]
illico nasci senes_, they must not marry, _nec earum affines esse rerum
quas secum fert adolescentia: ex sua libidine moderatur quae est nunc, non
quae olim fuit_: as he said in the comedy: they will stifle nature, their
young bloods must not participate of youthful pleasures, but be as they are
themselves old on a sudden. And 'tis a general fault amongst most parents
in bestowing of their children, the father wholly respects wealth, when
through his folly, riot, indiscretion, he hath embezzled his estate, to
recover himself, he confines and prostitutes his eldest son's love and
affection to some fool, or ancient, or deformed piece for money.
[5859] "Phanaretae ducet filiam, rufam, illam virginem,
Caesiam, sparso ore, adunco naso"------
and though his son utterly dislike, with Clitipho in the comedy, _Non
possum pater_: If she be rich, _Eia_ (he replies) _ut elegans est, credas
animum ibi esse_? he must and shall have her, she is fair enough, young
enough, if he look or hope to inherit his lands, he shall marry, not when
or whom he loves, _Arconidis hujus filiam_, but whom his father commands,
when and where he likes, his affection must dance attendance upon him. His
daughter is in the same predicament forsooth, as an empty boat, she must
carry what, where, when, and whom her father will. So that in these
businesses the father is still for the best advantage; now the mother
respects good kindred, must part the son a proper woman. All which [5860]
Livy exemplifies, _dec. 1. lib. 4._ a gentleman and a yeoman wooed a wench
in Rome (contrary to that statute that the gentry and commonalty must not
match together); the matter was controverted: the gentleman was preferred
by the mother's voice, _quae quam splendissimis nuptiis jungi puellam
volebat_: the overseers stood for him that was most worth, &c. But parents
ought not to be so strict in this behalf, beauty is a dowry of itself all
sufficient, [5861]_Virgo formosa, etsi oppido pauper, abunde dotata est_,
[5862]Rachel was so married to Jacob, and Bonaventure, [5863]_in 4. sent_,
"denies that he so much as venially sins, that marries a maid for
comeliness of person." The Jews, Deut. xxi. 11, if they saw amongst the
captives a beautiful woman, some small circumstances observed, might take
her to wife. They should not be too severe in that kind, especially if
there be no such urgent occasion, or grievous impediment. 'Tis good for a
commonwealth. [5864]Plato holds, that in their contracts "young men should
never avoid the affinity of poor folks, or seek after rich." Poverty and
base parentage may be sufficiently recompensed by many other good
qualities, modesty, virtue, religion, and choice bringing up, [5865]"I am
poor, I confess, but am I therefore contemptible, and an abject? Love
itself is naked, the graces; the stars, and Hercules clad in a lion's
skin." Give something to virtue, love, wisdom, favour, beauty, person; be
not all for money. Besides, you must consider that _Amor cogi non potest_,
love cannot be compelled, they must affect as they may: [5866]_Fatum est in
partibus illis quas sinus abscondit_, as the saying is, marriage and
hanging goes by destiny, matches are made in heaven.
"It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overrul'd by fate."
A servant maid in [5867]Aristaenetus loved her mistress's minion, which
when her dame perceived, _furiosa aemulatione_ in a jealous humour she
dragged her about the house by the hair of the head, and vexed her sore.
The wench cried out, [5868]"O mistress, fortune hath made my body your
servant, but not my soul!" Affections are free, not to be commanded.
Moreover it may be to restrain their ambition, pride, and covetousness, to
correct those hereditary diseases of a family, God in his just judgment
assigns and permits such matches to be made. For I am of Plato and [5869]
Bodine's mind, that families have their bounds and periods as well as
kingdoms, beyond which for extent or continuance they shall not exceed, six
or seven hundred years, as they there illustrate by a multitude of
examples, and which Peucer and [5870]Melancthon approve, but in a perpetual
tenor (as we see by many pedigrees of knights, gentlemen, yeomen) continue
as they began, for many descents with little alteration. Howsoever let
them, I say, give something to youth, to love; they must not think they can
fancy whom they appoint; [5871]_Amor enim non imperatur, affectus liber si
quis alius et vices exigens_, this is a free passion, as Pliny said in a
panegyric of his, and may not be forced: Love craves liking, as the saying
is, it requires mutual affections, a correspondency: _invito non datur nec
aufertur_, it may not be learned, Ovid himself cannot teach us how to love,
Solomon describe, Apelles paint, or Helen express it. They must not
therefore compel or intrude; [5872]_quis enim_ (as Fabius urgeth) _amare
alieno animo potest_? but consider withal the miseries of enforced
marriages; take pity upon youth: and such above the rest as have daughters
to bestow, should be very careful and provident to marry them in due time.
Siracides cap. 7. vers. 25. calls it "a weighty matter to perform, so to
marry a daughter to a man of understanding in due time:" _Virgines enim
tempestive locandae_, as [5873]Lemnius admonisheth, _lib. 1. cap. 6._
Virgins must be provided for in season, to prevent many diseases, of which
[5874]Rodericus a Castro _de morbis mulierum, lib. 2. cap. 3._ and Lod.
Mercatus _lib. 2. de mulier. affect, cap. 4, de melanch. virginum et
viduarum_, have both largely discoursed. And therefore as well to avoid
these feral maladies, 'tis good to get them husbands betimes, as to prevent
some other gross inconveniences, and for a thing that I know besides; _ubi
nuptiarum tempus et aetas advenerit_, as Chrysostom adviseth, let them not
defer it; they perchance will marry themselves else, or do worse. If
Nevisanus the lawyer do not impose, they may do it by right: for as he
proves out of Curtius, and some other civilians, Sylvae, _nup. lib. 2.
numer. 30._ [5875]"A maid past twenty-five years of age, against her
parents' consent may marry such a one as is unworthy of, and inferior to
her, and her father by law must be compelled to give her a competent
dowry." Mistake me not in the mean time, or think that I do apologise here
for any headstrong, unruly, wanton flirts. I do approve that of St. Ambrose
(_Comment. in Genesis xxiv. 51_), which he hath written touching Rebecca's
spousals, "A woman should give unto her parents the choice of her husband,
[5876]lest she be reputed to be malapert and wanton, if she take upon her
to make her own choice; [5877]for she should rather seem to be desired by a
man, than to desire a man herself." To those hard parents alone I retort
that of Curtius, (in the behalf of modester maids), that are too remiss and
careless of their due time and riper years. For if they tarry longer, to
say truth, they are past date, and nobody will respect them. A woman with
us in Italy (saith [5878]Aretine's Lucretia) twenty-four years of age, "is
old already, past the best, of no account." An old fellow, as Lycistrata
confesseth in [5879]Aristophanes, _etsi sit canus, cito puellam virginem
ducat uxorem_, and 'tis no news for an old fellow to marry a young wench:
but as he follows it, _mulieris brevis occasio est, etsi hoc non
apprehenderit, nemo vult ducere uxorem, expectans vero sedet_; who cares
for an old maid? she may set, &c. A virgin, as the poet holds, _lasciva et
petulans puella virgo_, is like a flower, a rose withered on a sudden.
[5880] "Quam modo nascentem rutilus conspexit Eous,
Hanc rediens sero vespere vidit anum."
"She that was erst a maid as fresh as May,
Is now an old crone, time so steals away."
Let them take time then while they may, make advantage of youth, and as he
prescribes,
[5881] "Collige virgo rosas dum flos novus et nova pubes,
Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum."
"Fair maids, go gather roses in the prime,
And think that as a flower so goes on time."
Let's all love, _dum vires annique sinunt_, while we are in the flower of
years, fit for love matters, and while time serves: for
[5882] "Soles occidere et redire possunt,
Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetuo una dormienda."
[5883] "Suns that set may rise again,
But if once we loss this light,
'Tis with us perpetual night."
_Volat irrevocabile tempus_, time past cannot be recalled. But we need no
such exhortation, we are all commonly too forward: yet if there be any
escape, and all be not as it should, as Diogenes struck the father when the
son swore, because he taught him no better, if a maid or young man
miscarry, I think their parents oftentimes, guardians, overseers,
governors, _neque vos_ (saith [5884]Chrysostom) _a supplicio immunes
evadetis, si non statim ad nuptias_, &c. are in as much fault, and as
severely to be punished as their children, in providing for them no sooner.
Now for such as have free liberty to bestow themselves, I could wish that
good counsel of the comical old man were put in practice,
[5885] "Opulentiores pauperiorum ut filias
Indotas dicant uxores domum:
Et multo fiet civitas concordior,
Et invidia nos minore utemur, quam utimur."
"That rich men would marry poor maidens some,
And that without dowry, and so bring them home,
So would much concord be in our city,
Less envy should we have, much more pity."
If they would care less for wealth, we should have much more content and
quietness in a commonwealth. Beauty, good bringing up, methinks, is a
sufficient portion of itself, [5886]_Dos est sua forma puellis_, "her
beauty is a maiden's dower," and he doth well that will accept of such a
wife. Eubulides, in [5887]Aristaenetus, married a poor man's child, _facie
non illaetabili_, of a merry countenance, and heavenly visage, in pity of
her estate, and that quickly. Acontius coming to Delos, to sacrifice to
Diana, fell in love with Cydippe, a noble lass, and wanting means to get
her love, flung a golden apple into her lap, with this inscription upon it,
"Juro tibi sane per mystica sacra Dianae,
Me tibi venturum comitem, sponsumque futurum."
"I swear by all the rites of Diana,
I'll come and be thy husband if I may."
She considered of it, and upon some small inquiry of his person and estate,
was married unto him.
"Blessed is the wooing,
That is not long a doing."
As the saying is; when the parties are sufficiently known to each other,
what needs such scrupulosity, so many circumstances? dost thou know her
conditions, her bringing-up, like her person? let her means be what they
will, take her without any more ado. [5888]Dido and Aeneas were
accidentally driven by a storm both into one cave, they made a match upon
it; Massinissa was married to that fair captive Sophonisba, King Syphax'
wife, the same day that he saw her first, to prevent Scipio Laelius, lest
they should determine otherwise of her. If thou lovest the party, do as
much: good education and beauty is a competent dowry, stand not upon money.
_Erant olim aurei homines_ (saith Theocritus) _et adamantes redamabant_, in
the golden world men did so, (in the reign of [5889]Ogyges belike, before
staggering Ninus began to domineer) if all be true that is reported: and
some few nowadays will do as much, here and there one; 'tis well done
methinks, and all happiness befall them for so doing. [5890]Leontius, a
philosopher of Athens, had a fair daughter called Athenais, _multo corporis
lepore ac Venere_, (saith mine author) of a comely carriage, he gave her no
portion but her bringing up, _occulto formae, praesagio_, out of some
secret foreknowledge of her fortune, bestowing that little which he had
amongst his other children. But she, thus qualified, was preferred by some
friends to Constantinople, to serve Pulcheria, the emperor's sister, of
whom she was baptised and called Eudocia. Theodosius, the emperor, in short
space took notice of her excellent beauty and good parts, and a little
after, upon his sister's sole commendation, made her his wife: 'twas nobly
done of Theodosius. [5891]Rudophe was the fairest lady in her days in all
Egypt; she went to wash her, and by chance, (her maids meanwhile looking
but carelessly to her clothes) an eagle stole away one of her shoes, and
laid it in Psammeticus the King of Egypt's lap at Memphis: he wondered at
the excellency of the shoe and pretty foot, but more _Aquilae, factum_, at
the manner of the bringing of it: and caused forthwith proclamation to be
made, that she that owned that shoe should come presently to his court; the
virgin came, and was forthwith married to the king. I say this was
heroically done, and like a prince: I commend him for it, and all such as
have means, that will either do (as he did) themselves, or so for love,
&c., marry their children. If he be rich, let him take such a one as wants,
if she be virtuously given; for as Siracides, cap. 7. ver. 19. adviseth,
"Forego not a wife and good woman; for her grace is above gold." If she
have fortunes of her own, let her make a man. Danaus of Lacedaemon had a
many daughters to bestow, and means enough for them all, he never stood
inquiring after great matches, as others used to do, but [5892]sent for a
company of brave young gallants to his house, and bid his daughters choose
every one one, whom she liked best, and take him for her husband, without
any more ado. This act of his was much approved in those times. But in this
iron age of ours, we respect riches alone, (for a maid must buy her husband
now with a great dowry, if she will have him) covetousness and filthy lucre
mars all good matches, or some such by-respects. Crales, a Servian prince
(as Nicephorus Gregoras _Rom. hist. lib. 6._ relates it,) was an earnest
suitor to Eudocia, the emperor's sister; though her brother much desired
it, yet she could not [5893]abide him, for he had three former wives, all
basely abused; but the emperor still, _Cralis amicitiam magni faciens_,
because he was a great prince, and a troublesome neighbour, much desired
his affinity, and to that end betrothed his own daughter Simonida to him, a
little girl five years of age (he being forty-five,) and five [5894]years
older than the emperor himself: such disproportionable and unlikely matches
can wealth and a fair fortune make. And yet not that alone, it is not only
money, but sometimes vainglory, pride, ambition, do as much harm as
wretched covetousness itself in another extreme. If a yeoman have one sole
daughter, he must overmatch her, above her birth and calling, to a
gentleman forsooth, because of her great portion, too good for one of her
own rank, as he supposeth: a gentleman's daughter and heir must be married
to a knight baronet's eldest son at least; and a knight's only daughter to
a baron himself, or an earl, and so upwards, her great dower deserves it.
And thus striving for more honour to their wealth, they undo their
children, many discontents follow, and oftentimes they ruinate their
families. [5895]Paulus Jovius gives instance in Galeatius the Second, that
heroical Duke of Milan, _externas affinitates, decoras quidem regio fastu,
sed sibi et posteris damnosas et fere exitiales quaesivit_; he married his
eldest son John Galeatius to Isabella the King of France his sister, but
she was _socero tam gravis, ut ducentis millibus aureorum constiterit_, her
entertainment at Milan was so costly that it almost undid him. His daughter
Violanta was married to Lionel Duke of Clarence, the youngest son to Edward
the Third, King of England, but, _ad ejus adventum tantae opes tam
admirabili liberalitate profusae sunt, ut opulentissimorum regum splendorem
superasse videretur_, he was welcomed with such incredible magnificence,
that a king's purse was scarce able to bear it; for besides many rich
presents of horses, arms, plate, money, jewels, &c., he made one dinner for
him and his company, in which were thirty-two messes and as much provision
left, _ut relatae a mensa dapes decem millibus hominum sufficerent_, as
would serve ten thousand men: but a little after Lionel died, _novae nuptae
et intempestivis conviviis operam dans_, &c., and to the duke's great loss,
the solemnity was ended. So can titles, honours, ambition, make many brave,
but unfortunate matches of all sides for by-respects, (though both crazed
in body and mind, most unwilling, averse, and often unfit,) so love is
banished, and we feel the smart of it in the end. But I am too lavish
peradventure in this subject.
Another let or hindrance is strict and severe discipline, laws and rigorous
customs, that forbid men to marry at set times, and in some places; as
apprentices, servants, collegiates, states of lives in copyholds, or in
some base inferior offices, [5896]_Velle licet_ in such cases, _potiri non
licet_, as he said. They see but as prisoners through a grate, they covet
and catch, but _Tantalus a labris_, &c. Their love is lost, and vain it is
in such an estate to attempt. [5897]_Gravissimum est adamare nec potiri_,
'tis a grievous thing to love and not enjoy. They may, indeed, I deny not,
marry if they will, and have free choice, some of them; but in the meantime
their case is desperate, _Lupum auribus tenent_, they hold a wolf by the
ears, they must either burn or starve. 'Tis _cornutum sophisma_, hard to
resolve, if they marry they forfeit their estates, they are undone, and
starve themselves through beggary and want: if they do not marry, in this
heroical passion they furiously rage, are tormented, and torn in pieces by
their predominate affections. Every man hath not the gift of continence,
let him [5898]pray for it then, as Beza adviseth in his Tract _de
Divortiis_, because God hath so called him to a single life, in taking away
the means of marriage. [5899]Paul would have gone from Mysia to Bithynia,
but the spirit suffered him not, and thou wouldst peradventure be a married
man with all thy will, but that protecting angel holds it not fit. The
devil too sometimes may divert by his ill suggestions, and mar many good
matches, as the same [5900]Paul was willing to see the Romans, but hindered
of Satan he could not. There be those that think they are necessitated by
fate, their stars have so decreed, and therefore they grumble at their hard
fortune, they are well inclined to marry, but one rub or other is ever in
the way; I know what astrologers say in this behalf, what Ptolemy
_quadripartit. Tract. 4. cap. 4._ Skoner _lib. 1. cap. 12._ what Leovitius
_genitur. exempl. 1._ which Sextus ab Heminga takes to be the horoscope of
Hieronymus Wolfius, what Pezelius, Origanaus and Leovitius his illustrator
Garceus, _cap. 12._ what Junctine, Protanus, Campanella, what the rest, (to
omit those Arabian conjectures _a parte conjugii, a parte lasciviae,
triplicitates veneris_, &c., and those resolutions upon a question, _an
amica potiatur_, &c.) determine in this behalf, viz. _an sit natus conjugem
habiturus, facile an difficulter sit sponsam impetraturus, quot conjuges,
quo tempore, quales decernantur nato uxores, de mutuo amore conjugem_, both
in men's and women's genitures, by the examination of the seventh house the
almutens, lords and planets there, _a [Symbol: Sun]d et [Symbol:
Moon-3/4]a_ &c., by particular aphorisms, _Si dominus 7'mae in 7'ma vel
secunda nobilem decernit uxorem, servam aut ignobilem si duodecima. Si
Venus in 12'ma, &c., with many such, too tedious to relate. Yet let no man
be troubled, or find himself grieved with such predictions, as Hier.
Wolfius well saith in his astrological [5901]dialogue, _non sunt
praetoriana decreta_, they be but conjectures, the stars incline, but not
enforce,
[5902] "Sidera corporibus praesunt caelestia nostris,
Sunt ea de vili condita namque luto:
Cogere sed nequeunt animum ratione fruentem,
Quippe sub imperio solius ipse dei est."
wisdom, diligence, discretion, may mitigate if not quite alter such
decrees, _Fortuna sua a cujusque fingitur moribus_, [5903]_Qui cauti,
prudentes, voti compotes_, &c., let no man then be terrified or molested
with such astrological aphorisms, or be much moved, either to vain hope or
fear, from such predictions, but let every man follow his own free will in
this case, and do as he sees cause. Better it is indeed to marry than burn,
for their soul's health, but for their present fortunes, by some other
means to pacify themselves, and divert the stream of this fiery torrent, to
continue as they are, [5904]rest satisfied, _lugentes virginitatis florem
sic aruisse_, deploring their misery with that eunuch in Libanius, since
there is no help or remedy, and with Jephtha's daughter to bewail their
virginities.
Of like nature is superstition, those rash vows of monks and friars, and
such as live in religious orders, but far more tyrannical and much worse.
Nature, youth, and his furious passion forcibly inclines, and rageth on the
one side; but their order and vow checks them on the other. [5905]_Votoque
suo sua forma repugnat._ What merits and indulgences they heap unto
themselves by it, what commodities, I know not; but I am sure, from such
rash vows, and inhuman manner of life, proceed many inconveniences, many
diseases, many vices, mastupration, satyriasis, [5906]priapismus,
melancholy, madness, fornication, adultery, buggery, sodomy, theft, murder,
and all manner of mischiefs: read but Bale's Catalogue of Sodomites, at the
visitation of abbeys here in England, Henry Stephan. his Apol. for
Herodotus, that which Ulricus writes in one of his epistles, [5907]"that
Pope Gregory when he saw 600 skulls and bones of infants taken out of a
fishpond near a nunnery, thereupon retracted that decree of priests'
marriages, which was the cause of such a slaughter, was much grieved at it,
and purged himself by repentance." Read many such, and then ask what is to
be done, is this vow to be broke or not? No, saith Bellarmine, _cap. 38.
lib. de Monach._ _melius est scortari et uri quam de voto coelibatus ad
nuptias transire_, better burn or fly out, than to break thy vow. And
Coster in his _Enchirid. de coelibat. sacerdotum_, saith it is absolutely
_gravius peccatum_, [5908]"a greater sin for a priest to marry, than to
keep a concubine at home." Gregory de Valence, _cap. 6. de coelibat._
maintains the same, as those of Essei and Montanists of old. Insomuch that
many votaries, out of a false persuasion of merit and holiness in this
kind, will sooner die than marry, though it be to the saving of their
lives. [5909]Anno 1419. Pius 2, Pope, James Rossa, nephew to the King of
Portugal, and then elect Archbishop of Lisbon, being very sick at Florence,
[5910]"when his physicians told him, that his disease was such, he must
either lie with a wench, marry, or die, cheerfully chose to die." Now they
commended him for it; but St. Paul teacheth otherwise, "Better marry than
burn," and as St. Hierome gravely delivers it, _Aliae, sunt leges Caesarum,
aliae Christi, aliud Papinianus, aliud Paulus noster praecipit_, there's a
difference betwixt God's ordinances and men's laws: and therefore Cyprian
_Epist. 8._ boldly denounceth, _impium est, adulterum est, sacrilegum est,
quodcunque humano furore statuitur, ut dispositio divina violetur_, it is
abominable, impious, adulterous, and sacrilegious, what men make and ordain
after their own furies to cross God's laws. [5911]Georgius Wicelius, one of
their own arch divines (_Inspect. eccles. pag. 18_) exclaims against it,
and all such rash monastical vows, and would have such persons seriously to
consider what they do, whom they admit, _ne in posterum querantur de
inanibus stupris_, lest they repent it at last. For either, as he follows
it, [5912]you must allow them concubines, or suffer them to marry, for
scarce shall you find three priests of three thousand, _qui per aetatem non
ament_, that are not troubled with burning lust. Wherefore I conclude it is
an unnatural and impious thing to bar men of this Christian liberty, too
severe and inhuman an edict.
[5913] _The silly wren, the titmouse also,
The little redbreast have their election,
They fly I saw and together gone,
Whereas hem list, about environ
As they of kinde have inclination,
And as nature impress and guide,
Of everything list to provide.
But man alone, alas the hard stond,
Full cruelly by kinds ordinance
Constrained is, and by statutes bound,
And debarred from all such pleasance:
What meaneth this, what is this pretence
Of laws, I wis, against all right of kinde
Without a cause, so narrow men to binde?_
Many laymen repine still at priests' marriages above the rest, and not at
clergymen only, but of all the meaner sort and condition, they would have
none marry but such as are rich and able to maintain wives, because their
parish belike shall be pestered with orphans, and the world full of
beggars: but [5914]these are hard-hearted, unnatural, monsters of men,
shallow politicians, they do not [5915]consider that a great part of the
world is not yet inhabited as it ought, how many colonies into America,
Terra Australis incognita, Africa, may be sent? Let them consult with Sir
William Alexander's Book of Colonies, Orpheus Junior's Golden Fleece,
Captain Whitburne, Mr. Hagthorpe, &c. and they shall surely be otherwise
informed. Those politic Romans were of another mind, they thought their
city and country could never be too populous. [5916]Adrian the emperor said
he had rather have men than money, _malle se hominum adjectione ampliare
imperium, quam pecunia_. Augustus Caesar made an oration in Rome _ad
caelibus_, to persuade them to marry; some countries compelled them to
marry of old, as [5917]Jews, Turks, Indians, Chinese, amongst the rest in
these days, who much wonder at our discipline to suffer so many idle
persons to live in monasteries, and often marvel how they can live honest.
[5918]In the isle of Maragnan, the governor and petty king there did wonder
at the Frenchmen, and admire how so many friars, and the rest of their
company could live without wives, they thought it a thing impossible, and
would not believe it. If these men should but survey our multitudes of
religious houses, observe our numbers of monasteries all over Europe, 18
nunneries in Padua, in Venice 34 cloisters of monks, 28 of nuns, &c. _ex
ungue leonem_, 'tis to this proportion, in all other provinces and cities,
what would they think, do they live honest? Let them dissemble as they
will, I am of Tertullian's mind, that few can continue but by compulsion.
[5919]"O chastity" (saith he) "thou art a rare goddess in the world, not so
easily got, seldom continuate: thou mayst now and then be compelled, either
for defect of nature, or if discipline persuade, decrees enforce:" or for
some such by-respects, sullenness, discontent, they have lost their first
loves, may not have whom they will themselves, want of means, rash vows,
&c. But can he willingly contain? I think not. Therefore, either out of
commiseration of human imbecility, in policy, or to prevent a far worse
inconvenience, for they hold some of them as necessary as meat and drink,
and because vigour of youth, the state and temper of most men's bodies do
so furiously desire it, they have heretofore in some nations liberally
admitted polygamy and stews, a hundred thousand courtesans in Grand Cairo
in Egypt, as [5920]Radzivilus observes, are tolerated, besides boys: how
many at Fez, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, &c., and still in many other
provinces and cities of Europe they do as much, because they think young
men, churchmen, and servants amongst the rest, can hardly live honest. The
consideration of this belike made Vibius, the Spaniard, when his friend
[5921]Crassus, that rich Roman gallant, lay hid in the cave, _ut voluptatis
quam aetas illa desiderat copiam faceret_, to gratify him the more, send
two [5922]lusty lasses to accompany him all that while he was there
imprisoned, And Surenus, the Parthian general, when he warred against the
Romans, to carry about with him 200 concubines, as the Swiss soldiers do
now commonly their wives. But, because this course is not generally
approved, but rather contradicted as unlawful and abhorred, [5923]in most
countries they do much encourage them to marriage, give great rewards to
such as have many children, and mulct those that will not marry, _Jus trium
liberorum_, and in Agellius, _lib. 2. cap. 15._ Elian. _lib. 6. cap. 5._
Valerius, _lib. 1. cap. 9._ [5924]We read that three children freed the
father from painful offices, and five from all contribution. "A woman shall
be saved by bearing children." Epictetus would have all marry, and as
[5925]Plato will, _6 de legibus_, he that marrieth not before 35 years of
his age, must be compelled and punished, and the money consecrated to
[5926]Juno's temple, or applied to public uses. They account him, in some
countries, unfortunate that dies without a wife, a most unhappy man, as
[5927]Boethius infers, and if at all happy, yet _infortunio felix_, unhappy
in his supposed happiness. They commonly deplore his estate, and much
lament him for it: O, my sweet son, &c. See Lucian, _de Luctu_, Sands _fol.
83_, &c.
Yet, notwithstanding, many with us are of the opposite part, they are
married themselves, and for others, let them burn, fire and flame, they
care not, so they be not troubled with them. Some are too curious, and some
too covetous, they may marry when they will both for ability and means, but
so nice, that except as Theophilus the emperor was presented, by his mother
Euprosune, with all the rarest beauties of the empire in the great chamber
of his palace at once, and bid to give a golden apple to her he liked best.
If they might so take and choose whom they list out of all the fair maids
their nation affords, they could happily condescend to marry: otherwise,
&c., why should a man marry, saith another epicurean rout, what's matrimony
but a matter of money? why should free nature be entrenched on, confined or
obliged, to this or that man or woman, with these manacles of body and
goods? &c. There are those too that dearly love, admire and follow women
all their lives long, _sponsi Penelopes_, never well but in their company,
wistly gazing on their beauties, observing close, hanging after them,
dallying still with them, and yet dare not, will not marry. Many poor
people, and of the meaner sort, are too distrustful of God's providence,
"they will not, dare not for such worldly respects," fear of want, woes,
miseries, or that they shall light, as [5928]"Lemnius saith, on a scold, a
slut, or a bad wife." And therefore, [5929]_Tristem Juventam venere deserta
colunt_, they are resolved to live single, as [5930]Epaminondas did,
[5931]_Nil ait esse prius, melius nil coelibe vita_, and ready with
Hippolitus to abjure all women, [5932]_Detestor omnes, horreo, fugio,
execror_, &c. But,
"Hippolite nescis quod fugis vitae bonum,
Hippolite nescis"------
"alas, poor Hippolitus, thou knowest not what thou sayest, 'tis otherwise,
Hippolitus." [5933]Some make a doubt, _an uxor literato sit ducenda_,
whether a scholar should marry, if she be fair she will bring him back from
his grammar to his horn book, or else with kissing and dalliance she will
hinder his study; if foul with scolding, he cannot well intend to do both,
as Philippus Beroaldus, that great Bononian doctor, once writ, _impediri
enim studia literarum_, &c., but he recanted at last, and in a solemn sort
with true conceived words he did ask the world and all women forgiveness.
But you shall have the story as he relates himself, in his Commentaries on
the sixth of Apuleius. For a long time I lived a single life, _et ab uxore
ducenda semper abhorrui, nec quicquam libero lecto censui jucundius_. I
could not abide marriage, but as a rambler, _erraticus ac volaticus amator_
(to use his own words) _per multiplices amores discurrebam_, I took a
snatch where I could get it; nay more, I railed at marriage downright, and
in a public auditory, when I did interpret that sixth Satire of Juvenal,
out of Plutarch and Seneca, I did heap up all the dicteries I could against
women; but now recant with Stesichorus, _palinodiam cano, nec poenitet
censeri in ordine maritorum_, I approve of marriage, I am glad I am a
[5934]married man, I am heartily glad I have a wife, so sweet a wife, so
noble a wife, so young, so chaste a wife, so loving a wife, and I do wish
and desire all other men to marry; and especially scholars, that as of old
Martia did by Hortensius, Terentia by Tullius, Calphurnia to Plinius,
Pudentilla to Apuleius, [5935]hold the candle whilst their husbands did
meditate and write, so theirs may do them, and as my dear Camilla doth to
me. Let other men be averse, rail then and scoff at women, and say what
they can to the contrary, _vir sine uxore malorum expers est_, &c., a
single man is a happy man, &c., but this is a toy. [5936]_Nec dulces amores
sperne puer, neque tu choreas_; these men are too distrustful and much to
blame, to use such speeches, [5937]_Parcite paucorum diffundere, crimen in
omnes_. "They must not condemn all for some." As there be many bad, there
be some good wives; as some be vicious, some be virtuous. Read what Solomon
hath said in their praises, Prov. xiii. and Siracides, cap. 26 et 30,
"Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his days
shall be double. A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband, and she shall
fulfil the years of his life in peace. A good wife is a good portion" (and
xxxvi. 24), "an help, a pillar of rest," _columina quietis_, [5938] _Qui
capit uxorem, fratrem capit atque sororem_. And 30, "He that hath no wife
wandereth to and fro mourning." _Minuuntur atrae conjuge curae_, women are
the sole, only joy, and comfort of a man's life, born _ad usum et lusum
hominum, firmamenta familiae_,
[5939] "Delitiae humani generis, solatia vitae.
Blanditiae noctis, placidissima cura diei,
Vota virum, juvenum spes," &c.
[5940]"A wife is a young man's mistress, a middle age's companion, an old
man's nurse:" _Particeps laetorum et tristium_, a prop, a help, &c.
[5941] "Optima viri possessio est uxor benevola,
Mitigans iram et avertens animam ejus a tristitia."
"Man's best possession is a loving wife,
She tempers anger and diverts all strife."
There is no joy, no comfort, no sweetness, no pleasure in the world like to
that of a good wife,
[5942] "Quam cum chara domi conjux, fidusque maritus
Unanimes degunt"------
saith our Latin Homer, she is still the same in sickness and in health, his
eye, his hand, his bosom friend, his partner at all times, his other self,
not to be separated by any calamity, but ready to share all sorrow,
discontent, and as the Indian women do, live and die with him, nay more, to
die presently for him. Admetus, king of Thessaly, when he lay upon his
death-bed, was told by Apollo's Oracle, that if he could get anybody to die
for him, he should live longer yet, but when all refused, his parents,
_etsi decrepiti_, friends and followers forsook him, Alcestus, his wife,
though young, most willingly undertook it; what more can be desired or
expected? And although on the other side there be an infinite number of bad
husbands (I should rail downright against some of them), able to discourage
any women; yet there be some good ones again, and those most observant of
marriage rites. An honest country fellow (as Fulgosus relates it) in the
kingdom of Naples, [5943]at plough by the seaside, saw his wife carried
away by Mauritanian pirates, he ran after in all haste, up to the chin
first, and when he could wade no longer, swam, calling to the governor of
the ship to deliver his wife, or if he must not have her restored, to let
him follow as a prisoner, for he was resolved to be a galley-slave, his
drudge, willing to endure any misery, so that he might but enjoy his dear
wife. The Moors seeing the man's constancy, and relating the whole matter
to their governors at Tunis, set them both free, and gave them an honest
pension to maintain themselves during their lives. I could tell many
stories to this effect; but put case it often prove otherwise, because
marriage is troublesome, wholly therefore to avoid it, is no argument;
[5944]"He that will avoid trouble must avoid the world." (Eusebius
_praepar. Evangel. 5. cap. 50._) Some trouble there is in marriage I deny
not, _Etsi grave sit matrimonium_, saith Erasmus, _edulcatur tamen multis_,
&c., yet there be many things to [5945]sweeten it, a pleasant wife,
_placens uxor_, pretty children, _dulces nati, deliciae filiorum hominum_,
the chief delight of the sons of men; Eccles. ii. 8. &c. And howsoever
though it were all troubles, [5946]_utilitatis publicae causa devorandum,
grave quid libenter subeundum_, it must willingly be undergone for public
good's sake,
[5947] "Audite (populus) haec, inquit Susarion,
Malae sunt mulieres, veruntamen O populares,
Hoc sine malo domum inhabitare non licet."
"Hear me, O my countrymen, saith Susarion,
Women are naught, yet no life without one."
[5948]_Malum est mulier, sed necessarium malum._ They are necessary evils,
and for our own ends we must make use of them to have issue, [5949]
_Supplet Venus ac restituit humanum genus_, and to propagate the church.
For to what end is a man born? why lives he, but to increase the world? and
how shall he do that well, if he do not marry? _Matrimonium humano generi
immortalitatem tribuit_, saith Nevisanus, matrimony makes us immortal, and
according to [5950]Tacitus, 'tis _firmissimum imperii munimentum_, the sole
and chief prop of an empire. [5951]_Indigne vivit per quem non vivit et
alter_, [5952]which Pelopidas objected to Epaminondas, he was an unworthy
member of a commonwealth, that left not a child after him to defend it, and
as [5953]Trismegistus to his son Tatius, "have no commerce with a single
man:" Holding belike that a bachelor could not live honestly as he should,
and with Georgius Wicelius, a great divine and holy man, who of late by
twenty-six arguments commends marriage as a thing most necessary for all
kinds of persons, most laudable and fit to be embraced: and is persuaded
withal, that no man can live and die religiously, and as he ought, without
a wife, _persuasus neminem posse neque pie vivere, neque bene mori citra
uxorem_, he is false, an enemy to the commonwealth, injurious to himself,
destructive to the world, an apostate to nature, a rebel against heaven and
earth. Let our wilful, obstinate, and stale bachelors ruminate of this, "If
we could live without wives," as Marcellus Numidicus said in [5954]
Agellius, "we would all want them; but because we cannot, let all marry,
and consult rather to the public good, than their own private pleasure or
estate." It were an happy thing, as wise [5955]Euripides hath it, if we
could buy children with gold and silver, and be so provided, _sine mulierum
congressu_, without women's company; but that may not be:
[5956] "Orbis jacebit squallido turpis situ,
Vanum sine ullis classibus stabit mare,
Alesque coelo deerit et sylvis fera."
"Earth, air, sea, land eftsoon would come to nought,
The world itself should be to ruin brought."
Necessity therefore compels us to marry.
But what do I trouble myself, to find arguments to persuade to, or commend
marriage? behold a brief abstract of all that which I have said, and much
more, succinctly, pithily, pathetically, perspicuously, and elegantly
delivered in twelve motions to mitigate the miseries of marriage, by [5957]
Jacobus de Voragine,
_1. Res est? habes quae tucatur et augeat.--2. Non est? habes quae
quaerat.--3. Secundae res sunt? felicitas duplicatur.--4. Adversae sunt?
Consolatur, adsidet, onus participat ut tolerabile fiat.--5. Domi es?
solitudinis taedium pellit.--6. Foras? Discendentem visu prosequitur,
absentem desiderat, redeuntem laeta excipit.--7. Nihil jucundum absque
societate? Nulla societas matrimonio suavior.--8. Vinculum conjugalis
charitatis adamentinum.--9. Accrescit dulcis affinium turba, duplicatur
numerus parentum, fratrum, sororum, nepotum.--10. Pulchra sis prole
parens.--11. Lex Mosis sterilitatem matrimonii execratur, quanto amplius
coelibatum?--12. Si natura poenam non effugit, ne voluntas quidem
effugiet_.
1. Hast thou means? thou hast none to keep and increase it.--2. Hast none?
thou hast one to help to get it.--3. Art in prosperity? thine happiness is
doubled.--4. Art in adversity? she'll comfort, assist, bear a part of thy
burden to make it more tolerable.--5. Art at home? she'll drive away
melancholy.--6. Art abroad? she looks after thee going from home, wishes
for thee in thine absence, and joyfully welcomes thy return.--7. There's
nothing delightsome without society, no society so sweet as matrimony.--8.
The band of conjugal love is adamantine.--9. The sweet company of kinsmen
increaseth, the number of parents is doubled, of brothers, sisters,
nephews.--10. Thou art made a father by a fair and happy issue.--11. Moses
curseth the barrenness of matrimony, how much more a single life?--12. If
nature escape not punishment, surely thy will shall not avoid it.
All this is true, say you, and who knows it not? but how easy a matter is
it to answer these motives, and to make an _Antiparodia_ quite opposite
unto it? To exercise myself I will essay:
1. Hast thou means? thou hast one to spend it.--2. Hast none? thy beggary
is increased.--3. Art in prosperity? thy happiness is ended.--4. Art in
adversity? like Job's wife she'll aggravate thy misery, vex thy soul, make
thy burden intolerable.--5. Art at home? she'll scold thee out of
doors.--6. Art abroad? If thou be wise keep thee so, she'll perhaps graft
horns in thine absence, scowl on thee coming home.--7. Nothing gives more
content than solitariness, no solitariness like this of a single life,--8.
The band of marriage is adamantine, no hope of losing it, thou art
undone.--9. Thy number increaseth, thou shalt be devoured by thy wife's
friends.--10. Thou art made a cornuto by an unchaste wife, and shalt bring
up other folks' children instead of thine own.--11. Paul commends marriage,
yet he prefers a single life.--12. Is marriage honourable? What an immortal
crown belongs to virginity?
So Siracides himself speaks as much as may be for and against women, so
doth almost every philosopher plead pro and con, every poet thus argues the
case (though what cares _vulgus nominum_ what they say?): so can I conceive
peradventure, and so canst thou: when all is said, yet since some be good,
some bad, let's put it to the venture. I conclude therefore with Seneca,
------"cur Toro viduo jaces?
Tristem juventam solve: mine luxus rape,
Effunde habenas, optimos vitae dies
Effluere prohibe."
"Why dost thou lie alone, let thy youth and best days to pass away?" Marry
whilst thou mayst, _donec viventi canities abest morosa_, whilst thou art
yet able, yet lusty, [5958]_Elige cui dicas, tu mihi sola places_, make thy
choice, and that freely forthwith, make no delay, but take thy fortune as
it falls. 'Tis true,
[5959] "--calamitosus est qui inciderit
In malam uxorem, felix qui in bonam,"
'Tis a hazard both ways I confess, to live single or to marry, [5960]_Nam
et uxorem ducere, et non ducere malum est_, it may be bad, it may be good,
as it is a cross and calamity on the one side, so 'tis a sweet delight, an
incomparable happiness, a blessed estate, a most unspeakable benefit, a
sole content, on the other; 'tis all in the proof. Be not then so wayward,
so covetous, so distrustful, so curious and nice, but let's all marry,
_mutuos foventes amplexus_; "Take me to thee, and thee to me," tomorrow is
St. Valentine's day, let's keep it holiday for Cupid's sake, for that great
god Love's sake, for Hymen's sake, and celebrate [5961]Venus' vigil with
our ancestors for company together, singing as they did,
"Crasam et qui nunquam amavit, quique amavit, eras amet,
Ver novum, ver jam canorum, ver natus orbis est,
Vere concordant amores, vere nubunt alites,
Et nemus coma resolvit, &c.------
Cras amet," &c.------
"Let those love now who never loved before,
And those who always loved now love the more;
Sweet loves are born with every opening spring;
Birds from the tender boughs their pledges sing," &c.
Let him that is averse from marriage read more in Barbarus _de re uxor.
lib. 1. cap. 1._ Lemnius _de institut. cap. 4._ P. Godefridus _de Amor.
lib. 3. cap. 1._ [5962]Nevisanus, _lib. 3._ Alex. ab Alexandro, _lib. 4.
cap. 8._ Tunstall, Erasmus' tracts _in laudem matrimonii_ &c., and I doubt
not but in the end he will rest satisfied, recant with Beroaldus, do
penance for his former folly, singing some penitential ditties, desire to
be reconciled to the deity of this great god Love, go a pilgrimage to his
shrine, offer to his image, sacrifice upon his altar, and be as willing at
last to embrace marriage as the rest: There will not be found, I hope,
[5963]"No, not in that severe family of Stoics, who shall refuse to submit
his grave beard, and supercilious looks to the clipping of a wife," or
disagree from his fellows in this point. "For what more willingly" (as
[5964]Varro holds) "can a proper man see than a fair wife, a sweet wife, a
loving wife?" can the world afford a better sight, sweeter content, a
fairer object, a more gracious aspect?
Since then this of marriage is the last and best refuge, and cure of
heroical love, all doubts are cleared, and impediments removed; I say
again, what remains, but that according to both their desires, they be
happily joined, since it cannot otherwise be helped? God send us all good
wives, every man his wish in this kind, and me mine!
[5965] _And God that all this world hath ywrought
Send him his Love that hath it so deere bought_.
If all parties be pleased, ask their banns, 'tis a match. [5966]_Fruitur
Rhodanthe sponsa, sponso Dosicle_, Rhodanthe and Dosicles shall go
together, Clitiphon and Leucippe, Theagines and Chariclea, Poliarchus hath
his Argenis', Lysander Calista, to make up the mask) [5967]_Polilurque sua
puer Iphis Ianthi_.
_And Troilus in lust and in quiet
Is with Creseid, his own heart sweet_.
And although they have hardly passed the pikes, through many difficulties
and delays brought the match about, yet let them take this of [5968]
Aristaenetus (that so marry) for their comfort: [5969]"after many troubles
and cares, the marriages of lovers are more sweet and pleasant." As we
commonly conclude a comedy with a [5970]wedding, and shaking of hands,
let's shut up our discourse, and end all with an [5971]Epithalamium.
_Feliciter nuptis_, God give them joy together. [5972]_Hymen O Hymenae,
Hymen ades O Hymenaee! Bonum factum_, 'tis well done, _Haud equidem sine
mente reor, sine numine Divum_, 'tis a happy conjunction, a fortunate
match, an even couple,
"Ambo animis, ambo praestantes viribus, ambo
Florentes annis,"------
"they both excel in gifts of body and mind, are both equal in years,"
youth, vigour, alacrity, she is fair and lovely as Lais or Helen, he as
another Charinus or Alcibiades,
[5973] ------"ludite ut lubet et brevi
Liberos date."------
"Then modestly go sport and toy,
And let's have every year a boy."
[5974]"Go give a sweet smell as incense, and bring forth flowers as the
lily:" that we may say hereafter, _Scitus Mecastor natus est Pamphilo
puer_. In the meantime I say,
[5975] "Ite, agite, O juvenes, [5976]non murmura vestra columbae,
Brachia, non hederae, neque vincant oscula conchae."
"Gentle youths, go sport yourselves betimes,
Let not the doves outpass your murmurings,
Or ivy-clasping arms, or oyster-kissings."
And in the morn betime, as those [5977]Lacedaemonian lasses saluted Helena
and Menelaus, singing at their windows, and wishing good success, do we at
yours:
"Salve O sponsa, salve felix, det vobis Latona
Felicem sobolem, Venus dea det aequalem amorem
Inter vos mutuo; Saturnus durabiles divitias,
Dormite in pectora mutuo amorem inspirantes,
Et desiderium!"------
"Good morrow, master bridegroom, and mistress bride,
Many fair lovely bairns to you betide!
Let Venus to you mutual love procure,
Let Saturn give you riches to endure.
Long may you sleep in one another's arms,
Inspiring sweet desire, and free from harms."
Even all your lives long,
[5978] "Contingat vobis turturum concordia,
Corniculae vivacitas"------
"The love of turtles hap to you,
And ravens' years still to renew."
Let the Muses sing, (as he said;) the Graces dance, not at their weddings
only but all their days long; "so couple their hearts, that no irksomeness
or anger ever befall them: let him never call her other name than my joy,
my light, or she call him otherwise than sweetheart. To this happiness of
theirs, let not old age any whit detract, but as their years, so let their
mutual love and comfort increase." And when they depart this life,
------"concordes quoniam vixere tot annos,
Auferat hora duos eadem, nec conjugis usquam
Busta suae videat, nec sit tumulandus ab illa."
"Because they have so sweetly liv'd together,
Let not one die a day before the other,
He bury her, she him, with even fate,
One hour their souls let jointly separate."
[5979] "Fortunati ambo si quid mea carmina possunt,
Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet aevo."
Atque haec de amore dixisse sufficiat, sub correctione, [5980]quod ait
ille, cujusque melius sentientis. Plura qui volet de remediis amoris, legat
Jasonem Pratensem, Arnoldum, Montaltum, Savanarolum, Langium, Valescum,
Crimisonum, Alexandrum Benedictum, Laurentium, Valleriolam, e Poetis
Nasonem, e nostratibus Chaucerum, &c., with whom I conclude,
[5981] _For my words here and every part,
I speak hem all under correction,
Of you that feeling have in love's art,
And put it all in your discretion,
To intreat or make diminution,
Of my language, that I you beseech:
But now to purpose of my rather speech_.
SECT. III. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Jealousy, its Equivocations, Name, Definition, Extent,
several kinds; of Princes, Parents, Friends. In Beasts, Men: before
marriage, as Co-rivals; or after, as in this place_.
Valescus de Taranta _cap. de Melanchol._ Aelian Montaltus, Felix Platerus,
Guianerius, put jealousy for a cause of melancholy, others for a symptom;
because melancholy persons amongst these passions and perturbations of the
mind, are most obnoxious to it. But methinks for the latitude it hath, and
that prerogative above other ordinary symptoms, it ought to be treated of
as a species apart, being of so great and eminent note, so furious a
passion, and almost of as great extent as love itself, as [5982]Benedetto
Varchi holds, "no love without a mixture of jealousy," _qui non zelat, non
amat_. For these causes I will dilate, and treat of it by itself, as a
bastard-branch or kind of love-melancholy, which, as heroical love goeth
commonly before marriage, doth usually follow, torture, and crucify in like
sort, deserves therefore to be rectified alike, requires as much care and
industry, in setting out the several causes of it, prognostics and cures.
Which I have more willingly done, that he that is or hath been jealous, may
see his error as in a glass; he that is not, may learn to detest, avoid it
himself, and dispossess others that are anywise affected with it.
Jealousy is described and defined to be [5983]"a certain suspicion which
the lover hath of the party he chiefly loveth, lest he or she should be
enamoured of another:" or any eager desire to enjoy some beauty alone, to
have it proper to himself only: a fear or doubt, lest any foreigner should
participate or share with him in his love. Or (as [5984]Scaliger adds) "a
fear of losing her favour whom he so earnestly affects." Cardan calls it "a
[5985]zeal for love, and a kind of envy lest any man should beguile us."
[5986]Ludovicus Vives defines it in the very same words, or little
differing in sense.
There be many other jealousies, but improperly so called all; as that of
parents, tutors, guardians over their children, friends whom they love, or
such as are left to their wardship or protection.
[5987] "Storax non rediit hac nocte a coena Aeschinus,
Neque servulorum quispiam qui adversum ierant?"
As the old man in the comedy cried out in a passion, and from a solicitous
fear and care he had of his adopted son; [5988]"not of beauty, but lest
they should miscarry, do amiss, or any way discredit, disgrace" (as Vives
notes) "or endanger themselves and us." [5989]Aegeus was so solicitous for
his son Theseus, (when he went to fight with the Minotaur) of his success,
lest he should be foiled, [5990]_Prona est timori semper in pejus fides_.
We are still apt to suspect the worst in such doubtful cases, as many wives
in their husband's absence, fond mothers in their children's, lest if
absent they should be misled or sick, and are continually expecting news
from them, how they do fare, and what is become of them, they cannot endure
to have them long out of their sight: oh my sweet son, O my dear child, &c.
Paul was jealous over the Church of Corinth, as he confesseth, 2 Cor. xi.
12. "With a godly jealousy, to present them a pure virgin to Christ;" and
he was afraid still, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his
subtlety, so their minds should be corrupt from the simplicity that is in
Christ. God himself, in some sense, is said to be jealous, [5991]"I am a
jealous God, and will visit:" so Psalm lxxix. 5. "Shall thy jealousy burn
like fire for ever?" But these are improperly called jealousies, and by a
metaphor, to show the care and solicitude they have of them. Although some
jealousies express all the symptoms of this which we treat of, fear,
sorrow, anguish, anxiety, suspicion, hatred, &c., the object only varied.
That of some fathers is very eminent, to their sons and heirs; for though
they love them dearly being children, yet now coming towards man's estate
they may not well abide them, the son and heir is commonly sick of the
father, and the father again may not well brook his eldest son, _inde
simultates, plerumque contentiones et inimicitiae_; but that of princes is
most notorious, as when they fear co-rivals (if I may so call them)
successors, emulators, subjects, or such as they have offended. [5992]
_Omnisque potestas impatiens consortis erit_: "they are still suspicious,
lest their authority should be diminished," [5993]as one observes; and as
Comineus hath it, [5994]"it cannot be expressed what slender causes they
have of their grief and suspicion, a secret disease, that commonly lurks
and breeds in princes' families." Sometimes it is for their honour only, as
that of Adrian the emperor, [5995]"that killed all his emulators." Saul
envied David; Domitian Agricola, because he did excel him, obscure his
honour, as he thought, eclipse his fame. Juno turned Praetus' daughters
into kine, for that they contended with her for beauty; [5996]Cyparissae,
king Eteocles' children, were envied of the goddesses for their excellent
good parts, and dancing amongst the rest, saith [5997]Constantine, "and for
that cause flung headlong from heaven, and buried in a pit, but the earth
took pity of them, and brought out cypress trees to preserve their
memories." [5998]Niobe, Arachne, and Marsyas, can testify as much. But it
is most grievous when it is for a kingdom itself, or matters of commodity,
it produceth lamentable effects, especially amongst tyrants, _in despotico
Imperio_, and such as are more feared than beloved of their subjects, that
get and keep their sovereignty by force and fear. [5999]_Quod civibus
tenere te invitis scias_, &c., as Phalaris, Dionysius, Periander held
theirs. For though fear, cowardice, and jealousy, in Plutarch's opinion, be
the common causes of tyranny, as in Nero, Caligula, Tiberius, yet most take
them to be symptoms. For [6000]"what slave, what hangman" (as Bodine well
expresseth this passion, _l. 2. c. 5. de rep_.) "can so cruelly torture a
condemned person, as this fear and suspicion? Fear of death, infamy,
torments, are those furies and vultures that vex and disquiet tyrants, and
torture them day and night, with perpetual terrors and affrights, envy,
suspicion, fear, desire of revenge, and a thousand such disagreeing
perturbations, turn and affright the soul out of the hinges of health, and
more grievously wound and pierce, than those cruel masters can exasperate
and vex their apprentices or servants, with clubs, whips, chains, and
tortures." Many terrible examples we have in this kind, amongst the Turks
especially, many jealous outrages; [6001]Selimus killed Kornutus his
youngest brother, five of his nephews, Mustapha Bassa, and divers others.
[6002]Bajazet the second Turk, jealous of the valour and greatness of
Achmet Bassa, caused him to be slain. [6003]Suleiman the Magnificent
murdered his own son Mustapha; and 'tis an ordinary thing amongst them, to
make away their brothers, or any competitors, at the first coming to the
crown: 'tis all the solemnity they use at their fathers' funerals. What mad
pranks in his jealous fury did Herod of old commit in Jewry, when he
massacred all the children of a year old? [6004]Valens the emperor in
Constantinople, when as he left no man alive of quality in his kingdom that
had his name begun with Theo; Theodoti, Theognosti, Theodosii, Theoduli,
&c. They went all to their long home, because a wizard told him that name
should succeed in his empire. And what furious designs hath [6005]Jo.
Basilius, that Muscovian tyrant, practised of late? It is a wonder to read
that strange suspicion, which Suetonius reports of Claudius Caesar, and of
Domitian, they were afraid of every man they saw: and which Herodian of
Antoninus and Geta, those two jealous brothers, the one could not endure so
much as the other's servants, but made away him, his chiefest followers,
and all that belonged to him, or were his well-wishers. [6006]Maximinus
"perceiving himself to be odious to most men, because he was come to that
height of honour out of base beginnings, and suspecting his mean parentage
would be objected to him, caused all the senators that were nobly
descended, to be slain in a jealous humour, turned all the servants of
Alexander his predecessor out of doors, and slew many of them, because they
lamented their master's death, suspecting them to be traitors, for the love
they bare to him." When Alexander in his fury had made Clitus his dear
friend to be put to death, and saw now (saith [6007]Curtius) an alienation
in his subjects' hearts, none durst talk with him, he began to be jealous
of himself, lest they should attempt as much on him, "and said they lived
like so many wild beasts in a wilderness, one afraid of another." Our
modern stories afford us many notable examples. [6008]Henry the Third of
France, jealous of Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, _anno_ 1588, caused
him to be murdered in his own chamber. [6009]Louis the Eleventh was so
suspicious, he durst not trust his children, every man about him he
suspected for a traitor; many strange tricks Comineus telleth of him. How
jealous was our Henry the [6010]Fourth of King Richard the Second, so long
as he lived, after he was deposed? and of his own son Henry in his latter
days? which the prince well perceiving, came to visit his father in his
sickness, in a watchet velvet gown, full of eyelet holes, and with needles
sticking in them (as an emblem of jealousy), and so pacified his suspicious
father, after some speeches and protestations, which he had used to that
purpose. Perpetual imprisonment, as that of Robert [6011]Duke of Normandy,
in the days of Henry the First, forbidding of marriage to some persons,
with such like edicts and prohibitions, are ordinary in all states. In a
word ([6012]as he said) three things cause jealousy, a mighty state, a rich
treasure, a fair wife; or where there is a cracked title, much tyranny, and
exactions. In our state, as being freed from all these fears and miseries,
we may be most secure and happy under the reign of our fortunate prince:
[6013] "His fortune hath indebted him to none
But to all his people universally;
And not to them but for their love alone,
Which they account as placed worthily.
He is so set, he hath no cause to be
Jealous, or dreadful of disloyalty;
The pedestal whereon his greatness stands.
Is held of all our hearts, and all our hands."
But I rove, I confess. These equivocations, jealousies, and many such,
which crucify the souls of men, are not here properly meant, or in this
distinction of ours included, but that alone which is for beauty, tending
to love, and wherein they can brook no co-rival, or endure any
participation: and this jealousy belongs as well to brute beasts, as men.
Some creatures, saith [6014]Vives, swans, doves, cocks, bulls, &c., are
jealous as well as men, and as much moved, for fear of communion.
[6015] "Grege pro toto bella juvenci,
Si con jugio timuere suo,
Poscunt timidi praelia cervi,
Et mugitus dant concepti signa furoris."
"In Venus' cause what mighty battles make
Your raving bulls, and stirs for their herd's sake:
And harts and bucks that are so timorous,
Will fight and roar, if once they be but jealous."
In bulls, horses, goats, this is most apparently discerned. Bulls
especially, _alium in pascuis non admittit_, he will not admit another bull
to feed in the same pasture, saith [6016]Oppin: which Stephanus Bathorius,
late king of Poland, used as an impress, with that motto, _Regnum non capit
duos_. R. T. in his Blazon of Jealousy, telleth a story of a swan about
Windsor, that finding a strange cock with his mate, did swim I know not how
many miles after to kill him, and when he had so done, came back and killed
his hen; a certain truth, he saith, done upon Thames, as many watermen, and
neighbour gentlemen, can tell. _Fidem suam liberet_; for my part, I do
believe it may be true; for swans have ever been branded with that epithet
of jealousy.
[6017] _The jealous swanne against his death that singeth,
And eke the owle that of death bode bringeth_.
[6018]Some say as much of elephants, that they are more jealous than any
other creatures whatsoever; and those old Egyptians, as [6019]Pierius
informeth us, express in their hieroglyphics, the passion of jealousy by a
camel; [6020]because that fearing the worst still about matters of venery,
he loves solitudes, that he may enjoy his pleasure alone, _et in quoscunque
obvios insurgit, Zelolypiae stimulis agitatus_, he will quarrel and fight
with whatsoever comes next, man or beast, in his jealous fits. I have read
as much of [6021]crocodiles; and if Peter Martyr's authority be authentic,
_legat. Babylonicae lib. 3._ you shall have a strange tale to that purpose
confidently related. Another story of the jealousy of dogs, see in Hieron.
Fabricius, _Tract. 3. cap. 5. de loquela animalium_.
But this furious passion is most eminent in men, and is as well amongst
bachelors as married men. If it appear amongst bachelors, we commonly call
them rivals or co-rivals, a metaphor derived from a river, _rivales, a
[6022]rivo_; for as a river, saith Acron in Hor. _Art. Poet._ and Donat in
Ter. _Eunuch._ divides a common ground between two men, and both
participate of it, so is a woman indifferent between two suitors, both
likely to enjoy her; and thence comes this emulation, which breaks out many
times into tempestuous storms, and produceth lamentable effects, murder
itself, with much cruelty, many single combats. They cannot endure the
least injury done unto them before their mistress, and in her defence will
bite off one another's noses; they are most impatient of any flout,
disgrace, lest emulation or participation in that kind. [6023]_Lacerat
lacerium Largi mordax Memnius_. Memnius the Roman (as Tully tells the
story, _de oratore, lib. 2._), being co-rival with Largus Terracina, bit
him by the arm, which fact of his was so famous, that it afterwards grew to
a proverb in those parts. [6024]Phaedria could not abide his co-rival
Thraso; for when Parmeno demanded, _numquid aliud imperas_? whether he
would command him any more service: "No more" (saith he) "but to speak in
his behalf, and to drive away his co-rival if he could." Constantine, in
the eleventh book of his husbandry, _cap. 11_, hath a pleasant tale of the
pine-tree; [6025]she was once a fair maid, whom Pineus and Boreas, two
co-rivals, dearly sought; but jealous Boreas broke her neck, &c. And in his
eighteenth chapter he telleth another tale of [6026]Mars, that in his
jealousy slew Adonis. Petronius calleth this passion _amantium furiosum
aemulationem_, a furious emulation; and their symptoms are well expressed
by Sir Geoffrey Chaucer in his first Canterbury Tale. It will make the
nearest and dearest friends fall out; they will endure all other things to
be common, goods, lands, moneys, participate of each pleasure, and take in
good part any disgraces, injuries in another kind; but as Propertius well
describes it in an elegy of his, in this they will suffer nothing, have no
co-rivals.
[6027] "Tu mihi vel ferro pectus, vel perde veneno,
A domina tantum te modo tolle mea:
Te socium vitae te corporis esse licebit,
Te dominum admitto rebus amice meis.
Lecto te solum, lecto te deprecor uno,
Rivalem possum non ego ferre Jovem."
"Stab me with sword, or poison strong
Give me to work my bane:
So thou court not my lass, so thou
From mistress mine refrain.
Command myself, my body, purse,
As thine own goods take all,
And as my ever dearest friend,
I ever use thee shall.
O spare my love, to have alone
Her to myself I crave,
Nay, Jove himself I'll not endure
My rival for to have."
This jealousy, which I am to treat of, is that which belongs to married
men, in respect of their own wives; to whose estate, as no sweetness,
pleasure, happiness can be compared in the world, if they live quietly and
lovingly together; so if they disagree or be jealous, those bitter pills of
sorrow and grief, disastrous mischiefs, mischances, tortures, gripings,
discontents, are not to be separated from them. A most violent passion it
is where it taketh place, an unspeakable torment, a hellish torture, an
infernal plague, as Ariosto calls it, "a fury, a continual fever, full of
suspicion, fear, and sorrow, a martyrdom, a mirth-marring monster. The
sorrow and grief of heart of one woman jealous of another, is heavier than
death," Ecclus. xxviii. 6. as [6028]Peninnah did Hannah, "vex her and
upbraid her sore." 'Tis a main vexation, a most intolerable burden, a
corrosive to all content, a frenzy, a madness itself; as [6029]Beneditto
Varchi proves out of that select sonnet of Giovanni de la Casa, that
reverend lord, as he styles him.
SUBSECT. II.--_Causes of Jealousy. Who are most apt. Idleness, melancholy,
impotency, long absence, beauty, wantonness, naught themselves.
Allurements, from time, place, persons, bad usage, causes_.
Astrologers make the stars a cause or sign of this bitter passion, and out
of every man's horoscope will give a probable conjecture whether he will be
jealous or no, and at what time, by direction of the significators to their
several promissors: their aphorisms are to be read in Albubater, Pontanus,
Schoner, Junctine, &c. Bodine, _cap. 5. meth. hist._ ascribes a great cause
to the country or clime, and discourseth largely there of this subject,
saying, that southern men are more hot, lascivious, and jealous, than such
as live in the north; they can hardly contain themselves in those hotter
climes, but are most subject to prodigious lust. Leo Afer telleth
incredible things almost, of the lust and jealousy of his countrymen of
Africa, and especially such as live about Carthage, and so doth every
geographer of them in [6030]Asia, Turkey, Spaniards, Italians. Germany hath
not so many drunkards, England tobacconists, France dancers, Holland
mariners, as Italy alone hath jealous husbands. And in [6031]Italy some
account them of Piacenza more jealous than the rest. In [6032]Germany,
France, Britain, Scandia, Poland, Muscovy, they are not so troubled with
this feral malady, although Damianus a Goes, which I do much wonder at, in
his topography of Lapland, and Herbastein of Russia, against the stream of
all other geographers, would fasten it upon those northern inhabitants.
Altomarius Poggius, and Munster in his description of Baden, reports that
men and women of all sorts go commonly into the baths together, without all
suspicion, "the name of jealousy" (saith Munster) "is not so much as once
heard of among them." In Friesland the women kiss him they drink to, and
are kissed again of those they pledge. The virgins in Holland go hand in
hand with young men from home, glide on the ice, such is their harmless
liberty, and lodge together abroad without suspicion, which rash Sansovinus
an Italian makes a great sign of unchastity. In France, upon small
acquaintance, it is usual to court other men's wives, to come to their
houses, and accompany them arm in arm in the streets, without imputation.
In the most northern countries young men and maids familiarly dance
together, men and their wives, [6033]which, Siena only excepted, Italians
may not abide. The [6034]Greeks, on the other side, have their private
baths for men and women, where they must not come near, nor so much as see
one another: and as [6035]Bodine observes _lib. 5. de repub._ "the Italians
could never endure this," or a Spaniard, the very conceit of it would make
him mad: and for that cause they lock up their women, and will not suffer
them to be near men, so much as in the [6036]church, but with a partition
between. He telleth, moreover, how that "when he was ambassador in England,
he heard Mendoza the Spanish legate finding fault with it, as a filthy
custom for men and women to sit promiscuously in churches together; but Dr.
Dale the master of the requests told him again, that it was indeed a filthy
custom in Spain, where they could not contain themselves from lascivious
thoughts in their holy places, but not with us." Baronius in his Annals,
out of Eusebius, taxeth Licinius the emperor for a decree of his made to
this effect, _Jubens ne viri simul cum mulieribus in ecclesia interessent_:
for being prodigiously naught himself, _aliorum naturam ex sua vitiosa
mente spectavit_, he so esteemed others. But we are far from any such
strange conceits, and will permit our wives and daughters to go to the
tavern with a friend, as Aubanus saith, _modo absit lascivia_, and suspect
nothing, to kiss coming and going, which, as Erasmus writes in one of his
epistles, they cannot endure. England is a paradise for women, and hell for
horses: Italy a paradise for horses, hell for women, as the diverb goes.
Some make a question whether this headstrong passion rage more in women
than men, as Montaigne l. 3. But sure it is more outrageous in women, as
all other melancholy is, by reason of the weakness of their sex. Scaliger
_Poet. lib. cap. 13._ concludes against women: [6037]"Besides their
inconstancy, treachery, suspicion, dissimulation, superstition, pride,"
(for all women are by nature proud) "desire of sovereignty, if they be
great women," (he gives instance in Juno) "bitterness and jealousy are the
most remarkable affections."
"Sed neque fulvus aper media tam fulvus in ira est,
Fulmineo rapidos dum rotat ore canes.
Nec leo," &c.------
"Tiger, boar, bear, viper, lioness,
A woman's fury cannot express."
[6038]Some say redheaded women, pale-coloured, black-eyed, and of a shrill
voice, are most subject to jealousy.
[6039] "High colour in a woman choler shows,
Naught are they, peevish, proud, malicious;
But worst of all, red, shrill, and jealous."
Comparisons are odious, I neither parallel them with others, nor debase
them any more: men and women are both bad, and too subject to this
pernicious infirmity. It is most part a symptom and cause of melancholy, as
Plater and Valescus teach us: melancholy men are apt to be jealous, and
jealous apt to be melancholy.
"Pale jealousy, child of insatiate love,
Of heart-sick thoughts which melancholy bred,
A hell-tormenting fear, no faith can move,
By discontent with deadly poison fed;
With heedless youth and error vainly led.
A mortal plague, a virtue-drowning flood,
A hellish fire not quenched but with blood."
If idleness concur with melancholy, such persons are most apt to be
jealous; 'tis [6040]Nevisanus' note, "an idle woman is presumed to be
lascivious, and often jealous." _Mulier cum sola cogitat, male cogitat_:
and 'tis not unlikely, for they have no other business to trouble their
heads with.
More particular causes be these which follow. Impotency first, when a man
is not able of himself to perform those dues which he ought unto his wife:
for though he be an honest liver, hurt no man, yet Trebius the lawyer may
make a question, _an suum cuique tribuat_, whether he give every one their
own; and therefore when he takes notice of his wants, and perceives her to
be more craving, clamorous, insatiable and prone to lust than is fit, he
begins presently to suspect, that wherein he is defective, she will satisfy
herself, she will be pleased by some other means. Cornelius Gallus hath
elegantly expressed this humour in an epigram to his Lychoris.
[6041] "Jamque alios juvenes aliosque requirit amores,
Me vocat imbellem decrepitumque senem," &c.
For this cause is most evident in old men, that are cold and dry by nature,
and married, _succi plenis_, to young wanton wives; with old doting
Janivere in Chaucer, they begin to mistrust all is not well,
------_She was young and he was old,
And therefore he feared to be a cuckold_.
And how should it otherwise be? old age is a disease of itself, loathsome,
full of suspicion and fear; when it is at best, unable, unfit for such
matters. [6042]_Tam apta nuptiis quam bruma messibus_, as welcome to a
young woman as snow in harvest, saith Nevisanus: _Et si capis juvenculam,
faciet tibi cornua_: marry a lusty maid and she will surely graft horns on
thy head. [6043]"All women are slippery, often unfaithful to their
husbands" (as Aeneas Sylvius _epist. 38._ seconds him), "but to old men
most treacherous:" they had rather _mortem amplexarier_, lie with a corse
than such a one: [6044]_Oderunt illum pueri, contemnunt mulieres_. On the
other side many men, saith Hieronymus, are suspicious of their wives,
[6045]if they be lightly given, but old folks above the rest. Insomuch that
she did not complain without a cause in [6046]Apuleius, of an old bald
bedridden knave she had to her good man: "Poor woman as I am, what shall I
do? I have an old grim sire to my husband, as bald as a coot, as little and
as unable as a child," a bedful of bones, "he keeps all the doors barred
and locked upon me, woe is me, what shall I do?" He was jealous, and she
made him a cuckold for keeping her up: suspicion without a cause, hard
usage is able of itself to make a woman fly out, that was otherwise honest,
[6047] ------"plerasque bonas tractatio pravas
Esse facit,"------
"bad usage aggravates the matter." _Nam quando mulieres cognoscunt maritum
hoc advertere, licentius peccant_, [6048]as Nevisanus holds, when a woman
thinks her husband watcheth her, she will sooner offend; [6049]_Liberius
peccant, et pudor omnis abest_, rough handling makes them worse: as the
goodwife of Bath in Chaucer brags,
_In his own grease I made him frie
For anger and for every jealousie_.
Of two extremes, this of hard usage is the worst. 'Tis a great fault (for
some men are _uxorii_) to be too fond of their wives, to dote on them as
[6050]Senior Deliro on his Fallace, to be too effeminate, or as some do, to
be sick for their wives, breed children for them, and like the [6051]
Tiberini lie in for them, as some birds hatch eggs by turns, they do all
women's offices: Caelius Rhodiginus _ant. lect. Lib. 6. cap. 24._ makes
mention of a fellow out of Seneca, [6052]that was so besotted on his wife,
he could not endure a moment out of her company, he wore her scarf when he
went abroad next his heart, and would never drink but in that cup she began
first. We have many such fondlings that are their wives' packhorses and
slaves, (_nam grave malum uxor superans virum suum_, as the comical poet
hath it, there's no greater misery to a man than to let his wife domineer)
to carry her muff, dog, and fan, let her wear the breeches, lay out, spend,
and do what she will, go and come whither, when she will, they give
consent.
"Here, take my muff, and, do you hear, good man;
Now give me pearl, and carry you my fan," &c.
[6053] ------"poscit pallam, redimicula, inaures;
Curre, quid hic cessas? vulgo vult illa videri,
Tu pete lecticas"------
many brave and worthy men have trespassed in this kind, _multos foras
claros domestica haec destruxit infamia_, and many noble senators and
soldiers (as [6054]Pliny notes) have lost their honour, in being _uxorii_,
so sottishly overruled by their wives; and therefore Cato in Plutarch made
a bitter jest on his fellow-citizens, the Romans, "we govern all the world
abroad, and our wives at home rule us." These offend in one extreme; but
too hard and too severe, are far more offensive on the other. As just a
cause may be long absence of either party, when they must of necessity be
much from home, as lawyers, physicians, mariners, by their professions; or
otherwise make frivolous, impertinent journeys, tarry long abroad to no
purpose, lie out, and are gadding still, upon small occasions, it must
needs yield matter of suspicion, when they use their wives unkindly in the
meantime, and never tarry at home, it cannot use but engender some such
conceit.
[6055] "Uxor si cessas amare te cogitat
Aut tote amari, aut potare, aut animo obsequi,
Ex tibi bene esse soli, quum sibi sit male."
"If thou be absent long, thy wife then thinks,
Th' art drunk, at ease, or with some pretty minx,
'Tis well with thee, or else beloved of some,
Whilst she poor soul doth fare full ill at home."
Hippocrates, the physician, had a smack of this disease; for when he was to
go home as far as Abdera, and some other remote cities of Greece, he writ
to his friend Dionysius (if at least those [6056]Epistles be his) [6057]
"to oversee his wife in his absence, (as Apollo set a raven to watch his
Coronis) although she lived in his house with her father and mother, who be
knew would have a care of her; yet that would not satisfy his jealousy, he
would have his special friend Dionysius to dwell in his house with her all
the time of his peregrination, and to observe her behaviour, how she
carried herself in her husband's absence, and that she did not lust after
other men. [6058]For a woman had need to have an overseer to keep her
honest; they are bad by nature, and lightly given all, and if they be not
curbed in time, as an unpruned tree, they will be full of wild branches,
and degenerate of a sudden." Especially in their husband's absence: though
one Lucretia were trusty, and one Penelope, yet Clytemnestra made Agamemnon
cuckold; and no question there be too many of her conditions. If their
husbands tarry too long abroad upon unnecessary business, well they may
suspect: or if they run one way, their wives at home will fly out another,
_quid pro quo_. Or if present, and give them not that content which they
ought, [6059]_Primum ingratae, mox invisae noctes quae per somnum
transiguntur_, they cannot endure to lie alone, or to fast long. [6060]
Peter Godefridus, in his second book of Love, and sixth chapter, hath a
story out of St. Anthony's life, of a gentleman, who, by that good man's
advice, would not meddle with his wife in the passion week, but for his
pains she set a pair of horns on his head. Such another he hath out of
Abstemius, one persuaded a new married man, [6061]"to forbear the three
first nights, and he should all his lifetime after be fortunate in cattle,"
but his impatient wife would not tarry so long: well he might speed in
cattle, but not in children. Such a tale hath Heinsius of an impotent and
slack scholar, a mere student, and a friend of his, that seeing by chance a
fine damsel sing and dance, would needs marry her, the match was soon made,
for he was young and rich, _genis gratus, corpore glabellus, arte
multiscius, et fortuna opulentus_, like that Apollo in [6062]Apuleius. The
first night, having liberally taken his liquor (as in that country they do)
my fine scholar was so fuzzled, that he no sooner was laid in bed, but he
fell fast asleep, never waked till morning, and then much abashed,
_purpureis formosa rosis cum Aurora ruberet_; when the fair morn with
purple hue 'gan shine, he made an excuse, I know not what, out of
Hippocrates Cous, &c., and for that time it went current: but when as
afterward he did not play the man as he should do, she fell in league with
a good fellow, and whilst he sat up late at his study about those
criticisms, mending some hard places in Festus or Pollux, came cold to bed,
and would tell her still what he had done, she did not much regard what he
said, &c. [6063]"She would have another matter mended much rather, which he
did not conceive was corrupt:" thus he continued at his study late, she at
her sport, _alibi enim festivas noctes agitabat_, hating all scholars for
his sake, till at length he began to suspect, and turned a little yellow,
as well he might; for it was his own fault; and if men be jealous in such
cases ([6064]as oft it falls out) the mends is in their own hands, they
must thank themselves. Who will pity them, saith Neander, or be much
offended with such wives, _si deceptae prius viros decipiant, et cornutos
reddant_, if they deceive those that cozened them first. A lawyer's wife in
[6065]Aristaenetus, because her husband was negligent in his business,
_quando lecto danda opera_, threatened to cornute him: and did not stick to
tell Philinna, one of her gossips, as much, and that aloud for him to hear:
"If he follow other men's matters and leave his own, I'll have an orator
shall plead my cause," I care not if he know it.
A fourth eminent cause of jealousy may be this, when he that is deformed,
and as Pindarus of Vulcan, _sine gratiis natus_, hirsute, ragged, yet
virtuously given, will marry some fair nice piece, or light housewife,
begins to misdoubt (as well he may) she doth not affect him. [6066]_Lis est
cum forma magna pudicitiae_, beauty and honesty have ever been at odds.
Abraham was jealous of his wife because she was fair: so was Vulcan of his
Venus, when he made her creaking shoes, saith [6067]Philostratus, _ne
maecharetur, sandalio scilicet deferente_, that he might hear by them when
she stirred, which _Mars indigne ferre_, [6068]was not well pleased with.
Good cause had Vulcan to do as he did, for she was no honester than she
should be. Your fine faces have commonly this fault; and it is hard to
find, saith Francis Philelphus in an epistle to Saxola his friend, a rich
man honest, a proper woman not proud or unchaste. "Can she be fair and
honest too?"
[6069] "Saepe etenim oculuit picta sese hydra sub herba,
Sub specie formae, incauto se saepe marito
Nequam animus vendit,"------
He that marries a wife that is snowy fair alone, let him look, saith [6070]
Barbarus, for no better success than Vulcan had with Venus, or Claudius
with Messalina. And 'tis impossible almost in such cases the wife should
contain, or the good man not be jealous: for when he is so defective, weak,
ill-proportioned, unpleasing in those parts which women most affect, and
she most absolutely fair and able on the other side, if she be not very
virtuously given, how can she love him? and although she be not fair, yet
if he admire her and think her so, in his conceit she is absolute, he holds
it impossible for any man living not to dote as he doth, to look on her and
not lust, not to covet, and if he be in company with her, not to lay siege
to her honesty: or else out of a deep apprehension of his infirmities,
deformities, and other men's good parts, out of his own little worth and
desert, he distrusts himself, (for what is jealousy but distrust?) he
suspects she cannot affect him, or be not so kind and loving as she should,
she certainly loves some other man better than himself.
[6071]Nevisanus, _lib. 4. num. 72_, will have barrenness to be a main cause
of jealousy. If her husband cannot play the man, some other shall, they
will leave no remedies unessayed, and thereupon the good man grows jealous;
I could give an instance, but be it as it is.
I find this reason given by some men, because they have been formerly
naught themselves, they think they may be so served by others, they turned
up trump before the cards were shuffled; they shall have therefore _legem
talionis_, like for like.
[6072] "Ipse miser docui, quo posset ludere pacto
Custodes, eheu nunc premor arte mea."
"Wretch as I was, I taught her bad to be,
And now mine own sly tricks are put upon me."
_Mala mens, malus animus_, as the saying is, ill dispositions cause ill
suspicions.
[6073] "There is none jealous, I durst pawn my life,
But he that hath defiled another's wife,
And for that he himself hath gone astray,
He straightway thinks his wife will tread that way."
To these two above-named causes, or incendiaries of this rage, I may very
well annex those circumstances of time, place, persons, by which it ebbs
and flows, the fuel of this fury, as [6074]Vives truly observes; and such
like accidents or occasions, proceeding from the parties themselves, or
others, which much aggravate and intend this suspicious humour. For many
men are so lasciviously given, either out of a depraved nature, or too much
liberty, which they do assume unto themselves, by reason of their
greatness, in that they are noble men, (for _licentiae peccandi, et
multitudo peccantium_ are great motives) though their own wives be never so
fair, noble, virtuous, honest, wise, able, and well given, they must have
change.
[6075] "Qui cum legitimi junguntur foedere lecti,
Virtute egregiis, facieque domoque puellis,
Scorta tamen, foedasque lupas in fornice quaerunt,
Et per adulterium nova carpere gaudia tentant."
"Who being match'd to wives most virtuous,
Noble, and fair, fly out lascivious."
_Quod licet ingratum est_, that which is ordinary, is unpleasant. Nero
(saith Tacitus) abhorred Octavia his own wife, a noble virtuous lady, and
loved Acte, a base quean in respect. [6076]Cerinthus rejected Sulpitia, a
nobleman's daughter, and courted a poor servant maid.--_tanta est aliena in
messe voluptas_, for that [6077]"stolen waters be more pleasant:" or as
Vitellius the emperor was wont to say, _Jucundiores amores, qui cum
periculo habentur_, like stolen venison, still the sweetest is that love
which is most difficultly attained: they like better to hunt by stealth in
another man's walk, than to have the fairest course that may be at game of
their own.
[6078] "Aspice ut in coelo modo sol, modo luna ministret,
Sic etiam nobis una pella parum est."
"As sun and moon in heaven change their course,
So they change loves, though often to the worse."
Or that some fair object so forcibly moves them, they cannot contain
themselves, be it heard or seen they will be at it. [6079]Nessus, the
centaur, was by agreement to carry Hercules and his wife over the river
Evenus; no sooner had he set Dejanira on the other side, but he would have
offered violence unto her, leaving Hercules to swim over as he could: and
though her husband was a spectator, yet would he not desist till Hercules,
with a poisoned arrow, shot him to death. [6080]Neptune saw by chance that
Thessalian Tyro, Eunippius' wife, he forthwith, in the fury of his lust,
counterfeited her husband's habit, and made him cuckold. Tarquin heard
Collatine commend his wife, and was so far enraged, that in the midst of
the night to her he went. [6081]Theseus stole Ariadne, _vi rapuit_ that
Trazenian Anaxa, Antiope, and now being old, Helen, a girl not yet ready
for a husband. Great men are most part thus affected all, "as a horse they
neigh," saith [6082]Jeremiah, after their neighbours' wives,--_ut visa
pullus adhinnit equa_: and if they be in company with other women, though
in their own wives' presence, they must be courting and dallying with them.
Juno in Lucian complains of Jupiter that he was still kissing Ganymede
before her face, which did not a little offend her: and besides he was a
counterfeit Amphitryo, a bull, a swan, a golden shower, and played many
such bad pranks, too long, too shameful to relate.
Or that they care little for their own ladies, and fear no laws, they dare
freely keep whores at their wives' noses. 'Tis too frequent with noblemen
to be dishonest; _Pielas, probitas, fides, privata bona sunt_, as [6083]he
said long since, piety, chastity, and such like virtues are for private
men: not to be much looked after in great courts: and which Suetonius of
the good princes of his time, they might be all engraven in one ring, we
may truly hold of chaste potentates of our age. For great personages will
familiarly run out in this kind, and yield occasion of offence. [6084]
Montaigne, in his Essays, gives instate in Caesar, Mahomet the Turk, that
sacked Constantinople, and Ladislaus, king of Naples, that besieged
Florence: great men, and great soldiers, are commonly great, &c., _probatum
est_, they are good doers. Mars and Venus are equally balanced in their
actions,
[6085] "Militis in galea nidum fecere columbae,
Apparet Marti quam sit amica Venus."
"A dove within a headpiece made her nest,
'Twixt Mars and Venus see an interest."
Especially if they be bald, for bald men have ever been suspicious (read
more in Aristotle, _Sect. 4. prob. 19._) as Galba, Otho, Domitian, and
remarkable Caesar amongst the rest. [6086]_Urbani servate uxores, maechum
calvum adducimus_; besides, this bald Caesar, saith Curio in Sueton, was
_omnium mulierum vir_; he made love to Eunoe, queen of Mauritania; to
Cleopatra; to Posthumia, wife to Sergius Sulpitius; to Lollia, wife to
Gabinius; to Tertulla, of Crassus; to Mutia, Pompey's wife, and I know not
how many besides: and well he might, for, if all be true that I have read,
he had a license to lie with whom he list. _Inter alios honores Caesari
decretos_ (as Sueton, _cap. 52. de Julio_, and Dion, _lib. 44._ relate)
_jus illi datum, cum quibuscunque faeminis se jungendi_. Every private
history will yield such variety of instances: otherwise good, wise,
discreet men, virtuous and valiant, but too faulty in this. Priamus had
fifty sons, but seventeen alone lawfully begotten. [6087]Philippus Bonus
left fourteen bastards. Lorenzo de Medici, a good prince and a wise, but,
saith Machiavel, [6088]prodigiously lascivious. None so valiant as
Castruccius Castrucanus, but, as the said author hath it, [6089]none so
incontinent as he was. And 'tis not only predominant in grandees this
fault: but if you will take a great man's testimony, 'tis familiar with
every base soldier in France, (and elsewhere, I think). "This vice" ([6090]
saith mine author) "is so common with us in France, that he is of no
account, a mere coward, not worthy the name of a soldier, that is not a
notorious whoremaster." In Italy he is not a gentleman, that besides his
wife hath not a courtesan and a mistress. 'Tis no marvel, then, if poor
women in such cases be jealous, when they shall see themselves manifestly
neglected, contemned, loathed, unkindly used: their disloyal husbands to
entertain others in their rooms, and many times to court ladies to their
faces: other men's wives to wear their jewels: how shall a poor woman in
such a case moderate her passion? [6091]_Quis tibi nunc Dido cernenti talia
sensus_?
How, on the other side, shall a poor man contain himself from this feral
malady, when he shall see so manifest signs of his wife's inconstancy?
when, as Milo's wife, she dotes upon every young man she sees, or, as
[6092]Martial's Sota,--_deserto sequitur Clitum marito_, "deserts her
husband and follows Clitus." Though her husband be proper and tall, fair
and lovely to behold, able to give contentment to any one woman, yet she
will taste of the forbidden fruit: Juvenal's Iberina to a hair, she is as
well pleased with one eye as one man. If a young gallant come by chance
into her presence, a fastidious brisk, that can wear his clothes well in
fashion, with a lock, jingling spur, a feather, that can cringe, and withal
compliment, court a gentlewoman, she raves upon him, "O what a lovely
proper man he was," another Hector, an Alexander, a goodly man, a demigod,
how sweetly he carried himself, with how comely a grace, _sic oculos, sic
ille manus, sic ora ferebat_, how neatly he did wear his clothes! [6093]
_Quam sese ore ferens, quam forti pectore et armis_, how bravely did he
discourse, ride, sing, and dance, &c., and then she begins to loathe her
husband, _repugnans osculatur_, to hate him and his filthy beard, his
goatish complexion, as Doris said of Polyphemus, [6094]_totus qui saniem,
totus ut hircus olet_, he is a rammy fulsome fellow, a goblin-faced fellow,
he smells, he stinks, _Et caepas simul alliumque ructat_ [6095]--_si quando
ad thalamum_, &c., how like a dizzard, a fool, an ass, he looks, how like a
clown he behaves himself! [6096]she will not come near him by her own good
will, but wholly rejects him, as Venus did her fuliginous Vulcan, at last,
_Nec Deus hunc mensa, Dea nec dignata cubili est_. [6097]So did Lucretia, a
lady of Senae, after she had but seen Euryalus, _in Eurialum tota
ferebatur, domum reversa_, &c., she would not hold her eyes off him in his
presence,-- [6098]_tantum egregio decus enitet ore_, and in his absence
could think of none but him, _odit virum_, she loathed her husband
forthwith, might not abide him:
[6099] "Et conjugalis negligens tori, viro
Praesente, acerbo nauseat fastidio;"
"All against the laws of matrimony,
She did abhor her husband's phis'nomy;"
and sought all opportunity to see her sweetheart again. Now when the good
man shall observe his wife so lightly given, "to be so free and familiar
with every gallant, her immodesty and wantonness," (as [6100]Camerarius
notes) it must needs yield matter of suspicion to him, when she still
pranks up herself beyond her means and fortunes, makes impertinent
journeys, unnecessary visitations, stays out so long, with such and such
companions, so frequently goes to plays, masks, feasts, and all public
meetings, shall use such immodest [6101]gestures, free speeches, and withal
show some distaste of her own husband; how can he choose, "though he were
another Socrates, but be suspicious, and instantly jealous?" [6102]
_Socraticas tandem faciet transcendere metas_; more especially when he
shall take notice of their more secret and sly tricks, which to cornute
their husbands they commonly use (_dum ludis, ludos haec te facit_) they
pretend love, honour, chastity, and seem to respect them before all men
living, saints in show, so cunningly can they dissemble, they will not so
much as look upon another man in his presence, [6103]so chaste, so
religious, and so devout, they cannot endure the name or sight of a quean,
a harlot, out upon her! and in their outward carriage are most loving and
officious, will kiss their husband, and hang about his neck (dear husband,
sweet husband), and with a composed countenance salute him, especially when
he comes home; or if he go from home, weep, sigh, lament, and take upon
them to be sick and swoon (like Jocundo's wife in [6104]Ariosto, when her
husband was to depart), and yet arrant, &c. they care not for him,
"Aye me, the thought (quoth she) makes me so 'fraid,
That scarce the breath abideth in my breast;
Peace, my sweet love and wife, Jocundo said,
And weeps as fast, and comforts her his best, &c.
All this might not assuage the woman's pain,
Needs must I die before you come again,
Nor how to keep my life I can devise,
The doleful days and nights I shall sustain,
From meat my mouth, from sleep will keep mine eyes, &c.
That very night that went before the morrow,
That he had pointed surely to depart,
Jocundo's wife was sick, and swoon'd for sorrow
Amid his arms, so heavy was her heart."
And yet for all these counterfeit tears and protestations, Jocundo coming
back in all haste for a jewel he had forgot,
"His chaste and yoke-fellow he found
Yok'd with a knave, all honesty neglected,
The adulterer sleeping very sound,
Yet by his face was easily detected:
A beggar's brat bred by him from his cradle.,
And now was riding on his master's saddle."
Thus can they cunningly counterfeit, as [6105]Platina describes their
customs, "kiss their husbands, whom they had rather see hanging on a
gallows, and swear they love him dearer than their own lives, whose soul
they would not ransom for their little dog's,"
------"similis si permutatio detur,
Morte viri cupiunt aniniani servare catellae."
Many of them seem to be precise and holy forsooth, and will go to such a
[6106]church, to hear such a good man by all means, an excellent man, when
'tis for no other intent (as he follows it) than "to see and to be seen, to
observe what fashions are in use, to meet some pander, bawd, monk, friar,
or to entice some good fellow." For they persuade themselves, as [6107]
Nevisanus shows, "That it is neither sin nor shame to lie with a lord or
parish priest, if he be a proper man;" [6108]"and though she kneel often,
and pray devoutly, 'tis" (saith Platina) "not for her husband's welfare, or
children's good, or any friend, but for her sweetheart's return, her
pander's health." If her husband would have her go, she feigns herself
sick, [6109]_Et simulat subito condoluisse caput_: her head aches, and she
cannot stir: but if her paramour ask as much, she is for him in all
seasons, at all hours of the night. [6110]In the kingdom of Malabar, and
about Goa in the East Indies, the women are so subtile that, with a certain
drink they give them to drive away cares as they say, [6111]"they will make
them sleep for twenty-four hours, or so intoxicate them that they can
remember nought of that they saw done, or heard, and, by washing of their
feet, restore them again, and so make their husbands cuckolds to their
faces." Some are ill-disposed at all times, to all persons they like,
others more wary to some few, at such and such seasons, as Augusta, Livia,
_non nisi plena navi vectorem tollebat_. But as he said,
[6112] "No pen could write, no tongue attain to tell,
By force of eloquence, or help of art,
Of women's treacheries the hundredth part."
Both, to say truth, are often faulty; men and women give just occasions in
this humour of discontent, aggravate and yield matter of suspicion: but
most part of the chief causes proceed from other adventitious accidents and
circumstances, though the parties be free, and both well given themselves.
The indiscreet carriage of some lascivious gallant (_et e contra_ of some
light woman) by his often frequenting of a house, bold unseemly gestures,
may make a breach, and by his over-familiarity, if he be inclined to
yellowness, colour him quite out. If he be poor, basely born, saith
Beneditto Varchi, and otherwise unhandsome, he suspects him the less; but
if a proper man, such as was Alcibiades in Greece, and Castruccius
Castrucanus in Italy, well descended, commendable for his good parts, he
taketh on the more, and watcheth his doings. [6113]Theodosius the emperor
gave his wife Eudoxia a golden apple when he was a suitor to her, which she
long after bestowed upon a young gallant in the court, of her especial
acquaintance. The emperor, espying this apple in his hand, suspected
forthwith, more than was, his wife's dishonesty, banished him the court,
and from that day following forbare to accompany her any more. [6114]A rich
merchant had a fair wife; according to his custom he went to travel; in his
absence a good fellow tempted his wife; she denied him; yet he, dying a
little after, gave her a legacy for the love he bore her. At his return,
her jealous husband, because she had got more by land than he had done at
sea, turned her away upon suspicion.
Now when those other circumstances of time and place, opportunity and
importunity shall concur, what will they not effect?
"Fair opportunity can win the coyest she that is,
So wisely he takes time, as he'll be sure he will not miss:
Then lie that loves her gamesome vein, and tempers toys with art,
Brings love that swimmeth in her eyes to dive into her heart."
As at plays, masks, great feasts and banquets, one singles out his wife to
dance, another courts her in his presence, a third tempts her, a fourth
insinuates with a pleasing compliment, a sweet smile, ingratiates himself
with an amphibological speech, as that merry companion in the [6115]
Satirist did to his Glycerium, [6116]_adsidens et interiorem palmam
amabiliter concutiens_,
"Quod meus hortus habet sumat impune licebit,
Si dederis nobis quod tuus hortus habet;"
with many such, &c., and then as he saith,
[6117] _She may no while in chastity abide.
That is assaid on every side_.
For after al great feast, [6118]_Vino saepe suum nescit amica virum_. Noah
(saith [6119]Hierome) "showed his nakedness in his drunkenness, which for
six hundred years he had covered in soberness." Lot lay with his daughters
in his drink, as Cyneras with Myrrha,--[6120]_quid enim Venus ebria curat_?
The most continent may be overcome, or if otherwise they keep bad company,
they that are modest of themselves, and dare not offend, "confirmed by
[6121]others, grow impudent, and confident, and get an ill habit."
[6122] "Alia quaestus gratia matrimonium corrumpit,
Alia peccans multas vult morbi habere socias."
Or if they dwell in suspected places, as in an infamous inn, near some
stews, near monks, friars, Nevisanus adds, where be many tempters and
solicitors, idle persons that frequent their companies, it may give just
cause of suspicion. Martial of old inveighed against them that
counterfeited a disease to go to the bath; for so, many times,
------"relicto
Conjuge Penelope venit, abit Helene."
Aeneas Sylvius puts in a caveat against princes' courts, because there be
_tot formosi juvenes qui promittunt_, so many brave suitors to tempt, &c.
[6123]"If you leave her in such a place, you shall likely find her in
company you like not, either they come to her, or she is gone to them."
[6124]Kornmannus makes a doubting jest in his lascivious country, _Virginis
illibata censeatur ne castitas ad quam frequentur accedant scholares_? And
Baldus the lawyer scoffs on, _quum scholaris, inquit, loquitur cum puella,
non praesumitur ei dicere, Pater noster_, when a scholar talks with a maid,
or another man's wife in private, it is presumed he saith not a _pater
noster_. Or if I shall see a monk or a friar climb up a ladder at midnight
into a virgin's or widow's chamber window, I shall hardly think he then
goes to administer the sacraments, or to take her confession. These are the
ordinary causes of jealousy, which are intended or remitted as the
circumstances vary.
MEMB. II.
_Symptoms of Jealousy, Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, strange Actions, Gestures,
Outrages, Locking up, Oaths, Trials, Laws, &c._
Of all passions, as I have already proved, love is most violent, and of
those bitter potions which this love-melancholy affords, this bastard
jealousy is the greatest, as appears by those prodigious symptoms which it
hath, and that it produceth. For besides fear and sorrow, which is common
to all melancholy, anxiety of mind, suspicion, aggravation, restless
thoughts, paleness, meagreness, neglect of business, and the like, these
men are farther yet misaffected, and in a higher strain. 'Tis a more
vehement passion, a more furious perturbation, a bitter pain, a fire, a
pernicious curiosity, a gall corrupting the honey of our life, madness,
vertigo, plague, hell, they are more than ordinarily disquieted, they lose
_bonum pacis_, as [6125]Chrysostom observes; and though they be rich, keep
sumptuous tables, be nobly allied, yet _miserrimi omnium sunt_, they are
most miserable, they are more than ordinarily discontent, more sad, _nihil
tristius_, more than ordinarily suspicious. Jealousy, saith [6126]Vives,
"begets unquietness in the mind, night and day: he hunts after every word
he hears, every whisper, and amplifies it to himself" (as all melancholy
men do in other matters) "with a most unjust calumny of others, he
misinterprets everything is said or done, most apt to mistake or
misconstrue," he pries into every corner, follows close, observes to a
hair. 'Tis proper to jealousy so to do,
"Pale hag, infernal fury, pleasure's smart,
Envy's observer, prying in every part."
Besides those strange gestures of staring, frowning, grinning, rolling of
eyes, menacing, ghastly looks, broken pace, interrupt, precipitate,
half-turns. He will sometimes sigh, weep, sob for anger. _Nempe suos imbres
etiam ista tonitrua fundunt_,[6127]--swear and belie, slander any man,
curse, threaten, brawl, scold, fight; and sometimes again flatter and speak
fair, ask forgiveness, kiss and coll, condemn his rashness and folly, vow,
protest, and swear he will never do so again; and then eftsoons, impatient
as he is, rave, roar, and lay about him like a madman, thump her sides,
drag her about perchance, drive her out of doors, send her home, he will be
divorced forthwith, she is a whore, &c., and by-and-by with all submission
compliment, entreat her fair, and bring her in again, he loves her dearly,
she is his sweet, most kind and loving wife, he will not change, nor leave
her for a kingdom; so he continues off and on, as the toy takes him, the
object moves him, but most part brawling, fretting, unquiet he is, accusing
and suspecting not strangers only, but brothers and sisters, father and
mother, nearest and dearest friends. He thinks with those Italians,
"Chi non tocca parentado,
Tocca mai e rado."
And through fear conceives unto himself things almost incredible and
impossible to be effected. As a heron when she fishes, still prying on all
sides; or as a cat doth a mouse, his eye is never off hers; he gloats on
him, on her, accurately observing on whom she looks, who looks at her, what
she saith, doth, at dinner, at supper, sitting, walking, at home, abroad,
he is the same, still inquiring, maundering, gazing, listening, affrighted
with every small object; why did she smile, why did she pity him, commend
him? why did she drink twice to such a man? why did she offer to kiss, to
dance? &c., a whore, a whore, an arrant whore. All this he confesseth in
the poet,
[6128] "Omnia me terrent, timidus sum, ignosce timori.
Et miser in tunica suspicor esse virum.
Me laedit si multa tibi dabit oscula mater,
Me soror, et cum qua dormit amica simul."
"Each thing affrights me, I do fear,
Ah pardon me my fear,
I doubt a man is hid within
The clothes that thou dost wear."
Is it not a man in woman's apparel? is not somebody in that great chest, or
behind the door, or hangings, or in some of those barrels? may not a man
steal in at the window with a ladder of ropes, or come down the chimney,
have a false key, or get in when he is asleep? If a mouse do but stir, or
the wind blow, a casement clatter, that's the villain, there he is: by his
goodwill no man shall see her, salute her, speak with her, she shall not go
forth of his sight, so much as to do her needs. [6129]_Non ita bovem
argus_, &c. Argus did not so keep his cow, that watchful dragon the golden
fleece, or Cerberus the coming in of hell, as he keeps his wife. If a dear
friend or near kinsman come as guest to his house, to visit him, he will
never let him be out of his own sight and company, lest, peradventure, &c.
If the necessity of his business be such that he must go from home, he doth
either lock her up, or commit her with a deal of injunctions and
protestations to some trusty friends, him and her he sets and bribes to
oversee: one servant is set in his absence to watch another, and all to
observe his wife, and yet all this will not serve, though his business be
very urgent, he will when he is halfway come back in all post haste, rise
from supper, or at midnight, and be gone, and sometimes leave his business
undone, and as a stranger court his own wife in some disguised habit.
Though there be no danger at all, no cause of suspicion, she live in such a
place, where Messalina herself could not be dishonest if she would, yet he
suspects her as much as if she were in a bawdy-house, some prince's court,
or in a common inn, where all comers might have free access. He calls her
on a sudden all to nought, she is a strumpet, a light housewife, a bitch,
an arrant whore. No persuasion, no protestation can divert this passion,
nothing can ease him, secure or give him satisfaction. It is most strange
to report what outrageous acts by men and women have been committed in this
kind, by women especially, that will run after their husbands into all
places and companies, [6130]as Jovianus Pontanus's wife did by him, follow
him whithersoever he went, it matters not, or upon what business, raving
like Juno in the tragedy, miscalling, cursing, swearing, and mistrusting
every one she sees. Gomesius in his third book of the Life and Deeds of
Francis Ximenius, sometime archbishop of Toledo, hath a strange story of
that incredible jealousy of Joan queen of Spain, wife to King Philip,
mother of Ferdinand and Charles the Fifth, emperors; when her husband
Philip, either for that he was tired with his wife's jealousy, or had some
great business, went into the Low Countries: she was so impatient and
melancholy upon his departure, that she would scarce eat her meat, or
converse with any man; and though she were with child, the season of the
year very bad, the wind against her, in all haste she would to sea after
him. Neither Isabella her queen mother, the archbishop, or any other friend
could persuade her to the contrary, but she would after him. When she was
now come into the Low Countries, and kindly entertained by her husband, she
could not contain herself, [6131]"but in a rage ran upon a yellow-haired
wench," with whom she suspected her husband to be naught, "cut off her
hair, did beat her black and blue, and so dragged her about." It is an
ordinary thing for women in such cases to scratch the faces, slit the noses
of such as they suspect; as Henry the Second's importune Juno did by
Rosamond at Woodstock; for she complains in a [6132]modern poet, she scarce
spake,
"But flies with eager fury to my face,
Offering me most unwomanly disgrace.
Look how a tigress, &c.
So fell she on me in outrageous wise,
As could disdain and jealousy devise."
Or if it be so they dare not or cannot execute any such tyrannical
injustice, they will miscall, rail and revile, bear them deadly hate and
malice, as [6133]Tacitus observes, "The hatred of a jealous woman is
inseparable against such as she suspects."
[6134] "Nulla vis flammae tumidique venti
Tanta, nec teli metuanda torti.
Quanta cum conjux viduata taedis
Ardet et odit."
"Winds, weapons, flames make not such hurly burly,
As raving women turn all topsy-turvy."
So did Agrippina by Lollia, and Calphurnia in the days of Claudius. But
women are sufficiently curbed in such cases, the rage of men is more
eminent, and frequently put in practice. See but with what rigour those
jealous husbands tyrannise over their poor wives. In Greece, Spain, Italy,
Turkey, Africa, Asia, and generally over all those hot countries, [6135]
_Mulieres vestrae terra vestra, arate sicut vultis_. Mahomet in his Alcoran
gives this power to men, your wives are as your land, till them, use them,
entreat them fair or foul, as you will yourselves. [6136]_Mecastor lege
dura vivunt mulieres_, they lock them still in their houses, which are so
many prisons to them. will suffer nobody to come at them, or their wives to
be seen abroad,--_nec campos liceat lustrare patentes_. They must not so
much as look out. And if they be great persons, they have eunuchs to keep
them, as the Grand Signior among the Turks, the Sophies of Persia, those
Tartarian Mogors, and Kings of China. _Infantes masculos castrant innumeros
ut regi serviant_, saith [6137]Riccius, "they geld innumerable infants" to
this purpose; the King of [6138]China "maintains 10,000 eunuchs in his
family to keep his wives." The Xeriffes of Barbary keep their courtesans in
such a strict manner, that if any man come but in sight of them he dies for
it; and if they chance to see a man, and do not instantly cry out, though
from their windows, they must be put to death. The Turks have I know not
how many black, deformed eunuchs (for the white serve for other
ministeries) to this purpose sent commonly from Egypt, deprived in their
childhood of all their privities, and brought up in the seraglio at
Constantinople to keep their wives; which are so penned up they may not
confer with any living man, or converse with younger women, have a cucumber
or carrot sent into them for their diet, but sliced, for fear, &c. and so
live and are left alone to their unchaste thoughts all the days of their
lives. The vulgar sort of women, if at any time they come abroad, which is
very seldom, to visit one another, or to go to their baths, are so covered,
that no man can see them, as the matrons were in old Rome, _lectica aut
sella tecta, vectae_, so [6139]Dion and Seneca record, _Velatae totae
incedunt_, which [6140]Alexander ab Alexandro relates of the Parthians,
_lib. 5. cap. 24._ which, with Andreas Tiraquellus his commentator, I
rather think should be understood of Persians. I have not yet said all,
they do not only lock them up, _sed et pudendis seras adhibent_: hear what
Bembus relates _lib. 6._ of his Venetian history, of those inhabitants that
dwell about Quilon in Africa. _Lusitani, inquit, quorundum civitates
adierunt: qui natis statim faeminis naturam consuunt, quoad urinae exitus
ne impediatur, easque quum adoleverint sic consutas in matrimonium
collocant, ut sponsi prima cura sit conglutinatas puellae oras ferro
interscindere_. In some parts of Greece at this day, like those old Jews,
they will not believe their wives are honest, _nisi pannum menstruatum
prima nocte videant_: our countryman [6141]Sands, in his peregrination,
saith it is severely observed in Zanzynthus, or Zante; and Leo Afer in his
time at Fez, in Africa, _non credunt virginem esse nisi videant sanguineam
mappam; si non, ad parentes pudore rejicitur_. Those sheets are publicly
shown by their parents, and kept as a sign of incorrupt virginity. The Jews
of old examined their maids _ex tenui membrana_, called Hymen, which
Laurentius in his anatomy, Columbus _lib. 12. cap. 10._ Capivaccius _lib.
4. cap. 11. de uteri affectibus_, Vincent, Alsarus Genuensis _quaesit. med.
cent. 4._ Hieronymus Mercurialis _consult._ Ambros. Pareus, Julius Caesar
Claudinus _Respons. 4._ as that also _de [6142]ruptura venarum ut sauguis
fluat_, copiously confute; 'tis no sufficient trial they contend. And yet
others again defend it, Gaspar Bartholinus _Institut. Anat. lib. 1. cap.
31._ Pinaeus of Paris, Albertus Magnus _de secret. mulier. cap. 9 & 10._
&c. and think they speak too much in favour of women. [6143] Ludovicus
Boncialus _lib. 4. cap. 2. muliebr._ _naturalem illam uteri labiorum
constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt, astringentibus
medicinis fieri posse vendicat, et si defloratae sint, astutae
[6144]mulieres (inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius Genuensis
iisdem fere verbis_. Idem Avicenna _lib. 3. Fen. 20. Tract. 1, cap. 47._
[6145]Rhasis _Continent. lib. 24._ Rodericus a Castro _de nat. mul. lib. 1.
cap. 3._ An old bawdy nurse in [6146]Aristaenetus, (like that Spanish
Caelestina, [6147]_quae, quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemque
mulieres arte sua virgines_) when a fair maid of her acquaintance wept and
made her moan to her, how she had been deflowered, and now ready to be
married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably replied, _Noli
vereri filia_, &c. "Fear not, daughter, I'll teach thee a trick to help
it." _Sed haec extra callem._ To what end are all those astrological
questions, _an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier_? and such strange
absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, _Mag. lib. 2. cap. 21._ in
Wecker. _lib. 5. de secret_, by stones, perfumes, to make them piss, and
confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was the first
founder of them. And to what passion may we ascribe those severe laws
against jealousy, Num. v. 14, Adulterers Deut. cap. 22. v. xxii. as amongst
the Hebrews, amongst the Egyptians (read [6148]Bohemus _l. 1. c. 5. de mor.
gen._ of the Carthaginians, _cap. 6._ of Turks, _lib. 2. cap. 11._) amongst
the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they are to be severely
punished, cut in pieces, burned, _vivi-comburio_, buried alive, with
several expurgations, &c. are they not as so many symptoms of incredible
jealousy? we may say the same of those vestal virgins that fetched water in
a sieve, as Tatia did in Rome, _anno ab. urb. condita 800._ before the
senators; and [6149]Aemilia, _virgo innocens_, that ran over hot irons, as
Emma, Edward the Confessor's mother did, the king himself being a
spectator, with the like. We read in Nicephorus, that Chunegunda the wife
of Henricus Bavarus emperor, suspected of adultery, _insimulata adulterii
per ignitos vomeres illaesa transiit_, trod upon red hot coulters, and had
no harm: such another story we find in Regino _lib. 2._ In Aventinus and
Sigonius of Charles the Third and his wife Richarda, _an._ 887, that was so
purged with hot irons. Pausanias saith, that he was once an eyewitness of
such a miracle at Diana's temple, a maid without any harm at all walked
upon burning coals. Pius Secund. in his description of Europe, _c. 46._
relates as much, that it was commonly practised at Diana's temple, for
women to go barefoot over hot coals, to try their honesties: Plinius,
Solinus, and many writers, make mention of [6150]Geronia's temple, and
Dionysius Halicarnassus, _lib. 3._ of Memnon's statue, which were used to
this purpose. Tatius _lib. 6._ of Pan his cave, (much like old St.
Wilfrid's needle in Yorkshire) wherein they did use to try, maids,
[6151]whether they were honest; when Leucippe went in, _suavissimus
exaudiri sonus caepit_ Austin _de civ. Dei lib. 10. c. 16._ relates many
such examples, all which Lavater _de spectr. part. 1. cap. 19_ contends to
be done by the illusion of devils; though Thomas _quaest. 6. de polentia_,
&c. ascribes it to good angels. Some, saith [6152]Austin, compel their
wives to swear they be honest, as if perjury were a lesser sin than
adultery; [6153]some consult oracles, as Phaerus that blind king of Egypt.
Others reward, as those old Romans used to do; if a woman were contented
with one man, _Corona pudicitiae donabatur_, she had a crown of chastity
bestowed on her. When all this will not serve, saith Alexander Gaguinus,
_cap. 5. descript. Muscoviae_, the Muscovites, if they suspect their wives,
will beat them till they confess, and if that will not avail, like those
wild Irish, be divorced at their pleasures, or else knock them on the
heads, as the old [6154]Gauls have done in former ages. Of this tyranny of
jealousy read more in Parthenius _Erot. cap. 10._ Camerarius _cap. 53. hor.
subcis. et cent. 2. cap. 34._ Caelia's epistles, Tho. Chaloner _de repub.
Aug. lib. 9._ Ariosto _lib. 31. stasse 1._ Felix Platerus _observat. lib.
1._ &c.
MEMB. III.
_Prognostics of Jealousy. Despair, Madness, to make away themselves and
others_.
Those which are jealous, most part, if they be not otherwise relieved,
[6155]"proceed from suspicion to hatred, from hatred to frenzy, madness,
injury, murder and despair."
[6156] "A plague by whose most damnable effect.
Divers in deep despair to die have sought,
By which a man to madness near is brought,
As well with causeless as with just suspect."
In their madness many times, saith [6157]Vives, they make away themselves
and others. Which induceth Cyprian to call it, _Foecundam et multiplicem
perniciem, fontem cladium et seminarium delictorum_, a fruitful mischief,
the seminary of offences, and fountain of murders. Tragical examples are
too common in this kind, both new and old, in all ages, as of [6158]
Cephalus and Procris, [6159]Phaereus of Egypt, Tereus, Atreus, and
Thyestes. [6160]Alexander Phaereus was murdered of his wife, _ob pellicatus
suspitionem_, Tully saith. Antoninus Verus was so made away by Lucilla;
Demetrius the son of Antigonus, and Nicanor, by their wives. Hercules
poisoned by Dejanira, [6161]Caecinna murdered by Vespasian, Justina, a
Roman lady, by her husband. [6162]Amestris, Xerxes' wife, because she found
her husband's cloak in Masista's house, cut off Masista, his wife's paps,
and gave them to the dogs, flayed her besides, and cut off her ears, lips,
tongue, and slit the nose of Artaynta her daughter. Our late writers are
full of such outrages.
[6163]Paulus Aemilius, in his history of France, hath a tragical story of
Chilpericus the First his death, made away by Ferdegunde his queen. In a
jealous humour he came from hunting, and stole behind his wife, as she was
dressing and combing her head in the sun, gave her a familiar touch with
his wand, which she mistaking for her lover, said, "Ah Landre, a good
knight should strike before, and not behind:" but when she saw herself
betrayed by his presence, she instantly took order to make him away.
Hierome Osorius, in his eleventh book of the deeds of Emanuel King of
Portugal, to this effect hath a tragical narration of one Ferdinandus
Chalderia, that wounded Gotherinus, a noble countryman of his, at Goa in
the East Indies, [6164]"and cut off one of his legs, for that he looked as
he thought too familiarly upon his wife, which was afterwards a cause of
many quarrels, and much bloodshed." Guianerius _cap. 36. de aegritud.
matr._ speaks of a silly jealous fellow, that seeing his child new-born
included in a caul, thought sure a [6165]Franciscan that used to come to
his house, was the father of it, it was so like the friar's cowl, and
thereupon threatened the friar to kill him: Fulgosus of a woman in
Narbonne, that cut off her husband's privities in the night, because she
thought he played false with her. The story of Jonuses Bassa, and fair
Manto his wife, is well known to such as have read the Turkish history; and
that of Joan of Spain, of which I treated in my former section. Her
jealousy, saith Gomesius, was the cause of both their deaths: King Philip
died for grief a little after, as [6166]Martian his physician gave it out,
"and she for her part after a melancholy discontented life, misspent in
lurking-holes and corners, made an end of her miseries." Felix Plater, in
the first book of his observations, hath many such instances, of a
physician of his acquaintance, [6167]"that was first mad through jealousy,
and afterwards desperate:" of a merchant [6168]"that killed his wife in the
same humour, and after precipitated himself:" of a doctor of law that cut
off his man's nose: of a painter's wife in Basil, anno 1600, that was
mother of nine children and had been twenty-seven years married, yet
afterwards jealous, and so impatient that she became desperate, and would
neither eat nor drink in her own house, for fear her husband should poison
her. 'Tis a common sign this; for when once the humours are stirred, and
the imagination misaffected, it will vary itself in divers forms; and many
such absurd symptoms will accompany, even madness itself. Skenkius
_observat. lib. 4. cap. de Uter._ hath an example of a jealous woman that
by this means had many fits of the mother: and in his first book of some
that through jealousy ran mad: of a baker that gelded himself to try his
wife's honesty, &c. Such examples are too common.
MEMB. IV.
SUBSECT I.--_Cure of Jealousy; by avoiding occasions, not to be idle: of
good counsel; to contemn it, not to watch or lock them up: to dissemble it,
&c._
As of all other melancholy, some doubt whether this malady may be cured or
no, they think 'tis like the [6169]gout, or Switzers, whom we commonly call
Walloons, those hired soldiers, if once they take possession of a castle,
they can never be got out.
"Qui timet ut sua sit, ne quis sibi subtrahat illam,
Ille Machaonia vix ope salvus est."
[6170] "This is the cruel wound against whose smart,
No liquor's force prevails, or any plaister,
No skill of stars, no depth of magic art,
Devised by that great clerk Zoroaster,
A wound that so infects the soul and heart,
As all our sense and reason it doth master;
A wound whose pang and torment is so durable,
As it may rightly called be incurable."
Yet what I have formerly said of other melancholy, I will say again, it may
be cured or mitigated at least by some contrary passion, good counsel and
persuasion, if it be withstood in the beginning, maturely resisted, and as
those ancients hold, [6171]"the nails of it be pared before they grow too
long." No better means to resist or repel it than by avoiding idleness, to
be still seriously busied about some matters of importance, to drive out
those vain fears, foolish fantasies and irksome suspicions out of his head,
and then to be persuaded by his judicious friends, to give ear to their
good counsel and advice, and wisely to consider, how much he discredits
himself, his friends, dishonours his children, disgraceth his family,
publisheth his shame, and as a trumpeter of his own misery, divulgeth,
macerates, grieves himself and others; what an argument of weakness it is,
how absurd a thing in its own nature, how ridiculous, how brutish a
passion, how sottish, how odious; for as [6172]Hierome well hath it, _Odium
sui facit, et ipse novissime sibi odio est_, others hate him, and at last
he hates himself for it; how harebrain a disease, mad and furious. If he
will but hear them speak, no doubt he may be cured. [6173]Joan, queen of
Spain, of whom I have formerly spoken, under pretence of changing air was
sent to Complutum, or Alcada de las Heneras, where Ximenius the archbishop
of Toledo then lived, that by his good counsel (as for the present she was)
she might be eased. [6174]"For a disease of the soul, if concealed,
tortures and overturns it, and by no physic can sooner be removed than by a
discreet man's comfortable speeches." I will not here insert any
consolatory sentences to this purpose, or forestall any man's invention,
but leave it every one to dilate and amplify as he shall think fit in his
own judgment: let him advise with Siracides _cap. 9. 1._ "Be not jealous
over the wife of thy bosom;" read that comfortable and pithy speech to this
purpose of Ximenius, in the author himself, as it is recorded by Gomesius;
consult with Chaloner _lib. 9. de repub. Anglor._ or Caelia in her
epistles, &c. Only this I will add, that if it be considered aright, which
causeth this jealous passion, be it just or unjust, whether with or without
cause, true or false, it ought not so heinously to be taken; 'tis no such
real or capital matter, that it should make so deep a wound. 'Tis a blow
that hurts not, an insensible smart, grounded many times upon false
suspicion alone, and so fostered by a sinister conceit. If she be not
dishonest, he troubles and macerates himself without a cause; or put case
which is the worst, he be a cuckold, it cannot be helped, the more he stirs
in it, the more he aggravates his own misery. How much better were it in
such a case to dissemble or contemn it? why should that be feared which
cannot be redressed? _multae tandem deposuerunt_ (saith [6175]Vives) _quum
flecti maritos non posse vident_, many women, when they see there is no
remedy, have been pacified; and shall men be more jealous than women? 'Tis
some comfort in such a case to have companions, _Solamen miseris socios
habuisse doloris_; Who can say he is free? Who can assure himself he is not
one _de praeterito_, or secure himself _de futuro_? If it were his case
alone, it were hard; but being as it is almost a common calamity, 'tis not
so grievously to be taken. If a man have a lock, which every man's key will
open, as well as his own, why should he think to keep it private to
himself? In some countries they make nothing of it, _ne nobiles quidem_,
saith [6176]Leo Afer, in many parts of Africa (if she be past fourteen)
there's not a nobleman that marries a maid, or that hath a chaste wife;
'tis so common; as the moon gives horns once a month to the world, do they
to their husbands at least. And 'tis most part true which that Caledonian
lady, [6177]Argetocovus, a British prince's wife, told Julia Augusta, when
she took her up for dishonesty, "We Britons are naught at least with some
few choice men of the better sort, but you Romans lie with every base
knave, you are a company of common whores." Severus the emperor in his time
made laws for the restraint of this vice; and as [6178]Dion Nicaeus relates
in his life, _tria millia maechorum_, three thousand cuckold-makers, or
_naturae monetam adulterantes_, as Philo calls them, false coiners, and
clippers of nature's money, were summoned into the court at once. And yet,
_Non omnem molitor quae fluit undam videt_, "the miller sees not all the
water that goes by his mill:" no doubt, but, as in our days, these were of
the commonalty, all the great ones were not so much as called in question
for it. [6179]Martial's Epigram I suppose might have been generally applied
in those licentious times, _Omnia solus habes_, &c., thy goods, lands,
money, wits are thine own, _Uxorem sed habes Candide cum populo_; but
neighbour Candidus your wife is common: husband and cuckold in that age it
seems were reciprocal terms; the emperors themselves did wear Actaeon's
badge; how many Caesars might I reckon up together, and what a catalogue of
cornuted kings and princes in every story? Agamemnon, Menelaus, Philippus
of Greece, Ptolomeus of Egypt, Lucullus, Caesar, Pompeius, Cato, Augustus,
Antonius, Antoninus, &c., that wore fair plumes of bull's feathers in their
crests. The bravest soldiers and most heroical spirits could not avoid it.
They have been active and passive in this business, they have either given
or taken horns. [6180]King Arthur, whom we call one of the nine worthies,
for all his great valour, was unworthily served by Mordred, one of his
round table knights: and Guithera, or Helena Alba, his fair wife, as Leland
interprets it, was an arrant honest woman. _Parcerem libenter_ (saith mine
[6181]author) _Heroinarum laesae majestati, si non historiae veritas aurem
vellicaret_, I could willingly wink at a fair lady's faults, but that I am
bound by the laws of history to tell the truth: against his will, God
knows, did he write it, and so do I repeat it. I speak not of our times all
this while, we have good, honest, virtuous men and women, whom fame, zeal,
fear of God, religion and superstition contains: and yet for all that, we
have many knights of this order, so dubbed by their wives, many good women
abused by dissolute husbands. In some places, and such persons you may as
soon enjoin them to carry water in a sieve, as to keep themselves honest.
What shall a man do now in such a case? What remedy is to be had? how shall
he be eased? By suing a divorce? this is hard to be effected: _si non
caste, tamen caute_ they carry the matter so cunningly, that though it be
as common as simony, as clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face,
yet it cannot be evidently proved, or they likely taken in the fact: they
will have a knave Gallus to watch, or with that Roman [6182]Sulpitia, all
made fast and sure,
"Ne se Cadurcis destitutam fasciis,
Nudam Caleno concumbentem videat."
"she will hardly be surprised by her husband, be he never so wary." Much
better then to put it up: the more he strives in it, the more he shall
divulge his own shame: make a virtue of necessity, and conceal it. Yea, but
the world takes notice of it, 'tis in every man's mouth: let them talk
their pleasure, of whom speak they not in this sense? From the highest to
the lowest they are thus censured all: there is no remedy then but
patience. It may be 'tis his own fault, and he hath no reason to complain,
'tis _quid pro quo_, she is bad, he is worse: [6183]"Bethink thyself, hast
thou not done as much for some of thy neighbours? why dost thou require
that of thy wife, which thou wilt not perform thyself?" Thou rangest like a
town bull, [6184]"why art thou so incensed if she tread, awry?"
[6185] "Be it that some woman break chaste wedlock's laws,
And leaves her husband and becomes unchaste:
Yet commonly it is not without cause,
She sees her man in sin her goods to waste,
She feels that he his love from her withdraws,
And hath on some perhaps less worthy placed.
Who strike with sword, the scabbard them may strike,
And sure love craveth love, like asketh like."
_Ea semper studebit_, saith [6186]Nevisanus, _pares reddere vices_, she
will quit it if she can. And therefore, as well adviseth Siracides, _cap.
ix. 1._ "teach her not an evil lesson against thyself," which as Jansenius,
Lyranus, on his text, and Carthusianus interpret, is no otherwise to be
understood than that she do thee not a mischief. I do not excuse her in
accusing thee; but if both be naught, mend thyself first; for as the old
saying is, a good husband makes a good wife.
Yea but thou repliest, 'tis not the like reason betwixt man and woman,
through her fault my children are bastards, I may not endure it; [6187]_Sit
amarulenta, sit imperiosa prodiga_, &c. Let her scold, brawl, and spend, I
care not, _modo sit casta_, so she be honest, I could easily bear it; but
this I cannot, I may not, I will not; "my faith, my fame, mine eye must not
be touched," as the diverb is, _Non patitur tactum fama, fides, oculus._ I
say the same of my wife, touch all, use all, take all but this. I
acknowledge that of Seneca to be true, _Nullius boni jucunda possessio sine
socio_, there is no sweet content in the possession of any good thing
without a companion, this only excepted, I say, "This." And why this? Even
this which thou so much abhorrest, it may be for thy progeny's good, [6188]
better be any man's son than thine, to be begot of base Irus, poor Seius,
or mean Mevius, the town swineherd's, a shepherd's son: and well is he,
that like Hercules he hath any two fathers; for thou thyself hast
peradventure more diseases than a horse, more infirmities of body and mind,
a cankered soul, crabbed conditions, make the worst of it, as it is _vulnus
insanabile, sic vulnus insensibile_, as it is incurable, so it is
insensible. But art thou sure it is so? [6189]_res agit ille tuas_? "doth
he so indeed?" It may be thou art over-suspicious, and without a cause as
some are: if it be _octimestris partus_, born at eight months, or like him,
and him, they fondly suspect he got it; if she speak or laugh familiarly
with such or such men, then presently she is naught with them; such is thy
weakness; whereas charity, or a well-disposed mind, would interpret all
unto the best. St. Francis, by chance seeing a friar familiarly kissing
another man's wife, was so far from misconceiving it, that he presently
kneeled down and thanked God there was so much charity left: but they on
the other side will ascribe nothing to natural causes, indulge nothing to
familiarity, mutual society, friendship: but out of a sinister suspicion,
presently lock them close, watch them, thinking by those means to prevent
all such inconveniences, that's the way to help it; whereas by such tricks
they do aggravate the mischief. 'Tis but in vain to watch that which will
away.
[6190] "Nec custodiri si velit ulla potest;
Nec mentem servare potes, licet omnia serves;
Omnibus exclusis, intus adulter erit."
"None can be kept resisting for her part;
Though body be kept close, within her heart
Advoutry lurks, t'exclude it there's no art."
Argus with a hundred eyes cannot keep her, _et hunc unus saepe fefellit
amor_, as in [6191]Ariosto,
"If all our hearts were eyes, yet sure they said
We husbands of our wives should be betrayed."
Hierome holds, _Uxor impudica servari non potest, pudica non debet, infida
custos castitatis est necessitas_, to what end is all your custody? A
dishonest woman cannot be kept, an honest woman ought not to be kept,
necessity is a keeper not to be trusted. _Difficile custoditur, quod plures
amant_; that which many covet, can hardly be preserved, as [6192]
Salisburiensis thinks. I am of Aeneas Sylvius' mind, [6193]"Those jealous
Italians do very ill to lock up their wives; for women are of such a
disposition, they will most covet that which is denied most, and offend
least when they have free liberty to trespass." It is in vain to lock her
up if she be dishonest; _et tyrranicum imperium_, as our great Mr.
Aristotle calls it, too tyrannical a task, most unfit: for when she
perceives her husband observes her and suspects, _liberius peccat_, saith
[6194]Nevisanus. [6195]_Toxica Zelotypo dedit uxor moecha marito_, she is
exasperated, seeks by all means to vindicate herself, and will therefore
offend, because she is unjustly suspected. The best course then is to let
them have their own wills, give them free liberty, without any keeping.
"In vain our friends from this do us dehort,
For beauty will be where is most resort."
If she be honest as Lucretia to Collatinus, Laodamia to Protesilaus,
Penelope to her Ulysses, she will so continue her honour, good name,
credit, _Penelope conjux semper Ulyssis ero_; "I shall always be Penelope
the wife of Ulysses." And as Phocias' wife in [6196]Plutarch, called her
husband "her wealth, treasure, world, joy, delight, orb and sphere," she
will hers. The vow she made unto her good man; love, virtue, religion,
zeal, are better keepers than all those locks, eunuchs, prisons; she will
not be moved:
[6197] "At mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
Aut pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,
Pallentes umbras Erebi, noctemque profundam,
Ante pudor quam te violem, aut tua jura resolvam."
"First I desire the earth to swallow me.
Before I violate mine honesty,
Or thunder from above drive me to hell,
With those pale ghosts, and ugly nights to dwell."
She is resolved with Dido to be chaste; though her husband be false, she
will be true: and as Octavia writ to her Antony,
[6198] "These walls that here do keep me out of sight,
Shall keep me all unspotted unto thee,
And testify that I will do thee right,
I'll never stain thine house, though thou shame me."
Turn her loose to all those Tarquins and Satyrs, she will not be tempted.
In the time of Valence the Emperor, saith [6199]St. Austin, one Archidamus,
a Consul of Antioch, offered a hundred pounds of gold to a fair young wife,
and besides to set her husband free, who was then _sub gravissima
custodia_, a dark prisoner, _pro unius noctis concubitu_: but the chaste
matron would not accept of it. [6200]When Ode commended Theana's fine arm
to his fellows, she took him up short, "Sir, 'tis not common:" she is
wholly reserved to her husband. [6201]Bilia had an old man to her spouse,
and his breath stunk, so that nobody could abide it abroad; "coming home
one day he reprehended his wife, because she did not tell him of it: she
vowed unto him, she had told him, but she thought every man's breath had
been as strong as his." [6202]Tigranes and Armena his lady were invited to
supper by King Cyrus: when they came home, Tigranes asked his wife, how she
liked Cyrus, and what she did especially commend in him? "she swore she did
not observe him; when he replied again, what then she did observe, whom she
looked on? She made answer, her husband, that said he would die for her
sake." Such are the properties and conditions of good women: and if she be
well given, she will so carry herself; if otherwise she be naught, use all
the means thou canst, she will be naught, _Non deest animus sed corruptor_,
she hath so many lies, excuses, as a hare hath muses, tricks, panders,
bawds, shifts, to deceive, 'tis to no purpose to keep her up, or to reclaim
her by hard usage. "Fair means peradventure may do somewhat." [6203]
_Obsequio vinces aptius ipse tuo._ Men and women are both in a predicament
in this behalf, no sooner won, and better pacified. _Duci volunt, non
cogi_: though she be as arrant a scold as Xanthippe, as cruel as Medea, as
clamorous as Hecuba, as lustful as Messalina, by such means (if at all) she
may be reformed. Many patient [6204]Grizels, by their obsequiousness in
this kind, have reclaimed their husbands from their wandering lusts. In
Nova Francia and Turkey (as Leah, Rachel, and Sarah did to Abraham and
Jacob) they bring their fairest damsels to their husbands' beds; Livia
seconded the lustful appetites of Augustus: Stratonice, wife to King
Diotarus, did not only bring Electra, a fair maid, to her good man's bed,
but brought up the children begot on her, as carefully as if they had been
her own. Tertius Emilius' wife, Cornelia's mother, perceiving her husband's
intemperance, _rem dissimulavit_, made much of the maid, and would take no
notice of it. A new-married man, when a pickthank friend of his, to curry
favour, had showed him his wife familiar in private with a young gallant,
courting and dallying, &c. Tush, said he, let him do his worst, I dare
trust my wife, though I dare not trust him. The best remedy then is by fair
means; if that will not take place, to dissemble it as I say, or turn it
off with a jest: hear Guexerra's advice in this case, _vel joco excipies,
vel silentio eludes_; for if you take exceptions at everything your wife
doth, Solomon's wisdom, Hercules' valour, Homer's learning, Socrates'
patience, Argus' vigilance, will not serve turn. Therefore _Minus malum_,
[6205]a less mischief, Nevisanus holds, _dissimulare_, to be [6206]_Cunarum
emptor_, a buyer of cradles, as the proverb is, than to be too solicitous.
[6207]"A good fellow, when his wife was brought to bed before her time,
bought half a dozen of cradles beforehand for so many children, as if his
wife should continue to bear children every two months." [6208]Pertinax the
Emperor, when one told him a fiddler was too familiar with his empress,
made no reckoning of it. And when that Macedonian Philip was upbraided with
his wife's dishonesty, _cum tot victor regnorum ac populorum esset_, &c., a
conqueror of kingdoms could not tame his wife (for she thrust him out of
doors), he made a jest of it. _Sapientes portant cornua in pectore, stulti
in fronte_, saith Nevisanus, wise men bear their horns in their hearts,
fools on their foreheads. Eumenes, king of Pergamus, was at deadly feud
with Perseus of Macedonia, insomuch that Perseus hearing of a journey he
was to take to Delphos, [6209]set a company of soldiers to intercept him in
his passage; they did it accordingly, and as they supposed left him stoned
to death. The news of this fact was brought instantly to Pergamus; Attalus,
Eumenes' brother, proclaimed himself king forthwith, took possession of the
crown, and married Stratonice the queen. But by-and-by, when contrary news
was brought, that King Eumenes was alive, and now coming to the city, he
laid by his crown, left his wife, as a private man went to meet him, and
congratulate his return. Eumenes, though he knew all particulars passed,
yet dissembling the matter, kindly embraced his brother, and took his wife
into his favour again, as if on such matter had been heard of or done.
Jocundo, in Ariosto, found his wife in bed with a knave, both asleep, went
his ways, and would not so much as wake them, much less reprove them for
it. [6210]An honest fellow finding in like sort his wife had played false
at tables, and borne a man too many, drew his dagger, and swore if he had
not been his very friend, he would have killed him. Another hearing one had
done that for him, which no man desires to be done by a deputy, followed in
a rage with his sword drawn, and having overtaken him, laid adultery to his
charge; the offender hotly pursued, confessed it was true; with which
confession he was satisfied, and so left him, swearing that if he had
denied it, he would not have put it up. How much better is it to do thus,
than to macerate himself, impatiently to rave and rage, to enter an action
(as Arnoldus Tilius did in the court of Toulouse, against Martin Guerre his
fellow-soldier, for that he counterfeited his habit, and was too familiar
with his wife), so to divulge his own shame, and to remain for ever a
cuckold on record? how much better be Cornelius Tacitus than Publius
Cornutus, to condemn in such cases, or take no notice of it? _Melius sic
errare, quam Zelotypiae curis_, saith Erasmus, _se conficere_, better be a
wittol and put it up, than to trouble himself to no purpose. And though he
will not _omnibus dormire_, be an ass, as he is an ox, yet to wink at it as
many do is not amiss at some times, in some cases, to some parties, if it
be for his commodity, or some great man's sake, his landlord, patron,
benefactor, (as Calbas the Roman saith [6211]Plutarch did by Maecenas, and
Phayllus of Argos did by King Philip, when he promised him an office on
that condition he might lie with his wife) and so let it pass:
[6212] "pol me haud poenitet,
Scilicet boni dimidium dividere cum Jove,"
"it never troubles me" (saith Amphitrio) "to be cornuted by Jupiter," let
it not molest thee then; be friends with her;
[6213] "Tu cum Alcmena uxore antiquam in gratiam
Redi"------
"Receive Alcmena to your grace again;" let it, I say, make no breach of
love between you. Howsoever the best way is to contemn it, which
[6214]Henry II. king of France advised a courtier of his, jealous of his
wife, and complaining of her unchasteness, to reject it, and comfort
himself; for he that suspects his wife's incontinency, and fears the Pope's
curse, shall never live a merry hour, or sleep a quiet night: no remedy but
patience. When all is done according to that counsel of [6215]Nevisanus,
_si vitium uxoris corrigi non potest, ferendum est_: if it may not be
helped, it must be endured. _Date veniam et sustinete taciti_, 'tis
Sophocles' advice, keep it to thyself, and which Chrysostom calls
_palaestram philosophiae, et domesticum gymnasium_ a school of philosophy,
put it up. There is no other cure but time to wear it out, _Injuriarum
remedium est oblivio_, as if they had drunk a draught of Lethe in
Trophonius' den: to conclude, age will bereave her of it, dies _dolorem
minuit_, time and patience must end it.
[6216] "The mind's affections patience will appease,
It passions kills, and healeth each disease."
SUBSECT. II.--_By prevention before, or after Marriage, Plato's Community,
marry a Courtesan, Philters, Stews, to marry one equal in years, fortunes,
of a good family, education, good place, to use them well, &c._
Of such medicines as conduce to the cure of this malady, I have
sufficiently treated; there be some good remedies remaining, by way of
prevention, precautions, or admonitions, which if rightly practised, may do
much good. Plato, in his Commonwealth, to prevent this mischief belike,
would have all things, wives and children, all as one: and which Caesar in
his Commentaries observed of those old Britons, that first inhabited this
land, they had ten or twelve wives allotted to such a family, or
promiscuously to be used by so many men; not one to one, as with us, or
four, five, or six to one, as in Turkey. The [6217]Nicholaites, a set that
sprang, saith Austin, from Nicholas the deacon, would have women
indifferent; and the cause of this filthy sect, was Nicholas the deacon's
jealousy, for which when he was condemned to purge himself of his offence,
he broached his heresy, that it was lawful to lie with one another's wives,
and for any man to lie with his: like to those [6218]Anabaptists in
Munster, that would consort with other men's wives as the spirit moved
them: or as [6219]Mahomet, the seducing prophet, would needs use women as
he list himself, to beget prophets; two hundred and five, their Alcoran
saith, were in love with him, and [6220]he as able as forty men. Amongst
the old Carthaginians, as [6221]Bohemus relates out of Sabellicus., the
king of the country lay with the bride the first night, and once in a year
they went promiscuously all together. Munster _Cosmog. lib. 3. cap. 497._
ascribes the beginning of this brutish custom (unjustly) to one Picardus, a
Frenchman, that invented a new sect of Adamites, to go naked as Adam did,
and to use promiscuous venery at set times. When the priest repeated that
of Genesis, "Increase and multiply," out [6222]went the candles in the
place where they met, "and without all respect of age, persons, conditions,
catch that catch may, every man took her that came next," &c.; some fasten
this on those ancient Bohemians and Russians: [6223]others on the
inhabitants of Mambrium, in the Lucerne valley in Piedmont; and, as I read,
it was practised in Scotland amongst Christians themselves, until King
Malcolm's time, the king or the lord of the town had their maidenheads. In
some parts of [6224]India in our age, and those [6225]islanders, [6226]as
amongst the Babylonians of old, they will prostitute their wives and
daughters (which Chalcocondila, a Greek modern writer, for want of better
intelligence, puts upon us Britons) to such travellers or seafaring men as
come amongst them by chance, to show how far they were from this feral vice
of jealousy, and how little they esteemed it. The kings of Calecut, as
[6227]Lod. Vertomannus relates, will not touch their wives, till one of
their Biarmi or high priests have lain first with them, to sanctify their
wombs. But those Esai and Montanists, two strange sects of old, were in
another extreme, they would not marry at all, or have any society with
women, [6228]"because of their intemperance they held them all to be
naught." Nevisanus the lawyer, _lib. 4. num. 33. sylv. nupt._ would have
him that is inclined to this malady, to prevent the worst, marry a quean,
_Capiens meretricem, hoc habet saltem boni quod non decipitur, quia scit
eam sic esse, quod non contingit aliis_. A fornicator in Seneca
constuprated two wenches in a night; for satisfaction, the one desired to
hang him, the other to marry him. [6229] Hierome, king of Syracuse in
Sicily, espoused himself to Pitho, keeper of the stews; and Ptolemy took
Thais a common whore to be his wife, had two sons, Leontiscus and Lagus by
her, and one daughter Irene: 'tis therefore no such unlikely thing. [6230]A
citizen of Engubine gelded himself to try his wife's honesty, and to be
freed from jealousy; so did a baker in [6231] Basil, to the same intent.
But of all other precedents in this kind, that of [6232]Combalus is most
memorable; who to prevent his master's suspicion, for he was a beautiful
young man, and sent by Seleucus his lord and king, with Stratonice the
queen to conduct her into Syria, fearing the worst, gelded himself before
he went, and left his genitals behind him in a box sealed up. His mistress
by the way fell in love with him, but he not yielding to her, was accused
to Seleucus of incontinency, (as that Bellerophon was in like case, falsely
traduced by Sthenobia, to King Praetus her husband, _cum non posset ad
coitum inducere)_ and that by her, and was therefore at his corning home
cast into prison: the day of hearing appointed, he was sufficiently cleared
and acquitted, by showing his privities, which to the admiration of the
beholders he had formerly cut off. The Lydians used to geld women whom they
suspected, saith Leonicus _var. hist. Tib. 3. cap. 49._ as well as men. To
this purpose [6233]Saint Francis, because he used to confess women in
private, to prevent suspicion, and prove himself a maid, stripped himself
before the Bishop of Assise and others: and Friar Leonard for the same
cause went through Viterbium in Italy, without any garments.
Our pseudo-Catholics, to help these inconveniences which proceed from
jealousy, to keep themselves and their wives honest, make severe laws;
against adultery present death; and withal fornication, a venal sin, as a
sink to convey that furious and swift stream of concupiscence, they appoint
and permit stews, those punks and pleasant sinners, the more to secure
their wives in all populous cities, for they hold them as necessary as
churches; and howsoever unlawful, yet to avoid a greater mischief, to be
tolerated in policy, as usury, for the hardness of men's hearts; and for
this end they have whole colleges of courtesans in their towns and cities.
Of [6234]Cato's mind belike, that would have his servants (_cum ancillis
congredi coitus causa, definito aere, ut graviora facinora evitarent,
caeteris interim interdicens_) familiar with some such feminine creatures,
to avoid worse mischiefs in his house, and made allowance for it. They hold
it impossible for idle persons, young, rich, and lusty, so many servants,
monks, friars, to live honest, too tyrannical a burden to compel them to be
chaste, and most unfit to suffer poor men, younger brothers and soldiers at
all to marry, as those diseased persons, votaries, priests, servants.
Therefore, as well to keep and ease the one as the other, they tolerate and
wink at these kind of brothel-houses and stews. Many probable arguments
they have to prove the lawfulness, the necessity, and a toleration of them,
as of usury; and without question in policy they are not to be
contradicted: but altogether in religion. Others prescribe filters, spells,
charms to keep men and women honest. [6235]_Mulier ut alienum virum non
admittat praeter suum: Accipe fel hirci, et adipem, et exsicca, calescat in
oleo, &c., et non alium praeter et amabit. In Alexi. Porta, &c., plura
invenies, et multo his absurdiora, uti et in Rhasi, ne mulier virum
admittat, et maritum solum diligat_, &c. But these are most part Pagan,
impious, irreligious, absurd, and ridiculous devices.
The best means to avoid these and like inconveniences are, to take away the
causes and occasions. To this purpose [6236]Varro writ _Satyram Menippeam_,
but it is lost. [6237]Patritius prescribes four rules to be observed in
choosing of a wife (which who so will may read); Fonseca, the Spaniard, in
his _45. c. Amphitheat. Amoris_, sets down six special cautions for men,
four for women; Sam. Neander out of Shonbernerus, five for men, five for
women; Anthony Guivarra many good lessons; [6238]Cleobulus two alone,
others otherwise; as first to make a good choice in marriage, to invite
Christ to their wedding, and which [6239]St. Ambrose adviseth, _Deum
conjugii praesidem habere_, and to pray to him for her, _A Domino enim
datur uxor prudens_, Prov. xix. ) not to be too rash and precipitate in his
election, to run upon the first he meets, or dote on every stout fair piece
he sees, but to choose her as much by his ears as eyes, to be well advised
whom he takes, of what age, &c., and cautelous in his proceedings. An old
man should not marry a young woman, nor a young woman an old man, [6240]
_Quam male inaequales veniunt ad arata juvenci!_ such matches must needs
minister a perpetual cause of suspicion, and be distasteful to each other.
[6241] "Noctua ut in tumulis, super atque cadavera bubo,
Talis apud Sophoclem nostra puella sedet."
"Night-crows on tombs, owl sits on carcass dead,
So lies a wench with Sophocles in bed."
For Sophocles, as [6242]Atheneus describes him, was a very old man, as cold
as January, a bedfellow of bones, and doted yet upon Archippe, a young
courtesan, than which nothing can be more odious. [6243]_Senex maritus
uxori juveni ingratus est_, an old man is a most unwelcome guest to a young
wench, unable, unfit:
[6244] "Amplexus suos fugiunt puellae,
Omnis horret amor Venusque Hymenque."
And as in like case a good fellow that had but a peck of corn weekly to
grind, yet would needs build a new mill for it, found his error eftsoons,
for either he must let his mill lie waste, pull it quite down, or let
others grind at it. So these men, &c.
Seneca therefore disallows all such unseasonable matches, _habent enim
maledicti locum crebrae nuptiae._ And as [6245]Tully farther inveighs,
"'tis unfit for any, but ugly and filthy in old age." _Turpe senilis amor_,
one of the three things [6246]God hateth. Plutarch, in his book _contra
Coleten_, rails downright at such kind of marriages, which are attempted by
old men, _qui jam corpore impotenti, et a voluptatibus deserti, peccant
animo_, and makes a question whether in some cases it be tolerable at least
for such a man to marry,--_qui Venerem affectat sine viribus_, "that is now
past those venerous exercises," "as a gelded man lies with a virgin and
sighs," Ecclus. xxx. 20, and now complains with him in Petronius, _funerata
est haec pars jam, quad fuit olim Achillea_, he is quite done,
[6247] "Vixit puellae nuper idoneus,
Et militavit non sine gloria."
But the question is whether he may delight himself as those Priapeian
popes, which, in their decrepit age, lay commonly between two wenches every
night, _contactu formosarum, et contrectatione, num adhuc gaudeat_; and as
many doting sires do to their own shame, their children's undoing, and
their families' confusion: he abhors it, _tanquam ab agresti et furioso
domino fugiendum_, it must be avoided as a bedlam master, and not obeyed.
[6248] "Alecto------
Ipsa faces praefert nubentibus, et malus Hymen
Triste ululat,"------
the devil himself makes such matches. [6249]Levinus Lemnius reckons up
three things which generally disturb the peace of marriage: the first is
when they marry intempestive or unseasonably, "as many mortal men marry
precipitately and inconsiderately, when they are effete and old: the second
when they marry unequally for fortunes and birth: the third, when a sick
impotent person weds one that is sound, _novae nuptae spes frustratur_:
many dislikes instantly follow." Many doting dizzards, it may not be
denied, as Plutarch confesseth, [6250]"recreate themselves with such
obsolete, unseasonable and filthy remedies" (so he calls them), "with a
remembrance of their former pleasures, against nature they stir up their
dead flesh:" but an old lecher is abominable; _mulier tertio nubens_,
[6251]Nevisanus holds, _praesumitur lubrica, et inconstans_, a woman that
marries a third time may be presumed to be no honester than she should. Of
them both, thus Ambrose concludes in his comment upon Luke, [6252]"they
that are coupled together, not to get children, but to satisfy their lust,
are not husbands, but fornicators," with whom St. Austin consents:
matrimony without hope of children, _non matrimonium, sed concubium dici
debet_, is not a wedding but a jumbling or coupling together. In a word
(except they wed for mutual society, help and comfort one of another, in
which respects, though [6253]Tiberius deny it, without question old folks
may well marry) for sometimes a man hath most need of a wife, according to
Puccius, when he hath no need of a wife; otherwise it is most odious, when
an old Acherontic dizzard, that hath one foot in his grave, _a
silicernium_, shall flicker after a young wench that is blithe and bonny,
[6254] ------"salaciorque
Verno passere, et albulis columbis."
What can be more detestable?
[6255] "Tu cano capite amas senex nequissime
Jam plenus aetatis, animaque foetida,
Senex hircosus tu osculare mulierem?
Utine adiens vomitum potius excuties."
"Thou old goat, hoary lecher, naughty man,
With stinking breath, art thou in love?
Must thou be slavering? she spews to see
Thy filthy face, it doth so move."
Yet, as some will, it is much more tolerable for an old man to marry a
young woman (our ladies' match they call it) for _cras erit mulier_, as he
said in Tully. Cato the Roman, Critobulus in [6256]Xenophon,
[6257]Tiraquellus of late, Julius Scaliger, &c., and many famous precedents
we have in that kind; but not _e contra_: 'tis not held fit for an ancient
woman to match with a young man. For as Varro will, _Anus dum ludit morti
delitias facit_, 'tis Charon's match between [6258]Cascus and Casca, and
the devil himself is surely well pleased with it. And, therefore, as the
[6259]poet inveighs, thou old Vetustina bedridden quean, that art now skin
and bones,
"Cui tres capilli, quatuorque sunt dentes,
Pectus cicadae, crusculumque formicae,
Rugosiorem quae geris stola frontem,
Et arenaram cassibus pares mammas."
"That hast three hairs, four teeth, a breast
Like grasshopper, an emmet's crest,
A skin more rugged than thy coat,
And drugs like spider's web to boot."
Must thou marry a youth again? And yet _ducentas ire nuptum post mortes
amant_: howsoever it is, as [6260]Apuleius gives out of his Meroe,
_congressus annosus, pestilens, abhorrendus_, a pestilent match,
abominable, and not to be endured. In such case how can they otherwise
choose but be jealous, how should they agree one with another? This
inequality is not in years only, but in birth, fortunes, conditions, and
all good [6261]qualities, _si qua voles apte nubere, nube pari_, 'tis my
counsel, saith Anthony Guiverra, to choose such a one. _Civis Civem ducat,
Nobilis Nobilem_, let a citizen match with a citizen, a gentleman with a
gentlewoman; he that observes not this precept (saith he) _non generum sed
malum Genium, non nurum sed Furiam, non vitae Comitem, sed litis fomitem
domi habebit_, instead of a fair wife shall have a fury, for a fit
son-in-law a mere fiend, &c. examples are too frequent.
Another main caution fit to be observed is this, that though they be equal
in years, birth, fortunes, and other conditions, yet they do not omit
virtue and good education, which Musonius and Antipater so much inculcate
in Stobeus:
[6262] "Dos est magna parentum
Virtus, et metuens alterius viri
Certo foedere castitas."
If, as Plutarch adviseth, one must eat _modium salis_, a bushel of salt
with him, before he choose his friend, what care should be had in choosing
a wife, his second self, how solicitous should he be to know her qualities
and behaviour; and when he is assured of them, not to prefer birth,
fortune, beauty, before bringing up, and good conditions. [6263]Coquage god
of cuckolds, as one merrily said, accompanies the goddess Jealousy, both
follow the fairest, by Jupiter's appointment, and they sacrifice to them
together: beauty and honesty seldom agree; straight personages have often
crooked manners; fair faces, foul vices; good complexions, ill conditions.
_Suspicionis plena res est, et insidiarum_, beauty (saith [6264]Chrysostom)
is full of treachery and suspicion: he that hath a fair wife, cannot have a
worse mischief, and yet most covet it, as if nothing else in marriage but
that and wealth were to be respected. [6265]Francis Sforza, Duke of Milan,
was so curious in this behalf, that he would not marry the Duke of Mantua's
daughter, except he might see her naked first: which Lycurgus appointed in
his laws, and Morus in his Utopian Commonwealth approves. [6266]In Italy,
as a traveller observes, if a man have three or four daughters, or more,
and they prove fair, they are married eftsoons: if deformed, they change
their lovely names of Lucia, Cynthia, Camaena, call them Dorothy, Ursula,
Bridget, and so put them into monasteries, as if none were fit for
marriage, but such as are eminently fair: but these are erroneous tenets: a
modest virgin well conditioned, to such a fair snout-piece, is much to be
preferred. If thou wilt avoid them, take away all causes of suspicion and
jealousy, marry a coarse piece, fetch her from Cassandra's [6267]temple,
which was wont in Italy to be a sanctuary of all deformed maids, and so
shalt thou be sure that no man will make thee cuckold, but for spite. A
citizen of Bizance in France had a filthy, dowdy, deformed slut to his
wife, and finding her in bed with another man, cried out as one amazed; _O
miser! quae te necessitas huc adegit_? O thou wretch, what necessity
brought thee hither? as well he might; for who can affect such a one? But
this is warily to be understood, most offend in another extreme, they
prefer wealth before beauty, and so she be rich, they care not how she
look; but these are all out as faulty as the rest. _Attendenda uxoris
forma_, as [6268]Salisburiensis adviseth, _ne si alteram aspexeris, mox eam
sordere putes_, as the Knight in Chaucer, that was married to an old woman,
_And all day after hid him as an owl,
So woe was his wife looked so foul_.
Have a care of thy wife's complexion, lest whilst thou seest another, thou
loathest her, she prove jealous, thou naught,
[6269] "Si tibi deformis conjux, si serva venusta,
Ne utaris serva,"------
I can perhaps give instance. _Molestum est possidere, quod nemo habere
dignetur_, a misery to possess that which no man likes: on the other side,
_Difficile custoditur quod plures amant._ And as the bragging soldier
vaunted in the comedy, _nimia est miseria pulchrum esse hominem nimis._
Scipio did never so hardly besiege Carthage, as these young gallants will
beset thine house, one with wit or person, another with wealth, &c. If she
he fair, saith Guazzo, she will be suspected howsoever. Both extremes are
naught, _Pulchra cito adamatur, foeda facile concupiscit_, the one is soon
beloved, the other loves: one is hardly kept, because proud and arrogant,
the other not worth keeping; what is to be done in this case? Ennius in
Menelippe adviseth thee as a friend to take _statam formam, si vis habere
incolumem pudicitiam_, one of a middle size, neither too fair nor too foul,
[6270]_Nec formosa magis quam mihi casta placet_, with old Cato, though fit
let her beauty be, _neque lectissima, neque illiberalis_, between both.
This I approve; but of the other two I resolve with Salisburiensis,
_caeteris paribus_, both rich alike, endowed alike, _majori miseria
deformis habetur quam formosa servatur_, I had rather marry a fair one, and
put it to the hazard, than be troubled with a blowze; but do as thou wilt,
I speak only of myself.
Howsoever, _quod iterum maneo_, I would advise thee thus much, be she fair
or foul, to choose a wife out of a good kindred, parentage, well brought
up, in an honest place.
[6271] "Primum animo tibi proponas quo sanguine creta.
Qua forma, qua aetate, quibusque ante omnia virgo
Moribus, in junctos veniat nova nupta penates."
He that marries a wife out of a suspected inn or alehouse, buys a horse in
Smithfield, and hires a servant in Paul's, as the diverb is, shall likely
have a jade to his horse, a knave for his man, an arrant honest woman to
his wife. _Filia praesumitur, esse matri similis_, saith [6272]Nevisanus?
"Such [6273]a mother, such a daughter;" _mali corvi malum ovum._, cat to
her kind.
[6274] "Scilicet expectas ut tradat mater honestos
Atque alios mores quam quos habet?"
"If the mother be dishonest, in all likelihood the daughter will
_matrizare_, take after her in all good qualities,"
"Creden' Pasiphae non tauripotente futuram
Tauripetam?"------
"If the dam trot, the foal will not amble." My last caution is, that a
woman do not bestow herself upon a fool, or an apparent melancholy person;
jealousy is a symptom of that disease, and fools have no moderation.
Justina, a Roman lady, was much persecuted, and after made away by her
jealous husband, she caused and enjoined this epitaph, as a caveat to
others, to be engraven on her tomb:
[6275] "Discite ab exemplo Justinae, discite patres,
Ne nubat fatuo filia vestra viro," &c.
"Learn parents all, and by Justina's case,
Your children to no dizzards for to place."
After marriage, I can give no better admonitions than to use their wives
well, and which a friend of mine told me that was a married man, I will
tell you as good cheap, saith Nicostratus in [6276]Stobeus, to avoid future
strife, and for quietness' sake, "when you are in bed, take heed of your
wife's flattering speeches over night, and curtain, sermons in the
morning." Let them do their endeavour likewise to maintain them to their
means, which [6277]Patricius ingeminates, and let them have liberty with
discretion, as time and place requires: many women turn queans by
compulsion, as [6278]Nevisanus observes, because their husbands are so
hard, and keep them so short in diet and apparel, _paupertas cogit eas
meretricari_, poverty and hunger, want of means, makes them dishonest, or
bad usage; their churlish behaviour forceth them to fly out, or bad
examples, they do it to cry quittance. In the other extreme some are too
liberal, as the proverb is, _Turdus malum sibi cacat_, they make a rod for
their own tails, as Candaules did to Gyges in [6279]Herodotus, commend his
wife's beauty himself, and besides would needs have him see her naked.
Whilst they give their wives too much liberty to gad abroad, and bountiful
allowance, they are accessory to their own miseries; _animae uxorum pessime
olent_, as Plautus jibes, they have deformed souls, and by their painting
and colours procure _odium mariti_, their husband's hate,
especially,--[6280] _cum misere viscantur labra mariti_. Besides, their
wives (as [6281]Basil notes) _Impudenter se exponunt masculorum aspectibus,
jactantes tunicas, et coram tripudiantes_, impudently thrust themselves
into other men's companies, and by their indecent wanton carriage provoke
and tempt the spectators. Virtuous women should keep house; and 'twas well
performed and ordered by the Greeks,
[6282] ------"mulier ne qua in publicum
Spectandam se sine arbitro praebeat viro:"
which made Phidias belike at Elis paint Venus treading on a tortoise, a
symbol of women's silence and housekeeping. For a woman abroad and alone,
is like a deer broke out of a park, _quam mille venatores insequuntur_,
whom every hunter follows; and besides in such places she cannot so well
vindicate herself, but as that virgin Dinah (Gen. xxxiv., 2,) "going for to
see the daughters of the land," lost her virginity, she may be defiled and
overtaken of a sudden: _Imbelles damae quid nisi praeda sumus_? [6283]
And therefore I know not what philosopher he was, that would have women
come but thrice abroad all their time, [6284]"to be baptised, married, and
buried;" but he was too strait-laced. Let them have their liberty in good
sort, and go in good sort, _modo non annos viginti aetatis suae domi
relinquant_, as a good fellow said, so that they look not twenty years
younger abroad than they do at home, they be not spruce, neat, angels
abroad, beasts, dowdies, sluts at home; but seek by all means to please and
give content to their husbands: to be quiet above all things, obedient,
silent and patient; if they be incensed, angry, chid a little, their wives
must not [6285]cample again, but take it in good part. An honest woman, I
cannot now tell where she dwelt, but by report an honest woman she was,
hearing one of her gossips by chance complain of her husband's impatience,
told her an excellent remedy for it, and gave her withal a glass of water,
which when he brawled she should hold still in her mouth, and that _toties
quoties_, as often as he chid; she did so two or three times with good
success, and at length seeing her neighbour, gave her great thanks for it,
and would needs know the ingredients, [6286]she told her in brief what it
was, "fair water," and no more: for it was not the water, but her silence
which performed the cure. Let every froward woman imitate this example, and
be quiet within doors, and (as [6287]M. Aurelius prescribes) a necessary
caution it is to be observed of all good matrons that love their credits,
to come little abroad, but follow their work at home, look to their
household affairs and private business, _oeconomiae incumbentes_, be sober,
thrifty, wary, circumspect, modest, and compose themselves to live to their
husbands' means, as a good housewife should do,
[6288] "Quae studiis gavisa coli, partita labores
Fallet opus cantu, formae assimulata coronae
Cura puellaris, circum fusosque rotasque
Cum volvet," &c.
Howsoever 'tis good to keep them private, not in prison;
[6289] "Quisquis custodit uxorem vectibus et seris,
Etsi sibi sapiens, stultus est, et nihil sapit."
Read more of this subject, _Horol. princ. lib. 2. per totum._ Arnisaeus,
_polit._ Cyprian, Tertullian, Bossus _de mulier. apparat._ Godefridus _de
Amor. lib. 2. cap. 4._ Levinus Lemnius _cap. 54. de institut._ Christ.
Barbaras _de re uxor. lib. 2. cap. 2._ Franciscus Patritius _de institut.
Reipub. lib. 4. Tit. 4. et 6. de officio mariti et uxoris_, Christ. Fonseca
_Amphitheat. Amor. cap. 45._ Sam. Neander, &c.
These cautions concern him; and if by those or his own discretion otherwise
he cannot moderate himself, his friends must not be wanting by their
wisdom, if it be possible, to give the party grieved satisfaction, to
prevent and remove the occasions, objects, if it may be to secure him. If
it be one alone, or many, to consider whom he suspects or at what times, in
what places he is most incensed, in what companies. [6290]Nevisanus makes a
question whether a young physician ought to be admitted in cases of
sickness, into a new-married man's house, to administer a julep, a syrup,
or some such physic. The Persians of old would not suffer a young physician
to come amongst women. [6291]Apollonides Cous made Artaxerxes cuckold, and
was after buried alive for it. A goaler in Aristaenetus had a fine young
gentleman to his prisoner; [6292]in commiseration of his youth and person
he let him loose, to enjoy the liberty of the prison, but he unkindly made
him a cornuto. Menelaus gave good welcome to Paris a stranger, his whole
house and family were at his command, but he ungently stole away his best
beloved wife. The like measure was offered to Agis king of Lacedaemon, by
[6293] Alcibiades an exile, for his good entertainment, he was too familiar
with Timea his wife, begetting a child of her, called Leotichides: and
bragging moreover when he came home to Athens, that he had a son should be
king of the Lacedaemonians. If such objects were removed, no doubt but the
parties might easily be satisfied, or that they could use them gently and
entreat them well, not to revile them, scoff at, hate them, as in such
cases commonly they do, 'tis a human infirmity, a miserable vexation, and
they should not add grief to grief, nor aggravate their misery, but seek to
please, and by all means give them content, by good counsel, removing such
offensive objects, or by mediation of some discreet friends. In old Rome
there was a temple erected by the matrons to that [6294]_Viriplaca Dea_,
another to Venus _verticorda, quae maritos uxoribus reddebat benevolos_,
whither (if any difference happened between man and wife) they did
instantly resort: there they did offer sacrifice, a white hart, Plutarch
records, _sine felle_, without the gall, (some say the like of Juno's
temple) and make their prayers for conjugal peace; before some [6295]
indifferent arbitrators and friends, the matter was heard between man and
wife, and commonly composed. In our times we want no sacred churches, or
good men to end such controversies, if use were made, of them. Some say
that precious stone called [6296]beryllus, others a diamond, hath excellent
virtue, _contra hostium injurias, et conjugatos invicem conciliare_, to
reconcile men and wives, to maintain unity and love; you may try this when
you will, and as you see cause. If none of all these means and cautions
will take place, I know not what remedy to prescribe, or whither such
persons may go for ease, except they can get into the same [6297]Turkey
paradise, "Where they shall have as many fair wives as they will
themselves, with clear eyes, and such as look on none but their own
husbands," no fear, no danger of being cuckolds; or else I would have them
observe that strict rule of [6298]Alphonsus, to marry a deaf and dumb man
to a blind woman. If this will not help, let them, to prevent the worst,
consult with an [6299]astrologer, and see whether the significators in her
horoscope agree with his, that they be not _in signis et partibus odiose
intuentibus aut imperantibus, sed mutuo et amice antisciis et
obedientibus_, otherwise (as they hold) there will be intolerable enmities
between them: or else get them _sigillum veneris_, a characteristical seal
stamped in the day and hour of Venus, when she is fortunate, with such and
such set words and charms, which Villanovanus and Leo Suavius prescribe,
_ex sigillis magicis Salomonis, Hermetis, Raguelis_, &c., with many such,
which Alexis, Albertus, and some of our natural magicians put upon us: _ut
mulier cum aliquo adulterare non possit, incide de capillis ejus_, &c., and
he shall surely be gracious in all women's eyes, and never suspect or
disagree with his own wife so long as he wears it. If this course be not
approved, and other remedies may not be had, they must in the last place
sue for a divorce; but that is somewhat difficult to effect, and not all
out so fit. For as Felisacus in his tract _de justa uxore_ urgeth, if that
law of Constantine the Great, or that of Theodosius and Valentinian,
concerning divorce, were in use in our times, _innumeras propemodum viduas
haberemus, et coelibes viros_, we should have almost no married couples
left. Try therefore those former remedies; or as Tertullian reports of
Democritus, that put out his eyes, [6300]because he could not look upon a
woman without lust, and was much troubled to see that which he might not
enjoy; let him make himself blind, and so he shall avoid that care and
molestation of watching his wife. One other sovereign remedy I could
repeat, an especial antidote against jealousy, an excellent cure, but I am
not now disposed to tell it, not that like a covetous empiric I conceal it
for any gain, but some other reasons, I am not willing to publish it: if
you be very desirous to know it, when I meet you next I will peradventure
tell you what it is in your ear. This is the best counsel I can give; which
he that hath need of, as occasion serves, may apply unto himself. In the
mean time,--_dii talem terris avertite pestem_, [6301]as the proverb is,
from heresy, jealousy and frenzy, good Lord deliver us.
SECT. IV. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Religious Melancholy. Its object God; what his beauty is; How
it allures. The parts and parties affected_.
That there is such a distinct species of love melancholy, no man hath ever
yet doubted: but whether this subdivision of [6302]Religious Melancholy be
warrantable, it may be controverted.
[6303] "Pergite Pieridies, medio nec calle vagantem
Linquite me, qua nulla pedum vestigia ducunt,
Nulla rotae currus testantur signa priores."
I have no pattern to follow as in some of the rest, no man to imitate. No
physician hath as yet distinctly written of it as of the other; all
acknowledge it a most notable symptom, some a cause, but few a species or
kind. [6304]Areteus, Alexander, Rhasis, Avicenna, and most of our late
writers, as Gordonius, Fuchsius, Plater, Bruel, Montaltus, &c. repeat it as
a symptom. [6305]Some seem to be inspired of the Holy Ghost, some take upon
them to be prophets, some are addicted to new opinions, some foretell
strange things, _de statu mundi et Antichristi_, saith Gordonius. Some will
prophesy of the end of the world to a day almost, and the fall of the
Antichrist, as they have been addicted or brought up; for so melancholy
works with them, as [6306]Laurentius holds. If they have been precisely
given, all their meditations tend that way, and in conclusion produce
strange effects, the humour imprints symptoms according to their several
inclinations and conditions, which makes [6307]Guianerius and [6308]Felix
Plater put too much devotion, blind zeal, fear of eternal punishment, and
that last judgment for a cause of those enthusiastics and desperate
persons: but some do not obscurely make a distinct species of it, dividing
love melancholy into that whose object is women; and into the other whose
object is God. Plato, in _Convivio_, makes mention of two distinct furies;
and amongst our neoterics, Hercules de Saxonia _lib. 1. pract. med. cap.
16. cap. de Melanch._ doth expressly treat of it in a distinct species.
[6309] "Love melancholy" (saith he) "is twofold; the first is that (to
which peradventure some will not vouchsafe this name or species of
melancholy) affection of those which put God for their object, and are
altogether about prayer, fasting, &c., the other about women." Peter
Forestus in his observations delivereth as much in the same words: and
Felix Platerus _de mentis alienat. cap. 3._ _frequentissima est ejus
species, in qua curanda saepissime multum fui impeditus_; 'tis a frequent
disease; and they have a ground of what they say, forth of Areteus and
Plato. [6310]Areteus, an old author, in his third book _cap. 6._ doth so
divide love melancholy, and derives this second from the first, which comes
by inspiration or otherwise. [6311]Plato in his Phaedrus hath these words,
"Apollo's priests in Delphos, and at Dodona, in their fury do many pretty
feats, and benefit the Greeks, but never in their right wits." He makes
them all mad, as well he might; and he that shall but consider that
superstition of old, those prodigious effects of it (as in its place I will
shew the several furies of our fatidici dii, pythonissas, sibyls,
enthusiasts, pseudoprophets, heretics, and schismatics in these our latter
ages) shall instantly confess, that all the world again cannot afford so
much matter of madness, so many stupendous symptoms, as superstition,
heresy, schism have brought out: that this species alone may be paralleled
to all the former, has a greater latitude, and more miraculous effects;
that it more besots and infatuates men, than any other above named
whatsoever, does more harm, works more disquietness to mankind, and has
more crucified the souls of mortal men (such hath been the devil's craft)
than wars, plagues, sicknesses, dearth, famine, and all the rest.
Give me but a little leave, and I will set before your eyes in brief a
stupendous, vast, infinite ocean of incredible madness and folly: a sea
full of shelves and rocks, sands, gulfs, euripes and contrary tides, full
of fearful monsters, uncouth shapes, roaring waves, tempests, and siren
calms, halcyonian seas, unspeakable misery, such comedies and tragedies,
such absurd and ridiculous, feral and lamentable fits, that I know not
whether they are more to be pitied or derided, or may be believed, but that
we daily see the same still practised in our days, fresh examples, _nova
novitia_, fresh objects of misery and madness, in this kind that are still
represented unto us, abroad, at home, in the midst of us, in our bosoms.
But before I can come to treat of these several errors and obliquities,
their causes, symptoms, affections, &c., I must say something necessarily
of the object of this love, God himself, what this love is, how it
allureth, whence it proceeds, and (which is the cause of all our miseries)
how we mistake, wander and swerve from it.
Amongst all those divine attributes that God doth vindicate to himself,
eternity, omnipotency, immutability, wisdom, majesty, justice, mercy, &c.,
his [6312]beauty is not the least, one thing, saith David, have I desired
of the Lord, and that I will still desire, to behold the beauty of the
Lord, Psal. xxvii. 4. And out of Sion, which is the perfection of beauty,
hath God shined, Psal. 1. 2. All other creatures are fair, I confess, and
many other objects do much enamour us, a fair house, a fair horse, a comely
person. [6313]"I am amazed," saith Austin, "when 1 look up to heaven and
behold the beauty of the stars, the beauty of angels, principalities,
powers, who can express it? who can sufficiently commend, or set out this
beauty which appears in us? so fair a body, so fair a face, eyes, nose,
cheeks, chin, brows, all fair and lovely to behold; besides the beauty of
the soul which cannot be discerned. If we so labour and be so much affected
with the comeliness of creatures, how should we be ravished with that
admirable lustre of God himself?" If ordinary beauty have such a
prerogative and power, and what is amiable and fair, to draw the eyes and
ears, hearts and affections of all spectators unto it, to move, win,
entice, allure: how shall this divine form ravish our souls, which is the
fountain and quintessence of all beauty? _Coelum pulchrum, sed pulchrior
coeli fabricator_; if heaven be so fair, the sun so fair, how much fairer
shall he be, that made them fair? "For by the greatness and beauty of the
creatures, proportionally, the maker of them is seen," Wisd. xiii. 5. If
there be such pleasure in beholding a beautiful person alone, and as a
plausible sermon, he so much affect us, what shall this beauty of God
himself, that is infinitely fairer than all creatures, men, angels, &c.
[6314] _Omnis pulchritudo florem, hominum, angelorum, et rerum omnium
pulcherrimarum ad Dei pulchritudinem collata, nox est et tenebrae_, all
other beauties are night itself, mere darkness to this our inexplicable,
incomprehensible, unspeakable, eternal, infinite, admirable and divine
beauty. This lustre, _pulchritudo omnium pulcherrima._ This beauty and
[6315] "splendour of the divine Majesty," is it that draws all creatures to
it, to seek it, love, admire, and adore it; and those heathens, pagans,
philosophers, out of those relics they have yet left of God's image, are so
far forth incensed, as not only to acknowledge a God; but, though after
their own inventions, to stand in admiration of his bounty, goodness, to
adore and seek him; the magnificence and structure of the world itself, and
beauty of all his creatures, his goodness, providence, protection,
enforceth them to love him, seek him, fear him, though a wrong way to adore
him: but for us that are Christians, regenerate, that are his adopted sons,
illuminated by his word, having the eyes of our hearts and understandings
opened; how fairly doth he offer and expose himself? _Ambit nos Deus_
(Austin saith) _donis et forma sua_, he woos us by his beauty, gifts,
promises, to come unto him; [6316]"the whole Scripture is a message, an
exhortation, a love letter to this purpose;" to incite us, and invite us,
[6317]God's epistle, as Gregory calls it, to his creatures. He sets out his
son and his church in that epithalamium or mystical song of Solomon, to
enamour us the more, comparing his head "to fine gold, his locks curled and
black as a raven," Cant. iv. 5. "his eyes like doves on rivers of waters,
washed with milk, his lips as lilies, drooping down pure juice, his hands
as rings of gold set with chrysolite: and his church to a vineyard, a
garden enclosed, a fountain of living waters, an orchard of pomegranates,
with sweet scents of saffron, spike, calamus and cinnamon, and all the
trees of incense, as the chief spices, the fairest amongst women, no spot
in her, [6318]his sister, his spouse, undefiled, the only daughter of her
mother, dear unto her, fair as the moon, pure as the sun, looking out as
the morning;" that by these figures, that glass, these spiritual eyes of
contemplation, we might perceive some resemblance of his beauty, the love
between his church and him. And so in the xlv. Psalm this beauty of his
church is compared to a "queen in a vesture of gold of Ophir, embroidered
raiment of needlework, that the king might take pleasure in her beauty." To
incense us further yet, [6319]John, in his apocalypse, makes a description
of that heavenly Jerusalem, the beauty, of it, and in it the maker of it;
"Likening it to a city of pure gold, like unto clear glass, shining and
garnished with all manner of precious stones, having no need of sun or
moon: for the lamb is the light of it, the glory of God doth illuminate it:
to give us to understand the infinite glory, beauty and happiness of it."
Not that it is no fairer than these creatures to which it is compared, but
that this vision of his, this lustre of his divine majesty, cannot
otherwise be expressed to our apprehensions, "no tongue can tell, no heart
can conceive it," as Paul saith. Moses himself, Exod. xxxiii. 18. when he
desired to see God in his glory, was answered that he might not endure it,
no man could see his face and live. _Sensibile forte destruit sensum_, a
strong object overcometh the sight, according to that axiom in philosophy:
_fulgorem solis ferre non potes, multo magis creatoris_; if thou canst not
endure the sunbeams, how canst thou endure that fulgor and brightness of
him that made the sun? The sun itself and all that we can imagine, are but
shadows of it, 'tis _visio praecellens_, as [6320]Austin calls it, the
quintessence of beauty this, "which far exceeds the beauty of heavens, sun
and moon, stars, angels, gold and silver, woods, fair fields, and
whatsoever is pleasant to behold." All those other beauties fail, vary, are
subject to corruption, to loathing; [6321]"But this is an immortal vision,
a divine beauty, an immortal love, an indefatigable love and beauty, with
sight of which we shall never be tired nor wearied, but still the more we
see the more we shall covet him." [6322]"For as one saith, where this
vision is, there is absolute beauty; and where is that beauty, from the
same fountain comes all pleasure and happiness; neither can beauty,
pleasure, happiness, be separated from his vision or sight, or his vision,
from beauty, pleasure, happiness." In this life we have but a glimpse of
this beauty and happiness: we shall hereafter, as John saith, see him as he
is: thine eyes, as Isaiah promiseth, xxxiii. 17. "shall behold the king in
his glory," then shall we be perfectly enamoured, have a full fruition of
it, desire, [6323]behold and love him alone as the most amiable and fairest
object, or _summum bonum_, or chiefest good.
This likewise should we now have done, had not our will been corrupted; and
as we are enjoined to love God with all our heart, and all our soul: for to
that end were we born, to love this object, as [6324]Melancthon
discourseth, and to enjoy it. "And him our will would have loved and sought
alone as our _summum bonum_, or principal good, and all other good things
for God's sake: and nature, as she proceeded from it, would have sought
this fountain; but in this infirmity of human nature this order is
disturbed, our love is corrupt:" and a man is like that monster in
[6325]Plato, composed of a Scylla, a lion and a man; we are carried away
headlong with the torrent of our affections: the world, and that infinite
variety of pleasing objects in it, do so allure and enamour us, that we
cannot so much as look towards God, seek him, or think on him as we should:
we cannot, saith Austin, _Rempub._ _coelestem cogitare_, we cannot contain
ourselves from them, their sweetness is so pleasing to us. Marriage, saith
[6326] Gualter, detains many; "a thing in itself laudable, good and
necessary, but many, deceived and carried away with the blind love of it,
have quite laid aside the love of God, and desire of his glory. Meat and
drink hath overcome as many, whilst they rather strive to please, satisfy
their guts and belly, than to serve God and nature." Some are so busied
about merchandise to get money, they lose their own souls, whilst
covetously carried, and with an insatiable desire of gain, they forget God;
as much we may say of honour, leagues, friendships, health, wealth, and all
other profits or pleasures in this life whatsoever. [6327]"In this world
there be so many beautiful objects, splendours and brightness of gold,
majesty of glory, assistance of friends, fair promises, smooth words,
victories, triumphs, and such an infinite company of pleasing beauties to
allure us, and draw us from God, that we cannot look after him." And this
is it which Christ himself, those prophets and apostles so much thundered
against, 1 John, xvii. 15, dehort us from; "love not the world, nor the
things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him," 16. "For all that is in the world, as lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, is not of the Father, but
of the world: and the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that
fulfilleth the will of God abideth for ever. No man, saith our Saviour, can
serve two masters, but he must love the one and hate the other," &c.,
_bonos vel malos mores, boni vel mali faciunt amores_, Austin well infers:
and this is that which all the fathers inculcate. He cannot ([6328]Austin
admonisheth) be God's friend, that is delighted with the pleasures of the
world: "make clean thine heart, purify thine heart; if thou wilt see this
beauty, prepare thyself for it. It is the eye of contemplation by which we
must behold it, the wing of meditation which lifts us up and rears our
souls with the motion of our hearts, and sweetness of contemplation:" so
saith Gregory cited by [6329]Bonaventure. And as [6330]Philo Judeus seconds
him, "he that loves God, will soar aloft and take him wings; and leaving
the earth fly up to heaven, wander with sun and moon, stars, and that
heavenly troop, God himself being his guide." If we desire to see him, we
must lay aside all vain objects, which detain us and dazzle our eyes, and
as [6331]Ficinus adviseth us, "get us solar eyes, spectacles as they that
look on the sun: to see this divine beauty, lay aside all material objects,
all sense, and then thou shalt see him as he is." Thou covetous wretch, as
[6332]Austin expostulates, "why dost thou stand gaping on this dross,
muck-hills, filthy excrements? behold a far fairer object, God himself woos
thee; behold him, enjoy him, he is sick for love." Cant. v. he invites thee
to his sight, to come into his fair garden, to eat and drink with him, to
be merry with him, to enjoy his presence for ever. [6333]Wisdom cries out
in the streets besides the gates, in the top of high places, before the
city, at the entry of the door, and bids them give ear to her instruction,
which is better than gold or precious stones; no pleasures can be compared
to it: leave all then and follow her, _vos exhortor o amici et obsecro._
In. [6334]Ficinus's words, "I exhort and beseech you, that you would
embrace and follow this divine love with all your hearts and abilities, by
all offices and endeavours make this so loving God propitious unto you."
For whom alone, saith [6335]Plotinus, "we must forsake the kingdoms and
empires of the whole earth, sea, land, and air, if we desire to be
engrafted into him, leave all and follow him."
Now, forasmuch as this love of God is a habit infused of God, as [6336]
Thomas holds, _l. 2. quaest. 23._ "by which a man is inclined to love God
above all, and his neighbour as himself," we must pray to God that he will
open our eyes, make clear our hearts, that we may be capable of his
glorious rays, and perform those duties that he requires of us, Deut. vi.
and Josh. xxiii. "to love God above all, and our neighbour as ourself, to
keep his commandments." "In this we know," saith John, c. v. 2, "we love
the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments." "This is
the love of God, that we keep his commandments; he that loveth not, knoweth
not God, for God is love," cap. iv. 8, "and he that dwelleth in love,
dwelleth in God, and God in him;" for love pre-supposeth knowledge, faith,
hope, and unites us to God himself, as [6337]Leon Hebreus delivereth unto
us, and is accompanied with the fear of God, humility, meekness, patience,
all those virtues, and charity itself. For if we love God, we shall love
our neighbour, and perform the duties which are required at our hands, to
which we are exhorted, 1 Cor. xv. 4, 5; Ephes. iv.; Colos. iii.; Rom. xii.
We shall not be envious or puffed up, or boast, disdain, think evil, or be
provoked to anger, "but suffer all things; endeavour to keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace." Forbear one another, forgive one another,
clothe the naked, visit the sick, and perform all those works of mercy,
which [6338]Clemens Alexandrinus calls _amoris et amicitiae, impletionem et
extentionem_, the extent and complement of love; and that not for fear or
worldly respects, but _ordine ad Deum_, for the love of God himself. This
we shall do if we be truly enamoured; but we come short in both, we neither
love God nor our neighbour as we should. Our love in spiritual things is
too [6339]defective, in worldly things too excessive, there is a jar in
both. We love the world too much; God too little; our neighbour not at all,
or for our own ends. _Vulgus amicitias utilitate probat._ "The chief thing
we respect is our commodity;" and what we do is for fear of worldly
punishment, for vainglory, praise of men, fashion, and such by respects,
not for God's sake. We neither know God aright, nor seek, love or worship
him as we should. And for these defects, we involve ourselves into a
multitude of errors, we swerve from this true love and worship of God:
which is a cause unto us of unspeakable miseries; running into both
extremes, we become fools, madmen, without sense, as now in the next place
1 will show you.
The parties affected are innumerable almost, and scattered over the face of
the earth, far and near, and so have been in all precedent ages, from the
beginning of the world to these times, of all sorts and conditions. For
method's sake I will reduce them to a twofold division, according to those
two extremes of excess and defect, impiety and superstition, idolatry and
atheism. Not that there is any excess of divine worship or love of God;
that cannot be, we cannot love God too much, or do our duty as we ought, as
Papists hold, or have any perfection in this life, much less supererogate:
when we have all done, we are unprofitable servants. But because we do
_aliud agere_, zealous without knowledge, and too solicitous about that
which is not necessary, busying ourselves about impertinent, needless,
idle, and vain ceremonies, _populo ut placerent_, as the Jews did about
sacrifices, oblations, offerings, incense, new moons, feasts, &c., but
Isaiah taxeth them, i. 12, "who required this at your hands?" We have too
great opinion of our own worth, that we can satisfy the law: and do more
than is required at our hands, by performing those evangelical counsels,
and such works of supererogation, merit for others, which Bellarmine,
Gregory de Valentia, all their Jesuits and champions defend, that if God
should deal in rigour with them, some of their Franciscans and Dominicans
are so pure, that nothing could be objected to them. Some of us again are
too dear, as we think, more divine and sanctified than others, of a better
mettle, greater gifts, and with that proud Pharisee, contemn others in
respect of ourselves, we are better Christians, better learned, choice
spirits, inspired, know more, have special revelation, perceive God's
secrets, and thereupon presume, say and do that many times which is not
befitting to be said or done. Of this number are all superstitious
idolaters, ethnics, Mahometans, Jews, heretics, [6340]enthusiasts,
divinators, prophets, sectaries, and schismatics. Zanchius reduceth such
infidels to four chief sects; but I will insist and follow mine own
intended method: all which with many other curious persons, monks, hermits,
&c., may be ranged in this extreme, and fight under this superstitious
banner, with those rude idiots, and infinite swarms of people that are
seduced by them. In the other extreme or in defect, march those impious
epicures, libertines, atheists, hypocrites, infidels, worldly, secure,
impenitent, unthankful, and carnal-minded men, that attribute all to
natural causes, that will acknowledge no supreme power; that have
cauterised consciences, or live in a reprobate sense; or such desperate
persons as are too distrustful of his mercies. Of these there be many
subdivisions, diverse degrees of madness and folly, some more than other,
as shall be shown in the symptoms: and yet all miserably out, perplexed,
doting, and beside themselves for religion's sake. For as [6341]Zanchy well
distinguished, and all the world knows religion is twofold, true or false;
false is that vain superstition of idolaters, such as were of old, Greeks,
Romans, present Mahometans, &c. _Timorem deorum inanem_, [6342]Tully could
term it; or as Zanchy defines it, _Ubi falsi dii, aut falso cullu colitur
Deus_, when false gods, or that God is falsely worshipped. And 'tis a
miserable plague, a torture of the soul, a mere madness, _Religiosa
insania_, [6343]Meteran calls it, or _insanus error_, as [6344]Seneca, a
frantic error; or as Austin, _Insanus animi morbus_, a furious disease of
the soul; _insania omnium insanissima_, a quintessence of madness;
[6345]for he that is superstitious can never be quiet. 'Tis proper to man
alone, _uni superbia, avaritia, superstitio_, saith Plin. _lib. 7. cap. 1._
_atque etiam post saevit de futuro_, which wrings his soul for the present,
and to come: the greatest misery belongs to mankind, a perpetual servitude,
a slavery, [6346]_Ex timore timor_, a heavy yoke, the seal of damnation, an
intolerable burden. They that are superstitious are still fearing,
suspecting, vexing themselves with auguries, prodigies, false tales,
dreams, idle, vain works, unprofitable labours, as [6347]Boterus observes,
_cura mentis ancipite versantur_: enemies to God and to themselves. In a
word, as Seneca concludes, _Religio Deum colit, superstitio destruit_,
superstition destroys, but true religion honours God. True religion, _ubi
verus Deus vere colitur_, where the true God is truly worshipped, is the
way to heaven, the mother of virtues, love, fear, devotion, obedience,
knowledge, &c. It rears the dejected soul of man, and amidst so many cares,
miseries, persecutions, which this world affords, it is a sole ease, an
unspeakable comfort, a sweet reposal, _Jugum suave, et leve_, a light yoke,
an anchor, and a haven. It adds courage, boldness, and begets generous
spirits: although tyrants rage, persecute, and that bloody Lictor or
sergeant be ready to martyr them, _aut lita, aut morere_, (as in those
persecutions of the primitive Church, it was put in practice, as you may
read in Eusebius and others) though enemies be now ready to invade, and all
in an uproar, [6348]_Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidos ferient ruinae_,
though heaven should fall on his head, he would not be dismayed. But as a
good Christian prince once made answer to a menacing Turk, _facile
scelerata hominum arma contemnit, qui del praesidio tutus est_: or as
[6349] Phalaris writ to Alexander in a wrong cause, he nor any other enemy
could terrify him, for that he trusted in God. _Si Deus nobiscum, quis
contra nos_? In all calamities, persecutions whatsoever, as David did, 2
Sam. ii. 22, he will sing with him, "the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my
strength, my refuge, the tower and horn of my salvation," &c. In all
troubles and adversities, Psal. xlvi. 1. "God is my hope and help, still
ready to be found, I will not therefore fear," &c., 'tis a fear expelling
fear; he hath peace of conscience, and is full of hope, which is (saith
[6350]Austin) _vita vitae mortalis_, the life of this our mortal life, hope
of immortality, the sole comfort of our misery: otherwise, as Paul saith,
we of all others were most wretched, but this makes us happy,
counterpoising our hearts in all miseries; superstition torments, and is
from the devil, the author of lies; but this is from God himself, as
Lucian, that Antiochian priest, made his divine confession in
[6351]Eusebius, _Auctor nobis de Deo Deus est_, God is the author of our
religion himself, his word is our rule, a lantern to us, dictated by the
Holy Ghost, he plays upon our hearts as many harpstrings, and we are his
temples, he dwelleth in us, and we in him.
The part affected of superstition, is the brain, heart, will,
understanding, soul itself, and all the faculties of it, _totum
compositum_, all is mad and dotes: now for the extent, as I say, the world
itself is the subject of it, (to omit that grand sin of atheism,) all times
have been misaffected, past, present, "there is not one that doth good, no
not one, from the prophet to the priest," &c. A lamentable thing it is to
consider, how many myriads of men this idolatry and superstition (for that
comprehends all) hath infatuated in all ages, besotted by this blind zeal,
which is religion's ape, religion's bastard, religion's shadow, false
glass. For where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel: where God
hath sacrifices, the devil will have his oblations: where God hath
ceremonies, the devil will have his traditions: where there is any
religion, the devil will plant superstition; and 'tis a pitiful sight to
behold and read, what tortures, miseries, it hath procured, what slaughter
of souls it hath made, how it rageth amongst those old Persians, Syrians,
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Tuscans, Gauls, Germans, Britons, &c. _Britannia
jam hodie celebrat tam attonite_, saith [6352]Pliny, _tantis ceremoniis_
(speaking of superstition) _ut dedisse Persis videri possit._ The Britons
are so stupendly superstitious in their ceremonies, that they go beyond
those Persians. He that shall but read in Pausanias alone, those gods,
temples, altars, idols, statues, so curiously made with such infinite cost
and charge, amongst those old Greeks, such multitudes of them and frequent
varieties, as [6353]Gerbelius truly observes, may stand amazed, and never
enough wonder at it; and thank God withal, that by the light of the Gospel,
we are so happily freed from that slavish idolatry in these our days. But
heretofore, almost in all countries, in all places, superstition hath
blinded the hearts of men; in all ages what a small portion hath the true
church ever been! _Divisum imperium cum Jove Daemon habet._ [6354]The
patriarchs and their families, the Israelites a handful in respect, Christ
and his apostles, and not all of them, neither. Into what straits hath it
been compinged, a little flock! how hath superstition on the other side
dilated herself, error, ignorance, barbarism, folly, madness, deceived,
triumphed, and insulted over the most wise discreet, and understanding man,
philosophers, dynasts, monarchs, all were involved and overshadowed in this
mist, in more than Cimmerian darkness. [6355]_Adeo ignara superstitio
mentes hominum depravat, et nonnunquam sapientum animos transversos agit._
At this present, _quota pars!_ How small a part is truly religious! How
little in respect! Divide the world into six parts, and one, or not so
much, as Christians; idolaters and Mahometans possess almost Asia, Africa,
America, Magellanica. The kings of China, great Cham, Siam, and Borneo,
Pegu, Deccan, Narsinga, Japan, &c., are gentiles, idolaters, and many other
petty princes in Asia, Monomotopa, Congo, and I know not how many Negro
princes in Africa, all Terra Australis incognita most of America pagans,
differing all in their several superstitions; and yet all idolaters. The
Mahometans extend themselves over the great Turk's dominions in Europe,
Africa, Asia, to the Xeriffes in Barbary, and its territories in Fez, Sus,
Morocco, &c. The Tartar, the great Mogor, the Sophy of Persia, with most of
their dominions and subjects, are at this day Mahometans. See how the devil
rageth: those at odds, or differing among themselves, some for [6356]Ali,
some Enbocar, for Acmor, and Ozimen, those four doctors, Mahomet's
successors, and are subdivided into seventy-two inferior sects, as
[6357]Leo Afer reports. The Jews, as a company of vagabonds, are scattered
over all parts; whose story, present estate, progress from time to time, is
fully set down by [6358]Mr. Thomas Jackson, Doctor of Divinity, in his
comment on the creed. A fifth part of the world, and hardly that, now
professeth CHRIST, but so inlarded and interlaced with several
superstitions, that there is scarce a sound part to be found, or any
agreement amongst them. Presbyter John, in Africa, lord of those
Abyssinians, or Ethiopians, is by his profession a Christian, but so
different from us, with such new absurdities and ceremonies, such liberty,
such a mixture of idolatry and paganism, [6359]that they keep little more
than a bare title of Christianity. They suffer polygamy, circumcision,
stupend fastings, divorce as they will themselves, &c., and as the papists
call on the Virgin Mary, so do they on Thomas Didymus before Christ.
[6360]The Greek or Eastern Church is rent from this of the West, and as
they have four chief patriarchs, so have they four subdivisions, besides
those Nestorians, Jacobins, Syrians, Armenians, Georgians, &c., scattered
over Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, &c., Greece, Walachia, Circassia, Bulgaria,
Bosnia, Albania, Illyricum, Sclavonia, Croatia, Thrace, Servia, Rascia, and
a sprinkling amongst the Tartars, the Russians, Muscovites, and most of
that great duke's (czar's) subjects, are part of the Greek Church, and
still Christians: but as [6361]one saith, _temporis successu multas illi
addiderunt superstitiones._ In process of time they have added so many
superstitions, they be rather semi-Christians than otherwise. That which
remains is the Western Church with us in Europe, but so eclipsed with
several schisms, heresies and superstitions, that one knows not where to
find it. The papists have Italy, Spain, Savoy, part of Germany, France,
Poland, and a sprinkling in the rest of Europe. In America, they hold all
that which Spaniards inhabit, Hispania Nova, Castella Aurea, Peru, &c. In
the East Indies, the Philippines, some small holds about Goa, Malacca,
Zelan, Ormus, &c., which the Portuguese got not long since, and those
land-leaping Jesuits have essayed in China, Japan, as appears by their
yearly letters; in Africa they have Melinda, Quiloa, Mombaze, &c., and some
few towns, they drive out one superstition with another. Poland is a
receptacle of all religions, where Samosetans, Socinians, Photinians (now
protected in Transylvania and Poland), Arians, Anabaptists are to be found,
as well as in some German cities. Scandia is Christian, but [6362]Damianus
A-Goes, the Portugal knight, complains, so mixed with magic, pagan rites
and ceremonies, they may be as well counted idolaters: what Tacitus
formerly said of a like nation, is verified in them, [6363]"A people
subject to superstition, contrary to religion." And some of them as about
Lapland and the Pilapians, the devil's possession to this day, _Misera haec
gens_ (saith mine [6364]author) _Satanae hactenus possessio,--et quod
maxime mirandum et dolendum_, and which is to be admired and pitied; if any
of them be baptised, which the kings of Sweden much labour, they die within
seven or nine days after, and for that cause they will hardly be brought to
Christianity, but worship still the devil, who daily appears to them. In
their idolatrous courses, _Gandentibus diis patriis, quos religiose
colunt_, &c. Yet are they very superstitious, like our wild Irish: though
they of the better note, the kings of Denmark and Sweden themselves, that
govern them, be Lutherans; the remnant are Calvinists, Lutherans, in
Germany equally mixed. And yet the emperor himself, dukes of Lorraine,
Bavaria, and the princes, electors, are most part professed papists. And
though some part of France and Ireland, Great Britain, half the cantons in
Switzerland, and the Low Countries, be Calvinists, more defecate than the
rest, yet at odds amongst themselves, not free from superstition. And which
[6365]Brochard, the monk, in his description of the Holy Land, after he had
censured the Greek church, and showed their errors, concluded at last,
_Faxit Deus ne Latinis multa irrepserint stultifies_, I say God grant there
be no fopperies in our church. As a dam of water stopped in one place
breaks out into another, so doth superstition. I say nothing of
Anabaptists, Socinians, Brownists, Familists, &c. There is superstition in
our prayers, often in our hearing of sermons, bitter contentions,
invectives, persecutions, strange conceits, besides diversity of opinions,
schisms, factions, &c. But as the Lord (Job xlii. cap. 7. v.) said to
Eliphaz, the Temanite, and his two friends, "his wrath was kindled against
them, for they had not spoken of him things that were right:" we may justly
of these schismatics and heretics, how wise soever in their own conceits,
_non recte loquuntur de Deo_, they speak not, they think not, they write
not well of God, and as they ought. And therefore, _Quid quaeso mi Dorpi_,
as Erasmus concludes to Dorpius, _hisce Theologis faciamus, aut quid
preceris, nisi forte fidelem medicum, qui cerebro medeatur_? What shall we
wish them, but _sanam mentem_, and a good physician? But more of their
differences, paradoxes, opinions, mad pranks, in the symptoms: I now hasten
to the causes.
SUBSECT. II.--_Causes of Religious melancholy. From the Devil by miracles,
apparitions, oracles. His instruments or factors, politicians, Priests,
Impostors, Heretics, blind guides. In them simplicity, fear, blind zeal,
ignorance, solitariness, curiosity, pride, vainglory, presumption, &c. his
engines, fasting, solitariness, hope, fear, &c._
We are taught in Holy Scripture, that the "Devil rangeth abroad like a
roaring lion, still seeking whom he may devour:" and as in several shapes,
so by several engines and devices he goeth about to seduce us; sometimes he
transforms himself into an angel of light; and is so cunning that he is
able, if it were possible, to deceive the very elect. He will be worshipped
as [6366]God himself, and is so adored by the heathen, and esteemed. And in
imitation of that divine power, as [6367]Eusebius observes, [6368]to abuse
or emulate God's glory, as Dandinus adds, he will have all homage,
sacrifices, oblations, and whatsoever else belongs to the worship of God,
to be done likewise unto him, _similis erit altissimo_, and by this means
infatuates the world, deludes, entraps, and destroys many a thousand souls.
Sometimes by dreams, visions (as God to Moses by familiar conference), the
devil in several shapes talks with them: in the [6369]Indies it is common,
and in China nothing so familiar as apparitions, inspirations, oracles, by
terrifying them with false prodigies, counterfeit miracles, sending storms,
tempests, diseases, plagues (as of old in Athens there was Apollo,
Alexicacus, Apollo [Greek: loimios], _pestifer et malorum depulsor_),
raising wars, seditions by spectrums, troubling their consciences, driving
them to despair, terrors of mind, intolerable pains; by promises, rewards,
benefits, and fair means, he raiseth such an opinion of his deity and
greatness, that they dare not do otherwise than adore him, do as he will
have them, they dare not offend him. And to compel them more to stand in
awe of him, [6370]"he sends and cures diseases, disquiets their spirits"
(as Cyprian saith), "torments and terrifies their souls, to make them adore
him: and all his study, all his endeavour is to divert them from true
religion to superstition: and because he is damned himself, and in an
error, he would have all the world participate of his errors, and be damned
with him." The _primum mobile_, therefore, and first mover of all
superstition, is the devil, that great enemy of mankind, the principal
agent, who in a thousand several, shapes, after diverse fashions, with
several engines, illusions, and by several names hath deceived the
inhabitants of the earth, in several places and countries, still rejoicing
at their falls. "All the world over before Christ's time, he freely
domineered, and held the souls of men in most slavish subjection" (saith
[6371]Eusebius) "in diverse forms, ceremonies, and sacrifices, till
Christ's coming," as if those devils of the air had shared the earth
amongst them, which the Platonists held for gods ([6372]_Ludus deorum
sumus_), and were our governors and keepers. In several places, they had
several rites, orders, names, of which read Wierus _de praestigiis
daemonum, lib. 1. cap. 5._ [6373]Strozzius Cicogna, and others; Adonided
amongst the Syrians; Adramalech amongst the Capernaites, Asiniae amongst
the Emathites; Astartes with the Sidonians; Astaroth with the Palestines;
Dagon with the Philistines; Tartary with the Hanaei; Melchonis amongst the
Ammonites: Beli the Babylonians; Beelzebub and Baal with the Samaritans and
Moabites; Apis, Isis, and Osiris amongst the Egyptians; Apollo Pythius at
Delphos, Colophon, Ancyra, Cuma, Erythra; Jupiter in Crete, Venus at
Cyprus, Juno at Carthage, Aesculapius at Epidaurus, Diana at Ephesus,
Pallas at Athens, &c. And even in these our days, both in the East and West
Indies, in Tartary, China, Japan, &c., what strange idols, in what
prodigious forms, with what absurd ceremonies are they adored? What strange
sacraments, like ours of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, what goodly
temples, priests, sacrifices they had in America, when the Spaniards first
landed there, let Acosta the Jesuit relate, _lib. 5. cap. 1, 2, 3, 4_, &c.,
and how the devil imitated the Ark and the children of Israel's coming out
of Egypt; with many such. For as Lipsius well discourseth out of the
doctrine of the Stoics, _maxime cupiunt adorationem hominum_, now and of
old, they still and most especially desire to be adored by men. See but
what Vertomannus, _l. 5. c. 2._ Marcus Polus, Lerius, Benzo, P. Martyr in
his _Ocean Decades_, Acosta, and Mat. Riccius _expedit. Christ. in Sinus,
lib. 1._ relate. [6374]Eusebius wonders how that wise city of Athens, and
flourishing kingdoms of Greece, should be so besotted; and we in our times,
how. those witty Chinese, so perspicacious in all other things should be so
gulled, so tortured with superstition, so blind as to worship stocks and
stones. But it is no marvel, when we see all out as great effects amongst
Christians themselves; how are those Anabaptists, Arians, and Papists above
the rest, miserably infatuated! Mars, Jupiter, Apollo, and Aesculapius,
have resigned their interest, names, and offices to Saint George.
"([6375](Maxime bellorum rector, quem nostra juventus
Pro Mavorte colit.)"------
St. Christopher, and a company of fictitious saints, Venus to the Lady of
Loretto. And as those old Romans had several distinct gods, for divers
offices, persons, places, so have they saints, as [6376]Lavater well
observes out of Lactantius, _mutato nomine tantum_, 'tis the same spirit or
devil that deludes them still. The manner how, as I say, is by rewards,
promises, terrors, affrights, punishments. In a word, fair and foul means,
hope and fear. How often hath Jupiter, Apollo, Bacchus, and the rest, sent
plagues in [6377]Greece and Italy, because their sacrifices were neglected?
[6378] "Dii multa neglecti dederunt
Hesperiae mala luctuosae,"
to terrify them, to arouse them up, and the like: see but Livy, Dionysius
Halicarnassaeus, Thucydides, Pausanius, Philostratus, [6379]Polybius,
before the battle of Cannae, _prodigiis signis, ostentis, templa cuncta,
privates etiam aedes scatebant._ Oeneus reigned in Aetolia, and because he
did not sacrifice to Diana with his other gods (see more in Labanius his
Diana), she sent a wild boar, _insolitae magnitudinis, qui terras et
homines misere depascebatur_, to spoil both men and country, which was
afterwards killed by Meleager. So Plutarch in the Life of Lucullus relates,
how Mithridates, king of Pontus, at the siege of Cizicum, with all his
navy, was overthrown by Proserpina, for neglecting of her holy day. She
appeared in a vision to Aristagoras in the night, _Cras inquit tybicinem
Lybicum cum tybicine pontico committam_ ("tomorrow I will cause a contest
between a Libyan and a Pontic minstrel"), and the day following this enigma
was understood; for with a great south wind which came from Libya, she
quite overwhelmed Mithridates' army. What prodigies and miracles, dreams,
visions, predictions, apparitions, oracles, have been of old at Delphos,
Dodona, Trophonius' den, at Thebes, and Lebaudia, of Jupiter Ammon in
Egypt, Amphiaraus in Attica, &c.; what strange cures performed by Apollo
and Aesculapius? Juno's image and that of [6380]Fortune spake, [6381]Castor
and Pollux fought in person for the Romans against Hannibal's army, as
Pallas, Mars, Juno, Venus, for Greeks and Trojans, &c. Amongst our
pseudo-Catholics nothing so familiar as such miracles; how many cures done
by our lady of Loretto, at Sichem! of old at our St. Thomas's shrine, &c.
[6382]St. Sabine was seen to fight for Arnulphus, duke of Spoleto.
[6383]St. George fought in person for John the Bastard of Portugal, against
the Castilians; St. James for the Spaniards in America. In the battle of
Bannockburn, where Edward the Second, our English king, was foiled by the
Scots, St. Philanus' arm was seen to fight (if [6384]Hector Boethius doth
not impose), that was before shut up in a silver cap-case; another time, in
the same author, St. Magnus fought for them. Now for visions, revelations,
miracles, not only out of the legend, out of purgatory, but everyday comes
news from the Indies, and at home read the Jesuits' Letters, Ribadineira,
Thurselinus, Acosta, Lippomanus, Xaverius, Ignatius' Lives, &c., and tell
me what difference?
His ordinary instruments or factors which he useth, as God himself, did
good kings, lawful magistrates, patriarchs, prophets, to the establishing
of his church, [6385]are politicians, statesmen, priests, heretics, blind
guides, impostors, pseudoprophets, to propagate his superstition. And first
to begin of politicians, it hath ever been a principal axiom with them to
maintain religion or superstition, which they determine of, alter and vary
upon all occasions, as to them seems best, they make religion mere policy,
a cloak, a human invention, _nihil aeque valet ad regendos vulgi animos ac
superstitio_, as [6386]Tacitus and [6387]Tully hold. Austin, _l. 4. de
civitat. Dei. c. 9._ censures Scaevola saying and acknowledging _expedire
civitates religione falli_, that it was a fit thing cities should be
deceived by religion, according to the diverb, _Si mundus vult decipi,
decipiatur_, if the world will be gulled, let it be gulled, 'tis good
howsoever to keep it in subjection. 'Tis that [6388]Aristotle and
[6389]Plato inculcate in their politics, "Religion neglected, brings plague
to the city, opens a gap to all naughtiness." 'Tis that which all our late
politicians ingeminate. Cromerus, _l. 2. pol. hist._ Boterus, _l. 3. de
incrementis urbium._ Clapmarius, _l. 2. c. 9. de Arcanis rerump. cap. 4.
lib. 2. polit._ Captain Machiavel will have a prince by all means to
counterfeit religion, to be superstitious in show at least, to seem to be
devout, frequent holy exercises, honour divines, love the church, affect
priests, as Numa, Lycurgus, and such lawmakers were and did, _non ut his
fidem habeant, sed ut subditos religionis metu facilius in officio
contineant_, to keep people in obedience. [6390]_Nam naturaliter_ (as
Cardan writes) _lex Christiana lex est pietatis, justitiae, fidei,
simplicitatis_, &c. But this error of his, Innocentius Jentilettus, a
French lawyer, _theorem. 9. comment. 1. de Relig_, and Thomas Bozius in his
book _de ruinis gentium et Regnorum_ have copiously confuted. Many
politicians, I dare not deny, maintain religion as a true means, and
sincerely speak of it without hypocrisy, are truly zealous and religious
themselves. Justice and religion are the two chief props and supporters of
a well-governed commonwealth: but most of them are but Machiavellians,
counterfeits only for political ends; for _solus rex_ (which Campanella,
_cap. 18. atheismi triumphali_ observes), as amongst our modern Turks,
_reipub. Finis_, as knowing [6391]_magnus ejus in animos imperium_; and
that, as [6392]Sabellicus delivers, "A man without religion, is like a
horse without a bridle." No way better to curb than superstition, to
terrify men's consciences, and to keep them in awe: they make new laws,
statutes, invent new religions, ceremonies, as so many stalking horses, to
their ends. [6393]_Haec enim (religio) si falsa sit, dummodo vera credatur,
animorum ferociam domat, libidines coercet, subditos principi obsequentes
efficit._ [6394]Therefore (saith [6395]Polybius of Lycurgus), "did he
maintain ceremonies, not that he was superstitious himself, but that he had
perceived mortal men more apt to embrace paradoxes than aught else, and
durst attempt no evil things for fear of the gods." This was Zamolcus's
stratagem amongst the Thracians, Numa's plot, when he said he had
conference with the nymph Aegeria, and that of Sertorius with a hart; to
get more credit to their decrees, by deriving them from the gods; or else
they did all by divine instinct, which Nicholas Damascen well observes of
Lycurgus, Solon, and Minos, they had their laws dictated, _monte sacro_, by
Jupiter himself. So Mahomet referred his new laws to the [6396]angel
Gabriel, by whose direction he gave out they were made. Caligula in Dion
feigned himself to be familiar with Castor and Pollux, and many such, which
kept those Romans under (who, as Machiavel proves, _lib. 1. disput. cap.
11. et 12._ were _Religione maxime moti_, most superstitious): and did curb
the people more by this means, than by force of arms, or severity of human
laws. _Sola plebecula eam agnoscebat_ (saith Vaninus, _dial. 1. lib. 4. de
admirandis naturae arcanis_) speaking of religion, _que facile decipitur,
magnates vero et philosophi nequaquam_, your grandees and philosophers had
no such conceit, _sed ad imperii conformationem et amplificationem quam
sine praetextu religionis tueri non poterant_; and many thousands in all
ages have ever held as much, Philosophers especially, _animadvertebant hi
semper haec esse fabellas, attamen ob metum publicae potestatis silere
cogebantur_ they were still silent for fear of laws, &c. To this end that
Syrian Phyresides, Pythagoras his master, broached in the East amongst the
heathens, first the immortality of the soul, as Trismegistus did in Egypt,
with a many of feigned gods. Those French and Briton Druids in the West
first taught, saith [6397]Caesar, _non interire animas_ (that souls did not
die), "but after death to go from one to another, that so they might
encourage them to virtue." 'Twas for a politic end, and to this purpose the
old [6398]poets feigned those elysian fields, their Aeacus, Minos, and
Rhadamanthus, their infernal judges, and those Stygian lakes, fiery
Phlegethons, Pluto's kingdom, and variety of torments after death. Those
that had done well, went to the elysian fields, but evil doers to Cocytus,
and to that burning lake of [6399]hell with fire, and brimstone for ever to
be tormented. 'Tis this which [6400]Plato labours for in his Phaedon, _et
9. de rep._ The Turks in their Alcoran, when they set down rewards, and
several punishments for every particular virtue and vice, [6401]when they
persuade men, that they that die in battle shall go directly to heaven, but
wicked livers to eternal torment, and all of all sorts (much like our
papistical purgatory), for a set time shall be tortured in their graves, as
appears by that tract which John Baptista Alfaqui, that Mauritanian priest,
now turned Christian, hath written in his confutation of the Alcoran. After
a man's death two black angels, Nunquir and Nequir (so they call them) come
to him to his grave and punish him for his precedent sins; if he lived
well, they torture him the less; if ill, _per indesinentes cruciatus ad
diem fudicii_, they incessantly punish him to the day of judgment, _Nemo
viventium qui ad horum mentionem non totus horret et contremiscit_, the
thought of this crucifies them all their lives long, and makes them spend
their days in fasting and prayer, _ne mala haec contingant_, &c. A Tartar
prince, saith Marcus Polus, _lib. 1. cap. 23._ called Senex de Montibus,
the better to establish his government amongst his subjects, and to keep
them in awe, found a convenient place in a pleasant valley, environed with
hills, in [6402]"which he made a delicious park full of odoriferous flowers
and fruits, and a palace of all worldly contents," that could possibly be
devised, music, pictures, variety of meats, &c., and chose out a certain
young man, whom with a [6403]soporiferous potion he so benumbed, that he
perceived nothing: "and so fast asleep as he was, caused him to be conveyed
into this fair garden:" where after he had lived awhile in all such
pleasures a sensual man could desire, [6404]"He cast him into a sleep
again, and brought him forth, that when he awaked he might tell others he
had been in Paradise." The like he did for hell, and by this means brought
his people to subjection. Because heaven and hell are mentioned in the
scriptures, and to be believed necessary by Christians: so cunningly can
the devil and his ministers, in imitation of true religion, counterfeit and
forge the like, to circumvent and delude his superstitious followers. Many
such tricks and impostures are acted by politicians, in China especially,
but with what effect I will discourse in the symptoms.
Next to politicians, if I may distinguish them, are some of our priests
(who make religion policy), if not far beyond them, for they domineer over
princes and statesmen themselves. _Carnificinam exercent_, one saith they
tyrannise over men's consciences more than any other tormentors whatsoever,
partly for their commodity and gain; _Religionem enim omnium abusus_ (as
[6405]Postellus holds), _quaestus scilicet sacrificum in causa est_: for
sovereignty, credit, to maintain their state and reputation, out of
ambition and avarice, which are their chief supporters: what have they not
made the common people believe? Impossibilities in nature, incredible
things; what devices, traditions, ceremonies, have they not invented in all
ages to keep men in obedience, to enrich themselves? _Quibus quaestui sunt
capti superstitione animi_, as [6406]Livy saith. Those Egyptian priests of
old got all the sovereignty into their hands, and knowing, as [6407]Curtius
insinuates, _nulla res efficacius multitudinem regit quam superstitio;
melius vatibus quam ducibus parent, vana religione capti, etiam impotentes
faeminae_; the common people will sooner obey priests than captains, and
nothing so forcible as superstition, or better than blind zeal to rule a
multitude; have so terrified and gulled them, that it is incredible to
relate. All nations almost have been besotted in this kind; amongst our
Britons and old Gauls the Druids; magi in Persia; philosophers in Greece;
Chaldeans amongst the Oriental; Brachmanni in India; Gymnosophists in
Ethiopia; the Turditanes in Spain; Augurs in Rome, have insulted; Apollo's
priests in Greece, Phaebades and Pythonissae, by their oracles and
phantasms; Amphiaraus and his companions; now Mahometan and pagan priests,
what can they not effect? How do they not infatuate the world? _Adeo
ubique_ (as [6408]Scaliger writes of the Mahometan priests), _tum gentium
tum locorum, gens ista sacrorum ministra, vulgi secat spes, ad ea quae ipsi
fingunt somnia_, "so cunningly can they gull the commons in all places and
countries." But above all others, that high priest of Rome, the dam of that
monstrous and superstitious brood, the bull-bellowing pope, which now
rageth in the West, that three-headed Cerberus hath played his part. [6409]
"Whose religion at this day is mere policy, a state wholly composed of
superstition and wit, and needs nothing but wit and superstition to
maintain it, that useth colleges and religious houses to as good purpose as
forts and castles, and doth more at this day" by a company of scribbling
parasites, fiery-spirited friars, zealous anchorites, hypocritical
confessors, and those praetorian soldiers, his Janissary Jesuits, and that
dissociable society, as [6410]Languis terms it, _postremus diaboli conatus
et saeculi excrementum_, that now stand in the fore front of the battle,
will have a monopoly of, and engross all other learning, but domineer in
divinity, [6411]_Excipiunt soli totius vulnera belli_, and fight alone
almost (for the rest are but his dromedaries and asses), than ever he could
have done by garrisons and armies. What power of prince, or penal law, be
it never so strict, could enforce men to do that which for conscience' sake
they will voluntarily undergo? And as to fast from all flesh, abstain from
marriage, rise to their prayers at midnight, whip themselves, with
stupendous fasting and penance, abandon the world, wilful poverty, perform
canonical and blind obedience, to prostrate their goods, fortunes, bodies,
lives, and offer up themselves at their superior's feet, at his command?
What so powerful an engine as superstition? which they right well
perceiving, are of no religion at all themselves: _Primum enim_ (as Calvin
rightly suspects, the tenor and practice of their life proves), _arcanae
illius theologiae, quod apud eos regnat, caput est, nullum esse deum_, they
hold there is no God, as Leo X. did, Hildebrand the magician, Alexander
VI., Julius II., mere atheists, and which the common proverb amongst them
approves, [6412]"The worst Christians of Italy are the Romans, of the
Romans the priests are wildest, the lewdest priests are preferred to be
cardinals, and the baddest men amongst the cardinals is chosen to be pope,"
that is an epicure, as most part the popes are, infidels and Lucianists,
for so they think and believe; and what is said of Christ to be fables and
impostures, of heaven and hell, day of judgment, paradise, immortality of
the soul, are all,
[6413] "Rumores vacui, verbaque inania,
Et par sollicito fabula somnio."
"Dreams, toys, and old wives' tales." Yet as so many [6414]whetstones to
make other tools cut, but cut not themselves, though they be of no religion
at all, they will make others most devout and superstitious, by promises
and threats, compel, enforce from, and lead them by the nose like so many
bears in a line; when as their end is not to propagate the church, advance
God's kingdom, seek His glory or common good, but to enrich themselves, to
enlarge their territories, to domineer and compel them to stand in awe, to
live in subjection to the See of Rome. For what otherwise care they? _Si
mundus vult decipi, decipiatur_, "since the world wishes to be gulled, let
it be gulled," 'tis fit it should be so. And for which [6415]Austin cites
Varro to maintain his Roman religion, we may better apply to them: _multa
vera, quae vulgus scire non est utile; pleraque falsa, quae tamen uliter
existimare populum expedit_; some things are true, some false, which for
their own ends they will not have the gullish commonalty take notice of. As
well may witness their intolerable covetousness, strange forgeries,
fopperies, fooleries, unrighteous subtleties, impostures, illusions, new
doctrines, paradoxes, traditions, false miracles, which they have still
forged, to enthral, circumvent and subjugate them, to maintain their own
estates. [6416]One while by bulls, pardons, indulgencies, and their
doctrines of good works, that they be meritorious, hope of heaven, by that
means they have so fleeced the commonalty, and spurred on this free
superstitious horse, that he runs himself blind, and is an ass to carry
burdens. They have so amplified Peter's patrimony, that from a poor bishop,
he is become _Rex Regum, Dominus dominantium_, a demigod, as his canonists
make him (Felinus and the rest), above God himself. And for his wealth and
[6417] temporalities, is not inferior to many kings: [6418]his cardinals,
princes' companions; and in every kingdom almost, abbots, priors, monks,
friars, &c., and his clergy, have engrossed a [6419]third part, half, in
some places all, into their hands. Three princes, electors in Germany,
bishops; besides Magdeburg, Spire, Saltsburg, Breme, Bamberg, &c. In
France, as Bodine _lib. de repub._ gives us to understand, their revenues
are 12,300,000 livres; and of twelve parts of the revenues in France, the
church possesseth seven. The Jesuits, a new sect, begun in this age, have,
as [6420]Middendorpius and [6421]Pelargus reckon up, three or four hundred
colleges in Europe, and more revenues than many princes. In France, as
Arnoldus proves, in thirty years they have got _bis centum librarum millia
annua_, 200,000_l_. I say nothing of the rest of their orders. We have had
in England, as Armachanus demonstrates, above 30,000 friars at once, and as
[6422]Speed collects out of Leland and others, almost 600 religious houses,
and near 200,000_l._ in revenues of the old rent belonging to them, besides
images of gold, silver, plate, furniture, goods and ornaments, as
[6423]Weever calculates, and esteems them at the dissolution of abbeys,
worth a million of gold. How many towns in every kingdom hath superstition
enriched? What a deal of money by musty relics, images, idolatry, have
their mass-priests engrossed, and what sums have they scraped by their
other tricks! Loretto in Italy, Walsingham in England, in those days. _Ubi
omnia auro nitent_, "where everything shines with gold," saith Erasmus, St.
Thomas's shrine, &c., may witness. [6424]Delphos so renowned of old in
Greece for Apollo's oracle, _Delos commune conciliabulum et emporium sola
religions manitum_; Dodona, whose fame and wealth were sustained by
religion, were not so rich, so famous. If they can get but a relic of some
saint, the Virgin Mary's picture, idols or the like, that city is for ever
made, it needs no other maintenance. Now if any of these their impostures
or juggling tricks be controverted, or called in question: if a magnanimous
or zealous Luther, an heroical Luther, as [6425]Dithmarus Calls him, dare
touch the monks' bellies, all is in a combustion, all is in an uproar:
Demetrius and his associates are ready to pull him in pieces, to keep up
their trades, [6426] "Great is Diana of the Ephesians:" with a mighty shout
of two hours long they will roar and not be pacified.
Now for their authority, what by auricular confession, satisfaction,
penance, Peter's keys, thunderings, excommunications, &c., roaring bulls,
this high priest of Rome, shaking his Gorgon's head, hath so terrified the
soul of many a silly man, insulted over majesty itself, and swaggered
generally over all Europe for many ages, and still doth to some, holding
them as yet in slavish subjection, as never tyrannising Spaniards did by
their poor Negroes, or Turks by their galley-slaves. [6427]"The bishop of
Rome" (saith Stapleton, a parasite of his, _de mag. Eccles. lib. 2. cap.
1._) "hath done that without arms, which those Roman emperors could never
achieve with forty legions of soldiers," deposed kings, and crowned them
again with his foot, made friends, and corrected at his pleasure, &c.
[6428] "'Tis a wonder," saith Machiavel, _Florentinae, his. lib. 1._ "what
slavery King Henry II. endured for the death of Thomas a Beckett, what
things he was enjoined by the Pope, and how he submitted himself to do that
which in our times a private man would not endure," and all through
superstition. [6429]Henry IV. disposed of his empire, stood barefooted with
his wife at the gates of Canossus. [6430]Frederic the Emperor was trodden
on by Alexander III., another held Adrian's stirrup, King John kissed the
knees of Pandulphos the Pope's legate, See. What made so many thousand
Christians travel from France, Britain, &c., into the Holy Land, spend such
huge sums of money, go a pilgrimage so familiarly to Jerusalem, to creep
and crouch, but slavish superstition? What makes them so freely venture
their lives, to leave their native countries, to go seek martyrdom in the
Indies, but superstition? to be assassins, to meet death, murder kings, but
a false persuasion of merit, of canonical or blind obedience which they
instil into them, and animate them by strange illusions, hope of being
martyrs and saints: such pretty feats can the devil work by priests, and so
well for their own advantage can they play their parts. And if it were not
yet enough, by priests and politicians to delude mankind, and crucify the
souls of men, he hath more actors in his tragedy, more irons in the fire,
another scene of heretics, factious, ambitious wits, insolent spirits,
schismatics, impostors, false prophets, blind guides, that out of pride,
singularity, vainglory, blind zeal, cause much more madness yet, set all in
an uproar by their new doctrines, paradoxes, figments, crotchets, make new
divisions, subdivisions, new sects, oppose one superstition to another, one
kingdom to another, commit prince and subjects, brother against brother,
father against son, to the ruin and destruction of a commonwealth, to the
disturbance of peace, and to make a general confusion of all estates. How
did those Arians rage of old? how many did they circumvent? Those
Pelagians, Manichees, &c., their names alone would make a just volume. How
many silly souls have impostors still deluded, drawn away, and quite
alienated from Christ! Lucian's Alexander Simon Magus, whose statue was to
be seen and adored in Rome, saith Justin Martyr, _Simoni deo sancto_, &c.,
after his decease. [6431]Apollonius Tianeus, Cynops, Eumo, who by
counterfeiting some new ceremonies and juggling tricks of that Dea Syria,
by spitting fire, and the like, got an army together of 40,000 men, and did
much harm: with _Eudo de stellis_, of whom Nubrigensis speaks, _lib. 1.
cap. 19._ that in King Stephen's days imitated most of Christ's miracles,
fed I know not how many people in the wilderness, and built castles in the
air, &c., to the seducing of multitudes of poor souls. In Franconia, 1476,
a base illiterate fellow took upon him to be a prophet, and preach, John
Beheim by name, a neatherd at Nicholhausen, he seduced 30,000 persons, and
was taken by the commonalty to be a most holy man, come from heaven. [6432]
"Tradesmen left their shops, women their distaffs, servants ran from their
masters, children from their parents, scholars left their tutors, all to
hear him, some for novelty, some for zeal. He was burnt at last by the
Bishop of Wartzburg, and so he and his heresy vanished together." How many
such impostors, false prophets, have lived in every king's reign? what
chronicles will not afford such examples? that as so many _ignes fatui_,
have led men out of the way, terrified some, deluded others, that are apt
to be carried about by the blast of every wind, a rude inconstant
multitude, a silly company of poor souls, that follow all, and are
cluttered together like so many pebbles in a tide. What prodigious follies,
madness, vexations, persecutions, absurdities, impossibilities, these
impostors, heretics, &c., have thrust upon the world, what strange effects
shall be shown in the symptoms.
Now the means by which, or advantages the devil and his infernal ministers
take, so to delude and disquiet the world with such idle ceremonies, false
doctrines, superstitious fopperies, are from themselves, innate fear,
ignorance, simplicity, hope and fear, those two battering cannons and
principal engines, with their objects, reward and punishment, purgatory,
_Limbus Patrum_, &c. which now more than ever tyrannise; [6433]"for what
province is free from atheism, superstition, idolatry, schism, heresy,
impiety, their factors and followers?" thence they proceed, and from that
same decayed image of God, which is yet remaining in us.
[6434] "Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri
Jussit."------
Our own conscience doth dictate so much unto us, we know there is a God and
nature doth inform us; _Nulla gens tam barbara_ (saith Tully) _cui non
insideat haec persuasio Deum esse; sed nec Scytha, nec Groecus, nec Persa,
nec Hyperboreus dissentiet_ (as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist _ser. 1._
farther adds) _nec continentis nec insularum habitator_, let him dwell
where he will, in what coast soever, there is no nation so barbarous that
is not persuaded there is a God. It is a wonder to read of that infinite
superstition amongst the Indians in this kind, of their tenets in America,
_pro suo quisque libitu varias res venerabantur superstitiose, plantas,
animalia, montes, &c. omne quod amabant aut horrebant_ (some few places
excepted as he grants, that had no God at all). So "the heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament declares his handy work," Psalm xix. "Every
creature will evince it;" _Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba deum.
Nolentes sciunt, fatentur inviti_, as the said Tyrius proceeds, will or
nill, they must acknowledge it. The philosophers, Socrates, Plato,
Plotinus, Pythagoras, Trismegistus, Seneca, Epictetus, those Magi, Druids,
&c. went as far as they could by the light of nature; [6435]_multa
praeclara, de natura Dei seripta reliquerunt_, "writ many things well of
the nature of God, but they had but a confused light, a glimpse,"
[6436] "Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
Est iter in sylvis,"------
"as he that walks by moonshine in a wood," they groped in the dark; they
had a gross knowledge, as he in Euripides, _O Deus quicquid es, sive
coelum, sive terra, sive aliud quid_, and that of Aristotle, _Ens entium
miserere mei._ And so of the immortality of the soul, and future happiness.
_Immortalitatem animae_ (saith Hierom) _Pythagoras somniavit, Democritus
non credidit in consolalionem damnationis suae Socrates in carcere
disputavit; Indus, Persa, Cothus, &c. Philosophantur._ So some said this,
some that, as they conceived themselves, which the devil perceiving, led
them farther out (as [6437]Lemnius observes) and made them worship him as
their God with stocks and stones, and torture themselves to their own
destruction, as he thought fit himself, inspired his priests and ministers
with lies and fictions to prosecute the same, which they for their own ends
were as willing to undergo, taking advantage of their simplicity, fear and
ignorance. For the common people are as a flock of sheep, a rude,
illiterate rout, void many times of common sense, a mere beast, _bellua
multorum capitum_, will go whithersoever they are led: as you lead a ram
over a gap by the horns, all the rest will follow, [6438]_Non qua eundum,
sed qua itur_, they will do as they see others do, and as their prince will
have them, let him be of what religion he will, they are for him. Now for
those idolaters, Maxentius and Licinius, then for Constantine a Christian.
[6439]_Qui Christum negant male pereant, acclamatum est Decies_, for two
hours' space; _qui Christum non colunt, Augusti inimici sunt, acclamatum
est ter decies_; and by and by idolaters again under that Apostate
Julianus; all Arians under Constantius, good Catholics again under
Jovinianus, "And little difference there is between the discretion of men
and children in this case, especially of old folks and women," as [6440]
Cardan discourseth, "when, as they are tossed with fear and superstition,
and with other men's folly and dishonesty." So that I may say their
ignorance is a cause of their superstition, a symptom, and madness itself:
_Supplicii causa est, sappliciumque sui._ Their own fear, folly, stupidity,
to be deplored lethargy, is that which gives occasion to the other, and
pulls these miseries on their own heads. For in all these religions and
superstitions, amongst our idolaters, you shall find that the parties first
affected, are silly, rude, ignorant people, old folks, that are naturally
prone to superstition, weak women, or some poor, rude, illiterate persons,
that are apt to be wrought upon, and gulled in this kind, prone without
either examination or due consideration (for they take up religion a trust,
as at mercers' they do their wares) to believe anything. And the best means
they have to broach first, or to maintain it when they have done, is to
keep them still in ignorance: for "ignorance is the mother of devotion," as
all the world knows, and these times can amply witness. This hath been the
devil's practice, and his infernal ministers in all ages; not as our
Saviour by a few silly fishermen, to confound the wisdom of the world, to
save publicans and sinners, but to make advantage of their ignorance, to
convert them and their associates; and that they may better effect what
they intend, they begin, as I say, with poor, [6441]stupid, illiterate
persons. So Mahomet did when he published his Alcoran, which is a piece of
work (saith [6442]Bredenbachius) "full of nonsense, barbarism, confusion,
without rhyme, reason, or any good composition, first published to a
company of rude rustics, hog-rubbers, that had no discretion, judgment,
art, or understanding, and is so still maintained." For it is a part of
their policy to let no man comment, dare to dispute or call in question to
this day any part of it, be it never so absurd, incredible, ridiculous,
fabulous as it is, must be believed _implicite_, upon pain of death no man
must dare to contradict it, "God and the emperor," &c. What else do our
papists, but by keeping the people in ignorance vent and broach all their
new ceremonies and traditions, when they conceal the scripture, read it in
Latin, and to some few alone, feeding the slavish people in the meantime
with tales out of legends, and such like fabulous narrations? Whom do they
begin with but collapsed ladies, some few tradesmen, superstitious old
folks, illiterate persons, weak women, discontent, rude, silly companions,
or sooner circumvent? So do all our schismatics and heretics. Marcus and
Valentinian heretics, in [6443]Irenaeus, seduced first I know not how many
women, and made them believe they were prophets. [6444]Friar Cornelius of
Dort seduced a company of silly women. What are all our Anabaptists,
Brownists, Barrowists, familists, but a company of rude, illiterate,
capricious, base fellows? What are most of our papists, but stupid,
ignorant and blind bayards? how should they otherwise be, when as they are
brought up and kept still in darkness? [6445]"If their pastors" (saith
Lavater) "have done their duties, and instructed their flocks as they
ought, in the principles of Christian religion, or had not forbidden them
the reading of scriptures, they had not been as they are." But being so
misled all their lives in superstition, and carried hoodwinked like hawks,
how can they prove otherwise than blind idiots, and superstitious asses?
what else shall we expect at their hands? Neither is it sufficient to keep
them blind, and in Cimmerian darkness, but withal, as a schoolmaster doth
by his boys, to make them follow their books, sometimes by good hope,
promises and encouragements, but most of all by fear, strict discipline,
severity, threats and punishment, do they collogue and soothe up their
silly auditors, and so bring them into a fools' paradise. _Rex eris aiunt,
si recte facies_, do well, thou shalt be crowned; but for the most part by
threats, terrors, and affrights, they tyrannise and terrify their
distressed souls: knowing that fear alone is the sole and only means to
keep men in obedience, according to that hemistichium of Petronius, _primus
in orbe deos fecit timor_, the fear of some divine and supreme powers,
keeps men in obedience, makes the people do their duties: they play upon
their consciences; [6446]which was practised of old in Egypt by their
priests; when there was an eclipse, they made the people believe God was
angry, great miseries were to come; they take all opportunities of natural
causes, to delude the people's senses, and with fearful tales out of
purgatory, feigned apparitions, earthquakes in Japonia or China, tragical
examples of devils, possessions, obsessions, false miracles, counterfeit
visions, &c. They do so insult over and restrain them, never hoby so dared
a lark, that they will not [6447]offend the least tradition, tread, or
scarce look awry: _Deus bone_ ([6448]Lavater exclaims) _quot hoc commentum
de purgatorio misere afflixit!_ good God, how many men have been miserably
afflicted by this fiction of purgatory!
To these advantages of hope and fear, ignorance and simplicity, he hath
several engines, traps, devices, to batter and enthral, omitting no
opportunities, according to men's several inclinations, abilities, to
circumvent and humour them, to maintain his superstitions, sometimes to
stupefy, besot them: sometimes again by oppositions, factions, to set all
at odds and in an uproar; sometimes he infects one man, and makes him a
principal agent; sometimes whole cities, countries. If of meaner sort, by
stupidity, canonical obedience, blind zeal, &c. If of better note, by
pride, ambition, popularity, vainglory. If of the clergy and more eminent,
of better parts than the rest, more learned, eloquent, he puffs them up
with a vain conceit of their own worth, _scientia inflati_, they begin to
swell, and scorn all the world in respect of themselves, and thereupon turn
heretics, schismatics, broach new doctrines, frame new crotchets and the
like; or else out of too much learning become mad, or out of curiosity they
will search into God's secrets, and eat of the forbidden fruit; or out of
presumption of their holiness and good gifts, inspirations, become
prophets, enthusiasts, and what not? Or else if they be displeased,
discontent, and have not (as they suppose) preferment to their worth, have
some disgrace, repulse, neglected, or not esteemed as they fondly value
themselves, or out of emulation, they begin presently to rage and rave,
_coelum terrae, miscent_, they become so impatient in an instant, that a
whole kingdom cannot contain them, they will set all in a combustion, all
at variance, to be revenged of their adversaries. [6449]Donatus, when he
saw Cecilianus preferred before him in the bishopric of Carthage, turned
heretic, and so did Arian, because Alexander was advanced: we have examples
at home, and too many experiments of such persons. If they be laymen of
better note, the same engines of pride, ambition, emulation and jealousy,
take place, they will be gods themselves: [6450]Alexander in India, after
his victories, became so insolent, he would be adored for a god: and those
Roman emperors came to that height of madness, they must have temples built
to them, sacrifices to their deities, Divus Augustus, D. Claudius, D.
Adrianus: [6451]Heliogabalus, "put out that vestal fire at Rome, expelled
the virgins, and banished all other religions all over the world, and would
be the sole God himself." Our Turks, China kings, great Chams, and Mogors
do little less, assuming divine and bombast titles to themselves; the
meaner sort are too credulous, and led with blind zeal, blind obedience, to
prosecute and maintain whatsoever their sottish leaders shall propose, what
they in pride and singularity, revenge, vainglory, ambition, spleen, for
gain, shall rashly maintain and broach, their disciples make a matter of
conscience, of hell and damnation, if they do it not, and will rather
forsake wives, children, house and home, lands, goods, fortunes, life
itself, than omit or abjure the least tittle of it, and to advance the
common cause, undergo any miseries, turn traitors, assassins,
pseudomartyrs, with full assurance and hope of reward in that other world,
that they shall certainly merit by it, win heaven, be canonised for saints.
Now when they are truly possessed with blind zeal, and misled with
superstition, he hath many other baits to inveigle and infatuate them
farther yet, to make them quite mortified and mad, and that under colour of
perfection, to merit by penance, going woolward, whipping, alms, fastings,
&c. An. 1320. there was a sect of [6452]whippers in Germany, that, to the
astonishment of the beholders, lashed, and cruelly tortured themselves. I
could give many other instances of each particular. But these works so done
are meritorious, _ex opere operato, ex condigno_, for themselves and
others, to make them macerate and consume their bodies, _specie virtutis et
umbra_, those evangelical counsels are propounded, as our pseudo-Catholics
call them, canonical obedience, wilful poverty, [6453]vows of chastity,
monkery, and a solitary life, which extend almost to all religions and
superstitions, to Turks, Chinese, Gentiles, Abyssinians, Greeks, Latins,
and all countries. Amongst the rest, fasting, contemplation, solitariness,
are as it were certain rams by which the devil doth batter and work upon
the strongest constitutions. _Nonnulli_ (saith Peter Forestus) _ob longas
inedias, studia et meditationes coelestes, de rebus sacris et religione
semper agitant_, by fasting overmuch, and divine meditations, are overcome.
Not that fasting is a thing of itself to be discommended, for it is an
excellent means to keep the body in subjection, a preparative to devotion,
the physic of the soul, by which chaste thoughts are engendered, true zeal,
a divine spirit, whence wholesome counsels do proceed, concupiscence is
restrained, vicious and predominant lusts and humours are expelled. The
fathers are very much in commendation of it, and, as Calvin notes,
"sometimes immoderate. [6454]The mother of health, key of heaven, a
spiritual wing to arear us, the chariot of the Holy Ghost, banner of
faith," &c. And 'tis true they say of it, if it be moderately and
seasonably used, by such parties as Moses, Elias, Daniel, Christ, and his
[6455]apostles made use of it; but when by this means they will
supererogate, and as [6456]Erasmus well taxeth, _Coelum non sufficere
putant suis meritis._ Heaven is too small a reward for it; they make choice
of times and meats, buy and sell their merits, attribute more to them than
to the ten Commandments, and count it a greater sin to eat meat in Lent,
than to kill a man, and as one sayeth, _Plus respiciunt assum piscem, quam
Christum crucifixum, plus salmonem quam Solomonem, quibus in ore Christus,
Epicurus in corde_, "pay more respect to a broiled fish than to Christ
crucified, more regard to salmon than to Solomon, have Christ on their
lips, but Epicurus in their hearts," when some counterfeit, and some
attribute more to such works of theirs than to Christ's death and passion;
the devil sets in a foot, strangely deludes them, and by that means makes
them to overthrow the temperature of their bodies, and hazard their souls.
Never any strange illusions of devils amongst hermits, anchorites, never
any visions, phantasms, apparitions, enthusiasms, prophets, any
revelations, but immoderate fasting, bad diet, sickness, melancholy,
solitariness, or some such things, were the precedent causes, the
forerunners or concomitants of them. The best opportunity and sole occasion
the devil takes to delude them. Marcilius Cognatus, _lib. 1. cont. cap. 7._
hath many stories to this purpose, of such as after long fasting have been
seduced by devils; and [6457]"'tis a miraculous thing to relate" (as Cardan
writes) "what strange accidents proceed from fasting; dreams, superstition,
contempt of torments, desire of death, prophecies, paradoxes, madness;
fasting naturally prepares men to these things." Monks, anchorites, and the
like, after much emptiness, become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they
hear strange noises, confer with hobgoblins, devils, rivel up their bodies,
_et dum hostem insequimur_, saith Gregory, _civem quem diligimus,
trucidamus_, they become bare skeletons, skin and bones; _Carnibus
abstinentes proprias carnes devorant, ut nil praeter cutem et ossa sit
reliquum._ Hilarion, as [6458]Hierome reports in his life, and Athanasius
of Antonius, was so bare with fasting, "that the skin did scarce stick to
the bones; for want of vapours he could not sleep, and for want of sleep
became idleheaded, heard every night infants cry, oxen low, wolves howl,
lions roar" (as he thought), "clattering of chains, strange voices, and the
like illusions of devils." Such symptoms are common to those that fast
long, are solitary, given to contemplation, overmuch solitariness and
meditation. Not that these things (as I said of fasting) are to be
discommended of themselves, but very behoveful in some cases and good:
sobriety and contemplation join our souls to God, as that heathen
[6459]Porphyry can tell us. [6460]"Ecstasy is a taste of future happiness,
by which we are united unto God, a divine melancholy, a spiritual wing,"
Bonaventure terms it, to lift us up to heaven; but as it is abused, a mere
dotage, madness, a cause and symptom of religious melancholy. [6461]"If you
shall at any time see" (saith Guianerius) "a religious person
over-superstitious, too solitary, or much given to fasting, that man will
certainly be melancholy, thou mayst boldly say it, he will be so." P.
Forestus hath almost the same words, and [6462]Cardan _subtil, lib. 18. et
cap. 40. lib. 8. de rerum varietate_, "solitariness, fasting, and that
melancholy humour, are the causes of all hermits' illusions." Lavater, _de
spect. cap. 19. part. 1._ and _part. 1. cap. 10._ puts solitariness a main
cause of such spectrums and apparitions; none, saith he, so melancholy as
monks and hermits, the devil's hath melancholy; [6463]"none so subject to
visions and dotage in this kind, as such as live solitary lives, they hear
and act strange things in their dotage." [6464]Polydore Virgil, _lib. 2.
prodigiis_, "holds that those prophecies and monks' revelations? nuns,
dreams, which they suppose come from God, to proceed wholly _ab instinctu
daemonum_, by the devil's means;" and so those enthusiasts, Anabaptists,
pseudoprophets from the same cause. [6465]Fracastorius, _lib. 2. de
intellect_, will have all your pythonesses, sibyls, and pseudoprophets to
be mere melancholy, so doth Wierus prove, _lib. 1. cap. 8. et l. 3. cap.
7._ and Arculanus in 9 Rhasis, that melancholy is a sole cause, and the
devil together, with fasting and solitariness, of such sibylline
prophecies, if there were ever such, which with [6466]Casaubon and others I
justly except at; for it is not likely that the Spirit of God should ever
reveal such manifest revelations and predictions of Christ, to those
Pythonissae witches, Apollo's priests, the devil's ministers, (they were no
better) and conceal them from his own prophets; for these sibyls set down
all particular circumstances of Christ's coming, and many other future
accidents far more perspicuous and plain than ever any prophet did. But,
howsoever, there be no Phaebades or sibyls, I am assured there be other
enthusiasts, prophets, _dii Fatidici_, Magi, (of which read Jo. Boissardus,
who hath laboriously collected them into a great [6467]volume of late, with
elegant pictures, and epitomised their lives) &c., ever have been in all
ages, and still proceeding from those causes, [6468]_qui visiones suas
enarrant, somniant futura, prophetisant, et ejusmodi deliriis agitati,
Spiritum Sanctum sibi communicari putant_. That which is written of Saint
Francis' five wounds, and other such monastical effects, of him and others,
may justly be referred to this our melancholy; and that which Matthew Paris
relates of the [6469]monk of Evesham, who saw heaven and hell in a vision;
of [6470]Sir Owen, that went down into Saint Patrick's purgatory in King
Stephen's days, and saw as much; Walsingham of him that showed as much by
Saint Julian. Beda, _lib. 5. cap. 13. 14. 15. et 20._ reports of King
Sebba, _lib. 4. cap. 11. eccles. hist._ that saw strange [6471]visions; and
Stumphius Helvet Cornic, a cobbler of Basle, that beheld rare apparitions
at Augsburg, [6472]in Germany. Alexander ab Alexandro, _gen. dier. lib. 6.
cap. 21._ of an enthusiastical prisoner, (all out as probable as that of
Eris Armenius, in Plato's tenth dialogue _de Repub._ that revived again ten
days after he was killed in a battle, and told strange wonders, like those
tales Ulysses related to Alcinous in Homer, or Lucian's _vera historia_
itself) was still after much solitariness, fasting, or long sickness, when
their brains were addled, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads
of wit. Florilegus hath many such examples, _fol. 191._ one of Saint
Gultlake of Crowald that fought with devils, but still after long fasting,
overmuch solitariness, [6473]the devil persuaded him therefore to fast, as
Moses and Elias did, the better to delude him. [6474]In the same author is
recorded Carolus Magnus vision _an._ 185. or ecstasies, wherein he saw
heaven and hell after much fasting and meditation. So did the devil of old
with Apollo's priests. Amphiaraus and his fellows, those Egyptians, still
enjoin long fasting before he would give any oracles, _triduum a cibo et
vino abstinerent_, [6475]before they gave any answers, as Volateran _lib.
13. cap. 4._ records, and Strabo _Geog. lib. 14._ describes Charon's den,
in the way between Tralles and Nissum, whither the priests led sick and
fanatic men: but nothing performed without long fasting, no good to be
done. That scoffing [6476]Lucian conducts his Menippus to hell by the
directions of that Chaldean Mithrobarzanes, but after long fasting, and
such like idle preparation. Which the Jesuits right well perceiving of what
force this fasting and solitary meditation is, to alter men's minds, when
they would make a man mad, ravish him, improve him beyond himself, to
undertake some great business of moment, to kill a king, or the like,
[6477]they bring him into a melancholy dark chamber, where he shall see no
light for many days together, no company, little meat, ghastly pictures of
devils all about him, and leave him to lie as he will himself, on the bare
floor in this chamber of meditation, as they call it, on his back, side,
belly, till by this strange usage they make him quite mad and beside
himself. And then after some ten days, as they find him animated and
resolved, they make use of him. The devil hath many such factors, many such
engines, which what effect they produce, you shall hear in the following
symptoms.
SUBSECT. III.--_Symptoms general, love to their own sect, hate of all other
religions, obstinacy, peevishness, ready to undergo any danger or cross for
it; Martyrs, blind zeal, blind obedience, fastings, vows, belief of
incredibilities, impossibilities: Particular of Gentiles, Mahometans, Jews,
Christians; and in them, heretics old, and new, schismatics, schoolmen,
prophets, enthusiasts, &c._
_Fleat Heraclitus, an rideat Democritus_? in attempting to speak of these
symptoms, shall I laugh with Democritus, or weep with Heraclitus? they are
so ridiculous and absurd on the one side, so lamentable and tragical on the
other: a mixed scene offers itself, so full of errors and a promiscuous
variety of objects, that I know not in what strain to represent it. When I
think of the Turkish paradise, those Jewish fables, and pontifical rites,
those pagan superstitions, their sacrifices, and ceremonies, as to make
images of all matter, and adore them when they have done, to see them, kiss
the pyx, creep to the cross, &c. I cannot choose but laugh with Democritus:
but when I see them whip and torture themselves, grind their souls for toys
and trifles, desperate, and now ready to die, I cannot but weep with
Heraclitus. When I see a priest say mass, with all those apish gestures,
murmurings, &c. read the customs of the Jews' synagogue, or Mahometa
Meschites, I must needs [6478]laugh at their folly, _risum teneatis amici_?
but when I see them make matters of conscience of such toys and trifles, to
adore the devil, to endanger their souls, to offer their children to their
idols, &c. I must needs condole their misery. When I see two superstitious
orders contend _pro aris et focis_, with such have and hold, _de lana,
caprina_, some write such great volumes to no purpose, take so much pains
to so small effect, their satires, invectives, apologies, dull and gross
fictions; when I see grave learned men rail and scold like butter-women,
methinks 'tis pretty sport, and fit [6479]for Calphurnius and Democritus to
laugh at. But when I see so much blood spilt, so many murders and
massacres, so many cruel battles fought, &c. 'tis a fitter subject for
Heraclitus to lament. [6480]As Merlin when he sat by the lake side with
Vortigern, and had seen the white and red dragon fight, before he began to
interpret or to speak, _in fletum prorupit_, fell a weeping, and then
proceeded to declare to the king what it meant. I should first pity and
bewail this misery of human kind with some passionate preface, wishing mine
eyes a fountain of tears, as Jeremiah did, and then to my task. For it is
that great torture, that infernal plague of mortal men, _omnium pestium
pestilentissima superstitio_, and able of itself alone to stand in
opposition to all other plagues, miseries and calamities whatsoever; far
more cruel, more pestiferous, more grievous, more general, more violent, of
a greater extent. Other fears and sorrows, grievances of body and mind, are
troublesome for the time; but this is for ever, eternal damnation, hell
itself, a plague, a fire: an inundation hurts one province alone, and the
loss may be recovered; but this superstition involves all the world almost,
and can never be remedied. Sickness and sorrows come and go, but a
superstitious soul hath no rest; [6481]_superstitione imbutus animus
nunquam quietus esse potest_, no peace, no quietness. True religion and
superstition are quite opposite, _longe diversa carnificina et pietas_, as
Lactantius describes, the one erects, the other dejects; _illorum pietas,
mera impietus_; the one is an easy yoke, the other an intolerable burden,
an absolute tyranny; the one a sure anchor, a haven; the other a
tempestuous ocean; the one makes, the other mars; the one is wisdom, the
other is folly, madness, indiscretion; the one unfeigned, the other a
counterfeit; the one a diligent observer, the other an ape; one leads to
heaven, the other to hell. But these differences will more evidently appear
by their particular symptoms. What religion is, and of what parts it doth
consist, every catechism will tell you, what symptoms it hath, and what
effects it produceth: but for their superstitions, no tongue can tell them,
no pen express, they are so many, so diverse, so uncertain, so inconstant,
and so different from themselves. _Tot mundi superstitiones quot coelo
stellae_, one saith, there be as many superstitions in the world, as there
be stars in heaven, or devils themselves that are the first founders of
them: with such ridiculous, absurd symptoms and signs, so many several
rites, ceremonies, torments and vexations accompanying, as may well express
and beseem the devil to be the author and maintainer of them. I will only
point at some of them, _ex ungue leonem_ guess at the rest, and those of
the chief kinds of superstition, which beside us Christians now domineer
and crucify the world, Gentiles, Mahometans, Jews, &c.
Of these symptoms some be general, some particular to each private sect:
general to all, are, an extraordinary love and affection they bear and show
to such as are of their own sect, and more than Vatinian hate to such as
are opposite in religion, as they call it, or disagree from them in their
superstitious rites, blind zeal, (which is as much a symptom as a cause,)
vain fears, blind obedience, needless works, incredibilities,
impossibilities, monstrous rites and ceremonies, wilfulness, blindness,
obstinacy, &c. For the first, which is love and hate, as [6482]Montanus
saith, _nulla firmior amicitia quam quae contrahitur hinc; nulla discordia
major, quam quae a religione fit_; no greater concord, no greater discord
than that which proceeds from religion, it is incredible to relate, did not
our daily experience evince it, what factions, _quam teterrimae factiones_,
(as [6483]Rich. Dinoth writes) have been of late for matters of religion in
France, and what hurlyburlies all over Europe for these many years. _Nihil
est quod tam impotentur rapiat homines, quam suscepta de salute opinio;
siquidem pro ea omnes gentes corpora et animas devovere solent, et
arctissimo necessitudinis vinculo se invicem colligare._ We are all
brethren in Christ, servants of one Lord, members of one body, and
therefore are or should be at least dearly beloved, inseparably allied in
the greatest bond of love and familiarity, united partakers not only of the
same cross, but coadjutors, comforters, helpers, at all times, upon all
occasions: as they did in the primitive church, Acts the 5. they sold their
patrimonies, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and many such memorable
examples of mutual love we have had under the ten general persecutions,
many since. Examples on the other side of discord none like, as our Saviour
saith, he came therefore into the world to set father against son, &c. In
imitation of whom the devil belike ([6484]_nam superstitio irrepsit verae
religionis imitatrix_, superstition is still religion's ape, as in all
other things, so in this) doth so combine and glue together his
superstitious followers in love and affection, that they will live and die
together: and what an innate hatred hath he still inspired to any other
superstition opposite? How those old Romans were affected, those ten
persecutions may be a witness, and that cruel executioner in Eusebius, _aut
lita aut morere_, sacrifice or die. No greater hate, more continuate,
bitter faction, wars, persecution in all ages, than for matters of
religion, no such feral opposition, father against son, mother against
daughter, husband against wife, city against city, kingdom against kingdom:
as of old at Tentira and Combos:
[6485] "Immortale odium, et nunquam sanabile vulnus,
Inde furor vulgo, quod numina vicinorum
Odit uterque locus, quum solos credit habendos
Esse deos quos ipse colat."------
"Immortal hate it breeds, a wound past cure,
And fury to the commons still to endure:
Because one city t' other's gods as vain
Deride, and his alone as good maintain."
The Turks at this day count no better of us than of dogs, so they commonly
call us giaours, infidels, miscreants, make that their main quarrel and
cause of Christian persecution. If he will turn Turk, he shall be
entertained as a brother, and had in good esteem, a Mussulman or a
believer, which is a greater tie to them than any affinity or
consanguinity. The Jews stick together like so many burrs; but as for the
rest, whom they call Gentiles, they do hate and abhor, they cannot endure
their Messiah should be a common saviour to us all, and rather, as
[6486]Luther writes, "than they that now scoff at them, curse them,
persecute and revile them, shall be coheirs and brethren with them, or have
any part or fellowship with their Messiah, they would crucify their Messiah
ten times over, and God himself, his angels, and all his creatures, if it
were possible, though they endure a thousand hells for it." Such is their
malice towards us. Now for Papists, what in a common cause, for the
advancement of their religion they will endure, our traitors and
pseudo-Catholics will declare unto us; and how bitter on the other side to
their adversaries, how violently bent, let those Marian times record, as
those miserable slaughters at Merindol and Cabriers, the Spanish
inquisition, the Duke of Alva's tyranny in the Low Countries, the French
massacres and civil wars. [6487]_Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum_.
"Such wickedness did religion persuade." Not there only, but all over
Europe, we read of bloody battles, racks and wheels, seditions, factions,
oppositions.
[6488] ------"obvia signis
Signa, pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis,"
Invectives and contentions. They had rather shake hands with a Jew, Turk,
or, as the Spaniards do, suffer Moors to live amongst them, and Jews, than
Protestants; "my name" (saith [6489]Luther) "is more odious to them than
any thief or murderer." So it is with all heretics and schismatics
whatsoever: and none so passionate, violent in their tenets, opinions,
obstinate, wilful, refractory, peevish, factious, singular and stiff in
defence of them; they do not only persecute and hate, but pity all other
religions, account them damned, blind, as if they alone were the true
church, they are the true heirs, have the fee-simple of heaven by a
peculiar donation, 'tis entailed on them and their posterities, their
doctrine sound, _per funem aureum de coelo delapsa doctrinci_, "let down
from, heaven by a golden rope," they alone are to be saved, The Jews at
this day are so incomprehensibly proud and churlish, saith [6490]Luther,
that _soli salvari, soli domini terrarum salutari volunt._ And as
[6491]Buxtorfius adds, "so ignorant and self-willed withal, that amongst
their most understanding Rabbins you shall find nought but gross dotage,
horrible hardness of heart, and stupendous obstinacy, in all their actions,
opinions, conversations: and yet so zealous with all, that no man living
can be more, and vindicate themselves for the elect people of GOD." 'Tis so
with all other superstitious sects, Mahometans, Gentiles in China, and
Tartary: our ignorant Papists, Anabaptists, Separatists, and peculiar
churches of Amsterdam, they alone, and none but they can be saved.
[6492]"Zealous" (as Paul saith, Rom. x. 2.) "without knowledge," they will
endure any misery, any trouble, suffer and do that which the sunbeams will
not endure to see, _Religionis acti Furiis_, all extremities, losses and
dangers, take any pains, fast, pray, vow chastity, wilful poverty, forsake
all and follow their idols, die a thousand deaths as some Jews did to
Pilate's soldiers, in like case, _exertos praebentes jugulos, et manifeste
prae se ferentes_, (as Josephus hath it) _cariorem esse rita sibi legis
patriae observationem_, rather than abjure, or deny the least particle of
that religion which their fathers profess, and they themselves have been
brought up in, be it never so absurd, ridiculous, they will embrace it, and
without farther inquiry or examination of the truth, though it be
prodigiously false, they will believe it; they will take much more pains to
go to hell, than we shall do to heaven. Single out the most ignorant of
them, convince his understanding, show him his errors, grossness, and
absurdities of his sect. _Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris_, he will not
be persuaded. As those pagans told the Jesuits in Japona, [6493]they would
do as their forefathers have done: and with Ratholde the Frisian Prince, go
to hell for company, if most of their friends went thither: they will not
be moved, no persuasion, no torture can stir them. So that papists cannot
brag of their vows, poverty, obedience, orders, merits, martyrdoms,
fastings, alms, good works, pilgrimages: much and more than all this, I
shall show you, is, and hath been done by these superstitious Gentiles,
Pagans, Idolaters and Jews: their blind zeal and idolatrous superstition in
all kinds is much at one; little or no difference, and it is hard to say
which is the greatest, which is the grossest. For if a man shall duly
consider those superstitious rites amongst the Ethnics in Japan, the
Bannians in Gusart, the Chinese idolaters, [6494]Americans of old, in
Mexico especially, Mahometan priests, he shall find the same government
almost, the same orders and ceremonies, or so like, that they may seem all
apparently to be derived from some heathen spirit, and the Roman hierarchy
no better than the rest. In a word, this is common to all superstition,
there is nothing so mad and absurd, so ridiculous, impossible, incredible,
which they will not believe, observe, and diligently perform, as much as in
them lies; nothing so monstrous to conceive, or intolerable to put in
practice, so cruel to suffer, which they will not willingly undertake. So
powerful a thing is superstition. [6495]"O Egypt" (as Trismegistus
exclaims) "thy religion is fables, and such as posterity will not believe."
I know that in true religion itself, many mysteries are so apprehended
alone by faith, as that of the Trinity, which Turks especially deride,
Christ's incarnation, resurrection of the body at the last day, _quod ideo
credendum_ (saith Tertullian) _quod incredible_, &c. many miracles not to
be controverted or disputed of. _Mirari non rimari sapientia vera est_,
saith [6496]Gerhardus; _et in divinis_ (as a good father informs us)
_quaedam credenda, quaedam admiranda_, &c. some things are to be believed,
embraced, followed with all submission and obedience, some again admired.
Though Julian the apostate scoff at Christians in this point, _quod
captivemus intellectum in obsequium fidei_, saying, that the Christian
creed is like the Pythagorean _Ipse dixit_, we make our will and
understanding too slavishly subject to our faith, without farther
examination of the truth; yet as Saint Gregory truly answers, our creed is
_altioris praestantiae_, and much more divine; and as Thomas will, _pie
consideranti semper suppetunt rationes, ostendentes credibilitatem in
mysteriis supernaturalibus_, we do absolutely believe it, and upon good
reasons, for as Gregory well informeth us; _Fides non habet meritum, ubi
humana ratio quaerit experimentum_; that faith hath no merit, is not worth
the name of faith, that will not apprehend without a certain demonstration:
we must and will believe God's word; and if we be mistaken or err in our
general belief, as [6497]Richardus de _Sancto Victore_, vows he will say to
Christ himself at the day of judgment; "Lord, if we be deceived, thou alone
hast deceived us:" thus we plead. But for the rest I will not justify that
pontificial consubstantiation, that which [6498]Mahometans and Jews justly
except at, as Campanella confesseth, _Atheismi triumphat. cap. 12. fol.
125_, _difficillimum dogma esse, nec aliud subjectum magis haereticorum
blasphemiis, et stultis irrisionibus politicorum reperiri_. They hold it
impossible, _Deum in pane manducari_; and besides they scoff at it, _vide
gentem comedentem Deum suum, inquit quidam Maurus_. [6499]_Hunc Deum muscae
et vermes irrident, quum ipsum polluunt et devorant, subditus est igni,
aquae, et latrones furantur, pixidem auream humi prosternunt, et se tamen
non defendit hic Deus. Qui fieri potest, ut sit integer in singulis hostiae
particulis, idem corpus numero, tam multis locis, caelo, terra_, &c. But he
that shall read the [6500]Turks' Alcoran, the Jews' Talmud, and papists'
golden legend, in the mean time will swear that such gross fictions,
fables, vain traditions, prodigious paradoxes and ceremonies, could never
proceed from any other spirit, than that of the devil himself, which is the
author of confusion and lies; and wonder withal how such wise men as have
been of the Jews, such learned understanding men as Averroes, Avicenna, or
those heathen philosophers, could ever be persuaded to believe, or to
subscribe to the least part of them: _aut fraudem non detegere_: but that
as [6501]Vanninus answers, _ob publicae, potestatis formidinem allatrare
philosophi non audebant_, they durst not speak for fear of the law. But I
will descend to particulars: read their several symptoms and then guess.
Of such symptoms as properly belong to superstition, or that irreligious
religion, I may say as of the rest, some are ridiculous, some again feral
to relate. Of those ridiculous, there can be no better testimony than the
multitude of their gods, those absurd names, actions, offices they put upon
them, their feasts, holy days, sacrifices, adorations, and the like. The
Egyptians that pretended so great antiquity, 300 kings before Amasis: and
as Mela writes, 13,000 years from the beginning of their chronicles, that
bragged so much of their knowledge of old, for they invented arithmetic,
astronomy, geometry: of their wealth and power, that vaunted of 20,000
cities: yet at the same time their idolatry and superstition was most
gross: they worshipped, as Diodorus Siculus records, sun and moon under the
name of Isis and Osiris, and after, such men as were beneficial to them, or
any creature that did them good. In the city of Bubasti they adored a cat,
saith Herodotus. Ibis and storks, an ox: (saith Pliny) [6502]leeks and
onions, Macrobius,
[6503] "Porrum et caepe deos imponere nubibus ausi,
Hos tu Nile deos colis."------
Scoffing [6504]Lucian in his _vera Historia_: which, as he confesseth
himself, was not persuasively written as a truth, but in comical fashion to
glance at the monstrous fictions and gross absurdities of writers and
nations, to deride without doubt this prodigious Egyptian idolatry, feigns
this story of himself: that when he had seen the Elysian fields, and was
now coming away, Rhadamanthus gave him a mallow root, and bade him pray to
that when he was in any peril or extremity; which he did accordingly; for
when he came to Hydamordia in the island of treacherous women, he made his
prayers to his root, and was instantly delivered. The Syrians, Chaldeans,
had as many proper gods of their own invention; see the said Lucian _de dea
Syria._ Morney _cap. 22. de veritat. relig._ Guliel. Stuckius
[6505]_Sacrorum Sacrificiorumque Gentil. descript._ Peter Faber Semester,
_l. 3. c. 1, 2, 3._ Selden _de diis Syris_, Purchas' pilgrimage, [6506]
Rosinus of the Romans, and Lilius Giraldus of the Greeks. The Romans
borrowed from all, besides their own gods, which were _majorum_ and
_minorum gentium_, as Varro holds, certain and uncertain; some celestial,
select, and great ones, others indigenous and Semi-dei, Lares, Lemures,
Dioscuri, Soteres, and Parastatae, _dii tutelares_ amongst the Greeks: gods
of all sorts, for all functions; some for the land, some for sea; some for
heaven, some for hell; some for passions, diseases, some for birth, some
for weddings, husbandry, woods, waters, gardens, orchards, &c. All actions
and offices, Pax-Quies, Salus, Libertas, Felicitas, Strenua, Stimula,
Horta, Pan, Sylvanus, Priapus, Flora, Cloacina, Stercutius, Febris, Pallor,
Invidia, Protervia, Risus, Angerona, Volupia, Vacuna, Viriplaca, Veneranda,
Pales, Neptunia, Doris, kings, emperors, valiant men that had done any good
offices for them, they did likewise canonise and adore for gods, and it was
usually done, _usitatum apud antiquos_, as [6507]Jac. Boissardus well
observes, _deificare homines qui beneficiis mortales juvarent_, and the
devil was still ready to second their intents, _statim se ingessit illorum
sepulchris, statuis, templis, aris_, &c. he crept into their temples,
statues, tombs, altars, and was ready to give oracles, cure diseases, do
miracles, &c. as by Jupiter, Aesculapius, Tiresias, Apollo, Mopsus,
Amphiaraus, &c. _dii et Semi-dii._ For so they were _Semi-dii_, demigods,
some _medii inter Deos et homines_, as Max. [6508]Tyrius, the Platonist,
_ser. 26. et 27_, maintains and justifies in many words. "When a good man
dies, his body is buried, but his soul, _ex homine daemon evadit_, becomes
forthwith a demigod, nothing disparaged with malignity of air, or variety
of forms, rejoiceth, exults and sees that perfect beauty with his eyes. Now
being deified, in commiseration he helps his poor friends here on earth,
his kindred and allies, informs, succours, &c. punisheth those that are bad
and do amiss, as a good genius to protect and govern mortal men appointed
by the gods, so they will have it, ordaining some for provinces, some for
private men, some for one office, some for another. Hector and Achilles
assist soldiers to this day; Aesculapius all sick men, the Dioscuri
seafaring men, &c. and sometimes upon occasion they show themselves. The
Dioscuri, Hercules and Aesculapius, he saw himself (or the devil in his
likeness) _non somnians sed vigilans ipse vidi_:" So far Tyrius. And not
good men only do they thus adore, but tyrants, monsters, devils, (as [6509]
Stuckius inveighs) Neros, Domitians, Heliogables, beastly women, and arrant
whores amongst the rest. "For all intents, places, creatures, they assign
gods;"
"Et domibus, tectis, thermis, et equis soleatis
Assignare solent genios"------
saith Prudentius. Cuna for cradles, Diverra for sweeping houses, Nodina
knots, Prema, Pramunda, Hymen, Hymeneus, for weddings; Comus the god of
good fellows, gods of silence, of comfort, Hebe goddess of youth, _Mena
menstruarum_, &c. male and female gods, of all ages, sexes and dimensions,
with beards, without beards, married, unmarried, begot, not born at all,
but, as Minerva, start out of Jupiter's head. Hesiod reckons up at least
30,000 gods, Varro 300 Jupiters. As Jeremy told them, their gods were to
the multitude of cities;
"Quicquid humus, pelagus, coelum miserabile gignit
Id dixere deos, colles, freta, flumina, flammas."
"Whatever heavens, sea, and land begat,
Hills, seas, and rivers, God was this and that."
And which was most absurd, they made gods upon such ridiculous occasions;
"As children make babies" (so saith [6510]Morneus), "their poets make
gods," _et quos adorant in templis, ludunt in Theatris_, as Lactantius
scoffs. Saturn, a man, gelded himself, did eat his own children, a cruel
tyrant driven out of his kingdom by his son Jupiter, as good a god as
himself, a wicked lascivious paltry king of Crete, of whose rapes, lusts,
murders, villainies, a whole volume is too little to relate. Venus, a
notorious strumpet, as common as a barber's chair, Mars, Adonis, Anchises'
whore, is a great she-goddess, as well as the rest, as much renowned by
their poets, with many such; and these gods so fabulously and foolishly
made, _ceremoniis, hymnis, et canticis celebrunt_; their errors, _luctus et
gaudia, amores, iras, nuptias et liberorum procreationes_ ([6511]as
Eusebius well taxeth), weddings, mirth and mournings, loves, angers, and
quarrelling they did celebrate in hymns, and sing of in their ordinary
songs, as it were publishing their villainies. But see more of their
originals. When Romulus was made away by the sedition of the senators, to
pacify the people, [6512]Julius Proculus gave out that Romulus was taken up
by Jupiter into heaven, and therefore to be ever after adored for a god
amongst the Romans. Syrophanes of Egypt had one only son, whom he dearly
loved; he erected his statue in his house, which his servants did adorn
with garlands, to pacify their master's wrath when he was angry, so by
little and little he was adored for a god. This did Semiramis for her
husband Belus, and Adrian the emperor by his minion Antinous. Flora was a
rich harlot in Rome, and for that she made the commonwealth her heir, her
birthday was solemnised long after; and to make it a more plausible
holiday, they made her goddess of flowers, and sacrificed to her amongst
the rest. The matrons of Rome, as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus relates,
because at their entreaty Coriolanus desisted from his wars, consecrated a
church _Fortunes muliebri_; and [6513]Venus Barbata had a temple erected,
for that somewhat was amiss about hair, and so the rest. The citizens
[6514]of Alabanda, a small town in Asia Minor, to curry favour with the
Romans (who then warred in Greece with Perseus of Macedon, and were
formidable to these parts), consecrated a temple to the City of Rome, and
made her a goddess, with annual games and sacrifices; so a town of houses
was deified, with shameful flattery of the one side to give, and
intolerable arrogance on the other to accept, upon so vile and absurd an
occasion. Tully writes to Atticus, that his daughter Tulliola might be made
a goddess, and adored as Juno and Minerva, and as well she deserved it.
Their holy days and adorations were all out as ridiculous; those Lupercals
of Pan, Florales of Flora, Bona dea, Anna Perenna, Saturnals, &c., as how
they were celebrated, with what lascivious and wanton gestures, bald
ceremonies, [6515]by what bawdy priests, how they hang their noses over the
smoke of sacrifices, saith [6516]Lucian, and lick blood like flies that was
spilled about the altars. Their carved idols, gilt images of wood, iron,
ivory, silver, brass, stone, _olim truncus eram_, &c., were most absurd, as
being their own workmanship; for as Seneca notes, _adorant ligneos deos, et
fabros interim qui fecerunt, contemnunt_, they adore work, contemn the
workman; and as Tertullian follows it, _Si homines non essent diis
propitii, non essent dii_, had it not been for men, they had never been
gods, but blocks, and stupid statues in which mice, swallows, birds make
their nests, spiders their webs, and in their very mouths laid their
excrements. Those images, I say, were all out as gross as the shapes in
which they did represent them: Jupiter with a ram's head, Mercury a dog's,
Pan like a goat, Heccate with three heads, one with a beard, another
without; see more in Carterius and [6517]Verdurius of their monstrous forms
and ugly pictures: and, which was absurder yet, they told them these images
came from heaven, as that of Minerva in her temple at Athens, _quod e coelo
cecidisse credebant accolae_, saith Pausanias. They formed some like
storks, apes, bulls, and yet seriously believed: and that which was impious
and abominable, they made their gods notorious whoremasters, incestuous
Sodomites (as commonly they were all, as well as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo,
Mercury, Neptune, &c.), thieves, slaves, drudges (for Apollo and Neptune
made tiles in Phrygia), kept sheep, Hercules emptied stables, Vulcan a
blacksmith, unfit to dwell upon the earth for their villainies, much less
in heaven, as [6518]Mornay well saith, and yet they gave them out to be
such; so weak and brutish, some to whine, lament, and roar, as Isis for her
son and Cenocephalus, as also all her weeping priests; Mars in Homer to be
wounded, vexed; Venus ran away crying, and the like; than which what can be
more ridiculous? _Nonne ridiculum lugere quod colas, vel colere quod
lugeas_? (which [6519]Minutius objects) _Si dii, cur plangitis? si mortui,
cur adoratis_? that it is no marvel if [6520]Lucian, that adamantine
persecutor of superstition, and Pliny could so scoff at them and their
horrible idolatry as they did; if Diagoras took Hercules' image, and put it
under his pot to seethe his pottage, which was, as he said, his 13th
labour. But see more of their fopperies in Cypr. _4. tract, de Idol.
varietat._ Chrysostom _advers. Gentil._ Arnobius _adv. Gentes._ Austin, _de
civ. dei._ Theodoret. _de curat. Graec. affect._ Clemens Alexandrinus,
Minutius Felix, Eusebius, Lactantius, Stuckius, &c. Lamentable, tragical,
and fearful those symptoms are, that they should be so far forth affrighted
with their fictitious gods, as to spend the goods, lives, fortunes,
precious time, best days in their honour, to [6521]sacrifice unto them, to
their inestimable loss, such hecatombs, so many thousand sheep, oxen with
gilded horns, goats, as [6522]Croesus, king of Lydia, [6523] Marcus
Julianus, surnamed _ob crebras hostias Victimarius, et Tauricremus_, and
the rest of the Roman emperors usually did with such labour and cost; and
not emperors only and great ones, _pro communi bono_, were at this charge,
but private men for their ordinary occasions. Pythagoras offered a hundred
oxen for the invention of a geometrical problem, and it was an ordinary
thing to sacrifice in [6524]Lucian's time, "a heifer for their good health,
four oxen for wealth, a hundred for a kingdom, nine bulls for their safe
return from Troja to Pylus," &c. Every god almost had a peculiar
sacrifice--the Sun horses, Vulcan fire, Diana a white hart, Venus a turtle,
Ceres a hog, Proserpine a black lamb, Neptune a bull (read more in [6525]
Stuckius at large), besides sheep, cocks, corals, frankincense, to their
undoings, as if their gods were affected with blood or smoke. "And surely"
([6526]saith he) "if one should but repeat the fopperies of mortal men, in
their sacrifices, feasts, worshipping their gods, their rites and
ceremonies, what they think of them, of their diet, houses, orders, &c.,
what prayers and vows they make; if one should but observe their absurdity
and madness, he would burst out a laughing, and pity their folly." For what
can be more absurd than their ordinary prayers, petitions, [6527]requests,
sacrifices, oracles, devotions? of which we have a taste in Maximus Tyrius,
_serm. 1._ Plato's Alcibiades Secundus, Persius _Sat. 2._ Juvenal. _Sat.
10._ there likewise exploded, _Mactant opimas et pingues hostias deo quasi
esurienti, profundunt vina tanquam sitienti, lumina accendunt velut in
tenebris agenti_ (Lactantius, _lib. 2. cap. 6_). As if their gods were
hungry, athirst, in the dark, they light candles, offer meat and drink. And
what so base as to reveal their counsels and give oracles, _e viscerum
sterquiliniis_, out of the bowels and excremental parts of beasts?
_sordidos deos_ Varro truly calls them therefore, and well he might. I say
nothing of their magnificent and sumptuous temples, those majestical
structures: to the roof of Apollo Didymeus' temple, _ad branchidas_, as
[6528]Strabo writes, a thousand oaks did not suffice. Who can relate the
glorious splendour, and stupend magnificence, the sumptuous building of
Diana at Ephesus, Jupiter Ammon's temple in Africa, the Pantheon at Rome,
the Capitol, the Sarapium at Alexandria, Apollo's temple at Daphne in the
suburbs of Antioch. The great temple at Mexico so richly adorned, and so
capacious (for 10,000 men might stand in it at once), that fair Pantheon of
Cusco, described by Acosta in his Indian History, which eclipses both Jews
and Christians. There were in old Jerusalem, as some write, 408 synagogues;
but new Cairo reckons up (if [6529]Radzivilus may be believed) 6800
mosques; Fez 400, whereof 50 are most magnificent, like St. Paul's in
London. Helena built 300 fair churches in the Holy Land, but one Bassa hath
built 400 mosques. The Mahometans have 1000 monks in a monastery; the like
saith Acosta of Americans; Riccius of the Chinese, for men and women,
fairly built; and more richly endowed some of them, than Arras in Artois,
Fulda in Germany, or St. Edmund's-Bury in England with us: who can describe
those curious and costly statues, idols, images, so frequently mentioned in
Pausanias? I conceal their donaries, pendants, other offerings, presents,
to these their fictitious gods daily consecrated. [6530]Alexander, the son
of Amyntas, king of Macedonia, sent two statues of pure gold to Apollo at
Delphos. [6531]Croesus, king of Lydia dedicated a hundred golden tiles in
the same place with a golden altar: no man came empty-handed to their
shrines. But these are base offerings in respect; they offered men
themselves alive. The Leucadians, as Strabo writes, sacrificed every year a
man, _averruncandae, deorum irae, causa_, to pacify their gods, _de montis
praecipitio dejecerent_, &c. and they did voluntarily undergo it. The Decii
did so sacrifice, _Diis manibus_; Curtius did leap into the gulf. Were they
not all strangely deluded to go so far to their oracles, to be so gulled by
them, both in war and peace, as Polybius relates (which their argurs,
priests, vestal virgins can witness), to be so superstitious, that they
would rather lose goods and lives than omit any ceremonies, or offend their
heathen gods? Nicias, that generous and valiant captain of the Greeks,
overthrew the Athenian navy, by reason of his too much superstition, [6532]
because the augurs told him it was ominous to set sail from the haven of
Syracuse whilst the moon was eclipsed; he tarried so long till his enemies
besieged him, he and all his army were overthrown. The [6533]Parthians of
old were so sottish in this kind, they would rather lose a victory, nay
lose their own lives, than fight in the night, 'twas against their
religion. The Jews would make no resistance on the Sabbath, when Pompeius
besieged Jerusalem; and some Jewish Christians in Africa, set upon by the
Goths, suffered themselves upon the same occasion to be utterly vanquished.
The superstition of the Dibrenses, a bordering town in Epirus, besieged by
the Turks, is miraculous almost to report. Because a dead dog was flung
into the only fountain which the city had, they would die of thirst all,
rather than drink of that [6534]unclean water, and yield up the city upon
any conditions. Though the praetor and chief citizens began to drink first,
using all good persuasions, their superstition was such, no saying would
serve, they must all forthwith die or yield up the city. _Vix ausum ipse
credere_ (saith [6535]Barletius) _tantam superstitionem, vel affirmare
levissimam hanc causam tantae rei vel magis ridiculam, quum non dubitem
risum potius quum admirationem posteris excitaturam._ The story was too
ridiculous, he was ashamed to report it, because he thought nobody would
believe it. It is stupend to relate what strange effects this idolatry and
superstition hath brought forth of the latter years in the Indies and those
bordering parts: [6536]in what feral shapes the [6537]devil is adored, _ne
quid mali intentent_, as they say; for in the mountains betwixt Scanderoon
and Aleppo, at this day, there are dwelling a certain kind of people called
Coords, coming of the race of the ancient Parthians, who worship the devil,
and allege this reason in so doing: God is a good man and will do no harm,
but the devil is bad and must be pleased, lest he hurt them. It is
wonderful to tell how the devil deludes them, how he terrifies them, how
they offer men and women sacrifices unto him, a hundred at once, as they
did infants in Crete to Saturn of old, the finest children, like
Agamemnon's Iphigenia, &c. At [6538]Mexico, when the Spaniards first
overcame them, they daily sacrificed _viva hominum corda e viventium
corporibus extracta_, the hearts of men yet living, 20,000 in a year
(Acosta _lib. 5. cap. 20_) to their idols made of flour and men's blood,
and every year 6000 infants of both sexes: and as prodigious to relate,
[6539]how they bury their wives with husbands deceased, 'tis fearful to
report, and harder to believe,
[6540] "Nam certamen habent laethi quae viva sequatur
Conjugium, pudor, est non licuisse mori,"
and burn them alive, best goods, servants, horses, when a grandee dies,
[6541]twelve thousand at once amongst the Tartar's, when a great Cham
departs, or an emperor in America: how they plague themselves, which
abstain from all that hath life, like those old Pythagoreans, with
immoderate fastings, [6542]as the Bannians about Surat, they of China, that
for superstition's sake never eat flesh nor fish all their lives, never
marry, but live in deserts and by-places, and some pray to their idols
twenty-four hours together without any intermission, biting of their
tongues when they have done, for devotion's sake. Some again are brought to
that madness by their superstitious priests (that tell them such vain
stories of immortality, and the joys of heaven in that other life), [6543]
that many thousands voluntarily break their own necks, as Cleombrotus
Amborciatus, auditors of old, precipitate themselves, that they may
participate of that unspeakable happiness in the other world. One poisons,
another strangles himself, and the King of China had done as much, deluded
with the vain hope, had he not been detained by his servant. But who can
sufficiently tell of their several superstitions, vexations, follies,
torments? I may conclude with [6544]Possevinus, _Religifacit asperos mites,
homines e feris; superstitio ex hominibus feras_, religion makes wild
beasts civil, superstition makes wise men beasts and fools; and the
discreetest that are, if they give way to it, are no better than dizzards;
nay more, if that of Plotinus be true, _is unus religionis scopus, ut ei
quem colimus similes fiamus_, that is the drift of religion to make us like
him whom we worship: what shall be the end of idolaters, but to degenerate
into stocks and stones? of such as worship these heathen gods, for _dii
gentium daemonia_, [6545]but to become devils themselves? 'Tis therefore
_exitiosus error, et maxime periculosus_, a most perilous and dangerous
error of all others, as [6546]Plutarch holds, _turbulenta passio hominem
consternans_, a pestilent, a troublesome passion, that utterly undoeth men.
Unhappy superstition, [6547]Pliny calls it, _morte non finitur_, death
takes away life, but not superstition. Impious and ignorant are far more
happy than they which are superstitious, no torture like to it, none so
continuate, so general, so destructive, so violent.
In this superstitious row, Jews for antiquity may go next to Gentiles: what
of old they have done, what idolatries they have committed in their groves
and high places, what their Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Essei, and such
sectaries have maintained, I will not so much as mention: for the present,
I presume no nation under heaven can be more sottish, ignorant, blind,
superstitious, wilful, obstinate, and peevish, tiring themselves with vain
ceremonies to no purpose; he that shall but read their Rabbins' ridiculous
comments, their strange interpretation of scriptures, their absurd
ceremonies, fables, childish tales, which they steadfastly believe, will
think they be scarce rational creatures; their foolish [6548]customs, when
they rise in the morning, and how they prepare themselves to prayer, to
meat, with what superstitious washings, how to their Sabbath, to their
other feasts, weddings, burials, &c. Last of all, the expectation of their
Messiah, and those figments, miracles, vain pomp that shall attend him, as
how he shall terrify the Gentiles, and overcome them by new diseases; how
Michael the archangel shall sound his trumpet, how he shall gather all the
scattered Jews in the Holy Land, and there make them a great banquet,
[6549] "Wherein shall be all the birds, beasts, fishes, that ever God made,
a cup of wine that grew in Paradise, and that hath been kept in Adam's
cellar ever since." At the first course shall be served in that great ox in
Job iv. 10., "that every day feeds on a thousand hills," Psal. 1. 10., that
great Leviathan, and a great bird, that laid an egg so big, [6550]"that by
chance tumbling out of the nest, it knocked down three hundred tall cedars,
and breaking as it fell, drowned one hundred and sixty villages:" this bird
stood up to the knees in the sea, and the sea was so deep, that a hatchet
would not fall to the bottom in seven years: of their Messiah's [6551]wives
and children; Adam and Eve, &c., and that one stupend fiction amongst the
rest: when a Roman prince asked of rabbi Jehosua ben Hanania, why the Jews'
God was compared to a lion; he made answer, he compared himself to no
ordinary lion, but to one in the wood Ela, which, when he desired to see,
the rabbin prayed to God he might, and forthwith the lion set forward.
[6552] "But when he was four hundred miles from Rome he so roared that all
the great-bellied women in Rome made abortions, the city walls fell down,
and when he came a hundred miles nearer, and roared the second time, their
teeth fell out of their heads, the emperor himself fell down dead, and so
the lion went back." With an infinite number of such lies and forgeries,
which they verily believe, feed themselves with vain hope, and in the mean
time will by no persuasions be diverted, but still crucify their souls with
a company of idle ceremonies, live like slaves and vagabonds, will not be
relieved or reconciled.
Mahometans are a compound of Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, and so absurd
in their ceremonies, as if they had taken that which is most sottish out of
every one of them, full of idle fables in their superstitious law, their
Alcoran itself a gallimaufry of lies, tales, ceremonies, traditions,
precepts, stolen from other sects, and confusedly heaped up to delude a
company of rude and barbarous clowns. As how birds, beasts, stones, saluted
Mahomet when he came from Mecca, the moon came down from heaven to visit
him, [6553]how God sent for him, spake to him, &c., with a company of
stupend figments of the angels, sun, moon, and stars, &c. Of the day of
judgment, and three sounds to prepare to it, which must last fifty thousand
years of Paradise, which wholly consists in _coeundi et comedendi
voluptate_, and _pecorinis hominibus scriptum, bestialis beatitudo_, is so
ridiculous, that Virgil, Dante, Lucian, nor any poet can be more fabulous.
Their rites and ceremonies are most vain and superstitious, wine and
swine's flesh are utterly forbidden by their law, [6554]they must pray five
times a day; and still towards the south, wash before and after all their
bodies over, with many such. For fasting, vows, religious orders,
peregrinations, they go far beyond any papists, [6555]they fast a month
together many times, and must not eat a bit till sun be set. Their
kalendars, dervises, and torlachers, &c. are more [6556]abstemious some of
them, than Carthusians, Franciscans, Anchorites, forsake all, live
solitary, fare hard, go naked, &c. [6557]Their pilgrimages are as far as to
the river [6558]Ganges (which the Gentiles of those tracts likewise do), to
wash themselves, for that river as they hold hath a sovereign virtue to
purge them of all sins, and no man can be saved that hath not been washed
in it. For which reason they come far and near from the Indies; _Maximus
gentium omnium confluxus est_; and infinite numbers yearly resort to it.
Others go as far as Mecca to Mahomet's tomb, which journey is both
miraculous and meritorious. The ceremonies of flinging stones to stone the
devil, of eating a camel at Cairo by the way; their fastings, their running
till they sweat, their long prayers, Mahomet's temple, tomb, and building
of it, would ask a whole volume to dilate: and for their pains taken in
this holy pilgrimage, all their sins are forgiven, and they reputed for so
many saints. And diverse of them with hot bricks, when they return, will
put out their eyes, [6559]"that they never after see any profane thing,
bite out their tongues," &c. They look for their prophet Mahomet as Jews do
for their Messiah. Read more of their customs, rites, ceremonies, in
Lonicerus _Turcic. hist. tom. 1._ from the tenth to the twenty-fourth
chapter. Bredenbachius, _cap. 4, 5, 6._ Leo Afer, _lib. 1._ Busbequius
Sabellicus, Purchas, _lib. 3. cap. 3, et 4, 5._ Theodorus Bibliander, &c.
Many foolish ceremonies you shall find in them; and which is most to be
lamented, the people are generally so curious in observing of them, that if
the least circumstance be omitted, they think they shall be damned, 'tis an
irremissible offence, and can hardly be forgiven. I kept in my house
amongst my followers (saith Busbequius, sometime the Turk's orator in
Constantinople) a Turkey boy, that by chance did eat shellfish, a meat
forbidden by their law, but the next day when he knew what he had done, he
was not only sick to cast and vomit, but very much troubled in mind, would
weep and [6560]grieve many days after, torment himself for his foul
offence. Another Turk being to drink a cup of wine in his cellar, first
made a huge noise and filthy faces, [6561]"to warn his soul, as he said,
that it should not be guilty of that foul fact which he was to commit."
With such toys as these are men kept in awe, and so cowed, that they dare
not resist, or offend the least circumstance of their law, for conscience'
sake misled by superstition, which no human edict otherwise, no force of
arms, could have enforced.
In the last place are pseudo-Christians, in describing of whose
superstitious symptoms, as a mixture of the rest, I may say that which St.
Benedict once saw in a vision, one devil in the marketplace, but ten in a
monastery, because there was more work; in populous cities they would swear
and forswear, lie, falsify, deceive fast enough of themselves, one devil
could circumvent a thousand; but in their religious houses a thousand
devils could scarce tempt one silly monk. All the principal devils, I
think, busy themselves in subverting Christians; Jews, Gentiles, and
Mahometans, are _extra caulem_, out of the fold, and need no such
attendance, they make no resistance, [6562]_eos enim pulsare negligit, quos
quieto jure possidere se sentit_, they are his own already: but Christians
have that shield of faith, sword of the Spirit to resist, and must have a
great deal of battery before they can be overcome. That the devil is most
busy amongst us that are of the true church, appears by those several
oppositions, heresies, schisms, which in all ages he hath raised to subvert
it, and in that of Rome especially, wherein Antichrist himself now sits and
plays his prize. This mystery of iniquity began to work even in the
Apostles' time, many Antichrists and heretics' were abroad, many sprung up
since, many now present, and will be to the world's end, to dementate men's
minds, to seduce and captivate their souls. Their symptoms I know not how
better to express, than in that twofold division, of such as lead, and are
led. Such as lead are heretics, schismatics, false prophets, impostors, and
their ministers: they have some common symptoms, some peculiar. Common, as
madness, folly, pride, insolency, arrogancy, singularity, peevishness,
obstinacy, impudence, scorn and contempt of all other sects: _Nullius
addicti jurare in verba magistri_; [6563]they will approve of nought but
what they first invent themselves, no interpretation good but what their
infallible spirit dictates: none shall be _in secundis_, no not _in
tertiis_, they are only wise, only learned in the truth, all damned but
they and their followers, _caedem scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam_,
saith Tertullian, they make a slaughter of Scriptures, and turn it as a
nose of wax to their own ends. So irrefragable, in the mean time, that what
they have once said, they must and will maintain, in whole tomes,
duplications, triplications, never yield to death, so self-conceited, say
what you can. As [6564]Bernard (erroneously some say) speaks of P.
Aliardus, _omnes patres sic, atque ego sic._ Though all the Fathers,
Councils, the whole world contradict it, they care not, they are all one:
and as [6565] Gregory well notes "of such as are vertiginous, they think
all turns round and moves, all err: when as the error is wholly in their
own brains." Magallianus, the Jesuit, in his Comment on 1 Tim. xvi. 20, and
Alphonsus _de castro lib. 1. adversus haereses_, gives two more eminent
notes or probable conjectures to know such men by, (they might have taken
themselves by the noses when they said it) [6566]"First they affect
novelties and toys, and prefer falsehood before truth; [6567]secondly, they
care not what they say, that which rashness and folly hath brought out,
pride afterward, peevishness and contumacy shall maintain to the last
gasp." Peculiar symptoms are prodigious paradoxes, new doctrines, vain
phantasms, which are many and diverse as they themselves. [6568]Nicholaites
of old, would have wives in common: Montanists will not marry at all, nor
Tatians, forbidding all flesh, Severians wine; Adamians go naked,
[6569]because Adam did so in Paradise; and some [6570]barefoot all their
lives, because God, Exod. iii. and Joshua v. bid Moses so to do; and Isaiah
xx. was bid put off his shoes; Manichees hold that Pythagorean
transmigration of souls from men to beasts; [6571]"the Circumcellions in
Africa, with a mad cruelty made away themselves, some by fire, water,
breaking their necks, and seduced others to do the like, threatening some
if they did not," with a thousand such; as you may read in [6572]Austin
(for there were fourscore and eleven heresies in his times, besides schisms
and smaller factions) Epiphanius, Alphonsus _de Castro, Danaeus, Gab,
Prateolus_, &c. Of prophets, enthusiasts and impostors, our Ecclesiastical
stories afford many examples; of Elias and Christs, as our [6573]Eudo _de
stellis_, a Briton in King Stephen's time, that went invisible, translated
himself from one to another in a moment, fed thousands with good cheer in
the wilderness, and many such; nothing so common as miracles, visions,
revelations, prophecies. Now what these brain-sick heretics once broach,
and impostors set on foot, be it never so absurd, false, and prodigious,
the common people will follow and believe. It will run along like murrain
in cattle, scab in sheep. _Nulla scabies_, as [6574]he said, _superstitione
scabiosior_; as he that is bitten with a mad dog bites others, and all in
the end become mad; either out of affection of novelty, simplicity, blind
zeal, hope and fear, the giddy-headed multitude will embrace it, and
without further examination approve it.
_Sed vetera querimur_, these are old, _haec prius fuere._ In our days we
have a new scene of superstitious impostors and heretics. A new company of
actors, of Antichrists, that great Antichrist himself: a rope of hopes,
that by their greatness and authority bear down all before them: who from
that time they proclaimed themselves universal bishops, to establish their
own kingdom, sovereignty, greatness, and to enrich themselves, brought in
such a company of human traditions, purgatory, _Limbus Patrum, Infantum_,
and all that subterranean geography, mass, adoration of saints, alms,
fastings, bulls, indulgences, orders, friars, images, shrines, musty
relics, excommunications, confessions, satisfactions, blind obediences,
vows, pilgrimages, peregrinations, with many such curious toys, intricate
subtleties, gross errors, obscure questions, to vindicate the better and
set a gloss upon them, that the light of the Gospel was quite eclipsed,
darkness over all, the Scriptures concealed, legends brought in, religion
banished, hypocritical superstition exalted, and the Church itself [6575]
obscured and persecuted: Christ and his members crucified more, saith
Benzo, by a few necromantical, atheistical popes, than ever it was by
[6576] Julian the Apostate, Porphyrius the Platonist, Celsus the physician,
Libanius the Sophister; by those heathen emperors, Huns, Goths, and
Vandals. What each of them did, by what means, at what times, _quibus
auxiliis_, superstition climbed to this height, tradition increased, and
Antichrist himself came to his estate, let Magdeburgenses, Kemnisius,
Osiander, Bale, Mornay, Fox, Usher, and many others relate. In the mean
time, he that shall but see their profane rites and foolish customs, how
superstitiously kept, how strictly observed, their multitude of saints,
images, that rabble of Romish deities, for trades, professions, diseases,
persons, offices, countries, places; St. George for England; St. Denis for
France, Patrick, Ireland; Andrew, Scotland; Jago, Spain; &c. Gregory for
students; Luke for painters; Cosmus and Damian for philosophers; Crispin,
shoemakers; Katherine, spinners; &c. Anthony for pigs; Gallus, geese;
Wenceslaus, sheep; Pelagius, oxen; Sebastian, the plague; Valentine,
falling sickness; Apollonia, toothache; Petronella for agues; and the
Virgin Mary for sea and land, for all parties, offices: he that shall
observe these things, their shrines, images, oblations, pendants,
adorations, pilgrimages they make to them, what creeping to crosses, our
Lady of Loretto's rich [6577]gowns, her donaries, the cost bestowed on
images, and number of suitors; St. Nicholas Burge in France; our St.
Thomas's shrine of old at Canterbury; those relics at Rome, Jerusalem,
Genoa, Lyons, Pratum, St. Denis; and how many thousands come yearly to
offer to them, with what cost, trouble, anxiety, superstition (for forty
several masses are daily said in some of their [6578]churches, and they
rise at all hours of the night to mass, come barefoot, &c.), how they spend
themselves, times, goods, lives, fortunes, in such ridiculous observations;
their tales and figments, false miracles, buying and selling of pardons,
indulgences for 40,000 years to come, their processions on set days, their
strict fastings, monks, anchorites, friar mendicants, Franciscans,
Carthusians, &c. Their vigils and fasts, their ceremonies at Christmas,
Shrovetide, Candlemas, Palm Sunday, Blaise, St. Martin, St. Nicholas' day;
their adorations, exorcisms, &c., will think all those Grecian, Pagan,
Mahometan superstitions, gods, idols, and ceremonies, the name, time and
place, habit only altered, to have degenerated into Christians. Whilst they
prefer traditions before Scriptures; those Evangelical Councils, poverty,
obedience, vows, alms, fasting, supererogations, before God's Commandments;
their own ordinances instead of his precepts, and keep them in ignorance,
blindness, they have brought the common people into such a case by their
cunning conveyances, strict discipline, and servile education, that upon
pain of damnation they dare not break the least ceremony, tradition, edict;
hold it a greater sin to eat a bit of meat in Lent, than kill a man: their
consciences are so terrified, that they are ready to despair if a small
ceremony be omitted; and will accuse their own father, mother, brother,
sister, nearest and dearest friends of heresy, if they do not as they do,
will be their chief executioners, and help first to bring a faggot to burn
them. What mulct, what penance soever is enjoined, they dare not but do it,
tumble with St. Francis in the mire amongst hogs, if they be appointed, go
woolward, whip themselves, build hospitals, abbeys, &c., go to the East or
West Indies, kill a king, or run upon a sword point: they perform all,
without any muttering or hesitation, believe all.
[6579] "Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena
Vivere, et esse homines, et sic isti omnia ficta
Vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse ahenis."
"As children think their babies live to be,
Do they these brazen images they see."
And whilst the ruder sort are so carried headlong with blind zeal, are so
gulled and tortured by their superstitions, their own too credulous
simplicity and ignorance, their epicurean popes and hypocritical cardinals
laugh in their sleeves, and are merry in their chambers with their punks,
they do _indulgere genio_, and make much of themselves. The middle sort,
some for private gain, hope of ecclesiastical preferment, (_quis expedivit
psittaco suum [Greek: chaire]_) popularity, base flattery, must and will
believe all their paradoxes and absurd tenets, without exception, and as
obstinately maintain and put in practice all their traditions and
idolatrous ceremonies (for their religion is half a trade) to the death;
they will defend all, the golden legend itself, with all the lies and tales
in it: as that of St. George, St. Christopher, St. Winifred, St. Denis, &c.
It is a wonder to see how Nic. Harpsfield, that Pharisaical impostor,
amongst the rest, Ecclesiast. Hist. _cap. 22. saec prim, sex._, puzzles
himself to vindicate that ridiculous fable of St. Ursula and the eleven
thousand virgins, as when they live, [6580]how they came to Cologne, by
whom martyred, &c., though he can say nothing for it, yet he must and will
approve it: _nobilitavit (inquit) hoc saeculum Ursula cum comitibus, cujus
historia utinam tam mihi esset expedita et certa, quam in animo meo certum
ac expeditum est, eam esse cum sodalibus beatam in coelis virginem._ They
must and will (I say) either out of blind zeal believe, vary their compass
with the rest, as the latitude of religion varies, apply themselves to the
times, and seasons, and for fear and flattery are content to subscribe and
to do all that in them lies to maintain and defend their present government
and slavish religious schoolmen, canonists, Jesuits, friars, priests,
orators, sophisters, who either for that they had nothing else to do,
luxuriant wits knew not otherwise how to busy themselves in those idle
times, for the Church then had few or no open adversaries, or better to
defend their lies, fictions, miracles, transubstantiations, traditions,
pope's pardons, purgatories, masses, impossibilities, &c. with glorious
shows, fair pretences, big words, and plausible wits, have coined a
thousand idle questions, nice distinctions, subtleties, Obs and Sols, such
tropological, allegorical expositions, to salve all appearances,
objections, such quirks and quiddities, _quodlibetaries_, as Bale saith of
Ferribrigge and Strode, instances, ampliations, decrees, glosses, canons,
that instead of sound commentaries, good preachers, are come in a company
of mad sophisters, _primo secundo secundarii_, sectaries, Canonists,
Sorbonists, Minorites, with a rabble of idle controversies and questions,
[6581]_an Papa sit Deus, an quasi Deus? An participet utramque Christi
naturam_? Whether it be as possible for God to be a humble bee or a gourd,
as a man? Whether he can produce respect without a foundation or term, make
a whore a virgin? fetch Trajan's soul from hell, and how? with a rabble of
questions about hell-fire: whether it be a greater sin to kill a man, or to
clout shoes upon a Sunday? whether God can make another God like unto
himself? Such, saith Kemnisius, are most of your schoolmen, (mere
alchemists) 200 commentators on Peter Lambard; (_Pitsius catal. scriptorum
Anglic._ reckons up 180 English commentators alone, on the matter of the
sentences), Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals, &c., and so perhaps that
of St. [6582]Austin may be verified. _Indocti rapiunt coelum, docti interim
descendunt ad infernum._ Thus they continued in such error, blindness,
decrees, sophisms, superstitions; idle ceremonies and traditions were the
sum of their new-coined holiness and religion, and by these knaveries and
stratagems they were able to involve multitudes, to deceive the most
sanctified souls, and, if it were possible, the very elect. In the mean
time the true Church, as wine and water mixed, lay hid and obscure to speak
of, till Luther's time, who began upon a sudden to defecate, and as another
sun to drive away those foggy mists of superstition, to restore it to that
purity of the primitive Church. And after him many good and godly men,
divine spirits, have done their endeavours, and still do.
[6583] "And what their ignorance esteem'd so holy,
Our wiser ages do account as folly."
But see the devil, that will never suffer the Church to be quiet or at
rest: no garden so well tilled but some noxious weeds grow up in it, no
wheat but it hath some tares: we have a mad giddy company of precisians,
schismatics, and some heretics, even, in our own bosoms in another extreme.
[6584]_Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt_; that out of too much
zeal in opposition to Antichrist, human traditions, those Romish rites and
superstitions, will quite demolish all, they will admit of no ceremonies at
all, no fasting days, no cross in baptism, kneeling at communion, no church
music, &c., no bishops' courts, no church government, rail at all our
church discipline, will not hold their tongues, and all for the peace of
thee, O Sion! No, not so much as degrees some of them will tolerate, or
universities, all human learning, ('tis _cloaca diaboli_) hoods, habits,
cap and surplice, such as are things indifferent in themselves, and wholly
for ornament, decency, or distinction's sake, they abhor, hate, and snuff
at, as a stone-horse when he meets a bear: they make matters of conscience
of them, and will rather forsake their livings than subscribe to them. They
will admit of no holidays, or honest recreations, as of hawking, hunting,
&c., no churches, no bells some of them, because papists use them; no
discipline, no ceremonies but what they invent themselves; no
interpretations of 'scriptures, no comments of fathers, no councils, but
such as their own fantastical spirits dictate, or _recta ratio_, as
Socinians, by which spirit misled, many times they broach as prodigious
paradoxes as papists themselves. Some of them turn prophets, have secret
revelations, will be of privy council with God himself, and know all his
secrets, [6585]_ Per capillos spiritum sanctum tenent, et omnia sciunt cum
sint asini omnium obstinatissimi_, a company of giddy heads will take upon
them to define how many shall be saved and who damned in a parish, where
they shall sit in heaven, interpret Apocalypses, (_Commentatores
praecipites et vertiginosos_, one calls them, as well he might) and those
hidden mysteries to private persons, times, places, as their own spirit
informs them, private revelations shall suggest, and precisely set down
when the world shall come to an end, what year, what month, what day. Some
of them again have such strong faith, so presumptuous, they will go into
infected houses, expel devils, and fast forty days, as Christ himself did;
some call God and his attributes into question, as Vorstius and Socinus;
some princes, civil magistrates, and their authorities, as Anabaptists,
will do all their own private spirit dictates, and nothing else. Brownists,
Barrowists, Familists, and those Amsterdamian sects and sectaries, are led
all by so many private spirits. It is a wonder to reveal what passages
Sleidan relates in his Commentaries, of Cretinck, Knipperdoling, and their
associates, those madmen of Munster in Germany; what strange enthusiasms,
sottish revelations they had, how absurdly they carried themselves, deluded
others; and as profane Machiavel in his political disputations holds of
Christian religion, in general it doth enervate, debilitate, take away
men's spirits and courage from them, _simpliciores reddit homines_, breeds
nothing so courageous soldiers as that Roman: we may say of these peculiar
sects, their religion takes away not spirits only, but wit and judgment,
and deprives them of their understanding; for some of them are so far gone
with their private enthusiasms and revelations, that they are quite mad,
out of their wits. What greater madness can there be, than for a man to
take upon him to be a God, as some do? to be the Holy Ghost, Elias, and
what not? In [6586]Poland, 1518, in the reign of King Sigismund, one said
he was Christ, and got him twelve apostles, came to judge the world, and
strangely deluded the commons. [6587]One David George, an illiterate
painter, not many years since, did as much in Holland, took upon him to be
the Messiah, and had many followers. Benedictus Victorinus Faventinus,
_consil. 15_, writes as much of one Honorius, that thought he was not only
inspired as a prophet, but that he was a God himself, and had
[6588]familiar conference with God and his angels. Lavat. _de spect. c. 2.
part. 8._ hath a story of one John Sartorious, that thought he was the
prophet Elias, and _cap. 7._ of diverse others that had conference with
angels, were saints, prophets. Wierus, _lib. 3. de Lamiis c. 7._ makes
mention of a prophet of Groning that said he was God the Father; of an
Italian and Spanish prophet that held as much. We need not rove so far
abroad, we have familiar examples at home: Hackett that said he was Christ;
Coppinger and Arthington his disciples; [6589]Burchet and Hovatus, burned
at Norwich. We are never likely seven years together without some such new
prophets that have several inspirations, some to convert the Jews, some
fast forty days, go with Daniel to the lion's den; some foretell strange
things, some for one thing, some for another. Great precisians of mean
conditions and very illiterate, most part by a preposterous zeal, fasting,
meditation, melancholy, are brought into those gross errors and
inconveniences. Of those men I may conclude generally, that howsoever they
may seem to be discreet, and men of understanding in other matters,
discourse well, _laesam habent imaginationem_, they are like comets, round
in all places but where they blaze, _caetera sani_, they have impregnable
wits many of them, and discreet otherwise, but in this their madness and
folly breaks out beyond measure, _in infinitum erumpit stultitia._ They are
certainly far gone with melancholy, if not quite mad, and have more need of
physic than many a man that keeps his bed, more need of hellebore than
those that are in Bedlam.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Prognostics of Religious Melancholy_.
You may guess at the prognostics by the symptoms. What can these signs fore
tell otherwise than folly, dotage, madness, gross ignorance, despair,
obstinacy, a reprobate sense, [6590]a bad end? What else can superstition,
heresy produce, but wars, tumults, uproars, torture of souls, and despair,
a desolate land, as Jeremy teacheth, cap. vii. 34. when they commit
idolatry, and walk after their own ways? how should it be otherwise with
them? what can they expect but "blasting, famine, dearth," and all the
plagues of Egypt, as Amos denounceth, cap. iv. vers. 9. 10. to be led into
captivity? If our hopes be frustrate, "we sow much and bring in little, eat
and have not enough, drink and are not filled, clothe and be not warm," &c.
Haggai i. 6. "we look for much and it comes to little, whence is it? His
house was waste, they came to their own houses," vers. 9. "therefore the
heaven stayed his dew, the earth his fruit." Because we are superstitious,
irreligious, we do not serve God as we ought, all these plagues and
miseries come upon us; what can we look for else but mutual wars,
slaughters, fearful ends in this life, and in the life to come eternal
damnation? What is it that hath caused so many feral battles to be fought,
so much Christian blood shed, but superstition! That Spanish inquisition,
racks, wheels, tortures, torments, whence do they proceed? from
superstition. Bodine the Frenchman, in his [6591]_method. hist._ accounts
Englishmen barbarians, for their civil wars: but let him read those
Pharsalian fields [6592]fought of late in France for their religion, their
massacres, wherein by their own relations in twenty-four years, I know not
how many millions have been consumed, whole families and cities, and he
shall find ours to be but velitations to theirs. But it hath ever been the
custom of heretics and idolaters, when they are plagued for their sins, and
God's just judgments come upon them, not to acknowledge any fault in
themselves, but still impute it unto others. In Cyprian's time it was much
controverted between him and Demetrius an idolater, who should be the cause
of those present calamities. Demetrius laid all the fault on Christians,
(and so they did ever in the primitive church, as appears by the first book
of [6593]Arnobius), [6594]"that there were not such ordinary showers in
winter, the ripening heat in summer, so seasonable springs, fruitful
autumns, no marble mines in the mountains, less gold and silver than of
old; that husbandmen, seamen, soldiers, all were scanted, justice,
friendship, skill in arts, all was decayed," and that through Christians'
default, and all their other miseries from them, _quod dii nostri a vobis
non colantur_, because they did not worship their gods. But Cyprian retorts
all upon him again, as appears by his tract against him. 'Tis true the
world is miserably tormented and shaken with wars, dearth, famine, fire,
inundations, plagues, and many feral diseases rage amongst us, _sed non ut
tu quereris ista accidunt quod dii vestri a nobis non colantur, sed quod a
vobis non colatur Deus, a quibus nec quaeritur, nec timetur_, not as thou
complainest, that we do not worship your Gods, but because you are
idolaters, and do not serve the true God, neither seek him, nor fear him as
you ought. Our papists object as much to us, and account us heretics, we
them; the Turks esteem of both as infidels, and we them as a company of
pagans, Jews against all; when indeed there is a general fault in us all,
and something in the very best, which may justly deserve God's wrath, and
pull these miseries upon our heads. I will say nothing here of those vain
cares, torments, needless works, penance, pilgrimages, pseudomartyrdom, &c.
We heap upon ourselves unnecessary troubles, observations; we punish our
bodies, as in Turkey (saith [6595]Busbequius _leg. Turcic. ep. 3._) "one
did, that was much affected with music, and to hear boys sing, but very
superstitious; an old sibyl coming to his house, or a holy woman," (as that
place yields many) "took him down for it, and told him, that in that other
world he should suffer for it; thereupon he flung his rich and costly
instruments which he had bedecked with jewels, all at once into the fire.
He was served in silver plate, and had goodly household stuff: a little
after, another religious man reprehended him in like sort, and from
thenceforth he was served in earthen vessels, last of all a decree came
forth, because Turks might not drink wine themselves, that neither Jew nor
Christian then living in Constantinople, might drink any wine at all." In
like sort amongst papists, fasting at first was generally proposed as a
good thing; after, from such meats at set times, and then last of all so
rigorously proposed, to bind the consciences upon pain of damnation. "First
Friday," saith Erasmus, "then Saturday," _et nunc periclitatur dies
Mercurii_) and Wednesday now is in danger of a fast. [6596]"And for such
like toys, some so miserably afflict themselves, to despair, and death
itself, rather than offend, and think themselves good Christians in it,
when as indeed they are superstitious Jews." So saith Leonardus Fuchsius, a
great physician in his time. [6597]"We are tortured in Germany with these
popish edicts, our bodies so taken down, our goods so diminished, that if
God had not sent Luther, a worthy man, in time, to redress these mischiefs,
we should have eaten hay with our horses before this." [6598]As in fasting,
so in all other superstitious edicts, we crucify one another without a
cause, barring ourselves of many good and lawful things, honest disports,
pleasures and recreations; for wherefore did God create them but for our
use? Feasts, mirth, music, hawking, hunting, singing, dancing, &c. _non tam
necessitatibus nostris Deus inservit, sed in delicias amamur_, as Seneca
notes, God would have it so. And as Plato _2. de legibus_ gives out, _Deos
laboriosam hominum vitam miseratos_, the gods in commiseration of human
estate sent Apollo, Bacchus, and the Muses, _qui cum voluptate tripudia et
soltationes nobis ducant_, to be merry with mortals, to sing and dance with
us. So that he that will not rejoice and enjoy himself, making good use of
such things as are lawfully permitted, _non est temperatus_, as he will,
_sed superstitiosus._ "There is nothing better for a man, than that he
should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his
labour," Eccles. ii. 24. And as [6599]one said of hawking and hunting, _tot
solatia in hac aegri orbis calamitate, mortalibus taediis deus objecit_, I
say of all honest recreations, God hath therefore indulged them to refresh,
ease, solace and comfort us. But we are some of us too stern, too rigid,
too precise, too grossly superstitious, and whilst we make a conscience of
every toy, with touch not, taste not, &c., as those Pythagoreans of old,
and some Indians now, that will eat no flesh, or suffer any living creature
to be killed, the Bannians about Guzzerat; we tyrannise over our brother's
soul, lose the right use of many good gifts; honest [6600]sports, games and
pleasant recreations, [6601]punish ourselves without a cause, lose our
liberties, and sometimes our lives. Anno 1270, at [6602]Magdeburg in
Germany, a Jew fell into a privy upon a Saturday, and without help could
not possibly get out; he called to his fellows for succour, but they denied
it, because it was their Sabbath, _non licebat opus manuum exercere_; the
bishop hearing of it, the next day forbade him to be pulled out, because it
was our Sunday. In the mean time the wretch died before Monday. We have
myriads of examples in this kind amongst those rigid Sabbatarians, and
therefore not without good cause, [6603]_Intolerabilem pertubationem_
Seneca calls it, as well he might, an intolerable perturbation, that
causeth such dire events, folly, madness, sickness, despair, death of body
and soul, and hell itself.
SUBSECT. V.--_Cure of Religious Melancholy_.
To purge the world of idolatry and superstition, will require some
monster-taming Hercules, a divine Aesculapius, or Christ himself to come in
his own person, to reign a thousand years on earth before the end, as the
Millenaries will have him. They are generally so refractory,
self-conceited, obstinate, so firmly addicted to that religion in which
they have been bred and brought up, that no persuasion, no terror, no
persecution, can divert them. The consideration of which, hath induced many
commonwealths to suffer them to enjoy their consciences as they will
themselves: a toleration of Jews is in most provinces of Europe. In Asia
they have their synagogues: Spaniards permit Moors to live amongst them:
the Mogullians, Gentiles: the Turks all religions. In Europe, Poland and
Amsterdam are the common sanctuaries. Some are of opinion, that no man
ought to be compelled for conscience' sake, but let him be of what religion
he will, he may be saved, as Cornelius was formerly accepted, Jew, Turks,
Anabaptists, &c. If he be an honest man, live soberly, and civilly in his
profession, (Volkelius, Crellius, and the rest of the Socinians, that now
nestle themselves about Krakow and Rakow in Poland, have renewed this
opinion) serve his own God, with that fear and reverence as he ought. _Sua
cuique civitati_ (Laeli) _religio sit, nostra nobis_, Tully thought fit
every city should be free in this behalf, adore their own _Custodes et
Topicos Deos_, tutelar and local gods, as Symmachus calls them. Isocrates
adviseth Demonicus, "when he came to a strange city, to [6604]worship by
all means the gods of the place," _et unumquemque, Topicum deum sic coli
oportere, quomodo ipse praeceperit_: which Cecilius in [6605]Minutius
labours, and would have every nation _sacrorum ritus gentiles habere et
deos colere municipes_, keep their own ceremonies, worship their peculiar
gods, which Pomponius Mela reports of the Africans, _Deos suos patrio more
venerantur_, they worship their own gods according to their own ordination.
For why should any one nation, as he there pleads, challenge that
universality of God, _Deum suum quem nec ostendunt, nec vident,
discurrantem silicet et ubique praesentem, in omnium mores, actus, et
occultas, cogitationes inquirentem_, &c., as Christians do: let every
province enjoy their liberty in this behalf, worship one God, or all as
they will, and are informed. The Romans built altars Diis Asiae, Europae,
Lybiae, _diis ignotis et peregrinis_: others otherwise, &c. Plinius
Secundus, as appears by his Epistle to Trajan, would not have the
Christians so persecuted, and in some time of the reign of Maximinus, as we
find it registered in Eusebius _lib. 9. cap. 9._ there was a decree made to
this purpose, _Nullus cogatur invitus ad hunc vel illum deorum cultum_,
"let no one be compelled against his will to worship any particular deity,"
and by Constantine in the 19th year of his reign as [6606]Baronius
informeth us, _Nemo alteri exhibeat molestiam, quod cujusque animus vult,
hoc quisque transigat_, new gods, new lawgivers, new priests, will have new
ceremonies, customs and religions, to which every wise man as a good
formalist should accommodate himself.
[6607] "Saturnus periit, perierunt et sua jura,
Sub Jove nunc mundus, jussa sequare Jovis."
The said Constantine the emperor, as Eusebius writes, flung down and
demolished all the heathen gods, silver, gold statues, altars, images and
temples, and turned them all to Christian churches, _infestus gentilium
monumentis ludibrio exposuit_; the Turk now converts them again to
Mahometan mosques. The like edict came forth in the reign of Arcadius and
Honorius. [6608]Symmachus the orator in his days, to procure a general
toleration, used this argument, [6609]"Because God is immense and infinite,
and his nature cannot perfectly be known, it is convenient he should be as
diversely worshipped, as every man shall perceive or understand." It was
impossible, he thought, for one religion to be universal: you see that one
small province can hardly be ruled by one law, civil or spiritual; and "how
shall so many distinct and vast empires of the world be united into one? It
never was, never will be" Besides, if there be infinite planetary and
firmamental worlds, as [6610]some will, there be infinite genii or
commanding spirits belonging to each of them; and so, _per consequens_ (for
they will be all adored), infinite religions. And therefore let every
territory keep their proper rites and ceremonies, as their _dii tutelares_
will, so Tyrius calls them, "and according to the quarter they hold," their
own institutions, revelations, orders, oracles, which they dictate from
time to time, or teach their own priests or ministers. This tenet was
stiffly maintained in Turkey not long since, as you may read in the third
epistle of Busbequius, [6611]"that all those should participate of eternal
happiness, that lived a holy and innocent life, what religion soever they
professed." Rustan Bassa was a great patron of it; though Mahomet himself
was sent _virtute gladdi_, to enforce all, as he writes in his Alcoran, to
follow him. Some again will approve of this for Jews, Gentiles, infidels,
that are out of the fold, they can be content to give them all respect and
favour, but by no means to such as are within the precincts of our own
church, and called Christians, to no heretics, schismatics, or the like;
let the Spanish inquisition, that fourth fury, speak of some of them, the
civil wars and massacres in France, our Marian times. [6612]Magillianus the
Jesuit will not admit of conference with a heretic, but severity and rigour
to be used, _non illis verba reddere, sed furcas, figere oportet_; and
Theodosius is commended in Nicephorus, _lib. 12. cap. 15._ [6613]"That he
put all heretics to silence." Bernard. _Epist. 180_, will have club law,
fire and sword for heretics, [6614]"compel them, stop their mouths not with
disputations, or refute them with reasons, but with fists;" and this is
their ordinary practice. Another company are as mild on the other side; to
avoid all heart-burning, and contentious wars and uproars, they would have
a general toleration in every kingdom, no mulct at all, no man for religion
or conscience be put to death, which [6615]Thuanus the French historian
much favours; our late Socinians defend; Vaticanus against Calvin in a
large Treatise in behalf of Servetus, vindicates; Castilio, &c., Martin
Ballius and his companions, maintained this opinion not long since in
France, whose error is confuted by Beza in a just volume. The medium is
best, and that which Paul prescribes, Gal. i. "If any man shall fall by
occasion, to restore such a one with the spirit of meekness, by all fair
means, gentle admonitions;" but if that will not take place, _Post unam et
alteram admonitionem haereticum devita_, he must be excommunicate, as Paul
did by Hymenaeus, delivered over to Satan. _Immedicabile vulnus ense
recidendum est._ As Hippocrates said in physic, I may well say in divinity,
_Quae ferro non curantur, ignis curat._ For the vulgar, restrain them by
laws, mulcts, burn their books, forbid their conventicles; for when the
cause is taken away, the effect will soon cease. Now for prophets,
dreamers, and such rude silly fellows, that through fasting, too much
meditation, preciseness, or by melancholy, are distempered: the best means
to reduce them _ad sanam mentem_, is to alter their course of life, and
with conference, threats, promises, persuasions, to intermix physic.
Hercules de Saxonia, had such a prophet committed to his charge in Venice,
that thought he was Elias, and would fast as he did; he dressed a fellow in
angel's attire, that said he came from heaven to bring him divine food, and
by that means stayed his fast, administered his physic; so by the
meditation of this forged angel he was cured. [6616]Rhasis an Arabian,
_cont. lib. 1. cap. 9_, speaks of a fellow that in like case complained to
him, and desired his help: "I asked him" (saith he) "what the matter was;
he replied, I am continually meditating of heaven and hell, and methinks I
see and talk with fiery spirits, and smell brimstone, &c., and am so
carried away with these conceits, that I can neither eat, nor sleep, nor go
about my business: I cured him" (saith Rhasis) "partly by persuasion,
partly by physic, and so have I done by many others." We have frequently
such prophets and dreamers amongst us, whom we persecute with fire and
faggot: I think the most compendious cure, for some of them at least, had
been in Bedlam. _Sed de his satis._
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Religious Melancholy in defect; parties affected, Epicures,
Atheists, Hypocrites, worldly secure, Carnalists; all impious persons,
impenitent sinners, &c._
In that other extreme or defect of this love of God, knowledge, faith,
fear, hope, &c. are such as err both in doctrine and manners, Sadducees,
Herodians, libertines, politicians: all manner of atheists, epicures,
infidels, that are secure, in a reprobate sense, fear not God at all, and
such are too distrustful and timorous, as desperate persons be. That grand
sin of atheism or impiety, [6617]Melancthon calls it _monstrosam
melancholiam_, monstrous melancholy; or _venenatam melancholiam_, poisoned
melancholy. A company of Cyclops or giants, that war with the gods, as the
poets feigned, antipodes to Christians, that scoff at all religion, at God
himself, deny him and all his attributes, his wisdom, power, providence,
his mercy and judgment.
[6618] "Esse aliquos manes, et subterranea regna,
Et contum, et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras,
Atque una transire vadum tot millia cymba,
Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur."
That there is either heaven or hell, resurrection of the dead, pain,
happiness, or world to come, _credat Judaeus Apella_; for their parts they
esteem them as so many poet's tales, bugbears, Lucian's Alexander; Moses,
Mahomet, and Christ are all as one in their creed. When those bloody wars
in France for matters of religion (saith [6619]Richard Dinoth) were so
violently pursued between Huguenots and Papists, there was a company of
good fellows laughed them all to scorn, for being such superstitious fools,
to lose their wives and fortunes, accounting faith, religion, immortality
of the soul, mere fopperies and illusions. Such loose [6620]atheistical
spirits are too predominant in all kingdoms. Let them contend, pray,
tremble, trouble themselves that will, for their parts, they fear neither
God nor devil; but with that Cyclops in Euripides,
"Haud ulla numina expavescunt caelitum,
Sed victimas uni deorum maximo,
Ventri offerunt, deos ignorant caeteros."
"They fear no God but one,
They sacrifice to none.
But belly, and him adore,
For gods they know no more."
"Their God is their belly," as Paul saith, _Sancta mater saturitas;--quibus
in solo vivendi causa palato est._ The idol, which they worship and adore,
is their mistress; with him in Plautus, _mallem haec mulier me amet quam
dii_, they had rather have her favour than the gods'. Satan is their guide,
the flesh is their instructor, hypocrisy their counsellor, vanity their
fellow-soldier, their will their law, ambition their captain, custom their
rule; temerity, boldness, impudence their art, toys their trading,
damnation their end. All their endeavours are to satisfy their lust and
appetite, how to please their genius, and to be merry for the present,
_Ede, lude, bibe, post mortem nulla voluptas_. [6621]"The same condition is
of men and of beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other," Eccles. iii.
19. The world goes round,
[6622] ------"truditur dies die,
Novaeque pergunt interire Lunae:"
[6623]They did eat and drink of old, marry, bury, bought, sold, planted,
built, and will do still. [6624]"Our life is short and tedious, and in the
death of a man there is no recovery, neither was any man known that hath
returned from the grave; for we are born at all adventure, and we shall be
hereafter as though we had never been; for the breath is as smoke in our
nostrils, &c., and the spirit vanisheth as the soft air." [6625]"Come let
us enjoy the pleasures that are present, let us cheerfully use the
creatures as in youth, let us fill ourselves with costly wine and
ointments, let not the flower of our life pass by us, let us crown
ourselves with rose-buds before they are withered," &c. [6626]_Vivamus mea
Lesbia et amemus_, &c. [6627] "Come let us take our fill of love, and
pleasure in dalliance, for this is our portion, this is our lot."
_Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis_.[6628] For the rest of
heaven and hell, let children and superstitious fools believe it: for their
parts, they are so far from trembling at the dreadful day of judgment that
they wish with Nero, _Me vivo fiat_, let it come in their times: so secure,
so desperate, so immoderate in lust and pleasure, so prone to revenge that,
as Paterculus said of some caitiffs in his time in Rome, _Quod nequiter
ausi, fortiter executi_: it shall not be so wickedly attempted, but as
desperately performed, whatever they take in hand. Were it not for God's
restraining grace, fear and shame, temporal punishment, and their own
infamy, they would. Lycaon-like exenterate, as so many cannibals eat up, or
Cadmus' soldiers consume one another. These are most impious, and commonly
professed atheists, that never use the name of God but to swear by it; that
express nought else but epicurism in their carriage, or hypocrisy; with
Pentheus they neglect and contemn these rites and religious ceremonies of
the gods; they will be gods themselves, or at least _socii deorum. Divisum
imperium cum Jove Caesar habet._ "Caesar divides the empire with Jove."
Aproyis, an Egyptian tyrant, grew, saith [6629]Herodotus, to that height of
pride, insolency of impiety, to that contempt of Gods and men, that he held
his kingdom so sure, _ut a nemine deorum aut hominum sibi eripi posset_,
neither God nor men could take it from him. [6630]A certain blasphemous
king of Spain (as [6631]Lansius reports) made an edict, that no subject of
his, for ten years' space, should believe in, call on, or worship any god.
And as [6632]Jovius relates of "Mahomet the Second, that sacked
Constantinople, he so behaved himself, that he believed neither Christ nor
Mahomet; and thence it came to pass, that he kept his word and promise no
farther than for his advantage, neither did he care to commit any offence
to satisfy his lust." I could say the like of many princes, many private
men (our stories are full of them) in times past, this present age, that
love, fear, obey, and perform all civil duties as they shall find them
expedient or behoveful to their own ends. _Securi adversus Deos, securi
adversus homines, votis non est opus_, which [6633] Tacitus reports of some
Germans, they need not pray, fear, hope, for they are secure, to their
thinking, both from Gods and men. Bulco Opiliensis, sometime Duke of
[6634]Silesia, was such a one to a hair; he lived (saith [6635]Aeneas
Sylvius) at [6636]Vratislavia, "and was so mad to satisfy his lust, that he
believed neither heaven nor hell, or that the soul was immortal, but
married wives, and turned them up as he thought fit, did murder and
mischief, and what he list himself." This duke hath too many followers in
our days: say what you can, dehort, exhort, persuade to the contrary, they
are no more moved,--_quam si dura, silex aut stet Marpesia cautes_, than so
many stocks, and stones; tell them of heaven and hell, 'tis to no purpose,
_laterem lavas_, they answer as Ataliba that Indian prince did friar
Vincent, [6637]"when he brought him a book, and told him all the mysteries
of salvation, heaven and hell, were contained in it: he looked upon it, and
said he saw no such matter, asking withal, how he knew it:" they will but
scoff at it, or wholly reject it. Petronius in Tacitus, when he was now by
Nero's command bleeding to death, _audiebat amicos nihil referentes de
immortalitate animae, aut sapientum placitis, sed levia carmina et faciles
versus_; instead of good counsel and divine meditations, he made his
friends sing him bawdy verses and scurrilous songs. Let them take heaven,
paradise, and that future happiness that will, _bonum est esse hic_, it is
good being here: there is no talking to such, no hope of their conversion,
they are in a reprobate sense, mere carnalists, fleshly minded men, which
howsoever they may be applauded in this life by some few parasites, and
held for worldly wise men. [6638]"They seem to me" (saith Melancthon) "to
be as mad as Hercules was when he raved and killed his wife and children."
A milder sort of these atheistical spirits there are that profess religion,
but _timide et haesitanter_, tempted thereunto out of that horrible
consideration of diversity of religions, which are and have been in the
world (which argument Campanella, _Atheismi Triumphati, cap. 9._ both
urgeth and answers), besides the covetousness, imposture, and knavery of
priests, _quae faciunt_ (as [6639]Postellus observes) _ut rebus sacris
minus faciant fidem_; and those religions some of them so fantastical,
exorbitant, so violently maintained with equal constancy and assurance;
whence they infer, that if there be so many religious sects, and denied by
the rest, why may they not be all false? or why should this or that be
preferred before the rest? The sceptics urge this, and amongst others it is
the conclusion of Sextus Empericus, _lib. 3. advers. Mathematicos_: after
many philosophical arguments and reasons pro and con that there are gods,
and again that there are no gods, he so concludes, _cum tot inter se
pugnent, &c. Una tantum potest esse vera_, as Tully likewise disputes:
Christians say, they alone worship the true God, pity all other sects,
lament their case; and yet those old Greeks and Romans that worshipped the
devil, as the Chinese now do, _aut deos topicos_, their own gods; as Julian
the apostate, [6640]Cecilius in Minutius, Celsus and Porphyrius the
philosopher object: and as Machiavel contends, were much more noble,
generous, victorious, had a more flourishing commonwealth, better cities,
better soldiers, better scholars, better wits. Their gods overcame our
gods, did as many miracles, &c. Saint Cyril, Arnobius, Minutius, with many
other ancients of late, Lessius, Morneus, Grotius _de Verit. Relig.
Christianae_, Savanarola _de Verit. Fidei Christianae_, well defend; but
Zanchius, [6641]Campanella, Marinus Marcennus, Bozius, and Gentillettus
answer all these atheistical arguments at large. But this again troubles
many as of old, wicked men generally thrive, professed atheists thrive,
[6642] "Nullos esse Deos, inane coelum,
Affirmat Selius: probatque, quod se
Factum, dum negat haec, videt beatum."
"There are no gods, heavens are toys,
Selius in public justifies;
Because that whilst he thus denies
Their deities, he better thrives."
This is a prime argument: and most part your most sincere, upright, honest,
and [6643]good men are depressed, "The race is not to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong" (Eccles. ix. 11.), "nor yet bread to the wise, favour
nor riches to men of understanding, but time and chance comes to all."
There was a great plague in Athens (as Thucydides, _lib. 2._ relates), in
which at last every man, with great licentiousness, did what he list, not
caring at all for God's or men's laws. "Neither the fear of God nor laws of
men" (saith he) "awed any man, because the plague swept all away alike,
good and bad; they thence concluded it was alike to worship or not worship
the gods, since they perished all alike." Some cavil and make doubts of
scripture itself: it cannot stand with God's mercy, that so many should be
damned, so many bad, so few good, such have and hold about religions, all
stiff on their side, factious alike, thrive alike, and yet bitterly
persecuting and damning each other; "It cannot stand with God's goodness,
protection, and providence" (as [6644]Saint Chrysostom in the Dialect of
such discontented persons) "to see and suffer one man to be lame, another
mad, a third poor and miserable all the days of his life, a fourth
grievously tormented with sickness and aches, to his last hour. Are these
signs and works of God's providence, to let one man be deaf, another dumb?
A poor honest fellow lives in disgrace, woe and want, wretched he is; when
as a wicked caitiff abounds in superfluity of wealth, keeps whores,
parasites, and what he will himself:" _Audis Jupiter haec? Talia multa
connectentes, longum reprehensionis sermonem erga Dei providentiam
contexunt._ [6645]Thus they mutter and object (see the rest of their
arguments in Marcennus in Genesin, and in Campanella, amply confuted), with
many such vain cavils, well known, not worthy the recapitulation or
answering: whatsoever they pretend, they are _interim_ of little or no
religion.
Cousin-germans to these men are many of our great philosophers and deists,
who, though they be more temperate in this life, give many good moral
precepts, honest, upright, and sober in their conversation, yet in effect
they are the same (accounting no man a good scholar that is not an
atheist), _nimis altum sapiunt_, too much learning makes them mad. Whilst
they attribute all to natural causes, [6646]contingence of all things, as
Melancthon calls them, _Pertinax hominum genus_, a peevish generation of
men, that misled by philosophy, and the devil's suggestion, their own
innate blindness, deny God as much as the rest, hold all religion a
fiction, opposite to reason and philosophy, though for fear of magistrates,
saith [6647]Vaninus, they durst not publicly profess it. Ask one of them of
what religion he is, he scoffingly replies, a philosopher, a Galenist, an
[6648]Averroist, and with Rabelais a physician, a peripatetic, an epicure.
In spiritual things God must demonstrate all to sense, leave a pawn with
them, or else seek some other creditor. They will acknowledge Nature and
Fortune, yet not God: though in effect they grant both: for as Scaliger
defines, Nature signifies God's ordinary power; or, as Calvin writes,
Nature is God's order, and so things extraordinary may be called unnatural:
Fortune his unrevealed will; and so we call things changeable that are
beside reason and expectation. To this purpose [6649]Minutius in _Octavio_,
and [6650] Seneca well discourseth with them, _lib. 4. de beneficiis, cap.
5, 6, 7._ "They do not understand what they say; what is Nature but God?
call him what thou wilt, Nature, Jupiter, he hath as many names as offices:
it comes all to one pass, God is the fountain of all, the first Giver and
Preserver, from whom all things depend," [6651]_a quo, et per quem omnia,
Nam quocunque vides Deus est, quocunque moveris_, "God is all in all, God
is everywhere, in every place." And yet this Seneca, that could confute and
blame them, is all out as much to be blamed and confuted himself, as mad
himself; for he holds _fatum Stoicum_, that inevitable Necessity in the
other extreme, as those Chaldean astrologers of old did, against whom the
prophet Jeremiah so often thunders, and those heathen mathematicians,
Nigidius Figulus, magicians, and Priscilianists, whom St. Austin so eagerly
confutes, those Arabian questionaries, Novem Judices, Albumazer, Dorotheus,
&c., and our countryman [6652]Estuidus, that take upon them to define out
of those great conjunction of stars, with Ptolomeus, the periods of
kingdoms, or religions, of all future accidents, wars, plagues, schisms,
heresies, and what not? all from stars, and such things, saith Maginus,
_Quae sibi et intelligentiis suis reservavit Deus_, which God hath reserved
to himself and his angels, they will take upon them to foretell, as if
stars were immediate, inevitable causes of all future accidents. Caesar
Vaninus, in his book _de admirandis naturae Arcanis, dial. 52. de
oraculis_, is more free, copious, and open, in this explication of this
astrological tenet of Ptolemy, than any of our modern writers, Cardan
excepted, a true disciple of his master Pomponatius; according to the
doctrine of Peripatetics, he refers all apparitions, prodigies, miracles,
oracles, accidents, alterations of religions, kingdoms, &c. (for which he
is soundly lashed by Marinus Mercennus, as well he deserves), to natural
causes (for spirits he will not acknowledge), to that light, motion,
influences of heavens and stars, and to the intelligences that move the
orbs. _Intelligentia quae, movet orbem mediante coelo_, &c. Intelligences
do all: and after a long discourse of miracles done of old, _si haec
daemones possint, cur non et intelligentiae, coelorum motrices_? And as
these great conjunctions, aspects of planets, begin or end, vary, are
vertical and predominant, so have religions, rites, ceremonies, and
kingdoms their beginning, progress, periods, _in urbibus, regibus,
religionibus, ac in particularibus hominibus, haec vera ac manifesta, sunt,
ut Aristoteles innuere videtur, et quotidiana docet experientia, ut
historias perlegens videbit; quid olim in Gentili lege Jove sanctius et
illustrius? quid nunc vile magis et execrandum? Ita coelestia corpora pro
mortalium beneficio religiones aedificant, et cum cessat influxus, cessat
lex_, [6653]&c. And because, according to their tenets, the world is
eternal, intelligences eternal, influences of stars eternal, kingdoms,
religions, alterations shall be likewise eternal, and run round after many
ages; _Atque iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles; renascentur
religiones, et ceremoniae, res humanae in idem recident, nihil nunc quod
non olim fuit, et post saeculorum revolutiones alias est, erit,[6654] &c.
idem specie_, saith Vaninus, _non individuo quod Plato significavit._ These
(saith mine [6655]author), these are the decrees of Peripatetics, which
though I recite, _in obsequium Christianae fidei detestor_, as I am a
Christian I detest and hate. Thus Peripatetics and astrologians held in
former times, and to this effect of old in Rome, saith Dionysius
Halicarnassus, _lib. 7_, when those meteors and prodigies appeared in the
air, after the banishment of Coriolanus, [6656] "Men were diversely
affected: some said they were God's just judgments for the execution of
that good man, some referred all to natural causes, some to stars, some
thought they came by chance, some by necessity" decreed _ab initio_, and
could not be altered. The two last opinions of necessity and chance were,
it seems, of greater note than the rest.
[6657] "Sunt qui in Fortunae jam casibus omnia ponunt,
Et mundum credunt nullo rectore moveri,
Natura, volvente vices," &c.
For the first of chance, as [6658]Sallust likewise informeth us, those old
Romans generally received; "They supposed fortune alone gave kingdoms and
empires, wealth, honours, offices: and that for two causes; first, because
every wicked base unworthy wretch was preferred, rich, potent, &c.;
secondly, because of their uncertainty, though never so good, scarce any
one enjoyed them long: but after, they began upon better advice to think
otherwise, that every man made his own fortune." The last of Necessity was
Seneca's tenet, that God was _alligatus causis secundis_, so tied to second
causes, to that inexorable Necessity, that he could alter nothing of that
which was once decreed; _sic erat in fatis_, it cannot be altered, _semel
jussit, semper paret Deus, nulla vis rumpit, nullae preces, nec ipsum
fulmen_, God hath once said it, and it must for ever stand good, no
prayers, no threats, nor power, nor thunder itself can alter it. Zeno,
Chrysippus, and those other Stoics, as you may read in Tully _2. de
divinatione_, Gellius, _lib. 6. cap. 2._ &c., maintained as much. In all
ages, there have been such, that either deny God in all, or in part; some
deride him, they could have made a better world, and ruled it more orderly
themselves, blaspheme him, derogate at their pleasure from him. 'Twas so in
[6659]Plato's time, "Some say there be no gods, others that they care not
for men, a middle sort grant both." _Si non sit Deus, unde mala? si sit
Deus, unde mala_? So Cotta argues in Tully, why made he not all good, or at
least tenders not the welfare of such as are good? As the woman told
Alexander, if he be not at leisure to hear causes, and redress them, why
doth he reign? [6660]Sextus Empericus hath many such arguments. Thus
perverse men cavil. So it will ever be, some of all sorts, good, bad,
indifferent, true, false, zealous, ambidexters, neutralists, lukewarm,
libertines, atheists, &c. They will see these religious sectaries agree
amongst themselves, be reconciled all, before they will participate with,
or believe any: they think in the meantime (which [6661]Celsus objects, and
whom Origen confutes), "We Christians adore a person put to [6662]death
with no more reason than the barbarous Getes worshipped Zamolxis, the
Cilicians Mopsus, the Thebans Amphiaraus, and the Lebadians Trophonius; one
religion is as true as another, new fangled devices, all for human
respects;" great-witted Aristotle's works are as much authentical to them
as Scriptures, subtle Seneca's Epistles as canonical as St. Paul's,
Pindarus' Odes as good as the Prophet David's Psalms, Epictetus'
Enchiridion equivalent to wise Solomon's Proverbs. They do openly and
boldly speak this and more, some of them, in all places and companies.
[6663]"Claudius the emperor was angry with Heaven, because it thundered,
and challenged Jupiter into the field; with what madness! saith Seneca; he
thought Jupiter could not hurt him, but he could hurt Jupiter." Diagoras,
Demonax, Epicurus, Pliny, Lucian, Lucretius,--_Contemptorque Deum
Mezentius_, "professed atheists all" in their times: though not simple
atheists neither, as Cicogna proves, _lib. 1. cap. 1._ they scoffed only at
those Pagan gods, their plurality, base and fictitious offices. Gilbertus
Cognatus labours much, and so doth Erasmus, to vindicate Lucian from
scandal, and there be those that apologise for Epicurus, but all in vain;
Lucian scoffs at all, Epicurus he denies all, and Lucretius his scholar
defends him in it:
[6664] "Humana ante oculua foede cum vita jaceret
In terris oppressa gravi cum religione,
Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat,
Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans," &c.
"When human kind was drench'd in superstition,
With ghastly looks aloft, which frighted mortal men," &c.
He alone, like another Hercules, did vindicate the world from that monster.
Uncle [6665]Pliny, _lib. 2. cap. 7. nat. hist._ and _lib. 7. cap. 55_, in
express words denies the immortality of the soul. [6666]Seneca doth little
less, _lib. 7. epist. 55. ad Lucilium, et lib. de consol. ad Martiam_, or
rather more. Some Greek Commentators would put as much upon Job, that he
should deny resurrection, &c., whom Pineda copiously confutes in _cap. 7.
Job, vers. 9._ Aristotle is hardly censured of some, both divines and
philosophers. St. Justin _in Peraenetica ad Gentes_, Greg. Nazianzen. _in
disput. adversus Eun._, Theodoret, _lib. 5. de curat. graec. affec._,
Origen. _lib. de principiis_. Pomponatius justifies in his Tract (so styled
at least) _De immortalitate Animae_, Scaliger (who would forswear himself
at any time, saith Patritius, in defence of his great master Aristotle),
and Dandinus, _lib. 3. de anima_, acknowledge as much. Averroes oppugns all
spirits and supreme powers; of late Brunus (_infelix Brunus_, [6667]Kepler
calls him), Machiavel, Caesar Vaninus lately burned at Toulouse in France,
and Pet. Aretine, have publicly maintained such atheistical paradoxes,
[6668]with that Italian Boccaccio with his fable of three rings, &c., _ex
quo infert haud posse internosci, quae sit verior religio, Judaica,
Mahometana, an Christiana, quoniam eadem signa_, &c., "from which he
infers, that it cannot be distinguished which is the true religion,
Judaism, Mahommedanism, or Christianity," &c. [6669]Marinus Mercennus
suspects Cardan for his subtleties, Campanella, and Charron's Book of
Wisdom, with some other Tracts, to savour of [6670]atheism: but amongst the
rest that pestilent book _de tribus mundi impostoribus_, _quem sine horrore
(inquit) non legas, et mundi Cymbalum dialogis quatuor contentum, anno
1538, auctore Peresio, Parisiis excusum_, [6671]&c. And as there have been
in all ages such blasphemous spirits, so there have not been wanting their
patrons, protectors, disciples and adherents. Never so many atheists in
Italy and Germany, saith [6672]Colerus, as in this age: the like complaint
Mercennus makes in France, 50,000 in that one city of Paris. Frederic the
Emperor, as [6673]Matthew Paris records _licet non sit recitabile_ (I use
his own words) is reported to have said, _Tres praestigiatores, Moses,
Christus, et Mahomet, uti mundo dominarentur, totum populum sibi
contemporaneum se duxisse._ (Henry, the Landgrave of Hesse, heard him speak
it,) _Si principes imperii institutioni meae adhaererent, ego multo
meliorem modum credendi et vivendi ordinarem._
To these professed atheists, we may well add that impious and carnal crew
of worldly-minded men, impenitent sinners, that go to hell in a lethargy,
or in a dream; who though they be professed Christians, yet they will
_nulla pallescere culpa_, make a conscience of nothing they do, they have
cauterised consciences, and are indeed in a reprobate sense, "past all
feeling, have given themselves over to wantonness, to work all manner of
uncleanness even with greediness," Ephes. iv. 19. They do know there is a
God, a day of judgment to come, and yet for all that, as Hugo saith, _ita
comedunt ac dormiunt, ac si diem judicii evasissent; ita ludunt ac rident,
ac si in coelis cum Deo regnarent_: they are as merry for all the sorrow,
as if they had escaped all dangers, and were in heaven already:
[6674] ------"Metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari."
Those rude idiots and ignorant persons, that neglect and contemn the means
of their salvation, may march on with these; but above all others, those
Herodian temporizing statesmen, political Machiavellians and hypocrites,
that make a show of religion, but in their hearts laugh at it. _Simulata
sanctitas duplex iniquitas_; they are in a double fault, "that fashion
themselves to this world," which [6675]Paul forbids, and like Mercury, the
planet, are good with good, bad with bad. When they are at Rome, they do
there as they see done, puritans with puritans, papists with papists;
_omnium horarum homines_, formalists, ambidexters, lukewarm Laodiceans.
[6676]All their study is to please, and their god is their commodity, their
labour to satisfy their lusts, and their endeavours to their own ends.
Whatsoever they pretend, or in public seem to do, [6677]"With the fool in
their hearts, they say there is no God." _Heus tu--de Jove quid sentis_?
"Hulloa! what is your opinion about a Jupiter?" Their words are as soft as
oil, but bitterness is in their hearts; like [6678]Alexander VI. so cunning
dissemblers, that what they think they never speak. Many of them are so
close, you can hardly discern it, or take any just exceptions at them; they
are not factious, oppressors as most are, no bribers, no simoniacal
contractors, no such ambitious, lascivious persons as some others are, no
drunkards, _sobrii solem vident orientem, sobrii vident occidentem_, they
rise sober, and go sober to bed, plain dealing, upright, honest men, they
do wrong to no man, and are so reputed in the world's esteem at least, very
zealous in religion, very charitable, meek, humble, peace-makers, keep all
duties, very devout, honest, well spoken of, beloved of all men: but he
that knows better how to judge, he that examines the heart, saith they are
hypocrites, _Cor dolo plenum; sonant vitium percussa maligne_, they are not
sound within. As it is with writers [6679]oftentimes, _Plus sanctimoniae,
in libello, quam libelli auctore_, more holiness is in the book than in the
author of it: so 'tis with them: many come to church with great Bibles,
whom Cardan said he could not choose but laugh at, and will now and then
_dare operam Augustino_, read Austin, frequent sermons, and yet professed
usurers, mere gripes, _tota vitae ratio epicurea est_; all their life is
epicurism and atheism, come to church all day, and lie with a courtesan at
night. _Qui curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt_, they have Esau's hands,
and Jacob's voice: yea, and many of those holy friars, sanctified men,
Cappam, saith Hierom, _et cilicium induunt, sed intus latronem tegunt._
They are wolves in sheep's clothing, _Introrsum turpes, speciosi pelle
decora_, "Fair without, and most foul within." [6680]_Latet plerumque sub
tristi amictu lascivia, et deformis horror vili veste tegitur_; ofttimes
under a mourning weed lies lust itself, and horrible vices under a poor
coat. But who can examine all those kinds of hypocrites, or dive into their
hearts? ]f we may guess at the tree by the fruit, never so many as in these
days; show me a plain-dealing true honest man: _Et pudor, et probitas, et
timor omnis abest._ He that shall but look into their lives, and see such
enormous vices, men so immoderate in lust, unspeakable in malice, furious
in their rage, flattering and dissembling (all for their own ends) will
surely think they are not truly religious, but of an obdurate heart, most
part in a reprobate sense, as in this age. But let them carry it as they
will for the present, dissemble as they can, a time will come when they
shall be called to an account, their melancholy is at hand, they pull a
plague and curse upon their own heads, _thesaurisant iram Dei._ Besides all
such as are _in deos contumeliosi_, blaspheme, contemn, neglect God, or
scoff at him, as the poets feign of Salmoneus, that would in derision
imitate Jupiter's thunder, he was precipitated for his pains, Jupiter
_intonuit contra_, &c. so shall they certainly rue it in the end,
([6681]_in se spuit, qui in coelum spuit_), their doom's at hand, and hell
is ready to receive them.
Some are of opinion, that it is in vain to dispute with such atheistical
spirits in the meantime, 'tis not the best way to reclaim them. Atheism,
idolatry, heresy, hypocrisy, though they have one common root, that is
indulgence to corrupt affection, yet their growth is different, they have
divers symptoms, occasions, and must have several cures and remedies. 'Tis
true some deny there is any God, some confess, yet believe it not; a third
sort confess and believe, but will not live after his laws, worship and
obey him: others allow God and gods subordinate, but not one God, no such
general God, _non talem deum_, but several topic gods for several places,
and those not to persecute one another for any difference, as Socinus will,
but rather love and cherish.
To describe them in particular, to produce their arguments and reasons,
would require a just volume, I refer them therefore that expect a more
ample satisfaction, to those subtle and elaborate treatises, devout and
famous tracts of our learned divines (schoolmen amongst the rest, and
casuists) that have abundance of reasons to prove there is a God, the
immortality of the soul, &c., out of the strength of wit and philosophy
bring irrefragable arguments to such as are ingenuous and well disposed; at
the least, answer all cavils and objections to confute their folly and
madness, and to reduce them, _si fieri posset, ad sanam mentem_, to a
better mind, though to small purpose many times. Amongst others consult
with Julius Caesar Lagalla, professor of philosophy in Rome, who hath
written a large volume of late to confute atheists: of the immortality of
the soul, Hierom. Montanus _de immortalitate Animae_: Lelius Vincentius of
the same subject: Thomas Giaminus, and Franciscus Collius _de Paganorum
animabus post mortem_, a famous doctor of the Ambrosian College in Milan.
Bishop Fotherby in his Atheomastix, Doctor Dove, Doctor Jackson, Abernethy,
Corderoy, have written well of this subject in our mother tongue: in Latin,
Colerus, Zanchius, Palearius, Illyricus, [6682]Philippus, Faber Faventinus,
&c. But _instar omnium_, the most copious confuter of atheists is Marinus
Mercennus in his Commentaries on Genesis: [6683]with Campanella's Atheismus
Triumphatus. He sets down at large the causes of this brutish passion,
(seventeen in number I take it) answers all their arguments and sophisms,
which he reduceth to twenty-six heads, proving withal his own assertion;
"There is a God, such a God, the true and sole God," by thirty-five
reasons. His Colophon is how to resist and repress atheism, and to that
purpose he adds four especial means or ways, which who so will may
profitably peruse.
SUBSECT. II.--_Despair. Despairs, Equivocations, Definitions, Parties and
Parts affected_.
There be many kinds of desperation, whereof some be holy, some unholy, as
[6684]one distinguisheth; that unholy he defines out of Tully to be
_Aegritudinem animi sine ulla rerum expectatione meliore_, a sickness of
the soul without any hope or expectation of amendment; which commonly
succeeds fear; for whilst evil is expected, we fear: but when it is
certain, we despair. According to Thomas _2. 2ae. distinct. 40. art. 4._ it
is _Recessus a re desiderata, propter impossibilitatem existimatam_, a
restraint from the thing desired, for some impossibility supposed. Because
they cannot obtain what they would, they become desperate, and many times
either yield to the passion by death itself, or else attempt
impossibilities, not to be performed by men. In some cases, this desperate
humour is not much to be discommended, as in wars it is a cause many times
of extraordinary valour; as Joseph, _lib. 1. de bello Jud. cap. 14._ L.
Danaeus _in Aphoris. polit. pag. 226._ and many politicians hold. It makes
them improve their worth beyond itself, and of a forlorn impotent company
become conquerors in a moment. _Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem_,
"the only hope for the conquered is despair." In such courses when they see
no remedy, but that they must either kill or be killed, they take courage,
and oftentimes, _praeter spem_, beyond all hope vindicate themselves.
Fifteen thousand Locrenses fought against a hundred thousand Crotonienses,
and seeing now no way but one, they must all die, [6685]thought they would
not depart unrevenged, and thereupon desperately giving an assault,
conquered their enemies. _Nec alia causa victoriae_, (saith Justin mine
author) _quam quod desperaverant._ William the Conqueror, when he first
landed in England, sent back his ships, that his soldiers might have no
hope of retiring back. [6686]Bodine excuseth his countrymen's overthrow at
that famous battle at Agincourt, in Henry the Fifth his time, (_cui
simile_, saith Froissard, _tota historia producere non possit_, which no
history can parallel almost, wherein one handful of Englishmen overthrew a
royal army of Frenchmen) with this refuge of despair, _pauci desperati_, a
few desperate fellows being compassed in by their enemies, past all hope of
life, fought like so many devils; and gives a caution, that no soldiers
hereafter set upon desperate persons, which [6687]after Frontinus and
Vigetius, Guicciardini likewise admonisheth, _Hypomnes. part. 2. pag. 25._
not to stop an enemy that is going his way. Many such kinds there are of
desperation, when men are past hope of obtaining any suit, or in despair of
better fortune; _Desperatio facit monachum_, as the saying is, and
desperation causeth death itself; how many thousands in such distress have
made away themselves, and many others? For he that cares not for his own,
is master of another man's life. A Tuscan soothsayer, as [6688]Paterculus
tells the story, perceiving himself and Fulvius Flaccus his dear friend,
now both carried to prison by Opimius, and in despair of pardon, seeing the
young man weep, _quin tu potius hoc inquit facis_, do as I do; and with
that knocked out his brains against the door-cheek, as he was entering into
prison, _protinusque illiso capite in capite in carceris januam effuso
cerebro expiravit_, and so desperate died. But these are equivocal,
improper. "When I speak of despair," saith [6689]Zanchie, "I speak not of
every kind, but of that alone which concerns God. It is opposite to hope,
and a most pernicious sin, wherewith the devil seeks to entrap men."
Musculus makes four kinds of desperation, of God, ourselves, our neighbour,
or anything to be done; but this division of his may be reduced easily to
the former: all kinds are opposite to hope, that sweet moderator of
passions, as Simonides calls it; I do not mean that vain hope which
fantastical fellows feign to themselves, which according to Aristotle is
_insomnium vigilantium_, a waking dream; but this divine hope which
proceeds from confidence, and is an anchor to a floating soul; _spes alit
agricolas_, even in our temporal affairs, hope revives us, but in spiritual
it farther animateth; and were it not for hope, "we of all others were the
most miserable," as Paul saith, in this life; were it not for hope, the
heart would break; "for though they be punished in the sight of men,"
(Wisdom iii. 4.) yet is "their hope full of immortality:" yet doth it not
so rear, as despair doth deject; this violent and sour passion of despair,
is of all perturbations most grievous, as [6690]Patritius holds. Some
divide it into final and temporal; [6691]final is incurable, which
befalleth reprobates; temporal is a rejection of hope and comfort for a
time, which may befall the best of God's children, and it commonly proceeds
[6692]"from weakness of faith," as in David when he was oppressed he cried
out, "O Lord, thou hast forsaken me," but this for a time. This ebbs and
flows with hope and fear; it is a grievous sin howsoever: although some
kind of despair be not amiss, when, saith Zanchius, we despair of our own
means, and rely wholly upon God: but that species is not here meant. This
pernicious kind of desperation is the subject of our discourse, _homicida
animae_, the murderer of the soul, as Austin terms it, a fearful passion,
wherein the party oppressed thinks he can get no ease but by death, and is
fully resolved to offer violence unto himself; so sensible of his burthen,
and impatient of his cross, that he hopes by death alone to be freed of his
calamity (though it prove otherwise), and chooseth with Job vi. 8. 9. xvii.
5. "Rather to be strangled and die, than to be in his bonds." [6693]The
part affected is the whole soul, and all the faculties of it; there is a
privation of joy, hope, trust, confidence, of present and future good, and
in their place succeed fear, sorrow, &c. as in the symptoms shall be shown.
The heart is grieved, the conscience wounded, the mind eclipsed with black
fumes arising from those perpetual terrors.
SUBSECT. III.--_Causes of Despair, the Devil, Melancholy, Meditation,
Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Rigid Ministers, Misunderstanding Scriptures,
Guilty Consciences, &c._
The principal agent and procurer of this mischief is the devil; those whom
God forsakes, the devil by his permission lays hold on. Sometimes he
persecutes them with that worm of conscience, as he did Judas, [6694]Saul,
and others. The poets call it Nemesis, but it is indeed God's just
judgment, _sero sed serio_, he strikes home at last, and setteth upon them
"as a thief in the night," 1 Thes. ii. [6695]This temporary passion made
David cry out, "Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in
thine heavy displeasure; for thine arrows have light upon me, &c. there is
nothing sound in my flesh, because of thine anger." Again, I roar for the
very grief of my heart: and Psalm xxii. "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me, and art so far from my health, and the words of my crying? I
am like to water poured out, my bones are out of joint, mine heart is like
wax, that is molten in the midst of my bowels." So Psalm lxxxviii. 15 and
16 vers. and Psalm cii. "I am in misery at the point of death, from my
youth I suffer thy terrors, doubting for my life; thine indignations have
gone over me, and thy fear hath cut me off." Job doth often complain in
this kind; and those God doth not assist, the devil is ready to try and
torment, "still seeking whom he may devour." If he find them merry, saith
Gregory, "he tempts them forthwith to some dissolute act; if pensive and
sad, to a desperate end." _Aut suadendo blanditur, aut minando terret_,
sometimes by fair means, sometimes again by foul, as he perceives men
severally inclined. His ordinary engine by which he produceth this effect,
is the melancholy humour itself, which is _balneum diaboli_, the devil's
bath; and as in Saul, those evil spirits get in [6696]as it were, and take
possession of us. Black choler is a shoeing-horn, a bait to allure them,
insomuch that many writers make melancholy an ordinary cause, and a symptom
of despair, for that such men are most apt, by reason of their ill-disposed
temper, to distrust, fear, grief, mistake, and amplify whatsoever they
preposterously conceive, or falsely apprehend. _Conscientia scrupulosa
nascitur ex vitio naturali, complexione melancholica_ (saith Navarrus _cap.
27. num. 282. tom. 2. cas. conscien._) The body works upon the mind, by
obfuscating the spirits and corrupted instruments, which [6697]Perkins
illustrates by simile of an artificer, that hath a bad tool, his skill is
good, ability correspondent, by reason of ill tools his work must needs be
lame and imperfect. But melancholy and despair, though often, do not always
concur; there is much difference: melancholy fears without a cause, this
upon great occasion; melancholy is caused by fear and grief, but this
torment procures them and all extremity of bitterness; much melancholy is
without affliction of conscience, as [6698]Bright and Perkins illustrate by
four reasons; and yet melancholy alone may be sometimes a sufficient cause
of this terror of conscience. [6699]Felix Plater so found it in his
observations, _e melancholicis alii damnatos se putant, Deo curae, non
sunt, nec praedestinati_, &c. "They think they are not predestinate, God
hath forsaken them;" and yet otherwise very zealous and religious; and 'tis
common to be seen, "melancholy for fear of God's judgment and hell-fire,
drives men to desperation; fear and sorrow, if they be immoderate, end
often with it." Intolerable pain and anguish, long sickness, captivity,
misery, loss of goods, loss of friends, and those lesser griefs, do
sometimes effect it, or such dismal accidents. _Si non statim relevantur_,
[6700]Mercennus, _dubitant an sit Deus_, if they be not eased forthwith,
they doubt whether there be any God, they rave, curse, "and are desperately
mad because good men are oppressed, wicked men flourish, they have not as
they think to their desert," and through impatience of calamities are so
misaffected. Democritus put out his eyes, _ne malorum civium prosperos
videret successus_, because he could not abide to see wicked men prosper,
and was therefore ready to make away himself, as [6701]Agellius writes of
him. Felix Plater hath a memorable example in this kind, of a painter's
wife in Basil, that was melancholy for her son's death, and for melancholy
became desperate; she thought God would not pardon her sins, [6702]"and for
four months still raved, that she was in hell-fire, already damned." When
the humour is stirred up, every small object aggravates and incenseth it,
as the parties are addicted. [6703]The same author hath an example of a
merchant man, that for the loss of a little wheat, which he had over long
kept, was troubled in conscience, for that he had not sold it sooner, or
given it to the poor, yet a good scholar and a great divine; no persuasion
would serve to the contrary, but that for this fact he was damned: in other
matters Very judicious and discreet. Solitariness, much fasting, divine
meditation, and contemplations of God's judgments, most part accompany this
melancholy, and are main causes, as [6704]Navarrus holds; to converse with
such kinds of persons so troubled, is sufficient occasion of trouble to
some men. _Nonnulli ob longas inedias, studia et meditationes coelestes, de
rebus sacris et religione semper agitant_, &c. Many, (saith P. Forestus)
through long fasting, serious meditations of heavenly things, fall into
such fits; and as Lemnius adds, _lib. 4. cap. 21_, [6705]"If they be
solitary given, superstitious, precise, or very devout: seldom shall you
find a merchant, a soldier, an innkeeper, a bawd, a host, a usurer, so
troubled in mind, they have cheverel consciences that will stretch, they
are seldom moved in this kind or molested: young men and middle age are
more wild and less apprehensive; but old folks, most part, such as are
timorous and religiously given." Pet. Forestus _observat. lib. 10. cap. 12.
de morbis cerebri_, hath a fearful example of a minister, that through
precise fasting in Lent, and overmuch meditation, contracted this mischief,
and in the end became desperate, thought he saw devils in his chamber, and
that he could not be saved; he smelled nothing, as he said, but fire and
brimstone, was already in hell, and would ask them, still, if they did not
[6706]smell as much. I told him he was melancholy, but he laughed me to
scorn, and replied that he saw devils, talked with them in good earnest,
Would spit in my face, and ask me if 1 did not smell brimstone, but at last
he was by him cured. Such another story I find in Plater _observat. lib.
1._ A poor fellow had done some foul offence, and for fourteen days would
eat no meat, in the end became desperate, the divines about him could not
ease him, [6707]but so he died. Continual meditation of God's judgments
troubles many, _Multi ob timorem futuri judicii_, saith Guatinerius _cap.
5. tract. 15._ _et suspicionem desperabundi sunt._ David himself complains
that God's judgments terrified his soul, Psalm cxix. part. 16. vers. 8. "My
flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments."
_Quoties diem illum cogito_ (saith [6708]Hierome) _toto corpore
contremisco_, I tremble as often as I think of it. The terrible meditation
of hell-fire and eternal punishment much torments a sinful silly soul.
What's a thousand years to eternity? _Ubi moeror, ubi fletus, ubi dolor
sempiternus. Mors sine morte, finis sine fine_; a finger burnt by chance we
may not endure, the pain is so grievous, we may not abide an hour, a night
is intolerable; and what shall this unspeakable fire then be that burns for
ever, innumerable infinite millions of years, _in omne aevum in aeternum._
O eternity!
[6709] "Aeternitas est illa vox,
Vox illa fulminatrix,
Tonitruis minacior,
Fragoribusque coeli,
Aeternitas est illa vox,
--meta carens et orta, &c.
Tormenta nulla territant,
Quae finiuntur annis;
Aeternitas, aeternitas
Versat coquilque pectus.
Auget haec poenas indies,
Centuplicatque flammas," &c.
This meditation terrifies these poor distressed souls, especially if their
bodies be predisposed by melancholy, they religiously given, and have
tender consciences, every small object affrights them, the very
inconsiderate reading of Scripture itself, and misinterpretation of some
places of it; as, "Many are called, few are chosen. Not every one that
saith Lord. Fear not little flock. He that stands, let him take heed lest
he fall. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, That night two
shall be in a bed, one received, the other left. Strait is the way that
leads to heaven, and few there are that enter therein." The parable of the
seed and of the sower, "some fell on barren ground, some was choked. Whom
he hath predestinated he hath chosen. He will have mercy on whom he will
have mercy." _Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei._ These
and the like places terrify the souls of many; election, predestination,
reprobation, preposterously conceived, offend divers, with a deal of
foolish presumption, curiosity, needless speculation, contemplation,
solicitude, wherein they trouble and puzzle themselves about those
questions of grace, free will, perseverance, God's secrets; they will know
more than is revealed of God in his word, human capacity, or ignorance can
apprehend, and too importunate inquiry after that which is revealed;
mysteries, ceremonies, observation of Sabbaths, laws, duties, &c., with
many such which the casuists discuss, and schoolmen broach, which divers
mistake, misconstrue, misapply to themselves, to their own undoing, and so
fall into this gulf. "They doubt of their election, how they shall know,
it, by what signs. And so far forth," saith Luther, "with such nice points,
torture and crucify themselves, that they are almost mad, and all they get
by it is this, they lay open a gap to the devil by desperation to carry
them to hell;" but the greatest harm of all proceeds from those thundering
ministers, a most frequent cause they are of this malady: [6710]"and do
more harm in the church" (saith Erasmus) "than they that flatter; great
danger on both sides, the one lulls them asleep in carnal security, the
other drives them to despair." Whereas, [6711]St. Bernard well adviseth,
"We should not meddle with the one without the other, nor speak of judgment
without mercy; the one alone brings desperation, the other security." But
these men are wholly for judgment; of a rigid disposition themselves, there
is no mercy with them, no salvation, no balsam for their diseased souls,
they can speak of nothing but reprobation, hell-fire, and damnation; as
they did Luke xi. 46. lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, which
they themselves touch not with a finger. 'Tis familiar with our papists to
terrify men's souls with purgatory, tales, visions, apparitions, to daunt
even the most generous spirits, "to [6712]require charity," as Brentius
observes, "of others, bounty, meekness, love, patience, when they
themselves breathe nought but lust, envy, covetousness." They teach others
to fast, give alms, do penance, and crucify their mind with superstitious
observations, bread and water, hair clothes, whips, and the like, when they
themselves have all the dainties the world can afford, lie on a down-bed
with a courtesan in their arms: _Heu quantum patimur pro Christo_, as
[6713]he said, what a cruel tyranny is this, so to insult over and terrify
men's souls! Our indiscreet pastors many of them come not far behind,
whilst in their ordinary sermons they speak so much of election,
predestination, reprobation, _ab aeterno_, subtraction of grace,
preterition, voluntary permission, &c., by what signs and tokens they shall
discern and try themselves, whether they be God's true children elect, _an
sint reprobi, praedestinati_, &c., with such scrupulous points, they still
aggravate sin, thunder out God's judgments without respect, intempestively
rail at and pronounce them damned in all auditories, for giving so much to
sports and honest recreations, making every small fault and thing
indifferent an irremissible offence, they so rent, tear and wound men's
consciences, that they are almost mad, and at their wits' end.
"These bitter potions" (saith [6714]Erasmus) "are still in their mouths,
nothing but gall and horror, and a mad noise, they make all their auditors
desperate:" many are wounded by this means, and they commonly that are most
devout and precise, have been formerly presumptuous, and certain of their
salvation; they that have tender consciences, that follow sermons, frequent
lectures, that have indeed least cause, they are most apt to mistake, and
fall into these miseries. I have heard some complain of Parson's
Resolution, and other books of like nature (good otherwise), they are too
tragical, too much dejecting men, aggravating offences: great care and
choice, much discretion is required in this kind.
The last and greatest cause of this malady, is our own conscience, sense of
our sins, and God's anger justly deserved, a guilty conscience for some
foul offence formerly committed,--[6715]O _miser Oreste, quid morbi te
perdit_? Or: _Conscientia, Sum enim mihi conscius de malis
perpetratis_.[6716] "A good conscience is a continual feast," but a galled
conscience is as great a torment as can possibly happen, a still baking
oven, (so Pierius in his Hieroglyph, compares it) another hell. Our
conscience, which is a great ledger book, wherein are written all our
offences, a register to lay them up, (which those [6717]Egyptians in their
hieroglyphics expressed by a mill, as well for the continuance, as for the
torture of it) grinds our souls with the remembrance of some precedent
sins, makes us reflect upon, accuse and condemn our own selves. [6718]"Sin
lies at door," &c. I know there be many other causes assigned by Zanchius,
[6719]Musculus, and the rest; as incredulity, infidelity, presumption,
ignorance, blindness, ingratitude, discontent, those five grand miseries in
Aristotle, ignominy, need, sickness, enmity, death, &c.; but this of
conscience is the greatest, [6720]_Instar ulceris corpus jugiter
percellens_: The scrupulous conscience (as [6721]Peter Forestus calls it)
which tortures so many, that either out of a deep apprehension of their
unworthiness, and consideration of their own dissolute life, "accuse
themselves and aggravate every small offence, when there is no such cause,
misdoubting in the meantime God's mercies, they fall into these
inconveniences." The poet calls them [6722]furies dire, but it is the
conscience alone which is a thousand witnesses to accuse us, [6723] _Nocte
dieque suum gestant in pectore testem_. A continual tester to give in
evidence, to empanel a jury to examine us, to cry guilty, a persecutor with
hue and cry to follow, an apparitor to summon us, a bailiff to carry us, a
serjeant to arrest, an attorney to plead against us, a gaoler to torment, a
judge to condemn, still accusing, denouncing, torturing and molesting. And
as the statue of Juno in that holy city near Euphrates in [6724]Assyria
will look still towards you, sit where you will in her temple, she stares
full upon you, if you go by, she follows with her eye, in all sites,
places, conventicles, actions, our conscience will be still ready to accuse
us. After many pleasant days, and fortunate adventures, merry tides, this
conscience at last doth arrest us. Well he may escape temporal punishment,
[6725]bribe a corrupt judge, and avoid the censure of law, and flourish for
a time; "for [6726]who ever saw" (saith Chrysostom) "a covetous man
troubled in mind when he is telling of his money, an adulterer mourn with
his mistress in his arms? we are then drunk with pleasure, and perceive
nothing:" yet as the prodigal son had dainty fare, sweet music at first,
merry company, jovial entertainment, but a cruel reckoning in the end, as
bitter as wormwood, a fearful visitation commonly follows. And the devil
that then told thee that it was a light sin, or no sin at all, now
aggravates on the other side, and telleth thee, that it is a most
irremissible offence, as he did by Cain and Judas, to bring them to
despair; every small circumstance before neglected and contemned, will now
amplify itself, rise up in judgment, and accuse the dust of their shoes,
dumb creatures, as to Lucian's tyrant, _lectus et candela_, the bed and
candle did bear witness, to torment their souls for their sins past.
Tragical examples in this kind are too familiar and common: Adrian, Galba,
Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Caracalla, were in such horror of conscience for
their offences committed, murders, rapes, extortions, injuries, that they
were weary of their lives, and could get nobody to kill them.
[6727]Kennetus, King of Scotland, when he had murdered his nephew Malcom,
King Duffe's son, Prince of Cumberland, and with counterfeit tears and
protestations dissembled the matter a long time, [6728]"at last his
conscience accused him, his unquiet soul could not rest day or night, he
was terrified with fearful dreams, visions, and so miserably tormented all
his life." It is strange to read what [6729]Cominaeus hath written of Louis
XI. that French King; of Charles VIII.; of Alphonsus, King of Naples; in
the fury of his passion how he came into Sicily, and what pranks he played.
Guicciardini, a man most unapt to believe lies, relates how that Ferdinand
his father's ghost who before had died for grief, came and told him, that
he could not resist the French King, he thought every man cried France,
France; the reason of it (saith Cominseus) was because he was a vile
tyrant, a murderer, an oppressor of his subjects, he bought up all
commodities, and sold them at his own price, sold abbeys to Jews and
Falkoners; both Ferdinand his father, and he himself never made conscience
of any committed sin; and to conclude, saith he, it was impossible to do
worse than they did. Why was Pausanias the Spartan tyrant, Nero, Otho,
Galba, so persecuted with spirits in every house they came, but for their
murders which they had committed? [6730]Why doth the devil haunt many men's
houses after their deaths, appear to them living, and take possession of
their habitations, as it were, of their palaces, but because of their
several villainies? Why had Richard the Third such fearful dreams, saith
Polydore, but for his frequent murders? Why was Herod so tortured in his
mind? because he had made away Mariamne his wife. Why was Theodoric, the
King of the Goths, so suspicious, and so affrighted with a fish head alone,
but that he had murdered Symmachus, and Boethius his son-in-law, those
worthy Romans? Caelius, _lib. 27. cap. 22._ See more in Plutarch, in his
tract _De his qui sero a Numine puniuntur_, and in his book _De
tranquillitate animi_, &c. Yea, and sometimes GOD himself hath a hand in
it, to show his power, humiliate, exercise, and to try their faith, (divine
temptation, Perkins calls it, _Cas. cons. lib. 1. cap. 8. sect. 1._) to
punish them for their sins. God the avenger, as [6731]David terms him,
_ultor a tergo Deus_, his wrath is apprehended of a guilty, soul, as by
Saul and Judas, which the poets expressed by Adrastia, or Nemesis:
[6732] "Assequitur Nemesique virum vestigia servat,
Ne male quid facias."------
And she is, as [6733]Ammianus, _lib. 14._ describes her, "the queen of
causes, and moderator of things," now she pulls down the proud, now she
rears and encourageth those that are good; he gives instance in his
Eusebius; Nicephorus, _lib. 10. cap. 35. eccles. hist._ in Maximinus and
Julian. Fearful examples of God's just judgment, wrath and vengeance, are
to be found in all histories, of some that have been eaten to death with
rats and mice, as [6734]Popelius, the second King of Poland, ann. 830, his
wife and children; the like story is of Hatto, Archbishop of Mentz, ann.
969, so devoured by these vermin, which howsoever Serrarius the Jesuit
Mogunt. _rerum lib. 4. cap. 5._ impugn by twenty-two arguments, Tritemius,
[6735]Munster, Magdeburgenses, and many others relate for a truth. Such
another example I find in Geraldus Cambrensis _Itin. Cam. lib. 2. cap. 2._
and where not?
And yet for all these terrors of conscience, affrighting punishments which
are so frequent, or whatsoever else may cause or aggravate this fearful
malady in other religions, I see no reason at all why a papist at any time
should despair, or be troubled for his sins; for let him be never so
dissolute a caitiff so notorious a villain, so monstrous a sinner, out of
that treasure of indulgences and merits of which the pope is dispensator,
he may have free pardon and plenary remission of all his sins. There be so
many general pardons for ages to come, forty thousand years to come, so
many jubilees, so frequent gaol-deliveries out of purgatory for all souls,
now living, or after dissolution of the body, so many particular masses
daily said in several churches, so many altars consecrated to this purpose,
that if a man have either money or friends, or will take any pains to come
to such an altar, hear a mass, say so many paternosters, undergo such and
such penance, he cannot do amiss, it is impossible his mind should be
troubled, or he have any scruple to molest him. Besides that _Taxa Camerae
Apostolicae_, which was first published to get money in the days of Leo
Decimus, that sharking pope, and since divulged to the same ends, sets down
such easy rates and dispensations for all offences, for perjury, murder,
incest, adultery, &c., for so many grosses or dollars (able to invite any
man to sin, and provoke him to offend, methinks, that otherwise would not)
such comfortable remission, so gentle and parable a pardon, so ready at
hand, with so small cost and suit obtained, that I cannot see how he that
hath any friends amongst them (as I say) or money in his purse, or will at
least to ease himself, can any way miscarry or be misaffected, how he
should be desperate, in danger of damnation, or troubled in mind. Their
ghostly fathers can so readily apply remedies, so cunningly string and
unstring, wind and unwind their devotions, play upon their consciences with
plausible speeches and terrible threats, for their best advantage settle
and remove, erect with such facility and deject, let in and out, that I
cannot perceive how any man amongst them should much or often labour of
this disease, or finally miscarry. The causes above named must more
frequently therefore take hold in others.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Symptoms of Despair, Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Anxiety,
Horror of Conscience, Fearful Dreams and Visions_.
As shoemakers do when they bring home shoes, still cry leather is dearer
and dearer, may I justly say of those melancholy symptoms: these of despair
are most violent, tragical, and grievous, far beyond the rest, not to be
expressed but negatively, as it is privation of all happiness, not to be
endured; "for a wounded spirit who can bear it?" Prov. xviii. 19. What,
therefore, [6736]Timanthes did in his picture of Iphigenia, now ready to be
sacrificed, when he had painted Chalcas mourning, Ulysses sad, but most
sorrowful Menelaus; and showed all his art in expressing a variety of
affections, he covered the maid's father Agamemnon's head with a veil, and
left it to every spectator to conceive what he would himself; for that true
passion and sorrow in _summo gradu_, such as his was, could not by any art
be deciphered. What he did in his picture, I will do in describing the
symptoms of despair; imagine what thou canst, fear, sorrow, furies, grief,
pain, terror, anger, dismal, ghastly, tedious, irksome, &c. it is not
sufficient, it comes far short, no tongue can tell, no heart conceive it.
'Tis an epitome of hell, an extract, a quintessence, a compound, a mixture
of all feral maladies, tyrannical tortures, plagues, and perplexities.
There is no sickness almost but physic provideth a remedy for it; to every
sore chirurgery will provide a slave; friendship helps poverty; hope of
liberty easeth imprisonment; suit and favour revoke banishment; authority
and time wear away reproach: but what physic, what chirurgery, what wealth,
favour, authority can relieve, bear out, assuage, or expel a troubled
conscience? A quiet mind cureth all them, but all they cannot comfort a
distressed soul: who can put to silence the voice of desperation? All that
is single in other melancholy, _Horribile, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum_,
concur in this, it is more than melancholy in the highest degree; a burning
fever of the soul; so mad, saith [6737]Jacchinus, by this misery; fear,
sorrow, and despair, he puts for ordinary symptoms of melancholy. They are
in great pain and horror of mind, distraction of soul, restless, full of
continual fears, cares, torments, anxieties, they can neither eat, drink,
nor sleep for them, take no rest,
[6738] "Perpetua impietas, nec mensae tempore cessat,
Exagitat vesana quies, somnique furentes."
"Neither at bed, nor yet at board,
Will any rest despair afford."
Fear takes away their content, and dries the blood, wasteth the marrow,
alters their countenance, "even in their greatest delights, singing,
dancing, dalliance, they are still" (saith [6739]Lemnius) "tortured in
their souls." It consumes them to nought, "I am like a pelican in the
wilderness (saith David of himself, temporally afflicted), an owl, because
of thine indignation," Psalm cii. 8, 10, and Psalm lv. 4. "My heart
trembleth within me, and the terrors of death have come upon me; fear and
trembling are come upon me, &c. at death's door," Psalm cvii. 18. "Their
soul abhors all manner of meats." Their [6740]sleep is (if it be any)
unquiet, subject to fearful dreams and terrors. Peter in his bonds slept
secure, for he knew God protected him; and Tully makes it an argument of
Roscius Amerinus' innocency, that he killed not his father, because he so
securely slept. Those martyrs in the primitive church were most
[6741]cheerful and merry in the midst of their persecutions; but it is far
otherwise with these men, tossed in a sea, and that continually without
rest or intermission, they can think of nought that is pleasant,
[6742]"their conscience will not let them be quiet," in perpetual fear,
anxiety, if they be not yet apprehended, they are in doubt still they shall
be ready to betray themselves, as Cain did, he thinks every man will kill
him; "and roar for the grief of heart," Psalm xxxviii. 8, as David did; as
Job did, xx. 3, 21, 22, &c., "Wherefore is light given to him that is in
misery, and life to them that have heavy hearts? which long for death, and
if it come not, search it more than treasures, and rejoice when they can
find the grave." They are generally weary of their lives, a trembling heart
they have, a sorrowful mind, and little or no rest. _Terror ubique tremor,
timor undique et undique terror._ "Fears, terrors, and affrights in all
places, at all times and seasons." _Cibum et potum pertinaciter aversantur
multi, nodum in scirpo quaeritantes, et culpam imaginantes ubi nulla est_,
as Wierus writes _de Lamiis lib. 3. c. 7._ "they refuse many of them meat
and drink, cannot rest, aggravating still and supposing grievous offences
where there are none." God's heavy wrath is kindled in their souls, and
notwithstanding their continual prayers and supplications to Christ Jesus,
they have no release or ease at all, but a most intolerable torment, and
insufferable anguish of conscience, and that makes them, through
impatience, to murmur against God many times, to rave, to blaspheme, turn
atheists, and seek to offer violence to themselves. Deut. xxviii. 65, 68.
"In the morning they wish for evening, and for morning in the evening, for
the sight of their eyes which they see, and fear of hearts." [6743]Marinus
Mercennus, in his comment on Genesis, makes mention of a desperate friend
of his, whom, amongst others, he came to visit, and exhort to patience,
that broke out into most blasphemous atheistical speeches, too fearful to
relate, when they wished him to trust in God, _Quis est ille Deus (inquit)
ut serviam illi, quid proderit si oraverim; si praesens est, cur non
succurrit? cur non me carcere, inertia, squalore confectum liberat? quid
ego feci? &c. absit a me hujusmodi Deus_. Another of his acquaintance broke
out into like atheistical blasphemies, upon his wife's death raved, cursed,
said and did he cared not what. And so for the most part it is with them
all, many of them, in their extremity, think they hear and see visions,
outcries, confer with devils, that they are tormented, possessed, and in
hell-fire, already damned, quite forsaken of God, they have no sense or
feeling of mercy, or grace, hope of salvation, their sentence of
condemnation is already past, and not to be revoked, the devil will
certainly have them. Never was any living creature in such torment before,
in such a miserable estate, in such distress of mind, no hope, no faith,
past cure, reprobate, continually tempted to make away themselves.
Something talks with them, they spit fire and brimstone, they cannot but
blaspheme, they cannot repent, believe or think a good thought, so far
carried; _ut cogantur ad impia cogitandum etiam contra voluntatem_, said
[6744]Felix Plater, _ad blasphemiam erga deum, ad multa horrenda
perpetranda, ad manus violentas sibi inferendas_, &c., and in their
distracted fits and desperate humours, to offer violence to others, their
familiar and dear friends sometimes, or to mere strangers, upon very small
or no occasion; for he that cares not for his own, is master of another
man's life. They think evil against their wills; that which they abhor
themselves, they must needs think, do, and speak. He gives instance in a
patient of his, that when he would pray, had such evil thoughts still
suggested to him, and wicked [6745]meditations. Another instance he hath of
a woman that was often tempted to curse God, to blaspheme and kill herself.
Sometimes the devil (as they say) stands without and talks with them,
sometimes he is within them, as they think, and there speaks and talks as
to such as are possessed: so Apollodorus, in Plutarch, thought his heart
spake within him. There is a most memorable example of [6746]Francis Spira,
an advocate of Padua, Ann. 1545, that being desperate, by no counsel of
learned men could be comforted: he felt (as he said) the pains of hell in
his soul; in all other things he discoursed aright, but in this most mad.
Frismelica, Bullovat, and some other excellent physicians, could neither
make him eat, drink, or sleep, no persuasion could ease him. Never pleaded
any man so well for himself, as this man did against himself, and so he
desperately died. Springer, a lawyer, hath written his life. Cardinal
Crescence died so likewise desperate at Verona, still he thought a black
dog followed him to his death-bed, no man could drive the dog away,
Sleiden. _com. 23. cap. lib. 3._ Whilst I was writing this Treatise, saith
Montaltus, _cap. 2. de mel._ [6747]"A nun came to me for help, well for all
other matters, but troubled in conscience for five years last past; she is
almost mad, and not able to resist, thinks she hath offended God, and is
certainly damned." Felix Plater hath store of instances of such as thought
themselves damned, [6748] forsaken of God, &c. One amongst the rest, that
durst not go to church, or come near the Rhine, for fear to make away
himself, because then he was most especially tempted. These and such like
symptoms are intended and remitted, as the malady itself is more or less;
some will hear good counsel, some will not; some desire help, some reject
all, and will not be eased.
SUBSECT. V.--_Prognostics of Despair, Atheism, Blasphemy, violent death,
&c._
Most part these kind of persons make [6749]away themselves, some are mad,
blaspheme, curse, deny God, but most offer violence to their own persons,
and sometimes to others. "A wounded spirit who can bear?" Prov. xviii. 14.
As Cain, Saul, Achitophel, Judas, blasphemed and died. Bede saith, Pilate
died desperate eight years after Christ. [6750]Felix Plater hath collected
many examples. [6751]A merchant's wife that was long troubled with such
temptations, in the night rose from her bed, and out of the window broke
her neck into the street: another drowned himself desperate as he was in
the Rhine: some cut their throats, many hang themselves. But this needs no
illustration. It is controverted by some, whether a man so offering
violence to himself, dying desperate, may be saved, ay or no? If they die
so obstinately and suddenly, that they cannot so much as wish for mercy,
the worst is to be suspected, because they die impenitent. [6752]If their
death had been a little more lingering, wherein they might have some
leisure in their hearts to cry for mercy, charity may judge the best;
divers have been recovered out of the very act of hanging and drowning
themselves, and so brought _ad sanam mentem_, they have been very penitent,
much abhorred their former act, confessed that they have repented in an
instant, and cried for mercy in their hearts. If a man put desperate hands
upon himself, by occasion of madness or melancholy, if he have given
testimony before of his regeneration, in regard he doth this not so much
out of his will, as _ex vi morbi_, we must make the best construction of
it, as [6753]Turks do, that think all fools and madmen go directly to
heaven.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Cure of Despair by Physic, Good Counsel, Comforts, &c._
Experience teacheth us, that though many die obstinate and wilful in this
malady, yet multitudes again are able to resist and overcome, seek for help
and find comfort, are taken _e faucibus Erebi_, from the chops of hell, and
out of the devil's paws, though they have by [6754]obligation, given
themselves to him. Some out of their own strength, and God's assistance,
"Though He kill me," (saith Job,) "yet will I trust in Him," out of good
counsel, advice and physic. [6755]Bellovacus cured a monk by altering his
habit, and course of life: Plater many by physic alone. But for the most
part they must concur; and they take a wrong course that think to overcome
this feral passion by sole physic; and they are as much out, that think to
work this effect by good service alone, though both be forcible in
themselves, yet _vis unita fortior_, "they must go hand in hand to this
disease:"--_alterius sic altera poscit opem._ For physic the like course is
to be taken with this as in other melancholy: diet, air, exercise, all
those passions and perturbations of the mind, &c. are to be rectified by
the same means. They must not be left solitary, or to themselves, never
idle, never out of company. Counsel, good comfort is to be applied, as they
shall see the parties inclined, or to the causes, whether it be loss, fear,
be grief, discontent, or some such feral accident, a guilty conscience, or
otherwise by frequent meditation, too grievous an apprehension, and
consideration of his former life; by hearing, reading of Scriptures, good
divines, good advice and conference, applying God's word to their
distressed souls, it must be corrected and counterpoised. Many excellent
exhortations, phraenetical discourses, are extant to this purpose, for such
as are any way troubled in mind: Perkins, Greenham, Hayward, Bright,
Abernethy, Bolton, Culmannus, Helmingius, Caelius Secundus, Nicholas
Laurentius, are copious on this subject: Azorius, Navarrus, Sayrus, &c.,
and such as have written cases of conscience amongst our pontifical
writers. But because these men's works are not to all parties at hand, so
parable at all times, I will for the benefit and ease of such as are
afflicted, at the request of some [6756]friends, recollect out of their
voluminous treatises, some few such comfortable speeches, exhortations,
arguments, advice, tending to this subject, and out of God's word, knowing,
as Culmannus saith upon the like occasion, [6757]"how unavailable and vain
men's councils are to comfort an afflicted conscience, except God's word
concur and be annexed, from which comes life, ease, repentance," &c.
Presupposing first that which Beza, Greenham, Perkins, Bolton, give in
charge, the parties to whom counsel is given be sufficiently prepared,
humbled for their sins, fit for comfort, confessed, tried how they are more
or less afflicted, how they stand affected, or capable of good advice,
before any remedies be applied: to such therefore as are so thoroughly
searched and examined, I address this following discourse.
Two main antidotes, [6758]Hemmingius observes, opposite to despair, good
hope out of God's word, to be embraced; perverse security and presumption
from the devil's treachery, to be rejected; _Illa solus animae, haec
pestis_; one saves, the other kills, _occidit animam_, saith Austin, and
doth as much harm as despair itself, [6759]Navarrus the casuist reckons up
ten special cures out of Anton. _1. part. Tit. 3. cap. 10._ 1. God. 2.
Physic. 3. [6760]Avoiding such objects as have caused it. 4. Submission of
himself to other men's judgments. 5. Answer of all objections, &c. All
which Cajetan, Gerson, _lib. de vit. spirit._ Sayrus, _lib. 1. cons. cap.
14._ repeat and approve out of Emanuel Roderiques, _cap. 51 et 52._
Greenham prescribes six special rules, Culmannus seven. First, to
acknowledge all help come from God. 2. That the cause of their present
misery is sin. 3. To repent and be heartily sorry for their sins. 4. To
pray earnestly to God they may be eased. 5. To expect and implore the
prayers of the church, and good men's advice. 6. Physic. 7. To commend
themselves to God, and rely upon His mercy: others, otherwise, but all to
this effect. But forasmuch as most men in this malady are spiritually sick,
void of reason almost, overborne by their miseries, and too deep an
apprehension of their sins, they cannot apply themselves to good counsel,
pray, believe, repent, we must, as much as in us lies, occur and help their
peculiar infirmities, according to their several causes and symptoms, as we
shall find them distressed and complain.
The main matter which terrifies and torments most that are troubled in
mind, is the enormity of their offences, the intolerable burthen of their
sins, God's heavy wrath and displeasure so deeply apprehended, that they
account themselves reprobates, quite forsaken of God, already damned, past
all hope of grace, incapable of mercy, _diaboli mancipia_, slaves of sin,
and their offences so great they cannot be forgiven. But these men must
know there is no sin so heinous which is not pardonable in itself, no crime
so great but by God's mercy it may be forgiven. "Where sin aboundeth, grace
aboundeth much more," Rom. v. 20. And what the Lord said unto Paul in his
extremity, 2 Cor. xi. 9. "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is
made perfect through weakness:" concerns every man in like case. His
promises are made indefinite to all believers, generally spoken to all
touching remission of sins that are truly penitent, grieved for their
offences, and desire to be reconciled, Matt. ix. 12, 13, "I came not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance," that is, such as are truly
touched in conscience for their sins. Again, Matt. xi. 28, "Come unto me
all ye that are heavy laden, and I will ease you." Ezek. xviii. 27, "At
what time soever a sinner shall repent him of his sins from the bottom of
his heart, I will blot out all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith
the Lord." Isaiah xliii. 25, "I, even I, am He that put away thine iniquity
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." "As a father" (saith
David Psal. ciii. 13) "hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord
compassion on them that fear him." And will receive them again as the
prodigal son was entertained, Luke xv., if they shall so come with tears in
their eyes, and a penitent heart. _Peccator agnoscat, Deus ignoscit._ "The
Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, of great kindness,"
Psal. ciii. 8. "He will not always chide, neither keep His anger for ever,"
9. "As high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is His mercy towards
them that fear Him," 11. "As far as the East is from the West, so far hath
He removed our sins from us," 12. Though Cain cry out in the anguish of his
soul, my punishment is greater than I can bear, 'tis not so; thou liest,
Cain (saith Austin), "God's mercy is greater than thy sins. His mercy is
above all His works," Psal. cxlv. 9, able to satisfy for all men's sins,
_antilutron_, 1 Tim. ii. 6. His mercy is a panacea, a balsam for an
afflicted soul, a sovereign medicine, an alexipharmacum for all sins, a
charm for the devil; his mercy was great to Solomon, to Manasseh, to Peter,
great to all offenders, and whosoever thou art, it may be so to thee. For
why should God bid us pray (as Austin infers) "Deliver us from all evil,"
_nisi ipse misericors perseveraret_, if He did not intend to help us? He
therefore that [6761]doubts of the remission of his sins, denies God's
mercy, and doth Him injury, saith Austin. Yea, but thou repliest, I am a
notorious sinner, mine offences are not so great as infinite. Hear
Fulgentius, [6762]"God's invincible goodness cannot be overcome by sin, His
infinite mercy cannot be terminated by any: the multitude of His mercy is
equivalent to His magnitude." Hear [6763]Chrysostom, "Thy malice may be
measured, but God's mercy cannot be defined; thy malice is circumscribed,
His mercies infinite." As a drop of water is to the sea, so are thy
misdeeds to His mercy: nay, there is no such proportion to be given; for
the sea, though great, yet may be measured, but God's mercy cannot be
circumscribed. Whatsoever thy sins be then in quantity or quality,
multitude or magnitude, fear them not, distrust not. I speak not this,
saith [6764]Chrysostom, "to make thee secure and negligent, but to cheer
thee up." Yea but, thou urgest again, I have little comfort of this which
is said, it concerns me not: _Inanis poenitentia quam sequens culpa
coinquinat_, 'tis to no purpose for me to repent, and to do worse than ever
I did before, to persevere in sin, and to return to my lusts as a dog to
his vomit, or a swine to the mire: [6765]to what end is it to ask
forgiveness of my sins, and yet daily to sin again and again, to do evil
out of a habit? I daily and hourly offend in thought, word, and deed, in a
relapse by mine own weakness and wilfulness: my _bonus genius_, my good
protecting angel is gone, I am fallen from that I was or would be, worse
and worse, "my latter end is worse than my beginning:" _Si quotidiae
peccas, quotidie_, saith Chrysostom, _poenitentiam age_, if thou daily
offend, daily repent: [6766]"if twice, thrice, a hundred, a hundred
thousand times, twice, thrice, a hundred thousand times repent." As they do
by an old house that is out of repair, still mend some part or other; so do
by thy soul, still reform some vice, repair it by repentance, call to Him
for grace, and thou shalt have it; "For we are freely justified by His
grace," Rom. iii. 24. If thine enemy repent, as our Saviour enjoined Peter,
forgive him seventy-seven times; and why shouldst thou think God will not
forgive thee? Why should the enormity of thy sins trouble thee? God can do
it, he will do it. "My conscience" (saith [6767]Anselm) "dictates to me
that I deserve damnation, my repentance will not suffice for satisfaction:
but thy mercy, O Lord, quite overcometh all my transgressions." The gods
once (as the poets feign) with a gold chain would pull Jupiter out of
heaven, but all they together could not stir him, and yet he could draw and
turn them as he would himself; maugre all the force and fury of these
infernal fiends, and crying sins, "His grace is sufficient." Confer the
debt and the payment; Christ and Adam; sin, and the cure of it; the disease
and the medicine; confer the sick man to his physician, and thou shalt soon
perceive that his power is infinitely beyond it. God is better able, as
[6768]Bernard informeth us, "to help, than sin to do us hurt; Christ is
better able to save, than the devil to destroy." [6769]If he be a skilful
Physician, as Fulgentius adds, "he can cure all diseases; if merciful, he
will." _Non est perfecta bonitas a qua non omnis malitia vincitur_, His
goodness is not absolute and perfect, if it be not able to overcome all
malice. Submit thyself unto Him, as St. Austin adviseth, [6770]"He knoweth
best what he doth; and be not so much pleased when he sustains thee, as
patient when he corrects thee; he is omnipotent, and can cure all diseases
when he sees his own time." He looks down from heaven upon earth, that he
may hear the "mourning of prisoners, and deliver the children of death,"
Psal. cii. 19. 20. "And though our sins be as red as scarlet, He can make
them as white as snow," Isai. i. 18. Doubt not of this, or ask how it shall
be done: He is all-sufficient that promiseth; _qui fecit mundum de
immundo_, saith Chrysostom, he that made a fair world of nought, can do
this and much more for his part: do thou only believe, trust in him, rely
on him, be penitent and heartily sorry for thy sins. Repentance is a
sovereign remedy for all sins, a spiritual wing to rear us, a charm for our
miseries, a protecting amulet to expel sin's venom, an attractive loadstone
to draw God's mercy and graces unto us. [6771]_Peccatum vulnus, poenitentia
medicinam_: sin made the breach, repentance must help it; howsoever thine
offence came, by error, sloth, obstinacy, ignorance, _exitur per
poenitentiam_, this is the sole means to be relieved. [6772]Hence comes our
hope of safety, by this alone sinners are saved, God is provoked to mercy.
"This unlooseth all that is bound, enlighteneth darkness, mends that is
broken, puts life to that which was desperately dying:" makes no respect of
offences, or of persons. [6773]"This doth not repel a fornicator, reject a
drunkard, resist a proud fellow, turn away an idolater, but entertains all,
communicates itself to all." Who persecuted the church more than Paul,
offended more than Peter? and yet by repentance (saith Curysologus) they
got both _Magisterium et ministerium sanctitatis_, the Magistery of
holiness. The prodigal son went far, but by repentance he came home at
last. [6774]"This alone will turn a wolf into a sheep, make a publican a
preacher, turn a thorn into an olive, make a debauched fellow religious," a
blasphemer sing halleluja, make Alexander the coppersmith truly devout,
make a devil a saint. [6775]"And him that polluted his mouth with
calumnies, lying, swearing, and filthy tunes and tones, to purge his throat
with divine Psalms." Repentance will effect prodigious cures, make a
stupend metamorphosis. "A hawk came into the ark, and went out again a
hawk; a lion came in, went out a lion; a bear, a bear; a wolf, a wolf; but
if a hawk came into this sacred temple of repentance, he will go forth a
dove" (saith [6776]Chrysostom), "a wolf go out a sheep, a lion a lamb.
[6777]This gives sight to the blind, legs to the lame, cures all diseases,
confers grace, expels vice, inserts virtue, comforts and fortifies the
soul." Shall I say, let thy sin be what it will, do but repent, it is
sufficient. [6778]_Quem poenitet peccasse pene est innocens._ 'Tis true
indeed and all-sufficient this, they do confess, if they could repent; but
they are obdurate, they have cauterised consciences, they are in a
reprobate sense, they cannot think a good thought, they cannot hope for
grace, pray, believe, repent, or be sorry for their sins, they find no
grief for sin in themselves, but rather a delight, no groaning of spirit,
but are carried headlong to their own destruction, "heaping wrath to
themselves against the day of wrath," Rom. ii. 5. 'Tis a grievous case this
I do yield, and yet not to be despaired; God of his bounty and mercy calls
all to repentance, Rom. ii. 4, thou mayst be called at length, restored,
taken to His grace, as the thief upon the cross, at the last hour, as Mary
Magdalene and many other sinners have been, that were buried in sin. "God"
(saith [6779]Fulgentius) "is delighted in the conversion of a sinner, he
sets no time;" _prolixitas temporis Deo non praejudicat, aut gravitas
peccati_, deferring of time or grievousness of sin, do not prejudicate his
grace, things past and to come are all one to Him, as present: 'tis never
too late to repent. [6780]"This heaven of repentance is still open for all
distressed souls;" and howsoever as yet no signs appear, thou mayst repent
in good time. Hear a comfortable speech of St. Austin, [6781]"Whatsoever
thou shall do, how great a sinner soever, thou art yet living; if God would
not help thee, he would surely take thee away; but in sparing thy life, he
gives thee leisure, and invites thee to repentance." Howsoever as yet, I
say, thou perceivest no fruit, no feeling, findest no likelihood of it in
thyself, patiently abide the Lord's good leisure, despair not, or think
thou art a reprobate; He came to call sinners to repentance, Luke v. 32, of
which number thou art one; He came to call thee, and in his time will
surely call thee. And although as yet thou hast no inclination to pray, to
repent, thy faith be cold and dead, and thou wholly averse from all Divine
functions, yet it may revive, as trees are dead in winter, but flourish in
the spring! these virtues may lie hid in thee for the present, yet
hereafter show themselves, and peradventure already bud, howsoever thou
dost not perceive. 'Tis Satan's policy to plead against, suppress and
aggravate, to conceal those sparks of faith in thee. Thou dost not believe,
thou sayest, yet thou wouldst believe if thou couldst, 'tis thy desire to
believe; then pray, [6782]"Lord help mine unbelief:" and hereafter thou
shall certainly believe: [6783]_Dabitur sitienti_, it shall be given to him
that thirsteth. Thou canst not yet repent, hereafter thou shall; a black
cloud of sin as yet obnubilates thy soul, terrifies thy conscience, but
this cloud may conceive a rainbow at the last, and be quite dissipated by
repentance. Be of good cheer; a child is rational in power, not in act; and
so art thou penitent in affection, though not yet in action. 'Tis thy
desire to please God, to be heartily sorry; comfort thyself, no time is
overpast, 'tis never too late. A desire to repent is repentance itself,
though not in nature, yet in God's acceptance; a willing mind is
sufficient. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,"
Matt. v. 6. He that is destitute of God's grace, and wisheth for it, shall
have it. "The Lord" (saith David, Psal. x. 17) "will hear the desire of the
poor," that is, such as are in distress of body and mind. 'Tis true thou
canst not as yet grieve for thy sin, thou hast no feeling of faith, I
yield; yet canst thou grieve thou dost not grieve? It troubles thee, I am
sure, thine heart should be so impenitent and hard, thou wouldst have it
otherwise; 'tis thy desire to grieve, to repent, and to believe. Thou
lovest God's children and saints in the meantime, hatest them not,
persecutest them not, but rather wishest thyself a true professor, to be as
they are, as thou thyself hast been heretofore; which is an evident token
thou art in no such desperate case. 'Tis a good sign of thy conversion, thy
sins are pardonable, thou art, or shalt surely be reconciled. "The Lord is
near them that are of a contrite heart," Luke iv. 18. [6784]A true desire
of mercy in the want of mercy, is mercy itself; a desire of grace in the
want of grace, is grace itself; a constant and earnest desire to believe,
repent, and to be reconciled to God, if it be in a touched heart, is an
acceptation of God, a reconciliation, faith and repentance itself. For it
is not thy faith and repentance, as [6785]Chrysostom truly teacheth, that
is available, but God's mercy that is annexed to it, He accepts the will
for the deed: so that I conclude, to feel in ourselves the want of grace,
and to be grieved for it, is grace itself. I am troubled with fear my sins
are not forgiven, Careless objects: but Bradford answers they are; "For God
hath given thee a penitent and believing heart, that is, a heart which
desireth to repent and believe; for such an one is taken of him (he
accepting the will for the deed) for a truly penitent and believing heart."
All this is true thou repliest, but yet it concerns not thee, 'tis verified
in ordinary offenders, in common sins, but thine are of a higher strain,
even against the Holy Ghost himself, irremissible sins, sins of the first
magnitude, written with a pen of iron, engraven with a point of a diamond.
Thou art worse than a pagan, infidel, Jew, or Turk, for thou art an
apostate and more, thou hast voluntarily blasphemed, renounced God and all
religion, thou art worse than Judas himself, or they that crucified Christ:
for they did offend out of ignorance, but thou hast thought in thine heart
there is no God. Thou hast given thy soul to the devil, as witches and
conjurors do, _explicite_ and _implicite_, by compact, band and obligation
(a desperate, a fearful case) to satisfy thy lust, or to be revenged of
thine enemies, thou didst never pray, come to church, hear, read, or do any
divine duties with any devotion, but for formality and fashion's sake, with
a kind of reluctance, 'twas troublesome and painful to thee to perform any
such thing, _praeter voluntatem_, against thy will. Thou never mad'st any
conscience of lying, swearing, bearing false witness, murder, adultery,
bribery, oppression, theft, drunkenness, idolatry, but hast ever done all
duties for fear of punishment, as they were most advantageous, and to thine
own ends, and committed all such notorious sins, with an extraordinary
delight, hating that thou shouldst love, and loving that thou shouldst
hate. Instead of faith, fear and love of God, repentance, &c., blasphemous
thoughts have been ever harboured in his mind, even against God himself,
the blessed Trinity; the [6786]Scripture false, rude, harsh, immethodical:
heaven, hell, resurrection, mere toys and fables, [6787]incredible,
impossible, absurd, vain, ill contrived; religion, policy, and human
invention, to keep men in obedience, or for profit, invented by priests and
lawgivers to that purpose. If there be any such supreme power, he takes no
notice of our doings, hears not our prayers, regardeth them not, will not,
cannot help, or else he is partial, an excepter of persons, author of sin,
a cruel, a destructive God, to create our souls, and destinate them to
eternal damnation, to make us worse than our dogs and horses, why doth he
not govern things better, protect good men, root out wicked livers? why do
they prosper and flourish? as she raved in the [6788]tragedy--_pellices
caelum tenent_, there they shine, _Suasque Perseus aureas stellas habet_,
where is his providence? how appears it?
[6789] "Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,
Pomponius nullo, quis putet esse Deos."
Why doth he suffer Turks to overcome Christians, the enemy to triumph over
his church, paganism to domineer in all places as it doth, heresies to
multiply, such enormities to be committed, and so many such bloody wars,
murders, massacres, plagues, feral diseases! why doth he not make us all
good, able, sound? why makes he [6790]venomous creatures, rocks, sands,
deserts, this earth itself the muck-hill of the world, a prison, a house of
correction? [6791]_Mentimur regnare Jovem_, &c., with many such horrible
and execrable conceits, not fit to be uttered; _Terribilia de fide,
horribilia de Divinitate._ They cannot some of them but think evil, they
are compelled _volentes nolentes_, to blaspheme, especially when they come
to church and pray, read, &c., such foul and prodigious suggestions come
into their hearts.
These are abominable, unspeakable offences, and most opposite to God,
_tentationes foedae, et impiae_, yet in this case, he or they that shall be
tempted and so affected, must know, that no man living is free from such
thoughts in part, or at some times, the most divine spirits have been so
tempted in some sort, evil custom, omission of holy exercises, ill company,
idleness, solitariness, melancholy, or depraved nature, and the devil is
still ready to corrupt, trouble, and divert our souls, to suggest such
blasphemous thoughts into our fantasies, ungodly, profane, monstrous and
wicked conceits: If they come from Satan, they are more speedy, fearful and
violent, the parties cannot avoid them: they are more frequent, I say, and
monstrous when they come; for the devil he is a spirit, and hath means and
opportunities to mingle himself with our spirits, and sometimes more slyly,
sometimes more abruptly and openly, to suggest such devilish thoughts into
our hearts; he insults and domineers in melancholy distempered fantasies
and persons especially; melancholy is _balneum, diaboli_, as Serapio holds,
the devil's bath, and invites him to come to it. As a sick man frets, raves
in his fits, speaks and doth he knows not what, the devil violently compels
such crazed souls to think such damned thoughts against their wills, they
cannot but do it; sometimes more continuate, or by fits, he takes his
advantage, as the subject is less able to resist, he aggravates,
extenuates, affirms, denies, damns, confounds the spirits, troubles heart,
brain, humours, organs, senses, and wholly domineers in their imaginations.
If they proceed from themselves, such thoughts, they are remiss and
moderate, not so violent and monstrous, not so frequent. The devil commonly
suggests things opposite to nature, opposite to God and his word, impious,
absurd, such as a man would never of himself, or could not conceive, they
strike terror and horror into the parties' own hearts. For if he or they be
asked whether they do approve of such like thoughts or no, they answer (and
their own souls truly dictate as much) they abhor them as much as hell and
the devil himself, they would fain think otherwise if they could; he hath
thought otherwise, and with all his soul desires so to think again; he doth
resist, and hath some good motions intermixed now and then: so that such
blasphemous, impious, unclean thoughts, are not his own, but the devil's;
they proceed not from him, but from a crazed phantasy, distempered humours,
black fumes which offend his brain: [6792]they are thy crosses, the devil's
sins, and he shall answer for them, he doth enforce thee to do that which
thou dost abhor, and didst never give consent to: and although he hath
sometimes so slyly set upon thee, and so far prevailed, as to make thee in
some sort to assent to such wicked thoughts, to delight in, yet they have
not proceeded from a confirmed will in thee, but are of that nature which
thou dost afterwards reject and abhor. Therefore be not overmuch troubled
and dismayed with such kind of suggestions, at least if they please thee
not, because they are not thy personal sins, for which thou shalt incur the
wrath of God, or his displeasure: contemn, neglect them, let them go as
they come, strive not too violently, or trouble thyself too much, but as
our Saviour said to Satan in like case, say thou, avoid Satan, I detest
thee and them. _Satanae est mala ingerere_ (saith Austin) _nostrum non
consentire_: as Satan labours to suggest, so must we strive not to give
consent, and it will be sufficient: the more anxious and solicitous thou
art, the more perplexed, the more thou shalt otherwise be troubled and
entangled. Besides, they must know this, all so molested and distempered,
that although these be most execrable and grievous sins, they are
pardonable yet, through God's mercy and goodness, they may be forgiven, if
they be penitent and sorry for them. Paul himself confesseth, Rom. xvii.
19. "He did not the good he would do, but the evil which he would not do;
'tis not I, but sin that dwelleth in me." 'Tis not thou, but Satan's
suggestions, his craft and subtlety, his malice: comfort thyself then if
thou be penitent and grieved, or desirous to be so, these heinous sins
shall not be laid to thy charge; God's mercy is above all sins, which if
thou do not finally contemn, without doubt thou shalt be saved. [6793]"No
man sins against the Holy Ghost, but he that wilfully and finally
renounceth Christ, and contemneth him and his word to the last, without
which there is no salvation, from which grievous sin, God of his infinite
mercy deliver us." Take hold of this to be thy comfort, and meditate withal
on God's word, labour to pray, to repent, to be renewed in mind, "keep
thine heart with all diligence." Prov. iv. 13, resist the devil, and he
will fly from thee, pour out thy soul unto the Lord with sorrowful Hannah,
"pray continually," as Paul enjoins, and as David did, Psalm i. "meditate
on his law day and night."
Yea, but this meditation is that mars all, and mistaken makes many men far
worse, misconceiving all they read or hear, to their own overthrow; the
more they search and read Scriptures, or divine treatises, the more they
puzzle themselves, as a bird in a net, the more they are entangled and
precipitated into this preposterous gulf: "Many are called, but few are
chosen," Matt. xx. 16. and xxii. 14. with such like places of Scripture
misinterpreted strike them with horror, they doubt presently whether they
be of this number or no: God's eternal decree of predestination, absolute
reprobation, and such fatal tables, they form to their own ruin, and
impinge upon this rock of despair. How shall they be assured of their
salvation, by what signs? "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and sinners appear?" 1 Pet. iv. 18. Who knows, saith Solomon,
whether he be elect? This grinds their souls, how shall they discern they
are not reprobates? But I say again, how shall they discern they are? From
the devil can be no certainty, for he is a liar from the beginning; if he
suggests any such thing, as too frequently he doth, reject him as a
deceiver, an enemy of human kind, dispute not with him, give no credit to
him, obstinately refuse him, as St. Anthony did in the wilderness, whom the
devil set upon in several shapes, or as the collier did, so do thou by him.
For when the devil tempted him with the weakness of his faith, and told him
he could not be saved, as being ignorant in the principles of religion, and
urged him moreover to know what he believed, what he thought of such and
such points and mysteries: the collier told him, he believed as the church
did; but what (said the devil again) doth the church believe? as I do (said
the collier); and what's that thou believest? as the church doth, &c., when
the devil could get no other answer, he left him. If Satan summon thee to
answer, send him to Christ: he is thy liberty, thy protector against cruel
death, raging sin, that roaring lion, he is thy righteousness, thy Saviour,
and thy life. Though he say, thou art not of the number of the elect, a
reprobate, forsaken of God, hold thine own still, _hic murus aheneus esto_,
let this be as a bulwark, a brazen wall to defend thee, stay thyself in
that certainty of faith; let that be thy comfort, Christ will protect thee,
vindicate thee, thou art one of his flock, he will triumph over the law,
vanquish death, overcome the devil, and destroy hell. If he say thou art
none of the elect, no believer, reject him, defy him, thou hast thought
otherwise, and mayst so be resolved again; comfort thyself; this persuasion
cannot come from the devil, and much less can it be grounded from thyself?
men are liars, and why shouldst thou distrust? A denying Peter, a
persecuting Paul, an adulterous cruel David, have been received; an
apostate Solomon may be converted; no sin at all but impenitency, can give
testimony of final reprobation. Why shouldst thou then distrust, misdoubt
thyself, upon what ground, what suspicion? This opinion alone of
particularity? Against that, and for the certainty of election and
salvation on the other side, see God's good will toward men, hear how
generally his grace is proposed to him, and him, and them, each man in
particular, and to all. 1 Tim. ii. 4. "God will that all men be saved, and
come to the knowledge of the truth." 'Tis a universal promise, "God sent
not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the
world might be saved." John iii. 17. "He that acknowledged himself a man in
the world, must likewise acknowledge he is of that number that is to be
saved." Ezek. xxxiii. 11, "I will not the death of a sinner, but that he
repent and live:" But thou art a sinner; therefore he will not thy death.
"This is the will of him that sent me, that every man that believeth in the
Son, should have everlasting life." John vi. 40. "He would have no man
perish, but all come to repentance," 2 Pet. iii. 9. Besides, remission of
sins is to be preached, not to a few, but universally to all men, "Go
therefore and tell all nations, baptising them," &c. Matt. xxviii. 19. "Go
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15.
Now there cannot be contradictory wills in God, he will have all saved, and
not all, how can this stand together? be secure then, believe, trust in
him, hope well and be saved. Yea, that's the main matter, how shall I
believe or discern my security from carnal presumption? my faith is weak
and faint, I want those signs and fruits of sanctification, [6794]sorrow
for sin, thirsting for grace, groanings of the spirit, love of Christians
as Christians, avoiding occasion of sin, endeavour of new obedience,
charity, love of God, perseverance. Though these signs be languishing in
thee, and not seated in thine heart, thou must not therefore be dejected or
terrified; the effects of the faith and spirit are not yet so fully felt in
thee; conclude not therefore thou art a reprobate, or doubt of thine
election, because the elect themselves are without them, before their
conversion. Thou mayst in the Lord's good time be converted; some are
called at the eleventh hour. Use, I say, the means of thy conversion,
expect the Lord's leisure, if not yet called, pray thou mayst be, or at
least wish and desire thou. mayst be.
Notwithstanding all this which might be said to this effect, to ease their
afflicted minds, what comfort our best divines can afford in this case,
Zanchius, Beza, &c. This furious curiosity, needless speculation, fruitless
meditation about election, reprobation, free will, grace, such places of
Scripture preposterously conceived, torment still, and crucify the souls of
too many, and set all the world together by the ears. To avoid which
inconveniences, and to settle their distressed minds, to mitigate those
divine aphorisms, (though in another extreme some) our late Arminians have
revived that plausible doctrine of universal grace, which many fathers, our
late Lutheran and modern papists do still maintain, that we have free will
of ourselves, and that grace is common to all that will believe. Some
again, though less orthodoxal, will have a far greater part saved than
shall be damned, (as [6795]Caelius Secundus stiffly maintains in his book,
_De amplitudine regni coelestis_, or some impostor under his name)
_beatorum numerus multo major quam damnatorum._ [6796]He calls that other
tenet of special [6797]"election and reprobation, a prejudicate, envious
and malicious opinion, apt to draw all men to desperation. Many are called,
few chosen," &c. He opposeth some opposite parts of Scripture to it,
"Christ came into the world to save sinners," &c. And four especial
arguments he produceth, one from God's power. If more be damned than saved,
he erroneously concludes, [6798]the devil hath the greater sovereignty! for
what is power but to protect? and majesty consists in multitude. "If the
devil have the greater part, where is his mercy, where is his power? how is
he _Deus Optimus Maximus, misericors_? &c., where is his greatness, where
his goodness?" He proceeds, [6799]"We account him a murderer that is
accessory only, or doth not help when he can; which may not be supposed of
God without great offence, because he may do what he will, and is otherwise
accessory, and the author of sin. The nature of good is to be communicated,
God is good, and will not then be contracted in his goodness: for how is he
the father of mercy and comfort, if his good concern but a few? O envious
and unthankful men to think otherwise! [6800]Why should we pray to God that
are Gentiles, and thank him for his mercies and benefits, that hath damned
us all innocuous for Adam's offence, one man's offence, one small offence,
eating of an apple? why should we acknowledge him for our governor that
hath wholly neglected the salvation of our souls, contemned us, and sent no
prophets or instructors to teach us, as he hath done to the Hebrews?" So
Julian the apostate objects. Why should these Christians (Caelius urgeth)
reject us and appropriate God unto themselves, _Deum illum suum unicum_,
&c. But to return to our forged Caelius. At last he comes to that, he will
have those saved that never heard of, or believed in Christ, _ex puris
naturalibus_, with the Pelagians, and proves it out of Origen and others.
"They" (saith [6801]Origen) "that never heard God's word, are to be excused
for their ignorance; we may not think God will be so hard, angry, cruel or
unjust as to condemn any man _indicta causa_." They alone (he holds) are in
the state of damnation that refuse Christ's mercy and grace, when it is
offered. Many worthy Greeks and Romans, good moral honest men, that kept
the law of nature, did to others as they would be done to themselves, as
certainly saved, he concludes, as they were that lived uprightly before the
law of Moses. They were acceptable in. God's sight, as Job was, the Magi,
the queen of Sheba, Darius of Persia, Socrates, Aristides, Cato, Curius,
Tully, Seneca, and many other philosophers, upright livers, no matter of
what religion, as Cornelius, out of any nation, so that he live honestly,
call on God, trust in him, fear him, he shall be saved. This opinion was
formerly maintained by the Valentinian and Basiledian heretics, revived of
late in [6802]Turkey, of what sect Rustan Bassa was patron, defended by
[6803]Galeatius [6804]Erasmus, by Zuinglius _in exposit. fidei ad Regem
Galliae_, whose tenet Bullinger vindicates, and Gualter approves in a just
apology with many arguments. There be many Jesuits that follow these
Calvinists in this behalf, Franciscus Buchsius Moguntinus, Andradius
Consil. Trident, many schoolmen that out of the 1 Rom. v. 18. 19. are
verily persuaded that those good works of the Gentiles did so far please
God, that they might _vitam aeternam promereri_, and be saved in the end.
Sesellius, and Benedictus Justinianus in his comment on the first of the
Romans, Mathias Ditmarsh the politician, with many others, hold a
mediocrity, they may be _salute non indigni_ but they will not absolutely
decree it. Hofmannus, a Lutheran professor of Helmstad, and many of his
followers, with most of our church, and papists, are stiff against it.
Franciscus Collius hath fully censured all opinions in his Five Books, _de
Paganorum animabus post mortem_, and amply dilated this question, which
whoso will may peruse. But to return to my author, his conclusion is, that
not only wicked livers, blasphemers, reprobates, and such as reject God's
grace, "but that the devils themselves shall be saved at last," as
[6805]Origen himself long since delivered in his works, and our late
[6806]Socinians defend, Ostorodius, _cap. 41. institut._ Smaltius, &c.
Those terms of all and for ever in Scripture, are not eternal, but only
denote a longer time, which by many examples they prove. The world shall
end like a comedy, and we shall meet at last in heaven, and live in bliss
altogether, or else in conclusion, _in nihil evanescere._ For how can he be
merciful that shall condemn any creature to eternal unspeakable punishment,
for one small temporary fault, all posterity, so many myriads for one and
another man's offence, _quid meruistis oves_? But these absurd paradoxes
are exploded by our church, we teach otherwise. That this vocation,
predestination, election, reprobation, _non ex corrupta massa, praeviso,
fide_, as our Arminians, or _ex praevisis operibus_, as our papists, _non
ex praeteritione_, but God's absolute decree _ante mundum creatum_, (as
many of our church hold) was from the beginning, before the foundation of
the world was laid, or _homo conditus_, (or from Adam's fall, as others
will, _homo lapsus objectum est reprobationis_) with _perseverantia
sanctorum_, we must be certain of our salvation, we may fall but not
finally, which our Arminians will not admit. According to his immutable,
eternal, just decree and counsel of saving men and angels, God calls all,
and would have all to be saved according to the efficacy of vocation: all
are invited, but only the elect apprehended: the rest that are unbelieving,
impenitent, whom God in his just judgment leaves to be punished for their
sins, are in a reprobate sense; yet we must not determine who are such,
condemn ourselves or others, because we have a universal invitation; all
are commanded to believe, and we know not how soon or how late our end may
be received. I might have said more of this subject; but forasmuch as it is
a forbidden question, and in the preface or declaration to the articles of
the church, printed 1633, to avoid factions and altercations, we that are
university divines especially, are prohibited "all curious search, to print
or preach, or draw the article aside by our own sense and comments upon
pain of ecclesiastical censure." I will surcease, and conclude with
[6807]Erasmus of such controversies: _Pugnet qui volet, ego censeo leges
majorum reverenter suscipiendas, et religiose observandas, velut a Deo
profectas; nec esse tutum, nec esse pium, de potestate publica sinistram
concipere aut serere suspicionem. Et siquid est tyrannidis, quod tamen non
cogat ad impietatem, satius est ferre, quam seditiose reluctari._
But to my former task. The last main torture and trouble of a distressed
mind, is not so much this doubt of election, and that the promises of grace
are smothered and extinct in them, nay quite blotted out, as they suppose,
but withal God's heavy wrath, a most intolerable pain and grief of heart
seizeth on them: to their thinking they are already damned, they suffer the
pains of hell, and more than possibly can be expressed, they smell
brimstone, talk familiarly with devils, hear and see chimeras, prodigious,
uncouth shapes, bears, owls, antiques, black dogs, fiends, hideous
outcries, fearful noises, shrieks, lamentable complaints, they are
possessed, [6808]and through impatience they roar and howl, curse,
blaspheme, deny God, call his power in question, abjure religion, and are
still ready to offer violence unto themselves, by hanging, drowning, &c.
Never any miserable wretch from the beginning of the world was in such a
woeful case. To such persons I oppose God's mercy and his justice; _Judicia
Dei occulta, non injusta_: his secret counsel and just judgment, by which
he spares some, and sore afflicts others again in this life; his judgment
is to be adored, trembled at, not to be searched or inquired after by
mortal men: he hath reasons reserved to himself, which our frailty cannot
apprehend. He may punish all if he will, and that justly for sin; in that
he doth it in some, is to make a way for his mercy that they repent and be
saved, to heal them, to try them, exercise their patience, and make them
call upon him, to confess their sins and pray unto him, as David did, Psalm
cxix. 137. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments." As the
poor publican, Luke xviii. 13. "Lord have mercy upon me a miserable
sinner." To put confidence and have an assured hope in him, as Job had,
xiii. 15. "Though he kill me I will trust In him:" _Ure, seca, occide O
Domine_, (saith Austin) _modo serves animam_, kill, cut in pieces, burn my
body (O Lord) to save my soul. A small sickness; one lash of affliction, a
little misery, many times will more humiliate a man, sooner convert, bring
him home to know himself, than all those paraenetical discourses, the whole
theory of philosophy, law, physic, and divinity, or a world of instances
and examples. So that this, which they take to be such an insupportable
plague, is an evident sign of God's mercy and justice, of His love and
goodness: _periissent nisi periissent_, had they not thus been undone, they
had finally been undone. Many a carnal man is lulled asleep in perverse
security, foolish presumption, is stupefied in his sins, and hath no
feeling at all of them: "I have sinned" (he saith) "and what evil shall
come unto me," Eccles. v. 4, and "Tush, how shall God know it?" and so in a
reprobate sense goes down to hell. But here, _Cynthius aurem vellit_, God
pulls them by the ear, by affliction, he will bring them to heaven and
happiness; "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,"
Matt. v. 4, a blessed and a happy state, if considered aright, it is, to be
so troubled. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," Psal. cxix.
"before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Thy word."
"Tribulation works patience, patience hope," Rom. v. 4, and by such like
crosses and calamities we are driven from the stake of security. So that
affliction is a school or academy, wherein the best scholars are prepared
to the commencements of the Deity. And though it be most troublesome and
grievous for the time, yet know this, it comes by God's permission and
providence; He is a spectator of thy groans and tears, still present with
thee, the very hairs of thy head are numbered, not one of them can fall to
the ground without the express will of God: he will not suffer thee to be
tempted above measure, he corrects us all, [6809]_numero, pondere, et
mensura_, the Lord will not quench the smoking flax, or break the bruised
reed, _Tentat_ (saith Austin) _non ut obruat, sed ut coronet_ he suffers
thee to be tempted for thy good. And as a mother doth handle her child sick
and weak, not reject it, but with all tenderness observe and keep it, so
doth God by us, not forsake us in our miseries, or relinquish us for our
imperfections, but with all pity and compassion support and receive us;
whom he loves, he loves to the end. Rom. viii. "Whom He hath elected, those
He hath called, justified, sanctified, and glorified." Think not then thou
hast lost the Spirit, that thou art forsaken of God, be not overcome with
heaviness of heart, but as David said, "I will not fear though I walk in
the shadows of death." We must all go, _non a deliciis ad delicias_,
[6810]but from the cross to the crown, by hell to heaven, as the old Romans
put Virtue's temple in the way to that of Honour; we must endure sorrow and
misery in this life. 'Tis no new thing this, God's best servants and
dearest children have been so visited and tried. Christ in the garden cried
out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" His son by nature, as
thou art by adoption and grace. Job, in his anguish, said, "The arrows of
the Almighty God were in him," Job vi. 4. "His terrors fought against him,
the venom drank up his spirit," cap. xiii. 26. He saith, "God was his
enemy, writ bitter things against him" (xvi. 9.) "hated him." His heavy
wrath had so seized on his soul. David complains, "his eyes were eaten up,
sunk into his head," Ps. vi. 7, "his moisture became as the drought in
summer, his flesh was consumed, his bones vexed:" yet neither Job nor David
did finally despair. Job would not leave his hold, but still trust in Him,
acknowledging Him to be his good God. "The Lord gives, the Lord takes,
blessed be the name of the Lord," Job. i. 21. "Behold I am vile, I abhor
myself, repent in dust and ashes," Job xxxix. 37. David humbled himself,
Psal. xxxi. and upon his confession received mercy. Faith, hope,
repentance, are the sovereign cures and remedies, the sole comforts in this
case; confess, humble thyself, repent, it is sufficient. _Quod purpura non
potest, saccus potest_, saith Chrysostom; the king of Nineveh's sackcloth
and ashes "did that which his purple robes and crown could not effect;"
_Quod diadema non potuit, cinis perfecit._ Turn to Him, he will turn to
thee; the Lord is near those that are of a contrite heart, and will save
such as be afflicted in spirit, Ps. xxxiv. 18. "He came to the lost sheep
of Israel," Matt. xv. 14. _Si cadentem intuetur, clementiae manum
protendit_, He is at all times ready to assist. _Nunquam spernit Deus
Poenitentiam si sincere et simpliciter offeratur_, He never rejects a
penitent sinner, though he have come to the full height of iniquity,
wallowed and delighted in sin; yet if he will forsake his former ways,
_libenter amplexatur_, He will receive him. _Parcam huic homini_, saith
[6811]Austin, (_ex persona Dei_) _quia sibi ipsi non pepercit; ignoscam
quia peccatum agnovit_. I will spare him because he hath not spared
himself; I will pardon him because he doth acknowledge his offence: let it
be never so enormous a sin, "His grace is sufficient," 2 Cor. xii. 9.
Despair not then, faint not at all, be not dejected, but rely on God, call
on him an thy trouble, and he will hear thee, he will assist, help, and
deliver thee: "Draw near to Him, he will draw near to thee," James iv. 8.
Lazarus was poor and full of boils, and yet still he relied upon God,
Abraham did hope beyond hope.
Thou exceptest, these were chief men, divine spirits, _Deo cari_, beloved
of God, especially respected; but I am a contemptible and forlorn wretch,
forsaken of God, and left to the merciless fury of evil spirits. I cannot
hope, pray, repent, &c. How often shall I say it? thou mayst perform all
those duties, Christian offices, and be restored in good time. A sick man
loseth his appetite, strength and ability, his disease prevaileth so far,
that all his faculties are spent, hand and foot perform not their duties,
his eyes are dim, hearing dull, tongue distastes things of pleasant relish,
yet nature lies hid, recovereth again, and expelleth all those feculent
matters by vomit, sweat, or some such like evacuations. Thou art
spiritually sick, thine heart is heavy, thy mind distressed, thou mayst
happily recover again, expel those dismal passions of fear and grief; God
did not suffer thee to be tempted above measure; whom he loves (I say) he
loves to the end; hope the best. David in his misery prayed to the Lord,
remembering how he had formerly dealt with him; and with that meditation of
God's mercy confirmed his faith, and pacified his own tumultuous heart in
his greatest agony. "O my soul, why art thou so disquieted within me," &c.
Thy soul is eclipsed for a time, I yield, as the sun is shadowed by a
cloud; no doubt but those gracious beams of God's mercy will shine upon
thee again, as they have formerly done: those embers of faith, hope and
repentance, now buried in ashes, will flame out afresh, and be fully
revived. Want of faith, no feeling of grace for the present, are not fit
directions; we must live by faith, not by feeling; 'tis the beginning of
grace to wish for grace: we must expect and tarry. David, a man after God's
own heart, was so troubled himself; "Awake, why sleepest thou? O Lord,
arise, cast me not off; wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest mine
affliction and oppression? My soul is bowed down to the dust. Arise, redeem
us," &c., Ps. xliv. 22. He prayed long before he was heard, _expectans
expectavit_; endured much before he was relieved. Psal. lxix. 3, he
complains, "I am weary of crying, and my throat is dry, mine eyes fail,
whilst I wait on the Lord;" and yet he perseveres. Be not dismayed, thou
shalt be respected at last. God often works by contrarieties, he first
kills and then makes alive, he woundeth first and then healeth, he makes
man sow in tears that he may reap in joy; 'tis God's method: he that is so
visited, must with patience endure and rest satisfied for the present. The
paschal lamb was eaten with sour herbs; we shall feel no sweetness of His
blood, till we first feel the smart of our sins. Thy pains are great,
intolerable for the time; thou art destitute of grace and comfort, stay the
Lord's leisure, he will not (I say) suffer thee to be tempted above that
thou art able to bear, 1 Cor. x. 13. but will give an issue to temptation.
He works all for the best to them that love God, Rom. viii. 28. Doubt not
of thine election, it is an immutable decree; a mark never to be defaced:
you have been otherwise, you may and shall be. And for your present
affliction, hope the best, it will shortly end. "He is present with his
servants in their affliction," Ps. xci. 15. "Great are the troubles of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of all," Ps. xxxiv. 19. "Our
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh in us an eternal
weight of glory," 2. Cor. iv. 18. "Not answerable to that glory which is to
come; though now in heaviness," saith 1 Pet. i. 6, "you shall rejoice."
Now last of all to those external impediments, terrible objects, which they
hear and see many times, devils, bugbears, and mormeluches, noisome smells,
&c. These may come, as I have formerly declared in my precedent discourse
of the Symptoms of Melancholy, from inward causes; as a concave glass
reflects solid bodies, a troubled brain for want of sleep, nutriment, and
by reason of that agitation of spirits to which Hercules de Saxonia
attributes all symptoms almost, may reflect and show prodigious shapes, as
our vain fear and crazed phantasy shall suggest and feign, as many silly
weak women and children in the dark, sick folks, and frantic for want of
repast and sleep, suppose they see that they see not: many times such
terriculaments may proceed from natural causes, and all other senses may be
deluded. Besides, as I have said, this humour is _balneum diaboli_, the
devil's bath, by reason of the distemper of humours, and infirm organs in
us: he may so possess us inwardly to molest us, as he did Saul and others,
by God's permission: he is prince of the air, and can transform himself
into several shapes, delude all our senses for a time, but his power is
determined, he may terrify us, but not hurt; God hath given "His angels
charge over us, He is a wall round about his people," Psal. xci. 11, 12.
There be those that prescribe physic in such cases, 'tis God's instrument
and not unfit. The devil works by mediation of humours, and mixed diseases
must have mixed remedies. Levinus Lemnius _cap. 57 & 58, exhort. ad vit.
ep. instit._ is very copious on this subject, besides that chief remedy of
confidence in God, prayer, hearty repentance, &c., of which for your
comfort and instruction, read Lavater _de spectris part. 3. cap. 5. and 6._
Wierus _de praestigiis daemonum lib. 5._ to Philip Melancthon, and others,
and that Christian armour which Paul prescribes; he sets down certain
amulets, herbs, and precious stones, which have marvellous virtues all,
_profligandis daemonibus_, to drive away devils and their illusions.
Sapphires, chrysolites, carbuncles, &c. _Quae mira virtute pollent ad
lemures, stryges, incubos, genios aereos arcendos, si veterum monumentis
habenda fides._ Of herbs, he reckons us pennyroyal, rue, mint, angelica,
peony: Rich. Argentine _de praestigiis daemonum, cap. 20_, adds, hypericon
or St. John's wort, _perforata herba_, which by a divine virtue drives away
devils, and is therefore _fuga daemonum_: all which rightly used by their
suffitus, _Daemonum vexationibus obsistunt, afflictas mentes a daemonibus
relevant, et venenatis Jiimis_, expel devils themselves, and all devilish
illusions. Anthony Musa, the Emperor Augustus, his physician, _cap. 6, de
Betonia_, approves of betony to this purpose; [6812]the ancients used
therefore to plant it in churchyards, because it was held to be an holy
herb and good against fearful visions, did secure such places as it grew
in, and sanctified those persons that carried it about them. _Idem fere
Mathiolus in dioscoridem._ Others commend accurate music, so Saul was
helped by David's harp. Fires to be made in such rooms where spirits haunt,
good store of lights to be set up, odours, perfumes, and suffumigations, as
the angel taught Tobias, of brimstone and bitumen, thus, myrrh, briony
root, with many such simples which Wecker hath collected, _lib. 15, de
secretis, cap. 15._ _[Symbol: Jupiter] sulphuris drachmam unam, recoquatur
in vitis albae, aqua, ut dilutius sit sulphur; detur aegro: nam daemones
sunt morbi_ (saith Rich. Argentine, _lib. de praestigiis daemonum, cap.
ult._) Vigetus hath a far larger receipt to this purpose, which the said
Wecker cites out of Wierus, _[Symbol: Jupiter] sulphuris, vini, bituminis,
opoponacis, galbani, castorei_, &c. Why sweet perfumes, fires and so many
lights should be used in such places, Ernestus Burgravius Lucerna _vitae,
et mortis_, and Fortunius Lycetus assigns this cause, _quod his boni genii
provocentur, mali arceaniur_; "because good spirits are well pleased with,
but evil abhor them!" And therefore those old Gentiles, present Mahometans,
and Papists have continual lamps burning in their churches all day and all
night, lights at funerals and in their graves; _lucernae ardentes ex auro
liquefacto_ for many ages to endure (saith Lazius), _ne daemones corpus
laedant_; lights ever burning as those vestal virgins. Pythonissae
maintained heretofore, with many such, of which read Tostatus in _2 Reg.
cap. 6. quaest. 43_, Thyreus, _cap. 57, 58, 62, &c. de locis infestis_,
Pictorius Isagog. _de daemonibus_, &c., see more in them. Cardan would have
the party affected wink altogether in such a case, if he see aught that
offends him, or cut the air with a sword in such places they walk and
abide; _gladiis enim et lanceis terrentur_, shoot a pistol at them, for
being aerial bodies (as Caelius Rhodiginus, _lib. 1. cap. 29._ Tertullian,
Origen, Psellas, and many hold), if stroken, they feel pain. Papists
commonly enjoin and apply crosses, holy water, sanctified beads, amulets,
music, ringing of bells, for to that end are they consecrated, and by them
baptised, characters, counterfeit relics, so many masses, peregrinations,
oblations, adjurations, and what not? Alexander Albertinus a, Rocha, Petrus
Thyreus, and Hieronymus Mengus, with many other pontificial writers,
prescribe and set down several forms of exorcisms, as well to houses
possessed with devils, as to demoniacal persons; but I am of
[6813]Lemnius's mind, 'tis but _damnosa adjuratio, aut potius ludificatio_,
a mere mockery, a counterfeit charm, to no purpose, they are fopperies and
fictions, as that absurd [6814]story is amongst the rest, of a penitent
woman seduced by a magician in France, at St. Bawne, exorcised by Domphius,
Michaelis, and a company of circumventing friars. If any man (saith
Lemnius) will attempt such a thing, without all those juggling
circumstances, astrological elections of time, place, prodigious habits,
fustian, big, sesquipedal words, spells, crosses, characters, which
exorcists ordinarily use, let him follow the example of Peter and John,
that without any ambitious swelling terms, cured a lame man. Acts iii. "In
the name of Christ Jesus rise and walk." His name alone is the best and
only charm against all such diabolical illusions, so doth Origen advise:
and so Chrysostom, _Haec erit tibi baculus, haec turris inexpugnabilis,
haec armatura. Nos quid ad haec dicemus, plures fortasse expectabunt_,
saith St. Austin. Many men will desire my counsel and opinion what is to be
done in this behalf; I can say no more, _quam ut vera fide, quae per
dilectionem operatur, ad Deum unum fugiamus_, let them fly to God alone for
help. Athanasius in his book, _De variis quaest._ prescribes as a present
charm against devils, the beginning of the lxvii. Psalm. _Exurgat Deus,
dissipentur inimici_, &c. But the best remedy is to fly to God, to call on
him, hope, pray, trust, rely on him, to commit ourselves wholly to him.
What the practice of the primitive church was in this behalf, _Et quis
daemonia ejiciendi modus_, read Wierus at large, _lib. 5. de Cura. Lam.
meles. cap. 38. et deinceps._
Last of all: if the party affected shall certainly know this malady to have
proceeded from too much fasting, meditation, precise life, contemplation of
God's judgments (for the devil deceives many by such means), in that other
extreme he circumvents melancholy itself, reading some books, treatises,
hearing rigid preachers, &c. If he shall perceive that it hath begun first
from some great loss, grievous accident, disaster, seeing others in like
case, or any such terrible object, let him speedily remove the cause, which
to the cure of this disease Navarras so much commends, [6815]_avertat
cogitationem a re scrupulosa_, by all opposite means, art, and industry,
let him _laxare animum_, by all honest recreations, "refresh and recreate
his distressed soul;" let him direct his thoughts, by himself and other of
his friends. Let him read no more such tracts or subjects, hear no more
such fearful tones, avoid such companies, and by all means open himself,
submit himself to the advice of good physicians and divines, which is
_contraventio scrupulorum_, as [6816]he calls it, hear them speak to whom
the Lord hath given the tongue of the learned, to be able to minister a
word to him that is weary, [6817]whose words are as flagons of wine. Let
him not be obstinate, headstrong, peevish, wilful, self-conceited (as in
this malady they are), but give ear to good advice, be ruled and persuaded;
and no doubt but such good counsel may prove as preposterous to his soul,
as the angel was to Peter, that opened the iron gates, loosed his bands,
brought him out of prison, and delivered him from bodily thraldom; they may
ease his afflicted mind, relieve his wounded soul, and take him out of the
jaws of hell itself. I can say no more, or give better advice to such as
are any way distressed in this kind, than what I have given and said. Only
take this for a corollary and conclusion, as thou tenderest thine own
welfare in this, and all other melancholy, thy good health of body and
mind, observe this short precept, give not way to solitariness and
idleness. "Be not solitary, be not idle."
SPERATE MISERI--UNHAPPY HOPE.
CAVETE FELICES--HAPPY BE CAUTIOUS.
_Vis a dubio liberari? vis quod incertum est evadere? Age poenitentiam dum
sanus es; sic agens, dico tibi quod securus es, quod poenitentiam egisti eo
tempore quo peccare potuisti_. Austin. "Do you wish to be freed from
doubts? do you desire to escape uncertainty? Be penitent whilst rational:
by so doing I assert that you are safe, because you have devoted that time
to penitence in which you might have been guilty of sin."
INDEX.
Absence a cure of love-melancholy
Absence over long, cause of jealousy
Abstinence commended
_Academicorum Errata_
Adversity, why better than prosperity
Aerial devils
Affections whence they arise; how they transform us; of sleeping and waking
Affection in melancholy, what
Against abuses, repulse, injuries, contumely, disgraces, scoffs
Against envy, livor, hatred, malice
Against sorrow, vain fears, death of friends
Air, how it causeth melancholy; how rectified it cureth melancholy; air in
love
Alkermes good against melancholy
All are melancholy
All beautiful parts attractive in love
Aloes, his virtues
Alteratives in physic, to what use; against melancholy
Ambition defined, described, cause of melancholy; of heresy; hinders and
spoils many matches
Amiableness loves object
Amorous objects causes of love-melancholy
Amulets controverted, approved
Amusements
Anger's description, effects, how it causeth melancholy
Antimony a purger of melancholy
Anthony inveigled by Cleopatra
Apology of love-melancholy
Appetite
Apples, good or bad, how
Apparel and clothes, a cause of love-melancholy
Aqueducts of old
Arminian's tenets
Arteries, what
Artificial air against melancholy
Artificial allurements of love
Art of memory
Astrological aphorisms, how available, signs or causes of melancholy
Astrological signs of love
Atheists described
Averters of melancholy
_Aurum potabile_ censured, approved
B.
Baits of lovers
Bald lascivious
Balm good against melancholy
Banishment's effects; its cure and antidote
Barrenness, what grievances it causeth; a cause of jealousy
Barren grounds have best air
Bashfulness a symptom of melancholy; of love-melancholy; cured
Baseness of birth no disparagement
Baths rectified
Bawds a cause of love-melancholy
Beasts and birds in love
Beauty's definition; described; in parts; commendation; attractive power,
prerogatives, excellency, how it causeth melancholy; makes grievous wounds,
irresistible; more beholding to art than nature; brittle and uncertain;
censured; a cause of jealousy; beauty of God
Beef a melancholy meat
Beer censured
Best site of a house
Bezoar's stone good against melancholy
Black eyes best
Black spots in the nails signs of melancholy
Black man a pearl in a woman's eye
Blasphemy, how pardonable
Blindness of lovers
Bloodletting, when and how cure of melancholy; time and quantity
Bloodletting and purging, how causes of melancholy
Blow on the head cause of melancholy
Body, how it works on the mind
Body melancholy, its causes
Bodily symptoms of melancholy; of love-melancholy
Bodily exercises
Books of all sorts
Borage and bugloss, sovereign herbs against melancholy; their wines and
juice most excellent
Boring of the head, a cure for melancholy
Brain distempered, how cause of melancholy; his parts anatomised
Bread and beer, how causes of melancholy
Brow and forehead, which are most pleasing
Brute beasts jealous
Business the best cure of love-melancholy
C.
Cardan's father conjured up seven devils at once; had a spirit bound to him
Cards and dice censured, approved
Care's effects
Carp fish's nature
Cataplasms and cerates for melancholy
Cause of diseases
Causes immediate of melancholy symptoms
Causes of honest love; of heroical love; of jealousy
Cautions against jealousy
Centaury good against melancholy
Charles the Great enforced to love basely by a philter
Change of countenance, sign of love-melancholy
Charity described; defects of it
Character of a covetous man
Charles the Sixth, king of France, mad for anger
Chemical physic censured
Chess-play censured
Chiromantical signs of melancholy
Chirurgical remedies of melancholy
Choleric melancholy signs
Chorus sancti Viti, a disease
Circumstances increasing jealousy
Cities' recreations
Civil lawyers' miseries
Climes and particular places, how causes of love-melancholy
Clothes a mere cause of good respect
Clothes causes of love-melancholy
Clysters good for melancholy
Coffee, a Turkey cordial drink
Cold air cause of melancholy
Comets above the moon
Compound alteratives censured, approved; compound purgers of melancholy;
compound wines for melancholy
Community of wives a cure of jealousy
Compliment and good carriage causes of love-melancholy
Confections and conserves against melancholy
Confession of his grief to a friend, a principal cure of melancholy
Confidence in his physician half a cure
Conjugal love best
Conscience what it is
Conscience troubled, a cause of despair
Continual cogitation of his mistress a symptom of love-melancholy
Contention, brawling, lawsuits, effects
Continent or inward causes of melancholy
Content above all, whence to be had
Contention's cure
Cookery taxed
Copernicus, his hypothesis of the earth's motion
Correctors of accidents in melancholy
Correctors to expel windiness, and costiveness helped
Cordials against melancholy
Costiveness to some a cause of melancholy
Costiveness helped
Covetousness defined, described, how it causeth melancholy
Counsel against melancholy; cure of jealousy; of despair
Country recreations
Crocodiles jealous
Cuckolds common in all ages
Cupping-glasses, cauteries how and when used to melancholy
Cure of melancholy, unlawful, rejected; from God; of head-melancholy; over
all the body; of hypochondriacal melancholy; of love-melancholy; of
jealousy; of despair
Cure of melancholy in himself; or friends
Curiosity described, his effects
Custom of diet, delight of appetite, how to be kept and yielded to
D.
Dancing, masking, mumming, censured, approved; their effects, how they
cause love-melancholy; how symptoms of lovers
Death foretold by spirits
Death of friends cause of melancholy; other effects; how cured; death
advantageous
Deformity of body no misery
Delirium
Despair, equivocations; causes; symptoms; prognostics; cure
Devils, how they cause melancholy; their, beginning, nature, conditions;
feel pain, swift in motion, mortal; their orders; power; how they cause
religious melancholy; how despair; devils are often in love; shall be
saved, as some hold
Diet what, and how causeth melancholy; quantity; diet of divers nations
Diet rectified in substance; in quantity
Diet a cause of love-melancholy; a cure
Diet, inordinate, of parents, a cause of melancholy to their offspring
Digression against all manner of discontents; digression of air; of anatomy
of devils and spirits
Discommodities of unequal matches
Disgrace a cause of melancholy; qualified by counsel
Dissimilar parts of the body
Distemper of particular parts, causes of melancholy, and how
Discontents, cares, miseries, causes of melancholy; how repelled and cured
by good counsel
Diseases why inflicted upon us; their number, definition, division;
diseases of the head; diseases of the mind; more grievous than those of the
body
Divers accidents causing melancholy
Divine sentences
Divines' miseries; with the causes of their miseries
Dotage what
Dotage of lovers
Dowry and money main causes of love-melancholy
Dreams and their kinds
Dreams troublesome, how to be amended
Drunkards' children often melancholy
Drunkenness taxed
E.
Earth's motion examined; compass, centre; _an sit anamata_.
Eccentrics and epicycles exploded
Education a cause of melancholy
Effects of love
Election misconceived, cause of despair
Element of fire exploded
Emulation, hatred, faction, desire of revenge, causes of melancholy; their
cure
Envy and malice causes of melancholy; their antidote
Epicurus vindicated
Epicurus's remedy for melancholy
Epicures, atheists, hypocrites how mad, and melancholy Epithalamium
Equivocations of melancholy; of jealousy
Eunuchs why kept, and where
Evacuations, how they cause melancholy
Exercise if immoderate, cause of melancholy; before meals wholesome;
exercise rectified; several kinds, when fit; exercises of the mind
Exotic and strange simples censured
Extasies
Eyes main instruments of love; love's darts, seats, orators, arrows,
torches; how they pierce
F.
Face's prerogative, a most attractive part
Fairies
Fasting cause of melancholy; a cure of love-melancholy; abused, the devil's
instrument; effects of it
Fear cause of melancholy, its effects; fear of death, destinies foretold; a
symptom of melancholy; sign of love-melancholy; antidote to fear
Fenny fowl, melancholy
Fiery devils
Fire's rage
Fish, what melancholy
Fish good
Fishes in love
Fishing and fowling, how and when good exercise
Flaxen hair a great motive of love
Fools often beget wise men; by love become wise
Force of imagination
Friends a cure of melancholy
Fruits causing melancholy; allowed
Fumitory purgeth melancholy
G.
Gaming a cause of melancholy, his effects
Gardens of simples where, to what end
Gardens for pleasure
General toleration of religion, by whom permitted, and why
Gentry, whence it came first; base without means; vices accompanying it;
true gentry, whence; gentry commended
Geography commended
Geometry, arithmetic, algebra, commended
Gesture cause of love-melancholy
Gifts and promises of great force amongst lovers
God's just judgment cause of melancholy; sole cause sometimes
Gold good against melancholy; a most beautiful object
Good counsel a charm to melancholy; good counsel for lovesick persons;
against melancholy itself; for such as are jealous
Great men most part dishonest
Gristle what
Guts described
H.
Hand and paps how forcible in love-melancholy
Hard usage a cause of jealousy
Hatred cause of melancholy
Hawking and hunting why good
Head melancholy's causes; symptoms; its cure
Hearing, what
Heat immoderate, cause of melancholy
Health a treasure
Heavens penetrable; infinitely swift
Hell where
Hellebore, white and black, purgers of melancholy; black, its virtues and
history
Help from friends against melancholy
Hemorrhage cause of melancholy
Hemorrhoids stopped cause of melancholy
Herbs causing melancholy; curing melancholy
Hereditary diseases
Heretics their conditions; their symptoms
Heroical love's pedigree, power, extent; definition, part affected; tyranny
Hippocrates' jealousy
Honest objects of love
Hope a cure of misery; its benefits
Hope and fear, the Devil's main engines to entrap the world
Hops good against melancholy
Horseleeches how and when used in melancholy
Hot countries apt and prone to jealousy
How oft 'tis fit to eat in a day
How to resist passions
How men fall in love
Humours, what they are
Hydrophobia described
Hypochondriacal melancholy; its causes inward, outward; symptom; cure of it
Hypochondries misaffected, causes
Hypocrites described
I.
Idleness a main cause of melancholy; of love-melancholy; of jealousy
Ignorance the mother of devotion
Ignorance commended
Ignorant persons still circumvented
Imagination what; its force and effects
Imagination of the mother affects her infant
Immaterial melancholy
Immortality of the soul proved; impugned by whom
Impediments of lovers
Importunity and opportunity cause of love-melancholy; of jealousy
Imprisonment cause of melancholy
Impostures of devils; of politicians; of priests
Impotency a cause of jealousy
Impulsive cause of man's misery
_Incubi_ and _succubi_
Inconstancy of lovers
Inconstancy a sign of melancholy
Infirmities of body and mind, what grievances they cause
Injuries and abuses rectified
Instrumental causes of diseases
Instrumental cause of man's misery
Interpreters of dreams
Inundation's fury
Inventions resulting from love
Inward causes of melancholy
Inward senses described
Issues when used in melancholy
J.
Jealousy a symptom of melancholy; defined, described; of princes; of brute
beasts; causes of it; symptoms of it; prognostics; cure of it
Jests how and when to be used
Jews' religious symptoms
Joy in excess cause of melancholy
K.
Kings and princes' discontents
Kissing a main cause of love-melancholy; a symptom of love-melancholy
L.
Labour, business, cure of love-melancholy; _Lapis Armenus_, its virtues
against melancholy
Lascivious meats to be avoided
Laughter, its effects
Laurel a purge for melancholy
Laws against adultery
Leo Decimus the pope's scoffing tricks
Lewellyn prince of Wales, his submission
_Leucata petra_ the cure of lovesick persons
Liberty of princes and great men, how abused
Libraries commended
Liver its site; cause of melancholy distempers, if hot or cold
Loss of liberty, servitude, imprisonment, cause of melancholy
Losses in general how they offend; cause of despair; how eased
Love of gaming and pleasures immoderate, cause of melancholy
Love of learning, overmuch study, cause of melancholy
Love's beginning, object, definition, division; love made the world; love's
power; in vegetables; in sensible creatures; love's power in devils and
spirits; in men; love a disease; a fire; love's passions; phrases of
lovers; their vain wishes and attempts; lovers impudent; courageous; wise,
valiant, free; neat in apparel; poets, musicians, dancers; love's effects;
love lost revived by sight; love cannot be compelled
Love and hate symptoms of religious melancholy
Lycanthropia described
M.
Madness described; the extent of melancholy; a symptom and effect of
love-melancholy
Made dishes cause melancholy
Magicians how they cause melancholy; how they cure it
Mahometans their symptoms
Maids', nuns', and widows' melancholy
Man's excellency, misery
Man the greatest enemy to man
Many means to divert lovers; to cure them
Marriage if unfortunate cause of melancholy; best cure of love-melancholy;
marriage helps; miseries; benefits and commendation
Mathematical studies commended
Medicines select for melancholy; against wind and costiveness; for
love-melancholy
Melancholy in disposition, melancholy equivocations; definition, name,
difference; part and parties affected in melancholy, it's affection;
matter; species or kinds of melancholy; melancholy an hereditary disease;
meats causing it, &c.; antecedent causes; particular parts; symptoms of it;
they are passionate above measure; humorous; melancholy, adust symptoms;
mixed symptoms of melancholy with other diseases; melancholy, a cause of
jealousy; of despair; melancholy men why witty; why so apt to laugh, weep,
sweat, blush; why they see visions, hear strange noises; why they speak
untaught languages, prophesy, &c. Memory his seat
_Menstruus concubitus causa melanc._
Men seduced by spirits in the night
Metempsychosis
Metals, minerals for melancholy
Meteors strange, how caused
Metoposcopy foreshowing melancholy
Milk a melancholy meat
Mind how it works on the body
Minerals good against melancholy
Ministers how they cause despair
Mirach, mesentery, matrix, mesaraic veins, causes of melancholy
Mirabolanes purgers of melancholy
Mirth and mercy company excellent against melancholy; their abuses
Miseries of man; how they cause melancholy; common miseries; miseries of
both sorts; no man free, miseries' effects in us; sent for our good;
miseries of students and scholars
Mitigations of melancholy
Money's prerogatives; allurement
Moon inhabited; moon in love
Mother how cause of melancholy
Moving faculty described
Music a present remedy for melancholy; its effects; a symptom of lovers;
causes of love-melancholy
N.
Nakedness of parts a cause of love-melancholy; cure of love-melancholy
Narrow streets where in use
Natural melancholy signs
Natural signs of love-melancholy
Necessity to what it enforceth
Neglect and contempt, best cures of jealousy
Nemesis or punishment comes after
Nerves what
News most welcome
Nobility censured
Non-necessary causes of melancholy
Nuns' melancholy
Nurse, how cause of melancholy
O.
Objects causing melancholy to be removed
Obstacles and hindrances of lovers
Occasions to be avoided in love-melancholy
Odoraments to smell to for melancholy
Ointments, for melancholy
Ointments riotously used
Old folks apt to be jealous
Old folks' incontinency taxed
Old age a cause of melancholy; old men's sons often melancholy
One love drives out another
Opinions of or concerning the soul
Oppression's effects
Opportunity and importunity causes of love-melancholy
Organical parts
Overmuch joy, pride, praise, how causes of melancholy
P.
Palaces
Paleness and leanness, symptoms of love-melancholy
Papists' religious symptoms
Paracelsus' defence of minerals
Parents, how they wrong their children; how they cause melancholy by
propagation; how by remissness and indulgence
Paraenetical discourse to such as are troubled in mind
Particular parts distempered, how they cause melancholy
Parties affected in religious melancholy
Passions and perturbations causes of melancholy; how they work on the body;
their divisions; how rectified and eased
Passions of lovers
Patience a cure of misery
Patient, his conditions that would be cured; patience, confidence,
liberality, not to practise on himself; what he must do himself; reveal his
grief to a friend
Pennyroyal good against melancholy
Perjury of lovers
Persuasion a means to cure love-melancholy; other melancholy
Phantasy, what
Philippus Bonus, how he used a country fellow
Q.
Quantity of diet cause; cure of melancholy
R.
Rational soul
Reading Scriptures good against melancholy
Recreations good against melancholy
Redness of the face helped
Regions of the belly
Relation or hearing a cause of love-melancholy
Religious melancholy a distinct species its object; causes of it; symptoms;
prognostics; cure; religious policy, by whom
Repentance, its effects
Retention and evacuation causes of melancholy; rectified to the cure
Rich men's discontents and miseries; their prerogatives
Riot in apparel, excess of it, a great cause of love-melancholy
Rivers in love
Rivals and co-rivals
Roots censured
Rose cross-men's or Rosicrucian's promises
Philosophers censured; their errors
Philters cause of love-melancholy; how they cure melancholy
Phlebotomy cause of melancholy; how to be used, when, in melancholy; in
head melancholy
Phlegmatic melancholy signs
Phrenzy's description
Physician's miseries; his qualities if he be good
Physic censured; commended; when to be used
Physiognomical signs of melancholy
Pictures good against melancholy; cause of love-melancholy
Plague's effects
Planets inhabited
Plays more famous
Pleasant palaces and gardens
Pleasant objects of love
Pleasing tone and voice a cause of love-melancholy
Poetical cures of love-melancholy
Poets why poor
Poetry a symptom of lovers
Politician's pranks
Poor men's miseries; their happiness; they are dear to God
Pope Leo Decimus, his scoffing
Pork a melancholy meat
Possession of devils
Poverty and want causes of melancholy, their effects; no such misery to be
poor
Power of spirits
Predestination misconstrued, a cause of despair
Preparatives and purgers for melancholy
Precedency, what stirs it causeth
Precious stones, metals, altering melancholy
Preventions to the cure of jealousy
Pride and praise causes of melancholy
Priests, how they cause religious melancholy
Princes' discontents
Prodigals, their miseries; bankrupts and spendthrifts, how punished
Profitable objects of love
Progress of love-melancholy exemplified
Prognostics or events of love-melancholy; of despair; of jealousy; of
melancholy
Prospect good against melancholy
Prosperity a cause of misery
Protestations and deceitful promises of lovers
Pseudoprophets, their pranks; their symptoms
Pulse, peas, beans, cause of melancholy
Pulse of melancholy men, how it is affected
Pulse a sign of love-melancholy
Purgers and preparatives to head melancholy
Purging simples upward; downward
Purging, how cause of melancholy
S.
Saints' aid rejected in melancholy
Salads censured
Sanguine melancholy signs
Scholars' miseries
Scilla or sea-onion, a purger of melancholy
Scipio's continency
Scoffs, calumnies, bitter jests, how they cause melancholy; their antidote
Scorzonera, good against melancholy
Scripture misconstrued, cause of religious melancholy; cure of melancholy
Seasick, good physic for melancholy
Self-love cause of melancholy, his effects
Sensible soul and its parts
Senses, why and how deluded in melancholy
Sentences selected out of humane authors
Servitude cause of melancholy; and imprisonment eased
Several men's delights and recreations
Severe tutors and guardians causes of melancholy
Shame and disgrace how causes of melancholy, their effects
Sickness for our good
Sighs and tears symptoms of love-melancholy
Sight a principal cause of love-melancholy
Signs of honest love
Similar parts of the body
Simples censured proper to melancholy: fit to be known; purging melancholy
upward; downward, purging simples
Singing a symptom of lovers; cause of love-melancholy
Sin the impulsive cause of man's misery
Single life and virginity commended; their prerogatives
Slavery of lovers
Sleep and waking causes of melancholy; by what means procured, helped
Small bodies have greatest wits
Smelling what
Smiling a cause of love-melancholy
Sodomy
Soldiers most part lascivious
Solitariness cause of melancholy; coact, voluntary, how good; sign of
melancholy
Sorrow its effect; a cause of melancholy; a symptom of melancholy; eased by
counsel
Soul defined, its faculties; _ex traduceations_, as some hold
Spices how causes of melancholy
Spirits and devils, their nature; orders; kinds; power, &c.
Spleen its site; how misaffected cause of melancholy
Sports
Spots in the sun
Spruceness a symptom of lovers
Stars, how causes or signs of melancholy; of love-melancholy; of jealousy
Stepmother, her mischiefs
Stews, why allowed
Stomach distempered a cause of melancholy
Stones like birds, beasts, fishes, &c.
Strange nurses, when best
Streets narrow
Study overmuch cause of melancholy; why and how; study good against
melancholy
Subterranean devils
Supernatural causes of melancholy
Superstitious effects, symptoms; how it domineers
Surfeiting and drunkenness taxed
Suspicion and jealousy symptoms of melancholy; how caused
Swallows, cuckoos, &c., where are they in winter
Sweet tunes and singing causes of love-melancholy
Symptoms or signs of melancholy in the body; mind; from stars, members;
from education, custom, continuance of time, mixed with other diseases;
symptoms of head melancholy; of hypochondriacal melancholy; of the whole
body; symptoms of nuns', maids', widows' melancholy; immediate causes of
melancholy symptoms; symptoms of love-melancholy; symptoms of a lover
pleased; dejected; Symptoms of jealousy; of religious melancholy; of
despair
Synteresis
Syrups
T.
Tale of a prebend
Tarantula's stinging effects
Taste what
Temperament a cause of love-melancholy
Tempestuous air, dark and fuliginous, how cause of melancholy
Terrestrial devils
Terrors and affrights cause melancholy
Theologasters censured
The best cure of love-melancholy is to let them, have their desire
Tobacco approved, censured
Toleration, religious
Torments of love
Transmigration of souls
Travelling commended, good against melancholy; for love-melancholy
especially
Tutors cause melancholy
U.
Uncharitable men described
Understanding defined, divided
Unfortunate marriages' effects
Unkind friends cause melancholy
Unlawful cures of melancholy rejected
Upstarts censured, their symptoms
Urine of melancholy persons
_Uxorii_
V.
Vainglory described a cause of melancholy
Valour and courage caused by love
Variation of the compass, where
Variety of meats and dishes cause melancholy
Variety of mistresses and objects a cure of melancholy
Variety of weather, air, manners, countries, whence, &c.
Variety of places, change of air, good against melancholy
Vegetal soul and its faculties
Vegetal creatures in love
Veins described
Venus rectified
Venery a cause of melancholy
Venison a melancholy meat
Vices of women
Violent misery continues not
Violent death, event of love-melancholy; prognostic of despair; by some
defended; how to be censured
Virginity, by what signs to be known; commended
Virtue and vice, principal habits of the will
_Vitex_ or _agnus castus_ good against love-melancholy
W.
Waking cause of melancholy; a symptom; cured
Walking, shooting, swimming, &c. good against melancholy
NOTES
1. His elder brother was William Burton, the Leicestershire antiquary, born
24th August, 1575, educated at Sutton Coldfield, admitted commoner, or
gentleman commoner, of Brazen Nose College, 1591; at the Inner Temple,
20th May, 1593; B. A. 22d June, 1594; and afterwards a barrister and
reporter in the Court of Common Pleas. "But his natural genius," says
Wood, "leading him to the studies of heraldry, genealogies, and
antiquities, he became excellent in those obscure and intricate matters;
and look upon him as a gentleman, was accounted, by all that knew him,
to be the best of his time for those studies, as may appear by his
'Description of Leicestershire.'" His weak constitution not permitting
him to follow business, he retired into the country, and his greatest
work, "The Description of Leicestershire," was published in folio, 1623.
He died at Falde, after suffering much in the civil war, 6th April,
1645, and was buried in the parish church belonging thereto, called
Hanbury.
2. This is Wood's account. His will says, Nuneaton; but a passage in this
work [see fol. 304,] mentions Sutton Coldfield; probably he may have
been at both schools.
3. So in the Register.
4. So in the Register.
5. Originating, perhaps, in a note, p. 448, 6th edit. (p. 455 of the
present), in which a book is quoted as having been "printed at Paris
1624, _seven_ years after Burton's first edition." As, however, the
editions after that of 1621, are regularly marked in succession to the
eighth, printed in 1676, there seems very little reason to doubt that,
in the note above alluded to, either 1624 has been a misprint for 1628,
or _seven_ years for _three_ years. The numerous typographical errata in
other parts of the work strongly aid this latter supposition.
6. Haec comice dicta cave ne male capias.
7. Seneca in ludo in mortem Claudii Caesaris.
8. Lib. de Curiositate.
9. Modo haec tibi usui sint, quemvis auctorem fingito. Wecker.
10. Lib. 10, c. 12. Multa a male feriatis in Democriti nomine commenta
data, nobilitatis, auctoritatisque ejus perfugio utentibus.
11. Martialis. lib. 10, epigr. 14.
12. Juv. sat. 1.
13. Auth. Pet. Besseo edit. Coloniae, 1616.
14. Hip. Epist. Dameget.
15. Laert. lib 9.
16. Hortulo sibi cellulam seligens, ibique seipsum includens, vixit
solitarius.
17. Floruit Olympiade 80; 700 annis post Troiam.
18. Diacos. quod cunctis operibus facile excellit. Laert.
19. Col. lib. 1. c. 1.
20. Const. lib. de agric. passim.
21. Volucrum voces et linguas intelligere se dicit Abderitans Ep. Hip.
22. Sabellicus exempl., lib. 10. Oculis se privavit, ut melius
contemplationi operam daret, sublimi vir ingenio, profundae
cogitationis, &c.
23. Naturalia, moralia, mathematica, liberales disciplinas, artiumque
omnium peritiam callebat.
24. Nothing in nature's power to contrive of which he has not written.
25. Veni Athenas, et nemo me novit.
26. Idem contemptui et admirationi habitus.
27. Solebat ad portam ambulare, et inde, &c. Hip. Ep. Dameg.
28. Perpetuorisu pulmonem agitare solebat Democritus. Juv. Sat. 7.
29. Non sum dignus praestare matella. Mart.
30. Christ Church in Oxford.
31. Praefat. Hist.
32. Keeper of our college library, lately revived by Otho Nicolson,
Esquire.
33. Scaliger.
34. Somebody in everything, nobody in each thing.
35. In Theat.
36. Phil. Stoic. li. diff. 8. Dogma cupidis et curiosis ingeniis
imprimendum, ut sit talis qui nulli rei serviat, aut exacte unum
aliquid elaboret, alia negligens, ut artifices, &c.
37. Delibare gratum de quocunque cibo, et pittisare de quocunque dolio
jucundum.
38. Essays, lib. 3.
39. He that is everywhere is nowhere.
40. Praefat. bibliothec.
41. Ambo fortes et fortunati, Mars idem magisterii dominus juxta primam
Leovitii regulam.
42. Hensius.
43. Calide ambientes, solicite litigantes, aut misere excidentes, voces,
strepitum contentiones, &c.
44. Cyp. ad Donat. Unice securus, ne excidam in foro, aut in mari Indico
bonis eluam, de dote filiae, patrimonio filii non sum solicitus.
45. Not so sagacious an observer as simple a narrator.
46. Hor. Ep. lib. 1. xix., 20.
47. Per. A laughter with a petulant spleen.
48. Hor. lib. 1, sat. 9.
49. Secundum moenia locus erat frondosis populis opacus, vitibusque sponte
natis, tenuis prope aqua defluebat, placide murmurans, ubi sedile et
domus Democriti conspiciebatur.
50. Ipse composite considebat, super genua volumen habens, et utrinque alia
patentia parata, dissectaque animalia cumulatim strata, quorum viscera
rimabatur.
51. Cum mundus extra se sit, et mente captus sit, et nesciat se languere,
ut medelam adhibeat.
52. Scaliger, Ep. ad Patisonem. Nihil magis lectorem invitat quam in
opinatum argilinentum, neque vendibilior merx est quam petulans liber.
53. Lib. xx. c. 11. Miras sequuntur inscriptionum festivitates.
54. Praefat. Nat. Hist. Patri obstetricem parturienti filiae accersenti
moram injicere possunt.
55. Anatomy of Popery, Anatomy of immortality, Angelus salas, Anatomy of
Antimony, &c.
56. Cont. l. 4, c. 9. Non est cura melior quam labor.
57. Hor. De Arte Poet.
58. Non quod de novo quid addere, aut a veteribus praetermissum, sed
propriae exercitationis causa.
59. Qui novit, neque id quod sentit exprimit, perinde est ac si nesciret.
60. Jovius Praef. Hist.
61. Erasmus.
62. Otium otio dolorem dolore sum solatus.
63. Observat. l. 1.
64. M. Joh. Rous, our Protobib. Oxon. M. Hopper, M. Guthridge, &c.
65. Quae illi audire et legere solent, eorum partim vidi egomet, alia
gessi, quae illi literis, ego militando didici, nunc vos existimate
facta an dicta pluris sint.
66. Dido Virg. "Taught by that Power that pities me, I learn to pity them."
67. Camden, Ipsa elephantiasi correpta elephantiasis hospicium construxit.
68. Iliada post Homerum.
69. Nihil praetermissum quod a quovis dici possit.
70. Martialis.
71. Magis impium mortuorum lucubrationes, quam vestes furari.
72. Eccl. ult.
73. Libros Eunuchi gignunt, steriles pariunt.
74. D. King praefat. lect. Jonas, the late right reverend Lord B. of
London.
75. Homines famelici gloriae ad ostentationem eruditionis undique
congerunt. Buchananus.
76. Effacinati etiam laudis amore, &c. Justus Baronius.
77. Ex ruinis alienae existimationis sibi gradum ad famam struunt.
78. Exercit. 288.
79. Omnes sibi famam quaerunt et quovis modo in orbem spargi contendunt, ut
novae alicujus rei habeantur auctores. Praef. biblioth.
80. Praefat. hist.
81. Plautus.
82. E Democriti puteo.
83. Non tam refertae bibliothecae quam cloacae.
84. Et quicquid cartis amicitur ineptis.
85. Epist. ad Petas. in regno Franciae omnibus scribendi datur libertas,
paucis facultas.
86. Olim literae ob homines in precio, nunc sordent ob homines.
87. Ans. pac.
88. Inter tot mille volumina vix unus a cujus lectione quis melior evadat,
immo potius non pejor.
89. Palingenius. What does any one, who reads such works, learn or know but
dreams and trifling things.
90. Lib. 5. de Sap.
91. Sterile oportet esse ingenium quod in hoc scripturientum pruritus, &c.
92. Cardan, praef. ad Consol.
93. Hor. lib. 1, sat. 4.
94. Epist. lib. 1. Magnum poetarum proventum annus hic attulit, mense
Aprili nullus fere dies quo non aliquis recitavit.
95. Idem.
96. Principibus et doctoribus deliberandum relinquo, ut arguantur auctorum
furta et milies repetita tollantur, et temere scribendi libido
coerceatur, aliter in infinitum progressura.
97. Onerabuntur ingenia, nemo legendis sufficit.
98. Libris obraimur, oculi legendo, manus volitando dolent. Fam. Strada
Momo. Lucretius.
99. Quicquid ubique bene dictum facio meum, et illud nunc meis ad
compendium, nunc ad fidem et auctoritatem alienis exprimo verbis, omnes
auctores meos clientes esse arbitror, &c. Sarisburiensis ad Polycrat.
prol.
100. In Epitaph. Nep. illud Cyp. hoc Lact. illud Hilar. est, ita
Victorinus, in hunc modum loquutus est Arnobius, &c.
101. Praef. ad Syntax. med.
102. Until a later age and a happier lot produce something more truly
grand.
103. In Luc. 10. tom. 2. Pigmei Gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi
Gigantes vident.
104. Nec aranearum textus ideo melior quia ex se fila gignuntur, nec noster
ideo vilior, quia ex alienis libamus ut apes. Lipsius adversus
dialogist.
105. Uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur.
106. Non dubito multos lectores hic fore stultos.
107. Martial, 13, 2.
108. Ut venatores feram e vestigio impresso, virum scriptiuncula. Lips.
109. Hor.
110. Hor.
111. Antwerp. fol. 1607.
112. Muretus.
113. Lipsius.
114. Hor.
115. Fieri non potest, ut quod quisque cogitat, dicat unus. Muretus.
116. Lib. 1. de ord., cap. 11.
117. Erasmus.
118. Annal. Tom. 3. ad annum 360. Est porcus ille qui sacerdotem ex
amplitudine redituum sordide demeritur.
119. Erasm. dial.
120. Epist. lib. 6. Cujusque ingenium non statim emergit, nisi materiae
fautor, occasio, commendatorque contingat.
121. Praef. hist.
122. Laudari a laudato laus est.
123. Vit. Persii.
124. Minuit praesentia famam.
125. Lipsius Judic. de Seneca.
126. Lib. 10. Plurirmum studii, multam rerum cognitionem, omnem studiorum
materiam, &c. multa in eo probanda, multa admiranda.
127. Suet. Arena sine calce.
128. Introduct. ad Sen.
129. Judic. de Sen. Vix aliquis tam absolutus, ut alteri per omnia
satisfaciat, nisi longa temporis praescripto, semota judicandi
libertate, religione quidam animos occuparis.
130. Hor. Ep. 1, lib. 19.
131. Aeque turpe frigide laudari ac insectanter vituperari. Phavorinus A.
Gel. lib. 19, cap. 2.
132. Ovid, trist. 11. eleg 6.
133. Juven. sat. 5.
134. Aut artis inscii aut quaestui magis quam literis student. hab. Cantab.
et Lond. Excus. 1976.
135. Ovid. de pont. Eleg. l. 6.
136. Hor.
137. Tom. 3. Philopseud. accepto pessulo, quum carmen quoddam dixisset,
effecit ut ambularet, aquam hauriret, urnam pararet, &c.
138. Eusebius, eccles. hist. lib. 6.
139. Stans pede in uno, as he made verses.
140. Virg.
141. Non eadem a summo expectes, minimoque poeta.
142. Stylus hic nullus, praeter parrhesiam.
143. Qui rebus se exercet, verba negligit, et qui callet artem dicendi,
nullam disciplinam habet recognitam.
144. Palingenius. Words may be resplendent with ornament, but they contain
no marrow within.
145. Cujuscunque orationem vides politam et sollicitam, scito animum in
pusilis occupatum, in scriptis nil solidum. Epist. lib. 1. 21.
146. Philostratus, lib. 8. vit. Apol. Negligebat oratoriam facultatem, et
penitus aspernabatur ejus professores, quod linguam duntaxat, non
autem mentem redderent eruditiorem.
147. Hic enim, quod Seneca de Ponto, bos herbam, ciconia larisam, canis
leporem, virgo florem legat.
148. Pet. Nannius not. in Hor.
149. Non hic colonus domicilium habeo, sed topiarii in morem, hinc inde
florem vellico, ut canis Nilum lambens.
150. Supra bis mille notabiles errores Laurentii demonstravi, &c.
151. Philo de Con.
152. Virg.
153. Frambesarius, Sennertus, Ferandus, &c.
154. Ter. Adelph.
155. Heaut. Act 1. scen. 1.
156. Gellius. lib. 18, cap. 3.
157. Et inde catena quaedam fit, quae haeredes etiam ligat. Cardan.
Hensius.
158. Malle se bellum cum magno principe gerere, quam cum uno ex fratrum
mendicantium ordine.
159. Hor. epod. lib. od. 7.
160. Epist. 86, ad Casulam presb.
161. Lib. 12, cap. 1. Mutos nasci, et omni scientia egere satius fuisset,
quam sic in propriam perniciem insanire.
162. But it would be better not to write, for silence is the safer course.
163. Infelix mortalitas inutilibus quaestionibus ac disceptationibus vitam
traducimus, naturae principes thesauros, in quibus gravissimae
morborum medicinae collocatae sunt, interim intactos relinquimus. Nec
ipsi solum relinquimus, sed et allos prohibemus, impedimus,
condemnamus, ludibriisque afficimus.
164. Quod in praxi minime fortunatus esset, medicinam reliquit, et
ordinibus initiatus in Theologia postmodum scripsit. Gesner
Bibliotheca.
165. P. Jovius.
166. M. W. Burton, preface to his description of Leicestershire, printed at
London by W. Jaggard, for J. White, 1622.
167. In Hygiasticon, neque enim haec tractatio aliena videri debet a
theologo, &c. agitur de morbo animae.
168. D. Clayton in comitiis, anno 1621.
169. Hor.
170. Lib. de pestil.
171. In Newark in Nottinghamshire. Cum duo edificasset castella, ad
tollendam structionis invidiam, et expiandam maculam, duo instituit
caenobia, et collegis relgiosis implevit.
172. Ferdinando de Quir. anno 1612. Amsterdami impress.
173. Praefat. ad Characteres: Spero enim (O Policles) libros nostros
meliores inde futuros, quod istiusmodi memoriae mandata reliquerimus,
ex preceptis et exemplis nostris ad vitam accommodatis, ut se inde
corrigant.
174. Part 1. sect. 3.
175. praef. lectori.
176. Ep. 2. 1. 2. ad Donatum. Paulisper te crede subduci in ardui montis
verticem celsiorem, speculare inde rerum jacentium facies, et oculis
in diversa porrectis, fluctuantis mundi turbines intuere, jam simul
aut ridebis aut misereberis, &c.
177. Controv. l. 2. cont. 7. et l. 6. cont.
178. Horatius.
179. Idem, Hor. l. 2. Satyra 3. Damasipus Stoicus probat omnes stultos
insanire.
180. Tom. 2. sympos. lib. 5. c. 6. Animi affectiones, si diutius
inhaereant, pravos generant habitus.
181. Lib. 28, cap. 1. Synt. art. mir. Morbus nihil est aliud quam
dissolutio quaedam ac perturbatio foederis in corpore existentis,
sicut et sanitas est consentientis bene corporis consummatio quaedam.
182. Lib. 9. Geogr. Plures olim gentes navigabant illuc sanitatis causa.
183. Eccles. i. 24.
184. Jure haereditario sapere jubentur. Euphormio Satyr.
185. Apud quos virtus, insania et furor esse dicitur.
186. Calcagninus Apol. omnes mirabantur, putantes illisam iri stultitiam.
Sed praeter expectationem res evenit, Audax stultitia in eam irruit,
&c. illa cedit irrisa, et plures hinc habet sectatores stultitia.
187. Non est respondendum stulto secundum stultitiam.
188. 2 Reg. 7.
189. Lib. 10. ep. 97.
190. Aug. ep. 178.
191. Quis nisi mentis inops, &c.
192. Quid insanius quam pro momentanea felicitate aeternis te mancipare
suppliciis?
193. In fine Phaedonis. Hic finis fuit amici nostri o Eucrates, nostro
quidem judicio omnium quos experti sumus optimi et apprime
sapientissimi, et justissimi.
194. Xenop. l. 4. de dictis Socratis ad finem, talis fuit Socrates quem
omnium optimum et felicissimum statuam.
195. Lib. 25. Platonis Convivio.
196. Lucretius.
197. Anaxagoras olim mens dictus ab antiquis.
198. Regula naturae, naturae miraculum, ipsa eruditio daemonium hominis,
sol scientiarum, mare, sophia, antistes literarum et sapientiae, ut
Scioppius olim de Scal, et Heinsius. Aquila In nubibus Imperator
literatorum, columen literarum, abyssus eruditionis, ocellus Europae,
Scaliger.
199. Lib. 3. de sap c. 17. et 20. omnes Philosophi, aut stulti, aut insani;
nulla anus nullus aeger ineptius deliravit.
200. Democritus a Leucippo doctus, haeridatem stultitiae reliquit Epic.
201. Hor. car. lib. 1. od. 34. 1. epicur.
202. Nihil interest inter hos et bestias nisi quod loquantur. de sa. l. 26.
c. 8.
203. Cap. de virt.
204. Neb. et Ranis.
205. Omnium disciplinarum ignarus.
206. Omnium disciplinarum ignarus.
207. Pulchrorum adolescentum causa frequentur gymnasium, obibat, &c.
208. Seneca. Seis rotunda metiri, sed non tuum animum.
209. Ab uberibus sapientia lactati caecutire non possunt.
210. Cor Xenodoti et jecur Cratetis.
211. Lib. de nat. boni.
212. Hic profundissimae Sophiae fodinae.
213. Panegyr. Trajano omnes actiones exprobrare stultitiam videntur.
214. Ser. 4. in domi Pal. Mundus qui ob antiquitatem deberet esse sapiens,
semper stultizat, et nullis flagellis alteratur, sed ut puer vult
rosis et floribus coronari.
215. Insanum te omnes pueri, clamantque puellae. Hor.
216. Plautus Aubular.
217. Adelph. act. 5. scen. 8.
218. Tully Tusc. 5. fortune, not wisdom, governs our lives.
219. Plato Apologia Socratis.
220. Ant. Dial.
221. Lib. 3. de sap. pauci ut video sanae mentis sunt.
222. Stulte et incaute omnia agi video.
223. Insania non omnibus eadem, Erasm. chil. 3. cent. 10. nemo mortalium
qui non aliqua in re desipit, licet alius alio morbo laboret, hic
libidinis, ille avaritiae, ambitionis, invidiae.
224. Hor. l. 2. sat. 3.
225. Lib. 1. de aulico. Est in unoquoque nostrum seminarium aliquod
stultitiae, quod si quando excitetur, in infinitum facile excrescit.
226. Primaque lux vitae prima juroris erat.
227. Tibullus, stulti praetereunt dies, their wits are a wool-gathering. So
fools commonly dote.
228. Dial. contemplantes, Tom: 2.
229. Catullus.
230. Sub ramosa platano sedentem, solum, discalceatum, super lapidem, valde
pallidum ac macilentum, promissa barba, librum super genibus habentem.
231. De furore, mania melancholia scribo, ut sciam quo pacto in hominibus
gignatur, fiat, crescat, cumuletur, minuatur; haec inquit animalia
quae vides propterea seco, non Dei opera perosus, sed fellis bilisque
naturam disquirens.
232. Aust. l. 1. in Gen. Jumenti & servi tui obsequium rigide postulas, et
tu nullum praestas aliis, nec ipsi Deo.
233. Uxores ducunt, mox foras ejiciunt.
234. Pueros amant, mox fastidiunt.
235. Quid hoc ab insania deest?
236. Reges eligunt, deponunt.
237. Contra parentes, fratres, cives, perpetuo rixantur, et inimicitias
agunt.
238. Idola inanimata amant, animata odio habent, sic pontificii.
239. Credo equidem vivos ducent e marmore vultus.
240. Suam stultitiam perspicit nemo, sed alter alterum deridet.
241. Denique sit finis querendi, cumque habeas plus, pauperiem metuas
minis, et finire laborem incipias, partis quod avebas, utere Hor.
242. Astutam vapido servat sub pectore vulpem. Et cum vulpo positus pariter
vulpinarier. Cretizan dum cum Crete.
243. Qui fit Mecaenas ut nemo quam sibi sortem. Seu ratio dederit, seu sors
objecerit, illa contentus vivat, &c. Hor.
244. Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis. Trajanus pontem struxit
super Danubium, quem successor ejus Adrianus statim demolitus.
245. Qua quid in re ab infantibus differunt, quibus mens et sensus sine
ratione inest, quicquid sese his offert volupe est.
246. Idem Plut.
247. Ut insaniae causam disquiram bruta macto et seco, cum hoc potius in
hominibus investigandum esset.
248. Totus a nativitate morbus est.
249. In vigore furibundus, quum decrescit insanabilis.
250. Cyprian. ad Donatum. Qui sedet crimina judicaturus, &c.
251. Tu pessimus omnium latro es, as a thief told Alexander in Curtius.
Damnat foras judex, quod intus operatur, Cyprian.
252. Vultus magna cura, magna animi incuria. Am. Marcel.
253. Horrenda res est, vix duo verba sine mendacio proferuntur: et quamvis
solenniter homines ad veritatem dicendum invitentur, pejerare tamen
non dubitant, ut ex decem testibus vix unus verum dicat. Calv. in 8
John, Serm 1.
254. Sapientiam insaniam esse dicunt.
255. Siquidem sapientiae suae admiratione me complevit, offendi
sapientissimum virum, qui salvos potest omnes homines reddere.
256. E. Graec. epig.
257. Plures Democriti nunc non sufficiunt, opus Democrito qui Democritum
rideat. Eras Moria.
258. Polycrat. lib. 3. cap. 8. e Petron.
259. Ubi omnes delirabant, omnes insani, &c. hodie nauta, cras philosophus;
hodie faber, cras pharmacopola; hic modo regem agebat multo
sattellitio, tiara, et sceptro ornatus, nunc vili amictus centiculo,
asinum elitellarium impellit.
260. Calcagninus Apol. Crysalus e caeteris auro dives, manicato pepio et
tiara conspicuus, levis alioquin et nullius consilii, &c. magno fastu
ingredienti assurgunt dii, &c.
261. Sed hominis levitatem Jupiter perspiciens, at tu (iniquit) esto
bombilio, &c. protinusque vestis illa manicata in alas versa est, et
mortales inde Chrysalides vocant hujusmodi homines.
262. You will meet covetous fools and prodigal sycophants everywhere.
263. Juven.
264. Juven.
265. De bello Jud. l. 8. c. 11. Iniquitates vestrae neminem latent, inque
dies singulos certamen habetis quis pejor sit.
266. Hor.
267. Lib. 5. Epist. 8.
268. Hor.
269. Superstitio est insanus error.
270. Lib. 8. hist. Belg.
271. Lucan.
272. Father Angelo, the Duke of Joyeux, going barefoot over the Alps to
Rome, &c.
273. Si cui intueri vacet quae patiuntur superstitiosi, invenies tam
indecora honestis, tam indigna liberis, tam dissimilia sanis, ut nemo
fuerit dubitaturus furere eos, si cum paucioribus fuerent. Senec.
274. Quid dicam de eorum indulgentiis, oblationibus, votis, solutionibus,
jejuniis, coenobiis, somniis, horis, organis, cantilenis, campanis,
simulachris, missis, purgatoriis, mitris, breviariis, bullis,
lustralibus, aquis, rasuris, unctionibus, candelis, calicibus,
crucibus, mappis, cereis, thuribulis, incantationibus, exorcismis,
sputis, legendis, &c. Baleus de actis Rom. Pont.
275. Pleasing spectacles to the ignorant poor.
276. Th. Neageor.
277. Dum simulant spernere, acquisiverunt sibi 30 annorum spatio bis
centena millia librarum annua. Arnold.
278. Et quum interdiu de virtute loquuti sunt, sero in latibulis clunes
agitant labore nocturno, Agryppa.
279. 1 Tim. iii. 13. But they shall prevail no longer, their madness shall
be known to all men.
280. Benignitatis sinus solebat esse, nunc litium officina curia Romana
Budaeus.
281. Quid tibi videtur facturus Democritus, si horum spectator contigisset?
282. Ob inanes ditionum titulos, ob prereptum locum, ob interceptam
mulierculam, vel quod e stultitia natum, vel e malitia, quod cupido
dominandi, libido nocendi, &c.
283. Bellum rem plane bellui nam vocat Morus. Utop. lib. 2.
284. Munster. Cosmog. l. 5, c. 3. E. Dict. Cretens.
285. Jovius vit. ejus.
286. Comineus.
287. Lib. 3.
288. Hist. of the siege of Ostend, fol. 23.
289. Erasmus de bello. Ut placidum illud animal benevoletiae natum tam
ferina vecordia in mutuam rueret perniciem.
290. Rich. Dinoth. praefat. Belli civilis Gal.
291. Jovius.
292. Dolus, asperitas, in justitia propria bellorum negotia. Tertul.
293. Trully.
294. Lucan.
295. Pater in filium, affinis in affinem, amicus in amicum, &c. Regio cum
regione, regnum regno colliditur. Populus populo in mutuam perniciem,
belluarum instar sanguinolente ruentium.
296. Libanii declam.
297. Ira enim et furor Bellonae consultores, &c. dementes sacerdotes sunt.
298. Bellum quasi bellua et ad omnia scelera furor immissus.
299. Gallorum decies centum millia ceciderunt. Ecclesiaris 20 millia
fundamentis excisa.
300. Belli civilis Gal. l. 1. hoc ferali bello et caedibus omnia
repleverunt, et regnum amplissimum a fundamentis pene everterunt,
plebis tot myriades gladio, bello, fame miserabiliter perierunt.
301. Pont. Huterus.
302. Comineus. Ut nullus non execretur et admiretur crudelitatem, et
barbaram insaniam, quae inter homines eodem sub caelo natos, ejusdem
linguae, sanguinis, religionis, exercebator.
303. Lucan.
304. Virg.
305. Bishop of Cuseo, an eyewitness.
306. Read Meteran of his stupend cruelties.
307. Hensius Austriaco.
308. Virg. Georg. "impious war rages throughout the whole world."
309. Jansenius Gallobelgicus 1596. Mundus furiosus, inscriptio libri.
310. Exercitat. 250. serm. 4.
311. Fleat Heraclitus an rideat Democritus.
312. Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.
313. Arma amens capio, nec sat rationis in armis.
314. Erasmus.
315. Pro Murena. Omnes urbanae res, omnia studia, omnis forensis laus et
industria latet in tutela et praecidio bellicae virtutis, et simul
atque increpuit suspicio tumultus, artes illico nostrae conticescunt.
316. Ser. 13.
317. Crudelissimos saevissimosque latrones, fortissimos haberi
propugnatores, fidissimos duces habent, bruta persuasione donati.
318. Eobanus Hessus. Quibus omnis in armis vita placet, non ulla juvat nisi
morte, nec ullam esse putant vitam, quae non assueverit armis.
319. Lib. 10. vit. Scanperbeg.
320. Nulli beatiores habiti, quam qui in praelus cecidissent. Brisonius de
rep. Persarum. l. 3. fol. 3. 44. Idem Lactantius de Romanis et
Graecis. Idem Ammianus, lib. 23. de Parthis. Judicatur is solus beatus
apud eos, qui in praelio fuderit animam. De Benef. lib. 2. c. 1.
321. Nat. quaest. lib. 3.
322. Boterus Amphitridion. Busbequius Turc. hist. Per caedes et sanguinem
parare hominibus ascensum in coelum putant, Lactan. de falsa relig. l.
1. cap. 8.
323. Quoniam bella acerbissima dei flagella sunt quibus hominum pertinaciam
punit, ea perpetua oblivione sepelienda potius quam memoriae mandanda
plerique judicant. Rich. Dinoth. praef. hist. Gall.
324. Cruentam humani generis pestem, et perniciem divinitatis nota
insigniunt.
325. Et quod dolendum, applausum habent et occursum viri tales.
326. Herculi eadem porta ad coelum patuit, qui magnam generis humani partem
perdidit.
327. Virg. Aeneid. 7.
328. Hominicidium quum committunt singuli, crimen est, quum publice
geritur, virtus vocatur. Cyprianus.
329. Seneca. Successful vice is called virtue.
330. Juven.
331. De vanit. scient. de princip. nobilitatis.
332. Juven. Sat. 4.
333. Pausa rapit, quod Natta reliquit. Tu pessimus omnium latro es, as
Demetrius the Pirate told Alexander in Curtius.
334. Non ausi mutire, &c. Aesop.
335. Improbum et stultum, si divitem multos bonos viros in servitutem
habentem, ob id duntaxat quod ei contingat aureorum numismatum
cumulus, ut appendices, et additamenta numismatum. Morus Utopia.
336. Eorumque detestantur Utopienses insaniam, qui divinos honores iis
impendunt, quos sordidos et avaros agnoscunt; non alio respectu
honorantes, quam quod dites sint. Idem. lib. 2.
337. Cyp. 2 ad Donat. ep. Ut reus innocens pereat, sit nocens. Judex damnat
foras, quod intus operatur.
338. Sidonius Apo.
339. Salvianus l. 3. de providen.
340. Ergo judicium nihil est nisi publica merces. Petronius. Quid faciant
leges ubi sola pecunia regnat? Idem.
341. Hic arcentur haerediatatibus liberi, hic donatur bonis alienis, falsum
consulit, alter testamentum corrumpit, &c. Idem.
342. Vexat censura columbas.
343. Plaut. mostel.
344. Idem.
345. Juven. Sat. 4.
346. Quod tot sint fures et mendici, magistratuum culpa fit, qui malos
imitantur praeceptores, qui discipulos libentius verberant quam
docunt. Morus, Utop. lib. 1.
347. Decernuntur furi gravia et horrenda supplicia, quum potius providendum
multo foret ne fures sint, ne cuiquam tam dira furandi aut pereundi
sit necessitas. Idem.
348. Boterus de augment. urb. lib. 3. cap. 3.
349. E fraterno corde sanguinem eliciunt.
350. Milvus rapit ac deglubit.
351. Petronius de Crotone civit.
352. Quid forum? locus quo alius alium circumvenit.
353. Vastum chaos, larvarum emporium, theatrum hypocrisios, &c.
354. Nemo coelum, nemo jusjurandum, nemo Jovem pluris facit, sed omnes
apertis oculis bona sua computant. Petron.
355. Plutarch, vit. ejus. Indecorum animatis ut calceis uti aut vitris,
quae ubi fracta abjicimus, nam ut de meipso dicam, nec bovem senem
vendideram, nedum hominem natu grandem laboris socium.
356. Jovius. Cum innumera illius beneficia rependere non posset aliter,
interfici jussit.
357. Beneficia eo usque lata sunt dum videntur solvi posse, ubi multum,
antevenere pro gratia odium redditur. Tac.
358. Paucis charior est fides quam pecunia. Salust.
359. Prima fere vota et cunctis, &c.
360. Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat. Quantum quisque sua nummorum
servat in arca, tantum habet et fidei.
361. Non a peritia sed ab ornatu et vulgi vocibus habemur excellentes.
Cardan. l. 2. de cons.
362. Perjurata suo postponit numina lucro, Mercator. Ut necessarium sit vel
Deo displicere, vel ab hominibus contemni, vexari, negligi.
363. Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt.
364. Tragelapho similes vel centauris, sursum homines, deorsum equi.
365. Praeceptis suis coelum promittunt, ipsi interim pulveris terreni vilia
mancipia.
366. Aeneas Silv.
367. Arridere homines ut saeviant, blandiri ut fallant. Cyp. ad Donatum.
368. Love and hate are like the two ends of a perspective glass, the one
multiplies, the other makes less.
369. Ministri locupletiores iis quibus ministratur, servus majores opes
habens quam patronus.
370. Qui terram colunt equi paleis pascuntur, qui otiantur caballi avena
saginantur, discalceatus discurrit qui calces aliis facit.
371. Juven. Do you laugh? he is shaken by still greater laughter; he weeps
also when he has beheld the tears of his friend.
372. Bodin, lib. 4. de repub. cap. 6.
373. Plinius l. 37. cap. 3. capillos habuit succineos, exinde factum ut
omnes puellae Romanae colorem illum affectarent.
374. Odit damnatos. Juv.
375. Agrippa ep. 38. l. 7. Quorum cerebrum est in ventre, ingenium in
patinis.
376. Psal. They eat up my people as bread.
377. Absumit haeres caecuba lignior servata centum clavibus, et mero
distinguet pavimentis superbo, pontificum potiore coenis. Hor.
378. Qui Thaidem pingere, inflare tibiam, crispare crines.
379. Doctus spectare lacunar.
380. Tullius. Est enim proprium stultitiae aliorum cernere vitia, oblivisci
suorum. Idem Aristippus Charidemo apud Lucianum Omnino stultitiae
cujusdam esse puto, &c.
381. Execrari publice quod occulte agat. Salvianus lib. de pro. acres
ulciscendis vitiis quibus ipsi vehementer indulgent.
382. Adamus eccl. hist. cap. 212. Siquis damnatus fuerit, laetus esse
gloria est; nam lachrymas et planctum caeteraque compunctionum genera
quae nos salubria censemus, ita abominantur Dani, ut nec pro peccatis
nec pro defunctis amicis ulli fiere liceat.
383. Orbi dat leges foras, vix famulum regit sine strepitu domi.
384. Quicquid ego volo hoc vult mater mea, et quod mater vult, facit pater.
385. Oves, olim mite pecus, nunc tam indomitum et edax ut homines devorent,
&c. Morus. Utop. lib. 1.
386. Diversos variis tribuit natura furores.
387. Democrit. ep. praed. Hos. dejerantes et potantes deprehendet, hos
vomentes, illos litigantes, insidias molientes, suffragantes, venena
miscentes, in amicorum accusationem subscribentes, hos gloria, illos
ambitione, cupiditate, mente captos, &c.
388. Ad Donat. ep. 2. l. 1. O si posses in specula sublimi constitutus, &c.
389. Lib. 1. de nup. Philol. in qua quid singuli nationum populi
quotidianis motibus agitarent, relucebat.
390. O Jupiter contingat mihi aurum haereditas, &c. Multos da Jupiter
annos, Dementia quanta est hominum, turpissima vota diis insusurrant,
si quis admoverit aurem, conticescunt; et quod scire homines nolunt,
Deo narrant. Senec. ep. 10. l. 1.
391. Plautus Menech. non potest haec res Hellebori jugere obtinerier.
392. Eoque gravior morbus quo ignotior periclitanti.
393. Quae laedunt oculos, festinas demere; si quid est animum, differs
curandi tempus in annum. Hor.
394. Si caput, crus dolet, brachium, &c. Medicum accersimus, recte et
honeste, si par etiam industria in animi morbis poneretur. Joh.
Pelenus Jesuita. lib. 2. de hum. affec. morborumque cura.
395. Et quotusquisque tamen est qui contra tot pestes medicum requirat vel
aegrotare se agnoscat? ebullit ira, &c. Et nos tamen aegros esse
negamus. Incolumes medicum recusant. Praesens aetas stultitiam priscis
exprobrat. Bud. de affec. lib. 5.
396. Senes pro stultis habent juvenes. Balth. Cast.
397. Clodius accusat maechos.
398. Omnium stultissimi qui auriculas studiose tegunt. Sat. Menip.
399. Hor. Epist. 2.
400. Prosper.
401. Statim sapiunt, statim sciunt, neminem reverentur, neminem imitantur,
ipsi sibi exemplo. Plin. Epist. lib. 8.
402. Nulli alteri sapere concedit ne desipere videatur. Agrip.
403. Omnis orbis persechio a persis ad Lusitaniam.
404. 2 Florid.
405. August. Qualis in oculis hominum qui inversis pedibus ambulat, talis
in oculis sapientum et angelorum qui sibi placet, aut cui passiones
dominantur.
406. Plautus Menechmi.
407. Governor of Asnich by Caesar's appointment.
408. Nunc sanitatis patrocinium est insanientium turba. Sen.
409. Pro Roseio Amerino, et quod inter omnes constat insanissimus, nisi
inter eos, qui ipsi quoque insaniunt.
410. Necesse est cum insanientibus furere, nisi solus relinqueris.
Petronius.
411. Quoniam non est genus unum stultitiae qua me insanire putas.
412. Stultum me fateor, liceat concedere verum, Atque etiam insanum. Hor.
413. Odi nec possum cupiens nec esse quod odi. Ovid. Errore grato libenter
omnes insanimus.
414. Amator scortum vitae praeponit, iracundus vindictam; fur praedam,
parasitus gulam, ambitiosus honores, avarus opes, &c. odimus haec et
accercimus. Cardan. l. 2. de conso.
415. Prov. xxvi. 11.
416. Although you call out, and confound the sea and sky, you still address
a deaf man.
417. Plutarch. Gryllo. suilli homines sic Clem. Alex. vo.
418. Non persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris.
419. Tully.
420. Malo cum illis insanire, quam cum aliis bene sentire.
421. Qui inter hos enutriuntur, non magis sapere possunt, quam qui in
culina bene olere. Patron.
422. Persius.
423. Hor. 2. ser. which of these is the more mad.
424. Vesanum exagitant pueri, innuptaeque puellae.
425. Plautus.
426. Hor. l. 2. sat. 2. Superbam stultitiam Plinus vocat. 7. epist. 21.
quod semel dixi, fixum ratumque sit.
427. 19 Multi sapientes proculdubio fuissent, si se non putassent ad
sapientiae summum pervenisse.
428. Idem.
429. Plutarchus Solone. Detur sapientiori.
430. Tam praesentibus plena est numinibus, ut facilius possis Deum quam
hominem invenire.
431. Pulchrum bis dicere non nocet.
432. Malefactors.
433. Who can find a faithful man? Prov. xx. 6.
434. In Psal. xlix. Qui momentanea sempiternis, qui delapidat heri absentis
bona, mox in jus vocandus et damnandus.
435. Perquam ridiculum est homines ex animi sententia vivere, et quae Diis
ingrata sunt exequi, et tamen a solis Diis vella solvos fieri, quum
propriae salutis curam abjecerint. Theod. c. 6. de provid. lib. de
curat. graec. affect.
436. Sapiens sibi qui imperiosus, &c. Hor. 2. ser. 7.
437. Conclus. lib. de vie. offer, certum est animi morbis laborantes pro
mortuis consendos.
438. Lib. de sap. Ubi timor adest, sapientia adesse nequit.
439. He who is desirous is also fearful, and he who lives in fear never can
be free.
440. Quid insanius Xerxe Hellespontum verberante, &c.
441. Eccl. xxi. 12. Where is bitterness, there is no understanding. Prov.
xii. 16. An angry man is a fool.
442. B Tusc. Injuria in sapientem non cadit.
443. Hom. 6. in 2 Epist. ad Cor. Hominem te agnoscere nequeo, cum tanquam
asinus recalcitres, lascivias ut taurus, hinnias ut equus post
mulieres, ut ursus ventri indulgeas, quum rapias ut lupus, &c. at
inquis formam hominis habeo, Id magis terret, quum feram humana specie
videre me putem.
444. Epist. lib. 2. 13. Stultus semper incipit vivere, foeda hominum
levitas, nova quotidie fundamenta vitae ponere, novas spes, &c.
445. De curial. miser. Stultus, qui quaerit quod nequit invenire, stultus
qui quaerit quod nocet inventum, stultus qui cum plures habet calles,
deteriorem deligit. Mihi videntur omnes deliri, amentes, &c.
446. Ep. Demagete.
447. Amicis nostris Rhodi dicito, ne nimium rideant, aut nimium tristes
sint.
448. Per multum risum poteris cognoscere stultum. Offic. 3. c. 9.
449. Sapientes liberi, stulti servi, libertas est potestas, &c.
450. Hor. 2. ser. 7.
451. Juven. "Good people are scarce."
452. Hypocrit.
453. Ut mulier aulica nullius pudens.
454. Epist. 33. Quando fatuo delectari volo, non est longe quaerendus, me
video.
455. Primo contradicentium.
456. Lib. de causis corrupt. artium.
457. Actione ad subtil. in Scal. fol. 1226.
458. Lib. 1. de sap.
459. Vide miser homo, quia totum est vanitas, totum stultitia, totum
dementia, quicquid facis in hoc mundo, praeter hoc solum quod propter
Deum facis. Ser. de miser, hom.
460. In 2 Platonis dial. 1. de justo.
461. Dum iram et odium in Deo revera ponit.
462. Virg. 1. Eccl. 3.
463. Ps. inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus.
464. In Psal. civ. Austin.
465. In Platonis Tim. sacerdos Aegyptius.
466. Hor. vulgis insanum.
467. Patet ea diviso probabilis, &c. ex. Arist. Top. ib. l. c. 8. Rog. Bac.
Epist. de secret. art. et nat. c. 8. non est judicium in vulgo.
468. De occult. Philosop. l. 1. c. 25 et 19. ejusd. l. Lib. 10. cap. 4.
469. See Lipsius epist.
470. De politai illustrium lib. 1. cap. 4. ut in humanis corporibus variae
accidunt mutationes corporis, animique, sic in republica, &c.
471. Ubi reges philosophantur, Plato.
472. Lib. de re rust.
473. Vel publicam utilitatem: salus publica suprema lex esto. Beata civitas
non ubi pauci beati, sed tota civitas beata. Plato quarto de
republica.
474. Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae.
475. Interdum a feris, ut olim Mauritania, &c.
476. Deliciis Hispaniae anno 1604. Nemo malus, nemo pauper, optimus quisque
aetque ditissimus. Pie, sancteque vivebant summaque cum veneratione,
et timore divino cultui, sacrisque rebus incumbebant.
477. Polit. l. 5. c. 3.
478. Boterus Polit. lib. 1. c. 1. Cum nempe princeps rerum gerendarum
imperitus, segnis, oscitans, suique muneris immemor, aut fatuus est.
479. Non viget respublica cujus caput infirmatur. Salisburiensis, c. 22.
480. See Dr. Fletcher's relation, and Alexander Gaeninus' history.
481. Abundans omni divitiarum affluentia incolarum multitudine splendore ac
potentia.
482. Not above 200 miles in length, 60 in breadth, according to Adricomius.
483. Romulus Amascus.
484. Sabellicus. Si quis incola vetus, non agnosceret, si quis peregrinus
ingemisceret.
485. Polit. l. 5. c. 6. Crudelitas principum, impunitas scelerum, violatio
legum, peculatus pecuniae publicae, etc.
486. Epist.
487. De increm. urb. cap. 20. subditi miseri, rebelles, desperati, &c.
488. R. Darlington. 1596. conclusio libri.
489. Boterus l. 9. c. 4. Polit. Quo fit ut aut rebus desperatis exulent,
aut conjuratione subditorum crudelissime tandem trucidentur.
490. Mutuis odiis et caedibus exhausti, &c.
491. Lucra ex malis, scelerastisque causis.
492. Salust.
493. For most part we mistake the name of Politicians, accounting such as
read Machiavel and Tacitus, great statesmen, that can dispute of
political precepts, supplant and overthrow their adversaries, enrich
themselves, get honours, dissemble; but what is this to the bene esse,
or preservation of a Commonwealth?
494. Imperium suapte sponte corruit.
495. Apul. Prim. Flor. Ex innumerabilibus, pauci Senatores genere nobiles,
e consularibus pauci boni, e bonis adhuc pauci eruditi.
496. Non solum vitia concipiunt ipsi principes, sed etiam infundunt in
civitatem, plusque exemplo quam peccato nocent. Cic. l. de legibus.
497. Epist. ad Zen. Juven. Sat. 4. Paupertas seditionem gignit et
maleficium, Arist. Pol. 2. c. 7.
498. Vicious domestic examples operate more quickly upon us when suggested
to our minds by high authorities.
499. Salust. Semper in civitate quibus opes nullae sunt bonis invident,
vetera odere, nova exoptant, odio suarum rerum mutari omnia petunt.
500. De legibus. profligatae in repub. disciplinae est indicium
jurisperitorum numerus, et medicorum copia.
501. In praef. stud. juris. Multiplicantur nunc in terris ut locustae non
patriae parentes, sed pestes, pessimi homines, majore ex parta
superciliosi, contentiosi, &c. licitum latrocinium exercent.
502. Dousa epid. loquieleia turba, vultures togati.
503. Barc. Argen.
504. Juris consulti domus oraculum civitatis. Tully.
505. Lib. 3.
506. Lib. 3.
507. Lib. 1. de rep. Gallorum, incredibilem reipub. perniciem afferunt.
508. Polycrat. lib.
509. Is stipe contentus, et hi asses integros sibi multiplicari jubent.
510. Plus accipiunt tacere, quam nos loqui.
511. Totius injustitiae nulla capitalior, quam eorum qui cum maxime
decipiunt, id agunt, ut boni viri esse videantur.
512. Nam quocunque modo causa procedat, hoc semper agitur, ut loculi
impleantur, etsi avaritia nequit satiari.
513. Camden in Norfolk: qui si nihil sit litium e juris apicibus lites
tamen serere callent.
514. Plutarch, vit. Cat. causas apud inferos quas in suam fidem receperunt,
patrocinio suo tuebuntur.
515. Lib. 2. de Helvet. repub. non explicandis, sed moliendis controversiis
operam dant, ita ut lites in multos annos extrabantur summa cum
molestia utrisque; partis et dum interea patrimonia exhauriantur.
516. Lupum auribus tenent.
517. Hor.
518. Lib. de Helvet. repub. Judices quocunque pago constituunt qui amica
aliqua transactione si fieri possit, lites tollant. Ego majorum
nostrorum simplicitatem admiror, qui sic causas gravissimas
composuerint, &c.
519. Clenard. l. 1. ep. Si quae controversiae utraque para judicem adit, is
semel et simul rem transigit, audit: nec quid sit appellatio,
lachrymosaeque morae noscunt.
520. Camden.
521. Lib. 10. epist. ad Atticum, epist. II.
522. Biblioth. l. 3.
523. Lib. de Anim.
524. Lib. major morb. corp. an animi. Hi non conveniunt ut diis more
majorum sacra faciant, non ut Jovi primitias offerant, aut Baccho
commessationes, sed anniversarius morbus exasperans Asiam huc eos
coegit, ut contentiones hic peragant.
525. I Cor. vi. 5, 6.
526. Stulti quando demum sapietis? Ps. xlix. 8.
527. So intituled, and preached by our Regius Professor, D. Prideaux;
printed at London by Felix Kingston, 1621.
528. Of which Text read two learned Sermons.
529. Saepius bona materia cessat sine artifice. Sabellicus de Germania. Si
quis videret Germaniam urbibus hodie excultam, non diceret ut olim
tristem cultu, asperam coelo, terram informem.
530. By his Majesty's Attorney General there.
531. As Zeipland, Bemster in Holland, &c.
532. From Gaunt to Sluce, from Bruges to the Sea, &c.
533. Ortelius, Boterus, Mercator, Meteranus, &c.
534. "The citadel par excellance."
535. Jam inde non belli gloria quam humanitatis cultu inter florentissimas
orbis Christiani gentes imprimis floruit. Camden Brit. de Normannis.
536. Georg. Kecker.
537. Tam hieme quam aestate intrepide sulcant Oceanum, et duo illorum duces
non minore audacia quam fortuna totius orbem terrae circumnavigarunt.
Amphitheatro Boterus.
538. A fertile soil, good air, &c. Tin, Lead, Wool, Saffron, &c.
539. Tota Britannia unica velut arx Boter.
540. Lib. 1. hist.
541. Increment, urb. l. 1. c. 9.
542. Angliae, excepto Londino, nulla est civitas memorabilia, licet ea
natio rerum omnium copia abundet.
543. Cosmog. Lib. 3. cop. 119. Villarum non est numerus, nullus locus
otiosus aut incultus.
544. Chytreus orat. edit. Francof. 1583.
545. Maginus Geog.
546. Ortelius e Vaseo et Pet. de Medina.
547. An hundred families in each.
548. Populi multitudo diligente cultura foecundat solum. Boter. l. 8. c. 3.
549. Orat. 35. Terra ubi oves stabulantur optima agricolis ob stercus.
550. De re rust. l. 2. cap. 1. The soil is not tired or exhausted, but has
become barren through our sloth.
551. Hodie urbibus desolatur, et magna ex parte incolis destituitur.
Gerbelius desc. Graeciae, lib. 6.
552. Videbit eas fere omnes aut eversas, aut solo aequatas, aut in rudera
foedissime dejectas Gerbelius.
553. Not even the hardest of our foes could hear,
Nor stern Ulysses tell without a tear.
554. Lib. 7. Septuaginta olim legiones scriptae dicuntur; quas vires hodie,
&c.
555. Polit. l. 3. c. 8.
556. For dyeing of cloths, and dressing, &c.
557. Valer. l. 2. c. 1.
558. Hist. Scot. Lib. 10. Magnis propositis praemiis, ut Scoti ab iis
edocerentur.
559. Munst. cosm. l. 5. c. 74. Agro omnium rerum infoecundissimo aqua
indigente inter saxeta, urbs tamen elegantissima, ob Orientis
negotiationes et Occidentis.
560. Lib. 8. Georgr: ob asperum situm.
561. Lib. Edit. a Nic. Tregant. Belg. A. 1616. expedit. in Sinas.
562. Ubi nobiles probi loco habent artem aliquam profiteri. Cleonard. ep.
l. 1.
563. Lib. 13. Belg. Hist. non tam laboriosi ut Belgae, sed ut Hispani
otiatores vitam ut plurimum otiosam agentes: artes manuariae quae
plurimum habent in se laboris et difficultatis, majoremque requirunt
industriam, a peregrinis et exteris exercentur; habitant in
piscosissimo mari, interea tantum non piscantur quantum insulae
suffecerit sed a vicinis emere coguntur.
564. Grotii Liber.
565. Urbs animis numeroque potens, et robore gentis. Scaliger.
566. Camden.
567. York, Bristow, Norwich, Worcester, &c.
568. M. Gainsford's Argument: Because gentlemen dwell with us in the
country villages, our cities are less, is nothing to the purpose: put
three hundred or four hundred villages in a shire, and every village
yield a gentleman, what is four hundred families to increase one of
our cities, or to contend with theirs, which stand thicker? And
whereas ours usually consist of seven thousand, theirs consist of
forty thousand inhabitants.
569. Maxima pars victus in carne consistit. Polyd. Lib. 1. Hist.
570. Refraenate monopolii licentiam, pauciores alantur otio, redintegretur
agricolatio, lanificium instauretur, ut sit honestum negotium quo se
exerceat otiosa illa turba. Nisi his malis medentur, frustra exercent
justitiam. Mor. Utop. Lib. 1.
571. Mancipiis locuples eget aeris Cappadocum rex. Hor.
572. Regis dignitatis non est exercere imperium in mendicos sed in
opulentos. Non est regni decus, sed carceris esse custos. Idem.
573. Colluvies hominum mirabiles excocti solo, immundi vestes foedi visu,
furti imprimis acres, &c.
574. Cosmog. lib. 3. cap. 5.
575. "Let no one in our city be a beggar."
576. Seneca. Haud minus turpia principi multa supplicia, quam medico multa
funera.
577. Ac pituitam et bilem a corpore (11. de leg.) omnes vult exterminari.
578. See Lipsius Admiranda.
579. De quo Suet. in Claudio, et Plinius, c. 36.
580. Ut egestati simul et ignaviae occurratur, opificia condiscantur,
tenues subleventur. Bodin. l. 6. c. 2. num. 6,7.
581. Amasis Aegypti rex legem promulgavit, ut omnes subditi quotannis
rationem redderent unde viverent.
582. Buscoldus discursu polit. cap. 2. "whereby they are supported, and do
not become vagrants by being less accustomed to labour."
583. Lib. 1. de increm. Urb. cap. 6.
584. Cap. 5. de increm. urb. Quas flumen, lacus, aut mare alluit.
585. Incredibilem commoditatem, vectura mercium tres fluvii navigabiles,
&c. Boterus de Gallia.
586. Herodotus.
587. Ind. Orient. cap. 2. Rotam in medio flumine constituunt, cui ex
pellibus animalium consutos uteres appendunt, hi dum rota movetur,
aquam per canales, &c.
588. Centum pedes lata fossa 30. alta.
589. Contrary to that of Archimedes, who holds the superficies of all
waters even.
590. Lib. 1. cap. 3.
591. Dion. Pausanias, et Nic. Gerbelius. Munster. Cosm. Lib. 4. cap. 36. Ut
brevior foret navigatio et minus periculosa.
592. Charles the great went about to make a channel from the Rhine to the
Danube. Bil. Pirkimerus descript. Ger. the ruins are yet seen about
Wessenburg from Rednich to Altimul. Ut navigabilia inter se Occidentis
et Septentrionis littora fierent.
593. Maginus Georgr. Simlerus de rep. Helvet. lib. 1. describit.
594. Camden in Lincolnshire, Fossedike.
595. Near St. Albans, "which must not now be whispered in the ear."
596. Lilius Girald. Nat. comes.
597. Apuleius, lib. 4. Flor. Lar. familiaris inter homines aetatis suae
cultus est, litium omnium et jurgiorum inter propinquos arbitrer et
disceptator. Adversus iracundiam, invidiam, avaritiam, libidinem,
ceteraque animi humani vitia et monstra philosophus iste Hercules
fuit. Pestes eas mentibus exegit omnes, &c.
598. Votia navig.
599. Raggnalios, part 2, cap. 2, et part 3, c. 17.
600. Velent. Andreae Apolog. manip. 604.
601. Qui sordidus est, sordescat adhuc.
602. Hor.
603. Ferdinando Quir. 1612.
604. Vide Acosta et Laiet.
605. Vide patritium, lib. 8. tit. 10. de Instit. Reipub.
606. Sic Olim Hippodamus Milesius Aris. polit. cap. 11. et Vitruvius l. 1.
c. ult.
607. With walls of earth, &c.
608. De his Plin. epist. 42. lib. 2. et Tacit. Annal. 13. lib.
609. Vide Brisonium de regno Perse lib. 3. de his et Vegetium, lib. 2. cap.
3. de Annona.
610. Not to make gold, but for matters of physic.
611. Bresonius Josephus, lib. 21. antiquit. Jud. cap. 6. Herod. lib. 3.
612. So Lod. Vives thinks best, Comineus, and others.
613. Plato 3. de leg. Aediles creari vult, qui fora, fontes, vias, portus,
plateas, et id genus alia procurent. Vide Isaacum Pontanum de civ.
Amstel. haec omnia, &c. Gotardum et alios.
614. De Increm. urb. cap. 13. Ingenue fateor me non intelligere cur
ignobilius sit urbes bene munitas colere nunc quam olim, aut casae
rusticae praesse quam urbi. Idem Urbertus Foliot, de Neapoli.
615. Ne tantillum quidem soli incultum relinquitur, ut verum sit ne
pollicem quidem agri in his regionibus sterilem aut infoecundum
reperiri. Marcus Hemingias Augustanus de regno Chinae, l. 1. c. 3.
616. M. Carew, in his survey of Cornwall, saith that before that country
was enclosed, the husbandmen drank water, did eat little or no bread,
fol. 66, lib. 1. their apparel was coarse, they went bare legged,
their dwelling was correspondent; but since enclosure, they live
decently, and have money to spend (fol. 23); when their fields were
common, their wool was coarse, Cornish hair; but since enclosure, it
is almost as good as Cotswol, and their soil much mended. Tusser. cap.
52 of his husbandry, is of his opinion, one acre enclosed, is worth
three common. The country enclosed I praise; the other delighteth not
me, for nothing of wealth it doth raise, &c.
617. Incredibilis navigiorum copia, nihilo pauciores in aquis, quam in
continenti commorantur. M. Ricceus expedit. in Sinas, l. 1. c. 3.
618. To this purpose, Arist. polit. 2. c. 6. allows a third part of their
revenues, Hippodamus half.
619. Ita lex Agraria olim Romae.
620. Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae, Arborei faetus alibi, atque
injussa virescunt Graminia. Virg. 1. Georg.
621. Lucanus, l. 6.
622. Virg.
623. Joh. Valent. Andreas, Lord Verulam.
624. So is it in the kingdom of Naples and France.
625. See Contarenus and Osorius de rebus gestis Emanuelis.
626. Claudian l. 7. "Liberty never is more gratifying than under a pious
king."
627. Herodotus Erato lib. 6. Cum Aegyptiis Lacedemonii in hoc congruunt,
quod eorum praecones, tibicines, coqui, et reliqui artifices, in
paterno artificio succedunt, et coquus a coquo gignitur, et paterno
opere perseverat. Idem Marcus polus de Quinzay. Idem Osorius de
Emanuele rege Lusitano. Riccius de Sinia.
628. Hippol. a collibus de increm. urb. c. 20. Plato idem 7. de legibus,
quae ad vitam necessaria, et quibus carere non possumus, nullum
dependi vectigal, &c.
629. Plato 12. de legibus, 40. annos natos vult, ut si quid memorabile
viderent apud exteros, hoc ipsum in rempub. recipiatur.
630. Simlerus in Helvetia.
631. Utopienses causidicos excludant, qui causas callide et vafre tractent
et disputent. Iniquissimum censens hominem ullis obligari legibus,
quae aut numerosioret sunt, quam ut perlegi queant, aut obscuriores
quam ut a quovis possint intelligi. Volunt ut suam quisque causam
agat, eamque referat Judici quam narraturus fuerat patrono, sic minus
erit ambagum, et veritas facilius elicietur. Mor. Utop. l. 2.
632. Medici ex publico victum sumunt. Boter. l. 1. c. 5. de Aegyptiis.
633. De his lege Patrit. l. 3. tit. 8. de reip. Instit.
634. Nihil a clientibus patroni accipiant, priusquam lis finita est. Barel.
Argen. lib. 3.
635. It is so in most free cities in Germany.
636. Mat. Riccius exped. in Sinas, l. 1. c. 5. de examinatione electionum
copiose agit, &c.
637. Contar. de repub. Venet. l. 1.
638. Osor. l. 11. de reb. gest. Eman. Qui in literis maximos progressus
fecerint maximis honoribus afficiuntur, secundus honoris gradus
militibus assignatur, postremi ordinis mechanicis, doctorum hominum
judiciis in altiorem locum quisque praesertur, et qui a plurimis
approbatur, ampliores in rep. dignitates consequitur. Qui in hoc
examine primas habet, insigni per totam vitam dignitate insignitur,
marchioni similis, aut duci apud nos.
639. Cedant arma togae.
640. As in Berne, Lucerne, Friburge in Switzerland, a vicious liver is
uncapable of any office; if a Senator, instantly deposed. Simlerus.
641. Not above three years, Arist. polit. 5. c. 8.
642. Nam quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
643. Cytreus in Greisgeia. Qui non ex sublimi despiciant inferiores, nec ut
bestias conculcent sibi subditos auctoritatis nomini, confisi, &c.
644. Sesellius de rep. Gallorum, lib. 1 & 2.
645. "For who would cultivate virtue itself, if you were to take away the
reward?"
646. Si quis egregium aut bello aut pace perfecerit. Sesel. l. 1.
647. Ad regendam rempub. soli literati admittuntur, nec ad eam rem gratia
magistratuum aut regis indigent, omnia explorata cujusque scientia et
virtute pendent. Riccius lib. 1. cap. 5.
648. In defuncti locum eum jussit subrogari, qui inter majores virtute
reliquis praeiret; non fuit apud mortales ullum excellentius certamen,
aut cujus victoria magis esset expetenda, non enim inter celeres,
celerrimo, non inter robustos robustissimo, &c.
649. Nullum videres vel in hac vel in vicinis regionibus pauperem, nullum
obaeratum, &c.
650. Nullus mendicus apud Sinas, nemini sano quamvis oculis turbatus sit
mendicare permittitur, omnes pro viribus laborare, coguntur, caeci
molis trusatilibus versandis addicuntur, soli hospitiis gaudent, qui
ad labores sunt inepti. Osor. l. 11. de reb. gest. Eman. Heming. de
reg. Chin. l. 1. c. 3. Gotard. Arth. Orient. Ind. descr.
651. Alex. ab Alex. 3. c. 12.
652. Sic olim Romae Isaac. Pontan. de his optime. Aristot. l. 2. c. 9.
653. Idem Aristot. pol. 5. c. 8. Vitiosum quum soli pauperum liberi
educantur ad labores, nobilium et divitum in voluptatibus et deliciis.
654. Quae haec injustitia ut nobilis quispiam, aut faenerator qui nihil
agat, lautam et splendidam vitam agat, otio et deliciis, quum interim
auriga, faber, agricola, quo respub. carere non potest, vitam adeo
miseram ducat, ut pejor quam jumentorum sit ejus conditio? Iniqua
resp. quae dat parasitis, adulatoribus, inanium voluptatum artificibus
generosis et otiosis tanta munera prodigit, at contra agricolis,
carbonariis, aurigis, fabris, &c. nihil prospicit, sed eorum abusa
labore florentia aetatis fame penset et aerumnis, Mor. Utop. l. 2.
655. In Segovia nemo otiosus, nemo mendicus nisi per aetatem aut morbum
opus facere non potest: nulli deest unde victum quaerat, aut quo se
exerceat. Cypr. Echovius Delit. Hispan. Nullus Genevae otiosus, ne
septennis puer. Paulus Heuzner Itiner.
656. Athenaeus, l. 12.
657. Simlerus de repub. Helvet.
658. Spartian. olim Romae sic.
659. He that provides not for his family, is worse than a thief. Paul.
660. Alfredi lex. utraque manus et lingua praecidatur, nisi eam capite
redemerit.
661. Si quis nuptam stuprarit, virga virilis ei praeciditur; si mulier,
nasus et auricula praecidatur. Alfredi lex. En leges ipsi Veneri
Martique timendas.
662. 54 Pauperes non peccant, quum extrema necessitate coacti rem alienam
capiunt. Maldonat. summula quaest. 8. art. 3. Ego cum illis sentio qui
licere putant a divite clam accipere, qui tenetur pauperi subvenire.
Emmanuel Sa. Aphor. confess.
663. 55 Lib. 2. de Reg. Persarum.
664. Lib. 24.
665. Aliter Aristoteles, a man at 25, a woman at 20. polit.
666. Lex olim Licurgi, hodie Chinensium; vide Plutarchum, Riccium,
Hemmingium, Arniseum, Nevisanum, et alios de hac quaestione.
667. Alfredus.
668. Apud Lacones olim virgines fine dote nubebant. Boter. l. 3. c. 3.
669. 61 Lege cautum non ita pridem apud Venetos, ne quis Patritius dotem
excederet 1500 coron.
670. 62 Bux. Synag. Jud. Sic. Judaei. Leo Afer Africae descript. ne sint
aliter incontinentes ob reipub. bonum. Ut August. Caesar. orat. ad
caelibes Romanos olim edocuit.
671. Morbo laborans, qui in prolem facile diffunditur, ne genus humanum
foeda contagione laedatur, juventute castratur, mulieres tales procul
a consortio virorum ablegantur, &c. Hector Boethius hist. lib. 1. de
vet. Scotorum moribus.
672. Speciosissimi juvenes liberis dabunt operam. Plato 5. de legibus.
673. The Saxons exclude dumb, blind, leprous, and such like persons from
all inheritance, as we do fools.
674. Ut olim Romani, Hispani hodie, &c.
675. Riccius lib. 11. cap. 5. de Sinarum. expedit. sic Hispani cogunt
Mauros arma deponere. So it is in most Italian cities.
676. Idem Plato 12. de legibus, it hath ever been immoderate, vide Guil.
Stuckium antiq. convival. lib. 1. cap. 26.
677. Plato 9. de legibus.
678. As those Lombards beyond Seas, though with some reformation, mons
pietatis, or bank of charity, as Malines terms it, cap. 33. Lex
mercat. part 2. that lend money upon easy pawns, or take money upon
adventure for men's lives.
679. That proportion will make merchandise increase, land dearer, and
better improved, as he hath judicially proved in his tract of usury,
exhibited to the Parliament anno 1621.
680. Hoc fere Zanchius com. in 4 cap. ad Ephes. aequissimam vocat usuram,
et charitati Christianae consentaneam, modo non exigant, &c. nec omnes
dent ad foenus, sed ii qui in pecuniis bona habent, et ob aetatem,
sexum, artis alicujus ignorantiam, non possunt uti. Nec omnibus, sed
mercatoribus et iis qui honeste impendent, &c.
681. Idem apud Persas olim, lege Brisonium.
682. "We hate the hawk, because he always lives in battle."
683. Idem Plato de legibus.
684. 30. Optimum quidem fuerat eam patribus nostris mentem a diis datam
esse, ut vos Italiae, nos Africae imperio contenti essemus. Neque enim
Sicilia aut Sardinia satis digna precio sunt pro tot classibus, &c.
685. Claudian.
686. Thucydides.
687. A depopulatione, agrorum incendiis, et ejusmodi factis immanibus.
Plato.
688. Hungar. dec. 1. lib. 9.
689. Sesellius, lib. 2. de repub. Gal. valde enim est indecorum, ubi quod
praeter opinionem accidit dicere, Non putaram, presertim si res
praecaveri potuerit. Livius, lib. 1. Dion. lib. 2. Diodorus Siculus,
lib. 2.
690. Peragit tranquilla potestas. Quod violenta nequit.--Claudian.
691. Bellum nec timendum nec provocandum. Plin. Panegyr. Trajano.
692. Lib. 3. poet. cap. 19.
693. Lib. 4. de repub. cap. 2.
694. Peucer. lib. 1. de divinat.
695. Camden in Cheshire.
696. Iliad. 6. lib.
697. Vide Puteani Comun, Goclenium de portentosis coenis nostrorum
temporum.
698. Mirabile dictu est, quantum opsoniorum una domus singulis diebus
absumat, sternuntur mensae in omnes pene horas calentibus semper
eduliis. Descrip. Britan.
699. Lib. 1. de rep. Gallorum; quod tot lites et causae forenses, aliae
ferantur ex aliis, in immensum producantur, et magnos sumptus
requirant unde fit ut juris administri plerumque nobilium possessiones
adquirant, tum quod sumptuose vivant, et a mercatoribus absorbentur et
splendissime vestiantur, &c.
700. Ter.
701. Amphit. Plant.
702. Paling. Filius ut fur.
703. Catus cum mure, duo galli simul in aede, Et glotes binae nunquam
vivunt sine lite.
704. Res angusta domi.
705. When pride and beggary meet in a family, they roar and howl, and cause
as many flashes of discontents, as fire and water, when they concur,
make thunder-claps in the skies.
706. Plautus Aulular.
707. Lib. 7. cap. 6.
708. Pellitur in bellis sapientia, vigeritur res. Vetus proverbium, aut
regem aut fatuum nasci oportere.
709. Lib. 1. hist. Rom. similes a. bacculorum calculis, secundum
computantis arbitrium, modo aerei sunt, modo aurei; ad nutum regis
nunc beati sunt nunc miseri.
710. Aerumnosique Solones in Sa. 3. De miser. curialium.
711. F. Dousae Epid. lib. 1. c. 13.
712. Hoc cognomento cohonestati Romae, qui caeteros mortales sapientia
praestarent, testis Plin. lib. 7. cap. 34.
713. Insanire parant certa ratione modoque, mad by the book they, & c.
714. Juvenal. "O Physicians! open the middle vein."
715. Solomon.
716. Communis irrisor stultitiae.
717. Wit whither wilt?
718. Scaliger exercitat. 324.
719. Vit. ejus.
720. Ennius.
721. Lucian. Ter mille drachmis olim empta; studens inde sapientiam
adipiscetur.
722. Epist. 21. 1. lib. Non oportet orationem sapientis esse politam aut
solicitam.
723. Lib. 3. cap. 13. multo anhelitu jactatione furentes pectus, frontem
caedentes, &c.
724. Lipsius, voces sunt, praeterea nihil.
725. Lib. 30. plus mail facere videtur qui oratione quam qui praetio
quemvis corrumpit: nam, &c.
726. In Gorg. Platonis.
727. In naugerio.
728. Si furor sit Lyaeus, &c. quoties furit, furit, furit, amans, bibens,
et Poeta, &c.
729. "They are borne in the bark of folly, and dwell in the grove of
madness."
730. Morus Utop. lib. 11.
731. Macrob. Satur. 7. 16.
732. Epist. 16.
733. Lib. de causis corrup. artium.
734. Lib. 2. in Ausonium, cap. 19 et 32.
735. Edit. 7. volum. Jano Gutero.
736. Aristophanis Ranis.
737. Lib. de beneficiis.
738. Delirus et amens dicatur merit. Hor. Seneca.
739. Ovid. Met. "Majesty and Love do not agree well, nor dwell together."
740. Plutarch. Amatorio est amor insanus.
741. Epist. 39.
742. Sylvae nuptialis, l. 1. num. 11. Omnes mulieres ut plurimum stultae.
743. Aristotle.
744. Dolere se dixit quod tum vita egrederetur.
745. Lib. 1. num. 11. sapientia et divitiae vix simul possideri possunt.
746. They get their wisdom by eating piecrust some.
747. [Greek: chraemata tois thnaetois gineto aphrosunae.] Opes quidem
mortalibus sunt amentia. Theognis.
748. Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit.
749. Joh. 28.
750. Mag. moral. lib. 2 et lib. 1. sat. 4.
751. Hor. lib. 1. sat. 4.
752. Insana gula, insanae obstructiones, insanum venandi studium discordia
demens. Virg. Aen.
753. Heliodorus Carthaginensis ad extremum orbis sarcophago testamento me
hic jussi condier, et ut viderem an quis insanior ad me visendum usque
ad haec loca penetraret. Ortelius in Gad.
754. If it be his work, which Gasper Veretus suspects.
755. Livy, Ingentes virtutes ingentia vitia.
756. Hor. Quisquis ambitione mala aut argenti pallet amore, Quisquis
luxuria, tristique superstitione. Per.
757. Cronica Slavonica ad annum 1257. de cujus pecunia jam incredibilia
dixerunt.
758. A fool and his money are soon parted.
759. Orat. de imag. ambitiosus et audax naviget Anticyras.
760. Navis stulta, quae continuo movetur nautae stulti qui se periculis
exponunt, aqua insana quae sic fremit, &c. aer jactatur, &c. qui mari
se committit stolidum unum terra fugiens, 40. mari invenit. Gaspar
Ens. Moros.
761. Cap. de alien. mentis.
762. Dipnosophist. lib. 8.
763. Tibicines mente Capti. Erasm. Chi. 14. cer. 7.
764. Prov. 30. Insana libido, Hic rogo non furor est, non est haec mentula
demens. Mart. ep. 74. l. 3.
765. Mille puellarum et puerorum mille jurores.
766. Uter est insanior horum. Hor. Ovid. Virg. Plin.
767. Plin. lib. 36.
768. Tacitus 3. Annal.
769. Ovid. 7. met. E. fungis nati homines ut olim Corinthi primaevi illius
loci accolae, quia stolidi et fatui fungis nati dicebantur, idem et
alibi dicas.
770. Famian. Strade de bajulis, de marmore semisculpti.
771. Arianus periplo maris Euxini portus ejus meminit, et Gillius, l. 3. de
Bospher. Thracio et laurus insana quae allata in convivium convivas
omnes insania affecit. Guliel. Stucchius comment, &c.
772. Lepidum poema sic inscriptum.
773. "No one is wise at all hours,--no one born without faults,--no one
free from crime,--no one content with his lot,--no one in love
wise,--no good, or wise man perfectly happy."
774. Stultitiam simulare non potes nisi taciturnitate.
775. Extortus non cruciatur, ambustus non laeditur, prostratus in lucta,
non vincitur; non fit captivus ab hoste venundatus. Et si rugosus,
senex edentulus, luscus, deformis, formosus tamen, et deo similis,
felix, dives, rex nullius egens, et si denario non sit dignus.
776. Illum contendunt non injuria affici, non insania, non inebriari, quia
virtus non eripitur ob constantes comprehensiones. Lips. phys. Stoic,
lib. 3. diffi. 18.
777. Tarreus Hebus epig. 102. l. 8.
778. Hor.
779. Fratres sanct. Roseae crucis.
780. An sint, quales sint, unde nomen illud asciverint.
781. Turri Babel.
782. Omnium artium et scientiarum instaurator.
783. Divinus ille vir auctor notarum. in epist. Rog. Bacon. ed. Hambur.
1608.
784. Sapientiae desponsati.
785. "From the Rising Sun to the Maeotid Lake, there was not one that could
fairly be put in comparison with them."
786. Solus hic est sapiens alii volitant velut umbrae.
787. In ep. ad Balthas. Moretum.
788. Rejectiunculae ad Patavum. Felinus cum reliquis.
789. Magnum virum sequi est sapere, some think; others desipere. Catul.
790. Plant. Menec.
791. In Sat. 14.
792. Or to send for a cook to the Anticyrae to make Hellebore pottage,
settle-brain pottage.
793. Aliquantulum tamen inde me solabor, quod una cum multis et sapientibus
et celeberrimis viris ipse insipiens sim, quod se Menippus Luciani in
Necyomantia.
794. Petronius in Catalect.
795. That I mean of Andr. Vale. Apolog. Manip. l. 1 et 26. Apol.
796. Haec affectio nostris temporibus frequentissima.
797. Cap. 15. de Mel.
798. De anima. Nostro hoc saeculo morbus frequentissimus.
799. Consult. 98. adeo nostris temporibus frequenter ingruit ut nullus fere
ab ejus labe immunis reperiatur et omnium fere morborum occasio
existat.
800. Mor. Encom si quis calumnietur levius esse quam decet Theologum, aut
mordacius quam deceat Christianum.
801. Hor. Sat. 4. l. 1.
802. Epi. ad Dorpium de Moria. si quispiam offendatur et sibi vindicet, non
habet quod expostulet cum eo scripsit, ipse si volet, secum agat
injuriam, utpote sui proditor, qui declaravit hoc ad se proprie
pertinere.
803. Si quis se laesum clamabit, aut conscientiam prodit suam, aut certe
metum, Phaedr. lib. 3. Aesop. Fab.
804. If any one shall err through his own suspicion, and shall apply to
himself what is common to all, he will foolishly betray a
consciousness of guilt.
805. Hor.
806. Mart. l. 7. 22.
807. Ut lubet feriat, abstergant hos ictus Democriti pharmacos.
808. Rusticorum dea preesse vacantibus et otiosis putabatur, cui post
labores agricola sacrificabat. Plin. l. 3. c. 12. Ovid. l. 6. Fast.
Jam quoque cum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacunae, ante Vacunales stantque
sedentque focos. Rosinus.
809. Ter. prol. Eunuch.
810. Ariost. l. 39. Staf. 58.
811. Ut enim ex studiis gaudium sic studia ex hilaritate proveniunt.
Plinius Maximo suo, ep. lib. 8.
812. Annal. 15.
813. Sir Francis Bacon in his Essays, now Viscount St. Albans.
814. Quod Probus Persii [Greek: biographos] virginali verecundia Persium
fuisse dicit, ego, &c.
815. Quas aut incuria fudit, aut humana parum cavit natura. Hor.
816. Prol. quer. Plaut. "Let not any one take these things to himself, they
are all but fictions."
817. Si me commorit, melius non tangere clamo. Hor.
818. Hippoc. epist. Damageto, accercitus sum ut Democritum tanquam insanum
curarem, sed postquam conveni, non per Jovem desipientiae negotium,
sed rerum omnium receptaculum deprehendi, ejusque ingenium demiratus
sum. Abderitanos vero tanquam non sanos accusavi, veratri potione
ipsos potius eguisse dicens.
819. Mart.
820. Magnum miraculum.
821. Mundi epitome, naturae deliciae.
822. Finis rerum omnium, cui sublunaria serviunt. Scalig. exercit. 365.
sec. 3. Vales. de sacr. Phil. c. 5.
823. Ut in numismate Caesaris imago, sic in homine Dei.
824. Gen. 1.
825. Imago mundi in corpore, Dei in anima. Exemplumque dei quisque est in
imagine parva.
826. Eph. iv. 24.
827. Palan terius.
828. Psal. xlix. 20.
829. Lascivia superat equum, impudentia canem, astu vulpem, furore leonem.
Chrys. 23. Gen.
830. Gen. iii. 13.
831. Ecclus. iv. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8.
832. Gen. iii. 17.
833. Illa cadens tegmen manibus decussit, et una perniciem immisit miseris
mortalibus atram. Hesiod. 1. oper.
834. Hom. 5. ad pop. Antioch.
835. Psal. cvii. 17.
836. Pro. i. 27.
837. Quod autem crebrius bella concutiant, quod sterilitas et fames
solicitudinem cumulent, quod saevientibus morbis valitudo frangitur,
quod humanum genus luis populatione vastatur; ob peccatum omnia. Cypr.
838. Si raro desuper pluvia descendat, si terra situ pulveris squalleat, si
vix jejunas et pallidas heibas sterilis gleba producat, si turbo
vineam debilitet, &c. Cypr.
839. Mat. xiv. 3.
840. Philostratus, lib. 8. vit. Apollonii. Injustitiam ejus, et sceleratas
nuptias, et caeteta quae praeter rationem fecerat, morborum causas
dixit.
841. 16.
842. 18.
843. 20.
844. Verse 17.
845. 28. Deos quos diligit, castigat.
846. Isa. v. 13. Verse 15.
847. Nostrae salutis avidus continenter aures vellicat, ac calamitate
subinde nos exercet. Levinus Lemn. l. 2. c. 29. de occult, nat. mir.
848. Vexatio dat Intellectum. Isa. xiviii. 19.
849. In sickness the mind recollects itself.
850. Lib. 7. Cum judicio, mores et facta recognoscit et se intuetur. Dum
fero languorem, fero religionis amorem. Expers languoris non sum memor
hujus amoris.
851. Summum esse totius philosophiae, ut tales esse perseveremus, quales
nos futures esse infirmi profitemur.
852. Petrarch.
853. Prov. iii. 12.
854. Hor. Epis. lib. 1. 4.
855. Deut. viii. 11. Qui stat videat ne cadat.
856. Quanto majoribus beneficiis a Deo cumulatur, tanto obligatiorem se
debitorem fateri.
857. Boterus de Inst. urbium.
858. Lege hist, relationem Lod. Frois de rebus Japonicis ad annum 1596.
859. Guicciard. descript. Belg. anno 1421.
860. Giraldus Cambrens.
861. Janus Dousa, ep. lib. 1. car. 10. And we perceive nothing, except the
dead bodies of cities in the open sea.
862. Munster l. 3. Cos. cap. 462.
863. Buchanan. Baptist.
864. Homo homini lupus, homo homini daemon.
865. Ovid. de Trist. l. 5. Eleg.
866. Miscent aconita novercae.
867. Lib. 2 Epist. 2. ad Donatum.
868. Eze. xviii. 2.
869. Hor. l. 3. Od. 6.
870. 2 Tim. iii. 2.
871. Eze. xviii. 31. Thy destruction is from thyself.
872. 21 Macc. iii. 12.
873. Part. 1. Sec. 2. Memb. 2.
874. Nequitia est quae te non sinet esse senem.
875. Homer. Iliad.
876. Intemperantia, luxus, ingluvies, et infinita hujusmodi flagitia, quae
divinas poenas merentur. Crato.
877. Fern. Path. l. 1. c. 1. Morbus est affectus contra, naturam corpori
insides.
878. Fusch. Instit. l. 3. sect. 1. c. 3. a quo primum vitiatur actio.
879. Dissolutio foederis in corpore, ut sanitas est consummatio.
880. Lib. 4. cap. 2. Morbus est habitus contra naturam, qui usum ejus, &c.
881. Cap. 11. lib. 7.
882. Horat. lib. 1. ode 3. "Emaciation, and a new cohort of fevers broods
over the earth."
883. Cap. 50. lib. 7. Centum et quinque vixit annos sine ullo incommodo.
884. Intus mulso, foras oleo.
885. Exemplis genitur. praefixis Ephemer. cap. de infirmitat.
886. Qui, quoad pueritae ultimam memoriam recordari potest non meminit se
aegrotum decubuisse.
887. Lib. de vita longa.
888. Oper. et. dies.
889. See Fernelius Path. lib. 1. cap. 9, 10, 11, 12. Fuschius Instit. l. 3.
sect. 1. c. 7. Wecker. Synt.
890. Praefat. de morbis capitis. In capite ut variae habitant partes, ita
variae querelae ibi eveniunt.
891. Of which read Heurnius, Montaltus, Hildesheim, Quercetan, Jason
Pratensis, &c.
892. Cap. 2. de melanchol.
893. Cap. 2. de Phisiologia sagarum: Quod alii minus recte fortasse
dixerint, nos examinare, melius dijudicare, corrigere studeamus.
894. Cap. 4. de mol.
895. Art. Med. 7.
896. Plerique medici uno complexu perstringunt hos duos morbos, quod ex
eadem causa oriantur, quodque magnitudine et modo solum distent, et
alter gradus ad alterum existat. Jason Pratens.
897. Lib. Med.
898. Pars maniae mihi videtur.
899. Insanus est, qui aetate debita, et tempore debito per se, non
momentaneam et fugacem, ut vini, solani, Hyoscyami, sed confirmatam
habet impotentiam bene operandi circa intellectum. lib. 2. de
intellectione.
900. Of which read Felix Plater, cap. 3. de mentis alienatione.
901. Lib. 6. cap. 11.
902. Lib. 3. cap. 16.
903. Cap. 9. Art. med.
904. De praestig. Daemonum, l. 3. cap. 21.
905. Observat. lib. 10. de morbis cerebri, cap. 15.
906. Hippocrates lib. de insania.
907. Lib. 8. cap. 22. Homines interdum lupos feri; et contra.
908. Met. lib. 1.
909. Cap. de Man.
910. Ulcerata crura, sitis ipsis adest immodica, pallidi, lingua sicca.
911. Cap. 9. art. Hydrophobia.
912. Lib. 3. cap. 9
913. Lib. 7. de Venenis.
914. Lib. 3. cap. 13. de morbis acutis.
915. Spicel. 2.
916. Sckenkius, 7 lib. de Venenis.
917. Lib. de Hydrophobia.
918. Observat. lib. 10. 25.
919. Lascivam Choream. To. 4. de morbis amentium. Tract. 1.
920. Eventu ut plurimum rem ipsam comprobante.
921. Lib. 1. cap. de Mania.
922. Cap. 3. de mentis alienat.
923. Cap. 4. de mel.
924. PART. 3.
925. De quo homine securitas, de quo certum gaudium? quocunque se
convertit, in terrenis rebus amaritudinem animi inveniet. Aug. in
Psal. viii. 5.
926. Job. i. 14.
927. Omni tempore Socratem eodem vultu videri, sive domum rediret, sive
domo egrederetur.
928. Lib. 7. cap. 1. Natus in florentissima totius orbis civitate,
nobilissimis parentibus, corpores vires habuit et rarissimas animi
dotes, uxorem conapicuam, pudicam, felices liberos, consulare decus,
sequentes triumphos, &c.
929. Aelian.
930. Homer. Iliad.
931. Lipsius, cent. 3. ep. 45, ut coelum, sic nos homines sumus: illud ex
intervallo nubibus obducitur et obscuratur. In rosario flores spinis
intermixti. Vita similis aeri, udum modo, sudum, tempestas, serenitas:
ita vices rerum sunt, praemia gaudiis, et sequaces curae.
932. Lucretius, l. 4. 1124.
933. Prov. xiv. 13. Extremum gaudii luctas occupat.
934. Natalitia inquit celebrantur, nuptiae hic sunt; at ibi quid celebratur
quod non dolet, quod non transit?
935. Apuleius 4. florid. Nihil quicquid homini tam prosperum divinitus
datum, quin ei admixtum sit aliquid difficultatis ut etiam amplissima
quaqua laetitia, subsit quaepiam vel parva querimonia conjugatione
quadam mellis, et fellis.
936. Caduca nimirum et fragilia, et puerilibus consentanea crepundiis sunt
ista quae vires et opes humanae vocantur, affluunt subito, repente
delabuntur, nullo in loco, nulla in persona, stabilibus nixa radicibus
consistunt, sed incertissimo flatu fortunae quos in sublime extulerunt
improviso recursu destitutos in profundo miseriarum valle
miserabiliter immergunt. Valerius, lib. 6. cap. 11.
937. Huic seculo parum aptus es, aut potius omnium nostrorum conditionem
ignoras, quibus reciproco quodam nexu, &c. Lorchanus Gollobelgicus,
lib. 3. ad annum 1598.
938. Horsum omnia studia dirigi debent, ut hurnana fortiter feramus.
939. 2 Tim. ii. 3.
940. Epist. 96. lib. 10. Affectus frequentes contemptique morbum faciunt.
Distillatio una nec adhuc in morem adaucta, tussim facit, assidua et
violenta pthisim.
941. Calidum ad octo: frigidum ad octo. Una hirundo non facit aestatem.
942. Lib. 1. c. 6.
943. Fuschius, l. 3. sec. 1. cap. 7. Hildesheim, fol. 130.
944. Psal. xxxix. 13.
945. De Anima. Turpe enim est homini ignorare sui corporis (ut ita dicam)
aedificium, praesertim cum ad valetudinem et mores haec cognitio
plurimum conducat.
946. De usu part.
947. History of man.
948. D. Crooke.
949. In Syntaxi.
950. De Anima.
951. Istit. lib. 1.
952. Physiol. l. 1, 2.
953. Anat. l. 1. c. 18.
954. In Micro. succos, sine quibus animal sustentari non potest.
955. Morbosos humores.
956. Spiritalis anima.
957. Laurentius, cap. 20, lib. 1. Anat.
958. In these they observe the beating of the pulse.
959. Cujus est pars simularis a vi cutifica ut interiora muniat. Capivac.
Anat. pag. 252.
960. Anat. lib. 1. c. 19. Celebris est pervulgata partium divisio principes
et ignobiles partes.
961. D. Crooke out of Galen and others.
962. Vos vero veluti in templum ac sacrarium quoddam vos duci putetis, &c.
Suavis et utilis cognitio.
963. Lib. 1. cap. 12. sect. 5.
964. Haec res est praecipue digna admiratione, quod tanta affectuum
varietate cietur cor, quod omnes retristes et laetae statim corda
feriunt et movent.
965. Physio. l. 1. c. 8.
966. Ut orator regi: sic pulmo vocis instrumentum annectitur cordi, &c.
Melancth.
967. De anim. c. 1.
968. Scalig. exerc. 307. Tolet. in lib. de anima. cap. 1. &c.
969. l. De anima. cap. 1.
970. Tuscul. quaest.
971. Lib. 6. Doct. Va. Gentil. c. 13. pag. 1216.
972. Aristot.
973. Anima quaeque intelligimus, et tamen quae sit ipsa intelligere non
valemus.
974. Spiritualem animam a reliquis distinctam tuetur, etiam in cadavere
inhaerentem post mortem per aliquot menses.
975. Lib. 3. cap. 31.
976. Coelius, lib. 2. c. 31. Plutarch, in Grillo Lips. Cen. 1. ep. 50.
Jossius de Risu et Fletu, Averroes, Campanella, &c.
977. Phillip. de Anima. ca. 1. Coelius, 20. antiq. cap. 3. Plutarch. de
placit. philos.
978. De vit. et mort. part. 2. c. 3, prop. l. de vit. et mort. 2. c. 22.
979. Nutritio est alimenti transmutatio, viro naturalis. Scal. exerc. 101,
sec. 17.
980. See more of Attraction in Scal. exer. 343.
981. Vita consistit in calido et humido.
982. "Too bright an object destroys the organ."
983. Lumen est actus perspicui. Lumen a luce provenit, lux est in corpore
lucido.
984. In Phaedon. (Notes 984-997 appear in the order 986, 984, 987, 985 in
the original--KTH.)
985. De pract. Philos. 4.
986. Satur. 7. c. 14.
987. Lac. cap. 8. de opif. Dei, I.
988. Lib. 19. cap. 2.
989. Phis. l. 5. c. 8.
990. Exercit. 280.
991. T. W. Jesuite, in his Passions of the Minde.
992. Velcurio.
993. Nervi a spiritu moventur, spritus ab anima. Melanct.
994. Velcurio. Jucundum et anceps subjectum.
995. Goclenius in [Greek: Psycol.] pag. 302. Bright in Phys. Scrib. l. 1.
David Crusius, Melancthon, Hippius Hernius, Levinus Lemnius, &c.
996. Lib. an mores sequantur, &c.
997. Caesar. 6. com.
998. Read Aeneas Gazeus dial. of the immortality of the Soul.
999. Ovid. Met. 15. "We, who may take up our abode in wild beasts, or be
lodged in the breasts of cattle."
1000. In Gallo. Idem.
1001. Nicephorus, hist. lib. 10. c. 35.
1002. Phaedo.
1003. Claudian, lib. 1. de rap. Proserp.
1004. "Besides, we observe that the mind is born with the body, grows with
it, and decays with it."
1005. Haec quaestio multos per annos varie, ac mirabiliter impugnata, &c.
1006. Colerus, ibid.
1007. De eccles. dog. cap. 16.
1008. Ovid. 4. Met. "The bloodless shades without either body or bones
wanter."
1009. Bonorum lares, malorum vero larvas et lemures.
1010. Some say at three days, some six weeks, others otherwise.
1011. Melancthon.
1012. Nihil in intellectu, quod non prius fuerat in sensu. Velcurio.
1013. The pure part of the conscience.
1014. Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris.
1015. Res ab intellectu monstratas recipit, vel rejicit; approbat, vel
improbat, Philip. Ignoti nulla cupido.
1016. Melancthon. Operationes plerumque ferae, etsi libera sit illa in
essentia sua.
1017. In civilibus libera, sed non in spiritualibus Osiander.
1018. Tota voluntas aversa a Deo. Omnis homo mendax.
1019. Virg. "We are neither able to contend against them, nor only to make
way."
1020. Vel propter ignorantium, quod bonis studiis non sit instructa mens ut
debuit, aut divinis praeceptis exculta.
1021. Med. Ovid.
1022. Ovid.
1023. Seneca, Hipp.
1024. Melancholicos vocamus, quos exuperantia vel pravitas Melancholiae ita
male habet, ut inde insaniant vel in omnibus, vel in pluribus iisque
manifestis sive ad rectam rationem, voluntate pertinent, vel
electionem, vel intellectus operationes.
1025. Pessimum et pertinacissimum morbum qui homines in bruta degenerare
cogit.
1026. Panth. Med.
1027. Angor animi in una contentione defixus, absque febre.
1028. Cap. 16. l. 1.
1029. Eorum definitio morbus quid non sit potius quam quid sit, explicat.
1030. Animae functiones imminuuntur in fatuitate, tolluntur in mania,
depravantur solum in melancholia. Herc. de Sax. cap. 1. tract. de
Melanch.
1031. Cap. 4. de mel.
1032. Per consensum sive per essentiam.
1033. Cap. 4. de mel.
1034. Sec. 7. de mor. vulgar. lib. 6.
1035. Spicel. de melancholia.
1036. Cap. 3. de mel. Pars affecta cerebrum sive per consensum, sive per
cerebrum contingat, et procerum auctoritate et ratione stabilitur.
1037. Lib. de mel. Cor vero vicinitatis ratione una afficitur, acceptum
transversum ac stomachus cum dorsali spina, &c.
1038. Lib. 1. cap. 10. Subjectum est cerebrum interius.
1039. Raro quisquam tumorem effugit lienis, qui hoc morbo afficitur, Piso.
Quis affectus.
1040. See Donat. ab Altomar.
1041. Facultas imaginandi, non cogitandi, nec memorandi laesa hic.
1042. Lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 8.
1043. Lib. 3. cap. 5.
1044. Lib. Med. cap. 19. part. 2. Tract. 15. cap. 2.
1045. Hildesheim, spicel. 2 de Melanc. fol. 207, et fol. 127. Quandoque
etiam rationalis si affectus inveteratus sit.
1046. Lib. posthumo de Melanc. edit. 1620. Deprivatur fides, discursus,
opinio, &c. per vitium Imaginationes, ex Accidenti.
1047. Qui parvum caput habent, insensati plerique sunt. Arist. in
physiognomia.
1048. Areteus, lib. 3. cap. 5.
1049. Qui prope statum sunt. Aret. Mediis convenit aetatibus, Piso.
1050. De quartano.
1051. Lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 11.
1052. Primus ad Melancholiam non tam moestus sed et hilares, jocosi,
cachinnantes, irrisores, et, qui plerumque praerubri sunt.
1053. Qui sunt subtilis ingenii, et multae perspicacitatis de facili
incidunt in Melancholiam, lib. 1. cont. tract. 9.
1054. Nunquam sanitate mentis excidit aut dolore capitur. Erasm.
1055. In laud. calvit.
1056. Vacant conscientiae carnificina, nec pudefiunt, nec verentur, nec
dilacerantur millibus curarum, quibus tota vita obnoxia est.
1057. Lib. 1. tract. 3. contradic. 18.
1058. Lib. 1. cont. 21.
1059. Bright, ca. 16.
1060. Lib. 1. cap. 6. de sanit. tuenda.
1061. Quisve aut qualis sit humor aut quae istius differentiae, et quomodo
gignantur in corpore, scrutandum, hac enim re multi veterum
laboraverunt, nec facile accipere ex Galeno sententiam ob loquendi
varietatem. Leon. Jacch. com. in 9. Rhasis, cap. 15. cap. 16. in 9.
Rhasis.
1062. Lib. postum. de Melan. edit. Venetiis, 1620. cap. 7 et 8. Ab
intemperie calida, humida, &c.
1063. Secundum magis aut minus si in corpore fuerit, ad intemperiem
plusquam corpus salubriter ferre poterit: inde corpus morbosum
effitur.
1064. Lib. 1. controvers. cap. 21.
1065. Lib. 1. sect. 4, cap. 4.
1066. Concil. 26.
1067. Lib. 2. contradic. cap. 11.
1068. De feb. tract. diff. 2. cap. 1. Non est negandum ex hac fieri
Melancholicos.
1069. In Syntax.
1070. Varie aduritur, et miscetur, unde variae amentium species, Melanct.
1071. Humor frigidus delirii causa, furoris calidus, &c.
1072. Lib. 1. cap. 10. de affect. cap.
1073. Nigrescit hic humor, aliquando supercalefactus, aliquando super
frigefactus, ca. 7.
1074. Humor hic niger aliquando praeter modum calefactus, et alias
refrigeratus evadit: nam recentibus carbonibus ei quid simile
accidit, qui durante flamma pellucidissime candent, ea extincta
prorsus nigrescunt. Hippocrates.
1075. Guianerius, diff. 2. cap. 7.
1076. Non est mania, nisi extensa melancholia.
1077. Cap. 6. lib. 1.
1078. 2 Ser. 2. cap. 9. Morbus hic est omnifarius.
1079. Species indefinitae sunt.
1080. Si aduratur naturalis melancholia, alia fit species, si sanguis,
alia, si flavibilis alia, diversa a primis: maxima est inter has
differentia, et tot Doctorum sententiae, quot ipsi numero sunt.
1081. Tract. de mel. cap. 7.
1082. Quaedam incipiens quaedam consummata.
1083. Cap. de humor. lib. de anima. Varie aduritur et miscetur ipsa
melancholia, unde variae amentium species.
1084. Cap. 16. in. 9. Rasis.
1085. Laurentius, cap. 4. de mel.
1086. Cap. 13.
1087. 480. et 116. consult. consil. 12.
1088. Hildesheim. spicil. 2. fol. 166.
1089. Trincavellius, tom. 2. consil. 15 et 16.
1090. Cap. 13, tract. posth. de melan.
1091. Guarion. cons. med. 2.
1092. Laboravit per essentiam et a toto corpore.
1093. Machiavel, &c. Smithus de rep. Angl. cap. 8. lib. 1. Buscoldus,
discur. polit. discurs. 5. cap. 7. Arist. l. 3. polit. cap. ult.
Keckerm. alii, &c.
1094. Lib. 6.
1095. Primo artis curitivae.
1096. Nostri primum sit propositi affectionum causas indagare; res ipsa
hortari videtur, nam alioqui earum curatio, manca et inutilis esset.
1097. Path. lib. 1. cap. 11. Rerum cognoscere causas, medicis imprimis
necessarium, sine qua nec morbum curare, nec praecavere licet.
1098. Tanta enim morbi varietas ac differentia ut non facile dignoscatur,
unde initium morbus sumpserit. Melanelius e Galeno.
1099. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
1100. 1 Sam. xvi. 14.
1101. Dan. v. 21.
1102. Lactant. instit. lib. 2. cap. 8.
1103. Mente captus, et summo animi moerore consumptus.
1104. Munster cosmog. lib. 4. cap. 43. De coelo substernebantur, tanquam
insani de saxis praecipitati, &c.
1105. Livius lib. 38.
1106. Gaguin. l. 3. c. 4. Quod Dionysii corpus discooperuerat, in insanam
incidit.
1107. Idem lib. 9. sub. Carol. 6. Sacrorum contemptor, templi foribus
effractis, dum D. Johannis argenteum simulacrum rapere contendit,
simulacrum aversa facie dorsum ei versat, nec mora sacrilegus mentis
inops, atque in semet insaniens in proprios artus desaevit.
1108. Giraldus Cambrensis, lib 1. c. 1. Itinerar. Cambriae.
1109. Delrio, tom. 3. lib. 6. sect. 3. quaest. 3.
1110. Psal. xlvi. 1.
1111. Lib. 8. cap. de Hierar.
1112. Claudian.
1113. De Babila Martyre.
1114. Lib. cap. 5. prog.
1115. Lib. 1. de Abditis rerum causis.
1116. Respons. med. 12. resp.
1117. 1 Pet. v. 6.
1118. Lib. 1. c. 7. de orbis concordia. In nulla re major fuit altercatio,
major obscuritas, minor opinionum concordia, quam de daemonibus et
substantiis separatis.
1119. Lib. 3. de Trinit. cap. 1.
1120. Pererius in Genesin. lib. 4. in cap. 3. v. 23.
1121. See Strozzius Cicogna omnifariae. Mag. lib. 2. c. 15. Jo. Aubanus,
Bredenbachius.
1122. Angelus per superbiam separatus a Deo, qui in veritate non stetit.
Austin.
1123. Nihil aliud sunt Daemones quam nudae animae quae corpore deposito
priorem miserati vitam, cognatis succurrunt commoti misericordia, &c.
1124. De Deo Socratis. All those mortals are called Gods, who, the course
of life being prudently guided and governed, are honoured by men with
temples and sacrifices, as Osiris in Aegypt, &c.
1125. He lived 500 years since.
1126. Apuleius: spiritus animalia sunt animo passibilia, mente rationalia,
corpore aeria, tempore sempiterna.
1127. Nutriuntur, et excrementa habent, quod pulsata doleant solido
percussa corpore.
1128. Whatever occupies space is corporeal:--spirit occupies space,
_therefore_, &c. &c.
1129. 4 lib. 4. Theol. nat. fol. 535.
1130. Which has no roughness, angles, fractures, prominences, but is the
most perfect amongst perfect bodies.
1131. Cyprianus in Epist. montes etiam et animalia transferri possunt: as
the devil did Christ to the top of the pinnacle; and witches are
often translated. See more in Strozzius Cicogna, lib. 3. cap. 4.
omnif. mag. Per aera subducere et in sublime corpora ferre possunt,
Biarmanus. Percussi dolent et uruntur in conspicuos cineres. Agrippa,
lib. 3. cap. de occul. Philos.
1132. Agrippa, de occult. Philos. lib. 3. cap. 18.
1133. Part. 3. Sect. 2. Mem. 1. Subs. 1. Love Melancholy.
1134. "By gazing steadfastly on the sun illuminated with his brightest
rays."
1135. Genial. dierum. Ita sibi visum et compertum quum prius an essent
ambigeret Fidem suam liberet.
1136. Lib. 1. de verit. Fidei. Benzo, &c.
1137. Lib. de Divinatione et magia.
1138. Cap. 8. Transportavit in Livoniam cupiditate videndi, &c.
1139. Sic Hesiodus de Nymphis vivere dicit. 10. aetates phaenicum vel. 9.
7. 20.
1140. Custodes hominum et provinciarum, &c. tanto meliores hominibus,
quanto hi brutis animantibus.
1141. Praesides Pastores, Gubernatores hominum, et illi animalium.
1142. "Coveting nothing more than the admiration of mankind."
1143. Natura familiares ut canes hominibus multi aversantur et abhorrent.
1144. Ab nomine plus distant quam homo ab ignobilissimo verne, et tamen
quidam ex his ab hominibus superantur ut homines a feris, &c.
1145. Cibo et potu uti et venere cum hominibus ac tandem mori, Cicogna. l.
part. lib. 2. c. 3.
1146. Plutarch. de defect. oraculorum.
1147. Lib. de Zilphis et Pigmeis.
1148. Dii gentium a Constantio prostigati sunt, &c.
1149. Octovian. dial. Judaeorum deum fuisse Romanorum numinibus una cum
gente captivum.
1150. Omnia spiritibus plena, et ex eorum concordia et discordia omnes boni
et mali effectus promanant, omnia humana reguntur: paradoxa veterum
de quo Cicogna. omnif. mag. l. 2. c. 3.
1151. Oves quas abacturus erat in quascunque formas vertebat Pausanias,
Hyginus.
1152. Austin in l. 2. de Gen. ad literam cap. 17. Partim quia subtilioris
sensus acumine, partim scientia calidiore vigent et experientia
propter magnam longitudinem vitae, partim ab Angelis discunt, &c.
1153. Lib. 3. omnif. mag. cap. 3.
1154. L. 18. quest.
1155. Quum tanti sit et tam profunda spiritum scientia, mirum non est tot
tantasque res visu admirabiles ab ipsis patrari, et quidem rerum
naturalium ope quas multo melius intelligunt, multoque peritius suis
locis et temporibus applicare norunt, quam homo, Cicogna.
1156. Aventinus, quicquid interdiu exhauriebatur, noctu explebatur. Inde
pavefacti cura tores, &c.
1157. In lib. 2. de Anima text 29. Homerus discriminatim omnes spiritus
daemones vocat.
1158. A Jove ad inferos pulsi, &c.
1159. De Deo Socratis adest mihi divina sorte Daemonium quoddam a prima
pueritia me secutum, saepe dissuadet, impellit nonnunquam instar
ovis, Plato.
1160. Agrippa lib. 3. de occul. ph. c. 18. Zancb. Pictorus, Pererius
Cicogna. l. 3. cap. 1.
1161. Vasa irae. c. 13.
1162. Quibus datum est nocere terrae et mari, &c.
1163. Physiol. Stoicorum e Senec. lib. 1. cap. 28.
1164. Usque ad lunam animas esse aethereas vocarique heroas, lares, genios.
1165. Mart. Capella.
1166. Nihil vacuum ab his ubi vel capillum in aere vel aqua jaceas.
1167. Lib. de Zilp.
1168. Palingenius.
1169. Lib. 7. cap. 34 et 5. Syntax. art. mirab.
1170. Comment in dial. Plat. de amore, cap. 5. Ut sphaera quaelibet super
nos, ita praestantiores habent habitatores suae sphaerae consortes,
ut habet nostra.
1171. Lib. de Amica. et daemone med. inter deos et homines, dica ad nos et
nostra aequaliter ad deos ferunt.
1172. Saturninas et Joviales accolas.
1173. In loca detrusi sunt infra caelestes orbes in aerem scilicet et infra
ubi Judicio generali reservantur.
1174. q. 36. art. 9.
1175. Virg. 8. Eg.
1176. Aen. 4.
1177. Austin: hoc dixi, ne quis existimet habitare ibimala daemonia ubi
Solem et Lunam et Stellas Deus ordinavit, et alibi nemo arbitraretur
Daemonom coelis habitare cum Angelis suis unde lapsum credimus. Idem.
Zanch. l. 4. c. 3. de Angel. mails. Pererius in Gen. cap. 6. lib. 8.
in ver. 2.
1178. Perigram. Hierosol.
1179. Fire worship, or divination by fire.
1180. Domus Diruunt, muros dejiciunt, immiscent se turbinibus et procellis
et pulverem instar columnae evehunt. Cicogna l. 5. c. 5.
1181. Quest. in Liv.
1182. De praestigiis daemonum. c. 16. Convelli culmina videmus, prosterni
sata, &c.
1183. De bello Neapolitano, lib. 5.
1184. Suffitibus gaudent. Idem Just. Mart. Apol. pro Christianis.
1185. In Dei imitationem, saith Eusebius.
1186. Dii gentium Daemonia, &c. ego in eorum statuas pellexi.
1187. Et nunc sub divorum nomine coluntur a Pontificiis.
1188. Lib. 11. de rerum ver.
1189. Lib. 3. cap. 3. De magis et veneficis, &c. Nereides.
1190. Lib. de Zilphis.
1191. Lib. 3.
1192. Pro salute hominum excubare se simulant, sed in eorum perniciem omnia
moliuntur. Aust.
1193. Dryades, Oriades, Hamadryades.
1194. Elvas Olaus voc. at lib. 3.
1195. Part 1. cap. 19.
1196. Lib. 3. cap. 11. Elvarum choreas Olaus lib. 3. vocat saltum adeo
profunde in terras imprimunt, ut locus insigni deinceps virore
orbicularis sit, et gramen non pereat.
1197. Sometimes they seduce too simple men into their mountain retreats,
where they exhibit wonderful sights to their marvelling eyes, and
astonish their ears by the sound of bells, &c.
1198. Lib. de Zilph. et Pigmaeus Olaus lib. 3.
1199. Lib. 7. cap. 14. Qui et in famulitio viris et feminis inserviunt,
conclavia scopis purgant, patinas mundant, ligna portant, equos
curant, &c.
1200. Ad ministeria utuntur.
1201. Where treasure is hid (as some think) or some murder, or such like
villainy committed.
1202. Lib. 16. de rerum varietat.
1203. Vel spiritus sunt hujusmodi damnatorum, vel e purgatorio, vel ipsi
daemones, c. 4.
1204. Quidam lemures domesticis instrumentis noctu ludunt: patinas, ollas,
cantharas, et alia vasa dejiciunt, et quidam voces emittunt, ejulant,
risum emittunt, &c. ut canes nigri, feles, variis formis, &c.
1205. Epist. lib. 7.
1206. Meridionales Daemones Cicogna calls them, or Alastores, l. 3. cap. 9.
1207. Sueton. c. 69. in Caligula.
1208. Strozzius Cicogna. lib. 3. mag. cap. 5.
1209. Idem. c. 18.
1210. M. Carew. Survey of Cornwall, lib. 2. folio 140.
1211. Horto Geniali, folio 137.
1212. Part 1. c. 19. Abducunt eos a recta via, et viam iter facientibus
intercludunt.
1213. Lib. 1. cap. 44. Daemonum cernuntur et audiuntur ibi frequentes
illusiones, unde viatoribus cavendum ne ce dissocient, aut a tergo
maneant, voces enim fingunt sociorum, ut a recto itinere abducant,
&c.
1214. Mons sterilis et nivosus, ubi intempesta nocte umbrae apparent.
1215. Lib. 2. cap. 21. Offendicula faciunt transeuntibus in via et
petulanter ridet cum vel hominem vel jumentum ejus pedes atterere
faciant, et maxime si homo maledictus et calcaribus saevint.
1216. In Cosmogr.
1217. Vestiti more metallicorum, gestus et opera eorum imitantur.
1218. Immisso in terrae carceres vento horribiles terrae motus efficiunt,
quibus saepe non domus modo et turres, sed civitates integrae et
insulae haustae sunt.
1219. Hierom. in 3. Ephes. Idem Michaelis. c. 4. de spiritibus. Idem
Thyreus de locis infestis.
1220. Lactantius 2. de origins erroris cap. 15. hi maligni spiritus per
omnem terram vagantur, et solatium perditionis suae perdendis
hominibus operantur.
1221. Mortalium calamitates epulae sunt malorum daemonum, Synesius.
1222. Daminus mendacii a seipso deceptus, alios decipere cupit, adversarius
humani generis, Inventor mortis, superbiae institutor, radix
malitiae, scelerum caput, princeps omnium vitiorum, fuit inde in Dei
contumeliam, hominum perniciem: de horum conatibus et operationibus
lege Epiphanium. 2. Tom. lib. 2. Dionysium. c. 4. Ambros. Epistol.
lib. 10. ep. et 84. August. de civ. Dei lib. 5. c. 9., lib. 8. cap.
22. lib. 9. 18. lib. 10. 21. Theophil. in 12. Mat. Pasil. ep. 141.
Leonem Ser. Theodoret. in 11. Cor. ep. 22. Chrys. hom. 53. in 12.
Gen. Greg. in 1. c. John. Barthol. de prop. l. 2. c. 20. Zanch. l. 4.
de malis angelis. Perer. in Gen. l. 8. in c. 6. 2. Origen. saepe
praeliis intersunt, itinera et negotia nostra quaecumque dirigunt,
clandestinis subsidiis optatos saepe praebent successus, Pet. Mar. in
Sam. &c. Ruscam de Inferno.
1223. Et velut mancipia circumfert Psellus.
1224. Lib. de trans. mut. Malac. ep.
1225. Custodes sunt hominum, et eorum, ut nos animalium: tum et provinciis
praepositi regunt auguriis, somniis, oraculis, pramiis, &c.
1226. Lipsius, Physiol. Stoic, lib. 1. cap. 19.
1227. Leo Suavis. idem et Tritemius.
1228. "They seek nothing more earnestly than the fear and admiration of
men."
1229. "It is scarcely possible to describe the impotent ardour with which
these malignant spirits aspire to the honour of being divinely
worshipped."
1230. Omnif. mag. lib. 2. cap. 23.
1231. Ludus deorum sumus.
1232. Lib. de anima et daemone.
1233. Quoties sit, ut Principes novitium aulicum divitiis et dignitatibus
pene obruant, et multorum annorum ministrum, qui non semel pro hero
periculum subiit, ne teruntio donent, &c. Idem. Quod Philosophi non
remunerentur, cum scurra et ineptus ob insulsum jocum saepe praemium
reportet, inde fit, &c.
1234. Lib de cruelt. Cadaver.
1235. Boissardus, c. 6 magia.
1236. Godelmanus, cap. 3. lib. 1 de Magis. idem Zanchius, lib. 4. cap. 10
et 11. de malis angelis.
1237. Nociva Melancholia furiosos efficit, et quandoque penitus interficit.
G. Picolominens Idemque Zanch. cap. 10. lib. 4. si Deus permittat,
corpora nostra movere possunt, alterare, quovis morborum et malorum
genere afficere, imo et in ipsa penetrare et saevire.
1238. Inducere potest morbos et sanitates.
1239. Viscerum actiones potest inhibere latenter, et venenis nobis ignotis
corpus inficere.
1240. Irrepentes corporibus occulto morbos fingunt, mentes terrent, membra
distorquent. Lips. Phil. Stoic. l. 1. c. 19.
1241. De rerum ver. l. 16. c. 93.
1242. Quum mens immediate decipi nequit, premum movit phantasiam, et ita
obfirmat vanis conceptibus aut ut ne quem facultati aestimativae
rationi locum relinquat. Spiritus malus invadit animam, turbat
sensus, in furorem conjicit. Austin. de vit. Beat.
1243. Lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. c. 18.
1244. A Daemone maxime proficisci, et saepe solo.
1245. Lib. de incant.
1246. Caep. de mania lib. de morbis cerebri; Daemones, quum sint tenues et
incomprehensibiles spiritus, se insinuare corporibus humanis possunt,
et occulte in viscerribus operti, valetudinem vitiare, somniis animas
terrere et mentes furoribus quatere. Insinuant se melancholicorum
penetralibus, intus ibique considunt et deliciantur tanquam in
regione clarissimorum siderum, coguntque animum furere.
1247. Lib. 1. cap. 6. occult. Philos. part 1. cap. 1. de spectris.
1248. Sine cruce et sanctificatione sic & daemone obsessa. dial.
1249. Greg. pag. c. 9.
1250. Penult. de opific. Dei.
1251. Lib. 28. cap. 26. tom. 9.
1252. De Lamiis.
1253. Et quomodo venefici fiant enarrat.
1254. De quo plura legas in Boissardo, lib. 1. de praestig.
1255. Rex Jacobus, Daemonol. l. 1. c. 3.
1256. An university in Spain in old Castile.
1257. The chief town in Poland.
1258. Oxford and Paris, see finem P. Lombardi.
1259. Praefat. de magis et veneficis.
1260. Rotatum Pileum habebat, quo ventos violentos cieret, aerem turbaret,
et in quam partem, &c.
1261. Erastus.
1262. Ministerio hirci nocturni.
1263. Steriles nuptos et inhabiles, vide Petrum de Pallude, lib. 4.
distinct. 34. Paulum Guiclandum.
1264. Infantes matribus suffurantur, aliis suppositivis in locum verorum
conjectis.
1265. Milles.
1266. D. Luther, in primum praeceptum, et Leon. Varius, lib. 1. de Fascino.
1267. Lavat. Cicog.
1268. Boissardus de Magis.
1269. Daemon. lib. 3. cap. 3.
1270. Vide Philostratum, vita ejus; Boissardum de Magis.
1271. Nubrigenses lege lib. 1. c. 19. Vide Suidam de Paset. De Cruent.
Cadaver.
1272. Erastus. Adolphus Scribanius.
1273. Virg. Aeneid. 4. Incantatricem describens: Haec se carminibus
promittit solvere mentes. Quas velit, ast aliis duras immittere
curas.
1274. Godelmanus, cap. 7. lib. 1. Nutricum mammas praesiccant, solo tactu
podagram, Apoplexiam, Paralysin, et alios morbos, quos medicina
curare non poterat.
1275. Factus inde Maniacus, spic. 2. fol. 147.
1276. Omnia philtra etsi inter se differant, hoc habent commune, quod
hominem efficiant melancholicum. epist. 231. Scholtzii.
1277. De cruent. Cadaver.
1278. Astra regunt homines, et regit astra Deus.
1279. Chirom. lib. Quaeris a me quantum operantur astra? dico, in nos nihil
astra urgere, sed animos praeclives trahere: qui sic tamen liberi
sunt, ut si ducem sequantur rationem, nihil efficiant, sin vero
naturam, id agere quod in brutis fere.
1280. Coelum vehiculum divinae virtutis, cujus mediante motu, lumine et
influentia, Deus! elementaria corpora ordinat et disponit Th. de Vio.
Cajetanus in Psa. 104.
1281. Mundus iste quasi lyra ab excellentissimo quodam artifice concinnata,
quem qui norit mirabiles eliciet harmonias. J. Dee. Aphorismo 11.
1282. Medicus sine coeli peritia nihil est, &c. nisi genesim sciverit, ne
tantillum poterit. lib. de podag.
1283. Constellatio in causa est; et influentia coeli morbum hunc movet,
interdum omnibus aliis amotis. Et alibi. Origo ejus a Coelo petenda
est. Tr. de morbis amentium.
1284. Lib. de anima, cap. de humorib. Ea varietas in Melancholia, habet
caelestes causas [Symbol: Conjunction] [Symbol: Saturn] et [Symbol:
Jupiter] in [Symbol: Quadrature] [Symbol: Conjunction] [Symbol: Mars]
et [Symbol: Moon-3/4] in [Symbol: Scorpio].
1285. Ex atra bile varii generantur morbi perinde ut ipse multum calidi aut
frigidi in se habuerit, quum utrique suscipiendo quam aptissima sit,
tametsi suapte natura frigida sit. Annon aqua sic afficitur a calore
ut ardeat; et a frigore, ut in glaciem concrescat? et haec varietas
distinctionum, alii flent, rident, &c.
1286. Hanc ad intemperantiam gignendam plurimum confert [Symbol: Mars] et
[Symbol: Saturn] positus, &c.
1287. [Symbol: Mercury] Quoties alicujus genitura in [Symbol: Scorpio] et
[Symbol: Pisces] adverso signo positus, horoscopum partiliter
tenueret atque etiam a [Symbol: Mars] vel [Symbol: Saturn] [Symbol:
Quadrature] radio percussus fuerit, natus ab insania vexabitur.
1288. Qui [Symbol: Saturn] et [Symbol: Mars] habet, alterum in culmine,
alterum imo coelo, cum in lucem venerit, melancholicus erit, a qua
sanebitur, si [Symbol: Mercury] illos irradiarit.
1289. Hac configuratione natus, Aut Lunaticus, aut mente captus.
1290. Ptolomaeus centiloquio, et quadripartito tribuit omnium
melancholicorum symptoma siderum influentis.
1291. Arte Medica. accedunt ad has causas affectiones siderum. Plurimum
incitant et provocant influentiae caelestes. Velcurio, lib. 4. cap.
15.
1292. Hildesheim, spicel. 2. de mel.
1293. Joh. de Indag. cap. 9. Montaltus, cap. 22.
1294. Caput parvum qui habent cerebrum et spiritus plerumque angustos,
facile incident in Melancholiam rubicundi. Aetius. Idem Montaltus, c.
21. e Galeno.
1295. Saturnina a Rascetta per mediam manum decurrens, usque ad radicem
montis Saturni, a parvis lineis intersecta, arguit melancholicos.
Aphoris. 78.
1296. Agitantur miseriis, continuis inquietudinibus, neque unquam a
solitudine liberi sunt, anxie affiguntur amarissimis intra
cogitationibus, semper tristes, suspitiosi, meticulosi: cogitationes
sunt, velle agrum colere, stagna amant et paludes, &c. Jo. de
Indagine, lib. 1.
1297. Caelestis Physiognom. lib. 10.
1298. Cap. 14. lib. 5. Idem maculae in ungulis nigrae, lites, rixas,
melancholiam significant, ab humore in corde tali.
1299. Lib. 1. Path. cap. 11.
1300. Venit enim properata malis inopina senectus: et dolor aetatem jussit
inesse meam. Boethius, met. 1. de consol. Philos.
1301. Cap. de humoribus, lib. de Anima.
1302. Necessarium accidens decrepitis, et inseparabile.
1303. Psal. xc. 10.
1304. Meteran. Belg. hist. lib. 1.
1305. Sunt morosi anxii, et iracundi et difficiles senes, si quaerimus,
etiam avari, Tull. de senectute.
1306. Lib. 2. de Aulico. Senes avari, morosi, jactabundi, philauti, deliri,
superstitiosi, auspiciosi, &c. Lib. 3. de Lamiis, cap. 17. et 18.
1307. Solarium, opium lupiadeps, lacr. asini, &c. sanguis infantum, &c.
1308. Corrupta est iis ab humore Melancholico phantasia. Nymanus.
1309. Putant se laedere quando non laedunt.
1310. Qui haec in imaginationis vim referre conati sunt, atrae bilis,
inanem prorsus laborem susceperunt.
1311. Lib. 3. cap. 4. omnif. mag.
1312. Lib. 1. cap. 11. path.
1313. Ut arthritici Epilep. &c.
1314. Ut filii non tam possessionum quam morborum baeredes sint.
1315. Epist. de secretis artis et naturae, c. 7. Nam in hoc quod patres
corrupti sunt, generant filios corruptae complexionis, et
compositionis, et filii eorum eadem de causa se corrumpunt, et sic
derivatur corruptio a patribus ad filios.
1316. Non tam (inquit Hippocrates) gibbos et cicatrices oris et corporis
habitum agnoscis ex iis, sed verum incessum gestus, mores, morbos,
&c.
1317. Synagog. Jud.
1318. Affectus parentum in foetus transeunt, et puerorum malicia parentibus
imputanda, lib. 4. cap. 3. de occult, nat. mirae.
1319. Ex pituitosis pituitosi, ex biliosis biliosi, ex lienosis et
melancholicis melancholici.
1320. Epist. 174. in Scoltz. Nascitur nobiscum illa aliturque et una cum
parentibus habemus malum hunc assem. Jo. Pelesius, lib. 2. de cura
humanorum affectuum.
1321. Lib. 10. observat.
1322. Maginus Geog.
1323. Saepe non eundem, sed similem producit effectum, et illaeso parente
transit. in nepotem.
1324. Dial. praefix. genituris Leovitii.
1325. Bodin. de rep. cap. de periodis reip.
1326. Claudius Abaville, Capuchion, in his voyage to Maragnan. 1614. cap.
45. Nemo fere aegrotus, sano omnes et robusto corpore, vivunt annos. 120,
140. sine Medicina. Idem Hector Boethius de insulis Orchad. et Damianus a
Goes de Scandia.
1327. Lib. 4. c. 3. de occult. nat. mir. Tetricos plerumque filios senes
progenerant et tristes, rarios exhilaratos.
1328. Coitus super repletionem pessimus, et filii qui tum gignuntur, aut
morbosi sunt, aut stolidi.
1329. dial, praefix. Leovito.
1330. L. de ed. liberis.
1331. De occult. nat. mir. temulentae et stolidae mulieres liberos
plerumque producunt sibi similes.
1332. Lib. 2, c. 8. de occult, nat. mir. Good Master Schoolmaster do not
English this.
1333. De nat. mul. lib. 3. cap. 4.
1334. Buxdorphius, c. 31. Synag. Jud. Ezek. 18.
1335. Drusius obs. lib. 3. cap. 20.
1336. Beda. Eccl. hist. lib. 1. c. 27. respons. 10.
1337. Nam spiritus cerebri si tum male afficiantur, tales procreant, et
quales fuerint affectus, tales filiorum: ex tristibus tristes, ex
jucundis jucundi nascuntur, &c.
1338. Fol. 129. mer. Socrates' children were fools. Sabel.
1339. De occul. nat. mir. Pica morbus mulierum.
1340. Baptista Porta, loco praed. Ex leporum intuitu plerique infantes
edunt bifido superiore labello.
1341. Quasi mox in terram collapsurus, per omne vitam incedebat cum mater
gravia ebrium hominem sic incedentem viderat.
1342. Civem facie cadaverosa, qui dixit, &c.
1343. Optimum bene nasci, maxima para felicitatis nostrae bene nasci;
quamobrem praeclere humano generi consultam videretur, si solis
parentis bene habiti et sani, liberis operam darent.
1344. Infantes infirmi praecipitio necati. Bohemus, lib. 3. c. 3. Apud
Lacones olim. Lipsius, epist. 85. cent. ad Belgas, Dionysio Villerio,
si quos aliqua membrorum parte inutiles notaverint, necari jubent.
1345. Lib. 1. De veterum Scotorum moribus. Morbo comitiali, dementia,
mania, lepra, &c. aut simila labe, quae facile in prolem
transmittitur, laborantes inter eos, ingenti facta indagine,
inventos, ne gens foeda contagione laederetur, ex iis nata,
castraverunt, mulieres hujusmodi procul a virorum consortio
abregarunt, quod si harum aliqua concepisse inveniebatur, simul cum
foetu nondum edito, defodiebatur viva.
1346. Euphormio Satyr.
1347. Fecit omnia delicta quae fieri possunt circa res sex non naturales,
et eae fuerunt causae extrinsecae, ex quibus postea ortae sunt
obstructiones.
1348. Path. I. l. c. 2. Maximam in gignendis morbis vim obtinet, pabulum,
materiamque morbi suggerens: nam nec ab aere, nec a perturbationibus,
vel aliis evidentibus causis morbi sunt, nisi consentiat corporis
praeparatio, et humorum constitutio. Ut semel dicam, una gula est
omnium morborum mater, etiamsi alius est genitor. Ab hac morbi sponte
saepe emanant, nulla alia cogente causa.
1349. Cogan, Eliot, Vauhan, Vener.
1350. Frietagius.
1351. Isaac.
1352. Non laudatur quia melancholicum praebet alimentum.
1353. Male alit cervina (inquit Frietagius) crassissimum et atribilarium
suppeditat alimentum.
1354. Lib. de subtiliss. dieta. Equina caro et asinina equinis danda est
hominibus et asininis.
1355. Parum obsunt a natura Leporum. Bruerinus, l. 13. cap. 25. pullorum
tenera et optima.
1356. Illaudabilis succi nauseam provocant.
1357. Piso. Altomar.
1358. Curio. Frietagius, Magninus, part. 3. cap. 17. Mercurialis, de
affect, lib. I. c. 10. excepts all milk meats in Hypochondriacal
Melancholy.
1359. Wecker, Syntax. theor. p. 2. Isaac, Bruer. lib. 15. cap. 30. et 31.
1360. Cap. 18. part. 3.
1361. Omni loco et omni tempore medici detestantur anguillas praesertim
circa solstitium. Damnanturtum sanis tum aegris.
1362. Cap. 6. in his Tract of Melancholy.
1363. Optime nutrit omnium judicio inter primae notae pisces gustu
praestanti.
1364. Non est dubium, quin pro variorum situ, ac natura, magnas alimentorum
sortiantur differentias, alibi suaviores, alibi lutulentiores.
1365. Observat. 16. lib. 10.
1366. Pseudolus act. 3. scen. 2.
1367. Plautus, ibid.
1368. Quare rectius valedutini suae quisque consulet, qui lapsus priorum
parentum memor, eas plane vel omiserit vel parce degustarit.
Kersleius, cap. 4, de vero usu med.
1369. In Mizaldo de Horto, P. Crescent. Herbastein, &c.
1370. Cap. 13. part. 3. Bright, in his Tract of Mel.
1371. Intellectum turbant, producunt insaniam.
1372. Audivi (inquit Magnin.) quod si quis ex iis per annum continue
comedat, in insaniam caderet. cap. 13. Improbi succi sunt. cap. 12.
1373. De rerum varietat. In Fessa plerumque morbosi, quod fructus comedant
ter in die.
1374. Cap. de Mel.
1375. Lib. 11. c. 3.
1376. Bright, c. 6. excepts honey.
1377. Hor. apud Scoltzium, consil. 186.
1378. Ne comedas crustam, choleram quia gignit adustam. Schol. Sal.
1379. Vinum turbidum.
1380. Ex vini patentis bibitione, duo Alemani in uno mense melancholici
facti sunt.
1381. Hildesheim, spicel. fol. 273.
1382. Crassum generat sanguinem.
1383. About Danzig in Spruce, Hamburgh, Leipsig.
1384. Henricus Abrmcensis.
1385. Potus tum salubris tum jucundus, l. 1.
1386. Galen l. 1. de san. tuend. Cavendae sunt aquae quae ex stagnis
hauriuntur, et quae turbidae and male olentes, &c.
1387. Innoxium reddit et bene olentum.
1388. Contendit haec vitia coctione non emendari.
1389. Lib. de bonitate aquae, hydropem auget, febres putridas, splenem,
tusses, nocet oculis, malum habitum corporis et colorem.
1390. Mag. Nigritatem inducit si pecora biberint.
1391. Aquae nivibus coactae strumosos faciunt.
1392. Cosmog. l. 3. cap. 36.
1393. Method, hist. cap. 5. Balbutiunt Labdoni in Aquitania ob aquas, atque
hi morbi ab acquis in corpora derivantur.
1394. Edulia ex sanguine et suffocato parta. Hildesheim.
1395. Cupedia vero, placentae, bellaria, commentaque alia curiosa pistorum
et coquorum, gustui servientium conciliant morbos tum corpori tum
animo insanibiles. Philo Judaeus, lib. de victimis. P. Jov. vita
ejus.
1396. As lettuce steeped in wine, birds fed with fennel and sugar, as a
Pope's concubine used in Avignon. Stephan.
1397. Animae negotium illa facessit, et de templo Dii immundum stabulum
facit. Peletius, 10. c.
1398. Lib. 11. c. 52. Homini cibus utilissimus simplex, acervatio cirborum
pestifera, et condimenta perniciosa, multos morbos multa fercula
ferunt.
1399. 31. Dec. 2. c. Nihil deterius quam si tempus justo longius comedendo
protrahatur, et varia ciborum genera conjungantur: inde morborum
scaturigo, quae ex repugnantia humorum oritur.
1400. Path. l. 1. c. 14.
1401. Juv. Sat. 5.
1402. Nimia repletio ciborum facit melancholicum.
1403. Comestio superflua cibi, et potus quantitas nimia.
1404. Impura corpora quanto magis nutris, tanto magis laedis: putrefacit
enim alimentum vitiosus humor.
1405. Vid. Goclen. de portentosis coenis, &c. puteani Com.
1406. Amb. lib. de Jeju. cap. 14. "They who invite us to a supper, only
conduct us to our tomb."
1407. Juvenal. "The highest-priced dishes afford the greatest
gratification."
1408. Guiccardin.
1409. Na. quaest. 4. ca. ult. fastidio est lumen gratuitum, dolet quod
sole, quod spiritum emere non possimus, quod hic aer non emptus ex
facili, &c. adeo nihil placet, nisi quod carum est.
1410. Ingeniosi ad Gulam.
1411. Olim vile mancipium, nunc in omni aestimatione, nunc ars haberi
caepta, &c.
1412. Epist. 28. l. 7. Quorum in ventre ingenium, in patinis, &c.
1413. In lucem coenat. Sertorius.
1414. Seneca.
1415. Mancipia gulae, dapes non sapore sed sumptu aestimantes. Seneca,
consol. ad Helvidium.
1416. Saevientia guttura satiare non possunt fluvii et maria, Aeneas
Sylvius, de miser. curial.
1417. Plautus.
1418. Hor. lib. 1. Sat. 3.
1419. Diei brevitas conviviis, noctis longitudo stupris conterebratur.
1420. Et quo plus capiant, irritamenta excogitantur.
1421. Fores portantur ut ad convivium reportentur, repleri ut exhauriant,
et exhauriri ut bibant. Ambros.
1422. Ingentia vasa velut ad ostentationem, &c.
1423. Plautus.
1424. Lib. 3. Anthol. c. 20.
1425. Gratiam conciliant potando.
1426. Notis ad Caesares.
1427. Lib. de educandis principum liberis.
1428. Virg. Ae. 1.
1429. Idem strenui potatoris Episcopi Sacellanus, cum ingentem pateram
exhaurit princeps.
1430. Bohemus in Saxonia. Adeo immoderate et immodeste ab ipsis bibitur, ut
in compotationibus suis non cyathis solum et cantharis sat infundere
possint, sed impletum mulctrale apponant, et scutella injecta
hortantur quemlibet ad libitum potare.
1431. Dictu incredible, quantum hujusce liquorice immodesta gens capiat,
plus potantem amicissimum habent, et cert coronant, inimicissimum e
contra qui non vult, et caede et fustibus expiant.
1432. Qui potare recusat, hostis habetur, et caede nonnunquam res expiatur.
1433. Qui melius bibit pro salute domini, melior habetur minister.
1434. Graec. Poeta apud Stobaeum, ser. 18.
1435. Qui de die jejunant, et nocte vigilant, facile cadunt in
melancholiam; et qui naturae modum excedunt, c. 5. tract. 15. c. 2.
Longa famis tolerantia, ut iis saepe accidit qui tanto cum fervore
Deo servire cupiunt per jejunium, quod maniaci efficiantur, ipse vidi
saepe.
1436. In tenui victu aegri delinquunt, ex quo fit ut majori afficiantur
detrimento, majorque fit error tenui quam pleniore victu.
1437. Quae longo tempore consueta sunt, etiamsi deteriora, minus in
assuetis molestare solent.
1438. Qui medice vivit, misere vivit.
1439. Consuetudo altera natura.
1440. Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire.
1441. Leo Afer. l. 1. solo camelorum lacte contenti, nil praeterea
deliciarum ambiunt.
1442. Flandri vinum butyro dilutum bibunt (nauseo referens) ubique butyrum
inter omnia fercula et bellaria locum obtinet. Steph. praefat. Herod.
1443. Delectantur Graeci piscibus magis quam carnibus.
1444. Lib. 1. hist. Ang.
1445. P. Jovius descript. Britonum. They sit, eat and drink all day at
dinner in Iceland, Muscovy, and those northern parts.
1446. Suidas, vict. Herod, nihilo cum eo melius quam si quis Cicutam,
Aconitum, &c.
1447. Expedit. in Sinas, lib. 1. c. 3. hortensium herbarum et olerum, apud
Sinas quam apud nos longe frequentior usus, complures quippe de vulgo
reperias nulla alia re vel tenuitatis, vel religionis causa
vescentes. Equus, Mulus, Asellus, &c. aeque fere vescuntur ac pabula
omnia, Mat. Riccius, lib. 5. cap. 12.
1448. Tartari mulis, equis vescuntur et crudis carnibus, et fruges
contemnunt, dicentes, hoc jumentorum pabulum et bonum, non hominum.
1449. Islandiae descriptione victus corum butyro, lacte, caseo consistit:
pisces loco panis habent, potus aqua, aut serum, sic vivunt sine
medicina multa ad annos 200.
1450. Laet. occident. Ind. descrip. lib. 11. cap. 10. Aquam marinam bibere
sueti absque noxa.
1451. Davies 2. voyage.
1452. Patagones.
1453. Benzo et Fer. Cortesius, lib. novus orbis inscrip.
1454. Linschoten, c. 56. Palmae instar totius orbis arboribus longe
praestantior.
1455. Lips. epist.
1456. Teneris assuescere multum.
1457. Repentinae mutationes noxam pariunt. Hippocrat. Aphorism. 21. Epist.
6. sect. 3.
1458. Bruerinus, lib. 1. cap. 23.
1459. Simpl. med. c. 4. l. 1.
1460. Heurnius, l. 3. c. 19. prax. med.
1461. Aphoris. 17.
1462. In dubiis consuetudinem sequatur adolescens, et inceptis perseveret.
1463. Qui cum voluptate assumuntur cibi, ventriculus avidius complectitur,
expeditiusque concoquit, et quae displicent aversatur.
1464. Nothing against a good stomach, as the saying is.
1465. Lib. 7. Hist. Scot.
1466. 30. artis.
1467. Quae excernuntur aut subsistunt.
1468. Ex ventre suppresso, inflammationes, capitis dolores, caligines
crescunt.
1469. Excrementa retenta mentis agitationem parere solent.
1470. Cap. de Mel.
1471. Tam delirus, ut vix se hominem agnosceret.
1472. Alvus astrictus causa.
1473. Per octo dies alvum siccum habet, et nihil reddit.
1474. Sive per nares, sive haemorrhoides.
1475. Multi intempestive ab haemorrhoidibus curati, melancholia corrupti
sunt. Incidit in Scyllam, &c.
1476. Lib. 1. de Mania.
1477. Breviar. l. 7. c. 18.
1478. Non sine magno incommodo ejus, cui sanguis a naribus promanat, noxii
sanguinis vacuatio impediri potest.
1479. Novi quosdam prae pudore a coitu abstinentes, turpidos, pigrosque
factos; nonnullos etiam melancholicos, praeter modum moestos,
timidosque.
1480. Nonnulli nisi coeant assidue capitis gravitate infestantur. Dicit se
novisse quosdam tristes et ita factos ex intermissione Veneris.
1481. Vapores venenatos mittit sperma ad cor et cerebrum. Sperma plus diu
retentum, transit in venenum.
1482. Graves producit corporis et animi aegritudines.
1483. Ex spermate supra modum retento monachos et viduas melancholicos
saepe fieri vidi.
1484. Melancholia orta a vasis seminariis in utero.
1485. Nobilis senex Alsatus juvenem uxorem duxit, at ille colico dolore, et
multis morbis correptus, non potuit praestare officium mariti, vix
inito matrimonio aegrotus. Illa in horrendum furorum incidit, ob
Venerem cohibitam ut omnium eam invisentium congressum, voce, vultu,
gestu expeteret, et quum non consentirent, molossos Anglicanos magno
expetiit clamore.
1486. Vidi sacerdotem optimum et pium, qui quod nollet uti Venere, in
melancholica symptomata incidit.
1487. Ob abstinentiam a concubitu incidit in melancholiam.
1488. Quae a coitu exacerbantur.
1489. Superstuum coitum causam ponunt.
1490. Exsiccat corpus, spiritus consumit, &c. caveant ab hoc sicci, velut
inimico mortali.
1491. Ita exsiccatus ut e melancholico statim fuerit insanus, ab
humectantibus curatus.
1492. Ex cauterio et ulcere exsiccato.
1493. Gord. c. 10. lib. 1. Discommends cold baths as noxious.
1494. Siccum reddunt corpus.
1495. Si quis longius moretur in iis, aut nimis frequenter, aut importune
utatur, humores putrefacit.
1496. Ego anno superiore, quendam guttosum vidi adustum, qui ut liberaretur
de gutta, ad balnea accessit, et de gutta liberatus, maniacus factus
est.
1497. On Schola Salernitana.
1498. Calefactio et ebullitio per venae incisionem, magis saepe incitatur
et augetur, majore impetu humores per corpus discurrunt.
1499. Lib. de flatulenta Melancholia. Frequens sanguinis missio corpus
extenuat.
1500. In 9 Rhasis, atram bilem parit, et visum debilitat.
1501. Multo nigrior spectatur sanguis post dies quosdam, quam fuit ab
initio.
1502. Non laudo eos qui in desipientia docent secandam esse venam frontis,
quia spiritus debilitatur inde, et ego longa experientia observavi in
proprio Xenodochio, quod desipientes ex phlebotomia magis laeduntur,
et magis disipiunt, et melancholici saepe fiunt inde pejores.
1503. De mentis alienat. cap. 3. etsi multos hoc improbasse sciam,
innumeros hac ratione sanatos longa observatione cognovi, qui
vigesies, sexagies venas tundendo, &c.
1504. Vires debilitat.
1505. Impurus aer spiritus dejicit, infecto corde gignit morbos.
1506. Sanguinem densat, et humores, P. 1. c. 13.
1507. Lib. 3. cap. 3.
1508. Lib. de quartana. Ex aere ambiente contrahitur humor melancholicus.
1509. Qualis aer, talis spiritus: et cujusmodi spiritus, humores.
1510. Aelianus Montaltus, c. 11. calidus et siccus, frigidus et siccus,
paludinosus, crassus.
1511. Multa hic in Xenodochiis fanaticorum millia quae strictissime
catenata servantur.
1512. Lib. med. part. 2. c. 19. Intellige, quod in calidis regionibus,
frequenter accidit mania, in frigidis autem tarde.
1513. Lib. 2.
1514. Hodopericon, cap. 7.
1515. Apulia aestivo calore maxime fervet, ita ut ante finem Maii pene
exusta sit.
1516. "They perish in clouds of sand." Maginus Pers.
1517. Pantheo seu Pract. Med. l. 1. cap. 16. Venetae mulieres quae diu sub
sole vivunt, aliquando melancholicae evadunt.
1518. Navig. lib. 2 cap. 4. commercia nocte, hora secunda ob nimios, qui
saeviunt interdiu aestus exercent.
1519. Morbo Gallico laborantes, exponunt ad solem ut morbus exsiccent.
1520. Sir Richard Hawkins in his Observations, sect. 13.
1521. Hippocrates, 3. Aphorismorum idem ait.
1522. Idem Maginus in Persia.
1523. Descrip. Ter. sanctae.
1524. Quum ad solis radios in leone longam moram traheret, ut capillos
slavos redderet, in maniam incidit.
1525. Mundus alter et idem, seu Terra Australis incognita.
1526. Crassus et turpidus aer, tristem efficit animam.
1527. Commonly called Scandaroon in Asia Minor.
1528. Atlas geographicus memoria, valent Pisani, quod crassiore fruantur
aere.
1529. Lib. 1. hist. lib. 2. cap. 41. Aura densa ac caliginosa tetrici
homines existunt, et substristes, et cap. 3. stante subsolano et
Zephyro, maxima in mentibus hominum alacritas existit, mentisque
erectio ubi telum solis splendore nitescit. Maxima dejectio maerorque
si quando aura caliginosa est.
1530. Geor.
1531. Hor.
1532. Mens quibus vacillat, ab aere cito offenduntur, et multi insani apud
Belgas ante tempestates saeviunt, aliter quieti. Spiritus quoque
aeris et mali genii aliquando se tempestatibus ingerunt, et menti
humanae se latenter insinuant, eamque vexant, exagitant, et ut
fluctus marini, humanum corpus ventis agitatur.
1533. Aer noctu densatur, et cogit moestitiam.
1534. Lib de Iside et Osyride.
1535. Multa defatigatio, spiritus, viriumque substantiam exhaurit, et
corpus refrigerat. Humores corruptos qui aliter a natura concoqui et
domari possint, et demum blande excludi, irritat, et quasi in furorem
agit, qui postea mota camerina, tetro vapore corpus varie lacessunt,
animumque.
1536. In Veni mecum: Libro sic inscripto.
1537. Instit. ad vit. Christ, cap. 44. cibos crudos in venas rapit, qui
putrescentes illic spiritus animalis inficiunt.
1538. Crudi haec humoris copia per venas aggreditur, unde morbi
multiplices.
1539. Immodicum exercitium.
1540. Hom. 31. in 1 Cor. vi. Nam qua mens hominis quiscere non possit, sed
continuo circa varias cogitationes discurrat, nisi honesto aliquo
negotio occupetur, ad melancholiam sponte delabitur.
1541. Crato, consil. 21. Ut immodica corporis exercitatio nocet corporibus,
ita vita deses, et otiosa: otium, animal pituitosum reddit, viscerum
obstructiones et crebras fluxiones, et morbos concitat.
1542. Et vide quod una de rebus quae magis generat melancholiam, est
otiositas.
1543. Reponitur otium ab aliis causa, et hoc a nobis observatum eos huic
malo magis obnoxios qui plane otiosi sunt, quam eos qui aliquo munere
versantur exequendo.
1544. De Tranquil. animae. Sunt qua ipsum otium in animi conjicit
aegritudinem.
1545. Nihil est quod aeque melancholiam alat ac augeat, ac otium et
abstinentia a corporis et animi exercitationibus.
1546. Nihil magis excaecat intellectum, quam otium. Gordonius de observat.
vit. hum. lib. 1.
1547. Path. lib. 1. cap. 17. exercitationis intermissio, inertem calorem,
languidos spiritus, et ignavos, et ad omnes actiones segniores
reddit, cruditates, obstructiones, et excrementorum proventus facit.
1548. Hor. Ser. 1. Sat. 3.
1549. Seneca.
1550. Moerorem animi, et maciem, Plutarch calls it.
1551. Sicut in stagno generantur vermes, sic et otioso malae cogitationes.
Sen.
1552. Now this leg, now that arm, now their head, heart, &c.
1553. Exod. v.
1554. (For they cannot well tell what aileth them, or what they would have
themselves) my heart, my head, my husband, my son, &c.
1555. Prov. xviii. Pigrum dejiciet timor. Heautontimorumenon.
1556. Lib. 19. c. 10.
1557. Plautus, Prol. Mostel.
1558. Piso, Montaltus, Mercurialis, &c.
1559. Aquibus malum, velut a primaria causa, nactum est.
1560. Jucunda rerum praesentium, praeteritarum, et futurarum meditatio.
1561. Facilis descensus Averni: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad
auras, Hic labor, hoc opus est. Virg.
1562. Hieronimus, ep. 72. dixit oppida et urbes videri sibi tetros
carceres, solitudinem Paradisum: solum scorpionibus infectum, sacco
amictus, humi cubans, aqua et herbis victitans, Romanis praetulit
deliciis.
1563. Offic. 3.
1564. Eccl 4.
1565. Natura de te videtur conqueri posse, quod cum ab ea temperatissimum
corpus adeptus sis, tam praeclarum a Deo ac utile donum, non
contempsisti modo, verum corrupisti, sedasti, prodidisti, optimam
temperaturam otio, crapula, et aliis vitae erroribus, &c.
1566. Path. lib. cap. 17. Fernel. corpus infrigidat, omnes sensus,
mentisque vires torpore debilitat.
1567. Lib. 2. sect. 2. cap. 4. Magnam excrementorum vim cerebro et aliis
partibus conservat.
1568. Jo. Retzius, lib. de rebus 6 non naturalibus. Praeparat corpus talis
somnus ad multas periculosas aegritudines.
1569. Instit. ad vitam optimam, cap. 26. cerebro siccitatem adfert,
phrenesin et delirium, corpus aridum facit, squalidum, strigosum,
humores adurit, temperamentum cerebri corrumpit, maciem inducit:
exsiccat corpus, bilem accendit, profundos reddit oculos, calorem
augit.
1570. Naturalem calorem dissipat, laesa concoctione cruditates facit.
Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes.
1571. Vita Alexan.
1572. Grad. 1. c. 14.
1573. Hor. "The body oppressed by yesterday's vices weighs down the spirit
also."
1574. Perturbationes clavi sunt, quibus corpori animus seu patibulo
affigitur. Jamb. de mist.
1575. Lib. de sanitat. tuend.
1576. Prolog. de virtute Christi; Quae utitur corpore, ut faber malleo.
1577. Vita Apollonij, lib. 1.
1578. Lib. de anim. ab inconsiderantia, et ignorantia omnes animi motus.
1579. De Physiol. Stoic.
1580. Grad. 1. c. 32.
1581. Epist. 104.
1582. Aelianus.
1583. Lib. 1. cap. 6. si quis ense percusserit eos, tantum respiciunt.
1584. Terror in sapiente esse non debet.
1585. De occult nat. mir. l. 1. c. 16. Nemo mortalium qui affectibus non
ducatur: qui non movetur, aut saxum, aut Deus est.
1586. Instit. l. 2. de humanorum affect. morborumque curat.
1587. Epist. 105.
1588. Granatensis.
1589. Virg.
1590. De civit. Dei. l. 14. c. 9. qualis in oculis hominum qui inversis
pedibus ambulat, talis in oculis sapientum, cui passiones dominantur.
1591. Lib. de Decal. passiones maxime corpus offendunt et animam, et
frequentissimae causae melancholiae, dimoventes ab ingenio et
sanitate pristina, l. 3. de anima.
1592. Fraenaet stimuli animi, velut in mari quaedam aurae leves, quaedam
placidae, quaedam turbulentae: sic in corpore quaedam affectiones
excitant tantum, quaedam ita movent, ut de statu judicii depellant.
1593. Ut gutta lapidem, sic paulatim hae penetrant animum.
1594. Usu valentes recte morbi animi vocantur.
1595. Imaginatio movet corpus, ad cujus motum excitantur humores, et
spiritus vitales, quibus alteratur.
1596. Eccles., xiii. 26. "The heart alters the countenance to good or evil,
and distraction of the mind causeth distemperature of the body."
1597. Spiritus et sanguis a laesa Imaginatione contaminantur, humores enim
mutati actiones animi immutant, Piso.
1598. Montani, consil. 22. Hae vero quomodo causent melancholiam, clarum;
et quod concoctionem impediant, et membra principalia debilitent.
1599. Breviar. l. 1. cap. 18.
1600. Solent hujusmodi egressiones favorabiliter oblectare, et lectorem
lassum jucunde refovere, stomachumque nauseantem, quodam quasi
condimento reficere, et ego libenter excurro.
1601. Ab imaginatione oriuntur affectiones, quibus anima componitur, aut
turbata deturbatur, Jo. Sarisbur. Metolog. lib. 4. c. 10.
1602. Scalig. exercit.
1603. Qui quotis volebat, mortuo similis jacebat auferens se a sensibus, et
quum pungeretur dolorem non sensit.
1604. Idem Nymannus orat. de Imaginat.
1605. Verbis et unctionibus se consecrant daemoni pessimae mulieres qui iis
ad opus suum utitur, et earum phantasiam regit, ducitque ad loca ab
ipsis desiderata, corpora vero earum sine sensu permanent, quae umbra
cooperit diabolus, ut nulli sine conspicua, et post, umbra sublata,
propriis corporibus eas restitut, l. 3. c. 11. Wier.
1606. Denario medico.
1607. Solet timor, prae omnibus affectibus, fortes imaginationes gignere,
post amor, &c. l. 3. c. 8.
1608. Ex viso urso, talem peperit.
1609. Lib. 1. cap. 4. de occult. nat. mir. si inter amplexus et suavia
cogitet de uno, aut alio absente, ejus effigies solet in faetu
elucere.
1610. Quid non faetui adhuc matri unito, subita spirituum vibratione per
nervos, quibus matrix cerebro conjuncta est, imprimit impregnatae
imaginatio? ut si imaginetur matum granatum, illius notas secum
proferet faetus: Si leporem, infans editur supremo labello bifido, et
dissecto: Vehemens cogitatio movet rerum species. Wier. lib. 3. cap.
8.
1611. Ne dum uterum gestent, admittant absurdas cogitationes, sed et visu,
audituque foeda et horrenda devitent.
1612. Occult. Philos. lib. 1. cap. 64.
1613. Lib. 3. de Lamiis, cap. 10.
1614. Agrippa, lib. 1. cap. 64.
1615. Sect. 3. memb. 1. subsect. 3.
1616. Malleus malefic. fol. 77. corpus mutari potest in diversas
aegritudines, ex forti apprehensione.
1617. Fr. Vales. l. 5. cont. 6. nonnunquam etiam morbi diuturni
consequuntur, quandoque curantur.
1618. Expedit. in Sinas, l. 1. c. 9. tantum porro multi praedictoribus
hisce tribuunt ut ipse metus fidem faciat: nam si praedictum iis
fuerit tali die eos morbo corripiendos, ii ubi dies advenerit, in
morbum incidunt, et vi metus afflicti, cum aegritudine, aliquando
etiam cum morte colluctantur.
1619. Subtil. 18.
1620. Lib. 3. de anima, cap. de mel.
1621. Lib. de Peste.
1622. Lib. 1. cap. 63. Ex alto despicientes aliqui prae timore
contremiscunt, caligant, infirmantur; sic singultus, febres, morbi
comitiales quandoque sequuntur, quandoque recedunt.
1623. Lib. de Incantatione, Imaginatio subitum humorum, et spirituum motum
infert, undo vario affectu rapitur sanguis, ac una morbificas causas
partibus affectis eripit.
1624. Lib. 3. c. 18. de praestig. Ut impia credulitate quis laeditur, sic
et levari eundem credibile est, usuque observatum.
1625. Aegri persuasio et fiducia, omni arti et consilio et medicinae
praeferenda. Avicen.
1626. Plures sanat in quem plures confidunt. lib. de sapientia.
1627. Marcelius Ficinus, l. 13. c. 18. de theolog. Platonica. Imaginatio
est tanquam Proteus vel Chamaeleon, corpus proprium et alienum
nonnunquam afficiens.
1628. Cur oscitantes oscitent, Wierus.
1629. T. W. Jesuit.
1630. 3. de Anima.
1631. Ser. 35. Hae quatuor passiones sunt tanquam rotae in curru, quibus
vehimur hoc mundo.
1632. Harum quippe immoderatione, spiritus marcescunt. Fernel. l. 1. Path.
c. 18.
1633. Mala consuetudine depravatur ingenium ne bene faciat. Prosper
Calenus, l. de atra bile. Plura faciunt homines e consuetudine quam e
ratione. A teneris assuescere multum est. Video meliora proboque
deteriora sequor. Ovid.
1634. Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso.
1635. Multi se in inquietudinem praecipitant ambitione et cupiditatibus
excaecati, non intelligunt se illud a diis petere, quod sibi ipsis si
velint praestare possint, si curis et perturbationibus, quibus
assidue se macerant, imperare vellent.
1636. Tanto studio miseriarum causas, et alimenta dolorum quaerimus,
vitamque secus felicissimam, tristem et miserabilem efficimus.
Petrarch. praefat. de Remediis, &c.
1637. Timor et moestitia, si diu perseverent, causa et soboles atri humoris
sunt, et in circulum se procreant. Hip. Aphoris. 23. l. 6. Idem
Montaltus, cap. 19. Victorius Faventinus, pract. imag.
1638. Multi ex maerore et metu huc delapsi sunt. Lemn., lib. 1. cap. 16.
1639. Multa cura et tristitia faciunt accedere melancholiam (cap. 3. de
mentis alien.) si altas radices agat, in veram fixamque degenerat
melancholiam et in desperationem desinit.
1640. Ille luctus, ejus vero soror desperatio simul ponitur.
1641. Animarum crudele tormentum, dolor inexplicabilis, tinea non solum
ossa, sed corda pertingens, perpetuus carnifex, vires animae
consumens, jugis nox, et tenebrae profundae, tempestas et turbo et
febris non apparens, omni igne validius incendens; longior, et pugnae
finem non habens--Crucem circumfert dolor, faciemque omni tyranno
crudeliorem prae se fert.
1642. Nat. Comes Mythol. l. 4. c. 6.
1643. Tully 3. Tusc. omnis perturbatio miseria et carnificina est dolor.
1644. M. Drayton in his Her. ep.
1645. Crato consil. 21. lib. 2. moestitia universum infrigidat corpus,
calorem innatum extinguit, appetitum destruit.
1646. Cor refrigerat tristitia, spiritus exsiccat, innatumque calorem
obruit, vigilias inducit, concoctionem labefactat, sanguinem
incrassat, exageratque melancholicum succum.
1647. Spiritus et sanguis hoc contaminatur. Piso.
1648. Marc. vi. 16. 11.
1649. Maerore maceror, marcesco et consenesco miser, ossa atque pellis sum
misera macritudice. Plaut.
1650. Malum inceptum et actum a tristitia sola.
1651. Hildesheim, spicel. 2. de melancholia, maerore animi postea
accedente, in priora symptomata incidit.
1652. Vives, 3. de anima, c. de maerore. Sabin. in Ovid.
1653. Herodian. l. 3. maerore magis quem morbo consumptus est.
1654. Bothwallius atribilarius obiit Brizarrus Genuensis hist. &c.
1655. So great is the fierceness and madness of melancholy.
1656. Moestitia cor quasi percussum constringitur, tremit et languescit cum
acri sensu doloris. In tristitia cor fugiens attrahit ex Splene
lentum humorem melancholicum, qui effusus sub costis in sinistro
latere hypocondriacos flatus facit, quod saepe accidit iis qui
diuturna cura et moestitia conflictantur. Melancthon.
1657. Lib. 3. Aen. 4.
1658. Et metum ideo deam sacrarunt ut bonam mentem concederet. Varro,
Lactantius, Aug.
1659. Lilius Girald. Syntag. l. de diis miscellaniis.
1660. Calendis Jan. feriae sunt divae Angeronae, cui pontifices in sacello
Volupiae sacra faciunt, quod angores et animi solicitudines
propitiata propellat.
1661. Timor inducit frigus, cordis palpitationem, vocis defectum atque
pallorem. Agrippa, lib. 1. cap. 63. Timidi semper spiritus habent
frigidos. Mont.
1662. Effusas cernens fugientes agmine turmas; quis mea nunc inflat cornua
Faunus ait? Alciat.
1663. Metus non solum memoriam consternat, sed et institutum animi omne et
laudabilem conatum impedit. Thucidides.
1664. Lib. de fortitudine et virtute Alexandri, ubi prope res adfuit
terribilis.
1665. Sect. 2. Mem. 3. Subs. 2.
1666. Sect. 2. Memb. 4. Subs. 3.
1667. Subtil. 18. lib. timor attrahit ad se Daemonas, timor et error multum
in hominibus possunt.
1668. Lib. 2. Spectris ca. 3. fortes raro spectra vident, quia minus
timent.
1669. Vita ejus.
1670. Sect. 2. Memb. 4. Subs. 7.
1671. De virt. et vitiis.
1672. Com. in Arist. de Anima.
1673. Qui mentem subjecit timoria dominationi, cupiditatis, doloris,
ambitionis, pudoris, felix non est, sed omnino miser, assiduis
laborius torquetur et miseria.
1674. Multi contemnunt mundi strepitum, reputant pro nihilo gloriam, sed
timent infamiam, offensionem, repulsam. Voluptatem severissime
contemnunt, in dolore sunt molliores, gloriam negligunt, franguntur
infamia.
1675. Gravius contumeliam ferimus quam detrimentum, ni abjecto nimis animo
sinius. Plut. in Timol.
1676. Quod piscatoris aenigma solvere non posset.
1677. Ob Tragoediam explosam, mortem sibi gladio concivit.
1678. Cum vidit in triumphum se servari, causa ejus ignominiae vitandae
mortem sibi concivit. Plut.
1679. Bello victus, per tres dies sedit in prora navis, abstinens ab omni
consortio, etiam Cleopatiae, postea se interfecit.
1680. Cum male recitasset Argonautica, ob pudorem exulavit.
1681. Quidam prae verecundia simul et dolore in insaniam incidunt, eo quod
a literatorum gradu in examine excluduntur.
1682. Hostratus cucullatus adeo graviter ob Reuclini librum, qui
inscribitur, Epistolae obscurorum virorum, dolore simul et pudore
sauciatus, ut seipsum interfecerit.
1683. Propter ruborem confusus, statim cepit delirare, &c. ob suspicionem,
quod vili illum crimine accusarent.
1684. Horat.
1685. Ps. Impudice. B. Ita est. Ps. sceleste. B. dicis vera Ps. Verbero. B.
quippeni Ps. furcifer. B. factum optime. Ps. soci fraude. B. sunt mea
istaec Ps. parricida B. perge tu Ps. sacrilege. B. fateor. Ps.
perjure B. vera dicis. Ps. pernities adolescentum B. acerrime. Ps.
fur. B. babe. Ps. fugitive. B. bombax. Ps. fraus populi. B.
Planissime. Ps. impure leno, coenum. B. cantores probos. Pseudolus,
act. 1. Scen. 3.
1686. Melicerta exclaims, "all shame has vanished from human transactions."
Persius. Sat. V.
1687. Cent. 7. e Plinio.
1688. Multos vide mus propter invidiam et odium in melancholiam incidisse:
et illos potissimum quorum corpora ad hanc apta sunt.
1689. Invidia affligit homines adeo et corrodit, ut hi melancholici penitus
fiant.
1690. Hor.
1691. His vultus minax, torvus aspectus, pallor in facie, in labiis tremor,
stridor in dentibus, &c.
1692. Ut tinea corrodit vestimentum sic, invidiae eum qui zelatur consumit.
1693. Pallor in ore sedet, macies in corpore toto. Nusquam recta acies,
livent rubigine dentes.
1694. Diaboli expressa Imago, toxicum charitatis, venenum amicitiae,
abyssus mentis, non est eo monstrosius monstrum, damnosius damnum,
urit, torret, discruciat macie et squalore conficit. Austin. Domin.
primi. Advent.
1695. Ovid. He pines away at the sight of another's success----it is his
special torture.
1696. Declam. 13. linivit flores maleficis succis in venenum mella
convertens.
1697. Statuis cereis Basilius eos comparat, qui liquefiunt ad praesentiam
solis, qua alii gaudent et ornantur. Muscis alii, quae ulceribus
gaudent, amaena praetereunt sistunt in faetidis.
1698. Misericordia etiam quae tristitia quaedam est, saepe miserantis
corpus male afficit Agrippa. l. 1. cap. 63.
1699. Insitum mortalibus a natura recentem aliorem felicitatem aegris
oculis intueri, hist. l. 2. Tacit.
1700. Legi Chaldaeos, Graecos, Hebraeos, consului sapientes pro remedio
invidiae, hoc enim inveni, renunciare felicitati, et perpetuo miser
esse.
1701. Omne peccatum aut excusationem secum habet, aut voluptatem, sola
invidia utraque caret, reliqua vitia finem habent, ira defervescit,
gula satiatur, odium finem habet, invidia nunquam quiescit.
1702. Urebat me aemulatio propter stultos.
1703. Hier. 12.1.
1704. Hab. 1.
1705. Invidit privati nomen supra principis attolli.
1706. Tacit. Hist. lib. 2. part. 6.
1707. Periturae dolore et invidia, si quem viderint ornatiorem se in
publicum prodiisse. Platina dial. amorum.
1708. Ant. Guianerius, lib. 2. cap. 8. vim. M. Aurelii faemina vicinam
elegantius se vestitam videns, leaenae instar in virum insurgit, &c.
1709. Quod insigni equo et ostro veheretur, quanquam nullius cum injuria,
ornatum illum tanquam laesae gravabantur.
1710. Quod pulchritudine omnes excelleret, puellae indignatae occiderunt.
1711. Late patet invidiae foecundae pernities, et livor radix omnium
malorum, fons cladium, inde odium surgit emulatio Cyprian, ser. 2. de
Livore.
1712. Valerius, l. 3. cap. 9.
1713. Qualis est animi tinea, quae tabes pectoris zelare in altero vel
aliorum felicitatem suam facere miseriam, et velut quosdam pectori
suo admovere carnifices, cogitationibus et sensibus suis adhibere
tortores, qui se intestinis cruciatibus lacerent. Non cibus talibus
laetus, non potus potest esse jucundus; suspiratur semper et gemitur,
et doletur dies et noctes, pectus sine intermissione laceratur.
1714. Quisquis est ille quem aemularis, cui invides is te subterfugere
potest, at tu non te ubicunque fugeris adversarius tuus tecum est,
hostis tuus semper in pectore tuo est, pernicies intus inclusa,
ligatus es, victus, zelo dominante captivus: nec solatia tibi ulla
subveniunt; hinc diabolus inter initia statim mundi, et periit
primus, et perdidit, Cyprian, ser. 2. de zelo et livore.
1715. Hesiod op dies.
1716. Rama cupida aequandi bovem, se distendebat, &c.
1717. alit ingenia: Paterculus poster. Vol.
1718. Grotius Epig. lib. 1. "Ambition always is a foolish confidence, never
a slothful arrogance."
1719. Anno 1519. between Ardes and Quine.
1720. Spartian.
1721. Plutarch.
1722. Johannes Heraldus, l. 2. c. 12. de bello sac.
1723. Nulla dies tantum poterit lenire furorem. Aeterna bella pace sublata
gerunt. Jurat odium, nec ante invisum esse desinit, quam esse desiit.
Paterculus, vol. 1.
1724. Ita saevit haec stygia ministra ut urbes subvertat aliquando, deleat
populos, provincias alioqui florentes redigat in solitudines,
mortales vero miseros in profunda miseriarum valle miserabiliter
immergat.
1725. Carthago aemula Romani imperii funditus interiit. Salust. Catil.
1726. Paul 3. Col.
1727. Rom. 12.
1728. Grad. I. c. 54.
1729. Ira et in moeror et ingens animi consternatio melancholicos facit.
Areteus. Ira Immodica gignit insaniam.
1730. Reg. sanit. parte 2. c. 8. in apertam insaniam mox duciter iratus.
1731. Gilberto Cognato interprete. Multis, et praesertim senibus ira
impotens insaniam fecit, et importuna calumnia, haec initio perturbat
animum, paulatim vergit ad insaniam. Porro mulierum corpora multa
infestant, et in hunc morbum adducunt, praecipue si que oderint aut
invideant, &c. haec paulatim in insaniam tandem evadunt.
1732. Saeva animi tempestas tantos excitans, fluctus ut statim ardescant
oculi os tremat, lingua titubet, dentes concrepant, &c.
1733. Ovid.
1734. Terence.
1735. Infensus Britanniae Duci, et in ultionem versus, nec cibum cepit, nec
quietem, ad Calendas Julias 1392. comites occidit.
1736. Indignatione nimia furens, animique impotens, exiliit de lecto,
furentem non capiebat aula, &c.
1737. An ira possit hominem interimere.
1738. Abernethy.
1739. As Troy, saevae memorem Hunonis ob iram.
1740. Stultorum regum et populorum continet astus.
1741. Lib. 2. Invidia est dolor et ambitio est dolor, &c.
1742. Insomnes Claudianus. Tristes, Virg. Mordaces, Luc. Edaces, Hor.
moestae, amarae, Ovid damnosae, inquietae, Mart. Urentes, Rodentes.
Mant. &c.
1743. Galen, l. 3. c. 7. de locis affectis, homines sunt maxime
melancholici, quando vigiliis multis, et solicitudinibus, et
laboribus, et curis fuerint circumventi.
1744. Lucian. Podag.
1745. Omnia imperfecta, confusa, et perturbatione plena, Cardan.
1746. Lib. 7. nat. hist, cap. 1. hominem nudum, et ad vagitum edit, natura.
Flens ab initio, devinctus jacet, &c.
1747. (Greek: Dakru cheon genemin, kai dakrutas epithukoko, to genos
anthropon poludakruton, asthenes hoikzoun.) Lachrymans natus sum, et
lachrymans morior, &c.
1748. Ad Marinum.
1749. Boethius.
1750. Initium caecitas progressum labor, exitum dolor, error omnia: quem
tranquillum quaeso, quem non laboriosum aut anxium diem egimus?
Petrarch.
1751. Ubique periculum, ubique dolor, ubique naufragium, in hoc ambitu
quocunque me vertam. Lipsius.
1752. Hom. 10. Si in forum iveris, ibi rixae, et pugnae; si in curiam, ibi
fraus, adulatio: si in domum privatam, &c.
1753. Homer.
1754. Multis repletur homo miseriis, corporis miseriis, animi miseriis, dum
dormit, dum vigilat, quocunque se vertit. Lususque rerum, temporumque
nascimur.
1755. In blandiente fortuna intolerandi, in calamitatibus lugubres, semper
stulti et miseri, Cardan.
1756. Prospera in adversis desidero, et adversa prosperis timeo, quis inter
haec medius locus, ubi non fit humanae vitae tentatio?
1757. Cardan. consol. Sapientiae Labor annexus, gloriae invidia, divitiis
curae, soboli solicitudo, voluptati morbi, quieti paupertas, ut quasi
fruendoriun scelerum causa nasci hominem possis cum Platonistis
agnoscere.
1758. Lib. 7. cap. 1. Non satis aestimare, an melior parens natura homini,
an tristior noverca fuerit: Nulli fragilior vita, pavor, confusio,
rabies major, uni animantium ambitio data, luctus, avaritia, uni
superstitio.
1759. Euripides. "I perceive such an ocean of troubles before me, that no
means of escape remain."
1760. De consol. l. 2. Nemo facile cum conditione sua concordat, inest
singulis quod imperiti petant, experti horreant.
1761. Esse in honore juvat, mox displicet.
1762. Hor.
1763. Borrheus in 6. Job. Urbes et oppida nihil aliud sunt quam humanarum
aerumnarum domicilia quibus luctus et moeror, et mortalium varii
infinitique labores, et omnis generis vitia, quasi septis
includuntur.
1764. Nat. Chytreus de lit. Europae. Laetus nunc, mox tristis; nunc
sperans, paulo post diffidens; patiens hodie, cras ejuians; nunc
pallens, rubens, currens, sedens, claudicans; tremens, &c.
1765. Sua cuique calamitas praecipua.
1766. Cn. Graecinus.
1767. Epist. 9. l. 7. Miser est qui se beatissimum non judicat, licet
imperet mundo non est beatus, qui se non putat: quid enim refert
qualis status tuus sit, si tibi videtur malus.
1768. Hor. ep. 1. l. 4.
1769. Hor. Ser. 1. Sat. 1.
1770. Lib. de curat. graec. affect. cap. 6. de provident. Multis nihil
placet atque adeo et divitias damnant, et paupertatem, de morbis
expostulant, bene valentes graviter ferunt, atque ut semel dicam,
nihil eos delectat, &c.
1771. Vix ultius gentis, aetatis, ordinis, hominem invenies cujus
felicitatem fortunae Metelli compares, Vol. 1.
1772. P. Crassus Mutianus, quinque habuisse dicitur rerum bonarum maxima,
quod esset ditissimus, quod esset nobilissimus, eloquentissimus,
Jurisconsultissimus, Pontifex maximus.
1773. Lib. 7. Regis filia, Regis uxor, Regis mater.
1774. Qui nihil unquam mali aut dixit, aut fecit, aut sensit, qui bene
semper fecit, quod aliter facere non potuit.
1775. Solomon. Eccles. 1. 14.
1776. Hor. Art. Poet.
1777. Jovius, vita ejus.
1778. 2 Sam. xii. 31.
1779. Boethius, lib. 1. Met. Met. 1.
1780. Omnes hic aut captantur, aut captant: aut cadavera quae lacerantur,
aut corvi qui lacterant. Petron.
1781. Homo omne monstrum est, ille nam susperat feras, luposque et ursos
pectore obscuro tegit. Hens.
1782. Quod Paterculus de populo Romano durante bello Punico per annos 115,
aut bellum inter eos, aut belli praeparatio, aut infida pax, idem ego
de mundi accolis.
1783. Theocritus Edyll. 15.
1784. Qui sedet in mensa, non meminit sibi otioso ministrare negotiosos,
edenti esurientes, bibenti sitientes, &c.
1785. Quando in adolescentia sua ipsi vixerint, lautius et liberius
voluptates suas expleverint, illi gnatis impenunt duriores
continentiae leges.
1786. Lugubris Ate luctuque fero Regum tumidas obsidet arces. Res est
inquieta felicitas.
1787. Plus aloes quam mellis habet. Non humi jacentem tolleres. Valer. l.
7. c. 3.
1788. Non diadema aspicias, sed vitam afflictione refertam, non catervas
satellitum, sed curarum multitudinem.
1789. As Plutarch relateth.
1790. Sect. 2. memb. 4. subsect. 6.
1791. Stercus et urina, medicorum fercula prima.
1792. Nihil lucrantur, nisi admodum mentiendo. Tull. Offic.
1793. Hor. l. 2. od. 1.
1794. Rarus felix idemque senex. Seneca in Her. aeteo.
1795. Omitto aegros, exules, mendicos, quos nemo audet felices dicere.
Card. lib. 8. c. 46. de rer. var.
1796. Spretaeque injuria formae.
1797. Hor.
1798. Attenuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae.
1799. Plautus.
1800. Haec quae crines evellit, aerumna.
1801. Optimum non nasci, aut cito mori.
1802. Bonae si rectam rationem sequuntur, malae si exorbitant.
1803. Tho. Buovie. Prob. 18.
1804. Molam asinariam.
1805. Tract. de Inter. c. 92.
1806. Circa quamlibet rem mundi haec passio fieri potest, quae superflue
diligatur. Tract. 15. c. 17.
1807. Ferventius desiderium.
1808. Imprimis vero Appetitus, &c. 3. de alien. ment.
1809. Conf. l. c. 29.
1810. Per diversa loca vagor, nullo temporis momento quiesco, talis et
talis esse cupio, illud atque illud habere desidero.
1811. Ambros. l. 3. super Lucam. aerugo animae.
1812. Nihil animum cruciat, nihil molestius inquietat, secretum virus,
pestis occulta, &c. epist. 126.
1813. Ep. 88.
1814. Nihil infelicius his, quantus iis timor, quanta dubitatio, quantus
conatus, quanta solicitudo, nulla illis a molestiis vacua hora.
1815. Semper attonitus, semper pavidus quid dicat, faciatve: ne displiceat
humilitatem simulat, honestatem mentitur.
1816. Cypr. Prolog. ad ser. To. 2. cunctos honorat, universis inclinat,
subsequitur, obsequitur, frequentat curias, visitat, optimates
amplexatur, applaudit, adulatur: per fas et nefas e latebris, in
omnem gradum ubi aditus patet se integrit, discurrit.
1817. Turbae cogit ambitio regem inservire, ut Homerus Agamemnonmem
querentem inducit.
1818. Plutarchus. Quin convivemur, et in otio nos oblectemur, quoniam in
promptu id nobis sit, &c.
1819. Jovius hist. l. 1. vir singulari prudentia, sed profunda ambitione,
ad exitium Italae natus.
1820. Ut hedera arbori adhaeret, sic ambitio, &c.
1821. Lib. 3. de contemptu rerum fortuitarum. Magno conatu et impetu
moventur, super eodem centro rotati, non proficiunt, nec ad finem
perveniunt.
1822. Vita Pyrrhi.
1823. Ambitio in insaniam facile delabitur, si excedat. Patritius, l. 4.
tit. 20. de regis instit.
1824. Lib. 5. de rep. cap. 1.
1825. Imprimis vero appetitus, seu concupiscentia nimia rei alicujus,
honestae vel inhonestae, phantasiam laedunt; unde multi ambitiosi,
philauti, irati, avari, insani, &c. Felix Plater, l. 3. de mentis
alien.
1826. Aulica vita colluvies ambitionis, cupiditatis, simulationis,
imposturae, fraudis, invidiae, superbiae Titannicae diversorium aula,
et commune conventiculum assentandi artificum, &c. Budaeus de asse.
lib. 5.
1827. In his Aphor.
1828. Plautus Curcul. Act. 4. Sce. 1.
1829. Tom. 2. Si examines, omnes miseriae causas vel a furioso contendendi
studio, vel ab injusta cupiditate, origine traxisse scies. Idem fere
Chrysostomus com. in c. 6. ad Roman. ser. 11.
1830. Cap. 4. 1.
1831. Ut sit iniquus in deum, in proximum, in seipsum.
1832. Si vero, Crateva, inter caeteras herbarum radices, avaritiae radicem
secare posses amaram, ut nullae reliquiae essent, probe scito, &c.
1833. Cap. 6. Dietae salutis: avaritia est amor immoderatus pecuniae vel
acquirendae, vel retinendae.
1834. Ferum profecto dirumque ulcus animi, remediis non cedens medendo
exasperatur.
1835. Malus est morbus maleque afficit avaritia siquidem censeo, &c.
avaritia difficilius curatur quam insania: quoniam hac omnes fere
medici laborant. Hib. ep. Abderit.
1836. Qua re non es lassus? lucrum faciendo: quid maxime delectabile?
lucrari.
1837. Extremos currit mercator ad Indos. Hor.
1838. Hom. 2. aliud avarus aliud dives.
1839. Divitiae ut spinae animum hominis timoribus, solicitudinibus,
angoribus mirifice pungunt, vexant, cruciant. Greg. in hom.
1840. Epist. ad Donat. cap. 2.
1841. Lib. 9. ep. 30.
1842. Lib. 9. cap. 4. insulae rex titulo, sed animopecuniae miserabile
mancipium.
1843. Hor. 10. lib. 1.
1844. Danda est hellebori multo pars maxima avaris.
1845. Luke. xii. 20. Stulte, hac nocte eripiam animam tuam.
1846. Opes quidem mortalibus sunt dementia Theog.
1847. Ed. 2. lib. 2. Exonerare cum se possit et relevare ponderibus pergit
magis fortunis augentibus pertinaciter incubare.
1848. Non amicis, non liberis, non ipsi sibi quidquam impertit, possidet ad
hoc tantum, ne possidere alteri liceat, &c. Hieron. ad Paulin. tam
deest quod habet quam quod non habet.
1849. Epist. 2. lib. 2. Suspirat in convivio, bibat licet gemmis et toro
molliore marcidum corpus condiderit, vigilat in pluma.
1850. Angustatur ex abundantia, contristatur ex opulentia, infelix
praesentibus bonis, infelicior in futuris.
1851. Illorum cogitatio nunquam cessat qui pecunias supplere diligunt.
Guianer. tract. 15. c. 17.
1852. Hor. 3. Od. 24. Quo plus sunt potae, plus sitiunter aquae.
1853. Hor. l. 2. Sat. 6. O si angulus ille proximus accedat, qui nunc
deformat agellum.
1854. Lib. 3. de lib. arbit. Immoritur studiis, et amore senescit habendi.
1855. Avarus vir inferno est similis, &c. modum non habet, hoc egentior quo
plura habet.
1856. Erasm. Adag. chil. 3. cent. 7. pro. 72 Nulli fidentes omnium
formidant opes, ideo pavidum malum vocat Euripides: metuunt
tempestates ob frumentum, amicos ne rogent, inimicos ne laedant,
fures ne rapiant, bellum timent, pacem timent, summos, medios,
infinos.
1857. Hall Char.
1858. Agellius, lib. 3. cap. 1. interdum eo sceleris perveniunt ob lucrum,
ut vitam propriam commutent.
1859. Lib. 7. cap. 6.
1860. Omnes perpetuo morbo agitantur, suspicatur omnes timidus sibique ob
aurum insidiari putat, nunquam quiescens, Plin. Prooem. lib. 14.
1861. Cap. 18. in lecto jacens interrogat uxorem an arcam probe clausit, an
capsula, &c. E lecto surgens nudus et absque calceis, accensa lucerna
omnia obiens et lustrans, et vix somno indulgens.
1862. Curis extenuatus, vigilans et secum supputans.
1863. Cave quenquam alienum in aedes intromiseris. Ignem extinqui volo, ne
causae quidquam sit quod te quisquam quaeritet. Si bona fortuna
veniat ne intromiseris; Occlude sis fores ambobus pessulis.
Discrutior animi quia domo abeundum est mihi: Nimis hercule invitus
abeo, nec quid agam scio.
1864. Ploras aquam profundere, &c. periit dum fumus de tigillo exit foras.
1865. Juv. Sat. 14.
1866. Ventrocosus, nudus, pallidus, laeva pudorem occultans, dextra siepsum
strangulans, occurit autem exeunti poenitentia his miserum
conficiens, &c.
1867. Luke XV.
1868. Boethius.
1869. In Oeconom. Quid si nunc ostendam eos qui magna vi argenti domus
inutiles aedificant, inquit Socrates.
1870. Sarisburiensis Polycrat. l. 1. c. 14. venatores omnes adhuc
institutionem redolent centaurorum. Raro invenitur quisquam eorum
modestus et gravis, raro continens, et ut credo sobrius unquam.
1871. Pancirol. Tit. 23. avolant opes cum accipitre.
1872. Insignis venatorum stultitia, et supervacania cura eorum, qui dum
nimium venationi insistunt, ipsi abjecta omni humanitate in feras
degenerant, ut Acteon, &c.
1873. Sabin. in Ovid. Metamor.
1874. Agrippa de vanit. scient. Insanum venandi studium, dum a novalibus
arcentur agricolae subtrahunt praedia rusticis, agricolonis
praecluduntur sylvae et prata pastoribus ut augeantur pascua
feris.--Majestatis reus agricola si gustarit.
1875. A novalibus suis arcentur agricolae, dum ferae habeant vagandi
libertatem: istis, ut pascua augeantur, praedia subtrahuntur, &c.
Sarisburiensis.
1876. Feris quam hominibus aequiores. Cambd. de Guil. Conq. qui 36
Ecclesias matrices depopulatus est ad forestam novam. Mat. Paris.
1877. Tom. 2. de vitis illustrium, l. 4. de vit. Leon. 10.
1878. Venationibus adeo perdite studebat et aucupiis.
1879. Aut infeliciter venatus tam impatiens inde, ut summos saepe viros
acerbissimis contumeliis oneraret, et incredibile est quali vultus
animique habitu dolorem iracundiamque praeferret, &c.
1880. Unicuique autem hoc a natura insitum est, ut doleat sicubi erraverit
aut deceptus sit.
1881. Juven. Sat. 8. Nec enim loculis comitan tibus itur, ad casum tabulae,
posita sed luditur arca Leinnius instit. ca. 44. mendaciorum quidem,
et perjuriorum et paupertatis mater est alea, nullam habens
patrimonii reverentiam, quum illud effuderit, sensim in furta
delabitur et rapinas. Saris, polycrat. l. 1. c. 5.
1882. Damhoderus.
1883. Dan. Souter.
1884. Petrar. dial. 27.
1885. Salust.
1886. Tom. 3 Ser. de Allea.
1887. Plutus in Aristop. calls all such gamesters madmen. Si in insanum
hominem contigero. Spontaneum ad se trahunt furorem, et os, et nares
et oculos rivos faciunt furoris et diversoria, Chrys. hom. 17.
1888. Pascasius Justus l. 1. de alea.
1889. Seneca.
1890. Hall.
1891. In Sat. 11. Sed deficiente crumena: et crescente gula, quis te manet
exitus--rebus in ventrem mersis.
1892. Spartian. Adriano.
1893. Alex. ab. Alex. lib. 6. c. 10. Idem Gerbelius, lib. 5. Grae. disc.
1894. Fines Moris.
1895. Justinian in Digestis.
1896. Persius Sat. 5. "One indulges in wine, another the die consumes, a
third is decomposed by venery."
1897. Poculum quasi sinus in quo saepe naufragium faciunt, jactura tum
pecuniae tum mentis Erasm. in Prov. calicum remiges. chil. 4. cent.
7. Pro. 41.
1898. Ser. 33. ad frat. in Eremo.
1899. Liberae unius horae insaniam aeterno temporis taedio pensant.
1900. Menander.
1901. Prov. 5.
1902. Merlin, cocc. "That momentary pleasure blots out the eternal glory of
a heavenly life.".
1903. Hor.
1904. Sagitta quae animam penetrat, leviter penetrat, sed non leve infligit
vulnus sup. cant.
1905. Qui omnem pecuniarum contemptum habent, et nulli imaginationis totius
munsi se immiscuerint, et tyrannicas corporis concupiscentias
sustinuerint hi multoties capti a vana gloria omnia perdiderunt.
1906. Hac correpti non cogitant de medela.
1907. Dii talem a terris avertite pestem.
1908. Ep ad Eustochium, de custod. virgin.
1909. Lyps. Ep. ad Bonciarium.
1910. Ep. lib. 9. Omnia tua scripta pulcherrima existimo, maxime tamen
illa, quae de nobis.
1911. Exprimere non possum quam sit jucundum, &c.
1912. Hierom. et licet nos indignos dicimus et calidus rubor ora perfundat,
attamen ad laudem suam intrinsecus animae laetantur.
1913. Thesaur. Theo.
1914. Nec enim mihi cornea fibra est. Per.
1915. E manibus illis, Nascentur violae. Pers. 1. Sat.
1916. Omnia enim nostra, supra modum placent.
1917. Fab. l. 10. c. 3. Ridentur mala componunt carmina, verum gaudent
scribentes, et se venerantur, et ultra. Si taceas laudant, quicquid
scripsere beati. Hor. ep. 2. l. 2.
1918. Luke xviii. 10.
1919. De meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan.
1920. Auson. sap. Chil. 3. cent. 10. pro. 97.
1921. Qui se crederet neminem ulla u re praestantiorem.
1922. Tanto fastu scripsit, ut Alexandri gesta inferiora scriptis suis
existimaret, Io. Vossius lib. 1. cap. 9. de hist.
1923. Plutarch. vie. Catonis.
1924. Nemo unquam Poeta aut Orator, qui quenquam se meliorem arbitraretur.
1925. Consol. ad Pammachium mundi Philosophus, gloriae animal, et popularis
aurae et rumorum venale mancipium.
1926. Epist. 5. Capitoni suo Diebus ac noctibus, hoc solum cogito si qua me
possum levare humo. Id voto meo sufficit, &c.
1927. Tullius.
1928. Ut nomen meum scriptis, tuis illustretur. Inquies animus studio
aeternitatis, noctes et dies angebatur. Hensius forat. uneb. de Scal.
1929. Hor. art. Poet.
1930. Od. Vit. l. 3. Jamque opus exegi. Vade liber felix Palingen. lib. 18.
1931. In lib. 8.
1932. De ponte dejicere.
1933. Sueton. lib. degram.
1934. Nihil libenter audiunt, nisi laudes suas.
1935. Epis. 56. Nihil aliud dies noctesque cogitant nisi ut in studiis suis
laudentur ab hominibus.
1936. Quae major dementia aut dici, aut excogitari potest, quam sic ob
gloriam cruciari? Insaniam istam domine longe fac a me. Austin. cons.
lib. 10. cap. 37.
1937. "As Camelus in the novel, who lost his ears while he was looking for
a pair of horns."
1938. Mart. l. 5. 51.
1939. Hor. Sat. 1. l. 2.
1940. Lib. cont. Philos. cap. 1.
1941. Tul. som. Scip.
1942. Boethius.
1943. Putean. Cisalp. hist. lib. 1.
1944. Plutarch. Lycurgo.
1945. Epist. 13. Illud te admoneo, ne eorum more facias, qui non proficere,
sed conspici cupiunt, quae in habitu tuo, aut genere vitae notabilia
sunt. Asperum cultum et vitiosum caput, negligentiorem barbam,
indictum argento odium, cubile humi positum, et quicquid ad laudem
perversa via sequitur evita.
1946. Per.
1947. Quis vero tam bene modulo suo metiri se novit, ut eum assiduae et
immodicae laudationes non moveant? Hen. Steph.
1948. Mart.
1949. Stroza. "If you will accept divine honours, we will willingly erect
and consecrate altars to you."
1950. Justin.
1951. Livius. Gloria tantum elatus, non ira, in medios hostes irruere, quod
completis muris conspici se pugnantem, a muro spectantibus, egregium
ducebat.
1952. "Applauded virtue grows apace, and glory includes within it an
immense impulse."
1953. I demens, et suevas curre per Alpes, Aude Aliquid, &c. ut pueris
placeas, et declamatio fias. Juv. Sat. 10.
1954. In moriae Encom.
1955. Juvenal. Sat. 4.
1956. "There is nothing which overlauded power will not presume to imagine
of itself."
1957. Sueton. c. 12. in Domitiano.
1958. Brisonius.
1959. Antonius ab assentatoribus evectus Librum se patrem apellari jussit,
et pro deo se venditavit redimitus hedera, et corona velatus aurea,
et thyrsum tenens, cothurnisque succinctus curru velut Liber pater
vectus est Alexandriae. Pater. vol. post.
1960. Minervae nuptias ambit, tanto furore percitus, ut satellites mitteret
ad videndum num dea in thalamis venisset, &c.
1961. Aelian. li. 12.
1962. De mentis alienat. cap. 3.
1963. Sequiturque superbia formam. Livius li. 11. Oraculum est, vivida
saepe ingenia, luxuriare hac et evanescere multosque sensum penitus
amisisse. Homines intuentur, ac si ipsi non essent homines.
1964. Galeus de rubeis, civis noster faber ferrarius, ob inventionem
instrumenti Cocleae olim Archimedis dicti, prae laetitia insanivit.
1965. Insania postmodum correptus, ob nimiam inde arrogantiam.
1966. Bene ferre magnam disce fortunam Hor. Fortunam reverenter habe,
quicunque repente Dives ab exili progrediere loco. Ausonius.
1967. Processit squalidus et submissus, ut hesterni Diei gaudium
intemperans hodie castigaret.
1968. Uxor Hen. 8.
1969. Neutrius se fortunae extremum libenter experturam dixit: sed si
necessitas alterius subinde imponeretur, optare se difficilem et
adversam: quod in hac nulli unquam defuit solatium, in altera multis
consilium, &c. Lod. Vives.
1970. Peculiaris furor, qui ex literis fit.
1971. Nihil magis auget, ac assidua studia, et profundae cogitationes.
1972. Non desunt, qui ex jugi studio, et intempestiva lucubratione, huc
devenerunt, hi prae caeteris enim plerunque melancholia solent
infestari.
1973. Study is a continual and earnest meditation, applied to something
with great desire. Tully.
1974. Et illi qui sunt subtilis ingenii, et multae praemeditationis, de
facili incidunt in melancholiam.
1975. Ob studiorum solicitudinem lib. 5. Tit. 5.
1976. Gaspar Ens Thesaur Polit. Apoteles. 31. Graecis hanc pestem
relinquite quae dubium non est, quin brevi omnem iis vigorem ereptura
Martiosque spiritus exhaustura sit; Ut ad arma tractanda plane
inhabiles futuri sint.
1977. Knoles Turk. Hist.
1978. Acts, xxvi. 24.
1979. Nimiis studiis melancholicus evasit, dicens se Biblium in capite
habere.
1980. Cur melancholia assidua, crebrisque deliramentis vexentur eorum animi
ut desipere cogantur.
1981. Solers quilibet artifex instrumenta sua diligentissime curat,
penicellos pictor; malleos incudesque faber ferrarius; miles equos,
arma venator, auceps aves, et canes, Cytharam Cytharaedus, &c. soli
musarum mystae tam negligentes sunt, ut instrumentum illud quo mundum
universum metiri solent, spiritum scilicet, penitus negligere
videantur.
1982. Arcus et arma tibi non sunt imitanda Dianae. Si nunquam cesses
tendere mollis erit. Ovid.
1983. Ephemer.
1984. Contemplatio cerebrum exsiccat et extinguit calorem naturalem, unde
cerebrum frigidum et siccum evadit quod est melancholicum. Accedit ad
hoc, quod natura in contemplatione, cerebro prorsus cordique intenta,
stomachum heparque destituit, unde ex alimentis male coctis, sanguis
crassus et niger efficitur, dum nimio otio membrorum superflui
vapores non exhalant.
1985. Cerebrum exsiccatur, corpora sensim gracilescunt.
1986. Studiosi sunt Cacectici et nunquam bene colorati, propter debilitatem
digestivae facultatis, multiplicantur in iis superfluitates. Jo.
Voschius parte 2. cap. 5. de peste.
1987. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit, partem noctis studiis dedico, non
vero somno, sed oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque, in operam
detineo.
1988. Johannes Hanuschias Bohemus. nat. 1516. eruditus vir, nimiis studiis
in Phrenesin incidit. Montanus instances in a Frenchman of Tolosa.
1989. Cardinalis Caecius; ob laborem, vigiliam, et diuturna studia factus
Melancholicus.
1990. Perls. Sat. 3. They cannot fiddle; but, as Themistocles said, he
could make a small town become a great city.
1991. Perls. Sat.
1992. Ingenium sibi quod vanas desumpsit Athenas et septem studiis annos
dedit, insenuitque. Libris et curis statua taciturnius exit,
Plerunque et risu populum quatit, Hor. ep. 1. lib. 2.
1993. Translated by M. B. Holiday.
1994. Thomas rubore confusus dixit se de argumento cogitasse.
1995. Plutarch. vita Marcelli, Nec sensit urbem captam, nec milites in
domum irruentes, adeo intentus studiis, &c.
1996. Sub Furiae larva circumivit urbem, dictitans se exploratorem ab
inferis venisse, delaturum daemonibus mortalium pecata.
1997. Petronius. Ego arbitror in scholis stultissimos fieri, quia nihil
eorum quae in usu habemus aut audiunt aut vident.
1998. Novi meis diebus, plerosque studiis literarum deditos, qui
disciplinis admodum abundabant, sed si nihil civilitatis habent, nec
rem publ. nec domesticam regere norant. Stupuit Paglarensis et furti
vilicum accusavit, qui suem foetam undecim pocellos, asinam unum
duntaxat pullam enixam retulerat.
1999. Lib. 1. Epist. 3. Adhuc scholasticus tantum est; quo genere hominum,
nihil aut est simplicius, aut sincerius aut melius.
2000. Jure privilegiandi, qui ob commune bonum abbreviant sibi vitam.
2001. Virg. 6. Aen.
2002. Plutarch, vita ejus. Certum agricolationis lucrum, &c.
2003. Quotannis fiunt consules et proconsules. Rex et Poeta quotannis non
nascitur.
2004. Mat. 21.
2005. Hor. epis. 20. l. 1.
2006. Lib 1. de contem. amor.
2007. Satyricon.
2008. Juv. Sat. 5.
2009. Ars colit astra.
2010. Aldrovandus de Avibus. l. 12. Gesner, &c.
2011. Literas habent queis sibi et fortunae suae maledicant. Sat. Menip.
2012. Lib. de libris Propriis fol. 24.
2013. Praefat translat. Plutarch.
2014. Polit. disput. laudibus extollunt eos ac si virtutibus pollerent quos
ob infinita scelera potius vituperare oporteret.
2015. Or as horses know not their strength, they consider not their own
worth.
2016. Plura ex Simonidis familiaritate Hieron consequutus est, quam ex
Hieronis Simonides.
2017. Hor. lib. 4. od. 9.
2018. Inter inertes et Plebeios fere jacet, ultimum locum habens, nisi tot
artis virtutisque insignia, turpiter, obnoxie, supparisitando
fascibus subjecerit protervae insolentisque potentiae, Lib. I. de
contempt. rerum fortuitarum.
2019. Buchanan. eleg. lib.
2020. In Satyricon. intrat senex, sed culta non ita speciosus, ut facile
appararet eum hac nota literatum esse, quos divites odisse solent.
Ego inquit Poeta sum: Quare ergo tam male vestitus es? Propter hoc
ipsum; amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit.
2021. Petronius Arbiter.
2022. Oppressus paupertate animus nihil eximium, aut sublime cogitare
potest, amoenitates literarum, aut elegantiam, quoniam nihil
praesidii in his ad vitae commodum videt, primo negligere, mox odisse
incipit. Hens.
2023. Epistol. quaest. lib. 4. Ep. 21.
2024. Ciceron. dial. lib. 2.
2025. Epist. lib. 2.
2026. Ja. Dousa Epodon. lib. 2. car. 2.
2027. Plautus.
2028. Barc. Argenis lib. 3.
2029. Joh. Howson 4 Novembris 1597. the sermon was printed by Arnold
Hartfield.
2030. Pers. Sat. 3.
2031. E lecto exsilientes, ad subitum tintinnabuli plausum quasi fulmine
territi. I.
2032. Mart.
2033. Mart.
2034. Sat. Menip.
2035. Lib. 3. de cons.
2036. I had no money, I wanted impudence, I could not scramble, temporise,
dissemble: non pranderet olus, &c. vis dicam, ad palpandum et
adulandum penitus insulsus, recudi non possum, jam senior ut sim
talis, et fingi nolo, utcunque male cedat in rem meam et obscurus
inde delitescam.
2037. Vit. Crassi. nec facile judicare potest utrum pauperior cum primo ad
Crassum, &c.
2038. Deum habent iratum, sibique mortem aeternam acquirunt, aliis
miserabilem ruinam. Serrarius in Josuam, 7. Euripides.
2039. Nicephorus lib. 10. cap. 5.
2040. Lord Cook, in his Reports, second part, fol. 44.
2041. Euripides.
2042. Sir Henry Spelman, de non temerandis Ecclesiis.
2043. 1 Tim. 42.
2044. Hor.
2045. Primum locum apud omnes gentes habet patritius deorum cultus, et
geniorum, nam hunc diutissime custodiunt, tam Graeci quam Barbari,
&c.
2046. Tom. 1. de steril. trium annorum sub Elia sermone.
2047. Ovid. Fast.
2048. De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius haeres.
2049. Strabo. lib. 4. Geog.
2050. Nihil facilius opes evertet, quam avaritia et fraude parta. Et si
enim seram addas tali arcae et exteriore janua et vecte eam
communias, intus tamen fraudem et avaritiam, &c. In 5. Corinth.
2051. Acad. cap. 7.
2052. Ars neminem habet inimicum praeter ignorantem.
2053. He that cannot dissemble cannot live.
2054. Epist. quest. lib. 4. epist. 21. Lipsius.
2055. Dr. King, in his last lecture on Jonah, sometime right reverend lord
bishop of London.
2056. Quibus opes et otium, hi barbaro fastu literas contemnunt.
2057. Lucan. lib. 8.
2058. Spartian. Soliciti de rebus minis.
2059. Nicet. 1. Anal. Fumis lucubrationum sordebant.
2060. Grammaticis olim et dialecticis Jurisque Professoribus, qui specimen
eruditionis dedissent eadem dignitatis insignia decreverunt
Imperatores, quibus ornabant heroas. Erasm. ep. Jo. Fabio epis. Vien.
2061. Probus vir et Philosophus magis praestat inter alios homines, quam
rex inclitus inter plebeios.
2062. Heinsius praefat. Poematum.
2063. Servile nomen Scholaris jam.
2064. Seneca.
2065. Haud facile emergunt, &c.
2066. Media quod noctis ab hora sedisti qua nemo faber, qua nemo sedebat,
qui docet obliquo lanam deducere ferro: rara tamen merces. Juv. Sat.
7.
2067. Chil. 4. Cent. 1. adag. J.
2068. Had I done as others did, put myself forward, I might have haply been
as great a man as many of my equals.
2069. Catullus, Juven.
2070. All our hopes and inducements to study are centred in Caesar alone.
2071. Nemo est quem non Phaebus hic noster, solo intuitu lubentiorem
reddat.
2072. Panegyr.
2073. Virgil.
2074. Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna. Juv. Sat. 8.
2075. Quis enim generosum dixerit hunc que Indignus genere, et praeclaro
nomine tantum, Insignis. Juve. Sat. 8.
2076. I have often met with myself, and conferred with divers worthy
gentlemen in the country, no whit inferior, if not to be preferred
for divers kinds of learning to many of our academics.
2077. Ipse licet Musis venias comitatus Homere, Nil tamen attuleris, ibis
Homere foras.
2078. Et legat historicos auctores, noverit omnes Tanquam ungues digitosque
suos. Juv. Sat. 7.
2079. Juvenal.
2080. Tu vero licet Orpheus sis, saxa sono testudinis emolliens, nisi
plumbea eorum corda, auri vel argenti malleo emollias, &c.
Salisburiensis Policrat. lib. 5. c. 10.
2081. Juven. Sat. 7.
2082. Euge bene, no need, Dousa epod. lib. 2.--dos ipsa scientia sibique
congiarium est.
2083. Quatuor ad portas Ecclesias itus ad omnes; sanguinis aut Simonis,
praesulis atque Dei. Holcot.
2084. Lib. contra Gentiles de Babila martyre.
2085. Praescribunt, imperant, in ordinem cogunt, ingenium nostrum prout
ipsis vicebitur, astriugunt et relaxant ut papilionem pueri aut
bruchum filo demitturit, aut attrahunt, nos a libidine sua pendere
aequum censentes. Heinsins.
2086. Joh. 5.
2087. Epist. lib. 2. Jam suffectus in locum demortui, protinus exortus est
adversarius, &c. post multos labores, sumptus, &c.
2088. Jun. Acad. cap. 6.
2089. Accipiamus pecuniam, demittamus asinum ut apud Patavinos, Italos.
2090. Hos non ita pridem perstrinxi, in Philosophastro Commaedia latina, in
Aede Christi Oxon, publice habita, Anno 1617. Feb. 16.
2091. Sat. Menip.
2092. 2 Cor. vii. 17.
2093. Comment. in Gal.
2094. Heinsius.
2095. Ecclesiast.
2096. Luth. in Gal.
2097. Pers. Sat. 2.
2098. Sallust.
2099. Sat. Menip.
2100. Budaeus de Asse, lib. 5.
2101. Lib. de rep. Gallorum.
2102. Campian.
2103. As for ourselves (for neither are we free from this fault) the same
guilt, the same crime, may be objected against us: for it is through
our fault, negligence, and avarice, that so many and such shameful
corruptions occur in the church (both the temple and the Deity are
offered for sale), that such sordidness is introduced, such impiety
committed, such wickedness, such a mad gulf of wretchedness and
irregularity--these I say arise from all our faults, but more
particularly from ours of the University. We are the nursery in which
those ills are bred with which the state is afflicted; we voluntarily
introduce them, and are deserving of every opprobrium and suffering,
since we do not afterwards encounter them according to our strength.
For what better can we expect when so many poor, beggarly fellows,
men of every order, are readily and without election, admitted to
degrees? Who, if they can only commit to memory a few definitions and
divisions, and pass the customary period in the study of logics, no
matter with what effect, whatever sort they prove to be, idiots,
triflers, idlers, gamblers, sots, sensualists,
----"mere ciphers in the book of life
Like those who boldly woo'd Ulysses' wife;
Born to consume the fruits of earth: in truth,
As vain and idle as Pheacia's youth;"
only let them have passed the stipulated period in the University,
and professed themselves collegians: either for the sake of profit,
or through the influence of their friends, they obtain a
presentation; nay, sometimes even accompanied by brilliant eulogies
upon their morals and acquirements; and when they are about to take
leave, they are honoured with the most flattering literary
testimonials in their favour, by those who undoubtedly sustain a loss
of reputation in granting them. For doctors and professors (as an
author says) are anxious about one thing only, viz., that out of
their various callings they may promote their own advantage, and
convert the public loss into their private gains. For our annual
officers wish this only, that those who commence, whether they are
taught or untaught is of no moment, shall be sleek, fat, pigeons,
worth the plucking. The Philosophastic are admitted to a degree in
Arts, because they have no acquaintance with them. And they are
desired to be wise men, because they are endowed with no wisdom, and
bring no qualification for a degree, except the wish to have it. The
Theologastic (only let them pay) thrice learned, are promoted to
every academic honour. Hence it is that so many vile buffoons, so
many idiots everywhere, placed in the twilight of letters, the mere
ghosts of scholars, wanderers in the market place, vagrants, barbels,
mushrooms, dolts, asses, a growling herd, with unwashed feet, break
into the sacred precincts of theology, bringing nothing along with
them but an impudent front, some vulgar trifles and foolish
scholastic technicalities, unworthy of respect even at the crossing
of the highways. This is the unworthy, vagrant, voluptuous race,
fitter for the hog sty (haram) than the altar (aram), that basely
prostitute divine literature; these are they who fill the pulpits,
creep into the palaces of our nobility after all other prospects of
existence fail them, owing to their imbecility of body and mind, and
their being incapable of sustaining any other parts in the
commonwealth; to this sacred refuge they fly, undertaking the office
of the ministry, not from sincerity, but as St. Paul says,
huckstering the word of God. Let not any one suppose that it is here
intended to detract from those many exemplary men of which the Church
of England may boast, learned, eminent, and of spotless fame, for
they are more numerous in that than in any other church of Europe:
nor from those most learned universities which constantly send forth
men endued with every form of virtue. And these seminaries would
produce a still greater number of inestimable scholars hereafter if
sordidness did not obscure the splendid light, corruption interrupt,
and certain truckling harpies and beggars envy them their usefulness.
Nor can any one be so blind as not to perceive this--any so stolid as
not to understand it--any so perverse as not to acknowledge how
sacred Theology has been contaminated by those notorious idiots, and
the celestial Muse treated with profanity. Vile and shameless souls
(says Luther) for the sake of gain, like flies to a milk-pail, crowd
round the tables of the nobility in expectation of a church living,
any office, or honour, and flock into any public hall or city ready
to accept of any employment that may offer. "A thing of wood and
wires by others played." Following the paste as the parrot, they
stutter out anything in hopes of reward: obsequious parasites, says
Erasmus, teach, say, write, admire, approve, contrary to their
conviction, anything you please, not to benefit the people but to
improve their own fortunes. They subscribe to any opinions and
decisions contrary to the word of God, that they may not offend their
patron, but retain the favour of the great, the applause of the
multitude, and thereby acquire riches for themselves; for they
approach Theology, not that they may perform a sacred duty, but make
a fortune: nor to promote the interests of the church, but to pillage
it: seeking, as Paul says, not the things which are of Jesus Christ,
but what may be their own: not the treasure of their Lord, but the
enrichment of themselves and their followers. Nor does this evil
belong to those of humbler birth and fortunes only, it possesses the
middle and higher ranks, _bishops excepted_. "O Pontiffs, tell the
efficacy of gold in sacred matters!" Avarice often leads the highest
men astray, and men, admirable in all other respects: these find a
salvo for simony; and, striking against this rock of corruption, they
do not shear but flay the flock; and, wherever they teem, plunder,
exhaust, raze, making shipwreck of their reputation, if not of their
souls also. Hence it appears that this malady did not flow from the
humblest to the highest classes, but _vice versa_, so that the maxim
is true although spoken in jest--"he bought first, therefore has the
best right to sell." For a Simoniac (that I may use the phraseology
of Leo) has not received a favour; since he has not received one he
does not possess one; and since he does not possess one he cannot
confer one. So far indeed are some of those who are placed at the
helm from promoting others, that they completely obstruct them, from
a consciousness of the means by which themselves obtained the honour.
For he who imagines that they emerged from their obscurity through
their learning, is deceived; indeed, whoever supposes promotion to be
the reward of genius, erudition, experience, probity, piety, and
poetry (which formerly was the case, but nowadays is only promised)
is evidently deranged. How or when this malady commenced, I shall not
further inquire; but from these beginnings, this accumulation of
vices, all her calamities and miseries have been brought upon the
Church; hence such frequent acts of simony, complaints, fraud,
impostures-- from this one fountain spring all its conspicuous
iniquities. I shall not press the question of ambition and courtly
flattery, lest they may be chagrined about luxury, base examples of
life, which offend the honest, wanton drinking parties, &c. Yet;
hence is that academic squalor, the muses now look sad, since every
low fellow ignorant of the arts, by those very arts rises, is
promoted, and grows rich, distinguished by ambitious titles, and
puffed up by his numerous honours; he just shows himself to the
vulgar, and by his stately carriage displays a species of majesty, a
remarkable solicitude, letting down a flowing beard, decked in a
brilliant toga resplendent with purple, and respected also on account
of the splendour of his household and number of his servants. There
are certain statues placed in sacred edifices that seem to sink under
their load, and almost to perspire, when in reality they are void of
sensation, and do not contribute to the stony stability, so these men
would wish to look like Atlases, when they are no better than statues
of stone, insignificant scrubs, funguses, dolts, little different
from stone. Meanwhile really learned men, endowed with all that can
adorn a holy life, men who have endured the heat of mid-day, by some
unjust lot obey these, dizzards, content probably with a miserable
salary, known by honest appellations, humble, obscure, although
eminently worthy, needy, leading a private life without honour,
buried alive in some poor benefice, or incarcerated for ever in their
college chambers, lying hid ingloriously. But I am unwilling to stir
this sink any longer or any deeper; hence those tears, this
melancholy habit of the muses; hence (that I may speak with
Secellius) is it that religion is brought into disrepute and
contempt, and the priesthood abject; (and since this is so, I must
speak out and use a filthy witticism of the filthy) a foetid. crowd,
poor, sordid, melancholy, miserable, despicable, contemptible.
2104. Proem lib. 2. Nulla ars constitui poset.
2105. Lib. 1. c. 19. de morborum causis. Quas declinare licet aut nulla
necessitate utimur.
2106. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu. Hor.
2107. Sicut valet ad fingendas corporis atque animi similitudines vis et
natura seminis, sic quoque lactis proprietas. Neque id in hominibus
solum, sed in pecudibus animadversum. Nam si ovium lacte hoedi, aut
caprarum agni alerentur, constat fieri in his lanam duriorem, in
illis capillum gigni severiorem.
2108. Adulta in ferarum persequatione ad miraculum usque sagax.
2109. Tam animal quodlibet quam homo, ab illa cujus lacte nutritur, naturam
contrahit.
2110. Improba, informis, impudica, temulenta, nutrix, &c. quoniam in
moribus efformandis magnam saepe partem igenium altricis et natura
lactis tenet.
2111. Hircanaeque admorunt ubera Tigres, Virg.
2112. Lib. 2. de Caesaribus.
2113. Beda c. 27. l. 1 Eccles. hist.
2114. Ne insitivo lactis alimento degeneret corpus, et animus corrumpatur.
2115. Lib. 3. de civ. convers.
2116. Stephanus.
2117. To. 2. Nutrices non quasvis, sed maxime probas deligamus.
2118. Nutrix non sit lasciva aut temulenta. Hier.
2119. Prohibendum ne stolida lactet.
2120. Pers.
2121. Nutrices interdum matribus sunt meliores.
2122. Lib. de morbis capitis, cap. de mania; Haud postrema causa supputatur
educatio, inter has mentis abalienationis causas. Injusta noverca.
2123. Lib. 2. cap. 4.
2124. Idem. Et quod maxime nocet, dum in teneris ita timent nihil conantur.
2125. "The pupil's faculties are perverted by the indiscretion of the
master."
2126. Praefat. ad Testam.
2127. Plus mentis paedagogico supercilio abstulit, quam unquam praeceptis
suis sapientiae instillavit.
2128. Ter. Adel. 3. 4.
2129. Idem. Ac. 1. sc. 2. "Let him feast, drink, perfume himself at my
expense: If he be in love, I shall supply him with money. Has he
broken in the gates? they shall be repaired. Has he torn his
garments? they shall be replaced. Let him do what he pleases, take,
spend, waste, I am resolved to submit."
2130. Camerarius em. 77. cent. 2. hath elegantly expressed it an emblem,
perdit amando, &c.
2131. Prov. xiii. 24. "He that spareth the rod hates his son."
2132. Lib. de consol. Tam Stulte pueros diligimus ut odisse potius
videamur, illos non ad virtutem sed ad injuriam, non ad eruditionem
sed ad luxum, non ad virtutem sed voluptatem educantes.
2133. Lib. 1. c. 3. Educatio altera natura, alterat animos et voluntatem,
atque utinam (inquit) liberorum nostrorum mores non ipsi perderemus,
quum infantiam statim deliciis solvimus: mollior ista educatio, quam
indulgentiam vocamus, nervos omnes, et mentis et corporis frangit;
fit ex his consuetudo, inde natura.
2134. Perinde agit ac siquis de calceo sit sollicitus, pedem nihil curet.
Juven. Nil patri minus est quam filius.
2135. Lib. 3. de sapient: qui avaris paedagogis pueros alendos dant, vel
clausos in coenobiis jejunare simul et sapere, nihil aliud agunt,
nisi ut sint vel non sine stultitia eruditi, vel non integra vita
sapientes.
2136. Terror et metus maxime ex improviso accedentes ita animum commovent,
ut spiritus nunquam recuperent, gravioremque melancholiam terror
facit, quam quae ab interna causa fit. Impressio tam fortis in
spiritibus humoribusque cerebri, ut extracta tota sanguinea massa,
aegre exprimatur, et haec horrenda species melancholiae frequenter
oblata mihi, omnes exercens, viros, juvenes, senes.
2137. Tract. de melan. cap. 7. et 8. non ab intemperie, sed agitatione,
dilatatione, contractione, motu spirituum.
2138. Lib. de fort. et virtut. Alex. praesertim ineunte periculo, ubi res
prope adsunt terribiles.
2139. Fit a visione horrenda, revera apparente, vel per insomnia, Platerus.
2140. A painter's wife in Basil, 1600. Somniavit filium bello mortuum, inde
Melancholica consolari noluit.
2141. Senec. Herc. Oet.
2142. Quarta pars comment. de Statu religionis in Gallia sub Carolo. 9.
1572.
2143. Ex occursu daemonum aliqui furore corripiuntur, et experientia notum
est.
2144. Lib. 8. in Arcad.
2145. Lucret.
2146. Puellae extra urbem in prato concurrentes, &c. maesta et melancholica
domum rediit per dies aliquot vexata, dum mortua est. Plater.
2147. Altera trans-Rhenana ingressa sepulchrum recens apertum, vidit
cadaver, et domum subito reversa putavit eam vocare, post paucos dies
obiit, proximo sepulchre collocata. Altera patibulum sero
praeteriens, metuebat ne urbe exclusa illic pernoctaret, unde
melancholica facta, per multos annos laboravit. Platerus.
2148. Subitus occursus, inopinata lectio.
2149. Lib. de auditione.
2150. Theod. Prodromus lib. 7. Amorum.
2151. Effuso cernens fugientes agmine turmas, Quis mea nunc inflat cornua
Faunus ait. Alciat. embl. 122.
2152. Jud. 6. 19.
2153. Plutarchus vita ejus.
2154. In furorem cum sociis versus.
2155. Subitarius terrae motus.
2156. Caepit inde desipere cum dispendio sanitatis, inde adeo dementans, ut
sibi ipsi mortem inferret.
2157. Historica relatio de rebus Japonicis Tract. 2. de legat, regis
Chinensis, a Lodovico Frois Jesuita. A. 1596. Fuscini derepente tanta
acris caligo et terraemotus, ut multi capite dolerent, plurimus cor
moerore et melancholia obrueretur. Tantum fremitum edebat, ut tonitru
fragorem imitari videretur, tantamque, &c. In urbe Sacai tam
horrificus fuit, ut homines vix sui compotes essent a sensibus
abalienati, moerore oppressi tam horrendo spectaculo, &c.
2158. Quum subit illius tristissima noctis Imago.
2159. Qui solo aspectu medicinae movebatur ad purgandum.
2160. Sicut viatores si ad saxum impegerint, aut nautae, memores sui casus,
non ista modo quae offendunt, sed et similia horrent perpetuo et
tremunt.
2161. Leviter volant graviter vulnerant. Bernardus.
2162. Ensis sauciat corpus, mentem sermo.
2163. Sciatis eum esse qui a nemine fere aevi sui magnate, non illustre
stipendium habuit, ne mores ipsorum Satyris suis notaret. Gasp.
Barthius praefat. parnodid.
2164. Jovius in vita ejus, gravissime tulit famosis libellis nomen suum ad
Pasquilli statuam fuisse laceratum, decrevitque ideo statuam
demoliri, &c.
2165. Plato, lib. 13. de legibus. Qui existimationem curant, poetas
vereantur, quia magnam vim habent ad laudandum et vituperandum.
2166. Petulanti splene cachinno.
2167. Curial. lib. 2. Ea quorundam est inscitia, ut quoties loqui, toties
mordere licere sibi putent.
2168. Ter. Eunuch.
2169. Hor. ser. lib. 2. Sat. 4. "Provided he can only excite laughter, he
spares not his best friend."
2170. Lib. 2.
2171. De orat.
2172. Laudando, et mira iis persuadendo.
2173. Et vana inflatus opinione, incredibilia ac ridenda quaedam Musices
praecepta commentaretur, &c.
2174. Ut voces nudis parietibus illisae, suavius ac acutius resilirent.
2175. Immortalitati et gloriae suae prorsus invidentes.
2176. 2. 2 dae quaest 75. Irrisio mortale peccatum.
2177. Psal. xv. 3.
2178. Balthazar Castilio lib. 2. de aulico.
2179. De sermone lib. 4. cap. 3.
2180. Fol. 55. Galateus.
2181. Tully Tusc. quaest.
2182. "Every reproach uttered against one already condemned is
mean-spirited."
2183. Mart. lib. 1. epig. 35.
2184. Tales joci ab injuriis non possint discerni. Galateus fo. 55.
2185. Pybrac in his Quadraint 37.
2186. Ego hujus misera fatuitate et dementia conflictor. Tull. ad Attic li.
11.
2187. Miserum est aliena vivere quadra. Juv.
2188. Crambae bis coctae. Vitae me redde priori.
2189. Hor.
2190. De tranquil animae.
2191. Lib. 8.
2192. Tullius Lepido Fam. 10. 27.
2193. Boterus l. 1. polit. cap. 4.
2194. Laet. descrip. Americae.
2195. If there be any inhabitants.
2196. In Taxari. Interdiu quidem collum vinctum est, et manus constricta,
noctuvero totum corpus vincitur, ad has miserias accidit corporis
faetor, strepitus ejulantium, somni brevitas, haec omnia plane
molesta et intolerabilia.
2197. In 9 Rhasis.
2198. William the Conqueror's eldest son.
2199. Salust. Romam triumpho ductus tandemque in carcerem conjectus, animi
dolore periit.
2200. Camden in Wiltsh. miserum senem ita fame et calamitatibus in carcere
fregit, inter mortis metum, et vitae tormenta, &c.
2201. Vies hodie.
2202. Seneca.
2203. Com. ad Hebraeos.
2204. Part. 2. Sect. 3. Memb. 3.
2205. Quem ut difficilem morbum pueris tradere formidamus. Plut.
2206. Lucan. l. 1.
2207. As in the silver mines at Friburgh in Germany. Fines Morison.
2208. Euripides.
2209. Tom. 4. dial. minore periculo Solem quam hunc defixis oculis licet
intueri.
2210. Omnis enim res, virtus, fama, decus, divina, humanaque pulchris
Divitiis parent. Hor. Ser. l. 2. Sat. 3. Clarus eris, fortis justus,
sapiens, etiam rex. Et quicquid volet. Hor.
2211. Et genus, et formam, regina pecunia donat. Money adds spirits,
courage, &c.
2212. Epist. ult. ad Atticum.
2213. Our young master, a fine towardly gentleman, God bless him, and
hopeful; why? he is heir apparent to the right worshipful, to the
right honourable, &c.
2214. O nummi, nummi: vobis hunc praestat honorem.
2215. Exinde sapere eum omnes dicimus, ac quisque fortunam habet. Plaut.
Pseud.
2216. Aurea fortuna, principum cubiculis reponi solita. Julius Capitolinus
vita Antonini.
2217. Petronius.
2218. Theologi opulentis adhaerent, Jurisperiti pecuniosis, literati
nummosis, liberalibus artifices.
2219. Multi illum juvenes, multae petiere puellae.
2220. "He may have Danae to wife."
2221. Dummodo sit dives barbarus, ille placet.
2222. Plut. in Lucullo, a rich chamber so called.
2223. Panis pane melior.
2224. Juv. Sat. 5.
2225. Hor. Sat. 5. lib. 2.
2226. Bohemus de Turcis et Bredenbach.
2227. Euphormio.
2228. Qui pecuniam habens, elati sunt animis, lofty spirits, brave men at
arms; all rich men are generous, courageous, &c.
2229. Nummus ait pro me nubat Cornubia Romae.
2230. "A diadem is purchased with gold; silver opens the way to heaven;
philosophy may be hired for a penny; money controls justice; one
obolus satisfies a man of letters; precious metal procures health;
wealth attaches friends."
2231. Non fuit apud mortales ullum excellentius certamen, non inter celeres
celerrimo, non inter robustos robustissimo, &c.
2232. Quicquid libet licet.
2233. Hor. Sat. 5. lib. 2.
2234. Cum moritur dives concurrunt undique cives: Pauperis ad funus vix est
ex millibus unus.
2235. Et modo quid fuit ignoscat mihi genius tuus, noluisses de manu ejus
nummos accipere.
2236. that wears silk, satin, velvet, and gold lace, must needs be a
gentleman.
2237. Est sanguis utque spiritus pecunia mortalibus.
2238. Euripides.
2239. Xenophon. Cyropaed. l. 8.
2240. In tenui rara est facundia panno. Juv.
2241. Hor. "more worthless than rejected weeds."
2242. Egere est offendere, et indigere scelestum esse. Sat. Menip.
2243. Plaut. act. 4.
2244. Nullum tam barbarum, tam vile munus est, quod non lubentissime obire
velit gens vilissima.
2245. Lausius orat. in Hispaniam.
2246. Laet. descrip. Americiae.
2247. "Who daily faint beneath the burdens they are compelled to carry from
place to place: for they carry and draw the loads which oxen and
asses formerly used," &c.
2248. Plautus.
2249. Leo. Afer. ca. ult. l. 1. edunt non ut bene vivant, sed ut fortiter
laborent. Heinsius.
2250. Munster de rusticis Germaniae, Cosmog. cap. 27. lib. 3.
2251. Ter. Eunuch.
2252. Pauper paries factus, quem caniculae commingant.
2253. Lib. 1. cap ult.
2254. Deos omnes illis infensos diceres: tam pannosi, famefracti, tot
assidue malis afficiuntur, tanquam pecora quibus splendor rationis
emortuus.
2255. Peregrin. Hieros.
2256. Nihil omnino meliorem vitam degunt, quam ferae in silvis, jumenta in
terris. Leo Afer.
2257. Bartholomeus a Casa.
2258. Ortelius in Helvetia. Qui habitant in Caesia valle ut plurimum
latomi, in Oscella valle cultrorum fabri fumarii, in Vigetia sordidum
genus hominum, quod repurgandis caminis victum parat.
2259. I write not this any ways to upbraid, or scoff at, or misuse poor
men, but rather to condole and pity them by expressing, &c.
2260. Chremilus, act. 4. Plaut.
2261. Paupertas durum onus miseris mortalibus.
2262. Vexat censura columbas.
2263. Deux ace non possunt, et sixeinque solvere nolunt; Omnibus est notum
quater tre solvere totum.
2264. Scandia, Africa, Lithuania.
2265. Montaigne, in his Essays, speaks of certain Indians in France, that
being asked how they liked the country, wondered how a few rich men
could keep so many poor men in subjection, that they did not cut
their throats.
2266. Augustas animas animoso in pectore versans.
2267. "A narrow breast conceals a narrow soul."
2268. Donatus vit. ejus.
2269. "Publius Scipio, Laelius and Furius, three of the most distinguished
noblemen at that day in Rome, were of so little service to him, that
he could scarcely procure a lodging through their patronage."
2270. Prov. xix. 7. "Though he be instant, yet they will not."
2271. Petronius.
2272. Non est qui doleat vicem, ut Petrus Christum, jurant se hominem non
novisse.
2273. Ovid, in Trist.
2274. Horat.
2275. Ter. Eunuchus, act. 2.
2276. Quid quod materiam praebet causamque jocandi: Si toca sordida sit,
Juv. Sat. 2.
2277. Hor.
2278. In Phaenis.
2279. Odyss. 17.
2280. Idem.
2281. Mantuan.
2282. "Since cruel fortune has made Sinon poor, she has made him vain and
mendacious."
2283. De Africa Lib. 1. cap. ult.
2284. 4. de legibus. furacissima paupertas, sacrilega, turbis, flagitiosa,
omnium malorum opifex.
2285. Theognis.
2286. Dipnosophist lib. 12. Millies potius moriturum (si quis sibi mente
constaret) quam tam vilis et aerumnosi victus communionem habere.
2287. Gasper Vilela Jesuita epist. Japon. lib.
2288. Mat. Riccius expedit. in Sinas lib. 1. c. 3.
2289. Vos Romani procreatos filios feris et canibus exponitis, nunc
strangulatis vel in saxum eliditis, &c.
2290. Cosmog. 4. lib. cap. 22. vendunt liberos victu carentes tanquam
pecora interdum et seipsos; ut apud divites saturentur cibis.
2291. Vel honorum desperatione vel malorum perpessione fracti el fatigati,
plures violentas manus sibi inferunt.
2292. Hor.
2293. Ingenio poteram superas volitare per arces: Ut me pluma levat, sic
grave mergit onus.
2294. Terent.
2295. Hor. Sat. 3. lib. 1.
2296. "They cannot easily rise in the world who are pinched by poverty at
home."
2297. Paschalius.
2298. Petronius.
2299. Herodotus vita ejus. Scaliger in poet. Potentiorum aedes ostratim
adiens, aliquid accipiebat, canens carmina sua, concomitante eum
puerorum choro.
2300. Plautus Ampl.
2301. Ter. Act. 4. Scen. 3. Adelph. Hegio.
2302. Donat. vita ejus.
2303. "Reduced to the greatest necessity, he withdrew from the gaze of the
public to the most remote village in Greece."
2304. Euripides.
2305. Plutarch, vita ejus.
2306. Vita Ter.
2307. Gomesius lib. 3. c. 21. de sale.
2308. Ter. Eunuch. Act. 2. Scen. 2.
2309. Liv. dec. 9. l. 2.
2310. Comineus.
2311. He that hath 5_l_. per annum coming in more than others, scorns him
that has less, and is a better man.
2312. Prov. xxx. 8.
2313. De anima, cap. de maerore.
2314. Lib. 12. epist.
2315. "Oh sweet offspring; oh my very blood; oh tender flower," &c.
2316. Vir. 4. Aen.
2317. Patres mortuos coram astantes et filios, &c. Marcellus Donatus.
2318. Epist. lib. 2. Virginium video audio defunctum cogito, alloquor.
2319. Calphurnius Graecus. "Without thee, ah! wretched me, the lillies lose
their whiteness, the roses become pallid, the hyacinth forgets to
blush neither the myrtle nor the laurel retains its odours."
2320. Chaucer.
2321. Praefat. lib. 6.
2322. Lib. de obitu Satyri fratris.
2323. Ovid. Met.
2324. Plut. vita ejus.
2325. Nobilis matrona melancholica ob mortem mariti.
2326. Ex matris obitu in desperationem incidit.
2327. Mathias a Michou. Boter. Amphitheat.
2328. Lo. Vertoman. M. Polus Venetus lib. 1. cap. 54. perimunt eos quos in
via obvios habent, dicentes, Ite, et domino nostro regi servile in
alia vita. Nec tam in homines insaniunt sed in equos, &c.
2329. Vita ejus.
2330. Lib. 4. vitae ejus, auream aetatem condiderat ad humani generis
salutem quum nos statim ab optimi principis excessu. vere ferream,
pateremur, famem, pestem, &c.
2331. Lib. 5. de asse.
2332. Maph. "They became fallen in feelings, as the great forest laments
its fallen leaves."
2333. Ortelius Itinerario: ob annum integrum a cantu, tripudiis et
saltationibus tota civitas abstinere jubetur.
2334. Virg.
2335. See Barletius de vita et ob. Scanderbeg. lib. 13. hist.
2336. Mat. Paris.
2337. Juvenalis.
2338. Multi qui res amatas perdiderant, ut filios, opes, non sperantes
recuperare, propter assiduam talium considerationem melancholici
fiunt, ut ipse vidi.
2339. Stanihurstus Hib. Hist.
2340. Cap. 3. Melancholia semper venit ab jacturam pecuniae, victoriae,
repulsam, mortem liberorum, quibus longo post tempore animus
torquetur, et a dispositione sit habitus.
2341. Consil. 26.
2342. Nubrigensis.
2343. Epig. 22.
2344. Lib. 8. Venet. hist.
2345. Templa ornamentis nudata, spoliata, in stabula equorum et asinorum
versa, &c. Insulae humi conculcatae, peditae, &c.
2346. In oculis maritorum dilectissimae conjuges ab Hispanorum lixis
constupratae sunt. Filiae magnatum thoris destinatae, &c.
2347. Ita fastu ante unum mensem turgida civitas, et cacuminibos coelum
pulsare visa, ad inferos usque paucis diebus dejecta.
2348. Sect. 2. Memb. 4. Subs. 3. fear from ominous accidents, destinies
foretold.
2349. Accersunt sibi malum.
2350. Si non observemus, nihil valent. Polidor.
2351. Consil. 26. l. 2.
2352. Harm watch harm catch.
2353. Geor. Bucha.
2354. Juvenis solicitus de futuris frustra, factus melancholicus.
2355. Pausanius in Achaicis lib. 7. Ubi omnium eventus dignoscuntur.
Speculum tenui suspensum funiculo demittunt: et ad Cyaneas petras ad
Lycicae fontes, &c.
2356. Expedit. in Sinas, lib. 1. c. 3.
2357. Timendo praeoccupat, quod vitat, ultro provocatque quod fugit,
gaudetque moerens et lubens miser fuit. Heinsius Austriac.
2358. "Must I be deprived of this life,--of those possessions?"
2359. Tom. 4. dial. 8 Cataplo. Auri puri mille talenta, me hodie tibi
daturum promitto, &c.
2360. Ibidem. Hei mihi quae relinquenda praedia? quam fertiles agri! &c.
2361. Adrian.
2362. Industria superflua circa res inutiles.
2363. Flavae secreta Minervae ut viderat Aglauros. Ov. Met. 2.
2364. Contra Philos. cap. 61.
2365. Mat. Paris.
2366. Seneca.
2367. Jos. Scaliger in Gnomit. "To profess a disinclination for that
knowledge which is beyond our reach, is pedantic ignorance."
2368. "A virtuous woman is the crown of her husband." Prov. xii. 4. "but
she," &c. &c.
2369. Lib. 17. epist. 105.
2370. Titionatur, candelabratur, &c.
2371. Daniel in Rosamund.
2372. Chalinorus lib. 9. de repub. Angl.
2373. Elegans virgo invita cuidam e nostratibus nupsit, &c.
2374. Prov.
2375. De increm. urb. lib. 3. c. 3. tanquam diro mucrone confossi, his
nulla requies, nulla delectatio, solicitudine, gemitu, furore,
desperatione, timore, tanquam ad perpetuam aerumnam infeliciter
rapti.
2376. Humfredus Llwyd epist. ad Abrahamum Ortelium. M. Vaughan in his
Golden Fleece. Litibus et controversiis usque ad omnium bonorum
consumptionem contendunt.
2377. Spretaeque injuria formae.
2378. Quaeque repulsa gravis.
2379. Lib. 36. c. 5.
2380. Nihil aeque amarum, quam diu pendere: quidam aequiore animo ferunt
praecidi spem suam quam trahi. Seneca cap. 3. lib. 2. de Den. Virg.
Plater observat. lib. 1.
2381. Turpe relinqui est, Hor.
2382. Scimus enim generosas naturas, nulla re citius moveri, aut gravius
affici quam contemptu ac despicientia.
2383. At Atticum epist. lib. 12.
2384. Epist. ad Brutum.
2385. In Phaeniss.
2386. In laudem calvit.
2387. Ovid.
2388. E Cret.
2389. Hor. Car. Lib. 3. Ode. 27.
2390. Hist. lib. 6.
2391. Non mihi si centum linguae sint, oraque centum. Omnia causarum
percurrere nomina possem.
2392. Celius l. 17. cap. 2.
2393. Ita mente exagitati sunt, ut in triremi se constitutos putarent,
marique vadabundo tempestate jactatos, proinde naufragium veriti,
egestis undique rebus vasa omnia in viam e fenestris, seu in mare
praecipitarunt: postridie, &c.
2394. Aram vobis servatoribus diis erigemus.
2395. Lib. de gemmis.
2396. Quae gestatae infelicem et tristem reddunt, curas augent, corpus
siccant, somnum minuunt.
2397. Ad unum die mente alienatus.
2398. Part. 1. Sect. 2. Subsect. 3.
2399. Juven. Sat. 3.
2400. Intus bestiae minutae multae necant. Numquid minutissima sunt grana
arenae? sed si arena amplius in navem mittatur, mergit illam; quam
minutae guttae, pluviae? et tamen implent flumina, domus ejiciunt,
timenda ergo ruina multiuidinis, si non magnitudinis.
2401. Mores sequuntur temperaturam corporis.
2402. Scintillae latent in corporibus.
2403. Gal. 5.
2404. Sicut ex animi afflictionibus corpus languescit: sic ex corporis
vitiis, et morborum plerisque cruciatibus animum videmus hebetari,
Galenus.
2405. Lib. 1. c. 16.
2406. Corporis itidem morbi animam per consensum, a lege consortii
afficiunt, et quanquam objecta multos motus turbulentos in homine
concitet, praecipua tamen causa in corde et humoribus spiritibusque
consistit, &c.
2407. Hor. Vide ante.
2408. Humores pravi mentum obnubilant.
2409. Hic humor vel a partis intemperie generatur vel relinquitur post
inflammationes, vel crassior in venis conclusus vel torpidus malignam
qualitatem contrabit.
2410. Saepe constat in febre hominem Melancholicum vel post febrem reddi,
aut alium morbum. Calida intemperies innata, vel a febre contracta.
2411. Raro quis diuturno morbo laborat, qui non sit melancholicus,
Mercurialis de affect. capitis lib. 1 c. 10 de Melanc.
2412. Ad nonum lib. Rhasis ad Almansor. c. 16. Universaliter a quacunque
parte potest fieri melancholicus. Vel quia aduritur, vel quia non
expellit superfluitatem excrementi.
2413. A Liene, juvidore, utero, et aliis partibus oritur.
2414. Materia Melancholiae aliquando in corde, in stomacho, hepate, ab
hypocondriis, myruche, splene, cum ibi romanet humor melancholicus.
2415. Ex sanguine adusto, intra vel extra caput.
2416. Qui calidum cor habent, cerebrum humidum, facile melancholici.
2417. Sequitur melancholia malam intemperiem frigidam et siccam ipsius
cerebri.
2418. Saepe fit ex calidiore cerebro, aut corpore colligente melancholiam.
Piso.
2419. Vel per propriam affectionem, vel per consensum, cum vapores exhalant
in cerebrum. Montalt. cap. 14.
2420. Aut ibi gignitur, melancholicus fumus, aut aliunde vehitur, alterando
animales facultates.
2421. Ab intemperie cordis, modo calidiore, molo frigidiore.
2422. Epist. 209. Scoltzii.
2423. Officina humorum hepar concurrit, &c.
2424. Ventriculus et venae meseraicae concurrunt, quod hae partes
obstructae sunt, &c.
2425. Per se sanguinem adurentes.
2426. Lien frigidus et siccus c. 13.
2427. Splen obstructus.
2428. De arte med. lib. 3. cap. 24.
2429. A sanguinis putredine in vasis seminariis et utero, et quandoque a
spermate diu retento, vel sanguine menstruo in melancholiam verso per
putrefactionem, vel adustionem.
2430. Magirus.
2431. Ergo efficiens causa melancholiae est calida et sicca intemperies,
non frigida et sicca, quod multi opinati sunt, oritur enim a calore
celebri assante sanguinem, &c. tum quod aromata sanguinem incendunt,
solitudo, vigiliae, febris praecedens, meditatio, studium, et haec
omnia calefaciunt, ergo ratum sit, &c.
2432. Lib. 1. cap. 13. de Melanch.
2433. Lib. 3. Tract. posthum. de melan.
2434. A fatuitate inseparabilis cerebri frigiditas.
2435. Ab interno calore assatur.
2436. Intemperies innata exurens. flavam bilem ac sanguinem in melancholiam
convertens.
2437. Si cerebrum sit calidius, fiet spiritus animales calidior, et
dilirium maniacum; si frigidior, fie fatuitas.
2438. Melancholia capitis accedit post phrenesim aut longam moram sub sole,
aut percussionem in capite, cap. 13. lib. 1.
2439. Qui bibunt vina potentia, et saepe sunt sub sole.
2440. Curae validae, largioris vini et aromatum usus.
2441. A cauterio et ulcere exsiccato.
2442. Ab ulcere curato incidit in insaniam, aperto vulnere curatur.
2443. A galea nimis calefacta.
2444. Exuritur sanguis et venae obstruuntur, quibus obstructis prohibetur
transitus Chili ad jecur, corrumpitur et in rugitus et flatus
vertitur.
2445. Stomacho laeso robur corporis imminuitur, et reliqua membra alimento
orbata, &c.
2446. Hildesheim.
2447. Habuit saeva animi symptomata quae impediunt concoctionem, &c.
2448. Usitatissimus morbus cum sit, utile est hujus visceris accidentia
considerare, nec leve periculum hujus causas morbi ignorantibus.
2449. Jecur aptum ad generandum talem humorem, splen natura imbecillior.
Piso, Altomarus, Guianerius.
2450. Melancholiam, quae fit a redundantia humoris in toto corpore, victus
imprimis generat qui eum humorem parit.
2451. Ausonius.
2452. Seneca cont. lib. 10. cont. 5.
2453. Quaedam universalia, particulariae, quaedam manifesta, quaedam in
corpore, quaedam in cogitatione et animo, quaedam a stellis, quaedam
ab humoribus, quae ut vinum corpus varie disponit, &c. Diversa
phantasmata pro varietate causae externae, internae.
2454. Lib. 1. de risu. fol. 17. Ad ejus esum alii sudant, alii vomunt,
stent, bibunt, saltant, alii rident, tremunt, dormiunt, &c.
2455. T. Bright. cap. 20.
2456. Nigrescit hic humer aliquando supercalefactus, aliquando
superfrigefactus. Melanel. a Gal.
2457. Interprete F. Calvo.
2458. Oculi his excavantur, venti gignuntur circum praecordia et acidi
ructus, sicci fere ventres, vertigo, tinnitus aurium, somni pusilli,
somnia terribilia et interrupta.
2459. Virg. Aen.
2460. Assiduae eaeque acidae ructationes quae cibum virulentum culentumque
nidorem, et si nil tale ingestum sit, referant ob cruditatem. Ventres
hisce aridi, somnus plerumque parcus et interruptus, somnia
absurdissima, turbulenta, corporis tremor, capitis gravedo, strepitus
circa aures et visiones ante oculos, ad venerem prodigi.
2461. Altomarus, Bruel, Piso, Montaltus.
2462. Frequentes habent oculorum nictationes, aliqui tamen fixis oculis
plerumque sunt.
2463. Cent. lib. 1. Tract. 9. Signa hujus morbi sunt plurimus saltus,
sonitus aurium, capitis gravedo, lingua titubat, oculi excavantur,
&c.
2464. In Pantheon cap. de Melancholia.
2465. Alvus arida nihil dejiciens cibi capaces, nihilominus tamen extenuati
sunt.
2466. Nic Piso Inflatio carotidum, &c.
2467. Andreas Dudith Rahamo. cp. lib. 3. Crat epist. multa in pulsibus
superstitio, ausim etiam dicere, tot differentias quae describuntur a
Galeno, neque intelligi a quoquam nec observari posse.
2468. T. Bright. cap. 20.
2469. Post. 40. aetat. annum, saith Jacchinus in 15. 9. Rhasis Idem.
Mercurialis consil. 86. Trincavelius, Tom. 2. cons. 17.
2470. Gordonius, modo rident, modo flent, silent, &c.
2471. Fernelius consil. 43. et 45. Montanus consil. 230. Galen de locis
affectis, lib. 3 cap. 6.
2472. Aphorism et lib. de Melan.
2473. Lib. 2. cap. 6. de locis affect. timor et moestitia, si diutius
perseverent, &c.
2474. Tract. posthumo de Melan. edit. Venetiis 1620. per Bolzettam Bibliop.
Mihi diligentius hanc rem consideranti, patet quosdam esse, qui non
laborant maerore et timore.
2475. Prob. lib. 3.
2476. Physiog lib. 1. c. 8. Quibus multa frigida bilis atra, stolidi et
timidi, at qui calidi, ingeniosi, amasii, divinosi, spiritu
instigati, &c.
2477. Omnes exercent metus et tristitia, et sine causa.
2478. Omnes timent licet non omnibus idem timendi modus Aetius Tetrab. lib.
2. sect. c. 9.
2479. Ingenti pavore trepidant.
2480. Multi mortem timent, et tamen sibi ipsis mortem consciscunt, alii
coeli ruinam timent.
2481. Affligit eos plena scrupulis conscientia, divinae misericordiae
diffidentes, Orco se destinant foeda lamentatione deplorantes.
2482. Non ausus egredi domo ne deficeret.
2483. Multi daemones timent, latrones, insidias, Avicenna.
2484. Alii comburi, alii de Rege, Rhasis.
2485. Ne terra absorbeantur. Forestus.
2486. Ne terra dehiscat. Gordon.
2487. Alii timore mortis timentur et mala gratia principum putant se
aliquid commisisse et ad supplicium requiri.
2488. Alius domesticos timet, alius omnes. Aetius.
2489. Alii timent insidias. Aurel. lib. 1. de morb. Chron. cap. 6.
2490. Ille charissimos, hic omnes homines citra discrimen timet.
2491. Virgil.
2492. Hic in lucem prodire timet, tenebrasque quaerit, contra, ille
caliginosa fugit.
2493. Quidam larvas, et malos spiritus ab inimicis veneficius et
incantationibus sibi putant objectari, Hippocrates, potionem se
veneficam sumpsisse putat, et de hac ructare sibi crebro videtur.
Idem Montaltus cap. 21. Aetius lib. 2. et alii. Trallianus l. 1. cap.
16.
2494. Observat. l. 1. Quando iis nil nocet, nisi quod mulieribus
melancholicis.
2495. tamen metusque causae nescius, causa est metus. Heinsius Austriaco.
2496. Cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis, in multis vidi, praeter rationem semper
aliquid timent, in caeteris tamen optime se gerunt, neque aliquid
praeter dignitatem committunt.
2497. Altomarus cap. 7. Areteus, triste, sunt.
2498. Mant. Egl. 1.
2499. Ovid. Met. 4.
2500. Inquies animus.
2501. Hor. l. 3. Od. 1. "Dark care rides behind him."
2502. Virg.
2503. Mened. Heautont. Act. 1. sc. 1.
2504. Altomarus.
2505. Seneca.
2506. Cap. 31. Quo stomachi dolore correptum se, etiam de consciscenda
morte cogitasse dixit.
2507. Luget et semper tristatur, solitudinem amat, mortem sibi precatur,
vitam propriam odio habet.
2508. Facile in iram incidunt. Aret.
2509. Ira sine causa, velocitas irae. Savanarola. pract. major. velocitas
irae signum. Avicenna l. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 18. Angor sine
causa.
2510. Suspicio, diffidentia, symptomata, Crato Ep. Julio Alexandrino cons.
185 Scoltzii.
2511. Hor. "At Rome, wishing for the fields, in the country, extolling the
city to the skies."
2512. Pers. Sat. 3. "And like the children of nobility, require to eat pap,
and, angry at the nurse, refuse her to sing lullaby."
2513. In his Dutch work picture.
2514. Howard cap. 7. differ.
2515. Tract. de mel. cap. 2. Noctu ambulant per sylvas, et loca periculosa,
neminem timent.
2516. Facile amant. Altom.
2517. Bodine.
2518. Io. Major vitis patrum fol. 202. Paulus Abbas Eremita tanta
solitudine, perseverat, ut nec vestem, nec vultum mulieris ferre
possit, &c.
2519. Consult, lib. 1. 17. Cons.
2520. Generally as they are pleased or displeased, so are their continual
cogitations pleasing or displeasing.
2521. Omnes excercent, vanae intensaeque animi cogitationes, (N. Piso
Bruel) et assiduae.
2522. Curiosi de rebus minimis. Areteus.
2523. Lib. 2. de Intell.
2524. Hoc melancholicis omnibus proprium, ut quas semel imaginationes valde
reciperint, non facile rejiciant, sed hae etiam vel invitis semper
occurrant.
2525. Tullius de sen.
2526. Consil. med. pro Hypochondriaco.
2527. Consil. 43.
2528. Cap. 5.
2529. Lib. 2. de Intell.
2530. Consult. 15. et 16. lib. 1.
2531. Virg. Aen. 6.
2532. Iliad. 3.
2533. Si malum exasperantur, homines odio habent et solitaria petunt.
2534. Democritus solet noctes et dies apud se degere, plerumque autem in
speluncis, sub amaenis arborum umbris vel in tenebris, et mollibus
herbis, vel ad aquarum crebra et quieta fluenta, &c.
2535. Gaudet tenebris, aliturque dolor. Ps. lxii. Vigilavi et factus sum
velut nycticorax in domicilio, passer solitarius in templo.
2536. Et quae vix audet fabula, monstra parit.
2537. In cap. 18. l. 10. de civ. dei, Lunam ab Asino epotam videus.
2538. Vel. l. 4. c. 5.
2539. Sect. 2. Memb. 1. Subs. 4.
2540. De reb. coelest. lib. 10. c. 13.
2541. l. de Indagine Goclenius.
2542. Hor. de art. poet.
2543. Tract. 7. de Melan.
2544. Humidum, calidum, frigidum, siccum.
2545. Com. in 1 c. Johannis de Sacrobosco.
2546. Si residet melancholia naturalis, tales plumbei coloris aut nigri,
stupidi, solitarii.
2547. Non una melancholiae causa est, nec unus humor vitii parens, sed
plures, et alius aliter mutatus, unde non omnes eadem sentiunt
symptomata.
2548. Humor frigidus delirii causa, humor calidus furoris.
2549. Multum refert qua quisque melancholia teneatur, hunc fervens et
accensa agitat, illum tristis et frigens occupat: hi timidi, illi
inverecundi, intrepidi, &c.
2550. Cap. 7. et 8. Tract. de Mel.
2551. Signa melancholiae ex intemperie et agitatione spirituum sine
materia.
2552. T. Bright cap. 16. Treat. Mel.
2553. Cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis.
2554. Bright, c. 16.
2555. Pract. major. Somnians, piger, frigidus.
2556. De anima cap. de humor. si a Phlegmate semper in aquis fere sunt, et
circa fluvios plorant multum.
2557. Pigra nascitur ex colore pallido et albo, Her. de Saxon.
2558. Savanarola.
2559. Muros cadere in se, aut submergi timent, cum torpore et segnitie, et
fluvios amant tales, Alexand. c. 16. lib. 7.
2560. Semper fere dormit somnolenta c. 16. l. 7.
2561. Laurentius.
2562. Ca. 6. de mel. Si a sanguine, venit rubedo oculorum et faciei,
plurimus risus.
2563. Venae oculorum sunt rubrae, vide an praecesserit vini et aromatum
usus, et frequens balneum, Trallian. lib. 1. 16. an praecesserit mora
sub sole.
2564. Ridet patiens si a sanguine, putat se videre choreas, musicam audire,
ludos, &c.
2565. Cap. 2. Tract. de Melan.
2566. Hor. ep. lib. 2. quidam haud ignobilis Argis, &c.
2567. Lib. de reb. mir.
2568. Cum inter concionandum mulier dormiens e subsellio caderet, et omnes
reliqui qui id viderent, riderent, tribus post diebus, &c.
2569. Juvenis et non vulgaris eruditionis.
2570. Si a cholera, furibundi, interficiunt, se et alios, putant se videre
pugnas.
2571. Urina subtilis et ignea, parum dormiunt.
2572. Tract. 15. c. 4.
2573. Ad haec perpetranda furore rapti ducuntur, cruciatus quosvis
tolerant, et mortem, et furore exacerbato audent et ad supplicia plus
irritantur, mirum est quantam habeant in tormentis patientiam.
2574. Tales plus caeteris timent, et continue tristantur, valde suspiciosi,
solitudinem diligunt, corruptissimas habent imaginationes, &c.
2575. Si a melancholia adusta, tristes, de sepulchris somniant, timent ne
fascinentur, putant se mortuos, aspici nolunt.
2576. Videntur sibi videre monachos nigros et daemonos, et suspensos et
mortuos.
2577. Quavis nocte se cum daemone coire putavit.
2578. Semper fere vidisse militem nigrum praesentem.
2579. Anthony de Verdeur.
2580. Quidam mugitus boum aemulantur, et pecora se putant, ut Praeti
filiae.
2581. Baro quidam mugitus boum et rugitus asinorum, et aliorum animalium
voces effingit.
2582. Omnia magna putabat, uxorem magnam, grandes equos, abhorruit omnia
parva, magna pocula, et calceamenta pedibus majora.
2583. Lib. 1. cap. 16. putavit se uno digito posse totum mundum conterere.
2584. Sustinet humeris coelum cum Atlante. Alii coeli ruinam timent.
2585. Cap. 1. Tract. 15. alius se gallum putat, alius lusciniam.
2586. Trallianus.
2587. Cap. 7. de mel.
2588. Anthony de Verdeur.
2589. Cap. 7. de mel.
2590. Laurentius cap. 6.
2591. Lib. 3. cap. 14. qui se regem putavit regno expulsum.
2592. Dipnosophist. lib. Thrasilaus putavit omnes naves in Pireum portum
appellantes suas esse.
2593. De hist. Med. mirab. lib. 2. cap. 1.
2594. Genibus flexis loqui cum illo voluit, et adstare jam tum putavit, &c.
2595. Gordonius, quod sit propheta, et inflatus a spiritu sancto.
2596. Qui forensibus causis insudat, nil nisi arresta cogitat, et supplices
libellos, alius non nisi versus facit. P. Forestus.
2597. Gordonius.
2598. Verbo non exprimunt, nec opere, sed alta mente recondunt, et sunt
viri prudentissimi, quos ego saepe novi, cum multi sint sine timore,
ut qui se reges et mortuis putant, plura signa quidam habent,
pauciora, majora, minora.
2599. Trallianus, lib. 1. 16. alii intervalla quaedam habent, ut etiam
consueta administrent, alii in continuo delirio sunt, &c.
2600. Prac. mag. Vera tantum et autumno.
2601. Lib. de humeribus.
2602. Guianerius.
2603. De mentis alienat. cap. 3.
2604. Levinus Lemnius, Jason Pratensis, blanda ab initio.
2605. "A most agreeable mental delusion."
2606. Hor.
2607. Facilis descensus averni.
2608. Virg.
2609. Corpus cadaverosum. Psa. lxvii. cariosa est facies mea prae
aegritudine animae.
2610. Lib. 9. ad Ahnansorem.
2611. Practica majore.
2612. Quum ore loquitur quae corde concepit, quum subito de una re ad aliud
transit, neque rationem de aliquo reddit, tunc est in medio, at quum
incipit operari quae loquitur, in summo gradu est.
2613. Cap. 19. Partic. 2. Loquitur secum et ad alios, ac si vere
praesentes. Aug. cap. 11. li. de cura pro mortuis gerenda. Rhasis.
2614. Quum res ad hoc devenit, ut ea quae cogitare caeperit, ore promat,
atque acta permisceat, tum perfecta melancholia est.
2615. Melancholicus se videre et audire putat daemones. Lavater de
spectris, part. 3. cap. 2.
2616. Wierus, lib. 3. cap. 31.
2617. Michael a musian.
2618. Malleo malef.
2619. Lib. de atra bile.
2620. Part. 1. Subs. 2, Memb. 2.
2621. De delirio, melancholia et mania.
2622. Nicholas Piso. Si signa circa ventriculum non apparent nec sanguis
male affectus, et adsunt timor et maestitia, cerebrum ipsum
existimandum est, &c.
2623. Tract. de mel. cap. 13, &c. Ex intemperie spirituum, et cerebri motu,
tenebrositate.
2624. Facie sunt rubente et livescente, quibus etiam aliquando adsunt
pustulae.
2625. Jo. Pantheon. cap. de Mel. Si cerebrum primario afficiatur adsunt
capitis gravitas, fixi oculi, &c.
2626. Laurent. cap. 5. si a cerebro ex siccitate, tum capitis erit levitas,
sitis, vigilia, paucitas superfluitatum in oculis et naribus.
2627. Si nulla digna laesio, ventriculo, quoniam in hac melancholia
capitis, exigua nonnunquam ventriculi pathemata coeunt, duo enim haec
membra sibi invicem affectionem transmittunt.
2628. Postrema magis flatuosa.
2629. Si minus molestiae circa ventriculum aut ventrem, in iis cerebrum
primario afficitur, et curare oportet hunc affectum, per cibos flatus
exortes, et bonae concoctionis, &c. raro cerebrum afficitur sine
ventriculo.
2630. Sanguinem adurit caput calidius, et inde fumi melancholici adusti,
animum exagitant.
2631. Lib. de loc. affect. cap. 6.
2632. Cap. 6.
2633. Hildesheim spicel. 1. de mel. In Hypochondriaca melancholia adeo
ambigua sunt symptomata, ut etiam exercitatissimi medici de loco
affecto statuere non possint.
2634. Medici de loco affecto nequeunt statuere.
2635. Tract. posthumo de mel. Patavii edit. 1620. per Bozettum Bibliop.
cap. 2.
2636. Acidi ructus, cruditates, aestus in praecordiis, flatus, interdum
ventriculi dolores vehementes, sumptoque cibo concoctu difficili,
sputum humidum idque multum sequetur, &c. Hip. lib. de mel. Galenus,
Melanelius e Ruffo et Aetio, Altomarus, Piso, Montaltus, Bruel,
Wecker, &c.
2637. Circa praecordia de assidua in flatione queruntur, et cum sudore
totius corporis importuno, frigidos articulos saepe patiuntur,
indigestione laborant, ructus suos insuaves perhorrescunt, viscerum
dolores habent.
2638. Montaltus, c. 13. Wecker, Fuchsius c. 13. Altomarus c. 7. Laurentius
c. 73. Bruel, Gordon.
2639. Pract. major: dolor in eo et ventositas, nausea.
2640. Ut atra densaque nubes soli effusa, radios et lumen ejus intercipit
et offuscat; sic, etc.
2641. Ut fumus e camino.
2642. Hypochondriaci maxime affectant coire, et multiplicatur coitus in
ipsis, eo quod ventositates multiplicantur in hypochondriis, et
coitus saepe allevat has ventositates.
2643. Cont. lib. 1. tract. 9.
2644. Wecker, Melancholicus succus toto corpore redundans.
2645. Splen natura imbecilior. Montaltus cap. 22.
2646. Lib. 1. cap. 16. Interrogare convenit, an aliqua evacuationis
retentio obvenerit, viri in haemmorrhoid, mulierum menstruis, et vide
faciem similiter an sit rubicunda.
2647. Naturales nigri acquisiti a toto corpore, saepe rubicundi.
2648. Montaltus cap. 22. Piso. Ex colore sanguinis si minuas venam, si
fluat niger, &c.
2649. Apul. lib. 1. semper obviae species mortuorum quicquid umbrarum est
uspiam, quicquid lemurum et larvarum oculis suis aggerunt, sibi
fingunt omnia noctium occursacula, omnia busforum formidamina, omnia
sepulchrorum terriculamenta.
2650. Differt enim ab ea quae viris et reliquis feminis communiter
contingit, propriam habens causam.
2651. Ex menstrui sanguinis tetra ad cor et cerebrum exhalatione, vitiatum
semen mentem perturbat, &c. non per essentiam, sed per consensum.
Animus moerens et anxius inde malum trahit, et spiritus cerebrum
obfuscantur, quae cuncta augentur, &c.
2652. Cum tacito delirio ac dolore alicujus partis internae, dorsi,
hypochondrii, cordis regionem et universam mammam interdum
occupantis, &c. Cutis aliquando squalida, aspera, rugosa, praecipue
cubitis, genibus, et digitorum articulis, praecordia ingenti saepe
torrore aestuant et pulsant, cumque vapor excitatus sursum evolat,
cor palpitat aut premitur, animus deficit, &c.
2653. Animi dejectio, perversa rerum existimatio, praeposterum judicium.
Fastidiosae, languentes, taediosae, consilii inopes, lachrymosae,
timentes, moestae, cum summa rerum meliorum desperatione, nulla re
delectantur, solitudinem amant, &c.
2654. Nolunt aperire molestiam quam patiuntur, sed conqueruntur tamen de
capite, corde, mammis, &c. In puteos fere maniaci prosilire, ac
strangulari cupiunt, nulla orationis suavitate ad spem salutis
recuperandam erigi, &c. Familiares non curant, non loquuntur, non
respondent, &c. et haec graviora, si, &c.
2655. Clisteres et Helleborismum Mathioli summe laudat.
2656. Examen conc. Trident. de coelibatu sacerd.
2657. Cap. de Satyr. et Priapis.
2658. Part. 3. sect. 2. Memb. 5. Sub. 5.
2659. "Lest you may imagine that I patronise that widow or this virgin, I
shall not add another word."
2660. Vapores crassi et nigri, a ventriculo in cerebrum exhalant. Fel.
Platerus.
2661. Calidi hilares, frigidi indispositi ad laetitiam, et ideo solitarii,
taciturni, non ob tenebras internas, ut medici volunt, sed ob frigus:
multi melancholici nocte ambulant intrepidi.
2662. Vapores melancholici, spiritibus misti, tenebrarum causse sunt, cap.
1.
2663. Intemperies facit succum nigrum, nigrities, obscurat spiritum,
obscuratio spiritus facit metum et tristiam.
2664. Ut nubecula Solern offuscat. Constantinus lib. de melanch.
2665. Altomarus c. 7. Causam timoris circumfert aler humor passionis
materia, et atri spiritus perpetuam animae domicilio offundunt
noctem.
2666. Pone exemplum, quod quis potest ambulare super trahem quae est in
via: sed si sit super aquam profundam, loco pontis, non ambulabit
super eam, eo quod imaginetur in animo et timet vehementer, forma
cadendi impressa, cui obediunt membra omnia, et facultates reliquae.
2667. Lib. 2. de intellectione. Susoiciosi ob timorem et obliquum
discursum, et semper inde putant sibi fieri insidias. Lauren. 5.
2668. Tract. de mel. cap. 7. Ex dilatione, contractione, confusione,
tenebrositate spirituum, calida, frigida intemperie, &c.
2669. Illud inquisitione dignum, cur tam falsa recipiant, habere se cornua,
esse mortuos, nasutos, esse aves, &c.
2670. 1. Dispositio corporis. 2. Occasio Imaginationis.
2671. In pro. li. de coelo. Vehemens et assidua cogitatio rei erga quam
afficitur, spiritus in cerebrum evocat.
2672. Melancholici ingeniosi omnes, summi viri in artibus et disciplinis,
sive circum imperatoriam aut reip. disciplinam omnes fere
melancholici, Aristoteles.
2673. Adeo miscentur, ut sit duplum sanguinis ad reliqua duo.
2674. Lib. 2. de intellectione. Pingui sunt Minerva phlegmatici: sanguinei
amabiles, grati, hilares, at non ingeniosi; cholerici celerna motu,
et ob id contemplationis impatientes: Melancholici solum excellentes,
&c.
2675. Trepidantium vox tremula, quia cor quatitur.
2676. Ob ariditatem quae reddit nervos linguae torpidos.
2677. Incontinentia linguae ex copia flatuum, et velocitate imaginationis.
2678. Calvities ob ficcitatis excessum.
2679. Aetius.
2680. Lauren. c. 13.
2681. Tetrab. 2. ser. 2. cap. 10.
2682. Ant. Lodovicus prob. lib. 1. sect. 5. de atrabilariis.
2683. Subrusticus pudor vitiosus pudor.
2684. Ob ignominiam aut turpedinem facti, &c.
2685. De symp. et Antip. cap. 12. laborat facies ob praesentiam ejus qui
defectum nostrum videt, et natura quasi opem latura calorem illuc
mittit, calor sanguinem trahit, undo rubor, audaces non rubent, &c.
2686. Ob gaudium et voluptatem foras exit sanguis, aut ob melioris
reverentiam, aut ob subitum occursum, aut si quid incautius
exciderit.
2687. Com. in Arist. de anima. Coeci ut plurimum impudentes, nox facit
impudentes.
2688. Alexander Aphrodisiensis makes all bashfulness a virtue, eamque se
refert in seipso experiri solitum, etsi esset admodum sanex.
2689. Saepe post cibum apti ad ruborem, ex potu vini ex timore saepe, et ab
hepate calido, cerebro calido, &c.
2690. Com. in Arist. de anima, tam a vi et inexperientia quam a vitio.
2691. De oratore, quid ipse risus, quo pacto concitatur, ubi sit, &c.
2692. Diaphragma titillant, quia transversum et nervosum, quia titillatione
moto sensu atque arteriis distentis, spiritus inde latera, venas, os,
oculos occupant.
2693. Ex calefactione humidi cerebri: nam ex sicco lachrymae non fluunt.
2694. Res mirandas imaginantur: et putant se videre quae nec vident, nec
audiunt.
2695. Laet. lib. 13. cap. 2. descript. Indiae Occident.
2696. Lib. 1. ca. 17. cap. de mel.
2697. Insani, et qui morti vicini sunt, res quas extra se videre putant,
intra oculos habent.
2698. Cap. 10. de Spirit apparitione.
2699. De occult. Nat. mirac.
2700. "O mother! I beseech you not to persecute me with those
horrible-looking furies. See! see! they attack, they assault me!"
2701. "Peace! peace! unhappy being, for you do not see what you think you
see."
2702. Seneca. Quod metuunt nimis, nunquam amoveri posse, nec tolli putant.
2703. Sanguis upupoe cum melle compositus et centaurea, &c. Albertus.
2704. Lib. 1. occult. philos. Imperiti homines daemonum et umbrarum
imagines videre se putant, quum nihil sint aliud, quam simulachra
animae expertia.
2705. Pythonissae vocum varietatem in ventre et gutture fingentes formant
voces humanas a longe vel prope, prout volunt, ac si spiritus cum
homine loqueretur, et sonos brutorum fingunt, &c.
2706. Gloucester cathedral.
2707. Tam clare et articulate audies repetitum, ut perfectior sit Echo quam
ipse dixeris.
2708. Blowing of bellows, and knocking of hammers, if they apply their ear
to the cliff.
2709. Memb. 1. Sub. 3. of this partition, cap. 16, in 9. Rhasis.
2710. Signa daemonis nulla sunt nisi quod loquantur ea quae ante
nesciebant, ut Teutonicum aut aliud Idioma, &c.
2711. Cap 12. tract. de mel.
2712. Tract. 15. c. 4.
2713. Cap 9.
2714. Mira vis concitat humores, ardorque vehemens mentem exagitat, quum,
&c.
2715. Praefat. Iamblici mysteriis.
2716. Si melancholicis haemorroides supervenerint varices, vel ut quibusdam
placet, aqua inter cutem, solvilur malum.
2717. Cap. 10. de quartana.
2718. Cum sanguis exit per superficiem et residet melancholia per scabiem,
morpheam nigram, vel expurgatur per inferiores partes, vel urinam,
&c., non erit, &c. spen magnificatur et varices apparent.
2719. Quia jam conversa in naturam.
2720. In quocunque sit a quacunque causa Hypocon. praesertim, semper est
longa, morosa, nec facile curari potest.
2721. Regina morborum et inexorabilis.
2722. Omne delirium quod oritur a paucitate cerebri incurabile, Hildesheim,
spicel. 2. de mania.
2723. Si sola imaginatio laedatur, et non ratio.
2724. Mala a sanguine fervente, deterior a bile assata, pessima ab atra
bile putrefacta.
2725. Difficilior cura ejus quae fit vitio corporis totius et cerebri.
2726. Difficilis curatu in viris, multo difficilio in faeminis.
2727. Ad interitum plerumque homines comitatur, licet medici levent
plerumque, tamen non tollunt unquam, sed recidet acerbior quam antea
minima occasione, aut errore.
2728. Periculum est ne degenereret in Epilepsiam, Apoplexiam, Convulsionem,
caecitatem.
2729. Montal. c. 25. Laurentius. Nic. Piso.
2730. Her. de Soxonia, Aristotle, Capivaccius.
2731. Favent. Humor frigidus sola delirii causa, furoris vero humor
calidus.
2732. Heurnius calls madness sobolem malancholiae.
2733. Alesander l. 1. c. 18.
2734. Lib. 1. part. 2. c. 11.
2735. Montalt. c. 15. Raro mors aut nunquam, nisi sibi ipsis inferant.
2736. Lib. de Insan. Fabio Calico Interprete.
2737. Nonulli violentas manus sibi inferunt.
2738. Lucret. l. 3.
2739. Lib. 2. de intell. saepe mortem sibi consciscunt ob timorem et
tristitiam taedeio vitae affecti ob furorem et desperationem. Est
enim infera, &c. Ergo sic perpetuo afflictati vitam oderunt, se
praecipitant, his malis carituri aut interficiunt se, aut tale quid
committunt.
2740. Psal. cvii. 10.
2741. Job xxxiii.
2742. Job. vi. 8.
2743. Vi doloris et tristitiae ad insaniam pene redactus.
2744. Seneca.
2745. In salutis suae desperatione proponunt sibi mortis desiderium, Oct.
Horat l. 2. c. 5.
2746. Lib. de insania. Sic sic juvat ire per umbras.
2747. Cap. 3. de mentis alienat. maesti degunt, dum tandem mortem quam
timent, suspendio aut submersione, aut aliqua alia vi, ut multa
tristia exempla vidimus.
2748. Arculanus in 9. Rhasis, c. 16. cavendum ne ex alto se praecipitent
aut alias laedant.
2749. O omnium opinionibus incogitabile malum. Lucian. Mortesque mille,
mille dum vivit neces gerit, peritque Hensius Austriaco.
2750. Regina morborum cui famulantur omnes et obediunt. Cardan.
2751. Eheu quis intus Scorpio, &c. Seneca Act. 4. Herc. O Et.
2752. Silius Italicus.
2753. Lib. 29.
2754. Hic omnis imbonitas et insuavitas consistit, ut Tertulliani verbis
utar, orat. ad. martyr.
2755. Plautus.
2756. Vit. Herculis.
2757. Persius.
2758. Quid est miserius in vita, quam velle mori? Seneca.
2759. Tom. 2. Libello, an graviores passiones, &c.
2760. Ter.
2761. Patet exitus; si pugnare non vultis, licet fugere; quis vos tenet
invitos? De provid. cap. 8.
2762. Agamus Deo gratias, quod nemo invitus in vita teneri potest.
2763. Epist. 26. Seneca et de sacra. 2. cap. 15. et Epist. 70. et 12.
2764. Lib. 2. cap. 83. Terra mater nostri miserta.
2765. Epist. 24. 71. 22.
2766. Mac. 14. 42.
2767. Vindicatio Apoc. lib.
2768. "Finding that he would be destined to endure excruciating pain of the
feet, and additional tortures, he abstained from food altogether."
2769. As amongst Turks and others.
2770. Bohemus de moribus gent.
2771. Aelian. lib. 4. cap. 1. omnes 70. annum egressos interficiunt.
2772. Lib. 2. Praesertim quum tormentum ei vita sit, bona spe fretus,
acerba vita velut a carcere se eximat, vel ab aliis eximi sua
voluntate patiatur.
2773. Nam quis amphoram exsiccans foecem exorberet (Seneca epist. 58.) quis
in poenas et risum viveret? stulti est manere in vita cum sit miser.
2774. Expedit. ad Sinas l. 1. c. 9. Vel bonorum desperatione, vel malorum
perpessione fracti et fagitati, vel manus violentas sibi inferunt vel
ut inimicis suis aegre faciant, &c.
2775. "No one ever died in this way, who would not have died some time or
other; but what does it signify how life itself may be ended, since
he who comes to the end is not obliged to die a second time?"
2776. So did Anthony, Galba, Vitellius, Otho, Aristotle himself, &c. Ajax
in despair; Cleopatra to save her honour.
2777. Incertius deligitur diu vivere quam in timore tot morborum semel
moriendo, nullum deinceps formidare.
2778. "And now when Ambrociotes was bidding farewell to the light of day,
and about to cast himself into the Stygian pool, although he had not
been guilty of any crime that merited death: but, perhaps, he had
read that divine work of Plato upon Death."
2779. Curtius l. 16.
2780. Laqueus praecisus, cont. 1. l. 5. quidam naufragio facto, amissis
tribus liberis, et uxore, suspendit se; praecidit illi quidam ex
praetereuntibus laqueum: A liberato reus fit maleficii. Seneca.
2781. See Lipsius Manuduc. ad Stoicam philosophiam lib. 3. dissert. 22. D.
Kings 14. Lect. on Jonas. D. Abbot's 6 Lect. on the same prophet.
2782. Plautus.
2783. Martial.
2784. As to be buried out of Christian burial with a stake. Idem. Plato 9.
de legibus, vult separatim sepeliri, qui sibi ipsis mortem
consciscunt, &c. lose their goods, &c.
2785. Navis destitutae nauclero, in terribilem aliquem scopulum impingit.
2786. Observat.
2787. Seneca tract. 1. 1. 8. c. 4. Lex Homicida in se insepultus abjiciatur
contradicitur; Eo quod afferre sibi manus coactus sit assiduis malis:
summam infelicitatem suam in hoc removit, quod existimabat licere
misero mori.
2788. Buchanan, Eleg. lib.
2789. Consil. 234. pro Abbate Italo.
2790. Consil. 23. aut curabitur, aut certe minus afficietur, si volet.
2791. Vide Renatum Morey Animad. in scholam Salernit, c. 38. si ad 40.
annos possent producere vitam, cur non ad centum? si ad centum, cur
non ad mille?
2792. Hist. Chinensum.
2793. Alii dubitant an daemon possit morbus curare quos non fecit, alii
negant, sed quotidiana experientia confirmat, magos magno multorum
stupore morbos curare, singulas corporis parte citra impedimentum
permeare, et mediis nobis ignotis curare.
2794. Agentia cum patientibus conjugant.
2795. Cap. 11. de Servat.
2796. Haec alii rident, sed vereor ne dum nolumus esse creduli, vitium non
efugiamus incredulitatis.
2797. Refert Solomonem mentis morbos curasse, et daemones abegisse ipsos
carminibus, quod et coram Vespasiano fecit Eleazar.
2798. Spirituales morbi spiritualiter curari debent.
2799. Sigillum ex auro peculiari ad Melancholiam, &c.
2800. Lib. 1. de occult. Philos. nihil refert an Deus an diabolus, angeli
an immundi spiritus aegro opem ferant, morbus curetur.
2801. Magus minister et Vicarius Dei.
2802. Utere forti imaginatione et experieris effectum, dicant in adversum
quicquid volunt Theologi.
2803. Idem Plinius contendit quosdam esse morbos qui incantationibus solum
curentur.
2804. Qui talibus credunt, aut ad eorum domos euntes, aut suis domibus
introducunt, aut interrogant, sciant se fidem Christianam et
baptismum praevaricasse, et Apostatas esse. Austin de superstit.
observ. hoc pacto a Deo deficitur ad diabolum, P. Mart.
2805. Mori praestat quam superstitiose sanari, Disquis. mag. l. 2. c. 2.
sect. 1. quaest. 1. Tom. 3.
2806. P. Lumbard.
2807. Suffitus, gladiorum ictus, &c.
2808. The Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise
will not abhor them, Ecclus. xxxviii. 4.
2809. My son, fail not in thy sickness, but pray unto the Lord, and he will
make thee whole, Ecclus. xxxviii. 9.
2810. Huc omne principium, huc refer exitum. Hor. 3. carm. Od. 6.
2811. Music and fine fare can do no good.
2812. Hor. l. 1. ep. 2.
2813. Sint Craesi et Crassi licet, non hos Pactolus aureas undas agens
eripiet unquam e miseriis.
2814. Scientia de Deo debet in medico infixa esse, Mesue Arabs. Sanat omnes
languores Deus. For you shall pray to your Lord, that he would
prosper that which is given for ease, and then use physic for the
prolonging of life, Ecclus. xxxviii. 4.
2815. 27 Omnes optant quandam in medicina felicitatem, sed hanc non est
quod expectent, nisi deum vera fide invocent, atque regros similiter
ad ardentem vocationem excitent.
2816. 28 Lemnius e Gregor. exhor. ad vitam opt. instit. cap. 48. Quicquid
meditaris aggredi aut perficere. Deum in consilium adhibeto.
2817. Commentar. lib. 7. ob infelicem pugnam contristatus, in aegritudinem
incidit, ita ut a medicis curari non posset.
2818. In his animi malis princeps imprimis ad Deum precetur, et peccatis
veniam exoret, inde ad medicinam, &c.
2819. Greg. Tholoss. To. 2. l. 28. c. 7. Syntax. In vestibule templi
Solomon, liber remediorum cujusque morbi fuit, quem revulsit
Ezechias, quod populus neglecto Deo nec invocato, sanitatem inde
peteret.
2820. Livius l. 23. Strepunt aures clamoribus plorantium sociorum, saepius
nos quam deorum invocantium opem.
2821. Rulandus adjungit optimam orationem ad finem Empyricorum. Mercurialis
consil. 25. ita concludit. Montanus passim, &c. et plures alii, &c.
2822. Lipsius.
2823. Cap. 26.
2824. Lib. 2. cap. 7. de Deo Morbisque in genera descriptis deos reperimus.
2825. Selden prolog. cap. 3. de diis Syris. Rofinus.
2826. See Lilii Giraldi syntagma de diis, &c.
2827. 12 Cal. Januarii ferias celebrant, ut angores et animi solicitudines
propitiata depellat.
2828. Hanc divae pennam consecravi, Lipsius.
2829. Jodocus Sincerus itin. Galliae. 1617. Huc mente captos deducunt, et
statis orationibus, sacrisque peractis, in illum lectum dormitum
ponunt, &c.
2830. In Gallia Narbonensi.
2831. Lib. de orig. Festorum. Collo suspensa et pergameno inscripta, cum
signo crucis, &c.
2832. Em. Acosta com. rerum in Oriente gest. a societat. Jesu, Anno 1568.
Epist. Gonsalvi Fernandis, Anno 1560. e Japonia.
2833. Spicel. de morbis daemoniacis, sic a sacrificulis parati unguentis
Magicis corpori illitis, ut stultae plebeculae persuadeant tales
curari a Sancto Antonio.
2834. Printed at London 4'to by J. Roberts. 1605.
2835. Greg. lib. 8. Cujus fanum aegrotantium multitudine refertum,
undiquaque et tabellis pendentibus, in quibus sanati languores erant
inscripti.
2836. "To offer the sailors' garments to the deity of the deep."
2837. Mali angeli sumpserunt olim nomen Jovis, Junonis, Apollinis, &c. quos
Gentiles deos credebant, nunc S. Sebastiani, Barbarae, &c. nomen
habent, et aliorum.
2838. Part. 2, cap. 9. de spect. Veneri substituunt Virginem Mariam.
2839. Ad haec ludibria Deus connivet frequentur, ubi relicto verbo Dei, ad
Satanam curritur, quales hi sunt, qui aquam lustralem, crucem, &c.
lubricae fidei hominibus offerunt.
2840. Charior est ipsis homo quam sibi, Paul.
2841. Bernard.
2842. Austin.
2843. Ecclus. xxxviii. In the sight of great men he shall be in admiration.
2844. Tom. 4. Tract. 3. de morbis amentium, horum multi non nisi a Magis
curandi et Astrologis, quoniam origo ejus a coelis petenda est.
2845. Lib. de Podagra.
2846. Sect. 5.
2847. Langius. J. Caesar Claudinus consult.
2848. Praedestinatum ad hunc curandum.
2849. Helleborus curat, sed quod ab omni datus medico vanum est.
2850. Antid. gen. lib. 3. cap. 2.
2851. "The leech never releases the skin until he is filled with blood."
2852. Quod saepe evenit, lib. 3. cap. 2. cum non sit necessitas. Frustra
fatigant remediis aegros, qui victus ratione curari possunt,
Heurnius.
2853. Modestus et sapiens medicus, nunquam properabit ad pharmacum, nisi
cogente necessitate, 41 Aphor. prudens et pius medicus cibis prius
medicinal, quam medicinis puris morbum expellere satagat.
2854. Brev. 1. c. 18.
2855. Similitudo saepe bonis modicis imponit.
2856. Qui melancholicis praebent remedia non satis valida Longiores morbi
imprimis solertiam medici postulant et fidelitatem, qui enim
tumultuario hos tractant, vires absque ullo commodo laedunt et
frangunt, &c.
2857. Naturae remissionem dare oportet.
2858. Plerique hoc morbo medicina nihil profecisse visi sunt, et sibi
demissi invaluerunt.
2859. Abderitani ep. Hippoc.
2860. Quicquid auri apud nos est, libenter persolvemus, etiamsi tota urbs
nostra aurum esset.
2861. Seneca.
2862. Per. 3. Sat.
2863. De anima. Barbara tamen immanitate, et deploranda inscitia contemnunt
praecepta sanitatis mortem et morbos ultro accersunt.
2864. Consul. 173. e Scoltzio Melanch. Aegrorum hoc fere proprium est, ut
graviora dicant esse symptomata, quam revera sunt.
2865. Melancholici plerumque medicis sunt molesti, ut alia aliis adjungant.
2866. Oportet infirmo imprimere salutem, utcunque promittere, etsi ipse
desperet. Nullum medicamentum efficax, nisi medicus etiam fuerit
fortis imaginationis.
2867. De promise, doct. cap. 15. Quoniam sanitatis formam animi medici
continent.
2868. Spes et confidentia, plus valent quam medicina.
2869. Felicior in medicina ob fidem Ethnicorum.
2870. Aphoris. 89. Aeger qui plurimos consulit medicos, plerumque in
errorem singulorum cadit.
2871. Nihil ita sanitatem impedit, ac remediorum crebra mutatio, nec venit
vulnus ad cicatricem in quo diversa medicamenta tentantur.
2872. Melancholicorum proprium, quum ex eorum arbitrio non fit subita
mutatio in melius, alterare medicos qui quidvis, &c.
2873. Consil. 31. Dum ad varia se conferunt, nullo prosunt.
2874. Imprimis hoc statuere oportet, requiri perseverantiam, et
tolerantiam. Exiguo enim tempore nihil ex, &c.
2875. Si curari vult, opus est pertinaci perseverantia, fideli obedientia,
et patientis singulari, si taedet aut desperet, nullum habebit
effectum.
2876. Aegritudine amittunt patientiam, et inde morbi incurabiles.
2877. Non ad mensem aut annum, sed opportet toto vitae curriculo curationi
operam dare.
2878. Camerarius emb. 55. cent. 2.
2879. Praefat. de nar. med. In libellis quae vulgo versantur apud
literatos, incautiores multa legunt, a quibus decipiuntur, eximia
illis, sed portentosum hauriunt venenum.
2880. Operari ex libris, absque cognitione et solerti ingenio, periculosum
est. Unde monemur, quam insipidum scriptis auctoribus credere, quod
hic suo didicit periculo.
2881. Consil. 23. haec omnia si quo ordine decet, egerit, vel curabitur,
vel certe minus afficietur.
2882. Fuchsius cap. 2. lib. 1.
2883. In pract. med. haec affectio nostris temporibus frequentissima, ergo
maxime pertinet ad nos hujus curationem intelligere.
2884. Si aliquis horum morborum, summus sanatur, sanantur omnes inferiores.
2885. Instit. cap. 8. sect. 1. Victus nomine non tam cibus et potus, sed
aer, exercitatio, somnus, vigilia, et reliquae res sex non-naturales
contineritur.
2886. Sufficit plerumque regimen rerum sex non-naturalium.
2887. Et in his potissima sanitas consistit.
2888. Nihil hic agendum sine exquisita vivendi ratione, &c.
2889. Si recens malum sit ad pristinum habitum recuperandum, alia medela
non est opus.
2890. Consil. 99. lib. 2. si celsitudo tua, rectam victus rationem, &c.
2891. Moneo Domine, ut sis prudens ad victum, sine quo caetera remedia
frustra adhibentur.
2892. Omnia remedia irrita et vana sine his. Novistis me plerosque ita
laborantes, victu potius quam medicamentis curasse.
2893. "When you are again lean, seek an exit through that hole by which
lean you entered."
2894. l. de finibus Tarentinis et Siculis.
2895. Modo non multum elongentur.
2896. Lib. 1. de melan. cap. 7. Calidus et humidus cibus concoctu, facilis,
flatus exortes, elixi non assi, neque sibi frixi sint.
2897. Si interna tantum pulpa devoretur, non superficies torrida ab igne.
2898. Bene nutrientes cibi, tenella aetas multum valet, carnes non virosae,
nec pingues.
2899. Hoedoper. peregr. Hierosol.
2900. Inimica stomacho.
2901. Not fried or buttered, but poached.
2902. Consil. 16. Non improbatur butyrum et oleum, si tamen plus quam par
sit, non profundatur: sacchari et mellis usus, utiliter ad ciborum
condimenta comprobatur.
2903. Mercurialis consil. 88. acerba omnia evitantur.
2904. Ovid. Met. lib. 15. "Whoever has allayed his thirst with the water of
the Clitorius, avoids wine, and abstemious delights in pure water
only."
2905. Pregr. Hier.
2906. The Dukes of Venice were then permitted to marry.
2907. De Legibus.
2908. Lib. 4. cap. 10. Magna urbis utilitas cum perennes fontes muris
includuntur, quod si natura non praestat, effondiendi, &c.
2909. Opera gigantum dicit aliquis.
2910. De aquaeduct.
2911. Curtius Fons a quadragesimo lapide in urbem opere arcuato perductus.
Plin. 36. 15.
2912. Quaeque domus Romae fistulas habebat et canales, &c.
2913. Lib. 2. ca. 20. Jod. a Meggen. cap. 15. pereg. Hier. Bellonius.
2914. Cypr. Echovius delit. Hisp. Aqua profluens inde in omnes fere domos
ducitur, in puteis quoque aestivo tempore frigidissima conservatur.
2915. Sir Hugh Middleton, Baronet.
2916. De quaesitis med. cent. fol. 354.
2917. De piscibus lib. habent omnes in lautitiis, modo non sint e caenoso
loco.
2918. De pisc. c. 2. l. 7. Plurimum praestat ad utilitatem et jucunditatem.
Idem Trallianus lib. 1. c. 16. pisces petrosi, et molles carne.
2919. Etsi omnes putredini sunt obnoxii, ubi secundis mensis, incepto jam
priore, devorentur, commodi succi prosunt, qui dulcedine sunt
praediti. Ut dulcia cerasa, poma, &c.
2920. Lib. 2. cap. 1.
2921. Montanus consil. 24.
2922. Pyra quae grato sunt sapore, cocta mala, poma tosta, et saccliaro,
vel anisi semine conspersa, utiliter statim a prandio vel a caena
sumi possunt, eo quod ventriculum roborent et vapores caput petentes
reprimant. Mont.
2923. Punica mala aurantia commode permittuntur modo non sint austera et
acida.
2924. Olera omnia praeter boraginem, buglossum, intybum, feniculum, anisum,
melissum vitari debent.
2925. Mercurialis pract. Med.
2926. Lib. 2. de com. Solus homo edit bibitque, &c.
2927. Consil. 21. 18. si plus ingerata quam par est, et ventriculus
tolerare posset, nocet, et cruditates generat &c.
2928. Observat. lib. 1. Assuescat bis in die cibos, sumere, certa semper
hora.
2929. Ne plus ingerat cavendum quam ventriculus ferre potest, semperque
surgat a mensa non satur.
2930. Siquidem qui semimansum velociter ingerunt cibum, ventriculo laborem
inferunt, et flatus maximos promovent, Crato.
2931. Quidam maxime comedere nituntur, putantes ea ratione se vires
refecturos; ignorantes, non ea quae ingerunt posse vires reficere,
sed quae probe concoquunt.
2932. Multa appetunt, pauca digerunt.
2933. Saturnal. lib. 7. cap. 4.
2934. Modicus et temperatus cibus et carni et animae utilis est.
2935. Hygiasticon reg. 14. 16. unciae per diem sufficiant, computato pane,
carne ovis, vel aliis obsoniis, et totidem vel paulo plures unciae
protus.
2936. Idem reg. 27. Plures in domibus suis brevi tempore pascentes
extinguuntur, qui si triremibus vincti fuissent, aut gregario pane
pasti, sani et incolumes in longam aetatem vitam prorogassent.
2937. Nihil deterius quam diversa nutrientia simul adjungere, et comedendi
tempus prorogare.
2938. Lib. 1. hist.
2939. Hor. ad lib. 5. ode ult.
2940. Ciborum varietate et copia in eadem mensa nihil nocentius homini ad
lutem, Fr. Valleriola, observ. l. 2. cap. 6.
2941. Tul. orat. pro M. Marcel.
2942. Nullus cibum sumere debet, nisi stomachus sit vacuus. Gordon, lib.
med. l. 1. c. 11.
2943. E multis eduliis unum elige, relictisque caeteris, ex eo comede.
2944. L. de atra bile. Simplex sit cibus et non varius: quod licet
dignitati tuae ob convivas difficile videatur, &c.
2945. Celsitudo tua prandeat sola, absque apparatu aulico, contentus sit
illustrissimus princeps duobus tantum ferculis, vinoque Rhenano solum
in mensa utatur.
2946. Semper intra satietatem a mensa recedat, uno ferculo, contentus.
2947. Lib. de Hel. et Jejunio. Multo melius in terram vina fudisses.
2948. Crato. Multum refert non ignorare qui cibi priores, &c. liquida
precedant carnium jura, pisces, fructus, &c. Coena brevior sit
prandio.
2949. Tract. 6. contradict. 1. Lib. 1.
2950. Super omnia quotidianum leporem habuit, et pomis indulsit.
2951. Annal. 6. Ridere solebat eos, qui post 30. aetatis annum, ad
cognoscenda corpori suo noxia vel utilia, alicujus consilii
indigerent.
2952. A Lessio edit. 1614.
2953. Aegyptii olim omnes morbos curabant vomitu et jejunio. Bohemus lib.
1. cap. 5.
2954. "He who lives medically lives miserably."
2955. Cat. Major: Melior conditio senis viventis ex praescripto artis
medicae, quam adolescentis luxuriosi.
2956. Debet per amaena exerceri, et loca viridia, excretis prius arte vel
natura alvi excrementis.
2957. Hildesheim spicel, 2. de met. Primum omnium operam dabis ut singulis
diebus habeas beneficium ventris, semper cavendo ne alvus sit diutis
astricta.
2958. Si non sponte, clisteribus purgetar.
2959. Balneorum usus dulcium, siquid aliud, ipsis opitulatur. Credo haec
dici cum aliqua jactantia, inquit Montanus consil. 26.
2960. In quibus jejunus diu sedeat eo tempore, ne sudorem excitent aut
manifestum teporem, sed quadam refrigeratione humectent.
2961. Aqua non sit calida, sed tepida, ne sudor sequatur.
2962. Lotiones capitis ex lixivio, in quo herbas capitales coxerint.
2963. Cap. 8. de mel.
2964. Aut axungia pulli, Piso.
2965. Thermae. Nympheae.
2966. Sandes lib. 1. saith, that women go twice a week to the baths at
least.
2967. Epist. 3.
2968. Nec alvum excernunt, quin aquam secum portent qua partes obscaenas
lavent. Busbequius ep. 3. Leg. Turciae.
2969. Hildesheim speciel. 2. de mel. Hypocon. si non adesset jecoris
caliditas, Thermas laudarem, et si non nimia humoris exsiccatio esset
metuenda.
2970. Fol. 141.
2971. Thermas Lucenses adeat, ibique aquas ejus per 15. dies potet, et
calidarum aquarum stillicidiis tum caput tum ventriculum de more
subjiciat.
2972. In panth.
2973. Aquae Porrectanae.
2974. Aquae Aquariae.
2975. Ad aquas Aponenses velut ad sacram anchoram confugiat.
2976. Joh. Baubinus li. 3. c. 14. hist. admir. Fontis Bollenses in ducat.
Wittemberg laudat aquas Bollenses ad melancholicos morbos, maerorem,
fascinationem, aliaque animi pathemata.
2977. Balnea Chalderina.
2978. Hepar externe ungatur ne calefiat.
2979. Nocent calidis et siccis, cholericis, et omnibus morbis ex cholera,
hepatis, splenisque affectionibus.
2980. Lib. de aqua. Qui breve hoc vitae curriculum cupiunt sani transigere,
frigidis aquis saepe lavare debent, nulli aetati cum sit incongrua,
calidis imprimis utilis.
2981. Solvit Venus rationis vim impeditam, ingentes iras remittit, &c.
2982. Multi comitiales, melancholici, insani, hujus usu solo sanati.
2983. Si omittatur coitus, contristat, et plurimum gravat corpus et animum.
2984. Nisi certo constet nimium semen aut sanguinem causam esse, aut amor
praecesserit, aut, &c.
2985. Athletis, Arthriticis, podagricis nocet, nec opportuna prodest, nisi
fortibus et qui multo sanguine abundant. Idem Scaliger exerc. 269.
Turcis ideo luctatoribus prohibitum.
2986. De sanit tuend. lib. 1.
2987. Lib. 1. ca. 7. exhaurit enim spiritus animumque debilitat.
2988. Frigidis et siccis corporibus inimicissima.
2989. Vesci intra satietatem, impigrum esse ad laborem, vitale semen
conservare.
2990. Nequitia est quae te non sinit esse senem.
2991. Vide Montanum, Pet. Godefridum, Amorum lib. 2. cap. 6. curiosum de
his, nam et numerum de finite Talimudistis, unicuique sciatis
assignari suum tempus, &c.
2992. Thespiadas genuit.
2993. Vide Lampridium vit. ejus 4.
2994. Et lassata viris, &c.
2995. Vid. Mizald. cent. 8. 11. Lemnium lib. 2. cap. 16. Catullum ad
Ipsiphilam, &c. Ovid. Eleg. lib. 3. et 6. &c. quod itinera una nocte
confecissent, tot coronas ludicro deo puta Triphallo, Marsiae,
Hermae, Priapo donarent, Cin. gemus tibi mentulam coronis, &c.
2996. Pernobopcodid. Gasp. Barthii.
2997. Nich. de Lynna, cited by Mercator in his map.
2998. Mons Sloto. Some call it the highest hill in the world, next
Teneriffe in the Canaries, Lat. 81.
2999. Cap. 26. in his Treatise of Magnetic Bodies.
3000. Lege lib. 1. cap. 23. et 24. de magnetica philosophia, et lib. 3.
cap. 4.
3001. 1612.
3002. M. Brigs, his map, and Northwest Fox.
3003. Lib. 2. ca. 64. de nob. civitat. Quinsay, et cap. 10. de Cambalu.
3004. Lib. 4. exped. ad Sinas, ca. 3. et lib. 5. c. 18.
3005. M. Polus in Asia Presb. Joh, meminit lib. 2. cap. 30.
3006. Alluaresius et alii.
3007. Lat. 10. Gr. Aust.
3008. Ferdinando de Quir. Anno 1612.
3009. Alarum pennae continent in longitudine 12. passus, elephantem in
sublime tollere potest. Polus l. 3. c. 40.
3010. Lib. 2. Descript. terrae sanctae.
3011. Natur. quaest. lib. 4. cap. 2.
3012. Lib. de reg. Congo.
3013. Exercit. 47.
3014. See M. Carpenter's Geography, lib. 2. cap. 6. et Bern. Telesius lib.
de mari.
3015. Exercit. 52. de maris motu causae investigandae: prima
reciprocationis, secunda varietatis, tertia celeritatis, quarta
cessationis, quinta privationis, sexta contrarietatis. Patritius
saith 52 miles in height.
3016. Lib. de explicatione locoram Mathem. Aristot.
3017. Laet. lib. 17. cap. 18. descrip. occid. Ind.
3018. Luge alii vocant.
3019. Geor. Wernerus, Aquae lanta celeritate erumpunt et absorbentur, ut
expedito equiti aditum intereludant.
3020. Boissardus de Magis cap. de Pilapiis.
3021. In campis Lovicen, solum visuntur in nive, et ubinam vere, aestate,
autumno se occultant. Hermes Polit. l. 1. Jul. Bellius.
3022. Statim ineunte vere sylvae strepunt eorum cantilenis. Muscovit.
comment.
3023. Immergunt se fluminibus, lacubusque per hyemem totam, &c.
3024. Caeterasque volucres Pontum hyeme adveniente e nostris regionibus
Europeis transvolantes.
3025. Survey of Cornwall.
3026. Porro ciconiae quonam a loco veniant, quo se conferant, incompertum
adhuc, agmen venientium, descendentium, ut gruum venisse cernimus,
nocturnis opinor temporibus. In patentibus Asiae campis certo die
congregant se, eam quae novissime advenit lacerant, inde avolant.
Cosmog. l. 4. c. 126.
3027. Comment. Muscov.
3028. Hist. Scot. l. 1.
3029. Vertomannus l. 5. c. 16. mentioneth a tree that bears fruits to eat,
wood to burn, bark to make ropes, wine and water to drink, oil and
sugar, and leaves as tiles to cover houses, flowers, for clothes, &c.
3030. Animal infectum Cusino, ut quis legere vel scribere possit sine
alterius ope luminis.
3031. Cosmog. lib. 1. cap. 435 et lib. 3. cap. 1. habent ollas a natura
formatas e terra extractas, similes illis a figulis factis, coronas,
pisces, aves, et omnes animantium species.
3032. Ut solent hirundines et ranae prae frigoris magnitudine mori, et
postea redeunte vere 24. Aprilis reviviscere.
3033. Vid. Pererium in Gen. Cor. a Lapide, et alios.
3034. In Necyotnantia Tom. 2.
3035. Pracastorius lib. de simp. Georgius Merula lib. de mem. Julius
Billius, &c.
3036. Bimlerua, Ortelius, Brachiis centum subterra reperta est, in qua
quadraginta octo cadavera inerant, Anchorae, &c.
3037. Pisces et conchae in montibus reperiuntur.
3038. Lib. de locis Mathemat. Aristot.
3039. Or plain, as Patricius holds, which Austin, Lactamius, and some
others, held of old as round as a trencher.
3040. Li. de Zilphia et Pigmeia, they penetrate the earth as we do the air.
3041. Lib. 2. c. II2.
3042. Commentar. ad annum 1537. Quicquid dicunt, Philosophi, quaedam sunt
Tartari ostia, et loca puniendis animis destinata, ut Hecla mons, &c.
ubi mortuorum spiritus visuntur, &c. voluit Deus extare talia loca,
ut discant mortales.
3043. Ubi miserabiles ejulantium voces audiuntur, qui auditoribus horrorem
incutiunt hand vulgarem, &c.
3044. Ex sepulchris apparent mense Martio, et rursus sub terram se
abscondunt, &c.
3045. Descript. Graec. lib. 6. de Pelop.
3046. Conclave Ignatii.
3047. Melius dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis, ubi flamina
inferni, &c.
3048. See Dr. Reynolds praelect. 55. in Apoc.
3049. As they come from the sea, so they return to the sea again by secret
passages, as in all likelihood the Caspian Sea vents itself into the
Euxine or ocean.
3050. Seneca quaest. lib. cap. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. de causis
aquarum perpetuis.
3051. In iis nec pullos hirundines excludunt, neque, &c.
3052. Th. Ravennas lib. de vit. hom. praerog. ca. ult.
3053. At Quito in Peru. Plus auri quam terrae foditur in aurifodinis.
3054. Ad Caput bonae spei incolae sunt nigerrimi: Si sol causa, cur non
Hispani et Italiaeque nigri, in eadem latitudine, aeque distantes ab
Aequatore, hi ad Austrum, illi ad Boream? qui sub Presbytero Johan.
habitant subfusci sunt, in Zeilan et Malabar nigri, aeque distantes
ab Aequatore, eodemque coeli parallelo: sed hoc magis mirari quis
possit, in tota America nusquam nigros inveniri, praeter paucos in
loco Quareno illis dicto: quae hujus coloris causa efficiens, coelive
an terrae qualitas, an soli proprietas, aut ipsorum hominum innata
ratio, aut omnia? Ortelius in Africa Theat.
3055. Regio quocunque anni tempore temperatissima. Ortel. Multas Galliae et
Italiae Regiones, molli tepore, et benigna quadam temperie prorsus
antecellit, Jovi.
3056. Lat. 45. Danubii.
3057. Quevira lat. 40.
3058. In Sir Fra. Drake's voyage.
3059. Lansius orat. contra Hungaros.
3060. Lisbon lat. 38.
3061. Danzig lat. 54.
3062. De nat. novi orbis lib. 1. cap. 9. Suavissimus omnium locus, &c.
3063. The same variety of weather Lod. Guicciardine observes betwixt Liege
and Ajax not far distant, descript. Belg.
3064. Magin. Quadus.
3065. Hist. lib. 5.
3066. Lib. 11. cap. 7.
3067. Lib. 2. cap. 9. Cur. Potosi et Plata, urbes in tam tenui intervallo,
utraque mont osa, &c.
3068. Terra malos homines nunc educat atque pusillos.
3069. Nav. l. 1. c. 5.
3070. Strabo.
3071. As under the equator in many parts, showers here at such a time,
winds at such a time, the Brise they call it.
3072. Ferd. Cortesius. lib. Novus orbis inscript.
3073. Lapidatum est. Livie.
3074. Cosmog. lib. 4. cap. 22. Hae tempestatibus decidunt e nubibus
faeculentis, depascunturque more locustorum omnia virentia.
3075. Hort. Genial. An a terra sursum rapiuntur a solo iterumque cum
pluviis praecipitantur? &c.
3076. Tam ominosus proventus in naturales causas referri vix potest.
3077. Cosmog. c. 6.
3078. Cardan saith vapours rise 288 miles from the earth, Eratosthenes 48
miles.
3079. De Subtil. l. 2.
3080. In progymnas.
3081. Praefat. ad Euclid. Catop.
3082. Manucodiatae, birds that live continually in the air, and are never
seen on ground but dead: See Ulysses Alderovand. Ornithol. Scal.
exerc. cap. 229.
3083. Laet. descrip. Amer.
3084. Epist. lib. 1 p. 83. Ex quibus constat nec diversa aeris et aetheris
diaphana esse, nec refractiones aliunde quam a crasso aere
causari--Non dura aut impervia, sed liquida, subtilis, motuique
Planetarium facile cedens.
3085. In Progymn. lib. 2. exempl. quinque.
3086. In Theoria nova Met. caelestium 1578.
3087. Epit. Astron. lib. 4.
3088. Multa sane hinc consequuentur absurda, et si nihil aliud, tot Cometae
in aethere animadversi, qui nullius orbus ductum comitantur, id ipsum
sufficienter refellunt. Tycho astr. epist. page 107.
3089. In Theoricis planetarum, three above the firmament, which all wise
men reject.
3090. Theor. nova coelest. Meteor.
3091. Lib. de fabrica mundi.
3092. Lib. de Cometis.
3093. An sit crux et nubecula in coelis ad Polum Antarcticum, quod ex
Corsalio refert Patritius.
3094. Gilbertus Origanus.
3095. See this discussed in Sir Walter Raleigh's history, in Zanch. ad
Casman.
3096. Vid. Fromundum de Meteoris, lib. 5. artic. 5. et Lansbergium.
3097. Peculiari libello.
3098. Comment. in mortum terrae Middlebergi 1630.
3099. Peculiari libello.
3100. See Mr. Carpenter's Geogr. cap. 4. lib. 1. Campanella et Origanus
praef Ephemer. where Scripture places are answered.
3101. De Magnete.
3102. Comment, in 2 cap. sphaer. Jo. de Sacr. Bosc.
3103. Dist. 3. gr. 1. a Polo.
3104. Praef. Ephem.
3105. Which may be full of planets, perhaps, to us unseen, as those about
Jupiter, &c.
3106. Luna circumterrestris Planeta quum sit, consentaneum est esse in Luna
viventes creaturas, et singulis Planetarum globis sui serviunt
circulatores, ex qua consideratione, de eorum incolis summa
probabilitate concludimus, quod et Tychoni Braheo, e sola
consideratione vastitatis eorum visum fuit. Kepl. dissert, cum nun.
sid. f. 29.
3107. Temperare non possum quin ex inventis tuis hoc moneam, veri non
absimile, non tam in Luna, sed etiam in Jove, et veliquis Planetis
incolas esse. Kepl. fo. 26. Si non sint accolae in Jovis globo, qui
notent admirandam hanc varietatem oculis, cui bono quatuor illi
Planetae Jovem circumcursitant?
3108. Some of those above Jupiter I have seen myself by the help of a glass
eight feet long.
3109. Rerum Angl. l. 1. c. 27 de viridibus pueris.
3110. Infiniti alii mundi vel ut Brunus, terrae huic nostrae similes.
3111. Libro Cont. philos. cap. 29.
3112. Kepler fol. 2. dissert. Quid impedit quin credamus ex his initiis,
plures alios mundos detegendos, vel (ut Democrito placuit) infinitos?
3113. Lege somnium Kepler: edit. 1635.
3114. Quid igitur inquies, si sint in coelo plures globi, similes nostrae
telluris, an cum illis certabimus, quis meliorem mundi plagam teneat?
Si nobiliores illorum globi, nos non sumus creaturarum rationalium
nobilissimi: quomodo igitur omnia propter hominem? quomodo nos domini
operum Dei? Kepler, fol. 29.
3115. Franckfort. quarto 1620. ibid. 40. 1622.
3116. Praefat. in Comment, in Genesin. Modo suadent Theologos, summa
ignoratione versari, veras scientias admittere nolle, et tyrannidem
exercere, ut eos falsis dogmatibus, superstitionibus, et religione
Catholica, detineant.
3117. Theat. Biblico.
3118. His argumentis plane satisfecisti, de maculas in Luna esse maria, de
lucidas partes esse terram. Kepler. fol. 16.
3119. Anno. 1616.
3120. In Hypothes. de mundo. Edit. 1597.
3121. Lugduni 1633.
3122. "Whilst these blockheads avoid one fault, they fall into its
opposite."
3123. Jo. Fabritius de maculis in sole. Witeb. 1611.
3124. In Burboniis sideribus.
3125. Lib. de Burboniis sid. Stellae sunt erraticae, quae propriis orbibus
feruntur, non longe a Sole dissitis, sed juxta Solem.
3126. Braccini fol. 1630. lib. 4. cap. 52, 55. 59. &c.
3127. Lugdun. Bat. An. 1612.
3128. Ne se subducant, et relicta statione decessum parent, ut curiositatis
finem faciant.
3129. Hercules tuam fidem Satyra Menip. edit. 1608.
3130. "I shall now enter upon a bold and memorable exploit; one never
before attempted in this age. I shall explain this night's
transactions in the kingdom of the moon, a place where no one has yet
arrived, save in his dreams."
3131. Sardi venales Satyr. Menip. An. 1612.
3132. Puteani Comus sic incipit, or as Lipsius Satyre in a dream.
3133. Tritemius. 1. de 7 secundis.
3134. They have fetched Trajanus' soul out of hell, and canonise for saints
whom they list.
3135. In Minutius, sine delectu tempestates tangunt loca sacra et profana,
bonorum et malorum fata, juxta, nullo ordine res fiunt, soluta
legibus fortuna dominatur.
3136. Vel malus vel impotens, qui peccatum permittit, &c. unde haec
superstitio?
3137. Quid fecit Deus ante mundum creatum? ubi vixit otiosus a suo
subjecto, &c.
3138. Lib. 3. recog. Pet. cap. 3. Peter answers by the simile of an
eggshell, which is cunningly made, yet of necessity to be broken; so
is the world, &c. that the excellent state of heaven might be made
manifest.
3139. Ut me pluma levat, sic grave mergit onus.
3140. Exercit. 184.
3141. Laet. descrip. occid. Indiae.
3142. Daniel principio historiae.
3143. Veniant ad me audituri quo esculento, quo item poculento uti debeant,
et praeter alimentum ipsum, potumque ventos ipsos docebo, item aeris
ambientis temperiem, insuper regiones quas eligere, quas vitare ex
usu sit.
3144. Leo Afer, Maginus, &c.
3145. Lib. 1. Scot. hist.
3146. Lib. 1. de rer. var.
3147. Horat.
3148. Maginus.
3149. Haitonus de Tartaris.
3150. Cyropaed li. 8. perpetuum inde ver.
3151. The air so clear, it never breeds the plague.
3152. Leander Albertus in Campania, e Plutarcho vita Luculli. Cum Cn.
Pompeius, Marcus Cicero, multique nobiles viri L. Lucullum aestivo
tempore convinessent, Pompeius inter coenam dum familiariter jocatus
est, eam villam imprimis sibi sumptuosam, et elegantem videri,
fenestris, porticibus, &c.
3153. Godwin vita Jo. Voysye al. Harman.
3154. Descript. Brit.
3155. In Oxfordshire.
3156. Leander Albertus.
3157. Cap. 21. de vit. hom. prorog.
3158. The possession of Robert Bradshaw, Esq.
3159. Of George Purefey, Esq.
3160. The possession of William Purefey, Esq.
3161. The seat of Sir John Reppington, Kt.
3162. Sir Henry Goodieres, lately deceased.
3163. The dwelling-house of Hum. Adderley, Esq.
3164. Sir John Harpar's, lately deceased.
3165. Sir George Greselies, Kt.
3166. Lib. 1. cap. 2.
3167. The seat of G. Purefey, Esq.
3168. For I am now incumbent of that rectory, presented thereto by my right
honourable patron, the Lord Berkley.
3169. Sir Francis Willoughby.
3170. Montani et Maritimi salubriores, acclives, et ad Boream ream
vergentes.
3171. The dwelling of Sir To. Burdet, Knight, Baronet.
3172. In his Survey of Cornwall, book 2.
3173. Prope paludes stagna, et loca concava, vel ad Austrum, vel ad
Occidentem inclinatae, domus sunt morbosae.
3174. Oportet igitur ad sanitatem domus in altioribus aedificare, et ad
speculationem.
3175. By John Bancroft, Dr. of Divinity, my quondam tutor in Christ Church,
Oxon, now the Right Reverend Lord Bishop Oxon, who built this house
for himself and his successors.
3176. Hyeme erit vehementer frigida, et aestate non salubris: paludes enim
faciunt crassum aerem, et difficiles morbos.
3177. Vendas quot assibus possis, et si nequeas, relinquas.
3178. Lib. 1. cap. 2. in Orco habita.
3179. Aurora musis amica, Vitruv.
3180. Aedes Orientem spectantes vir nobilissimus, inhabitet, et curet ut
sit aer clarus, lucidus, odoriferus. Eligat habitationem optimo aere
jucundam.
3181. Quoniam angustiae itinerum et altitudo tectorum, non perinde Solis
calorem admittit.
3182. Consil. 21. li. 2. Frigidus aer, nubilosus, densus, vitandus, aeque
ac venti septentrionales, &c.
3183. Consil. 24.
3184. Fenestram non aperiat.
3185. Discutit Sol horrorem crassi spiritus, mentem exhilarat, non enim tam
corpora, quam et animi mutationem inde subeunt, pro coeli et ventorum
ratione, et sani aliter affecti sini coelo nubilo, aliter sereno. De
natura ventorum, see Pliny, lib. 2. cap. 26. 27. 28. Strabo, li. 7.
&c.
3186. Fines Morison parr. 1. c. 4.
3187. Altomarus car. 7. Bruel. Aer sit lucidus, bene olens, humidus.
Montaltus idem ca. 26. Olfactus rerum suavium. Laurentius, c. 8.
3188. Ant. Philos. cap. de melanc.
3189. Tract. 15. c. 9. ex redolentibus herbis et foliis vitis viniferae,
salicis, &c.
3190. Pavimentum aceto, et aqua rosacea irrorare, Laurent, c. 8.
3191. Lib. 1. cap. de morb. Afrorum In Nigritarum regione tanta aeris
temperis, ut siquis alibi morbosus eo advehatur, optimae statim
sanitati restituatur, quod multis accidisse, ipse meis oculis vidi.
3192. Lib. de peregrinat.
3193. Epist. 2. cen. 1. Nec quisquam tam lapis aut frutex, quem non
titillat amoena illa, variaque spectio locorum, urbium, gentium, &c.
3194. Epist. 86.
3195. 2. lib. de legibus.
3196. Lib. 45.
3197. Keckerman praefat, polit.
3198. Fines Morison c. 3. part. 1.
3199. Mutatio de loco in locum, Itinera, et voiagia longa et indeterminata,
et hospitare in diversis diversoriis.
3200. Modo ruri esse, modo in urbe, saepius in agro venari, &c.
3201. In Catalonia in Spain.
3202. Laudaturque domos longos quae prospicit agros.
3203. Many towns there are of that name, saith Adricomius, all high-sited.
3204. Lately resigned for some special reasons.
3205. At Lindley in Leicestershire, the possession and dwelling-place of
Ralph Burton, Esquire, my late deceased father.
3206. In Icon animorum.
3207. Aegrotantes oves in alium locum transportandae sunt, ut alium aerem
et aquam participantes, coalescant et corrobentur.
3208. Alia utilia, sed ex mutatione aeris potissimum curatus.
3209. Ne te daemon otiosum inveniat.
3210. Praestat aliud agere quam nihil.
3211. Lib. 3. de dictis Socratis, Qui tesseris et risui excitando vacant,
aliquid faciunt, et si liceret his meliora agere.
3212. Amasis compelled every man once a year to tell how he lived.
3213. Nostra memoria Mahometes Othomannus qui Graeciae imperium subvertit,
cum oratorum postulata audiret externarum gentium, cochlearia lignea
assidue caelabat, aut aliquid in tabula affingebat.
3214. Sands, fol. 37. of his voyage to Jerusalem.
3215. Perkins, Cases of Conscience, l. 3. c. 4. q. 3.
3216. Luscinius Grunnio. "They seem to think they were born to
idleness,--nay more, for the destruction of themselves and others."
3217. Non est cura melior quam injungere iis necessaria, et opportuna;
operum administratio illis magnum sanitatis incrementum, et quae
repleant animos eorum et incutiant iis diversas cogitationes. Cont.
1. tract. 9.
3218. Ante exercitum, leves toto corpore frictiones conveniunt. Ad hunc
morbum exercitationes, quum recte et suo tempore fiunt, mirifice
conducunt, et sanitatem tuentur, &c.
3219. Lib. 1. de san. tuend.
3220. Exercitium naturae dormientis stimulatio, membrorum solatium,
morborum medela, fuga vitiorum, medicina languorum, destructio omnium
malorum, Crato.
3221. Alimentis in ventriculo probe concotis.
3222. Jejuno ventre vesica et alvo ab excrementis purgato, fricatis
membris, lotis manibus et oculis, &c. lib. de atra bile.
3223. Quousque corpus universum intumescat, et floridum appareat,
sudoreque, &c.
3224. Omnino sudorem vitent. cap. 7. lib. 1. Valescus de Tar.
3225. Exercitium si excedat, valde periculosum. Salust. Salvianus de remed.
lib. 2. cap. 1.
3226. Camden in Staffordshire.
3227. Fridevallius, lib. 1. cap. 2. optima omnium exercitationum multi ab
hac solummodo morbis liberati.
3228. Josephus Quercetanus dialect. polit. sect. 2. cap. 11. Inter omnia
exercitia praestantiae laudem meretur.
3229. Chyron in monte Pelio, praeceptor heroum eos a morbis animi
venationibus et puris cibis tuebatur. M. Tyrius.
3230. Nobilitas omnis fere urbes fastidit, castellis, et liberiore coelo
gaudet, generisque dignitatem una maxime venatione, et falconum
aucupiis tuetur.
3231. Jos. Scaliger, commen. in Cir. in fol. 344. Salmuth. 23. de
Novrepert. com. in Pancir.
3232. Demetrius Constantinop. de re accipitraria, liber a P. Gillir latine
redditus. Aelius. epist. Aquilae Symachi et Theodotionis ad
Ptolomeum, &c.
3233. Lonicerus, Geffreus, jovius.
3234. S. Antony Sherlie's relations.
3235. Hacluit.
3236. Coturnicum aucupio.
3237. Fines Morison, part 3. c. 8.
3238. Non majorem voluptatem animo capiunt, quam qui feras insectantur, aut
missis canibus, comprehendunt, quum retia trahentes, squamosas
pecudes in ripas adducunt.
3239. More piscatorum cruribus ocreatus.
3240. Si principibus venatio leporis non sit inhonesta, nescio quomodo
piscatio cyprinorum videri debeat pudenda.
3241. Omnino turpis piscatio, nullo studio digna, illiberalis credita est,
quod nullum habet ingenium, nullam perspicaciam.
3242. Praecipua hinc Anglis gloria, crebrae victoriae partae. Jovius.
3243. Cap. 7.
3244. Fracastorius.
3245. Ambulationes subdiales, quas hortenses aurae ministrant, sub fornice
viridi, pampinis virentibus concameratae.
3246. Theophylact.
3247. Itinerat. Ital.
3248. Sedet aegrotus cespite viridi, et cum inclementia Canicularis terras
excoquit, et siccat flumina, ipse securus sedet sub arborea fronde,
et ad doloris sui solatium, naribus suis gramineas redolet species,
pascit oculos herbarum amiena viriditas, aures suavi modulamine
demulcet pictarum concentus avium, &c. Deus bone, quanta pauperibus
procures solatia!
3249. Diod. Siculus, lib. 2.
3250. Lib. 13 de animal. cap. 13.
3251. Pet. Gillius. Paul. Hentzeus Itenerar. Italiae. 1617. Iod. Sincerus
Itenerar. Galliae 1617. Simp. lib. 1. quest. 4.
3252. Jucundissima deambulatio juxta mare, et navigatio prope terram. In
utraque fluminis ripa.
3253. Aurei panes, aurea obsonia, vis Margaritarum aceto subacta, &c.
3254. Lucan. "The furniture glitters with brilliant gems, with yellow
jasper, and the couches dazzle with their purple dye."
3255. 300 pellices, pecillatores et pincernae innumeri, pueri loti purpura
induti, &c. ex omnium pulchritudine delecti.
3256. Ubi omnia cantu strepum.
3257. Odyss.
3258. Lucan. l. 8. "The timbers were concealed by solid gold."
3259. Iliad. 10. "For neither was the contest for the hide of a bull, nor
for a beeve, which are the usual prizes in the race, but for the life
and soul of the great Hector."
3260. Between Ardes and Guines, 1519.
3261. Swertius in delitiis, fol. 487. veteri Horatiorum exemplo, virtute et
successu admirabili, caesis hostibus 17. in conspectu patriae, &c.
3262. Paterculus, vol. post.
3263. Quos antea audivi, inquit, hodie vidi deos.
3264. Pandectae Triumph, fol.
3265. Lib. 6. cap. 14. de bello Jud.
3266. Procopius.
3267. Laet. Lib. 10. Amer. descript.
3268. Romulus Amaseus praefat. Pausan.
3269. Virg. 1. Geor.
3270. "thirsting Tantalus gapes for the water that eludes his lips."
3271. "I may desire, but can't enjoy."
3272. Roterus lib. 3. polit. cap. 1.
3273. See Athenaeus dipnoso.
3274. Ludi votivi, sacri, ludicri, Megalenses, Cereales, Florales,
Martiales, &c. Rosinus, 5. 12.
3275. See Lipsius Amphitheatrum Rosinus lib. 5. Meursius de ludis
Graecorum.
3276. 1500 men at once, tigers, lions, elephants, horses, dogs, bears, &c.
3277. Lib. ult. et l. 1. ad finem consuetudine non minus laudabili, quam
veteri contubernia Rhetorum Rythmorum in urbibus et municipiis,
certisque diebus exercebant se sagittarii, gladiatores, &c. Alia
ingenii, animique exercitia, quorum praecipuum studium, principem
populum tragoediis, comoediis, fabulis scenicis, aliisque id genus
ludis recreare.
3278. Orbis terrae descript. part. 3.
3279. "What shall I say of their spectacles produced with the most
magnificent decorations,--a degree of costliness never indulged in
even by the Romans."
3280. Lampridius.
3281. Spartian.
3282. Delectatus lusis catulorum, porcellorum, ut perdices inter se
pugnarent, aut ut aves parvulae sursum et deorsum volitarent, his
maxime delectatus, ut solitu dines publicas sublevaret.
3283. Brumales laete ut possint producere noctes.
3284. Miles. 4.
3285. O dii similibus saepe conviviis date ut ipse videndo delectetur, et
postmodum narrando delectet. Theod. prodromus Amorum dial. interpret.
Gilberto Giaulinio.
3286. Epist. lib. 8. Ruffino.
3287. Hor.
3288. Lib. 4. Gallicae consuetudinis est ut viatores etiam invitos
consistere cogant, et quid quisque eorum audierit aut cognorit de qua
re quaerunt.
3289. Vitae ejus lib. ult.
3290. Juven.
3291. They account them unlawful because sortilegious.
3292. Insist. c. 44. In his ludis plerumque non ars aut peritia viget, sed
fraus, fallacia, dolus astutia, casus, fortuna, temeritas locum
habent, non ratio consilium, spientia, &c.
3293. "In a moment of fleeting time it changes masters and submits to new
control."
3294. Abusus tam frequens hodie in Europa ut plerique crebro harum usu
patrimonium profundant, exhaustisque facultatibus, ad inopiam
redigantur.
3295. Ubi semel prurigo ista animum occupat aegre discuti potest,
solicitantibus undique ejusdem farinae hominibus, damnosas illas
voluptates repetunt, quod et scortatoribus insitum, &c.
3296. Instutitur ista exercitatio, non lucri, sed valetudinis et
oblectamenti ratione, et quo animus defatigatus respiret, novasque
vires ad subeundos labores denuo concipiat.
3297. Latrunculorum ludus inventus est a duce, ut cum miles intolerabili
fame laboraret, altero die edens altero ludens, famis oblivisceretur.
Bellonius. See more of this game in Daniel Souter's Palamedes, vel de
variis ludis, l. 3.
3298. D. Hayward in vita ejus.
3299. Muscovit. commentarium.
3300. Inter cives Fessanos latrunculorum ludus est usitatissimus, lib. 3.
de Africa.
3301. "It is better to dig than to dance."
3302. Tullius. "No sensible man dances."
3303. De mor. gent.
3304. Polycrat. l. 1. cap. 8.
3305. Idem Salisburiensis.
3306. Hist. lib. 1.
3307. Nemo desidet otiosus, ita nemo asinino more ad seram noctem laborat;
nam ea plusquam servilis aerumna, quae opificum vita eat, exceptis
Utopiensibus qui diem in 24. horas dividunt, sex duntaxat operi
deputant, reliquum a somno et cibo cujusque arbitrio permittitur.
3308. Rerum Burgund. lib. 4.
3309. Jussit hominem deferri ad palatium et lecto ducali collocari, &c.
mirari homo ubi se eo loci videt.
3310. Quid interest, inquit Lodovicus Vives, (epist. ad Francisc. Barducem)
interdiem illius et nostros aliquot annos? nihil penitus, nisi quod,
&c.
3311. Hen. Stephan. praefat. Herodoti.
3312. "Study is the delight of old age, the support of youth, the ornament
of prosperity, the solace and refuge of adversity, the comfort of
domestic life," &c.
3313. Orat. 12. siquis animo fuerit afflictus aut aeger, nec somnum
admittens, is mihi videtur e regione stans talis imaginis, oblivisci
omnium posse, quae humanae vitae atrocia et difficilia accidere
solent.
3314. De anima.
3315. Diad. 19.
3316. Topogr. Rom. part. 1.
3317. Quod heroum conviviis legi solitae.
3318. Melancthon de Heliodoro.
3319. I read a considerable part of your speech before dinner, but after I
had dined I finished it completely. Oh what arguments, what
eloquence!
3320. Pluvines.
3321. Thibault.
3322. As in travelling the rest go forward and look before them, an
antiquary alone looks round about him, seeing things past, &c. hath a
complete horizon. Janus Bifrons.
3323. Cardan. "What is more subtle than arithmetical conclusions; what more
agreeable than musical harmonies; what more divine than astronomical,
what more certain than geometrical demonstrations?"
3324. Hondius praefat. Mercatoris. "It allures the mind by its agreeable
attraction, on account of the incredible variety and pleasantness of
the subjects, and excites to a further step in knowledge."
3325. Atlas Geog.
3326. Cardan. "To learn the mysteries of the heavens, the secret workings
of nature, the order of the universe, is a greater happiness and
gratification than any mortal can think or expect to obtain."
3327. Lib. de cupid. divitiarum.
3328. Leon. Diggs. praefat. ad perpet. prognost.
3329. Plus capio voluptatis, &c.
3330. In Hipperchen. divis. 3.
3331. "It is more honourable and glorious to understand these truths than
to govern provinces, to be beautiful or to be young."
3332. Cardan. praefat. rerum variet.
3333. Poetices lib.
3334. Lib. 3. Ode 9. Donec gratus eram tibi, &c.
3335. De Pelopones. lib. 6. descript. Graec.
3336. Quos si integros haberemus, Dii boni, quas opes, quos thesauros
teneremus.
3337. Isaack Wake musae regnantes.
3338. Si unquam mihi in fatis sit, ut captivus ducar, si mihi daretur
optio, hoc cuperem carcere concludi, his catenia illigari, cum hisce
captivis concatenatis aetatem agere.
3339. Epist. Primiero. Plerunque in qua simul ac pedem posui, foribus
pessulum abdo; ambitionem autem, amorem, libidinem, etc. excludo,
quorum parens est ignavia, imperitia nutrix, et in ipso aeternitatis
gremio, inter tot illustres animas sedem mihi sumo, cum ingenti
quidem animo, ut subinde magnatum me misereat, qui felicitatem hanc
ignorant.
3340. Chil. 2. Cent. 1. Adag. 1.
3341. Virg. eclog. 1.
3342. Founder of our public library in Oxon.
3343. Ours in Christ Church, Oxon.
3344. Animus lavatur inde a curis multa quiete et tranquillitate fruens.
3345. Ser. 38. ad Fratres Erem.
3346. Hom. 4. de poenitentia. Nam neque arborum comae pro pecorum tuguriis
factae meridie per aestatem, optabilem exhibentes umbram oves ita
reficiunt, ac scripturarum lectio afflictas angore animas solatur et
recreat.
3347. Otium sine literis mors est, et vivi hominis sepultura, Seneca.
3348. Cap. 99. l. 57. de rer. var.
3349. Fortem reddunt animum et constantem; et pium colloquium non permittit
animum absurda cogitatione torqueri.
3350. Altercationibus utantur, quae non permittunt animum submergi
profundis cogitationibus, de quibus otiose cogitat et tristatur in
iis.
3351. Bodin. prefat. ad meth. hist.
3352. Operum subcis. cap. 15.
3353. Hor.
3354. Fatendum est cacumine Olympi constitutus supra ventos et procellas,
et omnes res humanas.
3355. "Who explain what is fair, foul, useful, worthless, more fully and
faithfully than Chrysippus and Crantor?"
3356. In Ps. xxxvi. omnis morbus animi in scriptura habet medicinam; tantum
opus est ut qui sit seger, non recuset potionem quam Deus temperavit.
3357. In moral. speculum quo nos intueri possimus.
3358. Hom. 28. Ut incantatione viris fugatur, ita lectione malum.
3359. Iterum atque, iterum moneo, ut animam sacrae scripturae lectione
occupes. Masticat divinum pabulum meditatio.
3360. Ad 2. definit. 2. elem. In disciplinis humanis nihil praestantius
reperitur: quippe miracula quaedam numerorum eruit tam abstrusa et
recondita, tanta nihilo minus facilitate et voluptate, ut, &c.
3361. Which contained 1,080,000 weights of brass.
3362. Vide Clavium in com. de Sacrobosco.
3363. Distantias caelorum sola Optica dijudicat.
3364. Cap. 4. et 5.
3365. "If the lamp burn brightly, then the man is cheerful and healthy in
mind and body; if, on the other hand, he from whom the blood is taken
be melancholic or a spendthrift, then it will burn dimly, and flicker
in the socket."
3366. Printed at London, Anno 3620.
3367. Once astronomy reader at Gresham College.
3368. Printed at London by William Jones, 1623.
3369. Praefat. Meth. Astrol.
3370. Tot tibi sunt dotes virgo, quot sidera coelo.
3371. Da pie Christe urbi bona sit pax tempore nostro.
3372. Chalonerus, lib. 9. de Rep. Angel.
3373. Hortus Coronarius medicus et culinarius, &c.
3374. Tom. 1. de sanit. tuend. Qui rationem corporis non habent, sed cogunt
mortalem immortali, terrestrem aethereae aequalem praestare
industriam: Caeterum ut Camelo usu venit, quod ei bos praedixerat,
cum eidem servirent domino et parte oneris levare illum Camelus
recusasset, paulo post et ipsius curem, et totum onus cogeretur
gestare (quod mortuo bove impletum) Ita animo quoque contingit, dum
defatigato corpori, &c.
3375. Ut pulchram illam et amabilem sanitatem praestemus.
3376. Interdicendae Vigiliae, somni paulo longiores conciliandi. Altomarus
cap. 7. Somnus supra modum prodest, quovismodo conciliandus, Piso.
3377. Ovid.
3378. In Hippoc. Aphoris.
3379. Crato cons. 21. lib. 2. duabus aut tribus horis post caenam, quum jam
cibus ad fundum ventriculi resederit, primum super latere dextro
quiescendum, quod in tali decubito jecur sub ventriculo quiescat, non
gravans sed cibum calfaciens, perinde ac ignis lebetem qui illi
admovetur; post primum somnum quiescendum latere sinistro, &c.
3380. Saepius accidit melancholicis, ut nimium exsiccato cerebro vigiliis
attenuentur. Ficinus, lib. 1. cap. 29.
3381. Ter. "That you may sleep calmly on either ear."
3382. Ut sis nocte levis, sit tibi, caena brevis.
3383. Juven. Sat. 3.
3384. Hor. Scr. lib. 1. Sat. 5. "The tipsy sailor and his travelling
companion sing the praises of their absent sweethearts."
3385. Sepositis curis omnibus quantum fieri potest, una cum vestibus, &c.
Kirkst.
3386. Ad horam somni aures suavibus cantibus et sonis delinire.
3387. Lectio jucunda, aut sermo, ad quem attentior animus convertitur, aut
aqua ab alto in subjectam pelvim delabatur, &c. Ovid.
3388. Aceti sorbitio.
3389. Attenuat melancholiam, et ad conciliandum somnum juvat.
3390. Quod lieni acetum conveniat.
3391. Cont. 1. tract. 9. meditandum de aceto.
3392. Sect. 5. memb. 1. Subsect. 6.
3393. Lib. de sanit. tuenda.
3394. In Som. Scip. fit enim fere ut cogitationes nostrae et sermones
pariant aliquid in somno, quale de Homero scribit Ennius, de quo
videlicet saepissime vigilans solebat cogitare et loqui.
3395. Aristae hist. "Neither the shrines of the gods, nor the deities
themselves, send down from the heavens those dreams which mock our
minds with those flitting shadows,--we cause them to ourselves."
3396. Optimum de coelestibus et honestis meditari, et ea facere.
3397. Lib. 3. de causis corr. art. tam mira monstra quaestionum saepe
nascuntur inter eos, ut mirer eos interdum in somniis non terreri,
aut de illis in tenebris audere verba facere, adeo res sunt
monstrosae.
3398. Icon. lib. 1.
3399. Sect. 5. Memb. 1. Subs. 6.
3400. Animi perturbationes summe fugiendae, metus potissimum et tristitia:
earumque loco animus demulcendus hilaritate, animi constantia, bona
spe; removendi terrores, et earum consortium quos non probant.
3401. Phantasiae eorum placide subvertendae, terrores ab animo removendi.
3402. Ab omni fixa cogitatione quovismodo avertantur.
3403. Cuncta mala corporis ab animo procedunt, quae nisi curentur, corpus
curari minime potest, Charmid.
3404. Disputat. An morbi graviores corporis an animi. Renoldo interpret. ut
parum absit a furore, rapitur a Lyceo in concionem, a concione ad
mare, a mari in Siciliam, &c.
3405. Ira bilem movet, sanguinem adurit, vitales spiritus accendit.
moestitia universum corpus infrigidat, calorem innatum extinguit,
appetituin destruit, concoctionem impedit, corpus exsiccat,
intellectum pervertit. Quamobrem haec omnia prorsus vitanda sunt, et
pro virili fugienda.
3406. De mel. c. 26. ex illis solum remedium; multi ex visis, auditis, &c.
sanati sunt.
3407. Pro viribus annitendum in praedictis, tum in aliis, a quibus malum
velut a primaria causa occasionem nactum est, imaginationes absurdae
falsaeque et moestitia quaecunque subierit propulsetur, aut aliud
agendo, aut ratione persuadendo earum mutationem subito facere.
3408. Lib. 2. c. 16. de occult. nat. Quisquis huic malo obnoxius est,
acriter obsistat, et summa cura obluctetur, nec ullo modo foveat
imaginationes tacite obrepentes animo, blandas ab initio et amabiles,
sed quae adeo convalescunt, ut nulla ratione excuti queant.
3409. 3. Tusc. ad Apollonium.
3410. Facastorius.
3411. Epist. de secretis artis et naturae cap. 7. de retard. sen. Remedium
esset contra corruptionem propriam, si quilibet exerceret regimen
sanitatis, quod consistit in rebus sex non naturalibus.
3412. Pro aliquo vituperio non indigneris, nec pro admissione alicujus rei,
pro morte alicujus, nec pro carcere, nec pro exilio, nec pro alia re,
nec irascaris, nec timeas, nec doleas, sed cum summa praesentia haec
sustineas.
3413. Quodsi incommoda adversitatis infortunia hoc malum invexerint, his
infractum animum opponas, Dei verbo ejusque fiducia te suffulcias,
&c., Lemnius, lib. 1. c. 16.
3414. Lib. 2. de ira.
3415. Cap. 3. de affect. anim. Ut in civitatibus contumaces qui non cedunt
politico imperio vi coercendi sunt; ita Deus nobis indidit alteram
imperii formam; si cor non deponit vitiosum affectum, membra foras
coercenda sunt, ne ruant in quod affectus impellant: et locomotiva,
quae herili imperio obtemperat, alteri resistat.
3416. Imaginatio impellit spiritus, et inde nervi moventur, &c. Et
obtemperant imaginationi et appetitui mirabili foedere, ad exequendum
quod jubent.
3417. Ovit Trist. lib. 5.
3418. Participes inde calamitatis nostrae sunt, et velut exonerata in eos
sarcina onere levamur. Arist. Eth. lib. 9.
3419. Camerarius Embl. 26. Cen. 2.
3420. Sympos. lib. 6. cap. 10.
3421. Epist. 8. lib. 3. Adversa fortuna habet in querelis levamentum; et
malorum relatio, &c.
3422. Alloquium chari juvat, et solamen amici. Emblem. 54. cent. 1.
3423. As David did to Jonathan, 1 Sam. xx.
3424. Seneca Epist. 67.
3425. Hic in civitate magna et turba magna neminem reperire possumus quocum
suspirare familiariter aut jocari libere possimus. Quare te
expectamus, te desideramus, te arcessimus. Multa sunt enim quae me
solicitant et angunt, quae mihi videor aurestuas nactus, unius
ambulationis sermone exhaurire posse.
3426. "I have not a single friend this day, to whom I dare to disclose my
secrets."
3427. Ovid.
3428. De amicitia.
3429. De tranquil. c. 7. Optimum est amicum fidelem nancisci in quem
secreta nostra infundamus; nihil aeque oblectat animum, quam ubi sint
praeparata pectora, in quae tuto secreta descendant, quorum
conscientia aeque ac tua: quorum sermo solitudinem leniat, sententia
consilium expediat, hilaritas tristitiam dissipet, conspectusque ipse
delectet.
3430. Comment. l. 7. Ad Deum confugiamus, et peccatis veniam precemur, inde
ad amicos, et cui plurimum tribuimus, nos patefaciamus totos, et
animi vulnus quo affligimur: nihil ad reficiendum animum efficacius.
3431. Ep. Q. frat.
3432. Aphor. prim.
3433. Epist. 10.
3434. Observando motus, gestus, manus, pedes, oculos, phantasiam, Piso.
3435. Mulier melancholia correpta ex longa viri peregrinatione, et iracunde
omnibus respondens, quum maritus domum reversus, praeter spem, &c.
3436. Prae dolore moriturus quum nunciatum esset uxorem peperisse filium
subito recuperavit.
3437. Nisi affectus longo tempore infestaverit, tali artificio
imaginationes curare oportet, praesertim ubi malum ab his velut a
primaria causa occasionem habuerit.
3438. Lib. 1. cap. 16. Si ex tristitia aut alio affectu caeperit, speciem
considera, aut aliud qui eorum, quae subitam alterationem facere
possunt.
3439. Evitandi monstrifici aspectus, &c.
3440. Neque enim tam actio, aut recordatio rerum hujusmodi displicet, sed
iis vel gestus alterius Imaginationi adumbrare, vehementer molestum.
Galat. de mor. cap. 7.
3441. Tranquil. Praecipue vitentur tristes, et omnia deplorantes;
tranquillitati inimicus est comes perturbatus, omnia gemens.
3442. Illorum quoque hominum, a quorum consortio abhorrent, praesentia
amovenda, nec sermonibus ingratis obtudendi; si quis insaniam ab
insania sic curari aestimet, et proterve utitur, magis quam aeger
insanit. Crato consil. 184. Scoltzii.
3443. Molliter ac suaviter aeger tractetur, nec ad ea adigatur quae non
curat.
3444. Ob suspiciones curas, aemulationem, ambitionem, iras, &c. quas locus
ille ministrat, et quae fecissent melancholicum.
3445. Nisi prius animum turbatissimum curasset; oculi sine capite, nec
corpus sine anima curari potest.
3446. E graeco. "You shall not cure the eye, unless you cure the whole head
also; nor the head, unless the whole body; nor the whole body, unless
the soul besides."
3447. Et nos non paucos sanavimus, animi motibus ad debitum revocatis, lib.
1. de sanit. tuend.
3448. Consol. ad Apollonium. Si quis sapienter et suo tempore adhibeat,
Remedia morbis diversis diversa sunt; dolentem sermo benignus
sublevat.
3449. Lib. 12. Epist.
3450. De nat. deorum consolatur afflictos, deducit perterritos a timore,
cupiditates imprimis, et iracundias comprimit.
3451. Heauton. Act. 1. Scen. 1. Ne metue, ne verere, crede inquam mihi, aut
consolando, aut consilio, aut rejuvero.
3452. Novi faeneratorem avarud apud meus sic curatum, qui multam pecuniam
amiserat.
3453. Lib. 1. consil. 12. Incredibile dictu quantum juvent.
3454. Nemo istiusmodi conditionis hominibus insultet, aut in illos sit
severior, verum miseriae potius indolescat, vicemque deploret. lib.
2. cap. 16.
3455. Cap. 7. Idem Piso Laurentius cap. 8.
3456. Quod timet nihil est, ubi cogitur et videt.
3457. Una vice blandiantur, una vice iisdem terrorem incutiant.
3458. Si vero fuerit ex novo malo audito, vel ex animi accidente, aut de
amissione mercium, aut morte amici, introducantur nova contraria his
quae ipsum ad gaudia moveant; de hoc semper niti debemus, &c.
3459. Lib. 3. cap. 14.
3460. Cap. 3. Castratio olim a veteribus usa in morbis desperatis, &c.
3461. Lib. 1. cap. 5. sic morbum morbo, ut clavum clavo, retundimus, et
malo nodo malum cuneum adhibemus. Novi ego qui ex subito hostium
incursu et inopi nato timore quartanam depulerat.
3462. Lib. 7. cap. 50. In acie pugnans febre quartana liberatus est.
3463. Jacchinus, c. 15. in 9. Rhasis Mont. cap. 26.
3464. Lib. 1. cap. 16. aversantur eos qui eorum affectus rident,
contemnunt. Si ranas et viperas comedisse se putant, concedere
debemus, et spem de cura facere.
3465. Cap. 8. de mel.
3466. Cistam posuit ex Medicorum consilio prope eum, in quem alium se
mortuum fingentem pacuit; hic in cista jacens, &c.
3467. Serres. 1550.
3468. In 9. Rhasis. Magnam vim habet musica.
3469. Cap. de Mania. Admiranda profecto res est, et digna expensione, quod
sonorum concinnitas mentem emolliat, sistatque procellosas ipsius
affectiones.
3470. Laguens animus inde erigitur et reviviscit, nec tam aures afficit,
sed et sonitu per arterias undique diffuso, spiritus tum vitales tum
animales excitat, mentem reddens aeilem, &c.
3471. Musica venustate sua mentes severiores capit, &c.
3472. Animos tristes subito exhilarat, nubilos vultus serenat, austeritatem
reponit, jucunditatem exponit, barbariemque facit deponere gentes,
mores instituit, iracundiam mitigat.
3473. Cithara tristitiam jucundat, timidos furores attenuat, cruentam
saevitiam blande reficit, languorem. &c.
3474. Pet. Aretine.
3475. Castilio de aulic. lib 1. fol. 27.
3476. Lib. de Natali. cap. 12.
3477. Quod spiritus qui in corde agitant tremulem et subsaltantem recipiunt
aerem in pectus, et inde excitantur, a spiritu musculi moventur, &c.
3478. Arbores radicibus avulsae, &c.
3479. M. Carew of Anthony, in descript. Cornwall, saith of whales, that
they will come and show themselves dancing at the sound of a trumpet,
fol. 35. 1. et fol. 154. 2 book.
3480. De cervo, equo, cane, urso idem compertum; musica afficiuntur.
3481. Numen inest numeris.
3482. Saepe graves morbos modulatum carmen abegit. Et desperatis
conciliavit opem.
3483. Lib. 5. cap. 7. Moerentibus moerorem adimam, laetantem vero seipso
reddam hilariorem, amantem calidiorem, religiosum divine numine
correptum, et ad Deos colendos paratiorem.
3484. Natalis Comes Myth. lib. 4. cap. 12.
3485. Lib. 5. de rep. Curat. Musica furorem Sancti viti.
3486. Exilire e convivio. Cardan, subtil, lib. 13.
3487. Iliad. 1.
3488. Libro 9. cap. 1. Psaltrias. Sambuciatrasque et convivalia ludorum
oblectamenta addita epuliis ex Asia invexit in urbem.
3489. Comineus.
3490. Ista libenter et magna cum voluptate spectare soleo. Et scio te
illecebris hisce captum iri et insuper tripudiaturum, haud dubie
demulcebere.
3491. In musicis supra omnem fidem capior et oblector; choreas libentissime
aspicio, pulchraram foeminarum venustate detineor, otiari inter has
solutus curis possum.
3492. 3. De legibus.
3493. Sympos. quest. 5. Musica multos magis dementat quam vinum.
3494. Animi morbi vel a musica curantur vel inferuntur.
3495. Lib. 3. de anima Laetitia purgat sanguinem, valetudinem conservat,
colorem inducit florentem, nitidum gratum.
3496. Spiritus temperat, calorem excitat, naturalem virtutem corroborat,
juvenile corpus diu servat, vitam prorogat, ingenium acuit, et
hominum negotii quibuslibet aptiorem reddit. Schola Salern.
3497. Dum contumelia vacant et festiva lenitate mordent, mediocres animi
aegritudines sanari solent, &c.
3498. De mor. fol. 57. Amamusideo eos qui sunt faceti et jucundi.
3499. Regim. sanit. part. 2. Nota quod arnicas bonus et dilectus socius,
narrationibus suis jucundis superat omneni melodiam.
3500. Lib. 21. cap. 27.
3501. Comment. in 4 Odyss.
3502. Lib. 26. c. 15.
3503. Homericum illud Nepenthes quod moerorem tollit, et cuthimiam, et
hilaritatem parit.
3504. Plaut. Bacch.
3505. De aegritud. capitis. Omni modo generet laetitiam in iis, de iis quae
audiuntur et videntur, aut odorantur, aut gustantur, aut quocunque
modo sentiri possunt, et aspectu formarum multi decoris et ornatus,
et negotiatione; jucunda, et blandientibus ludis, et promissis
distrahantur, eorum animi, de re aliqua quam timent et dolent.
3506. Utantur ve nationibus ludis, jocis, amicorum consortiis, quae non
sinunt animum turbari, vino et cantu et loci mutatione, et biberia,
et gaudio, ex quibus praecipue delectantur.
3507. Piso ex fabulis et ludis quaerenda delectatio. His versetur qui
maxima grati, sunt, cantus et chorea ad laetitiam prosunt.
3508. Praecipue valet ad expellendam melancholiam stare in cantibus, ludis,
et sonis et habitare cum familiaribus, et praecipue cum puellis
jucundis.
3509. Par. 5. de avocamentis lib. de absolvendo luctu.
3510. Corporum complexus, cantus, ludi, formae, &c.
3511. Circa hortos Epicuri frequenter.
3512. Dypnosoph. lib. 10. Coronavit florido serto incendens odores, in
culcitra plumea collocavit dulciculam potionem propinans psaltriam
adduxit, &c.
3513. Ut reclinata suaviter in lectum puella, &c.
3514. Tom. 2. consult. 85.
3515. Epist. fam. lib. 7. 22. epist. Heri demum bene potus, seroque
redieram.
3516. Valer. Max. cap. lib. 8. Interposita arundine cruribus suis, cum
filiis ludens, ab Alcibiade risus est.
3517. Hor.
3518. Hominibus facetis et ludis puerilibus ultra modum deditus adeo ut si
cui in eo tam gravitatem, quam levitatem considerare liberet, duas
personas distinctas in eo esse diceret.
3519. De nugis curial. lib. 1. cap. 4. Magistratus et viri graves, a ludis
levioribus arcendi.
3520. Machiavel vita ejus. Ab amico reprehensus, quod praeter dignitatem
tripudiis operam daret, respondet, &c.
3521. There is a time for all things, to weep, laugh, mourn, dance, Eccles.
iii. 4.
3522. Hor.
3523. John Harrington, Epigr. 50.
3524. Lucretia toto sis licet usque die, Thaida nocte volo.
3525. Lil. Giraldus hist. deor. Syntag. 1.
3526. Lib. 2. de aur. as.
3527. Eo quod risus esset laboris et modesti victus condimentum.
3528. Calcag. epig.
3529. Cap. 61. In deliciis habuit scurras et adulatores.
3530. Universa gens supra mortales caeteros conviviorum studiosissima. Ea
enim per varias et exquisitas dapes, interpositis musicis et
joculatoribus, in multas saepius horas extrahunt, ac subinde
productis choreis et amoribus foeminarum indulgent, &c.
3531. Syntag. de Musis.
3532. Atheneus lib. 12 et 14. assiduis mulierum vocibus, cantuque
symphoniae Palatium Persarum regis totum personabat. Jovius hist.
lib. 18.
3533. Eobanus Hessus.
3534. Fracastorius.
3535. Vivite ergo laeti, O amici, procul ab angustia, vivite laeti.
3536. Iterum precor et obtestor, vivite laeti: illad quod cor urit,
negligite.
3537. Laetus in praesens animus quod ultra oderit curare. Hor. He was both
Sacerdoa et Medicus.
3538. Haec autem non tam ut Sacerdos, amici, mando vobis, quam ut medicus;
nam absque hac una tanquam medicinarum vita, medicinae omnes ad vitam
producendam. adhibitae moriuntur: vivite laeti.
3539. Locheus Anacreon.
3540. Lucian. Necyomantia. Tom. 2.
3541. Omnia mundana nugas aestima. Hoc solum tota vita persequere, ut
praesentibus bene compositis, minime curiosus, aut ulla in re
solicitus, quam plurimum potes vitam hilarem traducas.
3542. "If the world think that nothing can be happy without love and mirth,
then live in love and jollity."
3543. Hildesheim spicel. 2. de Mania, fol. 161. Studia literarum et animi
perturbationes fugiat, et quantum potest jucunde vivat.
3544. Lib. de atra bile. Gravioribus curis ludos et facetias aliquando
interpone, jocos, et quae solent animum relaxare.
3545. Consil. 30. mala valetudo aucta et contracta est tristitia, ac
proptera exhilaratione animi removenda.
3546. Athen. dypnosoph. lib. 1.
3547. Juven. sat. 8. "You will find him beside some cutthroat, along with
sailors, or thieves, or runaways."
3548. Hor. "What does it signify whether I perish by disease or by the
sword!"
3549. Frossard. hist. lib. 1. Hispani cum Anglorum vires ferre non possent,
in fugam se dederunt, &c. Praecipites in fluvium se dederunt, ne in
hostium manus venirent.
3550. Ter.
3551. Hor "Although you swear that you dread the night air."
3552. [Greek: Ae pithi ae apithi.] "Either drink or depart."
3553. Lib. de lib. propriis. Hos libros, scio multos spernere, nam felices
his se non indigere putant, infelices ad solationem miseriae non
sufficere. Et tamen felicibus moderationem, dum inconstantiam humanae
felicitatis docent, praestant; infelices si omnia recte aestimare
velint, felices reddere possunt.
3554. Nullum medicamentum omnes sanare potest; sunt affectus animi qui
prorsus sunt insanabiles? non lamen artis opus sperni debet, aut
medicinae, aut philosophae.
3555. "The insane consolations of a foolish mind."
3556. Salust. Verba virtutem non addunt, nec imperatoris oratio facile
timido fortem.
3557. Job, cap. 16.
3558. Epist. 13. lib. 1.
3559. Hor.
3560. Lib. 2. Essays, cap. 6.
3561. Alium paupertas, alium orbitas, hunc morbi, illum timor, alium
injuriae, hunc insidiae, illum uxor, filii distrahunt, Cardan.
3562. Boethius l. 1. met. 5.
3563. Apuleius 4. florid. Nihil homini tam prospere datum divinitus, quin
ei admixtum sit aliquid difficultatis, in amplissima quaque laetitia
subest quaedam querimonia, conjugatione quadam mellis et fellis.
3564. Si omnes premantur, quis tu es qui solus evadere cupis ab ea lege
quae neminem praeterit? cur te non mortalem factum et universi orbis
regem fieri non doles?
3565. Puteanus ep. 75. Neque cuiquam praecipue dolendum eo quod accidit
universis.
3566. Lorchan. Gallobelgicus lib. 3. Anno 1598. de Belgis. Sed eheu inquis
euge quid agemus? ubi pro Epithalamio Bellonae flagellum, pro musica
harmonia terribilum lituorum et tubarum audias clangorem, pro taedis
nuptialibus, villarum, pagorum, urbium videas incendia; ubi pro
jubilo lamenta, pro risu fletus aerem complent.
3567. Ita est profecto, et quisquis haec videre abnuis, huic seculi parum
aptus es, aut potius nostrorum omnium conditionem ignoras, quibus
reciproco quodam nexu laeta tristibus, tristia laetis invicem
succedunt.
3568. In Tusc. e vetere poeta.
3569. Cardan lib. 1. de consol. Est consolationis genus non leve, quod a
necessitate fit; sive feras, sive non feras, ferendum est tamen.
3570. Seneca.
3571. Omni dolori tempus est medicina; ipsum luctum extinguit, injurias
delet, omnis mali oblivionem adfert.
3572. Habet hoc quoque commodum omnis infelicitas, suaviorem vitam cum
abierit relinquit.
3573. Virg.
3574. Ovid. "For there is no pleasure perfect, some anxiety always
intervenes."
3575. Lorchan. Sunt namque infera superis, humana terrenis longe disparia.
Etenim beatae mentes feruntur libere, et sine ullo impedimento,
stellae, aethereique orbes cursus et conversiones suas jam saeculis
innumerabilibus constantissime conficiunt; verum homines magnis
angustiis. Neque hac naturae lege est quisquam mortalium solutus.
3576. Dionysius Halicar. lib. 8. non enim unquam contigit, nec post homines
natos invenies quenquam, cui omnia ex animi sententia successerint,
ita ut nulla in re fortuna sit ei adversata.
3577. Vit. Gonsalvi lib. ult. ut ducibus fatale sit clarissimis a culpa
sua, secus circumveniri cum malitia et invidia, imminutaque dignitate
per contumeliam mori.
3578. In terris purum illum aetherem non invenies, et ventos serenos;
nimbos potius, procellas, calumnias. Lips. cent. misc. ep. 8.
3579. Si omnes homines sua mala suasque curas in unum cumulum conferrent,
aequis divisuri portionibus, &c.
3580. Hor. ser. lib. 1.
3581. Quod unusquisque propria mala novit, aliorum nesciat, in causa est,
ut se inter alios miserum putet. Cardan, lib. 3. de consol. Plutarch
de consol, ad Apollonium.
3582. Quam multos putas qui se coelo proximos putarent, totidem regulos, si
de fortunae tuae reliquiis pars iis minima contingat. Boeth. de
consol. lib. 2. pros. 4.
3583. "You know the value of a thing from wanting more than from enjoying
it."
3584. Hesiod. Esto quod es; quod sunt alii, sine quemlibet esse; Quod non
es, nolis; quod potes esse, velis.
3585. Aesopi fab.
3586. Seneca.
3587. Si dormirent semper omnes, nullus alio felicior esset. Card.
3588. Seneca de ira.
3589. Plato, Axiocho. An ignoras vitam hanc peregrinationem, &c. quam
sapiences cum gaudio percurrunt.
3590. Sic expedit; medicus non dat quod patiens vult, sed quod ipse bonum
scit.
3591. Frumentum non egreditur nisi trituratum, &c.
3592. Non est poena damnantis sed flagellum corrigentis.
3593. Ad haereditatem aeternam sic erudimur.
3594. Confess. 6.
3595. Nauclerum tempestas, athletam stadium, ducem pugna, magnanimum
calamitas, Christianum vero tentatio probat et examinat.
3596. Sen. Herc. fur. "The way from the earth to the stars is not so
downy."
3597. Ideo Deus asperum fecit iter, ne dum delectantur in via,
obliviscantur eorum quae sunt in patria.
3598. Boethius l. 5. met. ult, "Go now, brave fellows, whither the lofty
path of a great example leads. Why do you stupidly expose your backs?
The earth brings the stars to subjection."
3599. Boeth. pro. ult. Manet spectator cunctorum desuper praescius deus,
bonis proemia, malis supplicia dispensans.
3600. Lib. de provid. voluptatem capiunt dii siquando magnos viros
colluctantes cum calamitate vident.
3601. Ecce spectaculum Deo dignum. Vir fortis mala fortuna compositus.
3602. 1 Pet. v. 7. Psal. lv. 22.
3603. Raro sub eodem lare honestas et forma habitant.
3604. Josephus Mussus vita ejus.
3605. Homuncio brevis, macilentus, umbra hominis, &c. Ad stuporem ejus
eruditionem et eloquentiam admirati sunt.
3606. Nox habet suas voluptates.
3607. Lib. 5, ad finem, caecus potest esse sapiens et beatus, &c.
3608. In Convivio lib. 25.
3609. Joachimus Camerarius vit. ejus.
3610. Riber. vit. ejus.
3611. Macrobius.
3612. Sueton. c. 7. 9.
3613. Lib. 1. Corpore exili et despecto, sed ingenio et prudentia longe
aute se reges caeteros praeveniens.
3614. Alexander Gaguinis hist. Polandiae. Corpore parvus eram, cubito vix
altior uno, Sed tamen in parvo corpore magnus eram.
3615. Ovid.
3616. Vir. Aenei. 10.
3617. "If the fates give you large proportions, do you not require
faculties?"
3618. Lib. 2. cap. 20. oneri est illis corporis moles, et spiritus minus
vividi.
3619. Corpore breves prudentiores quum coaretata sit anima. Ingenio pollet
cui vim natura negavit.
3620. Multis ad salutem animae profuit corporis aegritudo, Petrarch.
3621. Lib. 7. Summa est totius Philosophiae, si tales, &c.
3622. "When we are sick we are most amiable."
3623. Plinius epist. 7. lib. Quem infirmum libido solicitat, aut avaritia,
aut honores? nemini invidet, neminem miratur, neminem despicit,
sermone maligno non alitur.
3624. Non terret princeps, magister, parens, judex; at aegritudo
superveniens, omnia correxit.
3625. Nat. Chytraeus Europ. deliciis. Labor, dolor, aegritudo, luctus,
servire superbis dominis, jugum ferre superstitionis, quos habet
charos sepelire, &c. condimenta vitae sunt.
3626. Non tam mari quam proelio virtus, etiam lecto exhibetur: vincetur aut
vincet; aut tu febrem relinques, aut ipsa te. Seneca.
3627. Tullius lib. 7. fam. ep. Vesicae morbo laborans, et urinae mittendae
difficultate tanta, ut vix incrementum caperet; repellebat haec omnia
animi gaudium ob memoriam inventorum.
3628. Boeth. lib. 2. pr. 4. Huic sensus exuperat, sed est pudori degener
sanguis.
3629. Gaspar Ens polit. thes.
3630. "Does such presumption in your origin possess you?"
3631. Alii pro pecunia emunt nobilitatem, alii illam lenocinio, alii
veneficiis, alii parricidiis; multis perditio nobilitate conciliat,
plerique adulatione, detractione, calumniis, &c. Agrip. de vanit.
scien.
3632. Ex. homicidio saepe orta nobilitas et strenua carnificina.
3633. Plures ob prostitutas filias, uxores, nobiles facti; multos
venationes, rapinae, caedes, praestigia, &c.
3634. Sat. Menip.
3635. Cum enim hos dici nobiles videmus, qui divitiis abundant, divitiae
vero raro virtutis sunt comites, quis non videt ortum nobilitatis
degenerem? hunc usurae ditarunt, illum spolia, proditiones; hic
veneficiis ditatus, ille adulationibus, huic adulteria lucrum
praebent, nonullis mendacia, quidam ex conjuge quaestum faciunt,
plerique ex natis, &c. Florent. hist. lib. 3.
3636. Juven. "A shepherd, or something that I should rather not tell."
3637. Robusta improbitas a tyrannide incepta, &c.
3638. Gasper Ens thesauro polit.
3639. Gresserus Itinerar. fol. 266.
3640. Hor. "Nobility without wealth is more worthless than seaweed."
3641. Syl. nup. lib. 4. num. 111.
3642. Exod. xxxii.
3643. Omnium nobilium sufficientia in eo probatur si venatica noverint, si
aleam, si corporis vires ingentibus poculis commonstrent, si naturae
robur numerosa venere probent, &c.
3644. Difficile est, ut non sit superbus dives, Austin. ser. 24.
3645. Nobilitas nihil aliud nisi improbitas, furor, rapina, latrocinium,
homicidium, luxus, venatio, violentia, &c.
3646. The fool took away my lord in the mask, 'twas apposite.
3647. De miser. curial. Miseri sunt, inepti sunt, turpes sunt, multi ut
parietes aedium suarum speciosi.
3648. Miraris aureos vestes, equos, canes, ordinem famulorum, lautas
mensas, aedes, villas, praedia, piscinas, sylvas, &c. haec omnia
stultus assequi potest. Pandalus noster lenocinio nobilitatus est,
Aeneas Sylvius.
3649. Bellonius observ. lib. 2.
3650. Mat. Riccius lib. 1. cap. 3. Ad regendam remp. soli doctores, aut
licentiati adsciscuntur, &c.
3651. Lib. 1. hist, conditione servus, caeterum acer bello, et animi
magnitudine maximorum regum nemini secundus: ob haec a Mameluchis in
regem electus.
3652. Olaus Magnus lib. 18. Saxo Grammaticus, a quo rex Sueno et caetera
Danorum regum stemmata.
3653. Seneca de Contro. Philos. epist.
3654. Corpore sunt et animo fortiores spurii, plerumque ob amoris
vehementiam, seminis crass. &c.
3655. Vita Castruccii. Nec praeter rationem mirum videri debet, si quis rem
considerare velit, omnes eos vel saltem maximam partem, qui in hoc
terrarum orbe res praestantiores aggressi sunt, atque inter caeteros
aevi sui heroas excelluerunt, aut obscuro, aut abjecto loco editos,
et prognatos fuisse abjectis parentibus. Eorum ego Catalogum
infinitum recensere possem.
3656. Exercit. 265.
3657. "It is a thing deserving of our notice, that most great men were born
in obscurity, and of unchaste mothers."
3658. Flor. hist. l. 3. Quod si nudos nos conspici contingat, omnium una
eademque erit facies; nam si ipsi nostras, nos eorum vestes induamus,
nos, &c.
3659. Ut merito dicam, quod simpliciter sentiam, Paulum Schalichium
scriptorem, et doctorem, pluris facio quam comitem Hunnorum, et
Baronem Skradinum; Encyclopaediam tuam, et orbem disciplinarum
omnibus provinciis antefero. Balaeus epist. nuncupat. ad 5 cent,
ultimam script. Brit.
3660. Praefat hist. lib. 1. virtute tua major, quam aut Hetrusci imperii
fortuna, aut numerosa et decora prolis felicitate beatior evadis.
3661. Curtius.
3662. Bodine de rep. lib. 3. cap. 8.
3663. Aeneas Silvius, lib. 2. cap. 29.
3664. "If children be proud, haughty, foolish, they defile the nobility of
their kindred," Eccl. xxii, 8.
3665. Cujus possessio nec furto eripi, nec incendio absumi, nec aquarum
voragine absorberi, vel vi morbi destrui potest.
3666. Send them both to some strange place naked, ad ignotos, as Aristippus
said, you shall see the difference. Bacon's Essays.
3667. Familiae splendor nihil opis attulit, &c.
3668. Fluvius hic illustris, humanarum rerum imago, quae parvis ductae sub
initiis, in immensum crescunt, et subito evanescunt. Exilis hic primo
flavius, in admirandam magnitudinem excrescit, tandemque in mari
Euxino evanescit. I. Stuckius pereg. mar. Euxini.
3669. "For fierce eagles do not procreate timid ring-doves."
3670. Sabinus in 6. Ovid. Met. fab. 4.
3671. Lib. 1. de 4. Complexionibus.
3672. Hor. ep. Od. 2. "And although he boast of his wealth, Fortune has not
changed his nature."
3673. Lib. 2. ep. 15. Natus sordido tuguriolo et paupere domo, qui vix
milio rugientem ventrem, &c.
3674. Nihil fortunato insipiente intolerabilius.
3675. Claud. l. 9. in Eutrop.
3676. Lib. 1. de Rep. Gal. Quoniam et commodiore utuntur conditione, et
honestiore loco nati, jam inde a parvulis ad morum civilitatem
educati sunt, et assuefacti.
3677. Nullum paupertate gravius onus.
3678. Ne quis irae divinae judicium putaret, aut paupertas exosa foret.
Gault. in cap. 2. ver. 18. Lucae.
3679. Inter proceres Thebanos numeratus, lectum habuit genus, frequens
famulitium, domus amplas, &c. Apuleius Florid. l. 4.
3680. P. Blesensis ep. 72. et 232. oblatos respui honores ex onere metiens;
motus arabitiosos rogatus non ivi, &c.
3681. Sudat pauper foras in opere, dives in cogitatione; hic os aperit
oscitatione, ille ructatione; gravius ille fastidio, quam hic inedia
cruciatur. Ber. ser.
3682. In Hysperchen. Natura aequa est, puerosque videmus mendicorum nulla
ex parte regum filiis dissimiles, plerumque saniores.
3683. Gallo Tom. 2.
3684. Et e contubernio foedi atque olidi ventris mors tandem educit. Seneca
ep. 103.
3685. Divitiarum sequela, luxus, intemperies, arroganta, superbia, furor
injustus, omnisque irrationibilis motus.
3686. Juven. Sat. 6. "Effeminate riches have destroyed the age by the
introduction of shameful luxury."
3687. Saturn. Epist.
3688. Vos quidem divites putatis felices, sed nescitis eorum miserias.
3689. Et quota pars haec eorum quae istos discruciant? si nossetis metus et
curas, quibus obnoxii sunt, plane fugiendas vobis divitias
existimaretis.
3690. Seneca in Herc. Oeteo.
3691. Et diis similes stulta cogitatio facit.
3692. Flamma simul libidinis ingreditur; ira, furor et superbia, divitiarum
sequela. Chrys.
3693. Omnium oculis, odio, insidiis expositus, semper solicitus, fortunae
ludibrium.
3694. Hor. 2. 1. od. 10.
3695. Quid me felicem toties jactastis amici? Qui cecidit, stabili non fuit
ille loco. Boeth.
3696. Ut postquam impinguati fuerint, devorentur.
3697. Hor. "Although a hundred thousand bushels of wheat may have been
threshed in your granaries, your stomach will not contain more than
mine."
3698. Cap. 6. de curat. graec. affect. rap. de providentia; quotiescunque
divitiis affluentem hominem videmus, cumque pessimum, ne quaeso hunc
beatissimum putemus, sed infelicem, censeamus, &c.
3699. Hor. l. 2. Od. 9.
3700. Hor. lib. 2.
3701. Florid. lib. 4. Dives ille cibo interdicitur, et in omni copia sua
cibum non accipit, cum interea totum ejus servitium hilare sit, atque
epuletur.
3702. Epist. 115.
3703. Hor. et mihi curto Ire licet mulo vel si libet usque Tarentum.
3704. Brisonius.
3705. Si modum excesseris, suavissima sunt molesta.
3706. Et in cupidiis gulae, coquus et pueri illotis manibus ab exoneratione
ventris omnia tractant, &c. Cardan. l. 8. cap. 46. de rerum
varielate.
3707. Epist.
3708. Plin. lib. 57. cap. 6.
3709. Zonaras 3. annal.
3710. Plutarch. vit. ejus.
3711. Hor Ser. lib. 1. Sat. 2.
3712. Cap. 30. nullam vestem his induit.
3713. Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci descendunt reges, et
sicca morte tyranni.
3714. "God shall deliver his soul from the power of the grave," Psal. xlix.
15.
3715. Contempl. Idiot. Cap. 37. divitiarum acquisitio magni laboris,
possessio magni timoris, arnissio magni doloris.
3716. Boethius de consol. phil. l. 3. "How contemptible stolid minds! They
covet riches and titles, and when they have obtained these
commodities of false weight and measures, then, and not before, they
understand what is truly valuable."
3717. Austin in Ps. lxxvi. omnis Philosophiae magistra, ad coelum via.
3718. Bonaae mentis soror paupertas.
3719. Paedagoga pietatis sobria, pia mater, cultu simplex, habitu secura,
consilio benesuada. Apul.
3720. Cardan. Opprobrium non est paupertas: quod latro eripit, aut pater
non reliquit, cur mihi vitio daretur, si fortuna divitias invidit?
non aquilae, non, &c.
3721. Tully.
3722. Epist. 74. servus summe homo; servus sum, immo contubernalis, servus
sum, at humilis amicus, immo conservus si cogitaveris.
3723. Epist. 66 et 90.
3724. Panormitan. rebus gestis Alph.
3725. Lib. 4. num. 218. quidam deprehensus quod sederet loco nobilium, mea
nobilitas, ait, est circa caput, vestra declinat ad caudam.
3726. Tanto beatior es, quanto collectior.
3727. Non amoribus inservit, non appetit honores, et qualitercunque
relictus satis habet, hominem se esse meminit, invidet nemini,
neminem despicit, neminem miratur, sermonibus malignis non attendit
aut alitur. Plinius.
3728. Politianus in Rustico.
3729. Gyges regno Lydiae inflatus sciscitatum misit Apollinem an quis
mortalium se felicior esset. Aglaium Areadum pauperrimum Apollo
praetulit, qui terminos agri sui nunquam excesserat, rure suo
contentus. Val. lib. 1. c. 7.
3730. Hor. haec est Vita solutorum misera ambitione, gravique.
3731. Amos. 6.
3732. Praefat. lib. 7. Odit naturam quod infra deos sit; irascitur diis
quod quis illi antecedat.
3733. De ira cap. 31. lib. 3. Et si multum acceperit, injuriam putat plura
non accepisse; non agit pro tribunatu gratias, sed queritur quod non
sit ad praeturam perductus; neque haec grata, si desit consulatus.
3734. Lips. admir.
3735. Of some 90,000 inhabitants now.
3736. Read the story at large in John Fox, his Acts and Monuments.
3737. Hor. Sat. 2. ser. lib. 2.
3738. 5 Florent. hist. virtus quietem parat, quies otium, otium porro luxum
generat, luxus interitum, a quo iterum ad saluberrimas, &c.
3739. Guicciard. in Hiponest nulla infelicitas subjectum esse legi naturae
&c.
3740. Persius.
3741. Omnes divites qui coelo et terra frui possunt.
3742. Hor. lib. 1. epis. 12.
3743. Seneca epist. 15. panem et aquam natura desiderat, et haec qui habet,
ipso cum Jove de felicitate contendat. Cibus simplex famem sedat,
vestis tenuis frigius arcet. Senec. epist. 8.
3744. Boethius.
3745. Muffaes et alii.
3746. Brissonius.
3747. Psal. lxxxiv.
3748. Si recte philosophemini, quicquid aptam moderationem supergreditur,
oneri potius quam usui est.
3749. Lib. 7. 16. Cereris munus et aquae poculum mortales quaerunt habere,
et quorum saties nunquam est, luxus autem, sunt caetera, non epulae.
3750. Satis est dives qui pane non indiget; nimium potens qui servire non
cogitur. Ambitiosa non est fames, &c.
3751. Euripides menalip. O fili, mediocres divitiae hominibus conveniunt,
nimia vero moles perniciosa.
3752. Hor.
3753. O noctes coenaeque deum.
3754. Per mille fraudes doctosque dolos ejicitur, apud sociam paupertatem
ejusque cultores divertens in eorum sinu et tutela deliciatur.
3755. Lucan. "O protecting quality of a poor man's life, frugal means,
gifts scarce yet understood by the gods themselves."
3756. Lip. miscell. ep. 40.
3757. Sat. 6. lib. 2.
3758. Hor. Sat. 4.
3759. Apuleius.
3760. Chytreus in Europae deliciis. Accipite cives Veneti quod est optimum
in rebus humanis, res humans contemnere.
3761. Vah, vivere etiam nunc lubet, as Demea said, Adelph. Act. 4. Quam
multis non egeo, quam multa non desidero, ut Socrates in pompa, ille
in nundinis.
3762. Epictetus 77. cap. quo sum destinatus, et sequar alacriter.
3763. "Let whosoever covets it, occupy the highest pinnacle of fame, sweet
tranquillity shall satisfy me."
3764. Puteanus ep. 62.
3765. Marullus. "The immortal Muses confer imperishable pride of origin."
3766. Hoc erit in votis, modus agri non ita parvus, Hortus ubi et tecto
vicinus jugis aquae fons, et paulum sylvae, &c. Hor. Sat. 6. lib. 2.
Ser.
3767. Hieronym.
3768. Seneca consil. ad Albinum c. 11. qui continet se intra naturae
limites, paupertatem non sentit; qui excedit, eum in opibus paupertas
sequitur.
3769. Hom. 12. pro his quae accepisti gratias age, noli indignare pro his
quae non accepisti.
3770. Nat. Chytreus deliciis Europ. Gustonii in aedibus Hubianis in
coenaculo e regione mensae. "If your table afford frugal fare with
peace, seek not, in strife, to load it lavishly."
3771. Quid non habet melius pauper quam dives? vitam, valetudinem, cibum,
somnum, libertatem, &c. Card.
3772. Martial. l. 10. epig. 47. read it out thyself in the author.
3773. Confess. lib. 6. Transiens per vicum quendam Mediolanensem,
animadverti pauperem quendam mendicum, jam credo saturum, jocantem
atque ridentem, et ingemui et locutus sum cum amicis qui mecum erant,
&c.
3774. Et certe ille laetabatur, ego anxius; securus ille, ego trepidus. Et
si percontaretur me quisquam an exultare mallem, an metuere,
responderem, exultare: et si rursus interrogaret an ego talis essem,
an qualis nunc sum, me ipsis curis confectum eligerem; sed
perversitate, non veritate.
3775. Hor.
3776. Hor. ep. lib. 1.
3777. O si nunc morerer, inquit, quanta et qualia mihi imperfecta manerent:
sed si mensibus decem vel octo super vixero, omnia redigam ad
libellum, ab omni debito creditoque me explicabo; praetereunt interim
menses decem, et octo, et cum illis anni, et adhuc restant plura quam
prius; quid igitur speras. O insane, finem quem rebus tuis non
inveneras in juventa, in senecta impositurum? O dementiam, quum ob
curas et negotia tuo judicio sis infelix, quid putas futuram quum
plura supererint? Candan lib. 8. cap. 40. de rer. var.
3778. Plutarch.
3779. Lib. de natali. cap. 1.
3780. Apud Stobeum ser. 17.
3781. Hom. 12. in 2.
3782. Non in paupertate, sed in paupere (Senec.) non re, sed opinione
labores.
3783. Vobiscus Aureliano, sed si populus famelicus inedia laboret, nec
arma, leges, pudor, magistratus, coercere valent.
3784. One of the richest men in Rome.
3785. Serm. Quidam sunt qui pauperes esse volunt ita ut nihil illis desit,
sic commendant ut nullam patiantur inopiam; sunt et alii mites,
quamdiu dicitur et agitur ad eorum arbitrium, &c.
3786. Nemo paupertatem commendaret nisi pauper.
3787. Petronius Catalec.
3788. Ovid. "There is no space left on our bodies for a fresh stripe."
3789. Ovid.
3790. Plutarch. vit. Crassi.
3791. Lucan. lib. 9.
3792. An quum super fimo sedit Job, an eum omnia abstulit diabolus, &c.
pecuniis privatus fiduciam deo habuit, omni thesauro preciosiorem.
3793. Haec videntes sponte philosophemini, nec insipientum affectibus
agitemur.
3794. 1 Sam. i. 8.
3795. James i. 2. "My brethren, count it an exceeding joy, when you fall
into divers temptations."
3796. Afflictio dat intellectum; quos Deus diligit castigat. Deus optimum
quemque aut mala valetudine aut luctu afficit. Seneca.
3797. Quam sordet mihi terra quum coelum intueor.
3798. Senec. de providentia cap. 2. Diis ita visum, dii melius norunt quid
sit in commodum meum.
3799. Hom. Iliad. 4.
3800. Hom. 9. voluit urbem tyrannus evertere, et Deus non prohibuit; voluit
captivos ducere, non impedivit; voluit ligare, concessit, &c.
3801. Psal. cxiii. De terra inopem, de stercore erigit pauperem.
3802. Micah. viii. 7.
3803. Preme, preme, ego cum Pindaro, [Greek: abaptistos eimi os phellos
hyp' elma] immersibillis sum sicut suber super maris septum. Lipsius.
3804. Hic ure, hic seca, ut in aeternum parcas, Austin. Diis fruitur
iratis, superat et crescit malis. Mutium ignis, Fabricium paupertas,
Regulum tormenta, Socratem venenum superare non potuit.
3805. Hor. epist. 16. lib. 1.
3806. Hom. 5. Auferet pecunias? at habet in coelis: patria dejiciet? at in
coelestem civitatem mittet: vincula injiciet? at habet solutam
conscientiam: corpus interficiet, at iterum resurget; cum umbra
pugnat qui cum justo pugnat.
3807. Leonides.
3808. Modo in pressura, in tentationibus, erit postea bonum tuum requies,
aeternitas, immortalitas.
3809. Dabit Deus his quoque finem.
3810. Seneca.
3811. Nemo desperet meliora lapsus.
3812. Theocritus. "Hope on, Battus, tomorrow may bring better luck; while
there's life there's hope."
3813. Ovid.
3814. Ovid.
3815. Thales.
3816. Lib. 7. Flor. hist. Omnium felicissimus, et locupletissimus, &c.
incarceratus saepe adolescentiam periculo mortis habuit,
solicitudinis et discriminis plenam, &c.
3817. Laetior successit securitas quae simul cum divitiis cohabitare
nescit. Camden.
3818. Pecuniam perdidisti, fortassis illa te perderet manens. Seneca.
3819. Expeditior es ob pecuniarum jacturam. Fortuna opes auferre, non
animum potest. Seneca.
3820. Hor. "Let us cast our jewels and gems, and useless gold, the cause of
all vice, into the sea, since we truly repent of our sins."
3821. Jubet me posthac fortuna expeditius Philosophari.
3822. "I do not desire riches, nor that a price should be set upon me."
3823. In frag. Quirites, multa mihi pericula domi, militae multa adversa
fuere, quorum alia toleravi, alia deorum auxilio repuli et virtute
mea; nunquam animus negotio defuit, nec decretis labor; nullae res
nec properae nec adversae ingenium mutabant.
3824. Qualis mundi statis supra lunam semper serenus.
3825. Bona meus nullum tristioris fortunae recipit incursum, Val. lib. 4.
c. 1. Qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil.
3826. Hor.
3827. Aequam. memento rebus in arduis servare mentem, lib. 2. Od. 3.
3828. Epict. c. 18.
3829. Ter. Adel. act. 4. sc. 7.
3830. Unaquaeque res duas habet ansas, alternam quae teneri, alteram quae
non potest; in manu nostra quam volumus accipere.
3831. Ter. And. Act. 4. sc. 6.
3832. Epictetus. Invitatus ad convivium, quae apponuntur comedis, non
quaeris ultra; in mundo multa rogitas quae dii negant.
3833. Cap. 6. de providentia. Mortales cum sint rerum omnium indigi, ideo
deus aliis divitias, aliis paupertatem distribuit, ut qui opibus
pollent, materiam subministrent; qui vero inopes, exercitatas artibus
manus admoveant.
3834. Si sint omnes equales, necesse est ut omnes fame pereant; quis aratro
terram sulcaret, quis sementem faceret, quis plantas sereret, quis
vinum exprimeret?
3835. Liv. lib. 1.
3836. Lib. 3. de cons.
3837. Seneca.
3838. Vide Isaacum Pontanum descript. Amsterdam. lib. 2. c. 22.
3839. Vide Ed. Pelham's book edit. 1630.
3840. Heautontim. Act. 1. Sc. 2.
3841. Epist. 98. Omni fortuna valentior ipse animus, in utramque partem res
suas ducit, beataeque ac miserae vitae sibi causa est.
3842. Fortuna quem nimium fovet stultum facil. Pub. Mimus.
3843. Seneca de beat. vit. cap. 14. miseri si deserantur ab ea, miseriores
si obruantur.
3844. Plutarch, vit. ejus.
3845. Hor. epist. l. 1. ep. 18.
3846. Hor.
3847. Boeth. 2.
3848. Epist. lib. 3. vit. Paul. Ermit. Libet eos nunc interrogare qui domus
marmoribus vestiunt, qui uno filo villarum ponunt precia, huic seni
modo quid unquam defuit? vos gemma bibitis, ille concavis manibus
naturae satisfecit; ille pauper paradisum capit, vos avaros gehenna
suscipiet.
3849. "It matters little whether we are enslaved by men or things."
3850. Satur. l. 11. Alius libidini servit, alius ambitioni, omnes spei,
omnes timori.
3851. Nat. lib. 3.
3852. Consol. l. 5.
3853. O generose, quid est vita nisi carcer animi!
3854. Herbastein.
3855. Vertomannus navig. l. 2. c. 4. Commercia in nundinis noctu hora
secunda ob nimios qui saeviunt interdiu aestus exercent.
3856. Ubi verior contemplatio quam in solitudine? ubi studium solidius quam
in quiete?
3857. Alex. ab Alex. gen. dier. lib. 1. cap. 2.
3858. In Ps. lxxvi. non ita laudatur Joseph cum frumenta distribueret, ac
quum carcerem habitaret.
3859. Boethius.
3860. Philostratus in deliciis. Peregrini sunt imbres in terra et fluvii in
mari Jupiter apud Aegyptos, sol apud omnes; hospes anima in corpore,
luscinia in aere, hirundo in domo, Ganymedes coelo, &c.
3861. Lib. 16. cap. 1. Nullam frugem habent potus ex imbre: Et hae gentes
si vincantur, &c.
3862. Lib. 5. de legibus. Cumque cognatis careat et amicis, majorem apud
deos et apud homines misericordiam meretur.
3863. Cardan, de consol. lib. 2.
3864. Seneca.
3865. Benzo.
3866. Summo mane ululatum oriuntur, pectora percutientes, &c. miserabile
spectaculum exhibentes. Ortelius in Graecia.
3867. Catullus.
3868. Virgil. "I live now, nor as yet relinquish society and life, but I
shall resign them."
3869. Lucan. "Overcome by grief, and unable to endure it, she exclaimed,
'Not to be able to die through sorrow for thee were base.'"
3870. 3 Annal.
3871. "The colour suddenly fled her cheek, the distaff forsook her hand,
the reel revolved, and with dishevelled locks she broke away, wailing
as a woman."
3872. Virg. Aen. 10. "Transfix me, O Rutuli, if you have any piety: pierce
me with your thousand arrows."
3873. Confess. l. 1.
3874. Juvenalis.
3875. Amator scortum vitae praeponit, iracundus vindictam, parasitus gulam,
ambitiosus honores, avarus opes, miles rapinam, fur praedam; morbos
odimus et accersimus. Card.
3876. Seneca; quum nos sumus, mors non adest; cum vero mors adest, tum nos
non sumus.
3877. Bernard. c. 3. med. nasci miserum, vivere poena, angustia mori.
3878. Plato Apol. Socratis. Sed jam hora est hinc abire, &c.
3879. Comedi ad satietatem, gravitas me offendit; parcius edi, non est
expletum desiderium; venereas delicias sequor, hinc morbus,
lassitudo, &c.
3880. Bern. c. 3. med. de tantilla laetitia, quanta tristitia; post tantam
voluptatem quam gravis miseria?
3881. Est enim mors piorum felix transitus de labore ad refrigerium, de
expectatione ad praemium, de agone ad bravium.
3882. Vaticanus vita ejus.
3883. Luc.
3884. Il. 9 Homer. "It is proper that, having indulged in becoming grief
for one whole day, you should commit the dead to the sepulchre."
3885. Ovid.
3886. Consol. ad Apolon. non est libertate nostra positum non dolere,
misericordiam abolet, &c.
3887. Ovid, 4 Trist.
3888. Tacitus lib. 4.
3889. Lib. 9. cap. 9. de civitate Dei. Non quaero cum irascatur sed cur,
nor utrum sit tristis sed unde, non utrum timeat sed quid timeat.
3890. Festus verbo minuitur. Luctui dies indicebatur cum liberi nascantur,
cum frater abit, amicus ab hospite captivus domum redeat, puella
desponsetur.
3891. Ob hanc causam mulieres ablegaram ne talia facerent; nos haec
audientes erubuimus et destitimus a lachrymis.
3892. Lib. 1. class. 8. de Claris. Jurisconsultis Patavinis.
3893. 12. Innuptae puellae amictae viridibus pannis, &c.
3894. Lib. de consol.
3895. Praeceptis philosophiae confirmatus adversus omnem fortunae vim, et
te consecrata in coelumque recepta, tanta affectus laetitia sum ac
voluptate, quantam animo capere possum, ac exultare plane mihi
videor, victorque de omni dolore et fortuna triumphare.
3896. Ut lignum uri natum, arista secari, sic homines mori.
3897. Boeth. lib. 2. met. 3.
3898. Boeth.
3899. Nic. Hensel. Breslagr. fol. 47.
3900. Twenty then present.
3901. To Magdalen, the daughter of Charles the Seventh of France. Obeunt
noctesque diesque, &c.
3902. Assyriorum regio funditus deleta.
3903. Omnium quot unquam Sol aspexit urbium maxima.
3904. Ovid. "What of ancient Athens but the name remains?"
3905. Arcad. lib. 8.
3906. Praefat. Topogr. Constantinop.
3907. "Nor can its own structure preserve the solid globe."
3908. Epist. Tull. lib. 3.
3909. Quum tot oppidorum cadavera ante oculus projecta jacent.
3910. Hor. lib. 1. Od. 24.
3911. De remed. fortuit.
3912. Erubesce tanta tempestate quod ad unam anchoram stabas.
3913. Vis aegrum, et morbidum, fitibundum--gaude potius quod his malis
liberatus sit.
3914. Uxorem bonam aut invenisti, aut sic fecisti; si inveneris, aliam
habere te posse ex hoc intelligamus: si feceris, bene speres, salvus
est artifex.
3915. Stulti est compedes licet aureas amare.
3916. Hor.
3917. Hor. lib. 1. Od. 24.
3918. Virg. 4. Aen.
3919. Cap. 19. Si id studes ut uxor, amici, liberi perpetuo vivant, stultus
es.
3920. Deos quos diligit juvenes rapit, Menan.
3921. Consol. ad Apol. Apollonius filius tuus in flore decessit, ante nos
ad aeternitatem digressus, tanquam e convivio abiens, priusquam in
errorem aliquem e temulentia incideret, quales in longa senecta
accidere solent.
3922. Tom. 1. Tract. de luctu. Quid me mortuum miserum vocas, qui te sum
multo felicior? aut quid acerbi mihi putas contigisse? an quia non
sum malus senex, ut tu facie rugosus, incurvus, &c. O demens, quid
tibi videtur in vita boni? nimirum amicitias, caenas, &c. Longe
melius non esurire quam edere; non sitire, &c. Gaude potius quod
morbos et febres effugerim, angorem animi, &c. Ejulatus quid prodest
quid lachryimae, &c.
3923. Virgil.
3924. Hor.
3925. Chytreus deliciis Europae.
3926. Epist. 85.
3927. Sardus de mor. gen.
3928. Praemeditatione facilem reddere quemque casum. Plutarchus
consolatione ad Apollonium. Assuefacere non casibus debemus. Tull.
lib. 3. Tusculan. quaest.
3929. Cap. 8. Si ollam diligas, memento te ollam diligere, non
perturbaberis ea confracta; si filium aut uxorem, memento hominem. a
te diligi, &c.
3930. Seneca.
3931. Boeth, lib. 1. pros. 4.
3932. Qui invidiam ferre non potest, ferre contemptum cogitur.
3933. Ter. Heautont.
3934. Epictetus c. 14. Si labor objectus fuerit tolerantiae, convicium
patientiae, &c. si ita consueveris, vitiis non obtemperabis.
3935. Ter. Phor.
3936. Alciat Embl.
3937. Virg. Aen.
3938. "My breast was not conscious of this first wound, for I have endured
still greater."
3939. Nat. Chytreus deliciis Europae, Felix civitas quae tempore pacis de
bello cogitat.
3940. Occupat extremum scabies; mihi turpe relinqui est. Hor.
3941. Lipsius epist. quaest. l. 1. ep. 7.
3942. Lipsius epist. lib. I. epist. 7.
3943. Gloria comitem habet invidiam, pari onere premitur retinendo ac
acquirendo.
3944. Quid aliud ambitiosus sibi parat quam ut probra ejus pateant? nemo
vivens qui non habet in vita plura vitoperatione quam laude digna;
his malis non melius occurritur, quam si bene latueris.
3945. Et omnes fama per urbes garrula laudet.
3946. Sen. Her. fur.
3947. Hor. "I live like a king without any of these acquisitions."
3948. "But all my labour was unprofitable; for while death took off some of
my friends, to others I remain unknown, or little liked, and these
deceive me with false promises. Whilst I am canvassing one party,
captivating another, making myself known to a third, my age
increases, years glide away, I am put off, and now tired of the
world, and surfeited with human worthlessness. I rest content."
3949. The right honourable Lady Francis Countess Dowager of Exeter. The
Lord Berkley.
3950. Distichon ejus in militem Christianum e Graeco. Engraven on the tomb
of Fr. Puccius the Florentine in Rome. Chytreus in deliciis.
3951. Paederatus in 300 Lacedaemoniorum numerum non electus risit,
gratulari se dicens civitatem habere 300 cives se meliores.
3952. Kissing goes by favour.
3953. Aeneas Syl. de miser. curial. Dantur honores in curiis non secundum
honores et virtutes, sed ut quisque ditior est atque potentior, eo
magis honoratur.
3954. Sesellius lib. 2. de repub. Gallorum. Favore apud nos et gratia
plerumque res agitur; et qui commodum aliquem nacti sunt
intercessorem, aditum fere habent ad omnes praefecturas.
3955. "Slaves govern; asses are decked with trappings; horses are deprived
of them."
3956. Imperitus periti munus occupat, et sic apud vulgus habetur. Ille
profitetur mille coronatus, cum nec decem mercatur; alius e diverso
mille dignus, vix decem consequi potest.
3957. Epist. dedict. disput. Zeubbeo Bondemontio, et Cosmo Rucelaio.
3958. Quum is qui regnat, et regnandi sit imperitus.
3959. Lib. 22. hist.
3960. Ministri locupletiores sunt iis quibus ministratur.
3961. Hor. lib. 2. Sat. 5. "Learn how to grow rich."
3962. Solomon Eccles. ix. 11.
3963. Sat. Menip.
3964. "O wretched virtue! you are therefore nothing but words, and I have
all this time been looking upon you as a reality, while you are
yourself the slave of fortune."
3965. Tale quid est apud Valent. Andream Apolog. manip. 5. apol. 39.
3966. Stella Fomahant immortalitatem dabit.
3967. Lib. de lib. propiis.
3968. Hor. "The muse forbids the praiseworthy man to die."
3969. Qui induit thoracem aut galeam, &c.
3970. Lib. 4. de guber. Dei. Quid est dignitas indigno nisi circulus aureus
in naribus suis.
3971. In Lysandro.
3972. Ovid. Met.
3973. Magistratus virum indicat.
3974. Ideo boni viri aliquando gratiam non accipiunt, ne in superbiam
eleventur venositate jactantiae, ne altitudo muneris neglentiores
efficiat.
3975. Aelian.
3976. Injuriarum remedium est oblivio.
3977. Mat. xviii. 22. Mat. v. 39.
3978. Rom. xii. 17.
3979. Si toleras injuriam, victor evadis; qui enim pecuniis privatus est,
non est privatus victoria in hac philosophia.
3980. Dispeream nisi te ultus fuero: dispeream nisi ut me deinceps ames
effecero.
3981. Joach. Camerarius Embl. 21. cent. 1.
3982. Heliodorus.
3983. Reipsa reperi nihil esse homini melius facilitate et clementia. Ter.
Adelph.
3984. Ovid.
3985. Camden in Glouc.
3986. Usque ad pectus ingressus est, aquam, &c. cymbam amplectens,
sapientissime, rex ait, tua humilitas meam vicit superbiam, et
sapientia triumphavit ineptiam; collum ascende quod contra te fatuus
erexi, intrabis terram quam hodie fecit tuam benignitas, &c.
3987. Chrysostom, contumeliis affectus est et eas pertulit; opprobriis, nec
ultus est; verberibus caesus, nec vicem reddidit.
3988. Rom. xii. 14.
3989. Pro.
3990. Contend not with a greater man, Pro.
3991. Occidere possunt.
3992. Non facile aut tutum in eum scribere qui potest proscribere.
3993. Arcana tacere, otium recte collocare, injuriam posse ferre,
difficillimum.
3994. Psal. xlv.
3995. Rom. xii.
3996. Psa. xiii. 12.
3997. Nullus tam severe inimicum suum ulcisci potest, quam Deus solet
miserorum oppressores.
3998. Arcturus in Plaut. "He adjudicates judgment again, and punishes with
a still greater penalty."
3999. Hor. 3. od. 2.
4000. Wisd. xi. 6.
4001. Juvenal.
4002. Apud Christianos non qui patitur, sed qui facit injuriam miser est.
Leo ser.
4003. Neque praecepisset Deus si grave fuisset; sed qua ratione potero?
facile si coelum suspexeris; et ejus pulchritudine, et quod
pollicetur Deus, &c.
4004. Valer. lib. 4. cap. 1.
4005. Ep. Q. frat.
4006. Camerarius, emb. 75. cen. 2.
4007. Pape, inquit: nullum animal tam pusillum quod non cupiat ulcisci.
4008. Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris.
4009. 1 Pet. ii.
4010. Siquidem malorum proprium est inferre damna, et bonorum pedissequa
est injuria.
4011. Alciat. emb.
4012. Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret.
4013. By many indignities we come to dignities. Tibi subjicito quae fiunt
aliis, furtum convitia, &c. Et in iis in te admissis non excandesces.
Epictetus.
4014. Plutarch. quinquagies Catoni dies dicta ab inimicis.
4015. Lib. 18.
4016. Hoc scio pro certo quod si cum stercore certo, vinco seu vincor,
semper ego maculor.
4017. Lib. 8. cap. 2.
4018. Obloquutus est, probrumque tibi intulit quispiam, sive vera is
dixerit, sive falsa, maximam tibi coronam texueris si mansuete
convitium tuleris. Chrys. in 6. cap. ad Rom. ser. 10.
4019. Tullius epist. Dolabella, tu forti sis animo; et tua moderatio,
constantia, eorum infamet injuriam.
4020. Boethius consol. lib. 4. pros. 3.
4021. Amongst people in every climate.
4022. Ter. Phor.
4023. Camerar. emb. 61. cent. 3. "Why should you regard the harmless shafts
of a vain-speaking tongue--does the exalted Diana care for the
barking of a dog?"
4024. Lipsius elect. lib. 3. ult. Latrant me jaceo, ac taceo, &c.
4025. Catullus.
4026. The symbol of I. Kevenheder, a Carinthian baron, saith Sambucus.
4027. The symbol of Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
4028. Pers. sat. 1.
4029. Magni animi est injurias despicere, Seneca de ira, cap. 31.
4030. Quid turpius quam sapientis vitam ex insipientis sermone pendere?
Tullius 2. de finibus.
4031. Tua te conscientia salvare, in cubiculum ingredere, ubi secure
requiescas. Minuit se quodammodo proba bonitas conscientiae secretum,
Boethius, l. 1. pros. 4.
4032. Ringantur licet et maledicant; Palladium illud pectori oppono, non
moveri: consisto modestiae veluti sudi innitens, excipio et frango
stultissimum impetum livoris. Putean. lib. 2. epist. 53.
4033. Mil. glor. Act. 3. Plautus.
4034. Bion said his father was a rogue, his mother a whore, to prevent
obloquy, and to show that nought belonged to him but goods of the
mind.
4035. Lib. 2. ep. 25.
4036. Nosce teipsum.
4037. Contentus abi.
4038. Ne fidas opibus, neque parasitis, trahunt in praecipitium.
4039. Pace cum hominibus habe, bellum cum vitiis. Otho. 2. imperat. symb.
4040. Daemon te nunquam otiosum inveniat. Hieron.
4041. Diu deliberandum quod statuendum est semel.
4042. Insipientis est dicere non putaram.
4043. Ames parentem, si equum, aliter feras; praestes parentibus pietatem,
amicis dilectionem.
4044. Comprime linguam. Quid de quoque viro et cui dicas saepe caveto.
Libentius audias quam loquaris; vive ut vivas.
4045. Epictetus: optime feceris si ea fugeris quae in alio reprehendis.
Nemini dixeris quae nolis efferri.
4046. Fuge sussurones. Percontatorem fugito, &c.
4047. Sint sales sine vilitate. Sen.
4048. Sponde, presto noxa.
4049. Camerar. emb. 55. cent. 2. cave cui credas, vel nemini fidas
Epicarmus.
4050. Tecum habita.
4051. Bis dat qui cito dat.
4052. Post est occasio calva.
4053. Nimia familiaritas parit contemptum.
4054. Mendacium servile vitium.
4055. Arcanum neque inscrutaberis ullius unquam, commissumque teges, Hor.
lib. 1, ep. 19. Nec tua laudabis studia aut aliena reprendes. Hor.
ep. lib. 18.
4056. Ne te quaesiveris extra.
4057. Stultum est timere, quod vitari non potest.
4058. De re amissa irreparabili ne doleas.
4059. Tant eris aliis quanti tibi fueris.
4060. Neminem esto laudes vel accuses.
4061. Nullius hospitis grata est mora longa.
4062. Solonis lex apud. Aristotelem Gellius lib. 2. cap. 12.
4063. Nullum locum putes sine teste, semper adesse Deum cogita.
4064. Secreto amicos admone, lauda palam.
4065. Ut ameris amabilis esto. Eros et anteros gemelli Veneris, amatio et
redamatio. Plat.
4066. Dum fata sinunt vivite laeti, Seneca.
4067. Id apprime in vita utile, ex aliis observare sibi quod ex usu siet.
Ter.
4068. Dum furor in cursu currenti cede furori. Cretizandum cum Crete.
Temporibus servi, nec contra flamina flato.
4069. Nulla certior custodia innocentia: inexpugnabile munimentum munimento
non egere.
4070. Unicuique suum onus intolerabile videtur.
4071. Livius.
4072. Ter. scen. 2. Adelphus.
4073. "'Twas not the will but the way that was wanting."
4074. Plautus.
4075. Petronius Catul.
4076. Parmeno Caelestinae, Act. 8. Si stultita dolor esset, in nulla non
domo ejulatus audires.
4077. Busbequius. Sands. lib. 1. fol. 89.
4078. Quis hodie beatior, quam cui licet stultum esse, et eorundam
immunitatibus frui. Sat. Menip.
4079. Lib. Hist.
4080. Parvo viventes laboriosi, longaevi, suo contenti, ad centum annos
vivunt.
4081. Lib. 6. de Nup. Philol. Ultra humanam fragilitatem prolixi, ut
immature pereat qui centenarius moriatur, &c.
4082. Victus eorum caseo et laete consistit, potus aqua et serum; pisces
loco panis habent; ita multos annos saepe 250 absque medico et
medicina vivunt.
4083. Lib. de 4. complex.
4084. Per mortes agunt experimenta et animas nostras negotiantur; et quod
aliis exitiale hominem occidere iis impunitas summa. Plinius.
4085. Juven.
4086. Omnis morbus lethalis aut curabilis, in vitam definit aut in mortem.
Utroque igitur modo medicina inutilis; si lethalis, curari non
potest; si curabilis, non requirit medicum: natura expellet.
4087. In interpretationes politico-morales in 7 Aphorism. Hippoc. libros.
4088. Praefat. de contrad. med.
4089. Opinio facit medicos: a fair gown, a velvet cap, the name of a doctor
is all in all.
4090. Morbus alius pro alio curatur; aliud remedium pro alio.
4091. Contrarias proferunt sententias. Card.
4092. Lib. 3. de sap. Omnes artes fraudem admittunt, sola medicina sponte
eam accersit.
4093. Omnis aegrotus, propria culpa perit, sed nemo nisi medici beneficio
restituitur. Agrippa.
4094. "How does the surgeon differ from the doctor? In this respect: one
kills by drugs, the other by the hand; both only differ from the
hangman in this way, they do slowly what he does in an instant."
4095. "Medicine cannot cure the knotty gout."
4096. Lib. 3. Crat. ep. Winceslao Raphaeno. Ausim dicere, tot pulsuum
differentias, quae describuntur a Galeno, nec a quoquam intelligi,
nec observari posse.
4097. Lib. 28. cap. 7. syntax, art. mirab. Mallem ego expertis credere
solum, quam mere ratiocinantibus: neque satis laudare possum
institutum Babylonicum, &c.
4098. Herod. Euterpe de Egyptiis. Apud eos singulorum morborum sunt singuli
medici; alius curat oculos, alius dentes, alius caput, partes
occultas alius.
4099. Cyrip. lib. 1. Velut vestium fractarum resarcinatores, &c.
4100. Chrys. hom.
4101. Prudens et pius medicus, morbum ante expellere satagit, cibis
medicinalibus, quam puris medicinis.
4102. Cuicunque potest per alimenta restitui sanitas, frugiendus est
penitus usus medicamentorum.
4103. Modestus et sapiens medicus, nunquam properabit ad pharmaciam, nisi
cogente necessitate.
4104. Quicunque pharmacatur in juventute, deflebit in senectute.
4105. Hildish. spic. 2. de mel. fol. 276. Nulla est firme medicina purgans,
quae non aliquam de viribus et partibus corporis depraedatur.
4106. Lib. 1. et Bart. lib. 8. cap. 12.
4107. De vict. acut. Omne purgans medicamentum, corpori purgato contrarium,
&c. succos et spiritus abducit, substantiam corporis aufert.
4108. Hesiod. op.
4109. Heurnius praef. pra. med. Quot morborum sunt ideae, tot remediorum
genera variis potentiis decorata.
4110. Penottus denar. med. Quaecunque regio producit simplicia, pro morbis
regionis; crescit raro absynthium in Italia, quod ibi plerumque morbi
calidi, sed cicuta, papaver, et herbae frigidae; apud nos Germanos et
Polonos ubique provenit absynthium.
4111. Quum in villam venit, consideravit quae ibi crescebant medicamenta,
simplicia frequentiora, et iis plerunque usus distillatis, et aliter,
alimbacum ideo argenteum circumferens.
4112. Herbae medicis utiles omnium in Apulia feracissimae.
4113. Geog. ad quos magnus herbariorum numerus undique confluit. Sincerus
Itiner. Gallia.
4114. Baldus mons prope Benacum herbilegis maxime notus.
4115. Qui se nihil effecisse arbitrantur, nisi Indiam, Aethiopiam, Arabiam,
et ultra Garamantas a tribus mundi partibus exquisita remedia
corradunt. Tutius saepe medetur rustica anus una, &c.
4116. Ep. lib. 8. Proximorum incuriosi longinqua sectamur, et ad ea
cognoscenda iter ingredi et mare transmittere solemus; at quae sub
oculis posita negligimus.
4117. Exotica rejecit, domesticis solum nos contentos esse voluit. Melch.
Adamus vit. ejus.
4118. Instit, l. 1. cap. 8. sec. 1. ad exquisitam curandi rationem, quorum
cognitio imprimis necessaria est.
4119. Quae caeca vi ac specifica qualitate morbos futuros arcent. lib. 1.
cap. 10. Instit. Phar.
4120. Galen. lib. epar lupi epaticos curat.
4121. Stercus pecoris ad Epilepsiam, &c.
4122. Priestpintle, rocket.
4123. Sabina faetum educit.
4124. Wecker. Vide Oswaldum Crollium, lib. de internis rerum signaturis, de
herbis particularibus parti cuique convenientibus.
4125. Idem Laurentius, c. 9.
4126. Dicor borago gaudia semper ago.
4127. Vino infusam hilaritatem facit.
4128. Odyss. A.
4129. Lib. 2. cap. 2. prax. med. mira vi laetitiam praebet et cor
confirmat, vapores melancholicos purgat a spiritibus.
4130. Proprium est ejus animum hilarem reddere, concoctionem juvare,
ccrebri obstructiones resecare, sollicitudines fugare, sollicitas
imaginationes tollere. Scorzonera.
4131. Non solum ad viperarum morsus, comitiales, vertiginosos; sed per se
accommodata radix tristitiam discutit, hilaritatemque conciliat.
4132. Bilem utramque detrahit, sanguinem purgat.
4133. Lib. 7. cap. 5. Laiet. occit. Indiae descrip. lib. 10. cap. 2.
4134. Heurnius, l. 2. consil. 185. Scoltzii consil. 77.
4135. Praef. denar. med. Omnes capitis dolores et phantasmata tollit; scias
nullam herbam in terris huic comparandam viribus et bonitate nasci.
4136. Optimum medicamentum in ceteri cordis confortatione, et ad omnes qui
tristantur, &c.
4137. Rondoletius. Elenum quod vim habet miram ad hilaritatem et multi pro
secreto habent. Sckenkius observ. med. cen. 5. observ. 86.
4138. Afflictas mentes relevat, animi imaginationes et daemones expellit.
4139. Sckenkius, Mizaldus, Rhasis.
4140. Cratonis ep. vol. 1. Credat qui vult gemmas mirabilia efficere; mihi
qui et ratione et experientia didici aliter rem habere, nullus facile
persuadebit falsum esse verum.
4141. L. de gemmis.
4142. Margaritae et corallum ad melancholiam praecipue valent.
4143. Margaritae et gemmae spiritus confortant et cor, melancholiam fugant.
4144. Praefat. ad lap. prec. lib. 2. sect. 2. de mat. med. Regum coronas
ornant, digitos illustrant, supellectilem ditant, e fascino tuentur,
morbis medentur, sanitatem conservant, mentem exhilarant, tristitiam
pellunt.
4145. Encelius, l. 3. c. 4. Suspensus vel ebibitus tristitiae multum
resistit, et cor recreat.
4146. Idem. cap. 5. et cap. 6. de Hyacintho et Topazio. Iram sedat et animi
tristitiam pellit.
4147. Lapis hic gestatus aut ebibitus prudentiam auget, nocturnos timores
pellit; insanos hac sanavi, et quum lapidem abjecerint, erupit iterum
stultitia.
4148. Inducit sapientiam, fugat stultitiam. Idem Cardanus, lunaticos juvat.
4149. Confert ad bonum intellectum, comprimit malas cogitationes, &c.
Alacres reddit.
4150. Albertus, Encelius, cap. 44. lib. 3. Plin. lib. 37. cap. 10. Jacobus
de Dondis: dextro brachio alligatus sanat lunaticos, insanos, facit
amabiles, jucundos.
4151. Valet contra phantasticas illusiones ex melancholia.
4152. Amentes sanat, tristitiam pellit, iram, &c.
4153. Valet ad fugandos timores et daemones, turbulenta somnia abigit, et
nocturnos puerorum timores compescit.
4154. Somnia laeta facit argenteo annulo gestatus.
4155. Atrae bili adversatur, omnium gemmarum pulcherrima, coeli colorem
refert, animum ab errore liberat, mores in melius mutat.
4156. Longis moeroribus feliciter medetur, deliquiis, &c.
4157. Sec. 5. Memb. 1. Subs. 5.
4158. Gestamen lapidum et gemmarum maximum fert auxilium et juvamen; unde
qui dites sunt gemmas secum ferre student.
4159. Margaritae et uniones quae a conchis et piscibus apud Persas et
Indos, valde cordiales sunt, &c.
4160. Aurum laetitiam general, non in corde, sed in arca virorum.
4161. Chaucer.
4162. Aurum non aurum. Noxium ob aquas rodentes.
4163. Ep. ad Monavium. Metallica omnia in universum quovismodo parata, nec
tuto nec commode intra corpus sumi.
4164. In parag. Stultissimus pilus occipitis mei plus scit, quam omnes
vestri doctores, et calceorum meorum annuli doctiores sunt quam
vester Galenus et Avicenna, barba mea plus experta est quam vestrae
omnes Academiae.
4165. Vide Ernestum Burgratium, edit. Franaker. 8vo. 1611. Crollius and
others.
4166. Plus proficiet gutta mea, quam tot eorum drachmae et unciae.
4167. Nonnulli huic supra modum indulgent, usum etsi non adeo magnum, non
tamen abjiciendum censeo.
4168. Ausim dicere neminem medicum excellentem qui non in hac distillatione
chymica sit versatus. Morbi chronici devinci citra metallica vix
possint, aut ubi sanguis corrumpitur.
4169. Fraudes hominum et ingeniorum capturae, officinas invenere istas, in
quibus sua cuique venalis promittitur vita; statim compositiones et
mixturae inexplicabiles ex Arabia et India, ulceri parvo medicina a
rubro mari importatur.
4170. Arnoldus Aphor. 15. Fallax medicus qui potens mederi simplicibus,
composita dolose aut frustra quaerit.
4171. Lib. 1. sect. 1. cap. 8. Dum infinita medicamenta miscent, laudem
sibi comparare student, et in hoc studio alter alterum superare
conatur, dum quisque quo plura miscuerit, eo se doctiorem putet, inde
fit ut suam prodant inscitiam, dum ostentant peritiam, et se
ridiculos exhibeant, &c.
4172. Multo plus periculi a medicamento, quam a morbo, &c.
4173. Expedit. in Sinas, lib. 1. c. 5. Praecepta medici dant nostris
diversa, in medendo non infelices, pharmacis utuntur simplicibus,
herbis, radicibus, &c. tota eorum medicina nostrae herbariae
praeceptis continetur, nullus ludus hujus artis, quisque privatus a
quolibet magistro eruditur.
4174. Lib. de Aqua.
4175. Opusc. de Dos.
4176. Subtil. cap. de scientiis.
4177. Quaercetan. pharmacop. restitut. cap. 2. Nobilissimum et utilissimum
inventum summa cum necessitate adinventum et introductum.
4178. Cap. 25. Tetrabib. 4. ser. 2. Necessitas nunc cogit aliquando noxia
quaerere remedia, et ex simplicibus compositas facere, tum ad
saporem, odorem, palati gratiam, ad correctionem simplicium, tum ad
futuros usus, conservationem, &c.
4179. Cum simplicia non possunt neccessitas cogit ad composita.
4180. Lips. Epist.
4181. Theod. Podromus Amor. lib. 9.
4182. Sanguinem corruptum emaculat, scabiem abolet, lepram curat, spiritus
recreat, et animum exhilarat. Melancholicos humores per urinam
educit, et cerebrum a crassis, aerumnosis melancholiae fumis purgat,
quibus addo dementes et furiosos vinculis retinendos plurimum juvat,
et ad rationis usum ducit. Testis est mihi conscientia, quod viderim
matronam quandam hinc liberatam, quae frequentius ex iracundia
demens, et impos animi dicenda tacenda loquebatur, adeo furens ut
ligari cogeretur. Fuit ei praestantissimo remedio, vini istius usus,
indicatus a peregrino homine mendico, eleemosynam prae foribus dictae
matronae implorante.
4183. Iis qui tristautur sine causa, et vitant amicorum societatem et
tremunt corde.
4184. Modo non inflammetur melancholia, aut calidiore temperamento sint.
4185. Heurnius: datur in sero lactis, aut vino.
4186. Veratri modo expurgat cerebrum, roborat memoriam. Fuchsias.
4187. Crassos et biliosos humores per vomitum educit.
4188. Vomitum et menses cit. valet ad hydrop. &c.
4189. Materias atras educit.
4190. Ab arte ideo rejiciendum, ob periculum suffocationis.
4191. Cap. 16. magna vi educit, et molestia cum summa.
4192. Quondam terribile.
4193. Multi studiorum gratia ad providenda acrius quae commentabantur.
4194. Medetur comitialibus, melancholicis, podagricis; vetatur senibus,
pueris, mollibus et effaeminatis.
4195. Collect. lib. 8. cap. 3. in affectionibus iis quae difficulter
curantur, Helleborum damus.
4196. Non sine summa cautio ne hoc remedio utemur; est enim validissimum,
et quum vires Antimonii contemnit morbus, in auxilium evocatur, modo
valide vires efflorescant.
4197. Aetias tetrab. cap. 1. ser. 2. Iis solum dari vult Helleborum album,
qui secus spem non habent, non iis qui Syncopem timent, &c.
4198. Cum salute multorum.
4199. Cap. 12 de morbis cap.
4200. Nos facillime utimur nostro prepaerato Helleboro albo.
4201. In lib. 5. Dioscor. cap. 3. Omnibus opitulator morbis, quos atrabilis
excitavit comitialibus iisque presertim qui Hypocondriacas obtinent
passiones.
4202. Andreas Gallus, Tridentinus medicus, salutem huic medicamento post
Deum debet.
4203. Integrae sanitati brevi restitutus. Id quod aliis accidisse scio, qui
hoc mirabili medicamento usi sunt.
4204. Qui melancholicus factus plane desipiebat, multaque stulte
loquebaturr, huic exhibitum 12. gr. stibium, quod paulo post atram
bilem ex alvo eduxit (ut ego vidi, qui vocatus tanquam ad miraculum
adfui testari possum,) et ramenta tunquam carnis dissecta in partes
totum excrementum tanquam sanguinem nigerrimum repraesentabat.
4205. Antimonium venenum, non medicamentum.
4206. Cratonis ep. sect. vel ad Monavium ep. In utramque partem dignissimum
medicamentum, si recte utentur, secus venenum.
4207. Maerores fugant; utilissime dantur melancholicis et quaternariis.
4208. Millies horum vires expertus sum.
4209. Sal nitrium, sal ammoniaeum, Dracontii radix, doctamnum.
4210. Calet ordine secundo, siccat primo, adversus omnia vitia atrae bilis
valet, sanguinem mundat, spiritus illustrat, maerorem discutit herba
mirifica.
4211. Cap. 4. lib. 2.
4212. Recentiores negant ora venarum resecare.
4213. An aloe aperiat ora venarum. lib. 9. cont. 3.
4214. Vapores abstergit a vitalibus partibus.
4215. Tract. 15. c. 6. Bonus Alexander, tantam lapide Arnteno confidentiam
habuit, ut omnes melancholicas passiones ab eo curari posse crederet,
et ego inde saepissime usus sum, et in ejus exhibitione nunquam
fraudatus fui.
4216. Maurorum medici hoc lapide plerumque purgant melancholiam, &c.
4217. Quo ego saepe feliciter usus sum, et magno cum auxilio.
4218. Si non hoc, nihil restat nisi Helleborus, et lapis Armenus. Consil.
184. Scoltzii.
4219. Multa corpora vidi gravissime hinc agitata, et stomacho multum
obfuisse.
4220. Cum vidissit ab eo curari capras furentes, &c.
4221. Lib. 6. simpl. med.
4222. Pseudolo act. 4. scen. ult. helleboro hisce hominibus opus est.
4223. Hor.
4224. In Satyr.
4225. Crato consil. 16. l. 2. Etsi multi magni viri probent, in bonam
partem accipiant medici, non probem.
4226. Vescuntur veratro coturnices quod hominibus toxicum est.
4227. Lib. 23. c. 7. 12. 14.
4228. De var. hist.
4229. Corpus incolume reddit, et juvenile efficit.
4230. Veteres non sine causa usi sunt: Difficilis ex Helleboro purgatio, et
terroris plena, sed robustis datur tamen, &c.
4231. Innocens medicamentum, modo rite paretur.
4232. Absit jactantia, ego primus praebere caepi, &c.
4233. In Catart. Ex una sola evacuatione furor cessavit et quietus inde
vixit. Tale exemplum apud Sckenkium et apud Scoltzium, ep. 231. P.
Monavius se stolidum curasse jactat hoc epoto tribus aut quatuor
vicibus.
4234. Ultimum refugium, extremum medicamentum, quod caetera omnia claudit,
quaecunque caeteris laxativis pelli non possunt ad hunc pertinent; si
non huic, nulli cedunt.
4235. Testari possum me sexcentis hominibus Helleborum nigrum exhibuisse,
nullo prorsus incommodo, &c.
4236. Pharmacop. Optimum est ad maniam et omnes melancholicos affactus, tum
intra assumptum, tum extra, secus capiti cum linteolis in eo
madefactis tepide admotutm.
4237. Epist. Math. lib. 3. Tales Syrupi nocentissimi et omnibus modis
extirpandi.
4238. Purgantia censebant medicamenta, non unum humorem attrahere, sed
quemcunque attigerint in suam naturam convertere.
4239. Religantur omnes exsiccantes medicinae, ut Aloe, Hiera, pilulae
quaecunque.
4240. Contra eos qui lingua vulgari et vernacula remedia et medicamenta
praescribunt, et quibusvis communia faciunt.
4241. Quis, quantum, quando.
4242. Fernelius, lib. 2. cap. 19.
4243. Renodeus, lib. 5. cap. 21. de his Mercurialis lib. 3. de composit.
med. cap. 24. Heurnius, lib. 1. prax. med. Wecker, &c.
4244. Cont. lib. 1. c. 9, festines ad impinguationem, et cum impinguantur,
removetur malum.
4245. Beneficium ventris.
4246. Si ex primario cerebri affectu melancholici evaserint, sanguinis
detractione non indigent, nisi ob alias causas sanguis mittatur, si
multus in vasis, &c. frustra enim fatigatur corpus, &c.
4247. Competit iis phlebotomia frontis.
4248. Si sanguis abundet, quod scitur ex venarum repletione, victus ratione
praecedente, risu aegri, aetate et aliis. Tundatur mediana; et si
sanguis apparet clarus et ruber, supprimatur; aut si yere, si niger
aut crassus permittatur fluere pro viribus aegri, dein post 8. vel.
12. diem aperiatur cephalica partis magis affectae, et vena frontis,
aut sanguis provocetur setis per nares, &c.
4249. Si quibus consuetae suae suppressae sunt menses, &c. talo secare
oportet, aut vena frontis si sanguis peccet cerebro.
4250. Nisi ortum ducat a sanguine, ne morbus inde augeatur; phlebotomia
refrigerat et exiceat, nisi corpus sit valde sanguineum, rubicundum.
4251. Cum sanguinem detrahere oportet, deliberatione indiget. Areteus, lib.
7. c. 5.
4252. A lenioribus auspicandum. (Valescus, Fiso, Bruel) rariusque
medicamentis purgantibus utendum, ni sit opus.
4253. Quia corpus exiccant, morbum augent.
4254. Guianerius Tract. 15. c. 6.
4255. Piso.
4256. Rhasis, saepe valent ex Helleboro.
4257. Lib. 7. Exigius medicamentis morbus non obsequitur.
4258. Modo caute detur et robustis.
4259. Consil. 10. l. 1.
4260. Plin. l. 31. c. 6. Navigationes ob vomitionem prosunt plurimis morbis
capitis, et omnibus ob quae Helleborum bibitur. Idem Dioscorides,
lib. 5. cap. 13. Avicenna tertia imprimis.
4261. Nunquam dedimus, quin ex una aut altera assumptione, Deo juvante,
fuerint ad salutem restituti.
4262. Lib. 2. Inter composita purgantia melancholiam.
4263. Longo experimento a se observatum esse, melancholicos sine offensa
egregie curandos valere. Idem responsione ad Aubertum, veratrum
nigrum, alias timidum et periculosum vini spiritu etiam et olco
commodum sic usui redditur ut etiam pueris tuto administrari possit.
4264. Certum est hujus herbae virtutem maximam et mirabilem esse, parumque
distare a balsamo. Et qui norit eo recte uti, plus habet artis quam
tota scribentium cohors aut omnes doctores in Germania.
4265. Quo feliciter usus sum.
4266. Hoc posito quod aliae medicina non valeant, ista tune Dei
misericordia valebit, et est medicina coronata, quae secretissime
tenentur.
4267. Lib. de artif. med.
4268. Sect. 3. Optimum remedium aqua composita Savanarolae.
4269. Sckenkius, observ. 31.
4270. Donatus ab Altomari, cap. 7. Tester Deum, me multos melancholicos
hujus solius syrupi usu curasse, facta prius purgatione.
4271. Centum ova et unum, quolibet mane sumant ova sorbilia, cum sequenti
pulvere supra ovum aspersa, et contineant quousque assumpserint
centum et unum, maniacis et melancholicis utilissimum remedium.
4272. Quercetan, cap. 4. Phar. Oswaldus Crollius.
4273. Cap. 1. Licet tota Galenistarum schola, mineralia non sine impio et
ingrato fastu a sua practica detestentur; tamen in gravioribus morbis
omni vegetabilium derelicto subsidio, ad mineralia confugiunt, licet
ea temere, ignaviter, et inutiliter usurpent. Ad finem libri.
4274. Veteres maledictis incessit, vincit, et contra omnem antiquitatem
coronatur, ipseque a se victor declaratur. Gal. lib. 1. meth. c. 2.
4275. Codronchus de sale absynthii.
4276. Idem Paracelsus in medicina, quod Lutherus in Theologia.
4277. Disput. in eundem, parte 1. Magus ebrius, illiteratus, daemonem
praeceptorem habuit, daemones familiares, & c.
4278. Master D. Lapworth.
4279. Ant. Philos. cap. de melan. frictio vertice, &c.
4280. Aqua fortissima purgans os, nares, quam non vult auro vendere.
4281. Mercurialis consil. 6. et 30. haemorroidum et mensium provocatio
juvat, modo ex eorum suppressione ortum habuerit.
4282. Laurentius, Bruel, &c.
4283. P. Bayerus, l. 2. cap. 13. naribus, &c.
4284. Cucurbitulae siccae, et fontanellae crure sinistro.
4285. Hildesheim spicel. 2. Vapores a cerebro trahendi sunt frictionibus
universi, cucurbitulis siccis, humeris ac dorso affixis, circa pedes
et crura.
4286. Fontanellam aperi juxta occipitum, aut brachium.
4287. Baleni, ligaturae, frictiones, &c.
4288. Canterium fiat sutura coronali, diu fluere permittantur loca
ulcerosa. Trepano etiam cranii densitas imminui poterit, ut vaporibus
fuliginosis exitus pateat.
4289. Quoniam difficulter cedit aliis medicamentis, ideo fiat in vertice
cauterium, aut crure sinistro infra genu.
4290. Fiant duo aut tria cauteria, cum ossis perforatione.
4291. Vidi Romae melancholicum qui adhibitis multis remediis, sanari non
poterat; sed cum cranium gladio fractum esset, optime sanatus est.
4292. Et alterum vidi melancholicum, qui ex alto cadens non sine astantium
admiratione, liberatus est.
4293. Radatur caput et fiat cauterium in capite; procul dubio ista faciunt
ad fumorum exhalationem; vidi melancholicum a fortuna gladio
vulneratum, et cranium fractum, quam diu vulnus apertum, curatus
optime; at cum vulnus sanatum, reversa est mania.
4294. Usque ad duram matrem trepanari feci, et per mensam aperte stetit.
4295. Cordis ratio semper habenda quod cerebro compatitur, et sese invicem
officiunt.
4296. Aphor. 38. Medicina Theriacalis praecaeteris eligenda.
4297. Galen, de temp. lib. 3. c. 3. moderate vinum sumptum, acuit ingenium.
4298. Tardos aliter et tristes thuris in modum exhalare facit.
4299. Hilaritatem ut oleum flammam excitat.
4300. Viribus retinendis cardiacum eximium, nutriendo corpori ailimentum
optimum, aetatem floridam facit, calorem innatum fovet, concoctionem
juvat, stomachum roborat, excrementis viam parat, urinam movet,
somnum conciliat, venena frigidos flatus dissipat, crassos humores
attenuat, co quit, discutit, &c.
4301. Hor. lib. 2. od. 11. "Bacchus dissipates corroding cares."
4302. Odyss. A.
4303. Pausanias.
4304. Siracides, 31. 28.
4305. Legitur et prisci Catonis. Saepe mero caluisse virtus.
4306. In pocula et aleam se praecipitavit, et iis fere tempus traduxit, ut
aegram crapula mentem levaret, et conditionis praesentis cogitationes
quibus agitabatur sobrius vitaret.
4307. So did the Athenians of old, as Suidas relates, and so do the Germans
at this day.
4308. Lib. 6. cap. 23. et 24. de rerum proprietat.
4309. Esther, i. 8.
4310. Tract. 1. cont. l. 1. Non est res laudabilior eo, vel cura melior;
qui melancholicus, utatur societate hominum et biberia; et qui potest
sustinere usum vini, non indiget alia medicina, quod eo sunt omnia ad
usum necessaria hujus passionis.
4311. Tum quod sequatur inde sudor, vomitio, urina, a quibus superfluitates
a corpore removentur et remanet corpus mundum.
4312. Hor.
4313. Lib. 15. 2. noct. Alt. Vigorem animi moderate vini usu tueamur, et
calefacto simul, refotoque animo si quid in eo vel frigidae
tristitiae, vel torpentis verecundiae fuerit, diluamus.
4314. Hor. l. 1. od. 27.
4315. Od. 7. lib. 1. 26. Nam praestat ebrium me quam mortuum jacere.
4316. Ephes. v. 18. ser. 19. in cap. 5.
4317. Lib. 14. 5. Nihil perniciosus viribus si modus absit, venenum.
4318. Theocritus idyl. 13. vino dari laetitiam et dolorem.
4319. Renodeus.
4320. Mercurialis consil. 25. Vinum frigidis optimum, et pessimum ferina
melancholia.
4321. Fernelius consil. 44 et 45, vinum prohibet assiduum, et aromata.
4322. Modo jecur non incendatur.
4323. Per 24 horas sensum doloris omnem tollit, et ridere facit.
4324. Hildesheim, spicel. 2.
4325. Alkermes, omnia vitalia viscera mire confortat.
4326. Contra omnes melancholicos affectus confert, ac certum est ipsius usu
omnes cordis et corporis vires mirum in modum refici.
4327. Succinum vero albissimum confortat ventriculum, statum discutit,
urinam movet, &c.
4328. Gartias ab Horto aromatum lib. 1. cap. 15. adversus omnes morbos
melancholicos conducit, et venenum. Ego (inquit) utor in morbis
melancholicis, &c. et deploratos hujus usu ad pristinam sanitatem
restitui. See more in Bauhinas' book de lap. Bezoar c. 45.
4329. Edit. 1617. Monspelii electuarium fit preciocissimum Alcherm. &c.
4330. Nihil morbum hunc aeque exasperat, ac alimentorum vel calidiorum
usus. Alchermes ideo suspectus, et quod semel moneam, caute adhibenda
calida medicamenta.
4331. Sckenkius I. I. Observat. de Mania, ad mentis alienationem, et
desipientiam vitio cerebri obortam, in manuscripto codice Germanico,
tale medicamentum reperi.
4332. Caput arietis nondum experti venerem, uno ictu amputatum, cornibus
tantum demotis, integrum cum lana et pelle bene elixabis, tum aperto
cerebrum eximes, et addens aromata, &c.
4333. Cinis testudinis ustus, et vino potus melancholiam curat, et rasura
cornu Rhinocerotis, &c. Sckenkius.
4334. Instat in matrice, quod sursum et deorsum ad odoris sensum
praecipitatur.
4335. Viscount St. Alban's.
4336. Ex decocto florum nympheae, lactuae, violarum, chamomilae, alibeae,
capitis vervecum, &c.
4337. Inter auxilia multa adhibita, duo visa sunt remedium adferre, usus
seri caprini cum extracto Hellebori, et irrigatio ex lacte Nympheae,
violarum, &c. suturae coronali adhibita; his remediis sanitate
pristinam adeptus est.
4338. Confert et pulmo arietis, calidus agnus per dorsum divisus,
exenteratus, admotus sincipiti.
4339. Semina cumini, rutae, dauci anethi cocta.
4340. Lib. 3. de locis affect.
4341. Tetrab. 2. ser. 1. cap. 10.
4342. Cap. de mel. collectum die vener. hora Jovis cum ad Energiam venit c.
1. ad plenilunium Julii, inde gesta et collo appensa hunc affectum apprime
juvat et fanaticos spiritus expellit.
4343. L. de proprietat. animal. ovis a lupo correptae pellem non esse pro
indumenta corporis usurpandam, cordis enim palpitationem excitat, &c.
4344. Mart.
4345. Phar. lib. 1. cap. 12.
4346. Aetius cap. 31. Tet. 3. ser. 4.
4347. Dioscorides, Ulysses Alderovandus de aranea.
4348. Mistress Dorothy Burton, she died, 1629.
4349. Solo somno curata est citra medici auxilium, fol. 154.
4350. Bellonius observat. l. 3. c. 15. lassitudinem et labores animi
tollunt; inde Garcias ab Horto, lib. 1. cap. 4. simp. med.
4351. Absynthium somnos allicit olfactu.
4352. Read Lemnius lib. her. bib. cap. 2. of Mandrake.
4353. Hyoscyamus sub cervicali viridis.
4354. Plantum pedis inungere pinguedine gliris dicunt efficacissimum, et
quod vix credi potest, dentes inunctos ex sorditie aurium canis
somnum profundum conciliare, &c. Cardan de rerum varietat.
4355. Veni mecum lib.
4356. Aut si quid incautius exciderit aut, &c.
4357. Nam qua parte pavor simul est pudor additus illi. Statius.
4358. Olysipponensis medicus; pudor aut juvat aut laedit.
4359. De mentis alienat.
4360. M. Doctor Ashworth.
4361. Facies nonnullis maxime calet rubetque si se paululum exercuerint;
nonnullis quiescentibus idem accidit, faeminis praesertim; causa
quicquid fervidum aut halituosum sanguinem facit.
4362. Interim faciei prospiciendum ut ipsa refrigeretur; utrumque
praestabit frequens potio ex aqua rosarum, violarum, nenupharis, &c.
4363. Ad faciei ruborem aqua spermatis ranarum.
4364. Recta utantur in aestate floribus Cichorii sacchoro conditis vel
saccharo rosaceo, &c.
4365. Solo usu decocti Cichorii.
4366. Utile imprimis noctu faciem illinire sanguine leporino, et mane aqua
fragrorum vel aqua floribus verbasci cum succo limonum distillato
abluere.
4367. Utile rubenti faciei caseum recentem imponere.
4368. Consil. 22 lib. unico vini haustu sit contentus.
4369. Idem consil. 283. Scoltzii laudatur conditus rosae caninae fructus
ante prandium et caenem ad magnitudinem castaneae. Decoctum radium
Sonchi, si ante cibum sumatur, valet plurimum.
4370. Cucurbit, ad scapulas apposite.
4371. Piso.
4372. Mediana prae caeteris.
4373. Succi melancholici malitia a sanguinis bonitate corrigitur.
4374. Perseverante malo ex quacunque parto sanguinis detrahi debet.
4375. Observat. fol. 154. curarus ex vulnere in crure ob cruorem arnissum.
4376. Studium sit omne ut melancholicus impinguetur: ex quo enim pingues et
carnosi, illico sani sunt.
4377. Hildesheim spicel. 2. Inter calida radix petrofelini, apii, feniculi;
Inter frigida emulsio seminis melonum cum sero caprino quod est
commune vehiculum.
4378. Hoc unum praemoneo domine ut sis diligens circa victum, sine quo
cetera remedia frustra adhibentur.
4379. Laurentius cap. 15. evulsionis gratia venam internam alterius brachii
secamus.
4380. Si pertinax morbus, venam fronte secabis. Bruell.
4381. Ego maximam curam stomacho delegabo. Octa. Horatianus lib. 2. c. 7.
4382. Citius et efficacius suas vires exercet quam solent decocta ac diluta
in quantitate multa, et magna cum assumentium molestia desumpta.
Flatus hic sal efficaciter dissipat, urinam movet, humores crassos
abstergit, stomachum egregie confortat, cruditatem, nauseam,
appetentiam mirum in modum renovat, &c.
4383. Piso, Altomarus, Laurentius c. 15.
4384. His utendum saepius iteratis: a vehementioribus semper abstinendum ne
ventrem exasperent.
4385. Lib. 2. cap. 1. Quoniam caliditate conjuncta est siccitas quae malum
auget.
4386. quisquis frigidis auxiliis hoc morbo usus fuerit, is obstructionem
aliaque symptomata augebit.
4387. Ventriculus plerumque frigidus, epar calidum; quomodo ergo
ventriculum calefaciet, vel refrigerabit hepar sine alterius maximo
detrimento?
4388. Significatum per literas, incredibilem utilitatem ex decocto Chinae,
et Sassafras percepisse.
4389. Tumorem splenis incurabilem sola cappari curavit, cibo tali
aegritudine aptissimo: Soloque usu aquae, in qua faber ferrarius
saepe candens ferrum extinxerat, &c.
4390. Animalia quae apud hos fabros educantur, exiguos habent lienes.
4391. L. 1. cap 17.
4392. Continuum ejus usus semper felicem in aegris finem est assequutus.
4393. Si Hemorroides fluxerint, nullum praestantius esset remedium,
quaesanguifugis admotis provocari poterunt. observat. lib. 1. pro
hypoc. legulcio.
4394. Aliis apertio haec in hoc morbo videtur utilissima; mihi non admodum
probatur, quia sanguinem tenuem attrahit et crassum relinquit.
4395. Lib. 2. cap. 13. omnes melancholici debent omittere urinam
provocantia, quoniam per ea educitur subtile, et remanet crassum.
4396. Ego experientia probavi, multos Hypocondriacos solo usu Clysterum
fuisse sanatos.
4397. In eradicate optimum, ventriculum aretius alligari.
4398. [Symbol: Dram]j. Theriacae, Vere praesertim et aestate.
4399. Cons. 12. l. 1.
4400. Cap. 33.
4401. Trincavellius consil. 15. cerotum pro sene melancholico ad jecur
optimum.
4402. Emplastra pro splene. Fernel. consil. 45.
4403. Dropax e pice navali, et oleo rutuceo affigatur ventriculo, et toti
metaphreni.
4404. Cauteria cruribus inusta.
4405. Fontanellae sint in utroque crure.
4406. Lib. 1. c. 17.
4407. De mentis alienat. c. 3. flatus egregie discutiunt materiamque
evocant.
4408. Gavendum hic diligenter a, multum, calefacientibus, atque
exsiccantibus, sive alimenta fuerint haec, sive medicamenta: nonnulli
enim ut ventositates et rugitus conpescant, hujusmodi utentes
medicamentis, plurimum peccant, morbum sit augentes: debent enim
medicamenta declinare ad calidum vel frigidum secundum exigentiam
circumstantiarum, vel ut patiens inclinat ad cal. et frigid.
4409. Cap. 5 lib. 7.
4410. Piso Bruel. mire flatus resolvit.
4411. Lib. 1. c. 17. nonnullos praetensione ventris deploratos illico
restitutos bis videmus.
4412. Velut incantamentum quoddam ex flatuoso spiritu, dolorem ortum
levant.
4413. Terebinthinam Cypriam habeant familiarem, ad quantitatem deglutiant
nucis parvae, tribus horis ante prandium vel coenam, ter singulis
septimanis prout expedire videbitur; nam praeterquam quod alvum
mollem efficit, obstructiones aperit, ventriculum purgat, urinam
provocat hepar mundificat.
4414. Encom. Moriae leviores esse nugas quam ut Theologum deceant.
4415. Lib. 8. Eloquent, cap 14. de affectibus mortalium vitio fit qui
praeclara quaeque in pravos usus vertunt.
4416. Quoties de amatoriis mentio facta est, tam vehementer excandui; tam
severa tristitia violari aures meas obsceno sermone nolui, ut me
tanquam unam ex Philosophis intuerentur.
4417. Martial. "In Brutus' presence Lucretia blushed and laid my book
aside; when he retired, she took it up again and read."
4418. Lib. 4. of civil conversation.
4419. Si male locata est opera scribendo, ne ipsi locent in legendo.
4420. Med. epist. l. 1. ep. 14. Cadmus Milesius teste Suida. de hoc Erotico
Amore. 14. libros scripsit nec me pigebit in gratiam adolescentum
hanc scribere epistolam.
4421. Comment. in 2. Aeneid.
4422. Meros amores meram impudicitiam sonare videtur nisi, &c.
4423. Ser. 8.
4424. Quod risum et eorum amores commemoret.
4425. Quum multa ei objecissent quod Critiam tyrannidem docuisset, quod
Platonem juraret loquacem sophistem, &c. accusationem amoris nullam
fecerunt. Ideoque honestus amor, &c.
4426. Carpunt alii Platonicam majestatem quod amori nimium indulserit,
Dicearchus et alii; sed male. Omnis amor honestus et bonus, et amore
digni qui bene dicunt de Amore.
4427. Med. obser. lib. 2. cap. 7. de admirando amoris affectu dicturus;
ingens patet campus ei philosophicus, quo saepe homines ducuntur ad
insaniam, libeat modo vagari, &c. Quae non ornent modo, sed
fragrantia et succulentia jucunda plenius alant, &c.
4428. Lib. 1. praefat. de amoribus agens relaxandi animi causa
laboriosissimis studiis fatigati; quando et Theologi se his juvari et
juvare illaesis moribus volunt?
4429. Hist. lib. 12. cap. 34.
4430. Praefat. quid quadragenario convenit cum amore? Ego vero agnosco
amatorium scriptum mihi non convenire: qui jam meridiem
praetergressus in vesperem feror. Aeneas Sylvius praefat.
4431. Ut severiora studia iis amaenitatibus lector condire possit. Accius.
4432. Discum quam philosophum audire malunt.
4433. In Som. Sip. e sacrario suo tum ad cunas nutricum sapientes
eliminarunt, solas aurium delitias profitentes.
4434. Babylonius et Ephesius, qui de Amore scripserunt, uterque amores
Myrrhae, Cyrenes, et Adonidis. Suidas.
4435. Pet. Aretine dial. Ital.
4436. Hor. "He has accomplished every point who has joined the useful to
the agreeable."
4437. Legendi cupidiores, quam ego scribendi, saith Lucian.
4438. Plus capio voluptatis inde, quam spectandis in theatro ludis.
4439. Prooemio in Isaim. Multo major pars Milesias fabulas revolventium
quam Platonis libros.
4440. "This he took to be his only business, that the plays which he wrote
should please the people."
4441. In vita philosophus, in Epigram, amator, in Epistolis petulanus, in
praeceptis severus.
4442. "The poet himself should be chaste and pious, but his verses need not
imitate him in these respects; they may therefore contain wit and
humour."
4443. "This that I write depends sometimes upon the opinion and authority
of others: nor perhaps am I frantic, I only follow madmen: But thus
far I may be deranged: we have all been so at some one time, and
yourself, I think, art sometimes insane, and this man, and that man,
and I also."
4444. "I am mortal, and think no humane action unsuited to me."
4445. Mart.
4446. Ovid.
4447. Isago. ad sac. scrip. cap. 13.
4448. Barthius notis in Coelestinam, ludum Hisp.
4449. Ficinus Comment. c. 17. Amore incensi inveniendi amoris, aniorem
quaesivimus et invenimus.
4450. Author Coelestinae Barth. interprete. "That, overcome by the
solicitations of friends, who requested me to enlarge and improve my
volumes, I have devoted my otherwise reluctant mind to the labour;
and now for the sixth time have I taken up my pen, and applied myself
to literature very foreign indeed to my studies and professional
occupations, stealing a few hours from serious pursuits, and devoting
them, as it were, to recreation."
4451. Hor. lib. 1. Ode 34. "I am compelled to reverse my sails, and retrace
my former course."
4452. "Although I was by no means ignorant that new calumniators would not
be wanting to censure my new introductions."
4453. Haec praedixi ne quis temere nos putaret scripsisse de amorum
lenociniis, de praxi, fornicationibus, adulteriis, &c.
4454. Taxando et ab his deterrendo humanam lasciviam et insaniam, sed et
remedia docendo: non igitur candidus lector nobis succenseat, &c.
Commonitio erit juvenibus haec, hisce ut abstineant magis, et omissa
lascivia quae homines reddit insanos, virtutis incumbant studiis
(Aeneas Sylv.) et curam amoris si quis nescit hinc poterit scire.
4455. Martianus Capella lib. 1. de nupt. philol. virginali suffusa rubore
oculos peplo obnubens, &c.
4456. Catullus. "What I tell you, do you tell to the multitude, and make
this treatise gossip like an old woman."
4457. Viros nudos castae feminae nihil a statuis distare.
4458. Hony soit qui mal y pense.
4459. Praef. Suid.
4460. "O Arethusa smile on this my last labour."
4461. Exerc. 301. Campus amoris maximus et spinis obsitus, nec levissimo
pede transvolandus.
4462. Grad. 1. cap. 29. Ex Platone, primae et communissimae perturbationes
ex quibus ceterae oriuntur et earum sunt pedissequae.
4463. Amor est voluntarius affectus et desiderium re bona fruendi.
4464. Desiderium optantis, amor eorum quibus fruimur; amoris principium,
desiderii finis, amatum adest.
4465. Principio l. de amore. Operae pretium est de amore considerare, utrum
Deus, an Daemon, an passio quaedam animae, an partim Deus, partim
Daemon, passio partim, &c. Amor est aetus animi bonum desiderans.
4466. Magnus Daemon convivio.
4467. Boni pulchrique fruendi desiderium.
4468. Godefridus, l. 1. cap. 2 Amor est delectatio cordis, alicujus ad
aliquid, propter aliquod desiderium in appertendo, et gaudium
perfruendo per desiderium currens, requiescens per gaudium.
4469. Non est amor desiderium aut appetitus ut ab omnibus hactenus
traditim; nam cum potimur amata re, non manet appetitus; est igitur
affectus quo cum re amata aut unimur, aut unionem perpetuamus.
4470. Omnia appetunt bonum.
4471. Terram non vis malam, malam segetem, sed bonam arborem, equum bonum,
&c.
4472. Nemo amore capitur nisi qui fuerit ante forma specieque delectatus.
4473. Amabile objectum amoris et scopus, cujus adeptio est finis, cujus
gratia amamus. Animus enim aspirat ut eo fruator, et formam boni
habet et praecipue videtur et placet. Picolomineus, grad. 7. cap. 2.
et grad. 8. cap. 35.
4474. Forma est vitalis fulgor ex ipso bono manans per ideas, semina,
rationes, umbras effusus, animos excitans ut per bonum in unum
redigantur.
4475. Pulchritudo est perfectio compositi ex congruente ordine, mensura et
ratione partium consurgens, et venustas inde prodiens gratia dicitur
et res omnes pulchrae gratiosae.
4476. Gratia et pulchritudo ita suaviter animos demulcent, ita vehementer
alluciunt, et admirabiliter connectuntur, ut in inum confundant et
distingui non possunt et sunt tanquam radii et splendores divini
solis in rebus variis vario modo fulgentes.
4477. Species pulchrituninis hauriuntur oculis, auribus, aut concipiuntur
interna mente.
4478. Nihil hine magis animos conciliat quam musica, pulchrae, aedes, &c.
4479. In reliquis sensibus voluptas, in his pulchritudo et gratia.
4480. Lib. 4. de divinis. Convivio Platonis.
4481. Duae Veneres duo amores; quarum una antiquior et sine matre, coelo
nata, quam coelestem Venerem nuncupamus; altera vero junior a Jove et
Dione prognata, quam vulgarem Venerem vocamus.
4482. Alter ad superna erigit, alter deprimit ad inferna.
4483. Alter excitat hominem ad divinam pulchritudinem lustrandam, cujus
causa philosophiae studia et justitiae, &c.
4484. Omnis creatura cum bona sit, et bene amari potest et male.
4485. Duas civitates duo faciunt amores; Jerusalem facit amor Dei,
Babylonem amor saeculi; unusquisque se quid amet interroget, et
inveniet unde sit civis.
4486. Alter mari ortus, ferox, varius, fluctuans, inanis, juvenum, mare
referens, &c. Alter aurea catena coelo demissa bonum furorem mentibus
mittens, &c.
4487. Tria sunt, quae amari a nobis bene vel male possunt; Deus, proximus,
mundus; Deus supra nos; juxta nos proximus; infra nos mundus. Tria
Deus, duo proximus, unum mundus habet, &c.
4488. Ne confundam vesanos et foedos amores beatis, sceleratum cum puro
divino et vero, &c.
4489. Fonseca cap. 1. Amor ex Augustini forsan lib. 11. de Civit. Dei.
Amore inconcussus stat mundus, &c.
4490. Alciat.
4491. Porta Vitis laurum non amat, nec ejus odorem; si prope crescat,
enecat. Lappus lenti adversatur.
4492. Sympathia olei et myrti ramorum et radicum se complectentium.
Mizaldus secret. cent. l. 47.
4493. Theocritus. eidyll. 9.
4494. Mantuan.
4495. Charitas munifica, qua mercamur de Deo regnum Dei.
4496. Polanus partit. Zanchius de natura Dei, c. 3. copiose de hoc amore
Dei agit.
4497. Nich. Bellus, discurs. 28. de amatoribus, virtutem provocat,
conservat pacem in terra, tranquillitatem in aere, ventis laetitiam,
&c.
4498. Camerarius Emb. 100. cen. 2.
4499. Dial. 3.
4500. Juven.
4501. Gen. 1.
4502. Caussinus.
4503. Theodoret e Plotino.
4504. "Where charity prevails, sweet desire, joy, and love towards God are
also present."
4505. Affectus nunc appetitivae potentiae, nunc rationalis, alter cerebro
residet, alter hepate, corde, &c.
4506. Cor varie inclinatur, nunc gaudens, nunc moerens; statim ex timore
nascitur Zelotypia, furor, spes, desperatio.
4507. Ad utile sanitas refertur; utilium est ambitio, cupido desiderium
potius quam amor excessus avaritia.
4508. Picolom. grad. 7. cap. 1.
4509. Lib. de amicit. utile mundanum, carnale jucundum, spirituale
honestum.
4510. Ex. singulis tribus fit charitas et amicitia, quae respicit deum et
proximum.
4511. Benefactores praecipue amamus. Vives 3. de anima.
4512. Jos. 7.
4513. Petronius Arbiter.
4514. Juvenalis.
4515. Job. Second, lib. sylvarum.
4516. Lucianus Timon.
4517. Pers.
4518. "bust of a beautiful woman with the tail of a fish."
4519. Part. 1. sec. 2. memb. sub. 12.
4520. 1 Tim. i. 8.
4521. Lips, epist. Camdeno.
4522. Leland of St. Edmondsbury.
4523. Coelum serenum, coelum visum foedum. Polid. lib. 1. de Anglia.
4524. Credo equidem vivos ducent e marmore vultus.
4525. Max. Tyrius, ser. 9.
4526. Part 1. sec. 2. memb. 3.
4527. Mart.
4528. Omnif. mag. lib. 12. cap. 3.
4529. De sale geniali, l. 3. c. 15.
4530. Theod. Prodromus, amor. lib. 3.
4531. Similitudo morum parit amicitiam.
4532. Vives 3. de anima.
4533. Qui simul fecere naufragium, aut una pertulere vincula vel consilii
conjurationisve societate junguntur, invicem amant: Brutum et Cassium
invicem infensos Caesarianus dominatus conciliavit. Aemilius Lepidus
et Julius Flaccus, quum essent inimicissimi, censores renunciati
simultates illico deposuere. Scultet. cap. 4. de causa amor.
4534. Papinius.
4535. Isocrates demonico praecipit ut quum alicujus amicitiam vellet illum
laudet, quod laus initium amoris sit, vituperatio simultatum.
4536. Suspect, lect. lib. 1. cap. 2.
4537. "The priest of wisdom, perpetual dictator, ornament of literature,
wonder of Europe."
4538. "Oh incredible excellence of genius, &c., more comparable to gods'
than man's, in every respect, we venerate your writings on bended
knees, as we do the shield that fell from heaven."
4539. Isa. xlix.
4540. Rara est concordia fratrum.
4541. Grad. 1. cap. 22.
4542. Vives 3. de anima, ut paleam succinum sic formam amor trahit.
4543. Sect. seq.
4544. Nihil divinius homine probo.
4545. James iii. 10.
4546. Gratior est pulchro veniens e corpore virtus.
4547. Oral. 18. deformes plerumque philosophi ad id quod in aspectum cadit
ea parte elegantes quae oculos fugit.
4548. 43 de consol.
4549. Causa ei paupertatis, philosophia, sicut plerisque probitas fuit.
4550. Ablue corpus et cape regis animum, et in eam fortunam qua dignus es
continentiam istam profer.
4551. Vita ejus.
4552. Qui prae divitiis humana spernunt, nec virtuti locum putant nisi opes
affluant. Q. Cincinnatus consensu patrum in dictatorem Romanum
electus.
4553. Curtius.
4554. Edgar Etheling, England's darling.
4555. Morum suavitas, obvia comitas, prompta officia mortalium animos
demerentur.
4556. Epist. lib. 8. Semper amavi ut tu scis, M. Brutum propter ejus summum
ingenium, suavissimos mores, singularem probitatem et constantiam:
nihil est, mihi crede, virtute formosius, nihil amabilius.
4557. Ardentes amores excitaret, si simulacrum ejus ad oculos penetraret.
Plato Phaedone.
4558. Epist. lib. 4. Validissime diligo virum rectum, disertum, quod apud
me potentissimum est.
4559. Est quaedam pulchritudo justitiae quam videmus oculis cordis, amamus,
et exardescimus, ut in martyribus, quum eorum membra bestiae
lacerarent, etsi alias deformes, &c.
4560. Lipsius manuduc. ad Phys. Stoic. lib. 3. diff. 17, solus sapiens
pulcher.
4561. Fortitudo et prudentia pulchritudinis laudem praecipue merentur.
4562. Franc. Belforist. in hist. an. 1430.
4563. Erat autem foede deformis, et ea forma, qua citius pueri terreri
possent, quam invitari ad osculum puellae.
4564. Deformis iste etsi videatur senex, divinum animum habet.
4565. Fulgebat vultu suo: fulgor et divina majestas homines ad se trahens.
4566. "She excelled all others in beauty."
4567. Praefat. bib. vulgar.
4568. Pars inscrip. Tit. Livii statuae Patavii.
4569. A true love's knot.
4570. Stobaeus e Graeco.
4571. Solinus, pulchri nulla est facies.
4572. O dulcissimi laquei, qui tam feliciter devinciunt, ut etiam a vinctis
diligantur, qui a gratiis vincti sunt, cupiunt arctius deligari et in
unum redigi.
4573. Statius.
4574. "He loved him as he loved his own soul," 1 Sam. xv. 1. "Beyond the
love of women."
4575. Virg. 9. Aen. Qui super exanimem sese conjecit amicum confessus.
4576. Amicus animae dimidium, Austin, confess. 4. cap. 6. Quod de Virgilio
Horatius, et serves animae dimidium meae.
4577. Plinius.
4578. Illum argento et auro, illum ebore, marmore effingit, et nuper
ingenti adhibito auditorio ingentem de vita ejus librum recitavit.
epist. lib. 4. epist. 68.
4579. Lib. iv. ep. 61. Prisco suo; Dedit mihi quantum potuit maximum,
daturas amplius si potuisset. Tametsi quid homini dari potest majus
quum gloria, laus, et aeternitas? At non erunt fortasse quae
scripsit. Ille tamen scripsit tanquam essent futura.
4580. For. genus irritabile vatum.
4581. Lib. 13 de Legibus. Magnam enim vim habent, &c.
4582. Peri tamen studio et pietate conscribendae vitae ejus munus suscepi,
et postquam sumptuosa condere pro fortuna non licuit, exiguo sed eo
forte liberalis ingenii monumento justa sanctissimo cineri solventur.
4583. 1 Sam. xxv. 3.
4584. Esther, iii. 2.
4585. Amm. Marcellinus, l. 14.
4586. Ut mundus duobus polis sustentatur: ita lex Dei, amore Dei et
proximi; duobus his fundamentis vincitur; machina mundi corruit, si
una de polis turbatur; lex perit divina si una ex his.
4587. 8 et 9 libro.
4588. Ter. Adelph. 4, 5.
4589. De amicit.
4590. Charitas parentum dilui nisi detestabili scelere non potest, lapidum
fornicibus simillima, casura, nisi se invicem sustentaret. Seneca.
4591. "It is sweet to die for one's country."
4592. Dii immortales, dici non potest quantum charitatis nomen illud habet.
4593. Ovid. Fast.
4594. Anno 1347. Jacob Mayer. Annal. Fland. lib. 12.
4595. Tally.
4596. Lucianus Toxari. Amicitia ut sol in mundo, &c.
4597. Vit. Pompon. Attici.
4598. Spencer, Faerie Queene, lib. 5. cant. 9. staff. 1, 2.
4599. Siracides.
4600. Plutarch, preciosum numisma.
4601. Xenophon, verus amicus praestantissima possessio.
4602. Epist. 52.
4603. Greg. Per amorem Dei, proximi gignitur; et per hunc amorem proximi,
Dei nutritur.
4604. Picolomineus, grad. 7. cap. 27. hoc felici amoris nodo ligantur
familiae civitates, &c.
4605. Veras absolutas haec parit virtutes, radix omnium virtutum, mens et
spiritus.
4606. Divino calore animos incendit, incensos purgat, purgatos elevat ad
Deum, Deum placat, hominem Deo conciliat. Bernard.
4607. Ille inficit, hic perficit, ille deprimit, hic elevat; hic
tranquillitatem ille curas parit: hic vitam recte informat, ille
deformat &c.
4608. Boethius, lib. 2. met. 8.
4609. Deliquium patitur charitas, odium ejus loco succedit. Basil. 1. ser.
de instit. mon.
4610. Nodum in scirpo quaerentes.
4611. Hircanaeque admorunt ubera tigres.
4612. Heraclitus.
4613. Si in gehennam abit, pauperem qui non alat: quid de eo fiet qui
pauperem denudat? Austin.
4614. Jovius, vita ejus.
4615. Immortalitatem beneficio literarum, immortali gloriosa quadam
cupiditate concupivit. Quod cives quibus benefecisset perituri,
moenia ruitura, etsi regio sumptu aedificata, non libri.
4616. Plutarch, Pericle.
4617. Tullius, lib. 1. de legibus.
4618. Gen. xxxv. 8.
4619. Hor.
4620. Durum genus sumus.
4621. "The sister of justice, honour inviolate, and naked truth."
4622. Tull. pro Rose. Mentiri vis causa mea? ego vero cupide et libenter
mentiar tua causa; et si quando me vis perjurare, ut paululum tu
compendii facias, paratum fore scito.
4623. Gallienus in Treb. Pollio lacera, occide, mea mente irascere. Rabie
jecur incendente feruntur praecipites, Vopiscus of Aurelian. Tantum
fudit sanguinis quantum quis vini potavit.
4624. Evangelii tubam belli tubam faciunt; in pulpitis pacem, in colloquiis
bellum suadent.
4625. Psal. xiii. 1.
4626. De bello Judaico, lib. 6. c. 16. Puto si Romani contra hos venire
tardassent, aut hiatu terrae devorandam fuisse civitatem, aut diluvio
perituram, aut fulmina ac Sodoma cum incendio passuram, ob desperatum
populi, &c.
4627. Benefacit animae suae vir misericors.
4628. Concordia magnae res crescunt, discordia maximae dilabuntur.
4629. Lipsius.
4630. Memb. 1. Subs. 2.
4631. Amor et amicitia.
4632. Phaedrus orat. in laudem amoris Platonis convivio.
4633. Vide Boccas. de Genial deorum.
4634. See the moral in Plut. of that fiction.
4635. Affluentiae Deus.
4636. Cap. 7. Comment. in Plat. convivium.
4637. See more in Valesius, lib. 3. cont. med. et cont. 13.
4638. Vives 3. de anima; oramus te ut tuis artibus et caminis nos refingas,
et ex duobus unum facias; quod et fecit, et exinde amatores unum sunt
et unum esse petunt.
4639. See more in Natalis Comes Imag. Deorum Philostratus de Imaginibus.
Litius Giraldus Syntag. de diis. Phornutus, &c.
4640. Juvenis pingitur quod amore plerumque juvenes capiuntur; sic et
mollis, formosus, nudus, quod simplex et apertus hic affectus; ridet
quod oblectamentum prae se ferat, cum pharetra, &c.
4641. A petty Pope claves habet superorum et inferorum, as Orpheus, &c.
4642. Lib. 13. cap. 5. Dypnoso.
4643. Regnat et in superos jus habet ille deos. Ovid.
4644. Plautus.
4645. Selden pro leg. 3. cap. de diis Syris.
4646. Dial. 3.
4647. A concilia Deorum rejectus et ad majorem ejus ignominiam, &c.
4648. Fulmine concitatior.
4649. Sophocles.
4650. "He divides the empire of the sea with Thetis,--of the Shades, with
Aeacus,--of the Heaven, with Jove."
4651. Tom. 4.
4652. Dial. deorum, tom. 3.
4653. Quippe matrem ipsius quibus modis me afficit, nunc in Idam adigens
Anchisae causa, &c.
4654. Jampridem et plagas ipsi in nates incussi sandalio.
4655. Altopilus, fol. 79.
4656. Nullis amor est medicabilis herbis.
4657. Plutarch in Amatorio. Dictator quo creato cessant reliqui
magistratus.
4658. Claadian. descript. vener. aulae. "Trees are influenced by love, and
every flourishing tree in turn feels the passion: palms nod mutual
vows, poplar sighs to poplar, plane to plane, and alder breathes to
alder."
4659. Neque prius in iis desiderium cessat dum dejectus consoletur; videre
enim est ipsam arborem incurvatam, ultro ramis ab utrisque vicissim
ad osculum exporrectis. Manifesta dant mutui desiderii signa.
4660. Multas palmas contingens quae simul crescant, rursusque ad amantem
regrediens, eamque manu attingens, quasi osculum mutuo ministrare
videtur, et expediti concubitus gratiam facit.
4661. Quam vero ipsa desideret affectu ramorum significat, et adullam
respicit; amantur, &c.
4662. Virg. 3. Georg.
4663. Propertius.
4664. Dial. deorum. Confide mater, leonibus ipsis familiaris jam factus
sum, et saepe conscendi eorum terga et apprehendi jubas; equorum more
insidens eos agito, et illi mihi caudis adblandiuntur.
4665. Leones prae amore furunt, Plin. l. 8. c. 16. Arist. l. 6. hist.
animal.
4666. Cap. 17. of his book of hunting.
4667. Lucretius.
4668. De sale lib. 1. c. 21. Pisces ob amorem marcescunt, pallescunt, &c.
4669. Hauriendae aquae causa venientes ex insidiis a Tritone comprehensae,
&c.
4670. Plin. l. 10. c. 5 quumque aborta tempestate periisset Hernias in
sicco piscis expiravit.
4671. Postquam puer morbo abiit, et ipse delphinus periit.
4672. Pleni sunt libri quibus ferae in homines inflammatae fuerunt, in
quibus ego quidem semper assensum sustinui, veritus ne fabulosa
crederem; Donec vidi lyncem quem habui ab Assyria, sic affectum erga
unum de meis hominibus, &c.
4673. Desiderium suum testatus post inediam aliquot dierum interiit.
4674. Orpheus hymno Ven. "Venus keeps the keys of the air, earth, sea, and
she alone retains the command of all."
4675. Qui haec in artrae bilis aut Imaginationis vim referre conati sunt,
nihil faciunt.
4676. Cantantem audies et vinum bibes, quale antea nunquam bibisti; te
rivalis turbabit nullus; pulchra autem pulchro autem pulchro contente
vivam, et moriar.
4677. Multi factum hoc cognovere, quod in media Graecia gestum sit.
4678. Rem curans domesticam, ut ante, peperit aliquot liberos, semper tamen
tristis et pallida.
4679. Haec audivi a multis fide dignis qui asseverabant ducem Bavariae
eadem retulisse Duci Saxoniae pro veris.
4680. Fabula Damarati et Aristonis in Herodoto lib. 6. Erato.
4681. Interpret. Mersio.
4682. Deus Angelos misit ad tutelam cultumque generis humani; sed illos cum
hominibus commorantes, dominator ille terrae salacissimus paulatim ad
vitia pellexit, et mulierum congressibus inquinavit.
4683. Quidam ex illo capti sunt amore virginum, et libidine victi
defecerunt, ex quibus gigantes qui vocantur, nati sunt.
4684. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. c. 6. ver. 1. Zanc. &c.
4685. Purchas Hack posth. par. 1. lib. 4. Cap. 1. S. 7.
4686. In Clio.
4687. Deus ipse hoc cubili requiescens.
4688. Physiologiae Stoicorum l. 1. cap. 20. Si spiritus unde semen iis, &c.
at exempla turbant nos; mulierum quotidianae confessiones de mistione
omnes asserunt, et sunt in hac urbe Loviano exempla.
4689. Unum dixero, non opinari me ullo retro aevo tantam copiam Satyrorum,
et salacium istorum Geniorum se ostendisse, quantum nunc quotidianae
narrationes, et judiciales sententiae proferunt.
4690. Virg.
4691. "For it is a shame to speak of those things which are done of them in
secret," Eph. v. 12.
4692. Plutarch, amator lib.
4693. Lib. 13.
4694. Rom. i. 27.
4695. Lilius Giraldus, vita ejus.
4696. Pueros amare solis Philosophis relinquendum vult Lucianus dial.
Amorum.
4697. Busbequius.
4698. Achilles Tatius lib. 2.
4699. Lucianus Charidemo.
4700. Non est haec mentula demens. Mart.
4701. Jovius Musc.
4702. Praefat. lectori lib. de vitis pontif.
4703. Mercurialis cap. de Priapismo. Coelius l. 11. antic. lect. cap. 14.
Galenis 6. de locis aff.
4704. De morb. mulier. lib. I. c. 15.
4705. Herodotus l. 2. Euterpae: uxores insignium virorum non statim vita
functas tradunt condendas, ac ne eas quidem foeminas quae formosae
sunt, sed quatriduo ante defunctas, ne cum iis salinarii concumbant,
&c.
4706. Metam. 13.
4707. Seneca de ira, l. 11. c. 18.
4708. Nullus est meatus ad quem non pateat aditus impudicitiae. Clem Alex.
paedag, lib. 3. c 3.
4709. Seneca 1. nat. quaest.
4710. Tom. P. Gryllo.
4711. De morbis mulierum l. 1. c. 15.
4712. Amphitheat. amore. cap. 4. interpret. Curtio.
4713. Aeneas Sylvius Juvenal. "And he who has not felt the influence of
love is either a stone or a beast."
4714. Tertul. prover. lib.
4715. "One whom no maiden's beauty has ever affected."
4716. Chaucer.
4717. Tom. 1. dial. deorum Lucianus. Amore non ardent Musae.
4718. "As matter seeks form, so woman turns towards man."
4719. In amator. dialog.
4720. Hor.
4721. Lucretius.
4722. Fonseca.
4723. Hor.
4724. Propert.
4725. Simonides, graec. "She grows old in love and in years together."
4726. Ausonius.
4727. Geryon amicitae symbolum.
4728. Propert. l. 2.
4729. Plutarch. c. 30. Rom. Hist.
4730. Junonem habeam iratam, si unquam meminerim me virginem fuisse. Infans
enim paribus inquinata sum, et subinde majoribus me applicui, donec
ad aetatem perveni; ut Milo vitulum, &c.
4731. Parnodidasc. dial. lat. interp. Casp. Barthio ex Ital.
4732. Angelico scriptur concentu.
4733. Epictetus c. 42. mulieres statim ab anno 14. movere incipiunt, &c.
attrectari se sinunt et exponunt. Levinu Lemnius.
4734. Lib. 3. fol. 126.
4735. Catullus.
4736. "Whithersoever enraged you fly there is no escape. Although you reach
the Tanais, love will still pursue you."
4737. De mulierum inexhausta libidine luxuque insatiabili omnes aeque
regiones conqueri posse existimo. Steph.
4738. "What have lust and unrestrained desire left chaste or enviolate upon
earth?"
4739. Plautus.
4740. Oculi caligant, aures graviter audiunt, capilli fluunt, cutis
arescit, flatus olet, tussis, &c. Cyprian.
4741. Lib. 8. Epist. Ruffinus.
4742. Hiatque turpis inter aridas nates podex.
4743. Cadaverosa adeo ut ab inferis reversa videri possit, vult adhuc
catullire.
4744. Nam et matrimoniis est despectum senium. Aeneas Silvius.
4745. Quid toto terrarum orbe communius? quae civitas, quod oppidum, quae
familia vacat amatorum exemplis? Aeneas Silvius. Quis trigesimum
annum natus nullum amoris causa peregit insigne facinus? ego de me
facio conjecturam, quem amor in mille pericula misit.
4746. Forestus. Plato.
4747. Pract. major. Tract. 6. cap. 1. Rub. 11. de aegrit. cap. quod his
multum contingat.
4748. Haec aegritudo est solicitudo melancholica in qua homo applicat sibi
continuam cogitationem super pulchritudine ipsius quam amat, gestuum
morum.
4749. Animi forte accidens quo quis rem habere nimia aviditate concupiscit,
ut ludos venatores, aurum et opes avari.
4750. Assidua cogitatio super rem desideratum, cum confidentia obtinendi,
ut spe apprehensum delectabile, &c.
4751. Morbus corporis potius quam animi.
4752. Amor est passio melancholica.
4753. Ob calefactionem spirituum pars anterior capitis laborat ob
consumptionem humiditatis.
4754. Affectus animi concupiscibilis e desiderio rei amatae per oculus in
mente concepto, spiritus in corde et jecore incendens.
4755. Odyss. et Metamor. 4. Ovid.
4756. Quod talem carnificinam in adolescentum visceribus amor faciat
inexplebilis.
4757. Testiculi quoad causam conjunctam, epar antecedentem, possunt esse
subjectum.
4758. Proprie passio cerebri est ob corruptam imaginationem.
4759. Cap. de affectibus.
4760. Est corruptio imaginativae et aestimativae facultatis, ob formam
fortiter affixam, corruptumque judicium, ut semper de eo cogitet,
ideoque recte melancholicus appellatur. Concupiscentia vehemens ex
corrupto judicio aestimativae virtutis.
4761. Comment. in convivium Platonis. Irretiuntur cito quibus nascentibus
Venus fuerit in Leone, vel Luna venerem vehementer aspexerit, et qui
eadem complexione sunt praediti.
4762. Plerumque amatores sunt, et si foeminae meretrices, 1. de audiend.
4763. Comment, in Genes, cap. 3.
4764. Et si in hoc parum a praeclara infamia stultitiaque abero, vincit
tamen amor veritatis.
4765. Edit. Basil. 1553. Cum Commentar. in Ptolomaei quadripartitum.
4766. Fol. 445. Basil. Edit.
4767. Dial, amorum.
4768. Citius maris fluctus et nives coelo delabentes numeraris quam amores
meos; alii amores aliis succedunt, ac priusquam desinant priores,
incipiunt sequentes. Adeo humidis oculis meus inhabitat Asylus omnem
formam ad se rapiens, ut nulla satietate expleatur. Quaenam haec ira
Veneris, &c.
4769. Num. xxxii.
4770. Qui calidum testiculorum crisin habent, &c.
4771. Printed at Paris 1624, seven years after my first edition.
4772. Ovid de art.
4773. Gerbelius, descript. Graeciae. Rerum omnium affluentia et loci mira
opportunitas, nullo non die hospites in portas advertebant. Templo
Veneris mille meretrices se prostituebant.
4774. Tota Cypri insula delitiis incumbit, et ob id tantum luxuriae dedita
ut sit olim Veneri sacrata. Ortelius, Lampsacus, olim Priapo sacer ob
vinum generosum, et loci delicias. Idem.
4775. Agri Neapolitani delectatio, elegantia, amoenitas, vix intra modum
humanum consistere videtur; unde, &c. Leand, Alber. in Campania.
4776. Lib. de laud. urb. Neap. Disputat. de morbis animi. Reinoldo
Interpret.
4777. Lampridius, Quod decem noctibus centum virgines fecisset mulieres.
4778. Vita ejus.
4779. If they contain themselves, many times it is not virtutis amore; non
deest voluntas sed facultas.
4780. In Muscov.
4781. Catullus ad Lesbiam.
4782. Hor.
4783. Polit. 8. num. 28. ut naptha, ad ignem, sic amor ad illos qui
torpescunt ocio.
4784. Pausanias Attic, lib. 1. Cephalus egregiae formae juvenis ab aurora
raptus quod ejus amore capta esset.
4785. In amatorio.
4786. E. Stobaeo ser. 62.
4787. Amor otiosae cura est sollicitudinus.
4788. Principes plerumque ob licentiam et adfluentiam divitiarum istam
passionem solent incurrere.
4789. Ardenter appetit qui otiosam vitam agit, et communiter incurrit haec
passio solitarios delitiose viventes, incontinentes, religiosos, &c.
4790. Plutarch. vit. ejus.
4791. Vina parant animos veneri.
4792. Sed nihil erucae faciunt bulbique salaces; Improba nec prosit jam
satureia tibi. Ovid.
4793. Petronius.
4794. Uti ille apud Skenkium, qui post potionem, uxorem et quatuor ancillas
proximo cubiculo cubantes, compressit.
4795. Pers. Sat. 3.
4796. Siracides. Nox, et amor vinumque nihil moderabile suadent.
4797. Lip. ad Olympiam.
4798. Hymno.
4799. Hor. l. 3. Od. 25.
4800. De sale lib. cap. 21.
4801. Kornmannus lib. de virginitate.
4802. Garcias ab horto aromatum, lib. 1. cap. 28.
4803. Surax radix ad coitum summe facit si quis comedat, aut infusionem
bibat, membrum subito erigitur. Leo Afer. lib. 9. cap. ult.
4804. Quae non solum edentibus sed et genitale tangentibus tantum valet, ut
coire summe desiderent; quoties fere velint, possint; alios duodecies
profecisse, alios ad 60 vices pervenisse refert.
4805. Lucian. Tom. 4. Dial. amorum.
4806. "Sight, conference, association, kisses, touch."
4807. Ea enim hominum intemperantium libido est ut etiam fama ad amandum
impellantur, et audientes aeque afficiuntur ac videntes.
4808. Formosam Sostrato filiam audiens, uxorem cupit, et sola illius,
auditione ardet.
4809. Quoties de Panthea Xenophontis locum perlego, ita animo affectus ac
si coram intuerer.
4810. Pulchritudinem sibi ipsis configunt, Imagines.
4811. De aulico lib. 2. fol. 116.'tis a pleasant story, and related at
large by him.
4812. Gratia venit ab auditu aeque ac visu et species amoris in phantasiam
recipiunt sola relatione. Picolomineus grad. 8. c. 38.
4813. Lips. cent. 2. epist. 22. Beautie's Encomions.
4814. Propert.
4815. Amoris primum gradum visus habet, ut aspiciat rem amatam.
4816. Achilles Tatius lib. 1. Forma telo quovis acutior ad inferendum
vulnus, perque oculos amatorio vulneri aditum patefaciens in animum
penetrat.
4817. In tota rerum natura nihil forma divinius, nihil augustius, nihil
pretiosius, cujus vires hinc facile intelliguntur, &c.
4818. Christ. Fonseca.
4819. S. L.
4820. Bruys prob. 11. de forma e Lucianos.
4821. Lib. de calumnia. Formosi Calumninia vacant; dolemus alios meliore
loco positos, fortunam nobis novercam illis, &c.
4822. Invidemus sapientibus, justis, nisi beneficiis assidue amorem
extorquent; solos formosos amamus et primo velut aspectu benevolentia
conjungimur, et eos tanquam Deos colimus, libentius iis servimus quam
aliis imperamus, majoremque, &c.
4823. Formae majestatem Barbari verentur, nec alii majores quam quos eximia
forma natura donata est, Herod, lib. 5. Curtius G. Arist. Polit.
4824. Serm. 63. Plutarch, vit. ejus. Brisonius Strabo.
4825. "Virtue appears more gracefully in a lovely personage."
4826. Lib. 5. magnorumque; operum non alios capaces putant quam quos eximia
specie natura donavit.
4827. Lib. de vitis Pontificum. Rom.
4828. Lib. 2. cap. 6.
4829. Dial. amorum. c. 2. de magia. Lib. 2. connub. cap. 27. Virgo formosa
et si oppido pauper, abunde est dotata.
4830. Isocrates plures ob formam immortalitatem adepti sunt quam ob
reliquas omnes virtutes.
4831. Lucian Tom. 4. Charidaemon. Qui pulchri, merito apud Deos et apud
homines honore affecti. Muta commentatio, quavis epistola ad
commendandum efficacior.
4832. Lib. 9. Var. hist, tanta formae elegantia ut ab ea nuda, &c.
4833. Esdras, iv. 29.
4834. Origen hom. 23. in Numb. In ipsos tyrannos tyrannidem exercet.
4835. Illud certe magnum ob quod gloriari possunt formosi, quod robustis
necessarium sit laborare, fortem periculis se objicere, sapientem,
&c.
4836. Majorem vim habet ad commendandam forma, quam accurate scripta
epistola. Arist.
4837. Heliodor. lib. I.
4838. Knowles. hist. Turcica.
4839. Daniel in complaint of Rosamond.
4840. Stroza filius Epig. "The king of the gods on account of this beauty
became a bull, a shower, a swan."
4841. Sect. 2. Mem. 1. Sub. 1.
4842. Stromatum l. post captam Trojam cum impetu ferretur, ad occidendam
Helenam, stupore adeo pulchritudinis correptus ut ferrum excideret,
&c.
4843. Tantae formae fuit ut cum vincta loris, feris exposita foret, equorum
calcibus obterenda, ipsis jumentis admiratione fuit; laedere
noluerunt.
4844. Lib. 8. mules.
4845. "If you will restore me to my parents, and my beautiful lover, what
thanks, what honour shall I owe you, what provender shall I not
supply you?"
4846. Aethiop. l. 3.
4847. Atheneus, lib. 8.
4848. Apuleius Aur. asino.
4849. Shakespeare.
4850. Marlowe.
4851. Ov. Met. 1.
4852. Ovid. Met. lib. 5.
4853. "And with her hand wiping off the drops from her green tresses, thus
began to relate the loves of Alpheus. I was formerly an Achaian
nymph."
4854. Leland. "Their lips resound with thousand kisses, their arms are
pallid with the close embrace, and their necks are mutually entwined
by their fond caresses."
4855. Angerianus.
4856. Si longe aspiciens haec urit lumine divos atque homines prope, cur
urere lina nequit? Angerianus.
4857. "We wonder how great the vapour, and whence it comes."
4858. Idem Anger.
4859. Obstupuit mirabundas membrorum elegantiam, &c. Ep. 7.
4860. Stobaeus e graeco. "My limbs became relaxed, I was overcome from head
to foot, all self-possession fled, so great a stupor overburdened my
mind."
4861. Parum abfuit quo minus saxum ex nomine factus sum, ipsis statuis
immobiliorem me fecit.
4862. Veteres Gorgonis fabulam confinxerunt, eximium formae decus stupidos
reddens.
4863. Hor. Ode 5.
4864. Marlos Hero.
4865. Aspectum virginis sponte fugit insanus fere, et impossibile
existimans ut simul eam aspicere quis possit, et intra temperantiae
metas se continere.
4866. Apuleius, l. 4. Multi mortales longis itineribus, &c.
4867. Nic. Gerbel. l. 5. Achaia.
4868. I. Secundus basiorum lib.
4869. Musaeus Illa autem bene morata, per aedem quocunque vagabatur,
sequentem mentem habebat, e oculos, et corda virorum.
4870. Homer.
4871. Marlowe.
4872. Perno didascalo dial. Ital. Latin. donat. a Gasp. Barthio Germano.
4873. Propertius.
4874. Vestium splendore et elegantia ambitione incessus, donis, cantilenis,
&c. gratiam adipisci.
4875. Prae caeteris corporis proceritate et egregia indole mirandus
apparebat, caeteri autem capti ejus amore videbantur, &c.
4876. Aristenaetus, ep. 10.
4877. Tom. 4. dial. meretr. respicientes et ad formam ejus obstupescentes.
4878. In Charidemo sapientiae merito pulchritudo praefertur et opibus.
4879. Indignum nihil est Troas fortes et Achivos tempore tam longo
perpessos esse labore.
4880. Digna quidem facies pro qua vel obiret Achilles, vel Priamus, belli
causa probanda fuit. Proper. lib. 2.
4881. Coecus qui Helenae formam carpserat.
4882. Those mutinous Turks that murmured at Mahomet, when they saw Irene,
excused his absence. Knowls.
4883. In laudem Helenae erat.
4884. Apul. miles. lib. 4.
4885. Secun. bas. 13.
4886. Curtius, l. 1.
4887. Confessi.
4888. Seneca. Amor in oculis oritur.
4889. Ovid Fast.
4890. Plutarch.
4891. Lib. de pulchrit. Jesu et Mariae.
4892. Lucian Charidemon supra omnes mortales felicissimum si hac frui
possit.
4893. Lucian amor. Insanum quiddam ac furibundum exclamans. O
fortunatissime deorum Mars qui propter hanc vinctus fuisti.
4894. Ov. Met. l. 3.
4895. Omnes dii complexi sunt, et in uxorem sibi petierunt, Nat. Comes de
Venere.
4896. Ut cum lux noctis affulget, omnium oculos incurrit: sic Antiloquus
&c.
4897. Dolovit omnes ex animo mulieres.
4898. Nam vincit et vel ignem, ferrumque si qua pulchra est. Anacreon, 2.
4899. Spenser in his Faerie Queene.
4900. Achilles Tatius, lib. 1.
4901. Statim ac eam contemplatus sum, occidi; oculos a virgine avertere
conatus sum, sed illi repugnabant.
4902. Pudet dicere, non celabo tamen. Memphim veniens me vicit, et
continentiam expugnavit, quam ad senectutem usque servarum, oculis
corporis, &c.
4903. Nunc primum circa hanc anxius animi haereo. Aristaenetus, ep. 17.
4904. Virg. Aen. 4. "She alone hath captivated my feelings, and fixed my
wavering mind."
4905. Amaranto dial.
4906. Comasque ad speculum disposuit.
4907. Imag. Polystrato. Si illam saltem intuearis, statuis immobiliorem te
faciet: si conspexeris eam, non relinquetur facultas oculos ab ea
amovendi; abducet te alligatum quocunque voluerit, ut ferrum ad se
trahere ferunt adamantem.
4908. Plaut. Merc.
4909. In the Knight's Tale.
4910. Ex debita totius proportione aptaque partium compositione.
Picolomineus.
4911. Hor. Od. 19. lib. 1.
4912. Ter. Eunuch. Act. 2. Scen. 3.
4913. Petronius Catall.
4914. Sophocles. Antigone.
4915. Jo. Secundus bas. 19.
4916. Loecheus.
4917. Arandus. Vallis amoenissima e duobus montibus composita niveis.
4918. Ovid.
4919. Fol. 77. Dapsiles hilares amatores, &c.
4920. When Cupid slept. Caesariem auream habentem, ubi Psyche vidit,
mollemque ex ambrosia cervicem inspexit, crines crispos, purpureas
genas candidasque, &c. Apuleius.
4921. In laudem calvi; splendida coma quisque adulter est; allicit aurea
coma.
4922. Venus ipsa non placeret comis nudata, capite spoliata, si qualis ipsa
Venus cum fuit virgo omni gratiarum choro stipata, et toto cupidinun
populo concinnata, baltheo suo cincta, cinnama fragrans, et balsama,
si calva processerit, placere non potest Vulcano suo.
4923. Arandus. Capilli retia Cupidinis, sylva caedua, in qua nidificat
Cupido, sub cujus umbra amores mille modis se exercent.
4924. Theod. Prodromus Amor. lib. 1.
4925. Epist. 72. Ubi pulchram tibiam, bene compactum tenuemque pedem vidi.
4926. Plaut. Cas.
4927. Claudus optime rem agit.
4928. Fol. 5. Si servum viderint, aut flatorem altius cinctum, aut pulvere
perfusum, aut histrionem in scenam traductum, &c.
4929. Me pulchra fateor carere forma, verum luculenta--nostra est.
Petronius Catal. de Priapo.
4930. Galen.
4931. Calcagninus Apologis. Quae pars maxime desiderabilis? Alius frontem,
alius genas, &c.
4932. Inter foemineum.
4933. Hensius.
4934. Sunt enim oculi, praecipuae pulchritudinis sedes. lib. 6.
4935. Amoris hami, duces, judices et indices qui momento insanos sanant,
sanos insanire cogunt, oculatissimi corporis excubitores, quid non
agunt? Quid non cogunt?
4936. Ocelli carna. 17. cujus et Lipsius epist. quaest. lib. 3. cap. 11.
meminit ob elegantiam.
4937. Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, contactum nullis ante
cupidinibus. Propert. l. 1.
4938. In catalect.
4939. De Sulpicio, lib. 4.
4940. Pulchritudo ipsa per occultos radios in pectus amantis dimanans
amatae rei formam insculpsit, Tatius, l. 5.
4941. Jacob Cornelius Amnon Tragoed. Act. 1. sc. 1.
4942. Rosae formosaram oculis nascuntur, et hilaritas vultus elegantiae
corona. Philostratus deliciis.
4943. Epist. et in deliciis, abi et oppugnationem relinque, quam flamma non
extinguit; nam ab amore ipsa flamma sentit incendium: quae corporum
penetratio, quae tyrannis haec? &c.
4944. Loecheus Panthea.
4945. Propertius. "The wretched Cynthia first captivates with her sparkling
eyes."
4946. Ovid, amorum, lib. 2. eleg. 4.
4947. Scut. Hercul.
4948. Calcagninus dial.
4949. Iliad 1.
4950. Hist. lib. 1.
4951. Sands' relation, fol. 67.
4952. Mantuan.
4953. Amor per oculos, nares, poros influens, &c. Mortales tum summopere
fascinantur quando frequentissimo intuitu aciem dirigentes, &c. Ideo
si quis nitore polleat oculorum, &c.
4954. Spiritus puriores fascinantur, oculus a se radios emittit, &c.
4955. Lib. de pulch. Jes. et Mar.
4956. Lib. 2. c. 23. colore triticum referente, crine, flava, acribus
oculis.
4957. Lippi solo intuitu alios lippos faciunt, et patet una cum radio
vaporem corrupti sanguinis emanare, cujus contagione oculis
spectantis inficitur.
4958. Vita Apollon.
4959. Comment. in Aristot. Probl.
4960. Sic radius a corde percutientis missus, regimen proprium repetit, cor
vulnerat, per oculos et sanguinem inficit et spiritus, subtili quadam
vi. Castil. lib. 3. de aulico.
4961. Lib. 10. Causa omnis et origo omnis prae sentis doloris tute es; isti
enim tui oculi, per meos oculos ad intima delapsi praecordia,
acerrimum meis medullis commovent incendium; ergo miserere tui causa
pereuntis.
4962. Lycias in Phaedri vultum inhiat, Phaedrus in oculos Lyciae scintillas
suorum defigit oculorum; cumque scintillis, &c. Sequitur Phaedrus
Lyciam, quia cor suum petit spiritum; Phaedrum Lycias, quia spiritus
propriam sedem postulat. Verum Lycias, &c.
4963. Daemonia inquit quae in hoc Eremo nuper occurebant.
4964. Castilio de aulico, l. 3. fol. 228. Oculi ut milites in insidiis
semper recubant, et subito ad visum sagittas emittunt, &c.
4965. Nec mirum si reliquos morbos qui ex contagione nascuntur
consideremus, pestem, pruritum, scabiem, &c.
4966. Lucretius. "And the body naturally seeks whence it is that the mind
is so wounded by love."
4967. In beauty, that of favour is preferred before that of colours, and
decent motion is more than that of favour. Bacon's Essays.
4968. Martialis.
4969. Multi tacit e opinantur commercium illud adeo frequens cum barbaris
nudis, ac presertim cum foeminis ad libidinem provocare, at minus
multo noxia illorum nuditas quam nostrarum foeminarum cultus. Ausim
asseverare splendidum illum cultum, fucos, &c.
4970. Harmo. evangel. lib. 6. cap. 6.
4971. Serm. de concep. Virg. Physiognomia virginis omnes movet ad
casitatem.
4972. 3. sent. d. 3. q. 3 mirum virgo formosissima, sed a nemine concupita.
4973. Met. 10.
4974. Rosamond's complaint, by Sam. Daniel.
4975. Aeneas Silv.
4976. Heliodor. l. 2. Rodolphe Thracia tam inevitabili fascino instructa,
tam exacte oculis intuens attraxit, ni si in illam quis incidisset,
fieri non posset quin capertur.
4977. Lib. 3. de providentia: Animi fenestrae oculi, et omnis improba
cupiditas per ocellos tanquam canales introit.
4978. Buchanan.
4979. Ovid de arte amandi.
4980. Pers. 3. Sat.
4981. Vel centum Chariles ridere putaret. Museus of Hero.
4982. Hor. Od. 22 lib. 1.
4983. Eustathius, l. 5.
4984. Mantuan.
4985. Tom. 4. merit, dial. Exornando seipsam eleganter, facilem et hilarem
se gerendo erga cunctos, ridendo suave ac blandum quid, &c.
4986. Angeriaims.
4987. Vel si forte vestimentum de industria elevetur, ut pedum ac tibiarum
pars aliqua conspiciatur, dum templum aut locum aliquem adierit.
4988. Sermone, quod non foeminae. viris cohabitent. Non loquuta es lingua,
sed loquuta es gressu: non loquuta es voce, sed oculis loquuta es
clarius quam voce.
4989. Jovianus Pontanus Baiar. lib. 1. ad Hermionem. "For why do you
exhibit your 'milky way,' your uncovered bosoms? What else is it but
to say plainly. Ask me, ask me, I will surrender; and what is that
but love's call?"
4990. De luxu vestium discurs. 6. Nihil aliud deest nisi ut praeco vos
praecedat, &c.
4991. If you can tell how, you may sing this to the tune a sow-gelder
blows.
4992. Auson. epig. 28. "Neither draped Diana nor naked Venus pleases me.
One has too much voluptuousness about her, the other none."
4993. Plin. lib. 33. cap. 10. Gampaspen nudam picturus Apelles, amore ejus
illaqueatus est.
4994. In Tyrrhenis conviviis nudae mulieres ministrabant.
4995. Amatoria miscentes vidit, et in ipsis complexibus audit, &c. emersit
inde cupido in pectus virginis.
4996. Epist. 7. lib. 2.
4997. Spartian.
4998. Sidney's Arcadia.
4999. De immod. mulier. cultu.
5000. Discurs. 6. de luxu vestium.
5001. Petronius fol. 95. quo spectant flexae comae? quo facies medicamine
attrita et oculorum mollis petulantia? quo incessus tam compositus,
&c.
5002. Ter. "They take a year to deck and comb themselves."
5003. P. Aretine. Hortulanus non ita exercetur visendis hortis, eques
equis, armis, nauta navibus, &c.
5004. Epist. 4. Sonus armillarum bene sonantium, odor unguentorm, &c.
5005. Tom. 4. dial. Amor. vascula plena multae infelicitatis omnem
mariotorum opulentiam in haec inpendunt, dracones pro monilibus
habent, qui utinam vere dracones essent. Lucian.
5006. Seneca.
5007. Castilio de aulic. lib. I. Mulieribus omnibus hoc imprimis in votis
est, ut formosae sint, aut si reipsa non sint, videantur tamen esse;
et si qua parte natura defuit, artis supetias adjungunt: unde illae
faciei unctiones, dolor et cruciatus in arctandis corporibus, &c.
5008. Ovid. epist. Med. Jasoni.
5009. "A distorted dwarf, an Europa."
5010. Modo caudatas tunicas, &c. Bossus.
5011. Scribanius philos. Christ. cap. 6.
5012. Ter. Eunuc. Act. 2. scen. 3.
5013. Stroza fil.
5014. Ovid.
5015. S. Daniel.
5016. Lib. de victimis. Fracto incessu obtuitu lascivo, calamistrata,
cincinnata, fucata, recens lota, purpurissata, pretioso que amicta
palliolo, spirans unguenta, ut juvenum animos circumveniat.
5017. Orat. in ebrios. Impudenter so masculorum aspectibus exponunt,
insolenter comas jactantes, trahunt tunicas pedibus collidentes,
oculoque petulanti, risu effuso, ad tripudium insanientes, omnem
adolescentum intemperantiam in se provocantes, inque in templis
memoriae martyrum consecratis; pomoerium civitatis officinam fecerunt
impudentiae.
5018. Hymno Veneri dicato.
5019. Argonaut. l. 4.
5020. Vit. Anton.
5021. Regia domo ornatuque certantes, sese ac formam suam Antonio
offerentes, &c. Cum ornatu et incredibili pompa per Cydnum fluvium
navigarent aurata puppi, ipsa ad similitudinem Veneris ornata,
puellae Gratiis similes, pueri Cupidinibus, Antonius ad visum
stupefactus.
5022. Amictum Chlamyde et coronis, quum primum aspexit Cnemonem, ex
potestate mentis excidit.
5023. Lib. de lib. prop.
5024. Ruth, iii. 3.
5025. Cap. ix. 5.
5026. Juv. Sat. 6.
5027. Hor. lib. 2. Od. 11.
5028. Cap. 27.
5029. Epist. 90.
5030. Quicquid est boni moris levitate extinguitur, et politura corporis
muliebres munditias antecessimus colores meretricios viri sumimus,
tenero et molli gradu suspendimus gradum, non ambulamus, nat. quaest.
lib. 7. cap. 31.
5031. Liv. lib. 4. dec. 4.
5032. Quid exultas in pulchritudine panni? Quid gloriaris in gemmis ut
facilius invites ad libidiniosum incendium? Mat. Bossus de immoder.
mulie. cultu.
5033. Epist. 113. fulgent monilibus, moribus sordent, purpurata vestis,
conscientia pannosa, cap. 3. 17.
5034. De virginali habitu: dum ornari cultius, dum evagari virgines volunt,
desinunt esse virgines. Clemens Alexandrinus, lib. de pulchr. animae,
ibid.
5035. Lib. 2. de cultu mulierum, oculos depictos verecundia, inferentes in
aures sermonem dei, annectentes crinibus jugum Christi, caput maritis
subjicientes, sic facile et satis eritis ornatae: vestite vos serico
probitatis, byssino sanctitatis, purpura pudicitiae; taliter
pigmentatae deum habebitis amatorem.
5036. Suas habeant Romanae? lascivias; purpurissa, ac cerussa ora
perungant, fomenta libidinum, et corruptae mentis indicia; vestrum
ornamentum deus sit, pudicitia, virtutis studium. Rossus Plautus.
5037. Sollicitiores de capitis sui decore quam de salute, inter pectinem et
speculum diem perdunt, concinniores esse malunt quam honestiores, et
rempub. minus turbari curant quam comam. Seneca.
5038. Lucian.
5039. Non sic Furius de Gallis, not Papyrius de Samnitibus, Scipio de
Numantia triumphavit, ac illa se vincendo in hac parte.
5040. Anacreon. 4. solum intuemur aurum.
5041. Asser tecum si vis vivere mecum.
5042. Theognis.
5043. Chaloner, l. 9. de Repub. Ang.
5044. Uxorem ducat Danaen, &c.
5045. Ovid.
5046. Epist. 14 formam spectant alii per gratias, ego pecuniam, &c. ne mihi
negotium facesse.
5047. Qui caret argento, frustra utitur argumento.
5048. Juvenalis.
5049. Tom. 4. merit. dial. multos amatores rejecit, quia pater ejus nuper
mortuus, ac dominus ipse factus bonorum omnium.
5050. Lib. 3. cap. 14. quis nobilium eo tempore, sibi aut filio aut nepoti
uxorem accipere cupiens, oblatam sibi aliquam propinquarum ejus non
acciperet obviis manibus? Quarum turbam acciverat e Normannia in
Angliam ejus rei gratia.
5051. Alexander Gaguinus Sarmat. Europ. descript.
5052. Tom. 3. Annal.
5053. Libido statim deferbuit, fastidium caepit, et quod in ea tantopere
adamavit aspernatur, et ab aegritudine liberatus in angorem incidit.
5054. De puellae voluntate periculum facere solis oculis non est satis, sed
efficacius aliquid agere oportet, ibique etiam machinam alteram
ahibere: itaque manus tange, digitos constringe, atque inter
stringendum suspira; si haec agentem aequo se animo feret, neque
facta hujusmodi aspernabitur, tum vero dominam appella, ejusque
collum suaviare.
5055. Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings.
5056. Shakspeare.
5057. Tatius, lib. 1.
5058. In mammarum attractu, non aspernanda inest jucunditas, et
attrectatus, &c.
5059. Mantuam.
5060. Ovid. 1. Met.
5061. Manus ad cubitum nuda, coram astans, fortius intuita, tenuem de
pectore spiritum ducens, digitum meum pressit, et bibens pedem
pressit; mutuae compressiones corporum, labiorum commixtiones, pedum
connexiones, &c. Et bibit eodem loco, &c.
5062. Epist. 4. Respexi, respexit et, illa subridens, &c.
5063. Vir. Aen. 4. "That was the first hour of destruction, and the first
beginning of my miseries."
5064. Propertius.
5065. Ovid. amor. lib. 2. eleg. 2. "Place modesty itself in such a
situation, desire will intrude."
5066. Romae vivens flore fortunae, et opulentiae meae, aetas, forma, gratia
conversationis, maxime me fecerunt expetibilem, &c.
5067. De Aulic. lib. 1. fol. 63.
5068. Ut adulterini mercatorum panni.
5069. Busbeq. epist.
5070. Paranympha in cubiculum adducta capillos ad cutem referebat; sponsus
inde ad eam ingressus cingulum solvebat, nec prius sponsam aspexit
interdiu quam ex illa factus esset pater.
5071. Serm. cont. concub.
5072. Lib. 2. epist. ad filium, et virginem et matrem viduam epist. 10.
dabit tibi barbatulus quispiam manum, sustentabit lassam, et pressis
digitis aut tentabitur aut tentabit, &c.
5073. Loquetur alius nutibus, et quicquid metuit dicere, significabit
affectibus. Inter bas tantas voluptatum illecebras etiam ferreas
mentes libido domat. Difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia.
5074. Clamore vestium ad se juvenes vocat; capilli fasciolis comprimuntur
crispati, cingulo pectus arctatur, capilii vel in frontem, vel in
aures defluunt: palliolum interdum cadit, ut nudet humeros, et quasi
videri noluerit, festinans celat, quod volens detexerit.
5075. Serm. cont. concub. In sancto et reverendo sacramentorum tempore
multas occasiones, ut illis placeant qui eas vident, praebent.
5076. Pont. Baia. l. 1.
5077. Descr. Brit.
5078. Res est blanda canor, discant cantare puellae pro facie, &c. Ovid. 3.
de art. amandi.
5079. Epist. l. 1. Cum loquitur Lais, quanta, O dii boni, vocis ejus
dulcedo!
5080. "The sweet sound of his voice reanimates my soul through my covetous
ears."
5081. Aristenaetus, lib. 2. epist. 5. Quam suave canit! verbum audax dixi,
omnium quos vidi formosissimus, utinam amare me dignetur!
5082. Imagines, si cantantem audieris, ita demulcebere, ut parentum et
patriae statim obliviscaris.
5083. Edyll. 18. neque sane ulla sic Cytharam pulsare novit.
5084. Amatorio Dialogo.
5085. Puellam Cythara canentem vidimus.
5086. Apollonius, Argonaut. l. 3 "The mind is delighted as much by
eloquence as beauty."
5087. Catullus.
5088. Parnodidascalo dial. Ital. Latin. interp. Jasper. Barthio. Germ.
Fingebam honestatem plusquam virginis vestalis, intuebar oculis
uxoris, addebam gestus, &c.
5089. Tom. 4. dial. merit.
5090. Amatorius sermo vehemens vehementis cupiditatis incitatio est, Tatius
l. 1.
5091. De luxuria et deliciis compositi.
5092. Aeneas Sylvius. Nulla machina validior quam lecto lascivae historiae:
saepe etiam hujusmodi fabulis ad furorem incenduntur.
5093. Martial. l. 4.
5094. Lib. 1. c. 7.
5095. Eustathius, l. 1. Pictures parant animum ad Venerem, &c. Horatius ed
res venereas intemperantior traditur; nam cubiculo suo sic specula
dicitur habuisse disposita, ut quocunque respexisset imaginem coitus
referrent. Suetonius vit. ejus.
5096. Osculum ut phylangium inficit.
5097. Hor. "Venus hath imbued with the quintessence of her nectar."
5098. Heinsius. "You may conquer with the sword, but you are conquered by a
kiss."
5099. Applico me illi proximius et spisse deosculata sagum peto.
5100. Petronius catalect.
5101. Catullus ad Lesbiam: da mihi basia mille, deinde centum, &c.
5102. Petronius. "Only attempt to touch her person, and immediately your
members will be filled with a glow of delicious warmth."
5103. Apuleius, l. 30. et Catalect.
5104. Petronius.
5105. Apuleius.
5106. Petronius Proselios ad Circen.
5107. Petronius.
5108. Animus conjungitur, et spiritus etiam noster per osculum effluit;
alternatim se in utriusque corpus infundentes commiscent; animae
potius quam corporis connectio.
5109. Catullus.
5110. Lucian. Tom. 4.
5111. Non dat basia, dat Nera nectar, dat rores animae suaveolentes, dat
nardum, thymumque, cinnamumque et mel, &c. Secundus bas. 4.
5112. Eustathius lib. 4.
5113. Catullus.
5114. Buchanan.
5115. Ovid. art. am. Eleg. 18.
5116. Ovid. "She folded her arms around my neck."
5117. Cum capita liment solitis morsiunculis, et cum mammillarum
pressiunculis. Lip. od. ant. lec. lib. 3.
5118. Tom. 4. dial. meretr.
5119. Apuleius Miles. 6. Et unum blandientis linguae admulsum longe
mellitum: et post lib. 11. Arctius eam complexus caepi suaviari
jamque pariter patentis oris inhalitu cinnameo et occursantis linguae
illisu nectareo, &c.
5120. Lib. 1 advers. Jovin. cap. 30.
5121. Oscula qui sumpsit, si non et cetera sumpsit, &c.
5122. Corpus Placuit mariti sui tolli ex arca, atque illi quae vacabat
cruci adfigi.
5123. Novi ingenium mulierum, nolunt, ubi velis, ubi nolis capiunt ultro.
Ter. Eunuc. act. 4. sc. 7.
5124. Marlowe.
5125. Pornodidascolo dial. Ital. Latin. donat. a Gasp. Barthio Germano.
Quanquam natura, et arte eram formosissima, isto tamen astu tanto
speciosior videbar, quod enim oculis cupitum aegre praebetur, multo
magis affectus humanos incendit.
5126. Quo majoribus me donis probatiabat, eo pejoribus illum modis
tractabam, ne basium impetravis, &c.
5127. Comes de monte Turco Hispanus has de venatione sua partes misit,
jussitque peramanter orare, ut hoc qualecunque donum suo nomine
accipias.
5128. His artibus hominem ita excantabam, ut pro me ille ad omnia parutas,
&c.
5129. Tom. 4. dial, merit.
5130. Relicto illo, aegre ipsi interim faciens, et omnino difficilis.
5131. Si quis enim nec Zelotypus irascitur, nec pugnat aliquando amator,
nec perjurat, non est habendus amator, &c. Totus hic ignis Zelotypia
constat, &c. maxime amores inde nascuntur. Sed si persuasum illi
fuerit te solum habere, elanguescit illico amor suus.
5132. Venientem videbis ipsum denuo inflammatum et prorsus insanientem.
5133. Et sic cum fere de illo desperassem, post menses quatuor ad me
rediit.
5134. Petronius Catal.
5135. Imagines deorum. fol. 327. varios amores facit, quos aliqui
interpretantur multiplices affectus et illecebras, alios puellos,
puellas, alatos, alios poma aurea, alios sagittas, alios laqueos, &c.
5136. Epist. lib. 3. vita Pauli Eremitae.
5137. Meretrix speciosa cepit delicatius stringere colla complexibus, et
corpora in libidinem concitato, &c.
5138. Camden in Gloucestershire, huic praefuit nobilis et formosa
abbatissa, Godwinus comes indole subtilis, non ipsam, sed sua
cupiens, reliquit nepotem suum forma elegantissimum, tanquam infirmum
donec reverteretur, instruit, &c.
5139. Ille impiger regem adit, abatissam et suas praegnantes edocet,
exploratoribus missis probat, et iis ejectis, a domino suo manerium
accepit.
5140. Post sermones de casu suo suavitate sermones conciliat animum
hominis, manumque inter colloquia et risus ad barbam protendit et
palpare coepit cervicem suam et osculari; quid multa? Captivum ducit
militem Christi. Complexura evanescit, demones in aere monachum
riserunt.
5141. Choraea circulus, cujus centrum diab.
5142. Multae inde impudicae domum rediere, plures ambiguae, melior nulla.
5143. Turpium deliciarum comes est externa saltatio; neque certe facile
dictu quae mala hinc visus hauriat, et quae pariat, colloquia,
monstrosus, inconditos gestus, &c.
5144. Juv. Sat. 11. "Perhaps you may expect that a Gaditanian with a
tuneful company may begin to wanton, and girls approved with applause
lower themselves to the ground in a lascivious manner, a provocative
of languishing desire."
5145. Justin. l. 10. Adduntur instrumenta luxuriae, tympana et tripudia;
nec tam spectator rex, sed nequitiae magister, &c.
5146. Hor. l. 5. od. 6.
5147. Havarde vita ejus.
5148. Of whom he begat William the Conqueror; by the same token she tore
her smock down, saying, &c.
5149. Epist. &c. Quis non miratus est saltantem? Quis non vidit et amavit?
veterem et novam vidi Romam, sed tibi similem non vidi Panareta;
felix qui Panareta fruitur, &c.
5150. Prinicipio Ariadne velut sponsa prodit, ac sola recedit; prodiens
illico Dionysius ad numeros cantante tibia saltabat; admirati sunt
omnes saltantem juvenem, ipsaque Ariadne, ut vix potuerit
conquiescere; post ea vero cum Dionysius eam aspexit, &c. ut autem
surrexit Dionysius, erexit simul Ariadnem, licebatque spectare gestus
osculantium, et inter se complectentium; qui autem spectabant, &c. Ad
extremum videntes eos mutuis amplexibus implicatos et jamjam ad
thalamum ituros; qui non duxerant uxores jurabant uxores se
ductoreos; qui autem duxerant conscensis equis et incitatis, ut
iisdem fruerentur, domum festinarunt.
5151. Lib. 4. de contemnend. amoribus.
5152. Ad Anysium epist. 57.
5153. Intempestivum enim est, et a nuptiis abhorrens, inter saltantes
podagricum videre senem, et episcopum.
5154. Rem omnium in mortalium vita optimam innocenter accusare.
5155. Quae honestam voluptatem respicit, aut corporis exercitium, contemni
non debet.
5156. Elegantissima res est, quae et mentem acuit, corpus exerceat, et
spectantes oblectet, multos gestus decoros docens, oculos, aures,
animum ex aeque demulcens.
5157. Ovid.
5158. System, moralis philosophiae.
5159. Apuleius. 10. Pueili, puellaeque virenti florentes aetatula, forma
conspicui, veste nitidi, incessu gratiosi, Graecanicam saltantes
Pyrrhicam, dispositis ordinationibus, decoros ambitus inerrabant,
nunc in orbem flexi, nunc in obliquam seriem connexi, nunc in quadrum
cuneati, nunc inde separati, &c.
5160. Lib. 1. cap. 11.
5161. Vit. Epaminondae.
5162. Lib. 5.
5163. Read P. Martyr Ocean Decad. Benzo, Lerius Hacluit, &c.
5164. Angerianus Erotopaegnion.
5165. 10 Leg. [Greek: taes gar toiautaes spedaes eneka], &c. hujus causa
oportuit disciplinam constitui, ut tam pueri quam puellae choreas
celebrent, spectenturque ac spectent, &c.
5166. Aspectus enim nudorum corporum tam mares quam feminas irritare solet
ad enormes lasciviae appetitus.
5167. Camden Annal. anno 1578, fol. 276. Amatoriis facetiis et illecebris
exquisitissimus.
5168. Met. 1. Ovid.
5169. Erasmus egl. mille mei siculis errant in montibus agni.
5170. Virg.
5171. 58 Lecheus.
5172. Tom. 4. merit. dial. amare se jurat et lachrimatur dicitque uxorem me
ducere velle, quum pater oculos claussisset.
5173. Quum dotem alibi multo majorem aspiciet, &c.
5174. Or upper garment. Quem Juno miserata veste contexit.
5175. Hor.
5176. Dejeravit illa secundum supra trigesimum ad proximum Decembrem
completuram se esse.
5177. Ovid.
5178. Nam donis vincitur omnis amor. Catullus 1. el. 5.
5179. Fox, act. 3. sc. 3.
5180. Catullus.
5181. Perjuria ridet amantum Jupiter, et ventos irrita ferre jubet Tibul.
lib. 3. et 6.
5182. In Philebo. pejerantibus, nis dii soli ignoscunt.
5183. Catul.
5184. Lib. 1. de contemnendis amoribus.
5185. Dial. Ital. argentum ut paleas projiciebat. Biliosum habui amatorem
qui supplex flexis genibus, &c. Nullus recens allatus terrae fructus,
nullum cupediarum genus tam carum erat, nullum vinum Creticum
pretiosum, quin ad me ferret illico; credo alterum oculum pignori
daturus, &c.
5186. Post musicam opiperas epulas, et tantis juramentis, donis, &c.
5187. Nunquam aliquis umbrarum conjurator tanta attentione, tamque
potentibus verbis usus est, quam ille exquisitis mihi dictis, &c.
5188. Chaucer.
5189. Ah crudele genas nec tutum foemina nomen! Tibul. l. 3. eleg. 4.
5190. Jovianus Pon.
5191. Aristaenetus, lib. 2. epist. 13.
5192. Suaviter flebam, ut persuasum habeat lachrymas prae gaudio illius
reditus mihi emanare.
5193. Lib. 3. his accedunt, vultus subtristis, color pallidus, gemebunda
vox, ignita suspiria, lachrymae prope innumerabiles. Istae se statim
umbrae offerunt tanto squalore et in omni fere diverticulo tanta
macie, ut illas jamjam moribundas putes.
5194. Petronius. "Trust not your heart to women, for the wave is less
treacherous than their fidelity."
5195. Coelestina, act 7. Barthio interpret omnibus arridet, et a singulis
amari se solam dicit.
5196. Ovid. "They have made the same promises to a thousand girls that they
make to you."
5197. Seneca Hippol.
5198. Tom. 4. dial. merit. tu vero aliquando maerore afficieris ubi
andieris me a meipsa laqueo tui causa suffocatam aut in puteum
praecipitatam.
5199. Epist. 20. l. 2.
5200. Matronae flent duobus oculis, moniales quatuor, virgines uno,
meretrices nullo.
5201. Ovid.
5202. Imagines deorum, fol. 332. e Moschi amore fugitive, quem Politianus
Latinum fecit.
5203. Lib. 3. mille vix anni sufficerent ad omnes illas machinationes,
dolosque commemorandos, quos viri et mulieres ut se invicem
circumveniant, excogitare solent.
5204. Petronius.
5205. Plautus Tritemius. "Three hundred verses would not comprise their
indecencies."
5206. De Magnet. Philos. lib. 4. cap. 10.
5207. Catul. eleg. 5. lib. 1. Venit in exitium callida lena meum.
5208. Ovid. 10. met.
5209. Parabosc. Barthii.
5210. De vit. Erem c. 3. ad sororem vix aliquam reclusarum hujus temporis
solam invenies, ante cujus fenestram non anus garrula, vel nugigerula
mulier sedet, quae eam fabulis occupet, rumoribus pascat, hujus vel
illius monachi, &c.
5211. Agreste olus anus vendebat, et rogo inquam, mater, nunquid scis ubi
ego habitem? delectata illa urbanitate tam stulta, et quid nesciam
inquit? consurrexitque et cepit me praecedere; divinam ego putabam,
&c. nudas video meretrices et in lupanar me adductum, sero execrutus
aniculae insidias.
5212. Plautus Menech. "These harlots send little maidens down to the quays
to ascertain the name and nation of every ship that arrives, after
which they themselves hasten to address the new-comers."
5213. Promissis everberant, molliunt dulciloquiis, et opportunum tempus
aucupantes laqueos ingerunt quos vix Lucretia vitare; escam parant
quam vel satur Hippolitus sumeret, &c. Hae sane sunt virgae
soporiferae quibus contactae animae ad Orcum descendunt; hoc gluten
quo compactae mentium alae evolare nequeunt, daemonis ancillae, quae
sollicitant, &c.
5214. See the practices of the Jesuits, Anglice, edit. 1630.
5215. Aen. Sylv.
5216. Chaucer, in the wife of Bath's tale.
5217. H. Stephanus Apol. Herod, lib. 1. cap. 21.
5218. Bale. Puellae in lectis dormire non poterant.
5219. Idem Josephus, lib. 18. cap. 4.
5220. Lib credit. Augustae Vindelicorum, An. 1608.
5221. Quarum animas lucrari debent Deo, sacrificant diabolo.
5222. M. Drayton, Her. epist.
5223. Pornodidascolo dial. Ital. Latin, fact. a Gasp. Barthio. Plus possum
quam omnes philosophi, astrologi, necromantici, &c. sola saliva
inungens, 1. amplexu et basiis tam furiose furere, tam bestialiter
obstupesieri coegi, ut instar idoli me adorarint.
5224. Sagae omnes sibi arrogant notitiam, et facultatem in amorem
alliciendi quos velint; odia inter conjuges serendi, tempestates
excitandi, morbos infligendi, &c.
5225. Juvenalis Sat.
5226. Idem refert Hen. Kormannus de mir. mort. lib. 1 cap. 14. Perdite
amavit mulierculam quandam, illius amplexibus acquiescens, summa cum
indignatione suorum et dolore.
5227. Et inde totus in Episcopum furere, illum colere.
5228. Aquisgranum, vulgo Aixe.
5229. Immenso sumptu templum et aedes, &c.
5230. Apolog. quod Pudentillam viduam ditem et provectioris aetatis
foeminam cantaminibus in amorem sui pellexisset.
5231. Philopseude, tom. 3.
5232. Impudicae mulieres opera veneficarum, diaboli coquarum, amatores suos
ad se nuctu ducunt et reducunt, ministerio hirci in aere volantis:
multos novi qui hoc fassi sunt, &c.
5233. Mandrake apples, Lemnius lib. herb. bib. c. 3.
5234. Of which read Plin. lib. 8. cap. 22. et lib. 13. c. 25. et
Quintilianum, lib. 7.
5235. Lib. 11. c. 8. Venere implicat eos, qui ex eo bibunt. Idem Ov. Met.
4. Strabo. Geog. l. 14.
5236. Lod. Guicciardine's descript. Ger. in Aquisgrano.
5237. Baltheus Veneris, in quo suavitas, et dulcia colloquia,
benevolentiae, et blanditiae, suasiones, fraudes et veneficia
includebantur. "Whence that heat to waters bubbling from the cold
moist earth? Cupid, once upon a time, playfully dipped herein his
arrows of steel, and delighted with the hissing sound, he said, boil
on for ever, and retain the memory of my quiver. From that time it is
a thermal spring, in which few venture to bathe, but whosoever does,
his heart is instantly touched with love."
5238. Ovid. Facit hunc amor ipse colorem. Met. 4.
5239. Signa ejus profunditas oculorum, privatio lachrymarum, suspiria,
saepe rident sibi, ac si quod delectabile; viderent, aut audirent.
5240. Seneca Hip.
5241. Seneca Hip.
5242. De moris cerebri de erot. amore. Ob spirituum distractionem hepar
officio suo non fungitur, nec vertit alimentum in sanguinem, ut
debeat. Ergo membra debilia, et penuria alibilis succi marcescunt,
squalentque ut herbae in horto meo hoc mense Maio Zeriscae, ob
imbrium defectum.
5243. Faerie Queene, l. 3. cant. 11.
5244. Amator Emblem. 3.
5245. Lib. 4. Animo errat, et quidvis obvium loquitur, vigilias absque
causa sustinet, et succum corporis subito amisit.
5246. Apuleius.
5247. Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale.
5248. Virg. Aen. 4.
5249. Dum vaga passim sidera fulgent, numerat longas tetricus horas, et
sollicito nixus cubito suspirando viscera rumpit.
5250. Saliebat crebro tepidum cor ad aspectum Ismenes.
5251. Gordonius c. 20. amittunt saepe cibum, potum, et merceratur inde
totum corpus.
5252. Ter. Eunuch. Dii boni, quid hoc est, adeone homines mutari ex amore,
ut non cognoscas eundem esse!
5253. Ovid. Met. 4. "The more it is concealed the more it struggles to
break through its concealment."
5254. Ad ejus nomen, rubebut, et ad aspectum pulsus variebatur. Plutar.
5255. Epist. 13.
5256. Barck. lib. 1. Oculi medico tremore errabant.
5257. Pulsus eorum velox et inordinatus, si mulier quam amat forte
transeat.
5258. Signa sunt cessatio ab omni opere insueto, privatio somni, suspiria
crebra, rubor cum sit sermo de re amata, et commotio pulsus.
5259. Si noscere vis an homines suspecti tales sint, tangito eorum
arterias.
5260. Amor facit inaequales, inordinatos.
5261. In nobilis cujusdam uxore quum subolfacerem adulteri amore fuisse
correptam et quam maritus, &c.
5262. Cepit illico pulsus variari et ferri celerius et sic inveni.
5263. Eunuch, act. 2. scen. 2.
5264. Epist. 7. lib. 2. Tener sudor et creber anhelitus, palpitatio cordis,
&c.
5265. Lib. 1.
5266. Lexoviensis episcopus.
5267. Theodorus prodromus Amaranto dial. Gaulimo interpret.
5268. Petron. Catal.
5269. Sed unum ego usque et unum Petam a tuis labellis, postque unum et
unum et unum, dari rogabo. Loecheus Anacreon.
5270. Jo. Secundus, bas. 7.
5271. Translated or imitated by M. B. Johnson, our arch poet, in his 119
ep.
5272. Lucret. l. 4.
5273. Lucian. dial. Tom. 4. Merit, sed et aperientes, &c.
5274. Epist. 16.
5275. Deducto ore longo me basio demulcet.
5276. In deliciis mammas tuas tango, &c.
5277. Terent.
5278. Tom. 4. merit, dial.
5279. Attente adeo in me aspexit, et interdum ingemiscebat, et
lachrymabatur. Et si quando bibens, &c.
5280. Quique omnia cernere debes Leucothoen spectas, et virgine figis in
una quos mundo debes oculos, Ovid. Met. 4.
5281. Lucian. tom. 3. quoties ad cariam venis currum sistis, et desuper
aspectas.
5282. Ex quo te primum vidi Pythia alio oculos vertere non fuit.
5283. Lib. 4.
5284. Dial, amorum.
5285. Ad occasum solis aegre domum rediens, atque totum die ex adverso deae
sedens recto, in ipsam perpetuo oculorum ictus direxit, &c.
5286. Lib. 3.
5287. Regum palatium non tam diligenti custodia septum fuit, ac aedes meas
stipabant, &c.
5288. Uno, et eodem die sexties vel septies ambulant per eandem plateam ut
vel unico amicae suae fruantur aspectu, lib. 3. Theat. Mundi.
5289. Hor.
5290. Ovid.
5291. Ovid.
5292. Hyginus, fab. 59. Eo die dicitur nonies ad littus currisse.
5293. Chaucer.
5294. Gen. xxix. 20.
5295. Plautus Cistel.
5296. Stobaeus e Graeco. "Sweeter than honey it pleases me, more bitter
than gall, it teases me."
5297. Plautus: Credo ego ad hominis carnificinam amorem inventum esse.
5298. De civitat. lib. 22. cap. 20. Ex eo oriuntur mordaces curae,
perturbationes, maerores, formidines, insana gaudia, discordiae,
lites, bella, insidiae, iracundiae, inimicitiae, fallaciae, adulatio,
fraus, furtum, nequitia, impudentia.
5299. Marullus, l. 1.
5300. Ter. Eunuch.
5301. Plautus Mercat.
5302. Ovid.
5303. Adelphi, Act. 4. scen. 5. M. Bono animo es, duces uxorem hanc
Aeschines. Ae. Hem. pater, num tu ludis me nunc? M. Egone te,
quamobrem? Ae. Quod tam misere cupio, &c.
5304. Tom. 4. dial. amorum.
5305. Aristotle, 2. Rhet. puts love therefore in the irascible part. Ovid.
5306. Ter. Eunuch. Act. 1. sc. 2.
5307. Plautus.
5308. Tom. 3.
5309. Scis quod posthac dicturus fuerim.
5310. Tom. 4. dial. merit. Tryphena, amor me perdit, neque malum hoc
amplius sustinere possum.
5311. Aristaenetus, lib. 2. epist. 8.
5312. Coelestinae, act 1. Sancti majora laetitia non fruuntur. Si mihi Deus
omnium votorum mortalium summam concedat, non magis, &c.
5313. Catullus de Lesbia.
5314. Hor. ode 9. lib. 3.
5315. Act. 3. scen. 5. Eunuch. Ter.
5316. Act. 5. scen. 9.
5317. Mantuan.
5318. Ter. Adelph. 3. 4.
5319. Lib. 1. de contemn. amoribus. Si quem alium respexerit amica suavius,
et familiarius, si quem aloquuta fuerit, si nutu, nuncio, &c. statim
cruciatar.
5320. Calisto in Celestina.
5321. Pornodidasc. dial. Ital. Patre et matre se singultu orbos censebant,
quod meo contubernio carendum esset.
5322. Ter. tui carendum quod erat.
5323. Si responsum esset dominam occupatam esse aliisque vacaret, ille
statim vix hoc audito velut in amor obriguit, alii se damnare, &c. at
cui favebam, in campis Elysiis esse videbatur, &c.
5324. Mantuan.
5325. Laecheus.
5326. Sole se occultante, aut tempestate veniente, statim clauditur ac
languescit.
5327. Emblem, amat. 13.
5328. Calisto de Melebaea.
5329. Anima non est ubi animat, sed ubi amat.
5330. Celestine, act. 1. credo in Melebaeam, &c.
5331. Ter. Eunuch, act. 1. sc. 2.
5332. Virg. 4. Aen.
5333. Interdiu oculi, et aures occupatae distrahunt animum, at noctu solus
jactor, ad auroram somnus paulum misertus, nec tamen ex animo puella
abiit, sed omnia mihi de Leucippe somnia erant.
5334. Tota hac nocte somnum hisce oculis non vidi. Ter.
5335. Buchanan. syl.
5336. Aen. Sylv. Te dies, noctesque amo, te cogito, te desidero, te voco,
te expecto, te spero, tecum oblecto me, totus in te sum.
5337. Hor. lib. 2. ode 9.
5338. Petronius.
5339. Tibullus, l. 3. Eleg. 3.
5340. Ovid. Fast. 2. ver. 775. "Although the presence of her fair form is
wanting, the love which it kindled remains."
5341. Virg. Aen. 4.
5342. De Pythonissa.
5343. Juno, nec ira deum tantum, nec tela, nec hostis, quantum tute potis
animis illapsus. Silius Ital. 15. bel. Punic. de amore.
5344. Philostratus vita ejus. Maximum tormentum quod excogitare, vel docere
te possum, est ipse amor.
5345. Ausonius c. 35.
5346. Et caeco carpitur igne; et mihi sese offert ultra meus ignis Amyntas.
5347. Ter. Eunuc.
5348. Sen. Hippol.
5349. Theocritus, edyl. 2. Levibus cor est violabile telis.
5350. Ignis tangentes solum urit, at forma procul astantes inflammat.
5351. Nonius.
5352. Major illa flamma quae consumit unam animam, quam quae centum millia
corporum.
5353. Mant. egl. 2.
5354. Marullus Epig. lib. 1.
5355. Imagines deorum.
5356. Ovid.
5357. Aeneid. 4.
5358. Seneca.
5359. Cor totum combustum, jecur suffumigatum, pulmo arefactus, ut credam
miseram illam animam bis elixam aut combustam, ob maximum ardorem
quem patiuntur ob ignem amoris.
5360. Embl. Amat. 4. et 5.
5361. Grotius.
5362. Lib. 4. nam istius amoris neque principia, neque media aliud habent
quid, quam molestias, dolores, cruciatus, defatigationes, adeo ut
miserum esse maerore, gemitu, solitudine torqueri, mortem optare.
semperque debacchari, sint certa amantium signa et certae actiones.
5363. Virg. Aen. 4. "The works are interrupted, promises of great walls,
and scaffoldings rising towards the skies, are all suspended."
5364. Seneca Hip. act. "The shuttle stops, and the web hangs unfinished
from her hands."
5365. Eclog. 1. "No rest, no business pleased my lovesick breast, my
faculties became dormant, my mind torpid, and I lost my taste for
poetry and song."
5366. Edyl. 14.
5367. Mant. Eclog.
5368. Ter. Eunuch.
5369. Ov. Met. de Polyphemo: uritur oblitus pecorum, antrorumque suorum;
jamque tibi formae, &c.
5370. Qui quaeso? Amo.
5371. Ter. Eunuch.
5372. Qui olim cogitabat quae vellet, et pulcherrimis philosophiae
praeceptis operam insumpsit, qui universi circuitiones coelique
naturam, &c. Hanc unam intendit operam, de sola cogitat, noctes et
dies se componit ad hanc, et ad acerbam servitutem redactus animus,
&c.
5373. Pars epitaphii ejus.
5374. Epist. prima.
5375. Boethius l. 3 Met. ult.
5376. Epist. lib. 6. Valeat pudor, valeat honestas, valeat honor.
5377. Theodor. prodromus, lib. 3. Amor Mystili genibus ovolutis, ubertemque
lachrimas, &c. Nihil ex tota praeda praeter Rhodanthem virginem
accipiam.
5378. Lib. 2. Certe vix credam, et bona fide fateare Aratine, te no amasse
adeo vehementer; si enim vere amasses, nihil prius aut potius
optasses, quam amatae mulieri placere. Ea enim amoris lex est idem
velle et nolle.
5379. Stroza, sil. Epig.
5380. Quippe haec omnia ex atra bile et amore proveniunt. Jason Pratensis.
5381. Immense amor ipse stultitia est. Carda, lib. 1. de sapientia.
5382. Mantuan. "Whoever is in love is in slavery, he follows his sweetheart
as a captive his captor, and wears a yoke on his sumbissibe neck."
5383. Virg. Aen. 4. "She began to speak but stopped in the middle of her
discourse."
5384. Seneca, Hippol. "What reason requires, raging love forbids."
5385. Met. 10.
5386. Buchanan. "Oh fraud, and love, and distraction of mind, whither have
you led me?"
5387. An immodest woman is like a bear.
5388. Feram induit cum rosas comedat, idem ad se redeat.
5389. Alciatus de upupa Embl. Animal immundum upupa stercora amans; ave hac
nihil foedius, nihil libidinosius. Sabin in Ovid. Met.
5390. is like a false glass, which represents everything fairer than it is.
5391. Hor. ser. lib. sat. l. 3. "These very things please him, as the wen
of Agna did Balbinus."
5392. The daughter and heir of Carolus Pugnax.
5393. Seneca in Octavia. "Her beauty excels the Tyndarian Helen's, which
caused such dreadful wars."
5394. Loecheus.
5395. Mantuan, Egl 1.
5396. Angerianus.
5397. Faerie Queene, Cant. lyr. 4.
5398. Epist. 12. Quis unquam formas vidit orientis, quis occidentis,
veniant undique omnes, et dicant veraces an tam insignem viderint
formam.
5399. Nulla vox formam ejus possit comprehendere.
5400. Caleagnini dit. Galat.
5401. Catullus.
5402. Petronii Catalect.
5403. Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale.
5404. Ovid, Met. 13.
5405. "It is envy evidently that prompts you, because Polyphemus does not
love you as he does me."
5406. Plutarch. sibi dixit tam pulchram non videri, &c.
5407. Quanto quam Lucifer aurea Phoebe, tanto virginibus conspectior
omnibus Herce. Ovid.
5408. M. D. Son. 30.
5409. Martial., l. 5. Epig. 38.
5410. Ariosto.
5411. Tully lib. 1. de nat. deor. pulchrior deo, et tamen erat oculis
perversissimis.
5412. Marullus ad Neaeram epig. 1. lib.
5413. Barthius.
5414. Ariosto, lib. 29. hist. 8.
5415. Tibulius.
5416. Marul. lib. 2.
5417. Tibullus l. 4. de Sulpicia.
5418. Aristenaetus, Epist. 1.
5419. Epist. 24. veni cito charissime Lycia, cito veni; prae te Satyri
omnes videntur non homines, nullo loco solus es, &c.
5420. Lib. 3. de aulico, alterius affectui se totum componit, totus placere
studet, et ipsius animam amatae pedisequam facit.
5421. Cyropaed. l. 5. amor servitus, et qui amant optat se liberari non
secus ac alio quovis morbo, neque liberari tamen possunt, sed
validiori necessitate ligati sunt quam si in ferrea vincula
confectiforent.
5422. In paradoxis, An ille mihi liber videtur cui mulier imperat? Cui
leges imponit, praescribit, jubet, vetat quod videtur. Qui nihil
imperanti negat, nihil audet, &c. poscit? dandum; vocat? veniendum;
minatur? extimiscendum.
5423. Illane parva est servitus amatorum singulis fere horis pectine
capillum, calimistroque barbam componere, faciem aquis redolentibus
diluere, &c.
5424. Si quando in pavimentum incautius quid mihi excidisset, elevare inde
quam promptissime, nec nisi osculo compacto mihi commendare, &c.
5425. "Nor will the rude rocks affright, me, nor the crooked-tusked bear,
so that I shall not visit my mistress in pleasant mood."
5426. Plutarchus amat. dial.
5427. Lib. 1. de contem. amor. quid referam eorum pericula et clades, qui
in amicarum aedes per fenestras ingressi stillicidiaque egressi
indeque deturbati, sed aut praecipites, membra frangunt, collidunt,
aut animam amittunt.
5428. Ter. Eunuch. Act. 5. Scen. 8.
5429. Paratus sum ad obeundum mortem, si tu jubeas; hanc sitim aestuantis
seda, quam tuum sidus perdidit, aquae et fontes non negant, &c.
5430. Si occidere placet, ferrum meum vides, si verberibus contenta es,
curro nudus ad poenam.
5431. Act. 15. 18. Impera mihi; occidam decem viros, &c.
5432. Gasper Ens. puellam misere deperiens, per jocum ab ea in Padum
desilire jussus statim e ponte se praecipitavit. Alius Ficino insano
amore ardens ab amica jussus se suspendere, illico fecit.
5433. Intelligo pecuniam rem esse jucundissimam, meam tamen libentius darem
Cliniae quam ab aliis acciperem; libentius huic servirem, quam aliis
imperarem, &c. Noctem et somnum accuso, quod illum non videam, luci
autem et soli gratiam habeo quod mihi Cliniam ostendant. Ego etiam
cum Clinia in ignem currerem; et scio vos quoque mecum ingressuros si
videretis.
5434. Impera quidvis; navigare jube, navem conscendo; plagas accipere,
plector; animum profundere, in ignem currere, non recuso, lubens
facio.
5435. Seneca in Hipp. act. 2.
5436. Hujus ero vivus, mortuus hujus ero. Propert. lib. 2. vivam si vivat;
si cadat illa, cadam, Id.
5437. Dial. Amorum. Mihi o dii coelestes ultra sit vita haec perpetua ex
adverso amicae sedere, et suave loquentem audire, &c. si moriatur,
vivere non sustinebo, et idem erit se pulchrum utrisque.
5438. Buchanan. "When she dies my love shall also be at rest in the tomb."
5439. Epist. 21. Sit hoc votum a diis amare Delphidem, ab ea amari, adloqui
pulchram et loquentem audire.
5440. Hor.
5441. Mart.
5442. Lege Calimitates Pet. Abelhardi Epist. prima.
5443. Ariosto.
5444. Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale.
5445. Theodorus prodromus, Amorum lib. 6. Interpret. Gaulmino.
5446. Ovid. 10. Met. Higinius, c. 185.
5447. Ariost. lib. 1. Cant. 1. staff. 5.
5448. Plut. dial. amor.
5449. Faerie Queene, cant. 1. lib. 4. et cant. 3. lib. 4.
5450. Dum cassis pertusa, ensis instar Serrae excisus, scutum, &c. Barthius
Caelestina.
5451. Lesbia sex cyathis, septem Justina bibatur.
5452. As Xanthus for the love of Eurippe, omnem Europam peragravit.
Parthenius Erot cap. 8.
5453. Beroaldus e Bocatio.
5454. Epist. 17. l. 2.
5455. Lucretius. "For if the object of your love be absent, her image is
present, and her sweet name is still familiar in my ears."
5456. Aeneas Sylvius, Lucretie quum accepit Euriali literas hilaris statim
milliesqua papirum basiavit.
5457. Mediis inseruit papillis litteram ejus, mille prius pangens suavia.
Arist. 2. epist. 13.
5458. Plautus Asinar.
5459. Hor. "Some token snatched from her arm or her gently resisting
finger."
5460. Illa domi sedens imaginem ejus fixis oculis assidue conspicata.
5461. "And distracted will imprint kisses on the doors."
5462. Buchanan Sylva.
5463. Fracastorius Naugerio. "Ye alpine winds, ye mountain breezes, bear
these gifts to her."
5464. Happy servants that serve her, happy men that are in her company.
5465. Non ipsos solum sed ipsorum memoriam amant. Lucian.
5466. Epist. O ter felix solum! beatus ego, si me calcaveris; vultus tuus
amnes sistere potest, &c.
5467. Idem epist. in prato cum sit flores superat; illi pulchri sed unius
tantum diei; fluvius gratis sed evanescit; at tuus fluvius mari
major. Si coelum aspicio, solem exis timo cecidisse, et in terra
ambulare, &c.
5468. Si civitate egrederis, sequentur te dii custodes, spectaculo commoti;
si naviges sequentur; quis fluvius salum tuum non rigaret?
5469. El. 15. 2.
5470. "Oh, if I might only dally with thee, and alleviate the wasting
sorrows of my mind."
5471. Carm. 30.
5472. Englished by M. B. Holliday, in his Technog. act 1. scen. 7.
5473. Ovid. Met. lib. 4.
5474. Xenophon Cyropaed. lib. 5.
5475. Plautus de milite.
5476. Lucian.
5477. E Graeco Ruf.
5478. Petronius.
5479. "He is happy who sees thee, more happy who hears, a god who enjoys
thee."
5480. Lod. Vertomannus navig. lib. 2. c. 5. O deus, hunc creasti sole
candidiorem, e diverso me et conjugem meum et natos meos omnes
nigricantes. Utinam hic, &c. Ibit Gazella, Tegeia, Galzerana, et
promissis oneravit, et donis. &c.
5481. M. D.
5482. Hor. Ode 9. lib. 3.
5483. Ov. Met. 10.
5484. Buchanan. Hendecasyl.
5485. Petrarch.
5486. Cardan, lib. 2. de sap ex vilibus generosos efficere solet, ex
timidis audaces, ex avaris splendidos, ex agrestibus civiles, ex
crudelibus mansuetos, ex impiis religiosos, ex sordidis nitidos atque
cultos, ex duris misericordes, ex mutis eloquentes.
5487. Anima hominis amore capti tota referta suffitibus et odoribus:
Paeanes resonat, &c.
5488. Ovid.
5489. In convivio, amor Veneris Martem detinet, et fortem facit;
adolescentem maxime erubescere cernimus quum amatrixeum eum turpe
quid committentem ostendit.
5490. Plutarch. Amator. dial.
5491. Si quo pacto fieri civitas aut exercitus posset partim ex his qui
amant, partim ex his, &c.
5492. Angerianus.
5493. Faerie Qu. lib. 4. cant. 2.
5494. Zened. proverb. cont. 6.
5495. Plat. conviv.
5496. Lib. 3. de Aulico. Non dubito quin is qui talem exercitum haberet,
totius orbis statim victor esset, nisi forte cum aliquo exercitu
confligendum esset in quo omnes amatores essent.
5497. Higinus de cane et lepore coelesti, et decimator.
5498. Vix dici potest quantam inde audaciam assumerent Hispani, inde pauci
infinitas Maurorum copias superarunt.
5499. Lib. 5. de legibus.
5500. Spenser's Faerie Queene, 3. book. cant. 8.
5501. Hyginus, l. 2. "For love both inspires us with stratagems, and
suggests to us frauds."
5502. Aratus in phaenom.
5503. Virg. "Who can deceive a lover."
5504. Hanc ubi conspicatus est Cymon, baculo innixus, immobilis stetit, et
mirabundus, &c.
5505. Plautus Casina, act. 2. sc. 4.
5506. Plautus.
5507. Ovid. Met. 2.
5508. Ovid. Met. 4.
5509. Virg. 1. Aen. "He resembled a god as to his head and shoulders, for
his mother had made his hair seem beautiful, bestowed upon him the
lovely bloom of youth, and given the happiest lustre to his eyes."
5510. Ovid. Met. 13.
5511. Virg. E. l. 2. "I am not so deformed, I lately saw myself in the
tranquil glassy sea, as I stood upon the shore."
5512. Epist. An uxor literato sit ducenda. Noctes insomnes traducendae,
literis renunciandum, saepe gemendum, nonnunquam et illacrymandum
sorti et conditioni tuae. Videndum quae vestes, quis cultus, te
deceat, quis in usu sit, utrum latus barbae, &c. Cum cura loquendum,
incedendum, bibendum et cum cura insaniendum.
5513. Mart. Epig. 5.
5514. Chil. 4. cent. 5. pro. 16.
5515. Martianus. Capella lib. 1. de nupt. philol. Jam. Illum sentio amore
teneri, ejusque studio plures habere comparatas in famultio
disciplinas, &c.
5516. Lib. 3. de aulico. Quis choreis insudaret, nisi foeminarum causa?
Quis musicae tantam navaret operam nisi quod illius dulcedine
permulcere speret? Quis tot carmina componeret, nisi ut inde affectus
suos in mulieres explicaret?
5517. Craterem nectaris evertit saltans apud Deos, qui in terram cadens,
rosam prius albam rubore infecit.
5518. Puellas choreantes circa juvenilem Cupidinis statuam fecit.
Philostrat. Imag. lib. 3. de statuis. Exercitium amori aptissimum.
5519. Lib. 6. Met.
5520. Tom. 4.
5521. Kornman de cur. mort. part. 5 cap. 28. Sat. puellae dormienti
insultantium, &c.
5522. View of Fr.
5523. Vita ejus Puellae, amore septuagenarius senex usque ad insaniam
correptus, multis liberis susceptis: multi non sine pudore
conspexerunt senem et philosophum podagricium, non sine risu
saltantem ad tibiae modos.
5524. Anacreon. Carm. 7.
5525. Joach. Bellius Epig. "Thus youth dies, thus in death he loves."
5526. De taciturno loquacem facit, et de verecundo officiosum reddit, de
negligente industrium, de socorde impigrum.
5527. Josephus antiq. Jud. lib. 18. cap. 4.
5528. Gellius, l. 1. cap. 8. Pretium noctis centum sestertia.
5529. Ipsi enim volunt suarum amasiarum pulchritudinis praeecones ac testes
esse, eas laudibus, et cantilenis et versibus exonare, ut auro
statuas, ut memorentur, et ab omnibus admirentur.
5530. Tom. 2. Ant. Dialogo.
5531. Flores hist. fol. 298.
5532. Per totum annum cantarunt, pluvia super illos non cecidit; non
frigus, non calor, non sitis, nec lassitudo illos affecit, &c.
5533. His eorum nomina inscribuntur de quibus quaerunt.
5534. Huic munditias, ornatum, leporem, delicias, ludos, elegantiam, omnem
denique vitae suavitatem debemus.
5535. Hyginus cap. 272.
5536. E Graeco.
5537. Angerianus.
5538. Lib. 4. tit. 11. de prin. instit.
5539. Plin. lib. 35. cap. 12.
5540. Gerbelius, l. 6. descript. Gr.
5541. Fransus, l. 3. de symbolis qui primus symbolum excogitavit voluit
nimirum hac ratione implicatum animum evolvere, eumque vel dominae
vel aliis intuentibus ostendere.
5542. Lib. 4. num. 102. Sylvae nuptialis poetae non inveniunt fabulas, aut
versus laudatos faciunt, nisi qui ab amore fuerint excitati.
5543. Martial, ep. 73. lib. 9.
5544. Virg. Eclog. 4. "None shall excel me in poetry, neither the Thracian
Orpheus, nor Apollo."
5545. Teneris arboribus amicarum nomina inscribentes ut simul crescant.
Haed.
5546. S. R. 1600.
5547. Lib. 13. cap. Dipnosophist.
5548. See Putean. epist. 33 de sua Margareta Beroaldus, &c.
5549. Hen. Steph. apol. pro Herod.
5550. Tully orat. 5. ver.
5551. Esth. v.
5552. Mat. l. 47.
5553. Gravissimis regni negotiis nihil sine amasiae suae consensu fecit,
omnesque actiones suas scortillo communicavit, &c. Nich. Bellus.
discours. 26. de amat.
5554. Amoris famulus omnem scientiam diffitetur, amandi tamen se
scientissimum doctorem agnoscit.
5555. Serm. 8.
5556. Quis horum scribere molestias potest, nisi qui et is aliquantum
insanit?
5557. Lib. 1. de non temnendis amoribus; opinor hac de re neminem aut
desceptare recte posse aut judicare qui non in ea versatur, aut
magnum fecerit periculum.
5558. "I am not in love, nor do I know what love may be."
5559. Semper moritur, nunquam mortuus est qui amat. Aen. Sylv.
5560. Eurial. ep. ad Lucretiam, apud Aeneam Sylvium; Rogas ut amare
deficiam? roga montes ut in planum deveniant, ut fontes flumina
repetant; tam possum te non amare ac suum Phoebus relinquere cursum.
5561. Buchanan Syl.
5562. Propert. lib. 2. eleg. 1.
5563. Est orcus illa vis, est immedicabilis, est rabies insana.
5564. Lib. 2.
5565. Virg. Ecl. 3.
5566. R. T.
5567. Qui quidem amor utrosque et totam Egyptum extremis calamitatibus
involvit.
5568. Plautus.
5569. Ut corpus pondere, sic animus amore praecipitatur. Austin. l. 2. de
civ. dei, c. 28.
5570. Dial. hinc oritur paenitentia desperatio, et non vident ingenium se
cum re simul amisisse.
5571. Idem Savanarola, et plures alii, &c. Rabidem facturus Orexin. Juven.
5572. Cap. de Heroico Amore. Haec passio durans sanguinem torridum et
atrabiliarum reddit; ale vero ad cerebrum delatus, insaniam parat,
vigilia et crebro desiderio exsiccans.
5573. Virg. Egl. 2. "Oh Corydon, Corydon! what madness possesses you?"
5574. Insani fiunt aut sibi ipsis desperantes mortem afferunt. Languentes
cito mortem aut maniam patiuntur.
5575. Calcagninus.
5576. Lucian Imag. So for Lucian's mistress, all that saw her, and could
not enjoy her, ran mad, or hanged themselves.
5577. Musaeus.
5578. Ovid. Met. 10. Aeneas Sylvius. Ad ejus decessum nunquam visa Lucretia
ridere, nullis facetiis, jocis, nullo gaudio potuit ad laetitiam
renovari, mox in aegritudinem incidit, et sic brevi contabuit.
5579. Anacreon.
5580. "But let me die, she says, thus; thus it is better to descend to the
shades."
5581. Pausanias Achaicis, l. 7.
5582. Megarensis amore flagrans Lucian. Tom. 4.
5583. Ovid. 3. met.
5584. Furibundus putavit se videre imaginem puellae, et coram loqui
blandiens illi, &c.
5585. Juven. Hebreus.
5586. Juvenis Medicinae operam dans doctoris filiam deperibat, &c.
5587. Gotardus Arthus Gallobelgicus, nund. vernal. 1615. collum novacula
aperuit: et inde expiravit.
5588. Cum renuente parente utroque et ipsa virgine frui non posset, ipsum
et ipsam interfecit, hoc a magistratu petens, ut in eodem sepulchro
sepeliri possent.
5589. Boccaccio.
5590. Sedes eorum qui pro amoris impatientia pereunt, Virg. 6. Aenid.
5591. "Whom cruel love with its wasting power destroyed."
5592. "And a myrtle grove overshadow thee; nor do cares relinquish thee
even in death itself."
5593. Sal. Val.
5594. Sabel. lib. 3. En. 6.
5595. Curtius, lib. 5.
5596. Chalcocondilas de reb. Tuscicis, lib. 9. Nerei uxor Athenarum domina,
&c.
5597. Nicephorus Greg. hist. lib. 8. Uxorem occidit liberos et Michaelem
filium videre abhorruit. Thessalonicae amore captus pronotarii,
filiae, &c.
5598. Parthenius Erot. lib. cap. 5.
5599. Idem ca. 21. Gubernatoris alia Achillis amore capta civitatem
proditit.
5600. Idem. cap. 9.
5601. Virg. Aen 6.
5602. Otium naufragium castitatis. Austin.
5603. Buchanan. Hendeca syl.
5604. Ovid lib. 1. remed. "Love yields to business; be employed, and you'll
be safe."
5605. Cap. 16. circares arduas exerceri.
5606. Part 2. c. 23. reg. San. His, praeter horam somni, nulla per otium
transeat.
5607. Hor. lib. I. epist. 2.
5608. Seneca.
5609. "Poverty has not the means of feeding her passion."
5610. Tract. 16. cap. 18. saepe nuda carne cilicium portent tempore frigido
sine caligis, et nudis pedibus incedant, in pane et aqua jejunent,
saepius se verberbus caedant, &c.
5611. Daemonibus referta sunt corpora nostra, illorum praecipue qui
delicatis vescuntur eduliis, advolitant, et corporibus inherent; hanc
ob rem jejunium impendio probatur ad pudicitiam.
5612. Victus sit attenuatus, balnei frequens usus et sudationes, cold
baths, not hot, saith Magninus, part 3. ca. 23. to dive over head and
ears in a cold river, &c.
5613. Ser. de gula; fames amica virginitati est, inimica lasciviae:
saturitas vero castitatem perdit, et nutrit illecebras.
5614. Vita Hilarionis, lib. 3. epist. cum tentasset eum daemon titillatione
inter caetera, Ego inquit, aselle, ad corpus suum, faciam, &c.
5615. Strabo. l. 15. Geog. sub pellibus, cubant, &c.
5616. Cup. 2. part. 2. Si sit juvenis, et non vult obedire, flagelletur
frequenter et fortiter, dum incipiat foetere.
5617. Laertius, lib. 6. cap. 5. amori medetur fames; sin aliter, tempus;
sin non hoc, laqueus.
5618. Vina parant animos Veneri, &c.
5619. 3. de Legibus.
5620. Non minus si vinum bibissent ac si adulterium admisissent, Gellius,
lib. 10. c. 23.
5621. Rer. Sam. part. 3. cap. 23. Mirabilem vim habet.
5622. Cum muliere aliqua gratiosa saepe coire erit utilissimum. Idem
Laurentius, cap. 11.
5623. Hor.
5624. Cap. 29. de morb. cereb.
5625. Beroaldus orat. de amore.
5626. Amatori, cujus est pro impotentia mens amota, opus est ut paulatim
animus velut a peregrinatione domum revocetur per musicam, convivia,
&c. Per aucupium, fabulas, et festivas narrationes, laborem usque ad
sudorem, &c.
5627. Caelestinae, Act. 2 Barthio interpret.
5628. Cap. de Illishi. Multus hoc affectu sanat cantilena, laetitia,
musica; et quidam sunt quoshaec angent.
5629. This author came to my hands since the third edition of this book.
5630. Cent. 3 curat. 56. Syrupo helleborato et aliis quae ad atram bilem
pertinent.
5631. Purgetur si ejus dispositio venerit ad adust, humoris, et
phlebotomizetur.
5632. Amantium morbus ut pruritus solvitur, venae sectione et cucurbitulus.
5633. Cura a venae sectione per aures, unde semper steriles.
5634. Seneca.
5635. Cum in mulierem incident, quae cum forma morum suavitatem conjunctam
habet, et jam oculos persenserit formae ad se imaginem cum aviditate
quadam rapere cum eadem, &c.
5636. 23 Ovid, de rem. lib. 1.
5637. Aeneas Silvius.
5638. Plautus gurcu. "Remove and throw her quite out of doors, she who has
drank my lovesick blood."
5639. Tom. 2. lib. 4. cap. 10. Syntag. med. arc. Mira. vitentur oscula,
tactus sermo, et scripta impudica, literae, &c.
5640. Lib. de singul. Cler.
5641. Tam admirabilem splendorem declinet, gratiam, scintillas, amabiles
risus, gestus suavissimos, &c.
5642. Lipsius, hort. leg. lib. 3. antiq. lec.
5643. Lib. 3. de vit. coelitus compar. cap. 6.
5644. Lucretius. "It is best to shun the semblance and the food of love, to
abstain from it, and totally avert the mind from the object."
5645. Lib. 3. eleg. 10.
5646. Job xxxi. Pepigi foedus cum oculis meis ne cogitarem de virgine.
5647. Dial. 3. de contemptu mundi; nihil facilius recrudescit quam amor; ut
pompa visa renovat ambitionem, auri species avaritiam, spectata
corporis forma incendit luxuriam.
5648. Seneca cont. lib. 2. cont. 9.
5649. Ovid.
5650. Met. 7. ut solet a ventis alimenta resumere, quaeque Pavia sub
inducta latuit scintilla favilla. Crescere et in veteres agitata
resurgere flammas.
5651. Eustathii l. 3. aspectus amorem incendit, ut marcescentem in palea
ignem ventus; ardebam interea majore concepto incendio.
5652. Heliodorus, l. 4. inflammat mentem novus aspectus, perinde ac ignis
materiae admotus, Chariclia, &c.
5653. Epist. 15. l. 2.
5654. Epist. 4. l. 2.
5655. Curtius, lib. 3. cum uxorem Darii laudatam audivisset, tantum
cupiditati suae fraenum injecit, ut illam vix vellet intueri.
5656. Cyropaedia. cum Pantheae forman evexisset Araspus, tanto magis,
inquit Cyrus abstinere oportet, quanto pulchrior est.
5657. Livius, cum eam regulo cuidam desponsaram audivisset muneribus
cumulatam remisit.
5658. Ep. 39. lib. 7.
5659. Et ea loqui posset quae soli amatores loqui solent.
5660. Platonis Convivio.
5661. Heliodorus, lib. 4. expertem esse amoris beatitudo est; at quum
captus sis, ad moderationem revocare animum prudentia singularis.
5662. Lucretius, l. 4.
5663. Haedus, lib. 1. de amor. contem.
5664. Loci mutatione tanquam non convalescens curandus est. cap. 11.
5665. "Fly the cherished shore. It is advisable to withdraw from the places
near it."
5666. Amorum, l. 2. "Depart, and take a long journey--safety is in flight
only."
5667. Quisquis amat, loca nota nocent; dies aegritudinem adimit, absentia
delet. Ire licet procul hinc patriaeque relinquere fines. Ovid.
5668. Lib. 3. eleg. 20.
5669. Lib. 1. Socrat. memor. Tibi O Critobule consulo ut integrum annum
absis, &c.
5670. Proximum est ut esurias 2. ut moram temporis opponas. 3. et locum
mutes. 4. ut de laqueo cogites.
5671. Philostratus de vita Sophistratum.
5672. Virg, 6. Aen.
5673. Buchanan.
5674. Annuncientur valde tristia, ut major tristitia possit minorem
obfuscare.
5675. Aut quod sit factus senescallus, aut habeat honorem magnum.
5676. Adolescens Graecus erat in Egypti coenobio qui nulla operis
magnitudine, nulla persuasione flammam poterat sedare: monasterii
pater hac arte servavit. Imperat cuidam e sociis, &c. Flebat ille,
omnes adversabantur; solus pater calide opponere, ne abundantia
tristitiae absorberetur, quid multa? hoc invento curatus est, et a
cogitationibus pristinis avocatus.
5677. Tom. 4.
5678. Ter.
5679. Hypatia Alexandrina quendam se adamantem prolatis muliebribus pannis,
et in cum conjectis ab amoris insania laboravit. Suidas et Eunapius.
5680. Savanarola, reg. 5.
5681. Virg. Ecl. 3 "You will easily find another if this Alexis disdains
you."
5682. Distributio amoris fiat in plures, ad plures amicas animum applicet.
5683. Ovid. "I recommend you to have two mistresses."
5684. Higinus, sab. 43.
5685. Petronius.
5686. Lib. de salt.
5687. E theatro egressus hilaris, ac si pharmacum oblivionis bibisset.
5688. Mus in cista natus, &c.
5689. In quem e specu subterraneo modicum lucis illabitur.
5690. Deplorabant eorum miseriam qui subterraneis illis locis vitam degunt.
5691. Tatius lib. 6.
5692. Aristaenetus, epist. 4.
5693. Calcaguin. Dial. Galat. Mox aliam praetulit, aliam praelaturus quam
primum occasio arriserit.
5694. Epist. lib. 2. 16. Philosophi saeculi veterem amorem novo, quasi
clavum clavo repellere, quod et Assuero regi septem principes
Persarum fecere, ut Vastae reginae desiderium amore compensarent.
5695. Ovid. "One love extracts the influence of another."
5696. Lugubri veste indutus; consolationes non admisit, donec Caesar ex
ducali sanguine, formosam virginem matrimonio conjunxit. Aeneas
Sylvias hist. de Euryalo et Lucretia.
5697. Ter.
5698. Virg. Ecl. 2. "For what limit has love?"
5699. Lib. de beat. vit. cap. 14.
5700. Longo usu dicimus, longa desuetudine dediscendum est. Petrarch,
epist. lib. 5. 8.
5701. Tom. 4. dial. meret. Fortusse etiam ipsa ad amorem istum connihil
contulero.
5702. Quid enim meretrix nisi juventutis expilatrix, virorum rapina seu
mors; patrimonii devoratrix, honoris pernicies, pabulum diaboli,
janua mortis, inferni supplementum?
5703. Sanguinem hominum sorbent.
5704. Contemplatione Idiotae, c. 34. discrimen vitae, mors blanda, mel
sclleum, dulce venenum, pernicies delicata, mallum spontaneum, &c.
5705. Pornodidasc. dial. Ital. gula, ira, invidia, superbia, sacritegia,
latrocinia, caedes, eo die nata sunt, quo primum meretrix
professionem fecit. Superbia major quam opulenti rustici, invidia
quam luis venerae inimicitia nocentior melancholia, avaritia in
immensum profunda.
5706. Qualis extra sum vides, qualis intra novit Deus.
5707. Virg. "He calls Mnestheus, Surgestus, and the brave Cloanthus, and
orders them silently to prepare the fleet."
5708. "He is moved by no tears, he cannot he induced to hear her words."
5709. Tom. 2. in votis. Caivus cum sis, nasum habeas simum, &c.
5710. Petronius.
5711. Ovid.
5712. In Catarticis, lib. 2.
5713. Si ferveat deformis, ecce formosa est; si frigeat formosa, jam sis
informis. Th. Morus Epigram.
5714. Amorum dial. tom. 4. si quis ad auroram contempletur multas mulieres
a nocte lecto surgentes, turpiores putabit esse bestiis.
5715. Hugo de claustro Animae, lib. 1. c. 1. "If you quietly reflect upon
what passes through her mouth, nostrils, and other conduits of her
body, you never saw viler stuff."
5716. Hist. nat. 11. cap. 35. A fly that hath golden wings but a poisoned
body.
5717. Buchanan, Hendecasyl.
5718. Apol. pro Rem. Seb.
5719. 6 Ovid. 2. rem.
5720. Post unam noctem incertum unde offensam cepit propter foetentem ejus
spiritum alii dicunt, vel latentem foeditatem repudiavit, rem faciens
plane illicitam, et regiae personae multum indecoram.
5721. Hall and Grafton belike.
5722. Juvenal. "When the wrinkled skin becomes flabby, and the teeth
black."
5723. Mart.
5724. Tully in Cat. "Because wrinkles and hoary locks disfigure you."
5725. Hor. ode. 13. lib. 4.
5726. Locheus. "Beautiful cheeks, rosy lips, and languishing eyes."
5727. Qualis fuit Venus cum fuit virgo, balsamum spirans, &c.
5728. Seneca.
5729. Seneca Hyp. "Beauty is a gift of dubious worth to mortals, and of
brief duration."
5730. Camerarius, emb. 68. cent. 1. flos omnium pulcherrimus statim
languescit, formae typus.
5731. Bernar. Bauhusius Ep. l. 4.
5732. Pausanias Lacon. lib. 3. uxorem duxit Spartae mulierum omnium post
Helenam formosissimam, at ob mores omnium turpissimam.
5733. Epist. 76. gladium bonum dices, non cui deauratus est baltheus, nec
cui vagina gemmis distinguitur, sed cui ad secandum subtilis acies et
mucro munimentum omne rupturus.
5734. Pulchritudo corporis, temporis et fugacior ludibrium. orat. 2.
5735. Florum mutabilitate fugacior, nec sua natura formosas facit, sed
spectantium infirmitas.
5736. Epist. 11. Quem ego depereo juvenis mihi pulcherimus videtur; sed
forsan amore percita de amore non recte judico.
5737. Luc. Brugensis. "Bright eyes and snow-white neck."
5738. Idem. "Let my Melita's eyes be like Juno's, her hand Minerva's, her
breasts Venus', her leg Ampbitiles'."
5739. Bebelius adagiis Ger.
5740. Petron. Cat. "Let her eyes be as bright as the stars, her neck smell
like the rose, her hair shine more than gold, her honied lips be ruby
coloured; let her beauty be resplendent, and superior to Venus, let
her be in all respects a deity," &c.
5741. M. Drayton.
5742. Senec. act. 2. Herc. Oeteus.
5743. Vides venustam mulierem, fulgidum habentem oculum, vultu hilari
coruscantem, eximium quendam aspectum et decorem praese ferentem,
urentem mentem tuam, et concupiscentiam agentem; cogita terram esse
id quod amas, et quod admiraris stercus, et quod te urit, &c., cogita
illam jam senescere jam rugosam cavis genis, aegrotam; tantis
sordibus intus plena est, pituita, stercore; reputa quid intra nares,
oculos, cerebrum gestat, quas sordes, &c.
5744. Subtil. 13.
5745. Cardan, subtil. lib. 13.
5746. "Show me your company and I'll tell you who you are."
5747. "Hark, you merry maids, do not dance so, for see the he-goat is at
hand, ready to pounce upon you."
5748. Lib. de centum amoribus, earum mendas volvant animo, saepe ante
oculos constituant, saepe damnent.
5749. In deliciis.
5750. Quum amator annulum se amicae optaret, ut ejus amplexu frui posset,
&c. O te miserum ait annulus, si meas vices obires, videres, audires,
&c. nihil non odio dignimi observares.
5751. Laedieus. "Snares of the human species, torments of life, spoils of
the night, bitterest cares of day, the torture of husbands, the ruin
of youths."
5752. See our English Tatius, lib. 1.
5753. Chaucer, in Romaunt of the Rose.
5754. Qui se facilem in amore probarit, hanc succendito. At qui succendat,
ad hunc diem repertus nemo. Calcagninus.
5755. Ariosto.
5756. Hor.
5757. Christoph. Fonseca.
5758. Encom. Demonthen.
5759. Febris hectica uxor, et non nisi morte avellenda.
5760. Synesius, libros ego liberos genui Lipsius antiq. Lect. lib.
5761. "Avaunt, ye nymphs, maidens, ye are a deceitful race, no married life
for me," &c.
5762. Plautus Asin. act. 1.
5763. Senec. in Hercul.
5764. Seneca.
5765. Amator. Emblem.
5766. De rebus Hibernicis l. 3.
5767. Gemmea pocula, argentea vasa, caelata candelabra, aurea. &c.
Conchileata aulaea, buccinarum clangorem, tibiarum cantnum, et
symphoniae suavitatem, majestatemque principis coronati cum vidissent
sella deaurata &c.
5768. Eubulus in Crisil. Athenaeus dypnosophist, l. 13. c. 3.
5769. Translated by my brother, Ralph Burton.
5770. Juvenal. "Who thrusts his foolish neck a second time into the
halter."
5771. Haec in speciem dicta cave ut credas.
5772. Bachelors always are the bravest men. Bacon. Seek eternity in memory,
not in posterity, like Epaminondas, that instead of children, left
two great victories behind him, which he called his two daughters.
5773. Ecclus. xxviii. 1.
5774. Euripides Andromach.
5775. Aelius Verus imperator. Spar. vit. ejus.
5776. Hor.
5777. Quod licet, ingratum est.
5778. For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in
health, &c.
5779. Ter. act. 1 Sc. 2. Eunuch.
5780. Lucian. tom. 4. neque cum una aliqua rem habere contentus forem.
5781. Juvenal.
5782. Lib. 28.
5783. Camerar. 82. cent. 3.
5784. Simonides.
5785. Children make misfortunes more bitter. Bacon.
5786. "She will sink your whole establishment by her fecundity."
5787. Heinsius. Epist. Primiero. Nihil miserius quam procreare liberos ad
quos nihil ex haereditate tua pervenire videas praeter famem et
sitim.
5788. Chrys. Fonseca.
5789. Liberi sibi carcinomata.
5790. Melius fuerat eos sine liberis discessisse.
5791. Lemnius, cap. 6. lib. 1. Si morosa, si non in omnibus obsequaris,
omnia impacata in aedibus, omnia sursum misceri videas, multae
tempestates, &c. Lib. 2. numer. 101. sil. nup.
5792. Juvenal. "I would rather have a Venusinian wench than thee, Cornelia,
mother of the Gracchi," &c.
5793. Tom. 4. Amores, omnem mariti opulentiam profundet, totam Arabiam
capillis redolens.
5794. Idem, et quis sanae mentis sustinere queat, &c.
5795. Subegit ancillas quod uxor ejus deformior esset.
5796. "Perhaps she will not suit you."
5797. Sil. nup. l. 2. num. 25. Dives inducit tempestatem, pauper curam;
ducens viduam se inducit in laqueum.
5798. Sic quisque dicit, alteram ducit tamen "Who can endure a virago for a
wife?"
5799. Si dotata erit, imperiosa, continuoque viro inequitare conabitur.
Petrarch.
5800. If a woman nourish her husband, she is angry and impudent, and full
of reproach. Eccles. xxv. 22. Scilicet uxori nubere nolo meae.
5801. Plautus Mil. Glor. act. 3. sc. 1. "To be a father is very pleasant,
but to be a freeman still more so."
5802. Stobaeus, fer. 66. Alex. ab Alexand. lib. 4. cap. 8.
5803. They shall attend the lamb in heaven, because they were not defiled
with women, Apoc 14.
5804. Nuptiae repleat terram, virginitas Paradisum. Hier.
5805. Daphne in laurum semper virentem, immortalem docet gloriam paratam
virginibus pudicitiam servantibus.
5806. Catul. car. nuptiali. "As the flower that grows in the secret
inclosure of the garden, unknown to the flocks, impressed by the
ploughshare, which also the breezes refresh, the heat strengthens,
the rain makes grow: so is a virgin whilst untouched, whilst dear to
her relatives, but when once she forfeits her chastity," &c.
5807. Diet. salut. c. 22. pulcherrimum sertum infiniti precii, gemma, et
pictura speciosa.
5808. Mart.
5809. Lib. 24. qua obsequiorum diversitate colantur homines sine liberis.
5810. Hunc alii ad coenam invitant, princeps huic famulatur, oratores
gratis patrocinantur. Lib. de amore Prolis.
5811. Annal. 11. "If you wish to be master of your house, let no little
ones play in your halls, nor any little daughter yet more dear, a
barren wife makes a pleasant and affectionate companion."
5812. 60 de benefic. 38.
5813. E Graeco.
5814. Ter. Adelph. "I have married a wife; what misery it has entailed upon
me! sons were born and other cares followed."
5815. Itineraria in psalmo instructione ad lectorem.
5816. Bruson, lib. 7. 22. cap. Si uxor deesset, nihil mihi ad summam
felicitatem defuisset.
5817. Extinguitur virilitas ex incantamentorum maleficiis; neque enim
fabula est, nonnulli reperti sunt, qui ex veneficiis amore privati
sunt, ut ex multis historiis patet.
5818. Curat omnes morbos, phthises, hydropes et oculorum morbos, et febre
quartana laborantes et amore captos, miris artibus eos demulcet.
5819. "The moral is, vehement fear expels love".
5820. Catullus.
5821. Quum Junonem deperiret Jupiter impotenter, ibi solitus lavare, &c.
5822. Menander. "Stricken by the gad-fly of love, rushed headlong from the
summit."
5823. Ovid. ep. 21.
5824. Apud antiquos amor Lethes olim fuit, is ardentes faeces in
profluentum inclinabat; hujus statua Veneris Eleusinae templo
visebatur, quo amantes confluebant, qui amicae memoriam deponere
volebant.
5825. Lib. 10. Vota ei nuncupant amatores, multis de causis, sed imprimis
viduae mulieres, ut sibi alteras a dea nuptias exposcant.
5826. Rodiginus, ant. lect. lib. 16. cap. 25. calls it Selenus, Omni amore
liberat.
5827. Seneca. "The rise and remedy of love the same."
5828. Cupido crucifixus: Lepidum poema.
5829. Cap. 19. de morb. cerebri.
5830. Patiens potiatur re amata, si fieri possit, optima cura, cap. 16. in
9 Rhasis.
5831. Si nihil aliud, nuptiae et copulatio cum ea.
5832. Petronius Catal.
5833. Cap. de Ilishi. Non invenitur cura, nisi regimen connexionis inter
eos, secundum modum promissionis, et legis, et sic vidimus ad carnem
restitutum, qui jam venerat ad arofactionem; evanuit cura postquam
sensit, &c.
5834. Fama est melancholicum quendam ex amore insanabiliter se habentem,
ubi puellae se conjunxisset, restitutum, &c.
5835. Jovian. Pontanus, Basi. lib. 1.
5836. Speede's hist. e M.S. Ber. Andreae.
5837. Lucretia in Ocelestina, act. 19. Barthio interpret.
5838. Virg. 4 Aen. "How shall I begin?"
5839. E Graecho Moschi.
5840. Ovid. Met. 1. "The efficacious one is golden."
5841. Pausanias Achaicis, lib. 7. Perdite amabat Callyrhoen virginem, et
quanto erat Choresi amor vehememior erat, tanto erat puellae animus
ab ejus amore alienior.
5842. Virg. 6 Aen.
5843. Erasmus Egl. Galatea.
5844. "Having no compassion for my tears, she avoids my prayers, and is
inflexible to my plaints."
5845. Angerianus Erotopaegnion.
5846. Virg.
5847. Laecheus.
5848. Ovid. Met. 1.
5849. Erot. lib. 2.
5850. T. H. "To captivate the men, but despise them when captive."
5851. Virg. 4 Aen.
5852. Metamor. 3.
5853. Fracastorius Dial. de anim.
5854. Dial. Am.
5855. Ausonius.
5856. Ovid. Met.
5857. Hom. 5. in 1. epist. Thess. cap. 4, vers. 1.
5858. Ter.
5859. Ter. Heaut. Scen. ult. "He will marry the daughter of rich parents, a
red-haired, blear-eyed, big-mouthed, crooked-nosed wench."
5860. Plebeius et nobilis ambiebant puellam, puellae certamen in partes
venit, &c.
5861. Apuleius apol.
5862. Gen. xxvi.
5863. Non peccat venialiter qui mulierem ducit ob pulchritudinem.
5864. Lib. 6. de leg. Ex usu reipub. est ut in nuptiis juvenes neque
pauperum affinitatem fugiant, neque divitum sectentur.
5865. Philost. ep. Quoniam pauper sum, idcirco contemptior et abjectior
tibi videar? Amor ipse nundus est, gratiae et astra; Hercules pelle
leonina indutus.
5866. Juvenal.
5867. Lib. 2. ep. 7.
5868. Ejulans inquit, non mentem una addixit mihi fortuna servitute.
5869. De repub. c. de period, rerumpub.
5870. Com. in car. Chron.
5871. Plin. in pan.
5872. Declam. 306.
5873. Puellis imprimis nulla danda occasio lapsus. Lemn. lib. l. 54. de vit
instit.
5874. See more part 1. s. mem. 2. subs. 4.
5875. Filia excedens annum 25. potest inscio patre nubere, licet indignus
sit maritus, et eum cogere ad congrue dotandum.
5876. Ne appetentiae procacioris reputetur auctor.
5877. Expetitia enim magis debet vider a viro quam ipsa virum expetisse.
5878. Mulier apud nos 24. annorum vetula est et projectitia.
5879. Comoed. Lycistrat. And. Divo Interpr.
5880. Ausonius edy. 14.
5881. Idem.
5882. Catullus.
5883. Translated by M. B. Johnson.
5884. Horn. 5. in 1. Thes. cap. 4. 1.
5885. Plautus.
5886. Ovid.
5887. Epist. 12. l. 2. Eligit conjugem pauperem, indotatatam et subito
deamavit, et commiseratione ejus inopiae.
5888. Virg. Aen.
5889. Fabius pictor: amor ipse conjunxit populos, &c.
5890. Lipsius polit. Sebast. Mayer. Select. Sect. 1. cap. 13.
5891. Mayerus select. sect. 1. c. 14. et Aelian. l. 13. c. 33. cum famulae
lavantis vestes incuriosus custodirent, &c. mandavit per universam
Aegyptum ut foemina quaereretur, cujus is calceus esset eamque sic
inventam. in matrimonium accepit.
5892. Pausnnias lib. 3. de Laconicis. Dimisit que nunciarunt, &c. optionem
puellis dedit, ut earum quaelibet eum sibi virum deligeret, cujus
maxime esset forma complacita.
5893. Illius conjugium abominabitur.
5894. Socera quinque circiter annos natu minor.
5895. Vit. Caleat. secundi.
5896. Apuleius in Catel. nobis cupido velle dat, posse abnegat.
5897. Anacreon. 56.
5898. Continentiae donum ex fide postulet quia certum sit eum vocari ad
coelibatum cui domis, &c.
5899. Act. xvi. 7.
5900. Rom. i. 13.
5901. Praefix. gen. Leovitii.
5902. "The stars in the skies preside over our persons, for they are made
of humble matter. They cannot bind a rational mind, for that is under
the control of God only."
5903. Idem Wolfius dial.
5904. "That is, make the best of it, and take his lot as it falls."
5905. Ovid. 1. Met "Their beauty is inconsistent with their vows."
5906. Mercurialis de Priapismo.
5907. Memorabile quod Ulricus epistola refert Gregorium quum ex piscina
quadam allata plus quam sex mille infantum capita vidisset,
ingemuisse et decretum de coelibatu tantam caedis causam confesses
condigno illud poenitentiae fructu purgasse. Kemnisius ex concil.
Trident, part. 3. de coelibatu sacerdotum.
5908. Si nubat, quam si domi concubinam alat.
5909. Alphonsus Cicaonius lib. de gest. pontificum.
5910. Cum medici suaderent ut aut nuberet aut coitu uteretur, sic mortem
vitari posse mortem potius intrepidus expectavit, &c.
5911. Epist. 30.
5912. Vide vitam ejus edit. 1623. by D. T. James.
5913. Lidgate, in Chaucer's Flower of Curtesie.
5914. 'Tis not multitude but idleness which causeth beggary.
5915. Or to set them awork, and bring them up in some honest trades.
5916. Dion. Cassius, lib. 56.
5917. Sardus Buxtorphius.
5918. Claude Albaville in his hist. of the Frenchmen to the Isle of
Maragnan. An. 1614.
5919. Rara quidem dea tu es O chastitas in his terris, nec facile perfecta,
rarius perpetua, cogi nonnunquam potest, ob naturae defectum, vel si
disciplina pervaserit, censura compresserit.
5920. Peregrin. Hierosol.
5921. Plutarch, vita ejus, adolescentiae medio constitutus.
5922. Ancilias duas egregia forma et aetatis flore.
5923. Alex. ab. Alex. l. 4. c. 8.
5924. Tres filii patrem ab excubiis, quinque ab omnibus officiis
liberabanto.
5925. Praecepto primo, cogatur nubere aut mulctetur et pecunia templo
Junonis dedicetur et publica fiat.
5926. Consol. 3. pros. 7.
5927. Nic. Hill. Epic. philos.
5928. Qui se capistro matrimonii alligari non patiuntur, Lemn, lib. 4. 13.
de occult. nat. Abhorrent multi a matrimonio, ne morosam, querulam,
acerbam, amaram uxorem perferre cogantur.
5929. Senec. Hippol.
5930. Caelebs enim vixerat nec ad uxorem ducendam unquam induci potuit.
5931. Senec. Hip. "There is nothing better, nothing preferable to a single
life."
5932. Hor.
5933. Aeneas Sylvius de dictis Sigismundi. Hensius. Primiero.
5934. Habeo uxorem ex animi sententia Camillam Paleotti Jurisconsulti
filiam.
5935. Legentibus et meditantibus candelas et candelabrum tenuerunt.
5936. Hor. "Neither despise agreeable love, nor mirthful pleasure."
5937. Ovid.
5938. Aphranius. "He who chooses a wife, takes a brother and a sister."
5939. Locheus. "The delight of mankind, the solace of life, the
blandishments of night, delicious cares of day, the wishes of older
men, the hopes of young."
5940. Bacon's Essays.
5941. Euripides.
5942. "How harmoniously do a loving wife and constant husband lead their
lives."
5943. Cum juxta mare agrum coleret: Omnis enim miseriae immemorem,
conjugalis amor eum fecerat. Non sine ingenti admiratione, tanta
hominis charitate motus rex liberos esse jussit, &c.
5944. Qui vult vitare molestias vitet mundum.
5945. [Greek: tide bios tithe terpnon ater chrysaes aphroditaes.] Quid vita
est quaeso quidve est sine Cypride dulce? Mimner.
5946. Erasmus.
5947. E Stobeo.
5948. Menander.
5949. Seneca Hyp. lib. 3. num. 1.
5950. Hist. lib. 4.
5951. Palingenius. "He lives contemptibly by whom no other lives."
5952. Bruson. lib. 7. cap. 23.
5953. Noli societatem habere, &c.
5954. Lib. 1. cap. 6. Si, inquit, Quirites, sine uxore esse possemus, omnes
careremus; Sed quoniam sic est, saluti potius publicae quam voluptati
consulendum.
5955. Beatum foret si liberos auro et argento mercari, &c.
5956. Seneca. Hyp.
5957. Gen. ii. Adjutorium simile, &c.
5958. Ovid. "Find her to whom you may say, 'thou art my only pleasure.'"
5959. Euripides. "Unhappy the man who has met a bad wife, happy who found a
good one."
5960. E Graeco Valerius, lib. 7. cap. 7. "To marry, and not to marry, are
equally base."
5961. Pervigilium Veneris e vetere poeta.
5962. Donaus non potest consistere sine uxore. Nevisanus lib. 2. num. 18.
5963. Nemo in severissima Stoicorum familia qui non barbam quoque et
supercilium amplexibus uxores submiserit, aut in ista parte a
reliquis dissenserit. Hensius Primiero.
5964. Quid libentius homo masculus videre debet quam bellam uxorem?
5965. Chaucer.
5966. Conclusio Theod. Podro. mi. 9. l. Amor.
5967. Ovid.
5968. Epist. 4. l. 2. Jucundiores multo et suaviores longe post molestas
turbas amantium nuptiae.
5969. Olim meminisse juvabit.
5970. Quid expectatis, intus fiunt nuptiae, the music, guests, and all the
good cheer is within.
5971. The conclusion of Chaucer's poem of Troilus and Creseid.
5972. Catullus.
5973. Catullus. J. Secundus Sylvar. lib. Jam Virgo thalamum subibit unde ne
virgo redeat, marite cura.
5974. Ecclus. xxxix. 14.
5975. Galeni Epithal.
5976. O noctem quater et quater beatam.
5977. Theocritus idyl. 18.
5978. Erasm. Epithal. P. Aegidij. Nec saltent modo sed duo charissima
pectora indissolubili mutuae benevolentiae nodo corpulent, ut nihil
unquam eos incedere possit irae vel taedii. Illa perpetuo nihil
audiat nisi, mea lux: ille vicissim nihil nisi anime mi: atque huic
jucunditati ne senectus detrahat, imo potius aliquid adaugeat.
5979. "Happy both, if my verses have any charms, nor shall time ever
detract from the memorable example of your lives."
5980. Kornmannus de linea amoris.
5981. Finis 3 book of Troilus and Creseid.
5982. In his Oration of Jealousy, put out by Fr. Sansavin.
5983. Benedetto Varchi.
5984. Exercitat. 317. Cum metuimus ne amatae rei exturbimur possessione.
5985. Zelus de forma est invidentiae species ne quis forma quam amamus
fruatur.
5986. 3 de Anima.
5987. "Has not every one of the slaves that went to meet him returned this
night from the supper?"
5988. R. de Anima. Tangimur zelotypia de pupillis, liberis charisque curae
nostrae concreditis, non de forma, sed ne male sit iis, aut ne nobis
sibique parent ignominiam.
5989. Plutarch.
5990. Senec. in Herc. fur.
5991. Exod. xx.
5992. Lucan.
5993. Danaeus Aphoris. polit. semper metuunt ne eorum auctoritas minuatur.
5994. Belli Neapol. lib. 5.
5995. Dici non potest quam tenues et infirmas causas habent moeroris et
suspicionis, et hic est morbus occultus, qui in familiis principum
regnat.
5996. Omnes aemulos interfect. Lamprid.
5997. Constant. agricult. lib. 10. c. 5. Cyparissae Eteoclis filiae,
saltantes ad emulationem dearum in puteum demolitae sunt, sed terra
miserata, cupressos inde produxit.
5998. Ovid. Met.
5999. Seneca.
6000. Quis autem carifex addictum supplicio crudelius afficiat, quam metus?
Metus inquam mortis, infamiae cruciatus, sunt ille utrices furiae
quae tyrannos exagitant, &c. Multo acerbius sauciant et pungunt, quam
crudeles domini servos vinctos fustibus ac tormentis exulcerare
possunt.
6001. Lonicerus, To. 1. Turc. hist. c. 24.
6002. Jovius vita ejus.
6003. Knowles. Busbequius. Sand. fol. 52.
6004. Nicephorus, lib. 11. c. 45. Socrates, lib. 7. cap. 35. Neque Valens
alicui pepercit qui Theo cognomine vocaretur.
6005. Alexand. Gaguin. Muscov. hist. descrip. c. 5.
6006. D. Fletcher, timet omnes ne insidiae essent, Herodot. l. 7. Maximinus
invisum se sentiens, quod ex infimo loco in tantam fortunam venisset
moribus ac genere barbarus, metuens ne natalium obscuritas
objiceretur, omnes Alexandri praedecessoris ministros ex aula ejecit,
pluribus interfectis quod moesti essent ad mortem Alexandri, insidias
inde metuens.
6007. Lib. 8. tanquam ferae solitudine vivebant, terrentes alios, timentes.
6008. Serres, fol. 56.
6009. Neap. belli, lib. 5 nulli prorsus homini fidebat, omnes insidiari
sibi putabat.
6010. Camden's Remains.
6011. Mat. Paris.
6012. R. T. notis in blason jealousie.
6013. Daniel in his Panegyric to the king.
6014. 3. de anima, cap. de zel. Animalia quaedam zelotypia tanguntur, ut
olores, columbae, galli, tauri, &c. ob metum communionis.
6015. Seneca.
6016. Lib. 11. Cynoget.
6017. Chaucer, in his Assembly of Fowls.
6018. Alderovand.
6019. Lib. 12.
6020. Sibi timens circa res venereas, solitudines amat quo solus sola
foemina fruatur.
6021. Crocodili zelotypi et uxorum amantissimi, &c.
6022. Qui dividit agrum communem; inde deducitur ad amantes.
6023. Erasmus chil. 1. cent. 9. adag. 99.
6024. Ter. Eun. Act. 1. sc. 1. Munus nostrum ornato verbis, et istum
aemulum, quoad poteris, ab ea pellito.
6025. Pinus puella quondam fuit, &c.
6026. Mars zelotypus Adonidem interfecit.
6027. R. T.
6028. 1 Sam. i. 6.
6029. Blazon of Jealousy.
6030. Mulierum conditio misera; nullam honestam credunt nisi domo conclusa
vivat.
6031. Fines Morison.
6032. Nomen zelotypiae apud istos locum non habet, lib. 3. c. 8.
6033. Fines Moris. part. 3. cap. 2.
6034. Busbequius. Sands.
6035. Prae amore et zelotypia saepius insaniunt.
6036. Australes ne sacra quidem publica fieri patiuntur, nisi uterque sexus
pariete medio dividatur: et quum in Angliam inquit, legationis causa
profectus essem, audivi Mendozam legatum Hispaniarum dicentem turpe
esse viros et foeminas in, &c.
6037. Idea: mulieres praeterquam quod sunt infidae, suspicaces,
inconstantes, insidiosae, simulatrices, superstitiosae, et si
potentes, intolerabiles, amore zelotypae supra modum. Ovid. 2. de
art.
6038. Bartello.
6039. R. T.
6040. Lib. 2. num. 8. mulier otiosa facile praesumitur luxuriosa, et saepe
zelotypa.
6041. "And now she requires other youths and other loves, calls me the
imbecile and decrepit old man."
6042. Lib 2. num. 4.
6043. Quum omnibus infideles foeminae, senibus infidelissimae.
6044. Mimnermus.
6045. Vix aliqua non impudica, et quam non suspectam merito quis habeat.
6046. Lib. 5. de aur. asino. At ego misera patre meo seniorem maritum nacta
sum, cum cucurbita calviorom et quovis puero pumiliorem, cunctam
domum seris et catenis obditam custodientem.
6047. Chaloner.
6048. Lib. 4. n. 80.
6049. Ovid 2. de art. amandi.
6050. Every Man out of his Humour.
6051. Calcagninus Apol. Tiberini ab uxorum partu earum vices subeunt, ut
aves per vices incubant, &c.
6052. Exiturus fascia uxoris pectus alligabat, nec momento praeesentia ejus
carere poterat, potumque non hauriebat nisi praegustatum labris ejus.
6053. Chaloner.
6054. Panegyr. Trajano.
6055. Ter. Adelph. act. 1. sce. 1.
6056. Fab. Calvo. Ravennate interprete.
6057. Dum rediero domum meam habitabis, et licet cum parentibus habitet,
hac mea peregrinatione; eam tamen et ejus mores observabis uti
absentia viri sui probe degat, nec alios viros cogitet aut quaerat.
6058. Foemina semper custode eget qui se pudicam contineat; suapte enim
natura nequitias insitas habet, quas nisi indies comprimat, ut
arbores stolones emittunt, &c.
6059. Heinsius.
6060. Uxor cujusdam nobilis quum debitum maritale sacro passionis hebdomada
non obtineret, alterum adiit.
6061. Ne tribus prioribus noctibus rem haberet cum ea. ut esset in
pecoribus fortunatus, ab uxore morae impatiente, &c.
6062. Totam noctem bene et pudice nemini molestus dormiendo transegit; mane
autem quum nullius conscius facinoris sibi esset, et inertiae
puderet, audisse se dicebat eum dolore calculi solere eam
conflictari. Duo praecepta juris una nocte expressit, neminem
laeserat et honeste vixerat, sed an suum cuique reddidisset, quaeri
poterat. Mutius opinor et Trebatius hoc negassent. lib. 1.
6063. Alterius loci emendationem serio optabat, quem corruptum esse ille
non invenit.
6064. Such another tale is in Neander de Jocoseriis, his first tale.
6065. Lib. 2. Ep. 3. Si pergit alienis negotiis operam dare sui negligens,
erit alius mihi orator qui rem meam agat.
6066. Ovid. rara est concordia formae atque pudicitiae.
6067. Epist.
6068. Quod strideret ejus calceamentum.
6069. Hor. epist. 15. "Often has the serpent lain hid beneath the coloured
grass, under a beauliful aspect, and often has the evil inclination
affected a sale without the husband's privity."
6070. De re uxoria, lib. 1. cap. 5.
6071. Cum steriles sunt, ex mutatione viri se putant concipere.
6072. Tibullus, eleg. 6.
6073. Wither's Sat.
6074. 3 de Anima. Crescit ac decrescit zelotypia cum personis, locis,
temporibus, negotiis.
6075. Marullus.
6076. Tibullus Epig.
6077. Prov. ix. 17.
6078. Propert. eleg. 2.
6079. Ovid. lib. 9. Met. Pausanias Strabo, quum crevit imbribus hyemalibus.
Deianiram suscipit, Herculem nando sequi jubet.
6080. Lucian, tom. 4.
6081. Plutarch.
6082. Cap. v. 8.
6083. Seneca.
6084. Lib. 2. cap. 23.
6085. Petronius Catal.
6086. Sueton.
6087. Pontus Heuter, vita ejus.
6088. Lib. 8. Flor. hist. Dux omnium optimus et sapientissimus, sed in re
venerea prodigiosus.
6089. Vita Castruccii. Idem uxores maritis abalienavit.
6090. Sesellius, lib. 2. de Repub. Gallorum. Ita nunc apud infimos obtinuit
hoc vitium, ut nullius fere pretii sit, et ignavus miles qui non in
scortatione maxime excellat, et adulterio.
6091. Virg. Aen. 4. "What now must have been Dido's sensations when she
witnessed these doings?"
6092. Epig. 9. lib. 4.
6093. Virg. 4. Aen.
6094. Secundus syl.
6095. "And belches out the smell of onions and garlic."
6096. Aeneas Sylvius.
6097. "Neither a god honoured him with his table, nor a goddess with her
bed."
6098. Virg. 4. Aen. "Such beauty shines in his graceful features."
6099. S. Graeco Simonides.
6100. Cont. 2. ca. 38. Oper. subcis. mulieris liberius et familiarius
communicantis cum omnibus licentia et immodestia, sinistri sermonis
et suspicionis materiam viro praebet.
6101. Voces liberae, oculorum colloquia, contractiones parum verecundae,
motus immodici, &c. Heinsius.
6102. Challoner.
6103. What is here said, is not prejudicial to honest women.
6104. Lib. 28, sc 13.
6105. Dial. amor. Pendet fallax et blanda circa oscula mariti, quem in
cruce, si fieri posset, deosculari velit: illius vitam chariorem esse
sua jurejurando affirmat: quem certe non redimeret anima catelli si
posset.
6106. Adeunt templum ut rem divinam audiant, ut ipsae simulant, sed vel ut
monachum fratrem, vel adulterum lingua, oculis, ad libidinem
provoceat.
6107. Lib. 4. num. 81. Ipse sibi persuadent, quod adulterium cum principe
vel cum praesule, non est pudor nec peccatum.
6108. Deum rogat, non pro salute mariti, filii, cognati vota suscipit, sed
pro reditu moechi si abest, pro valetudine lenonis si aegrotet.
6109. Tibullus.
6110. Gortardus Arthus descrip. Indiae Orient. Linchoften.
6111. Garcias ab Horto, hist. lib. 2. cap. 24. Daturam herbam vocat et
describit, tam proclives sunt ad venerem mulieres ut viros inebrient
per 24 horas, liquore quodam, ut nihil videant, recordentur at
dormiant, et post lotionem pedum, ad se restituunt, &c.
6112. Ariosto, lib. 28. st. 75.
6113. Lipsius polit.
6114. Seneca, lib. 2. controv. 8.
6115. Bodicher. Sat.
6116. "Sitting close to her, and shaking her hand lovingly."
6117. Tibullus.
6118. "After wine the mistress is often unable to distinguish her own
lover."
6119. Epist. 85. ad Oceanum. Ad unius horae ebrietatem nudat femora, quae
per sexcentos annos sobrietate contexerat.
6120. Juv. Sat. 13.
6121. Nihil audent primo, post ab aliis confirmatae, audaces et confidentes
sunt. Ubi semel verecundiae limites transierint.
6122. Euripides, l. 63. "Love of gain induces one to break her marriage
vow, a wish to have associates to keep her in countenance actuates
others."
6123. De miser. Curialium. Aut alium cum ea invenies, aut isse alium
reperies.
6124. Cap. 18 de Virg.
6125. Hom. 38. in c. 17. Gen. Etsi magnis affluunt divitiis, &c.
6126. 3 de Anima. Omnes voces, auras, omnes susurros captat zelotypus, et
amplificat apud se cum iniquissima de singulis calumnia. Maxime
suspiciosi, et ad pejora credendum proclives.
6127. "These thunders pour down their peculiar showers."
6128. Propertius.
6129. Aeneas Silv.
6130. Ant. Dial.
6131. Rabie concepta, caesariem abrasit, puellaeque mirabiliter insultans
faciem vibicibus foedavit.
6132. Daniel.
6133. Annal. lib. 12. Principis mulieris zelotypae est in alias mulieres
quas suspectas habet, odium inseparabile.
6134. Seneca in Medea.
6135. Alcoran cap. Bovis, interprete Ricardo praed. c. 8. Confutationis.
6136. Plautus.
6137. Expedit. in Sinas. l. 3. c. 9.
6138. Decem eunuchorum millia numerantur in regia familia, qui servant
uxores ejus.
6139. Lib. 57. ep. 81.
6140. Semotis a viris servant in interioribus, ab eorum conspectu immanes.
6141. Lib. 1. fol. 7.
6142. Diruptiones hymenis flunt a propriis digitis vel ab aliis
instrumentis.
6143. Idem Rhasis Arab. cont.
6144. Ita clausae pharmacis ut non possunt coitum exercere.
6145. Qui et pharmacum praescribit docetque.
6146. Epist. 6. Mercero Inter.
6147. Barthius. Ludus illi temeratum pudicitiae florem mentitis machinis
pro integro vendere. Ego docebo te, qui mulier ante nuptias sponso te
probes virginem.
6148. Qui mulierem violasset, virilia execabant, et mille virgas dabant.
6149. Dion. Halic.
6150. Viridi gaudens Feronia luco. Virg.
6151. Ismene was so tried by Dian's well, in which maids did swim, unchaste
were drowned. Eustathius, lib. 8.
6152. Contra mendac. an confess. 21 cap.
6153. Phaerus Aegipti rex captus oculis per decennium, oraculum consuluit
de uxoris pudicitia.
6154. Caesar. lib. 6. bello Gall. vitae necisque in uxores habuerunt
potestatem.
6155. Animi dolores et zelotypia si diutius perserverent, dementes reddunt.
Acak. comment. in par. art. Galeni.
6156. Ariosto, lib. 31. staff. 6.
6157. 3 de anima, c. 3. de zelotyp. transit in rabiem et odium, et sibi et
aliis violentas saepe manus injiciunt.
6158. Higinus, cap. 189. Ovid, &c.
6159. Phaerus Aegypti rex de caecitate oraculum consulens, visum ei
rediturum accepit, si oculos abluisset lotio mulieris quae aliorum
virorum esset expers; uxoris urinam expertus nihil profecit, et
aliarum frustra, eas omnes (ea excepta per quam curatus fuit) unum in
locum coactas concremavit. Herod. Euterp.
6160. Offic. lib. 2.
6161. Aurelius Victor.
6162. Herod, lib. 9. in Calliope. Masistae uxorem excarnificat, mammillas
praescindit, aesque canibus abjicit, filiae nares praescidit, labra,
linguam, &c.
6163. Lib. 1. Dum formae curandae intenta capillum in sole pectit, a marito
per lusum leviter percussa furtirm superveniente virga, risu suborto,
mi Landrice dixit, frontem vir fortis petet, &c. Marito conspecto
attonita, cum Landrico mox in ejus mortem conspirat, et statim inter
venandum efficit.
6164. Qui Goae uxorem habens, Gotherinum principem quendam virum quod uxori
suae oculos adjecisset, ingenti vulnere deformavit in facie, et
tibiam abscidit, unde mutuae caedes.
6165. Eo quod infans natus involutus esset panniculo, credebat eum filium
fratris Francisci, &c.
6166. Zelotypia reginas regis mortem acceleravit paulo post, ut Martianus
medicus mihi retulit. Illa autem atra bile inde exagitata in latebras
se subducens prae aegritudine animi reliquum tempus consumpsit.
6167. A zelotypia redactus ad insaniam et desperationem.
6168. Uxorem interemit, inde desperabundus ex alto se praecipitavit.
6169. Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram.
6170. Ariosto, lib. 31. staff.
6171. Veteres mature suadent ungues amoris esse radendos, priusquam
producant se nimis.
6172. In Jovianum.
6173. Gomesius, lib. 3. de reb. gestis Ximenii.
6174. Urit enim praecordia aegritudo animi compressa, et in angustiis
adducta mentem. subvertit, nec alio medicamine facilius erigitur,
quam cordati hominis sermone.
6175. 3 De anima.
6176. Lib. 3.
6177. Argetocoxi Caledoni Reguli uxor, Juliae Augustae cum ipsam morderet
quod inhoneste versaretur, respondet, nos cum optimis viris
consuetudinem habemus; vos Romanas autem occulte passim homines
constuprant.
6178. Leges de moechis fecit, ex civibus plures in jus vocati.
6179. L. 3. Epig. 26.
6180. Asser Arthuri; parcerem libenter heroinarum laesae majestati, si non
historiae veritas aurem vellicaret, Leland.
6181. Leland's assert. A thuri.
6182. Epigram.
6183. Cogita an sic aliis tu unquam feceris; an hoc tibi nunc fieri dignum
sit? severus aliis, indulgens tibi, cur. ab uxore exigis quod nori
ipse praestas? Plutar.
6184. Vaga libidine cum ipse quovis rapiaris, cur si vel modicum aberret
ipsa, insanias?
6185. Ariosto, li. 28. staffe 80.
6186. Sylva nupt. l. 4. num. 72.
6187. Lemnius, lib. 4. cap. 13. de occult. nat. mir.
6188. Optimum bene nasci.
6189. Mart.
6190. Ovid. amor. lib. 3. eleg.
6191. Lib. 4. St. 72.
6192. Policrat. lib. 8. c. 11. De amor.
6193. Euriel. et Lucret. qui uxores occludunt, meo judicio minus utiliter
faciunt; sunt enim eo ingenio mulieres ut id potissimum cupiant, quod
maxime denegatur: si liberas habent habenas, minus delinquunt;
frustra seram adhibes, si non sit sponte casta.
6194. Quando cognoscunt maritos hoc advertere.
6195. Ausonius.
6196. Opes suas, mundum suum, thesaurum suum, &c.
6197. Virg. Aen.
6198. Daniel.
6199. 1 de serm. d. in monte ros. 16.
6200. O quam formosus lacertus hic quidam inquit ad aequales conversus; at
illa, publicus, inquit, non est.
6201. Bilia Dinutum virum senem habuit et spiritum foetidum habentem, quem
quum quidam exprobrasset, &c.
6202. Numquid tibi, Armena, Tigranes videbatur esse pulcher? et illum,
inquit, aedepol, &c. Xenoph. Cyropaed. l. 3.
6203. Ovid.
6204. Read Petrarch's Tale of Patient Grizel in Chaucer.
6205. Sil. nup. lib. 4. num. 80.
6206. Erasmus.
6207. Quum accepisset uxorem peperisse secundo a nuptiis mense, cunas
quinas vel senas coemit, ut si forte uxor singulis bimensibus
pareret.
6208. Julius Capitol, vita ejus, quum palam Citharaedus uxorem diligeret,
minime curiosus fuit.
6209. Disposuit armatos qui ipsum interficerent: hi protenus mandatum
exequentes, &c. Ille et rex declarator, et Stratonicem quae fratri
nupserat, uxorem ducit: sed postquam audivit fratrem vivere, &c.
Attalum comiter accepit, pristinamque uxorem complexus, magno honore
apud se habuit.
6210. See John Harrington's notes in 28. book of Ariosto.
6211. Amator. dial.
6212. Plautus scen. ult. Amphit.
6213. Idem.
6214. T. Daniel conjurat. French.
6215. Lib. 4. num. 80.
6216. R. T.
6217. Lib. de heres. Quum de zele culparetur, purgandi se causa permisisse
fertur ut ea qui vellet uteretur; quod ejus factum in sectam
turpissimam versum est, qua placet usus indifferens foeminamm.
6218. Sleiden, Com.
6219. Alcoran.
6220. Alcoran edit, et Bibliandro.
6221. De mor. gent. lib. 1. cap. 6. Nupturae regi de virginandae
exhibentur.
6222. Lumina extinguebantur, nec persons) et aetatis habila reverentia, in
quam quisque per tenebras incidit, mulierem cognoscit.
6223. Leander Albertus. Flagitioso ritu cuncti in aedem convenientes post
impuram concionem, extinctis luminibus in Venerem ruunt.
6224. Lod. Vertomannus navig. lib. 6. cap. 8. et Marcus Polus lib. 1. cap.
46. Uxores viatoribus prostituunt.
6225. Dithmarus, Bleskenius, ut Agetas Aristoni, pulcherrimam uxorem habens
prostituit.
6226. Herodot. in Erato. Mulieres Babyloni caecum hospite permiscentur ob
argentum quod post Veneri sacrum. Bohernus, lib. 2.
6227. Navigat. lib. 5. cap. 4. prius thorum non init, quam a digniore
sacerdote nova nupta deflorata sit.
6228. Bohemus lib. 2. cap. 3. Ideo nubere nollent ob mulierum
intemperantiam, nullam servare viro fidem putabant.
6229. Stephanus praefat. Herod. Alius e lupanari meretricem, Pitho dictam,
in uxorem duxit; Ptolomaeus Thaidem nobile scortum duxit et ex ea
duos filios suscepit, &c.
6230. Poggius Floreno.
6231. Felix Plater.
6232. Plutarch, Lucian, Salmutz Tit. 2. de porcellanis cum in Panciro 1. de
nov. repert. et Plutarchus.
6233. Stephanus e 1. confor. Bonavent. c. 6. vit. Francisci.
6234. Plutarch. vit. ejus.
6235. Vecker. lib. 7. secret.
6236. Citatur a Gellio.
6237. Lib. 1. Til. 4. de instit. reipub. de officio mariti.
6238. Ne cum ea blande nimis agas, ne objurges praesentibus extraneis.
6239. Epist. 70.
6240. Ovid. "How badly steers of different ages are yoked to the plough."
6241. Alciat. emb. 116.
6242. Deipnosoph. l. 3. cap. 12.
6243. Euripides.
6244. Pontanus hiarum lib. 1. "Maidens shun their embraces; Love, Venus,
Hymen, all abhor them."
6245. Offic. lib. Luxuria cum omni aetati turpis, tum senectuti foedissima.
6246. Ecclus. xxv. 2. "An old man that dotes," &c.
6247. Hor. lib. 3. ode 26. "He was lately a match for a maid, and contended
not ingloriously."
6248. "Alecto herself holds the torch at such nuptials, and malicious Hymen
sadly howls."
6249. Cap. 5. instit. ad optimum vitam; maxima mortalium pars
praecipitanter et inconsiderate nubit, idque ea aetate quae minus
apta est, quum senex adolescentulae, sanus morbidae, dives pauperi,
&c.
6250. Obsoleto, intempestivo, turpi remedio fatentur se uti; recordatione
pristinarum voluptatum se recreant, et adversante natura, pollinctam
carnetn et enectam excitant.
6251. Lib. 2. nu. 25.
6252. Qui vero non procreandae prolis, sed explendae; libidinis causa sibi
invicem copulantur, non tam conjuges quam fornicarii habentur.
6253. Lex Papia. Sueton. Claud. c. 23.
6254. Pontanus biarum lib. 1. "More salacious than the sparrow in spring,
or the snow-white ring-doves."
6255. Plautus mercator.
6256. Symposio.
6257. Vide Thuani historiam.
6258. Calabect. vet. poetarum.
6259. Martial, lib. 3. 62. Epig.
6260. Lib. 1. Miles.
6261. Ovid. "If you would marry suitably, marry your equal in every
respect."
6262. "Parental virtue is a rich inheritance, as well as that chastity
which habitually avoids a second husband."
6263. Rabelais hist. Pantagruel: l. 3. cap. 33.
6264. Hom. 80. Qui pulchram habet uxorem, nihil pejus habere potest.
6265. Arniseus.
6266. Itinerar. Ital. Coloniae edit. 1620. Nomine trium. Ger. fol. 304.
displicuit quod dominae filiabus immutent nomen inditum, in
Baptisime, et pro Catharina, Margareta, &c. ne quid desit ad
luxuriam, appellant ipsas nominibus Cynthiae, Camaenae, &c.
6267. Leonicus de var. lib. 3. c. 43. Asylus virginum deformium Cassandrae
templum. Plutarch.
6268. Polycrat. l. 8. cap. 11.
6269. "If your wife seem deformed, your maid beautiful, still abstain from
the latter."
6270. Marullus. "Not the most fair but the most virtuous pleases me."
6271. Chaloner lib. 9. de repub. Ang.
6272. Lib. 2. num. 159.
6273. Si genetrix caste, caste quoque filia vivit; si meretrix mater, filia
talis erit.
6274. Juven. Sat. 6.
6275. Camerarius cent. 2. cap. 54. oper. subcis.
6276. Ser. 72. Quod amicus quidam uxorem habens mihi dixit, dicam vobis. In
cubili cavendae adulationes vesperi, mane clamores.
6277. Lib. 4. tit. 4. de institut. Reipub. cap. de officio mariti et
uxoris.
6278. Lib. 4. syl. nup. num. 81. Non curant de uxoribus, nec volunt iis
subvenire de victu, vestitu, &c.
6279. In Clio. Speciem uxoris supra modum extollens, fecit ut illam nudam
coram aspiceret.
6280. Juven. Sat. 6. "He cannot kiss his wife for paint."
6281. Orat, contra ebr.
6282. "That a matron should not be seen in public without her husband as
her spokesman."
6283. "Helpless deer, what are we but a prey?"
6284. Ad baptismum, matrimonium et tumultum.
6285. Non vociferatur illa si maritus obganniat.
6286. Fraudem aperiens ostendit ei non aquam sed silentium iracundiae
moderari.
6287. Horol. princi. lib. 2. cap. 8. Diligenter cavendum foeminis
illustribus ne frequenter exeant.
6288. Chaloner. "One who delights in the labour of the distaff, and
beguiles the hours of labour with a song: her duties assume an air of
virtuous beauty when she is busied at the wheel and the spindle with
her maids."
6289. Menander. "Whoever guards his wife with bolts and bars will repent
his narrow policy."
6290. Lib. 5. num. 11.
6291. Ctesias in Persicis finxit vulvae morbum esse nec curari posse nisi
cum viro concumberet, hac arte voti compos, &c.
6292. Exsolvit vinculis solutumque demisit, at ille inhumanus stupravit
conjugem.
6293. Plutarch. vita ejus.
6294. Rosinus lib. 2. 19. Valerius lib. 2. cap. 1.
6295. Alexander ab Alexandro l. 4. cap. 8. gen. dier.
6296. Fr. Rueus de gemmis l. 2. cap. 8. et 15.
6297. Strozzius Cicogna lib. 2. cap. 15. spiritet in can. habent ibidem
uxores quot volunt cum oculis clarissimis, quos nunquam in aliquem
praeter maritum fixuri sunt, &c. Bredenbacchius, Idem et Bohemus, &c.
6298. Uxor caeca ducat maritum surdum, &c.
6299. See Valent. Nabod. differ. com. in Alcabitium, ubi plura.
6300. Cap. 46. Apol. quod mulieres sine concupiscentia aspicere non posset,
&c.
6301. "Ye gods avert such a pestilence from the world."
6302. Called religious because it is still conversant about religion and
such divine objects.
6303. Grotius. "Proceed, ye muses, nor desert me in the middle of my
journey, where no footsteps lead me, no wheeltracks indicate the
transit of former chariots."
6304. Lib. 1. cap. 16. nonnulli opinionibus addicti sunt, et futura se
praedicere arbitrantur.
6305. Aliis videtur quod sunt prophetae et inspirati a Spiritu sancto, et
incipiunt prophetare, et multa futura praedicunt.
6306. Cap. 6. de Melanch.
6307. Cap. 5, Tractat. multi ob timorem Dei sunt melancholici, et timorem
gehennae. They are still troubled for their sins.
6308. Plater c. 13.
6309. Melancholia Erotica vel quae cum amore est, duplex est: prima quae ab
aliis forsan non meretur nomen melancholiae, est affectio eorum quae
pro objecto proponunt Deum et ideo nihil aliud curant aut cogitant
quam Deum, jejunia, vigilias: altera ob mulieres.
6310. Alia reperitur furoris species a prima vel a secunda, deorum
rogantium, vel afflatu numinum furor hic venit.
6311. Qui in Delphis futura praedicunt vates, et in Dodona sacerdotes
furentes quidem multa jocunda Graecis deferunt, sani vero exigua am
nulla.
6312. Deus bonus, Justus, pulcher, juxta Platonem.
6313. Miror et stupeo cum coelum aspicio et pulchritudinem siderum,
angelorum, &c. et quis digne laudet quod an nobis viget, corpus tam
pulchrum, frontem pulchram, nares, genas, oculos, in ellectum, omnia
pulchra; si sic in creaturis laboramus; quid in ipso deo?
6314. Drexelius Nicet. lib. 2. cap. 11.
6315. Fulgor divinae majestatis. Aug.
6316. In Psal. lxiv. misit ad nos Epistolas et totam scripturam, quibus
nobis faceret amandi desiderium.
6317. Epist. 48. l. 4. quid est tota scriptura nisi Epistola omnipotentis
Dei ad creaturum suam?
6318. Cap. vi. 8.
6319. Cap. xxvii. 11.
6320. In Psal. lxxxv. omnes pulchritudines terrenas auri, argenti, nemorum
et camporum pulchritudinem Solis et Lunae, stellarum, omnia pulchra
superans.
6321. Immortalis haec visio immortalis amor, indefessus amor et visio.
6322. Osorius; ubicunque visio et pulchritudo divini aspectus, ibi voluptas
ex eodem fonte omnisque beatitudo, nec ab ejus aspectu voluptas, nec
ab illa voluptate aspectus separari potest.
6323. Leon Haebreus. Dubitatur an humana felicitas Deo cognoscendo an
amando terminetur.
6324. Lib. de anima. Ad hoc objectum amandum et fruendum nati sumus; et
hunc expetisset, unicum hunc amasset humana, voluntas, ut summum
bonum, et caeteras res omnes eo ordine.
6325. 9. de Repub.
6326. Hom. 9. in epist. Johannis cap. 2. Multos conjugium decepit, res
alioqui salutaris et necessaria, eo quod caeco ejus amore decepti,
divini amoris et gloriae studium in universum abjecerunt; plurimos
cibus et potus perdit.
6327. In mundo splendor opum gloriae majestas, amicitiarum praesidia,
verborum blanditiae, voluptatum omnis generis illecebrae, victoriae,
triumphi, et infinita alia ab amore dei nos abstrahunt, &c.
6328. In Psal. xxxii. Dei amicus esse non potest qui mundi studiis
delectatur; ut hanc, formam videas munda cor, serena cor, &c.
6329. Contemplationis pluma nos sublevat, atque inde erigimur intentione
cordis, dulcedine contemplationis distinct. 6. de 7. Itineribus.
6330. Lib. de victimis: amans Deum, sublimia petit, sumptis alis et in
coelum recte volat, relicta terra, cupidus aberrandi cum sole, luna,
stellarumque sacra militia, ipso Deo duce.
6331. In com. Plat. cap. 7. ut Solem videas oculis, fieri debes Solaris: ut
divinam aspicias pulchritudinem, demitte materiam, demitte sensum, et
Deum qualis sit videbis.
6332. Avare, quid inhias his, &c. pulchrior est qui te ambit ipsum visurus,
ipsum habiturus.
6333. Prov. viii.
6334. Cap. 18. Rom. Amorem hunc divinum totis viribus amplexamini; Deum
vobis omni officiorum genere propitium facite.
6335. Cap. 7. de pulchritudine regna et imperia totius terras et maris et
coeli oportet abjicere si ad ipsum conversus veils inseri.
6336. Habitus a Deo infusus, per quem inclinatur homo ad diligendum Deum
super omnia.
6337. Dial. 1. Omnia. convertit amor in ipsius pulchri naturam.
6338. Stromatum lib. 2.
6339. Greenham.
6340. De primo praecepto.
6341. De relig. l. 2. Thes. 1.
6342. 2 De nat. deorum.
6343. Hist. Belgic. lib. 8.
6344. Superstitio error insanus est epist. 223.
6345. Nam qui superstitione imbutus est, quietus esse nunquam potest.
6346. Greg.
6347. Polit. lib. 1. cap. 13.
6348. Hor.
6349. Epist, Phalar.
6350. In Psal. iii.
6351. Lib. 9. cap. 6.
6352. Lib. 3.
6353. Lib. 6. descrip. Graec. nulla est via qua non innumeris idolis est
referta. Tantum tunc temporis in miserrimos mortales potentiae et
crudelis Tyrannidis Satan exercuit.
6354. "The devil divides the empire with Jupiter."
6355. Alex. ab. Alex. lib. 6. cap. 26.
6356. Purchas Pilgrim. lib. 1. c. 3.
6357. Lib. 3.
6358. 2 Part. sect. 3. lib. 1. cap. et deinceps.
6359. Titelmannus. Maginus. Bredenbachius. Fr. Aluaresius Itin. de
Abyssinis Herbis solum vescuntur votarii, aquis mento tenus dormiunt,
&c.
6360. Bredenbactoius Jod. a Meggen.
6361. See Passevinus Herbastein, Magin. D. Fletcher, Jovius, Hacluit.
Purchas, &c. of their errors.
6362. Deplorat. Gentis Lapp.
6363. Gens superstitioni obnoxia, religionibus adversa.
6364. Boissardus de Magia. Intra septimum aut nonum a baptismo diem
moriuntur. Hinc fit, &c.
6365. Cap. de Incolis terrae sanctae.
6366. Plato in Crit. Daemones custodes sunt hominum et eorum domini, ut nos
animalium; nec hominibus, sed et regionibus imperant, vaticiniis,
auguriis, nos regunt. Idem fere Max. Tyrius ser. 1. et 26. 27. medios
vult daemones inter Deos et homines deorum ministros, praesides
hominum, a coelo ad homines descendentes.
6367. Depraeparat. Evangel.
6368. Vel in abusum Dei vel in aemulationem. Dandinus com. in lib. 2.
Arist. de An. Text. 29.
6369. Daemones consulunt, et familiares habent daemones plerique
sacerdotes. Riccius lib. 1. cap. 10. expedit Sinar.
6370. Vitam turbant, somnos inquietant, irrepentes etiam in corpora merites
terrent, valetudinem frangunt, morbos lacessant, ut ad cultum sui
cogant, nec aliud his studium, quam ut a vera religione, ad
superstitionem vertant: cum sint ipsi poenales, quaerunt sibi
adpoenas comites, ut habeant erroris participes.
6371. Lib. 4. praeparat. Evangel, c. Tantamque victoriam amentia hominum
consequuti sunt, ut si colligere in unum velis, universum orbem istis
scelestibus spiritibus subjectum fuisse invenies: Usque ad Salvaloris
adventum hominum caede perniciosissimos daemones placabant, &c.
6372. Plato.
6373. Strozzius Cicogna omnif. mag. lib. 3. cap. 7. Ezek. viii. 4.; Reg.
11. 4.; Reg. 3. et 17. 14; Jer. xlix.; Num. xi. 3.; Reg. 13.
6374. Lib. 4. cap. 8. praepar.
6375. Bapt. Mant. 4. Fast, de Sancto Georgio. "O great master of war, whom
our youths worship as if he were Mars self."
6376. Part. 1. cap. 1. et lib. 2. cap. 9.
6377. Polyd. Virg. lib. 1. de prodig.
6378. Hor. l. 3. od. 6.
6379. Lib. 3. hist.
6380. Orata lege me dicastis mulieres Dion. Halicarn.
6381. Tully de nat. deorum lib. 2. Aequa Venus Teucris Pallas iniqua fuit.
6382. Jo. Molanus lib. 3. cap. 59.
6383. Pet. Oliver. de Johanne primo Portugalliae Rege strenue pugnans, et
diversae partis ictus clypeo excipiens.
6384. L. 14. Loculos sponte aperuisse et pro iis pugnasse.
6385. Religion, as they hold, is policy, invented alone to keep men in awe.
6386. Annal.
6387. Omnes religione moventur. 5. in Verrem.
6388. Zeleuchus, praefat. legis qui urbem aut regionem inhabitant,
persuasos esse oportet esse Deos.
6389. 10. de legibus. Religio neglecta maximam pestem in civitatem infert,
omnium scelerum fenestram aperit.
6390. Cardarius Com. in Ptolomeum quadripart.
6391. Lipsius l. 1. c. 3.
6392. Homo sine religione, sicut equus sine fraeno.
6393. Vaninus dial. 52. de oraculis.
6394. "If a religion be false, only let it be supposed to be true, and it
will tame mental ferocity, restrain lusts, and make loyal subjects."
6395. Lib. 10. Ideo Lycurgus, &c. non quod ipse superstitiosus, sed quod
videret mortales paradoxa facilius amplecti, nec res graves audere
sine periculo deorum.
6396. Cleonardus epist. 1. Novas leges suas ad Angelum Gabrielem referebat,
pro monitore mentiebatur omnia se gerere.
6397. Lib. 16. belli Gallici. Ut metu mortis neglecto, ad virtutem
incitarent.
6398. De his lege Luciatium de luctu tom. 1. Homer. Odyss. 11. Virg. Aen.
6.
6399. Baratheo sulfure et flamma stagnante sternum demergebantur.
6400. Et 3. de repub. omnis institutio adolescentum eo referenda ut de deo
bene sentiant ob commune bonum.
6401. Boterus.
6402. Citra aquam, viridarium plantavit maximum et pulcherrimum, floribus
odoriferis et suavibus plenum, &c.
6403. Potum quendam dedit quo inescatus, et gravi sopore oppressus, in
viridarium interim ducebatur, &c.
6404. Atque iterum memoratum potum bibendum exhibuit, et sic extra
Paradisum reduxit, ut cum evigilaret, sopore soluto, &c.
6405. Lib. 1. de orb. Concord. cap. 7.
6406. Lib. 4.
6407. Lib. 4.
6408. Exerc. 228.
6409. S. Ed. Sands.
6410. In consult. de princ. inter provinc. Europ.
6411. Lucian. "By themselves sustain the brunt of every battle."
6412. S. Ed. Sands in his Relation.
6413. Seneca.
6414. Vice cotis, acutum Reddere quae ferrum valet, exors ipsa secandi.
6415. De civ. Dei lib. 4. cap. 31.
6416. Seeking their own, saith Paul, not Christ's.
6417. He hath the Duchy of Spoleto in Italy, the Marquisate of Ancona,
beside Rome, and the territories adjacent, Bologna, Ferrara, &c.
Avignon in France, &c.
6418. Estote fratres mei, et principes hujus mundi.
6419. The Laity suspect their greatness, witness those statutes of
mortmain.
6420. Lib. 8. de Academ.
6421. Praefat. lib. de paradox. Jesuit-Rom. provincia habet Col. 36.
Neapol. 23. Veneta 13. Lucit. 15. India, orient. 17. Brazil. 20, &c.
6422. In his Chronic. vit. Hen. 8.
6423. 15. cap. of his funeral monuments.
6424. Pausanias in Laconicis lib. 3. Idem de Achaicas lib. 7. cujus summae
opes, et valde inclyta fama.
6425. Exercit. Eth. Colleg. 3. disp. 3.
6426. Act. xix. 28.
6427. Pontifex Romanus prorsus inermis regibus terrae jura dat, ad regna
evehit ad pacem cogit, et peccantes castigat, &c. quod imperatores
Romani 40. legionibus armati non effecerunt.
6428. Mirum quanta passus sit H. 2. quomodo se submisit, ea se facturum
pollicitus, quorum hodie ne privatus quidem partem faceret.
6429. Sigonius 9. hist. Ital.
6430. Curio lib. 4. Fox Martyrol.
6431. Hierocles contends Apollonius to have been as great a prophet as
Christ, whom Eusebius confutes.
6432. Munster Cosmog. l. 3. c. 37. Artifices ex officinis, arator e stiva,
foeminae e colo, &c. quasi numine quodam rapti, nesciis parentibus et
dominis recta adeunt, &c. Combustus demum ab Herbipolensi Episcopo;
haeresis evanuit.
6433. Nulla non provincia haeresibus, Atheismis, &c, plena. Nullus orbis
angulus ab hisce belluis immunis.
6434. Lib. 1. de nat. Deorum. "He gave to man an upward gaze, commanding
him to fix his eyes on heaven."
6435. Zanchius.
6436. Virg. 6. Aen.
6437. Superstitio ex ignorantia divinitatis emersit, ex vitiosa aemulatione
et daemonis illecebris, inconstans, timens, fluctuans, et cui se
addicat nesciens, quem imploret, cui se committat, a daemone facile
decepta. Lemnius, lib. 3. c. 8.
6438. Seneca.
6439. Vide Baronium 3 Annalium ad annum 324. vit. Constantin.
6440. De rerum varietate, l. 3. c. 38. Parum vero distat sapientia virorum
a puerili, multo minus senum et mulierum, cum metu et superstitione
et aliena stultitia et improbitate simplices agitantur.
6441. In all superstition wise men follow fools. Bacon's Essays.
6442. Peregrin, Hieros. ca. 5. totum scriptum confusum sine ordine vel
colore, absque sensu et ratione ad rusticissimos, idem dedit,
rudissimos, et prorsus agrestes, qui nullius erant discretionis, ut
dijudicare possent.
6443. Lib. 1. cap. 9. Valent. haeres. 9.
6444. Meteranus li. 8. hist. Belg.
6445. Si doctores suum fecissent officium, et plebem fidei commissam recte
instituissent de doctrirnae christianae, capitib. nec sacris
scripturis interdixissent, de multis proculdubio recte sensissent.
6446. Curtius li. 4.
6447. See more in Kemnisius' Examen Concil. Trident. de Purgatorio.
6448. Part 1. c. 16, part 3. cap. 18. et 14.
6449. Austin.
6450. Curtius, lib. 8.
6451. Lampridius vitae ejus. Virgines vestales, et sacrum ignem Romae
extinxit, et omnes ubique per orbem terrae religiones, unum hoc
studens ut solus deus coleretur.
6452. Flagellatorum secta. Munster. lib. 3. Cosmog. cap. 19.
6453. Votum coelibatus, monachatus.
6454. Mater sanitatis, clavis coelorum, ala animae quae leves pennas
producat, ut in sublime ferat; currus spiritus sancti, vexilium
fidei, porta paradisi, vita angelorum, &c.
6455. Castigo corpus meum.
6456. Mor. necom.
6457. Lib. 8. cap. 10. de rerum varietate: admiratione digna sunt quae per
jejunium hoc modo contingunt: somnia, superstitio, contemptus
tormentorum, mortis desiderium obstinata opinio, insania: jejunium
naturaliter preparat ad haec omnia.
6458. Epist. i. 3. Ita attenuatus fuit jejunio et vigiliis, in tantum exeso
corpora ut ossibus vix haerebat, undo nocte infantum vagitus, balatus
pecorum, mugitus boum, voces et ludibria daemonum, &c.
6459. Lib. de abstinentia, Sobrietas et continentia mentem deo conjungunt.
6460. Extasis nihil est aliud quam gustus futurae beatitudinis. Erasmus
epist. ad Dorpium in qua toti absorbemur in Deum.
6461. Si religiosum nimis jejunia videris observantem, audaciter
melancholicum pronunciabis. Tract. 5. cap. 5.
6462. Solitudo ipsa, mens aegra laboribus anxiis et jejuniis, tum
temperatura cibis mutata agrestibus, et humor melancholicus Heremitis
illusionum causa sunt.
6463. Solitudo est causa apparitionum; nulli visionibus et hinc delirio
magis obnoxii sunt quam qui collegis et eremo vivunt monachi: tales
plerumque melancholici ob victum, solitudinem.
6464. Monachi sese putant prophetare ex Deo, et qui solitariam agunt vitam,
quum sit instinctu daemonum; et sic falluntur fatidicae; a malo genio
habent, quas putant a Deo, et sic enthusiastae.
6465. Sibylla, Pythii, et prophetae qui divinare solent, omnes fanatici
sunt melancholici.
6466. Exercit. c. 1.
6467. De divinatione et magicis praestigiis.
6468. Idem.
6469. Post. 15 dierum preces et jejunia, mirabiles videbat visiones.
6470. Fol. 84. vita Stephani, et fol. 177. post trium mensium inediam et
languorem per 9 dies nihil comedens aut bibens.
6471. After contemplation in an ecstasy; so Hierom was whipped for reading
Tully; see millions of examples in our annals.
6472. Bede, Gregory, Jacobus de Voragine, Lippomanus, Hieronymus, John
Major de vitiis patrum, &c.
6473. Fol. 199. post abstinentiae curas miras illusiones daemonum audivit.
6474. Fol. 155. post seriam meditationem in vigila dici dominicae visionem
habuit de purgatorio.
6475. Ubi multos dies manent jejuni consilio sacerdotum auxilia invocantes.
6476. In Necromant. Et cibus quidem glandes erant, potus aqua, lectus sub
divo, &c.
6477. John Everardus Britanno. Romanus lib. edit. 1611 describes all the
manner of it.
6478. Varius mappa componere risum vix poterat.
6479. Pleno ridet Catphurnius ore. Hor.
6480. Alanus de Insulis.
6481. Cicero 1. de finibus.
6482. In Micah comment.
6483. Gall. hist. lib. 1.
6484. Lactantius.
6485. Juv. Sat. 15.
6486. Comment in Micah. Ferre non possunt ut illorum Messias communis
servator sit, nostrum gaudium, &c. Messias vel decem decies
crucifixuri essent, ipsumque Deum si id fieri posset, una cum angelis
et creaturis omnibus, nec absterretur ab hoc facto et si mille
interna subeunda forent.
6487. Lucret.
6488. Lucan.
6489. Ad Galat. comment. Nomen odiosius meum quam ullus homicida aut fur.
6490. In comment. Micah. Adeo incomprehensibilis et aspera eorum superbia,
&c.
6491. Synagog. Judaeorum, ca. 1. Inter eorum intelligentissimos Rabbinos
nil praeter ignorantiam et insipientiam grandem invenies, horrendam
indurationem, et obsti nationem, &c.
6492. Great is Diana of the Ephesians, Act. xv.
6493. Malunt cum illis insanire, quam cum aliis bene sentire.
6494. Acosta, l. 5.
6495. O Aegypte, religionis tuae solae supersunt fabulae eaeque
incredibiles posteris tuis.
6496. Meditat. 19. de coena domin.
6497. Lib. 1. de trin. cap. 2. si decepti sumus, &c.
6498. Vide Samsatis Isphocanis objectiones in monachum Milesium.
6499. Lege Hossman. Mus exenteratus.
6500. As true as Homer's Iliad, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Aesop's Fables.
6501. Dial. 52. de oraculis.
6502. O sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in horto Numina! Juven. Sat.
15.
6503. Prudentius. "Having proceeded to deify leeks and onions, you, oh
Egypt, worship such gods."
6504. Praefat. ver. hist.
6505. Tiguri. fol. 1494.
6506. Rosin, antiq. Rom. l. 2. c. 1. et deinceps.
6507. Lib. de divinatione et magicis praestigiis in Mopso.
6508. Cosmo Paccio Interpret. nihil ab aeris caligine aut figurarum
varietate impeditus meram pulchritudinem meruit, exultans et
misericordia motus, cognatos amicos qui adhuc morantur in terra
tuetur, errantibus succurrit, &c. Deus hoc jussit ut essent genii dii
tutelares hominibus, bonos juvantes, males punientes, &c.
6509. Sacrorum gent. descript. non bene meritos solum, sed et tyrannos pro
diis colunt, qui genus humanum horrendum in modum portentosa
immanitate divexarunt, &c. foedas meretrices, &c.
6510. Cap. 22. de ver. rel. Deos finxerunt eorum poetae, ut infiantium
puppas.
6511. Proem, lib. Contra, philos.
6512. Livius, lib. 1. Deus vobis in posterum propitius, Quirites.
6513. Anth. Verdure Imag. deorum.
6514. Mulieris candido splendentes ainicimine varioque laetentes gestimine,
verno florentes conamine, solum sternentes. &c. Apuleius, lib. 11. de
Asino aureo.
6515. Magna religione quaeritur quae possit adultoria plura numerare Minut.
6516. Lib. de sacrificiis, Fumo inhiantes. et muscarum in morem sanguinem
exugentes circum aras effusum.
6517. Imagines Deorum lib. sic. inscript.
6518. De ver. relig. cap. 22. Indigni qui terram calcent, &c.
6519. Octaviano.
6520. Jupiter Tragoedus, de sacrificiis, et passim alias.
6521. 666 several kinds of sacrifices in Egypt Major reckons up, tom. 2.
coll. of which read more in cap. 1. of Laurentius Pignorius his Egypt
characters, a cause of which Sanubiua gives subcis. lib. 3. cap. 1.
6522. Herod. Clio. Immolavit lecta pecora ter mille Delphis, una cum lectis
phialis tribus.
6523. Superstitiosus Julianus innumeras sine parsirnonia pecudes mactavit.
Amianus 25. Boves albi. M. Caesari salutem, si tu viceris perimus;
lib. 3. Romara observantissimi sunt ceremoniarum, bello praesertim.
6524. De sacrificiis: nuculam pro bona valetudine, boves quatuor pro
divitiis, centum tauros pro sospite a Trojae reditu, &c.
6525. De sacris Gentil. et sacrific. Tyg. 1596.
6526. Enimvero si quis recenseret quae stulti mortales in festis,
sacrificiis, diis adorandis, &c. quae vota faciant, quid de iis
statuant, &c. haud scio an risurus, &c.
6527. Max. Tyrius ser. 1. Croesus regum omnium stultissimus de lebete
consulit, alius de numero arenarum, dimensione maris, &c.
6528. Lib. 4.
6529. Perigr. Hierosol.
6530. Solinus.
6531. Herodotus.
6532. Boterus polit. lib. 2. cap. 16.
6533. Plutarch vit. Crassi.
6534. They were of the Greek church.
6535. Lib. 5. de gestis Scanderbegis.
6536. In templis immania Idolorum monstra conspiciuntur, marmorea, lignea,
lutea, &c. Riccius.
6537. Deum enim placare non est opus, quia non nocet; sed daemonem
sacrifices placant, &c.
6538. Fer. Cortesius.
6539. M. Polas. Lod. Vertomannus navig. lib. 6. cap. 9. P. Martyr. Ocean,
dec.
6540. Propertius lib. 3. eleg. 12. "There is a contest amongst the living
wives as to which shall follow the husband, and not be allowed to die
for him is accounted a disgrace."
6541. Matthias a Michou.
6542. Epist. Jesuit. anno. 1549. a Xaverto et socus. Idemque Riccius
expedid. ad Sinas l. 1. per totum Jejunatores apud eos toto die
carnibus abstinent et piscibus ob religionem, nocte et die Idola
colentes; nusquam egredientes.
6543. Ad immortalitatem morte aspirant summi magistrates, &c. Et multi
mortales hac insania, et praepostero immortalitatis studio laborant,
et misere pereunt: rex ipse clam venenum hausisset, nisi a servo
fuisset detentus.
6544. Cantione in lib. 10. Bonini de repub. fol. 111.
6545. Quin ipsius diaboli ut nequitiam referant.
6546. Lib. de superstit.
6547. Hominibus vitas finis mors, non autem superstitionis, profert haec
suos terminos ultra vitae finem.
6548. Buxtorfius Synagog. Jud. c. 4. Inter precandum nemo pediculos
attingat, vel pulicem, aut per guttur inferius ventum emittas, &c.
Id. c. 5. et. seq. cap. 36.
6549. Illic omnia animalia, pisces, aves, quos Deus unquam creavit
mactabuntur, et vinum generosum, &c.
6550. Cujus lapsu cedri altissimi 300 dejecti sunt, quumque e lapsu ovum
fuerat confractum, pagi 160 inde submersi, et alluvione inundati.
6551. Every king of the world shall send him one of his daughters to be his
wife, because it is written, Ps. xlv. 10. "Kings' daughters shall
attend on him," &c.
6552. Quum quadringentis adhuc milliaribus ab imperatore Leo hic abesset,
tam fortiter rugiebat, ut mulieres Romanae abortierint omnes,
mutique, &c.
6553. Strozzius Cicogna omnif. mag. lib. 1. c. 1. putida multa recenset ex
Alcorano, de coelo, stellis, Angelis, Lonicerus c. 21, 22. l. 1.
6554. Quinquies in die orare Turcae tenentur ad meridiem. Bredenbachius
cap. 5.
6555. In quolibet anno mensem integrum jejunant interdiu, nec comedentes
nec bibentes, &c.
6556. Nullis unquam multi per totam aetatem carnibus vescuntur. Leo Afer.
6557. Lonicerus to. 1. cap. 17. 18.
6558. Gotardus Arthus ca. 33. hist. orient. Indiae; opinio est expiatorium
esse Gangem; et nec mundum ab omni peccato nec salvum fieri posse,
qui non hoc flumine se abluat: quam ob causam ex tota India, &c.
6559. Quia nil volunt deinceps videre.
6560. Nullum se conflictandi finem facit.
6561. Ut in aliquem angulum se reciperet, ne reus fieret ejus delicti quod
ipse erat admissurus.
6562. Gregor. Hom.
6563. "Bound to the dictates of no master."
6564. Epist. 190.
6565. Orat. 8. ut vertigine correptis videntur omnia moveri, omnia iis
falsa sunt, quum error in ipsorum cerebro sit.
6566. Res novas affectant et inutiles, falsa veris praeferunt. 2. quod
temeritas effutierit, id superbia post modum tuebitur et contumaciae,
&c.
6567. See more in Vincent. Lyrin.
6568. Aust. de haeres. usus mulierum indifferens.
6569. Quod ante peccavit Adam, nudus erat.
6570. Alii nudis pedibus semper ambulant.
6571. Insana feritate sibi non parcunt nam per mortes varias praecipitiorum
aquarum et ignium. seipsos necant, et in istum furorem alios cogunt,
mortem minantes ni faciant.
6572. Elench. haeret. ab orbe condito.
6573. Nubrigensis. lib. cap. 19.
6574. Jovian. Pont. Ant. Dial.
6575. Cum per Paganos nomen ejus persequi non poterat, sub specie
religionis fraudulenter subvertere disponebat.
6576. That writ _de professo_ against Christians, et palestinum deum (ut
Socrates lib. 3. cap. 19.) scripturam nugis plenam, &c. vide Cyrillum
in Julianum, Originem in Celsum, &c.
6577. One image had one gown worth 400 crowns and more.
6578. As at our lady's church at Bergamo in Italy.
6579. Lucilius lib. 1. cap. 22. de falsa relig.
6580. An. 441.
6581. Hospinian Osiander. An haec propositio Deus sit cucurbita vel
scarabeus, sit aeque possibilis ac Deus et homo? An possit respectum
producere sine fundamento et termino. An levius sit hominem jugulare
quam die dominico calceum consuere?
6582. De doct. Christian.
6583. Daniel.
6584. "Whilst these fools avoid one vice they run into another of an
opposite character."
6585. Agrip. ep. 29.
6586. Alex. Gaguin. 22. Discipulis ascitis mirum in modum populum decepit.
6587. Guicciard. descrip. Belg. com. plures habuit asseclas ab iisdem
honoratus.
6588. Hen. Nicholas at Leiden 1580. such a one.
6589. See Camden's Annals fo. 242. et 285.
6590. Arius his bowels burst; Montanus hanged himself, &c. Eudo de stellis,
his disciples, ardere potius quam ad vitam corrigi maluerunt; tanta
vis infixi semel erroris, they died blaspheming. Nubrigensis c. 9.
lib. 1. Jer. vii. 23. Amos. v. 5.
6591. 5. Cap.
6592. Poplinerius Lerius praef. hist. Rich. Dinoth.
6593. Advers. gerites lib. 1. postquam in mundo Christiana gens coepit,
terrarum orbem periise, et multis malis affectum esse genus humanum
videmus.
6594. Quod nec hyeme, nec aestate tanta imbrium copia, nec frugibus
torrendis solita flagrantia, nec vernali temperie sata tam laeta
sint, nec arboreis foetibus autumni foecundi, minus de montibus
marmor ernatur, minus aurum, &c.
6595. Solitus erat oblectare se fidibus, et voce musica canentium; sed hoc
omne sublatum Sybillae cujusdam interventu, &c. Inde quicquid erat
instrumentorum Symphoniacorum, aura gemmisque egregio opere
distinctorum comminuit, et in ignem injecit, &c.
6596. Ob id genus observatiunculas videmus homines misere affligi, et
denique mori, et sibi ipsis Christianos videri quum revera sint
Judaei.
6597. Ita in corpora nostra fortunasque decretis suis saeviit ut parum
obfuerat nisi Deus Lutherum virum perpetua memoria dignissimum
excitasset, quin nobis faeno mox communi cum jumentis cibo utendum
fuisset.
6598. The Gentiles in India will eat no sensible creatures, or aught that
hath blood in it.
6599. Vandormilius de Aucupio. cap. 27.
6600. Some explode all human authors, arts, and sciences, poets, histories,
&c., so precise, their zeal overruns their wits; and so stupid, they
oppose all human learning, because they are ignorant themselves and
illiterate, nothing must be read but Scriptures; but these men
deserve to be pitied, rather than confuted. Others are so strict they
will admit of no honest game and pleasure, no dancing, singing, other
plays, recreations and games, hawking, hunting, cock-fighting,
bear-baiting, &c., because to see one beast kill another is the fruit
of our rebellion against God, &c.
6601. Nuda ac tremebunda cruentis Irrepet genibus si candida jusserit Ino.
Juvenalis. Sect. 6.
6602. Munster Cosmog. lib. 3. cap. 444. Incidit in cloacam, unde se non
possit eximere, implorat opem sociorum, sed illi negant, &c.
6603. De benefic. 7. 2.
6604. Numen venerare praesertim quod civitas colit.
6605. Octavio dial.
6606. Annal. tom. 3. ad annum 324. 1.
6607. Ovid. "Saturn is dead, his laws died with him; now that Jupiter rules
the world, let us obey his laws."
6608. In epist. Sym.
6609. Quia deus immensum quiddam est, et infinitum cujus natura perfecte
cognosci non potest, aequum ergo est, ut diversa ratione colatur
prout quisque aliquid de Deo percipit aut intelligit.
6610. Campanella Calcaginus, and others.
6611. Aeternae beatitudinis consortes fore, qui sancte innocenterque hanc
vitam traduxerint, quamcunque illi religionem sequuti sunt.
6612. Comment. in C. Tim. 6. ver. 20. et 21. severitate cum agendum, et non
aliter.
6613. Quod silentium haereticis indixerit.
6614. Igne et fuste potius agendum cum haereticis quam cum disputationibus;
os alia loquens, &c.
6615. Praefat. Hist.
6616. Quidam conquestus est mihi de hoc morbo, et deprecatus est ut ego
illum curarem; ego quaesivi ab eo quid sentiret; respondit, semper
imaginor et cogito de Deo et angelis, &c. et ita demersus sum hac
imaginatione, ut nec edam nec dormiam, nec negotiis, &c. Ego curavi
medicine et persuasione; et sic plures alios.
6617. De anima, c. de humoribus.
6618. Juvenal. "That there are many ghosts and subterranean realms, and a
boat-pole, and black frogs in the Stygian gulf, and that so many
thousands pass over in one boat, not even boys believe, unless those
not as yet washed for money."
6619. Lib. 5. Gal. hist, quamplurimi reperti sunt qui tot pericula
subeuntes irridebant; et quae de fide, religione, &c. dicebant,
ludibrio habebant, nihil eorum admittentes de futura vita.
6620. 50,000 atheists at this day in Paris, Mercennus thinks.
6621. "Eat, drink, be merry; there is no more pleasure after death."
6622. Hor. l. 2. od. 13. "One day succeeds another, and new moons hasten to
their wane."
6623. Luke xvii.
6624. Wisd. ii. 2.
6625. Vers. 6, 7, 8.
6626. Catullus.
6627. Prov. vii. 8.
6628. "Time glides away, and we grow old by years insensibly accumulating."
6629. Lib. 1.
6630. M. Montan. lib. 1. cap. 4.
6631. Orat. Cont. Hispan. ne proximo decennio deum adorarent, &c.
6632. Talem se exhibuit, ut nec in Christum, nec Mahometan crederet, unde
effectum ut promissa nisi quatenus in suum commodum cederent minime
servaret, nec ullo scelere peccatum statueret, ut suis desideriis
satisfaceret.
6633. Lib. de mor. Germ.
6634. Or Breslau.
6635. Usque adeo insanus, ut nec inferos, nec superos esse dicat, animasque
cum corporibus interire credat, &c.
6636. Europae deser. cap. 24.
6637. Fratres a Bry Amer. par. 6. librum a Vincentio monacho datum abjecit,
nihil se videre ibi hujusmodi dicens rogansque unde haec sciret, quum
de coelo et Tartaro contineri ibi diceret.
6638. Non minus hi furunt quam Hercules, qui conjugem et liberos
interfecit; habet haec aetas plura hujusmodi portentosa monstra.
6639. De orbis con. lib. 1. cap. 7.
6640. Nonne Romani sine Deo vestro regnant et fruuntur orbe toto, et vos et
Deos vestros captivos tenent, &c. Minutius Octaviano.
6641. Comment. in Genesin copiosus in hoc subjecto.
6642. Ecce pars vestrum et major et melior alget, fame laborat, et deus
patitur, dissimulat, non vult, non potest opitulari suis, et vel
invalidus vel iniquus est. Cecilius in Minut. Dum rapiunt mala fata
bonos, ignoscite fasso, Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos. Ovid.
Vidi ego diis fretos, multos decipi. Plautus Casina act. 2. scen. 5.
6643. Martial. l. 4. epig. 21.
6644. Ser. 30. in 5. cap. ad Ephes. hic fractii est pedibus, alter furit,
alius ad extremam senectam progressus omnem vitam paupertate peragit,
ille morbis gravissimis: sunt haec Providentiae opera? hic surdus,
ille mutus, &c.
6645. "Oh! Jupiter, do you hear those things? Collecting many such facts,
they weave a tissue of reproaches against God's providence."
6646. Omnia contingenter fieri volunt. Melancthon in praeceptum primum.
6647. Dial. 1. lib. 4. de admir. nat. Arcanis.
6648. Anima mea sit cum animis philosophorum.
6649. Deum unum multis designant nominibus, &c.
6650. Non intelligis te quum haec dicis, negare te ipsum nomen Dei: quid
enim est aliud Natura quam Deus? &c. tot habet appellationes quot
munera.
6651. Austin.
6652. Principio phaemer.
6653. "In cities, kings, religions, and in individual men, these things are
true and obvious, as Aristotle appears to imply, and daily experience
teaches to the reader of history: for what was more sacred and
illustrious, by Gentile law, than Jupiter? what now more vile and
execrable? In this way celestial objects suggest religions for
worldly motives, and when the influx ceases, so does the law," &c.
6654. "And again a great Achilles shall be sent against Troy: religions and
their ceremonies shall be born again; however affairs relapse into
the same track, there is nothing now that was not formerly and Will
not be again," &c.
6655. Vaninus dial. 52. de oraculis.
6656. Varie homines affecti, alii dei judicium ad tam pii exilium, alii ad
naturam referebant, nec ab indignatione dei, sed humanis causis, &c.
12. Natural, quaest. 33. 39.
6657. Juv. Sat. 13. "There are those who ascribe everything to chance, and
believe that the world is made without a director, nature influencing
the vicissitudes," &c.
6658. Epist. ad C. Caesar. Romani olim putabant fortunam regna et imperia
dare: Credebant antea mortales fortunam solam opes et honores
largiri, idque duabus de causis; primum quod indignus quisque dives
honoratus, potens; alterum, vix quisquam perpetuo bonis iis frui
visus. Postea prudentiores didicere fortunam suam quemque fingere.
6659. 10 de legib. Alii negant esse deos, alii deos non curare res humanas,
alii utraque concedunt.
6660. Lib. 8. ad mathern.
6661. Origen. contra Celsum. l. 3. hos immerito nobiscum conferri fuse
declarat.
6662. Crucifixum deum ignominiose Lucianus vita peregrin. Christum vocat.
6663. De ira, 16. 34. Iratus coelo quod obstreperet, ad pugnam vocans
Jovem, quanta dementia? putavit sibi nocere non posse, et se nocere
tamen Jovi posse.
6664. Lib. 1. 1.
6665. Idem status post mortem, ac fuit antequam nasceremur, et Seneca. Idem
erit post me quod ante me fuit.
6666. Lucernae eadem conditio quum extinguitur, ac fuit antequam
accenderetur; ita et hominis.
6667. Dissert, cum nunc sider.
6668. Campanella, cap. 18. Atheism, triumphat.
6669. Comment. in Gen. cap. 7.
6670. So that a man may meet an atheist as soon in his study as in the
street.
6671. Simonis religio incerto auctore Cracoviae edit. 1588, conclusio libri
est, Ede itaque, bibe, lude, &c. jam Deus figmentum est.
6672. Lib. de immortal. animae.
6673. Pag. 645. an. 1238. ad finem Henrici tertii. Idem Pisterius, pag.
743. in compilat. sua.
6674. Virg. "They place fear, fate, and the sound of craving Acheron under
their feet."
6675. Rom. xii. 2.
6676. Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res.
6677. Psal. xiii. 1.
6678. Guicciardini.
6679. Erasmus.
6680. Hierom.
6681. Senec. consol. ad Polyb. ca. 21.
6682. Disput. 4. Philosophiae adver. Atheos. Venetiis 1627, quarto.
6683. Edit. Romae, fol. 1631.
6684. Abernethy, c. 24. of his Physic of the Soul.
6685. Omissa spe victoriae in destinatam mortem conspirant, tantusque ardor
singulos cepit, ut victores se putarent si non inulti morerentur.
Justin. l. 20.
6686. Method. hist. cap. 5.
6687. Hosti abire volenti iter minime interscindas, &c.
6688. Poster volum.
6689. Super praeceptum primum de Relig. et partibus ejus. Non loquor de
omni desperatione, sed tantum de ea qua desperare solent homines de
Deo; opponitur spei, et est peccatum gravissimum, &c.
6690. Lib. 5. lit. 21. de regis institut. Omnium pertubationum deterrima.
6691. Reprobi usque ad finem pertinaciter persistunt. Zanchius.
6692. Vitium ab infidelitate proficiscens.
6693. Abernethy.
6694. 1 Sam. ii. 16.
6695. Psal. xxxviii. vers. 9. 14.
6696. Immiscent se mali genii, Lem. lib. 1. cap. 16.
6697. Cases of conscience, l. 1. 16.
6698. Tract. Melan. capp. 33 et 34.
6699. Cap. 3. de mentis alien. Deo minus se curae esse, nec ad salutem
praedestinatos esse. Ad desperationem saepe ducit haec melancholia,
et est frequentissima ob supplicii metum aeternumque judicium; meror
et metus in desperationem plerumque desinunt.
6700. Comment. in 1. cap. gen. artic. 3. quia impii florent boni
opprimuntur, &c. alius ex consideratione hujus seria desperabundus.
6701. Lib. 20. c. 17.
6702. Damnatam se putavit, et quatuor menses Gehennae poenam sentire.
6703. 1566. ob triticum diutius servatum conscientiae stimulis agitatur,
&c.
6704. Tom. 2. c. 27. num. 282. conversatio cum scrupulosis, vigiliae,
jejunia.
6705. Solitarios et superstitiosos plerumque exagitat conscientia, non
mercatores, lenones, caupones, foeneratore?, &c. largiorem hi nacti
sunt conscientiam. Juvenes plerumque conscientiam negligunt, senes
autem, &c.
6706. Annon sentis sulphur inquit?
6707. Desperabundus misere periit.
6708. In 17. Johannis. Non pauci se cruciant, et excarnificant in tantum,
ut non parum absint ab insania; neque tamen aliud hac mentis
anxietate efficiunt, quam ut diabolo potestatem faciant ipsos per
desperationem ad infernos producendi.
6709. Drexelius Nicet. lib. 2. cap. 11. "Eternity, that word, that
tremendous word, more threatening than thunders and the artillery of
heaven--Eternity, that word, without end or origin. No torments
affright us which are limited to years: Eternity, eternity, occupies
and inflames the heart--this it is that daily augments our
sufferings, and multiplies our heart-burnings a hundredfold."
6710. Ecclesiast. 1. 1. Haud scio an majus discrimen ab his qui
blandiuntur, an ab his qui territant; ingens utrinque periculum: alii
ad securitatem ducunt, alii afflictionum magnitudine mentem
absorbent, et in desperationem trahunt.
6711. Bern. sup. 16. cant. 1. alterum sine altero proferre non expedit;
recordatio solius judicii in desperationem praecipitat, et
misericordis; fallax ostentatio pessimam generat securitatem.
6712. In Luc. hom. 103. exigunt ab aliis charitatem, beneficentiam, cum
ipsi nil spectent praeter libidinem, invidiam, avaritiam.
6713. Leo Decimus.
6714. Deo futuro judicio, de damnatione horrendum crepunt, et amaras illas
potationes in ore semper habent, ut multos inde in desperationem
cogant.
6715. Euripides. "O wretched Orestes, what malady consumes you?"
6716. "Conscience, for I am conscious of evil."
6717. Pierius.
6718. Gen. iv.
6719. 9 causes Musculus makes.
6720. Plutarch.
6721. Alios misere castigat plena scrupulis conscientia, nodum in scirpo
quaerunt, et ubi nulla causa subest, misericordiae divinae
diffidentes, se Oreo destinant.
6722. Coelius, lib. 6.
6723. Juvenal. "Night and day they carry their witnesses in the breast."
6724. Lucian. de dea Syria. Si adstiteris, te aspicit; si transeas, visu te
sequitur.
6725. Prima haec est ultio, quod se judice nemo nocens absolvitur, improba
quamvis gratia fallacis praetoris vicerit urnam. Juvenal.
6726. Quis unquam vidit avarum ringi, dum lucrum adest, adulterum dum
potitur voto, lugere in perpetrando scelere? voluptate sumus ebrii,
proinde non sentimus, &c.
6727. Buchanan, lib. 6. Hist. Scot.
6728. Animus conscientia sceleris inquietus, nullum admisit gaudium, sed
semper vexatus noctu et interdiu per somnum visis horrore plenis
putremefactus, &c.
6729. De bello Neapol.
6730. Thirens de locis infestis, part. 1. cap. 2. Nero's mother was still
in his eyes.
6731. Psal. xliv. 1.
6732. "And Nemesis pursues and notices the steps of men, lest you commit
any evil."
6733. Regina causarum et arbitra rerum, nunc erectas cervices opprimit, &c.
6734. Alex. Gaguinus catal. reg. Pol.
6735. Cosmog. Munster, et Magde.
6736. Plinius, cap. 10. l. 35. Consumptis affectibus, Agamemnonis caput
velavit, ut omnes quem possent, maximum moerorem in virginis patre
cogitarent.
6737. Cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis.
6738. Juv. Sat. 13.
6739. Mentem eripit timor hic; vultum, totumque corporis habitum immutat,
etiam in deliciis, in tripudiis, in symposiis, in amplexu conjugis
carnificinam exercet, lib. 4. cap. 21.
6740. Non sinit conscientia tales homines recta verba proferre, aut rectis
quenquam oculis aspicere, ab omni hominum coetu eosdem exterminat, et
dormientes perterrefacit. Philost. lib. 1. de vita Apollonii.
6741. Eusebius, Nicephorus eccles. hist. lib. 4. c. 17.
6742. Seneca, lib. 18. epist. 106. Conscientia aliud agere non patitur,
perturbatam vitam agunt, nunquam vacant, &c.
6743. Artic. 3. ca. 1. fol. 230. quod horrendum dictu, desperabundus quidam
me presente cum ad patientiam hortaretur, &c.
6744. Lib. 1. obser. cap. 3.
6745. Ad maledicendum Deo.
6746. Goulart.
6747. Dum haec scribo, implorat opem meam monacha, in reliquis sana, et
judicio recta, per. 5. annos melancholica; damnatum se dicit,
conscientiae stimultis oppressa, &c.
6748. Alios conquerentes audivi se esse ex damnatorum numero. Deo non esse
curae aliaque infinita quae proferre non audebant, vel abhorrebant.
6749. Musculus, Patritius, ad vim sibi inferendam cogit homines.
6750. De mentis alienat. observ. lib. 1.
6751. Uxor Mercatoris diu vexationibus tentata, &c.
6752. Abernethy.
6753. Busbequius.
6754. John Major vitis patrum: quidam negavit Christum, per Chirographum
post restitutus.
6755. Trincavelius lib. 3.
6756. My brother, George Burton, M. James Whitehall, rector of Checkley, in
Staffordshire, my quondam chamber-fellow, and late fellow student in
Christ Church, Oxon.
6757. Scio quam vana sit et inefficax humanorum verborum penes afflictos
consolatio, nisi verbum Dei audiatur, a quo vita, refrigeratio,
solatium, poenitentia.
6758. Antid. adversus desperationem.
6759. Tom. 2. c. 27. num. 282.
6760. Aversio cogitationis a re scrupulosa, contraventio scrupulorum.
6761. Magnam injuriam Deo facit qui diffidit de ejus misericordia.
6762. Bonitas invicti non vincitur; infiniti misericordia non finitur.
6763. Hom. 3. De poenitentia: Tua quidem malitia mensuram habet. Dei autem
misericordia mensuram non habet. Tua malitia circumscripta est, &c.
Pelagus etsi magnum mensuram habet; dei autem, &c.
6764. Non ut desidiores vos faciam, sed ut alacriores reddam.
6765. Pro peccatis veniam poscere, et mala de novo iterare.
6766. Si bis, si ter, si centies, si centies millies, toties poenitentiam
age.
6767. Conscientia mea meruit damnationem, poenitentia non sufficit ad
satisfactionem: sed tua misericordia superat omnem offensionem.
6768. Multo efficacior Christi mors in bonum, quam peccata nostra in malum.
Christus potentior ad salvandum, quam daemon ad perdendum.
6769. Peritus medicus potest omnes infirmitates sanare; si misericors,
vult.
6770. Omnipotenti medico nullus languor insanabilis occurrit: tu tantum
doceri te sine, manum ejus ne repelle: novit quid agat; non tantum
delecteris cum fovet, sed toleres quum secat.
6771. Chrys. hom. 3. de poenit.
6772. Spes salutis per quam peccatores salvantur, Deus ad misericordiam
provocatur. Isidor. omnia ligata tu solvis, contrita sanas, confusa
lucidas, desperata animas.
6773. Chrys. hom 5. non fornicatorem abnuit, non ebrium avertit, non
superbum repellit, non aversatur Idololatram, non adulterum, sed
omnes suscipit, omnibus communicat.
6774. Chrys. hom. 5.
6775. Qui turpibus cantilenis aliquando inquinavit os, divinis hymnis
animum purgabit.
6776. Hom. 5. Introivit hic quis accipiter, columba exit; introivit lupus,
ovis egreditur, &c.
6777. Omnes languores sanat, caecis visum, claudis gressum, gratiam
confert, &c.
6778. Seneca. "He who repents of his sins is well nigh innocent."
6779. Delectatur Deus conversione peccatoris; omne tempus vitae conversioni
deputatur; pro praesentibus habentur tam praeterita quam futura.
6780. Austin. Semper poenitentiae portus apertus est ne desperemus.
6781. Quicquid feceris, quantumcunque peccaveris, adhuc in vita es, unde te
omnino si sanare te nollet Deus, auferret; parcendo clamat ut redeas,
&c.
6782. Matt. vi. 23.
6783. Rev. xxi. 6.
6784. Abernethy, Perkins.
6785. Non est poenitentia, sed Dei misericordia annexa.
6786. Caecilius Minutio, Omnia ista figmenta mala sanae religionis, et
inepta solatia a poetis inventa, vel ab aliis ob commodum,
superstitiosa misteria, &c.
6787. These temptations and objections are well answered in John Downam's
Christian Warfare.
6788. Seneca.
6789. "Licinus lies in a marble tomb, but Cato in a mean one; Pomponius has
none, who can think therefore that there are Gods?"
6790. Vid. Campanella cap. 6. Atheis. triumphal, et c. 2. ad argumentum 12.
ubi plura. Si Deus bonus unde colum, &c.
6791. Lucan. "It can't be true that Just Jove reigns."
6792. Perkins.
6793. Hemingius. Nemo peccat in spiritum sanctum nisi qui finaliter et
voluntarie renunciat Christum, eumque et ejus verbum extreme
contemnit, sine qua nulla salus; a quo peccato liberet nos Dominus
Jesus Christus. Amen.
6794. Abernethy.
6795. See whole books of these arguments.
6796. Lib. 3. fol. 122. Praejudicata opinio, invida, maligna, et apta ad
impellendos animos in desperationem.
6797. See the Antidote in Chamier's tom. 3. lib. 7. Downam's Christian
Warfare, &c.
6798. Potentior est Deo diabolus et mundi princeps, et in multitudine
hominum sita est majestas.
6799. Homicida qui non subvenit quum potest; hoc de Deo sine scelere
cogitari non potest, utpote quum quod vult licet. Boni natura
communicari. Bonus Deus, quomodo misericordiae, pater, &c.
6800. Vide Cyrillum lib. 4. adversus Julianum, qui poterimus illi gratias
agere qui nobis non misit Mosen et prophetas, et contempsit boni
amimarum nostrarum.
6801. Venia danda est iis qui non audiunt ob ignoratiam. Non est tam
iniquus Judex Deus: ut quenquam indicia causa damnare velit. Ii solum
damnantur, qui oblatam Christi gratium rejiciunt.
6802. Busbequius Lonicerus, Tur. hist. To. 1 l. 2.
6803. Olem. Alex.
6804. Paulus Jovius Elog. vir. Illust.
6805. Non homines sed et ipsi daemones aliquando servandi.
6806. Vid Pelsii Harmoniam art. 22. p. 2.
6807. Epist. Erasmi de utilitate colloquior. ad lectorem.--Let whoever
wishes dispute, I think the laws of our forefathers should be
received with reverence, and religiously observed, as coming from
God; neither is it safe or pious to conceive, or contrive, an
injurious suspicion of the public authority; and should any tyranny,
likely to drive men into the commission of wickedness, exist, it is
better to endure it than to resist it by sedition.
6808. Vastata conscientia sequitur sensus irae divinae. (Hemingius)
fremitus cordis, ingens animae cruciatus, &c.
6809. Austin.
6810. "Not from pleasures to pleasures."
6811. Super Psal. lii. Convertar ad liberandum eum, quia conversus est ad
peccatum suum puniendum.
6812. Antiqui soliti sunt hanc herbam ponere in coemiteriis ideo quod, &c.
6813. Non desunt nostra aetate sacrificuli, qui tale quid attentant, sed a
cacodaemone irrisi pudore suffecti sunt et re infecta abicrunt.
6814. Done into English by W. B., 1613.
6815. Tom. 2. cap. 27, num. 282. "Let him avert his thoughts from the
painful object."
6816. Navarrus.
6817. Is. l. 4.
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